Do you think there's a good case for changing the 'O' to a 'D'? It's good of people to volunteer for Obama, and it probably has positive spillover effects to more local Democratic candidates. But if you have the option to do something for a Democrat in a tight House or Senate or local race, that's got to be the optimal play given the substantial lead that Barack has in the polls.

I've already shown off my shiny new website against Saxby Chambliss, but I am shameless about doing it again.

Also, WDYDTGP8DTWeekend?

I went to a dry run for election day, when I will providing delicious food and drink for canvassers and line managers and other volunteers. I also explained to another food-provider that tuna is not, in fact, vegetarian.

I contributed $250 (gulp).

I just got back from canvassing in NoVa. 65 houses in 4.5 hours, talked to maybe 20 people. Resting my weary feet. Feeling very self-righteous since I did it in the rain.

I didn't do anything TGOE, but I did canvass this morning TDBBM (to defeat bad ballot measures). It's a beautiful day here, though, and few people were home.

I just got back 20 minutes ago from canvassing. I hit 48 doors and had seven contacts. I also talked to two or three people who weren't on the list, but happened to be home. For some reason my contact rate is lower than every one else's.

I find this work very tiring. Fortunately, when i got home Smaller Child was asleep, making the house quieter and easier to manage. Of course, this means Smaller Child will be up all night.

To be less self-aggrandizing, I had only 15 actual contacts; and my rate was probably upped b/c of the rain.

2: To Get Proposition 8 Defeated? Can those of us who live in Ohio or Texas do something about that?

One of the voters on my list was an ex-girlfriend who, I gather, hates me. I rang her bell, hoping she wouldn't be home, but she was. Uh...hi.

Another vote for McCain?

10: Shit that must suck.

I couldn't do this if I were canvassing people I know personally. When I downloaded a list to canvass on my own from mybarackobama.com, I got my *own block*, which was psychologically impossible for me. I"m doing better now that they are sending me to the other end of the suburb.

If you have some cash to spare, maybe fighting the SD abortion ban. It's looking unexpectedly good for the forces of light. If it's approved, the Roberts court may not strike it down, or not all of it, so this could impact all of you directly.

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/10/25/11473/799

To Get Proposition 8 Defeated? Can those of us who live in Ohio or Texas do something about that?

Give until it hurts, I think.

I just got back from a week of election observing at early voting in Nearby Battleground State, and people really are taking advantage of early vote. The lines were constantly about 35-40 people long, with ten polling stations.

Other observations:

- A lot of early voters are elderly African Americans. It was pretty great -- people would come in groups, and hug in the parking lot. There was a real celebratory vibe sometimes.

- Middle-aged angry-faced guys are as angry as they look. I got some (though not a lot) of shit about what country I'm from (the U.S.), no really, what country (no really, the U.S.), and why the Obama campaign hires foreigners like me to work in his campaign (wait, no, really, I'm not a foreigner, and also, I'm a volunteer).

- Young people, where are you? WHY ARE YOU NOT VOTING?

Even though I'm an angry old white guy I managed to refrain from shooting the Obama volunteer who knocked on my door, awakening me from my afternoon nap. I'm always so relieved when they say "hi, I'm canvassing for Obama" rather than "Hello, I'm from Adult Protective Services."

So I went and voted. No line, no problem. There were four or six ballot scanners (can't remember the number) and mine was the 1034th ballot counted by the machine I picked. The others looked to have similar totals. That's one of a dozen or so early voting sites in this county.

I got some (though not a lot) of shit about what country I'm from (the U.S.), no really, what country (no really, the U.S.), and why the Obama campaign hires foreigners like me to work in his campaign (wait, no, really, I'm not a foreigner, and also, I'm a volunteer).

That's repulsive. Was anyone else nearby to at least make "you're disgusting" faces at them?

From the link in 13:

QUESTION: As you may know, ballot Measure 11 will be on the ballot in two weeks to enact a new law to make abortions in the state illegal. The law would have exceptions in cases resulting from rape or incest that have been reported to law enforcement authorities, and to save the life or health of a woman when there is a serious risk of permanent damage to one or more of her major bodily organs as a result of the pregnancy.

