"Well if you want us to count ALL the votes...

...maybe we won't send a convicted felon back to the Senate.

They must be owned by News Corp

The Sapulpa Daily Herald from Sapulpa OK forget to report that Barack Obama had won the US Presidential election even though they did report that The Aged One won most of the votes in Creek County, where Sapulpa is located. The nation isn't colour blind just quite yet.

Feeling pre-exit poll stress?

Perhaps this live webcam of a box of puppies will help. I'll be back after a wee kip!

Steeling myself to get through the next 12 or so hours

Purchase sufficient tins of Old Speckled Hen? √

Purchase sufficient packs of Drum (and Rizlas)? √

Purchase snacks (including pretzels) √

Wear lucky Phillies shirt? √

Wear lucky socks? √

Purchase split of (cheap) champagne? (Just in case) √

Have cyanide capsule inserted into false tooth?

Oh fuck. I forgot the most important bit. What if it all goes tits up again?

In any case I'm off home to have a wee nap. Be back around midnight I reckon. It's going to be a long night.

I, for one, am suspicious

Despite assertions to the contrary by the Republican campaign vice presidential candidate Sarah "Ramb-ette" Palin did not release her medical records yesterday. A two page letter from her GP saying that she's healthy no more suffices as a replacement for actual records than a letter from one's headmaster saying one was "rather clever" would be enough when submitting one's school records for entrance to university.

Call me cynical, and many have, but I reckon there's something here.

I have a problem with this

It is clear what the clearly desperate and deluded Elizabeth Dole was trying to do when she put out an ad essentially saying that her opponent, Kay Hagen, was "godless". But for Ms. Hagen to sue Dole for defamation is just plain wrong. It is no more defamation to be called an atheist than it is to be called a Christian, a Hindu, a Muslim or a Jew. Now if she had called her a Scientologist that would be different of course.

Just good old fashioned investigative journalism

The (slightly less than) eminent Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, owned by renowned wing nut Richard Mellon Scaife, has been working overtime on the election coverage demanded by its owner and has discovered that Pittsburgh's hookers just love Obama! Thanks Dick.

BREAKING NEWS!!!!

Exposed! Drunken British plot to destroy American democracy (or something like that)with about £150! Off to Gitmo with this insidious woman (one Claire Hazelgrove) I say!

More on the endorsement front

This has got to really hurt. One of the unelected prophets of the neo-conservatives, and author of The End of History, the eminent Francis Fukuyama, has announced he's voting for Senator Obama. His reasons?

"I’m voting for Barack Obama this November for a very simple reason. It is hard to imagine a more disastrous presidency than that of George W. Bush. It was bad enough that he launched an unnecessary war and undermined the standing of the United States throughout the world in his first term. But in the waning days of his administration, he is presiding over a collapse of the American financial system and broader economy that will have consequences for years to come. As a general rule, democracies don’t work well if voters do not hold political parties accountable for failure. While John McCain is trying desperately to pretend that he never had anything to do with the Republican Party, I think it would a travesty to reward the Republicans for failure on such a grand scale."

Of course at least Mr. Fukuyama has admitted he might have been wrong unlike the host of lesser (and non-)thinkers who rely so heavily on his earlier work.

Pretty scary stuff

Courtesy of the Las Vegas Sun footage of some of the love filled people leaving a Ramb-ette rally.

Step right up

Get your talking points right here!



Video found courtesy of Oliver Burkeman's election blog over at The Guardian. I hope it makes you smile!

Hero of the day

Rather surprisingly is Florida's Republican Governor Charlie Crist for extending the hours for early voting in the state.

Because ensuring that everyone gets the same chance to vote should not be a partisan issue!

On the endorsement front

Obama has picked up the endorsements of the Benton County (Ark) Daily Record, the Wausau (Wis) Daily Herald, the Commercial Dispatch of Columbus Mississippi, the Chippewa Herald of Chippewa Wis,Britain's conservative Financial Times, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and the Anchorage Daily News.

McCain gets the endorsement of (not) Joe the (non-)plumber.

Damn liberal press.

Dear Mr. Monbiot -

I hope you are braced for the hate because once the American wing nuts get wind of your column in today's Guardian the sliming will begin. The column begins:

"How was it allowed to happen? How did politics in the US come to be dominated by people who make a virtue out of ignorance? Was it charity that has permitted mankind's closest living relative to spend two terms as president? How did Sarah Palin, Dan Quayle and other such gibbering numbskulls get to where they are? How could Republican rallies in 2008 be drowned out by screaming ignoramuses insisting that Barack Obama was a Muslim and a terrorist?

Like most people on my side of the Atlantic, I have for many years been mystified by American politics. The US has the world's best universities and attracts the world's finest minds. It dominates discoveries in science and medicine. Its wealth and power depend on the application of knowledge. Yet, uniquely among the developed nations (with the possible exception of Australia), learning is a grave political disadvantage."

And ends:

"Obama has a lot to offer the US, but none of this will stop if he wins. Until the great failures of the US education system are reversed or religious fundamentalism withers, there will be political opportunities for people, like Bush and Palin, who flaunt their ignorance."

I hope you're prepared George (and don't try to correct them on their spelling - that's like poking a hornets' nest).

And his number shall be six, thrice score and six

Watch this video clip from the Guardian web site. How did we ever get to this place where seemingly well educated people have so little knowledge of the world around them? There is something truly terrifying about this.

Heroes of the day

We should all be thankful for, and proud of, the dozens of call centre workers, men and women who probably really need the money, who walked away from their jobs in Indiana rather than recite some vulgar bile about Obama to Indiana voters at the behest of the straight-talking (irony intended) John "The Aged One" McCain and his lunatic sidekick Sarah "Ramb-ette" Palin.

Well done and thank you.

Oh the Faux-ness!

All credit to Joe Biden as he treats this "journalist" with the scorn and incredulity that she deserves. It would seem that Faux New has finally dropped any pretense of be a news channel.

Dear Melanie Phillips

In answer to your question: "almost certainly". Now just fuck off will you, you're annoying me (but that's my fault for actually reading your drivel).

Go ahead, call me cynical

But I can't be the only one who is wondering whether this might not be in some way related to this, can I?

Dear Governor Palin,

The problem with your latest hare-brained scheme to put the election in God's hands is that I think you will find that She is not registered and, even if She tries to register, I am certain she will not have adequate federal government approved photo ID. (Of course, if I am proved wrong, this geezer might want to consider another appeal!)

Kind regards,

Yank in London