Hilarious video, and AMAZING political tool

What a great idea:

Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit (of coming home)

I haven't blogged in a while, and with a little push from Adam, I figured I'd get on here and try to spark my interest in writing again.

It's a little hard with my job now, because the office internet is ridiculously locked down, so I spend half my time looking for loopholes in order to post to twitter and read news and stuff. I still haven't found a way to update the blog, and when I come home, the last thing I want to do is sit in front of a computer. The previous 9 hours of the day have kind of ruined it for me. Kind of like college and textbooks did with reading. I'm actually reading The Watchmen right now, and while it's only a graphic novel, I consider it a big step up from not wanting to read ANYTHING during college. Plus, The Watchmen is really good. I recommend it for anyone who liked Sin City and/or is interested in seeing the movie.

Anyways, life here in Texas has been pretty good. It's been cool lately (mid-70's), I've met some cool people, and I'm getting to the point of training where I understand a lot of stuff, so it's a lot more fun than it was 2 months ago. I'm going to Albuquerque this next week for a training trip with another employee who's been at it a lot longer than me. I'm heading home to Portland the weekend before (this weekend) and am really looking forward to it. I haven't seen Hayley in a while (or Bella!), as well as Mom and Dad, so this will give me a chance to see all of them. If anyone else will be in town, I would love to see you all, so just let me know and we'll figure something out. I'm only in Texas until Christmas, and will be home twice before that, so I think these next couple months are going to fly by, which is more than welcomed.

However, until then, I'm finding a lot of ways to enjoy my time in Houston. It's a pretty ridiculous city, and you'd have to be here to know exactly what I mean, but it has its perks. There is a LOT of good music that comes touring through here. I went to a Ben Kweller concert last week, which was great. My brother actually saw him this weekend in Eugene, so that's pretty cool. I also went to see The Kooks, but they canceled because the lead singer was "ill" (hungover), so the opening band The Whigs played as the headliners for free, and were actually pretty darn good. Next, I'm going to see Kings of Leon later this month, as well as Keith Anderson, and (hopefully) TV On The Radio. I thought Portland was big on live music, and they are, but not on quite the scale that Houston is. You can go out EVERY weekend and see good live music anywhere, as well as check out tons of concerts, so I've been doing that a lot.

I've also been exercising a lot with Allen, a buddy I met down here who's going to Orange County. He's the one I've been going to concerts with, too. But we've been getting up every morning to run and then going to the gym most nights after work. It gives me something to do, and keeps my mind off of missing home, as well as get me into shape, so it all works out. We are starting to drive out to Memorial Park by 6:00am, get a solid 30-50 minutes of running in, then head back in time to get to work by 8:00am. Running in the morning really makes me feel good at work. I'd never done it before, but it's a really nice way to wake up. It's relaxing for me, but also gets my body going.

Last weekend I played 36 holes of golf. The first 18 were in a company tournament. I helped my team to a solid last place finish, but it wasn't my fault. It was a scramble, but we had to use a certain portion of everyone's shots. First off, our A (best) player didn't show up, so we were already off to a bad start. But then, the guys I was teamed with were awful. I mean, we struggled to take any of their shots. We used almost all of my drives, approaches, and inevitably (after they missed) my putts. Anyone who has golfed with me knows, from those statements, that the team was pretty bad. I mean, I was our best player? Come on guys. Plus, I was using a friend's clubs, which weren't anything like mine at home except in the fact that both sets suck. But anyways, Allen, Rob and I decided to go out for a second round right after we finished the first. Rounds at this place (Blackhorse GC) were typically $75, but we got the "replay" rate, which was $16! We couldn't pass that up. However, we did go get a bottle of Pendleton and some beer. That helped us through the second 18. But when I come home, you better believe I'm going to be wanting to go out on the course. Anyone in for a round this weekend?

I have been trying to keep up on the Ducks, but aside from a few games that they have at sports bars, I haven't been able to catch many. Last week's was just ugly, so I played Big Buck Safari instead of watching the end of it. Franklin has done a pretty good job of keeping me updated, which I really appreciate. Him and Rob Moseley have been my only links out here. Oh, and if I have to hear anymore bullshit about the Texas - Oklahoma game this weekend, I'm going to shoot myself. I hate both teams, but that's all I hear out here. Ugh. I can't wait to get back to Oregon where I can watch football without all the stupid shit. Well, not counting FSN...