Am I reading this right? Did they actually frame this so that there is no chance you could ever use mental health as a criterion? (Unless we're defining "brain" as "major bodily organ" and "mental illness" as "permanent damage")

Holy smokes. I knew it was awful in a lot of ways,* but I don't think I knew it was this kind of awful too.

*Like the reporting-to-law-enforcement clause.

Rumore has it that Jesus' twins missed a couple days of campaigning. That could seriously impact Obama's Oregon chances. I hope that the little dears are mature enough to face the consequences of their lazy neglectfulness.

"Major body organs". The first kidney doesn't count. The first lung and half the second lung don't count. You only need 1/6 of your liver and about the same proportion of each intestine. The female parts are dispensable entirely.

What?!? The uterus is the most critical organ to a woman's role in society, JE.

Not funny, JE.

And yo, jms, sorry to hear that even a few people were jerks to you. That stinks. Phooey on them and yay you for volunteering!

Semi OT: This is so asinine that I hesitate to give it airtime, but a judge today threw out the case of a man who wanted Obama disqualified becuase he was "really" born in Kenya and not in Hawaii.

The one new detail I learned from the article was that there was apparently a birth announcement published in a Hawaii newspaper nine days after he was born. That's some long-range conspiratorial planning, that is.

1 I'm up to 88 pushups. That's two for each president.
2 Commented on econ4obama.blogspot.com .

Hillarymail is telling me to venture inland to visit the great state of PA.

JMS, the only acceptable response to that kind of behavior is, "You don't think I look Jewish?"

I did three hours on the phone vs. Prop 8 today. Recruited 2 volunteers, confirmed 12 others (including a few who needed to get straight that "No" was the correct way to vote to preserve equal marriage rights), and spoke to a nice woman who though Catholic and opposed to same-sex marriage was not keen on taking away rights, and was eager to get more information from the campaign.

Also: Callfire, the automated robodialer that you can hook up with your own cell phone (you get the computer to call it to begin) would TOTALLY ROCK if it weren't for the awful hold music.

Hey Wrongshore, can you hook me up to work on the anti P8 campaign?

1 I'm up to 88 pushups. That's two for each president.

Grover Cleveland, Grover Cleveland and Obama together still make up only 1 president.

26: Yes. I think I signed up to be some sort of team captain. I sent you something about it this morning in the e-mail.

Oh. I'll e-mail you.

I have thought about volunteering. But to be honest, i really cannont believe that
1. there are people who could be convinced by discussion. Maybe i've spent too much time on the interenet, but even in real life the only political discussions i've ever had are with fierce partisans, and the game is proving how knowlegable one is or how awesome one's side is, not persuasion. I really can't believe anyone would change their mind.
2. i could relate to people i ring doorbells of. i've completely bought into the 'americans hate egghead elitists' argument.

I voted for him yesterday. And I flipped off the assholes with the Nader banner on the sidewalk across from his grandmother's apartment. Other than that, jack diddly.

yoyo, you'd be amazed how many people are willing to listen.

Also, a lot of what telephone canvassers do is to try to persuade people who are already likely Obama supporters to go out and vote. Sometimes people need a bit of an extra push -- they need to be told that they can vote early on X date at Y location, and they need to be reminded that Obama still needs their vote, that this isn't a landslide. It's easier to do than trying to change people's minds, and it's just as important.

jms what ethnicity are you? or were you wearing a beret?

30: yoyo, I have no trouble believing that you could conceal your egghead elitist side.

i really cannot believe that there are people who could be convinced by discussion.

The most useful things I have learned in doing this kind of work (for political purposes and otherwise) are:

1. Other people do not make decisions the same way you do. It is very, very hard to make the leap of imagination to understand this, but it helps to keep repeating to yourself, "Other people are not me. Other people are not me." I am still routinely amazed at the ways other people make decisions, but I'm finally past assuming that they're going to approach it the same way I do.

All of which is to say -- an awful lot of people don't use "discussion" to make political decisions. They do remember that nice, earnest young man who stopped by that afternoon, and the fact that he picked up the newspaper that was on their front stoop for them.

