Tales From the Front Line of Democracy: Take it up with the Govenor

Oh what in the world can this portend, via Mike :

"I wish I could be optimistic. I went to vote at 6:15 AM.

I vote at the Newport High School precinct. As you undoubtedly know, Geoff Davis is tied with or narrowly trailing Ken Lucas in most polls.

I arrived at the poll at around 6:30 this morning. The poll workers were standing around the touch screen machine, while one of them was on the phone with someone in the clerk's office.

A gentleman who had voted at just after 6:00 (as it said on his receipt) was asking for verification of his vote. Apparently, he had voted, and then the machine had gone blank. There was then a burning smell and the "control unit" stopped working.

They said "the machine's broken," and the person from the clerk's office could give them no help.

The man with the reciept asked for verification that he actually did vote -- and they could not give him any. He said, "I want to vote on the other machine, since those votes are all lost." (They had an older-style backup machine there.) They told him that he could only vote once. He again said that he wanted to either get verification that his vote counted or vote on the machine that worked.

They refused to do so, and they told him to "take it up with the Governor."

I was able to cast my ballot on the older machine.

All it would take would be swapping out a 10 amp fuse in the circa-1988 technology "control unit" with a 20 amp, and the whole thing would melt, taking all the votes with it.

It begins."

Spacetropic is live blogging, and I'm attempting watching like a Hawk.

Update (15:38): Voter intimidation in Virginia. No, its not the machines.

Kos is calling for the end of electronic voting. Can't say I disagree. Shit, Scarborough agrees we need a paper trail.

Update (18:43) via MSNBC, Ohio Dems seek injunction to keep polls open later due to voting machine problems. Dems favored

Exit Polls (MSNBC) (19:00):

Bernard Sanders wins in Vermont.

Richard Lugar wins in Indiana.

Exit Polls (MSNBC) (19:30)

Strickland is the Projected Winner in Ohio.


Update (19:57):

I just slugged down a double Saint Remy, and John Cale's contorted cover of "Walkin' the Dog" is blasting on my stereo(incidentally, imagine an electric and insane, version of this if you need a reference). Up to this point, my attempts at live blogging have been very clipped, and technically not really live, but a simulacra: I'm in my living room, I've just opened a bottle of Ol' Red (thanks Alphonse!). I've got that feeling, like something is afoot, history perhaps unfolding, like the generation before me, via the cathode ray-

-Katherine Harris got her ass kicked. MSNBC projected Nelson the winner at 20:03. Jim Webb is up a thou in Virginia. Deval Patrick is projected to win Govenor in Mass.

I chose John Cale's Sabotage (Live) for this Soundtrack to History because, well, John Cale sounds unhinged, on the edge, in some kind of Cognac n Krell mania: Paranoid, Desperate...plus it has the sublime "Rosegarden Funeral of Sores", a dirge of considerable dread and fear, an existential agony of a world gone suicide. I feel this dread at this moment: What is born into the future if the future is a slide downward in paranoid warmongering. What becomes of history when it's held at gunpoint by mercenaries, aware of their angst but turning it outward and for profit:

"Mercenaries, abuseless, disunited, unfaithful

They have never enough to keep them in a battle

Other than a meager wage

Which is just about enough to make them wanna kill for you

But not enough to make them wanna die for ya"

That meager sum is the the definition of the American RePublic. What is the lyric if the song is called "Liberators"?

Update (20:30): MSNBC just projected that (Casey) Jones just teabagged Frothy Anal-Torum.

"Only Time Will Tell", sung very sweetly, and faithfully, just finished, and I wonder at, given the instantanous nature of the world of zero's and one's, how very slowly history unfolds for us. Just imagine what it was like in the fearful trembling centuries prior. No wonder people thought in terms of burning wheels in the sky, guys walking on water. Maybe that's why people still do? The codex of time leaves much between the lines, both in experience and meaning.

Chris Matthews and Howard Dean are talking to each other TV EYE. Slick. Two guys tolerable right now only as actors in this drama. Matthews is playing tough, asking for a position on Iraq.

-Sherrod Brown predicted to win Senate in Ohio. Think I'll have some more of de Wine.

Blackwell concedes, and, evidentally, 65% of Buckeyes, at this point, want no smoking

anywhere. 1% reporting.

In my living room, I can smoke like a free man, and am, heavily, Camel Lights, hardpack, while "Chickenshit" blares, all barroom piano and churing guitars while watching a watch party watch a watch party at the Hyatt.

"Give me information/Memphis Tennessee"

-Fuck...Lieberman predicted to win in Connectcuit.

The double agent, the establishment's "Democrat", will no doubt keep it greasy for the President. Hot damn. The Center? Center of the Rove, a scurrilous, careering bastard. Party Loyalty? At this late stage, how can...

Update (21.23): ...I didn't leave the Democratic Party, the Democratic Left Me...

Arrggghhh. I hate that. Maybe the Democratic Party didn't leave you...maybe you just became a prick.

Sorry (I'm not...)yEAH.

