(no subject)

While not a morning person, I don't mind getting up at dawn all that much when I have to. Sure, I'm out of it and surly, but it always feels vaguely morally superior in some fashion, and I can get behind that on odd necessary occassion.

It's the getting up _before_ dawn thing that's insult and agony. rahalia_cat has no sympathy, I know, as she does it every damn day.

I've got to work the debate again tonight, so after Wachovia I'm coming home for a nap before going into the office at like five.

And I'm apparently getting paid next week, but that's one more rant for when I've more spare minutes than I do now.

(no subject)

You know, the presidential debates irritate me for a lot of reasons, including the fact that they are barely debates in many ways (no direct engagement, etc).

That said, the mounting evidence (when this first surfaced yesterday, I thought it was major tin-hat stuff) that Bush was wearing an earpiece during the first debate has me utterly fucking crazed. If this is true, then there's no bloody point in even having debates! And if this isn't true, shame on whoever decided that making Bush look stupid was somehow worth making liberals look batshit.

There are details, links and some degree of skepticism at http://www.electoral-vote.com/

debate

I saw very little of the debate (the approximately 18-minutes which I did coding on, which apparently did not contain the more interesting events of the evening).

However:

- Bush does better in this format
- Kerry did better in this format that I expected
- Bush's tie was crooked, again
- Did I really hear (and I was doing something else at the time, I only overheard it vaguely) Bush go on about the need for group homes for unwed mothers?
- Bush seemed out of touch
- Kerry seemed non-specific
- I get why people dig Bush's aww-shucks persona, but that's a weird persona to dig in a president
- When Kerry talked about killing Osama bin Laden, he punched the word "kill" in a way I've never heard him do before, and it was effective, convincing, and enough to actually set me back in my seat a little. I mean, quite frankly, as much as that is that needs to be done (and I'm glad we're not pussy-fotting around about it), it was a little creepy.
- Finally, what was up with that timber company thing? It was bizarre from start to finish, especially when Bush tried to turn it into a joke a second time and randomly said, "You wanna buy some wood?" Ummmmm... help?

All in all, I didn't see enough of it to say who won, but my sense was their performances were equal but that undecideds might give it to Kerry because he was at least vaguely present on "yo, the economy needs some help."

Meanwhile, the mystery of the bulge (as the media is apparently obsessed with calling it, much to the giggling amusement of the entire damn Internet) finally makes its appearance in the New Yor Times, which sheds no light on the subject beyond saying that whatever people are reacting too is something (even if that something is a fabric wrinkle) and not a doctored image. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/09/politics/campaign/09bulge.html?oref=login