Here's Hank

“I remain in agreement with many of the greatest economic minds in the country that there are alternatives to this acutely flawed bill -- yet none of those alternatives were even considered.  In a debate as serious as this, I find it profoundly disturbing that there was one, and only one, option.”

This is the long paragraph. There are only two.

When you're heavily, emotionally invested in both the tension is never ending.

If the Presidential election looked today like a blow out win for Obama I'd be able handle a klunker season for Michigan State.  God knows we're used to that.

But a stellar season for the Spartans (fat chance) won't offset a Republican win so most of the tension comes from worry about the BIG game, the one that really matters.

Right now Obama has all of Gore's states (solid or leaning) from 2000 plus New Hampshire (Gore would have won had he carried NH).  But that group has had a net loss of 6 or 7 electoral votes since 2000.

He asked if I had watched the debate and what my impressions were. Was a bit flummoxed as I tried to pick my words carefully, and he said "Biden did very well." I told him that Palin had not embarrassed herself but that she was a) too scripted, b) evasive, and c) lacking gravitas appropriate for the office and occasion. He did not disagree and asked me what I thought about "the winking stuff."

Again, told him I thought it was inappropriate, and he said, "yeah, we have to get her to cut it out." My final comment was that (borrowing from a blog post I read last night) she seemed more like a Sunday morning TV surrogate than a candidate, and he said, "That's interesting, and a good way to put it." He then asked if she reminded me of anyone, and I said, "As a matter of fact, Marge Gunderson from Fargo." He didn't seem to know the reference, and then -- in all seriousness -- said that he thought Palin was exactly like Marge Simpson. He thought this was not an insult (though I don't think he thought it was a compliment, either). Weird.

We also talked about local politics (he surprised me by having some fairly progressive ideas on local issues) and the bailout, and he had some fairly harsh words for his colleague Sen. DeMint (only member of the SC cong delegation who voted/was planning on voting no). He said this was his last weekend at home before going on the road to help McCain (I didn't wish him good luck).

Whole event made more surreal because, when he sat down next to me, I was reading David Sedaris' latest, "When You Are Engulfed in Flames," and in particular the chapter where Sedaris discusses how he first came out. Insert your own punchline.

Smith play up his role in passing the Matthew Shepard act.

Canton McKinley's football program is of national renown. Canton McKinley is 7th in the nation in football wins all-time, with 739 as of March 2006. McKinley is also second in Ohio in win total, again behind Massillon.

Prior to the start of the current playoff format in Ohio high school football, McKinley had won seven AP poll titles. Since the playoff format began, McKinley has won three State Titles, in 1981, 1997, and 1998. They have also been State Runner-Up three times, in 1977, 1985, and 2004.

From this Brad Blog post by Brad Friedman (emphasis mine):

A recent contested election for Circuit Judge in Palm Beach County, FL, where the initial results showed a 17 vote margin for one of the candidates, continues to reveal differing counts every time the same ballots are run through the county's new optical-scan paper ballot counters made by Sequoia Voting Systems.

The same type of proprietary voting systems are used to count ballots in every state in the nation. Results of ballots "counted" on them are typically accepted by officials, the media and the public as accurate, and are almost never double-checked, in any way, shape or form, to determine whether the computer-reported results actually are.