I laughed, I cheered, I jeered, I threw soft juggling balls at the television. That was a good debate. John Kerry came forward with specifics in clear language. He showed himself to be a strong leader who will be thoughtful and decisive. When asked a question, he had ready clear, non-evasive answers, as opposed to the repetitive, often non-sequitur soundbites across the stage.

I'm very proud of my nominee tonight, and I'm excited and energized about the election.

Alazawi says that American guards then made her stand with her face against the wall for 12 hours, from noon until midnight. Afterwards they returned her to her cell. "The cell had no ceiling. It was raining. At midnight they threw something at my sister's feet. It was my brother Ayad. He was bleeding from his legs, knees and forehead. I told my sister: 'Find out if he's still breathing.' She said: 'No. Nothing.' I started crying. The next day they took away his body."

I have read biographies of people who survived the brutal prisons of dictatorships, and they read very much like this. These days I wonder what country I live in. It is important to keep this story alive, and to make the public understand the scope of it.

The folks at Rathergate.com have organized a letter-writing campaign to remove Dan Rather from the CBS News lineup. So, Rather is the "face" on this story? What about the "face" on the Niger documents? You know, the one responsible for thousands of dead bodies littering Iraq? Rather's distinguished career is being scuttled over one mistake--a mistake he took responsibility for (unlike some folks).

Go here. Scroll to the bottom and click the Feedback link. Tell CBS not to give in.

Spotted across the street from Voodoo Donut (Best. Cruller. Ever), a sign left for anyone brave enough to man it:

In our home, we use none of the usual euphemisms for those infamous tummy troubles. Rather, we say we have "angered the Poop Gods." Sometimes I imagine what the Poop Gods are saying:

"Mortal worm! Last night you feasted on a fine meal of a bagel slathered with cream cheese and topped with teriyaki smoked oysters. It was nutritious, and aye, it did please the palate. You were full thereupon. But lo, were you satisfied? Alas, no! You were tempted by the noisesome Apple Jacks lurking in the cupboard. And even though your belly was leaden, you crept to the kitchen and ate upon the Apple Jacks, evenso with milk, though they are unseemly in Our eyes! For this, and in consideration of Our general crotchitiness, We therefore layeth down the smack upon your frail and evanescent form, beeyotch!"

When we are so afflicted, we also have a little song we sing to honor the Poop Gods. To the tune of the Amour Hot Dog song:

Poop Gods, angry Poop Gods
What kinds of foods call angry Poop Gods?

Bland foods, spicy foods,
Foods you serve on rice
Soft foods, crunchy foods,
All the foods you think are nice call Poop Gods

Angry Poop Gods
The gods that make you shit!

If you would like to sing this delightful song with your little ones, feel free to change that final vulgarity to a redundant "poop", or perhaps "cry", or maybe "curse the sweet, dark cradle of your mother's womb, as all that came afterward was suffering."

Though, to be fair, Regal has started keeping the ads to "The 20", where they are easily skipped--a vast improvement over mixing them in with the previews.

Everybody needs to read this.

To give you a quick-and-dirty: there's a reason Gallup's polls have Bush many points ahead, when other polls have the candidates at a dead heat. Gallup is polling more Republicans than Democrats. This might be excusable if it reflected voter turnout in previous elections (though it would still be questionable), but it doesn't. Here are the numbers:

Likely Voter Sample Party IDs – Poll of September 13-15
Reflected Bush Winning by 55%-42%

Total Sample: 767
GOP: 305 (40%)
Dem: 253 (33%)
Ind: 208 (28%)

Registered Voter Sample Party IDs – Same Poll
Reflected Bush Winning by 52%-44%

Total Sample: 1022
GOP: 381 (38%)
Dem: 336 (33%)
Ind: 298 (30%)

Typical voter turnout is: GOP: 34%, Dem: 34%, Ind: 33%, and that's on a good year for the GOP. Usually, more Dems turn out.

This is one lie of many. I refrain from posting a lot, because other people cover it better, and because I get outrage fatigue. But these poll numbers are being used by major media outlets to discourage progressive voting. DON'T LET THEM GET AWAY WITH IT! VOTE!

Thing the first: a good local news feed. I love KOIN's page of local headlines, and would like that or something similar in an RSS feed. If it's an email subscription to headlines, that's cool too--I can subscribe using Bloglines.

Thing the second: do you know anything about this fountain?

It's on SW 6th at about Stark Street, in front of the Commonwealth Building. There are no identifying markers, and I've been unlucky with the Arts Council so far.

From the Department of Science Fiction Seeping Into My Real Life:

At one time, I had a great many Star Trek novels. I lined them up like a paperback baseboard, winding them around my room. One in particular had a great deal to do with Romulans. No, I don't remember the title. What I do remember is a quirk of their fictional culture: Romulans fastidiously separate the types of food on their plate. Mixing it together because "it's all going to the same place anyway" is a dead giveaway that you are a despicable human/klingon/vulcan spy in disguise! My point, and I don't really have one, is that I also prefer my food to be separated (much to the puzzlement of my mac-&-cheese-stirred-in-with-spinach husband), and I think of this as "eating like a Romulan".

Incidentally, I haven't called a zit anything but "gorch" for years. After all, even the tiniest blemish feels huge and Klingon.

From the Department of Shut Your Piehole, You Defeatist Whiner:

Do you ever hear the Republicans say they're going to lose? Of course not--rallying the faithful is something they're good at. It's stupid--yes, I mean it--to demoralize your own side.

Imagine you're playing soccer, and things are just about even with both teams doing their best. Now imagine you've got this one teammate who whines: "OH NO! WE'RE GONNA LOOOOOSE!" every time the slightest thing goes wrong. Wouldn't you just want to kick the crap out of him?

The polls are running even, and many of them only consider likely voters--those who have voted before. The drives to register new voters (especially Dems) have been great this year. John Kerry is a decent, intelligent man, and he'll make a damned good president.

From the Department of Site Changes:

You'll notice a lot more links over on the right. Spousal Unit and I were talking about links, and how you can be judged by what you read. I admit, the first thing I do when I see a new site is check out the links. If I see a bunch of hard-core geekery, the site probably isn't my thing. If I see a list of the usual, popular sites, I shrug and move on. So why not open myself to the same scrutiny? So now my entire Bloglines collection is there, all one-hundred-and-mumble of them.

From the Department of HOLY SHIT I'M GONNA BE FORTY!

The first time I remember giving serious thought to realistic goals was at about age 22. Most of those goals have changed and matured, or been accomplished, or gone the way of shifting interests, but there's one I've kept. When I was 22, the most admirable creature in my estimation was a woman of 40. I knew several women of that age and older, and they had an unimaginable-to-pipsqueak-me sense of themselves. They knew what they wanted, and had a lot of it. There was this glow of peace about them. So I decided I wanted to be 40.

So now that I'm 15 days from the brass ring, do I have all that I so admired? Yeah, and, wow.

While I'm horrible at remembering my friends' birthdays (I think I missed them all last year) and hardly expect anything, I nonetheless thought I would be a crass little pup and link my Amazon wishlist. To those who have gone the wishlist route before, only to find I'd bought the damned thing myself (happened too many times, oh me): I swear I cleaned it up. Just now.