Prez Sez:

"To make this nation stronger and better, I will need your support and I will work to earn it," he said with his wife, Laura, by his side."I will do all I can do to earn your trust ... we have one country, one constitution and one future that binds us."

This more than anything struck me as a nearly impossible dream. George Bush has no idea how hard he would have to work to get my support or earn my trust.

The second term begins much the same as the first, lies and empty promises. This man has neither worked hard in his life nor earned anything, especially trust.

Maybe I'm just full of shit.....

Enough! You can drown in this self pity. While the GOPers are shaking off their Chrystal hangover and Budweiser buzz, pour some coffee down your gullet and get your game hat back on.

Cleveland and the rest of Northern Ohio poured everything into this but came up short. I'm proud as hell of the unbelievable efforts we put forth. We still fielded a pretty good team the year after being three strikes away from a World Series win. We came back after "Red Right, 88," "The Fumble," and "The Drive." They stole our frickin team and we built a new palace and put in a new organization and life is still sweet.

We start from the top . . . Terry McAuliffe is out . . . and we work from the bottom too . . .

KOS: Count the votes!
It's not over in Ohio. As this email notes: Bush is currently leading in Ohio by 136,221 If there are 250,000 provisional ballots outstanding.  The highest number I've seen. And 90% of those ballots are good, as they were in 2000.  That leaves 225,000 votes. If 85% of those ballots prove to be for Kerry, about the number that Gore got in 2000.  That leaves us with 191,250, giving us a lead of 55,029. If there are only 200,000 provisionals, following the same calculation would leave us with a lead of 16,779. If the provisional ballots are only 175,000 that leaves us with a deficit of -2,346 that will leaves us in a position to get an automatic statewide recount. Or, to put it another way, an automatic recount is triggered by a margin of 0.25% or between 13,000 and 16,000 votes.

That is not to say that we fight a fruitless battle. Kerry conceded, that's the way it goes. But look how close we came! We fought the best machine the GOP has ever put forth, and incumbant during times of multiple crisises (which were mostly his fault, whatever) - to a statisical tie. We still have a lot of work to do to get over the hump.

One thing we're never going to do and that is convince our Southern bretheren to change their deeply held convictions, no matter how wrong-headed, about God, guns and gays. Live with it. One thing we can do is work on their shepherds who mold their minds every weekend.

Moral issues were the #1 factor for Ohio Bush voters. Do you think it's a coincidence that every state that surrounds us has gambling, but not here? The easiest way to tell if someone was a Bush supporter was to ask if they went to church regularly.

As awesome it is to see our candidate singing in a black baptist church, it doesn't impress a southern white methodist who starts calling realtors when a black family moves too close.

We need to break down the doors of southern white churches. I don't know how to do it or who can. But until we do we will be stuck in the wilderness watching our planet go straight to hell. Remember, they don't care because they've all been "saved" and await the rapture -- confidently leaving the destruction they intend to wrought for us to clean up.

Maybe I'll wake up and it will all have been a dream. Maybe I'll be right and it will be a tie. but that is little solace.

Either way, I'm done crunching numbers for the night. I'm done preaching and pursuading for a while. I'm certainly done ever believing anything a pollster says.

This certainly was an interesting excercize in futility and time wasting gamesmanship.

Well Kids, enjoy your blogosphere.

Oh, and all those nasty things I said about the devious deviant sleeping in the White House tonight. I meant every word.

Columbus Dispatch: Via Jesse

Lawyers from the Franklin Board and Ohio Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell vehemently objected and vowed an immediate appeal, saying any votes not cast on the regular electronic machines would be illegal.

And it was not immediately clear just what the Franklin County elections board would do to comply with the judge's order.

U.S. District Judge Algenon L. Marbley held an emergency hearing at the request of the Ohio Democratic Party and issued his order just as the polls were closing.

Ohio law requires that everyone in line when the polls close be allowed to vote, no matter how long it takes. A poll worker stands at the end of the line if necessary to mark where voting will end.

But Democrats argued with lines snaking out the door of many polling places and waits of several hours, voters are getting discouraged and leaving before casting their votes.

"Participation in this Democracy should not be as onerous as it is being made today," Marbley said before issuing his order.

Why does Ken Blackwell hate counting your vote?  Let me guess, this was one of the blue neighborhoods.

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Devious Dunces?

Beacon Journal: Michael Moore causes stir in Cuyahoga County

Moore said his crews had found no evidence of wrongdoing in Ohio. ``What I've seen here so far isn't official abuse, it's neglect,'' he said, referring to the insufficient number of voting booths in many precincts. The footage, he said, would be made available to reporters and turned over to federal authorities. ``I'm not making a movie,'' he said. ``I'm here as a citizen to stand up for the right to vote.''

Blackwell simply has failed in his most important assignment, protecting your vote (and not just handing an election to Bush).

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On The Brighter Side

In another legal battle Blackwell lost today Judge rules for news organizations over poll access in Ohio

Huzzah! for the First Amendment. (You know, they make it first for a reason, didn't you?)

