End of Silence

Ezra links a few bits of advice. I think the Paul Waldman comments underestimate the characteristics that generally go along with being a candidate from the South. It’s not THE factor, but so many things go with it as a general rule that it’s probably safe to say that type of candidate will fare better.

Locally at least, Lloyd Doggett won fairly handily. I can look forward to his representation for another two years. David Van Os lost his race. It’s somewhat heartening to see that Barack Obama kicked the junk out of Alan Keyes.

When I heard this morning that the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had overturned rulings yesterday from two different U.S. District judges, the first thing I wondered was who appointed the judges to overturn the ruling. I have my answer and, unfortunately, it falls along party lines. The two judges who overturned the rulings were appointed by Republican presidents.

Aren’t judges supposed to be impartial? While I’m not familiar with the Ohio law, it seems to me that the polling officials should be the ones to decide whether or not to challenge a voter’s eligbility, not some partisan observer, whether they’re Republican, Democrat, Libertarian, Green or whatever. There shouldn’t be any partisan people screwing with the voters in the polling place. Period. Anything else just seems wrong to me. WTF?

I’ll qualify the subject line of this post adding the Trey Parker/Matt Stone rule. If somehow you’re too brain dead to have actually researched the candidates, stay the fuck home.

I’ll be interested to see how the Technorati: Votes page turns out by the end of the day. I oppose Bush and, tentatively, I support Kerry even though I ultimately decided to vote Libertarian this year. I had to defend my self this morning to a co-worker. I’m once again reasoning the same way I did in 2000. I really am not happy with either candidate in the presidential election. While I’m also not thrilled with Michael Badnarik, it’s certain that he won’t win and keeping my vote from Kerry won’t affect the electoral votes for Texas. Those votes are going to Bush. My Libertarian vote is a protest to both the two-party-system and the electoral college. The Libertarians generally have a reputation for being a little too out there for most people and I totally agree. However, I think some of the more moderate viewpoints are legitimate. What I really need is a party that mixes the Libertarians and Democrats.

I voted Libertarian in a few of the local races, but generally went for the Democrats. I withheld my vote from the elections with only one choice. Can anyone explain to me what the point is of including a race with a single choice on the ballot? This always annoys the crap out of me. Do they do this in other states?

My polling place was slightly more crowded than usual, but not too bad. I can’t possibly fathom how you could be, but If you’re registered, are on the fence and need a nudge one way or the other, read this.

Oh yeah and this is just marvelous. I’m hoping there’s some Chicken Little disease going on over there, but I guess you can’t be too safe. Is anyone in charge of the machines actually going to listen to them?

I couldn’t track down a transcript on the Fox News site. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised at all to hear this.

Lynne “Indignant Mom” Cheney said this of John Kerry’s mention of her lesbian thirtysomething daughter in the third presidential debate, “This is not a good man. What a cheap and tawdry political trick.”

Well, apparently, it’s not ok to mention your already out adult daughter who worked as a gay and lesbian PR person for Coors and is also Director of Vice Presidential Operations for her father’s re-election campaign, but it is ok to dress your 7-year-old granddaughter up as the grim reaper and parade her around at a campaign appearance.