Irish Trojan in Tennessee

Debate open thread

By Brendan Loy

I don't know if I'll be doing much liveblogging of the Clinton-Obama debate (live now on CNN), but if you're watching, feel free to leave your comments here.

UPDATE: I thought Obama pretty clearly won that debate -- not just in the sense that Hillary didn't score a knockout punch, so Obama "wins" by default, but in the sense that he won the debate outright. Of course, I'm biased. But I thought Obama wiped the floor with Hillary during the middle part of the debate, where they were talking about the plagiarism question, the actions vs. words issue, and the general tone of the campaign, followed by the experience/judgment question. I thought that was the heart of the debate, and the part that'll be replayed and analyzed endlessly tomorrow -- and he looked great while she looked awful.

P.S. Caveat: I wasn't really paying attention to Hillary's closing statement, which everybody is saying was great.

P.P.S. You know that article I linked about how Hillary's camp was divided on whether to go negative or stay positive? Thinking about that debate and watching the highlights on CNN, it occurs to me that it seems like Hillary never really decided which course to take.

She took a couple of pretty sharp swipes at Obama (the disastrous "Xerox" comment and the reference to his supporter who couldn't name a single accomplishment), but she seemed to be attacking only reluctantly, and she didn't stay on the offensive. And then came the moment at the end where she said she was "honored" be on stage with Obama -- a man she had just gotten through basically calling a dirty rotten plagiarist who isn't ready for prime time, is all talk and no action, and has never accomplished anything. Huh? Either go negative or stay positive, but don't try to do both at once. That really doesn't work.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Transcript here. One of my favorite Obama lines was in response to his supposed focus on style over substance:

These are very specific, concrete, detailed proposals, many of them which I've been working on for years now.  Senator Clinton has a fine record. So do I.  And I'm happy to have a debate on the issues, but what we shouldn't be spending time doing is tearing each other down.  We should be spending time lifting the country up.

This was good too, of course.

Tennessee news

By Brendan Loy

Three items of news today (or in one case, yesterday) concerning the Volunteer State. First, as you may already have heard, Georgia has declared war on Tennessee -- er, legislatively speaking -- in a border dispute over water. To arms! Fear, fire, foes, awake!! The Georgians are coming, the Georgians are coming!!!

Second, the epidemic of Tennessee coaches getting divorced continues, as Titans coach Jeff Fisher is divorcing his wife of 21 years. Vicky Fulmer, you may want to get a lawyer, just in case. ;) No, but seriously, that's sad. Divorce sucks.

Last but not least, Lady Vols superstar Candace Parker is skipping her senior season to go pro.

BOOM!

By Brendan Loy

The military has released video of the spy satellite's fuel tank exploding upon impact from the missile. w00t!

You can watch it on YouTube, via Fox News, here, or download the military's video in WMV form here. (Hat tip: SpaceWeather.)

Also, here's another picture of falling debris from the satellite shoot-down.

A couple of stories about people witnesing re-entering satellite debris, from MSNBC and Space.com.

And, you know that incredible photo of satellite debris & the eclipsed moon that I posted early this morning? Well, it made the local news out in Oregon.

Speaking of the eclipse, here's an awesome shot of the International Space Station in front of the partially eclipsed Moon!

Check out this stunning eclipse photo, too. It was taken in Hamedan, Iran.

This long-exposure shot is neat, too. More here.

I'm officially a lawyer

By Brendan Loy

Almost seven months after finishing the Colorado Bar Exam, about 4 1/2 months after learning I'd passed, and over 10 weeks since my application for admission was officially approved, I just minutes ago took the Colorado Attorney Oath of Admission -- administered by Judge Susano here in Tennessee -- and thus I am now officially, finally, a lawyer. (Alas, in a rare oversight, I didn't think to get a photo or video of myself being sworn in. Uh-oh: does that mean it didn't happen?)

Of course, the Colorado Bar doesn't know yet that I'm its newest member. I still have to send them my signed oath form in the mail, along with a bunch of other paperwork. But I think that mailing, and everything that follows it -- the receipt of my license, etc. -- is just a formality. I believe that, as of today, I could, if I wanted to, jump on a plane to Denver and, upon my arrival, dispense legal advice. :) More consequentially, I believe I can now accurately describe myself on a resumé as "certified to practice law in the state of Colorado."

