My First Day on the Job as an Obama Campaign Worker

Today I signed up as a Barack Obama campaign worker. They've even given me my own blog space on his web page. Below is my first entry in my Obama Blog. I haven't been very good at keeping this one updated, so it's hard to say how things are going on that end. But, should you care to stop by, here is the address:
http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/blog/innersenseabroad

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I received an email today from Senator Obama asking if I could make some phone calls to Texas and/or Ohio. I read the email, closed the email and thought good for him. He's asking the people that support him to get out and work for him. I didn't give it much more thought after that. You see, I live in Spain, now how am I going to call people in Texas?

I used Skype.

After high school I took a job as a telemarketer in my hometown back in Iowa. My first job was to sell concert tickets as a benefit for something or other. I hadn't heard of half of the people that for which I was selling tickets and the other half I had sworn were long dead. My boss kept telling me that if I just gave it a little bit more then I could have a snappy Camaro like his. It was the yellow one in the parking lot...surely I saw it on my way in. I just needed to sell more concert tickets and I could have his life. I was eager. I was 18 and on my way to a yellow Camaro. It turned out that my boss could afford that Camaro, not because he was a bang-up concert ticket salesman, but because he was 37 years old and still lived with his mother. I quit.
When I, now several years later, received my bank of 20 cold calls (that's telemarketer biz-speak for those in the know) I got queasy. I remembered my boss. I went to grad school so I wouldn't have to do this, I thought to myself. But, I understood that this was bigger than me, this was about getting Barack Obama as the Democratic nominee come November. I wasn't doing this for a misleading yellow Camaro, I was doing this for the future of my country.
I made my 20 calls and by the end I enjoyed it, I got to talk to some interesting people. I did get yelled at once. The lady told me that I was rude because I interrupted her dinner. I apologized profusely and offered to call back later, she hung up on me.
Senator, if you hear reports of rude campaign volunteers, sorry about that.

...And Now for Something Completely Different

Monty Python
"The Llama"

Presidents' Day Golf Tournament: Lincoln v. Monroe (c/o Fark TV)

Vampire Weekend - Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa

There is something about this band that makes me think of what would happen if Spoon were to write the soundtrack to a Wes Anderson movie.

Acts IV, V and VI of The Battle for Mike Huckabee: The Climax, The Falling Action and The Catastrophe (Huckabee wins)

10 More Reasons to Vote for Barack Obama on This Super Tuesday (as if you needed them)

Barack Obama wins Iowa Caucus (a republican wins too)

Final Results (according to The Cedar Rapids Gazette Jan. 04, 2008):

Democrats
Barack Obama = 37.6%
John Edwards = 29.8%
Hillary Clinton = 29.5%


Republicans
Mike Huckabee = 34%
Mitt Romney = 25%
Fred Thompson = 13%
(John McCain) = 15% -- I'm hearing from other sources that McCain got 15% which would actually put him in 3rd above Thompson.


Here is Obama's victory speech from last night.

A Song for the Iowa Caucuses

The doors will be opening at 6.30 pm for Caucus goers around the state of Iowa to make their choice as first in the nation of whittling down the field. That is roughly 1 and 1/2 hours away as I write this. I have spoken with people back home most of whom plan on caucusing this evening. I apparently have piles of DVDs and pamphlets from John Edwards, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama sitting at my parents house. I have been inundated with emails from Edwards, Clinton, Obama, Joe Biden and Bill Richardson. I got a Christmas card from Edwards and a birthday message from Clinton...and I'm not even in Iowa anymore! (In the interest of full disclosure, I am still registered there, but as an absentee voter.)

This song is called "Get Outta Our Town" and it was written by Jason Walsmith from The Nadas and Kyle Munson, a writer with The Des Moines Register. As far as I can figure it was meant to be tongue and cheek, sort of a joke, if you will. If you follow the link to the actual YouTube page, you'll find that the comment writers don't seem to get the joke.

