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S.R. Sidarth, the Webb campaign volunteer whom Sen. George Allen called "macaca" this summer (which marked the beginning of his campaign's implosion) published an interesting essay in the WaPo this weekend:

Allen's actions that day stood out because they were not representative of how I was treated while traveling around the state. Everywhere I went, though I was identifiably working on behalf of Allen's opponent, people treated me with dignity, respect and kindness. I cannot recall one event where food was served and I was not invited to join in the meal. In southwest Virginia, hospitality toward me was at a high point. . .

The larger question that this experience brings up is: How far has society progressed on the issues of race and openness? By 2050, according to most projections, the United States will be a minority-majority nation. But the fact that Allen believed I was an immigrant, when in fact I am a native Virginian, underlines the problems our society still faces. . .

The politics of division just don't work anymore. Nothing made me happier on election night than finding out the results from Dickenson County, where Allen and I had our encounter. Webb won there, in what I can only hope was a vote to deal the race card out of American politics once and for all.

I trust WND about as much as I trust Drudge, but did Fox News trade arms for hostages?

Check out this nifty interactive graphic from the NYT, showing how the margins of victories in the House races this year differed from 2004.  Very cool.

Trent Lott is the new Senate minority whip, winning election by one whole vote.

So much for the GOP's washing their hands of segregationists and keeping racists out of the party mainstream, huh?

Does this make Ken Mehlman's remarks last year to the NAACP inoperative?

Some pretty cool video editing:

The NYT (yes, the New York Times) tell us How To Be Funny.

It's terrible when your faint sausage is smurfing near the lunatic fringe.

Check out this animation, done for an MFA thesis:

I am so subscribing to Monkey Mondays.

Ed Bradley will be sorely missed.

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Didja catch the part in Bush's presser yesterday when he admitted that he lied...for political gain?

Ante up, John.

Wow, the news just gets better and better:  the AP calls the Senate for the Dems...and that smarmy Mac Guy is gone!

A bit of perspective:  Politicians Sweep Midterm Elections.

Great news in the House, of course, and the Senate looks encouraging as of this writing (2:24a ET).

But Josh Marshall is right:  Virginia will very likely go to a recount, and it will take a while.  And it will be an opportunity for Rove & Co. to unleash every lowdown, deceptive, fraudulent tactic in their arsenal:

You don't know the lengths they'll go to.  Believe me, you're not being imaginative enough. . .Get ready for the bogus headlines on Drudge. The rumors and innuendo. Live boys and dead girls. Like I said, your imagination will only get you maybe half the way there. Get ready.

As Joshua Green pointed out in the Atlantic a while back, that arsenal is considerable.

UPDATE: As I wrote the above and did a bit more surfing, Web surged ahead and is now up by approx. 12K votes.  This could well be outside the legal threshold for a recount (1/2 of 1%, I believe.)  However, the Virginia vote isn't certified until Nov. 27th -- between now and then, provisional ballots (and, I assume, absentee ballots) will be counted.  The bulk of what I quoted above still applies.

And so to bed...

Holy shit.  I sure hope this is a dreadful mistake:

In an apparent violation of FCC rules, conservative talk radio station KFBK 1530 AM in Sacramento transmitted a paid political advertisement to an unknown number of other stations in the area, using the Federal Emergency Alert System (EAS), thus automatically forcing the ad onto the stations' airwaves.

Still more voter suppression:

• Latino voters in Colorado were told they were ineligible to vote and threatened with arrest if they attempted to vote; and
• Homeless men from Philly bused down to Maryland, where they were given Ehrlich hats and T-shirts, thanked by Ehrlich's wife, and then given fliers to hand out to prospective voters.  Not a big deal -- until you realize that the fliers identified Maryland Gov. Ehrlich and Lt. Gov. Steele (both Republicans) as Democrats.  A must-read first-hand account is here:

As I approached the polling place here at Parkdale High School, a man in an Ehrlich-Cox shirt handed me a two-page fold-out pamphlet. I immediately recognized the front—it was the misleading Curry/Mfume/Johnson "endorsement" from "Ehlrich-Steele Democrats" that I blogged about earlier. Inside, however, was a clear attempt to mislead Democratic voters. Under the headline, "DEMOCRATIC SAMPLE BALLOT" was a comprehensive listing of candidates, each with an X next to his or her name. In the parallel universe contained within this pamphlet, Robert Ehrlich is the Democratic gubernatorial candidate, and Michael Steele is the Dems' pick for the Senate. The intent could not be clearer: to confuse those looking to vote a straight Democratic ticket. The handout cleverly conceals its purpose by leaving Democrats intact under many of the categories—for instance, Steny Hoyer is listed for district five. . .

