*facepalm*

This is where I work. (Gainesville, that is, not the McCain field office.)

The McCain campaign invited me to visit Frederick and the Gainesville operation on Saturday morning, to get a first-hand glimpse of its ground game in Prince William County, Virginia, a fast-growing area about 30 miles from Washington, D.C.

With so much at stake, and time running short, Frederick did not feel he had the luxury of subtlety. He climbed atop a folding chair to give 30 campaign volunteers who were about to go canvassing door to door their talking points — for instance, the connection between Barack Obama and Osama bin Laden: "Both have friends that bombed the Pentagon," he said. "That is scary." It is also not exactly true — though that distorted reference to Obama's controversial association with William Ayers, a former 60s radical, was enough to get the volunteers stoked. "And he won't salute the flag," one woman added, repeating another myth about Obama. She was quickly topped by a man who called out, "We don't even know where Senator Obama was really born." Actually, we do; it's Hawaii.

Over at FiveThirtyEight.com, in addition to the stats nerd overload, there's been an interesting ongoing series on the ground games for both campaigns. Interesting reading. I know in my neighborhood I've seen canvassing for Obama, but the only sign I've seen of McCain supporters has been the one neighbor at the back of the subdivision who's ignoring the HOA covenants and has yard signs for McCain and "Women for McCain". (We're not allowed, according to the HOA, to put up political signs in our yards or windows.)

Austin Powers, That's Not My Name

And now on a less "WTF?" note: over the weekend I caught this mashup of the Ting Tings "That's Not My Name" and the Austin Powers theme; I think they work really together well.

While I'm linking to videos, have a DOGGIE ON A TRAMAMPOLINE! TRABOPOLINE!