Recount gives us stunning view of voters and their wily ways

Recount gives us stunning view of voters and their wily ways

The recount has taught us much. So far we know there are several reasons a ballot can be invalidated.

1. Ballot traced to Mr. Bing Bong 007 Rabbit-Piano, 123 Fake St., Bemidji, Uranus. Really, c'mon. Fake Street was renamed Falsehood Drive 10 years ago. Someone's using old maps.

2. Ballot discovered at the last moment in the back room in a box under some Tiger Beat magazines with Eric Estrada on the cover, and the guy who brings it in also offers to sell you 40 cartons of cigarettes and some DVD players.

3. Ballots certified by a precinct captain who, when asked for his credentials, shouts FOILED! FOILED AGAIN!, shoots a grappling hook into the ceiling using a gun concealed in his utility belt, and is lifted through a skylight to a waiting helicopter above. He promises to come back with proper ID but never does.

4. Ballot is so ideologically inconsistent it appears the dude was just messing with us.

5. Ballot traced to voter who left booth muttering that it must be one of those automatic flush things because he didn't hear nothing and couldn't find a knob.

From James Lileks at the Star-Tribune. One of the comments: "Lileks is about 1/3 as clever as he thinks he is."

Catch you later.....

Very, very nice.

This is nice. From the Omaha World Hearald, my old home town. Enjoy!

One electoral vote still outstanding in NE-2 (Omaha Metro).

Maybe we'll be able to call it Obamaha?

(H/T to RisingHegemon)

Catch you later.....

Update: I am proud to be from Obamaha! Obama wins the electoral vote of NE-2!

See that little blue island in eastern Nebraska? My peeps!

(Map from 538)

Local Poll Update - Record Turnout Expected!

As of 4:20pm (PST) the wonderful ladies running the polling place down in our community clubhouse report that 55% or more of eligible voters had already voted.

The crew was girding up for the big rush to vote after work.

They assured me our precinct would be setting a record turnout.

This on a day when the weather did it's best to keep people home. Half of our patient schedule at work this AM rescheduled due to the weather.

Catch you later.....

I Voted - In the Rain - You?

For me, it's all over but the counting. Let it be on the up & up.

Posting later with local notes and the LAST "Honest McCain Campaign Poster".

GOBama, No on H8te!

Catch you later.....

Pre-emptive ejection: Audience members removed at McCain rally in Cedar Falls

From the Iowa State Daily:

Audience members escorted out of Sen. John McCain’s, R-Ariz., campaign event in Cedar Falls questioned why they were asked to leave Sunday’s rally even though they were not protesting.

David Zarifis, director of public safety for the University of Northern Iowa, said McCain staffers requested UNI police assist in escorting out “about four or five” people from the rally prior to McCain’s speech.

...Lara Elborno, (see photo/Jon Lemons-Iowa State Daily) a student at the University of Iowa, said she was approached by a police officer and a McCain staffer and was told she had to leave or she would be arrested for trespassing.

...She said McCain staffers wouldn’t tell her why she was being asked to leave and when she got outside, she saw “a group of about 20 people” who had all been asked to leave.

...“When I started talking to them, it kind of became clear that they were kind of just telling people to leave that they thought maybe would be disruptive, but based on what? Based on how they looked,” Elborno said. “It was pretty much all young people, the college demographic.”

...“I saw a couple that had been escorted out and they were confused as well, and the girl was crying, so I said ‘Why are you crying? and she said ‘I already voted for McCain, I’m a Republican, and they said we had to leave because we didn’t look right,’” Elborno said. “They were handpicking these people and they had nothing to go off of, besides the way the people looked.”

And they wonder why they're behind?

We are witness to one of the worst run campaigns of my lifetime. If they can't effectively run a campaign, what would lead us to believe they are capable of running the government?


I wonder if the crying McCain voter might want a mulligan?


H/T to the Booman Tribune

Catch you later.....

Colin Powell on McCain's Negative Campaigning

Well said, good timing.

Catch you later.....

Honest McCain Poster #48 - he's really old edition

I wish to state, for the record, that if something, anything, untoward happens to Barack Obama, next week, next year, ten years from now, I am going to hold John McCain, Sarah Palin, Fox News, and the "base" responsible.

In the course of my day in our clinic, I speak to many different people from all parts of our society. And the chatter the last ten days or so has been all about the election and the economy.

