Mormon church reports $190,000 Prop. 8 expenses.

Mormon church officials, facing an ongoing investigation by the state Fair Political Practices Commission, Friday reported nearly $190,000 in previously unlisted assistance to the successful campaign for Prop. 8, which banned same-sex marriage in California.

Now there's a huge surprise.

Up until Friday, the Mormon church had denied any direct financial support for the campaign beyond a reported $2,078 spent for bringing church Elder L. Whitney Clayton to California.

Church officials complained that Karger's complaint was full of errors and that the church had "fully complied" with California law.

The report filed Friday contained few details about how the money was spent.

[...]

While the deadline for the report, which covers the period from July 1 to Dec. 31, is Monday, many campaign contributions by major donors and independent committees must be reported within days after they're made.

The final reports are due today, because U.S. District Judge Morrison England late last week refused to exempt the yes-on-8 campaign from making their filings today.

If the Prop. 8 campaign was exempted from disclosure because of reports of harassments of individual donors, said Deputy Attorney General Zackery Morazzini, the same case could be made for any controversial initiative. Courts would have to "keep the entire California electorate in the dark as to who was funding these ballot measures," he said.

England agreed.

He noted that some of the reprisals reported by the Prop. 8 committee involve legal activities such as boycotts and picketing. Other alleged actions, such as death threats, mailings of white powder and vandalism, may constitute "repugnant and despicable acts" but can be reported to law enforcement, the judge said.

Even if there have been illegal reprisals, that would be insufficient reason to grant a wholesale exemption for a multimillion-dollar initiative campaign, England said. He also rejected the Prop. 8 campaign's argument that the $100 disclosure limit established in 1974 should be increased for inflation, saying some states require reports of contributions as low as $25 and the Supreme Court has never invalidated them.

[ref:Prop. 8 campaign can't hide donors' names]

Interesting to see what comes out today that the yes-on-8 campaign was so anxious not to have come out.

Labels: California, causes, election2008, legal, politics

   posted by Sal Towse at  9:52 AM|| |

You taught me the meaning of "preemptive strike."

Labels: election2008, video

   posted by Sal Towse at  5:18 PM|| |

US Presidents - George Washington to Barack Obama




44 US Presidents from George Washington to Barack Obama morphed to the music Boléro by Ravel

Must admit that I don't really know what each and every president looked like.

James K Polk was a surprise. He had a sly grin look about him. Reminded me of Baryshnikov somehow. Also reminded me of the They Might Be Giants song.

James Monroe I couldn't've picked out of a crowd.

And then there were the "He's on the $xxx bill" presidents.

John Tyler. Had I ever seen a picture of him that wasn't in a heads-of-all-the-presidents poster?

Grover Cleveland looked like a well-fed beermeister.

Entertaining.

gekko talked about the smiling/not-smiling aspect of the morph. I was more fascinated by the facial hair. Chester Arthur. Whoa.


[hattip to gekko, who posted this link on Usenet but I'm using a link to her blog instead of a link to that post.]

Labels: election2008, history, people, video

   posted by Sal Towse at  12:43 AM|| |

eightmaps

A mashup of pro-Prop8 donations and Google maps.

Want to know if your neighbors donated to the Yes-On-Prop8 campaign? Here's your click.

(None of my neighbors donated according to this site, but then I live in a very not-Republican sector of town ...)

(Oh. Here's a student who donated $500 to the yes-on-8 campaign. Gosh. I wish I'd had that kind of money when I was a student.)

Labels: election2008, mashup, web2.0

   posted by Sal Towse at  11:00 PM|| |

Event coming UP! all San Franciscans and those near enough to:

Inauguration Day 2009.

You could be at the Main Library at 100 Larkin Street in the Koret Auditorium watching the live telecast.

OR

You could be at End Bush at Bush and Presidio (Tuesday January 20, 2009)

Meetup and STREET PARTY! at the corner of Bush and Presidio at the END BUSH sign.

Labels: election2008, San Francisco, social networking

   posted by Sal Towse at  12:09 PM|| |

Melissa Etheridge: The Choice Is Ours Now

Melissa Etheridge on the Rev. Rick Warren.

[...]

