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The Rose of Hope — Election Night 2008

November 19th, 2008 · 2 Comments · * Politics *, Real-life Adventure Tales

The  Rose  of  Hope
*
Election  Night  2008
by Brian Hassett
Early morning in the Universe  –  sunrise over a New America.
I arose from the floor of a Harlem hotspot dreaming of something way bigger than me.  And right off the mat, the Election Morning Ritual of tea & subtlety, pacing & breathing, and dreaming in the bright new light [...]

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How the Election Night Numbers Played Out

November 19th, 2008 · No Comments · * Politics *

The Post Election Numbers:
The Presidential race –
I finalized my predictions on Nov. 1st, and called the final Electoral College to be:
367  to  171 and it turned out:
365  to  173

“My bad”:  I thought the Dems would pull off North Dakota;  and I gave Indiana to the Repubs, but the Dems squeaked it out by .9%.  And [...]

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Each State “Called” By Hour of Poll Closing

October 31st, 2008 · No Comments · * Politics *

This makes an excellent “program” to print out for the evening’s festivities . . . 
(all times Eastern;  all predictions as of Saturday, Nov. 1st, 2008)
And before you dive in   — click here http://thatradio.podhoster.com/index.php?sid=1399
and listen to a radio show about the election while you’re reading!  What fun!   
7:00 – – 6 states — The [...]

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Brian’s Election ‘08 Predictions

October 29th, 2008 · No Comments · * Politics *

Just for the fun and coolness of this magic moment in history . . .
it’s 
Brian’s Playful Prediction
Challenging Challenge Contest
*
The Game of Predicting History . . .  
Fair to be played up until 6AM (Eastern) Tuesday, November 4th, 2008. 
Make your own predictions at home,
then carry them around in your head. 
Look away now and make your [...]

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Powell Endorses Obama — Transcript

October 20th, 2008 · No Comments · * Politics *

From Meet The Press, Sunday Oct. 19th, 2008. 
And this should have been spoken to Tim Russert R.I.P. but was delivered by Sec. of State Colin Powell to Tim’s brother & colleague Tom Brokaw.
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I have some concerns about the direction that the [...]

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Brian’s YouTube Collection

September 28th, 2008 · No Comments · * Politics *, Poetry, Weird Things About Me, YouTube - Brian Collection

This is the home of my YouTube clips.
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Here’s 6 minutes of flying into Winnipeg for the Summer Summit Kelvin reunion in 2009  . . . 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KA_TS-nq8nU
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Here’s [...]

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Where Wayward Jekylls Hyde — The Mighty Bama-Rama Rap

September 27th, 2008 · No Comments · * Politics *, Poetry

     Where  Wayward  Jekylls  Hyde
                            The 
          Mighty  Bama-Rama  Rap
                                                                                by Brian Hassett, Sept. ‘08
Like tonight is the night,
          the Barack is The Rock,
And “change” is The Word,
          and the voice has been heard,
.
And the heart is on the drums,
          and passion’s playin’ bass,
And the word has hit [...]

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Ashley Smith tells her kidnapping story

August 17th, 2008 · No Comments · * Politics *, Real-life Adventure Tales

I started thinking about this watching tonight’s “Civil Forum” with Obama and McCain and this paster Rick Warren.  Somebody mentioned that he wrote “The Purpose-Driven Life”, and I remembered that was the book that woman read to the escaped convict who kidnapped her in Atlanta back in about 2005.  (March)
I’d always remembered the way she [...]

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Tim Russert — 1950 — 2008

June 13th, 2008 · No Comments · * Politics *

Tim Russert just died. 
My initial post: 
I’m in shock. I just got home and will have MSNBC on all night. I was at the hospital and my cell went off 5 times and i couldn’t answer it but i knew something happened.
To explain it to non politicos, I’ve said it’s like Johnny Carson dying well before he [...]

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PA Primary registration must be done by March 24th

March 8th, 2008 · 2 Comments · * Politics *

Most people think this amazing PA primary is in April – but it’s really March 24th – ‘cause that’s the last day you can register.  If you’re not in it by then – you’re off the bus!  No scoop for you! 
You may have heard this one before, but Every Single Vote (Really) Counts in this [...]

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The Two Questions Remaining

March 8th, 2008 · No Comments · * Politics *

I was looking for this number and found the most optimistic guess at it (via the Hillary campaign) in the NYT yesterday:
“If the results of Florida & Michigan are allowed to stand, and Mr. Obama is awarded the delegates won by ‘uncommitted’ on the Michigan ballot, Mrs. Clinton would pick up 64 delegates toward the [...]

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the Secret Obama Memo — and how he wins the Nomination

March 5th, 2008 · 1 Comment · * Politics *

You’re not going to believe this — it’s right out of a great espionage novel — but just after Super Tuesday, the great veteran politico Al Hunt, now Executive Editor at Bloomberg News, was emailing with the Obama campaign, who mistakenly included in a dispatch to Hunt the campaign’s projections for all the remaining states.  [...]

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March Forth, America!

March 4th, 2008 · 1 Comment · * Politics *

“Goin’ all-in” – tonight the voters get called and lay the cards on the table. 
 
Poll closings:  (all times Eastern) 
 
7 PM  Vermont  (should be another double-digit win for Obama, making it 12 in a row)
 
7:30 PM  Ohio — thus begins the double-header nail-biters of the primary. 
 
