Minnesota senatorial candidate, Ssslthff Tll'ssff
-Headline of the day-
"Challenged ballots: You be the judge."
The race between Al Franken and Norm Coleman is still being straightened out and the final vote count is almost certain to lie in a Florida-style "intent of the voter" determination on challenged ballots.
To give us an idea of how hard this can be, Minnesota Public Radio has posted a few sample challenged ballots on the web. It turns out that many voters are dumb. Among the samples given are a filled-in blank for Franken with what may or may not be an arrow pointing to the other candidate, marks nowhere near the blank, a ballot with both Franken and Coleman filled in -- with a "NO" written behind Coleman, and one with marks on three candidates' names (including Independent Dean Barkley, who was also on the ballot).
But my favorite is a vote for Franken with a write-in for "lizard people" that was counted as an overvote. The lesson learned from looking these things over are a) look over the sample ballot in the paper the night before the election, b) if you screw up your ballot, just get another one, and c) don't vote drunk or on acid.
Bonus fun; the post includes a ballot counter home game. Figure out who gets which ballot and learn what a freakin' headache a close race can be. I went through these ballots and -- to be absolutely honest here -- if these are representative, a lot of dumb people voted for Franken. Or tried to anyway.
Then again, if these are a representative sample, the lizard people took almost 10% of the vote. (Minnesota Public Radio)
-From the front on the WoC-
DATELINE: New York.
Devastating losses to the forces of secular progressivism have destroyed the American economy, warns patriot Daniel Henninger in a column for the Wall Street Journal today. The War on Christmas is being lost and it's destroying the very fabric of our society.
"This year we celebrate the desacralized 'holidays' amid what is for many unprecedented economic ruin -- fortunes halved, jobs lost, homes foreclosed," Henninger writes. "People wonder, What happened? One man’s theory: A nation whose people can’t say 'Merry Christmas' is a nation capable of ruining its own economy." The Christmas destroyers are, apparently, winning. And we're all paying the price.
WoC strategists are left pondering several questions; is this war still winnable? Should we all just crap our pants and run screaming from the next ad we see for a "Holiday Sale?" Is "desacralized" actually a word?
Until we have answers to these questions, I can only urge courage. We mustn't live in terror of the Grinch. (Think Progess)
-In related news...-
...it's the end of the freakin' world. So says former naval chaplain Gordon James Klingenschmitt. See, the Secular Coalition for America and Military Association of Atheists and Freethinkers have come out with a "set of policy recommendations in a memo to President-elect Obama as he considers staffing and policies regarding the military." It seems there's a lot of forced religion in the military and these atheists don't like it. And that, says Klingenschmitt, is our doom.
"There is a day coming in the end times when the military will be forced to be atheistic because, in order for the eventual man who is the man of sin -- the Anti-Christ -- as it is describe in the Bible, for him to come to power and to stamp out Christianity around the globe, he's going to need a good strong atheist military," Klingenschmitt says. "That is the first step toward Armageddon, and I'm concerned about that. And I pray that President (elect) Obama is not foolish enough to lead us down that road."
Apparently, the chaplain didn't get the memo; there are no atheists in foxholes and Barack Obama is the anti-Christ. Some end-times expert this guy is. I blame the War on Christmas.
Courage. (Right Wing Watch)
