Friday, February 22, 2008

Can you think of the word? It starts with an "S"

A random, fun activity...

1) Luke's last name in Star Wars:

2) A type of food and game fish of northern waters, having delicate pinkish flesh and characteristically swimming from salt to fresh water to spawn:

3) Distress signal used at sea:

4) Mark left behind when a wound heals:

5) One of two or more individuals having one or both parents in common:

6) There are 50 of these on the American flag:

7) Popeye ate this:

8) The policy or practice of separating people of different races, classes, or ethnic groups, especially as a form of discrimination:

9) A heavily populated urban area characterized by substandard housing and squalor:

10) Name of the Vulcan portrayed by Leonard Nimoy in the Star Trek television show and movies:

11) Having lost freshness:

12) The four natural divisions of the year, spring, summer, fall, and winter:

13) Language spoken in Puerto Rico, Mexico and Columbia:

14) A pair of long, slender poles each equipped with a raised footrest to enable the user to walk elevated above the ground:

15) A synonym for cheap or miserly:

16) The family of animals that includes pigs, hogs and boars:

17) Happening without warning, abrupt:

18) The ninth month:

19) City in Washington state known for its rainy weather, coffee shops and computer industry:

20) A leisurely walk:

21) These are used to hold up pants. Larry King is famous for wearing them:

22) A false and malicious statement or report about someone:

23) Obstinate, resolute or unyielding:

24) A presentation of the substance of a body of material in a condensed form or by reducing it to its main points; an abstract:

25) Another word for couch:

26) Term meaning a male deer OR a person who attends a social gathering unaccompanied by a partner:

27) The opposite of weak:

28) To inhale audibly through a runny or congested nose:

29) The front part of the leg below the knee and above the ankle:

30) A word or formula believed to have magic power:


Source: MSNBC

Go Figure: Clinton Faces Claims of Borrowed Language

Here's an interesting read that I found on CNN Political Ticker.

We all know Hillary has been constantly accusing Obama of borrowing words from Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick over the past few days, so this article addresses her own actions of taking other people's words without giving them credit. She quotes pretty much word for word from her husband and John Edwards without mentioning them. It wouldn't even be a big deal if she hadn't made such a big deal over accusing Obama - especially in the debate last night. Here's a part of the article:



Clinton’s closing answer, which brought the audience to its feet, highlighted her personal struggles and the difficulties facing ordinary Americans: "You know, the hits I’ve taken in life are nothing compared to what goes on every single day in the lives of people across our country."

Shortly after she delivered her closing remark, a reader of Joshua Micah Marshall’s Talking Points Memo Web site noted that the line seemed to bear a resemblance to one her husband was quoted as delivering during his 1992 campaign.

"The hits that I took in this election are nothing compared to the hits the people of this state and this country have been taking for a long time," her husband was quoted as saying in an article by Anna Quindlen in the New York Times in that November of that year.

Last night, Hillary Clinton also said: “You know, whatever happens, we're going to be fine. You know, we have strong support from our families and our friends. I just hope that we'll be able to say the same thing about the American people. And that's what this election should be about.”

The Obama campaign immediately began circulating a similar comment delivered by former presidential candidate John Edwards. “What's not at stake are any of us. All of us are going to be just fine no matter what happens in this election. But what's at stake is whether America is going to be fine,” Edwards said during a December debate in Iowa.


Click here to read the whole post on CNN Political Ticker.

Snow Day!

There's no flood, but Rutgers FINALLY decided to cancel classes for the day! I only had one class today, but it was an 8:10 A.M. class so I'm not complaining. Besides, I think I am finally getting the snow storm I have been waiting for all year! :)

It is so pretty outside right now, and it's still snowing. Apparently, it's suppose to snow until tomorrow.

Oh, the weather outside is frightful,
But the fire is so delightful,
And since we've no place to go,
Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.


Boy do I miss the snow days back in the school days..now they are used as extra studying time!

Thursday, February 21, 2008

Did you know...

...that every hundred years, the leap year is skipped?

Apparently, while the leap year occurs every four years, once every hundred years it is skipped. I learned from Pat Sajak's random comments at the end of Wheel of Fortune tonight that in 2000 the leap year was skipped and this is why.

Upon some research, I found out that:


Years which are divisible by 100 are not leap years, unless they are also divisible by 400, in which case they are leap years. For example, 1600 and 2000 were leap years, but 1700, 1800 and 1900 were not


So according to this explanation, 2000 was a leap year (because it was an exception) but Pat Sajak got the every hundred year part of the rule accurately.

Source: Wikipedia

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Lunar Eclipse

Tonight was a total lunar eclipse-- the last total lunar eclipse until December 20, 2010. There were two last year. I've been looking out the window periodically tonight and just now I looked again and it was totally eclipsed at this point..pretty cool.

I was reading earlier that later this year, sometime in August I believe, there will be a total solar eclipse and a partial lunar eclipse.

