my own personal aggregation of stuff I like to read... in one spot, with one stop. I will be adding more URL's &c as the weeks pass, & hopefully leaning away from the political & towards the odd.

Update: Does not work. Has not worked for 2 weeks. Is, in fact a steaming pile of spam. Am therefore going to use kinja instead. There's some ads & some junk, but at least there's a page!!

"NEW YORK (AP) : With just 78 cents in his savings account and $44,000 owed to creditors, bankrupt parking garage attendant Juan Rodriguez plunked down $1 on a Mega Millions lottery ticket. Good thing, too. Rodriguez, 49, of Queens, bought his ticket about one month after filing for bankruptcy in federal court _ and cashed it in this past weekend after emerging as the lone winner of the $149 million lottery."

I'm sure the lottery company love this. It ought to keep all the low-income desperate gamblers on the hook for another year or two...

From MSN: "As I watch the limo creep down Dealey Plaza, I put my finger on the trigger and peer down my rifle's telescope. I can see my target in the cross hairs. It's Nov. 22, 1963. I'm trying to kill the president. The game I'm playing, JFK Reloaded, was released today by the Scottish company Traffic, on the 41st anniversary of the Kennedy assassination. Not surprisingly, it provoked a backlash before anyone ever played it. "It's despicable. There's really no further comment," said a spokesman for Ted Kennedy."

What the hell is next?

"NEW YORK (CNN) -- Longtime anchor Dan Rather will leave the "CBS Evening News" on March 9, the network said Tuesday, just months after Rather's use of questionable documents in a report critical of President Bush's National Guard service.
Rather, 73, said he will continue to work full time as a correspondent for the network's two "60 Minutes" programs as well as other assignments.
"I have always been and remain a 'hard news' investigative reporter at heart," Rather said in a statement. "I now look forward to pouring my heart into that kind of reporting full time.""

via Censoround: "TV writer Lee Goldberg has written an open letter to Kurt & Karen Krueger, the parents who tried to get The Perks of Being a Wallflower et al removed from the Arrowhead High School curriculum."

Asking intellectual property to be banned invites your children to be close minded and unprepared for life. Asking for a book to be removed from a school because it goes against your moral code and then impressing it upon other children not your own is dangerous and borders on the malicious.

via A Welsh View: Shizzolate your site with the Snoop Dogg Shizzolator.

a comprehensive rundown at the Irish Trojan's blog, via Instapundit: "How did American sports come to this? How did a fairly routine NBA altercation turn into the kind of riot we more often associate with minor league hockey? And where -- where -- was the security at The Palace of Auburn Hills when thugs disguised at fans tossed beer and cups at Artest? Where were they when Pacers players, led by Artest and Jackson, charged into the stands and engaged those clowns in a barroom brawl?"

Oh, & just for my 10c. Artest (who's season-long ban will probably get reduced on appeal) should be banned for life and sent to jail. We tell white collar crooks that they can't hold positions of corporate responsibility again. This thug shouldn't be allowed to return to his multi-million dollar job either. Sure, fans were at fault too, but 'til he stepped off the floor there was nothing to see.

or down the river, or across the river,... That's what I call environmental action.

The Columbia River Swim: The Columbia River Swim: the official web site for Christopher Swain's 1243 mile swim of the Columbia River's entire length.
Swim For Clean Water: The Official Web Site for Christopher Swain's 2004 Swims For Clean Water.Includes maps, schedules, media info, swim journal &c

replacing the "who has visited here" list, a "who links here" list. Excellent. No-one links to me, of course, but still..... See the bottom of the right-hand column for the link.

A Welsh View: A mighty-fine range of the technical, political, curious and crazy doings out there in the world. A definite new stop on my must-reads, and an addition to myfeedster. Excellent.

quite literally. It is the alias web puzzle meets the Da-Vinci code with these very strange ads that are on everyone's sidebar at the moment. David Corn spills the beans:

Apparently [the ad] ties into a TV ad campaign and www.moretosee.com for Sharp's new TV. I understand there's some huge puzzle buried amid the ad images
and sites with TVs as prizes. Though I'm not very skilled at unpuzzling,
some blogophiles are, hence this campaign. So the challenge is there: solve
Da Blog Ad Code and win a television. I could use a new television, but I barely
have time to watch TV, let alone solve this mystery.

