First Post

Well, here we go, I have succumbed to the temptation of others being able to read my thoughts. Actually, I wanted to set this up mainly as a way of posting a lot of interesting articles that I find online, although I may end up divulging personal stuff as well. Hopefully I can keep this more scholarly than your average Xanga, but more personal than a simple set of links. We'll see.

First off, the Vice Presidential Debate was last night. I only had a chance to see the first half, as I had to go to the Campaign to End the Death Penalty meeting, but from what I saw, it seemed like a near toss-up. Mind you, I am a devoted Kerry-Edwards supporter, but it appeared that neither Edwards or Cheney had blown the other away. By far, the most interesting exchange was when the Vice President commented on the Senator's voting record:

You've missed a lot of key votes: on tax policy, on energy, on Medicare reform.

Your hometown newspaper has taken to calling you "Senator Gone." You've got one of the worst attendance records in the United States Senate.

Now, in my capacity as vice president, I am the president of Senate, the presiding officer. I'm up in the Senate most Tuesdays when they're in session.

The first time I ever met you was when you walked on the stage tonight.

When Cheney said that, I couldn't help but laugh. It was a great shot in a debate. Of course, it could have been a memorable line, but we quickly learned that it wasn't the truth. The two had met at least three times in the past, and Elizabeth Edwards reminded Cheney after the debate.
Meeting Was Not First for Cheney, Edwards

Of course there were a number of other great moments in the debate as well, such as the gay marriage questions, where I couldn't help but feel bad for Cheney, who was clearly in an awkward position. Here is a link to the transcript. You can also watch the whole debate on C-SPAN.
Transcript from the Commission on Presidential Debates

Lastly, Cheney made a plug during the debate for everyone at home to check out the University of Pennsylvania's non-partisan website, www.factcheck.org , in response to all of the allegations of his continued connections to Halliburton. Unfortunately (or fortunately), he mispoke and said www.factcheck.com, which turned out to be a rather different website. It was in fact an advertising site that had nothing to do with the election or politics. In response to the unusual amount of hits to the site, 100 per second, the owner redirected web surfers to George Soros's personal website. Not exactly what Cheney had in mind.
Cheney Slip Sends Surfers to Wrong Site

More on the debate later...