08 Convention

Obama's speech gets a B+. Good oratory as usual, liked how he talked about the American dream and his place in it. Good narrative. Like how he laid into those bastards for playing with patriotism.

But something was missing for me. Morality! Yeah, he alluded to it, great. But he could have done more. Called those little (at least he called them small) people out for forsaking people after Katrina, for playing fast and loose with our constitution (wire-tapping, Guantanamo, etc). Call black...black. This is a moral election: elect people who play to the worst in us - our bigotry, our xenophobia, our self-righteousness, obscurantism - or those, like Obama, who place the goal higher, who think that Americans can be more than that. I wanted to hear about that.

My favorite speech of the convention? Kerry. He called them out for being the snakes they are.

You are rich but I still love you

To say it again - My friends at Tufts who have two houses or take frequent trips overseas...because you can. You're not middle class, you're rich.

Why am I pointing this out? Obama wants to tax you. Sorry! But vote for him because you know you have enough money and the guy who cleans your second house probably doesn't. Oh, and he's not trying to tax anyone else (although, considering our deficit the size of Jupiter, he probably should...).

The convention's gone decently so far. I've only seen clips of the Clintons - they seem to have fed their egos too much for my taste, but to have done a decent job, all things considered. No slam dunk, though.

First reaction to Biden's speech: pretty great, actually. Not that I agreed with a lot of it, but Biden's passionate and hard hitting. I think the Dem's will win if enough people are hurting economically the way he thinks, and thusly won't buy Fox News' shit. But this is America, poverty is relative, and, as I mentioned earlier, racisma dies hard. Stupidity, too.

Ah Missouri

A visit to the University of Missouri this weekend yielded the following thought in my mind - college towns are actually kind of cool. No offense to my little suburban bubble, but having a town oriented around a big school seems to yield a lot of cool destinations and an excited atmosphere. Of course - that's just what it feels like from showing up for a couple days twice a year. I'm sure there are disadvantages.

On a somewhat unrelated but often hit note - Obama isn't clobbering McCain because of Racism. Oh! Wait, I know, he's just an elitist...! But John Kerry wasn't doing this bad in Missouri four years ago when the Republican brand was doing much better. Hrmm...

Who the hell needs lyrics anyway

"Who the hell needs lyrics anyway?" "You!" - Outkast seems to think so anyway. Or - if you're going to use language, why not make it signify? Just an idea...

But then again, that doesn't seem to be the modern way, now does it? McCain is beating Obama because he's better at dumb short answers. This is the easy way of thinking (and thus the most common) and McCain is better at looking (I hope its only looking) like he's your average dumb Joe. It says something that most of us don't think our president should be better than us. John McCain says "drill now!" and you might think - "but it won't lower the price of oil and we can't even start drilling for years" - but you've then used 15 more words than him and thus already lost.

To return to music, most of, say, Coldplay's lyrics are so general they mean nothing but some general emotional uplift, but Coldplay outsells Arcade Fire.

Human nature can be difficult to deal with sometimes...I just wish this country could get to appealing to the best in us again, somehow. Beats me how to do it though,

August Predictions

A friend of mine recently suggested that I couldn't just wait until the day before the elections to give predictions that I swear by. Well I'm still going to wait to do that. But I'll enter in a first wave of predictions now for the hell of it, so if I'm right I'm even more awesome.

McCain Gets - The South (all, unless you count Maryland as southern), plains and mountains (except Colorado), Alaska, Arizona, Texas, Nevada, Missouri (sux), Indiana, Ohio for a total of 265 electoral votes.

Obama Gets - Northeast, lake Michigan states (minus Indiana), Hawaii, Iowa, West coast, New Mexico and Colorado, for a total of 273 electoral votes.

Wins by? - 1.5 million votes.

Reasoning: McCain has been gaining on Obama something serious for about a month now. Why, you ask? Misleading ads and lying to the American people (celebrity nonsense, offshore drilling), I would guess. Russia's invasion of Georgia also helps the man people for some reason trust more on defense (McCain). Still, the Republican brand has been so damaged of late its still hard to imagine a majority of Americans making the same mistake a thrice. But due to the power of the Republican attack machine, the scary world, and racism, its going to be too close for comfort. My reasoning on the three close ones (in my mind)...

Virgina - Getting more Dem. all the time - but still in the South and when it comes down to the line I see Obama losing by a percent or something.

Ohio - This was close in 2004 and will be close this time. My gut right now is feeling McCain here, but I sincerely hope I change that later.

Colorado - This one is trending McCain now too. But McCain has messed up some local water issue (yeah, I read blogs too much) and the Dem convention will be there. Its been going more Democratic of late and neighboring New Mexico looks fairly solid Dem. This one calls the election for Obama.

That's it for now...I'll update my predictions sometime in September, probably a couple weeks after the dust from the conventions settle.

Offshore drilling is stupid

Offshore drilling is stupid.

Rap is still good - Bradley Effect

I've been listening to Steinski's What does it all mean? which is remixed rap/etc; highly recommended from what I can tell so far.

Bradley effect - There seems to be a good argument for the lack of a serious Bradley Effect concerning Obama. The possible exception seems to be the northeast, where this sort of secret racism is unlikely to matter much anyway. Good news!

The Polls

McCain is inching up in the polls. Could it be because of his ridiculous new ads that play the race card and try to paint Obama as too big for his britches? The nonsense that the Republicans have successfully sold to the American public suggesting that offshore difference would help them at all anytime soon? (It won't do anything and it'll take a long time to do it.) Hrmm, well...an elitist bastard winning against an American much less entitled than him who isn't quite as evil? Where have we seen this before... Obama should say: "really, America wants to make this mistake again?"

Indie needs more rawk, rap is good

I just finished listening to Fleet Foxes by Fleet Foxes for the first time, and I must admit I don't get it. I don't get it in the same way I didn't get Joanna Newsom's Y's...seems to me like self-indulgent shlock with too many pretty sleepy noises, broad (signifying nothing) lyrics... Rural aesthetic? Yeah okay, but I can drive my car thirty miles out and get better nature (then again, considering gas prices...) Anyway, considering how everyone has splugged all over this, I'd love it if someone would explain to me what's going on.

On the bright side, someone remembers how to rawk, and his name is Craig Finn...and his band mates aren't so bad either. A question for Hold Steady fans everywhere: can Stay Positive possibly be as good as Separation Sunday or Boys and Girls in America? Well! - maybe? It resembles the former more - complex stories and more noises, but it could have used the concise power of BGA. There are no songs as powerful as "Stuck Between Stations" or "Hot Soft Light. " Luckily, the overall record is strong, and they retain a nack for hilarious stories ("Sequestered in Memphis," "One for the Cutters") and little tragedies ("Lord I'm Discouraged"). I'll go w/ - 18/20.

Final point - rap is good, specifically: Lil' Wanye's Tha Carter 3 and The Root's Rising Down.