Alright. Not especially productive, perhaps, but possibly more fun than politics. Let me know where you see the ads, & what they link to. It seems there's a set of fake blogs, for a start, run by Mike, Peter and Natalie, whoever they are. Well, let's see.

The blogs eventually let you get back to a forum for discussion, and the newbie FAQ, which suggests, of course, that I'm way behind the curve. I will say that these ads have been up for a while, & I haven't clicked on them 'til today.

The FAQ has the following puzzle related sites listed, as well as a number of blogs by puzzlers:

MoreToSee.com -- the main portal into the story and treasure hunt.
SteinitzPuzzlers.com -- contains background info on Dagobert Steinitz and The Legend of the Sacred Urns, and an interview with Peter Lindman, finder of the first of three hidden urns. It's also home to the hub for community interaction, the Steinitz Puzzlers Forum.
Natalie.MoreToSee.com
Mike.MoreToSee.com
Peter.MoreToSee.com--Narrative journals detailing the innermost thoughts of the story's three main characters.
SteinitzSkulls.com -- the homepage of Norman Dean Norman, a purveyor of Homo superus skulls.
SteinitzPress.com -- Publishers of an upcoming book about the Legend of the Sacred Urns.
SteinitzTowing.com -- The "Auto-Aquatic Extrication Experts"
SteinitzDDS.com -- The homepage of Steinitz Dental Partners, with more to see on Nov. 22.

Scroll down: "Anything to keep from seeing that banal yellow smiley face that sums up the 70s in a vacuous icon that makes Hello Kitty look like Munch's "Scream." Am I the only one who imagines a hole between the eyes and a red trickle? No? Then I’m among friends. Have a nice day."

Pat'll go mad!! "Plans to create a US soap based on the BBC's EastEnders have reportedly been drawn up by the Fox TV network. EastEnders' head writer Tony Jordan and music mogul Simon Fuller are involved in the project, according to reports in the Hollywood Reporter trade newspaper. It said scripts have been commissioned for a series about a community of working class people in of Chicago. "

if you listen carefully, you can hear the splash. From Engadget: "TiVo has quietly been cutting deals with advertisers to put banner ads up on screen when you fast-forward through commercials. Beginning in March when you try and fast-forward through a commercial you’ll see a small “billboard”; click the pop up and you’ll be automatically entered in a contest or get on a list to be sent more information about the product being advertised."

So I just e-mailed everyone in my department at work the link to the blog about book censorship.... before I noticed that he's also blogging about improper uses for vibrating children's toys. Hmmm. Lesson 1 - Read the whole thing. Lesson 2 - Invent recallable e-mail.

Another addition to my blogroll. This time a round-up of library challenges and censorship issues. "Censoround is a newsblog providing updates about book challenges and other free speech issues in the United States. It is edited by Chris Zammarelli, who writes the Banned Bookslut column for Bookslut."

only this time I mean it. The strange real-estate squatting ads are gone, & in their place once again the click to make them go away column ads. OK.

as Optimus Prime bursts forth from a Citroen. Via GME.jp

TPM: "Gonzales goes from White House Counsel to Attorney General; Rice goes from NSC to State; Spellings goes from Domestic Policy Advisor to Education Secretary.
Each of them defined mainly by their loyalty to President Bush.
As we wrote earlier, the shift is not toward right, left or center, but toward more direct White House control and the silencing of dissident voices in the civil service."

is not the title of the next Phil Collins album. It is, however, my response to this new site brought to my attention via TPM: "What is The Daou Report?
The Daou Report tracks blogs, message boards, online magazines, and independent websites from across the political spectrum - providing a quick overview of the latest news, views, and online buzz.
Which blogs and websites are surveyed for the report?
The Daou Report surveys approximately 300 leading blogs, forums, and political websites daily, and thousands more on a weekly basis. "
Where is the Daou Report?
Why http://www.daoureport.com/, of course.

See first post here. Now I really want one: Reuters: "LOS ANGELES - An unmanned experimental jet broke a world record for speed on Tuesday, cruising over the Pacific Ocean at just under 7,000 mph (11,000 kilometers per hour) in a NASA test of cutting-edge “scramjet” engine technology.
The X-43A aircraft flew at a speed of around Mach 9.6 — nearly 10 times the speed of sound — after a booster rocket took it to around 110,000 feet (33.5 kilometers) and then separated."

