Internal Monologue

Patrick Ruffini takes an admiring look at Left Blogistan : T he four-year ascent of Barack Obama from state senator to president marks not just the triumph of a man, but the coming of age of a movement. That movement belongs to liberal (or “progressive”) Democrats, who in less than a decade have remade themselves. Once respected only in academia and the news media, they have become a fighting force. They systemically digitized the means of political organization and strategy, with the ultimate goal of dominating the political system — “Crush their spirits!” was Daily Kos blogger Markos Moulitsas Zuniga’s pre-election rallying cry. The Left’s online movement is consciously modeled after the Goldwater-and-Reagan-era conservative movement. To those trying to build the Left, the vast right-wing conspiracy was an object not of scorn, but of admiration. They studied the Right’s network of think tanks, issue groups, and talk-show hosts, looking for clues on how to push a message with brutal e...

Quinn loves to slide.

Greenwald : This is really exceptional news on multiple levels -- the best political news I've heard since the election: Brennan out of running for top intel post John Brennan, President-elect Barack Obama's top adviser on intelligence, has taken his name out of the running for any intelligence position in the new administration. Brennan wrote in a Nov. 25 letter to Obama that he did not want to be a distraction. His potential appointment has raised a firestorm in liberal blogs who associate him with the Bush administration's interrogation, detention and rendition policies. "The fact that I was not involved in the decision-making process for any of these controversial policies and actions has been ignored," he wrote, in a letter obtained by The Associated Press. . . Obama's advisers had grown increasingly concerned in recent days over online blogs that accused Brennan of condoning harsh interrogation tactics on terror su...

Jim Martin , from his campaign website The Dec 2 runoff between Martin (D) and Chambliss (R) is turning out to be quite close . Runoff elections are notoriously difficult to poll, because it's hard to find precedent for who will turn out to vote. You can contribute to the Democrat here . Every Democrat we put in the Senate will make it easier for Obama to implement things like a stimulus package, better health care, energy policy, etc.

linc on DailyKos points out that the civics test I linked to earlier has a right-wing ideological slant to it: Yes, many of the 'test's' questions appear to be completely innocuous, but that's not the ISI's purpose. By getting our 'elected representatives' to take the damn thing and by getting us to take the damn thing without much critique of its purpose, we are solidifying, if even in a small way, their ideas on 'free-enterprise' and what 'american civics' are all about. It takes just one question in such a survey to help further their quite obvious agenda and in the very least, make us look like quite silly for playing along. Here are some choice examples, with my own, quick take on their purpose: The Bill of Rights explicitly prohibits: A. prayer in public school B. discrimination based on race, sex, or religion C. the ownership of guns by private individuals D. establishing an official religion for the United States E. the pr...

Glad to hear about one evangelical Christian preacher who is sex positive : Mr. Young, an author, a television host and the pastor of the evangelical Fellowship Church, issued his call for a week of “congregational copulation” among married couples on Nov. 16, while pacing in front of a large bed. Sometimes he reclined on the paisley coverlet while flipping through a Bible, emphasizing his point that it is time for the church to put God back in the bed. “Today we’re beginning this sexperiment, seven days of sex,” he said, with his characteristic mix of humor, showmanship and Scripture. “How to move from whining about the economy to whoopee!” [...] This is not a gimmick or a publicity stunt, Mr. Young says. Just look at the sensuousness of the Song of Solomon, or Genesis: “two shall become one flesh,” or Corinthians: “do not deprive each other of sexual relations.” “For some reason the church has not talked about it, but we need to,” he said, speaking by telephone Friday night on his wa...

UPDATE: Warning, this test actually has some right-wing motives behind it . I sure hope so, because they're pretty dumb, if this story is to be believed. Or more precisely, they are sadly under-informed on issues that bear immediate relevance to their work. Take the quiz yourself and find out. I got 33 out of 33 correct. A few questions I wasn't quite sure of, but I guess the guessing gods smiled upon me. Apparently our elected officials didn't do so well : WASHINGTON (AFP) – US elected officials scored abysmally on a test measuring their civic knowledge, with an average grade of just 44 percent, the group that organized the exam said Thursday. Ordinary citizens did not fare much better, scoring just 49 percent correct on the 33 exam questions compiled by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute (ISI). "It is disturbing enough that the general public failed ISI's civic literacy test , b...