On the day of the conference I received a call from Pastor Rick, and before I could say anything, he told me what a fan he was. He had most of my albums from the very first one. What? This didn't sound like a gay hater, much less a preacher. He explained in very thoughtful words that as a Christian he believed in equal rights for everyone. He believed every loving relationship should have equal protection.

[...]

She tells everyone to chill.

[...]

Maybe if they get to know us, they wont fear us.

I know, call me a dreamer, but I feel a new era is upon us.

I will be attending the inauguration with my family, and with hope in my heart. I know we are headed in the direction of marriage equality and equal protection for all families.

Happy Holidays my friends and a Happy New Year to you.

Peace on earth, goodwill toward all men and women... and everyone in-between.

Labels: causes, commentary, culture, election2008, life

   posted by Sal Towse at  6:55 PM|| |

Obama logo ideas that weren't chosen | Logo Design Love

Interesting information and links re the design of the Obama '08 logo: how it was chosen, how it evolved.

Labels: design, election2008, politics

   posted by Sal Towse at  10:28 AM|| |

I'm a huge fan of Paul Madonna and his ALL OVER COFFEE work in the Sunday Chronicle.

Got this note from him today (that would be me and the zillion others on his e-mail list):

I've had an overwhelming response to this week's "Obama:Progress" All Over Coffee piece. Since the original sold within the first few hours it was published, (including a backup waitlist) I decided to make a fine art limited edition print of this particular strip to honor this momentous time in history.

The full-color print is 16x22 inches, signed and numbered in a limited edition of 100, at $195 each. Produced by the fabulous printer SF Electric Works, these prints are of the highest quality.

Follow this link to both view and order.

If you missed Sunday's Madonna, check it out. If you don't know ALL OVER COFFEE or Paul Madonna, check him out.

Labels: art, culture, election2008, San Francisco, shopshopshop

   posted by Sal Towse at  1:23 PM|| |

Pin the Tail -- Patterns, Land Use

Interesting blog post from Sophia Travis @ Pin the Tail comparing red/blue voting patterns in the south for the 2008 presidential election and cotton production in the same region in 1860.

What does this mean? All those old plantation owners' heirs and assigns are Democrats?

[via tweet fr Tim O'Reilly]

Labels: election2008, mashup, web2.0

   posted by Sal Towse at  1:13 PM|| |

The court will overturn Prop. 8 by LaDoris H. Cordell. (op-ed in today's San Francisco Chronicle)

I was reading this commentary in the Chron this morning -- a commentary I agree with totally, btw.

LaDoris Cordell was a Superior Court judge in the south bay back when I lived in the south bay, so I was surprised when she mentioned she was lesbian.

That's odd, I thought. I knew she was a woman judge, not all that common, and a black woman judge at that, even more uncommon, but I hadn't realized she was a lesbian black woman judge. Huh. What do you know? Had I just not been paying attention? Was it just not important? Had I forgotten? (I've forgotten a lot of things.)

But then, I went to college, then to law school, opened a law practice in a black community, became a law school administrator, and then went on to a successful career on the bench. Along the way, I got married and had two wonderful daughters. I was perfect. And then one fine day, as these black voters would have it, I chose to simply throw it all away - to become an Untouchable? Ridiculous. I did not choose to be gay anymore than I chose to be black.

Ah. Penny drops. Cordell was married with a family when I knew of her, so I knew of the black woman judge aspect of her life but at that time, the lesbian side wasn't front and center. I didn't know and, frankly, had I known, wouldn't have cared.

Good commentary.

I also liked Keith Olbermann's commentary on Proposition 8 but for Pete's sake, he can sure over-emote, can't he? Easier to read his commentary than to watch it.

Labels: commentary, culture, election2008, life, politics

   posted by Sal Towse at  11:29 AM|| |

Bring on the Puppy and the Rookie

Worth the signing on for.

[...]

The Obama girls, with their oodles of charm, will soon be moving in with their goldendoodle or some other fetching puppy, and they seem like the kind of kids who could have fun there, prowling around with their history-loving father.

I had been amazed during the campaign — not by the covert racism about Barack Obama and not by Hillary Clinton’s subtext when she insisted to superdelegates: “He can’t win.”

But I had been astonished by the overt willingness of some people who didn’t mind being quoted by name in The New York Times saying vile stuff, that a President Obama would turn the Rose Garden into a watermelon patch, that he’d have barbeques on the front lawn, that he’d make the White House the Black House.