As my remarkable wife pointed out and demonstrated, there's a correlation between the Purple America image that I linked to last week

and this dark sky image that illustrates concentrations of population:

Lileks: "Witnessed a classic mom-son conversation with a modern twist; the kid was STEAMED that mom was so CLUELESS about things, specifically, the ability of the G5 iBook to run system X, JEEEZ, MOM, DUH, OF COURSE, whereupon Mom coldly informed him that she knew it would run X, the question was whether they should wait for a G5 Powerbook that would take full advantage of X, which you would have understood if you were listening. Cross-generational geek discord."

Atrios: "While the first Bush administration was run by the "competent grownups" who turned out to be incompetent, the second one will be run by their not so bright teenage nieces and nephews... Condi will be the closest thing to a "grownup" there is..."

From the comments at Kevin Drum: "I expect that everyone appointed will either be batshit crazy or a Bush loyalist -- probably both." This post does, however, compare the reshuffle w/ Clinton's and suggest that it isn't too out of the ordinary.

Well, not me. Maria Sharapova. In this discussion of her most recent advertising campaign I can agree with the notion that "there is something profoundly odd about the mindset of a certain ilk of conservative." But then, honestly, I'm not sure I needed a reaction to the Wimbledon Champ's teenaged-ness to support that. From Samizdata.

When your opponent is drowning, throw the son of a bitch an anvil. - James Carville

...for posting your freaking giant adverts all over my other website, and for fixing them to the page in a minimisable frame that screws up the display of my content. Cheers.

I know I'm freeloading the webspace, but please have some respect.

"This is a map which is population-corrected; with varying shades of purple representing proportional red/blue votes. Also, it should be noted that the large swaths of red on conventional maps are low-population, while the smaller-seeming blues are high-populations, and it's votes that count, not square feet."

Please be sure to click the link to the larger version, which turns our dogmatic divide into a relaxing and meditational image that looks like a wonderful stained glass window.

Gareth finds the coolest stuff online.... & maybe this blog should do the same instead of being so wrapped up in all the political junk. Anyway. There's a whole bunch of tunnels in New York that are potential venues for stories, games, and assorted cultural frolics. Ah, the abandoned subway.
First though, of course, is for Mornington Crescent. So what about London?

• One: Look through the window as you travel between Tottenham Court Road and Holborn on the Central Line and you'll see a station - where no passengers have alighted since 1932. This used to be British Museum station.
• Two: Photos of abandoned stations.
• Three: Slightly spoddy historical essay on the topic.
• Four: If they're not underground, what's the point?
• Five: H2G2
• Six: NYC again - The High Line

I'm doing it again, making a link list when Google will do it for you, & this site does it too.

So why is this interesting? Abandoned technology, social & urban transformation, hidden infrastructure, secret lives and histories and journeys, metropolitan evolution...... heck, the whole thing will be abandoned when we invent the teleporter!!!

Matthew Yglesias: "The thinking seems to be that the Defense Department will more-or-less stay as-is. Meanwhile, Powell and Armitage will leave the State Department. Widespread speculation has Condoleezza Rice as Secretary of State, John Bolton as Deputy Secretary, and John Danforth staying put as UN ambassador. If this is right, the key unknown is what happens at the NSC. The most likely candidates are Deputy National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley or mysterious realist svengali Robert Blackwill. Worst-case scenario as someone moving over from Dick Cheney's office to take the NSC over. It's a bit hard to say what the upshot of any of that would be."

Gary Wills in the New York Times: "Can a people that believes more fervently in the Virgin Birth than in evolution still be called an Enlightened nation?
America, the first real democracy in history, was a product of Enlightenment values - critical intelligence, tolerance, respect for evidence, a regard for the secular sciences. Though the founders differed on many things, they shared these values of what was then modernity. They addressed "a candid world," as they wrote in the Declaration of Independence, out of "a decent respect for the opinions of mankind." Respect for evidence seems not to pertain any more, when a poll taken just before the elections showed that 75 percent of Mr. Bush's supporters believe Iraq either worked closely with Al Qaeda or was directly involved in the attacks of 9/11.
The secular states of modern Europe do not understand the fundamentalism of the American electorate. It is not what they had experienced from this country in the past. In fact, we now resemble those nations less than we do our putative enemies.
Where else do we find fundamentalist zeal, a rage at secularity, religious intolerance, fear of and hatred for modernity? Not in France or Britain or Germany or Italy or Spain. We find it in the Muslim world, in Al Qaeda, in Saddam Hussein's Sunni loyalists. Americans wonder that the rest of the world thinks us so dangerous, so single-minded, so impervious to international appeals. They fear jihad, no matter whose zeal is being expressed.
It is often observed that enemies come to resemble each other. We torture the torturers, we call our God better than theirs - as one American general put it, in words that the president has not repudiated."