I can't wait to start watching Blazers games, too. Hopefully they will play the Rockets in Houston while I'm here. That would be awesome. Tonight they're beating Sacramento in their first pre-season game. Can't wait to see Oden in action!

This is an interesting time in America. The presidential elections are a month away, the economy is the worst it's ever been since the Great Depression, and yet here I am, displaced and feeling totally removed. It's a weird feeling. I am following the debates and everything, and will vote, that's a given. But I don't have any money invested in the stock market (if I have to hear Wall St. vs. Main St. one more time...), no house, no mortgage, not much money in general, so I really haven't felt the hit. And it's kind of scary. I know all this crap is going to affect me, especially when I go to get a mortgage, or eventually start contributing to my 401k, but I just can't make it seem real right now.

Alright, well, I've rambled on long enough. I want to keep up on the blogging thing, but a little nudge now and then won't hurt. I plan to come out with a Top 5 Albums of the Year list soon, as I've been listening to a LOT of music lately. Any other ideas? Just ramble about life or what?

You can always keep up on my life somehow. I'm always trying to find ways to communicate, and have a few methods:

• Twitter.com/KevinRegan
• KevsPix
• Facebook

Hopefully I can catch up with everyone somehow soon. I miss everyone and home, and am excited to come home soon. I'll do my best to keep you and this blog updated, but if not, yell at me (or just call...)

SNL VP Debate Skit

Tina Fey will be sad if McCain isn't elected, because she has so much fun playing Sarah Palin.

Little Bill O'Reilly

This is perfect.


Little Bill O'Reilly Tells It Like It Is - Watch more free videos

Don't Vote

A little food for thought.

The NRA Loves Obama

So bad it's... well, terrible.

Sincere? Or Veiled Mockery?

Obama is naturally basking in the glow of the Democratic Nomination, as Hilary Clinton has announced that she is done, and that she officially supports Obama to boot. So his people throw up this nice little graphic and send it out to all 40 billion people Obama has on his mailing list, me being one of them.



So I look at this and think, "oh, that's a nice gesture from him." He's showing some class, which is nothing new from him. But then I was looking at it, and I was thinking, that could be a pretty snide comment if there was some other motivation for it. Something like "Thank You, Senator Clinton, for finally getting real and dropping out of this race." The fact that he called her Senator Clinton and not Hillary also could play to that intention.

I'm sure it means well, but I just thought it was kind of funny. I look forward to Obama finally getting into some actual campaigning for President, instead of just the Democratic Nomination. OBAMA!

Barack Obama in Oregon today... at Lew's? WTF?!

Barack Obama was campaigning in Oregon today, and was met with a huge crowd (75,000!) at Waterfront Park, as you can see in that thumbnail. It's not a surprise considering Obama has this race in the bag and Oregon is a blue state. However, he didn't just hit Portland. He and his family were in my hometown of Milwaukie. Lord knows why he decided to make a trip down McLaughlin, anyone who lives there or has been there lately can tell you it's turned into quite the shit hole. But even worse than that, he decided to stop for a snack at Lew's Dari-Freeze.

Holy shit, I live like 3 minutes from there! Barack Obama was basically at my house today! Well, not really, but you know, that's damn close. But, again, as anyone will tell you, you don't go to Lew's. Oh Barack, the stories I could tell you about people I know working at Lew's. Hopefully you only got a soda...

Check out the pictures below:







[Pictures courtesy Obama's Flickr stream]

Barack Obama in Eugene, Round 2

Last night, I had the privilege of seeing Barack Obama speak for the second time. The first was in Mac Court, and was a great experience. It really inspired me and reaffirmed the reasons why I'm voting for him. This time is was on the quad in front of the library. It was really cool too, because it was out on the grass, in the sun, with just a mob of people that really felt authentic. It felt like everyone was there because they wanted to see this man, not just because they saw it in the paper or something.

I gotta say, though, that this speech was not as good as the first one. He seemed a little tired, exhausted from the nonstop campaigning I'm sure. However, he didn't sound like he was just going through the motions. It seemed like he meant what he said, and truly believed in it, but just didn't say as much. I felt like he assumed everone had already seen him at Mac Court, so this was just a reminder, or a follow up almost, so he didn't need to go into everything.

