The Avenger

We have to wait for the game so we can see God Save the Queen in London?

2 Warnings: 1. Remember, no matter what type of restraining order you have, it is still just a piece of paper - if someone is really unreasonable/violent/out of their mind you can have all the restraining orders in the world and bad things can happen - it can't actually stop anyone, it can only help prosecute/punish them afterwards. 2. Don't get caught in the middle. If the girl wants to get away and you want to help her that's great, but you have to understand the ramifications if she has a change of heart. What if she picks up the phone a week from now because she's thinking he's not such a bad guy afterall and tells him all that you have done for her, where she is and where you are. Your personal safety could be at risk if she suddenly has a change of heart (and if she's been with this guy who treats her like this it could easily happen). Be careful and remember that job #1 is to protect your personal safety - don't rely on things outside of your control for that.

I didn't see every play, but I did see him get a 15 yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalty, so there you go...

If we were the Pats* we'd be trying to score and run it up....

HUGE FG - we needed that!

Excellent point.

Follow on CBS Gamecenter

There was a problem with a hot air balloon in power lines before the game started which casued the pre-game outtage. They knew that the power would have to go out again to restore pwer, which is what we are seeing now.

In Boston they've started to show a rerun of the Steve Harvey Show.... Seriously - WTF? Last night no Red Sox game, today no Bills game - I'm cursed!

It's pretty damn scary. If a professional athlete, a guy in better shape than 99.9999% of any of the general population, a guy who has access to the best doctors and hospitals in the entire world can get a post surgical infection than anyone can. Certainly drives home that no surgery is "routine".

Actually, I think it may be very late before the networks call enough races to select an overall winner. Let me start by saying that I've seen how the calls are made - in 1992 I worked for ABC News and my boss was the person in charge of looking at the data, making a call for a certain sate and phoning it down to Peter Jennings on the set. Calls were made by looking at waves of exit polls. All the networks as well as the AP have long joined forces to pool polling data and they all look at the same data on election day - this ensures everyone has access to the same data at the sme time (what they do with that data and when they decide to call a race one way or another is up to the individual organizations). This year is tricky from a polling perspective. The pre-election polls are showing problems. There's the Bradley effect we've all heard so much about - Obama's numbers may be less than the polls show because some voters say they will vote for a black candidate but actually won't. On the other hand, these polls don't include people whose only phone may be a cell phone and these people tend to be younger and break more for Obama than the general population. 2004 showed that the bigger the turnout and the more first time voters who turn out tend to make the polls less accurate than normal. Exit polls on election day are also showing some issues. The Democratic primaries showed exit polls overstated Obama's numbers on a somewhat regular basis - some theorize Obama supporters were generally younger and more excited about their candidate and were more willing to take an exit poll. The primaries have also shown that in states where 15-20%+ of the turnout come from black voters Obama did much better than he polled. So you end up with a situation where 3 things come into play: pre-election polls are showing they're not always accurate, exit polls have shown to be problematic in the primaries and you have the spectre of the 2000 and 2004 elections where races on election night were called incorrectly. Add these together and I think networks may be very gunshy to call a close race and may wait until actual vote tallies come in before calling a race - that'll mean a late night.

I think that the plumber is an issue for a few reasons: 1. Although he's being portrayed as your simple "everyman plumber", he's actually not. For any of this tax stuff to come into play he'll have to hit $250K in profits. I don't think that many everyman plumbers clear that type of profit on an anual basis (although judging what my plumber charged me for an emergency call the night before last Thanksgiving I suppose my guy could also make that kind of coin ). In short, the line between small businesses and big businesses is being drawn at $250K in profits (it has to be drawn somewhere), but this particular example is a poor one because if you're not looking at it closely you're likely to think most of your average plumbers (nd by extension, most small business owners) are going to fall into this category. 2. It does seem a bit odd that this guy comes out of the woodwork as a precise example of what McCain wants you to focus on just before the debate. How convenient is it that a guy who isn't a licensed plumber (but looks like one), doesn't have concrete plans to buy the business he works for (but makes it sounds like but for Obama he'd be the business owner now), and isn't really an undecided voter (although he certainly portrays that he's open to either candidate), and looks like he's a little guy (although as noted above he wouldn't be that little of he cleared $250K in profits) suddenly comes to light, tailor made for John McCain to use as an example. I'm not willing to say he's a plant or a shill or there's any sort of conspiracy, but it does seem odd at this point and I think it's fair to inquire about how this perfect example suddenly popped into the picture.

