Palin Has Gone Rogue

So for the past few weeks now it has been obvious to everyone with a political pulse that Governor Sarah Palin has distanced herself a bit from John McCain. Not in the sense that she is trying to submarine the campaign, but she is also making sure that she is seen as a strong base-republican, gearing up for a possible presidential run in 2012. Here's why this is perfect for Obama supporters, and it's not just because Palin is prematurely accepting defeat, but it's because it re-affirms how weak the current crop of Republican candidates for next election season is. If Palin and Romney are really the top candidates the GOP is going to trot out then they are in trouble. As for Palin and her distancing herself from McCain, today one of McCain's advisers called Palin a quote, "whack job". The spin from Senator McCain, "when two mavericks join together they're bound to bump heads once in a while". That's not doing the trick for me, McCain knows what's going on here, and it really makes you wonder what would happen if McCain somehow pulled off the win? Could Palin and McCain co-exist? I doubt it. Luckily for McCain, and apparently unbeknown to Palin, she wouldn't have very much power at all except in a tie breaking senate role. It actually means that McCain would probably just cast her aside and try to keep her from making any major gaffes and embarrassing the nation.

One Week Away

In exactly seven days, Barack Obama should be our next president. It's been a long, tough, exhausting journey and I can't believe that everything finally seems to be coming to fruition. As an Obama supporter from the get-go I am ecstatic to see the polls leaning so heavily in his favor right now. A week is a long time and anything can really happen when the polls open up, will the young voters show up? Will black voters show up? Will old voters show up? Will red states turn blue? Will blue states turn red? All those questions remain unanswered, but from every indication it looks like Obama in a landslide. My prediction is that Obama will carry all the states Kerry took plus Florida and Virginia, I think McCain has a decent shot at Ohio, though. In other words, it might be a little closer than the polls suggest, but I feel like everyone is so ready to end this election and I really hope that people just show up for Obama one more time and give him record numbers at the voting booths. I hope to see voting numbers go way up this year because that bodes incredibly well for Obama. Anyway, I'll have a lot of stuff for you guys this week, I have an NBA preview on the way tomorrow (it's almost finished), I'm going to have a ton of election news and opinions, and of course Skins/Steelers monday night football previews. Go Obama! If you live in Virginia, get your ass out to the voting booths, don't let the GOP steal this like they did the last two election turns.

To Be Fair

With all the talk about Sarah Palin spending roughly $150,000 in wardrobe over the course of the campaign, I'm sure everyone is wondering why I haven't come out and clubbed her yet. For one, its too easy with Palin. But also, I just don't think its that big of a deal, its not as if Palin was hanging with some girlfriends on Rodeo Drive going on a shopping spree. I can guarantee you it was the campaign advisers who sent proxies out people to buy her clothes they felt would benefit the cause. Like it or not, that is not an unheard of technique. Plus, this is a multi-million dollar campaign, $150,000 is just a drop in the bucket, if that. Now, many haters would argue that other republican candidates could use that money to win their state-wide races, but you know what, that's not John McCain and Sarah Palin's main concern right now. Let's not get carried away with the Palin bashing, when it's on the issues, I'm all about it, I've been an enormous critic of her, but this is a bit of a joke.

Four Guys Three Mics - Episode Five

Nikolaj, Kyle, and Jason get into various topics including Iron Man 2, Deaf Women, and Fast Food

http://www.fileden.com/files/2007/5/3/1044633/I_Need_to_Decompress_at_Times_2200_2300.mp3

Album Review: The Foreign Exchange - Leave It All Behind

Two album reviews in one day? I know right. Like I told you from day one of the blog, my passions are radio, sports, politics, and rap/soul music, sometimes one more than the other and then the next day the other more than the previous if that makes any sense. For those of you who have been keeping up with the blog, which I appreciate more than you could imagine, you understand that sometimes I get in zones where I talk straight politics, sports, or promote my radio show, but I realized I've kind of been "off" music for a while. Funny considering the name of the blog, yes? I guess nothing has inspired me lately and the "Evolver" review (below) and this album I'm about to review for you all is sort of only reaffirming my thoughts that music is dead right now. Music has been dead in my life for a while, it temporarily revives itself when guys like Jay-Z, John Legend, Kanye West, Oddisee, Kev Brown, Eric Roberson, and the likes release their albums, but even lately that isn't doing the trick. Maybe I'm alone in that sentiment, maybe I'm not. Anyway, as for this album, the second from Foregin Exchange, we see rapper Phonte embracing a new role; that of a singer. While I do respect him as a singer I don't know if it was wise of him to take on that aspect of his talents for the entire album. It didn't really work for me. Not that it wasn't a good album, the songs were fine, they were just a little boring. The album would actually be perfect, I was thinking, if you played it in the car on a first date or something like that. As a whole, though, it was almost as if you were waiting the entire time for Phonte to just rip into one of these tracks with a rap, but it never really comes and you feel shortchanged at the end of it. The production from Nicolay was top of the line for a soul album, but if Phonte wasn't going to rap that much he should have maybe considered some features like they had in "Connected". I kept thinking how perfect the guys from Low Budget would be on a lot of those tracks, especially Oddisee.

Album Review: John Legend - "Evolver"

John Legend's highly anticipated third album, "Evolver", is due to hit stores October 28th, luckily though, I was able to give it a listen in advance. Now, to preview this a bit, without tipping my hand too much, Legend is coming off "Once Again", his sophomore album which was critically acclaimed and definitely ranks as one of my favorite albums of all-time. His debut album, "Get Lifted", is not to be undersold either. Legend has built himself a niche as a current soul/funk artist who bridges the gap from new to old and "Evolver" is given lofty expectations. I generally have a rule of 3 for artists, that is, if an artist drops his or her first three albums and they are all dope then this person is a classic artist. A recent example is Kanye West. Unfortunately, in my eyes Legend came up a bit short on this album, luckily for him I already consider him a classic artist after "Once Again" (not that he cares).

Alright, here is my issue with the album: Where are the standout songs? There isn't a single standout on here, and that's not because they are all indistinguishably great, it's because they're all mostly filler. There are songs I would listen to again, such as "Everybody Knows", but no songs that I would listen to over and over again. It seems he went a little to modern-stream and abandoned his Stevie Wonder-esque roots. There's nothing wrong with evolving (no pun intended) as an artist, but Legend has been performing music for too long to think this is the best quality he can put out. I mean seriously, John, where is the piano? Let your voice do the talking, you were pumping way too much bass in my ear, I'm not really feeling that. It is possible he peaked as an artist, which is very distressing to real soul music fans because there are few truly great artists left to look forward to. I fear we may have seen the best of Legend and while the album isn't terrible, perhaps a more suitable name for would have been "Devolver". I'm just saying, man.

Remembering Sean Taylor

I cannot believe it's been 11 months now since Sean Taylor was murdered in his home, I don't think I was blogging when it went down, but it was one of the single most tragic things that's happened in sports. Looking forward to the Lions game as the boys try and go 6-2, I look back to what the duo of Taylor/Landry could have been, had the evens of last November 27th never taken place. R.I.P.