Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    
I agree, Jef. 
It's a further advancement of what Rove has done for years, but this
cycle it's extremely stark. "Obama refuses to work with Congress" for
example.

The vote thing really concerns me.
  

    
From Steve, an off-WELL reader:

Folks, as an American, I don't wish to know who you vote for unless
you want to volunteer that information and have a chat. Just vote. If
everybody who can vote does vote, I'm pretty sure my guy will win. If
he doesn't we'll still survive. We've fired a King, thrown and fairly
well mended from a horrible civil war, still have the gumption to
resolve the aftermath of slavery (albeit we're not doing so well on
that score)… but, we've dodged a couple of insurrections to form a
dictatorship and managed to keep the wheels of a perpetually fragile
republic turning.

So, just get out and vote and take somebody who might otherwise just
watch the show with you to the polls. Democracy is not a spectator
sport. We all have skin in this game. Make your choice Americans and
let it be known in the secret sacred space of scratching a ballot.
  

    
very nice.
  

    

Hear, hear!
  

    

>The first election-related federal lawsuit has already been filed in
South Florida, where some citizens waited over seven hours to vote
early over the weekend. In an area that includes Palm Beach, Miami-Dade
and Broward County -- yes, that Broward County -- Florida Democrats
scrambled to extend early voting hours over the weekend citing
"inadequate polling facilities" in a complaint filed in a Miami federal
court on Sunday. "The extraordinarily long lines deterred or prevented
voters from waiting to vote," says the lawsuit. "Some voters left the
polling sites upon learning of the expected wait, and others refused to
line up altogether. These long lines and extreme delays unduly and
unjustifiably burdened the right to vote." These three counties are
home to 32 percent of the state's Democrats.

<http://news.yahoo.com/voting-already-mess-florida-041641182.html;_ylt=AgvSQP03
y86FlwyX02QiYDOs0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTNsdGU5a210BG1pdANUb3BTdG9yeSBGUARwa2cDNWJmOGUw
N2EtYmQ2OS0zZmJhLTkxYjEtZTZhZDZiMGM4ZmJjBHBvcwMzBHNlYwN0b3Bfc3RvcnkEdmVyAzBiM2
U5NzYwLTI3MDQtMTFlMi1iZmMzLTFmZTc2MDJkOTkzZg--;_ylg=X3oDMTFpNzk0NjhtBGludGwDdX
MEbGFuZwNlbi11cwRwc3RhaWQDBHBzdGNhdANob21lBHB0A3NlY3Rpb25z;_ylv=3>

<http://tinyurl.com/akfeosu>
  

    
I wanted to do early voting in Chicago  - last Sunday (10/27) and
found that the early voting line in my neighborhood was over 1.5 hours.
 My wife and I passed on the early voting opportunity and continued
with our Sunday errands.  This past Thursday (11/1) I had the
opportunity to stop by the polls again and see if the lines were
shorter, and they were much shorter.  So I voted in about 30 minutes.
Rumor is that between 30 and 50% of the folks expected to vote have
already voted - so if your polling place is crowded, take it as a good
thing on Tuesday.  Stick around and vote.
  

    
rumbles from 0hio :

http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2012/11/01/glitch-held-up-absent
ee-ballots.html

http://thinkprogress.org/election/2012/11/03/1134981/last-minute-ohio-directiv
e-could-trash-legal-votes-and-swing-the-election/?mobile=nc
  

    

I just saw on MSNBC that 200,000 ballots in Ohio would be
"provisional".  If the winning margin in less than that, counting them
wouldn't even start by Ohio law until 10 days after the election, very
possibly leaving the outcome hanging that long.  Of course, the
lawsuits would be flying fast and furious.

Florida's shortening of the early voting window down to 8 days has
left long lines and short tempers.  The three largest counties, which
includes "hanging chad Broward" have allowed people to obtain and
immediately vote "absentee ballots" as an end-run.  If Florida is
close, expect another onslaught of lawsuits.

I sincerely hope that the outcome of this election is clear enough by
the time polls close at 1 AM EST in Hawaii and Alaska that we won't be
drawn through some agonizing aftermath.
  

