From ABC news...

The DNC initially sent out letters to more than 30 cities, giving them an overview and finding out their level of interest.

The 11 cities that said they were interested: Anaheim, Calif.; Dallas; Denver; Detroit; Las Vegas; Minneapolis; New Orleans; New York; Orlando, Fla.; Phoenix and San Antonio.

I don't care if you're a Democrat or a Republican, but if you're from the great State of Michigan, you gotta be pulling for Detroit. A major political convention would bring in scads of business, money, tons of positive national publicity, and even more motivation for the city to pull itself up by the bootstraps.

I know it's a long-shot, especially when you consider more strategic picks like New Orleans or Denver, but I think Detroit is the perfect backdrop for the Dems in 2008. A hard-working, down on its luck blue-collar town rising from the ashes in the wake of a Democratic convention? It sounds like a great story-line to me. Now, the only thing left to focus on is getting Oprah to seek the nomination.

My TA started our COM 200 recitation with this extended rant about all the things we screwed up on our research papers. The more she talked, the worse they sounded. In my section, there were only two groups of five, and the whole time I had the impression that Carrie (the TA) liked the other group better. No particular reason, just a feeling. They seemed to have smart kids, and be ahead of the game in terms of planning and execution, so I just figured they knew what they were doing.

After getting everyone scared about the grades, Carrie made one last remark, saying that while both groups came to meet with her to discuss a rough draft, only one group seemed to benefit from that meeting. This got me really worried, but once she finally handed the papers back, all of us let out a collective sigh of relief. We got a 93/100, which is a nice fat 4.0. I never heard what the other group got for a score, but they didn't seem happy. Ah well, I don't really care. All I know is that this grade will significantly boost my average, and puts me in excellent shape to finish out the semester. What a load off.

Here are a couple Coldplay video clips, in honor of last night's concert. The first one is the music video they did for "The Scientist", and the second one is a liver performance of "Fix You" from last season on SNL. Enjoy.

This is the headline on CNN @ 11:09 a.m. on February 23, 2006. Is it just me, or does this basically refute the main focus of Bush's entire presidency. It's funny that he is so shocked about the negative bipartisan reaction to this port deal. Since 9/12/01, the administration been browbeating this whole war on terror thing they created. Hell, Bush won reelection by playing off this fear. And guess what? It worked! People bought into it. And suddenly he's shocked that it worked so well?

With this port deal, Bush is basically violating his own doctrine. After telling people for five straight years that he's doing everything he can to make America "secure", he's suddenly telling us that we "don't need to worry about security"? Oh, so we'll just take your word on this one? Well, the fact that there are Democrats AND Republicans screaming about this thing is that we don't trust him anymore. I mean, the fact that various news sites have shown that Bush and Rumsfeld admitted that they didn't learn about this deal until a few days ago speaks volumes. I mean, who's at the wheel here? This just shows how out of sync and out of touch this administration is.

As a matter of policy, this port deal might not be as troublesome as some are making it out to be (on both sides). Politically though, this is a major disaster for the White House. Bush has said he'll veto any bill blocking the deal. Okay, so the first veto EVER signed by George W. Bush will be made to force a port deal down the throats of Americans who seem overwhelmingly opposed to it? Whaaaa? I see the president's approval ratings taking another nosedive if he doesn't pull his head out of his ass on this one, or just quietly make the problem go away like the whole Harriet Miers saga last fall. The bad news just keeps piling on for our one party federal government.

From Letterman, via Crooks & Liars, here's a new fake political ad about Vice President Dick Cheney:

Bill Maher's show is finally back on HBO for a new season. Now all I need to do is find the time to sit down and actually watch it. Here's Bill's last "new rule" from last week's show:

And finally, New Rule: Stop worrying that the government is listening in on your phone conversation. The person you called isn't even listening to your phone conversation. Any American in this day and age who thinks they're not being monitored is so naive and oblivious, I can't believe they're not working already for the Bush Administration.

Which...which is not to say it isn't creepy thinking of Karl Rove monitoring my emails. Which is why all of mine say the same thing: "Hey, did you hear freedom is on the march, and I quit smoking pot?" "Praise Jesus! - Bill."

...

We are a nation of exhibitionists from "me" to shining "me." And what we really fear isn't that someone's listening; it's that no one's listening. This whole country is one big desperate cry for somebody to listen to "listen to me, photograph me, Google me, read my blog!" "Read my diary; read my memoir. It's not interesting enough? I'll make shit up!"

Well, thanks for reading my blog. Later I'm going to post an 8-hour video blog of me sleeping. If it's not on the site, you should be able to find it on Google's video page. Check ya later.

First, thanks to all the anniversary well-wishers yesterday. Stef and I really appreciated the IMs we got. Our dinner out at PF Chang's was wonderful, as usual. I think I've officially switched my favorite dish there from Chang's chicken to the Sweet & Sour Chicken. I mean, any form of chicken that's breaded beats one that's not any day. We had to rush to get out of there a little bit, since the Lion King was starting at 7:30 p.m., not 8:00, like we originally thought.

The show was absolutely amazing. I think the Lion King is probably the best 2-D Disney movie that could be made into a stage production like this (although, I never saw the one based on Beauty and the Beast). One thing that was a minor disappointment was going on a night when Rafiki was being played by an understudy. After hearing my dad and Wanda rave about the woman who does that part, this replacement was a bit of a let down. Other than that though, all the performers were amazing. I was especially impressed by the little kids they had playing Simba and Nala. Their voices were great, they had a lot of energy, and really held their own with the other (older) performers. The guy who played Scar was probably the best one in the show though. He had a great voice, and did an excellent job of commanding the stage.

Some of the best costumes, in my opinion, were the giant elephant from the opening number, Pumbaa, and the giraffes. I have no idea how they came up with those things. The hyenas were also pretty impressive, in terms of the way the costumes moved. If you looked closely at any one of the outfits, it seemed (obviously) a little unnatural, but if you sort of let your eyes go out of focus, it was amazing how realistic the motions looked. It was just clear how much thought and creativity went into this show. Both Stef and I had a great time.

On the way out of the theater, I heard someone yell my name, so I spun around and saw that it was my old neighbor Rhetta and her daughter Shanna. I hadn't seen them since about a month before my moved out of the house in Holt. It was just funny, because after the 2 minute conversation, I realized that it was probably the longest conversation I'd ever had with either of them. When I asked Rhetta about the people who bought our house, she sort of just rolled her eyes. She said she hadn't even really met them, but just complained that they seemed to have a lot of parties (whatever that's supposed to mean). So, I guess it's a little sad if there are a bunch of annoying schmucks living in my old house, but I guess that's how it goes sometimes.

I had my first quiz in tennis this morning. If I didn't get 100% on it, I don't deserve to call myself a tennis player. Heather said people could stick around and hit on the courts if they wanted to, but I just packed up and came into work an hour early. Anyway, I just have work this afternoon, and then COM 275. Once class lets out at 4:20, I'm home free! As soon as I get back to the apartment, Stef and I are going to take off for the Palace for tonight's Coldplay concert. I can't wait! I've been listening to their CDs all day in preparation. I think I'm sufficiently psyched up for the show. Hopefully the camera gestapo at the Palace don't hold us up at the gate tonight. I want to get some good pictures. Anyway, that's it for now. I hope everyone is having a good week. Seacrest out.