Enjoy

What the Rest of the World is Laughing At Right Now ***SPOILER ALERT...it happens to be us***

It turns out G.W. is a man of the people after all.

This video was brought to my attention about a month or so ago, but I never got around to watching it. Within the last week I haven't been able to avoid it. The people that showed it to me were Spanish. Initially they were laughing, but by the end everyone one of them was staring at me. One finally asked, "Es una broma? No es serio, no es posible." .

Initially when I watched it, I laughed too. "He doesn't know where the Berlin Wall is, ha ha ha" "She doesn't think a triangle has any sides, ha ha ha." “He thinks Yugoslavia starts with a U, ha ha ha.”
It's what comes towards the end when I stopped laughing and started ducking my head in shame. The moment when the newscaster swings through Texas and asks people ridiculously irrelevant questions about fictitious scenarios, to which they all agree that if the President is behind it, then so are they. The agony increases as one man while looking at a map of the world incorrectly marks Australia as North Korea, while strategically plotting the next country to invade, and then marvels at how much bigger it is than South Korea (Tasmania). It spins into what one hopes is a parody of ignorance. Alas, no such luck.

Enjoy…by the way its about 9 minutes long, so you might want to put the popcorn on first.
Oh yeah, one last thing...to friends and family in Iowa, this is an example of why you need to get out and caucus on January 3rd. These people vote and they have a tendency to put like-minded individuals in positions of power.

Dia de los Inocentes

16 Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked by the wise men, was exceeding wroth, and sent forth and slew all the children who were in Bethlehem and in all the region thereof, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently inquired of the wise men.
17 Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet, saying,
18 "In Ramah was there a voice heard, lamentation and weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children and would not be comforted, because they are no more."
Matthew 2:16-18 (21st Century King James Version)

As the story goes, the Three Wise Men stopped by King Herod’s place asking for directions to the birthplace of Jesus, the King of the Jews. King Herod, himself being the King of Judea thus the King of the Jews, understood that this put his title into jeopardy. Not quite understanding the purpose of the the Three Wise Men’s visit he asked if they knew where Jesus was, so that he could worship him (you’ll remember from the previous sentence that they had stopped by to ask him that very same question) with the intentions of killing him. One thing leads to another, the Wise Men dream of Herod’s intentions and an angel visits Joseph and Mary giving them a head’s up and a chance to flee to Egypt. Herod, one step behind the rest, proceeded with his infanticide intentions, but unable to find the infant of choice decides to just randomly go after all of the male children two years old or under. This became the Massacre of the Innocents which allegedly took place on December 28, 0000. The result of the massacre varies from 6, according to the 1910 version of The Catholic Encyclopedia, to 64,000, by an early Syrian count.

Somewhere along the way the slaughter of innocent children became cause for pranks and the tossing of water balloons and eggs on unsuspecting passers-by. The belief, to the best of my understanding, is that the slain children of Herod are often considered the first martyrs for Christ (an act which an all likelihood was underappreciated as Christ was just 3 days old and not in any condition to be receiving martyrs). So, as it stands when on December 28 a child hurls an egg in one’s direction, that child is considered innocent or without sin and is not to be scolded or reprimanded. Ultimately it has become a watered down version of April Fool's Day.
(I should clarify my use of "watered-down" to mean that it isn't as highly recognized as April Fool's Day. In fact the only celebration of it that I have seen is more in the pueblos and less in the cities).

Merry Christmas/Feliz Navidad/Bon Nadal

A Link to an Eloquent Piece on Why Jeffy is a 'bag

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Quite Possibly the Greatest Guitar Solo of All Time

c/o St. Sanders (and A. Moritz)

The Four Horsemen Are Nigh

Evidently, Chuck Norris will be solely responsibly for giving Walker, Texas Ranger style ass whoopin’s to anyone trying to cross the border into the US of A, should Mike Huckabee become President.
My thoughts, personally, I think Chuck is kind of old to be running around the Southern and Northern borders to be administering ass whoopin’s. He might need a helper…I smell a Steven Seagal advert sequel.

