joyfulchristian

The good news is

So today I went to the doctor to get shots again.  The good news is that my headache is gone again. Yay!

The bad news is that these shots make my neck really sore.

Oh well.  It's definitely worth the discomfort to get a few weeks at a time without major pain.

So what should we make of the much bally-hooed 100,000 death estimate?

It's worthless.  So says Fred Kaplan. (Link via Winds of Change)

The report's authors derive this figure by estimating how many Iraqis died in a 14-month period before the U.S. invasion, conducting surveys on how many died in a similar period after the invasion began (more on those surveys later), and subtracting the difference. That difference—the number of "extra" deaths in the post-invasion period—signifies the war's toll. That number is 98,000. But read the passage that cites the calculation more fully:

We estimate there were 98,000 extra deaths (95% CI 8000-194 000) during the post-war period.

Readers who are accustomed to perusing statistical documents know what the set of numbers in the parentheses means. For the other 99.9 percent of you, I'll spell it out in plain English—which, disturbingly, the study never does. It means that the authors are 95 percent confident that the war-caused deaths totaled some number between 8,000 and 194,000. (The number cited in plain language—98,000—is roughly at the halfway point in this absurdly vast range.)

This isn't an estimate. It's a dart board.

It just gets better from there.

A chance for peace

CNN, quoting "senior Palestinian officials" reports that Yasser Arafat is dead.   

Yasser Arafat was a terrorist and a murderer.  The incessant cries that Israel must negotiate with this "partner for peace" were one of the major obstacles to peace in the region.  That, and Arafat's desire to slaughter all the Jews.

Do I think peace will come over night now?  Of course not.  There's likely to be lots of blood shed.  There's a pretty good chance that this will trigger a Palestinian civil war.  But, for once, there's a light at the other end of the tunnel that might, might, turn out not to be a train.

For the non-French speaking

... Martin Devon offers a translation.

While I'm thinking about it

This post reminds me of something; when I was a kid my parents used to pour Coke and Dr. Pepper together and call it Cherry Coke.  I never understood that.  Is any one else familiar with this phenomenon?

Lovely

You know how sometimes you'll get a song stuck in your head, but you can't remember all the words?  And you know how some people say a particular word or phrase in such a distinctive manner that you know it has to be them?

Well, combine the two.  Right now I've got the same phrase running through my head over and over in a very particular way.  I can hear it in my mind clear as day and I know that some friend of mine says it just that way.  I just can't remember who!

It's driving me crazy! (Or driving me sane, depending on your view of where I was before.)

No story here. Move along.

The Washington Post reports:

Seoul, South Korea, Nov. 7 (UPI) -- Newly declassified documents revealed the United States planned as recently as 1998 to drop nuclear bombs on North Korea if the country attacked South Korea.

As part of "scenario 5027," 24 F15-E bombers flew simulation missions at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base in North Carolina to drop mock nuclear bombs on a firing range between January and June 1998, the Korea Times reported Sunday.

The revelation followed claims by a South Korean lawmaker that the U.S. drew up plans to launch preemptive strikes on key targets in North Korea in 1994.

This isn't news.  Well, it shouldn't be news.  We've had nuclear weapons in our arsenal for 60 years people.  It shouldn't come as a shock that we have battle plans that involved, THE HORROR, actually using them.

It's not a poor reflection on the Clinton administration that they had plans in the hopper that involved nuking North Korea.  Indeed, it would have been highly irresponsible for them not to have such plans.

No one in their right mind wants nuclear war.  Unfortunately, there are possible scenarios in which using them would be necessary.  Any administration that refuses to admit that possibility is way to pollyannish to be in the White House.

Oh boy!

If this happens, the liberals are going to hit the fan:

President Bush has launched an internal review of the pros and cons of nominating Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas as the chief justice if ailing William Rehnquist retires, the DRUDGE REPORT has learned.

A top White House source familiar with Bush's thinking explains the review of Thomas as chief justice is one of several options currently under serious consideration. But Thomas is Bush's personal favorite to take the position, the source claims.

Personally, I think it's a great choice.  This would, however, mean two confirmations to replace one justice.  It's too early to decide how much more difficult two confirmation battles would be instead of one.

Update:  I suppose it's also possible that Thomas could be offered up as a sacrifical lamb that the liberals would exhaust themselves trying to slaughter.  After that, just about any one could get confirmed.  Although, if we're going to do that, I'd prefer we put up someone who isn't all that interested in being a judge but that is extremely conservative.  A couple of years ago someone suggested that Bush nominate Ann Coulter in that role.  Now that would be hilarious to watch.