Scattered reports of problems in Lucas County, Ohio (Toledo):

• Voting machines locked in a closet at one station, voting started late causing some voters to leave.
• Three machines at one station (optical scanners), one never worked and the other two jammed. No voting until a technician came out to fix it. (why isn't someone trained at each polling center to at least clear a friggin' paper jam? Geez.)
• Long lines . . . real long lines, and early "commotion," over the confusion about challengers.

Can't argue with this whatsoever!!

I'M DECLARING VICTORY -- OVER OSAMA: If he could have bombed us, he would have. Instead, all we got was a lame video. Instapundit.com -

When you have the fourth and fifth most "googleable" site for the term: "vote where you are supposed to vote", how the hell does my son end up with a provisional ballot, which probably won't be counted?

It is obvious he spent too much time in Florida as a child.

UPDATE: I stand Corrected. Fred, sorry I ever doubted you! Let's just say I was given some erroneous data. You did me proud and went the extra mile (literally) to vote where you were supposed to vote.

Wouldn't be Prudent.

Not even gonna link to the sites. You know where to go if you want to spoil your christmas surprise.

But damn it's looking good.

Ohio Voter Suppression News has the link to the rationale of allowing GOP thugs into every black precinct in the state here.

This post will update as I try to document any challenge shenanigans I come across.

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Backfire Rumblings Three sites I've visited show a pattern of chickenhawk GOP poll watchers bailing on their grand sceme to intimidate increasingly angry voters.

Bizarro World Update
BIZARRO WORLD UPDATE....Over at Red State they're complaining that Democrats are engaged in election day intimidation. Intimidation of.... Republican poll watchers. No, really. You just can't make this stuff up....

Anoter here:

Going Well So Far

So far, a lot of the Republican challengers simply haven't shown up...it's Democrats sitting there, reading over their paperwork, listening to conversations, playing paper football with themselves.

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Some "commotion" reported at my polling place. No Democratic challenger assigned but 5 were ready from the GOP (one for each precinct). Thanks to the Ohio Supreme Court they only were left with one who said he hadn't made any challenges and was just there to "observe the process."

I asked him what he was doing different than the assigned democrat and republican witness the board of elections. He squirmed a bit and said, "I'm just the eyes of the Republican Party." Phooey!

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Our absent Governor, Taft, finally had something to say on American Morning today. Thank god for term limits. What a stooge. A more partisan walking, talking, point(less) goof I couldn't find in a bag of tacks.

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Hmm, I really shouldn't flatter myself that I was another victim of a Denial of Service Attack. But why was my site so sportatic and updatable, and just plain down for 10 hours this morning?

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DOS Attack on Conservative Blogs? It wasn't just the Conservative blogs.

6:01am is reporting that several "conservative" blogs (perhaps properly warbloggers) are/were down or have suffered denial of service attacks. Great idea! Because everyone knows how quiet and reserved bloggers are. . . Is Instamartyr.com taken?

Blogs down [601am.com]

UPDATE: Retaliation or just bizarro-world Unabomberism? TPM also down. Thought it could be that Josh's massive intellect just finally burned through the wires.

UPDATE UPDATE: Everyone's down: Atrios, Little Green Footballs, Daily Kos. . . it's an indiscriminate evil who knows know political boundaries. Kind of like herpes. Really: It's Hosting Matters that appears to be problem. . .

Who is really surprised that the very same court that annointed Shrub would allow the potential for race baiting and chaos at the Ohio Polls and allow the challengers in but keep international observers and the press out?

And who is surprised that I got hacked last night and was locked out of my site?

Court OKs Voter Challengers at Ohio Polls: South Florida Sun-Sentinel

CINCINNATI -- Giving a pre-dawn Election Day boost to the GOP, a federal appeals court early Tuesday cleared the way for political parties to send in people to challenge voters' eligibility at Ohio polling places. The U.S. Supreme Court declined to step in.

Overturning the orders of two federal judges, a three-judge panel of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 early Tuesday that the presence of Election Day challengers was allowed under state law. It granted emergency stays that will allow Republicans and Democrats one challenger per precinct each.

No amount of lawyers can ovbercome a rigged concervative bench with the few liberals left cowed and intimidated by the screed of "liberal" becoming a dirty word.

You can thank "Crackhead" Chad Staton, for much of the GOP's talking points, asshole.

Before I was locked out of my site for 8 hours, I was attempting to chronicle the Challenge cases. And while smiling GOP operatives are saying "this will be great" as they fan out to screw with minority voters, much of why they can be there at all, and what it really means, can be found , here, and here.

I so want my country back. I so want to stop hearing every radio voice out there blaming the very media they propagandize through for the nation not walking in lock-step behind their intollerant ideology. I so want the MSM so cowed by fear of being labled as liberally biased they cow-tow to the disingenuiousness of fair and balance moral equivilence. I so want the courts back in sensible hands and not the plaything of partisans.

I so want John Kerry to be President.

Folks, if you see anything out of the ordinary whatsoever at your polling statioin, document it, take names, report it and follow up. Don't let this age old Jim Crow stuff go.

But keep the line moving.