Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow this morning, which, according to tradition, means that Howard Dean will stay in the race for six more weeks.

In other news, Big Brother is watching Janet Jackson’s boobie. (Spelling question of the day: Is the singular of boobies “boobie” or “booby”?)

(UPDATE: CNNSI’s Phil Taylor, suggesting that the marriage of sports and entertainment needs to be “annulled,” writes, “The Lakers and Mavericks don’t play each other during intermission at a Nelly concert, do they?” Heh.)

Also, President Bush has announced he will personally appoint all the members of an “independent” panel to investigate pre-war Iraq WMD intelligence. “I hereby appoint Me, Myself and I,” Bush said. “Also, Rummy and Condy. And, uh, John Breaux. There you go, a totally unbiased, bipartisan, six-member panel. Can we talk about my tax cuts now?”

Closer to home.. I called the Lieberman headquarters a few moments ago and they said Senator Joe — unlike Senator John* and General Wafflin’ Wes — will not be holding a rally or any other such event before or after tonight’s Phoenix forum. Drat.

*In order to clear up any possible confusion, I have decided that, from now on, John Kerry will be referred to as “Senator John,” while John Edwards will be called “Senator Johnny.”

Well, I still plan to attend the forum. Becky isn’t coming, so I’ll have to get home by a combination of non-express buses and possibly a taxi ride afterward. But neither rain nor snow (as if we have those in Phoenix — ha!) nor dark of night will keep me from seeing my candidate on the likely second-to-last day of his candidacy! :)

John Edwards, terrorist. Heh.

Adam Vinatieri’s 41-yard field goal is good! He makes up for his two misses earlier in the day… and he’s the Super Bowl hero for the second time in three years!

4 seconds left… kickoff…

UPDATE, 0:00 left: “Runs out of room… and the Panthers run out of time!” New England 32, Carolina 29! Patriots win!!!

John Kerry wins the grudge match against John Edwards! :)

15 wins in a row for New England!

UPDATE: My initial, unofficial Top 12 commercials… subject to revision…

12. Levitra, football vs. baseball w/ Mike Ditka
11. Cadillac “new wave of performance luxury” with water on cars (not funny, just cool)
10. Cedric the Entertainer Bikini Wax (Bud Light)
9. Old people fighting over Lays potato chips
8. Willie Nelson advice doll w/ Dom Zimmer (”Should I give this guy a shellacking? Bring it on!”)
7. Muppets commercial w/ Jessica Simpson
6. Soap in mouth “Holy Sh–” Chevrolet
5. MasterCard Simpsons
4. “Tomorrow” NFL ad - Bill Parcells doing cartwhells - “As of tomorrow, we’re all undefeated again”
3. Donkey who wants to be a Budweiser Clydsdale
2. King of Queens tackles sprinter
1. Bears buying Pepsi with sunglasses & fake ID

(See previous Super Bowl posts: 1, 2.)

UPDATE: But hey, at least John Edwards and other Panthers fans can chant: “WE BEAT THE SPREAD! WE BEAT THE SPREAD!”

Continuing my Super Bowl updates from below… it’s Patriots 20, Carolina 10!

Now 21-10! Go New England!

UPDATE: Panthers score, miss two-point conversion… 21-16 with 12:32 left in regulation.

UPDATE, 6:53 left, 4th quarter: Panthers score on an awesome, long TD pass… 22-21. Two-point conversion attempt still to come. Injured New England player down on the field.

UPDATE: Missed another 2-point conversion. Still 22-21 Edwards… er, Carolina. Patriots need some of that “Comeback Kerry” spirit!

UPDATE, 2:44 left, 4th quarter: Patriots scored a TD and two… 29-22 Pats!

It’s times like these, with the New England Patriots just a couple of minutes away from another world championship, that I bitterly recall Bob Kraft’s lies and John Rowland’s ineptness, and realize that these could be the Connecticut Patriots just a couple of minutes away from another world championship…

UPDATE, 1:08 left: Panthers score… 29-29… Patriots starting at their own 40, with three timeouts… no Super Bowl has ever gone to overtime… could it be Adam Vinatieri, winning the world championship for New England, again?