There is a growing sense of a hopeful outcome from the 'regular folks', a sense that this time will be different, better.


Amongst certain other folks, however, there seems to be a growing sense of anger, frustration and, yes, violent impulse. I can't believe some of what I hear from people I have treated as a health care pro for 6+ years now. These are people I have cared for personally and professionally, have come to think of as part of our "extended family".


What I hear makes me fear for Sen. Obama's safety and that of his family. This isn't the anonymous bullshit we see too frequently on line. It's from mouth to ear, face to face and I see real hate in it.


And I blame the McCain campaign, top to bottom, for it.


It is in Sen. McCain's power to douse this fire, ignore it or to fuel it. Let his character at last be revealed.


Catch you later.....

The Thinking Man - You Tube

See, I told you so.

Catch you later.....

Sub Prime Voter

Nice base you've got there, Sen McSellout. (from BrettMarty.com via 538)

Jeebus must be so proud of you.

Catch you later.....

Sad, But True...

The Washington Monthly

The McCain/Palin ticket is the first in American history in which both candidates were found to have violated ethics standards before a national election.

Now that's experience you can count on!

Catch you later.....

McCain's attacks fuel dangerous hatred -- baltimoresun.com

McCain's attacks fuel dangerous hatred -- baltimoresun.com:

By Frank Schaeffer

October 10, 2008

John McCain: If your campaign does not stop equating Sen. Barack Obama with terrorism, questioning his patriotism and portraying Mr. Obama as "not one of us," I accuse you of deliberately feeding the most unhinged elements of our society the red meat of hate, and therefore of potentially instigating violence....

...Shame!...

...You have changed. You have a choice: Go down in history as a decent senator and an honorable military man with many successes, or go down in history as the latest abettor of right-wing extremist hate....

...Stop! Think! Your rallies are beginning to look, sound, feel and smell like lynch mobs.

Accusing your opponent of treason during a time of armed conflict and economic collapse is some pretty serious stuff.

Most of the treasonous behaviour I've seen lately comes the current administration.

One of my fondest dreams is to see Bush & Co. in the docks faced by the mountains of evidence of their criminality.

Obama is guilty alright. Guilty of being a fine, decent, hard-working, intelligent, patriotic Senator, devoted husband and loving father. Guilty of putting his own life at risk of mob violence or a lone gunman in an effort to make a positive difference for his family, friends and fellow American citizens in a time of crisis.

A crisis for which he is largely blameless.

And yet, while the GOPers whine and fling poo from their cages, Obama only seeks to unite us in common purpose in search of solutions, for the sake of the nation. And to implement those solutions while handcuffed by the sorry state of affairs brought on by the real criminals, the real traitors, whom he seeks to replace.

So, who is it that's really demonstrating patriotism here? Who's showing class?

Catch you later.....

(Image by Dutchlad, Flikr)

The You Tube Generation's First Election

The power of the InterTubes in national elections is vastly underestimated by people who should know better..

Barack Obama is redefining 21st Century politics.

Catch you later.....

Presidential Debates - Sept. 26, 2008 - League of Democracies, Bitches!

I have GOT to get a keyboard cover!

10:04, McCain responds to the issue of Iran with his "League of Democracies" idea. That's weird, especially because American neo-cons are the only people outside the comic book world who believe in the League of Democracies.

ROTFLMAO.

Catch you later.....

P.S. What's with the drooping left eyelid? As an eye care professional since 1975, I suspect much, none of it good, and wonder when America will be given a deserved look at all of Sen. McCain's medical records. After all, if elected, he would be the oldest President ever at the time of Inauguration. Does Sarah scare you yet?

P.P.S. 7:35 PDT McCain slips "Noun, verb, POW!" into the close. Jeebus...

The Raw Story | Bush Administration will keep secret 'grim' Afghanistan report quiet until after election

The Raw Story Bush Administration will keep secret 'grim' Afghanistan report quiet until after election:

A secret US intelligence report which says the political and military situation in Afghanistan is "grim" will be withheld from the public until after the election, a new report says.

Intelligence officials are finishing up the National Intelligence Estimate on Afghanistan, according to ABC's Brian Ross, "but there are 'no plans to declassify' any of it before the election," an official said.

Is this what McCranky means when he claims to put country before party? Hypocrites!

Catch you later.....

