Pessimism, Approval...

Telling piece about the mood among U.S. voters. Within this piece, there's this nugget:

Bush's job-approval rating has slipped to 48 percent, according to USA Today, below the 50 percent threshhold seen as critical for incumbent presidents hoping to keep their job.

Yay! Just like our pal Zogby said on The Daily Show!

But then, to confuse, the article continues:
But New York Times poll respondents sent Bush's approval rating up five percentage points to 49 percent over the past two weeks.

Uh... wha? Oh, wait, it must have been the missing munitions. Or maybe it was the "wolves" ad. Ooh, could it have been the $70B request for further funding for Iraq? Now that they mention it, Bush really has been doing a better job in the last two weeks.

Spooky Election - A Hallmark Moment?

Is it any coincidence that this creepy election is so close to Halloween? Is this a Hallmark conspiracy to get us all spooked, and drive us to the stores to buy goblin-adorned cards? Probably not, since Halloween didn't even merit a blip on my radar this year. I've been so preoccupied with all-things-politics that I didn't carve a pumpkin this year, I think a first for me. Oh, and I got not ONE trick-or-treater, so there's a bowl full of mini boxes of Nerds taunting me. Who can focus on goblins when obsessively scanning the news sites?

Today my favorite site, www.electoral-vote.com is down, due to overwhelming traffic. Zogby released a poll of young mobile voters yesterday, showing: Young Mobile Voters Pick Kerry Over Bush, 55% to 40%, Rock the Vote/Zogby Poll Reveals: National Text-Message Poll Breaks New Ground. The Rehnquist vacancy makes the Supreme Court an even 4/4 split. While I'm horrified that the courts could determine a state-by-state vote, I am a bit excited by the notion that sending a tie-breaker to the SC might result in a tie. I mean, talk about networks ratings bonanza! What if we never elect anyone? Ooh, the intrigue.

My mom mentioned that she fears some sort of big catastrophe tomorrow, on the scale of a movie-of-the-week occurrance (fire and brimstone, and the like). I fear the less obvious catastrophe, like this fun news item. Is this really America? The Yahoo news piece fits perfectly with Greg Palast's BBC piece about Florida poll issues from last week, and the e-mail I was forwarded this morning, which contained the following:

The reports of Republican pollsters intimidating black (and white) voters is true. I have seen it to be such with my own eyes. The intimidation ranges from operatives discouraging voters by suggesting to voters approaching the polls saying that the machines are broken (lie), or that the lines would be shorter "tomorrow" (bullshit), or that if you have unpaid parking tickets or moving violation citations that you would be forced to pay up before you can vote (what?!). They have even been caught parking their cars en masse at polling stations in order to take up all of the parking spaces. Tomorrow, I enter the fray. A friend and I have decided to intimidate the intimidators. We intend to approach anyone who we see pulling this shit, and suggest that they stop and leave. Immediately. Lest they desire serious bodily injury. Yes, we are prepared to whoop ass over this. Yes, we are prepared to go to jail over this. The way we see it, folk died for our right to vote. I can get out of jail. I have lawyers who can help me to this end. You can't get out of dead.

How has the country become so divided?

The Finish Line

I woke up this morning wondering how Kerry and Bush woke up feeling today.