Now that's a turn of phrase

BlackFive says, "Lawrence O'Donnell is nuttier than pachyderm poop." Read the rest.

Ha-ha!

And you think you have it bad?

Haven't found any inspiration today ...

... er, yesterday.  I think I'll just throw out a few random observations.

1. Bush won.  I'm quite glad.  Unlike some, I'm not a big Bush booster.  I think there are all manner of unwise, not to mention just plain unconservative, things that he has done which will set the conservative movement back some.  However, he has the vision and the will to take the fight to the enemy.  In the long run, that's the only way we'll have peace.

Do I wish we had someone who had both the vision to take the fight to the terrorist and the convictions to assert conservative principals here?  Sure.  But that choice wasn't in the cards and you've got to play the hand you were dealt.  Soon after 9/11 some conservatives in England were taking pot shots at Tony Blair.  Someone, I wish I could remember who, in response to this said something along the lines of, "Hey, we can fight about the course of the future of Western Civilization after we've made sure it has one.  That's pretty much how I feel about Bush.

Does that mean I'm not going to criticize when I think he makes mistakes?  Of course not!  It does mean though that this  is a serious time and not a point in history that can well tolerate the scoring of cheap political points rather than reasoned debate.  Oppose the President's policies if you must, but make absolutely certain you don't do so that hampers the defense of this nation.

• It boggles my mind that so many of the actors in the Lord of the Rings trilogy call it an anti-war story.  Tolkien certainly didn't like war and he certainly doesn't make it look pretty or idylic, but one of the ongoing themes of the story is that there are some things worth fighting for.
• In other mind-boggling action, the "Bush stole this election too" meme has already begun.  I particularly like this theory:

I know you don't want to hear it. You can't face one more hung chad. But I don't have a choice. As a journalist examining that messy sausage called American democracy, it's my job to tell you who got the most votes in the deciding states. Tuesday, in Ohio and New Mexico, it was John Kerry.

Most voters in Ohio thought they were voting for Kerry. At 1:05 a.m. Wednesday morning, CNN's exit poll showed Kerry beating Bush among Ohio women by 53 percent to 47 percent. The exit polls were later combined with—and therefore contaminated by—the tabulated results, ultimately becoming a mirror of the apparent actual vote. [To read about the skewing of exit polls to conform to official results, click here .] Kerry also defeated Bush among Ohio's male voters 51 percent to 49 percent. Unless a third gender voted in Ohio, Kerry took the state.

So what's going on here? Answer: the exit polls are accurate. Pollsters ask, "Who did you vote for?" Unfortunately, they don't ask the crucial, question, "Was your vote counted?" The voters don't know.

Do you get that?  When faced with the fact that the exit polls do not match the election results, this wacky theory asserts that exit polls are right and the actual count is wrong.  The assertion here is that the exit poll results are prima facia evidence of massive voter fraud.  However, not one shred of actual evidence of voter fraud.  A theory is advanced about how such fraud could have been covered up, but that's all.

I find this truly bizarre.  There is no such thing as absolute certainty in polling.  Even the best polling techniques can occassionally generate bizarre results.  If you look at the polling results over an extended period of time on almost any issue, you will occassionally see one set of results stand far outside the trend lines, only for the very next poll to drop back into the expected range?  Does this mean that for a brief point of time public opinion shifted drastically and the shifted right back?  Well, it could mean that, but the more likely explanation was that the sample chosen failed to be representative of the population in some manner that was either undetectable by the pollsters, or was beyond their control.

Isn't it possible that the exit polls are right, but something went horribly wrong with the official count?  Sure, it's possible, but that doesn't mean it's true.  It is a piece of circumstantial evidence, but barring other supporting evidence, it doesn't really mean much.  Polls are designed to give us advance notice of public opinion.  They weren't designed to measure the accuracy of the official results and attempting to use them as the sole evidence of voter fraud is just silly.