Kevin Drum : I will just say this. If this turns out to be right — if Al Franken really does win by 27 votes — then I suggest we eliminate elections entirely and simply allow Nate Silver to tell us who our congressional and presidential winners are in the future. It would be a lot cheaper, and probably just as accurate. Heh. Stepping back a bit, I'm going to make a prediction: As the amount of data available on the Internet increases, there will be more and more "Nate Silvers" in different areas: geeky individuals who use publicly available data to equal or outperform the professional priesthood of a given sector. Calling market fluctuations, predicting what movies will be hits, who knows what else. In the past, the information necessary to do this was locked in expensive reports that only insiders had access to. These days, the information available publicly is often good enough to make professional level decisions. Also, people who post their models and predictions on t...

This is Roubini saying we need a $500 billion fiscal stimulus package immediately. Every economist I've heard basically agrees. Even defecit hawks are saying that a looming depression overrides their customary squeamishness about government spending. Why can't congress get its act together and do this? Our government is fucking broken, and it's not just Bush's fault. Congressional Democrats can't just wait for Obama. We need action now. http://m.youtube.com/watch?desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3Dz6cyOtGnhyQ&v=z6cyOtGnhyQ [I sent this from my iPhone, so please excuse any excessive brevity or typographical errors.] --Zachary Drake

James Fallows has a good discussion of something I didn't know about: Benford's Law: It turns out that if you list the population of cities, the length of rivers, the area of states or counties, the sales figures for stores, the items on your credit card statement, the figures you find in an issue of the Atlantic , the voting results from local precincts, etc, nearly one third of all the numbers will start with 1, and nearly half will start with either 1 or 2. (To be specific, 30% will start with 1, and 18% with 2.) Not even one twentieth of the numbers will begin with 9. This doesn't apply to numbers that are chosen to fit a specific range -- sales prices, for instance, which might be $49.99 or $99.95 -- nor numbers specifically designed to be random in their origin, like winning lottery or Powerball figures or computer-generated random sums. But it applies to so many other sets of data that it turns out to be a useful t...

Narrative one: There was nothing special about this election, it was determined by large scale phenomena that neither candidate had much control over: Demographic trends are shifting towards the Democrats. The Republican coalition of 2000 and 2004 just doesn't add up to electoral victory anymore When the sitting president is unpopular, the party of that president won't do well. On economic issues, voters favor the Democrats. Economic issues were salient for voters. When economic times are difficult during an election year, the party of the sitting president is at a disadvantage. Narrative two: This election was the result of highly specific circumstances unique to this particular election and could have gone the other way had the campaigns done things differently: Obama is a once-in-a-lifetime uber-being who has superpowers of rhetoric, organizing, and political manoevering that no one else could possibly equal. John McCain shot himself in the foot so many times: Palin, not kno...

Nobody in Left Blogistan wants Obama to put John Brennan in charge of the CIA, due to his support of torture. People who have been particularly forthright about denouncing Bush's torture regime, like Sullivan and Greenwald , are particularly outraged at the possibility. Greenwald : But John Brennan is a different matter. To appoint someone as CIA Director or Director of National Intelligence who was one of George Tenet's closest aides when The Dark Side of the last eight years was conceived and implemented, and who, to this day, continues to defend and support policies such as "enhanced interrogation techniques" and rendition (to say nothing of telecom immunity and warrantless eavesdropping), is to cross multiple lines that no Obama supporter should sanction. Truly turning a page on the grotesque abuses of the last eight years requires both symbolism (closing Guantanamo) and substantive policy changes (compelling adherence to the Army Field Manual, ensuring due p...

In response to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints' support for California Proposition 8, and taking a cue from the Mormon practice of posthumous baptism, RfrancisR on DailyKos has decided to embark on a program of posthumously converting Mormons to homosexuality: My first Conversion is Joseph Smith. Dear God of the Homos, With your great and everlasting love that blessed the covenants of Achilles and Petroclus, Gilgamesh and Enkidu, and of Jonathon and David, bless then the soul of Joseph Smith of Sharon, Vermont with your divine penis. Let it pierce the anus of his soul, and let you be forever joined to him, since on this oppressive earth, he was denied the pleasure of the male sex. Forever and ever, our brother Joseph Smith has now joined our family ( We Sing the Hymn to Praise God of the Homos! ). Blessed be God of the Homos, Amen

Here's our president, Tan Le, on the cover of the December issue of Inc . magazine: And here's me, quoted by name, in the article: "Welcome to demo hell" is probably my most famous quote at this point. If you Google the phrase , the top two hits are about the event described above.

