cursed (again)

I get the email.

I read the subject.

David Bowman added you as a friend on Facebook...

Instantly, no hesistation at all, a nanosecond, and the brain goes

"What are you doing, Dave?"

reaching out...with a slammed door?

At a McCain-Palin rally at Penn State, the president of the university was asked not to attend.

Dynamics of Cats : Disrespecting the President:

Usually, as a courtesy, and to do some contingent social networking, the President of the University [Penn State], Graham Spanier, will either introduce or greet such speakers, unless physically unavailable.

The University President will not endorse any candidate, to do so would be inappropriate, possibly counterproductive, and just foolish, but meeting with candidates and offering a introduction or pre-introductory greeting is routine.

Except this time, President Spanier was asked not to attend the event, according to the Collegian, the PSU student newspaper.

I infer that the reason it came up that this happened, is that a democrat visited later in the week, and the PSU President was seen with them, so presumably the university wants to head off any accusations of partisanship or implicit endorsement by them, even unofficially.

Apparently the reason Spanier was asked to not attend is because the campaign discovered he is in fact registered as a democrat...
Various implausible deniability assertions are being made by public spokescritters on both sides, but the bottom line seems clear.

I can not put into words how f#@king stupid this is.

I thought the McCain-Palin campaign in part ran on its ability to reach out and work with non-republicans, part of the whole maverick theme, right? Right?

Things like this are why I could never become a University President.

Liveblogging - Thriller Free Zone '08

• Warmed up with Marillion, tracks from Somewhere in London
  
• Officially starting out with tracks from Cirque's most intense show, Corteo (Reminder, Kooza is in DC as of yesterday, 5 weeks)
  
• Once upon a time from Cirque's La Nouba
• Stella Errans from Cirque's Dralion (what a voice!)
  
• Tangerine Dream's Green Desert (abridged) - probably the spookiest drum solo ever
  
• Pink Floyd's Terminal Frost
• One of These Days, Pulse video/dvd version (incl Dr. Who theme on slide guitar)
• Genesis's Home by the Sea (first and second, Live '93)
• Title track from Trick of a Tale (that album is like pure Steampunk, in my opinion...)
• Steve Hackett's guitar madness of Vampire with a Healthy Appetite
• What is probably my fav this time of year, The Steppes, which has been played at least 2 other times since I started logging
• Alan Parson's Dream within a Dream and The Raven
• As long as I'm in the 70s, Alice Cooper's Welcome to my Nightmare makes this year's list
• along with I Love the Dead.  Certainly a classic...
• Further back in time we reach the Beatles with some classics from Magical Mystery Tour
• Fool on the Hill
• Flying
• Blue Jay Way
• Now we'll head for Hollywood with some soundtracks, starting with The Black Hole
• Musical excerpts from classic Dr. Who, Mawdryn Undead and Ghost Light
• Followed by some new Murray Gold Who, his themes for the Daleks and the Cybermen
• Danny Elfman's Beetlejuice main theme (and it's 845 and things seem to be winding down...)
• Elmer Bernstein's theme music (not the Ray Parker Jr song) from Ghostbusters
• Two orchestral pieces from The Matrix
• and then I'm just going to let it run down with Prokofiev's Scythian Suite
  

Past years lists

• 2004
• 2005
• 2006
• 2007 with discussion

And some photos

more photos - Rome's Colleseum