Actually, the elegant and disciplined Obama, who is not descended from the central African-American experience but who has nonetheless embraced it and been embraced by it, has the chance to make the White House pristine again.

I grew up here, and I love all the monuments filled with the capital’s ghosts. I hate the thought that terrorists might target them again.

But the monuments have lost their luminescence in recent years.

[...]

Well said, Maureen Dowd. Well said.
Read the whole thing.

Labels: commentary, election2008

   posted by Sal Towse at  6:03 PM|| |

Patrick Moberg's 04Nov cartoon

Succinct. (Can a cartoon be succinct? Perhaps I should say, To the point.)

Obama, however, will probably be grey too by the end of his terms.

Check out patrickmoberg.com

Labels: art, election2008

   posted by Sal Towse at  11:15 AM|| |

We were watching Obama's acceptance speech and he was talking about Sasha and Malia and I said to his nibs, "And they get a PUPPY!"

... the next thing Obama said was, "and you have earned the new puppy that's coming with us to the White House."

Well, now there's all the yammer about what =sort= of dog they should get and whether it should be a pound puppy or not.

What to name the puppy? is the next question.

Well, here are some ideas from the New Yorker, including "Checkers":

I think they should name it "Chesapeake" and call it "Chess," as a fitting counterpoint to "Checkers."

Labels: election2008, life, people, politics

   posted by Sal Towse at  9:57 AM|| |

Exceptionally disappointed in San Francisco voters, though.

With Obama, Prop 8 (and eleven other state propositions), twenty-two city measures and assorted supervisor/congresscritter/&c. decisions, the Registrar says

of the 477,651 registered voters,
237,843 ballots were cast.

49.79%.

That's pathetic, and doesn't even take into account those folks who couldn't be bothered even to register, let alone vote.

Labels: election2008, San Francisco

   posted by Sal Towse at  10:39 AM|| |

I watched this whenever I felt like it was all an impossible quest.



Thank you, will.i.am.

Labels: election2008, music, video

   posted by Sal Towse at  9:16 AM|| |

Election Results - November 4, 2008 - California Secretary of State [map showing how the state voted, county by county. Illuminating!] Update: The CASoS has taken down the map, alas. The above link now points only to the text results. Update: The map is back

Proposition 8 passes.

95.7% of the precincts partially or fully reporting as of 7:49A. Yes:52.1% No:47.9%

Update: 96.4% precincts partially or fully reporting as of 9:23 a.m. Yes: 52.2% No: 47.8%


I can't tell you how disappointed I am. The only saving grace is that Prop 22 passed in 2000 by 61.4% to 38.6%. Saving grace: the gap has closed as much as it has in eight years. Now written into the state Constitution, the only way to un-do the amendment is by a similar vote by registered voters. The Legislature can't undo a Constitutional amendment (not that they could even rescind Prop 22 when they tried -- Schwarzenegger vetoed the bill).

Could voters come to their senses and reversed the amendment when some more time passes? If we cut the difference from 12.8% to 4.1% 4.4% in eight years, could we bring this to the ballot again in five years and have it pass?

Maybe.

Seems funny to me that amendments to the Constitution take only 50% +1 of the vote but raising taxes takes 2/3ds approval. Perhaps Constitutional amendments should also have that threshhold, but please not until we've rescinded this mean-spirited, unfair and wrong amendment some time in the future.

Or, alternatively, we can go to Plan B, as soon as everyone's regrouped.

Plan B: Change state law so that all legal schmegal dealing with joint tax filing, hospital visitation, inheritance, health benefits, time off for sick family, adoption, &c. for couples is based solely on civil registration at City Hall or the county courthouses.

Let churches marry whom they please, and let it be solely between a man and a woman, if that's what the church deems, but church marriages will not be valid registration for the government benefits accruing to couples. Only a civil partnership registered at City Hall or the county courthouse will have legal status, and civil partnerships will be available to heterosexual and homosexual couples.

Labels: damn, election2008

   posted by Sal Towse at  8:11 AM|| |

OK. So it's only a bet in Huffington Post's "guess the election" contest, but this is what I tossed in the mix. (Wishful thinking may be in play. ...)

