Curmudgeonly Print Reporters
Hanging out with the newspaper boys this election season has been quite fun. They tease me like a little sister... who's 45 years younger. I love their attitudes too. Greenville News' D@n Hoover, on Halloween: Parents should feed their own kids! Don't send your charity cases to MY doorstep.

Lotus Notes
Uncool.

Belo Woes
Taking a break from Senate race blogging to grieve for Dallas' daily, whose already beleagured staff is today finding out which colleagues won't come round no more.

Should Have Skipped the Lunch Buffet
Asheville's an hour away... but four died in a twin engine plane crash a few hours ago and we have to be there in a jiffy for NTSB's presser. Getting a ride on our pal Sky4, which is always fun, but only when not stuffed with remnants of Pizza Hut deep dish selections.

On the Trail Again...
Greetings from the lovely Comfort Suites in Conway-Myrtle Beach, SC. We're on the coast because DeMint and Tenenbaum met for their sixth and final debate last night. DeMint rushed in just two minutes from go-time, with a three-day-old beard. I don't know what he was up to this weekend, but I doubt it was meeting the people.

Awkward moment of the night: DeMint's campaign manager and communications director jumping in our sat truck to watch the debate with me.

A close second: Tenenbaum's communications director approaching me and D@n Hoover, The Greenville News' political writer, to say "Hu... Hoover. Hu... Hoover. Hu... Hoover. It's like an Oprah/Uma thing."

Then he laughed, as we did not.

So, I'm Watching Entertainment Tonight and...
Brad Pitt was at Mizzou to stump for Kerry? The current students get a visit from Brad Pitt, all we got was a bunch of Real World has-beens. What the...

Dinnertime Democracy
Lest we forget them, I covered the debate between the US Senate race's third-party candidates tonight.
It took place at the local Ryan's/Luby's/Golden Corral-type buffet restaurant, Prime Sirloin.

On illegal immigration:
Libertarian candidate Reb says, "I'm sorry folks, but the right answer is, you shoot 'em. Shoot 'em when they come over the border."

On his his party platorm:
Constitution Party candidate Patrick says, "Where the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. When pagans prevail, there is INEVITABLY a loss of liberty."

More Mayhem
Red State (an appropriately titled blog), features a "report from the trenches" of the pre-debate rallying in Columbia, SC last night.
Chip and I were dispatched to Columbia around noon... and got there just in time for the madness.

Here's an excerpt from DeMint supporter Cr@ig L!nton's report:

Perhaps the spunkiest Tenenbaum supporter was a little lady with a thick accent of Romantic origin. "Shame on Booosh! Shame on Booosh!" she yelled to passing cars as she was wildly waving both a poster and a giant cardboard cut-out of an apple.

After harassing DeMint supporters in an Italian-mother way (I'll-point-my-fingers-in-your-face-and-scream-at-you), she danced around the street corner until she found the TV reporter. There she quickly nestled up beside WYFF's E!ise Hu. In her pink suit, Hu was an island engulfed in an anxious sea of red, white, and blue signs. WYFF's cameraman [this would be Chip] became exasperated at supporters of both candidates for continuously blocking the view of his reporter.

[The blogger forgot to mention one of our lights catching on fire.]

Make New Friends
A big 67 Degrees welcome to Gary, who happens to keep one of my new favorite blogs, about South Carolina politics. And the little picture of the country fried steak is classic. It reminds me of my man Mateo and the green tea ice cream at the corner of his page.

More Pre-Debate Mayhem
Turns out while my friend Erin was going live from our parking lot at six, and I was over on the other side of the driveway screaming questions at Tenenbaum, a Tenenbaum supporter went kung-fu on a Demint supporter.
SC Hotline's coverage.

Jim, Inez and Tim
Jim and Inez debate on Meet the Press Sunday morning. Tune in, and then give me some story ideas.

Don't You Wish You Had My Radio Stations?
Chip and I have been listening to WNCW's "World Tour of Music from Countries Washington Calls the 'Axis of Evil'". So far, North Korean music has been our fave.

What C-SPAN Missed
With the second debate now behind them, Demint and Tenenbaum can continue to cut each other from the back.
Our cameras caught some gaffes the national ones didn't.
- Demint supporters trotted out a pony and dubbed it "Tenenbaum's One Trick Pony." Cute, until said pony number two-ed right on the path the candidates were to drive in on. Had to get a shovel to clean it up.
- The four shirtless ralliers who wrote "I-N-E-Z" on their chests as if they were tailgating.
- And lest we forget when DeMint's supporters started chanting, "Four more years! Four more years!"
Note: DeMint is running for a US SENATE term.

Time to Tivo C-SPAN
I've been covering an increasingly contentious senate race here in the Palmetto State. Incresingly contentious, after GOP candidate Demint said he wouldn't want gays or single, pregnant women teaching public schools. He's since apologized. Constitutional issues aside, he said his "heart disengaged from his head" and "said something he didn't mean."

We at News4 are hosting the first debate between the two since the off-the-cuff comments last week, the second of six televised debates. It will be broadcast statewide on ETV, nationwide on C-SPAN. It's becoming quite fun, so tune in, C-SPAN devotees.

Round Two Watch
I am sitting on my lonesome so I figure I will blog during the debate.

9:41 Moving into domestic issues and Bush's eyeballs seem to have popped back into place just in time. Excellent.

9:44 Good thing Kerry didn't pull a Cheney and mistakenly say "JohnKerry.org" instead of "JohnKerry.com."

9:45 Kerry: I have a plan... I have a plan... I have a plan to give myself Botox treatment again cause my forehead wrinkles are creating a glare.

9:53 Ooooh. Charlie's getting snippy.

10:02 Bush's internal monologue: Shit, shit, environment question. Shit, shit. I'll try to speak before I think so I sound like I have an environmental record. I will also continue to ignore Karl's instructions to quit smirking.

10:09 TimberCompanygate.

10:12 My internal monologue: Would you two quit masking the tension with talk of the Patriot Act and just make out already?

10:23 Yeeeeah. Didn't think we'd make it through this debate without talking about abortion.

10:28 Ooooh. "You can run but you can't hide" makes a second appearance!

Okay I'm bored. G'night.

Ring, Ring
ME: News Four, This is (Jack Foley).
CALLER: Yes, did you know Halloween falls on a Sunday this year?
ME: Yes.
CALLER: So, does that mean trick-or-treating will be done on Saturday night?
ME: I assume.
CALLER: Is there any way you can find out and do a report on TV about it?

Mea Culpa
Apologies for intermittent bloggage... came down with something foul Monday and it has just left me.

Do a Little Dance
What we do around the newsroom at night. Turn your volume up, and wait for the snake! The snake's my fave.

The Terminal Redux
As a Killeen man likes to say, it was raining a "turd floater" in D when we awoke this morning. Alas, I was at the airport by 8:15am to catch my 9:26am flight. It kept getting delayed by fifteen minute increments until we got on the plane by, oh, 12:15pm. That is when we sat on the runway inside the plane, breathing other people's CO2 until, oh, 2:30. Got here by around five. Came straight to work. Eyelid has since swollen and looks like it is growing a tumor.

The weekend was lovely, though.

PCSuck Update
Managed to convince the third person I talked to on my second call to Sprint to refund the random sixty dollars. Then, when I went to check online (24 hrs later) to confirm the credit, it did not show.

Da Debate
Going to start responding to people with "That is just absurd!" from now on.

Be Right Back
In the big D for the weekend. Last weekend's plan had to be ammended because of Miss Jeanne.