The long delay, by the way, wasn't engendered by some character & fitness problem or anything like that. My formal approval was delayed first by the need to fly out to Denver for that CLE ethics class, and then by delays in sending in my driving records (which are perfectly clean, I just procrastinated the process a bit), and then it took me forever to deal with all the back-and-forth paperwork that was necessary for me to take the oath out-of-state. I didn't really have much motivation to hurry, since I don't need that Colorado certification as long as I'm clerking in Tennessee. But anyway, now it's finally done, and I can call myself an attorney without any qualifications or caveats. :)

So... you may all now throw your best lawyer jokes at me! Have at it!

P.S. The next time I'm in Denver, I think it would be proper to formally celebrate my admission to the Colorado Bar by going to a Colorado bar. Kristy? V? You in? ;)

More on Tim Aher

By Brendan Loy

Here is the obituary of Notre Dame 2L Timothy Aher, who died in London over the weekend. News articles about his sad and untimely passing have also been published in the Notre Dame newspaper and in the local Connecticut newspaper of the area where he grew up. A memorial mass was held at the Basilica on Tuesday (video here) for Tim and Connor McGrath, the Notre Dame sophomore who also died over the weekend.

There's much more, including a photo from the CT paper, in the Tim Aher & Connor McGrath memorial post, which I've updated several times. (There's a fair amount of search-engine traffic coming to that page, so I'm trying to keep everything related to the tragedies consolidated there.) You can also find more photos of Tim at this Photobucket page. According to Chicago radio station WHPK, "friends from law school have started [it] to compile a photo album to give to Tim's family."

Also, from the obituary: "In lieu of flowers, the family asks that contributions be made to Connecticut Legal Services, Inc., 62 Washington St., Middletown, CT 06457, in Tim's name."

Hillary's dilemma

By Brendan Loy

The final (?) stretch of the battle for the Democratic presidential nomination begins with tonight's debate in Austin. In preparation for which, the New York Times asks: Can Hillary afford to go negative on Obama? Can she afford not to go negative?

When Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton meets Senator Barack Obama at a one-on-one debate in Austin on Thursday night, one of her final opportunities to change the course of the race for the Democratic presidential nomination, she will again face the challenge that has repeatedly stymied her: how to discredit her popular opponent without hurting herself.

Even now, after a string of defeats, her advisers are divided over how to proceed as they head toward what could be her last stands, in Ohio and Texas on March 4.

Some — led by Mark Penn, her chief strategist — have been pushing Mrs. Clinton to draw sharper and deeper contrasts with Mr. Obama, arguing that she has no other option, campaign officials said.

Others, particularly Mandy Grunwald, her media adviser, have pushed for a less aggressive approach, arguing that attacks would not help Mrs. Clinton’s campaign in an environment in which she is increasingly appearing to struggle, aides said.

My default setting would be assume that Mark Penn is wrong. ;) But really, I think Hillary's in a no-win situation here. Polls show that most Democratic voters already like both candidates; they just like Obama better. So Hillary isn't going to change the course of the race simply by staying positive. Saying "look at me, I'm awesome!" isn't going to sway Obama's supporters, because most of them already think she's awesome; they just think Obama is more awesome.

So she needs to go negative (or to "draw contrasts"). But she can't, because if she does, she'll a) look desperate, b) turn voters off (voters hate negative campaigning, even when they're in the process of being swayed by it), and c) cause the media to say repeatedly that she looks desperate and is turning voters off. (There's a certain self-fulfilling quality at work there.) All of which will be exacerbated by the political "facts on the ground": John McCain has wrapped up the GOP nomination, and is already turning his fire on Obama, echoing many of Hillary's talking points. Most Democrats, whoever they support, now assume that Obama is going to be their nominee, and thus, to "go negative" on him is to attack the likely Democratic nominee. To do so using virtually the same talking points that the presumptive Republican nominee is using -- well, that's high treason! Never mind that Hillary was using those same talking points first; to ramp up their use now, and thus potentially damage the guy who's probably going to be the nominee, just looks really bad.

With each passing Obama victory, it gets harder and harder to attack him without being accused of buffenbargering. And yet, by the same token, with each passing Obama victory, it becomes more and more essential for Hillary to draw contrasts! It's a real dilemma she finds herself in -- very likely a insolvable one, IMHO. She's really stuck between Barack and a hard place.

(I'll be here all week, folks...)

Hoop heaven

By Brendan Loy

Not only did Duke lose yesterday, which is always a good thing, but anticlimax was avoided as Memphis and Tennessee rolled over Tulane and Auburn, respectively, to set up Saturday's epic #1 vs. #2 battle for the Tennessee state championship.

