Paramount has released an updated version of the Star Trek trailer featuring Leonard Nimoy. His appearance is brief, but it’s a nice addition.

Only about seven months until the movie releases.

There’s a lot of growing frustration on the part of progressives that there isn’t a single hardline leftist in any of Obama’s cabinet positions. I know this comes as some surprise to McCain voters who see Barack Obama and his former primary nemesis Hillary Clinton as harbingers of Marxism in America, but the reality is that the American left is very displeased with these choices.

Here’s what the left doesn’t get — the country, though not “center right” as the Republicans believe, is neither conservative or liberal: it’s centrist. People take and pick their viewpoints from a variety of sources and don’t necessarily view two policy positions as incompatible if one rises from leftist thought and the other rises from conservative thought. There is general disgust with hardline ideological positions, as many Americans just aren’t that ideological.

George W. Bush governed from the hard right. Iraq, Katrina, Social Security privatization, purging the Justice Department of Democrats, Terry Schiavo, etc. were all extremely partisan, hardline conservative positions. And Bush failed because of them — his support collapsed because he governed from an ideological position and not a fact-based position. People who normally didn’t care about such things started to think of him as a right wing nutjob. And that was that. But just because they dislike a rightwing nutjob, doesn’t mean they won’t also dislike a leftwing nutjob. I think most ordinary people think that hardline positions of any stripe are bullshit.

Obama is smart. He knows that the only way he can govern successfully and gain consensus is from the center. Anyone who read either of his books should understand this. That’s why he’s got sensible centrist picks, and not a single avatar of the left among them. This may be disappointing to my fellow progressives, but we need to suck it up and accept that we’ve got a competent team of people at the helm at last. Change may happen, but it will be moderate change. Such moderation may seem radical to Americans in the center after eight years of Bush, but progressives are just going to have to accept what we can get. The Republicans didn’t accept what was realistic, and now they’re out in the wilderness after six years of overreach. If we want to stay in the majority, Democrats are going to have to learn to provide sensible progressive solutions and not try to radically change the country as the Republicans did.

Finally, the trailer for Star Trek is officially released online:

Words can’t describe how happy I am that these characters will live and breath again. Even with different actors, the 12 year-old boy in me that watched all-day Star Trek marathons is delighted to be getting Gene Roddenberry’s universe back.

Joe Lieberman really regrets that he said some things on television about Barack Obama being a socialist and friend to terrorists.  Some things, of course, were taken out of context, and other things were said less than artfully. And absolutely no harm was meant to the Democratic nominee. It was all one big misunderstanding that he questioned Obama’s patriotism at the RNC and stood behind McCain until the very end.

The Senate Democrats in a show of “unity” decided to keep the Republican Senator from Connecticut in their caucus.  Maybe it speaks of Democratic magnamity or goodness or something, but I’d never imagine the Republicans keeping such a shameless turncoat in their own caucus, much less allow them to retain their coveted Homeland Security chairmanship. Lieberman hasn’t been a Democrat since at least the 2000 election when he sold out the Gore team’s efforts to get a recount in Florida. I could list a thousand things the man has done or said that have hurt the progressive cause over the years, but that’s beside the point.

I have no problem with Obama making nice with McCain or Clinton — they were political adversaries, and they were competing for the same office. But when Lieberman was challenged by Ned Lamont in Connecticut, Obama supported Lieberman and campaigned on his behalf — a fact not lost on many in the netroots who loathe Lieberman. He put his name and reputation on the line to back Lieberman, who then turned around and slandered him in the press. Supporting McCain is fine, but he pushed the worst of the smears and does not deserve a pass for it.

You can watch the pathetic makeup session here:

I wasn’t initially going to pick up Gears of War 2 for XBOX 360 — although I enjoyed the original game, I was generally underwhelmed by its repetitive and predictable gameplay. But with reviews for Resistance 2 on PS3 on the underwhelming side and a strong distrust of developer Treyarch who made this year’s odd-numbered Call of Duty: World at War, I was left with Gears 2 as my last best option for a fall shooter.  

And I have to say, I’m glad I picked it.  Gears 2 is a great improvement over the original, and offers up some expansive battles, large scale monsters, and even a platforming level to balance out the methodical and tactical “stop-and-pop” style of gameplay.  The story actually uses the interesting backstory that was all but neglected in the original (save for some mentions in the art book that came with the special edition).  We’re now getting an idea of who the Locusts are, and why they’re at war with the humans.

In terms of storytelling, they’ve taken a page from the Metal Gear Solid 4 playbook and added in some cinematic cut scenes — none of them clock at more than a minute, but they work a lot better in engaging the player with the story and world of Gears than the original did.  There’s one in particularly featuring a fight between two new characters and a new boss monster that was pretty awesome, and reminded me of an abbreviated version of the grand Raiden vs. Gecko cutscene in Metal Gear.

