Author: Julia

Registration scam

Anyone who saw last Thursday(?)’s Daily Show probably already knows about this, but I just saw it, and it was so weird I had to look into it. Apparently, back in September, students at Pitt and IUP were approached by “student-aged” people asking them to sign petitions supporting things like medical marijuana reform. Those who did received new voter registration cards in the mail a few days later, informing them that their registration had been changed to Republican. In a PA primary, this would make a differnce. Unless the students’ addresses have changed, though, it wouldn’t affect them at all. So what’s the point? Apparently no one knows. But here are two articles about it:

http://www.observer-reporter.com/283941907422030.bsp

http://www.capitolhillblue.com/artman/publish/article_5550.shtml

Here’s an equally ancient article about dirty tricks in general:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A12514-2004Oct30.html

In more recent news, Kerry has said that he & his people will be “participating” in the Ohio recount. Keith Olbermann has more.

And, finally, a far cry from the $1 grilled cheese sandwiches sold at Phish shows, GoldenPalace.com has bought a sandwich bearing the image of the Virgin Mary. For $28,000.

Oh my god, they killed the President

A Scottish company has released a game called “JFK Reloaded“. This has nothing to do with John Kerry. Instead, you, the player, are Lee Harvey Oswald. Your goal is to mimic the three shots of the original LHO.

The company says the idea is to show people that Oswald was acting alone, and that conspiracy theories have sprung up because of how hard his task was. They’re offering £53,800 to the first person who can recreate the shots.

The game is available for download for $9.95. I had a terrible time trying to find the download site; it seems that much of the media doesn’t want Ted Kennedy to think they’re “despicable”. Yahoo came through, though, with their press release service. Predictably, the site is swamped, but if you want to download it, it’s http://www.jfkreloaded.com. I won’t be grabbing it, so if you do, let me know what you think.

AFK

I leave tomorrow (well, today, really) morning for Wisconsin for the rest of the week. Jancey and I are checking out Beloit College in the hopes that it will either be so wonderful that we will not mind spending the next few years in Wisconsin, or bad enough that we can be relieved that we don’t have to move to Wisconsin. Either way, it should be a good trip. I’ve never been to the state, so I get to check another one off my list. Woohoo.

Anyway, I don’t know what kind of internet access I’ll have while there, so I might not post again until the weekend. I know you’ll miss me.

My parting tidbit — looks like Bush picked Condi to replace Powell. This means, presumably, that any tempering effect the Secretary of State had over the last four years will no longer be applicable. One interesting note — Bush Sr’s SoS thinks it’s a bad move.

Cabinet cleaning

While I’m very happy that Ashcroft is resigning (although I’m a little worried that his replacement will be even worse), I’m very unhappy to hear that Colin Powell is as well. I’m not surprised, and in some way his resignation allows me to hold onto a little bit of respect for him, but he’s seemed like one of the good guys, perhaps one of the only good guys. And, of course, I’m scared to find out who Bush will appoint instead.

Vote fraud?

I am far from convinced that any significant amount of vote fraud occurred last Tuesday. I’m closer to being convinced that some insignificant (IE, not result-altering) fraud occurred, and that some of those electronic voting machines experienced a few, erm, glitches. Either way, it seems highly unlikely that anything will happen in the next couple of weeks to change the outcome of the election. I’m not even sure, at this point, discovering that much fraud would be a good thing. Sure, Kerry supporters (and former Gore supporters) would feel a bit vindicated, but the effect on voter morale in our already polarized nation might be nearly as damaging as another 4 years of W.

That said, if you’re having trouble letting go, there has been some talk about investigations and recounts. This site urging readers to ACT NOW (!) TO UNHIJACK THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION looks like it could easily be the work of some left-wingers who just can come to grips with reality, but Keith Olbermann of MSNBC has been talking on his blog about the possibility of/need for a closer look.

As Olbermann writes, we do have a need for “a resolution of both DemocratsÂ’ doubts about the legitimacy of the election, and RepublicansÂ’ resentment that there are doubts”. I’m disappointed that this kind of investigation wasn’t automatic on the part of the press — instead we’re right back to hearing about Scott Peterson.

Sorry Everybody

http://www.sorryeverybody.com/

“Some of us — hopefully most of us — are trying to understand and appreciate the effect our recent election will have on you, the citizens of the rest of the world. As our so-called leaders redouble their efforts to screw you over, please remember that some of us — hopefully most of us — are truly, truly sorry. And we’ll say we’re sorry, even on the behalf of the ones who aren’t.”

Cute site.

Unitarian Universalism

This morning my father and I attended service at the Unitarian Church of Harrisburg led by Reverand Howard Dana. I’d been there many years ago on the recommendation of a high school English teacher, and toyed with the idea of returning, but didn’t until I got an email from my dad asking if I’d like to go with him to check it out. When we sat down he whispered, “If they start talking about Jesus, we can leave.”

But Jesus was mentioned only once, and then it was in reference to him as a teacher, rather than him as God. This was balanced by the pastor’s use of words like “mazeltov” and “oy vey”. Instead, most of today’s sermon — entitled “The President of the United States” — focused on the election, dealing with disappointment, not being discouraged into inaction, and remembering that “this too shall pass”. It was a little startling to hear a pastor so strongly anti-Bush, and so unapologetic about it, but the sermon was well done. While Dana was clearly coming from a place of disappointment, his words were gentle and sometimes funny, recognizing the general feeling of despair in the congregation, and offering encouragement and hope. He seemed to be a man talking about what he felt, what he believed. But what surprised me most was that I wasn’t bored.

I’ve made fun of the Unitarian Church because they have no one creed, no core tenets, but I do admire their ideals, and it was heartwarming to hear the pastor lovingly call his congregation “godless intellectuals”. Waking up early enough on Sundays to make it to even the 11 AM service is not something that’s likely to happen with any regularity, it was a good experience and if I ever happen to be up early and have nothing to do…I might just go to church.

Well

So we’ve known now for nearly 24 hours that it was completely over. I’m still in a little bit of shock. I was never convinced that John Kerry was going to win, but I’m surprised that it wasn’t closer.

I could rant for hours, I think, but I need to get to class. More later.

The start of a very long day…

I’m going to bed. I spent all day at the polls in Camp Hill and New Cumberland, and I’d like to believe that the efforts of MoveOn, my sister, my mother, and, to a lesser extent, myself, helped win Pennsylvania for Kerry.

Right now it looks like all the networks are calling Ohio for Bush — but CNN is holding out. Their argument is that the margin is less than the number of provisional ballots and that if the margin continues to narrow, it could become significantly less than the number of provisional ballots. Ohio’s Secretary of State says that Ohio law allows for the counting of provisional ballots on the 11th day after the election. Absentee ballots must be postmarked by November 2, but don’t actually have to be received until the 10th day after the election. So, at least at this point, it looks like we’ll be waiting a week and a half before we know for sure.

In other Election Day news, there were highly disappointing results in 10 states which approved amendments to their state constitutions banning gay marriage. These days it looks like maybe we are one nation under God after all, but it’s a highly divisible nation, with liberty and justice for some.

Not that I’m bitter.