SOTU Blogathon: Republicans Against Cancer Prevention

We bring back an image of Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan to make fun of the new house speaker who failed in his attempt to unseat Julia Louis-Dreyfus as vice president of the United States (for those of you in Romania: yes, we are kidding. Joe Biden is our veep)....

You will figure out why we dumped an image of Thomas Jefferson (pict. top) when you read this. As for Miss Piggy, even though her presence may hurt our hits coming from Dubai, we think it is a great way to make fun of Congressional pork and the fact that her show was on right before the State of the Union (SOTU).

Here are the tweets:

1)  WNYC: Obama: It's one of the few regrets of my presidency--that the rancor has gotten worse instead of better.

2) Roll Call: Obama: We've got to make it easier to vote, not harder, and modernize it for the way we live now.

3) Talking Points Memo: Obama: ISIL doesn't threaten our national existence.

4) Washington Post Politics: Obama: This isn't a matter of political correctness. It's a matter of understanding what makes us stronger.

5) Peter Sagal (NPR talk show host): This is true! Our Founders were a bunch of jerks who hated each other! (Yeah, that's the reason for TJ).

6) Colorado Avalanche: Tampa scores again. (the Tampa Bay Lightning won the hockey game 4-0).

7) Colorado Dems: Obama: We need to reject any politics that target people because of race or religion.

8) Cong. Mark Sanford (R-SC): Obama mentions closing Gitmo while he lacks the legal authority to take such actions.

9) Rachel Blevins (conservative college student from Texas): For his 8th and final SOTU, Obama promises to shut down Gitmo yet again....

10) Paul Ryan: For too many, the American dream is slipping. Nothing I've heard tonight is very reassuring.

11) The Onion (satire news): Obama Praises Own Resiliency in the Face of Hardship During the SOTU.

 https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/

http://www.rollcall.com

https://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/

http://www.theonion.com

NCAA March Madness Finale- Angry Birds

1) Delaware Blue Hens (Logo pictured top, Vice President Joe Biden is a fan)

2) Iowa Hawkeyes  (Adam Woodbury, #34, pictured top)

3) Coastal Carolina Chanticleers (Chauncey the Chanticleer is pictured bottom, the school is near Myrtle Beach, SC)

4) Louisville Cardinals*

5) Creighton Bluejays ^

6) North Carolina Central Eagles

7) St. Joseph Hawks

8) Air Force Falcons #

9) Kansas Jayhawks

10) Vanderbilt Commodores #

*-Team advanced to Sweet 16

^- Team has not been eliminated, but is trailing by 20 points at press time

#-Teams which did not make the field of 68 teams

http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/

Democrats Who May Run for President in 2014: Hillary Plus Nine

There was a great cover for the center-left magazine "The New Republic" which showed Hillary Clinton is a room with 100 women who were wearing Elizabeth Warren masks. The presumed point the illustrator was making is that Hillary Clinton has two challenges, besides separating herself from husband Bill Clinton, that is: 1) rallying younger and more progressive voters to her political bid for the highest office and 2) maintaining the support of centrist or even conservative Democrats who could help Democrats maintain Virginia and Florida and possibly gain North Carolina and Georgia in 2016.

Here is our look at ten Democrats we feel may very well choose to run for president in the 2016 cycle; we should point out to folks that we are NOT Gwen Ifill, the veteran PBS politics reporter:

1) Hillary Clinton (New York,pictured top)

2) Sen. Mark Warner (Virginia, pictured middle)

3) Sen. Tim Kaine (Virginia)

4)  Sen. Elizabeth Warren (Mass., pictured bottom)

5) Gov. Martin O'Malley (Maryland)

6) Gov. Andrew Cuomo (New York)

7) Gov. Deval Patrick (Mass.)

