Iraq and the United States Sign Status of Forces Agreement

The Washington Post has an article about the newly approved Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) that was just approved by the Iraqi Parliament. Basically, this thing will set a timetable for withdrawal (or is that a “horizon”?) that will begin with US troops pulling out of towns and cities by June 30th 2010 with all US troops out by January 1, 2011. On top of that, all US bases will be kept in place and will be transferred to the Iraqis once the withdrawal is complete. So…what does this mean in the scheme of things?

Alan Colmes Leaving “Hannity & Colmes”

I left this one alone since I first read it Sunday night in case Tim picked it up seeing as Fox News is his channel of choice but I guess I’ll take this one out for a spin. Fox News announced that Alan Colmes, the liberal counterpart to Sean Hannity will be leaving the show at the end of the year to pursue other career opportunities within Fox, such as a weekend program. He’ll continue to be a political analyst and his radio program will still be broadcast. As of right now, Sean Hannity will most likely continue to host the “Hannity & Colmes” for the time being.

Minnesotans Welcoming our Lizardmen Overlords

Over on DailyKos there was a link to examples of some of the ballots that are being recounted in Minnesota for the race between Norm Coleman and Al Franken. The main point of contention is “voter intent” and what they were intending to vote for with these contested ballots. Most of them consist of just stray marks and arrows and stuff like that, things that have to be interpreted by election workers. Seems boring, no? Well this one is the best one:

Democratic Majority Capitulates to Lieberman

In another grand display of Majority Leader Harry Reid’s leadership, the Senate Democratic Caucus voted overwhelmingly 42-13 to allow Independent Senator Joe Lieberman to keep his chairmanship of the influential Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. This is pretty disheartening move on the part of the Senate and shows that despite the clear message sent two weeks ago, they’re going to be marching to their own beat. I, personally, feel that while booting him out of the caucus might be a little bit too much, allowing him to continue to chair such an influential committee while publicly attacking the Democrats and Barack Obama was not an option. We have many qualified Senators who would’ve been able to take over the role of Chairman and do a better job with the committee than Lieberman did and is going to do.

Gears of War 2 Review

First Impressions: Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts And Bolts

Alright straight from the get go, I am a fan of the franchise, so there may be a little bias here. The second thing I must note is that the demo of BK:N&B on XBL doesn’t do the game justice. I thought the demo was fairly good while waiting to play the full version game, but to be completely honest, compared to the full version the demo sucks and doesn’t pay the title adequate homage.

Everyone's favorite bear shows his muscles.

VG Review: Mirror’s Edge [Xbox 360]

It’s hard to look at a new IP and a least not give it a chance. So when it was announced, like everyone else Mirror’s Edge immediately caught my attention. Stressing an unusual gameplay mechanic with stunning eye-candy could catch anyones attention. When the demo released on October 31, it turned into a whole new ballgame. Some of my friends lost interest, while I immediately soaked it all up and became an insomniac pro at the time trials, losing sleep just to gain those six stars (to increase your skill level) by shaving off fractions of a second by finding alternate paths through the courses.

President-Elect Obama

President-Elect Obama and Vice President-Elect Biden.

Ending in a somewhat anti-climactic victory as California was called for Obama at 11 PM EST which put him over 270, something that anyone who understands the Electoral College saw coming, Senator Barack Obama became President-Elect Obama. Soon thereafterwords Senator John McCain gave a gracious and stirring concession speech as he held back tears a couple of times, Governor Sarah Palin showing her emotions a little more as she watched from the side. After midnight, Obama came onto stage and gave a powerful acceptance speech to two-hundred thousand supporters in Grant Park, joined by Vice-President-Elect Joe Biden and the rest of their families. Even more important was the social barrier that has finally been broken, that of a black President. I’ve seen a few people say that his election was the true ending of the civil war, a statement I don’t exactly disagree with.

Election Eve

What a long and crazy ride it’s been over the past two years. In the longest Presidential campaign ever we’re finally a few hours away from when the first booths open up at midnight in Dixville Notch, New Hampshire and about 24 hours away from the first predictions. This is probably one of the most important elections in recent history for a number of reasons. Tim and I have already absentee voted in our respective states and I know a few others are heading out to Virginia polling booths in the early morning to try and beat the lines. I think we’ll get a pretty good idea of where this election is headed pretty early on. States like Pennsylvania, Virginia, Florida, and North Carolina all close their polls around 8 and if Obama wins Pennsylvania and one more of those states he’ll win the election. I know Tim disagrees with my outlook on how fast the race will be called but that’s just my opinion on the whole thing.

I can’t promise I’ll update much tomorrow evening as I have practice at 8 and from there on out I’ll be glued to the tube till we know the winner. So for anyone who reads this, go out and vote!

Fallout 3 Impressions

So, it’s been a week since I’ve picked up Fallout 3 and I’m still not close to beating the main story of this game, hence this being an “Impressions” article rather than a “Review.” That being said, I don’t think my opinions will change too much in the time between the two are finished so this could pretty much double as a review. But I digress…