The readme.blog goes ahead and does something I have proven too lazy and stupid to do myself, and generates a regex hardcore blacklist.txt file for use with MT-Blacklist on Movable Type. Smaller. meaner, more brutal in the administering of frontier justice. So, of course, I like it.
The reasoning behind said list is in this post.
Voted at my traditional time(mid-afternoon) here in Urbana, IL. No line, but their was a woman going through the provisional ballot process. She didn't seem like she was taking any guff, and was going to vote, no matter what.
Got my ballot, punched my holes, went to turn it in, and demanded my "I voted" sticker. The guy dropping the ballots informed me that they were out of stickers, and had called to the central office, requesting more stickers. The person at central stated "Yeah, you and every other polling place".
Apparently lots of voting is occuring out there.
My sister votes at a different polling place, and reports that she voter 305 out of a potential total of 500 possible. And this was at 4:115PM, and for most people work hasn't even let out yet.
The youth vote never actually materializes, and every candidate that counts on it wakes up the next day and says "Why didn't I pay more attention to senior citizens".
Chris Matthews then says "if the kids show up, this is a runaway Kerry win".
I don't think it's actualy the youth vote, I think it is the first time voter.
So, go vote, and fuck with Joe Scarborough and history.
Lord knows those two have had it coming for years.
First, being interviewed by Chris Matthews(hilarious by itself), and then he goes over the influences on this election, and says ads, 527's, news, and then says(paraphrasing here)"you can not overestimate the influence of the internet on this election".
Pick up jaw.
And then he said "Some of these sites get over a thousand hits per hour!".
And I smiled, and the universe returned to normal.
Traditionally, as best as it could be understood, given the current administration's penchant for secrecy, the President has been either shielded from harsh facts, or has been using the force of his office to reject facts brought to him by his staff.
Word on the ground is that the professional political managers know exactly what is going to happen tomorrow, and that is the President is going to lose.
Now, everyone puts forward a bold face, that victory for your man is obviously inevitable, but everyone knows what the real numbers are.
What if the party operatives of the current administration know what is going to happen, and believe they are going to lose?
Given the history of the current administration, the record of not bringing hard facts to the table if they don't fit policy, what are the odds tha George has already lost, and everyone is drawing straws(and ensuring that the short straw goes to that shit Karl) on who is going to have to give the bad news to the President?
I'd pay money to see that.
Look for Bush to concede.
The current administration will seek the goodwill available from concession, and then claim they were robbed during the election.
But they will look to have it both ways; bigger men, looking out for the nation, by conceding(even though they will have lost decisively), and victims of fraudulent elction process.
Go read Al Gore's concession speech, and watch the party machine of the Republican's claim that they were defrauded of victory.
When the Democratic party's representative conceded in 2000, the Democratic party did not claim that they were defrauded in the lection, individuals, did. The party did not.
When Bush loses, he will graciouslt concede, and the party will go to war on the legitimacy of the Kerry presidency.
Very different. But it won't be noted as a difference in the press.