Alas, Saturday's other marquee game -- the BracketBusters Battle of the Bulldogs between Butler and Drake -- lost a bit of its oomph Tuesday, as Drake lost to Bradley, its second loss in three games after winning 21 straight and starting 13-0 in the Missouri Valley Conference. What once looked it might potentially be an showdown between two mid-majors ranked in the Top 10 will instead pit #8 Butler against #18-and-soon-to-fall-further Drake. (Butler, for its part, won yesterday to enter BracketBuster Saturday on a nine-game winning streak.)

Regardless, it's going to be a helluva weekend of hoops -- starting tonight, with nationally televised games for both the Irish (vs. Pitt at 7pm on ESPN) and the Trojans (vs. Oregon at 11pm on FSN). Here's the full BracketBusters schedule, and here are the full Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday schedules. A few highlights, with BracketBusters games marked as "BB":

Obama wins Dems Abroad; Joe Loy triumphs again!

By Brendan Loy

Two weeks and two days after Super Tuesday, the results of the Democrats Abroad caucuses -- which began that day, and continued through Potomac Tuesday -- are finally in, and the winner is... Barack Obama, with 65.6% of the vote to Hillary Clinton's 32.7%. (Somehow, this blowout victory only earns Obama a half-delegate edge, 2 1/2 to 2. Go figure.)

[UPDATE: Here's a PDF file with detailed, official results, broken down by country -- indeed, by "voting center" within each country. It's a rich treasure trove of information. For example, Obama won Canada, 1,398 to 807, while Clinton dominated in the Dominican Republic by a Romney-in-Utah-like margin of 606 to 65. But Obama wasn't universally weak in Latin countries; he won Mexico 883 to 626. Hillary was strong in Israel, winning 190-159, but Obama routed her in Indonesia, 179-54, perhaps due to heavy madrassa turnout. (I kid, I kid!) Seriously, someone needs to make a world map of these results!]

That means Joe Loy, who had already clinched the best prediction record in the Irish Trojan Super Tuesday Prediction Contest for both parties combined, is also the winner in the Democrat-only contest. He finishes with 22 points out of a possible 24, having gotten only two contests wrong: American Samoa (where he picked Obama) and Delaware (where he picked Clinton). That 22-of-24 record ties him with Sam Cialek, but Loy wins the tiebreaker because his prediction of Clinton's delegate total in California, 190, is closer to her actual total, 203, than is Cialek's prediction, 170.

I, Brendan Loy, finish third with a 21-of-24 record. :) And if only I'd gotten one more state right, I'd have beaten 'em both, because my tiebreaker prediction was awesome -- 199! Why, oh why, did I pick Clinton in North Dakota and Utah? That doesn't even make sense! I think my vote was miscounted! Fraud!

Bloomberg cries "fraud" in Obama tally

By Brendan Loy

What on earth is Michael Bloomberg on about?

Is he angling for a VP nod or something? Obama-Bloomberg '08? The wunderkind and the supernanny?

Seriously, though, WTF? Is this a joke that the Post took out of context? Or has Mayor Mike finally gone off the deep end? It's my understanding that both presidential campaigns, and all involved parties, agree that the Obama undercount was some sort of innocent error, so Bloomy seems to be going off the reservation here.

NYT: John McCain is a dirty old man

By Brendan Loy

In case you haven't heard, there's a John McCain sex scandal (ewww) in today's New York Times. Well, there's no actual allegation of sex, per se -- but a woman is involved, anyway, and allegations of "romance" ... or allegations of suspicions of romance ... or something. McCain denies everything and says the New York Times smells like poo. Personally, I don't find any of it very compelling, and it does seem rather fishy that the Times sat on the story for months before finally unleashing it once McCain sewed up the nomination. I mean, really, WTF?

Oscar pool reminder

By Brendan Loy

The Oscars are Sunday, so now would be a good time to enter the 4th annual Irish Trojan Oscar Pool!

This post will stay on top of the homepage for a while; new posts will appear below.

A lunar eclipse and a manmade meteor

By Brendan Loy

Weird things happen during total lunar eclipses. Two eclipses ago, during totality, the Red Sox won their first World Series since 1918. Last night, also during totality, the Navy shot a freakin' missile at a freakin' satellite and blew it out of the sky.

Speaking of which: an Oregon-based blogger named Sherry Holub, a.k.a. "scorpy808," managed, incredibly, to capture a photo of what was almost certainly a piece of that spy satellite burning up on re-entry into the atmosphere -- right next to the eclipsed moon in the sky. Here it is:

Wow. Totally awesome. I'm so jealous. :)

(Republished with Holub's permission. In addition to her LiveJournal blog, she also runs a company called JV Media Design.)