The " Typealyzer " claims to be able to determine your Myers-Briggs personality type by analyzing your blog. It thinks I'm an ISTJ. I've taken versions of this test numerous times, and I almost always come out INTJ, and I feel that describes me well. So getting 3 out of 4 isn't bad. I tried feeding different months of my blog into the Typealyzer to see if I got different results. Here are some: March 2006: ISTP April 2006: INTP May 2006: INTP ... Jan 2007: INTJ Feb 2007: INTJ March 2007: INTJ ... May 2008: INTJ June 2008: ISTJ July 2008: INTJ August 2008: ISTJ September 2008: ISTJ October 2008: ISTJ November 2008: INTJ Interesting to note: It does seem to get me right quite often, and it usually isn't too far off. Never does it call me an extrovert (E) rather than an introvert (I) or a feeler (F) rather than a thinker (T). I also find it interesting that my personality type from August 2008 to October 2008 is labeled the "The Duty Fulfiller". This i...

Given that both sides wanted the court to rule on this, it's not surprising. Here's the MyDD article. It might be "better" in some sense if this were overturned at the ballot box rather than in court. It would deprive the right of their "judicial tyranny" arguments (never mind that the CA legislature already passed gay marriage, or that one of the important roles of the judiciary is to protect the rights of minorities from the will of the majority). But it's more important that Prop 8 get overturned as soon as possible, so that people can marry who they want to. I'm not going to ask someone to wait to insist on fair treatment. In the meantime, we should prepare to repeal Prop 8 a the ballot box. You can sign this petition if you haven't already.

...and the "Nigerian"-style scammers make a profit and continue to flood the Internet with spam. I feel sorry for this woman who was conned out of $400,000 , but I'm also angry at her. Because of the existence of the tiny minority of people who fall for this, the rest of us have to put up with those "Dearest one of God" emails phishing for our bank account numbers. I feel this way about a lot of things: because a small minority of people steal, everyone has to lock their doors. Makes one want to retreat to an isolated utopian commune or a gated community.

Kevin Drum isn't happy about this, and neither am I. How can the Democrats let someone who isn't even a Democrat and who actively campaigned against Obama keep a valuable committee chair that allows him to investigate the Obama administration? Shouldn't that chair go to an actual Democrat? This action by the Democrats reaffirms the existence of the following incentive structure for politicians: Do something that pisses off the right, and the Republicans hammer you for it hard. Do something that pisses off the left, and Democrats let you get away with it even though it's well within their power to punish you for it. ...so why should we be surprised that politicians constantly drift to the right? Given that there is rarely a penalty for doing so, it only makes sense. This just goes to show how the 2006 and 2008 elections have not really changed the political culture. The same people who never stood up to Bush in a meaningful way are still in control of Congress. There...

dday has this post on how some in the military are trying to box Obama in on issues like withdrawal from Iraq, missile defense, and military spending. I think Obama will be able to win over some of the military, but I think he's also going to have to crack some heads. I hope Obama is willing to take on entrenched military interests, but there are POWERFUL interests protecting the status quo and they won't be afraid to shout "That Democratic sissy is making America weaker!" to get their way.

The Guardian (UK paper): Hillary Clinton plans to accept the job of secretary of state offered by Barack Obama, who is reaching out to former rivals to build a broad coalition administration, the Guardian has learned. Obama's advisers have begun looking into Bill Clinton's foundation, which distributes millions of dollars to Africa to help with development, to ensure that there is no conflict of interest. But Democrats do not believe that the vetting is likely to be a problem. Clinton would be well placed to become the country's dominant voice in foreign affairs, replacing Condoleezza Rice. Since being elected senator for New York, she has specialised in foreign affairs and defence. Although she supported the war in Iraq, she and Obama basically agree on a withdrawal of American troops. Clinton, who still harbours hopes of a future presidential run, had to weigh up whether she would be better placed by staying in the Senate, which offers a platform for life, or making the ...