Huffington Post was asking for electoral college breakdown (by numbers), popular vote breakdown (by percentages), House and Senate breakdowns (by numbers) and (as the tie-breaker for the woo-hoo! contest winner), the percentage breakdowns in the Minnesota Senate race.

My bets:

Electoral College: Obama 340 McCain 198

Popular Vote: Obama 54.1% McCain 42.2% Other 3.7%

House: Dem 246 Rep 189

Senate: Dem 59 Rep 39 Other 2

Minnesota Senate:
Franken 45%
Coleman 42%
Barkley 13%

Labels: election2008

   posted by Sal Towse at  11:04 PM|| |

Wife of former 49er Young voting No on Prop. 8

You GO! Steve and Barbara.

Labels: California, election2008, life, people

   posted by Sal Towse at  9:33 PM|| |

Interesting. Has there been any fallout? asks Sour Grapes, in response to my Vote NO on Proposition 8, redux. post.

My answer?

The biggest fallout is Proposition 8.

Attempts to make the anti-marriage-equality stance part of the state Constitution were already in motion after San Francisco authorized gay marriage ... only to have those marriages halted and then voided the same year because of the existence of the legal language brought into play by Proposition 22.

San Francisco and other proponents of marriage equality took the matter to court.

Question: Was Proposition 22, passed in 2000, to define marriage as between a man and a woman unconstitutional?

Well, said the anti-marriage-equality wing, even before the judges decided the matter. Let there be no question. Let's change the Constitution and put the definition of marriage there (instead of in the legal code) and that way it will be constitutional!

But a move to put the Constitution amendment on the ballot had slowed until the Sanders turnabout shocked the right wing of the Republican party. If even a true-blue anti-gay-marriage Republican could change his mind ...

The shock of it energized the folks who wanted to put the matter to the voters ... again. Proposition 8 is the fallout.

***

On the front window of our older son's house is an Obama sign and a hand-lettered sign.

The hand-lettered sign says:

SAVE OUR MARRIAGE. VOTE NO ON PROPOSITION 8!

(Axel the window dog [ed. Axel is a big dog that spends each day sitting on the window seat waiting for the guys to come home and has become something of a neighborhood mascot] says JOINT FILING MEANS MORE MONEY LEFT AFTER TAXES AND MORE DOGGIE TREATS FOR ME!)

Our older son and his husband (yes, they got married =again= after the state courts legalized marriage equality in June) would like to stay married this time.

Make it so. Vote NO on Proposition 8.

Labels: election2008, life

   posted by Sal Towse at  6:26 PM|| |

t r u t h o u t | McCain, Obama and the Psychology of Decisions

Long, interesting article about the candidates and their respective ways of handling decision making and how their backgrounds, their relationships with their fathers, affect who they are today and how they relate to others.

Far from psycho-babble. Thoughtful.

Labels: election2008, politics

   posted by Sal Towse at  8:46 AM|| |

Election 2008 – some fun

dashboard periodically fetches the market price of Intrade’s state-by-state election markets, which represent the probability, as assessed by the Intrade traders, that a given candidate will win a given state. From those probabilities I compute the overall probability of various scenarios and color the map appropriate shades of blue and red. I also provide some dials and knobs (sliders) actually, to allow you to play some real-time "what if" games with the results.

[via a tweet from Tim O'Reilly]

Labels: app, election2008, mashup

   posted by Sal Towse at  8:22 AM|| |

You know the thing that maybe bugs me most?

I can never say, "You betcha" without thinking of Sarah Palin.

(His nibs and I said 'you betcha' more often than I'd realized ... not realizing we were mocking a potential vice-presidential candidate to be.

Oh.)

Now I can't say "You betcha" without thinking of Sarah Palin.

Alas.

Labels: election2008, life

   posted by Sal Towse at  10:37 PM|| |

Jerry Sanders, Republican Mayor of San Diego and former Chief of Police, made this statement a year ago September, explaining why he would not veto a council resolution supporting marriage equality, even though he'd run on an anti-gay-marriage platform.

Even up to the day before the press statement, when the resolution was passed, Sanders still fully intended to veto it.

He changed his mind and chokes up while explaining why to the cameras and reporters.

