(no subject)

So, as I was finishing my dinner (spaghetti & meatballs), I happened to glance over to the far side of the plate. I spotted something there which had previously been hidden by the last meatball. The world's most confused mosquito was wading through a small puddle of tomato sauce, apparantly believing that she'd just hit the jackpot.

Just had to share that.

In other news... On The A Daily Show tonight, they showed a series of brief clips (really short, like sound bytes, but with video... is there a term for that?) of news anchors adding different adjectives to the phrase "Super Tuseday."^* One of them was "Super Fat Tuseday." Jon seemed to have assumed it was "Super PHAT Tuesday." But, when I heard it, I just assumed it was a Mardi Gras reference.

Neither one really makes sense to me. Phat, as Jon pointed out, seems rediculously out of place. But I'm not really sure that Mardi Gras (which, literally translated from the French, is "Fat Tuesday") is much better. I certainly hope this isn't the political equivalent of a big drunken party. And Louisiana wasn't even involved. Their primary is (*goes to check*) this Friday.

Eh, maybe it was just another case of a news anchor having a ____ moment. (Fill the blank however you like.)

You have any thoughts, Flist?

ETA: Thanks to doranwen's comment, I just realized that yesterday actually was Mardi Gras. Which means that I was right and Jon completely missed it. That's... kind of bittersweet. ;)

^*For those of you who aren't in the US or are in the US but have been living in a cave, today - or, well, yesterday since it's well past midnight here - was Super ____ Tuseday. Primary elections in 22 states, the most ever on a single day. The results will go a long way towards determining which candidates the big two political parties will put forwards for the election.

(no subject)

Outcome of Super ____ Tuesday primaries:

McCain extended his ridiculously huge lead. It's really looking like the other republicans are wasting their time and money.

Clinton maintained her lead, but, according to this AP article, used $5 mil of her own money to do it.

Obama really closed the gap. He's still behind, but not by much. And he's got more money.

Right now, according to that same article, Clinton has (an estimated) 1,045 delegates to Obama's 960, and they're racing to 2,025 (the number needed to get the nom). It could easily go either way.

Either way, it'll be an historic first. And either way, we'll have a good candidate with a good shot at winning and promised policies that will, IMO, go a long way to getting this country back on track.

Personally, I'm still pulling for Obama. He hasn't been as jaded by politics. He's done a lot of talking about reforming the political process. He's a lot more charismatic than Hillary. I like what he has to say on a lot of issues. And I found this interesting:

Officials with both campaigns have said Obama raised $32 million in January and Clinton $13.5 million, a significant gap between the two that allowed Obama to place ads in virtually every Super Tuesday state and get a head start on advertising for the next primaries and caucuses.

(The $13.5 mil doesn't count the $5 she added herself.)

But, more importantly, from this article:

An analysis by the Campaign Finance Institute, which tracks trends in political money, found that Obama raised about a third of his money in 2007 from donors who gave $200 or less. Only one-third of his money came from donors who have given the legal maximum of $2,300, compared to Clinton. She has raised about half of her money from "maxed out" donors and only 14 percent from donors of $200 or less.

It's inspired me to consider adding in a little something. Another drop in the bucket. But this is real grassroots support. Proof that the torrent approach can work. That little bits, here and there, actually can add up. Especially with the race as close as it is. And I think it says a lot that such a significant portion of his money is coming from individuals. Those "maxed out" donors are often representatives of big corporations and special interests.

It's not a definitive thing, but I consider it a good sign.

Meanwhile, the democratic votes took a lot longer to tally than the republican ones. This is because a lot of the democratic primaries had some kind of proportional distribution of delegates. As opposed to the republicans, who tend to have a winner-take-all approach. I think that says a lot about the two parties. The democratic way is more complicated and takes more time, but gives a better representation of the will of the voters. Even though Hillary "won" NJ, the votes were about 60/40. As one of the 40% who voted for Obama, I know that my vote wasn't just discounted and thrown away. It contributed to that 40%, and there'll be a delegate representing my vote.

I think the next step is to get rid of the delegate system entirely. Go to a direct popular vote. We have the computing and communications ability to make it practical. And it's not like the delegate/electoral college system actually does what it was designed to do. Delegates have the power to change the votes that they were supposed to cast, but, in reality, they never do.

Unless, that is, they're told to. Part of the reason Huckabee won West Virginia is that McCain, at the last minute, told his delegates to vote for Huckabee. McCain was behind in the polls in WV, and he thought Romney was more of a threat to him than Huckabee. So, basically, he took the votes that had been cast for him and changed them into votes for Huckabee, thus depriving Romney of a victory that would have gotten him a chunk of votes in the final national tally.

It's an interesting strategy, but, personally, I think that comes questionably close to an abuse of the system. Legal, but morally gray. And one more reason to get rid of the extra step in the process.

So, anyway... yay for democracy! And good luck to the dems in picking the right candidate and getting that person in office. After all the absolutely unbelievable stuff that has happened in the last 7 years, we really need it...