Comic for Wednesday, March 5th, 2008

Posted: 7:55 am, Wednesday, March 5th

Someday, 2.0 and I will learn that, as lovely an idea as it is, we just should not have viewing parties for election results. God dammit.

Nader checked in with the Voice. I fear a 2000 redux, but I do have to give it up to the man - he's rock-solid consistent in his beliefs. I respect that. I actually voted for Nader in 2000 - I live in New York, which clearly was not going to go for Shitwith - and read his book when I lived in Q-town. He made the argument that there was essentially little difference between Gore and Shitwit in the '00 election. I would like to know if he still believes that, given the abomination that has been the Bush presidency.

I like to use the word 'negatory' in e-mails, and Office always corrects it to 'nugatory,' a word I was wholly unfamiliar with and only yesterday bothered to finally look up. It means basically the same thing, but I still prefer negatory. I don't like things making me think about Ted Nugent, except for the orange hat Pete wears from time to time.

I've wanted to read Oil! for years now, and I guess I ought to be able to find a copy pretty readily these days. My boss had a birthday yesterday, and HR sent out an e-mail for everyone to gather in the conference room, with the subject, "There will be cake." There was no milkshake for me to drink up.

Two quick baseball things, one of which relates to today's strip. Why the hell is the Jackie Robinson museum going to be in Manhattan? Should be City Hall, Brooklyn, or Keyspan Park out on Coney. C'mon, now. And is this true, Chicagoans? The state is actually thinking about buying Wrigley? That's disgusting.

Also vaguely apropos of today's strip, I'm digging the few tracks I grabbed off of Mike Doughty's latest solo effort. They're not close to the sublime awesomeness of Ruby Vroom, but Fort Hood and I Just Want the Girl in the Blue Dress To Keep Dancing are both very enjoyable. Anyway, apparently his first solo album had a song called, Thank You Lord, For Sending Me the F Train, which is an awesome title. The F is the line 2.0 and I are on, and is pretty reliable, all things considered, especially with me having lived on the Never/Rarely line in Q-town for three and a half years. They just constantly fuck it up on the weekends, though.

Garfield Without Garfield is getting a lot of love these days, but for my money, Realfield and De-Garfed are the real strokes of genius. Realfield is especially awesome.

Drew Barrymore is awesome.

Have you guys seen this clip of all of Sawyer's nicknames from Lost? It's, uh, long. "Deep dish" and "Snuffy" are my two favorite, both, obviously, directed at the awesomeness that is Hurley.

Irish at home versus St. John's tonight, to close out the season with the home-win streak intact. Go Irish, beat Red Storm!

bullfrog

MNP -- Wednesday, March 5 2008, 07:54 am

Does anyone ever actually use the word "stadia" in conversation?

What's the matter with Texas? Can they do nothing right? Ugggghh.

Texas is so complicated. That's all I'm going to say about it.

The conducting mouse is a nice touch.

And really, I thought they'd split the votes, and it will probably be like this all the way through to the Convention. Overall, Obama still has the overall delegate lead, but neither will probably get the 2,000+ delegate counts needed to secure the Democratic nomination.

Can I admit to being slightly pleased that now NC's primary on May 5 will probably matter?

Re: stadia, not that I know of, MNP. Which is why I thought I'd have Pete use it.

Come on, guys. Did you really think Obama would have a chance? You know all the republicans are now voting for Hillary because there's no way she could win in November.

Regarding Hulk's comment, haven't seen news to that effect, but in Texas (and Ohio, I think) you could vote in either primary regardless of your party affiliation.

Looking at a county map of Texas it is pretty clear what happened: http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2008/primaries/results/state/#TX

Clinton hung onto the Latino vote everywhere, which isn't surprising given her campaign strategy and history in the state. The major metropolitan areas (Dallas, Houston, Austin (and Marfa, which isn't metro at all, but has lots of hippies) had enough other votes to turn for Obama. And a 51/48 split is not really a mandate at all.

