The Hobbit Soundtrack (1977) pt. 3

Track 11 (Funny Little Things):


Track 12 (In the Valley, Ha, Ha, Reprise):


Track 13 (Misty Mountains Cold):


Bonus (Where there's a Whip, There's a Way):

The Hobbit Soundtrack (1977) pt. 2

Track 6 (The Greatest Adventure Instrumental):


Track 7 (Dinner at Bag End):


Track 8 (Down Down to Goblin Town):


Track 9 (Rollin' Down a Hole):


Track 10 (Gollum's Riddle):

The Hobbit Soundtrack (1977) pt. 1

Call me a dork, nerd, or whatever, but you cannot possibly imagine how long I have looked for this:

Track 1 (The Greatest Adventure):


Track 2 (In the Valley, Ha, Ha):


Track 3 (Old Fat Spider):


Track 4 (Roads)


Track 5 (Roads Instrumental)

Late Night Funnies

A few of the more funnier moments from the rounds last night:

Conan: President Obama scheduled to grant a turkey the traditional pardon on Wednesday. But a spokesman for the turkey now says it doesn’t need a pardon. It needs a job.

Fallon: Experts announce a new plan to slash the federal debt by $6 trillion. All we have to do is switch from regular light bulbs to not having a federal government.

Leno: House Democrats just elected Nancy Pelosi as their minority leader for the new Congress. Why mess with success, right?

Conan: Congressional Democrats push for $12 billion in additional unemployment benefits. They say they can’t turn their backs on those who until two weeks ago were House Democrats.

Conan: Donald Trump wants to know if people think he should run for president. So his folks launched a website called shouldtrumprun.com. Americans have responded with their own website, no.com

Conan: Oprah Winfrey is reportedly considering buying a property in New Jersey. The property is called, “New Jersey.”

Fallon: GM wants to thank all who made its recovery possible: Toyota’s brakes, Toyota’s steering and Toyota’s accelerators.

Letterman: A new wrinkle this year for Wal-Mart’s midnight store openings on Thanksgiving Friday: They’ve added bulls to the run.

Fallon: New plan out to cover $6 trillion of the nation’s debt. First, look at all the spending for the past five years. Then, ask China for $6 trillion more.

Old Classics

Say what you want about his policies, Ronald Reagan could give a great speech about things that mattered:

Swedish Popcorn

Boomstick

THIS IS MY BOOMSTICK!

(Courtesy of Teefury.com)

Election 2010 Post Mortem

In hindsight, my projections were just a hair too optimistic for the Republicans. It was still a good night, but a few things didn't quite break the way I thought they might. There are still 9 House races that are undecided but if they hold as they currently stand, the Republicans will finish with 243 seats to the Democrats 192 seats. This would be a 64-seat pick-up (or about 6 short of what I projected).

I did worse in the Senate. My gut was wrong about WV where Manchin surged ahead and Harry Reid overcame polling showing him down anywhere from 2-4 points to win by 5. Washington, Colorado, and Alaska are undecided as of yet. In Washington, Murray (D) is ahead by about 14,000 votes at the moment but only 65% of precincts are counted. Bennett (D) is holding on by his fingernails (7,500 votes with 88% of the precincts counted). In Alaska it appears that Murkowski's write-in campaign succeeded but there is a lengthy review process so it may be late November before she is officially certified as the winner. Whether her or Miller, Alaska will stay Republican. As such, if Murray and Bennett win, Democrats will have 53 seats to the Republican's 47 (a gain of 6 seats or 3 short of my prediction).

Ohio on the other hand, went Republican. Republicans swept the state offices and Democrats only retained 5 of 18 House seats (OH-9, 10, 11, 13, 17). With Ohio slated to lose 2 congressional districts next year, expect some serious squashing of these 5 districts to try and force at least one if not two more Democrats out of the House.

Election 2010

As I did two years ago, I'll be posting my random thoughts throughout the day. I'll be doing it on paper and then uploading it later after I leave work so it's more of a historical record rather than a good checking document on happening things.

6:53 AM - Polls have been open for nearly an hour in KY and half an hour in OH. I've printed off my cheat sheet for the house races for tonight:

7:00 AM - Per the discussion I had with Mrs. X last night, here's a list of the OH races we'll be watching (incumbents are bold):

Governor: Ted Strickland (D) vs. John Kasich (R)

Attorney General: Richard Cordray (D) vs. Mike DeWine (R)

Secretary of State: Maryellen O'Shaughnessy (D) vs. Jon Husted (R)

Treasurer: Kevin Boyce (D) vs. Josh Mandel (R)

Auditor: David Pepper (D) vs. David Yost (R)

Senator: Lee Fisher (D) vs. Rob Portman (R)

8:07 AM - Captain Ed agrees with me.

11:47 AM - Early reports suggesting lighter turnout in several liberal districts relative to '08. General turnout has been heavy but far below that of the last election.

2:18 PM - Gallup is reporting an enthusiasm gap of 19 points.

3:30 PM - Heading off to vote.

4:15 PM - Voter #310 at my polling place. Pretty high in my opinion.

6:00 PM - Polls closing in parts of IN, KY, and NH

6:10 PM - Hodes (D) leads Ayotte (R) in NH 7-5.

6:12 PM - Paul (R) up 57-42 with >1% reporting in KY

6:13 PM - Fox is listing KY-6 as a race to watch. I doubt it.

6:30 PM - IN-8 at 51-43 for the Republican with 4% reporting.

7:00 PM - Coats (R-IN), Paul (R-KY), Leahy (D-VT), Demint (R-SC) all projected winners

7:45 PM - 5% in and Rubio (R) up 50-22 over Crist (I) in FL.

7:46 PM - D wins KY-3

8:22 PM - Portman wins OH senate seat.

Predictions

Tomorrow is election day so it would only be fair to offer some predictions on how things will go.

Things are looking pretty good for the GOP at the moment. That they will retake the House seems almost certain and many prognosticators have been talking of a 1994-like wave. It may be even bigger than that. Checking RCPs House Rankings, if the Republicans and Democrats take all the seats in the lean or better column assigned to them and you split the Toss-Ups 50-50, the GOP would pick up 66 seats. I think there will be higher GOP turnout that will push this model slightly to the right, so I'm going to offer my pick of 70 seats in the House. That would put it above 1994 (54 seats), but well below the insane wave of 1894 (130 seats).

The Senate is a little trickier. At the moment, I see no evidence that the GOP will lose any of the Senate seats they currently hold. They look to pick up North Dakota, Indiana, Arkansas, Pennsylvania, Colorado, Wisconsin, and Nevada. That would push them to 48 seats.

Democrats will easily keep Hawaii, Maryland, both New York seats, Oregon, and Vermont. I think they will also hold on to Connecticut and Delaware, although these races might be closer than they should be. Either way, the Democrats would have 48 seats at this point.

That leaves Illinois, West Virginia, California, and Washington as the toss-ups. I think Illinois will swing Republican (albeit reluctantly) and I also see West Virginia going Republican despite some polls showing Mr. Manchin (D) ahead. Mr. Obama is still somewhat popular in California so I think that though it will be close, the wave will not be as hard there and Ms. Boxer retains her seat. Washington is a true toss-up but things seem to break Democratic whenever they are so close in that state, so I will give the Democrats that seat as well.

In the end, I think the GOP picks up 9 seats for a 50-50 split with Joe Biden breaking the tie and allowing the Democrats to retain control of the Senate.