Now, finally, the waiting starts to end.  Numbers are posted on the myriad of screens and are subsequently dissected by talking heads while I sit glued in place like a child keeping lookout for Santa on Christmas Eve.  My mood is cautiously optimistic that the returns will favor my candidate, unlike the last time I performed this ritual four years ago.

As it happens, I’m not the only one feeling this way.  It was a major undercurrent to my day at the Future of Web Design conference today, with speakers and others constantly alluding to it.  Yet no one would utter names for fear of putting the jinx on them — more realistically for the sake of courtesy and good taste, but I like to let my mind wander.

Myself, I sit here cautiously optimistic — just like in 2004.  Unlike ’04, this time I had the pleasure of voting for my first choice and not the lesser of two bad choices.  Since I first heard him speak, I knew I wanted to see him at this precipice.  I may not be religious, but I have faith in this man and his abilities.  What’s more, I have faith in his potential to be a truly great President.  I can now imagine how those who voted for JFK must have felt.

Just a few more hours to hope. One way or the other, a change is coming. We’re at the end of the beginning.

In honor of Tuesday’s primaries in North Carolina and Indiana, the management would like to draw to your attention this little video — “The Empire Strikes Barack“.  We are unabashedly in favor of Obama, and while we’re sure Hillary would make a decent President, we see truths about her combative political style in this Star Wars inspired recap of the battle for the Democratic nomination.

Remember to vote, kiddies!

I know states rights are a big deal, and they all have opinions on how and when their elections are held, but I fail to understand why there aren’t more stringent guidelines and time frames when it comes to the presidential process — it is a race for a national position, after all. Wouldn’t unified federal guidelines make sense?

From first primary to last, this should take no more than five months, and I would strongly hope they could all get their heads out of their asses and get it done in three. Let Iowa and New Hampshire have their opening shots, and then start having a few primaries every few weeks. The “Super-Duper Tuesday” might have been a bit too big, but a handful of regionally bundled contests might help.

And above all else, having these guidelines would prevent incidents like the disqualification of the Florida and Michigan results. If I were in one of these states, I’m sure I would be seething a bit. I think the decisions made so far were right, but it should have never gotten this far.

This idealistic, aging young man sure would like to see things in the process get better as he gets older….

Note: Patched up some basic grammar mistakes that were pointed out to me.  I guess that’s what happens when you have a fool for an editor.

For once, the primary in my state matter. New Jersey is part of the Super Tuesday primaries, in which 24 states are going to hold either a primary or a caucus. And you better believe I’m going to take part in the process.

In 2000, I voted my conscience and went with Nader (which my friend Don likened to the choice of RC Cola vs. Pepsi or Coke). As such, the primary process wasn’t going to effect the availability of my candidate in November.

In 2004, I had my hopes pinned on Howard Dean, but by the time the New Jersey primaries came around, his campaign had all but exploded. I was left with a hollow, yet hopeful feeling when I pulled that level for John Kerry a few months later.

So this time around, I want to do all I can to make sure my man Obama is still left standing come November. Whether you agree with my choice or not, I implore you all to get out there and make your voice heard.

(Video found via A Whole Lotta Nothing)

Anyway, it’s a light year around ol’ Weehawken, with State Senator being the highest seat contested — a term I use lightly. I’ve scanned in the pre-election sheet I was sent and highlighted two things that caught my eye:

Yellow: Note the complete lack of Republican (or any other) competition. Not much of a choice, huh? Well, I’ve received no less than two calls on behalf of Mr. Brian P. Stack. You know, it’s kind of hard to lose when no-one is running against you!

Green: This write-in candidate is probably getting my vote just for the honesty in the name of the “party” he’s representing.

Remember to vote, kiddies!

It grew with Turkey’s parliament voting approval for the government to drive across the northern border of Iraq to pursue Kurdish rebels. Into the only part of Iraq that has had any kind of continual sense of stability. The bull eyes the china shop.

It screams in Pakistan, where the return of exiled former prime minster Bhutto was marred by two bombings in an assassination attempt (also here). The true front in the real war of necessity, descending closer to chaos. The stuff of nightmares if this lynch pin falls.

The floor is open for rebuttal, but isn’t this one of those worst case scenarios shaping up — a region-wide war? It’s not as though everything is as tenuous as the collection of coalitions that sparked World War I when Franz Ferdinand was assassinated, but this slope we’re on now is far too slippery for my tastes.

While I found it entertaining, informative, and at times fiery, there seemed to be no real clear-cut winner of round one — not like I expected any other outcome, but I was hoping for my man Obama would find a way to get a leg up. In fact, the only one to really stand out in my mind was former Alaska senator Mike Gravel, who was holding some rather far left thoughts — not to mention his fellow candidates feet to the fire — when he spoke. He seems to be taking the role of educating the people on the flip side of the issues that Al Sharpton did in the ’04 Democratic debates.