The Iraqis are kicking us out of their country. New York Times via Sullivan : The draft approved Sunday requires coalition forces to withdraw from Iraqi cities and towns by the summer of 2009 and from the country by the end of 2011. An earlier version had language giving some flexibility to that deadline, with both sides discussing timetables and timelines for withdrawal, but the Iraqis managed to have the deadline set in stone, a significant negotiating victory. The United States has around 150,000 troops in Iraq. As Sullivan points out, this is very important because the Republicans and neocons will try to blame subsequent problems in Iraq on Obama. But hey, they want us out. Which is fine with me. It's a win-win: they get an occupying army out of their country, and we can stop spending hundreds of billions of dollars and thousands of lives on an occupation that pisses off the world and acts as a recruiting tool for terrorism. And with the recent reductions in violence, it could...

I couldn't risk having this happen to me: President-elect Obama is a big user of his Blackberry , "but before he arrives at the White House, he will probably be forced to sign off," the New York Times reports. "In addition to concerns about e-mail security, there is the Presidential Records Act, which puts his correspondence in the official record and ultimately up for public review, and the threat of subpoenas. A final decision has not been made on whether Obama could go against precedent and become the first e-mailing president, but aides said that was unlikely..." "Obama, however, appears to be poised to make technological history in other ways: Aides said he hopes to have a laptop on his desk in the Oval Office. He would be the first American president to do so." Dude, if anyone should have a mobile computing device, it's the President of the Frickin' United States. I'm an iPhone person rather than a Blackberry person, but the sam...

Dude, the yarns little kids spin are just totally surreal: Once upon a time... from Capucha on Vimeo . Violence, theft, suicide, exploitation of the poor, this story has everything.

Now is not the time for shilly-shallying, says Krugman : Finally, in normal times modesty and prudence in policy goals are good things. Under current conditions, however, it’s much better to err on the side of doing too much than on the side of doing too little. The risk, if the stimulus plan turns out to be more than needed, is that the economy might overheat, leading to inflation — but the Federal Reserve can always head off that threat by raising interest rates. On the other hand, if the stimulus plan is too small there’s nothing the Fed can do to make up for the shortfall. So when depression economics prevails, prudence is folly. What does all this say about economic policy in the near future? The Obama administration will almost certainly take office in the face of an economy looking even worse than it does now. Indeed, Goldman Sachs predicts that the unemployment rate, currently at 6.5 percent, will reach 8.5 percent by the end of next year. All indications are that the new admin...

I sure hope those beepers that go off when trucks back up save a lot of lives, because they are annoying as hell. [I sent this from my iPhone, so please excuse any excessive brevity or typographical errors.] --Zachary Drake

Paul Hogarth , a California lawyer whom I know slightly through my friend Paul Dosh , takes a look at the legal challenge to Prop 8, and is more optimistic than before that the California Supreme Court might strike it down: But after having read Herrera’s well-written brief and done some legal research, I am now more optimistic that justice will prevail. Prop 8 was not your typical “amendment” that merely tinkers with the California Constitution. It was a drastic revision that deprives a “suspect class” (gays and lesbians) of a fundamental right under equal protection. And a simple majority vote of the people is not enough to take that right away – especially when the purpose of equal protection is to shield minorities. While other courts have upheld marriage amendments in other states, they have different Constitutions – and court rulings have changed considerably in a short period of time. And unlike many states, California has explicitly found sexual orientation to be a “suspect cl...

via bluegal on Crooks and Liars .

It looks like there will be one more Democratic senator . Why does it take so long to count votes in Alaska? That sounds like a setup line to a Sarah Palin joke. If you figure out a good punch line, put it in the comments.

Stephane : There is too much at stake, too many to help, to much to do. The time has come for us all. To roll up our sleeves. We too had a dream. And today you made it a reality.. From the bottom of my Heart, and with tears of joy in my eyes, With love, from France, Stephane He then shows a series of pictures of people around the world celebrating Obama's victory. Those pictures are wonderful. (HT: Mad Latinist via email)

Amy Balliett and bride (I don't know which one is Amy).

Sullivan : Let's be real in a way the national media seems incapable of: this person should never have been placed on a national ticket in a mature democracy. She was incapable of running a town in Alaska competently. The impulsive, unvetted selection of a total unknown, with no knowledge of or interest in the wider world, as a replacement president remains one of the most disturbing events in modern American history. That the press felt required to maintain a facade of normalcy for two months - and not to declare the whole thing a farce from start to finish - is a sign of their total loss of nerve. That the Palin absurdity should follow the two-term presidency of another individual utterly out of his depth in national government is particularly troubling. 46 percent of Americans voted for the possibility of this blank slate as president because she somehow echoed their own sense of religious or cultural "identity". Until we figure out how this happened, we will not be ab...

