This is pretty good, powerful even, whether you're for Obama or not (but especially if you are for him). Via crooksandliars.com.

Ugh! Yuk! The fat lady is ruining my dinner?
Who's next in line? Tall people? People wearing mix-matched socks?

Read it and weep. Link...

East Tennessee Obama for America will be hosting a Super Tuesday Watch Party at Barley's Taproom and Pizzeria on Tuesday Feb 5th, 7:30pm until victory! Barley's is located in the historic Old City at 200 E. Jackson Ave. We have reserved their private upstairs room and have plenty of space for all local Obama supporters and our out-of-town guests!

Come join us for food, fun, and fellowship as we cheer on our choice for the Democratic Party nomination, Barack Obama! We'll be watching as returns come in from all the Super Tuesday states. We will be rockin' until victory and the last primary results are posted!

The music and sound are great, so if you're a U2 fan, drive the 36-mile roundtrip and enjoy! As a professional 3D photographer, I had some issues with the special effects, though. It's not easy adjusting your interocular from close-up to distance and back within seconds. And a further word of caution: prepare to shell out an extra $3.50 for the 3D glasses. Mine came with a fingerprint on the left lens, suggesting that someone else may have worn them. Sure enough, at the end of the show, the ushers asked us to "Please leave your glasses here!" Not a healthy policy, Regal.

Rewinding McCain, via The Carpetbagger:

Over the last year or so, when John McCain was struggling to get his presidential campaign back on track, one of his more notable challenges was reinventing himself — again.

When he got to Congress, McCain was a rather conventional conservative Republican. After his role in the Keating Five scandal, McCain took on a reform-minded persona. By 1999, he was a self-described “maverick” and moderate, who would move the GOP to the center. By 2004, McCain was back to being a conservative again. By 2007, he had positioned himself as an establishment Republican, and when that didn’t work out, McCain decided he’d become some kind of hybrid of the various McCains of the recent past.

If I didn’t know better, I’d say McCain has very few core values, and is willing to shift with the wind to get ahead. It’s one of the reasons he’s flip-flopped all over the place throughout the campaign.

Read that article in its entirety. An important point gets made: In this process of self-re-invention, McCain is now opposing legislation that he actually championed, or worse, wrote. See: the McCain immigration plan. He's now publicly condemned the very policy he wrote.

Since you won't hear about this in the news (because of that big ol' liberal bias in the news, doncha know), let's take a quick visit to McCain and his relationship with convicted bank felon/S&L fraud/influence pimp Charles Keating:

McCain defended his attendance at the meetings by saying Keating was a constituent and that Keating's development company, American Continental Corporation, was a major Arizona employer. McCain said he wanted to know only whether Keating was being treated fairly and that he had not tried to influence the regulators. At the second meeting, McCain told the regulators, "I wouldn't want any special favors for them," and "I don't want any part of our conversation to be improper."

But Keating was more than a constituent to McCain--he was a longtime friend and associate. McCain met Keating in 1981 at a Navy League dinner in Arizona where McCain was the speaker. Keating was a former naval aviator himself, and the two men became friends. Keating raised money for McCain's two congressional campaigns in 1982 and 1984, and for McCain's 1986 Senate bid. By 1987, McCain campaigns had received $112,000 from Keating, his relatives, and his employees--the most received by any of the Keating Five. (Keating raised a total of $300,000 for the five senators.)

After McCain's election to the House in 1982, he and his family made at least nine trips at Keating's expense, three of which were to Keating's Bahamas retreat. McCain did not disclose the trips (as he was required to under House rules) until the scandal broke in 1989. At that point, he paid Keating $13,433 for the flights.

And in April 1986, one year before the meeting with the regulators, McCain's wife, Cindy, and her father invested $359,100 in a Keating strip mall.

I had almost forgotten about this great website. OnTheIssues.org tracks candidate's votes and statements to assess a "score" matching various social, economic, and foreign policy issues.

Here is Hillary Clinton's profile, and here is Barack Obama's profile.

And they have one of those political quizzes that will match you up with a candidate and tell you whether you are a flaming liberal or a hard core conservative or something in between.

Link...(Brian Hornback, for those who like to be warned)

I haven't heard from anyone about references being called, and I'll add my name to the list. Why take references if you're not going to call them?

As an employer, I depend a lot more on references than what a job candidate tells me about themselves. A really good interviewer will ask for additional references in the interview that aren't part of the "hand picked" list (e.g., "who was your supervisor at XYZ?') and contact them.

If anyone wants to see my questionnaire, I'll post it on my blog (the major essay questions, I didn't scan the hardcopy) at reform4.blogspot.com.

Is the quote in the paper about "doing a better job next time" in reaction to no references being called? Or something else? Thoughts?

The Democratic Party of Knox County is having an election night party on Tuesday, February 5, 2008 at the Urban Bar and Corner Cafe, 109 North Central Ave. in Knoxville’s Old City to watch the primary returns. Festivities begin around 7:30 PM. NOTE: This is a change from the previously announced venue. More info here.

Somebody please tell me I wasn't the only one listening during yesterday's drive time who heard Ann Lloyd (WUOT-FM, "All Things Considered" Local Host) tell listeners that "Independent voters are not allowed in the state primary" and they won't be able to vote until the general election.

The story was about the record early voter turnout and included a soundbite from Greg McKay. All well and good until right at the end when she began to explain to potential Tuesday voters what (up to now) I always thought was a pretty simple process-- show up at the polls, declare which party primary you want to participate in, then vote.

It was right after this that the comment was made about independent voters. The intent, I'm sure, was to say-- "If you are supporting a third party candidate or someone running as an independent, you won't find their name on the primary ballots, but they will be there in the general elections."

However, what was said didn't match the intent. Lloyd specifically said "independent voters" weren't allowed in the primaries when she should have said "independent candidates." Thus, furthering the myth that Tennesseans have to belong to a party to vote.

Six more weeks of winter chill!

Check out the official website of the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club.