GIN AND TACOS

I need to put the Presidency aside for a minute (it's way too awful to think about). Another thing to get worried about is the Senate results. Alan Keyes' staunt-pro-life, anti-gay, anti-income-tax, pro-war-hawk platform collapsed in Illinois, and I'm proud to have casted a vote against it (and for Obama). But it turns out that many white men in red states won by running essentially on the same platform.

NBC interviewed John McCain last night. They congratulated him on his win, and Tim Russert (my favorite, god bless him) jumped at the opportunity to ask "there are many very culturally conservative Republicans entering the Senate, how will that effect more moderates like yourself?
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" McCain dodged it by pointing out moderate Arlen Specter was re-elected, a move that does nothing to address the new major problem of the Republican party.

That problem, which was hinted at during the Republican Convention, is that the party is going to be split between big-name moderates like McCain, Schwarzenegger and Giuliani, who are pro-choice, pro-stem cells, pro-balanced budget and centrists, and bible-thumpers with the most regressive set of social and cultural views imaginable on the other. And the second half of their big tent took a huge win last night. If 1994 was the year that the House ran off to the Right, 2004 may be the year the Senate did. Let's look at some of the winners in the Senate for 2005:

Did it go smoothly? Where did you vote? How long did you wait? Paper ballots? Share a little bit about what, if any, melodrama played out in your life today.

I voted on the south side of Bloomington, at the fire station and maintenance vehicle garage. The setup was very confusing. Certain precincts had to line up in different places which were not labelled. For example, Precinct 22 voted by lining up on one side of a hallway in the main garage and Precinct 12 lined up opposite them. So one hallway was really two mutually exclusive lines. The compound also has 3 or 4 different buildings on it, and again the different precincts in each were not (or poorly) labelled. Election officials helped people figure out where to go but they were all about 90 years old and quite overwhelmed by the turnout.

Regardless, people waited patiently. I waited almost 2 hours. Total time at the poll was about 2.5 hours. "Registration challengers" were present but looked scared shitless to actually do anything. One challenge was raised against a voter who did not have proof of residency and tried to vote provisionally, but the crowd (500+ strong) got very angry and was shouting "Let him vote!" and "Leave him alone!" The poll watcher who raised the challenge looked like he was going to wet his pants.

We voted electronically, an experience I did not like in the least. Overall, though, it was a labor-intensive yet seemingly smooth process.

So I'm hearing from Republican friends (yes I have a few) that the major strategy on the right this year is going to be getting a large number of pollwatchers to go to polling places and just challenge the residency of every identifiable hispanic or african-american they can find. The challenge may or may not be effective, but it will slow voting to a halt in democratic areas, and may cause people to just go home rather than waiting the additional hours.

Not sure whether or not to believe gossip, a quick google search for residency laws is already showing a headache in the making. Random link from Maine:

Two years ago, however, Republicans challenged nearly every voter at the polling place on the University of Maine's Orono campus, creating long, slow-moving lines, according to people who were there.

Orono Republicans say they were just making sure that residency laws were enforced. Democrats charge that it was a deliberate tactic designed to discourage voters.

For people working the polls, it was a headache. "I don't know if it was a delaying tactic, but it definitely held things up," Orono Town Clerk Wanda Thomas said. "They were challenging just about everyone."

Now just replace 'student' with 'hispanic' or 'african-american' and we have a surefire way to create a hostile voting atmosphere. Democracy is on the march!

Wow, I love how when Iraqi's cultural legacy was looted nobody really was concerned. Now that we are realizing the looting had more military implications, people are coming out of the woodworks.
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Heads up for this editorial by Former ambassador Peter W. Galbraith:

On April 16, 2003, a mob attacked and looted the Iraqi equivalent of the Centers for Disease Control, taking live HIV and black fever virus among other potentially lethal materials. US troops were stationed across the street but did not intervene because they didn't know the building was important.

When he found out, the young American lieutenant was devastated.
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He shook his head and said, "I hope I am not responsible for Armageddon." About the same time, looters entered the warehouses at Iraq's sprawling nuclear facilities at Tuwaitha on Baghdad's outskirts.
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They took barrels of yellowcake (raw uranium), apparently dumping the uranium and using the barrels to hold water. US troops were at Tuwaitha but did not interfere.

I supported President Bush's decision to overthrow Saddam Hussein…
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In spite of the chaos that followed the war, I am sure that Iraq is better off without Saddam Hussein…It is my own country that is worse off…Someone out there has nuclear bomb-making equipment, and they may not be well disposed toward the United States. Much of this could have been avoided with a competent postwar strategy.

Ouch. I still also feel that this is a result of our military being too effective during the war.

People often talk about the violence and inhumanity of the Grand Theft Auto videogame series, which is valid, but they are missing what is probably one of the most inventive features of the game – driving around listening to the radio.

The fake DJs and bad commericals that gave GTAIII a really humorous twist turned into the Vice City 1980s radio stations that set the game firmly in the time period more than the fashion or setting ever did (doing drive by shootings while Blondie played was an entertaining way to spend an evening).