Online, Gears 2 is as much of a cesspool as the original.  I’ve played in two ranked multiplayer matches thus far, and besides getting my ass handed to me, I also had to suffer through the usual abuse from the teenagers and unemployed twenty-something boys who inhabit XBOX Live.  It’s too bad that they didn’t include the varied and useful mute options that came with Halo 3, as I don’t enjoy having a boy 15 years my junior inviting me to personally suck on his balls.  I suspect if we met in real life, that was an invitation I would not have received.  Still, Gears has a party system borrowed from Halo and Call of Duty that allows you to team up with a group of four other friends to bounce from game to game without worrying about servers like you do on PC.  This is a big improvement over the original, which took a stripped-down PC approach featuring server lists — with Gears 2 you can count on playing with a different group of abusive teens every round, rather than suffering through endless rounds of abuse from the same group of kids.

Still, Epic smartly included a private botmatch feature where you can substitute AI bots for human players on any adversarial multiplayer game mode in Gears 2.  Now I can enjoy Gears in peace in the company of non-sentient opponents.  What’s better is that you and your friends can cooperatively take on said non-sentient opponents together and you can even earn the achievements previously exclusive to the online rump-raping hordes.

Besides offering campaign coop (now an essential feature of any first or third person shooter) which allows you to play through the single player game with a friend in the role of hero Marcus Fenix’s best buddy and bromance crush, Dominic Santiago, Gears 2 also has adapted Rainbow Six’s popular but underwhelming Terrorist Hunt coop mode into the Gears universe.  Called “Horde,” you and a team of up to five players are tasked with fighting 50 waves of increasingly challenging Locusts on the game’s multiplayer maps.  Unlike Terrorist Hunt in Rainbow Six, though, the AI bots in Horde are just as smart as their single player counterparts, and teamwork and communication is essential if you and your friends are going to survive.  Saturday night, a group of us played through 18 waves and had a blast.  Horde mode is possibly the most compelling reason to play Gears of War 2, but don’t even try it by yourself.  You’ll get crushed in seconds.  Fans of World of Warcraft raids will understand how addictive this type of game can be.

All and all, Gears of War 2 is a great package and well worth your money.  I suppose someday I’ll get back to Fallout 3, but for now, I’m having a blast.

As Chris brings up in the comments, Hillary Clinton’s name has been floated as a possible candidate for Secretary of State.

There’s two competing theories at the moment.  First, that it’s true — Obama is taking a page out of the Abraham Lincoln “Team of Rivals” approach and considering nominating his greatest rival in the Democratic party to a significant cabinet post.

Conversely, there’s a school of thought being promoted by Al Giordano and others that this is all just a ruse by the Clinton people to embarrass Obama and prevent the nominations of either John Kerry or Bill Richardson to the post, as the Clinton’s view Kerry and Richardson as traitors for backing Obama.  Al makes his case here.

I’m personally in the “Team of Rivals” camp — I think nominating HRC to the position of Secretary of State would be a huge gesture of party unity, and a sign that Obama is confident enough in himself that he would appoint one of his political adversaries to his cabinet.  I think Hillary Clinton would make a fine Secretary of State, and I would much rather see her in that role than Kerry or Richardson.  It would also give the Clinton’s a vested interested in the success of an Obama administration and would reward her for putting her differences aside and campaigning for him relentlessly during the general election campaign.  A win all around in my book.

But I never hated Hillary Clinton — I just didn’t want her to be President of the United States.  A lot of other Obama supporters are still bitter, which is why they’re pushing this HRC as Machiavelli myth.  If HRC was Machiavelli, she’d be the President-Elect right now.  She’s not.  Which leads me to believe that she probably is a serious contender for Secretary of State.

I’ve been wrong before, though, so who knows if I’m right about this.  Three months from now it could be Chuck Hagel — but right now, I’m hoping this is true.  If it is, it would be a great move and a grand political gesture that helps prove Obama’s argument that he is a concillatory figure.  We’ll see.

Someone needs to tell the bloggers, the mainstream media and Sarah Palin herself that the election is over and it’s time for her to go home.

Seriously, I am so sick of hearing about her. It reminds me of when I was seventeen years old and played a popular supporting role in the school play. After the play was over, I expected my temporary and unexpected celebrity to continue. It didn’t.

Playing to a political base isn’t enough to win elections. It didn’t work for Bob Dole, it didn’t work for John McCain and it certainly didn’t work for Sarah Palin. Beloved by conservatives, the exit polls following the election showed that Palin was pretty much reviled by just about everyone else. And yet here she is at the Republican Governor’s meeting talking about Joe the Plumber and Tito the Builder just like it was still November 3.

If Palin wants another shot, she needs to go back to Alaska, read up on foreign and domestic policy, and come back in four years to show that she’s a radically different candidate. If she doesn’t, then her fifteen minutes are over. There’s no way that Palin as currently defined can win the center.

But hey, at least Camille Paglia still loves her, right?

I’m actually pretty pleased by Obama’s pick of Rahm Emanuel as Chief of Staff. He knows Washington well, he’s tough and independent-minded, and he’s not unwilling to disagree with the President. It’s a testimony to Obama’s ego that he didn’t pick a potential yes-man, such as Tom Daschle. There’s no question that Rahm Emanuel says what he thinks. Also, Emanuel’s close ties to Israel also put to rest the argument that Obama is weak on Middle East issues. Another win. Emanuel is a partisan, but he’s a realist, and from what I’ve read, he has the respect of some on the other side of the aisle.

