Trippi

One day you're a superstar, the next day you're out on you ass. For all that Trippi did to help Dean's campaign, he didn't deserve this kind of exit. But such is the business we have chosen. And Trippi's taking it like a pro.

Exit Polls

With 82% of precincts reporting, Kerry is leading by 13 points in New Hampshire. I've been watching the coverage since 8pm on CNN and MSNBC, and at no time since they started putting numbers up has Kerry's lead been less than 12. This is about in line with the tracking polls released this morning.

However, during the first hour of coverage all the commentators have been talking about a narrow Kerry win, something around 5-7 points. The tone of the NH stories on the evening news, before the polls closed, backed up the thesis that Kerry would win, but that it would be a tight race. Even after hard numbers had been out for an hour, though, and Kerry's lead wasn't going away, pundits were still making it sound like a close contest.

I'm going to ignore the issues of whether this numbers game was good for Kerry or good for Dean. What's amazing about the coverage is that we kept getting the exit polling numbers in the context of the coverage, which did show a close race, even though the real numbers were different. A large chunk of the evening's reporting was based on numbers that weren't really real, and contradicted by numbers that were. Let's hope the election coverage next week is more professional.

First Time

After months of thinking about, talking about, and working with the folks at, I finally went to my first Meetup event. It was, not surprisingly, the Democratic Party meetup, which was held at a pub on Pennsylvania Avenue. We had a great crowd — lots of interesting people, and very diverse.

I took some pictures of the Meetup. The next one is Wednesday, February 18, so sign up and go the one near you.

Still Time…

Bush's last State of the Union address is just two hours away, but there is still time to download the SOTU drinking game rules. The speech is going to be unpleasant to watch, so you might was well have some fun on the side.

King

"Whatever career you may choose for yourself — doctor, lawyer, teacher — let me propose an avocation to be pursued along with it. Become a dedicated fighter for civil rights. Make it a central part of your life. It will make you a better doctor, a better lawyer, a better teacher. It will enrich your spirit as nothing else possibly can. It will give you that rare sense of nobility that can only spring from love and selflessly helping your fellow man . Make a career of humanity. Commit yourself to the noble struggle for human rights. You will make a greater person of yourself, a greater nation of your country, and a finer world to live in."

— Martin Luther King Jr., 4/18/59

More words of wisdom here.

In today's Washington Post, Sen. Ted Kennedy summarizes how Bush misled us into war with Iraq. You should read the whole thing, but this paragraph sums it up nicely:

Hussein's brutal regime was not an adequate justification for war, and the administration did not seriously try to make it one until long after the war began and all the false justifications began to fall apart. There was no imminent threat. Hussein had no nuclear weapons, no arsenals of chemical or biological weapons, no connection to Sept. 11 and no plausible link to al Qaeda. We never should have gone to war for ideological reasons driven by politics and based on manipulated intelligence.

Democrats need to say exactly this every time the issue of Iraq comes up.

Lockdown

Is there anyone who believes Wal-Mart when it claims that it locks workers in stores at night only to protect them from crime? No? Then how many people believe that Wal-Mart locks those workers in to prevent them from taking smoke breaks or walking out with a couple of DVDs? Thought so.

Now, I guess it's not really news that Wal-Mart, like a lot of employers, doesn't trust the people it hires to do the more menial jobs. The pay is low, the work is hard, and the hours suck — not exactly a recipe for winning the hearts and minds of your cleaning staff. But instead of putting a manager on the graveyard shift to keep an eye on things, Wal-Mart just locks the workers in and then threatens to fire anyone who uses the emergency exits. Which is why Michael Rodriguez waited an hour with a crushed ankle for someone to come and unlock the doors. But paying a night manager would cost Wal-Mart money, so it's just easier for the company to abuse its "associates". Nice.

Happy Birthday to Me

And a new year's resolution of sorts to mark the occasion: more posting. Starting tomorrow. Promise.