Anyway, it’s gonna be tough passing out ratings for this one. Hey — it’s a lot less arbitrary than a mock NFL Draft.

And as an added — yet ironic — bonus, Rumsfeld is on his way out as well. Had this man been given his walking papers a few weeks ago, it might still be a red congress.  But instead, G.W. backs his man in the Pentagon and that’s all she wrote.  I’m sure history won’t treat this fascinating individual kindly, and I shan’t miss his self-asked and answered style of speaking in press conferences. In fact, I’m not sure we’re going to get all that long a respite from it before it’s heard again one day in the chambers of Congress, in some hearing into the how’s and why’s of this war.

Of course, I don’t expect that to come in the here and now. Hell, I’d be shocked if there are any hearings of consequence in the first six months of the new congress. The presumptive incoming Speaker of the House — Nacy Pelosi — is already talking about the Democratic agenda for the first 100 days of the session, and it includes phrases such as “increasing minimum wage” and “implementing the 9/11 commission’s recomendations” are being bandied about. It certainly sounds like they have their priorities set on helping to right the country’s course first before cleaning the House.

But through all those hearings that will one day take place, I find it a stretch to see impeachment in the cards. If I were an odds maker, I’d say there’s a 1 in 4 chance that there’s something in this Administration’s skeleton closet that can get President Bush slapped. Of course, if something is found, I’d say the odds of it being worse than Clinton’s impeachable oral escapades were off the about a billion to one.

Ah, the cycle starts anew!  I’ve got $20 saying the Democrats will succumb to the trappings of power and lose touch with the country 20 years from now.  Any takers?

What’s more, I’m fairly confident that my votes are actually going to be counted, which is more than I can say for some of those new computerized voting machines. I can’t help but think that someone out there with more brains than I could build an open-source, secure voting system that would be about a billion times better than any of those crooked Diebold machines coming on-line.

Tonight is going to be spent much like election night ’04 was: with a beer in one hand and a remote in the other as I watch the results come in, hoping against hope for a better turn out and some new leadership in the House and the Senate (though there’s a slimmer chance of the latter).

I mean, it ‘s only common sense to have some kind of manual backup for the machines, right? Especially those Diebold machines that can be hacked in four minutes flat and broken into with a hotel minibar key.

Among the many voices that have been critical of the President and his administration, one of the best has in my opinion been one Keith Olbermann over at MSNBC — about the only reason to watch the network, I’d say.

Lately, it seems to be his life’s mission to call Bush on everything he tries to pass off. His thoughts on 9/11 were right on the mark, and now he’s chimed in on the recent Clinton vs. Fox News flap, which leads to a much longer and deeper dissection of the President and his minions at large.

“Are YOURS the actions of a true American?”

Bill Clinton has been busy as of late mostly promoting his Clinton Global Initiative, where in he gathers many leaders of industry, politics, and the like who are interested in making world-bettering changes. As part of the PR push, he’s made his rounds on a dispearte number of venues: The Daly Show, Meet the Press, Fox News Sunday….

And that’s where the latest hullabaloo is staged. Slated to talk half the time about the Initiative and half answering any questions Fox News Channel wanted to ask, here’s the question that was posed:

Chris Wallace: When we announced that you were going to be on FOX News Sunday, I got a lot of email from viewers, and I’ve got to say, I was surprised most of them wanted me to ask you this question: Why didn’t you do more to put Bin Laden and al Qaeda out of business when you were President? There’s a new book out which I suspect you’ve read called The Looming Tower. And it talks about how the fact that when you pulled troops out of Somalia in 1993, Bin Laden said, “I have seen the frailty and the weakness and the cowardice of US troops.” Then there was the bombing of the embassies in Africa and the attack on the USS Cole

Bill Clinton: Okay…

CW: …May I just finish the question, sir? And after the attack, the book says Bin Laden separated his leaders because he expected an attack and there was no response. I understand that hindsight is 20/20…

BC: No, let’s talk about…

CW: …but the question is why didn’t you do more? Connect the dots and put them out of business?

As you can imagine, that really lit a fire under Bill, but instead of playing diplomat and taking it, he came out swinging with a well articulated and fact-filled response. And here in age of broadband, we don’t have to just read the transcript — you can watch the video for yourself.

About damn time, is all I have to say. ^_^

(Big time hat tip to Crooks and Liars)

For some reason I woke up at 5 am and stayed up. Those who know me best know that I love my sleep dearly, but I’ll admit that I’m enjoying mornings a bit more these days. Call it maturation in progress. Anyway, I was making my way to the office and was just about to walk into the lobby through the back of the building when I came across a burnt out wreck of a station wagon on the street outside. Not everyday you get to see the remains of a car-b-q on a Tribeca street; at least not in this day and age.