At the bottom of the front page, the small print reveals the pamphlet's origins. The two-line disclosure reads: "Paid and Authorized by Bob Ehrlich for Maryland Committee" and "Paid and Authorized by Steele for Maryland, Inc." Classy work, all around.

You'd think the Ehrlich/Steele campaign committees would know what party their candidates belong to....

A few of TBogg's Election Day predictions:

• No matter how many seats the Democrats take in the House it won't be enough to keep the Republican echo chamber from pointing out that it most certainly is not a mandate, while all the time whining about the loss of control of the commitees.
• Joe Lieberman is going to win and it will somehow translate as support for the war and civility and common sense...and nobody in the media will point out what a sleazy campaign he ran.
• There will be at least one upset that the polls didn't predict and that will be held up as evidence that all polls are always wrong...except when they side with your candidate.
• Matt Drudge will hype something completely trivial unless Madonna does something to distract him which makes him take his eye off of the ball.

More voter suppression:

• FBI investigating voter intimidation in Virginia.  (If you want to hear what illegal voter intimidation sounds like, go here);
• Latino voters harassed in Arizona by armed men;
• Kentucky poll worker attacks voter.

More dirty pool from the Republicans -- what a shocker:

• Running ads giving out candidates' home phone numbers in Montana and Illinois;
• Blackmail in Connecticut:  telling voters that they'll stop the harassing robo-calls...just as long as they vote Republican;
• Vandalism and death threats in Colorado.

More to come, I'm sure.

TPM is keeping us apprised of election problems in Ohio (1, 2, 3, 4, 5), Missouri (where the Secretary of State was illegally asked to show ID) (1, 2), Florida, Tennessee, Illinois, Pennsylvania, and Colorado, Virginia, Maryland, and Indiana.

More breaking news from the Election Protection coalition here, but their poll problem reporting database has crashed under the strain.

(Everything went smoothly at my polling place this morning in New York City.)

Quote of the day, from Warren Ellis:

"Karl Rove is not Aleister Crowley, Severus Snape, Darth Vader or Satan. You can kill him by ensuring your vote is counted and being vigilant at your polling station."

(via BoingBoing, by way of Tizzie.)

The Center for Citizen Media has posted a legal FAQ for bloggers covering Election Day, including a state-by-state breakdown of laws governing photography and videography in polling places.

And consider helping with the Polling Place Photo Project or Video the Vote.

It's pretty clear that the Republican Party is the party of vote suppression and election tampering.  I'm not saying that Democrats haven't done it or can't possibly be crooked, of course, but the GOP is -- right now -- actively trying to rig this election.

The illegal, harassing, robo-calls are, I fear, just the tip of the iceberg.  What about outright lies?  Calls telling registered Democrats that their polling place has changed?  Or even calls telling registered Democrats they'll be arrested if they show up to vote?

(More from Olbermann here.)

 

I'd love to hear some Republican justify this with a straight face.  But they're too weaselish to do so, or to own up to their illegal actions.

More voting problems in South Florida...but if you tell the Supervisor of Elections, she'll get angry at you:

"These reports of alleged problems with the voting machines have been blown out of proportion," [Sarasota elections supervisor Kathy] Dent said.

What? By whom? And how? Is mentioning a problem now bad judgment?

I asked Dent to explain, but got no answer.

Dent also insisted, in another e-mailed message, that the reports of problems actually indicate the machines are working properly, because all the accounts ended with successful votes.

That is quite a conclusion. It ignores the obvious fact that if some machines are sometimes losing ballot choices, anyone who didn't notice the error would, of course, not be able to complain.

But there's a bright side for unknowingly disenfranchised voters, if there are some: Dent won't be chewing you out and accusing you of disrupting her election.