James Lileks: "We’re still all over the map on a great many issues, as ever, and the desire for compromise is still a desire to settle the issue OUR way. At the end of the day the Line will be moved; it’s just a question of where it ends up. The “progressive” impulse questions everything; the conservative impulse wonders why we question what has worked for us before. What emerges from this dynamic satisfies neither, and fuels the next round of debate. I’d rather have that than 30 years of a static society that ends up so ossified and brittle it shatters into a thousand pieces."

So the Washington Times Weekend section today has a whole article about Geocaching, esp. in MD. This is something that I have been curious about for a while. I don't have the money for a GPS unit, or the time to go cruising around at the weekend finding people's treasures, but I think what interests me is the way that technology & the internet enable all these people to navigate and meet up in the real world. Interesting.

Dan Gillmor: "People say there are two Americas. I think there are at least three.

One is Bush's America: an amalgam of the extreme Christian "conservatives," corporate interests and the builders of the burgeoning national-security state.

Another is the Democratic "left": wedded to the old, discredited politics in a time that demands creative thinking.

I suspect there's a third America: members of an increasingly radical middle that will become more obvious in the next few years, tolerant of those who are different and aware that the big problems of our times are being ignored -- or made worse -- by those in power today.

That third America needs a candidate. Or, maybe, a new party."

Will some of the people who voted for Bush wake up and smell the coffee? This isn't about your little single issue.

David Corn: "The electorate almost engaged in a much-needed political correction. It almost undid the asterisk of 2000. Instead, voters legitimized the fellow who gained the White House against the will of the majority and who then pretended he had a mandate and subsequently pushed tax cuts for the well-to-do and launched a war predicated on untrue assertions. So there will be no good-bye to reckless preemptive war, an economic policy based on tax breaks tilted toward the wealthy, a war on environmental regulations, a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage, excessive secrecy in government, unilateral machismo, the neocon theology of hubris and arrogance, a ban on effective stem cell research, no-bid Halliburton contracts, John Ashcroft, Donald Rumsfeld, and much more. Did I mention Dick Cheney?
Bush lied his way into office and lied his way through his presidency. His reelection campaign was based on derision and disingenuousness; he mischaracterized Kerry and his positions and touted successes that did not exist. And now, it seems, he got away with it. He was not punished for leading the country into a war that was not necessary. He was not booted for having overstated the WMD threat from Iraq. He paid no price for failing to plan adequately for the post-invasion period. Iraq remains his mess. And the United States and the world remains at the mercy of a gang that, no doubt, will feel even more emboldened to pursue their misguided policies."

MSNBC interviews Tim Russert: "I think we’re going to have two open primaries. I believe Hillary Clinton will run for president. I think John Edwards will run. I think Howard Dean will run. I think Bill Richardson, the governor of New Mexico, will run.
On the Republican side, I think John McCain will run at age 72. Rudy Giuliani will run. Bill Frist, the Majority leader of the Senate, will see Giuliani and McCain — two moderate Republicans — and he’ll run to the right. I think there will be Republican governors who will run. If Arnold Schwarzenegger can change the constitution, he’ll run."

Billboard.com: "Rock legend Eric Clapton set aside his "rebellious streak" today (Nov. 3) to become a Commander of the Order of the British Empire, or CBE. The 59-year-old singer-songwriter described the honor -- conferred by Princess Anne, daughter of Queen Elizabeth II, during a ceremony at London's Buckingham Palace -- as the "icing on the cake" of his career."

