The Onion: Stealing the election
February 27th, 2008 BrianPriceless……but only cause it could be so true
Diebold Accidentally Leaks Results Of 2008 Election Early
A smattering of it all
Debates, March 4th, and when will it end….
February 27th, 2008 BrianI want to know when this Primary will finally come to some resolution. It is really a draining experience. I feel lie a drug addict and my drug has become the constant flow of news and political gossip flowing through my veins. Just make it stop. But what happens when it does stop? Uh oh, maybe football season will be here by then….
MSNBC Debate…. Well the debates have been interesting enough, in the same way watching dough rise is fun. Hillary looks like a shrieking hyena in its death throws, while Obama sits there like he’s been here 19 times before, oh wait he has. She continued to come off looking petty to me, manipulating and distorting her way to her convoluted non-points. She complain about Russert, she complained about Obama, she complained about a pillow or something and hey she even managed to weave SNL into the debate. Does anyone even watch that show anymore? Tina Fey is so very not funny and never has been.
Many bloggers, I mean professional gossip commentors, a.k.a ME, seem to think Russert sucked and was badgering Hillary and Obama too much….huh!!!!???? I thought he was great, for once he wasn’t going to just let the candidates regurgitate their talking points and instead would call them on it when what they were saying was not the true. Hillary couldn’t get outta that NAFTA argument no matter how hard she tried cause she was flat out lying. Why do progressives some how think that type of grilling is bad? I’m starting to come to the conclusion that they just can’t handle seeing those they support get asked hard questions. Maybe Russert is harder on Dems than Elephants, but seriously that doesn’t mean in the Dem primary that good accountable journalism for once is a bad thing. Grow up you whiny nincompoops. If you can’t answer Russert effectively you have no place being in this election. Its as if they fear the next swift boating. Progressives better be ready this time for the attacks that are going to come the Dems way, and Russert can’t even tough how bad they’ll be (Case in point).
You’ve also gotta love how she basically tried to call Obama an Anti-semite when everyone expected her to say something nice and defend Obama. Rather she just looked like a twit … again.
On March 4th….Hillary should be forced to leave after the March 4th Primaries. Maybe that’s why a few high level dems are waiting to endorse, so they can nail the coffin shut when it really needs to be nailed. I see Obama winning by 10 points in Texas and over performing the current polling and pulling even in Ohio. If he wins Ohio by any margin or loses by any number less than ten she still should be outta here. I don’t see how she can raise the money to keep her in the race through April 22nd and the Pennsylvania Primary, essentially her last, last, last chance. But even that is down to a 6 point margin so what choice does she really have? If she stays in the pressure will become unbearable and all she’ll be doing is ruining any reputation she’s got and maybe screwing over Obama’s general election prospects in the process. Pariah numero uno. I just don’t see it happening.
So, expectations should be high that she’ll be outta here on the 5th or shortly thereafter, maybe after a moment to reflect and appreciate the magnitude of the moment.
So….. lets hope this doesn’t drag on too much longer because new episodes of House are coming back on and lets get real, that is what is most important in America.
Clinton campaign reaches for new low with underhanded leak of photo
February 25th, 2008 BrianAs many have probably heard the Clinton campaign used the Drudge Report to leak a photo of him in African tribal wear to make an underhanded attack against him (for those who haven’t follow the link). This is reminiscent of the comments used by Good ol’ Bill in South Carolina.
The worst part is when the Obama campaign called it exactly what it was, racial baiting, the Clinton campaign sought to say that Obama must find something wrong about this and he’s the one with the problem. mmm, whoa back the horse up…..you release a picture you know is meant to inflame racial tensions in America and then its the subject of the hit who is responsible? Once again the Clintons have reached a new low.
I hope they fry for this and I’ll do my best to help contribute to that process. This is the dirtiest of the dirty and obviously means that the Clinton campaign will attempt a scorched earth policy, pulling out all the stops to bury Obama. Sadly for Obama he’s stuck between a rock and a hard place. This story needs to die because its a question he doesn’t want to answer, because it makes the campaign about race, a distinction he has explicitly avoided.
It is up to us to fight this fight for him and contact all those super delegates and tell them not to stand by her on this one. Tell them this type of campaigning is unacceptable, and we won’t stand for attack a man just because its black. We expect that of Drudge and Rush Limbaugh, but definitely not the Democratic party.