• I worry a lot.  I don't mean that I worry in the sense that I sit around dreading that bad things are about to happen.  However, I do spend an inordinate amount of time trying to figure out if some small thing has been over looked.  I worry about plans that I have.  I worry about friends and family.  I worry that some of my friends don't seem to worry enough.  You'd think all that worrying would wear me down, but it doesn't seem to.
• Butterfingers are really good.
• So are blueberries.
• The Internet Movie Data Base is really cool.
• In addition to my belief that John Kerry fundamentally misunderstands the national security issues of the day and that he's been wrong on almost every foreign policy decesion for pretty much as long as I've been alive, there was another good reason I'm glad he lost.  Can you imagine Theresa as First Lady?  This woman is to eccentric like the Grand Canyon is to the drainage ditch by my house.  She makes Joycelyn Elders look normal.
• If President Bush is absolutely intent on having a Democrat as Secretary of Transportation, is it too much to ask that he replace Norm Maneta with Joe Lieberman or someone else who has a clue?
• I've  been toying with the idea of setting up a website totally devoted to getting Eugene Volokh appointed to the Supreme Court.  Of course, the facts that he doesn't seem that interested in the idea, I can't actually think of any effective ideas to put on said site, and I doubt I'd actually want to spend the additional time for any protracted period kinda throw hot water on the deal.
• The coolest sentence in history appeared in the Douglas Adams book Life, the Universe, and Everything.  It came when Marvin the Paranoid Android said of Trillian, "The young girl is the least benightedly unintelligent being it has every been my extreme displeasure not to be able to avoid meeting."
• If I hadn't watched the bonus features on the DVD for The Patriot I'd have had no idea how much CGI they used in that movie.
• As a tax accountant I have a healthy dislike for auditing.  I've often said that for me auditing is a lot like molecular biology; it's important work and I'm glad someone's doing it, but I'm even more glad that the someone is not me.
• For any of you who might be studying to take the CPA exam, you should know that I've done every thing in my power to make sure we only write tax simulations that are impossible to finish in less than 8 hours.¹
• I find that when I have lots of free time (on long drives, for instance), that I tend to spend lots of time figuring out what I'd do if I suddenly came in to insane amounts of money.  I've worked out that they're are a couple of non-profit entities I'd like to set up, that I'd set trusts for several family members and friends, and that I'd like to make sure they're kids were taken care of too. (I've even thought about who would get how much money and what the terms of the trusts would be.)  About the only thing I can think of for myself would be getting some airplanes and learning how to fy.  And yes, I know this is weird.  What's your point?
• TypePad has installed a new interface.  It's taking some getting used to, but it is WYSIWYG, which is very cool.
• I just love typing WYSIWG.
• I wonder if Dave Barry could use that as a rock band name?
• And speaking of Dave Barry, wouldn't you just love to be on this flight?  What does constitute an Emotional Support Animal?  Can I bring my Hungry Hippo?
• Last week I got to see a bunch of family including my cousin Richard's newborn little boy and my cousin Jenny's 5 kids.  Being at Jenny's house reminded me that there is nothing in the world like seeing a little kid's face light up because they're so happy to see you.  A couple of years ago I was driving to Amarillo and I'd told my parents I probably wouldn't be in until 11:30.  Apparently the kids had been begging to stay up until I got there.  When I showed up two hours early Jenny's youngest met me at the door, jumped up to grab me by the neck, and yelled, "You're here!"  She's 13 now and grown out of that phase for the most part, but the younger ones still have a few more years left. 
• Have you ever noticed how long the credits are for the Lord of the Rings movies?  It takes like 15 minutes!  And no, I'm not watching, I'm just too laze to change CDs.
• Wow, I guess I got inspired after all.
• Today a guy that rents a house from my boss came by to pay his rent.  Every month my boss has to call them and remind them to pay the rent.  Even then, they're usually late.  Today, he asked Tom for advice on buying a house here in town.  Umm ... dude ... if you can't even get renting right, buying is way out of your league.
• Have you noticed that Dell is selling computers at prices cheaper than dirt?
• Galaxy Quest is one of the funniest things I've ever seen.
• If you've never read The Abolition of  Man, you really should do so.   Lewis anticipated the post-modern movement and provided some very good criticisms of that line of thought in advance.
• I just noticed that the items on this site's side bar have gotten out of order some where.
• In Mission Impossible the arms dealer "Max" calls Tom Cruise's character a "paradox" but that's not really right.  Most of the definitions of "paradox" describe a condition in which you have two facts that seem to be mutually exclusive, but are both known to be true.  Max was referring to the fact Cruise's character was not who she first believed him to be and that she does not, therefore, understand who he really is.  That would seem to be more of an "enigma"  or even a mystery.  Every time I get to that part of the movie, I just want to scream.
• Gmail is rocking-awesome-cool.
• Back during the invasion of Iraq a member of the House of Representatives wanted to pass a resolution calling for the Dixie Chicks to give a free concert to troops to make up for insulting the President.  In response, I said this:

I'm ready to establish The Collins Principle: The stupidity with which a public official will respond is geometrically proportional to the private sector stupidity to which they are responding.

