Looks like Obama will wrap it up on Tuesday now. This thing is finally over this week! From the AP:

The committee agreed on a compromise offered by the Michigan Democratic Party that would split the difference, allowing Clinton to take 69 delegates and Obama 59. Each delegate would get half a vote at the convention in Denver this summer, according to the deal.

They also agreed to seat the Florida delegation based on the outcome of the January primary, with 105 pledged delegates for Clinton and 67 for Obama, but with each delegate getting half a vote as a penalty.

The resolution increased the number of delegates needed to clinch the nomination to 2,118, leaving Obama 66 delegates short but still within striking distance after the three final primaries are held in the next three days.

Obama picked up a total of 32 delegates in Michigan, including superdelegates who have already committed, and 36 in Florida. Clinton picked up 38 in Michigan, including superdelegates, and 56.5 in Florida.

Obama’s total increased to 2,052, and Clinton had 1,877.5, according to The Associated Press calculations.

So apparently they’ve followed the GOP standard of punishing the early states by cutting their delegates in half. All told, this doesn’t change much, does it? Obama was 40 shy of the 2026 ‘magic number’ before this morning and now he’s only 66 shy of the new number. On Tuesday, he’ll win in Montana and South Dakota and Puerto Rico is Hillary’s to win (you show ‘em Hill–way to win that non-state territory with zero electoral votes in the fall).

After Tuesday, I estimate that Obama will have around 2080 and Clinton will be at about 1910. That’s when the remaining 300+ superdelegates will have to come off the fence, as the position that they’re “waiting for the voters to voice their opinions” will no longer be valid–all 53 contests will have been settled. Expect at least 40 of them to announce Wednesday, locking it up for Obama.

Round 1 over. Round 2…FIGHT!

I get a lot of surprised looks when I go places and talk about my political leanings. Given what people know about my biography, they tend to assume a lot of things about me politically that just aren’t true. Here’s a (short) list of surprising things about my political beliefs that make me a borderline closet Republican:

1.) I don’t support mandatory universal health care. That’s right, I said it! It’s a bad idea. First of all, I don’t believe you can simultaneously claim to support the right of the individual to do with his body as he pleases (i.e., legal assisted suicide, regulated marijuana, regulated prostitution) and then support the government’s intrusion into that individual’s own health choices. Principle alone kills this idea for me. But I also have my doubts about the effectiveness of the program in improving the quality of the health system in this country. Survey after survey in socialist countries around the world rates quality of care pretty low compared to the U.S. Why would we want to get on that bandwagon? And what will mandatory universal health care do to the small medical business owners employing local brains? The economic repercussions would be widespread. Let’s subsidize prescription costs and beef up Medicaid for the poor–there are already programs in place helping millions of Americans (that’s a little Democrat creeping out of me).

2.) I don’t support federalized education. Let the states compete because in the global intellectual marketplace, they’re already competing. And on a national level, we’re losing. Instead of NCLB, send federal dollars to the states whose aggregate performance is low and instruct them to spend the money in needier districts on technology, infrastructure, instructor incentives and parent-involvement programs. Then get the Hell out of the way.

3.) I’m mad at Scott McClellan for not speaking up earlier. However, unlike most Republicans, I’m mad at him because he could’ve gotten some hearings going as far back as 2006. The rest of the GOP is mad that he’s blabbing and completely forgetting to deny what he has to say, which is very telling.

4.) I support free trade, but it only works in a world of better information. It will be impossible to shut down the global economy now that the Internet has permeated the lifestyles of nearly every developed nation. However, employees of American corporations housed in South Asia should be made aware that they are making far less than comparable American workers. Employees of American corporations in America should be made aware that their employers are paying workers in foreign countries lower wages and putting them to work in conditions that meet local standards and not American standards. And citizens of all countries must be aware of the move by specific companies away from fair jobs to unfair jobs for the sake of profit. Republicans want the market to run everything, but a market filled with ignorance will let some pretty God-awful things slide.

Currently 92 degrees in Alexandria. Massively severe thunderstorm warning. Large hail, damaging wind, and/or frequent lightning are possible with this storm. I ain’t going ANYWHERE until this is over.

Barack Obama laughed when asked if he could imagine his face chiseled into the granite at Mt. Rushmore some day. “I don’t think my ears would fit,” he said. “There’s only so much rock up there.”

Careful. Very NSFW language:

We went ahead and picked our new apartment and paid the deposit today. As of July 23, we will be living at The Buchanan in Crystal City. It’s surrounded by shopping, tons of restaurants and is literally on top of the Metro. Super convenient location and just in time for law school and a possible move to our Capitol Hill office at work. And now that gas is over $4/gallon, I’m stoked at the idea of not driving anywhere anymore.

I’m flaming out a little today, so forgive me. Thanks to my foresight in signing up for and subsequently maxing out a Citi card in college, then only recently paying it off, I was able to snag some awesome 9th row floor seats to Madonna’s November Philly concert this morning. They let Citi cardholders take an early crack at the presale. Yay me!

You do NOT want to know how much I spent. It’s really shameful and kind of embarrassing. I mean, there’s “gay” and then there’s this… The next dilemma is getting someone to go with me. Dave hates concerts, even when he likes the artist, and I’m not going to let some grumpy Gus ruin this experience for me.

