President-elect Barack Obama’s transition team is expecting over 3 million visitors for the inauguration on January 20. The hotels from Baltimore to Richmond are booked solid even at gauging prices and now private citizens are getting into the game. A simple search on DC Craigslists shows several dozen offers for apartments, condos and townhouses going for up to $20,000 during that week. I’m so tempted to take money away from Obama supporters but at the same time the thought of having a bunch of strangers staying at my place while I’m away isn’t too comforting. Maybe I’ll create a bed and breakfast instead where the bed is the floor and breakfast is Honey Nut Cheerios.

I’m ashamed to admit it but I am completely fascinated by the hijacking of so many ships by Somali pirates. How is this realistically happening? I thought this was so 200 years ago. With over 80 ships attacked by pirates already this year, don’t you think the Saudi’s would spend less than $5M to pay Blackwater to safeguard their ships? Even a ship carrying Russian-made tanks is being held for $20M in ransom. And these pirates are bringing goats and chickens on board the ships they are hijacking for long-term food. I just wonder what is going through the crew member’s heads when a speedboat pulls up next to a supertanker with livestock in the backseat.

(click to see entire graphic)

well it seems when folks lose their retirements they drink their sorrows away. With a Democratic White House and Congress where are you going to invest?

What does this parking sign in front of Whole Foods on Wisconsin Ave imply to you? Atleast to me it meant that at 7:30PM I could park on the right side of this sign. WRONG. It means I owe the DC govt $30 for a parking ticket because 3 cars down there is another sign you would never think to check that says no parking in either direction.

As a student of logic you may ask yourself, “why not just have a no parking in either direction at any time sign?” This is just another example of how our lives are unnecessarily complicated by the existence of too many rules and regulations, often conflicting one another to the point where it becomes nearly impossible to understand anything the govt does. Rest assured that this is one parking ticket that will be appealed however I make no guarantees I can get DC govt to fix their misleading signs.

So, I was reviewing my Facebook account and see that a few of my friends will be attending the inauguration festivities; it led me to wonder aloud, in the presence of the chairwoman for BD ethics and norms, why I wasn’t invited.

To wit, the gentlewoman replied, “You wouldn’t have been invited if McCain was elected, so what are you worrying about?”

Ah…it’s wonderful to be married to a girl from Philly.

Of course, she concluded by saying, “Does Obama have so few friends that he is inviting people you know?”

Ugh.

From the one “newspaper” i actually get in print, The Onion (oh the irony).

Obama Win Causes Obsessive Supporters To Realize How Empty Their Lives Are

After all, if you can’t laugh at yourself, then who can you laugh at?

Squeaky Wheel and I were on Skype while Barack Obama was on MNF…he just said he wants a 8-team NCAA Football Playoff. The Wheel, who happens to be strategically placed in Ohio right now with the GOP, and myself (and you know my views), hardly ever agree with Obama. But now, I must say, there is finally a policy of “change” that we can “hope” in.

On the way back from lunch I ran into a trio of Obama supporters handing out literature for their man.  I’ve been curious about how much people know about Barack Obama the man compared to Barack Obama the hype.  So I conducted a purely unscientific survey.

Q1: What is Barack Obama’s current job?

A1: All three - Senator

Q2: Senator from which state?

A2: One had no idea, one said Chicago, the third agreed with Chicago.

Q3: Who is his running mate?

A3: All three - Biden

Q4: What is Joe Biden’s current job?

A4: All three - Senator

Q5: Senator from which state?

A5: All three - No answer

Admittedly, these are not policy questions.  Nor do I assume that these three individuals represent every Barack Obama supporter.  But this does display how Obama’s appeal transcends politics and knowledge of who Barack Obama is.  Why they are voting for Obama - Change?  Hope?  His health care proposals?  A nice smile? - I do not know.  I do hope that they know, though.  And that they’re more informed in that opinion than they are of the candidates themselves.

On the eve of election day we’ll just ask you three questions:

Who are you voting for president?

Who are you voting for U.S. Representative?

Who are you voting for U.S. Senator?

Larry Sabato’s Crystal Ball: The Last Word - Almost - Obama 364 - McCain 174

NRO: 38 Percent of Virginia’s New Voters Reside in Counties Where Kerry Won Less Than 40 Percent in 2004 - …in counties where Kerry won less than 40 percent of the vote - Bush country - an eye-opening 109,243 new voters have registered. This could be good news for McCain or mean that no where in Virginia is safe…

I don’t think praying to a golden calf is going to get God to help the economy…

Evan Dorkin: Sitcom Pitch = Your Chance To Win A Book - Here’s my wacky sitcom pitch, listen up entertainment industry: McCain and Palin are elected, okay. So, we have four years of comedy right there. It writes itself. It just might write itself, heaven help us.

NYT: Consumers Feel The Next Crisis: It’s Credit Cards - The NYT’s getting on the credit card crisis bandwagon.

Blog Maverick: Announcing bailoutsleuth.com - Transparency is key to the success of the Bailout and related loans and investments the government makes with our tax dollars. Without complete transparency, we will get from our government what we always get when it comes to finances, confusion. To do my part, I’ve worked with the folks at Sharesleuth.com to create Bailoutsleuth.com

Tim O’Reilly: Why I Support Barack Obama - We are in unprecedented times. And folks, I’m sorry to say that the current financial meltdown is not the worst of it.