8) Sen. Cory Booker (New Jersey)

9) Sen. Kristen Gillibrand (New York; she replaced Clinton in the Senate)

10) Vice President Joe Biden (Delaware)

http://www.pbs.org/weta/washingtonweek/

http://www.newrepublic.com/

http://www.rollcall.com/

Sunday Night Tweets- Malaysia Airlines Wishes You a Happy Monday

As most of you know by now George McGovern, the long-time U.S. Senator from South Dakota died in his home state early this morning at age 90; we will have a tribute to him later in the week. One of his campaign buttons from his race for the White House against Richard Nixon in 1972 is pictured above. We also have an image of Liberace because it was the best thing we could think of of for gay marriage. And, we were not able to find an image of a flight attendant from Malaysia Airlines so we are going with this image of Christina Ricci from the 2011 tv series "Pan Am," which never quite got off the ground....pardon the pun.

Here are tonight's tweets from the 8:00-9:00 p.m. hour on Sunday night, New York time:

1) @ABC11_WVTD (ABC11 WVTD, a tv station in Raleigh, NC): "Vice president's son Beau Biden makes stop in the Triangle."

2) @Markknoller (Mark Knoller is the CBS News White House correspondent): "Earlier today, Pres. Obama issued statement on passing of George McGovern calling him a 'generous, kind, honorable man. He will be missed."

3) @davidcnsswanson (David Swanson, an author from Charlottesville, Va.): "What Senator George McGovern Got Right_ Let's Try Democracy."

4) @PeterBeinart (Peter Beinart is a columnist for "The Daily Beast"): "I will never forget reading McGovern's 1970 speech where he says 'this chamber reeks of blood' during Vietnam, would any pol say that today?"

5) @LunarAnticsZeno (Zeno is from what we can tell some sort of comic book character; and yes he apparently tweets as do family cats and dead celebrities): "The difference between stupidity and genius has its limits, Albert Einestein."

6) @TeaPartyCat (Top Conservative Cat, actually a liberal blogger who rakes Republicans over the coals): "Romney changed his position on gay marriage, but since he was changing back to a previously abandoned position, it's not a big deal."

7) @MAS (Malaysia Airlines, and yes it is Malaysia Airlines as opposed to Malaysian Airlines we checked with our correspondent in Kuala Lampur to be sure): "Hopefully your Monday will be much better. Have a great Monday, and an incredible week ahead."

http://www.malaysiaairline.com

Tweets of the Night_ Politics, Sports and Religion

For those of you who are are yak herders in Mongolia or Buddhist monks in Bhutan, the first image is of Cong. Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) who is Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney's arch conservative running mate. The other two images are of a college volleyball player (there was lots of college volleyball action tonight) from the University of South Florida and a Serbian priest, who to our knowledge has not endorsed either Romney or President Barack Obama, that is not the case with certain reality tv show 'stars.'

Let's jump in the pool:

1) @uncgsports (UNC-Greensboro Athletics): Women's soccer takes down Davidson on Senior Night 1-0.

2) @GatorZoneVB (University of Florida Gators Women's Volleyball): "No.11 #Gators Earn Ninth Sweep of 2012 with 3-0 Victory over Ole Miss."

3) @uncvolleyball (University of North Carolina Women's Volleyball): "Carolina Holds off Virginia 3-2 as the Tar Heels improve to 14-4, 5-3 (in ACC play) on the season," (the game was played in Charlottesville, Va.)

4) @AlexSemin (Carolina Hurricanes hockey player Alex Semin, a Russian national formerly with the Washington Capitals): "He may only be a teenager, but until Bryce Harper goes to Russia to play hockey for his grandmother, his accomplishments are miniscule." (Semin is referring to one of the star players for the Washington Nationals, a team that lost to the St. Louis Cardinals in the playoffs by a 9-7 score tonight).

5) @TerryMoran (Terry Moran of ABC News): "Some idiot fired shots into Obama's field office in Denver.  Let's all try to calm down and respect each other."

6) @LOLGOP (LOL GOP): "If the math behind Mitt Romney's tax plan worked, George W. Bush would have spoken at the Republican Convention."