Guardian: "Call it the Maximus factor. Archaeologists working at the site of an old Roman temple near Guy's hospital in London have uncovered a pot of cosmetic cream dating back to AD2.
The pot, complete with the lid and contents, is the first to be discovered intact with contents in good condition. "

Reuters: "Canadian officials made clear on Wednesday that any U.S. citizens so fed up with Bush that they want to make a fresh start up north would have to stand in line like any other would-be immigrants -- a wait that can take up to a year.
"You just can't come into Canada and say 'I'm going to stay here'. In other words, there has to be an application. There has to be a reason why the person is coming to Canada," said immigration ministry spokeswoman Maria Iadinardi. "

A plea to repeal Jane's law: "Jane's Law: The devotees of the party in power are smug and arrogant. The devotees of the party out of power are insane."

How come two people committing to one another is such an awful thing in so many places?

Christian Science Monitor: "The resounding "no" that voters gave to officially recognizing homosexual couples as married marks a major setback for the gay-marriage movement - and shows how the issue continues to divide the nation politically and geographically.
In all 11 states where they were on the ballot, measures banning same-sex marriage won - in most states overwhelmingly. Even in socially liberal Oregon, where gay-rights activists poured resources into defeating the measure, it passed handily. The other states where the measure passed were Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Michigan, Mississippi, Montana, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, and Utah."

Another example of my blue-state brain not comprehending, not even beginning to be able to conceptualise, the red state logic that pushed this through.

WWdN: "Apparently, my country holds a fundamentally different set of values than I thought we did, and that scares the shit out of me. I still believe that Bush is bad for America, and I'm virtually certain that the next four years will be an absolute disaster. Not just because we have gotten four more years of the Bush agenda, but because this election has been an enthusiastic endorsement of that agenda.
I hoped I would wake up this morning to the good news that our long national nightmare was over. It's not over. It's just beginning."

Al Franken: "You know I wouldn’t mind losing an election if it were an honest disagreement, based on facts, over values and policy. But that’s not what happened. A large majority of Bush supporters went to the polls believing things that were false. For example, any of the above. They believed lies about Kerry, and they believed lies about Iraq, and they believed lies about Bush. We’re not going to heal this country as long as we have a president who won't be accountable, who won’t tell the truth, who is willing to campaign with a vicious dishonesty that is unprecedented....Normally, incumbent presidents either win by a landslide or lose by a landslide, and a year or two ago, people thought it would be an overwhelming Bush victory. It wasn’t. For an incumbent wartime president, this was a close race. And we’ve created a movement to take this country back. Even though we didn’t do it this time, I believe that we will still do it.
The other side wants us to get demoralized, but we are going to fight. We are going to fight every step of the way."

Someone who's opinion on such matters (& all matters) I respect very much remarked a few months ago that the U.S. is primarily a conservative nation which is occasionally given to bouts of conscience and thus democratic-liberal leaning social policies. Here's one version of what might be going on that characterizes the situation in terms of a larger social transformation and suggests that the Founding Fathers allowed us a mechanism for moving forward. I'm writing in red because I might feel the need to editorialise:

Andrew Sullivan: "What we're seeing, I think, is a huge fundamentalist Christian revival in this country, a religious movement that is now explicitly political as well. It is unsurprising, of course, given the uncertainty of today's world, the devastating attacks on our country, and the emergence of so many more liberal cultures in urban America. [except that I think there's a way to articulate a strong defensive foreign policy without couching it in overtly religious language] And it is completely legitimate in this country for such views to be represented in public policy, however much I disagree with them. But the intensity of the passion, and the inherently totalist nature of religiously motivated politics means deep social conflict if we are not careful. Our safety valve must be federalism. [This, I like. If things are red and blue, then let's allow it to be so] We have to live and let live. As blue states become more secular, and red states become less so, the only alternative to a national religious war is to allow different states to pursue different options. That goes for things like decriminalization of marijuana, abortion rights, stem cell research and marriage rights. Forcing California and Mississippi into one model is a recipe for disaster. Federalism is now more important than ever. I just hope that Republican federalists understand this. I fear they don't." So we're in the middle of the Third Great Awakening? and Pat Robertson is the new Cotton Mather?

Here's more that I like from Andrew Sullivan, regarding responsibility and consequences. I think this is what I was trying to get to with my post about the way this will be viewed in the world.