On a whim I did a Google search for the phrase just now.  Strangely enough, a few links to my original post appear in the search, by my actual post does not.  Perhaps the fact that I rarely modify my old blog is the reason for this, but what do I know?

You could call this post long, winding, and disconected.  You could also call Mt. Everest "a pretty steep hill."

• OK, so maybe this WYSIWIG stuff isn't so great after all.  I'd gotten used to using HTML tags.  This thing resized type all ofver the place for no apparent reason.  At this point, I'm not sorting through the whole thing.

¹I'm kidding of course.  I think we do a pretty good job of making sure they're fair and doable in the time allotted.  If you budget your time wisely, you should be fine.

An urgent plea for John Kerry

Heh.

Very tasty

A friend once told me that if you can't get Krispy Kreme doughnuts fresh from the store, you should heat them in the microwave for seven seconds. The issue hadn't come up until now. That was good advice.

Gotta stop this

It's truly mind-boggling, but not only does Arlen Specter seem poised to chair the Senate Judiciary Committee, but he's already hinting he might block conservative judges. This is the thanks Bush gets for endorsing Specter. Look up your Senators' phone numbers and let them know how you feel about it.

We need to nip this in the bud.

Something I miss

A few months ago I changed my mobile phone service from T-Mobile to US Cellular. T-Mobile was fine for the most part, but it was hard to argue with half price basic service for a year, unlimited incoming calls for $5 a month, and unlimited incoming text messages.

There's just one thing I don't like about my new service. With T-Mobile I could access my account information and make changes to my service on the fly from their website. I can't do that with US Cellular and it kinda annoys me. But not bad enough to switch any time soon.

That doesn't track

In the past few days I've heard several people, including John McCain, state that George Bush will be more willing to reach across the aisle because, "He's very concerned with his legacy." Now, that may be true, but I've seen no evidence of this. Bush rarely engages, publicly at least, in the grand actions that I associate with trying to build a legacy. The last year of Clinton's presidency he was obviously working on a legacy. Almost every thing he did positively screamed, "Please remember me!"

So far, I just don't see anything like that from Bush. Of course, at this point in Clinton's presidence I didn't see any signs of that either, so maybe they just both hide it well in public. Maybe that wasn't something Clinton started worrying about until later on. If that's the case, in a couple of years we'd probably start seeing his behavior change. Or maybe, just maybe, Bush doesn't really care about that part all that much.

Right now, it's too soon to tell. I haven't seen any evidence to support any of those theories.

He never met a murderous tyrant he didn't like

Who is Jacques Chirac?

That's correct.

PARIS (AP) - Yasser Arafat has lapsed into a coma in a French hospital, a senior Palestinian official said Thursday, a day after the Palestinian leader was rushed to intensive care following a sharp deterioration in his health.

French President Jacques Chirac went to the hospital and saw Arafat and his wife, "to whom he expressed his best wishes," Chirac's office said. The president also met members of the Palestinian Authority and doctors "who are doing everything possible for the health of the president," Chirac's office said.

The visit lasted about 30 minutes. Chirac did not speak to reporters.

I've said before that I didn't think peace was possible while Yasser Arafat was alive. That doesn't mean I think every thing will by hunky-dory when he's gone, but he certainly has been an obstacle to peace.

I wonder if Edwards realizes what Kerry has done for him

Based on Edwards speech last night and the way he introduced Kerry today I get the impression that Edwards impulse was to fight it out tooth and nail in court. (He is, after all, an attorney.) If Edwards ever wants to be President it would be a big step backwards to get painted as a bad loser.

Truthfully, I don't think Kerry had anything to lose, personally, from fighting it out. Having lost an election, it's very unlikely that he'd be nominated again. But he could do serious harm to Edwards, the party and, lest we forget, the country.

By stepping aside, Kerry has preserved Edwards chances in the future.

Rational ignorance

After my boss finished an audit for a client a few weeks ago, some officers wanted to go over some of the items with him. He was getting ready to go on vacation and didn't have time to mess with it so he put them off until he got back. He told us that if they called while he was gone to just say that he had the workpapers last and we didn't know where they were.