Another Win For Obama

The final results for the February 19th primaries and caucus were:

Democrats:
Hawaii: Obama (with 79%)
Wisconsin: Obama (with 58%)

Republicans:
Washington: McCain (with 49%)
Wisconsin: McCain (with 55%)

With the Hawaii win, Obama is now up to a 10 state winning streak.

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Cheeseheads Propel Another Obama Victory...

The big international news today was of course that Fidel Castro resigned as President of Cuba and commander in chief of Cuba's military, saying that he would:


"not aspire to, nor ... accept the position of president of the council of state and commander in chief. I wish only to fight as a soldier of ideas. ... Perhaps my voice will be heard."

I read online earlier in the day that the U.S. embargo, however, on Cuba is to remain in place.

Now to the election coverage in the U.S.:

The latest spin against Obama have been accusation of him plagiarizing! Obama has been accused of borrowing lines from Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick. On CNN Political Ticker, I read that people from Obama's campaign came back though, saying that Clinton had a pattern of borrowing some of the Illinois senator’s signature phrases, including “Yes, We Can” and “Fired Up, Ready to Go.” Anyone who has watched Clinton's speeches knows very well she has used Obama's words over and over again, so she should be the last one to make allegations.

Obama's campaign circulated a YouTube clip which deals with the allegations and shows Hillary Clinton (pre-Iown caucus) saying "…We have seen thousands and thousands of Iowans over the last week and we are fired up and we are ready to go because we know America is ready for change and the process starts right here in Iowa".

Tonight was the primary in Wisconsin (for both parties) and Hawaii (just democrats), along with the caucus in Washington (just republicans).

In the Wisconsin primary, the winners were McCain and Obama. So far Obama has won the last nine in a row. Obama will most likely win Hawaii as well, which means that he will have won ten in a row by the end of tonight. :)

Speech wise, this time around McCain learned his lesson and came out and gave his speech as soon as the Wisconsin polls closed, considering that last time he waited to give a speech after Obama and was no where near as good. McCain threw out another shot at Obama in tonight's speech, saying: "I'll make sure the Americans aren't deceived by an eloquent, but empty promises of change".

My favorite quotes from Obama's speech tonight: "I'm running because of the fierce urgency of now. Because there is such a thing as too late" and "Hope is not blind optimism...hope is imagining for, then fighting for what never seemed possible before."

I'll update the final results later tonight or tomorrow. February 21st is the next debate for the democrats..and the next major primaries are on March 4th: Ohio, Rhode Island, Texas, and Vermont.

Thursday, February 14, 2008

On This Thursday...

This afternoon, Mitt Romney endorsed former rival McCain.

Also, after all the votes were finally tallied from New Mexico's caucus on Super Tuesday, it was announced just moments ago that Hillary Clinton won.

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Obama's Ahead!

Obama sweeped all three primaries again tonight : Virginia, D.C., and Maryland by significant margins.

On a MUCH higher note, Obama's ahead in delegates..even after factoring in the infamous super delegates! The latest numbers are 1181 for Obama to 1173 for Clinton, but they will definitely climb in the coming days.

Clinton's deputy campaign manager, Mike Henry, resigned today. This is the second time in just three days that important people in Clinton's campaigns have resigned.

What was with McCain's ending to his speech! I can't believe he said: "you can bet I'm fired up and ready to go". You do not take another person's line like that. But to level it out, Keith Olbermann said "the rule should be that you speak before Barack Obama, not after".

P.S. It FINALLY snowed here! We actually got a pretty decent amount..and it's the first storm of the season!

Call for Change

I am about twenty years old. My whole life, there has either been a Bush or a Clinton in the White House. I demand a change.

Sunday, February 10, 2008

One Year Ago...

It was one year ago today that Obama announced his run. Here is the speech:


Link (in case you can't see it above).

Source: Barack Obama

Three Caucuses and a Primary...

I haven't had any free time since Super Tuesday, but how exciting was that? :) I stayed up until about four in the morning (before I fell asleep) waiting for the last of New Mexico's votes to be counted and tallied, but it is STILL not totally accounted for since it is such a tight race. Anyhow, it was definitely an exciting day, and Obama did extremely well and surprised a lot of people.

Mitt Romney dropped out on Thursday after very disappointing results on Tuesday.

Obama overwhelmingly won both of the Washington and Nebraska caucuses Saturday with a very large margin along with Louisiana's primary which was also a pretty decisive win from the start. :) Obama won the Virgin Islands race as well, even though no information was given about that except for the fact that he won.

Huckabee did extremely well too..he won both Kansas and Louisiana with a decent lead, and even though Washington remained pretty close, he did end up coming a close second at the end.

And how about Ron Paul? He got like 21% of the votes in Washington State.

I've heard several times this week that the young, the rich, and the educated are all large supporters of Obama. Its also been in the news that Obama has won a vast majority of the caucuses...I think like ten of the twelved caucus, including last night's and tonight's, Obama has won. Continually, in the latest national poll, Obama has a higher chance to beat McCain (and unless Huckabee miraculously wins all the rest of the primaries and caucuses, we know McCain is the republican nominee) than Hillary Clinton does.

