danoshinsky.com

This article is a few days old, but it is a fascinating read on the history of the original Maverick family. A thought: Republicans criticized Barack Obama for mentioning a solider’s name during the first debate, saying the family did not want the soldier referenced (a claim the family denied). Will Obama say tonight that McCain is wrong to take the title of “Maverick” when the family does not approve of it?

Google continues to amaze me on a daily basis. This is just one more reason why it’s obvious that they’re thinking outside of the box.

I’ve been given a front row seat here in Columbia to Democratic politics, watching as the Obama campaign ramps up marketing in Boone County. (Full disclosure: my roommate is running the re-election campaign for this state senator.) I’ve watched as the Democrats canvassed Columbia, handing out yard signs and posters and signing up voters en masse. The McCain campaign, it should be noted, has no noticeable presence in town.

So it’s no surprise to me that political insiders are starting to think that Missouri could tip for Obama. One very strong reason to believe that this is the case: pollsters have not been including first time voters — a large majority of whom are black or youth voters, likely to vote for Obama — in their polls. Add in a potential windfall from the cell phone vote and two huge resources in St. Louis and Kansas City, and Missouri could well be a blue state this fall.

There’s a New York Times story out today about the subconscious and its relationship with the Speedo warm up jackets that Michael Phelps wore in Beijing. It made me think of this Times piece about non-athletes wearing Under Armour to create a facade of athleticism. It’s incredible what the mind can trick us into doing and/or spending.

I know kids who played the Sarah Palin drinking game, where every time she made a statement backed by specific details tonight, they took a shot.

They ended up quite sober.

Here’s how quickly one of the campaigns has adapted to the Internet: the Obama campaign has released an app for the iPhone that not only delivers campaign information to your phone but also organizes your contact list by battleground state. Seeing a small margin in the latest polls out of New Hampshire? The app will remind you who you know in that state.

I’m not sure that this app will have any more impact than, say, the Call Your Bubbe movement among young Jewish voters, but it’s definitely a sign of how the Obama campaign is trying to pioneer new get-out-the-vote methods this fall.

Then there’s this, also from the Obama camp: here in Missouri, they’ve started phone banking the deaf. The explanation at that link definitely clears the previous sentence up.

I’m running on the treadmill at the Mizzou rec tonight, moving at a fairly high speed, when something momentous occurred: Middle Tennessee State completed a hail mary touchdown pass on the final play of the game to beat Florida Atlantic, 14-13.

And I, so shocked by this sudden development, nearly fell off the treadmill.

Had the game involved two slightly more notable teams or, you know, not been played on a Tuesday night, I might have completely lost control and ended up with a face full of rapidly rotating belt.

Before heading off to Rosh Hashanah services tonight, I was sitting around, deciding whether or not I really wanted to attend services and weighing one question in my mind: with so many problems in the world these days, why should I even believe in God?

Then I remembered one pretty good reason, and headed off to services.

Shana tova, everyone.

A quick plug for my weekly radio show, airing from noon to 2 p.m. (Central time) every Monday in Columbia, Mo., at KCOU 88.1 FM. It’s also available online via webcast at this link.

Newspapers are on the clock. 18 months and counting until advertisers start pulling out. Never been a better time to be graduating from a school of journalism.