I'm very sorry to learn that Tristero is calling it quits.

It's become much too hard to be an American.

In my case, I took a break from the middle of a pretty decent career, to add my dissenting voice during what was - and remains - a national emergency. Although my career hit some major snags as a result, I will never regret what I've done. How could I be a decent father to my daughter, let alone a responsible citizen, and not have tried to do at least something to prevent the madness of the Bush/Iraq war?

...constant exposure to the toxic nature of George W. Bush and his world has taken a serious toll. In more ways than I care to remember, my health has suffered, as has my emotional well-being. In a nutshell, America is now asking too much of its citizens in order to save it from heading over a cliff. That is why we elect representatives, so that we can do our work and not have to run a government. We're supposed to have a responsible and free press, so that normal folks need not work 24/7 exposing the lies and crimes of our leaders. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad to do my bit, but I've already done more than I reasonably could. Politics, political writing is not my field, never was, never will be. There is a limit to how much I can do, how much basic research I'm qualified to undertake. I tried to exceed that, but I am simply not capable of continuing to do more.

Here's how Hunter Thompson spent election night and took the news. He casts some blame on evangelicals and the youth who didn't come out in the numbers we needed--but has nothing but praise for John Kerry, whom he got to know while serving as his unofficial tour guide this summer in Aspen. Through the disappointment, he finds something to be postive about for the future:

"Their army is how much bigger than mine? Three percent? Well shucks, Bubba. Now is the time to establish a network and an attitude," he said. "You make friends in moments of defeat. People in defeat tend to bond because they need each other. We can't take the attitude that it's over and we give up. We're still here."

Thompson added: "I'm proud to have known John Kerry."

Too little, too late? But how often might this have happened?

An error with an electronic voting system gave President Bush 3,893 extra votes in suburban Columbus, elections officials said.

Franklin County's unofficial results had Bush receiving 4,258 votes to Democrat John Kerry's 260 votes in a precinct in Gahanna. Records show only 638 voters cast ballots in that precinct.

Bush actually received 365 votes in the precinct, Matthew Damschroder, director of the Franklin County Board of Elections, told The Columbus Dispatch.

Voting machine malfunctions were the cause. In North Carolina, 4,500 votes were lost. With all our resources, you would think we could figure out a reliable voting system. It's not like we didn't have four years to prepare for this election.

by TChris

Did officers of the Covington County Sheriff's Office in Alabama administer a death penalty without awaiting a trial? Officials say that Aaron Shaw "kicked a glass window out of a patrol car after being arrested in Florala and subsequently took an officer's tazer gun and repeatedly shocked him with it." But Shaw was shot to death after what witnesses describe as two beatings.

Several people have claimed that they saw the 47-year-old black man being badly beaten on two separate occasions before he was shot. The first incident, allegedly involving three Florala Police officers, occurred on MLK Ave., and a second alleged beating from those officers took place near 9th Ave. and the Carver Center in Florala.

Shaw was killed near an electrical substation on Hwy. 55 in Lockhart. Relatives and friends held a candlelight vigil for him yesterday.

by TChris

Having succeeded in attacking those he regarded as his enemies in Iraq, the President has now called upon the military to attack the blue states.

No, not really. But something has gone seriously wrong when an F-16 warplane strafes a New Jersey school with cannon fire.

Court TV has a live blog with frequently updated posts by its reporters in the courtroom. No comments, but you'll be the first to know if there's a verdict and about jury questions. The courtroom has wi-fi, (we live-blogged two afternoons of the trial when legal analyst Mickey Sherman was in the courtroom.)

by TChris

Our country's misplaced priorties are exemplified by the attention given to marijuana smokers.

Last year, 755,187 people were arrested for marijuana violations in America, according to an FBI report released Oct. 25. The number of annual marijuana arrests has doubled since 1993. This year’s total is the largest in history.

Nearly half of all drug arrests are for marijuana. Does this make the country safer?

The number of marijuana arrests exceeded the total number of arrests for all violent crimes combined, including murder, rape, manslaughter, robbery and aggravated assault. Of those charged with marijuana violations, 88 percent were charged with possession only.

