Deborah just agreed to go to Iowa with me.

Janklow was convicted on all counts and will resign January 20th.

Gore endorsed Dean.

I am full of tasty greek food and tastier Fincher conversation.

Life is good. That fortune cookie awhile back was right on the mark. If only I believed in fate!

One final bit before getting back to work. There's also a rumor that Joe Lieberman might be calling it quits, which then freed up Gore to endorse Dean, which then meant someone leaked it. I think this is too speculative, but if it was true it would be a bombshell, because it would mean that the Dem field was being narrowed (as it should be) based on Gore's decision.

Here's the ongoing story. It's too big for me to write about for a bit. My co-worker is getting tons of phone calls from her ex-co-workers over with Gore. I think the official endoresement will occur tomorrow, and that tonight is just in place for the media cycle.

Word on the street says tomorrow, in Iowa, around noon. But I'm also hearing about Harlem and New Hampshire. More details as I get them. My contacts are all over the place on this. But damn! Gore is huge. I loved that guy. He was incredible. Him backing Dean is amazing.

Gore is endorsing Dean.

That's it. It's over. Damn.

Speaking of small cute little dogs that some people might find objectionable...here's the latest from Mr. Perkins:

As opposed to my consistent ability to foment enemies at every turn (just ask college comrades Brad, Helena, Deborah, et al.), it appears that in the nomination process, Dean appears to be the most positive candidate there. Seems weird, eh? But then look at that ARG poll I mentioned last week. Dean is at the top with a 7% unfavorable rating. 10%? 7%? Even a cute little puppy would receive a higher unfavorable rating than that. The supposed "backlash" to Dean's "anger" is nothing more than media hype. Most people who have followed the campaign and are paying attention seem to like Dean. What's odd is that as time has progressed, Dean's positives keep going up, his unknown factor keeps lowering, but his negatives keep hovering, around the country, below or at 10%. That's unheard of.

Every time someone says Dean can't win I remember that these people are part of the 10%. They just don't get it, but they will soon.

At the risk of sounding manipulative, a ex-co-worker who owes me some cash for some consulting I did called up a couple times.

I used to get in trouble for this at my past workplace, but in this instance, it seemed somewhat appropriate to answer the phone, on speakerphone, and conduct the conversation from there. Helena used to complain to no end when I'd put her on speakerphone...so much so, in fact, that I used to do it just to see what her reaction would be. Immature? Sure. Fun? You bet. People have this weird idea that people eavesdrop only to conversations on speakerphone when in fact, most of the best gossip is always heard through the one-way filter of a regular phone conversation, perhaps buffered by a closed door. That indicates something indiscreet is going on. A speakerphone conversation, on the other hand, has to be innocuous, right? And both parties understand it to be so.

So the guy's talking, but he knows he's on speakerphone, so the conversation goes well. At the end, I resolve his problem fairly quickly and as a side benefit, the entire office gets to listen in.

Now I've got some crazy reporter calling me up to ask me about some article some other guy wrote from over a month ago to inquire as to the sources. What this has to do with my job (um...the article is on the website? send the guy to edward!) I'm not aware of, but now I've just added yet another boring person to talk to to the list.

Maybe I'll put him on speakerphone.

Now that I'm trying to almost completely rebuild federalist, rent a videoconference room and in, general, stay on top of the latest news and info, you'd think I'd get a five minute break from blogging. Add to that the fact that I was going to put together a witty testimonaial for a certain friend, and my time is stretched thinly.

With that said, I just completed a short review of Quicksilver. Don't bother reading it. Just go buy the book.

On the social front, I have little to relate, although plenty of political stuff is going on. My friend in Iowa appears to be well (based on a short ten minute IM session this morning) and my trip appears to be moving ahead.

Whoops. I almost missed Inside Politics. Time to log off for a second...

werkz advice: call in sick, take the day off, go buy this book and plow through it.

Stephenson's latest work, "Quicksilver" is as far from "Snow Crash" as one could come. The only similiary is at the start, when a major character is named in a bitter pun, much like Hiro Protagonist from SC. In this case, the character is called Enoch Root (Enoch->Eunuch->Unix->Root get it? no? well, you're not geeky enough then. root is the name of the su, or superuser, of any unix box. it's...never mind)

The story follows the invention of the Calculus and the intrigues that surround it. A bawdy tale of swords, sex and sailing, the narrative throughout is woven with such pithy humor that even the most mundane events seem to come alive. At the end of the book, one is left wanting still more, which is excellent, because the book is only part one in a series. So get check it out today.

Okay, I "borrowed" the following from atrios but it's still priceless. Enjoy!