Overall, I'm of course glad I was there. It was exciting to see the next president twice in as many months. Here are some pictures from the event, from Obama's Flickr account. You can't see me, I already tried, but just look at how many people were there. This guy is amazing at getting people involved.

Oh, the Comedic Juxtoposition is Killing Me

Every Tuesday and Thursday, during my 2 hour break between classes, I come to the computer lab to kill time. The first thing I do is read the top stories on Digg from my iGoogle homepage. Today, The third story, with 2247 Diggs (as of this posting) was titled "Penis theft on the rise." That's a funny and ridiculous headline, but could it really be true? I had to check it out.

So I click the link (to Yahoo News) and read the original headline, "Lynchings in Congo as penis theft panic hits capital." How hilarious, so I read the first paragraph:

Police in Congo have arrested 13 suspected sorcerers accused of using black magic to steal or shrink men's penises after a wave of panic and attempted lynchings triggered by the alleged witchcraft.

Oh my God it got more funny and ridiculous. So I read a little bit more, laughed at the use of the term "penis snatching," and made my way down the page.

Then I noticed something. An ad on the page. For Hillary Clinton. I shit you not, this was the ad that popped up, I have the screencap to prove it:


So I sat back and admired this hilarious juxtaposition. A story about a penis snatchers witch hunt, and Hillary's face right there, with "Should Hillary Quit" on it.

So I ask you, good people of the Blogarrhea: Should Hillary quit snatching penises?

Baracky: The Movie

Yo America! Yes We Can!



(Thanks for the heads up, Dad.)

The Boss Endorses Obama

Earlier today I heard that Bruce Springsteen officially endorsed Barack Obama, and my initial reaction was, "that's awesome." I love Bruce Springsteen, and I want Obama to be President, so naturally I was pleased. But then I started thinking: does it really matter? Does the Boss really have the power to sway voters with his endorsement? Maybe, maybe not. But I think there are a number of arguments for why this is important.

First of all, Bruce Springsteen's music embodies working class heroism. He's always celebrated the blue-collar, working class American, so I imagine his opinions may go a long way in that demographic. However, he has never been much of a political songwriter. He may have political overtones in some songs, but nothing close to Dylan, U2, or Green Day, who all wrote more specifically and had more of an agenda with their political music. The point here is that nobody looks to him for political advice.

In a more "big picture" way, though, I think this is important. One, while he's just one more of the many on the list of Obama endorsers, the difference is everybody knows his name. He's iconic, so it really doesn't matter what his politics are, because a lot of people are going to notice this endorsement, which is good for the overall campaign.

Just some random thoughts. Anyway, here's the official announcement text from Springsteen's website:

Dear Friends and Fans:

LIke most of you, I've been following the campaign and I have now seen and heard enough to know where I stand. Senator Obama, in my view, is head and shoulders above the rest.

He has the depth, the reflectiveness, and the resilience to be our next President. He speaks to the America I've envisioned in my music for the past 35 years, a generous nation with a citizenry willing to tackle nuanced and complex problems, a country that's interested in its collective destiny and in the potential of its gathered spirit. A place where "...nobody crowds you, and nobody goes it alone."

At the moment, critics have tried to diminish Senator Obama through the exaggeration of certain of his comments and relationships. While these matters are worthy of some discussion, they have been ripped out of the context and fabric of the man's life and vision, so well described in his excellent book, Dreams From My Father, often in order to distract us from discussing the real issues: war and peace, the fight for economic and racial justice, reaffirming our Constitution, and the protection and enhancement of our environment.

After the terrible damage done over the past eight years, a great American reclamation project needs to be undertaken. I believe that Senator Obama is the best candidate to lead that project and to lead us into the 21st Century with a renewed sense of moral purpose and of ourselves as Americans.

Over here on E Street, we're proud to support Obama for President.

Bruce Springsteen

Check out the site and announcement here.

Before I finish this post, I just want to say that the debate tonight on NBC was pretty awful. Although I though both Barack and Hillary looked good in it, I was very dissatisfied with ABC's job of hosting it and both moderator's jobs. Some of those questions were pretty awful, and I'm not sure if they got to a real issue within the first hour. Maybe hour and a half.

