Slices of the Edwards campaign

I've mentioned before that we're supporting John Edwards for President. We went down to San Francisco to see him in person a couple of weeks ago; that visit was reported in Salon.

The campaign has been shooting lots of video of Edwards and his family on their current swing through Iowa, and it's interesting from the cultural standpoint, not just the political, just to see how one of these campaigns work. A diarist on Daily Kos gathered a bunch of the Iowa videos on one page. I love the one at the upper right, called "Very Serious Business," which shows a familiar scene if you're a parent. And another one shows how a future First Lady throws a football. That's kind of reassuring; I find it hard to imagine Romney's wife or Thompson's trophy wife ever breaking a sweat.

How weird is this?

Geeks. They're so hot.

Update: it was a hoax. Never mind.

It's all show business to him

Our son wanted to see the Democratic Presidential forum that happened last week in Chicago, and it's been waiting for him on the DVR. He got around to watching it while I was having lunch today. The debate was held at Soldier's Field, in front of an all-union, AFL-CIO crowd. As part of the debate, Dennis Kucinich touted his proud union affiliation as a member of IATSE Local 600; the crowd loved it, of course.

So I was wondering, what's Local 600? When did Dennis hold a job outside government, much less a union job? Well, his Wikipedia entry didn't mention it, but it turns out that Local 600 is the International Cinematographers Guild. My guess is that his membership is from the time in the early '80's when he was basically unemployed.

Far be it from me to imply that directors of photography and other members of the camera department don't work their butts off; close friends of mine are cameramen, and I know the work they do. What annoys me is that Kucinich is not, and as far as I know, has never been, what I would call a working cinematographer. And it's cheesy and self-aggrandizing of him to claim otherwise.

Turdblossom exits

With the news of Karl Rove leaving the White House (and with less than three weeks' notice, too), it will be interesting to see the fallout. One strong part, I think, will be people who hate him (and they are legion) dropping a dime on his past actions, now that he will no longer be in a good position to retaliate against them. Expect Leak-apalooza to start any day now.

Oh, and if you didn't know, "Turdblossom" was one of Bush's nicknames for Rove. Now, I ask you, what kind of a man are you to continue working for someone who treats you with such contempt?

Stardust: Go see it

We went out last night with friends to see Stardust. Highly recommended. Of the eight of us, we all loved it. Personally, I can't remember the last time I watched a movie with a grin of delight on my face the whole time. Go see it in a theater; don't wait for DVD. It's worth it.