Our New Home

We have a new home, come join us at WeAreSMRT (We Are Skeptical Minds & Rational Thinkers)

The Forum

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Liveblogging the US elections

Look guys, I'm stuck out here in rural France and we are only going to have occasional news broadcasts through our early morning hours.

Can you guys stateside keep me up to date with news feeds?
If you hear of a state or city result, could you be sweeties and post it in the comments, what % Dem, what % rep etc.

Thanks

I'm so far away.....

27 comments:

  1. It's still about 5 hours until the earliest poll-closings, and the counting will start then, but in the mean time:

    Dixville, New Hampshire makes a little media scene every election by being the first town to report election results (they open their polls at 12AM) and Obama took it in a landslide. Even more encouraging? It's the first time the Dixville has swung for a Democrat since 1968. Let's hope that's a trend. ;O)

    Here's the story.

    ReplyDelete
  2. McCain WON the end of the world is near. Repent and Trust in Jesus today before it's too late

    ReplyDelete
  3. 5 hours, that'll be 1 am my time.

    It's going to be a bleary night.

    i sure hope Obama wins. Don't get me wrong, I suspect he's just as much of a weasily slime ball as any other politician, and he's gonna tax yo' asses, but the world needs achange from republican USA. McCain/Palin is a scary concept.

    Most people don't mind paying more tax if they think the money is going to be well used and better services will result. Unfortunately 10 years of socialism in Great britain has shown that the money gets spent on the nanny state and creating jobs in the public sector.

    But something's gotta change, hey?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Ha, nice one Dan. If McCain won the end of the world probably would be near!

    How was the voting for you? Queues or easy street?

    ReplyDelete
  5. My university has a polling spot set up in our student center; I voted at around 10AM and only waited about 30 seconds. (And that only because I'm a first-time voter and wanted to actually use one of the little cubicles. Nostalgic.) CNN is reporting 45 minute wait times at some polling locations. This one's a big deal...

    About the tax-raise by Obama:
    Apparently taxes will only be raised for people making over $200,000 a year, and I don't know anyone who makes that much. The way I see it, he's just undoing some of the damage Bush did by cutting taxes for the wealthy and leaving the working-class out in the cold.

    Just my opinion though, and I'll admit I'm slightly starry-eyed and optimistic. (Hey, it's my first time to participate! Everything seems like roses and butterflies. ;D)

    ReplyDelete
  6. Stew,
    You said, "I'm so far away....."

    Yeah, I can barely hear you!

    "but the world needs achange from republican USA. McCain/Palin is a scary concept."

    AMEN!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Stew,
    From my memory, it will be midnight here before a trend is seen, so your morning papers probably won't have the results.

    What time do you go to work in the morning?

    ReplyDelete
  8. I'm not working tomorrow, tha factory is closed for maintenance.

    So I can stick some matchsticks in my eyelids and follow the action.

    ReplyDelete
  9. I voted at lunch, no wait, right in and out.

    ReplyDelete
  10. For me, voting took about 45 minutes. Normally, it takes only a few minutes to get through the line. I had quite a scare too, I did not know there were multiple lines based off of districts. About 30 minutes in, they started making people get into the correct line. Luckily, I had chosen wisely. Having to wait so long was strange though, I thought I had my vote locked in for the presidential election, but I changed at the last minute. Also, my borough started using electronic voting machines. It's a lot better since I no longer have to worry about touching those dirty curtains. Is there anything dirtier than voting machine curtains?

    ReplyDelete
  11. mike - ooh a swing voter! Which way did he swing?

    ReplyDelete
  12. kelley r. said:

    "Apparently taxes will only be raised for people making over $200,000 a year, and I don't know anyone who makes that much. The way I see it, he's just undoing some of the damage Bush did by cutting taxes for the wealthy and leaving the working-class out in the cold."

    Kelley - you're quite a bit off on your perception of the Obama tax plan, but it's too late to correct your misconceptions.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Stew,

    If you picture the political spectrum as a diamond, it would be down and to the left.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Interesting diamond. I would be way up near the top point, swinging from left to right depending on the issue.

