A few election day pictures...

I thought I'd share a few pictures from yesterday, since it was such a memorable day. Of all the presidential votes I've ever cast, and yesterday was my fifth, the one I cast yesterday is the one I'll remember 50 years from now if I'm still living then, God willing.

God, I take a horrible picture, but I just had to take a few pics in the voting booth. (My nose really isn't that big.)

Here's a picture of me casting my vote - I took it just for fun - for posterity.

I made up some custom Obama glasses, that I plan on wearing to Obama's inauguration on Jan. 20, 2009. We are definitely going - we don't live that far from D.C. and this is a historical event not to be missed.

My friend JJ, one of the smartest and best Democrats I know, got in on the act, too - I sent her a pair, and she helped nail down York toward the central part of Pennsylvania.

Our cat Butter got in on the action, too, but unwillingly. As I always say, he's an unwilling Fanimal, but that doesn't prevent me from trying. My favorite time with him was when Michael Nutter was running for mayor of Philadelphia - Butter for Nutter. Our crazy cat has a 2-0 record with candidates he's endorsed, so politicians will undoubtedly be actively seeking his endorsement in '10 and beyond.

The celebration continues...

I'm still decompressing from yesterday, and the euphoria from today - I can't think of a day in my life where I've felt happier; there are others that run a distant second - Clinton's win in November '92 when I cast my first vote for president was pretty sweet, as was the day that Clinton was acquitted in the Senate. But, other than those two, nothing else even registers on the radar.

I live in Philadelphia, and last night was like the Philadelphia Phillies winning the World Series all over again - I could hear car horns honking and shouts well into the night. It definitely was a night I will remember until my dying day. I told a few people today that "now I have a hint of how my parents felt when President Kennedy was elected." Again, I have no other parallel; nothing to compare it to. There's been no one else in my lifetime with the charisma and promise of Barack Obama. I would put President Clinton as approaching that category, but his potential was unfulfilled in a lot of ways because of his personal foibles. Let's hope and pray that Obama doesn't share a similar political fate.

I have some pictures from yesterday that I'll post in a minute, then back to some more serious stuff.

Tonight, pay particular attention to the exit polls

I have to confess, I'm already more nervous watching the returns, even at this early hour, than I ever have been while watching any returns in my lifetime, and I've watched them all since 1980. Of course, since '80, there haven't been too many for Democrats to get too excited about.

Anyway, it just kills me that this point gets so little play in the media: why the exit polling sometimes varies widely from the actual results. Actually, there are many reasons for this - principally because the data isn't always interpreted correctly, but how about this one - votes not being counted correctly, and in some cases, the vote being hacked. I'm not a conspiracy nut, but there is plenty, and I do mean plenty of evidence that this will happen again tonight, much like it did in '00 and '04. Think about it - it's not complicated:

If 550 people out of 1000 vote for Obama, and answer that way in exit polls, one would suggest (with a margin of error for a variety of reasons, of course) that Obama would win, 55% - 45%, or something close to that. And exit polling is primarily how the networks project the winners of states. But, in '00, and to a lesser extent, '04, the exit polling proved to be inaccurate, and in some cases very inaccurate.

Here's hoping that this trend doesn't continue tonight.

Black Panthers in Philly do... nothing

One of the latest non-story right-wing stories: voter intimidation in Philadelphia. Of course, whenever I hear stuff like this, I always try to read about it and find out how true it is. (It's amazing how many on the right just repeat and comment on it without actually taking five minutes to find out if it's valid or not.)

For the record, I think brutal tactics on either side is inexcusable and should never, ever be tolerated. And I'm not nearly naïve enough to believe that all Democrats are totally noble and innocent when it comes to shady, underhanded campaign tactics. Trust me, this will be a running theme this week, because a post-mortem analysis will reveal lots and lots of nefarious voter role purges and voter suppression techniques. We can and we must get this fixed.

Anyway, the story in the video above turned out to be... nothing, despite it being pimped by the likes of Drudge and Faux News. I know this is a complete and total pipe dream, but I would really love to see the day that the networks would fact check first, speculate later never and report responsibly.

My saying the story was "nothing" isn't just speculation on my part. To wit:

Lovida Coleman from the McCain campaign was on Fox 29 News during the Fox Five O'Clock News and said, "I haven't seen any intimidation." The district attorney's office said that this incident was a "non-story."

Whoops - another non-story stirred up intentionally by the hysterical and increasingly irrational right-wing media in the face of certain and decisive defeat tonight, at least in Congress, and very likely for the presidency. Great reporting though, FNC - people just speculating and talking about a whole bunch of What-Ifs on the air for a few minutes. Why not just play Michael Jackon's Thriller or the theme music from the Twilight Zone?