four days to go

I am scared. I still think the Bradley effect is real. I still think McCain can win. Ohio can be stolen if not lost outright. Florida is always a Wildcard. Virginia is spooky. Truman beat Dewey in similar circumstances. Get out and vote, people!

So: apparently newspapers exercising their first amendment rights violates Sarah Palin's first amendment rights. I've been willing to cut her a of slack on some of the ill informed things she says, but this one pisses me off. The job of newspapers in society is to question and criticize those in power and those who seek it. Argue that they haven't been diligent enough in questioning Barack Obama (which is part of McCain's argument: fair enough). Don't wine when they criticize you. Since Nixon the republicans have undermined and attacked freedom of the press, to the point that for the first five years of the Bush administration he basically got a free ride. This is bad for democracy. Freedom of the Press is clearly outlined in the first amendment, the one Palin referenced. She really does need a lesson in civics. But she, like most republicans, counts on people not knowing or caring about what the constitution actually says--except about the 2nd amendment that is. The pachyderms seem to believe that criticizing their party and their candidates in not only unfair it is unconstitutional. Bullshit!

The rats are leaving the sinking ship. Even Bill Kirstal admits that Obama is going to win.

Bill Maher still pisses me off three or four times a show. Is he really that ignorant or just that much of an asshole?

Here are things that scare me about Obama: his position on guns and the second amendment. His attitude toward federalism. His position on the commerce clause. His health care plan (which doesn't go far enough), and I truly am worried that he will make it prohibitively hard for me to get rich.

But that pales next to the ways in which he inspires me, and the ways in which McCain scares me. Go Barack!