5 Days

Only 5 days until Election Day. If you’re not already registered to vote, then you’re hosed, at least here in Austin. You have to be registered 30 days prior to the election in which you’d like to vote. If you are registered, get your ass out there and do it.

Here’s a few things to read an think about over the weekend as you prepare to make your decision:

• Hearts and Brains – Scott sent this New Yorker commentary by Hendrik Hertzberg. It pretty well sums things up.
• Election, economy and the price of gas – I’m not generally one for conspiracy theories and it seems like this is too complicated to be easily manipulated, but I’m taking note of the current gas price. Let’s see where it is in December or January.
• The Great Divider – I agree with this 100%. So much for the “compassionate conservative”.
• Fuck Them – The Rude Pundit on why you should vote against the Republicans this time around. As usual, he doesn’t beat around the Bush (sorry).

It’s impossible not to bring up the recent flap over Kerry’s “joke” in the context of all of this. There’re tons of people across the blogosphere who’ve made valid points about this. It’s a perfect illustration of how screwed up things are right now. I never liked Kerry. I’m still wondering how he got the nomination. At the same time, it’s obvious what he intended when he botched the lame-ass joke, as obvious as what Dick Cheney meant when he referred to waterboarding as a “no-brainer”. Creating a flap over this is just distracting from more important things and the media is a more than willing participant.