"Now, Bush will face the consequences of his own policies and we will be able to judge him on that. He has no excuses any more. I hope he succeeds in Iraq, in reforming social security. But no one should give him an easy pass if he fails. "

just because I refuse to be miserable the whole day, Wonkette links to this Harper's column about how to leave the country when the wrong guy wins. I am probably better placed than most to make this a reality, & will look into it forthwith.

I've decided that what ticks me off most is the serious potential for checks & balances to be unchecked & imbalanced given that the Republicans were handed control of the Senate as well as retaining control of the House of Representatives and the White House. All we need now is for a couple of Supreme Court Justices to retire on health grounds , & we'll be in for a wonderful evangelical vision of the new American century, & four years that might well define the next forty.

Andrew Sullivan: "IT'S OVER: President Bush is narrowly re-elected. It was a wild day with the biggest black eyes for exit pollsters. I wanted Kerry to win. I believed he'd be more able to unite the country at home, more fiscally conservative, more socially inclusive, and better able to rally the world in a more focused war on terror. I still do. But a slim majority of Americans disagreed. And I'm a big believer in the deep wisdom of the American people. They voted in huge numbers, and they made a judgment. Not a huge and decisive victory by any means. But at least a victory that is unlikely to be challenged. The president and his aides deserve congratulations. And so, I think, does Senator Kerry, whose campaign exceeded the low expectations of many of us."

Coyote Blog via Instapundit: "Assuming Cheney does not want to run for president, which I think is a given, something will happen in 2008 that has not happened in 56 years since 1952: Neither of the two major-party presidential candidates will be incumbents of the President or Vice-President jobs."

Except that, as a commenter on the post says, Cheney might be replaced before 2008, & then an incumbent VP (Guliani?) could run.

• krtrail.blogspot.com/reds-and-blues
• krtrail.blogspot.com/reconnecting-with-america
• bluegrassroots.blogspot.com/triggering-my-gag
• yglesias.typepad.com/bush_unleashed

I have questions about the next four years. I have questions about the past thirty-six hours. I have a serious problem living in a country with a large population that makes snap judgements on hot-button issues rather than seeing a whole & complex global picture.

The radio just called this "political heuristics," and boiled down the 50:50 split in America two ways. Religious v. Secular and Ph.D v. G.E.D. The discussion also touched on how it is that Democrats might begin to address this divide & reach back into the Red states.

The radio also suggested that the view of the American people from around the world may change radically now. In 2000, from abroad, George W. Bush was a cowboy without a mandate who stole an election & then was forced to respond to 9-11 from a position with limited options. The fault was his and not the people's.

The people just re-elected him, & so now they've validated his actions and share responsibility for his many errors.

here's a version of the future in which the Republicans start to look like Hague's Tories.

David Corn: "Commentators have observed that this election is a contest for the soul of the nation. There is limited truth to that. The United States is a country split along various fault lines: Red States versus Blue States. Rs versus Ds. Town versus country. Traditionalists versus modernists. Those who question authority versus those who crave authority. Those who believe Bush lied the nation to war versus those who don't. Those who accept the findings that Iraq had no WMDs versus those who still believe Saddam Hussein was loaded with WMDs. Those who want a man of action who is guided more by principles than analysis versus those who appreciate a fellow who fully analyzes a situation before he acts. And these divides will remain after the votes are added up and a winner announced (or appointed).
This election will not resolve the underlying issues that animate these various sociological, cultural and political face-offs. In a winner-take-all system, it may appear as if one said has vanquished the other. But that will be a false impression. The clash over values, ideals and policies will not be done. "

There's a guy in front of me doing serious electoral research on the Peroutka / Baldwin website. The candidate for the times when GWB is not religious enough. What's wrong with you people?

Update: That said, though, every vote he takes from GWB is just fine with me. May you, Mr Peroutka, be the crusading Nader of the right.

PAX-TV (channel 19 on Comcast cable in the Annapolis, MD area, not listed on the PAX homepage) aired "Stolen Honor" this morning 'round 8am as an info-mercial w/ a disclaimer "this may not reflect the views of this station."
The show had graphics to "buy your own copy of this movie" and "find out more" popping up every 5 minutes, I guess to make it info-mercial worthy. I'm pretty sure the graphics pointed to NewsMax.com. I think I'm even more disgusted at the peddling of politics as product than I am about the peddling of politics as bogus news. I guess having it be an infomercial gets PAX around the equal time rule too?