As for Treasury Secretary, I think Larry Summers would be a huge mistake. He was a bone-headed, tin-eared Harvard President. My preference is for Tim Geithner, who seems a fresher, less controversial figure.

Washington, D.C. is a different city this morning, and America is a different country. I am breathless, and there is a part of me that still doesn’t believe it. We won. Barack Obama is the next President of the United States.

A year ago, I was a lukewarm Hillary Clinton supporter. I liked Obama, his temperament, his intellect, his ideals and integrity. But I was skeptical he could win. As Iowa approached, I was virtually uncommitted, but after his resounding victory, I went all in for him. Iowa proved to me and a lot of other people that he could do it. Last night’s election was proof that we were right.

I was nervous all night, sick to my stomach with anxiety. When Pennsylvania was called, I felt a sudden flood of hope — McCain and Palin worked hard to turn the state, but Obama won it handily. After that, it was nothing but good news, an electoral map expanded past the Kerry states into traditional red states. Ohio, Florida, Virginia, New Mexico, Colorado, Indiana. It’s still hard to believe.

I cycled between all the cable networks, switched to the Call of Duty: World at War beta, and then back to the election.

And suddenly, perhaps surprisingly, the networks called the election for Obama. The city around me was silent, as if my fellow Washingtonians couldn’t believe what had happened, either. And then scattered cheers, horns honking, fireworks could be heard. The sound grew and grew until around 11pm there was a flood of people heading down 16th St past my apartment — white, black, hispanic, young and old. Celebrating, cheering, dancing, hugging. Complete strangers hugging and shaking hands and high-fiving. Terrorist fist bumps.

The revelers took over U Street, some climbed on to of the bus stops and danced on the overhangs. Further down 16th, thousands filled Lafayette Park at the gates to the White House, cheering and waving signs.

Later, McCain offered his stirring and heroic concession speech. For a moment, I forgot about past three months and remembered the great man I backed in 2000. Here he was, ringing in the arrival of Barack Obama with grace and dignity.

And then Obama’s acceptance speech. In my mind there were two great Presidents of the 20th Century, idealogical mirror images — Franklin Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan. One a champion of liberalism, the other conservatism, they shared the ability to rally the nation in a time of crisis and bring us together as one people. While Bush was President of the Republican Party, Roosevelt and Reagan were both President to the nation. Obama’s call for civility, for reconciliation, for working together fits the mold of those two men. Who knows if he can be successful, but the chance is there.

This morning, my co-workers and I stood in the hallway, still somewhat dumbfounded that we pulled it off. Everyone tearing up with emotion, sharing a common bond.

As much as this election means to rank and file Democrats, who felt alienated from the government and unrepresented for the better part of eight years, the significance of Obama’s win has greater value to African Americans.

Just 40 years ago, African Americans could not attend the same schools as whites, couldn’t eat in the same restaurants, ride in the same part of the bus, or work the same jobs. Even with civil rights victories, there was a belief among many African Americans that this country was not their’s. That they weren’t really Americans, that they would never have full citizenship.

And yet this morning, Barack Obama will be the next President. The message to black children across the country is clear — you can do anything. America is yours, too.

Immigrants from countries around the world can look at their child, male or female, and say: You could some day be President. America is yours, too.

Today at work one of my friends, a conservative, came up to me and said: “You should thank me.”

For a moment I was confused.

“It was a hard decision,” he said, “but I voted for Obama.”

I immediately shook his hand and thanked him, because I knew how difficult it was for him. The two of us had discussed the election frequently, and I listened to his concerns, trying to offer my side of things without giving him the hard sell. I don’t believe in being an evangelist, of forcing my views on others. All I can do is give them my side, and let them decide if that changes their mind.

He told me the struggle he and his wife had making up their minds about who to vote for, how they were concerned that Obama’s policies might make it so she lost her job. “But at the end of the day, I had to do it for my son,” he said.

His wife is Brazilian. At first I didn’t understand what he meant, but then it hit me. I understood.

It’s a brand new day. For the first time in a long time, I believe anything is truly possible — that the Bush years can be erased, that America can be great again. It may not happen, but I know it can.

Today the world knows that a majority of Americans — the biggest majority since Reagan — have elected Barack Hussein Obama as their next President. We’re not the country they thought we were — the racist, warmongering brutes that the hypocrites in Europe stereotyped us as. They would never think to elect someone from the working class, let alone a lower middle class man of mixed African and European descent. We are the greatest country on earth, and any American can be President. No other country on the planet can claim the same.

Sorry this is so disjointed. I have so much to say, but no way to express it all.

I am naturally superstitious, so I will make no brash declarations of victory, like many of my friends.  I believe this could be a close race, and people on both sides will be biting their nails for awhile.

I hope for a win, but I am prepared for the worst.  Polls are one thing, but the vote is the real thing.

We’ll see if the polls were right within a few hours.