I'll Take 100 Shares of Obama

I have a very strong feeling that Barack Obama will win the Democratic Nomination. So much so that I should buy stock in it, and over at Intrade.com, I can do just that.

Intrade is a prediction market that works just like the stock market, but instead of betting on the price of wheat or gold going up or down, you bet on the Democratic nominee and whether or not Eliot Spitzer will be indicted on felony charges. Here's a screencap of the homepage:


(Click to enlarge)

As you can see, Obama's down 0.3 points from yesterday, so now's the perfect time to buy! People actually do invest real money into this, and it's basically treated just like buying and selling stock.

So, along with my Obama shares, I think I'll take a few shares on the prediction that Google's Lunar X Prize will be won before December 31, 2012. That's Google's $30m international competition to successfully land a robot on the surface of the moon, travel 500 meters, and send back pictures. Why not?

Oh, and one last thing: anybody want any Rudy Giuliani shares? They're a hell of a bargain right now.

What is that in Cheney's glasses?

Oh, that's right, a naked chick. Just checking...

[via his whitehouse.gov Outdoors page]

Barack Obama's Trip to Eugene

My roommate Jake and I went to the Obama rally at Mac Court last night, and man was it awesome. That man knows how to speak, that's for sure. There really wasn't anything he said that I hadn't heard before. If you have heard his other speeches, you pretty much heard the one last night. That doesn't mean it wasn't awesome though, because it absolutely was. Say what you want about him, but he's the only politician to inspire me to the point of smiling. I got chills. I saw Howard Dean and John Edwards speak on campus freshman year, and this speech by Obama, even just his presence, was 100x better than theirs.

When we got there, the line was around the block all the way to Hayward Field, and apparently even circled the track. Wow. If you know that area, you know how big that line was. Must have been over 3,000 people. Jake and I decided to check the other side of the building to see if there was a shorter line over there. What we found was an open door with about 10 people in line in front of it. We looked at each other and wondered if this really could be happening. Then we got in line. I felt bad, because we showed up and were two of the first people in, before a lot of the people who were standing in line all day got in. Some actually didn't get in, and were addressed on the turf fields before he came inside. But I got over it.

Some highlights of the speech and other extraneous things that happened can be read in Jake's post over on the Oregon Commentator blog. He posted about it earlier today, and he's a better writer than me.

UPDATE: You can view the whole speech here (thanks to JASON for the heads up)

I would also like to add to this post something I read today from Time Magazine about Hilary Clinton. It's a post on their political blog that gives 14 reasons why she should drop out, and I like it because it unintentionally hypes Obama. It also makes good points. You can read it here, but I've also posted the 14 reasons below.

1. She can’t win the nomination without overturning the will of the elected delegates, which will alienate many Democrats.

2. She can’t win the nomination without a bloody convention battle — after which, even if she won, history and many Democrats would cast her as a villain.

3. Catching up in the popular vote is not out of the question — but without re-votes in Florida and Michigan it will be almost as impossible as catching up in elected delegates.

4. Nancy Pelosi and other leading members of Congress don’t think she can win and want her to give up. Same with superdelegate-to-the-stars Donna Brazile.

5. Obama’s skilled, close-knit staff can do things like silently kill re-votes in Florida and Michigan and not pay a political price.

6. Many of her supporters — and even some of her staffers — would be relieved (and even delighted) if she quit the race; none of his supporters or staff feel that way. Some think she just might throw in the towel in June if it appears efforts to fight on would hurt Obama’s general election chances.

7. The Rev. Wright story notwithstanding, the media still wants Obama to be the nominee — and that has an impact every day.

8. Obama might not be able to talk that well about the new global economy, but she (and McCain) can’t either.

9. Many of the remaining prominent superdelegates want to be for Obama and she (and Harold Ickes) are just barely keeping them from making public commitments to him.

10. She can’t publicly say more than 2% of all the things she would like to say about race, electability, beating McCain and experience.

11. If she somehow found a way to win the nomination, she would have to offer Obama the veep slot, and she doesn’t want to do that.

12. This is a change election, and Bush-Clinton-Bush-Clinton can never truly be change.

13. Obama is having fun most days, and she isn’t.

14. Even though her campaign staff is having more fun than it has for a long time, there’s hardly anyone there who, given half a chance, wouldn’t slit Mark Penn’s throat — and such internal dissension won’t help her in the home stretch.