CelebrityCafe.com: "Michael Moore has finally found a place to screen his politically-charged Fahrenheit 9/11 on the eve of the presidential election. Moore, who has been shopping around for a network for his film, which won best picture at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival, has found a partner in both video-on-demand firm CinemaNow and EchoStar Dish Network satellite TV service. Both companies will make the controversial documentary available Monday at 8 p.m. EST via the Internet for $9.95."

"WASHINGTON (Reuters) - International election observers predicted problems with new rules and technology for Tuesday's U.S. presidential election that were designed to avoid a repeat of Florida's counting fiasco four years ago.
Almost 90 observers from Europe's top rights watchdog -- conducting the group's first full-blown monitoring of a U.S. vote -- fanned out across the country on Monday on the lookout for snags with electronic voting machines and provisional ballots, said spokeswoman Urdur Gunnarsdottir. Ironically, the main worries of observers for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe relate to innovations that electoral authorities introduced hoping to avoid the problems from 2000.
Disputes in that election over recounts and voter eligibility spawned legal battles in Florida, a state Bush won by 537 votes to capture the White House following a long recount dispute ultimately decided by the U.S. Supreme Court. "There are often problems when you introduce new systems -- that's just a fact," Gunnarsdottir said. "We want to see how the United States implements the changes." "

Guardian: "It is part of US political lore that whenever the Washington Redskins football team lose their last Sunday game before the election, the incumbent will be defeated. It has held true since 1936, and on Sunday the Redskins lost."

are all about National Novel Writing Month. The goal is to punch out 50,000 words by the end of November. Once again, I am tempted to join in & write something. I have seen one NaNoWriMo website that currently consists largely of side-stories, & that might be the way to go. Let the coherence come at the end when there's a whole raft of pieces to play with. Perhaps my goal should be to get familiar with my characters again, & to be ready to rock with them next November.... They sort of need to have a purpose though - a calling.... That's why the pieces I have go nowhere right now.

I really want a reason to have a website with this cool speedometer graphic on it that updates automatically with the word count.

and electoral vote.com, which has seemed to swing to the right a bit, calls it thusly:

Electoral Vote Predictor 2004: Kerry 298 Bush 231

giving FL, PA and OH to Kerry for a total of 68 EV's. Of course we'll see what the voters, and the lawyers, and the press, and probably the Supreme Court Justices have to say on the subject, but hey, it might be a beautiful day in the neighbourhood tomorrow...

It could also, of course, be four more years of the same:

If today's results are the final results Wednesday morning, John Kerry will
be elected as the 44th President of the United States, with 283 votes in the
electoral college to George Bush's 246. But don't count on it. Many of Kerry's
leads are razor thin. Counting only the strong + weak states, Bush leads 229 to
196, with 113 electoral votes in the tossup category Kerry's leads in the tossup
states mean little to nothing. The turnout Tuesday will determine who
wins.

er... sure!!! Here's my question. How can we claim to have this spectacular form of government that is free & fair that we force on other nations around the world, & yet the electoral process features low-down scrappy tactics like this:

Josh Marshall: "Delightful. I'm looking at a flyer sent around Florida by an outfit called the Florida Leadership Council. The headline reads: "First Day of School: Eighth Grade South Florida Middle School, 2007""

Watched Gettysburg & Gods & Generals over the past week, & now have a fascination w/ the military angles of the Civil War that I did not previously have. There seem to be a lot of "what if" questions that might have turned the whole thing or stopped it much sooner, on one side or the other. I'm interested enough to dig a bit deeper too, so here's a list of stuff to get me started. I'm pasting out of Google for the sake of quickness. Ugly but somewhat comprehensive.

• Civil War Biography Page
• Virginia Civil War Biographies Page
• Free Pennsylvania Genealogy - PA Civil War Soldier Biographies
• The Civil War: Grant PBS
• Civil War Biography Page
• Charleston, SC Civil War Biographies
• Civil War Herald WebQuest
• Civil War Biographies

So I may see my name in print after all, just not on the cover of a book... I'm supposedly going to be quoted in one of these books. That is to say that work I've done & documents I found are going to be quoted. My own words are not, apparently, going to be reproduced.