Update: Authorship mystery solved. It was written by Michael Moore.

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A Day in the Life of Joe Republican (anonymous as of now)

Joe gets up at 6am and fills his coffeepot with water to prepare his morning coffee. The water is clean and good because some tree-hugging liberal fought for minimum water-quality standards.

With his first swallow of water, he takes his daily medication. His medications are safe to take because some stupid commie liberal fought to ensure their safety and they work as advertised. All but $10 of his medications is paid by his employer's medical plan because some liberal union workers fought their employers for paid medical insurance - now Joe gets it too.

He prepares his morning breakfast, bacon and eggs. Joe's bacon is safe to eat because some girly-man liberal fought for laws to regulate the meat packing industry.

In the morning shower, Joe reaches for his shampoo. His bottle is properly labeled with each ingredient and its amount in the total contents because some crybaby liberal fought for his right to know what he was putting on his body and how much it contained.

The intensive airstrikes have begun, ground assault imminent. The U.S. tells civilians to get out of Dodge.

U.S. troops urged civilians to flee Falluja on Friday and launched air strikes on the rebel city ahead of an assault seen as critical to attempts to pacify Iraq before January elections.

U.S. forces sealed all roads to the city and used loudspeakers and leaflets in Arabic to tell residents they would detain any man under 45 trying to enter or leave the city. "We are making last preparations. It will be soon. We are just awaiting orders from Prime Minister (Iyad) Allawi," Marine Colonel Michael Shupp told Reuters near Falluja.

...U.S. warplanes and artillery bombarded Falluja on Friday, residents said, and rebels fired mortars and rocket-propelled grenades at U.S. forces on the city outskirts. There was no immediate word on casualties. Ambulances were waiting for fighting to ease before venturing on to the streets.

Yesterday, two marines were killed and four were wounded.

Where does it end? It began with taking DNA from convicted felons. It expanded to taking DNA from those who were indicted or charged and proceeded through a preliminary hearing. Now, as a result of California voters passing Proposition 69, DNA will be extracted from everyone arrested for a felony --even those who subsequently aren't charged with a crime, let alone convicted. All collected DNA will be put into the state's DNA databank.

The American Civil Liberties Union estimates 50,000 Californians are arrested each year but never convicted. The group contends collecting the samples at the time of arrest runs counter to the American system of presuming innocence until guilt is proven in court.

"Certainly we'll be challenging the provision where the government takes DNA from people who have never even been charged with a crime," said Maya Harris, a staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union.

Who's paying for all this? The California legislature is loaning the state $7 million to cover the cost. By the time the measure is fully activated in 2009, the cost is expected to reach $20 million.

What Oliver says: " Shut up. Shut up. The media is not your friend."

They should never work in D-town again. They are suddenly unemployed campaign aides with no hope of a job in the new administration who are now hoping for a book deal. But the competition will be fierce, so only those with the most titillating and scandalous stories, true or not, will succeed.

Memo to 2006 and 2008 candidates -- Take note of who's talking out of school and freeze them out.

Liberal bloggers not giving up after Tuesday's loss. There are good points, angry points, sensible points and even funny points being made. Here's several:

• Fafblog:

The election results have come in and they have surprised no one... no one on the side of Giblets that is! It is Giblets in a landslide! Giblets by a whopping three percentage points! Only 49% of the population rejected Giblets! VICTORY! AMERICA HAS SPOKEN!

• Athenae at First Draft

• Skippy:

strangely enough, the mood here at skippy international is not as somber as it was 3 years and 11 months ago, when it was first clear that awol would occupy the oval office. it's rather like having someone back into your car right after you scraped it pulling into the parking lot...more of the same damn tsuris.

...buck up, kids, it's not like we supported mondale or dukakis. come on, we were on the side that just barely lost. just barely! a few more thousand votes here or there, in one state or another (but mostly one state), we would have won! a mere 5,500,000 votes separated the two guys running. the margin was 3% of the popular vote!

• David Yoo (Via ConclusiveEvidence)