You're kinda, sorta, basically, pretty much always on my mind. -- psacake.com

It's Gore!

CBS Declares Former Veep Surprise Winner

Election Night 2004 served up one of the biggest surprises in American political history as CBS News declared former Vice President Al Gore the winner shortly after 10:00 PM.

The network's decision to call the election for Mr. Gore was particularly surprising, political insiders said, because the former vice president had not run for election this year, nor had his name appeared on any of the states' ballots.

Perhaps in part because of the stunning nature of the election's outcome, veteran anchor Dan Rather said that before he went live with the results, "I was as nervous as a hippo taking a walk on a frozen pond on a sunny day."

CBS had been prepared to declare Mr. Gore the winner as early as 4:00 in the afternoon, but Mr. Rather, haunted by the memory of missteps during the network's election coverage in 2000, insisted that the network double-check the numbers first.

"If we don't get this right, I'm going to be hotter than my Aunt Maisie's gumbo in July," Mr. Rather reportedly told his producer.

Satisfied that the network's calculations were air-tight, Mr. Rather appeared on the air at 10:03 PM announcing, simply, "It's Gore."

Moments later, Mr. Rather placed a congratulatory phone call to the former vice president, who seemed taken aback by the news.

"Dan, if this is your idea of a prank, all I can say is, 'real mature,'" Mr. Gore said before abruptly hanging up.

"Thank you, Mr. President," Mr. Rather replied.

Elsewhere, amid extraordinarily high voter turnout, a Republican poll worker in Florida said that people were casting ballots faster than he could tear them up.

[Borowitz Report]

What They Said:

BBS says Oh Man on 11/3/2004
Equally Puzzled says Huh? on 11/3/2004
LBF says Not sure on 11/3/2004
A Happy Conservative says the wife on 11/3/2004
ENevi says Draft and link on 11/3/2004
BBS Again says Sources on 11/3/2004
The People says So Be It on 11/4/2004
The people have spoken. Winston Churchill once said: "In a Democracy, people get the kind of government they deserve." So be it.

7 Comments | Perm-a-link | 11/3/2004

Issues of Importance?

Depending on the way you lean, the following information could have bearing on decisions you make November 2nd.

Gay Marriage
President Bush is opposed
John Kerry favors

Partial-Birth Abortion
President Bush is opposed
John Kerry favors

Unborn Victims of Violence Act? ¹
President Bush Favors
John Kerry is Opposed

Allow open homosexuals to serve in the military?
President Bush is opposed
John Kerry favors

Allow faith based organizations to participate equally in federal programs to provide social services?
President Bush Favors
John Kerry is Opposed

Restoring voluntary prayer in the public schools
President Bush Favors
John Kerry is Opposed

Judges
President bush says "We need common-sense judges who believe our rights are derived from God."
John Kerry insists on judges who support the ACLU's radical anti-Christian, anti-God, anti-family agenda. John Kerry is insistent on blocking President Bush's federal judge appointments.

Overall Record
President Bush does not vote on issues before Congress but, based on his publicly stated positions, would receive an 85% conservative rating from the American Conservative Union if he did.
John Kerry, according to the highly respected, politically-neutral National Journal rates Kerry the most liberal U. S. Senator in 2003 -- more liberal than Ted Kennedy and Hillary Clinton.

Asking for God's blessing on America
President Bush often asks God to bless America in his speeches
John Kerry attacks Bush for mentioning God so often

¹If a pregnant woman is attacked and her baby is hurt, it becomes a separate crime. Does not apply to abortion.

Links:
[Massachusetts Family Institute]

Take it all for what it is worth. Do your own research, make a smart decision. Don't vote for candidate x because someone else is. Do it for a reason.

What They Said:

RantUser says SAT Scores on 10/29/2004
Doug says I�m Running in the Next Election on 11/2/2004
Doug says Very Interesting ... on 11/3/2004
Right this moment, the counter at psacake.com is showing Kerry at 262, Bush 261. CNN has Kerry at 200 and Bush at 249. MSNBC is showing Kerry at 207 and Bush at 269. (1:27 a.m., Wednesday, November 3)

3 Comments | Perm-a-link | 10/28/2004

The Real Issue in the Election

The Supreme Court
The median age of the justices is 71. No spring chickens here except for Clarence Thomas, a mere stripling at 56. Here are the current justices.