Noboby knows where this document came from, but I suppose it's as good a jumping off point as any. I haven't read it yet.

Ezra Klein agrees with what I posted earlier about the possibility of bailing out GM: But what's the end game here? Depending on how you understood the financial crisis, the banks were either suffering from temporary illiquidity or insolvency. The problem was, in either case, transient, and not tied into to the fundamental business model. Buttressing them in the short-term would allow them to survive and return to prosperity in the medium-term. But GM's decades-long decline is a consequence of its business model. They've been in freefall for years now. Saving them in the short-term probably just means they die in the medium-term, or maybe are saved again. Presume the government does extend the loan. Then what? What reason is there to believe that GM is simply enduring a temporary solvency crisis rather than simply dying? Save the workers. Save the communities. But unless GM comes up with a plausible turnaround plan, they can't be saved.

via Sullivan .

"Obama Meets With Dangerous World Leader Without Preconditions" ( digby )

If only we had woken up like this before it passed...

Bowers makes the case that Obama wasn't a better candidate than Dukakis. It's just that demographic and technological changes since 1988 have made the terrain more favorable to Democrats. Worth a look : These three broad social trends--the network neutral Internet, the increasing number of non-Christians in America, and the increasing number of non-whites in America (mainly Latinos)--were more responsible for the 2008 Democratic victories than any other factor. This includes the relative strengths of the two major candidates, the performance and strategic decisions of the campaigns, and even the pro-Democratic political environment caused by widespread disaffection with Republican governance. These demographic and media trends are the main reason non-southern Democratic nominees have once again become competitive in Presidential elections. Without them, all of our nominees who are not "good ol' boys" would end up suffering the same fate as Dukakis. This ought to ...

Unless a bailout of the US auto industry is accompanied by a realistic plan to return to profitability, I'm afraid the additional $25 billion being talked about will only postpone the inevitable. Maybe they could get the money in return for better fuel efficiency standards, though that's something they should be doing on their own anyway. I think the conservatives have a poin t here. Maybe we should let the companies fail, and instead bail out the people. Or bail out their communities. Turn Flint, Michigan into a massive public works project center or something. Build a green technology research and construction center there. I think the money would go further. I just don't think the US auto industry as a whole is a good investment right now. I'm fine with the government alleviating the suffering of the workers and communities that would be impacted by this. But until I see signs that the US auto industry is really ready to become globally competitive, I'm going to...

Here's a Wordle of Internal Monologue : (The text was a bunch of cut-and-pastes from November and October. Hence the prominence of Obama.) You can make your own .

I'm going to swim with them in a few minutes.

I think I'm going to start a new feature on Internal Monologue : Same sex family of the day. I want to do my part to normalize the idea of gay and lesbian committed couples who start families. So I'm just going to grab random images from the web and post them every once in a while. I'm probably preaching to the choir here, but even that has its uses.

One benefit of having a scandalously easy constitutional amendment process is that it's easy to amend it back. Let us pledge to do so .

In order to ascertain the profundity of my wife's love for me, I presented her with a series of sentient being types from the Star Wars universe, and asked her if she would still love me if I were a member of that species. Here are the creature types and her response to each: Ewok: Yes Wookie: Yes Gungan: No (Jar-Jar ruined them for her) Protocol Droid (e.g. C3-P0): Yes Astromech Droid (e.g. R2-D2): No Tauntaun: No Rodian (e.g. Greedo): No Jawa: Yes Rancor: No Sarlaac: No Hutt: No Yoda's unnamed species: Yes Rodian (e.g. Greedo): No Clone Trooper: Yes Battle Droid: No Sith: No Someone who had Palpatine's facial deformity but wasn't actually evil: Yes There may be others, but I have forgotten. I didn't ask every single creature type I could think of, but I think this is a pretty good sample. Overall, I'm pretty impressed by my wife's love for me. I'm a bit saddened that she couldn't love me if I was a gungan or a rodian; those species are pretty huma...