2. For most humans, having a living, breathing person standing in front of you makes you respond to their humanity. Not agree with them automatically, not "be convinced," but one-on-one in-person visits are extraordinarily powerful almost no matter what you talk about or how the interaction goes.

I'm not saying everybody should force themselves to go door to door, or that canvassing can never go badly. I'm just saying that if you're thinking of it as Jr. High Debate Team, your model might do with a bit of broadening.

I also voted yesterday, and I'm signed up to canvass next Saturday. I'm dreading the canvassing part.

The only time I've canvassed before, it was going door to door for my/my grandma's church. It was a Church of Christ, and the youth were very involved. We gave out pamphlets, talked to people about whether God loved them (yes) and under what conditions (going to our church), or left pamphlets stuck to their doors.

I hated it, even though only a few people answered the door and most of them contained their resentment/irritation at being interrupted by a snot-nosed evangelist well. I must have been 10-12 years old, really not old enough to be doing shit like that. But I felt pretty fucking righteous too.

I'm told we'll be visiting Dems who haven't voted yet as of 11/1, so at least I'll be preaching to the choir. Wish me luck.

hm, i was on hs debate team. And i also did door-to-door evangelism in jr high, which i absolutly hated.

I will be in O-hi-o working for the campaign next weekend. Allons-y!

Hey, oudemia, while in Ohio you should look us up!

Yes! We should do something! CA and I are in Chicago right now.

where in ohio?

I'm told we'll be visiting Dems who haven't voted yet as of 11/1, so at least I'll be preaching to the choir. Wish me luck.

Good luck, and may your walk lists always be accurate. The Sunday before the 2006 election I was visited by a paid canvasser for the Democratic congressional candidate, despite the fact that I'd voted a week earlier. Also despite the fact that I'd spent 30 or 40 hours volunteering in her campaign office the previous December and March.

They do remember that nice, earnest young man who stopped by that afternoon, ...

As I was driving down the street trying to remember the address of the early voting site I thought of the earnest young Obama canvasser who'd woken me. I thought "even though I told him I was undecided, he still could have given me the card and said "here's the list of early voting sites, here are their hours, I do hope you'll vote for Obama." " But he didn't.

And may you never canvass cranky old guys like me.

I got my boss to give me Election Day off. I generally have Tuesdays off, so I was planning on coming in to Albuquerque to vote, but when I saw the schedule for that week it had me working on Tuesday to free up another person to work with a special group coming in. I was pretty upset about it at first, but when I pointed it out to my boss he said he had just forgotten that that day was Election Day and he went ahead and changed the schedule so that I had it off.

45: Good. I can't imagine that Chaco will be the place for the really fun victory parties. Have you decided to vote for Heinrich yet?

I can't imagine that Chaco will be the place for the really fun victory parties.

On the contrary. Both Obama and partying are extremely popular here. But I'm sure there will be fun parties in Albuquerque as well.

Have you decided to vote for Heinrich yet?

Did you seriously expect me to vote for Darren White?

43: I believe, but am not yet sure, Portage Co.

I'll be in Ohio too (East Cleveland) from this Monday (Oct 27) till the following (Nov 3). Hopefully the Cleveland Area-ites and any visitors can have a meet-up!

WDYDTGOETWeekend?

I worked early voting, as per usual, and saw a hell of a lot of people vote. There were a lot more "first time voter!" cries today, as well. The new early voting total for my county is just shy of 50,000 out of 175,000 with another week to go.

The other thing I did is that I finally went through the spam folder to find political forwards from my now-lunatic father - the same one who was completely in love with Obama a year ago and has in the last few months forwarded me so many ridiculous anti-Obama rumor emails that Mail.app and Gmail both think he's a spammer - and hit reply all to send him and all his friends links to Snopes refuting various idiocies about my candidate of choice.

If a canvasser came to my door to nag me because I hadn't voted yet, I would probably punch them in the head. I'm voting on Election Day, motherfucker.

and hit reply all to send him and all his friends links to Snopes refuting various idiocies about my candidate of choice.

Oh, excellent. You're a more McManly man than I.