This Country is Taking a Passive-Aggressive Approach to Smoking. Why?

Everybody is affected by cigarettes. Whether it be smoking them yourself, inhaling second-hand smoke, or just smelling them on somebody's clothes, I defy anyone to argue otherwise. That being said, smoking is a huge social issue in this country, most of which is based around how to deal with it. Way back when, cigarette's were not known to cause problems, so people smoked them and nobody really cared. But, as information on how cigarettes (and second-hand smoke) were bad for you came to be public knowledge, crackdowns were made. Cigarette's weren't allowed to be marketed to children, they started to be taxed heavily, and most recently, among many other things, they have been banned from certain restaurants and bars across the country. But never outlawed.

So, those of you who don't smoke, and dislike cigarettes for whatever reason, probably think this is all great. Which it is, in my opinion. Cigarettes kill people, we know that, so why allow them in public places? That's my philosophy. Many people have many feelings about cigarettes, but that's not really what this post is about.

Sometimes, you kind of have to feel bad for smokers, and here's why. Cigarettes are addictive, so people that are hooked and have trouble stopping are running into an increasing number of barriers to get their fix. This may sound good to some of you, but put yourself in their shoes: you are addicted to something that isn't illegal and doesn't cause you to inflict direct harm on anyone else, yet you have to jump through hoops every time you have a craving. For me, if that was chocolate, I would be pissed.

Anyways, quitting is always an option, and maybe it's becoming the best option, but another option for people is smoking outside. At this point, you can't really get mad at anyone if they're smoking outside because they're respecting the people around them and the laws affecting them (unless they're blowing smoke into your face or something douche-y like that. But the point is, people going outside to smoke is a good thing for everyone.

Well, aparently not, because Shia LaBeouf just got charged for smoking on the sidewalk outside of some store recently, and is now in court for it. From the caves of Yahoo via The Movie Blog, we get the scoop:

Shia LaBeouf has pleaded not guilty to an unlawful smoking charge. Attorney Michael Norris entered the plea on behalf of the 21-year-old actor Wednesday, a day after a judge issued a $1,000 bench warrant for LaBeouf’s arrest.

The bench warrant, which didn’t contain details on the circumstances or the location of the offense, was dismissed. According to TMZ, the 21-year-old thesp was busted for puffing illegally on the sidewalk outside a gift store called Skyblupink. LaBeouf, who was cited last month, was scheduled to be arraigned on the misdemeanor charge but he failed to appear at Tuesday’s hearing. A hearing is set for April 24. If convicted, the “Transformers” star faces a maximum penalty of a $1,000 fine and six months in jail.

Now, apparently there's a law I don't know about, and that's the "smoking outside" law. Apparently that's no good now? I used to thank people for going outside (or off certain property) to smoke because I prefer to hang out in a smoke-free environment (cue NBC's "the more you know" star). But it looks like Mr. Disturbia broke that law, and is now in court for it.

I like Shia LaBeouf a lot, so I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt that he wasn't smoking in one of those "douche-y" ways, but just stepped outside for a smoke. So, in his defense, what was he supposed to do? Where else does he go? The middle of the street? The middle of the local park? A special smoking bunker? Who knows.

This brings me to the meat of this post: why the passive-aggressive approach to the ever-approaching smoking ban? Like John from TMB said, people are still 100% allowed to buy cigarettes, and can do so virtually anywhere, but they're not allowed to smoke them anymore?

I have had a problem with Philip-Morris (aka Altria Group. You're not fooling anyone assholes) and other cigarette companies for a while, mostly for ethical reasons, but more specifically for business practices reasons (like P-M partnering with Nabisco. How is that legal?). But I don't want to get into that because I don't think that's the problem.

What I do want to explore is why government is taking such a passive-aggressive approach to this ban. They allow, with relatively minor taxes, people to buy cigarettes whenever they want, but they approach banning them on the end user by making it difficult to actually smoke them. Now, when something is harmful to the population, say, a new drug or something, the FDA will not allow it to be on the market. Therefore, it never gets into society and everyone is spared from it's (probably erection-involving) effects.

