Frontin’ for all y’all

* On the Presidential Election front: Gallup has Obama with a sparse lead in the polls (45% to McCain’s 44%), Rasmussen has a 47% Obama lead vs. McCain’s 46%, the Washington Post is showing a 49% Barack lead against John’s 46%, and the Associated Press is giving Obama 47% and McCain a mere 41% of the voting populace. In other words, however you slice it Barack Obama is ahead, but not by much. Hillary finally started speaking out in support of Obama at a Nevada campaign stop yesterday, where she reminded folks that her supporters have much more in common with Barack Obama than they ever will with John McCain. Thank you for stating the fucking obvious, Mrs. Clinton. Aside from the polls & Hillary, I’ve done my best to avoid the intense day-to-day news coverage of the election, because the mainstream media seems hell bent on telling me how I feel about things, how I intend to vote in November, and pretty much avoiding any relevant news on the subject. So, Fuck ‘um.

* On the Wars We Didn’t Start front: I’ve been a bit confused about the Russia-Georgia conflict, so I assume some of you are too. After looking into the matter, I came up with this: Georgia is a former Soviet republic that flew the coop after the fall of communism in the region (1991). The small nation is a bit of a thorn in Russia’s side, since it has expressed desire to join NATO and is allied with the Western nations that are often in opposition to Moscow. A Georgian provence that boarders Russia, South Ossetia, has had a level of semi-independence for the past 16 years, but according to Georgian officials, separatists have increased their attacks recently and prompted a response from Georgia, which sent in tanks. Russian officials claimed Russian peacekeepers were killed by their forces & that the Georgian military was ethnically cleansing the region of native Russians, so they too sent in tanks. As of this morning, Russia claims to have halted all military action in the Georgian provence, but reports of Russian bombing are still coming out of the region. In summary, Georgia used to be under Russia’s control, until they said Fuck That in ‘91. Then, a piece of Georgian territory attempted to do the same thing & assert their independence, only to be given a military bitch slap from the former freedom fighters of Georgia. Russia tried to intervene & hoped to regain some control over the area, but punked out when the world started paying too much attention. I hope that clears things up for y'all.

* On the Olympic Games front: Swimmer Michael Phelps nabbed the gold in two events so far, swimmer Aaron Piersol got us another, swimmer Natalie Coughlin got us a gold for the ladies, and the entire U.S. men’s relay team (which included Phelps) won yet another. Mariel Zagunis won a gold in women’s fencing and Walton Eller won one in men’s shooting. Only China & it’s home team advantage have earned more golds than we have at this point. Upcoming events of interest include today’s first U.S. women’s football/soccer match vs. New Zealand, today’s men’s preliminary basketball game vs. Angola, Friday’s women’s preliminary basketball game against Spain, and Wednesday’s men’s football/soccer match against Nigeria. Go Team Go.