47: I'm sure Obama is popular there, but my memory of the last time I was at Chaco (spring 1993) suggests that there aren't a whole lot of people, and I figured that small isolated populations might have developed some personality issues that would inhibit partying. Not to mention the possible reluctance to party too hard among people you'll be seeing again every day. Or maybe what happens at Chaco stays in Chaco.

I'm glad you're not voting for White. I heard from someone in the criminal defense bar that when he was sheriff the rumor was that he'd agree not to charge prostitutes in exchange for a blow job, and then after performance would reneg on his promise. I don't know if this is true.

I'm still at the Obama office in Washington Township outside Indianapolis. Knocked on about 160 doors today, then came home and entered the data on probably a few hundred doors (at least 7-8 canvassing packets). This office accounted for about 5000 doors knocked.

Tomorrow, I'll be back here at 8 am to do it all again, then hop on the MegaBus back to Chicago to crash at 10:30ish at night.

You can do this, people.

I canvassed my building! 45 doors, 10 contacts. No new supporters, but good data to help with GOTV next week. 45 new names tomorrow!

Also, I signed up for election day volunteering.

I'm voting on Election Day, motherfucker.

Why? If you can vote early, you should. Keep Election Day lines as short as possible, so that those with less time will find it easier to vote! (And you try getting anywhere near my head with that fist of yours and you'll draw back a nub, mister).

Confirmed my voter protection assignment for election day -- it's the next precinct over from mine, which makes for a quick trip.

NC for Obama, yo.

Everything I like is nice
That's why I try to have it twice

I'm sure Obama is popular there, but my memory of the last time I was at Chaco (spring 1993) suggests that there aren't a whole lot of people, and I figured that small isolated populations might have developed some personality issues that would inhibit partying.

To some extent, yes, but there really isn't a lot to do here, so there's quite a bit of partying of various sorts.

Not to mention the possible reluctance to party too hard among people you'll be seeing again every day.

This, not so much. It's a pretty close-knit group, occasional personality issues notwithstanding.

Or maybe what happens at Chaco stays in Chaco.

Indeed.

i want to vote on election day. Its like when we were kids, my damn sister always wanted to open all the xmas presents on xmas eve, and THEN OPEN THE STOCKING GIFTS! Stocking gifts are for xmas morning.

oh, that was me, i typed 'ohio' to searach for where the ohio kids would be. somehow it went in that line instead

actually we still fight about it and she wins because she just goes ahead to open them and so i open them to to avoid splitting up the ceremony. sometimes i can bribe her to wait.

I figured that small isolated populations might have developed some personality issues that would inhibit partying. Not to mention the possible reluctance to party too hard among people you'll be seeing again every day.

small isolated groups are the wildest. They are incestuous. It's too trying and difficult to conceal human freakitude in a small isolated group.

Why? If you can vote early, you should. Keep Election Day lines as short as possible, so that those with less time will find it easier to vote!

I'm voting on Election Day because I've been voting absentee for years and I want to vote the regular way now that I finally have the opportunity, goddammit.

It'll actually be interesting to see just how long the lines are in my precinct. It's the university area, but the (slightly) more upscale part where a lot of the professors live, so I'm not sure what the balance between first-time voters and people who vote in every single will be.

Went door-to-door for the first time in my life in scenic Easton, Pa. Other than the pouring rain and the lack of other kids to get in fights with, it felt like trick-or-treating.

I finally got out canvassing this weekend. It was sort of inspiring -- Northern VA immigrant communities are Obama country. Only two doors slammed in my face, a few undecideds perhaps swayed, quite a number of supporters given info on where to vote, how to vote early, etc.

Tip for the day: to sway undecideds, ask them to imagine President Palin. Also, if they're over 55 it doesn't hurt to mention that McCain until recently supported privatizing Social Security by putting SS funds into the stock market.

I already have nubs for hands, limbest.

I always go vote in the middle of the day on Election Day. I've never had to stand in line.

67: You show them your stubby limbs and they let you go right to the front of the line?

So as to better commune with the visitors of Buckeye, I added _So Goes the Nation_ (2006) to my Netflix queue.

A lot of early voters are elderly African Americans.

When Roberta went to vote this past week, there were six elderly African Americans in line around her who were registering and voting for the first time.

