Archive for the 'election' Category

Žižek on the presidential election and what the election of Obama means.

Newsweek's 7-part exclusive tell-all on the last 2 years of American Electoral politics. I can't tell if it's biased towards McCain, or if McCain just comes off better in private than he does in public, but reading this definitely made me like him more, especially in the wake of his concession speech. No way I would have voted for him, though.

History of voting. Secret ballots are an Australian invention, only adopted at the tail end of the 19th century in the United States.

I'll probably be making this for the big night.

Moriah found this guy for me. ZIP-based, district-specific voting information - who's on the ballot and information about all of them. There's also a (separate) tool for ballot measures.

"This Was His Best Debate So Far. He Was Able To Set The Agenda On A Lot Of Issues Like Taxes, Especially With Joe Wurzelbacher." McCain adds a new plank to the Republican platform.

This was a definite "Whaa?" moment for me during the second debate. McCain called Obama out for earmarking $3 mil for an "overhead projector" for a planetarium. Nevermind that those things could only barely be called "overhead projectors," never mind that they're used to teach science, never mind that museums across the country get federal funding for this stuff. And never mind that the earmark was not in fact, funded.

The result seems to be essentially meaningless, I think because the sample size is underwhelming. Might make more sense divided into pre-tv and post-tv. Notes: Carter's little interpolated grin is charming, G. W. Bush's hook hands less so; Madison was really small, and Taft was not.

Visual distribution of electoral votes for every single presidential election in US history.

Last week at some point when I first read this, it seemed very mean-spirited. Now that I've watched some of Gov. Palin's appearances, I need to ask myself: is it mean-spirited enough?

Wokka wokka.

Sadly not one of the many communities that the Obama campaign's inclusive graphic designers thought of. Grassroots are picking up the slack.

"Your temper is very quick, my friend. But until you learn to master your rage—" "Your rage will become your master? That's what you were gonna say, right? Right?" "...Not necessarily."

"This moment, this moment, this election is our chance to keep, in the 21st century, the American promise alive."

Full record of which superdelegate is supporting which candidate. There are 3,253 delegates chosen by primary voters and 832.5 superdelegates. Superdelegates hold as many votes as NY, TX, IL, PA and NC combined.

I haven't had a chance to sit down and watch this in it's entirety yet. I sort of want to devote 40 minutes of undivided attention to it, because I'm pretty sure it's going to make me want to punch the air in an upward motion.

Interesting article in The New Republic about Obama's economic advisors, their basic assumptions, and how they're pointing in a different direction from past policymakers.

Critique of various ULTIMATE Tuesday infographics. Interestingly doesn't discuss much of the content of the data being presented by different news outlets. eg, NYTimes is very conservative with their delegate count, but CNN is, well, profligate.

“How does this work?”
“Oh I’ve seen one of these things. Yeah, yeah yeah. Okay, you’ve got to push this thing in I think and twist it.”
“Don’t force it don’t force it!”
“She’s right, my little friend. This contraption is in fact a weapon of mass destruction. Casanova plans to turn it against the city tonight at midnight.”
“Hey, something’s happening. Something’s happening.”
“Okay, very good. Now, on the wall to your left you should see two toggles side by side.”
“Oh, woah, ‘toggles’? What do you mean? You talking about switches?”
“I see them, Captain.”
“Thank you. Flip the first toggle.”
“Flipping.… (she flips it)”
“Excellent work. Now flip the—”
“Jolly good work, team! Jolly good!”
“Will you just—!…Over there, please.”
“Of course. Sorry.”
“Now flip the second toggle.”
“Do as he says, Bowler. The man knows what of he speaks.(Bowler flips the second toggle.)”
“Captain, I’m just gonna ask you directly: Do you know billionaire Lance Hunt?”
“It’s me. (Shoveler looks positively shocked) Naw, I’m kiddin’ with you. I’ve always wanted to do that.”
“What’s next?”
“I just told you, flip the second toggle.”
“…Again?”
“What do you mean?”
“Flip the toggle twice?”
“No, no no no, don’t do that. Just flip it again, now. One time. Flip it.”
(to Furious) “Does he understand what I’m asking?”
“Hold on a second. Captain, exactly how many toggle flips ‘in toto’ are involved in this entire procedure?”
(starting to really panic as the machine begins humming) “I just…it’s—Seven!”
“‘Seven’?”
“Flip it!”
“Seven?”
“Hold the phone. Everybody, hold the phone. You phrased that incorrectly. We need to know how many toggle flips are needed, not counting the gratuitous toggle flip you may have asked ” for in a moment of panic.”
“Flip it!!”
“I—”
“Okay, you know what? You know what? Could we just start again? Is there some sort of like, reset button on this thing?”
“No you little freak there’s no button for resetting. Flip the switch lady. Don’t stare at me. Lift your left arm. Flip it, you moron!”
“Woah!”
“You’re a moron!”
“I am not a moron.”
“You’re a moron!”
“Woah, woah!”
“Flip the switch!”
“Do not call her a moron, that’s not cool.”
“Thank you.”
“I will do it! I’ll do it!”
“Flip the switch lady! Don’t look at me like that!”
“It’s this one, yes?”
(Raja flips the second toggle a second time, and the machine kicks in.)
“Uh oh. Wrong switch.”
(A beam comes out of the machine which basically fries Captain Amazing into a man-shaped carbon chunk.)
“Everybody heard me say ‘reset button’, right?”
“Oh my God. Oh my God, we killed him.”
(from his spot on the other side of the room) “What do you mean ‘we’? I was right here.”

I'm not sure what the justification is for caucusing vs. a primary election, because it sort of seems like caucusing is pretty weird.