Is it just me or does "Joe the Plumber" look an awful lot like Jeff Gannon, the fake White House reporter/gay porn guy tied to a GOP group....

"hit me the porterhouse and drag it through the garden" I'll have steak and salad

Gotta agree with you, Mark - you have to categorize burgers. I liked my experience at In N Out Burger - burgers and fries were good, but it's still fast food. If we are talking about best overall burger I've ever had it really doesn't make the list - these are fast food. That said, if I had In N Out near me on the East Coast I'd probably select them over other fast food chains (right now Wendy's is the best of the fast food burgers here IMHO). The other think I liked was the price - $2.99 for a Double Double is pretty good for fast food, especially in an expensive place like the Bay Area.

I bet he goes to the Pats* for a conditional 7th...

The good news is that after 2 surgeries, his thorasic surgeon gives him the third at 50% off - who gets multiple bizzare throat/chin accidents like that? Dude should walk around with one of those cones on his neck like they do at the vet's office, only this would be kevlar...

Brawndo - The Thurst Mutilator. It's got what presidential candidates crave! It's got electrolytes!

I think it is the process. In an ideal world you can stick to principles and ideals, be a maverick, shake things up and still win, but hat doesn't seem to be the case. You need to have the backing of your party, hence McCain's support of Bush in 2004. You need to have the support of your base, hence McCain's willingness to speak at Bob Jones, say things social conservatives like and pick Palin as a running mate. You can't always play nice, hence McCain's tactic of trying to question Obama's character while the financal system is burning to the ground. I get these things - this is the political reality, but it doesn't mean I like it at all. Like I said earlier, I'd much prefer the race today if the candidates could actually stick to their ideals, but that's simply a pipe dream - its not the way things work.

I'm out on the West Coast on business and have plans to check out In-N-Out Burger tonight - I've heard so much about this chain... IN NYC I like Jackson Hole (a few locations, when I lived on 85th st. there was one on 85th and Columbus) - burgers as big as your head and very tasty - yum!

I've almost never agreed with McCain's politics and positions as I'm further left in the political spectrum, but I did have great respect for the man. He had his ideals, believed in his positions, knew what was wrong at what was right, and really did talk pretty straight about things (as straight as any politician can talk about anything). He was above the political games and dirty tricks and called out others for taking part. He cautioned about extremism, even in his own party. He was a maverick and I was sad to see him get torn down by Bush in 2000. But somewhere along the line I believe McCain gave up on all of that, taking bad advice, abandoning his ideals and falling in with those he warned aout. He became a pitch man for Bush in 2004, seemingly forgiving him for his behavior 4 years earlier (see South Carolina). Party loyalty is one thing, but going to bat for a guy who embodies much of what you decry in politics made me question how strongly McCain was holding to his ideals. Then came the courtship of the fringe religious right - how was a guy warning about the dangers of Jerry Fallwell suddenly speaking at Bob Jones University? Again, abandonment of ideals. Forward to today and I see a guy willing to do whatever it takes to win, character and ideals be damned - look at many of the fact check organizations and you'll see much of what he is saying over and over again is either outright false or completely misleading (not to mention that they're generally non-issues). Stunts like suspending his campaign to work on the financial crisis. Trying to get milage out of the Bill Ayers thing and whipping up rabid red state crowds with dubious claims of guilt by association (note to McCain - these peopple are going to vote for you anyway, and the tactic actually hurts you with the undecideds you need). McCain knows better than that, but he rufuses to distance himself from it. He's embraced the tactics of the people who worked him over in 2000. It is sad to see. I had put McCain in the same class of leader as Colin Powell - both knew their beliefs and stuck to them. It is obvious to me that Powell got used by Bush and when he stepped back and looked at things he knew he had to leave so he's gone. McCain made the opposite decision - if you can't beat 'em, join 'em. I'd feel much better about this campaign if I knew that even if the candidate I support didn't win I'd still have a a man of character I respected in the White House, but that's not the case. I honestly feel that McCain has abandoned everything to win and I can't respect that.

JP = RJ

I've never actually seen an infant with Downs Syndrome on 6 cans of Red Bull

God he looks like RJ

JP looking like RJ