Tonight was the democratic caucus in Maine and Obama won(as of now with 70 percent of the votes counted, Obama had 57 percent to Clinton's 42 percent). Tuesday's primaries in Maryland, Washington D.C., and Virginia should be very interesting.

Besides that, today Hillary Clinton replaced her presidential campaign manager Patti Solis Doyle (who resigned) with Maggie Williams, who has been a long time adviser. Other than that, I also saw on CNN Political Ticker earlier that John Edwards met with Hillary Clinton on Thursday and is meeting with Obama tomorrow dealing with a possible endorsements...so we should be hearing about that soon.

To leave off with, a recent quote from Obama: "We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek." (February 7th, 2008)

Tuesday, February 5, 2008

Results As They Come In...

and the fun begins!

9:38 AM: New Mexico is still too close to call for the democrats.

1:36 AM: In the democratic race, the popular vote is divided at 49% for Clinton and 48% for Obama.

1:23 AM: Obama wins Missouri.

12:46 AM: Obama wins Alaska.

12:26 AM: McCain gets a huge win in Missouri by narrowly defeating Huckabee. It's another "winner takes all" state.

12:25 AM: McCain and Clinton win California. :(

12:13 AM: Clinton wins Arizona.

12:04 AM: Huckabee wins Tennessee.

Feb 6th 12:03 AM: Romney wins Montana.

11:48 PM: Romney wins Colorado.

11:46 PM: Obama wins Utah.

11:41 PM: Obama wins Colorado and Idaho.

11:29 PM: Huckabee wins Georgia (72 delegates...it was a really tight race between McCain, Romney and Huckabee throughout the night -- think about it: Georgia's poll was the first one to close at 7 PM).

11:11 PM: Romney wins Minnesota.

11:02 PM: Romney wins North Dakota.

10:-- PM: Huckabee says "A lot of people have been trying to say that this a two-man race. Well, you know what? It is. And we're in it!" :)

10:41 PM: McCain wins Arizona (another "winner takes all" state).

10:31 PM: Obama wins Minnesota.

10:30 PM: Huckabee wins Alabama.

10:21 PM: Obama wins Kansas and Connecticut.

10:06 PM: Obama wins North Dakota.

10:04 PM: McCain wins Oklahoma.

9:59 PM: Romney wins Utah.

9:49 PM: Clinton wins New Jersey.

9:46 PM: Clinton wins Massachusetts (even though they definitely announced this already at 8:58 PM).

9:25 PM: Obama wins Alabama.

9:20 PM: McCain wins New York. It's another "winner takes all" state( with 101 delegates).

9:07 PM: Obama wins Delaware.

9:01 PM: Severe weather in Tenn., Ark. forces early poll closures
Ayaz's response: "God is on Hillary's side". No wonder she won both of these states :)

9:00 PM: Clinton wins New York.

8:45 PM: McCain wins Delaware

8:33 PM: Clinton wins Tennessee.

8:32 PM: Huckabee wins Arkansas.

8:30 PM: Clinton and Huckabee win Arkansas.

8:09 PM: McCain wins New Jersey (winner takes all delegates for the republican party in New Jersey).

8:01 PM: CNN projects Romney wins Massachusetts, McCain wins Connecticut and Illinois, Obama wins Illinois, and Clinton wins Oklahoma.

8:00: Polls close in many Super Tuesday states.

7:02 PM: Obama wins Georgia.
It is way to close to call for the republicans..it's a three way tie as of now.

7:00 PM: Polls close in Georgia.

2:26 PM: Huckabee wins West Virginia

Monday, February 4, 2008

Leaderboard and Candidate + Issue



Sunday, February 3, 2008

What a Day...

Maria Shriver made a suprising guest appearance at a Barack Obama Rally today at a rally at University of California at Los Angeles. Shriver, of course, is married to California’s Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who endorsed the GOP presidential hopeful John McCain earlier this week. Feeling inspired, Shrived quotes Eleanor Roosevelt :"Do something every day that scares you. Eleanor Roosevelt, this is my one thing for today.''

Also on stage were Michelle Obama, talk show host Oprah Winfrey, and Shriver’s cousin Caroline Kennedy. Michelle Obama has been campaigning for her husband and is an extraordinary speaker herself.

In other news, the New York Giants stunned the "perfect" New England Patriots having them end their season as 18-1. The ending to the game was extraordinary.

If Obama wins overall on Tuesday, that will make this week absolutely perfect :)
---
Before I end for tonight, a reminder that I also emailed out to many:

As all of you are already aware (or at least I hope so), this Tuesday (February 5th, 2008) is the primary in New Jersey along with 21 other states across the United States.

This is a reminder for all of you as to how important it is you cast a vote this Tuesday. What I most often hear is that this is just the primary...that it doesn’t matter right now, and I’ll vote in the general election. If we want the right person to win in the general election, we need to vote for the right person in the primaries.

It is most often the ones that do not vote that are the first ones to bicker about all the things happening against us and so forth. Unless you exercise your right to vote, it leaves you no place to complain.

I am not telling you to vote for one candidate over another. I simply urge you to vote.
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