Justice: Stephen Breyer
Appointed by: Clinton
Sworn in: 1980
Age: 66

Justice: Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Appointed by: Carter
Sworn in: 1980
Age: 71

Justice: Anthony M. Kennedy
Appointed by: Ford
Sworn in: 1975
Age: 68

Justice: Sandra Day O'Connor
Appointed by: Reagan
Sworn in: 1981
Age: 74

Justice: William H. Rehnquist
Appointed by: Nixon
Sworn in: 1972
Age: 80

Justice: Antonin Scalia
Appointed by: Reagan
Sworn in: 1986
Age: 68

Justice: David H. Souter
Appointed by: Bush
Sworn in: 1990
Age: 65

Justice: John Paul Stevens
Appointed by: Ford
Sworn in: 1975
Age: 84

Justice: Clarence Thomas
Appointed by: Bush
Sworn in: 1990
Age: 56

It is very likely than multiple vacancies will occur on the Court in the next four years. The court will undoubtedly have to rule on cases involving abortion, the Patriot Act, and other divisive issues. If you are an undecided voter, think carefully about which candidate would make better appointments to the Supreme Court. Furthermore, a president makes far more appointment to the appellate courts than to the Supreme Court, and they hear far more cases per year. If you approve of the appointments Bush has made to the appellate courts, surely you want to give him the chance to make more. If you don't approve, maybe somebody else should be doing the appointing. The next president's appointments could shape the country for decades to come.

Do you want Hillary on the Supreme Court?

What They Said:

BBS says Hmmm on 10/24/2004
Mgmt says mmkay.. Try Again on 10/24/2004
Never Kerry, NEVER Liberal says the wife on 10/25/2004
BBS again says OK on 10/25/2004
sorry BBS.... says the wife on 10/26/2004
Mgmt says Your Security on 10/26/2004
LBF says Vote for Me on 10/26/2004
RantUser says IM is great on 10/26/2004
Doug says Supreme Court on 11/2/2004
Doug says Security on 11/2/2004
Well, if you live in Massachusetts, you have to get permission to defend yourself (and then get a really good lawyer, because you'll need one). Up here in N.H., we have better ways. Funny, the crime rate is much lower, too ...

10 Comments | Perm-a-link | 10/22/2004

Boston sports teams are like men

The Patriots are like the new boyfriend that you really like- he's awesome but almost too good to be true, so you worry.

The Bruins are like the guy that you just casually dated and you don't really care about him, he's just something to do.

The Celtics are like the marriage that was great at one time but has lost its spark and you always kinda look back and think about how great it was.

And the Sox are the hard core abusive husband who just absolutely beats the shit out of you, but day after day you always go back to him cause you always believe that tomorrow will be different and you just love him too much.

0 Comments | Perm-a-link | 10/19/2004

How the Electoral College works

(CNN) -- The 2000 election was the fourth time the Electoral College selected a candidate other than the one who won the popular vote.

So do we the people really elect the president and vice president? Technically, we don't. Presidents are elected by the states and the District of Columbia, not by a national tally of voters. When you vote, you cast your ballot for electors who will vote for a candidate they are politically aligned with.

Most of the time, that means the candidate who wins the popular vote also wins the Electoral College vote.

There are 538 Electoral College voters, one per senator and representative from each state. The District of Columbia, which has no congressional representation, has three votes - the minimum.

California has 55 votes, while Texas (34) and New York (31) have the second and third most, respectively. Besides D.C., seven states have three votes.

The colleges of electors from each state meet on the same date - this year, December 13 - and vote for a president and vice president. There is no central location that the voters meet - in this case, college refers to a body of electors, not a building. Most of the 51 slates of electors meet at their respective state capitols.

There are measures to replace an original elector who cannot make it to the vote.

On January 6, the new Congress will meet in joint session to tally and announce the vote. If no candidate has a majority of the electoral votes, the House of Representatives picks the president and the Senate chooses the vice president.

The House of Representatives has not voted on a president since 1824, when Andrew Jackson won a plurality - but not majority - in the Electoral College. The House voted for John Quincy Adams, who became the sixth president.

