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Going Nowhere

Bad luck with events lately. I wanted to see Jeremy Scahill speak in Seattle on Thursday, but was too ill and exhausted after work to leave the house. Then I wanted to see Scott McClellan give a speech to promote his new book. The speech sold out (I didn't know we needed tickets). Tonight I'd planned to go see David Sedaris roll through town on his book tour - and that was sold out.

So now I'm sitting at home watching bad Roger Moore James Bond movies and hoping the Three Imaginary Girls tribute to Liz Phair doesn't sell out tomorrow before I get to it.

A lot of stuff cooking in Seattle but I guess you have to plan ahead...

Delta Safety Video

Hey this is totally unrelated to anything, but has anyone seen the new flight safety video Delta Airlines is using?

Holy fox... when that flight attendant says "Smoking is not allowed..." she just makes me wanna start smoking again. I guess that's irony.

Tim Russert

I was getting on the plane in Boston and did my usual email download to my phone, so I could do a disaster check offline while I was sitting on the plane. It almost knocked me off my feet when I saw an alert from the Washington Post that Tim Russert had just collapsed and died in the middle of taping a broadcast.

The years I was living in Denmark, Tim's voice from the Meet the Press podcast was one of the things that kept me in touch with what was happening in the States. Meet the Press was consistently more professional and insightful than any of the other interview programs, and was one of the few pieces of media that has always been on my weekly 'must hear' list.

Beyond that, I could just tell that Tim was a great guy, and when he was hard on his guests (which was always), he did it out of a love of politics and a sense of duty to the country.

His was a great mind and I'll miss him.

Stimulus

I got my economic stimulus check from the US Government this week... Two dollars! Two big beans!! You wonder why they bothered spending the resources to send it.

When the government came up with this plan of distributing tax rebate checks back to people as a way of encouraging consumer spending, economists had been worried that people were just going to save the money or pay off debt, rather than spend the checks.

Not me. I'm gonna go buy a cup of coffee.

Obama Claims Nomination

Congratulations to Obama for winning enough delegates to claim the Democratic nomination. There's a lot more to say about the political situation, but for right now let me just sit here amazed and happy that America has progressed to this moment. It does feel like a new beginning. For the first time in a long while, I'm proud to be American.