Politics
pharyngula | November 4, 2008Whew. I just got off my long shift as an election judge — I was filling in for Horton Township, a small, very rural precinct south of Morris, with a registered voting population of 114 people. The good news: 110 votes! The bad news: these guys broke 103:7 for McCain. Ewww. Now that I'm home, though, I see the news is saying Minnesota's electoral votes are going for Obama.
So what else is new? What excitement/dismay/horror are you experiencing as you watch the returns?
I am vastly relieved to see that Obama has won a landslide victory, but I'm not going to say that I'm overjoyed. He's got a…
drorzel | November 4, 2008It seems like everybody with a blog has put up a live-blogging/ open comment thread about the election. I can't really type fast enough to compete in this sort of thing, and anyway, it seems cruel to leave foreigners and apolitical types out of the fun.
So, for the benefit of those who can't vote or don't care, here's a non-election live-blogging/ open thread.
11:12: Put the dog out for "last call." Kate's taken SteelyKid upstairs. This joke has gotten tired, and so have I. G'night, everybody!
9:59: We're going to call it at this time-- SteelyKid is asleep. Time for Comedy Central's election…
oracknows | November 4, 2008...after all, I'm not a political blogger, except occasionally and maybe once every four years. If I'm still blogging four years from now, we'll see if I feel like morphing into a political blogger again, just for one day.
However, I found this nifty little widget that does the job for me:
There, you can just keep coming back to this page to follow election night returns. Of course, it is MSNBC; so its projections may or may not be accurate, but over time it will have to tell the story, as more and more returns come in.
Now, I suppose I'll have to think about analyzing that study that…
revere | November 4, 2008Mrs. R. and I are getting ready for a "game day" dinner (Sloppy Joes and a white bean dip, beer/wine, left over Halloween candy) in front of the TV to watch returns. We'll probably flip around but mainly stay at MSNBC to hear Rachel Maddow's take. As much as I detest Chris Matthews's uninformed superficiality, his palpable pleasure and delight at American politics is fun to watch.
The whole world is watching this election. But in our house it will just be the two of us humans plus Rosie the dog. Which is fine by me.
If you are keeping track via the internet outside the US, here's a place to…
oracknows | November 4, 2008I have a bit of a love-hate thing going for Keith Olbermann of MSNBC news. On the one hand, when he takes down Bill O'Reilly for defaming U.S. troops or Sarah Palin for anti-science idiocy, I have to admit, he's effective and sometimes even amusing. However, like some others, I often find him diving too far into meanness, becoming in essence a left-wing version of Rush Limbaugh or Sean Hannity. That's why I found this SNL parody particularly amusing:
I used to kind of like Keith Olbermann. These days, though, I tend to find him to be almost as much of a blowhard as any rightwing pundit--…
grrlscientist | November 4, 2008tags: Sarah Palin, politics, satire, humor, streaming video
Sarah Palin has such a good idea to put the federal checkbook online -- it's such a good idea that Coburn (R), Obama (D) and McCain (R) already beat her to it .. in 2006. Like, duh! But I shouldn't criticize Sarah because she gives hope to all brain dead poodles that they too, may one day become vice president. [0:53]
jrosenhouse | November 4, 2008Earlier today I puttered on down to the delightfuly named W. H. Kiester Elementary School, conveninetly located right along the shortest route between my house and the big JMU Parking Deck, and cast my vote for Barack Obama. Fearing long lines I brought with me the new issue of Magic magazine, expecting to have some time to read.
As it turned out, I was pretty much the only one there. Presumably things will liven up after work, but I coasted right through. Felt cheated. Now I am sitting in my office, killing time until my 3:30 calculus class, and looking forward to watching the returns…
grrlscientist | November 4, 2008tags: politics, birdie message, image of the day
Image: Bob Levy, author of Club George, 2008 [larger view].
grrlscientist | November 4, 2008tags: Sarah Palin, politics, satire, humor, streaming video
Sarah Palin: This streaming video provides an overview of her experience that makes her the most qualified human being in America to be the vice presidential candidate for the Republican ticket. This shows that all Republicans with an IQ over 100 have wisely abandoned the party long ago [5:38]
gregladen | November 4, 2008I said I might produce one more electoral vote estimate. Instead, I've produced this map (using RCP web resources):
Every state that is blue is a state that Obama will win no matter what. The recent polls all show way beyond the margin of error an Obama victory. Same fr the red states but for McCain.