Yay, we're back online.

I just voted! I feel jubilant.

I wish that I could vote early, but we don't have it, and I think it's too late to request an absentee ballot.

Plus, I haven't yet decided how to vote on one of the ballot questions.

I'm against abolishing the income tax and for anything that will reduce marijuana penalties, but I don't know whether a referendum is the best way to deal with greyhound racing. I suppose that I should vote to ban it, but I'm generally anti referendum.

There was an interview on NPR this morning with the libertarian douchebag in Washington State who makes a $75K/year introducing ballot initiatives that gum up the functioning of state government. A friend of mine who lives in Seattle told me that one of the dude's initiatives actually managed to shut down the ferry system for a while.

Ballot initiatives are like any part of democracy: they can be built on good procedures or bad procedures, and when they are done badly, everyone suffers.

i think that standing in line is a marker of some kind of corruption. In Oregon and Minnesota I've never had to stand in line more than 5 or 10 minutes, but usually not at all.

The greyhound racing question here in MA is interesting. I don't have much of a stake in it personally. Much like the wine-licensing question a couple of years ago, it seems oddly narrow - why target dog racing but not horse racing? And the reason seems likely to be unpleasantly classist.

I also think I have a couple of non-binding questions, which I'm going to vote against no matter what they say, because non-binding ballot questions are idiotic, particularly when they suggest that someone else pass a non-binding resolution relating to yet another legislative body.

(WDIDTGOETWeekend? Triple-checked where my polling place is and that I'm registered in the right city, really. Nothing helpful to other people.)

Nothing helpful to other people.

Actually, this is very helpful. The 1% to 5% of people who walk into the wrong polling place on election day eat a lot of time and greatly increase the pain-in-the-ass factor for election workers.

and for anything that will reduce marijuana penalties

I initially missed the "for" in this and was going to ask in a genuinely non-hostile, purely curious way why BG was for marijuana penalties but then caught it when I started to ask with this comment. Now what I'm curious about is what MA is considering reducing and how (and regardless, like BG, I'm for anything that reduces marijuana penalties even though I haven't used it in probably a decade).

why target dog racing but not horse racing?

I suppose I should educate myself about the content of the ballot question first, but: aren't race horses as a class treated better than greyhounds as a class? My impression is that greyhounds are abused and discarded as a rule, whereas most horses are treated approximately humanely and are not killed as soon as their racing careers end. But I could certainly be wrong about that (more about the latter than the former - I'd be very surprised to learn that any but the most successful greyhounds have anything resembling decent and long lives).

i think that standing in line is a marker of some kind of corruption.

I'm looking forward to heinous lines at my polling place in my historically poor and black neighborhood.

Why target dog racing but not horse racing?

If history is anything to go by, the horse racing people have hired someone to rile up Christians against dog racing.

WDIDTGOETWeekend? Nothing unfortunately, sorry. For the past three or four weekends now I've been canvassing door to door in Arlington, Va., but it was pouring rain this Saturday, so what with one thing or another I decided to skip it.

Re: 30.1: As others said upthread, persuasion is only a small part of canvassing; there's also reinforcing the weak supporters, reminding the unlikely voters, etc. Before the registration deadline we were also trying to get people registered. And sure, most people aren't convinced by someone just knocking on their door, but it's not like anything else is any better. Do you think TV ads, for example, are any more persuasive by themselves?

I guess I've been lucky overall. I've had a few closemouthed people while canvassing, but only one genuine asshole. "Not interested," he said before I'd even finished introducing myself. And then, when I said "sorry to bother you," he replied "No you're not."

I've got to admit it has felt like a waste of time sometimes, though. For example, when the name on my clipboard is "Mohammed Sharif," do I really need to ask who he's planning to vote for? And people often tell me that canvassers have been there before on previous days, which probably gets annoying. I know canvassers have knocked on the door to my own house at least three times.

Both horses and dogs are edible, properly speaking. Cooking them right is the whole story.