As Deborah pointed out to me on Thursday, there's a tendency for me to avoid writing about events which occur in direct relation to the amount of late-night fun I attach to them. If for instance, like this evening, I'm up fairly late, I don't arrive back to write anything, despite having a good time. It's not a reflection (in tonight's case) of Fincher, or of anything else, for that matter. It's simply that I'm tired.

You could say the same about Thursday night, Friday night, Saturday night, etc. I had a good time in each case (a too good time Thursday evening!) and therefore was unable to write about it due to time constraints.

The lunchhour presents an opportune time, but Thursday's festivities knocked me off-kilter so I was unable to detail that night on Friday. Let's just say that I went out, hung out with Deborah and Kevin (who had never met one another, despite my moving them on the same day!) at St. Ex. and ended the night on a good note. I'm trying to get Deborah to agree to join me when I travel to Iowa in January, as it would be a road-trip to remember for the ages. Previously, Leto and Sigourney held the record for lengthy road-trips, with Deborah tying both this Homecoming. This could put her over the mark. Sadly, although Helena was part of The Greated Road Trip Ever, most of that time was spent solely with Brad. All the highlights, save for our dehydrated ascent of Mt. Lemon and the subsequent International Line Sprint to Mexico, Helena partook in. She's still somewhat bitter about that, and perhaps one day I can make it up to her. But I digress from the tales of the present to those of the past. Thursday, as I was saying, was quite enjoyable. The next day I was hurting, but so be it. It was worth it.

Friday night I hung out early with Kristen and Friends (avoiding the always-enjoyable First Friday in the process, which was a loss) at a journalist haunt. An interesting place, to be sure. One of Kristen's friend's friends was introduced to me while chewing gum. I hate that. But she was nice, at least. I bowed out from their company to attend my other event near Dupont, with a few friends who have increasingly turned domestic of late. It was fun, but the expectation of an early bedtime was a little lame, for those of a certain age-group. Upon my egress from the situation at an ungodly early hour, I called Kristen to see if her group was still out, but they too had admitted defeat. Little did I know but while underground (for such was the locale I was in) Fincher called and idiotically declined to leave a message, leaving me no trace of her presence later, upon my emergence into the snowy night. As fate would have it, while she wished to get a bite to eat (unable to predict her noodle-laced future) I walked close by, went home, and watched several sleep deprived episodes of Cowboy Bebop. (A fate I may wish upon myself in a minute here...)

Saturday I lazed about the house, did some laundry, and procrastinated in general before my office party. I ended up chilling with Fincher, but as my star-crossed path would have it, I left an hour early to go to my party. Standing in subzero weather for an hour is bad, but doing so with the knowledge that one has forsaken comfort and conversation out of sheer stupidy is far worse. Eventually, the hour hand moved over and I departed for the wilds of Bethesda. Our office party was fun, a welcome change where most of the cool kids were allowed to hang out together. It ended all too early, yet my body was refreshed to learn it would get some extra sleep out of the deal. No winning time for these players, if we must call them that.

Today I arose late, prepared to do some canvassing, yet noticed that the Ravens were playing, and so watched the game instead. With the victory today, we've now moved into first place and stand on the verge of winning the division for the first time in Raven's history. (Yes, when we won the superbowl we weren't leading the division...) That was fun.

In the afternoon, I rolled to Ben's to meet Gwyn and friends. The crew of regulars has grown so small as to be an impediment to the actual amount of work being done. Evidently we've spent some time laboring as to a rally the week before the primary. I'm happy that we'll be enjoying a party but it seems somewhat premature in lieu of actual work. However, being one of the four people there, I suppose I can't complain to them, can I? Later this evening Gwyn noted that the name of my letter-writing tool sounded somewhat inappropriate.

To be clear, for all you non-Poly Sci majors: publius was the pseudonym under which Hamilton, Madison, etc. wrote the Federalist Papers. You know, the rationale to endorse the constitution? Yeah, Gwyn was right: it sounds like a dirty word. So I changed the letter-writing tool to the far more austere: federalist. Gwyn also provided me with a list of several enhancements which will far outstrip the simple goals I set for myself several weeks ago. Oh, well. I guess I'll have plenty to work on later today.

The time, of course, is because I hung out with Fincher and managed to knock off Stephenson's latest tome. Hopefully I'll review it shortly. But for now, the jazz-pop melange melodies are calling, to be followed by a full systems crash.

I didn't know this until today, but you can get a whole carton of eegees shippped directly to your door. If anyone wants to give me an early Christmas gift...

werkz advice: go rent it. now.