All but one of the tossup states show, in the most recent polls, statistical uncertainty. Obama and McCain are statistically indistinguishable in all but one of these states.
The exception is Pennsylvania. I leave Pennsylvania a tossup because I don't trust this state (in this particular…
grrlscientist | November 4, 2008tags: God is Hate, christians are haters, religion is organized hate, religion, fundamentalists are everywhere, mindcontrol
The above letter was spoofed and supposedly signed by Alice Shannon of Soldotna, Alaska, and republished by DIGG. However, the original letter was published in the newspaper, The Augusta Chronicle on Monday, October 22, 2001, when all the good religionists in the area were pondering the role of a gawd-inspired terrorist act: the destruction of the World Trade Towers, portions of the Pentagon and the downing of an airliner in an Pennsylvania cornfield -- which…
ddobbs | November 4, 2008
Michelle Rhee
photo by David Deal, from Atlantic Monthly
To my surprise, one of the most-read posts on this mostly-science blog is "Are Teachers Profesionals of Public-Service Workers?", which looked at a NY Times Magazine piece on school reforms by Paul Tough. Tough now has Now there is a piece by Clay Risen* in the current Atlantic Monthly about perhaps the country's most notable school reformer, Washington D.C. Chancellor Michelle Rhee, who is aggressively pushing reforms -- higher-paid, non-tenured teacher contracts among them -- on the D.C. school district.
The nut graf is below.…
pharyngula | November 4, 2008Are you guys up and voting yet? Remember to vote down the horrible little pro-bigotry ballot measure, proposition 8. If you don't believe me, read Charlie Stross's explanation. And if that's still not good enough for you, look who is bankrolling 8: the Knights of Columbus, Howard Ahmanson, Jr. (he's got some money left after keeping the Discovery Institute afloat, apparently), and John Templeton (not the Templeton Foundation, mind you…just the chairman and president contributing as a private individual). Isn't that enough to tell you it must be wrong?
oracknows | November 4, 2008OK, even though I have said time and time again that I rarely do any posts that are strictly political in nature, mainly because political bloggers are a dime a dozen, great political bloggers are rare, and I don't consider myself anything better than an at best passable political blogger. However, when politics intersects my areas of medical interest, I can't resist diving in, and unfortunately, Walter Olson gave me a reason to dive in today. In fact, to some extent he killed my election day buzz about the prospects for an Obama victory and a return to a government that respects science and…
grrlscientist | November 4, 2008tags: Sarah Palin, politics, satire, humor, streaming video
Sarah Palin cannot tell the truth if you held a moose gun to her head, and she proves it while standing in front of her own fellow morons, spouting lies that can easily be proven wrong. Do we want a lying misogynistic asshole like this in the White House, representing this nation to the world? [3:48]
purepedantry | November 4, 2008I always get in arguments with mathematically-inclined people about whether to vote or not. The mathematically-inclined point out very reasonably that the chances of your vote being decisive are perishingly slim.
(These mathematics are explained clearly in this PBS video by economist Gordon Tullock explaining why he does not vote. Hat-tip: Marginal Revolution)
But there is always a part of me that believes there has to be more to the story. My intuition is that if there really was no practical purpose, people wouldn't do it. The behavioral scientist in me argues that if a behavior has no…
awild | November 4, 2008...and the woman behind me was holding a tearful and very disappointed three year old girl.
"She thought we were going 'boating'," she explained.
grrlscientist | November 4, 2008tags: Sarah Palin, Sarah Palin's Kanye West remix, politics, satire, humor, music video, streaming video
Sarah Palin is a contestant on the new game show, Are you Smarter than a Fifth Grader? [1:07]
drorzel | November 4, 2008There aren't any results yet. Turn off the computer.
Go vote. Already voted? Watch some silly videos. Eat a sandwich. Do some freakin' thing. Just stop reloading FiveThirtyEight and Talking Points Memo, already.
Your incessant reloading is slowing my reloads, dammit.