So if cigarette's are killing people, KILLING them, why not ban them too? Is the movie Thank You For Smoking accurate and the cigarette lobby is just too good? I would hope not. So why take the approach that everyone knows never works? It's been illustrated in so many cop movies, have you learned nothing? The cops don't go for the user or even the dealer on the street. They want to get to the supplier. Whatever drug movie it is, the cops are always looking for the supplier because they know that cuts all ties down the line. So why hasn't the American government taken a note or two?

Honestly, you can't punish the end user when they are only abiding by the rules, especially when the suppliers aren't seeing any (apparent) roadblocks? I know cigarette companies have been hit with millions of lawsuits about this crap, but how many do they actually lose, and how many aren't initiated by public policy, but rather by end users misled or afflicted by their product?

Now, there are conspiracy theories about how the government has contracts or gets kick-backs from the cigarette companies, and they may not even be conspiracy theories. With the state of our government, I don't doubt that one bit. But don't you think, if that's the case, it should be or would have been changed by someone based on the goodwill of America? There are laws for no other reason than to protect the American people, so why, if trying to cut cigarettes out of the picture, don't they do it by telling the cigarette companies that their product is deadly to Americans and probably wouldn't pass FDA regulations if subjected to them, and therefore should be either improved to be less detrimental, or taken off the market?

I implore you, good Blogarrhea readers, not to give me the "it supports the economy" argument. Not here, not now. Especially since our batshit-crazy President has racked up an enormous debt in 8 years. If cigarette companies can pay for that, I have been gravely misinformed.

So, is Shia LaBeouf really to blame? Maybe, we'll see in April when he goes to court. But I really think this situation is being handled in the worst possible way. It should be a top-down change rather than the opposite, and I think that is known but ignored. The American government is (again) fucking shit up.

And maybe I'm wrong about this stuff. Maybe I'm the one that is wrong, and legitimate policies and timelines are in place to handle these issues. But I doubt it. If I am wrong, consider me one of the millions of Americans who feel this way.

Barack Obama in Eugene on Friday

For those of you who I told I would be home tonight, I apologize. I am not coming home because I will be going to Mac Court to see Barack Obama. Or at least I think I am. Here's what the e-mail said:

Please join Barack Obama at a Stand for Change Rally in Eugene, where he'll talk about his vision for bringing America together and creating the kind of change we can believe in.

It says doors open at 7 and the event begins at 9. That leads me to believe that he's going to be there speaking, right? Well, I just was looking around his website and noticed that he's also scheduled for a similar event in Portland that same night, doors opening at 7:30, event starting at 9:30.

Even by plane it would be impossible to get from Eugene to Portland in 30 minutes, so will somebody please let me know what's going on? If it's a video feed or some crap like that, I'm not going to be very happy.

Anyways, I'll update you if I hear anything, but until then, I'll be playing video games, watching movies, and dreaming of Vegas.

Yes We Can! Obama Music Video

This is the music video for "Yes We Can!", a song by will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas inspiried by Barack Obama's "Yes We Can" speech. It features a star studded cast, and encapsulates the reason why everyone, Democrat or Republican, should vote for Barack Obama.

Click here for a bigger, higher res version.

Note: Obama had nothing to do with this, it was an independent project done by will.i.am and DipDive.

Barack Obama Dominates South Carolina

Barack Obama absolutely dominated South Carolina today, garnering 55% of votes and leaving the other two prominent Democratic candidates, Hilary Clinton and John Edwards, in the dust. He seriously owned that state tonight. Like I said, he had 55% of the votes, Hilary came in second with 26%, Edwards got 18%, and the others that should have dropped out by now (seriously guys, isn't it expensive to run a campaign that has no chance?) got a total of 1%.

So basically, Hilary got embarrassed.

I'm not sure if anyone expected the margin to be this large, but one possible reason for it is that, as CNN reported, Obama got about 78% of the African-American vote, which was probably huge and may have been the main reason why he dominated, but I don't know. I'm just a blogger, not a pundit or anyone who has the slightest idea about election strategy. But, I am a business student, so I have studied plenty of numbers, and I know that 55% vs. 26% is an ass-whoopin'. O-ba-ma! O-ba-ma!

Check out his victory speech as broadcast on MSNBC.

My President

Barack Obama gave a speech yesterday at Martin Luther King, Jr.'s church in Atlanta in honor of the holiday. It's long, but if you're an Obama fan, I think it's worth it.