Tuesday Tune: Right on Time

Today in Oregon

Why the long face?




Last night in Oregon ...



(click on images for larger versions)

Tuesday Tune: He Said Psychedelic (heh heh)

From The WMD Stockpiles: The Rumsfeld Collection

In light of the recent news that a Senate committee has determined the Bush Administration, eh-hmm, "overstated" the, eh-hmm, "evidence" leading up to the invasion of Iraq, The World's Maddest Dog has unearthed more scuds from the WMD Stockpiles.

Presenting ... The Rumsfeld Collection (click on images for larger versions):

If Hillary Was An NBA President ...

The New Republic's Christopher Orr provides a brilliant "sports parable" to put into perspective Hillary Clinton's absurd reasoning for staying in the Democratic Presidential Primary:

A Sports Parable

A statement from Detroit Pistons general manager Joe Dumars:

I wanted to say a few words about the Michigan Solution. No, not that travesty of justice. I'm talking about a fair, common-sense resolution of the Eastern Conference Finals.

Some in the media are declaring the series over because the Boston Celtics have won four of the six games played so far. But I don’t understand why, with a series this close and hotly contested, anyone would want to shut it down before we play a seventh game and have all the results in. As anybody who follows the NBA knows, a seven-game series would be good for the league, and the added competition would make the eventual victor, whomever it might be, a stronger opponent against the Los Angeles Lakers in the Finals.

...Yes, Boston has won four games and Detroit only two. But it's hard to imagine a more arbitrary and undemocratic way to determine this series’s outcome than "games won." It is, after all, a bedrock value of the game of basketball that all points must be counted. But how can that be the case when every point beyond the winning point is ignored? There are literally dozens of layups, jumpers, free throws, and (yes, even) dunks that our opponents want to say don't count for anything at all. We call on the NBA to do the right thing and fully count all of the baskets that were made throughout the course of this series.

Once you abandon the artificial four-games-to-two framework that the media has tried to impose on the series, a very different picture emerges, with the Celtics leading by a mere 549 points to 539. Yes that’s right, the margin between the two teams is less than one percent—a tie, for all intents and purposes. This is probably the closest Conference Finals in NBA history, though I will thank you not to check on that.

Do yourself a favor, read the rest HERE. It's genius.

Hat tip to The Daily Dish.

Today in Oregon

Buffet

Did Cheney Hand Democrats W. Va?

Gruff-but-unlovable Vice President Dick Cheney stuck his foot in his mouth while attempting humor with the national press. Will his gaffe make it easier for Obama to win that state in November? One can hope.

Roll the tape ...



Cheney needs to give up the comedy act and stick with his day job ...

Tuesday Tune: My Wife...

...thinks you're dead!

NY Times Notes Novick's Internet Appeal

Was Steve Novick the first major YouTube political candidate?

That's the question New York Times media reporter Richard Perez-Pena posed in his article published today about Novick's feisty campaign for Oregon's Democratic U.S. Senate nomination:

Mr. Novick lost the May 20 primary by three percentage points, but political pros say that for the first time in a statewide race, YouTube had the crucial multiplier effect, turning an under-financed campaign into a serious contender. His ads received far more attention on the Internet than through his few television spots, offering a new template for insurgent candidates.

"YouTube plus netroots equals Steve Novick," said Jennifer E. Duffy, managing editor of the Cook Political Report. (Netroots fuses the words Internet and grassroots to describe a style of political activism.) "YouTube is the only way he got any traction."

Not that this will be easy to duplicate. It worked because of a candidate, a strategy and a set of ads that were all clever, oddball and appealing.

...Bloggers and talk show hosts praised the ads and linked to them. The beer ad alone collected more than 150,000 hits on YouTube. The most popular Merkley ad was seen on YouTube about 3,600 times.

The mainstream media started covering Mr. Novick. He rose steadily in the polls and ultimately raised more than $1 million — a respectable sum, though far short of Mr. Merkley’s.

The reporter fails to mention the boatload of bailout cash floated Merkley's way in the closing weeks from heavy hands in D.C., but otherwise an interesting take on Oregon's U.S. Senate Democratic primary and Novick's nearly successful "insurgent" campaign.

