In map form!

LA Times’ 2004 Electoral Vote Tracker¹

Rasmussen Reports Electoral College projections²

Electoral-Vote.com’s Electoral Vote Predictor³

ElectoralProjection.com’s Election 2004 Projections⁴

And finally, an animation of the 2004 Presidential Race in map form. See how states have flip-flopped or remained resolute throughout this race.

And one final thought: if two back-to-back very close elections don’t bring about at least some discussion on the topic of reforming the Electoral College system, I don’t know what will…

1: Based on data from PollingReport.com

2: Bill Rasmussen, the Administrative contact on the WHOIS record for rasmussenreports.com is indeed the founder of ESPN and a financeer in Naples, Florida. I have found no indication of his political leanings or any reported bias of the reports. Empirical evidence shows both right and left-leaning sites mentioning their reports.

3: Read their Frequently Asked Questions

4: Their formula is detailed here. On data: “I use the Polling Report and RealClearPolitics for national polls and DC Political Report and RealClearPolitics for state polls.” On objectivity: ” In developing the formula, I made every effort to be objective, rather than biased toward Bush. Yes, I am a huge supporter of the President, but this formula does not, in any way, falsely inflate Bush’s standing.”

And let it be known that regardless of who wins, Jon Edwards is filled with goddamned optimism.

photo credit: Yahoo News

After Bill O’Reilly (jokingly) referred to The Daily Show’s audience as “stoned slackers”, it would seem in actuality that O’Reilly’s audience is less-educated than the audience of The Daily Show.

I know a college education isn’t everything, but that certain refutes O’Reilly’s joking statement. It’s funny — I was watching “Fox & Friends” for a bit at the gym on Monday, as ESPN’s Sportcenter was showing football (yawn) highlights, and they interviewed Ed Schultz, a liberal talk-radio host, who used to be a conservative. He’s got a book out now, so he’s making the media rounds. They get to talking to him about his book, and quickly after a softball question or two, question him about a section in the book where he talks about his dislike of the Fox News Channel. I can’t find a transcript of that broadcast, so I’ll attempt to paraphrase… (click Read full story below)

Update: Check out this link ‘Daily Show’ viewers ace political quiz, and this quote.

“Daily Show” viewers are 78 percent more likely than the average adult to have four or more years of college education, while O’Reilly’s audience is only 24 percent more likely to have that much schooling.

Plus, the network noted, “Daily Show” viewers are 26 percent more likely to have a household income more than $100,000, while O’Reilly’s audience is only 11 percent more likely to make that much money.

So the guy watching Stewart may not only be smart, but may also be rich.

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“Well, I don’t hate anyone, but you guys have an overwhelming number of conservative/Republic leaning commentators or this network, and you portray yourself as ‘Fair & Balanced’, so what gives?”. Steve Doocy (the co-host) retorts: “Well, you are on the show now, hawking your own book! Why are you here?”. Schultz replies: “You invited me here.” Later, Schultz is speaking to how well Fox News has done in capturing market share, and keep people coming back. Part of which, he believes, is due to Fox News’ portrayal of itself as “Fair and Balanced” and yet having a slate of nearly all conservatives as hosts and commentators, thereby duping the general viewing public. Either Doocy or his co-host Brian Kilmeade come back with: “So you think the American public is stupid, Ed?” Wow. Obviously, that is what he is saying!

It’s that kind of retort that truly disheartens me about the current culture of news media. “Raising the level of political discourse” in this country has been a banner for many people on both sides of the political landscape in this country for a while now, but really they are just feeding the filthy need for drama that “the average American audience” seems to love so much. “Reality shows” really aren&#rsquo;t reality so much as real situtations carefully crafted and put into motion by TV producers, and most politically-charged news media isn&#rsquo;t reality either, I&#rsquo;d say. It&#rsquo;s just as fake, dramatic, and wildly entertaining as any reality show or professional wrestling.

I&#rsquo;m not a fan of either reality shows (mostly) or of professional wrestling, but I know people who are and they are (mostly) not idiots, but they like to be entertained in dramatic and exciting ways. TV has shown that it&#rsquo;s easy and cheap to produce these shows, so I guess it would follow that it&#rsquo;s easy and cheap to make dramatic and entertaining “political discourse” on the same level. But like I said, that&#rsquo;s not reality. It&#rsquo;s dramatized, entertaining reality. Politics shouldn&#rsquo;t be dramatized, sanded-down, simplified, or easy to swallow. It&#rsquo;s our lot in life living in a democracy to be well-informed, and thanks to media outlets like Fox News, you can be fed just about anything and be entertained by some verbal catfights as well! How novel! Some people can see through the slick packaging and tasty morsels of drama, and some don&#rsquo;t. It just so happens that the former are more likely to be better educated than the latter. Go figure!

class="External">Time.com has a neat little photo-gallery of early photos of John Kerry taken by “Pumping Iron” director George Butler. My favorite?
Kerry built model planes after his failed bid in ’72. Obviously.

Bush fans may want to purchase a replica of the Bush/Cheney 2000 Campaign plane. A mere $35.

This just in — the Federal Marriage Amendment was just shot down in the Senate. The final vote was 50 “yays” and 48 “nays”, with two abstaining (Kerry and Edwards, oddly enough). The vote needed two thirds majority to pass. Wanna see who voted yay and nay? Check out

Roll Call Vote 155 over at http://www.senate.gov.

Check out this article from CNN: McCain: Same-sex marriage ban is un-Republican. Thank you, John McCain. Aside from the fact that an amendment would be most-unAmerican and terribly exclusionary, McCain makes the point that wresting control of an issue that varies from state-to-state from the states (and more to the point, from the people in those states) is most assuredly un-Republican. Good on ya.

News Hounds is to cable news networks what Television without Pity is to uh, well, television (but not cable news networks). They recap cable news programs summarizing interesting tidbits throughout the day, so you don’t have to sit through it. Both TV Without Pity and News Hounds can smell bullshit and then promptly skewers it. With TV without Pity, the comedy usually arises from the witty summaries. In the case of the couple of stories I’ve read on News Hounds, the comedy is usually provided by the shouting, derisive gasbags. One cool thing is that they’ve got it categorized by both network and by show. I suggest you check it out.

Now for a little foot-notery. Thanks to Drudge, I was alerted to a (unnamed by Drudge) documentary about Fox News’ “Fair and Balanced” coverage called Outfoxed that will be debuting in New York very soon. Having searched the google, I found the site, and they linked to News Hounds. Outfoxed and News Hounds, by the way, were and are supported by MoveOn.org. Further, Outfoxed seems to be compiled of raw satellite footage much in the same way Brian Springer’s brilliant Spin (1993) was, regarding Gulf War v1.0. You can download Spin in it’s entirety at Illegal Art, which is brilliant in and of it’s own right.

That is all, hippies, good night.

he said “I need some ribs.“.

The Courier-Journal has a 2003 Election Guide, with plenty of information and articles.

Don’t know where your voting location is? Never fear, citizen — check out the LOJIC’s Voter Connection.

Polls are open from 6AM to 6PM, and anyone in-line at 6PM will get a chance to vote.

There was a story this AM on Ananova — Dolphin massacre turns sea blood red. The images were of an EXTREMELY red body of water, and men in small boats hauling in large amounts of dolphins. The photos were snapped by the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, and well, they look fake. The water is FAR to red, and the amount of blood in the water to make that happen would have to be up around… maybe 75% of the water’s volume? If these aren’t fake, then I think the only possibility is as I’ve created below:

The actual Sea Shepherd Conservation Society’s site is down at the moment, so I’ll point you to Consumer Freedom’s overview of The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society (with choice quotes from SSCS founder Paul Watson — e.g. “There’s nothing wrong with being a terrorist, as long as you win. Then you write the history.”)
(I should point out that I don’t know who Consumer Freedom is backed by, but they were one of the larger sources of info on the SSCS.)