There’s some stuff over here though.

And in case you haven’t figured it out, all the real action is over at my tumblelog: Ort.

Attached is the view from my desk. If you squint you can see the ballpark and the Linc

UPDATE: this is gonna be a very useful app. You can even post photos from the synced photo library (not just the camera roll):

I’m giving Blogo, a blog post editor from Brainjuice a try.

This is just a test.

(h/t Atrios)

Imagine this: It’s August 28th, 2008 in Denver, Colorado and the Democratic Party is concluding its convention on the 45th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech by nominating the first African American candidate of a major party in American history. The crowd is cheering, the balloons are falling, and across the country and the world there is a sense of history being made.

On to the stage steps the tall figure of Barack Obama beaming his megawatt smile and waving at the crowd. He is flanked by his wife Michelle, his running mate, and the running mate’s spouse. They’ve joined hands and lifted their arms in the air. It’s a new day and a new direction for the Democratic Party.

Can you really imagine the last person on that list to be former President Bill Clinton? Can President Clinton be the fourth most important person on the stage that night?

And come January, when it would become President Obama, could he truly run his administration with President Clinton advising Vice President Clinton across the street in the Old Executive Office Building? The man is undeniably brilliant but can he stand in the shadows?

I think Senator Hillary Clinton would be a great running mate and a great Vice President. It could be a 16 year ticket of progressive good governance. But I worry that Bill Clinton, the only Democratic president I have known in my lifetime could not handle his far less prestigious and powerful role.

I’m not sure this is a dream I want to have.

Cross-posted on DoubleSpeak.

The Kryptonite lock company, maker of pretty much the best bike locks around, just published their “Top 10 Worst Cities for Bike Theft List.” Oh yeah, we’re #1.

1. Philadelphia, PA
2. Chicago, IL
3. New York City, NY
4. San Francisco, CA
5. Tucson, AZ (tie)
Portland, OR (tie)
7. Denver, CO
8. New Haven, CT
9. Cambridge, MA
10. Austin, TX

Yup, I’m shocked, but that’s what the data tells us. This list is compiled by our proprietary data….input from our regional managers, hundreds of shop visits, input from colleges and universities we talk with, our customer service interactions (both over the phone/email and at events) and data from police in various cities. When we did the compilation, there wasn’t even a city close to Philly. Not even close.

Yikes.

I carry at least one Kryptonite lock on me daily, the Evolution Mini. It’s small enough to easily carry in my bag, in a pocket, or on my Fabric Horse belt if I’ve got that on, but still plenty strong (and actually the smaller size makes it harder to break into). Combined with a cable that I loop through the front wheel and using the rear wheel through the triangle method, I generally feel comfortable locking up for relatively short periods. If it’s gonna be much more than an hour or two I’ll even bring along another Kryptonite U-Lock for added piece of mind.

But this makes me ever more paranoid. Leave my bike alone!

(h/t Cyclelicio.us)

Yesterday afternoon a friend offered me a ticket to the final taping of The Colbert Report in Philadelphia. It was the stunning conclusion of their “Dorito’s Spicy Sweet Pennsylvania Primary Coverage From Chili-Delphia – The City of Brotherly Crunch!” It would be quite an evening.

We queued up on Walnut Street, outside of Penn’s Annenberg Center to first wait in line for half an hour, and then pack the lobby of the Zellerbach Theater for at least another hour. This was after being scanned and patted down by the Secret Service. This time, I was smart enough to leave home the wrench that the Secret Service had taken from me while entering the Obama rally at the Convention Center last week. Finally, the velvet rope parted and we hurried down to grab seats in the third row, perhaps 20 feet from the giant C that forms Stephen’s anchor desk.

Now despite the fact that after fast-forwarding through the commercials, the Colbert Report is only barely more than 20 minutes, it takes quite a bit more than that to record an entire show, especially in a different theater and with a much larger production than normal. For this was no standard Report.

After learning of Benjamin Franklin’s invention of the toaster, Stephen began to introduce the segment on last night’s debate. Sadly his giant screen failed and who else showed up to fix it, but Sen. Hillary Clinton. She made a couple of jokes about how to fix it (none of which really landed in my opinion) before telling Stephen to call her any time he needed help. Her segment was actually edited down when broadcast to go a bit smoother.

With the screen fixed, next came a favorite of mine, Congressman Pat Murphy, a local boy, Iraq vet, and friend of DoubleSpeak. He mostly talked about Sen. Obama and the war in Iraq in his inimitable Philly accent. If you watch the clip below, you’ll see me right in the aisle reaching for Stephen’s hand during the segment intro in the bottom left of the screen.

The third act was even more of a surprise: John Edwards. He appeared on stage to a standing ovation and proceeded to take Colbert’s place with his version of the Word, the Ed-Words. Mostly jokes about jet skiis and two Americas. Though I never considered myself an Edwards supporter, I was somewhat sad to see him leave the race. His contributions in terms of pushing the debate to the left and focusing on important issues of health care and the environment were crucial to forming the agenda of the party in this cycle. In the midst of the joking, he still managed to hit on his issues, so crucial to the newly discovered “white male vote.”

And that I figured, was that. All that was left was a final thank you to Philly and a goodbye on the week. Except that as we waited for Act IV, a sound man came out and hooked up Stephen with an earpiece for a satellite hookup. Something big remained…Barack Obama himself. His segment was also not amazing (the satellite delay makes things tough) but concluded a pretty impressive show and week.

With the show over, Stephen threw Wrist Strong bracelets and spicy sweet Doritos into the crowd. Finally, he approached the edge of the stage and my hand touched Stephen’s hand. What a night.

All the clips after the jump:

Franklin and Toast:

HRC:

Pat Murphy:

John Edwards: