a little something i put together using my SD750 over the course of the gathering we had last night to watch the 2008 presidential election.

Obama-Biden rocked the nation and the world at large last night with what i would describe as monumental victory. current results are:

electoral college: 349 -163 (without Missouri and North Carolina; too close to call yet.)
vote: 52% - 46%
votes: 63,353,261 - 56,012,314

the map turned out pretty much how i’d called it the day before with the exception of Indiana *shakes fist*. Missouri looks like it’s going to go McCain and North Carolina looks like it’ll go Obama with less than a 20k margin of votes in both states. after a recount, i’m fairly confident that they’ll end up as i had predicted (and by “i predicted” i mean decided based on information of those who know a shitload more than i do). now i just have to figure out what that means for our election pool with the fellas because Indiana threw everyone’s map off.

by CNN’s figures, that means 119,365,575 Americans voted yesterday, in early voting, and through absentee ballots. that’s pretty fucking incredible if you ask me. by current population estimates, that means that 39% of the population made their voices heard in this election. i’d love to see what the youth vote looked like compared to recent elections. i have a feeling we really had a huge impact. finally…

in local news, here’s the breakdown of results for California propositions with my two cents on the ones i really cared about:

1A: High-speed rail Yes 52.2% No 47.8%
-useless. this is way too much money spent when California is in a financial crisis. with a total cost of about $20 BILLION, it just doesn’t seem like the right time. i mean MAYBE if we were talking about a bullet train from L.A. to S.F. that cost $50 round trip and could get me there in about two hours. count me the fuck in, but somehow i doubt that’s what we’re going to get.

2: Farm animals Yes 63.2% No 36.8%
-i’m still convinced this one was mainly about poultry and mainly backed by people who think that animals have the same rights as humans. in the end, it’s food. i’m not going to have a hen as a pet. i’ve never had to worry about the price, quality, or availability of food in California. i fear this initiative is going to burden producers with extra costs and decreased product. if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. in the end it just means i have to pay more at the store starting in 2015. (and screw you Shawn, just because you don’t buy eggs doesn’t mean i can’t enjoy a cheap omelet!) =(

3: Children’s hospitals Yes 54.7% No 45.3%
-i’m all about kids and health and all, but didn’t we just vote yes on this same thing two years ago? where the hell did the money from that go? am i missing something? how can you keep asking for money for the same thing if you’ve either misappropriated or funneled the funds we gave you a couple years ago for something else? this just seems like the ultimate heart strings proposition. i mean who wants to say no to a sick kid. i guess at a total estimated cost of $2 billion, it’s fine…

4: Abortion notification Yes 47.6% No 52.4%
5: Drug offenses Yes 40.2% No 59.8%
6: Criminal justice Yes 30.5% No 69.5%
7: Renewable energy Yes 35.1% No 64.9%
8: Gay marriage ban Yes 52.0% No 48.0%
-this one really shocked me. thought maybe if the country was ready to elect its first african american president that the most liberal state in the union would be on board with the whole gay rights issue. in Los Angeles County, the proposition passed 50.4% Yes to 49.6% No. The entire Bay Area with the exception of Solano and Sacramento Counties overwhelmingly rejected the proposition. i fear that this state constitutional amendment will be a lot harder to deal with in the coming years as sentiments change and the resistant older generations become fertilizer (18-29 = 39% Yes to 61% No vs. 65 and Older = 61% Yes to 39% No). a big fuck you goes out to the overwhelmingly mormon financial support for this proposition. you have your own state to practice your crazy in. leave ours alone.

9: Victims’ rights Yes 53.2% No 46.8%
10: Alternative fuels Yes 40.1% No 59.9%
11: Redistricting Yes 50.5% No 49.5%
12: Loans for veterans Yes 63.4% No 36.6%

We did it. We fucking did it. Don’t let the momentum stop. This is our time.

ok. so here’s my prediction for tomorrow.

1A - No
2 - No
3 - No
4 - No
5 - Yes
6 - No
7 - No
8 - No
9 - No
10 - No
11 - Yes
12 - Yes

got a little teary eye’d towards the end.

i wonder if this is what America felt like when they elected Kennedy…

i don’t know if this has to do with him being old, stupid, or clearly oblivious about freedom of the press, but he clearly lives in his own reality on this one. he’s got someone who’s completely agreeing with him on the core issues but he loves the sound of his own voice so much that he can’t hear a fucking thing she’s saying because i suppose we should all live in papa bear’s world.

and no you moron, someone stealing $50 that your grandma sent you in the mail isn’t the same as stealing confidential documents from someone’s email that could potentially reveal a terrorist plot against the state or an individual. one has inherent value the other has intrinsic value. welcome to the internet. weak passwords get hacked. it’s not hard. what this kid did wasn’t even a fucking hack. he just WiKi’d Palin and guessed the password reset questions. that’s not hacking. any idiot could have done that. using an insecure system is about as safe as leaving your front door wide open and wondering why someone stole all your shit while you went away for the weekend.

to go off on a tangent for a second, i think this is also where a lot of people misunderstand something like pirating music and movies. you’re not stealing something that can never be sold and could be considered lost profit, you’re making a copy of something digital (and in most cases just getting to enjoy something you would have never purchased in the first place).

here’s a nice picture:

it’s moments like this that i’d love to throw my hands up and cheer, but given the past two elections, i’ll refrain till after the eventual recount and final verdict. it’s nice to see the rats jumping ship for one reason or another though.

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Charles Fried, a professor at Harvard Law School, has long been one of the most important conservative thinkers in the United States. Under President Reagan, he served, with great distinction, as Solicitor General of the United States. Since then, he has been prominently associated with several Republican leaders and candidates, most recently John McCain, for whom he expressed his enthusiastic support in January.

This week, Fried announced that he has voted for Obama-Biden by absentee ballot. In his letter to Trevor Potter, the General Counsel to the McCain-Palin campaign, he asked that his name be removed from the several campaign-related committees on which he serves. In that letter, he said that chief among the reasons for his decision “is the choice of Sarah Palin at a time of deep national crisis.”

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