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Four candidates stand aligned before you, two pairs pugilistic and politely ferocious, gabardine-garbed. They fight for the honor of serving Us, and we must select our finest handmaids to do so: Know them for what they are:
Click through for the Giant Squid's (my editor-in-chief) take on the candidates.
"When I pressed 'Barack Obama,' it checked off 'John McCain,' " Lopez wrote. "I de-selected, and instead of taking any chances, I chose straight Democratic ticket rather than go through the whole thing and have any mistakes."
Lopez, who declined to be interviewed personally, thought, "Maybe I had just been clumsy. But my husband confirmed that he had the same exact thing happen to him. He was on a different voting machine, voting at the same time I was."
The prediction came during a campus event in which teams of Dominican students presented the positions of McCain and his Democratic opponent, Barack Obama, on six key issues: the economy, foreign policy, environment, health care, education and ethics.
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"Whenever the baby monkey gets bullied, he dashes up and drives the others away. And the baby monkey is also very smart. Each time he smells danger he runs to jump on the dog's back and holds on tight.
It's a fantastic idea to have early voting: it cuts down on the crowding and confusion of election day, especially in traditionally poor or black neighborhoods where the voting machines are often in short supply (to further suppress the vote).
The arguments against it never hold water. The main one this year is that people who vote early could sneak back in a few days and vote again. Except for that whole bit where it's been recorded that they voted. And that historically this doesn't happen. Other reasons to object to it--if you have a vested interest in not letting people vote--are because if people vote early enough they can end up voting before the last minute dirty tricks come out, and that they could possibly realize that they had been secretly removed from the voter rolls in time to get something done about it.
Lake County Superior Court Judge Diane Kavadias-Schneider toured the Gary, Hammond and East Chicago satellite voting sites Monday and heard hours of testimony and arguments on whether they are legal and fair.
Republicans want to shut down the centers in the largely Democratic county on the grounds that they will increase the likelihood of vote fraud in the Nov. 4 election.
Kavadias-Schneider, who was appointed a special judge in the case by the Indiana Supreme Court, questioned county elections board director Sally LaSota on Monday about the process of early voting and safeguards against vote fraud.
LaSota assured the judge that the elections board staff ensures voters are registered and don’t vote more than once.
When Kavadias-Schneider asked, “What of those who have already voted?” R. Lawrence Steele, a GOP lawyer, replied, “Maybe those votes should be discarded.”
"This is unprecedented," says Alasdair Coles at the University of Cambridge, UK, who coordinated a trial that found that the drug alemtuzumab blocks progress of multiple sclerosis. MS disables nerves and brain tissue by attacking the myelin sheaths that otherwise protect them from damage.
"This is the first drug that has shown the potential to halt and even reverse the debilitating effects of MS, and this news will rightly bring hope to people living with the condition day and night," commented Lee Dunster, head of research at the UK MS Society.
No embedding, but it's worth the click through to watch Tina Fey and Alec Baldwin bring the awesome.
Cleverly inspired by their Hakkar's Poisoned Blood plague from a few years back, Warcraft has introduced a zombie plague to all of Azeroth. Heralding the return of Arthas, lord of the undead Scourge, infected supplies (blankets?) have shown up around the world. Players who open them gain a disease that slowly turns them into infectious zombies.
Clever. If I was still playing WoW I'd be out there right now munching on orc flesh and shambling around like an extra in Thriller.
Much more at the link.