He mentions that his daughter is gay, as are members of his staff, and he found that he couldn't veto the resolution and tell them "they were less important, less worthy or less deserving of the rights and responsibilities of marriage."

"In the end, I couldn't look any of them in the face and tell them that their relationships, their very lives, were any less meaningful than the marriage I share with my wife, Rana"

Words well said, and worth listening to on the eve of the election.



Vote NO on Proposition 8.

[via Andrew Sullivan. The Daily Dish]

Labels: California, election2008, politics

   posted by Sal Towse at  4:59 PM|| |

My enduring thanks this election cycle to Nate Silver.

Due to his fabulous (and aptly named) fivethirtyeight.com Web site (your home to all you would ever need to know about the political polls for the 2008 Presidential election), I may now be able to remember how many electoral college votes there are

     five thirty eight
     538

and, with simple arithmetic, how many votes Obama/McCain need to win ((538/2)+1)=270.

If you haven't visited before, hie thee immediately over to fivethirtyeight.com and check out Nate's prognostications and his reasoning behind them.

fivethirtyeight.com is that good.

And thanks, Nate.

Labels: election2008, politics

   posted by Sal Towse at  1:09 PM|| |

For the first time in seventy-five years ESQUIRE makes a presidential endorsement: Esquire Endorses Barack Obama for President

Writing about the Esquire endorsement and the very lucid (and chilling) view ESQUIRE has of a McCain presidency, Andrew Sullivan writes in the Atlantic, Yes, something profound is at stake on Tuesday..

Labels: election2008, politics

   posted by Sal Towse at  4:57 PM|| |

YouTube - Charles Meets Barack



"Everybody my age, they're dying off. ... these young people ... they are really a united people [the volunteers] and that's what this country needs right now."

Labels: election2008, video

   posted by Sal Towse at  6:59 PM|| |

City Room™ - Politics - Excerpts of Seven Year-Old Obama Interview Cause Stir

In 2001, Chicago Public Radio interviewed then Illinois State Senator Barack Obama about civil rights. Over the weekend, someone posted excerpts of the interview, edited to misrepresent Obama's statements. The item is now catching national attention.

Click here for Obama's full interviews.

The clips are taken from an interview that aired in January of 2001. Then State Senator Obama is one of three legal scholars interviewed for a show about civil rights. Over the weekend, someone pulled excerpts of the show and posted them to You Tube—and today, the posting caught fire on political blogs, the Drudge Report, and Fox News.

The 4 minute spliced collection of clips portrays Obama as advocate a redistribution of wealth through the power of the Supreme Court. That folds in with some allegations by the McCain Palin campaign.

The twist here is that, when heard in the context of the whole show, Obama’s position is distinctly misrepresented by the You Tube posting. Taken in context, Obama is evaluating the historical successes and failures of the Civil Rights movement—and, ironically, he says the Supreme Court was a failure in cases that it took on a role of redistributing resources.

Labels: election2008, legal, politics, video

   posted by Sal Towse at  5:38 PM|| |

Seven videos from People in the Middle for Obama

Labels: election2008, politics, video

   posted by Sal Towse at  2:13 PM|| |

"The Constitution of California currently sees all of our children and grandchildren as equal ... Why would you change that?"

Labels: culture, election2008, legal, video

   posted by Sal Towse at  10:40 PM|| |

2048 - There was a country

Wow. Just wow.

And from there go to other 2048- titles on YouTube:
There was a country!
There was an environment!
There was a unity!
There was a freedom!
There was a dream!

There is still a future!

This is an election like no other and YouTube is having an influence that no one would have imagined four years ago. Some stunning creative work online.

The background music and shooting technique put me in mind of V FOR VENDETTA. I don't know why.

Labels: election2008, politics, video

   posted by Sal Towse at  2:33 PM|| |

YouTube - A Poem For The Youth Voter

Yes. We. Did.

The Web is a wonder. Here's a GOTV video addressed to the youngsters who might get complacent and stay home "on the sofa, watchin' Oprah" instead of voting.

[PSA]

Go vote, if there's early voting in your precinct. Last thing you want is for something to come up on election day -- broken down car, boss wanting you to work late, food poisoning -- and miss voting.

Vote now.

