The 24 Premiere

Well a good weekend comes to a close. Put up all my extended cards on Ebay yesterday, took about 4 hours and I have 180 auctions running. That's crazy as I though 56 was a lot to keep me busy last summer. I'll probably wait until this summer to finish off the money cards, perhaps around Origins or shortly after. I might take the stuff to Origins and see what I can get, especially for the bulk. I know Villa sold his bulk online on Ebay, but I probably have 4 times as much as he had when he sold. Eh, it's just cardboard. But cardboard that will make some money for poker and other fun endeavors. I was pleasantly surprised by raking in around $300 for my limited collection of standard cards last summer...we'll see how this goes.

Does anyone else find it odd that the President chooses now to send in more forces? 21,000 more troops in Iraq? Are we installing a draft again? OK the last one was kidding, but seriously why was this not done 2-3 years ago? I always thought Kerry was a kook and had the president pulled the troops entirely now we would've been better off with Kerry, but thankfully the President did not do this. I just hope this means he has a real plan with realistic goals and a realistic endpoint. Even if moderately successful, Bush has ruined any legacy he had other than finishing his father's business (getting rid of Saddam). Both Bush presidencies taken down by Iraq, what a cute quagmire. While I think as a conservative that Senator McCain would be the best choice to succeed Bush in 2008 (and John Edwards would be acceptable), it appears the nation is really going to get behind Barack Obama. Could you have a worse name to try and break the white male president trend in this country though? I have trouble truly believing McCain or any other republican candidate has a chance in 2008 after watching a true swing state go so democrat in 2006 (Ohio). Ohio is a perfect model for the country as it has a little bit of everything except maybe a high concentration of the very liberal or far left. Ohio has gone ridiculously blue and I really do not see that changing in 2 years absent some governor or high state official misconduct (thanks Bob Taft, real classy career), and as Ohio basically never votes on the whole for a presidential loser...watch the democratic primary season carefully.

Can you imagine with Iowa going first in the primary season as always...who do they choose? Obama and Clinton are so unpopular there, but they know that Iowa is crucial to setting the rest of primary season. Will Edwards strike gold because Iowa fits his profile? Very very interesting, and almost makes me wish I were a registered democrat in Iowa. But not really. I'd rather my vote count in a general election.

Well 24 has premiered now, and the "shocking turn of events" was indeed pretty shocking. Another long running main character Curtis is killed and by Jack's hand no less. Of course then Jack wants to quit...but nothing motivates Jack like a nuclear weapon going off in LA. I'm happy they are finally letting some big bad stuff happen to the public, as I know America could not be so lucky so many times in a row if 24 were realistic. The stakes have been raised and even though they went back to the old standby of nuclear weapons, 24 doesn't feel right without a good big nuclear threat. Still going to be hard to match Season 5, with a Nixon-like president deceiving everyone and tons of long running main characters getting the axe (Tony, Michelle, Edgar, David Palmer). I do like that the writers are not shying away from a legitimate scary topic, that being the war of terrorism coming to America. Even with 2 more seasons of 24 after this one agreed to, I think we may be seeing the best days of 24 right now.

One final note from the premiere: I am always amazed the actors they bring in season to season (last year they had Sean Astin better known as Samwise Gamgee playing Lynn McGill, Jean Smart playing Martha Logan, and the guy who plays Desmond on Lost as a critical British MI6 agent), and this season I was happy to see Alexander Siddig playing Asad. Siddig used to be known as Siddig El Fadil when he played Dr. Bashir on Deep Sapce Nine, and I am always thrilled to see the good actors from Star Trek series get good roles elsewhere. Siddig also was good in the movie Syriana last year. We'll see if there are any more big actors coming in this season.

Well if you did not tune in to the 24 premiere the last 2 nights...Fox in their money making mind will give you a reprieve if you wish to catch up. The first 4 episodes are on sale in DVD tomorrow, to which I say HA! Fox might as well give up and webcast the episodes for a limited time after they run the first time...ABC is already doing this and they are the only other network with shows close to as good as Fox's lineup. It was so nice not having to tape Lost but just loading it up later on ABC.com. I hope Fox follows suit, as it would be wonderful to catch House or 24 if we ever missed it.

In the end, if you are not watching 24...you should be. There's nothing else even close to as good on TV Monday nights. Should I watch American Idol this season? I mean every other Fox show I've watched turns out to be good (Prison Break, House, 24, and Standoff as well as Trading Spouses), so maybe I'll finally give the old Idol a chance. I did like Survivor after all, and it has to be better than that.

Back to school tomorrow. Suck. Talk to you all later.