Dick Cheney still has control of the pentagon's weather machine and has turned it on freeze, thus assuring a heavy demand on the fossil fuels grand finale for his energy buddies before the new administration re-tools energy policy...

We've had snow on the ground and below freezing temperature for almost a week, which is very suspicious given that week live in coastal Oregon.

Too obvious?

Creature of the Blago-goons.
Too obscure...

Blagoje-bush
Mixed metaphor...

Shine little Blago-worm
G-rated

Pay-to-Blago
Sounds vaguely dirty

Blago-job
Sounds acutely dirty

Jeff Merkley is on track to take Gordon Smith's seat in the Senate, probably by about 50,000 votes when all the dust settles. The Constitution Party candidate, Dave Brownlow, will finish with just over 80,000 votes. Those of you who don't live in a state where the Constitution Party rises above the pack of minor third party fringe-dwellers, here are some salient portions of their platform:

Return American jurisprudence to its Biblical foundations

Each person, born or unborn, is innocent until proven guilty to the satisfaction of a jury of his peers. Abortion is a crime against God, humanity, and the unborn child.

Medical treatment to preserve the life of the mother must always attempt to preserve the unborn.

All citizens not conscientiously opposed to it should be encouraged to be armed for the public safety, thereby facilitating the calling up the militia and the posse comitatus.

We repudiate the concept that [the Oregon National Guard] is an extension of the army of the United States to be used for the purpose of invading foreign jurisdictions or enforcing United Nations mandates, a concept that is doubly repugnant when no constitutionally declared war exists.

We demand that the national government make stemming the invasion of illegal aliens across our borders a top priority. We stand against the current practice of rewarding the offspring of such invaders with United States citizenship and the extension of tax payer funded benefits to such invaders and their families. English Is Our National Language.

We declare that nationhood involves a common culture and language, and we decry the subversion of our nation by multicultural and multilingual programs forced upon us at our expense.

Five-percent is a significant chunk of the electorate when the vote comes down to a 50-50 split between the top candidates. The Republicans made the choice to give these folks power, for short-term gain beginning back in the 1980's.

The Republican Party played these social extremists, just as it played the fiscal extremists of the Libertarian Party. And the end result effectively drove what passed for moderation out of the party. It's left with a mob of loud, angry one-issue voters who don't really agree on what that one issue should be and they are beginning to splinter into their own private groups.

The Oregonian has called the race for Merkley (ahead now by 4000)

Merkley is now leading by 400 with about 30% of Multnomah and Lane County still being counted.  It will be virtually impossible for Smith to recover, given that his strongholds have all been more or less completely counted.

http://www.oregonlive.com/special/index.ssf/2008/11/senate.html

Don't expect Smith and his minions to go gently into the good night, however.  Expect re-counts and law suits and all manner of wailing and gnashing of teeth.

I live in Oregon and just got a weird robo-call/poll.  The pollster ID went by so fast that I didn't retain the name, but basically it was looking for voter fraud and (I'm paraphrasing) asked "if you voted without issue, press one" and didn't go any farther because I was waiting for more choices and none came....

The Huffington Post has posted a summary of noted pundits and their predictions for the final results on Tuesday.  One voice stands alone...

You decide

There was a time, not too long ago, when I'd get a phone call almost every evening from somebody who wanted to know who I was going to vote for and if I might be changing my mind...

They wanted to know my thoughts on the economy, on national security.

They tested me with queries about taxing and spending, about past associations, about the specter of terrorism.

Now, those fickle pollsters only seem to care about the states where the less decisive live and I can't help wondering: If you only poll the wishy-washy states, won't your polling data be more wishy-washy?

One in five are chronic sufferers FCS, unable to admit the truth if it hits them between the eyes.  So deep is their denial that they will lie to friends, family, even the news media.  Some may actually be in the news media.

Four in ten are afflicted with intermittent FCS appearing perfectly normal and coherent for periods up to 4 years, but when stricken they become uncontrollable.  These bouts can be contagious if not contained.

How can you tell if a loved one suffers from FCS?  Know the warning signs:

1. habitual confabulation
2. irrational emotional outbursts
3. delusions of grandeur
4. paranoia, fear of "the other"

If you know someone with Feco-Cephalic Syndrome, know that you're not alone. 

There is help at: www.nfcf.org

This ad is was brought to you by the National Feco-Cephalic Foundation and this station.

 

I seem to remember reading somewhere that the last hail Mary play was to somehow steal Pennsylvania...

Is it purely coincidental that a Young Republican tries to convince folks that she was mugged and disfigured by a black man who was also an Obama supporter IN Pennsylvania?

The police DID NOT release photos of the "mutilation".  Who did?

The Pennsylvanian arm of the McCain campaign ran with this awfully hard and awfully fast.  Were they expecting it?

I'm betting that there's more to this story.  This has a familiar smell to it.  Some enterprising young journalist needs to "follow the money..."

Poor Ms Sarah is depressed, but she sees God's Hand in the random fluctuations of the poll numbers inside the margin of error and finds solace there.

This is how I figure McCain will shake up the debate....

He will apologize to Obama.  He will take responsibility for all the fecal matter that he, Ms Sarah and the stooges have been tossing around.

Even though he will be technically aiming this at Obama, he will be looking squarely into the camera, in essence apologizing to all those moderates, independents and news media types who've run away from him.

America, please forgive me and let me be president...

Anybody want to give me odds?

I have been voting in presidential elections since 1976.  I've never missed one.  That makes me a likely vote. I have also been a registered independent (unaffiliated) since 1976.

Those who pay attention will have noticed that the designated deciders in this election are not the right-wing religious ideologues, or the fat-cat economic conservatives, or even the mythical Reagan Democrats.  It's not women.  It's not NASCAR dads, or miscellaneous sport event driving moms. 

No, it's us independents.

Now, I know what you're going to say.  What about the uncountable, newly registered, cell phone toting masses?  Well, they're probably out there, but it's not clear yet whether they'll be allowed to vote, and even if their votes do count, they're not really showing up in the polls right now so they don't exist as far as the MSM is concerned.

That leaves us independent voters.  And boy have I been getting the phone calls.  In the past 2 weeks I've participated in at least 4 polls, including two of those "messaging testing" things that we're not allowed to call push-polls even though that's what they amount to.

And these guys are asking for me, the independent, not my wife the life-long democrat.  I am actively being stalked by folks who want to know if I'd change my vote if I knew Jeff Merkley talks to reporters with his mouth full, or that Barack Obama once consulted a weatherman to see which way the wind blew. 

Yep, I'm finally somebody, I'm the decider, and no, I'm not going to be changing my vote just because you tell me that David Wu was made in Taiwan.

I am having similar troubles with the comments function (thus this not) and even getting my profile or archived posts to show up.