Pelosis in simulacra amidst the old glory bunting. Hannity claims that she's the second coming of Stalin. She looks like she might feed you Frookies...I don't get it, but then again, I just called alot of people pricks.

The United Colors of Benetton voted today, the talking head says. Deval Patrick won. Cut to comment from talking head of color. Thus the gravitas (not really...it was Juan Cole).

Chris Matthews scares children. Scarborough has "Butthead" eyes. Christ, I can't believe I'm paying this much attention to them. Cathode Ray brain waves.

Olbermann et al. are talking about a complicated formula for exit polls, and seem to be having trouble getting the graphics synced with the projections, and experts like Dick Armey are being interviewed in a kind of post-game, losing team sort of way. History unrolls into a sunrise?

I realize its sophomoric, but does anybody think that a name like "Dick Armey" is hilarious. It sounds like....dunno...a gay porn theater troupe? The current Administration? Do they shoot with "Dick Lugar"(s)..?

-Sheldon wins in Rhode Island.

Let's see what's on Fox.

Must be the Ol Red...think I'll have more of de Wine.

See, the point of this is really a description...perceptions of a colossal worrier. Thus, its really the notes from the underground above ground, the second floor of somewhere in Covington, KY. A TV kid watching the TV democracy. Electric Epistlelary to History. My Commentary on Election Day. Objective...with wine. Bitchy-er with every passing minute.

An experiment in Shpilkes. Or Schadenfreunde.

Britt Hume just said "portend' as though his world were collapsing. This moment alone is almost worth the price of admission. Fox News is laying some sufficiently impressive, strong, alpha male style graphics. "Shift of Power" in bold gold, "Balance of Power", with red and blue blocks symbolizing Senate and House Seats. Jesus...they even broke out the "Madden Screen Page". I'd rather have Mortimer Ichabod from "Picture Page".

Fox has always been good with simplistic representations. Afterall, they hired Britt Hume. Christ...he put his reading glasses on. How serious is this? Suddenly, he's goddamned Ed Marrow. Puh-leez.

Update (22:15): New Soundtrack. "God Only Knows". Now "Ooh Baby Baby". Random playlist for random thoughts.

Speaking of "keeping it greasy", McCain is cheerleading, being a company man.

Update (22:23) Bill Kristol just said "the south is the heartland" that will "save the Republican Party". He claims to not know whether this is "good or bad".

Ohio is going smoke free, evidentally. That sucks-no more drinking in Ohio. Spent a lot of my youth smoking and drinking in Ohio.

Britt Hume reminds us that the GOP got Liebermann re-elected. No Shit...

My cousin arrives(22:40)... Queen's "I Want to Break Free" comes on.

Britt Hume is beginning to slur a bit. Kinda like Larry Merchant.(22:23 Fox).

We're listening to the "Three's Company" theme song. I have no idea why...

FOX CALLS CONTROL OF THE HOUSE TO DEMOCRATS... For some reason, "Welcome Back" is playings (all props to Travis G.)

The Greatest American Hero? Insanity rules the night.

Schwarzenegger wins...

Update (MSNBC)(midnight-34):

Corker wins Tennessee.

Allen is talking up the troops. Allen is maybe building up for a legal challenge (mid-night 38). Allen is talking about "stay strong for democracy". Allen is behind by 22oo votes. Recount mandatory at a .5% percent margin of vicory.

Hmmm.

UPDATE (3:53): Democrats take the Senate?!! Lights On!

Pretty amazing, really, to think about history...now...while they apologize for Bush, while perhaps history rolls over the tyrants, thieves, and the pimps of faux federalism. They joke about "K Street" while the Impuratir gets the smack down. The Faces, then AC/DC, hell ain't a bad place to be. Something to hope for, into the dawn, chance of redemption, chance we might make the creed flesh. Can we smile because there is finally hope?

**************************************************************************************

Okay...its 9:42 in the a.m, and evidentally, they're still counting in Montana and Virginia, so the Senate is still in question.

Here's the breakdown.

I think the lessons that one might be gleaned from this might be:

• Science still matters, even in Missouri.
• Race still matters in Tennesee.
• Cincinnati inexplicably still loves Chabot, and Ohio hates smoking, Blackwell, Dewine.
• I love de Wine, Corstino Ol Red. Mmmm.
• As it turns out, the American people are tired of Bush.
• Splashy graphics and dramatic music get tiresome in the Cathrode Ray.
• Britt Hume is a mumbly douchebag, and its fun to watch him squirm into some approximation of impartiality.
• Chris Matthews may scare children?

Two soldiers died in a helicopter crash yesterday. Over a hundred died last month. It would seem the whole thing was about Iraq. Good-it needs to be.

And what happened to the religious right? I thought it was a given that they'd come out for Bush...

Come to think of it, maybe, like that woman in Kentucky, alot of people in this country have expected that faith will fix it, that if we really believe, the snake won't bite us. BushCo certainly have the "Leave Everything to Me!" message.

However, out here in the reality based community, we know that such intellectual dishonesty is catastrophic here and abroad, and we can hopefully begin to fix what this administration has broken.

Afterall, and at the risk of sounding "I told you so", some of us always knew Bush is the snake.