What’s the bit about being a lifelong hunter? Am I supposed to equate that with securing the borders or was there a topic change? …I smell an Elmer Fudd advert sequal.

Alright, I've Officially Picked My Pony in This Race

The only thing missing was for him to slam the mic to the ground and to rhetorically scream out, "CAN YOU SMELL WHAT BARACK IS COOKING??!!!"
This is a speech he gave on Saturday November 10 in Des Moines. You can feel as his passion and even rage feeds off the crowd who are going out of their damn minds with ecstatic glee.
This video is quite long (20 minutes or so) but it is well worth your time.



Taken from You Tube via Crooks and Liars

"We're not birds, we're a jugband"

Rabid otters are on the attack. Officials warn residents to avoid local jugband performances.

The above posting from Fark reminded me of this:



I don't suppose anyone knows if this was ever released on DVD.

"Por que no te callas?" or "Why won't you shut up?"

There was something refreshing about King Juan Carlos's ability to step in and take control of the situation. Chavez's mic had already been cut as he continued to interrupt Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero by slinging insults about Spain's former Prime Minister Aznar(Zapatero's political counterpoint).
The situation itself doesn't make much sense. Aznar (the former Prime Minister) lost the election in 2003 and wasn't even at the conference. I'm not sure what Chavez was trying to accomplish by even bringing his name up.

This Guy's Not Even Trying Anymore

http://www.newsfollowup.com

Washington Republican Representative Jim Dunn is brought up on sexual harrassment charges. His response was that he was "sure it was very inappropriate, because I do that kind of thing."

Kudos to you Jim Dunn for at least sparing us the bullshit rehab spin.

http://www.komotv.com/news/11042746.html

item taken from:

http://www.fark.com/

My "NFL who gives-a-shit-itus" has been potentially resolved

Under normal circumstances I could care less about the NFL. The problem is that I never really had a team to root for. Initially I tried to be a Bears fan, but that didn't work because really I just wanted them to get done playing so the Cubs could come back on. Then I went on to the Dolphins. That was a bleak tenure. For Christmas one year someone had bought me a Dan Marino Starting Lineup figure, so I assumed that I should like the Dolphins. It didn't last long. Then I went for the Broncos, but that was only in preparation for one day wanting to move to Colorado. It pretty much ended when the Broncos started winning superbowls and I realized that I didn't really give a shit.
I may have finally found a team. Hear me out on this. The only thing that I have been hearing about this season is the Colts/Patriots match-up that took place yesterday. I have been hearing about this throw down since September and I just wanted the damn thing to be over so my sportscast podcasters would talk about something else (like if the Cubs get a shortstop what are they going to do with Theriot). As the anticipation built up I really got tired of hearing about the Patriots, specifically. As the day got even closer I found myself really wanting the Colts to win, just because I was tired of hearing about the Patriots.
This morning I woke up and immediately checked the sports section hoping that the Colts had slaughtered the Patriots. They didn't, but they only lost by 4. After reading the articles I scrolled down to read the comments which were littered with Patriots lovers and Colts haters. In fact on the Fox Sports article, I couldn't find a single comment in support of the Colts. So, dammit that's where I go. I realize that I'm a Johnny-Come-Lately and am one season behind in relishing in my team's championship win, but I am here and now declaring myself a Colts fan. Somebody has to.
(yea Colts)

Barack Obama on SNL

This past summer I went to see Barack Obama speak in Iowa. It was one of the better speeches that I have seen. He was quick and to the point. There wasn't much by way of intentional pandering or speech scripted applause moments. Afterwards he took questions from the crowd. Many of the questions were designed to engage him in debate or clarification of previous statements, he handled it all rapidly and succinctly, including a response for the woman who tried to shout him down by comparing his stance on certain issues to Hillary's and then telling him that she was a better candidate.

I haven't yet decided on who I would have voted for in the upcoming caucus in January (which is moot point since I won't in Iowa to particpate this year), but each time I see and hear Barack, I like him more and more.

c/o A. Moritz