The Center for Responsive Politics calculates that, by Election Day, $2.4 billion will have been spent on presidential campaigns in the two-year election cycle that began in January 2007, and an additional $2.9 billion will have been spent on 435 House and 35 Senate contests. This $5.3 billion is a billion less than Americans will spend this year on potato chips.

georgewill@washpost.com

George F. Will - Call Him John the Careless - washingtonpost.com.

A snack food election…What does it say about America?

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Currently (on Tue 5:53AM CDT from Pearland Regional Airport)

	Clear	Temp:	41°
		Dewpoint:	34°
		Wind:	Calm MPH

I woke up this morning at about 3:45 smelling something burning. Sherry sat up at about the same time and said something. We both jumped out of bed before I realized it was the heater kicking in for the first time this fall and what we were smelling was the dust burning off the elements. We didn’t even make it to the bedroom door. We fell back into bed me for an hour or so, Sherry for another 15 minutes.

I had just the night before reset the thermostat in anticipation of low 40’s this morning…

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Looks like what we would consider winter has settled into the Blue Ridge Mountains. The gorcast for Valle Crucis doesn’t call for it to get out of the 30’s today and Marie was talking about the possibility of some flurries last night. It looks like Fred will be throwing another log in the stove this morning too. Floyd should be just making it into the 40’s…

Take a minute to wander over to Fragments From Floyd this morning and follow the link to the petition to try and stop the Bush Administration from pushing through another handout to big coal…It’s all about rule changes in the stream setback buffer…Go on over and follow the links

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I made my way to the Library yesterday and fulfilled my civic duty. Cast my early vote for Obama. Now it’s just the wait of a week and a day to find out who gets the privilege of trying to lead this country out of the mess we’ve gotten ourselves into.

I am lucky I guess, I arrived at the Library at 4:30…Walked right up to the first poll worker who input my registration number and we were off to the races…Down the line with each worker inputing the number off of the piece of paper received from the one to their right until I was handed my input numbers for the machines. I grabbed the first open machine and ran through my selections. Double checked everything before I prees the “Cast Ballot” button and walked out. All told it took about 5 minutes.

Not like what will be happening in some polling places next week…

Suppose in your neighborhood there are 600 registered voters per machine, while across town there are only 120 per machine. (That’s a 5 to 1 disparity, which is what exists in some places in Virginia today.) On Election Day, your line wraps around the block and looks to be a four-hour wait, while in other areas lines are nonexistent.

Christopher Edley Jr. - A Voting Rights Disaster? - washingtonpost.com.

Go Vote, early if possible…

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Gotta run..Have a great day…

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Just call me Paul the Professor

Colbert, via Crooks and Liars:

I for one appreciate the McCain campaign treating us like children. McCain will bring us back to a simpler time. A time when you could identify your neighbors’ jobs by the hats they wore. Like Sam the Fireman, Bill the Cowboy and Jose the stereotype. These are the people in your neighborhood. The people that you meet when you’re walking down the street. They’re the people that you meet each day. And what the people in your neighborhood, the Joe the Plumber, the Wendy the Waitress need are tax cuts for the wealthy and off shore drilling. They don’t need universal health care or last names.

Just call me Paul the Professor - Paul Krugman - Op-Ed Columnist - New York Times Blog.

This seems to be the Republican meme. “Just let the “decider” make the all the tough decisions”. All of us self-thinking geeks who place too much credence in intelligence and education, be it formal or the school of hard knocks, aren’t “real Americans”. In the last couple of weeks we are being called “un-American”, Socialist, even Communists by the Republican Party…Way to go folks.

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While my friends on the Blue Ridge are climbing out of bed this morning and firing up their stoves to beat back the cold we finaly greeted some nice fall weather. The temperature this morning as I sit and write this is 46°. The sky is clear and we should see a pleasant mid 70’s by mid-afternoon. It looks as if we will have our first autumn weekend.

This is the first we have seen of 40° weather since last winter…I see from the weather email that Floyd and Boone will both stay in the 40’s all day…Keep a log on the fire guys, you’ll need it.

Breakfast this morning is a splurge to celebrate the weather…Rosemary potato bread toast (big, thick, sliced just before it went into the toaster slices) with butter and St. Dalfour Wild Blueberry 100% fruit spread…What a way to start a cool morning. Now I will admit there is no fire and in reality the kitchen door is open a crack to let some of that cool fall air in to make appreciate the long sleeve henley I am wearing to work today.

Email calls…I’ll check back later…

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