The Republicans are in need of some serious wandering-in-the-wilderness therapy. Get a load of this : Rasmussen's poll of the 2012 Republican presidential primary: Sarah Palin 64% Mike Huckabee 12% Mitt Romney 11% Bobby Jindal 4% Charlie Crist 2% Tim Pawlenty 1% Undecided 6% And the piece de resistance: Sixty-nine percent (69%) of Republican voters say Alaska Governor Sarah Palin helped John McCain's bid for the presidency. Bwahwahwahwahwahwa.I think 69% of Republicans got confused. I bet Sarah Palin helped them get excited about McCain. She did not help him overall. I think the Republicans are going to need a lot of out-of-power time before they come to their senses. It took the British conservatives several years, and they didn't have the looney American right wing to deal with. Note that just because Palin turned out to be a frighteningly ignorant backstabbing phony doesn't necessarily mean McCain was wrong to gamble on picking. The way things were going, McCain...

Every ethnicity that can claim a connection to Obama is doing so. The Irish, or at least this guy, have claimed him as one of their own. Give a listen: HT: my Mom via e-mail

One more for Obama . I think this is the first time Nebraska has split its electoral votes. While Obama hardly needed it, I think it's symbolically important that Obama is getting electoral votes from formerly "red" areas. There are more and more areas of the country where Democrats are considered viable. By the way, I think the definition of "red state" is going to have to change. The Wikipedia entry as of this posting has the following map, based on '92, '96, '00, and '04 presidential elections: Colorado and Virginia can't really be called red states anymore. And the rest of the map might have to shade a bit bluer. Frankly, I'm surprised this Wikipedia entry hasn't been updated already.

Let me add my voice to the chorus of progressives calling for Lieberman to be stripped of his committee chair. After supporting McCain and Palin, there must be some consequence. And we don't want him to have the power to issue subpoenas to members of the Obama administration. I don't know whether he should be booted from the caucus, but I definitely think he should lose the committee chair. Here's a petition you can sign to that effect.

More here .

Obama might get one of Nebraska's electoral votes . Rumors float about Senate Majority leader Harry Reid's conversation with Joe Lieberman. No decisions yet, but he may lose his committee chair, or even be booted from the caucus. Lieberman should not have subpoena power to investigate the Obama administration. He loves the spotlight too much and I fear he would abuse it. David Axelrod, Obama's chief strategist, will become a Senior Adviser to Obama in the White House. Let's hope his strategery there is as good as it was in the campaign. Will the Daily Show still be funny once Obama is president? Conservatives try to figure out what path to take next . There is something very wrong going on with the vote count in Alaska . Republicans outperformed their projections by 12-14%. Votes tallied so far indicate a turnout much lower than 2004 , which makes no sense. Nate Silver is on it. Speaking of Nate Silver, it seems that I, Grishnash, and others in the blogosphere were...

We're up to 57 in the caucus (if you include independents, I think). The Huffington Post : PORTLAND, Ore. — Democrat Jeff Merkley has ousted Republican Sen. Gordon Smith , a victory once considered unlikely against an incumbent who had highlighted his efforts to work across the aisle in hopes of surviving a wave of anti-GOP sentiment. Smith's loss _ the first for an incumbent Oregon senator in 40 years _ means Democrats are poised to have at least 57 votes in the Senate next year. He had been the last GOP senator standing in the three Pacific Coast states south of Alaska. Steve Benen : Smith, who had run campaign ads trying to tie himself to Obama, called Merkley this morning to concede . All of the votes are not yet counted, by Merkley enjoys a 2-point lead with votes in heavily Democratic areas yet to be counted. The victory is no doubt gratifying for Merkley for a variety of reasons, including a vindication of sorts -- the Democratic establishment did not want Merkley t...

Another 15 EV for Obama .

Politico : Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.), a wily, aggressive West Wing strategist under President Bill Clinton, has accepted the post of White House chief of staff for President-elect Barack Obama, Democratic officials tell Politico. Apparently, the character of Josh Lyman on The West Wing was based partly on Rahm Emanuel. Which is funny, because apparently some of the inspiration for the Matt Santos character was Barack Obama. Santos chose Lyman as his chief of staff. Now Obama has Emanuel as his chief of staff. Does that mean that Obama has MS but hasn't been telling us, and that he will negotiate a comprehensive Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement? No. But the parallels are fun to point out.

