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

i mean shit. voting for BBQ and joe sixpack (beer, not body) seems to have worked out splendidly for the past 8 years. let’s go for another 4. except this time let’s bust out the moonshine. yeehaw!

ok. so Palin held a rally in California on saturday. i’m not sure if the McCain campaign knows that they’re wasting time in a blue state, but whatever; let them spin their wheels. the only thing that ends up making sense is that whatever medication they had her on that allowed her to complete sentences is no longer being administered. what i’m referring to is Palin’s horrible misquotation of Madeleine Albright’s quote, “There’s a place in Hell reserved for women who don’t help other women.” of course the way it came out of Palin’s mouth was, “There’s a place in Hell reserved for women who don’t support other women.” here. enjoy…

yes. let’s see how you completely fucking up a quote from someone so well respected in the international community will be interpreted by the media. let’s see how you taking creative license with a quote never intended for political context will be interpreted. Albright has done more in her lifetime to help build the stage for female advancement than Palin could EVER dream to accomplish. in fact, if anything i regard Palin as a step back for women because what i see with her is so much akin to affirmative action. my whole life i’ve been a firm believer in merit. people should be rewarded for their accomplishments and not put into places of power or prestige simply because someone feels we need to fill a fucking quota. there are hundreds if not thousands of more qualified females to be in Palin’s position and it’s my opinion that she is squandering the blood, sweat, and tears that have been shed by all women who have come before her.

so the house passed the bailout bill 263 to 171. immediate rescue my fucking left nut. even with the bill signed (which was supposed to bolster confidence, haha) the markets took a swift kick in the nuts and hit the deck.

i don’t even know where to begin. with the fact that YET AGAIN our government has fucked us in the ass, smiling all the while. or that a nation in panic YET AGAIN has acted based on their “gut” instead of making an informed decision on the best course of action. props to McCain though for being the biggest hypocrite on the face of the planet with his whole “no more earmarks” bullshit and then voting for a supposedly critical bill that could only pass once everyone’s pockets were lined with an extra $150 billion of taxpayer money. thanks guys.

this is a travesty. we’re giving $850 billion to the same guys who got us here in the first place. am i the only one who sees a problem with this? this money, IF it were to ever be used as a financial stimulus, should NEVER have been placed in the hands of the same irresponsible, self-interested, unqualified, and greedy bastards who were the root cause of this problem to begin with. not saying i could do better, but at least propose some alternatives and have leading specialists from the field weigh in on the issue who aren’t as biased as the people on the hill clearly are.

the thing that threw me the most is that after the senate voted on the bill the other day they did this press conference patting themselves on the back for taking a bill that used to be 3 pages, turning it into a 450something page bill, adding $150 billion in earmarks, and taking about two weeks to pass it. yeah. great job guys. way to do the job you’re elected to do and still sucking at it. if this was an economics and political science project, i’m sure most of your professors would fail you. keep patting yourself on the back while the rest of us are shown a sad sad picture of what our government has become.

for those interested, the main provisions from the bill can be found here.

i driving back from rosh hashanah dinner last night with mom from grandma’s in her car (C300 Mercedes). we were taking home some leftovers that included pickled tomatoes in a psuedorubbermaid container. dropped my mom off at a friend’s house to check up on him after a surgery while i took the car down the hill to fill up the tank. on my way down the hill, someone in front of me slammed on their brakes and caused me to do the same. shortly thereafter, i noticed that the intoxicating new car smell had been replaced by that of pickled tomatoes. in that instant knew exactly what had happened. the cylindrical container containing the coveted russian delicacy had popped open in the bag carrying the leftovers and an amount of liquid equivalent to that of a regular cup of starbucks coffee had spilled towards the front passenger seat.

figured there wasn’t much i could do about it till i reached the gas station, i kept driving. about 45 seconds after the incident, the dash and center console lit up like a fucking christmas tree. every conceivable error message began popping up one by one. the car still ran fine in terms of engine & drivetrain, but the whole electrical system was shot. the windows wouldn’t go up or down, the turn indicators were non responsive, and the center console (which at this point controls everything from entertainment to climate control) was just dead. the only electronics that did work were the brake lights and the hazards.

got to the gas station and wiped up as much of the spill as i could from under the passenger seat. this is when i realized that the remote locking mechanism was no longer functioning. not just the remote, even the internal lock/unlock button decided it didn’t want to work. once the car was turned off, the lights still remained on even after turning the headlights off the automatic position to just off. suffice to say, at this point i was rather frustrated.

about 20 mins later, after picking up my mom (like i said, minus the whole part where none of the fucking electronics worked, the car ran fine), we were heading to drop the car off @ Keys Mercedes in Van Nuys. on the way there, it seems that the components under the passenger seat were drying out (by drying out i mean short circuited enough creating heat and evaporating the liquid) and beginning to come back online one by one. the christmas tree was turning into a menorah and then into the dark of night. by the time we had taken care of all the paperwork, even the windows were operational and the remote locking mechanism was back in action.

reflecting back on the whole incident, all i really have to say is WHAT THE FUCK, MERCEDES?!?!? i mean i’d expect this from a Ford or something along those lines, but are you really trying to tell me that one of the flagships of German engineering can be brought to its knees by spilling some liquid under the passenger seat? way to lose some major points in my eyes. what in the world could have inspired the engineers to design this car in a way that would allow for sensitive electronics to be located in such an area or leave vital cabling uninsulated on the floor of the cabin. shit happens. design should keep this in mind and in this instance obviously failed, miserably.