Shaq and a few others showing their moves at the All-star Game
February 22nd, 2008 Brianhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v
This is just a classic. I’m not sure that anything else needs to be said about this one. (I’ll try to embed the video soon.
Post-Debate Wrap - Obama got the best of Clinton
February 21st, 2008 BrianSimply put, after a slow, boring start Obama nailed Clinton with a one two punch knockout that ended in a commercial break perfectly timed to his advantage. Clinton and the panel went after the plagiarism comment and the notion that he is all talk and no substance. Clinton tried to own the two points and Obama masterfully punted her to the side.
He pivoted the question to the idea that this is the same old “silly season” crap that the media is pushing just to distract us, while the real issues are going unresolved. Obama looked to really come into his own and forcefully asserted what his words mean for America. The best part was where he turned Clinton’s comments to essentially imply that half the Democratic electorate who has voted for Obama so far are “delusion” if her assessment of him is correct.
The other excellent exchange for Obama after that pertained for foreign policy and Iraq. John King asked Clinton about the “success” of the surge and she immediately went on to wonk and explain how that wasn’t truly real and that political goals weren’t being met, blah blah. When Obama got the question he immediately used it to distinguish himself from Clinton invoking a story about troops in Afghanistan and how Iraq is harming their mission there. He then pivoted to an attack on McCain immediately framing him in the “I can take anyone on, including my future opponent who’d have us stay there for 100 more years”. That was priceless.
Clinton had a nice closer where she may have connected with people but as many are saying it sounded conciliatory. Paraphrased: “No matter who wins we’ll be ok”. Ummm, you’re behind, so you must be telling your supporters its ok to vote for Obama cause it really doesn’t matter in the end. Might have been heartfelt, but I’m not sure about anything else.
So if I have give numerical comparison I think in a vacuum Obama beat Clinton 65-35, but given the expectations that Clinton had and needed in terms of success in debates he won 75-25. Maybe 18 was enough after all.
The Fix has a great summary, if even a little too even-handed.
Pre-Austin debate campaign predictions
February 21st, 2008 BrianTonight Obama and Clinton will debating in Austin. The news networks and blogs are claiming this is going to be a pivotal moment. Will Obama bomb or will Clinton collapse? I don’t think either of these are in the cards.
Candidates are not made overnight and whatever happens tonight, baring a drastic misstep (like a fist fight or duel) this debate is unlikely to make a significant difference in the direction things are moving. Even Texas and Ohio are likely to be impacted only on the margins based on this debate. There is still two weeks until those primaries, so any problems will be spun, manipulated, used, exploited and hedged by the time March 4th comes around.
There’s a tendency to ascribe a lot of value to these debates but when you consider that the debate starts at 8 ET you’re actually hosting a debate before primetime in Texas when people will still be eating, commuting, taking care of business etc. Many eyes may be glued and the news stations will rehash for days every little point, but as we know the media isn’t very adept at journalistic focus so it will be more likely be a pundit back and forth. Furthermore the debate right before the election in Ohio will hold more timely importance sticking more directly in the voters minds prior to election day.
That brings us to the next point, if Bush Jr. can win the presidency with virtually no debating skill whatsoever it can be safely said that debate performance is overrated by the media and commentators. Not to mention you have one candidate who wants to keep it clean (Obama) and the other who probably has more shameful dirt available for the exploitation (Clinton), so I don’t see the advantage of a cockfight for either.
I think we’ll hear a lot about NAFTA, Rezko, Wal-mart and other assorted tidbits about each other. Also remember this is a democratic primary so if Clinton gets too dirty she could hurt herself more, as it appeared she may have in Wisconsin (based on some exit polls). We’ll see soon enough!
Update (7:40 EST): Well Obama is getting momentum in Texas according to the latest polls, so baring a fatal gaffe at worst he’ll see a leveling off due to this evening. Pollster.com
Ola Frenning leaves Soilwork
February 16th, 2008 Brian
I just read that the main guitarist(Ola Frenning) of Soilwork is leaving the band. The official release can be read on their website Soilwork.org. This would be a sizable loss to Soilwork since they lost former guitarist Peter Wichers to a career in production after that last album Stabbing the Drama. They are going to continue touring and I’ll be going to see them play in Seattle in late March, so I’ll see how they sound after this change.