"You won't, either," he added, "because I'm not telling you where I'm putting them. And don't look!"

Well, since he's been back they apparently haven't followed up with the questions they had. I say that because a girl in our office is trying to do the tax return now and she needed to see the audit work papers. She'd looked all over the file room for them. Then I remembered what had happened earlier and we went looking for them in his office. No wonder he said not to look; they were right in the middle of his office on the top of a stack.

Hey, at least we found them.

I laughed so hard

This morning I sent an e-mail to a friend, who is a school teacher, in Ohio to tease her about things getting drawn out:

what's the big idea out there! making us all wait around like this. of all the nerve!

When I checked my mail at lunch, I'd gotten this back:

i didn't get this "it's all about me" by accident...it is taught in our schools!!!! me"

I was just rolling.

Here it comes

You're already starting to hear the calls for Bush to "reach out" to Democrats. Michelle Malkin has something to say about that. Here's hint: She's a'gin it.

The five greatest inventions in history

1. Fire
2. The Wheel
3. Dr Pepper
4. Air Conditioning
5. The Jump Drive

These are in no particular order.

Credit where it's due

John Kerry has decided to do the honorable thing and concede the election. He did it without much delay and well before continuing to hold out would have made him petty and/or childish. He also avoided the sore loser label, though that may not matter. Traditionally the Democratic party tends to not be very helpful in future campaigns to a guy that's lost once. Far more important, I think, is that this eliminates the possibility of dragging Edwards down as well.

This decision is the right thing to do for the country, for his party, and for his running mate. I don't like the man, but he is going out with honor. Unlike someone else I could mention, to say nothing of his supporters.

And the winner for the best mocking of the "selected, not elected" crowd goes to

... Frank J in a landslide.

I think it's safe now to admit that Bush stole the first election and served illegitimately. Thus he was elected for the first time for real yesterday. So, can Bush now run for real reelection in 2008?

I'd laugh myself silly if I didn't have such a headache.

As opposed to what?

The IRS is saying it's shifting it's focus from customer service to enforcement. (Pay site.) Basically, they say that have to do it to defend civilization as we know it. "If we don’t fund our democracy we won’t maintain our democracy,” he said. “We can make a contribution by making a change in our priorities."

I know we're since '98 or so we've supposedly had the "kinder, gentler" IRS, but that's a cruel facade. It almost always takes 15-20 minutes just to get someone to answer the phone. (Even on the Practitioner Hotline. And when they do answer, they're likely to pass you off to someone else. Additionally, offices that used to be broken up by state are now consolidated into one regional office. It may be more cost efficient, but it's death to response times. If they think they're skewed to service now, I dread to think of what it will be once they shift their focus to enforcement.

And would it kill them to change the selection they play while you're on hold. They've been playing "The Nutcracker" for 3 years straight or so.

Yes

They are.

ABC and CBS

... who refuse to call Ohio, have called Nevada. Why hasn't NBC? That it would force them to call the election for Bush is the only reason I can come up with.

Kerry really has a chance

... we mean it! As far as I can tell, that's the gist behind NBC's Ann Thompson's constant statements that in the last election in Ohio 90% of provisional ballots turned out to be valid.

Update: And now they have another analyst who says the 90% number was under an old Ohio statute tht was much broader than the new Federal law.

If I was a drinking man

... and playing a drinking game where I was required to take a shot every time Tom Brokaw said that Kerry's people, "feel very strongly" that Bush needs to go, I'd be drunker than a skunk.

I don't even know what his point is.

Cute

Yahoo now shows 101% of the votes in and Bush leading by 5% and they still won't call it. And I'd like to hear an explanatio of that 101.

On the other hand, Yahoo just called Nevada for Bush.

Update: Yahoo now shows 103 percent of precincts in.

Another Update: Spoons points out the same bizarre numbers on C-Span.

Supreme Court, hear we come!

The BBC is reporting that all eleven states that had amendments banning gay marriage on the ballot voted to ban it. We've already got one state that's Supreme Court claims the right to gay marriage is enshrined in it's constitution. Given the full faith and credit clause of the Constitution, eventually we'll see a judicial conflict between state Supreme Courts. When that happens, SCOTUS will probably have to take the case.

Fuzzy math

NBC just reported that Milwaukee had a voter turnout of 115%. Cute. They're chalking this up to same day registration. I wonder how many Clark Kent's registered today.