8 PM – primaries end in most of Texas (but no media [...]

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America Rising

February 28th, 2008 · No Comments · * Politics *

Tick tick, click click, time’s a wastin’, page refreshing, Dynasty ending in Dallas.
Get Smart, Eight Years Is Enough; 
Voters Touched By An Angel To Crown New American Idol Next Week.
This is kinda hard to fathom, but do you realize that Hillary Clinton has never been ahead in the voter-elected pledged delegate count (what determines the nomination) for [...]

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The Last Debate — tonight at 9PM!

February 26th, 2008 · No Comments · * Politics *

“Meet me in Ohio!  Let’s have a debate!” demanded a seething, red-eyed Hillary Clinton last week. It’s a good-old Western showdown! 
 
Tonight, MSNBC, 9PM — 10:30PM Eastern, from the home of Rock n Roll, Cleveland, Ohio.
 
It’s 90 minutes, and will repeat numerous times during the overnight.  Moderated by Tim Russert and Brian Williams — two of [...]

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Election Night 2004

February 23rd, 2008 · No Comments · * Politics *, Real-life Adventure Tales

THE ROCK PARTY  and  THE FALL OF NEW YORK
                                                                         * 
It was a really magic night!  Until the nightmare. 
Couldn’t sleep the night before  –  up at 6 AM watching the camera follow Don Imus into his polling station with a long line of people out the door waiting to vote, and him saying, “I’ve Never seen [...]

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Love Affair With America Goes Bad

February 23rd, 2008 · No Comments · * Politics *

This was a letter to the editor, published in The Toronto Star, March 4, 2003.
“A Love Affair With Southern Neighbor Goes Bad” 
Growing up as a kid on the prairies in the 1960s and 70s I was instilled with a kind of knee-jerk anti-American sentiment that seemed to be fostered by every person I met.  Then [...]

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and suddenly, out of the darkness, the High Road appears!

February 22nd, 2008 · No Comments · * Politics *

This is huge news, actually.  Hillary’s dropped the negative attacks, and she’s dropped the super-delegates as an issue!  
After a week of going negative didn’t work in Wisconsin, rather than coming into this debate on the offensive looking for the knock-out punch, she’s obviously changed her approach.  Rather than her “words don’t matter” and “plagiarism” [...]

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Happy President’s Day! and Year!

February 18th, 2008 · No Comments · * Politics *

Just think, next year on this holiday, they’ll be a different President in the White House! 
I wonder who it’ll be? 
Some good lines from the last 24 hours . . .
Ron Brownstein from Time said Obama is an amalgam of Gary Hart and Jesse Jackson.   
Brian says he’s an amalgam of Howard Dean and Sly Stone.    
Mark [...]

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“This Time, It’s Personal”

February 17th, 2008 · 1 Comment · * Politics *

It has been such a heart-breaker to see the Clintons’ true colors revealed. 
I keep coming back to Primary Colors (hmm?) – and recommend to all to see or read again –  and the climactic kitchen scene with Libby.  That is what’s happening to myself, and I imagine to so many fence-leaping Democrats these last several weeks.  [...]

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the Radio Riffs can now be heard

February 15th, 2008 · 1 Comment · * Politics *

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The ThatRadio podcasts are now up (some of them) and you can listen to them in the background even while [...]

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Hillary’s Negatives

February 15th, 2008 · No Comments · * Politics *

Back when I was so much younger then, a Hillary supporter, I knew there was a lot of, well, anti-Hillary people out there.  She wasn’t like any other Democrat.  Nobody said or wrote many really negative things about Edwards or Biden or Obama or Richardson, . . . but Hillary!  It was weird, I didn’t get it, so [...]

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What did YOU do on Valentine’s Day?

February 15th, 2008 · 1 Comment · * Politics *

Those loveable nuts, Hillary & Billary, spent the day (apart of course) cruising around the countryside, choosing the day for love to unleash their harshest ever smear campaign against Barack Obama. 
Barack, by contrast, took the entire day off from campaigning and spent it with his wife.
(and kids). 
Tells me everything I need to know. 
So, . . . [...]

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Obama’s great speeches, interviews, docs, riffs

February 15th, 2008 · No Comments · * Politics *

Potomac Primary Victory Speech in Madison, Wisconsin, Feb. 12th:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=gxd8×7UGOuo
26 minutes
South Carolina — The Big Victory Speech, January 26th, 2008 (Brian’s “turning point in the nomination”):
http://youtube.com/watch?v=-iVAPH_EcmQ
17 minutes
Iowa Victory Speech, Jan 5th, 2008:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=yqoFwZUp5vc 
14 minutes
New Hampshire — the “Yes, We Can” speech, Jan 8th:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=Fe751kMBwms
13 minutes
Super Tuesday, February 5th, 2008:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=8dzHDzvTfzQ
22 minutes
2004 Democratic Convention:
part 1:   http://youtube.com/watch?v=MNCLomrqIN8
10 minutes
part 2:   http://youtube.com/watch?v=56-m8wx1mwo
8 minutes  
Interview [...]

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Character-check Time

February 12th, 2008 · No Comments · * Politics *

Happy Potomac Primary Morning!    
168 phat delegates are up for the taking tonight in Virginia, Maryland and D.C. 
In a few hours, Obama will have won every state since Super Tuesday, 8 in a row, and every one of them by 20-30+ point margins. 
With everything going against the Clintons at this point – states won, vote [...]

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