I have to say I was pretty disappointed by their last album Sworn to a Great Divide. It left much to be desired, but still had a lot of the elements from previous albums. It is not clear if they hit a wall creatively, with the label or are just milking the cow. We’ll have to see what the future rings since it seems like they have a full year of touring planned. stay tuned! The full quote from the band website is included below:
SOILWORK, who recently completed the Lamb Of God/Killswitch Engage U.S. tour in support of their new album Sworn To A Great Divide, have decided to part ways with guitarist Ola Frenning.
It was felt that Ola resisted the demands of the road and found it difficult to come to terms with the amount of touring scheduled.
Sworn To A Great Divide is SOILWORK’s fastest seller and the live demand for the band is growing. They intend to play everywhere and fulfill the album’s potential.
Vocalist Björn “Speed” Strid says: ‘It was a very difficult decision to make because Ola has been our friend and bandmate for a very long time’.
The decision will not affect any of SOILWORK’s plans. Guitarist David Andersson will fill in on their upcoming Finnish/Baltic tour as well as the “Scum Of The Earth” U.S. tour with Throwdown. The band will then tour Australia, Japan and South-East Asia before returning to Europe for festivals and a headlining U.S. tour in the Fall.
Ola Frenning comments: ‘After 10 years, 7 albums and several world wide tours, we’ve realised that we have developed in different directions and have a different set of values, profession wise. The disagreements have reached their peak and it has become an untenable situation. The band’s solution is that I part ways with them so that I won’t be in the way for the future plans of SOILWORK.
However, since I’m not gonna be on the road (at least for a while), I will now be able to continue with my songwriting and producing at another level. For further information, visit www.myspace.com/olafrenning. The page will be updated in the near future.
Cheers to ya all… And thanks for making these 10 years with the band memorable’.
-Ola Frenning
posted by: Soilwork (12 Feb 2008)
Reaper Audio Editing Software
February 16th, 2008 BrianThere is a great new audio editing product on the market right now. It is called Reaper and it is a competitor to Cubase, Sonar, Logic, etc. One of the reasons it is a great product is because it is being constantly updated in response to user needs, not to mention instead of a piece of bloatware like many of the editing suites out there it is relatively compact. You can run it off a USB drive if you want.
Reaper is a cross between donation-ware and shareware. There are no iLok keys or fancy anti-piracy controls, instead you can download the fully functional suite for a month after which time it will ask you to pay for it, as you should if you’re still using it. However it will still function normally minus a delayed startup screen. I think this is great because I know I may download software and play with it for a day get distracted and return to it a month later to make the purchasing decision. You’re screwed if you happen to be trying out many of the “commercial” products out there. Not to mention to register for non-commercial use it is only $50 and for a commercial license only $225.
There is a great user community and the developer(s) are easily accessible compared to those at Digidesign/Steinberg who won’t answer a phone without a credit card. Often feature requests by customers will be integrated into the next release which is always right around the corner. It isn’t a perfect production suite, as few are, but it is definitely worth checking out, especially for those home studio folk (like myself). Reaper.fm
My new keyboard - Alesis Ion
February 15th, 2008 Brian 
This thing is big pimpin’, at least for me that is. This is a Alesis Ion Virtual Analogue Synthesizer. They are now discontinued, but you can still find them on Ebay rather easily. Seeing as this is my first hardware synthesizer, the multitude of sounds you can make are just unbelievable. There is something about being able to touch the knobs on the keyboard while playing rather than simply tweaking a parameter in anSoftware Synth that makes this more rewarding. I chose this one because of its flexibility and because it allows you easy access to many of the parameters right at your finger tips rather than going through an endless number of menus. Look for some new BaseWest tracks in the near future, I’m just starting to see just the basics of what I can do with this.
You can check out some of my current music at my Myspace page.
Why I Support Barak Obama
February 15th, 2008 BrianI was previously an Edwards supporter. As is probably apparent from other posts I’m now an aggressive advocate for Barak Obama over Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination and for President. Obama has inspired a generation and maybe even generations, he seeks to change and reform a system that is at the root of so much failure from government, he’s not Hillary Clinton, and well he’s right on most all the issues for me. The last two are important, but the first two are what really separates him from anyone else in this election. I’m not going to go into all the issues he’s right on since well that’d just be a laundry list and that’s not particularly interesting to read.
