Category: Uncategorized

Election Eve

Just 24 hours until I am stuck in front of the TV, ignoring the kids, eating junk food, forgetting I need to sleep, acting like a sports fan all for an election. I love an election.

And apparently the US election loves this the internets and especially this small bit which has misled people needing the real goods on Kerry’s policies or wanting to find a reliable US election pool. To those lost and finding themselves here…I have nothing for you but the comfort of letting you know that you are not alone, that the internet is a wasteland.

I can’t recall if I followed the 1996 US election on-line. I think I did and it slowed. I do recall the whole web-thang slowed down a whole lot the next time four years ago. Will the infrastruture be robust enough for all the new streaming audio bandwidth, the video and the incessant click-click-click of millions of nerds updating their RSS feeds every 23 seconds. I bet I’ll be listening to radio by 9:43 pm. Radio, the king of media.

US Election Pool IV

UPDATE: two more players Monday morning…names linkified…

OK. I’ve talked it up here, here and here. Two days to go and it is still on and you can still join. Prizes. Real prizes of little or no value. Stuff from around my house. Maybe.

Anyway, here are the picks so far:

Electoral Vote Prez Key States Senate Wild Card
Alan 285K/253B Kerry K: Fla, Pa, Mo, Oh;
B: Me, Co		 48-D, 50-R, 1-I Valesky, NYS, 49th
Hans 270K/268B Kerry K: Fla, Pa, Me, Oh;
B: Mo, Co		 50-D, 50-R, 0-I Delfino, Co Clerk, Roch., NY
Wayne 277B/261K Bush B: Fla, Pa, Mo, Oh;
K: Me, Co		 45-D, 55-R, 0-I Wash St. Aud
Wm Baker (R)
Nicholas 290B/240K/ 4N/1Bad Bush B: Fla, Mo, Co;
K: Me, Pa, Me		 53-R, 46-D, 1-I Smith. Somewhere someone called Smith beats the incumbent.
Ben 305B/233K Bush B: Me, Co, Pa, Mo, Oh;
K: Fla		 52-R, 47-D, 1-I Robert J. Smith, (D), NJ Rep, 4th loses
Ben #2 309B/239K Bush B: 1/3 of Me, Co, Pa, Mo, Oh;
K: 2/3 of Me., Fla		 52-R, 47-D, 1-I Robert J. Smith, (D), NJ Rep, 4th loses
Lisa 274B/264K Bush B: Fla, Co, Mo;
K: Me, Pa, Oh		 50-R, 49-D, 1-I Jim Jeffords. Somewhere he beats the incumbent.
Kateland 300B/238K Bush B: Fla, Co, Mo, Oh;
K: Me, Pa		 51-R, 48-D, 1-I Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, loses
Kim 273K/265B Kerry B: Fla, Mo
K: Me, Pa, Oh, Co		 52-D, 47-R, 1-I Mark Shurtleff, Utah A.-G. will win.
Rob 274K/264B Kerry B: Co, Mo;
K: Fla, Oh, Me, Pa		 50-R, 49-D, 1-I Mo Wiltshire, Ga, W. Dist. wins
David 227K/311B Bush B: Fla
K: Co, Mo, Oh, Me, Pa		 53-R, 46-D, 1-I Dave picks Wayne’s pick.

DIG THAT TABLE!!! First I ever created with my own blood, sweat and tears.

Once again, here are the rules:

  • Electoral College overall: 50 points for being spot on, one point lost for every electoral college vote off +/- for the winner. No points for being 50 or
    over off score.
  • President: 30 points for naming the winner.
  • Key States: 10 points for picking the winner in the following states correctly – Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Maine, Missouri, Colorado.
  • Senate: 20 points for for being spot on, four points lost for every senate seat off +/- for the final count of the majority.
  • Wild card: Pick your own non-Federal race at any level down to local district attorney for an incumbant to lose. 20 points if you picked right.

Join in the fun. Play today. We give prizes.

Know Thy Enemy

From The New York Times this morning:

You’d think that seeing Osama looking fit as a fiddle and ready for hate would spark anger at the Bush administration’s cynical diversion of the war on Al Qaeda to the war on Saddam. It’s absurd that we’re mired in Iraq – an invasion the demented vice president praised on Friday for its “brilliance” – while the 9/11 mastermind nonchalantly pops up anytime he wants. For some, it seemed cartoonish, with Osama as Road Runner beeping by Wile E. Bush as Dick Cheney and Rummy run the Acme/Halliburton explosives company – now under F.B.I. investigation for its no-bid contracts on anvils, axle grease (guaranteed slippery) and dehydrated boulders (just add water). Osama slouched onto TV bragging about pulling off the 9/11 attacks just after the president strutted onto TV in New Hampshire with 9/11 families, bragging that Al Qaeda leaders know “we are on their trail.” Maybe bin Laden hasn’t gotten the word. Maybe W. should get off the trail and get on Osama’s tail.

What has been bouncing around my brain is what happened in Madrid. What if today, two days before the election, there was an attack which killed one thousand people. Who would be blamed? Who would benefit on Tuesday? In Spain the attack was taken to be the reason that the hard-line government was voted out. But wasn’t the attack proof that the hard-line government had failed – not only was it being perceived as lying to the populace but it had not kept a public space secure. Similarly, if an explosion were to occur in the next few days or hours, would it not be cause to reject the incumbant as incompetant? Or would it be the basis for staying the course, either as unthinking comfort or wisely choosing stability. It is a bit of a mug’s game, back seat driving. A country as resiliant as the USA ought to be able to face their fear with confidence and strength.

Apparently, the polls since the latest Osama tape show just that – no change in voting intentions is being noted. The wisdom of the people will play out regardless of what is being attempted outside the voting booth. What is more troubling is the effort to alter the results within the booth, to keep the legitimate electors out and to get illegitimate ones in. From the transcript of the rejected Republican effort to get over 900 people – all legitimate voters it turns out – off the voters list in Ohio:

Mr. Lou Wray, you challenged my husband, and we live in the same neighborhood. Okay? But you’ve never met us a day in our lives, hard-working individuals. My husband is a full-time student at Kent State University, where I also possess a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree. We work hard just like you do, trying to make our livings, trying to prove ourselves in this world to get to the point where we’re 80 years old, like you. But you signed your name to 200 documents of people you have never, ever met a day in your life, challenging our right to vote. And you don’t even know whether we live? in Tallmadge, Ohio. You have no idea. Somebody just called you on the phone and asked you to do a favor and you said okay. And now you look foolish standing up here saying, “I don’t know. They just called me on the phone. I don’t have anything.” You look silly.

If almost one thousand voters were to be put off the voters list because of efforts like this (and yes, equally, if as many illegitimate one added) or if almost one thousand people die in an evil act of terror geared to alter the outcome, are these not comparable attacks on democracy? That is as loaded as way of putting it as I could imagine reading but I can’t figure out how to say it less coarsely. Help me on this one if you can.