Now what I'm curious about is what MA is considering
Question 2, essentially makes possession of up to one ounce a traffic-ticket-level citation with a $100 fine, and prohibits state or local governments from applying many kinds of sanctions based on having received such citations in the past.

for anything that will reduce marijuana penalties

Typical half-assed procedural liberalism. Where's my marijuana subsidy? That would be change I could believe in.

84: patience, patience. The combination of medical marijuana and publicly financed health care will eventually bring you your subsidy. Liberalism is all about incremental change.

I signed up for training to be a Democratic pollwatcher/legal advisor on election day in swingiestswingswing Pennsylvania, in a Congressional disdtrict that should be very close.
It would be really cool if I get to take the bad guys to Court or something.

when the name on my clipboard is "Mohammed Sharif," do I really need to ask who he's planning to vote for?

My honey's co-worker Madjid has been canvassing over in rural Pennsylvania. I sort of don't dare ask how it's been going.

I made sure my 19 year old sprog registered to vote. Don't get too excited though. I don't think I'll have time on election day to make sure he actually *does* vote.

And if I push too hard he would vote for McCain out of spite and a misguided need to rebel.

Sheesh.

Not to be overconfident, but the polls don't really show PA as a swing state any more, nor even Virginia. Real Clear Politics rates Florida, North Carolina, Missouri, Indiana, Montana, Nevada as toss ups, PA as solid Obama. (Ohio is rated as leaning Obama, I'm not sure about that).

penalties or what but there are like holes in it

Nancy Updike had a piece on This American Life this weekend -- might have been the week-old rerun -- that featured two Democrats for McCain stomping around Scranton being very persuasive. I think one of them was black, too. At the end, she concluded that "McCain could win Pennsylvania." No, Nancy, he couldn't. Maybe if there were six thousand of that dude running around Pennsylvania for the last six months he could. But he can't.

90: Is that website reliable? It sets off my "crackpot" indicators, and seems like someone who is all too conveniently confirming his ideological biases....

I would like to see one of those pictures for extensive abuse of caffeine independent of other drugs, though.

all too conveniently confirming his ideological biases

and I should have added: also his own financial interests.

read: 90

The Amen clinic is being watched by quackwatch. I think he overstates things to a great degree in order to sell his scans. Personally I do not find Dr. Amen credible.

i always think it's better to err on the cautious side
that's the best images of the brain available for now, no?
i'd be very grateful to see other links if there are any other
about his financial interests, sure, it's only fair, natural and good to try to utilize one's findings, inventions etc for the benefit of all and self

that's the best images of the brain available for now, no?

No.

Just as important as the images are the interpretations of the images. My faith is in science, not in one person's opinion.

I am lucky to have the Mayo Clinic in my neighborhood and I use the Mayo Clinic website for my information.

Even if Dr Amen is operating in 'good faith' he can still be wrong, and in that respect he would be a charlatan and a con man.

the libertarian douchebag in Washington State who makes a $75K/year introducing ballot initiatives that gum up the functioning of state government

Tim Eyman, a stain on the democratic process. He has a counterpart in Oregon, Bill Sizemore, a convicted racketeer who continues to drain state resources in the name of fiscal restraint. Our canvassing Saturday was devoted to defeating two of the several initiatives he's introduced this year.

i always think it's better to err on the cautious side

If the caution is reasonable, sure -- but this seems like worries that cell-phone radiation can cause cancer. Just not plausible. No point being cautious about imaginary threats.

I'm no expert, but I find it implausible that all of these drugs cause such striking differences in brain function. We know pretty well how a lot of drugs work in the brain, no? Take nicotine, for instance. If long-term nicotine use were seriously decreasing overall brain activity, wouldn't you think you could independently see that it had, I don't know, completely fried the cholinergic receptors it binds to?

It doesn't seem like he's using these pictures to motivate any sort of serious research, and I expect in every case there is much more detailed information available about the short- and long-term effects of the drug on the brain than you get by inspecting these pictures.

Then there a bunch of superficial cues that lead me not to trust this: writing style, his somewhat judgmental attitude toward drug users, and "author of over 30 professional papers, and 22 books" on the bio page ("over 30" isn't very impressive for someone of his age, unless this field is different from the ones I know, and the number of popular books suggest money matters much more than medicine to him).

but this seems like worries that cell-phone radiation can cause cancer.