Labels: election2008, video

   posted by Sal Towse at  1:35 PM|| |

Map of Newspaper Endorsements for 2008 US Election

Blue/Red, depending on whether the Democrat or Republican candidate earned the endorsement.

Size of circle indicates circulation size. If the circle's perimeter is a darker shade, it means the newspaper endorsed the "other" party's candidate in 2004.

Interesting visual.

The blog post that accompanies the map.

Labels: election2008, news

   posted by Sal Towse at  1:19 PM|| |

Opie, Andy, and the Fonz want you to vote for Obama.

Labels: election2008, video

   posted by Sal Towse at  7:21 PM|| |

"And it seems that the worse McCain is doing in the polls, the more his team is relying on the same gutter tactics. So over the next 15 days, look for the McCain campaign to become even uglier. That's what happens when following Rovian politics is your only strategy -- and Rovian politics isn't working."

Happy to be out of it. Glad my vote is winging its way to City Hall.

We had
(1) the Presidential election to vote on
(2) The US House of Reps (Cindy Sheehan or Nancy Pelosi? Hm.)
(3) Our local state assembly critter
(4) Our school board.
(5) Our college board.
(6) Our District 3 Supervisor to replace Aaron Peskin. (Nine candidates running. Ranked voting returns.)
(7) Superior Court judge
(8) Twelve state propositions, including Proposition 8.
VOTE NO ON PROPOSITION 8!
(9) City-wide measures A-V (that would be um. a-b-c-d-...twenty-two city-wide measures) including Measure R ("Renaming the Oceanside Water Treatment Plant to the George W Bush Sewage Plant" Sophomoric? You betcha!) and Measure V. ("Policy Against Terminating Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps (JROTC) Programs in Public High Schools" ... Shall it be City policy to encourage the School Board to reverse its decision to terminate JROTC and to continue to offer JROTC in San Francisco public high schools?) and Measure E ("Changing the Number of Signatures Required to Recall City Officials") and Measure K ("Shall the City: stop enforcing laws against prostitution; stop funding or supporting the First Offender Prostitution Program or any similar anti-prostitution program; enforce existing criminal laws that prohibit crimes such as battery, extortion and rape, regardless of the victim's status as a sex worker; and fully disclose the investigation and prosecution of violent crimes against sex workers?")

Have I mentioned I think twelve state-wide propositions and twenty-two City measures seem to be public policy run amok? More thoughts on this in a later post.

Labels: election2008, life, politics, San Francisco

   posted by Sal Towse at  11:12 PM|| |

SPUR VOTER GUIDE November 2008

I may not always agree with SPUR's election picks, but they are thoughtful picks and the reasoning behind them is laid out for all to see.

Haven't voted in the California and San Francisco elections yet? Check out the SPUR guide.

... and vote NO on Prop 8.

[SPUR doesn't give you an opinion on Prop 8. If the folks working on the Voter Guide decisions can't all wholeheartedly support one position, they don't cover that proposition.]

Labels: election2008, politics

   posted by Sal Towse at  7:32 PM|| |

Obama '08 - Vote For Hope from MC Yogi on Vimeo.



This is the first presidential election with YouTube videos prepared by passionate supporters on both sides, the first presidential election with political blogs and political Web sites setup and maintained by supporters, the first presidential election that will be influenced, at times greatly, by the Web.

Sit back. Watch.

Labels: election2008, politics, video

   posted by Sal Towse at  6:48 PM|| |

Powazek has a t-shirt you might be interested in.

Labels: election2008, shopshopshop

   posted by Sal Towse at  9:31 PM|| |

Today’s Electoral College Map

Another interesting map. This one shows the red/blue states with the state size distorted to reflect the state's number of electoral votes.

Princeton Election Consortium, from whence this map comes, is another Election2008 Web site filled with tasty nuggets of data.

Labels: election2008, maps, politics

   posted by Sal Towse at  12:50 PM|| |

John McCain's Record

Brilliant Web site.

Click on one of ten choices and you'll get "three things" you should know about John McCain and, f'rex, "Rural Issues" with votes and references.

Followed by "John McCain: Out of Touch with Rural Issues. Fortunately there's hope. See how Barack Obama and Joe Biden stand on these issues."

Click that last sentence and you wing off to Barack Obama's site and his positions on rural issues.

Brilliant.

