The Republic of T.

Tin-Foil Hattery & the Media

The blogosphere rumblings about vote counts in the recent presiential election are finally starting to bubble to the surface in "mainstream" meida. Keith Olberman of MSNBC's Bloggerman, reminds us that no candidate's concession speech is final, and no election is over until the "fat lady"—in the form of the electoral college, in this case—sings.

This is mentioned because there is a small but blood-curdling set of news stories that right now exists somewhere between the world of investigative journalism, and the world of the Reynolds Wrap Hat. And while the group’s ultimate home remains unclear - so might our election of just a week ago.

Stories like these have filled the web since the tide turned against John Kerry late Tuesday night. But not until Friday did they begin to spill into the more conventional news media. That’s when the Cincinnati Enquirer reported that officials in Warren County, Ohio, had “locked down” its administration building to prevent anybody from observing the vote count there.

Suspicious enough on the face of it, the decision got more dubious still when County Commissioners confirmed that they were acting on the advice of their Emergency Services Director, Frank Young. Mr. Young had explained that he had been advised by the federal government to implement the measures for the sake of Homeland Security.

Gotcha. Tom Ridge thought Osama Bin Laden was planning to hit Caesar Creek State Park in Waynesville. During the vote count in Lebanon. Or maybe it was Kings Island Amusement Park that had gone Code-Orange without telling anybody. Al-Qaeda had selected Turtlecreek Township for its first foray into a Red State.

Of course, the blogsphere got hold of this early on, because bloggers aren't necessarily worried about being objective.

But here's an interesting question, folks. How badly do we want a win here? Do we want one badly enough to accept one this way; on a technicality rather than a KO? Suppose there was enough evidence to show that enough votes were wrongly counted for Bush, and should have been counted for Kerry, to give the Democratic candidate enough electoral votes to be declared the winner. Say this happens sometime in December.

Would that be good for the Dems, or bad for the Dems? Good for the country or bad for the country?

I'm still turning this one over in my head, but I'd like to hear what other's thinks.

Another One Stolen?

I'm not sure how I feel about all the news that this electin was stolen by the Repblicans through fraud, etc. I'm not surprise. But it kinda makes me feel sick just thinking about it.

Anyway, the link above is to The Blogging of the President, where they've assembled quite a collection of links about irregularities in this election. Read the articles for yourself and decide what you think.

Turn Your Back

This is not a bad idea. Granted, it's just making a statement, but sometimes makign a statement if about all you can do.

Via American Leftist.

One More Vote?

Want another chance to vote? CNN has a poll asking if people are happy with the election results. For what it's worth, at the moment it's running 57% No and 43% yes.

The Inmates & The Asylum

The only person who slept soundly in our house last night was our son, and that's because he's too young to have been aware of what was happening last night; too young to know what kind of country and what kind of world the incumbent president and the Congress have in mind to prepare for him to inhert. He just knew that something was making his Daddy and Papa increasingly unhappy last night. Fortunately, he had long since gone to bed when the evening reached its nadir. I turned in around 2:30am, half an hour or so after the hubby. I slept maybe a couple of hours. The hubby tossed an turned.

Neither of us had much to say this morning. Speaking somewhat figuratively, it felt like September 12. In fact, that's what it feels like. During the campaign Bush was fond of saying that Kerry lived in a "September 10th world." Well, now I expect that for a lot of us every day—or most of them anyway—will feel a bit like September 12th.

Most of the day I've swung somewhere between outrage and despair. I've been listening to Sweet Honey in the Rock (since the MP3 player came back to life) most of the day, just to lighten my mood a bit. It's helped somewhat. It might have helped even more if I could have just not left the house, and worked from home today. But I had to run an errand that took me within a block of the office. Unfortunately it took me within a block of the buildling where the Republican hordes were holding their victory party. I left the office early, to work the rest of the day at home, which unfortunately meant standing at the bus stop as they were emerging from their celebration, carrying signs and wearing t-shirts emblazoned with with their candidate's name. I gave decidely dirty looks to a couple of them who passed close to me. I couldn't help myself.

So, the American voters have chosen to give the inmates the keys to and full run of the asylum, and on the day after those of us among the 48% who voted the other way (some 55,437,651 in total, all told) are left to wonder what happened, why, and what's to come. And while John Kerry, in his concession speech, asked Americans to put aside our differences and reach across the divisions that have only been made deeper and wider in the last four years, and particularly during the campaign, I can't help wondering just how we can and just why we should.

New Motto

This ain't my country. I just live in it.

The Returns...

We've been watching the returns on ABC. We started on CNN, but the Bush bias bothered us. ABC's electoral projection started out Bush-36 and Kerry-3. Now it's Bush-66 and Kerry-74.

It's gonna be a rollercoaster of a night, but the reports of great turn-out are encouraging.

The one sad spot thus far is the passage of the rather severe anti-gay marraige amendment (it also bans civil unions between gays and hets) in Ohio. That one actually made me a little sick to my stomach. And we'll have to hear about 10 more of these before the night's over. Most likely, they'll all pass.

Chances are I'm going to come away from this election with some seriously mixed feelings, even if John Kerry wins.

Be the Power

Via Be the Power.

More exit poll updates. Tighter than before, but still good for Kerry. Grain-of-salt time, folks.

 		FL  OH  PA  WI  MI  MN  NV  NM  NC  CO  

Kerry		50  50  54  51  51  58  48  50  49  46  

Bush	 	49  49  45  46  47  40  50  48  51  53  

Early Exit Polls

I just got these exit poll numbers. One caveate, there was some confusion over the sources, but I've seen them in one other place. That said, it's early yet, but looking good.

AZ - Kerry: 45 - Bush: 55
CO - Kerry: 48 - Bush: 51
LA - Kerry: 42 - Bush: 57
PA - Kerry: 60 - Bush: 40
OH - Kerry: 52 - Bush: 48
FL - Kerry: 51 - Bush: 48
MI - Kerry: 51 - Bush: 47
NM - Kerry: 50 - Bush: 48
MN - Kerry: 58 - Bush: 40
WI - Kerry: 52 - Bush: 43
IA - Kerry: 49 - Bush: 49
NH - Kerry: 57 - Bush: 41

Low and Desperate

Via BlogActive.

Republicans are now so desperate that they're pretending to be gay Kerry supporters, using outrageous signs and statements to frighten folks into voting for Bush.

“We’re from San Francisco,” one of them said. He was wearing Kerry/Edwards pins, and holding a big Kerry/Edwards campaign sign alongside a homemade one that said: SUPPORT GAY ADOPTION. “We just want everyone to know what we support.”

There were four of them, two men and two women, all carrying signs with similar social wedge issues. One of them, wearing ratty boots and a denim shorts and vest matching suit with a leopard skin collar, walked up and down the line, yelling “Vote for Kerry — support gay marriage!”

“What are a bunch of Republican staffers doing here on Sistrunk pretending to be gay?” I asked the one who seemed to be the ringleader.

“I know all about Polk street and the Castro,” he said. “Stanford University. I’m from San Francisco, and I’m for gay marriage.” He was wearing a yellow golf shirt, tucked into khaki chino shorts with a call phone clipped to his belt — the Republican uniform. “Our candidate, John Kerry, supports gay marriage, gay adoption, everything gay.”

The ruse, apparently, was supposed to target this church-going Democratic crowd by misrepresenting Kerry’s politics. It was a little surprising at first; but then again, that’s the only way Republicans can win: by misleading people.

It has to be seen to be believed. Fortunately, it seems to be backfiring.