Two items that I’d better post now, so people will stop pestering me about them. :)

First, Mike is correct, I have been quite remiss is not posting about the discovery that Mars had water once upon a time. I was aware of this story yesterday, and it’s very cool, but I was too caught up in politics to give it a mention. It certainly merits one, though. Two or three, even.

Secondly, three people have now independently e-mailed me this story, about USC’s political mood on debate day, written by Daily Trojan reporter and CNN “Campus Vibe” correspondent Gina Goodhill. It, too, deserves a link.

I’ve assembled a collection of highlights from my photo gallery of the festivities surrounding Thursday’s presidential debate at USC. First, though, some previously unreleased sound clips…

Fox News political analyst Carl Cameron talks about Edwards’s chances. (42 sec., 456 KB)

Best chant of the night, from the Deaniac camp: “Annoy the media! Vote for Dean!” (8 sec., 88 KB)

Kerry promotes “six of one,” Edwards stumps for “half a dozen of the other,” and Kucinich can’t get a word in edgewise in the “corporate media” puppeteer show. (58 sec., 636 KB)

Now for those photo highlights…

A pro-Sharpton, pro-reparations pick-up truck on Jefferson Ave.

Lucky bastards waiting in line to get inside Bovard for the debate.

One of the many satellite trucks on campus, with the VKC tower in the background.

Kerry’s supporters get the pre-debate chants going. “Whose house? Our house! What house? The White House! John… Kerry! President… Kerry!”

At first, the Edwards cheering section was undermanned compared to Kerry’s, and it took them a while to get the enthusiasm going…

…but before long, there were plenty of Edwardsians, screaming at the top of their lungs for their candidate.

Kucinich, of course, had the funkiest supporters.

Howard Dean and the youth vote. Crazy kids!

Presidential vegetables: Chris P. Carrot and Colonel Corn!

A woman dressed as a “John Kerry Flip-Flop.” Heh.

Guy dressed as Dubya: “Stop Me!” Again, heh.

Break-dancing for Kucinich.

A puppeteer on stilts, identified as the “corporate media,” controls his puppets, Kerry and Edwards, whose answers to every question were either “six of one” or “half a dozen of the other.”

John Edwards gives his supporters the thumbs-up after the debate.

Edwards speaks to the crowd while his wife looks on.

Kristy for Edwards!

Me and Kristy in front of the Edwards bus.

View all my debate-related photos here!

My full picture gallery of the Democratic presidential debate festivities at USC — we’re talking real, high-quality digital photos, not Moblogged cell-phone pics — is now online!!! (Highlights to be posted in this space later.)

Also, my absentee ballot is in the mail, en route to Connecticut. (My choice, of course, is a huge mystery. God bless the secret ballot. :)

I’m heading home now. Pizza & rented movies with Becky tonight. Perhaps no more blogging till tomorrow.

My iPhoto gallery of last night’s photos is all ready to go, but uploading them will have to wait until I get home tonight. I don’t have time for a full-fledged lunch break update today, because I was late to work due to my plane schedule, so I’m taking only about 15 minutes. Aside from mailing my ballot, picking up my sandwich, and typing this very brief post, I’m working through lunch today.

Stay tuned, though, for lots and lots of photos later tonight.

Well… that was way fun. :)

My Moblog coverage was rather Kucinich-heavy, wasn’t it? That wasn’t intentional, and it certainly can’t be considered the result of ideological bias, me being a Liebermaniac-turned-Edwardsian and all. But I guess, like most members of the media, I am instinctively drawn to what is interesting and entertaining, not necessarily what’s important. And the Kucinich folks were definitely the most interesting. :)

I have organized my coverage of the last 24 hours into a single blog category, “Me: USC Debate Trip.” I’ve also fixed a few glitches — as I predicted earlier, there were a couple of multiple-posted audblog entries, and one buggy photo-post — and, perhaps most significantly, I labeled all my audio posts so they are much easier to find and listen to.

My two favorite audio posts, I think, are my aggressive interview with the USC official at the center of the Kucinich censorship controversy (of which I promptly alerted the Daily Trojan, by the way, running up to the newsroom shortly after doing that interview) and my little-bit-of-everything audio post featuring Kerry, Edwards and Dean supporters chanting, Kucinich crazies jammin’, and of course, an interview with my new favorite presidential ticket, Carrot & Corn.

I have a lot of great full-quality digital photos, but no time to organize and upload them now. My SuperShuttle to LAX leaves in 4 1/2 hours!!! So — tentative plan — I will organize the photos on the plane ride to Phoenix, and upload them during my lunch break at work.

UPDATE: The Daily Trojan is late, late, late going to press — it’s 12:11 AM here in L.A., and so far on their website, they’ve got nothin’! (Their deadline is 11:00.)

Then again, they do have to contend with a huge national event on campus and the polls closing (a few minutes ago, at midnight) on a contentious Student Senate election (which, rumor has it, is also causing accusations and recriminations in the DT newsroom… again). So I guess I should cut them some slack.

But… nah. :)

Anyway, check the DT website tomorrow for coverage. I wonder if they will say anything about the Kucinich controversy, which I tipped them off to (and even gave them this website as a source)?

The “puppet” candidates, by the way, never were forced to suspend their display, as far as I know. The official whom I interviewed later told me that it was DPS (the campus police) which objected to the display, and he speculated that perhaps the officer had allowed it to continue after all, since it seemed to be still going on. Whatever. Those students were being harassed over the content of their legitimate political speech. The puppet-master did not look like he was “hanging” anyone, and there was absolutely no danger to “public safety” whatsoever.