The caucuses will probably break for Obama, but that has more to do with how those delegates are apportioned (as we discussed before) than actual numbers, though I wouldn't be surprised if he won both. And it was really fun to caucus, though I didn't stay until the bitter end (around 10:15 and it started at 7:15). Every vote I saw was going for Obama, so there wasn't much shouting or campaigning within the caucus. Oh well, I got to see lots of neighbors and that was surprisingly cool. :)

Thanks for the ground-floor reports, ad. And I didn't actually consider that, Hulk, although I do remember CNN saying you could vote in the Democratic primary even if you were a righty.

I'm glad to see not a single mention of Gary Gygax's passing has neglected to make a "failed his saving throw" joke.

Can Texas Republicans vote in the Dem primary?

If so, I call shenanigans!

2.0 - Yes. The primaries are open and you declare which party you want to vote for when you walk in the door. (The Republican ladies in my precinct looked very bored.) One you've voted, though, you are only allowed to caucus with that party.

Bullfrog: That's because most geeks are blaming his death on the impending release of the 4th edition of D&D. But that's neither here or there.

Obama still has a 100 delegate league. I'm thinking that it's going to be a dead-heat with neither candidate getting the number of delegates needed to secure the nomination. So it may boil down to the "backroom" at the Democratic National Convention. Never a good thing, in my opinion.

By the way, the guy behind such fabricated bands such as 'N Sync and Backstreet Boys pleads guilty to a $300 million fraud scheme. Gee, would that have anything to do with the boy bands?

If things were reversed and Hillary was ahead in pledged votes I would *still* want the Superdelegates to vote with the people. I wouldn't like the outcome, but I would accept it as the right and proper thing to do.

If the party goes against the people I'm not sure what that means for my affiliation. If the party accepts the pseudo-primaries in Florida and Michigan...

Question: What happened to Edwards' delegates?

Comment: I love the idea of a brokered convention. First, there is no back room anymore. With bloggers, cell phone cameras, and instantaneous communication nothing is private. I expect every conversation to be posted somewhere immediately after, if not as, it happens. Second, the media will pay more attention to a brokered or close convention and that is good. If more people see how much coverage it is getting, and how excited people are over the political process, that is always a good thing. Could it turn ugly? Sure, but (for better or worse) ugly is worth watching too.

Somebody go do this for me.

http://gawker.com/364070/celebrate-art-win-a-grand-theft-auto-video-game

This will bring joy to your heart:

http://weblogs.chicagotribune.com/news/politics/blog/2008/03/brattleboro_out_of_bounds_for.html

The Edwards delegates are still in play. Like all of the other pledged delegates, they technically are still free agents right up until the Convention vote. My guess is they're waiting to see if he endorses one of the Senators. I think Obama should claim them as his, since Hilary feels she can claim Florida and Michigan.

The only thing about the Wrigley article that surprises me is that Rod Blagojevich's name doesn't show up in the article.

Ah, Gary Gygax. We lost a good one.

Friend of mine works at TakeTwo, release on the new GTA was delayed on the PS3 because the graphics weren't up to snuff AND EA is trying a hostile takeover and liquidation.

Zero

Wait, delayed, like, today? God dammit.

no, no, just the reason it was originally pushed back. Take a deep breath. All is well.

http://www.eattake2.com/

don't freak at the exploding Bullfrog.

Zero

Man, EA is quickly becoming the NewsCorp. of video games.

I have to share this fun photo because this guy is actually my first boyfriend and is now a history teacher at our high school. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/object/article?f=/g/a/2008/03/03/dip.DTL&o=2 His email to me stated: "Of course, my hope is that Hillary wins the nomination so my boy McCain can win the election. I don't think he can beat Obama. So don't worry, I have a PLAN..." I stupidly didn't read the email before looking at the picture and was thrilled to see him rooting for a Democrat, even if it WAS Hillary.

Grafer is much more handsome. Handsomer, too.

And then Jon Stewart made fun of my high school http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=163164&title=ultimate-last-final-showdown

i have to admit that i'm kinda with mnp here - pleased that the PA primary will count. ooh, maybe they'll come to my high school. and then the one across the road.

Despite El Frogo's jinx at the end of his post today, the Irish did indeed keep the home streak alive.