Election Day

At 6 PM this evening nearly 80% of registered voters in my precinct had voted. However, my gamble to wait until after work to vote paid off. I walked in and only had to wait about 5 minutes. The Wife and I continued our tradition of voting and then going to the local diner for dinner. Now we are watching The Saturday Night Live Presidential Bash on the DVR and waiting for returns to come in. I am intentionally avoiding the networks. We are going to watch Indecision 2008 with Jon Stewart and Steven Colbert at 10 PM.

How to get around the "Sarah Palin Phenomenon"

From Sean Quinn at "fivethirtyeight.com"

“Sarah Palin is very likable. There’s nothing wrong with liking her. But this isn’t a zany sitcom where a friendly, plucky Everywoman with dangerous ignorance on foreign policy gets to be vice president. Americans don't deserve someone too scared to do a press conference. Fun for a TV show, but running the country doesn't permit second and third takes when you mess up the scene."

This is the most intelligent thing I've read about how to get to people who are reacting viscerally to Sarah Palin. Go read the whole thing.

Well at least they convicted someone...

I'm glad that Scooter Libby was convicted for his role in outing Valerie Plame in an effort to get back at Joe Wilson. But I think someone should have been charged with the actual disclosure to the press of the fact that she worked at the CIA. Her career was ruined because her husband figured out that the Bush Administration was lying. All of this just pisses me off and I have no idea what to do about it. Now it has come to light that the DOJ has been firing prosecutors to make way for political cronies and because of the Patriot Act (thanks, Democrats in the previous Congress for being a bunch of spineless weasels when it came time to protect your constituents rights) the replacements can be called "interim" and then don't have to be confirmed by Congress.

and of course there is that little problem at Walter Reed.