Labels: design, election2008, politics

   posted by Sal Towse at  8:56 AM|| |

Excellent vid -- chock full o' celebrities -- for www.declareyourself.com and a plea to us'ns and thems to REGISTER TO VOTE.

Some voter registration deadlines are tomorrow! October 4th! and if you aren't registered to vote by then, you can't vote in the upcoming elections!

Some um. language makes this an only-on-the-Web phenom.

Well done.

Are you registered to vote? If not, and you are eligible and if you even just maybe kinda think that come next month you may be wanting to vote, register now! Watch the vid (or not), and hie over to www.declareyourself.com.

If you aren't sure if you are already registered, check here. If you didn't vote in the last presidential election or any election since, you are almost most certainly no longer registered to vote. That's the way it works. Don't vote in a presidential? Off the rolls. Haven't re-registered and voted since? You're still off the rolls. Have you moved since you registered? You need to re-register.

Register. Now.

(And all that bilge that the only resource used to call people for jury duty is the voter rolls so if you don't want to be called for jury duty, you shouldn't vote? Not so. California uses the drivers license registry and other resources. The bilge that you can't register to vote where you are if you're a student from somewhere else? That's bilge as well. Register. Vote.)

Labels: election2008, video

   posted by Sal Towse at  12:53 PM|| |

Recordnet.com: Choice is clear: Obama for president

Stockton Record. Yes, I know. Not one of the big fish, but this is the first time the Record has endorsed a Democrat since Roosevelt in 1936.

Mike Klock, Record Editor, explains why.

Labels: election2008, politics

   posted by Sal Towse at  9:24 AM|| |

Marty Kaplan: Why the Debates Won't Matter (Hint: It's a Felony)

Troubling. Is someone tracking down truth and lies on this?

Labels: election2008, politics

   posted by Sal Towse at  9:14 AM|| |

The younger niblet is far away. (His mom and dad miss him.)

We talked with him today over a spotty line that probably is Skype'd over to that end of the world and then fed into his cell phone/Handy. Who knows who taps in from here (Hi, Tony!) or there (Hi to you too, Yuri!)

The younger nib said he's hoping to have a party. Where he is is ten hours off from us. If we call him at ten in the morning, it's eight in the evening there.

So, he's planning a party to watch the election results in November at another PCV's place. This PCV has access to a big screen TV. Our niblet is homesick for pies. The plan is to get pies made and brought over, to sit in front of the big screen TV and to watch the American election results and hooray! or commiserate over the results.

Pie will be involved, though. No matter if the wrong party wins and the world comes to an end, the niblet will have pies and the companionship of friends.

I think that works.

Labels: election2008, food, life

   posted by Sal Towse at  12:03 AM|| |

Tina Fey is a geeenyus.

And, oh, hey. That person doing her Katie Couric imitation isn't half-bad either.

[SNL] Sarah Palin's Interview with Katie Couric

Labels: election2008, politics, video

   posted by Sal Towse at  11:45 PM|| |

CNN video: McCain move called misstep

Ed Rollins, Gloria Borger, Paul Begala talk with Anderson Cooper.

Begala says, "Bush is a high-functioning moron." Yikes.

But even Ed Rollins isn't too fond of McCain, it seems.

Labels: election2008, video

   posted by Sal Towse at  1:29 PM|| |

Election 2008 | powered by Twitter

For those who are easily amused. A Twitterfeed.

Twitter is pulling out all tweets that are election-related, mention Obama, McCain, Palin, &c.

The screen scrolls by with right, left, smart, not-so-smart, snarky, clever, clueless. Just like the American public, only in 140 characters or less.

Labels: election2008, twitter

   posted by Sal Towse at  1:10 PM|| |

The Living Room Candidate - Presidential Campaign Commercials 1952-2008

Amazing dance back in time. 1952. A good year.

[via Andrew Tobias]

Labels: advertising, election2008, history, video

   posted by Sal Towse at  8:47 AM|| |

I'd forgotten how much I enjoy Tobias' writing. He's the guy who, writing about being financially conservative and saving $$$ years back, suggested buying toilet paper and tuna on sale and stashing them for later use.

Bright guy.

His Web site and blog: Andrew Tobias - Money and Other Subjects

Labels: blog, election2008, financeconomics

   posted by Sal Towse at  3:16 PM|| |

A fine video: Barack Obama - Yes. We. Can from sea to shining sea.