A great reworking of the Vader-Luke "I am your father" conversation from Empire Strikes Back . Graphical versions here: Page 1 , Page 2 . Darth Vader: Obi Wan never told you what happened to your father. Luke: He told me enough! He told me you killed him! Darth Vader: No... I am your father! Luke: No! That's not true! That's impossible. Darth Vader: Search your feelings... you know it to be true... Luke: NOOOOOOO! Darth Vader: Yes, it is true... and you know what else? You know that protocol droid of yours? Luke: Threepio? Darth Vader: Yes... Threepio... I built him... when I was 9 years old... Luke: No... Darth Vader: Nine years old! And what have you done? Look at yourself, no hand, no job, and couldn't even levitate your own ship out of the swamp... Luke: I destroyed your precious Death Star! Darth Vader: When you were 20! When I was 10, I single-handedly destroyed a Trade Federation Droid Control ship! Luke: Well, it's not my fault... Dart...

Short answer: nobody knows. Here's the best summary of the possibilities that I've found. Options include: Keep existing marriages valid (Volokh doubts this will happen) Automatically convert them to domestic partnerships Invalidate them The legislature intervenes and passes a law that converts them to domestic partnerships Volokh also believes that Prop 8 will be considered an amendment , not a revision, and will therefore not be struck down. I'm very sad that this is happening. I spent some time tonight at our church discussing this result with people. I think if more people heard stories from gay people about what it felt like to have 52% of your fellow Californians tell you your marriage was invalid, more people would have voted against Proposition 8.

It's a circular knife fight! After two months of pent up rage, McCain staffers stab Palin in the back. Kevin Drum has a great roundup. Highlight: There was great concern in the McCain campaign that Sarah Palin lacked the degree of knowledgeability necessary to be a running mate, a vice president, and a heartbeat away from the presidency. We're told by folks that she didn't know what countries were in NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement, that being Canada, the US, and Mexico. We're told that she didn't understand that Africa was a continent rather than a country just in itself. A whole host of questions that caused serious problems about her knowledgeability. She got very angry at staff, thought that she was mishandled, was particularly angry about the way the Katie Couric interview went. She didn't accept preparation for that interview when the aides say that that was part of the problem. And that there were times where she was hard to control emotio...

Nice McCain is back, starting with his gracious concession speech last night. But dday is having none of it: The effort to raise John McCain's reputation from the dead has already begun. He'll give a TV appearance where he'll rend his garments and bat his eyes and talk about how sorrowful he was to see what his campaign perpetrated. And everyone in the Village will try to fall in line. It's as predictable as the conservatives who will immediately blame President Obama for not fixing the economy come January 22nd (they'll give him a one-day honeymoon). Enough. You show your true character when put under the spotlight. John McCain showed his, and proved himself winning to go to any lengths to extend the glory to which he feels entitled. I'm not particularly interested in letting bygones be bygones. The Democratic nominee got multiple threats on his life as the anger of McCain-Palin rallies reached a fever pitch. McCain will have to live with himself. And anyone...

I knew this was coming: The petition charges that Proposition 8 is invalid because the initiative process was improperly used in an attempt to undo the constitution's core commitment to equality for everyone by eliminating a fundamental right from just one group – lesbian and gay Californians. Proposition 8 also improperly attempts to prevent the courts from exercising their essential constitutional role of protecting the equal protection rights of minorities. According to the California Constitution, such radical changes to the organizing principles of state government cannot be made by simple majority vote through the initiative process, but instead must, at a minimum, go through the state legislature first. [....] "If the voters approved an initiative that took the right to free speech away from women, but not from men, everyone would agree that such a measure conflicts with the basic ideals of equality enshrined in our constitution. Proposition 8 suffers from the sam...

Obama Win Causes Obsessive Supporters To Realize How Empty Their Lives Are

From the New York Times via georgia10 at DailyKos The Republican party fared worse in most of the country, but the "McCain belt", shown in red, is where Republicans did better this year than in 2004. I see Rove's grand quest to turn the GOP into a disempowered regional rump is coming to fruition. In this time of defeat, the Republicans will go through a lot of hard introspection and soul searching. As liberals, we should respect this painful process our fellow Americans are going through. I plan to to show my respect via gloating, insufferable smugness, and frequent posting of YouTube clips that depict Republicans are ridiculous wackjobs.