I'm not surprised

Tom Brokaw keeps saying that the Kerry campaign "has every right" to wait for the counting of provisional ballots. Just now, while they were coming back from commercial, he apparently didn't know he was on the air. I heard him say, "Are you getting nervous up there?"

Yeah, I don't know who he's rooting for.

John Kerry has gone to bed

Why can't I?

Hmmm

Martin Devon thinks John Edwards looked like a loser when saying they weren't conceding yet. I don't know; I listened, but wasn't really watching.

Great

Last night I couldn't sleep because of an upset stomach. Tonight may be worse. I'm apparently genetically incapable of going to sleep until I'm reasonably certain where we are in Ohio and else where. (I don't need to know how Kerry's Ohio stunt will pan out to go to sleep, but I do have to have some idea of how likely success is.

Every one is still saying

... that "we're exactly where we were in 2000."

But it's not. In 2000 we had a difference of a few hundred votes. Almost anything in a recount could have changed that. But now we're talking about a spread of more than a hundred thousand votes. Do they seriously expect to pick up that many votes?

The other difference, of course, is that Bush is currently pulling more than 50 percent of the popular vote.

On the New Mexico call thing

CBS and ABC still haven't called Ohio, while NBC and Fox have. (CBS seems to have thrown up it's collective hands.) If CBS and ABC called New Mexico it wouldn't matter. but if Fox or NBC called New Mexico they'd have to call the overall election. That would make their continuing coverage superfluous while their competitors would still have a reason to be on the air.

Guess not

Stephen Green said he thought Ted Kennedy's meeting with Kerry was to tell him to concede gracefully. At the Democratic watch party they announced John Edwards as, "the next Vice-President of the United States."

So either Green guessed wrong, or they just didn't listen to him

Personally, since Kenney doesn't seem to have any concept of gracefullness, I'm guessing that wasn't it.

Oh for crying out loud!

The press is so scared of screwing up that they won't call Wisconsin and New Mexico even though the results appear to be pretty clear. I guess I'll have to do it. Kerry wins Wisconsin and Bush wins New Mexico. Assuming Bush keeps Ohio, that also means the race.

Actually, I suspect that they're not calling New Mexico because that would put Bush over 27, at least according to Fox and NBC. If they did that, the election junkies might turn out. And since Kerry is up by the same point spread in Wisconsin, with fewer votes counted, it would look rediculous to call it and not New Mexico.

But maybe that's just my inner cynic. [Inner cynic? It sure comes out to play a lot!]

Update:I said the two states had about the same point spread. I meant the same total ballot spread.

Oh right

... that's the reason!

Kelly O'Donnel, NBC's correspondent at Kerry's headquarters, is saying that Kerry may protest state votes to be consistent with the theme of their campaign.

Right!

Just saw NBCs blogger piece

At the end of the segment Brokaw said, "You're going to be hearing a lot more from them and the webinternet." Maybe he's just tired. Or, maybe he's clueless.

I need to report some disenfranchisement

I've got a friend who is a school teacher in NM. Today she volunteered at a polling sight. She said that they wouldn't let her 8th grades vote! Of all the nerve!

More talking heads smoking crack

I keep hearing people calling this a "replay of 2000." Say what?

This election doesn't seem remotely like 2000 to me.

If I understood correctly

... ABC just said that before they called Flordida for Bush they asked the Dems if they had any evidence that they could pull out Florida.

Are they giving the Republicans this consderation before calling states for Kerry?

I knew I should have got extended cable this month

Most of the local stations are bailing and I don't have any of the cable news stations.

Brad Carson is making his concession speech

... I'd forgotten how much I dislike this man. Now I'm remembering.

???????

Several times tonight I've seen people on the national level mention a comment by Republican Senate candidate about "rampant lesbianism" in schools in south-east Oklahoma. I LIVE in Oklahoma and I never heard anything about this.

Just got a call from a friend in Columbus, Ohio

She said the lines at the polls are insane and that one of her friends had to stand in line for two hours to vote.

I've been watching Yahoo's map

Over the last 20 minutes or so, they've shifted Ohio from leaning Kerry to leaning Bush. Of course 20 minutes before they marked it leaning Kerry, Bush was leading in Ohio by 10. This is really up in the air.

So far, Florida looks pretty good for Bush. However all the networks are scared to death of even looking at a 9 point lead or Bush and saying, "Bush is ahead."