So that's two terms McCaskill has won now entirely because a Republican said something monumentally fucking stupid.
She really should send fruit baskets to Akin and Limbaugh.
Category: Politics
Provisional
Watching election coverage. Appears that a truly ridiculous number of voters are being asked to fill out provisional ballots -- very close to 1:1 in may precincts, and some locations are even reporting twice as many provisional ballots as regular.
Hispanics are disproportionately affected -- quelle surprise.
This state, man...
I don't think we'll know the outcome of the Arpaio/Penzone race tonight. And probably not a number of others, either.
Registered Voter
I was going to link to where you could buy this most excellent T-shirt, but it appears that Barko-Swill has sold out. I suppose it's probably in pretty high demand about now.
But fortunately, I could still get these good photos of it, courtesy of Kozmic Dreams.
Go vote. Tomorrow. Tuesday the 6th. If you don't, the wrong lizard might get in.
Cosplay
Today I saw a man walking down the street in a tricorn hat, powdered wig, and other assorted revolutionary garb, waving a placard explaining how our Founding Fathers really love Romney and Flake.
I decided not to make any banal jokes about Halloween being last week, mostly because that's so blisteringly unoriginal but also because really, wearing that getup in 92-degree weather is its own punishment.
PSA's: Vote
Posted one of these back on 9/28; here's the whole set, complete with banter in-between takes.
It's too late to register in most places, but check your locale anyway to see if same-day registration is available.
And get out there and vote. Even if you're as dissatisfied with the choices for President as I am, there are local candidates and ballot initiatives where your vote does matter. Find something to support and go do it.
The election's on Tuesday.
Interrogation
Studio Korrekt, Stockholm, 1988.
Agency Man
According to uploader barun432,t he song was recorded in '66 or '67, and was played on a radio show in '68.
Green Party Candidate Arrested at Presidential Debate. Again.
So Jill Stein and running-mate Cheri Honkala were arrested outside of last night's debate.
Much the same thing happened to Ralph Nader in 2000. He sued the Commission on Presidential Debates; they settled. Back then I was naïve enough to think this was going to make a difference and this would bring down the CPD, or at least force major reforms. But nope, here we go again.
There are differences. Nader had a ticket; Stein didn't. Stein blocked traffic; Nader didn't. And I'm not sure if Stein's arrest was instigated by the CPD or if the county police acted independently. Could be that Stein and Honkala wanted to get arrested to get some press -- but even if that's the case, it's not justification for handcuffing them to a chair for eight hours, as they have alleged. That sounds to me like a wildly disproportionate response and another potential lawsuit.
Unfortunately I'm not seeing much coverage of the story, and many of the reports get details wrong -- CNN refers to the CPD as "nonpartisan" -- it's bipartisan; there's a difference -- and the Washington Post refers to Perot participating in the 1992 debates under guidelines that were not implemented until 2000.
Would sure be nice if people like Stein and Johnson and Nader and Buchanan and, yes, Perot were allowed into presidential debates. But the CPD exists for the express purpose of keeping people like them out.
The Two Lying Bastards Show, Season 14, Episode 2
All right, I missed the season premier and the All-Sidekick Special. But I caught this one.
On the whole I think Obama pulled this one out but they both did pretty well. Romney was at his best when he was criticizing Obama's record, his failures and broken promises -- and I think that speaks to the fundamental weakness of each campaign. Obama has failed to be the President he promised to be four years ago, but on the other hand, Romney is essentially running the same campaign John Kerry was eight years ago -- nobody's voting for him, they're voting against the incumbent.
Today's top story was Secretary Clinton's mea culpa on the attack in Benghazi. This was an opening for Romney; to my mind the Administration has bungled its narrative on the attack over the past few weeks, sticking to the "spontaneous attack over a YouTube video" story well after it became clear it was a coordinated terrorist strike.
Romney fucked that up.
The bit where he claimed Obama didn't refer to it as a "terrorist attack" on day one, and Crowley checked the transcript and confirmed that he had? That was the strongest audience reaction of the night, and we'll be seeing it in the highlight reel. Romney's best line of attack on foreign policy is effectively neutralized.
(The Republican talking point now appears to be that Crowley lied and Obama never used the phrase "terrorist attack". Per the transcript, the actual phrase he used was "acts of terror" -- claiming that the two phrases are not equivalent is absurd hairsplitting.)
Crowley was great, too; she gave the candidates rope when it was appropriate and reined them in when it was appropriate to do that. I only heard a bit of the first debate, but what I heard was consistent with what everyone said about Lehrer afterward: he was a moderator in name only and the debate was completely out of his control. Crowley owned it.
On the whole I'm still not happy with Obama. (And that he's got the balls to go up there and criticize Romney for supporting China in conducting surveillance on its own citizens, even as he's ramped up domestic surveillance beyond even Bush Administration levels...) I'm leaning Stein at this point. But I still prefer Obama to the alternative and hope he wins. If I were in a swing state, I might bite the bullet and vote for him -- but I'm not. There's a single poll showing Obama running within the margin of error in Arizona; the New York Times explains why it's best taken with a grain of salt (tl;dr the sample is too small and if Arizona were to go blue it would be part of a nationwide surge in Obama's favor).
All in all, a decent episode but I'm not sure it was good enough for me to stick around for the finale. Not nearly as good as the new episode of Walking Dead the other night.
Roelof Kiers Documentary, Part 4
Probably the most NSFW clip yet; features a little song called Penis Dimension.
Some thoughts on politics; as usual Zappa's insights are as relevant today as they were 40 years ago. He discusses Nixon and the buying of elections, and the enthusiasm but questionable efficacy of political protests. And the transformative political power of rock music -- even if just in getting people to loosen up.
Most famously, he observes this: "Progress is not possible without deviation."
And lastly, a good bit with Wild Man Fischer.
I think there's just one clip yet. Tune in tomorrow night for the thrilling conclusion!