    
 
I live in Virginia, which will be one of the first state's polls to
close at 7 PM EST.  If Obama wins here, I say stick a fork in Romney,
he's done.  If Romney wins here, and I think he barely will, I'm not
coming to any conclusions based on that.  Virginia is a very purple
state, with Republicans in the top offices currently, but went for
Obama in 2008.
  

    
Then there's this:

The names of registered Philadelphia voters are not showing up on
voter rolls and poll workers are instructing them to vote using
provisional ballots, according to voters and poll workers in West and
North Philadelphia. Provisional ballots, if they are counted, are not
counted until up to seven days after the election.

<http://www.citypaper.net/blogs/nakedcity/177510161.html>

...and this...

An election worker in Oregon is facing a criminal investigation for
allegedly altering multiple ballots to benefit Republican candidates.

In a press release on Monday, Clackamas County spokesperson Tim Heider
said that 55-year-old Deanna Swenson had been “relieved of duty
immediately after the alleged ballot tampering was discovered.”

Swenson, who was registered as a Republican, was accused of filling in
a Republican straight ticket on ballots where voters did not specify a
choice.


Raw Story <http://s.tt/1sglR>
  

    

Oregon is strictly vote by mail, iirc.
  

    
I was annoyed to have to vote using a provisional ballot here in Northern
California because I registered at my new address on the last possible date,
a few hours after the roster of voters for my precinct had been printed. I'm
definitely registered and my vote will be counted, but not right away.  (I
waited to register because I wanted to avoid getting junk mail on various
issues and candidates.)
  

    
CNN suggested a hashtag #cnnvotewatch for reporting irregularities -
they're watching it and researching the reports. You can see the tweets
at https://twitter.com/search?q=%23cnnvotewatch

Looks like some voting machines have been incorrectly calibrated,
through error or design: http://vimeo.com/52947220
  

    

With polls just closing in Virginia, MSNBC says its "too close to
call" in both the Presidential and Senate races.
  

    

With a bunch of "swing" states "too close to call", nevertheless the
MSM calls Ohio for Obama and he is re-elected.

On the Senate side, Dems maintain 50+ control.  It pains me to say
that it seems the Reps maintain control of the House by entirely too
comfortable a margin.
  

    
They may lose a few seats in the House. I think they will. But the Dems seem
to have kept their majority in the Senate, with gains in Maine,
Massachusetts, maybe another state?
  

    
I would have loved to see Pelosi take back the giant gavel from the
tear-stained, obstructionist Oompa-Loompa. All in all, though, it's
been a great day.
  

    
Locally here in the Midwest...
I'm happy that two Tammy's won:

Iraq Veteran Tammy Duckworth beat out the wrong Joe Walsh in a hotly
contested battle where Joe went negative and personal - and that hurt
him.

and

Openly Gay Tammy Baldwin wins against former Governor Tommy Thompson.
  

    

The two Tammys!  Yes indeed!!
  

    
The double Tammy!
  

    

I've had a bout of the flu, or something like it, even though I got a
flu shot.  Anyway, have not been doing what I should to keep this topic
going.  Sorry.

So, watching MSNBC it already seems like the fraking 2016 campaign is
being discussed; which makes me disgusted.  At least one could-be
candidate is already stalking Iowa, although he claims it couldn't
possibly be what he's doing.  Bobby Jindal is denouncing the current
party as basically idiots, which I think is probably a good strategy,
casting yourself as the only adult in the room.

Meanwhile the MSM is full of advice and browbeating about the
Republican Party having dug itself into a hole with its "old white guy"
strategy.  (As an old white guy, I resent this, for what it's worth.)

So where do we go from here?
  

    
The Republicans started positioning themselves for 2016 even before
Romney lost.  Shrug.  Maybe it means they'll pay less attention to
the 2014 mid-terms and we can kick more jackasses out of Congress.
  

    
Although the historical trend is for the
out-of-the-office-of-the-Presidency to pick up seats in the House.

Best thing the Dems to possibly do is to start a "this man/woman is an
idiot, look what he/she has said/done.  The Dems need to do it right
now.  We need to get the Tea Party loons and their allies (like a lot
of evangelicals) into the minority, the further into the minority the
better.