Labels: election2008

   posted by Sal Towse at  9:32 PM|| |

An Updated Analysis of the 2008 Presidential Candidates' Tax Plans: Revised August 15, 2008 -- the Tax Policy Center

Deets [PDF]


Below is yet another tax plan analysis chart, this one from Freakanomics.

.

This graph is weighted to show the percentage of tax revenue from each group and whether that percentage will rise or fall under each plan.

[via another tweet from Tim O'Reilly]

Labels: election2008, graphics, politics

   posted by Sal Towse at  4:02 PM|| |

From Viveka Weiley at chartjunk, a rework of the McCain/Obama Tax Plans chart (that's one for you, nineteen for me) showing the differences between the Republican and Democrat tax cut proposals.

This version of the chart weights the income brackets so a bracket with more tax payers is larger than a bracket with fewer tax payers.



Save that thought.

[via a tweet from Tim O'Reilly]

Labels: election2008, graphics, politics

   posted by Sal Towse at  2:29 PM|| |

Maureen Dowd - 'Barbies for War!' - Op-Ed

The rant begins thusly,

Carly Fiorina, the woman John McCain sent out to defend Sarah Palin and rip anyone who calls her a tabula rasa on foreign policy and the economy, admitted Tuesday that Palin was not capable of running Hewlett-Packard.

That’s pretty damning coming from Fiorina, who also was not capable of running Hewlett-Packard.

Hoo boy. And it continues. ...

Labels: election2008, politics

   posted by Sal Towse at  11:35 AM|| |

Ephron doesn't have as rosy a take on Hillary's speech last night as I do:

[...]

"My favorite part of Hillary Clinton's speech last night was when she admonished her followers not to put their affection for her over the issues. When she reminded them that what's at stake is far more crucial than their loyalty to her. When she reproved them for thinking for even a moment that her historic thrilling campaign was more important than the real campaign to defeat the Republicans.

"Where any of her followers could have gotten the idea doesn't seem to have crossed her mind. The fish stinks from the head down. The Clintons' narcissism (and yes, I know, it's an overused term but if there was ever a moment for it in our national life, this is it) perfumed every bit of Hillary's campaign, and it leaked down to her contributors and followers. "Were you in it for me" was her funniest line of the night."

[...]

Read the entire column.

Labels: election2008, writing

   posted by Sal Towse at  12:13 PM|| |

So far ... tops on my list: Michelle Obama's speech. Kucinich. Hillary's.


... and Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer.



What a guy. You go KICK BUTT, Schweitzer!

He had them up and cheering.

"Stand up, Colorado! Stand up!"
"Florida! Stand up!"
"Michigan! Stand up!"
"Pennsylvania! Stand up!"
"Get off of your hind end!
"In the cheap seats! Stand up!"

Entertaining.

Labels: election2008, politics, video

   posted by Sal Towse at  11:07 PM|| |

Mark Warner Democratic Convention Speech: Text

I am way not keen on Mark Warner.

As I watched his speech, something went woop!woop!woop! in the background.

Warner's speech

Labels: election2008, politics, video

   posted by Sal Towse at  10:39 PM|| |

Amazing speech.

"No way. No how. No McCain."

"Keep going. ..."

Well done, Hillary.

Part I
Part II
Part III

Labels: election2008, news, people, politics, video

   posted by Sal Towse at  8:04 PM|| |

Took me a long time to get the vid for this, so if you've been having the same sorts of issues, here you go.



I don't remember other political spouses doing their thing at conventions.

Michelle's was ... pretty good! I think.

... and I think, after labeling this "politics," maybe I should have a "2008 elections" label, eh?

Update: I've added an election2008 label to the stasho'labels. I'll fill it in over the next while.

Labels: election2008, people, politics, video

   posted by Sal Towse at  11:20 PM|| |

Towse's True Confessions...

I have never been a Ted Kennedy fan, for various reasons I won't go into here.





But this made me cry.

(Thought it was interesting that C-SPAN thought they had to identify Caroline Kennedy as "daughter of John F. Kennedy".)

Labels: election2008, people, politics, video

   posted by Sal Towse at  9:56 PM|| |