Or rather, they reverse their endorsement of Bush. The Economist endorsed Bush in 2000 and wholly supported the invasion of Iraq, but:
After three necessarily tumultuous and transformative years, this is a time for consolidation, for discipline and for repairing America’s moral and practical authority. Furthermore, as Mr Bush has often said, there is a need in life for accountability. He has refused to impose it himself, and so voters should, in our view, impose it on him, given a viable alternative. John Kerry, for all the doubts about him, would be in a better position to carry on with America’s great tasks.
The Economist tends to be conservative, but thoughtful and non-partisan. They know an incompetent radical when they see one. Read the whole thing if you want the stinging indictment of Bush’s incompetence, or the less-than-enthused summation of Kerry.
The first was similar to the situation the other night, only tonight I was drinking more, and my judgement was clouded. I got trapped between two people who had trips and I had an open-ended straight draw (KT with a JJQ flop). Every time I called, I had odds. But finally one guy decided to push and it was $13 for me to call. There was $30.30 in the pot. Assuming that the guy to act after me was going to push, it would be $18 to call with $48 in the pot. Now with all that raising and re-raising going on, it didn’t seem like anyone actually had the boat. I figured trip Jacks, Queens and Jacks, another draw, or a flopped straight. I should have called. To punish me for my bad choice, the poker gods bestowed a 9 on the turn.
The second was pretty damn stupid. Someone raised to $4 before the flop from UTG. As soon as I raised to $14 with JJ from MP1, I knew I had done something stupid. The difference between $4 and $14 to someone with a competitive hand was not going to be great. This was not a tournament. The button pushed, making it $20 to call. Then I did another stupid thing and called. My jacks got assraped. Yep. UTG had pocket eights, so I was right to challenge him, but my raise just dug a big hole for me that I couldn’t resist going into head first. Blargh.
Eventually I had to rebuy and made my way back to even with a flopped boat (AK with AAK flop) against JJ and A2. Still sucks to lose my previous winnings and potential winnings with bonehead play, though.
You can bet your ass there will be legal challenges in several “swing states” this year. Oh God.
How can we stop this madness?
End the winner take all system: allow states to allocate electoral college votes based on the percentage vote each candidate gets within that state. One reason why Florida was worth disputing in 2000 was its 25 electoral votes. Under these proposed changes, Bush and Gore would have each taken 12 or 13 votes, which means that the payoff in mounting a legal challenge would have been much lower. Furthermore, it would be much harder to challenge every outcome in every state/county/precinct. Glasstrack has a good discussion of the Electoral College, fair representation, etc., but I think that this practical argument for changing our system–stopping the post-election legal battles–will probably resonate strongly with a majority of Americans, regardless of party or state.
This type of reform would also open the door to third parties becoming more viable. You need 270 to win, and third parties can promote their issues by exchanging electoral votes for planks in the platform.
The Bush campaign/administration (it’s hard to tell where one ends and the other begins, isn’t it?) has tried to spin the story of the missing explosives in lots of different ways, including the assertion that the explosives were missing before the war. Embedded reporters with 101st Airborne actually went to the site during the war and caught it on tape. Brilliant. Let me see now… that over there sure looks like explosives. It says “explosives.” Okay, let’s say they’re explosives. Where are the explosives? Oh, hey, that one down there says “Al Qaqaa.” I wonder how you pronounce that. I think I’ll be quasi-French and say “What What” instead of “Shit.” Oh, back to the point… yeah, that’s definitely the place.
Another story on this evidence, including images of IAEA seals on a door-locking cable can be found at KSTP. Check out both story links for more pics and confirming details.
Thanks to Daily Kos for this one, too. I’m just your filter that helps this stuff invade your poker-induced daze.
The Bush campaign put a doctored ad on their website entitled “Whatever it takes.” How ironic.
Their explanation was that a podium was in the way. I think what they meant was a lectern. I think what it was was a bunch of soldiers giving Bush the bird.
Credits and discussion can be found at Daily Kos.