Hurry Up and Vote, Iowa!

Well, thanks to the world's worst filing deadline and a boatload of other work, I'm pretty beat for the day. Here's a few thoughts to get through the day with ...

» It's Caucus Day in Iowa ... hurry up and vote y'all. I could really stand to get to bed early tonight knowing that some portion of the world has sorted itself out on this matter. Again predictions are for Huck and Hill to win ... I'm far wobblier on the latter than the former.

» Rosenthal ... out. Interesting. I'm still curious what it took to talk him down from the treehouse. The GOP has until Friday to finalize their candidate(s). In the meantime, it's Jim Leitner. That makes for three new candidates on the November countywide ballot: Theresa Chang for District Clerk, Leitner/whoever for District Attorney; and Ed Emmett or Charles Bacarisse for County Judge. Each will be first-time nominees for that office, making for an increasingly level playing field in a year that promises to be challenging for the Harris County GOP.

» Other local filing news ... Al Edwards tries to make a comeback. Kuff says Garnet has another opponent, but I'm really too lazy to look it up this morning. Apparently, the GOP is giving my favorite State Rep a free pass and we're still trying to sort out what they've offered us for Ellen Cohen. Obviously, the big races to watch in the primaries will be over whether we can dump another local Craddick-D, Kevin Bailey ... and whether Dan Patrick can dump a non-Patrickite State Rep in Corbin Van Arsdale. John Davis also faces a primary challenger in the Clear Lake area. For now, I'm assuming he'll do just fine. Joe Crabb, once more, has primary opposition. This time, they come in pairs. Last time, he won with something like 60%. Dunno the actors on that side, but maybe it'll be interesting. The other stuff I care about: Kristi Thibaut taking another shot at HD133 and watching Hubert Vo school Greg Myers out in Alief.

» Noam Scheiber gives a dose of Huck-landia at TNR. Anecdotal, to be sure. But still a snapshot that rings true of a lot more scenes among conservative Republican/Christian circles.

» Kuff blogs about his holiday itunes procurements. I, on the other hand, opt to not let a gadget define my lifestyle. I debated a holiday pickup of a little PMP gadget (Archos 605 or better). But the interface proved too clunky for me to use it in the manner that I might like. Still might get a regular, cheap DVR. But I'm replacing my MP3 player with something smaller in size and bigger in storage. Here's some new stuff I'm loading it up with ...

• Kim Hill: Glory Unto You
(Got hooked on this one from spinning discs at church)
• Leslie Phillips: Heart of Hearts
(oldie, but a goodie from the 80s CCM genre)
• Green Day: American Idiot
(I'm not a big GD fan, but for high-energy stuff, they're as good as it gets)
• Jimi Jamison: Love Is Alive
(and yet, I didn't opt for the Gary Wright original)
• Shaw/Blades: I'll Always Be With You
(awesome CD ... I just needed to update my favorite tune from it)
• Hardline: In the Hands of Time
(I swear, I have the CD somewhere ... it's just easier to drop .99 cents for now, though)
• Stellar Kart: Living on a Prayer & Life Is Good
(I loved their second CD, but I'm suddenly cheap when it comes to their first. Still, these tunes are mandatory listening.)

I'm still mulling some options to add from a live Hardline CD and the second studio album the band put out ... both of which lack the guitar contributions of Neal Schon. Jeff Scott Soto has probably one of the best hidden 2004 releases I've stumbled on for a hard rock taste. I may just pick up that whole dang album.

Apparently, Amazon and Warner Bros. have made their peace over MP3 sales. So that's good news for a host of artists I've been waiting on. The entire Van Halen catalog is now available, but I pretty much have about 105% of those songs anyway (the extra credit being the demos recorded by Gene Simmons for the band, pre-1978). Still no sign of some out-of-print stuff like Rough Cutt (who I believe were on W.E.A.). I should probably grumble about the inability to get Derek Webb tunes from Amazon, but it may just as well be an excuse to pick up some of his older CDs in full.