    ReplyDelete
  15. @ Stew

    I'll be ashamed if I'm about to be schooled on American politics by someone who doesn't even live in the U.S.A., but I freely admit it's a possibility. That was my overall perception of his tax plan from the overviews in the general media (*cringe*) As it stands, I guess I have time to become more politically savvy; maybe I'll be a seasoned voting pro the next time around.

    I have to say, though, almost nothing could have compelled me to vote for John McCain, because of his Vice-Presidential pick. I consider myself to be an independent, and didn't have much stock in either candidate before he chose her. Though I think I probably would have ended up voting for Obama anyway, it would have been a much closer decision had he picked a more ...qualified? VP.

    In my defense, though (feel free to shred this) I am from an extremely low-income family; until my sister graduated from college in May 08 (the first in our family to do so) there were 3 dependents in my family, bringing the total number of people being supported on a sub-poverty line income up to 5. Throughout junior high and high school the only health insurance my siblings and I had was a government health-care plan, so I cannot not support a candidate willing to at least investigate the possibility of nation-wide health-care plan reform. Health-care plans in this country are becoming ridiculous; people can literally be bankrupted by their medical bills. Obama's tax plan will double the dependent exemption, and grant a $4000 credit to my parents (because I am still a college student), plus a $500 credit for each employed individual. Obama's tax plan also raises the threshold income level for the social-security tax, which I support. I realize critics of his plan forecast damage to the economy from smaller to medium size businesses cutting jobs and down-sizing to offset increased taxes, but after seeing Bush's tax plan (which McCain would uphold) failing miserably over the last 6 years, frankly I'm willing my government take that risk, and there are plenty of valid criticisms of our current tax plan anyway. Obviously my perspective and position are biased by my upbringing and the economic situation of my family, but I've tried to formulate my political views honestly. Feel free to shred it, though. Like I said, I'm and idealistic, probably ignorant brand new voter and certainly deserve to be edumacated. :O)

    ...Apology in advance for any typos I'm running out the door to electioneer for No On 8.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Also... The health-care aside is random; I'm not attempting to tie that to the tax issue. Should have left it out probably...

    Off to the polls I go. ...Well, 100ft outside them at least.

    ReplyDelete
  17. kelly you'll get no shredding from me, you're doing a fine job. The fact that you voted, and though about your vote makes you more of a political animal than most.
    Add that to the work you doing to try and stop that awful Proposition 8 and I take my hat off to you.

    Do your best to hang on to that enthusiasm and not become a cycnical bastard like most of us.

    ps, I miss your old avatar, it reminded me of the Benny Hill silly salute

    ReplyDelete
  18. "New York's Dow Jones index has closed up 300 points - its highest close in four weeks and biggest election day rally. Prior to 1980, the market was closed on election day."

    bonus

    ReplyDelete
  19. Oh, sorry Stew! I saw LAOF's post scrolling through and mistook it for yours.

    My Apologies; here's the old avatar to make up for it! :O)

    Also, Prop 8 is poison, anything to oppose it is worth my time. Not sure how much good we're doing today, though; it's so slow I'm blogging from my phone. :O(

    LAOF,

    The offer still stands. Shred away.

    ReplyDelete
  20. Is that big boy going to stream live?

    Well, I guess we'll see soon.

    ReplyDelete
  21. place your cursor over the individual states for up to date results, and it's as up to date as the associated press releases the data

    ReplyDelete
  22. Kentucky 47%Dem 51%Rep

    close.

    but no cigar.

    ReplyDelete
  23. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7700298.stm

    Christopher Hitchens live, ripping the republicans

    ReplyDelete
  24. I switched widgets, this one seems to load faster

    ReplyDelete
  25. To the Americans - congratulations, congratulations, congratulations!

    I'm so pleased for you!

    ReplyDelete

Unlike Ray we don't censor our comments, so as long as it's on topic and not spam, fire away.

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.