So along comes the new GTA game, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, which is set sometime in the early 1990s. God bless Rockstar games, for they truly know where their ages 23-28 audience inside out. If you were discovering music between 1992-94, as I was, then you can spend this game driving around flipping the radio stations and time-lapse.

Pitchfork reviewed Zack de la Rocha's new single and refered to it being "1996alicious." I have that feeling going on; this music couldn't possibly be more set in 1992-94 (presumably Ms.
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Love wouldn't give them the Nirvana rights for a song license – so they are missing).

The DJs they have found are fun choices as well (Axel Rose is the DJ of a classic rock Petty/CCR station).
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Here is a sampling of the radio track listings (full list here):

Radio X: The Alternative
1. Helmet “Unsung”
2. Depeche Mode “Personal Jesus”
4. Danzig “Mother”
8. L7 “Pretend We’re Dead”
10. Soundgarden “Rusty Cage”
11. Rage Against the Machine “Killing in the Name”
12. Jane’s Addiction “Been Caught Stealing”
14. Alice in Chains “Them Bones”
15. Stone Temple Pilots “Plush”

CSR 103.2
DJ: Philip “PM” Michaels, voiced by Michael Bivins (the "Biv" from BellBivDevoe)
1. SWV “I’m So Into You”
4. En Vogue “My Lovin’ (Never Gonna Get It)”
6. Ralph Tresvant “Sensitivity”
9. Boyz II Men “Motownphilly”
10. Bell Biv Devoe (BBD) “Poison”
12. Wreck-N-Effect “New Jack Swing”

Bounce FM
DJ: “The Funktipus,” voiced by George Clinton
3. Ohio Players “Love Rollercoaster”
4. Rick James “Cold Blooded”
5. Maze “Twilight”
9. Lakeside “Fantastic Voyage”
10. George Clinton “Loopzilla”

Radio Los Santos
2. 2 Pac “I Don’t Give a F***”
4. Dr. Dre “Nuthin’ But a “G” Thang”
5. Dr. Dre “F*** Wit Dre Day”
8. Cypress Hill “How I Could Just Kill a Man”
10. NWA “Alwayz Into Somethin’”
11. NWA “Express Yourself”
12. Ice Cube “It Was a Good Day”
13. Ice Cube “Check Yo Self (The Message Remix)”
14. Eazy-E “Eazy-Er Said Than Dunn”

I have to say, if this is how 1990s nostaglia will proceed I am pretty comfortable with it. If a Boyz II Men song played at your grade school graduation (or worse, a school dance), then you have a moral obligation to seek out this game.

In the same line as the implication of Erik's and Ed's recent posts, I just can't take this election anymore. This is all insane. Watching Lynne Cheney say that Kerry "is not a good man" while her husband says that voting for Kerry is a vote for a future terrorist attack is really the "it's come to this" moment of the election. And with the slight possibility that the electoral college could tie, I've decided that I'm casting my ballot and going into hiding until it is all over.

Luckily, the mass media is helping me with my election-time exile:

With just a little over a week remaining before we have a go at electing a president, huge quantities of people still think that George Bush is doing a fine job with whatever the hell it is he is doing in Iraq. In fact, 46% at the end of September.

At least the trend is promising….oh no wait, no its not. People are actually beginning to think that things are improving? Perhaps my complete and utter confusion will be somewhat mitigated by more polling data.

From the week Oct. 14-16.

• 47% of people think that it was a mistake to send troops
• 54% think that is wasn't worth going
• 47% think that we were deliberately misled.
• oh…. and just to top things off a bit, 42% of people seem to be under the impression that Sadaam Hussein was personally involved in the September 11th terrorist attacks.

To add some perspective, and I know that these numbers vary a lot depending on your particular poll, the Gallup poll has George Bush leading by a margin of 52% to 44%.

I feel there is no possible way I am reading this correctly. Do you see what I am saying? This actually means that there are people out there that think that it was a mistake to invade Iraq, and who in fact believe that George Bush deliberately misled us, and who aren't voting for Kerry.

Well ginandtacos.com thinks that some people need some reminder that things in Iraq are more fucked than cheap a internet cam whore.

I know we have probably all heard that over the weekend 49 unarmed Iraqi soldiers (you know, the ones we are training to take our place) were executed by insurgents. There is no joke here, this is just sad.

However, another pathetic story that is not being widely covered has shown up in the New York Times today. Yes, I know they are all fucking liberal communist terrorists over there and we ought not trust a word out of their mouths, but who knows. They might be on to something here

Just in case you didn't read that correctly, I will type it again, 380 tons of explosives. And yes, apparently somebody just walked off with them- possibly concealing them beneath a trenchcoat or something. How else could they have gotten past the American guards with 380 TONS of explosives?

Oh wait, nevermind, we weren't guarding it. I suppose that it is because we were unaware that it existed until after the weapons were gone. Nope, we have known about this facility since the mid 80's.

How does George Bush feel about this? Who knows? It is apparently unclear whether or not anyone even bothered to tell him.

I guess this doesn't matter to the 46% of people who think that the war is going Very Well/Moderately Well.

Have fun November 2nd!