Better Luck Tomorrow is a great tale of overachievers gone awry. Shot through the eyes of several Asian-American kids in California the movie shows their descent from good grades to petty theft to outright homicide. Along the way are plenty of laughs and a great deal of moments where you just want to slap the main character silly. Of course, the subject matter is somewhat serious, but the frequent moments of hilarity permeate every aspect of the movie, making it a 'Breakfast Club' for the 21st century. stop reading this and rent it now.

'werkz advice: go rent it!

Whale Rider is a simple story of a young Maori girl who survives childbirth even as her twin brother and mother pass away. She is named after the mythical leader who rode a whale to bring her people to their current land, namely, Paikea. The somewhat worn "she's a girl so she can't lead the tribe" dynamic is what the movie revolves around, but excellent characters from the crusty grandfather who simultaneously loves and hates her to the washed up dope-smoking uncle who just happens to be great at Maori combat all make the movie well worth watching.

Okay, based on the Zogby poll yesterday and the brand spankin' new poll from ARG today it appears that Dean is cruising to victory in New Hampshire. I blew an hour and a half yesterday writing some letters at the latest Dean Meetup which now appears a cakewalk.

Let me also just say that I'm quite annoyed that the number of passionate people involved with the Dean campaign has levelled off, mainly because most of the early adopters have migrated up in the hierarchy. So at last night's meetup we were "treated" to listening to a boring conference call between someone in New Hampshire and here. Plus, I had to listen to several minutes of blather about how we should go to Iowa and New Hampshire.

Don't get me wrong: I'm still going to go to Iowa, which is a much tighter contest than NH. But the whole reason DC is getting disrespected is because of the petulance of the Iowa and NH voters who seem to think they deserve special significance. There are plenty of DC Dems who are angry, but many in the Dean campaign don't understand that DC is more important than padding a already sure victory in NH.

If you're too lazy to read the polls mentioned above, the simple fact is this: Dean is around 43-45% and the nearest competitor, Kerry, is around 12-13%. That's huge. He's walking away with it.

I'd like to say that it's all a result of Dean standing up to Bush but regardless now it even appears that Terry has some cajones. Go DNC!

I've been super-busy lately with fifty million different things flying around me but I finally finished up work on federalist an hour ago so I now have time to write some thoughts down.

Last night, before I run into the rats, I roll over to Woodley Park to catch 24. I leave with plenty of time to spare, but the link fails me badly, and I end up waiting 20 minutes to catch a bus. When I finally see it (on the other side of the road) the next bus is only 2 minutes behind it, meaning that it was running at least 15 minutes behind the normal schedule and that the next bus almost passed it.

By the time I roll into the Mariott to check out the show, there are only seconds before it begins. Fincher and I see a large sign announcing a conference and the low-level hum turns into a throaty roar as we stride into an atrium filled with chair after chair of defense contractors. They're already watching something on the big screen tv. That's right: Bill O'Reilly on Fox News.

Fincher and I walk around for a second before my mind is set and then we sit down at a table a few feet away from the tv. I casually ask the server if I can change the channel and she says sure, but that there's no remote. So I sneak up to the tv, in front of all of the old white guys, and switch it from Fox News to Fox. No grumbles of dissent. Then I turn up the volume.

Seconds later, a couple of guys who were even closer leave their table, allowing us to upgrade, just as the opening credits for 24 begin to roll. Perfection. Surrounded by slightly low-class contractors (I'm not going to repeat some of the stories Fincher overheard) I managed to have a terrific time.

I passed about seven rats (medium-sized) on my walk home by Adams-Morgan this evening. Kind of a statement about DC. On the plus side, I learned that the district has moved into the "most progressive city in the world" status by announcing that it will distribute free condoms in public buildings all across the city. DC rocks.

I've got some reviews to put up, more work to be done on federalist, finishing up the nicknames page, tons of work at the office to knock out and people banging on my door for idiotic computer help.

So, last night, in order to catch up, I went home, blew an hour watching Hardball (Howard Dean was on this week) and rolled to a Clark "Let's All Bash Howard Dean" Meetup afterwards. The Meetup (I showed up late) evidently consisted mostly of fundraising efforts. I wonder why some Dems don't get it: raising money in and of itself is not a sign of strength. Sure, Dean is good at raising money...but the fact that's he great at building an organization is a far better sign. Money may buy ads, but word-of-mouth is priceless. After the Clark Meetup, I headed over to Ben's with Fincher and Friends, then headed back to watch some episodes of Cowboy Bebop I borrowed from Brad. Then I surfed the web for a bit.

Yeah, no useful work got done. Procrastination 1, Work 0. We'll see how today goes.