Mickey Kaus:

“Why does a Democratic candidate have to win a primary somewhere. sometime to be viable? With the proportional allocation of delegates, it’s possible to actually win the nomination without ever winning a primary. All you have to do is finish second in a lot of contests and accumulate delegates while the other candidates perform inconsistently. (That result wouldn’t be undemocratic–sometimes Everybody’s Second Choice is in fact the candidate who should win. Such a plodding-but-widely-acceptable candidate might also be the strongest opponent for Bush.) … Why would someone who has a perfectly legitimate shot at winning be expected to drop out?”

Yikes: a Columbus man was almost run over by not one, but two snowplows. The story is here.

(Video feed requires Flash and Windows Media Player or RealOne Player, apparently — Quicktime won’t get the job done…)

2004 Academy Award Nominations:

BEST PICTURE

THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RETURN OF THE KING

LOST IN TRANSLATION

MASTER AND COMMANDER: THE FAR SIDE OF THE WORLD

MYSTIC RIVER

SEABISCUIT

DIRECTING

Fernando Meirelles, CITY OF GOD

Peter Jackson, THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RETURN OF THE KING

Sofia Coppolla, LOST IN TRANSLATION

Peter Weir, MASTER AND COMMANDER: THE FAR SIDE OF THE WORLD

Clint Eastwood, MYSTIC RIVER

ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE

Johnny Depp, PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: THE CURSE OF THE BLACK PEARL

Ben Kingsley, HOUSE OF SAND AND FOG

Jude Law, COLD MOUNTAIN

Bill Murray, LOST IN TRANSLATION

Sean Penn, MYSTIC RIVER

ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE

Keisha Castle-Hughes, WHALE RIDER

Diane Keaton, SOMETHING’S GOTTA GIVE

Samantha Morton, IN AMERICA

Charlize Theron, MONSTER

Naomi Watts, 21 GRAMS

MUSIC (SCORE)

Danny Elfman, BIG FISH

Gabriel Yared, COLD MOUNTAIN

Thomas Newman, FINDING NEMO

James Horner, HOUSE OF SAND AND FOG

Howard Shore, THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RETURN OF THE KING

WRITING (ADAPTED SCREENPLAY)

Robert Pulcini and Shari Springer Berman, AMERICAN SPLENDOR

Braulio Mantovani, CITY OF GOD

Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens & Peter Jackson, THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RETURN OF THE KING

Brian Helgeland, MYSTIC RIVER

Gary Ross, SEABISCUIT

WRITING (ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY)

Denys Arcand, THE BARBARIAN INVASIONS

Steven Knight, DIRTY PRETTY THINGS

Screenplay by Andrew Stanton, Bob Peterson, David Reynolds; Original Story by Andrew Stanton, FINDING NEMO

Jim Sheridan & Naomi Sheridan & Kirsten Sheridan, IN AMERICA

Sofia Coppola, LOST IN TRANSLATION

###

Wow. Of that list, I’ve seen… three movies. Need to do some catchup work if I’m going to catch PR this year in the Oscar pool.

Want to contribute to a political campaign but don’t feel like calling anyone to ask them how to do it? Amazon.com to the rescue.

Where you can help support candidates like:

Al Hamburg, Independent

Lucian Wojciechowski, Democrat

and of course, the perennial favorite:

Lyndon H. Larouche, Jr., “Democrat”

hahahahahahahahahahaha

In an attempt to keep up with this newfangled internet technology thingy, I have added an XML site feed to dahlbergcentral — the link’s up there in the corner, under the archives. I guess this is a good thing to have, if you use a newsreader to check a lot of blogs at once. I don’t.

But, as is par for the course with me, I’ve had it on the site two minutes and I think I’ve already broken it.

via phonecam

Some thoughts on yesterday’s Iowa caucuses:

While my wife is pleased with the outcome, I still think that John Kerry’s victory will be remembered as a great day in the history of robots — even unemotional mechanical beings posing as humans can win! (It’s not that I think Kerry is plastic, phony and forced, but… well, yeah, I guess it is.)

I found it interesting that, at approximately 9:15 or so, CBS (and probably the other major networks) decided to call the winner of the caucus with less than half of the precincts reporting in. Isn’t that, you know, pretty much what got us into the Florida debacle in 2000? Granted, Iowa’s system is such that you’re not looking at the popular vote, and I suppose that one could earn enough delegates early on to mathematically make oneself the winner without having to wait for the rest of the state to weigh in. Still and all, is that a road you want to travel? Wait and see if it happens next week in New Hampshire, I guess. (Note: Turns out some of the news networks were calling it as early as five after eight. And don’t get me started about the false utility of “entrance polls”…)

A note to DNC Chair Terry McAuliffe: I know you think the party will choose its nominee by March 10, but you don’t mind if the voters in, say, Kansas or Illinois or Pennsylvania or New Jersey or a dozen other states cast their votes first, do you?

Scott McCloud has a blog.

Also, he’s lecturing at the Wexner Center on February 11. Yoink!