(photo by Violinsoldier/Flikr)

Economist: McCain's Campaign: Lying, cynical, Divisive

It's clear from across the pond. Maybe we're too close?

America not quite at its best (final paragraph):

"What Mrs Palin does do, as a committed pro-lifer, is to ensure that the evangelical wing of the Republican party will turn out in their multitudes. Mr McCain has thus placed abortion, the most divisive cultural issue in America, at the centre of his campaign. His defenders claim that it is too big an issue to be ignored, that he has always opposed abortion, that culture wars are an inevitable part of American elections, and that it was only when he appointed Mrs Palin that the American public started to listen to him. All this is true: but the old Mr McCain, who derided the religious right as “agents of intolerance”, would not have stooped to that."

Reading the foreign press is a great way to step back and see the forest for the trees. Read it for yourself. From their point of view, it must look like "Inherit the Wind" is a current events documentary.

Thank god the GOP is there to protect the right-to-life of the HPV virus.

Schmucks!

Catch you later.....

Image courtesy of AnitWarPosters.com

Thanks, Georgie, you're doin' a heck of a job!

Retail gasoline price hits record: AAA - Yahoo! News

Remember when the war in Iraq was going to pay for itself?

TOM TOMORROW:

http://www.salon.com/comics/tomo/2008/03/10/tomo/

One extremely gratifying aspect of the Web is the ease with which one can go back and look anew at the lunacy of the Neocons and their demon-partners, the "religious" right.

Together, I think with malicious intent, these marginally aware, minimally conscious groups have brought us to the brink of the destruction of the American Dream. Out of pure avarice. Greed. The lust for power.

And in John McLame they offer us 4 more years of this mindless crap, with the added attraction of an anger management problem.

Meanwhile, democrats, progressives, liberals, whatever are fighting among themselves like a bunch of jealous sisters around prom time. Jeebus people, look at the stakes, grow a spine and get down to the dirty work that lies ahead.

Impeach Already! Protect the Constitution!

I've been looking hard at this on-line, learn Chinese at home deal, 'cause it looks like it'll be more important here in So-Cal than even Spanish before long. We're giving the store away!

The inter-personal, intra-party B.S. going on in the Netroots, cable news, and elsewhere is, frankly, disgusting, especially given the long term stakes.

Supreme Court, anyone?

Admiral Fallon's departure today does not bode well for the near term future. Think Bush will go for a hat-trick? Three wars in one Administration! War with Iran! Because Iraq was a typo?!

Our culture, history, current level of education, awareness does not bode well for taking the long view. Something that opposing entities (nations, philosophies, religions, whatever) seem to do easily.

Enlightened Self-Interest Anyone?

Catch you later.....

Threats of violence toward Obama & his supporters

I wonder if this is something that the Secret Service should be made aware of?

I won't link to it because the authors don't deserve the hits, however, in a YouTube video with the disgusting title "Barack and Michelle Obama Supporters are Retards", one finds in the comments section a discussion about how much fun it would be to sit on a hill (adult carrot?) and take pot shots at Obama and his supporters with a "sniper rifle" and an "AR-15".

I'm a huge fan of the First Ammendment but are violent threats protected speech?

Are threats of violence ever funny?

Perhaps a sign of the right's desperation, definitely an indicator of the lack of decency of some on the Web, but most assuredly a sign of small, angry minds. Imagine the outcry from the Wingnuts if a liberal poster laughed at the idea of shooting Mr 19% and his fans.

Catch you later.....

This Modern World - GOP Dream or Nightmare?

This Modern World Salon Comics

And Now For Something Completely Different.....

My vote in today's California primary was for Barack Obama.

I believe he offers the best hope for a different, kinder, saner path toward our future as a nation.

I believe he offers the best hope to improve America's standing in the eyes of the world.

I believe he can inspire us to work together for a better future for ourselves and our heirs.

I believe I feel better about this vote than any since I placed my mark for McGovern.

It's time to reclaim America, this is my champion.

Catch you later.....

Groundswell? "I like Obama", says Ike’s granddaughter.

Hillary about to face Super Tuesday Shocker?

I like Obama, says Ike’s granddaughter - Tales from the Trail: 2008

Seems to me that there is a very significant move from all around the political spectrum toward Barack Obama and his message of hope and change.

I'm putting Hillary's presumptive nomination on an involuntary 72 hour hold.

Catch you later.....