From Ezra Klein: Sent to you via Google Reader A LETTER TO ALASKA. Dear Alaska, WTF? Sincerely, People in this country who think seven criminal convictions should probably lose you your Senate seat [I sent this from my iPhone, so please excuse any excessive brevity or typo graphical errors.] --Zachary Drake

Yeah, it hasn't quite sunk in for me either. Kevin Drum: Sent to you via Google Reader Dreams DREAMS.... I had a weird dream last night. Really vivid too. Obama had already won the election and he was giving a big victory speech at Grant Park. Crowds were cheering, people were crying, and there were celebrations around the country. I swear, it felt as real as if it had really happened. But enough of that. So what do today's tracking polls look like? Has McCain made up any ground since yesterday? [I sent this from my iPhone, so please excuse any excessive brevity or typo graphical errors.] --Zachary Drake

I'm so bummed that Prop 8 will probably pass . Prejudice strikes again. Time is on our side on gay marriage, but there is still work to be done telling our story to the people. Getting Indiana for Obama is awesome. World reacts to Obama win . Newspapers have covers . People celebrate . Still some electoral votes still too close to call . Franken losing by a hair to Coleman. Kos has called it for Coleman. CNN hasn't . Why is it that the California Constitution can be amended by a simple majority ballot initiative? It's easier to amend the California Constitution than to pass a budget (which requires 2/3 of the legislature), for cryin' out loud.

I knew we were the bluest corner of a blue state, but this is the biggest spontaneous amateur fireworks show I've seen outside of the 4th of July.

UPDATE 10:39 PM 11/6: OK, so Indiana went to Obama, and they had it for McCain, but only by a 1.5% margin. The only races they predicted to be closer than that were North Carolina and Missouri, which of course are not yet universally called for either candidate. A hugely impressive track record. Their only major whoops seems to have been calling Begich over Stevens in Alaska, and that's looking mighty fishy anyway... Comparing the final electoral map to the projection at www.fivethirtyeight.com , with 4 states and two singular electoral votes still undecided, the predicted outcome of every state is exactly correct.

CORRECTION: I don't follow Delaware politics all that closely, and hearing that the Democrats still held the Delaware Governorship, I assumed it was still Ruth Ann Minner. Actually, she's retiring and the Governor-elect to make the appointment will be Jack Markell. That is all. Joe Biden now not only has enough electoral votes to win the Vice Presidency, he has won re-election to his Senate seat as well. Most likely, he will take his seat in the 111th Congress on January 3rd, then resign by January 20th to take his seat as Vice President. Delaware Governor Ruth Ann Minner would then appoint his replacement until a special election could be held. A leading candidate for this appointment is Delaware Attorney General Joe Biden, III.

I'm signing off. Exit poll shows Prop 8 going down 52-48. But with 22% reporting, it's ahead 54-46. I do hope it goes down. [I sent this from my iPhone, so please excuse any excessive brevity or typographical errors.] --Zachary Drake

UPDATE AGAIN 10:18 PM 11/6: Or maybe not. It's really close again, and the electoral split is looking quite possible. UPDATE 11:22 PM: Nope. McCain wins Omaha too. The Nebraskan delegation remains solid. Sorry, bit of an interruption there after Obama clinched it... We had guests and dinner and all. Back to election trivia... The electoral vote from the Omaha area in Nebraska is still too close to call. If it goes for Obama, that would be the first split of Nebraska's electoral votes since the law authorizing the votes to be split was passed in 1992.

I'm listening to him now. I want to hear Obama! Pretty gracious in defeat. But his supporters booing I don't like. But I can understand their disappointment.

NPR calls it for Obama. 50 minutes AFTER Internal Monologue.

Feministing is reporting that the proposed abortion ban in South Dakota has failed! Yay!

I feel bad for the NPR announcers. They can't call it for Obama, but it's so clear that Obama's won it. I can sort of hear the tension in their voices.

Mad Latinist is in Chicago, one block away from Obama:

I think New England's congressional delegation is now entirely democratic.

Some of our posts got switched around due to time stamp issues. But it's over. Obama has won!

Udall wins the senate seat, too. The McCain campaign hangs by a thread...

Obama now has 199 electoral votes secured. There is no way he loses any of California, Washington, Oregon or Hawaii. That makes 276. He is our next President.

I think Roy Orbison says it best: