As if this election weren't important enough. If you need something more competitive to keep your interest in the outcome, Jason is running the The JWM 2004 Election Day Prediction Contest. The winner gets a a shiny new copy of the Political Game, President Forever

The way to win the contest will be to most accurately predict how the Electoral College vote will be distributed. That's right, just like the Constitution, we couldn't care less about the popular vote; it's all about the Electoral College, baby.

I'm not sure what my prediction will be yet - should I try to be cold or analytical or guess what I hope will happen?

Two new things you'll notice on the left bar of my blog:

• The list of recent comments now includes the name of the person who made a comment.
• A form to subscribe to a weekly email of what I have posted to this blog. This is primarily for people who don't use a syndication feed aggregator or just feel more comfortable receiving a plain text email with my latest postings.

It's not a good week for New York teams in playoffs. Despite tying for the worst road record this season, DC United went to the Meadowlands today and beat the rival Metrostars 2 goals to nothing. The return game is at RFK next Saturday, where United enjoy one of the best home records in MLS. Barring a miraculous game from NY, The team should finish off the Metrostars to advance to the conference. The winner of the 2 game series is determined by total goals over both games.

The second half brought a reversal of form as United carried much of the play, attacking the goal in front of a small but boisterous group of supporters who made the journey up I-95 for the match.

One complaint - going to the DC United Website, there is a splash page to buy tickets. If you click on "enter site" that opens a whole new browser window, which is annoyance #1. However, if you just wait a few seconds, you get redirected to the main page.