UPDATE, 0:09 left: Vinatieri, who has missed a 31-yarder today and had a 36-yarder blocked, comes out for the potential championship-winner… a 41-yarder… would be his second Super Bowl-winning field goal in three years…

UPDATE, 0:04 left: See above.

Sounds like Al Qaeda may be getting creative again. Which would be a bad thing.

Turns out the spam-commenters weren’t breaking into my blog after all. I hate to say it, Dane, but I gotta: Blame Safari.

UPDATE: I wonder if the new version of Safari will fix this?

Hey, I just realized, the Super Bowl is a Kerry vs. Edwards battle! New England vs. Carolina!

I’m voting a split ticket: The Patriots today, and Edwards on Tuesday.

UPDATE: Naturally, I’m not the first person to think of this.

UPDATE, 6:08 left, 2nd quarter: Kerry… I mean the Patriots… just had their field goal blocked. I think Kerry and Edwards are both hoping to do a little better than this on Tuesday. :) It’s still 0-0.

UPDATE. 5:21 left, 2nd quarter: Becky, who is blogging for the first time in nearly a week, has water cooler envy… and Super Bowl boredom.

Longest-ever scoreless start in Super Bowl history. Ooh! Patriots recover the fumble. Of course, they’ll probably go 3-and-out, or miss another field goal…

UPDATE, 3:05 left, 2nd quarter: Touchdown Patriots! Finally! It’s Kerry 7, Edwards 0.

UPDATE, 1:00 left, 2nd quarter: Edwards… er, the Panthers… tie(s) it! It’s 7-7.

UPDATE, 0:18 left, 2nd quarter: Suddenly the touchdowns are coming fast and furious! 14-7 Kerry.

In other news, there is a very cute kitten sleeping on my shoulder. This limits my mobility somewhat, but having managed to manuever the computer onto my lap, I don’t really mind. (News flash: Becky says my typing is annoying the cat.)

UPDATE, halftime: With 50 percent of the precincts reporting, it’s Patriots 14, Panthers 10. Kerry leads, but Edwards in line to get some delegates. :)

Tentative favorite ads of the first half, in order of appearance:
-Muppets commercial w/ Jessica Simpson
-Bears buying Pepsi with sunglasses & fake ID
-Willie Nelson advice doll & Don Zimmer (”Should I give this guy a shellacking? Bring it on!”)
-donkey who wants to be a Budweiser Clysdale
-soap in mouth “Holy Sh–” Chevrolet
-King of Queens tackles sprinters (actually a halftime show commercial)

It seems I’ve created a monster. Heh.

In case anyone is wondering, I don’t know what the original source of the Dean kitty photo is; if I did, I would credit it, but I just got it in an e-mail from my dad. It seems like the sort of thing that would come from a Fark Photoshop contest, but I looked and couldn’t find it there.

I think this means we won the war:

The Super Bowl parties for U.S. troops in Iraq will start hours before dawn, and there won’t be any beer. But at least in Tikrit, soldiers have a lavish venue: They’ll be watching a cinema-sized screen in a former palace of Saddam Hussein.

Heh. (”Score!” Becky exclaims.)

If the editorial boards of America were the ones choosing the Democratic nominee, it seems that Joe Lieberman would be winning in a landslide. The Arizona Republic’s favorite candidate today received three more endorsements from major newspapers in upcoming states: The State and The Greenville News of South Carolina (which votes Tuesday) and The Seattle Times of Washington (which has a caucus next Saturday). Unfortunately…

Tracking polls released Friday by Zogby International showed Lieberman tied for fourth place in Arizona with U.S. Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C., at 6 percent, and fifth in both Oklahoma and South Carolina at 5 percent.

If Lieberman does as badly as the polls suggest, in Arizona and South Carolina especially, one might reasonably conclude that newspaper editorial boards really don’t have much influence on the electorate anymore.

First, Butter wrestled with the temptation and power of Capone, a.k.a. the Fish of Doom. Now it seems she has a new target in mind: Gimli the Great.

The funny thing is, I took this picture before my dad’s comment. :)

More pictures from the last few days…

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