Generally speaking, a candidate who has the most popular votes in a state also receives all of its electoral votes. Two states, however, can split their electoral college. Maine and Nebraska apportion their votes between congressional district and two at-large votes. Yet neither state has ever split its electoral vote.

Changes to the 2004 Electoral College
Because the apportionment of Electoral College voters is based indirectly on the Census, several states have gained or lost votes for the 2004 and 2008 elections. Florida, a key state in 2000, cast 25 electoral votes that year; this year it will have 27.

Other states with more votes: Arizona (+2), California (+1), Colorado (+1), Florida (+2), Georgia (+2), Nevada (+1), North Carolina (+1) and Texas (+2).

States with fewer votes: Connecticut (-1), Illinois (-1), Indiana (-1), Michigan (-1), Mississippi (-1), New York (-2), Ohio (-1), Oklahoma (-1), Pennsylvania (-2) and Wisconsin (-1).

On Election Day, Coloradoans will vote on whether to change immediately the winner-takes-all-votes approach to one tied to the state's overall popular vote. Colorado has nine electoral votes.

In 2000, President Bush won the state; under the proposed format, he would have won only five of its electoral votes and would have lost the election.

When and why the college was created
The Electoral College was established in 1787. The men who drafted the Constitution debated several formats for electing the president and vice president -- having Congress vote, having the state legislatures choose, using a direct popular vote -- before deciding on the Electoral College format.

In the Federalist Papers, Alexander Hamilton wrote: "A small number of persons, selected by their fellow citizens from the general mass, will be most likely to possess the information and discernment requisite to such complicated investigations."

Under the initial system, each elector had two votes. The candidate with the most votes was elected president; whoever won the second-highest number of votes was elected vice president. That was changed by the 12th Amendment, ratified in 1804.

Several early elections had problems, primarily because of the number of political parties in the new country and the difficulty of winning a majority of votes. After the contentious election of 1824, there were a few problems with the vote-counting process, but not with the Electoral College process.

What if things go wrong?
The magic number of Electoral College votes is 270. If none of the presidential candidates receives a majority of votes November 2, the newly elected House of Representatives will pick the president from the top three Electoral College vote-getters. In that case, each state's delegation would pick a candidate as a bloc. The winner would require at least 26 votes to be elected.

Under the same scenario, the Senate would choose the vice president - from the top two Electoral College vote-getters for that office -- with each senator casting one vote. That leaves open the possibility that the president and vice president could be from different parties.

There is also the chance that an Electoral College voter could cast a ballot for a different candidate. Most of the time that is not a problem because of the great measures the parties go through to select the electors.

The two most common ways to choose the nominees to the college are by state party convention (36 states use this method) or by state party committee (10 states and the District of Columbia use this method).

There have been times when a so-called "faithless elector" bucked the system.

In 2000, one of the District of Columbia voters turned in a blank ballot. Barbara Lett-Simmons told The Washington Post "it is an opportunity for us to make blatantly clear our colonial status and the fact that we've been under an oligarchy."

Lett-Simmons was required by D.C. law to vote for the candidate who received the most popular votes. Twenty-six states have similar laws. In 24 states, electors may vote for any candidate.

On a few occasions, a "faithless elector" has voted for another candidate. In 1988, a voter from West Virginia cast a ballot for Lloyd Bentsen instead of Michael Dukakis. In 1976, an elector from Washington voted for Ronald Reagan instead of Gerald Ford.

Although some states threaten "faithless electors" with penalties, no one has ever been prosecuted.

[From CNN]

0 Comments | Perm-a-link | 10/15/2004

Google on the go

Google has made it possible to get search results by sending a query via a text message on your mobile phone. Text the work "help" to 46645 (GOOGL on most phones) for instructions. [Google SMS]

Today is...

...International Moment Of Frustration Scream Day

What They Said:

John Kerry says Great Ad on 10/14/2004
Not a Democrat says W on 10/14/2004
Local Copy of the JK Ad says MGMT on 10/14/2004

The John Kerry Ad - Right Click and Save As Please!