Up next: Janet Jackson in Washington, DC on October 15. Fan club presale begins on June 7, and I am going to snag those things so damn fast! I will do everything I can to meet at least one Jackson before I die. Doug, I’m suggestively looking in your direction.

10/17/08 Update: So I met her. Mark it off. I can die now…

Thanks in no small part to tax refunds, stimulus checks and generous graduation presents, my higher-than-low-end but lower-than-high-end, priced-to-own, home recording studio is coming together slowly.

1. MIDI Controller: M-Audio KeyStudio, with an upgrade in mind for later. This one was a Christmas gift from Dave and a good first step back into making music… in fact, it’s really my first step towards composing my own music without the assistance of loops. The pre-recorded loops are there, but I hate them. In the past, I used to just snip out a note or two, then pitch-shift and copy-and-paste the Hell out of it to make it sound like something I liked. But that’s not really independent composition and it always forced my songs into pentatonic weirdness. I’m finding out now that I’ve got a decent ear for building actual music. Props to Dr. Maxile!

2. Software: ProTools M-Powered 7.4. Decent Bare bones plug-in package and good old Pro Tools. I’ve been working with Reason, Acid and M-Audio’s (lame) Session software, but nothing feels like getting behind the wheel of a real engine like ProTools.

3. Interface: M-Audio FastTrack Pro. If I can overcome the Vista compatibility crisis that accompanies this purchase, we’ll be off and rolling. Pray that we do. UPDATE: We did!

4. Multi-track Controller: for now, my faders are simulated, but this summer I will probably go and buy the M-Audio ProjectMix I/O. It’s about $1300, but I learned on something very similar in my last year at UNCA.

5. Microphones: for now, I’ve only got an SM57 and an ATR30. That should do well for my current needs. When we get to a point where I have a couple hundred square feet to work with, I’ll need some drum mikes.

6. Production space: working on it. Dave can’t figure out why I want us to move up to a townhome with a finished basement or at least an apartment with a second bedroom. When the space upgrades come, so will the acoustic treatments.

I’m really stoked to get back into this stuff. If Vista can stop sucking, I will be able to really get my hands dirty. Update: hands are DIRTY!

If I’m driving behind you and there are tissue boxes, umbrellas, or God help you, stuffed animals lining your rear windshield, I will not be held accountable for ramming into your bumper to knock those damn Beanie Babies off their roosts.

Speaking of idiots behind the wheel (myself included), here’s a brand new list of America’s dumbest drivers according to GMAC:

1. New Jersey
2. Washington, DC
3. New York
4. Massachusetts
5. Georgia
6. Mississipi
7. Hawaii
8. Louisiana
9. West Virginia
10. Maryland

Not a lot of surprises. Georgia, Mississippi, Louisiana and West Virginia are on there because the lack of electricity and plumbing in those states makes it difficult to read the driver’s test books, so they just issue licenses at birth. Hawaii’s on there because they have interstate highways and that is phenomenally stupid. New Jersey, New York and Massachusetts are on the list because …well, if you’ve ever driven in those places, you wouldn’t disagree.

So that leaves Maryland and DC. I can vouch for DC drivers…the streets are relatively confusing. Who puts traffic signals on traffic circles!?!? As for Maryland, that may be a fluke. I’ll drive across the Wilson Bridge this weekend and check things out for you. If I make it back alive or unbruised, I’ll send GMAC an email.

So I’m playing Literati against someone on Yahoo calling herself “Floridastarfish” (I assume it’s a ’she’ with a name like that because I’m the kind of sexist guy who calls waitresses “sweetheart”). Twice during our game she took just a little too long to come up with a word and I got the “Do you want to force a forfeit and win the game?” prompt. Rather than be rude to her, I declined.

Well wouldn’t you guess that the one time I spend a little too long coming up with a word of my own that she forces the forfeit right away and runs from the table!

I hate you, Floridastarfish. I hope your avatar catches a virus and displays whatever naughty photo of yourself you have stored on your hard drive the next time you’re chatting on Y! Messenger with your grandmother.

I passed my comp on Tuesday. It was an eight-hour, three-question exam. I wrote 21 pages total, citing 87 unique journal articles and books from memory. I remembered at least 15 more I could’ve used after the fact, but who cares? I PASSED MY COMP!!!!

Beginning at 9am tomorrow morning, I will enter a battery of exam-writing so punishing that I will not emerge for as many as eight hours. I will toil with no notes and only my memory and a Venti red eye to guide me.

But I will not toil alone. My merry band of study buddies shall be there as we pour our frenzied energies into the room. Together in silence we will be tortured with the fear of forgetting whether we should be citing Lowi 1969 or Lowi 1979, Key 1949 or Key 1961, or Downs 1957 or Downs 1967 (I’ve found that remembering the dates ensures I don’t forget any sources to cite…go figure).

Which Moe do you need? Which Fiorina? Which Fenno? Nie and Anderson 1974 begets Nie, Verba and Petrocik 1976 begets Sullivan et al 1978. Mendelberg 2001 begets Huber & Lapinski 2005. Think about that!

If you can’t tell, I am delirious with source information at this point. Hopefully my strategy of “immediately regurgitate your personal library onto paper so as to maximize its use and THEN start writing” will work in my favor, monopolizing only about 20 minutes of my eight-hour exam time.

Time for bed. The cavern soon calls…