7) @theOnion ("The Onion," a faux news publication): "Joe Biden: I'm a flawed man, but there's love in my heart."

8) @VT_Volleyball (Virginia Tech Women's Volleyball): "Hokies drop 3-1 decision to NC State: Kathryn Caine knocked down 13 kills."

9) @MLBJesus (Major League Baseball Jesus): "Some of my best friends are Cardinals," this satiric statement made in reference to the St. Louis Cardinals.

10) @SecretCabDriver (Secret Cab Driver): "GOP: Vote for us because we have guns. And, remember we're not afraid to use them." (this tweet was meant to be satiric in nature)

11) @HuffPostPol ("Huffington Post Politics"): "Democratic Brad Sherman regrets grabbing Howard Berman during debate." (This is a tweet regarding the Congressional battle which actually pits two Democratic Congressional reps from the Los Angeles-area against each other; we have a special interest in this because the Armenian-American lobby sponsored one of the debates and Turkey was mentioned throughout the forum. Turkey and Armenia do not have diplomatic relations in spite of being neighboring countries due to a very ugly and controversial historical dispute).

12) @davidfrum (David Frum, a conservative pundit who has been critical of the current state of the Republican Party; he was actually profiled in an excellent article in "The Nation," a liberal magazine): "Message of the debate poll: Twitter loves politics, is bored with government."

10 People Who Will Decide Election (10 of 10)_ Wisconsin

It is now 7:00 a.m. in Stockholm, Sweden, 9:00 a.m. in Dubai, and high noon in Shanghai, wherever you are, you're with the greatest blog in the universe....well, we don't take ourselves that seriously. And, we are ripping off that slogan from the BBC World Service.

Today, we finally conclude our long-drawn out series on the American Presidential Election, which is now a mere 26 days away. Our focus will be on Wisconsin, the home state of Republican nominee Mitt Romney's veep choice Cong. Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) who has so far motivated partisan Republicans and far right Tea Partiers while alienating center-left Democrats and possibly independents with his potentially radical views on small government.

And, here is a look at our last fictional voter:

Name: Alexia Demopolous

Ethnicity: Greek-American

Residency: Racine, Wisc.

Age: 26

Gender: Female

Occupation: Pizza delivery

Voting status: Undecided

According to the latest "Politico" swing state map, which we are watching as closely as Jimmy Stewart watched Grace Kelly in Alfred Hitchcock's "Rear Window," President Barack Obama is winning Wisconsin by a 51-46 % margin.

The local newspaper in Racine "The Journal-Times" is reporting that the Racine Tea Party will hold a 'Victory 2012' rally on Oct. 27th in which U.S. Senate candidate Tommy Thompson (R) will be schmoozing with the most extreme elements of the conservative movement. Thompson is being opposed for the open seat by Cong. Tammy Duckworth (D-Wisc).

Wisconsin is, much like Minnesota and Iowa, a hard state to pinpoint in terms of the state's political swings. Wisconsin was served by Sen. Russ Feingold (D), one of the more progressive members in the U.S. Senate, but after three successful terms, Feingold was surprisingly ousted by Tea Party favorite Ron Johnson who now holds Feingold's seat.

Racine itself seems a bit hard to forecast as Racine County voted for Obama by a 54-46 % margin in 2008, but the county turned around and supported Johnson just two years laters.

Ryan represents Racine as Racine County is in his first district. Tomorrow (or later today) in Danville, Kentucky, Ryan will face Vice President Joe Biden in the only vice presidential debate.

http://www.derangosdelivers.com (a pizza delivery place in Racine, Wisc.)

http://www.journaltimes.com

http://www.politico.com

Quote from International Writers_ Franz Kafka

This just in, a mere three days after they have their vice presidential candidates debate in Danville, Ky., Vice President Joe Biden and his challenger Paul Ryan will have a wrestling match during half-time of the Cincinnati Bengals-Cleveland Browns game in Cleveland on Oct. 24th. They chose the occasion because Ohio is a swing state; I'm sure the late comic actor Andy Kaufman would be proud.