Flashback - The Onion: Roy The Forklift Driver - Nation Eagerly Awaits Ohio Man’s Profound Insight Into Current Events

Your neighbors are voting. You’re not. That could be a problem.

A video for North Carolina voters, by Dave Willis (Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Squidbillies) and Scott Jacobson (The Daily Show, SNL’s “TV Funhouse”).

Grassfire.org: Obama and McCain side by side on 20 issues

Gallup Traditional poll: Obama 49 - McCain 47

D.C. Examiner: Jim Gilmore For Senate

How low can they go… Biden lowers tax cut claim to $150,000.  Though this sounds more like either a misstatement or merely an example than a threshold.

CSN: Monitor shifts from print to Web-based strategy - The Christian Science Monitor plans major changes in April 2009 that are expected to make it the first newspaper with a national audience to shift from a daily print format to an online publication that is updated continuously each day.

Cook Report shifts VA-02 to Toss Up, VA-05 to Lean Republican

Washington Watch - WashingtonWatch.com delivers the numbers behind proposed legislation and regulation. It is important to understand where these numbers come from and what they mean.

Sorry they’re brief so far.  More links to come later this morning.

Times Online: Republicans hire mercenaries for ground war against Barack Obama - Are they volunteers? They look at each other sheepishly. “Not exactly,” replies one. “We work for an employment agency,” says the other. Who are they voting for? “I don’t want to say,” says the first woman. “Obama — of course!” whispers the braver of the pair. (”temp workers” = “mercenaries”)

Galax Gazette: Campaign workers attacked - Two people were arrested Monday afternoon after an altercation led to five Republican campaign workers being sprayed with Mace at their headquarters in Galax.

Shad Plank: NAACP wants federal government to take over Virginia election - Interesting given Dems wanting the Federal government to take over every other facit of our lives as well!  (I kid because I love.)

PilotOnline.com: Phony flier says Virginians vote on different days - A phony State Board of Elections flier advising Republicans to vote on Nov. 4 and Democrats on Nov. 5 is being circulated in several Hampton Roads localities, according to state elections officials.

Take Election Day off for Obama - While I’m actually in favor of Election Day being a holiday to help promote participation, should you really be promoting a “Blue Flu” for Obama?  His policies aren’t in place yet, the government might not bail you out if you don’t get paid or lose your job.

The China Channel has a Firefox plugin that allows you to browse the internet as if you were behind the Great Firewall Of China.

The Philadelphia Inquirer: White people shouldn’t be allowed to vote - As a lifelong Caucasian, I am beginning to think the time has finally come to take the right to vote away from white people, at least until we come to our senses. Seriously, I just don’t think we can be trusted to exercise it responsibly anymore.

Shepard Fairey posters for Barack Obama - Source of my new wallpaper:

Virginia Virtucon: Interesting Tidbit On Polls - She absolutely laughed at the public polls showing Obama leading Virginia–and pointed out that all of those polls rely on Dem turnout being +4 and as much as +7, when in 2006, Republicans actually had the advantage by +3. She also pointed out that the numbers for Obama in SWVA look absolutely awful and that McCain is running 10 points better then Allen did in NoVa.

Map Of Newspaper Endorsements in The 2008 US Presidential Election

Use Twitter To Protect The Vote -  Twitter’s text-messaging and web capabilities and its vast network of active users allow all voters to become election monitors. Users will send “tweets” indicating problem areas, which will make it possible for Election Protection to identify issues in real time and immediately deploy legal volunteers to polling locations where trouble is brewing when necessary.

Joe McCain Calls 911 To Complain About Traffic In Northern Virginia and then he quit the campaign for being an idiot.

Gallup: Young Voters Favor Obama, But How Many Will Vote? - Obama leads McCain by 62% to 34% among registered voters 18 to 29 years of age, based on Gallup Poll Daily tracking interviewing conducted Oct. 1-20.

Sarah Palin on Amnesty

Daniel Kahneman - You call and ask people ahead of time, “Will you vote?”. That’s all. “Do you intend to vote?”. That increases voting participation substantially, and you can measure it. It’s a completely trivial manipulation, but saying ‘Yes’ to a stranger, “I will vote” … (h/t Kottke)

Memorandum Colors is an interesting tool that allows you to visualize bias based on linking activity so you can see the slant of coverage of political events without having to read anything.  God bless color coordination.

It’s an especially interesting tool when applied to the recent case of Ashley Todd, the McCain volunteer in Pittsburg who said she was robbed and then assaulted based on her support of McCain but then recanted a day later.  My apologies for falling for it.  But I certainly wasn’t alone.

Where Memorandum comes into this story is a before and after shot of the coverage of the story:

As Andy Baio (creator of the Memorandum Colors script) says in the photo’s comments:

At first, conservative blogs flock to the story while liberal blogs tend to ignore it… Then, when it’s discredited, mostly blue bloggers report on it for the first time while less conservative blogs post a followup.

This is also a reflection of reaction and comments I saw first hand in conversations with others.  Left leaning individuals were shocked at the news but a bit hesitant to buy it and witholding judgment accordingly.  Right leaning individuals were disgusted and ran with it.  Some were hesitant and waiting for more information, but still jumped at the story.

The moral of this story?

This has been and will continue to be a crazy political year and people will do stupid things.

And Memorandum Colors is a neat tool.