A few hours of work go by and then it’s off to lunch at Pongsri with some of the guys from work; all part of the interview process for a new hire in the web department at work. Still strange to be part of the process, but I guess it’s getting easier being on the other side of the table; asking questions and not answering them. On the way back we noticed some metal security railings along Braodway outside the office. I had seen parking permits the day before about filming for Conviction so I really didn’t pay them too much mind, thinking they were somehow related to that.

But then around 2 pm, there were unfamiliar sounds coming from outside that grabbed all of our attention: people chanting. A group of us made our way outside to the rooftop garden to see what was going on. And for the second time that day I was rewarded for bringing my camera with me.

Then it dawned on me.  In my earlier-than-usual morning, I had time to catch up on the news, and they made mention of planned protests about the immigration policies in this country.   I knew they were happening in Atlanta and Washington, so it’s wasn’t too far of a stretch to see one here too, what with New York being the center of the universe and all.

That’s right, I said it. The universe goes around New York and Copernicus was a flake and a fraud, but that’s neither here nor there.   ^_^

Anyway, the rest of the workday took on a very strange atmosphere.   Every ten minutes or so chants would go up from the protesters and seemingly punctuate whatever minor task we were taking care of.   My personal favorite example was the loud round of chanting that kicked off just as I was concluding a phone interview.   I even raised my arms in mock adulation to my many fans outside.   Things were still going on some four hours later when I was walking out the door to make my way to the Big Quiz Thing, but the epicenter was further south.

Another dozen and a half pics of the protest — from the roof and from ground level — after the jump.

The path to victory in Iraq
For the first time since he launched operations in Iraq 3 years ago, Bush spoke to the nation from the oval office. This time, laying out what his vision of victory Iraq actually is. The freefall his ratings took might have been eased, if not stopped outright, had he just done this a year earlier right before the first round of elections in Iraq. However, this administration loves to keep their lips tight unless they want to tell you something, and I don’t see any signs of that changing. The President listed the offenses against Iraq that drove his decision, and took full responsibility for said decision (which shocked me, since I’m not used to hearing a G.W. mea culpa).

He then proceeded to lay out his three critical elements to end this war: security, democracy and reconstruction — words that have been bandied about many times over the past years, but this time backed up with some metrics. Iraqi combat battalions number over 125, with 50 in leading positions in operations and 12 bases under Iraqi control. My next question is “out of how many needed to keep the peace”, but the numbers sound significant. Reconstruction also sounds optimistic, though as Bush said himself this is only “after a number of setbacks”. Iraqis sound optimistic, with 7 in 10 saying life is going well and nearly 2/3 expecting things to improve. But by his own admission George still says the terrorists would still have “the coward’s power”, and that there is still work to be done, and he pleaded with the nation for patience.

All in all, it’s probably the most direct speech I’ve ever heard the man give, even with the 2 line flubs he had. Of course, I still think it was far later than it should have been. Depending on who you believe, all this talk either did something or nothing to his approval ratings.

Big brother is watching you
And then there was the defusing of the privacy bomb. Since 2002 our President has repeatedly authorized the National Security Agency to intercept communications between people in the U.S others abroad, sans court order. Of course this was done in the name of national defense, but this is by far the hardest pill we’ve ever been asked to swallow by the administration.

There is actually a law on the books — the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA for short — that allows for the government to tap first and get permission later. But Bush said circumventing the law with executive privilege was necessary because the FISA court takes too long to issue wiretap orders. Senator Russ Feingold has come out strongly against this thinking, saying “He just can’t make up the law … It would turn George Bush not into President George Bush, but King George Bush”.

And all this has cropped up just as the ultra-contriversial Patriot act is fighting to be renewed. Just not good timing for the administration at all. People on both sides of the isle are calling for congressional investigations and this story will certainly have a long life.

As far as the NSA spying goes, this smacks of abuse of power in my eyes. No matter how small the group of people being watched is, there is no excuse to do something outside of the rule of law, especially when there are laws in place to actually let you do what you want to. Congress was ready to do anything to help the President right after 9/11, and getting revisions to FISA would have been a slam dunk. Instead, the President goes outside the law, and outside of the system of checks and balances our nation depends on to stem abuses of power. Bad move.

Troops in an “information operations” task force have written articles with positive messages about the U.S. mission in Iraq that have been translated from English into Arabic and planted in Iraqi newspapers in return for money, according to defence officials speaking on condition of anonymity.”

We’re very concerned about the reports. We are seeking more information from the Pentagon,” said White House spokesman Scott McClellan.

When it rains, it pours.