Hat Tip to Jack Bog's Blog.

Wyden Officially Endorses Merkley

Oregon's senior U.S. Senator, Ron Wyden, made his endorsement official Saturday when he tapped fellow Democrat Jeff Merkley in the race for the Senate seat currently held by Republican Gordon Smith.

From the Oregonian:

Wyden -- who has also benefited politically from his bipartisan friendship with Smith -- told the crowd, "I will not be criticizing (Smith's) service as a senator, or anybody else's.

"But just as Gordon supported my opponents in 1998 and 2004 because those gentlemen shared Gordon Smith's Republican values," added Wyden, "it is important I support the person who supports my progressive values, and that person is Jeff Merkley."

Merkley called Wyden a "huge asset" to his campaign and said the senator has promised to help in "multiple ways." Merkley aides say they expect help with fundraising and with additional appearances at campaign events. They also didn't rule out using Wyden in campaign advertising.

Oregonian reporter Jeff Mpaes also points out that Democrat Bill Bradbury received this same kind of endorsement from Wyden in his unsuccesful 2002 campaign to unseat Smith.

Video: Young Hillary Clinton

Guess Who Was In Town Last Night

At the Roseland in Portland:



And it was goooood!

Are Politicians Failing Our Lobbyists?

From The Onion News Network:

Tuesday Tune: A Request From Steve Novick

Former Oregon Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Steve Novick had a special request in the post-primary letter below.

Thank you so much for making one hell of a campaign possible. We won well over 200,000 votes. We proved there is a constituency for courage, a constituency for truth, and a constituency for laughter. We ran a campaign based on the assumption that people are ready to do what it takes to make America America again—and we were right.

...We came within three percentage points of winning, even though our opponent had vastly more money, based on the support of the national power structure. Jeff Mapes of the Oregonian wrote Wednesday that "Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-NY, and head of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, hates to lose—and he went to great efforts to make sure his guy, House Speaker Jeff Merkley, made it across the finish line."

...I thought we could win despite our opponent’s establishment support. We knew what we were up against, but I thought that if we all worked our tails off, put our hearts and souls into this, we could make it happen in spite of the disparity in armaments. Based on that belief, I asked for your energy, your time and your money, and you gave generously of all three — and we lost.

But I hope, as I told our crowd on Election Night, that you won’t think investing in this campaign was a waste.

...I am looking forward to talking to and seeing you in the future without asking you for money. But since that has become such a habit, there are two causes I would like to draw to your attention. Jeff Merkley did a great job winning back the State House for us; he was a darned good Speaker, delivering solid victories on issues ranging from payday loan sharking to labor law reform; and he will be a heck of a United States Senator. But we need to help him get there. I encourage all of you to donate to Jeff’s campaign. Yes, the DSCC helped him a lot, and will continue to do so—but they can’t do it all!

Second, in the course of this campaign, since I had no time for anything else, I had to leave my post as a board member of the Oregon Environmental Council, dedicated to fighting global warming and toxic pollutants in the air, water and even consumer products. I feel guilty about that, so if you feel like helping a terrific environmental organization, please make it the OEC.

But again—I’m looking forward to keeping in touch without asking you for money. I am so grateful for all the friends, old and new, who have helped in this campaign. I started out with a lot of friends, and the number has grown dramatically. I truly feel, and said on Election Night, that in the immortal words of Sister Sledge (subsequently adopted as the theme song of the 1979 Pittsburgh Pirates): "We are Fam-i-lee!"

Thanks again, so very, very much,

Steve Novick

So here ya go!

The Knievel Brand Is Back

I'm in Oregon now, but I grew up in Montana. And Butte's Evel Knievel was a local hero. Evel died last year on Nov. 30. This past Saturday, May 24, his son Robbie was back on the bike.



Good job, Robbie! That's a tough way to make a living. Let's just say Cap'n Robbie's lucky that he's not riding one of those rigid old Harley street bikes his dad used to ride.

Evel sold out Portland's Memorial Coliseum on March 31, 1973.