3 Comments | Perm-a-link | 10/12/2004

Joke Of The Day

A man is driving down the road and breaks down near a monastery. He goes to the monastery, knocks on the door, and says, "My car broke down. Do you think I could stay the night?" The monks graciously accept him, feed him dinner, even fix his car. As the man tries to fall asleep, he hears a strange sound. The next morning, he asks the monks what the sound was, but they say, "We can't tell you. You're not a monk." The man is disappointed but thanks them anyway and goes about his merry way.

Some years later, the same man breaks down in front of the same monastery. The monks accept him, feed him, even fix his car. That night, he hears the same strange noise that he had heard years earlier. The next morning, he asks what it was, but the monks reply, "We can't tell you. You're not a monk."

The man says, "All right, all right. I'm dying to know. If the only way I can find out what that sound was is to become a monk, how do I become a monk?"

The monks reply, "You must travel the earth and tell us how many blades of grass there are and the exact number of sand pebbles. When you find these numbers, you will become a monk."

The man sets about his task. Forty five years later, he returns and knocks on the door of the monastery. He says, "I have travelled the earth and have found what you have asked for. There are 145,236,284,232 blades of grass and 231,281,219,999,129,382 sand pebbles on the earth."

The monks reply, "Congratulations. You are now a monk. We shall now show you the way to the sound." The monks lead the man to a wooden door, where the head monk says, "The sound is right behind that door."

The man reaches for the knob, but the door is locked. He says, "Real funny. May I have the key?" The monks give him the key, and he opens the door. Behind the wooden door is another door made of stone. The man demands the key to the stone door. The monks give him the key, and he opens it, only to find a door made of ruby. He demands another key from the monks, who provide it. Behind that door is another door, this one made of sapphire. So it went until the man had gone through doors of emerald, silver, topaz, and amethyst.

Finally, the monks say, "This is the last key to the last door." The man is relieved to no end. He unlocks the door, turns the knob, and behind that door he is amazed to find the source of that strange sound.

But I can't tell you what it is, because you're not a monk.

0 Comments | Perm-a-link | 10/9/2004

QOTD

Do not fear death so much, but rather the inadequate life.

-- Bertolt Brecht, The Mother, 1932

0 Comments | Perm-a-link | 10/8/2004

A ticket for 140MPH Over

Minnesota trooper writes 205 mph speeding ticket
WABASHA, Minn. (AP) � With a State Patrol airplane overhead, a Stillwater motorcyclist hit the throttle and possibly set the informal record for the fastest speeding ticket in Minnesota history: 205 mph.

On Saturday afternoon, State Patrol pilot Al Loney was flying near Wabasha, in southeastern Minnesota on the Wisconsin border, watching two motorcyclists racing along U.S. Highway 61.

When one of the riders shot forward, Loney was ready with his stopwatch. He clicked it once when the motorcycle reached a white marker on the road and again a quarter-mile later. The watch read 4.39 seconds, which Loney calculated to be 205 mph.

"I was in total disbelief," Loney told the St. Paul Pioneer Press for Tuesday's editions. "I had to double-check my watch because in 27 years I'd never seen anything move that fast."

[USA Today]

What They Said:

RantUser says No Way Man on 10/12/2004
Just no ways

1 Comments | Perm-a-link | 9/24/2004

Hummer Killer?

POSSIBLY TOO MUCH TRUCK. LIKE THAT�S A PROBLEM.

Your eyes don�t deceive you. It�s a pickup truck. From International. Which makes it much more than a pickup truck. It�s an International�CXT � born out of the proven International 7300 severe service truck used by professionals for the most rugged applications.

Called CXT, for commercial extreme truck, it dwarfs the beefy Hummer H2 sport-utility pickup and even could call the hulking H1 military version "junior."

The CXT is 2 feet taller, 4� feet longer, twice as heavy and totes more than five times the cargo weight of H2. "You can put the Hummer in back and take it with you," quips Nick Matich, vice president at International Truck and Engine.

The tag line I heard yesterday was "For those people where a Hummer is just not enough." I wonder who the hell that is?
[USA Today]

What They Said:

BBS says EEGADS! on 9/16/2004
BBS again says Oh here it is on 9/16/2004
It's also about twice the price of H2, about the same as H1. It starts at $93,000, runs $105,000 typically equipped and tops out at $115,000 with DVD player, leather upholstery, tilting dump box and rear-view camera.

2 Comments | Perm-a-link | 9/16/2004