Happy Thanksgiving.

Heh.

In Thanksgiving Tradition, Bush Pardons Scooter Libby In Giant Turkey Costume

George Will thinks SCOTUS royally f*cked the happily ambiguous 2nd Amendment

Whatever old man. You are losing it.

The Second Amendment says: "A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed." Until June, the question was: Is the right guaranteed to individuals and unconnected with military service, or guaranteed only to states as they exercise their right to maintain militias? The court held, 5-4, for the former view.

An obviously mentally impaired columnist then goes on to assert that without this ambiguity, state legislatures are now burdened with having to conform to some weird kind of 2nd Amendment that only has one true meaning, not the old tried and true what-the-hell-ever-we-want-it-to-mean, meaning.

And as Napoleon said (sort of), stupidity in politics is not really interesting.

For want of pity

It's all around us.

California is now a valuable touchstone to the country, a warning of what not to do. Rarely has a single generation inherited so much natural wealth and bounty from the investment and hard work of those more noble now resting in our cemeteries—and squandered that gift within a generation. Compare the vast gulf from old Governor Pat Brown to Gray Davis or Arnold Schwarzenegger. We did not invest in many dams, canals, rails, and airports (though we use them all to excess); we sued each other rather than planned; wrote impact statements rather than left behind infrastructure; we redistributed, indulged, blamed, and so managed all at once to create a state with about the highest income and sales taxes and the worst schools, roads, hospitals, and airports. A walk through downtown San Francisco, a stroll up the Fresno downtown mall, a drive along highway 101 (yes, in many places it is still a four-lane, pot-holed highway), an afternoon at LAX, a glance at the catalogue of Cal State Monterey, a visit to the park in Parlier—all that would make our forefathers weep. We can’t build a new nuclear plant; can’t drill a new offshore oil well; can’t build an all-weather road across the Sierra; can’t build a few tracts of new affordable houses in the Bay Area; can’t build a dam for a water-short state; and can’t create even a mediocre passenger rail system. Everything else—well, we do that well.

Change.gov "agenda" is back. Still wants your guns.

From the office of the President-Elect:

Urban Policy...

Address Gun Violence in Cities: Obama and Biden would repeal the Tiahrt Amendment, which restricts the ability of local law enforcement to access important gun trace information, and give police officers across the nation the tools they need to solve gun crimes and fight the illegal arms trade. Obama and Biden also favor commonsense measures that respect the Second Amendment rights of gun owners, while keeping guns away from children and from criminals. They support closing the gun show loophole and making guns in this country childproof. They also support making the expired federal Assault Weapons Ban permanent.

Don't worry, because he doesn't have the votes. Wait, what?

Here's a screenshot in case it inexplicably disappears, again.

New era.

I'm not saying that's a good thing. But I think there are good things that come with an Obama presidency. For one, when you hear people shout things like Amerikkka!, they are now demonstrably full of shit.

I didn't sleep well last night, and I woke up this morning, went to the New York Times and fully expecting to see something that would make me ill, I saw in big bold blue letters O-B-A-M-A. I thought I would cringe. But I smiled. America did pick an underdog, a horrible underdog, but still. As if that was not enough, now the Times is pimping a blue map of the U.S.; almost every state voted more for Democrats than four years ago. Good for them. Doesn't bother me. John McCain was no inspiring conservative. Say what you want about who's to blame, but our voters stayed home last night. By contrast, Obama was inspiring to many, and his turnout reflects that. Now that I mention it, McCain was like Kerry, in terms of his inability to inspire.

Obama won on all fronts. That is inspiring even to a libertarianish conservative like me. With any luck, we can put up a worthy and formidable opponent in another four years. We need to start working on the groundwork for such a monumental task today.

Live Election Results. Update: PA goes for Obama. UPDATE: ABC, NBC, FOX calls OH for Obama

Final update for this post: Iowa called for Obama. Looks like a big victory for Obama. I'm swallowing my anger, and there's plenty of it justifiably so, but if these projections are accurate, I congratulate Obama. But the truth squads, the bitter-clingy remarks, and the hubris better be nowhere insight after tonight. Or it's going to be a brutal four years.

Update 4: New Mexico called for Obama, Florida still not looking good for McCain so it's getting harder and harder for a McCain miracle.

UPDATE 3: ABC, NBC, and yes, FOX calls Ohio for Obama. If PA and OH are Obama's it's over for McCain. There is no realistic way to win, not even if McCain wins Florida, Iowa, Colorado, Nevada, and New Mexico. Then again, it's not over until it's over.

Update 2: Ohio and Florida are still not looking good for McCain. Frankly, even if McCain wins those two, good chance it will still hinge on Colorado. Iowa looks to go to Obama, but also an important state as things are now. I'm still keeping an eye on Pennsylvania as not many precincts have reported yet.. If PA changes to red, it's a whole new ballgame. But it's not looking good either.

Update: Obama gets all New England, and most networks have called PA for him as well, despite a complete lack of precinct reports. If that's true, McCain cannot afford to lose Florida AND Ohio, otherwise Obama safely wins with all his other solidly blue states. And Ohio is not looking good.

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Courtesy CBS News, these widgets will provide real time election results:

McCain or Obama?

If you haven't made up your mind, God help you.

Predictions

Spot on, I'd say.

Really, though, I can't predict this one for nothing. I have been avoiding polls this whole season for two reasons: a) Most are probably flawed and hence wrong, and b) Despite that I still can't stomach the results.

One thing I do know, is that I regret not getting involved as much as I should/could have. It took me a while to get over (and to some extent I still haven't gotten over) my objections to McCain. One question I always mull over is compromise or principle. Can a man compromise his principles and still be considered a principled man? I think theoretically no. But the real world tends to throw theory out the window (often with pleasure it seems).

Not again will I waste such opportunities for some trivial dilemma. I will fight with and for allies despite disagreements without giving up the fight for my principles. Not every battle is zero-sum. Call me a hack I frankly don't care, but principles aren't worth shit without results.

Vote McCain. And kick the Democrats out of Congress.

D'oh. I always forget to give credit where I get stuff from, although I doubt Glenn really needs another link.

Quote of the Day

i did not say i deceived the afghan soldier. on the contrary, both i and the taliban commanders i was with told the afghan soldiers that i was a journalist and in fact i showed him my passport. of course there is nothing wrong with deceiving anybody if its going to protect you...

Background here.

Rosen's report here (the incidence he expounded on is in the first paragraph).

Fucking turncoat.