We are joking, of course, but like us, the satirical publication "The Onion" is having fun at the candidates' expense, one recent 'story' this week said that perhaps Paul Ryan should have told Mitt Romney about the guy he's dating.

With that, today we start a series of quotes from famous world-known writers. And, we begin with the Czech writer Franz Kafka (1883-1924), whom I'm amazed to see that I've actually outlived him, as he died in his very early forties.

Kafka is well-known for penning "The Trial" (1925); here is his quote:

"A book should be an axe, to break the frozen sea within us."

http://www.clevelnadbrowns.com

http://www.theonion.com

This and That- I Forgot About Joe Biden

Since I was in high school, I have been a partisan Democrat, so much so that I wanted to vote for Walter Mondale against Ronald Reagan in 1984 even though I was 14 years old at the time.

But, four years later, my opportunity came, and despite pressure from my Turkish relatives in Istanbul not to 'vote for the Greek,' I did indeed vote for Michael Dukakis over George H.W. Bush, even though Reagan's veep carried Virginia and won the election easily.

The field for the 1988 Democratic nomination seemed rather flat at the time, which lead to them being dubbed 'The Seven Dwarfs,' which Eric Alterman of "The Nation" would say proves that there is really no such thing as a liberal media. Of course, Bill O'Reilly would beg to differ, but we don't really care about what he thinks.

Yesterday, I had a chance to take a quiz for the web site for "Mental Floss" magazine which usually has all sorts of interesting quizzes. I had just talked about "snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" with a friend of mine, so the chance to name the 'seven dwarfs' as in the seven Democratic candidates from 1988 seemed rather nifty to me.

But, much to my suprise, I had a lot of trouble with it. After Dukakis, I remembered that Paul Simon (not the singer) and Bruce Babbitt, both of whom have since died, were candidates. I then remembered Al Gore, who as everyone knows became Bill Clinton's veep, but I had somehow forgotten about our current vice-president Joe Biden who was also in that field! This does beg the question, if I run into him someday at a political rally, do I mention this to him or not?!

I did get a chance to see one of the other 1988 Democratic candidates Richard Gephardt speak during a rally in Georgetown, SC, as he was trying to win the 2004 nomination which went to John Kerry. In fact, I rediscovered photographs I took of that event just a few weeks ago.

Speaking of political campaigns, I was just thinking when Mitt Romney, who we can't wait to make fun of again (we called him The Republican Dukakis during the last go around), that during his kick-off speech in New Hampshire that he did sound like Clark Kent and he was trying to convince Republican voters that he would be Superman when it came to reversing the American economic downfall.

Sure enough, some artists at "The Week" magazine had the same idea as they have Romney front and center under the caption "Waiting for Superman," in reference to an accalimed documentary that came out last year. Interestingly enough, Romney said yesterday that he differs with other Republicans in that he thinks global warming is partially man-made. Ironically, Paul Guggenheim, the director of Al Gore's documentary on global warming "An Inconvenient Truth," also directed "Waiting for Superman," which is a film about education.

Lastly, we had a chance to listen to the Turkish psychedelic compilation "Turkish Freak-Out" on vinyl yesterday afternoon just after listening to a streaming of "The Turkish Music Hour" on WUVT-FM (90.7-Blacksburg, Va.), and the recording from Bouzouki Joe Records is very good.

It includes 18 tracks from the likes of Erkin Koray (who turns 70 this month), Ajda Pekkan and the late Baris Manco. I found it at All Day Records in Carrboro, NC, just outside Chapel Hill.

Also, on yesterday's WUVT broadcast, I heard a song called "Sarhos" ("Drunk") by a singer named Dario Moreno (1921-1968). I had never heard of Moreno, and I presumed he was an Italian man who happened to sing a Turkish song, but he was in fact actually from Turkey!

Special Quote of the Week- Ayn Rand

Yes, since we love being ironic here, we thought we'd quote Ayn Rand just 48 hours after we quoted Che Guevara. One is a libertarian, far-right icon and the other is a socialist, far-left icon. Guess which one is which?

Even though the Russian-American author Rand (1905-1982) has been dead for almost 30 years,(she ironically died the same year that Warren Beatty won an Oscar for director for his 1981 film "Reds;" it was about the American left-wing figure John Reed who made Rand's journey in reverse), due to the emergence of Tea Party lunatics and the filmazation of her 1957 novel "Atlas Shrugged," she is making waves again. Wow, that last sentence was way too long alas Javier the Intern, who does all the editing for us is having lunch with his frat brothers at Burger King. (Ok, this is a no joke, there is no Javier, but I could use a personal assistant!).

The movie version of "Atlas Shrugged" has a 6.1 user average on the Internet Movie Database, and it is currently showing at the Grandin Theatre in Roanoke, Va., among other places.

Here is the quote from Rand:

"The creative man is motivated by the desire to achieve, not by the desire to beat others."

SIDEBAR_ Those who like Ayn Rand probably read "Reason" magazine as well. Along with "Weekly Standard," the publication happens to be one of the few conservative magazines ("Reason" is known for its libertarian perspectives) I don't despise. Ironically, an article from that magazine was republished in the left-leaning "Utne Reader."

According to reason.com and its perceived political bias, the government's 'war on speculators' won't lower gas prices. I guess those of us who are liberal can agree with conservatives than paying circa $50 at the tank is ludicrious. The only thing that has inflated as much in recent years has to be concert ticket prices. Why do some people shell out $60 for REO Speedwagon tickets? I saw them with Cheap Trick as a teenager in 1985 for like $17. I don't know....

Also, we wanted to share something about Osama bin Laden, who as everyone except maybe a Buddhist monk in a village in Bhutan, knows was killed over the weekend (there are of course conspiracy theories out there as insane as one that would suggest Joe Biden and him are hanging out Firebrick Pizza*; we assume Osama wouldn't want pork on his pizza or beer with his meal**).

That is his age; he was 57. For some reason, no one mentions this, not even the BBC! Interestingly enough, television viewers in America that year could watch the following shows, "Leave it to Beaver," "Maverick," "Perry Mason" and "The Howdy Doody Show."

*-Firebrick Pizza is real place in Washignton, DC

**- Yes, we know there is nothing funny about mass murder and terrorism, but we have to make fun of people who think he's still alive (?!), and of course as a Turkish-American (my late father was a Muslim), I can make subtle fun of certain aspects of Islamic life. Fortunately, very few are actually terrorists, but alas the few who are cause great, unjustified damage to the faith's followers. Hopefully, one day this will be corrected and I certainly hope that day comes sooner than later.

Weekend Road Trip (7 of 20)_ Lynchburg, Va. to Wilmington, Del.

Well, since our entry on our other blog "The Daily Vampire" took as long to do as writing a term paper on "War and Peace" or a Wikipedia entry on the life of its author Leo Tolstoy, we are going to try to streamline the designated time for this entry.

Today, we are looking at the distance between Wilmington, Del., and Lynchburg, Va. The two cities have teams in the Carolina League, which is a single-A minor league baseball division. They happen to play each other in Lynchburg on Monday night at 6:05 p.m.

The Lynchburg Hillcats won a double-header over the Frederick Keys in Maryland today by a 3-2 and 2-1 count. Down in North Carolina, the Wilmington Blue Rocks split their own double-header with the Winston-Salem Dash. The visitors won the first game 10-2, but fell 3-2 in the night-cap.

For this entry, we are going to examine the distance between Macado's, a Roanoke, Va-based regional restaurant chain, which has a location on Candlers Mountain Road in Lynchburg, and the Deep Blue Bar and Grill in Wilmington, Del.

Since Lynchburg is mostly known for being the home to Liberty University and the Mall of America-sized mega church that is Thomas Road Baptist Church where the late Rev. Jerry Falwell preached, we thought we would go against the city's stereotype as a beacon of fundamentalism and arch right-wing politics by featuring an image from the 1970's tv-show "The Waltons." *(Hmmm....maybe, since it is now officially Easter Sunday, we should refrain from making fun of fervent fundamentalists....nah!).

Of course, Delaware is known for being the home state of Vice President Joe Biden, who surreally looks like Rev. Falwell here!

We must profess that Mapquest's suggested time of travel for this trip is probably only doable at 4:00 a.m., which is almost what time it is now!, because the route would go through both Washington, DC, and Baltimore, but we are going with what they say here!

So, is the answer:

A) Five Hours

B) Five Hours, 30 minutes

C) Six Hours, 30 minutes

D) Seven Hours

The answer to last week's road trip quiz is C) as it takes about 12 hours and ten minutes to get from Hagerstown, Md., to Chatanooga, Tenn.

Also, we heard an interesting segment on the BBC World Service about why it might be unwise to give out to much info about yourself on the Internet as many employers around the world google applicants' names to see if there is a Youtube video of the applicant dancing with a lamp shade over his or her head while intoxicated.

Since I now have over 2,000 blog entries with my name, Dennis Alexander**, attached to it perhaps I am into deep. But, I've never danced with a lamp shade on my head. And, apparently, the government in Spain is trying to get Google to prevent such potentially embarrassing info from infringing upon the rights of its citizens. Hmmm....I wonder how Clarence Thomas would feel about this one!

*- "The Waltons" took place on Afton Mountain near Charlottesville, Va. It is about one hour, 15 minutes north of Lynchburg

**-Dennis Alexander is a pseudonymn and an in-joke. If Donald Trump is visiting our blog, we want him to know that Mr. Alexander did vote for John McCain (it was in the 2000 Republican primary in Virginia to make sure George W. Bush wouldn't become prez. Oh well!).

50 Beers From Around the World- Lasko Pivo (Slovenia)

Ahh, if only we could get away from it all and go to the Kluze fortress in northwest Slovenia.

But in the mean time, we can blog about Lasko Pivo, the Slovenian brew that was founded by gingerbread baker Franz Geyer in 1825.

Lasko Pivo participates in the famed Festival of Beer and Flowers in the city of Lasko, Slovenia.

Other interest destinations in the Slovenia, a former Yugoslav Republic which borders Austria and Croatia, is the Emerald Route which takes tourists by waterfalls and forests......must be nice!

SIDEBAR: It is so nice to wrap up an evening to a very hectic day with a refreshing Blue Moon with the company of my favorite Tea Party favorite Christine O'Donnell of Delaware (yeah, I guess you know by now that politically, of course, I can't stand her!) who is vying for Vice President Joe Biden's old U.S. Senate seat. Of course, this is one 'beer summit' that Biden would probably want to miss! The Republican witchy woman has joined me for beer and laughs at The Washington Street Ale House in Wilmington, Del.*, where she is making fun of President Barack Obama and I am taking shots at America's favorite unemployed mama grizzly Sarah Palin. Who says: "Why can't we all get along?!"

*-An actual place which does indeed serve teh trendy brew Blue Moon.

Henry Louis Gates Jr.on Life After the 'Beer Summit'

Since there are many things going in Washington, DC, these days both politically and weather-wise, focus on the aftermath of the intriguing 'Beer Summit' has been all but ignored.

But, since Harvard University Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. is now promoting his new PBS series "Faces of America," which is airing soon, in the media, questions are being answered as to how he and Cambridge, Mass., police officer James Crowley are getting along.

For those you don't remember or reside in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, in July of 2009, Gates was arrested by Crowley who suspected him of breaking into what turned out to be his own house as he was fumbling with the front door. Crowley suspected that Gates might be an intruder.

President Barack Obama commented on the incident, which sparked a discussion about race in America. Obama spoke on Gates' behalf which lead to a media brew-ha-ha which were resolved with brews when Obama, Gates and Crowley met at the White House for a Beer Summit. The surprise guest at the brewsky-sharing was Vice President Joe Biden.

Gates told "The New York Times Magazine" that he and Crowley are actually getting along well, and have even met socially:

"We had a drink at my favorite pub in Cambridge. We met at the River Gods cafe several months ago, and he gave me the handcuffs," Gates said refering to the handcuffs which were used during his arrest.

He added that he gave the hand-cuffs to the National Museum of African American History and Culture at the Smithsonian.

Gates told the NPR show "Talk of the Nation" that he now gets along with Crowley quite well, and that the Cambridge police officer is a 'very nice man.'

The Beer Summit became such a sensation that even Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.) initiated one of his own while running in his senatorial campaign that would prove to be a huge political upset.

I was curious as to which beers were drunk by whom at the Beer Summit, and it took me a long time to discover that information, but thankfully I found it on a blog for "The Chicago Sun-Times."

Obama had a Bud Light. Gates drank a Sam Adams Light. Crowley went for a Blue Moon. While Biden had the non-alcoholic Bucklers beer. I may have asked for a Petra Beer, but I suspect the White House would have difficulty finding the Jordanian beer (which I've never drank).

When asked by the "NYT Magazine" what he thought America might evolve into as we become a more mixed-race society. Gates responded by saying:

"I'm looking forward to the time when we all look like Polynesians."

The Rock Obama Takes in Georgetown-Duke Basketball Game

It was not the actor The Rock, but rather the subject of his now famous "Saturday Night Live" skits President Barack Obama who joined Vice President Joe Biden along with other members of his inner circle to watch the Georgetown Hoyas upset the visiting Duke University Blue Devils at the Verizon Center in Washington, DC, by a 89-77 score this afternoon.

When the game tipped off at 1:00 p.m. eastern time, the DC area did not yet see the incoming snowstorm which had hit much of Virginia and North Carolina (see our entry in The Daily Vampire) including the Duke U campus in Durham, NC.

During the second half, Obama made a surprise visit to the CBS booth where he joked with announcer Clark Kelogg, who was once a Big Ten basketball star, that he might have to replace Kelogg in 'three years or seven years.' Some conservative-leaning media outlets are already making the highly ridicilous suggestion that Obama was hinting that he might not seek reelection.

When the announcers asked if the left-handed Obama ever went to his right, the president again jovially said that he went to his 'right' when he met with Congressional Republicans in Baltimore on Friday.

The Baltimore gathering provided a limelight moment for Cong. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), a congressional freshman who represents the Provo, Utah, region-considered by many to be one of the most conservative areas in America.

Lee Davidson of "The Deseret News" in Salt Lake City reported that Chaffetz confronted the president for a number of verbal inconsistencies including a pledge to hold health care hearings in the public arena through C-Span.

Obama responded by telling Chaffetz that:

"That (the hearings) was a messy process. And I take responsibility for not having structured it in a way where it was taking place in one place where it could not be filmed."

Chaffetz told the SLC newspaper that he had a friendly talk with Obama afterwards:

"I think it's positive that we are able to have this kind of dialogue and hopefully move forward."

On his Twitter page, Chaffetz has voiced many political objections to the Obama administration. In one tweet, he said that he was opposed to the discontinuation of the 'don't ask, don't tell policy' regarding gays and lesbians in the military on the grounds that such measures should not be taken when the United States is involved with two wars.

As for Obama, he also met with former president George HW Bush and former Florida govenror Jeb Bush at the White House prior to the Hoyas-Blue Devils basketball game.

NPR said Obama was blackberrying throughout the game, and that he made no indication of which team he was rooting for.

It would have been interesting to hear comments from Duke's Coach K after the game. The long-time Blue Devils coach is a Republican though he is not known to use his position for campaign trail purposes (his long-time rival former UNC coach Dean Smith is a Democrat who vocally endorsed Obama in the North Carolina Primary), but one of the Duke coach's former players is a staff member for President Obama.

Kobe Bryant Is the 400th Person I'm Following On Twitter

I am not actually a Los Angeles Lakers fan, but luck would have it, their star player Kobe Bryant is now the 400th person I'm following on Twitter (singer Neko Case actually became the 430th a few minutes ago!).

It is amazing that I am now perhaps even more hooked on Twitter than I am on Facebook. It's a good thing I'm single and have no children though Gizmo the family cat might need to be fed again here in a few minutes.

One of the things I like most about Twitter is that I get to 'follow' people. Though I do follow a few friends and family, most of the people I follow are shameless celebrities like Kim Kardashian, Paris Hilton, Pee-wee Herman and Chevy Chase- to name a few!

Of course, there is the danger that the person you are following is only pretending to be someone famous, which I suspect is the case with 'Molly Ringwald.' Matt Taibbi, a political and sports writer for "Rolling Stone" who is now being talked about in the media for his surprising anti-Obama diatribe (which I differ with), claimed that a person using his name on Twitter was not really him.

I am also following politicians ranging from the far-left like Cong. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) and the far, far right like Cong. Virginia Foxx (R-NC) as well as more mainstream political figures like Al Gore, John McCain and Joe Biden (who is also following me?!).

Twitter has also allowed me a chance to follow respected pundits,journalists and film critics like Roger Ebert (Chicago Sun-Times), Peter Travers (Rolling Stone), Paul Krugman (The New York Times), Andrew Sullivan (The Atlantic), Michael Crowley (The New Republic) and Ezra Klein (The Washington Post).

I'm even following the fictional Fox News reporter Roland Hedley, who is actually a character in the comic strip "Doonesbury."

And, then there are the hockey teams! I'm actually following eight of them, including the Carolina Hurricanes and the Toronto Maple Leafs (neither of those teams is in Stanley Cup contention, trust me!).

I would write more but I'm wondering what Brooke Burke is up to. Perhaps, she's going to play Twister with her kids.

Quote of the Week- Joe Biden

Today, we honor our new vice president Joe Biden with one of his quotes:

"The Middle East is hopeful. There is hope there."

We have a quote from Barack Obama on our sister blog "The Daily Vampire."

Know Your Mayors (Entry 2 of 11)

Last week, we started this series with an entry about Mayor Kevin Foy of Chapel Hill, NC, who ironically teaches at North Carolina State University (For those outside ACC country, Chapel Hill is home to UNC).

This week, we select Mayor Doug Isaacson of North Pole, Alaska, pictured here in Christmas elf attire, as our mayor of the week.

For all we know, he could follow Joe Biden as our next vice president.

According to northpolealaska.com, the jurisdiction with the zip code 99705 boasts two oil refineries and many outdoor venues. North Pole, AK, is also sister cities with Itadori, Japan.

We wish everyone in North Pole, AK, and elsewhere a Merry Christmas.


UPDATE: Just out of curiosity, I ran a MapQuest between Chapel Hill, NC, and North Pole, Ak. As one might expect, the results are very interesting. The distance between 27516 and 99705 (zip codes for the two towns) is 4,353 miles. The drive would take 73 hours and 11 minutes, presuming one does not get lost in the Yukon Territory. Among the towns one would pass through are Mount Airy, NC, Wytheville, Va, Indianapolis, Ind., St. Cloud, Minn, Grand Forks, ND, then the Canadian cities of Winnipeg, Edmonton and Whitehorse........good thing, gas prices went down!

21 Words in Norwegian (17 of 21)

Soap

Sape


Image is of vegan cucumber soap.

Hmmmm.........

SIDEBAR: We thought he was dead, but standup comedian Jackie Mason will be appearing at the historic Birchmere Theatre in Alexandria, Va., on Thursday night. Perhaps, Joe Biden will make a surprise cameo........We need the votes!