This one sometimes makes me fret while stuck in a long, boring conversation.

Tim Eyman, a stain on the democratic process.

A suppurating boil on the body politic.

"Sorry, gotta hang up! Just hit the maximum safe absorbed dose of microwaves!" <click>

No
i'm not convinced
pubmed seach gives 1098 papers on the use of SPECT in psychiatry, so i think he's maybe overly commercial, but the method itself is maybe pretty reliable

100: A turd in the election punchbowl.

pubmed seach gives 1098 papers on the use of SPECT in psychiatry, so i think he's maybe overly commercial, but the method itself is maybe pretty reliable

Reliable for what, though? Wikipedia says SPECT is commonly used to distinguish Alzheimer's from other forms of dementia, for instance. That's pretty easy to believe. (And also that the resolution isn't as good as PET, but that it's cheaper.) This guy is claiming to treat everything from depression to marital problems to aggression based on these images. That's much less plausible.

read,

I can attest that in some cases psychiatry uses SPECT. I can also attest that most every psychiatrist will tell people to avoid all psychoactive substances unless under a Drs care.

But Amen prescribes one of the most expensive tests first which I doubt many psychiatrists would do.

I would not go to Amen for help and I would not cite him as support for my opinions.

That's what I'm saying.

SPECT is commonly used to distinguish Alzheimer's from other forms of dementia, for instance
good enough
so if there are holes in the SPECT image meaning dysfunctional areas in the brain due to the drug use i would believe it's an objective image whether it's true or not coz cautious, and would refrain to use drugs

read,

Sigh. How do you know what the 'holes' in the SPECT image mean?

How do you know they mean dysfunction? Sheesh. I can change my SPECT image based on whether I am talking or listening or looking at a picture.

Eating food causes holes in my SPECT image, should I stop doing that?!

You don't need to misread SPECT images to express caution about psychoactive drug use, and if you DO use that for justification you only make your case weaker, not stronger.

Tripp, i wouldn't care who is Dr. Amen and whether his practice is good or bad or whether even the images are fabricated
i see the holes and think, well it could be true whatever %, let's be cautious coz SPECT is commonly used for the Alzheimer diagnosis, so it's maybe more true then false

I cast my vote for Obama by absentee ballot.

My current state of residence does not provide the option of voting a straight ticket by marking a single circle, which is just as well, because it afforded me the pleasure of voting for every Democratic candidate individually.

Can I take credit for my home state, even if I haven't lived there for 10 years?

MONTANA!!!

All kinds of crazy people are going to be on the ballot. Ron Paul is going to be on the ballot. The only poll so far to include all the people who are going to be on the ballot, which I linked to right up there, has a REALLY EXCITING PREDICTION to make about who, of all these people on the ballot, people are going to vote for.

Are you going to vote for the octogenarian former Green Party candidate who somehow became the Republican candidate against Max Baucus, Cicely?

than, i meant, curses
but whatever, if the images are that unstable and can't be interpreted, holes or what, how they use it for neuroimaging purposes at all, so until it's proven wrong i'll continue to be that, cautious, i meant, that's all

caution isn't crazy, read.

neuroimaging (and most brain science, for that matter) really is still in its infancy, which doens't help.

including a few who needed to get straight

Homophobe.

I was canvassed on my cell phone yesterday by the Obama people, and I voted early today. A good number of students at the University polling place.

111: I will if you will, Cryptec Nid!

the octogenarian former Green Party candidate who somehow became the Republican candidate

Wow, if it were a referendum on eyebrow size, Bob Kelleher would be a shoo-in.

because it afforded me the pleasure of voting for every Democratic candidate individually.

I used to love doing that in the old booths, with their positive-action levers. "Bush, I'm voting against you CLICK and again CLICK and CLICK oh wait did I vote for you? No CLICK." Same deal with Santorum.

Alas, with Obama, I will be left to merely touch a screen and hope it registers correctly. Well, that and high-fiving the old black women who (mostly) man the election desk (I don't know what to make of the elderly African-American gentleman who is the Minority Observer. It seems so implausible that he's a Republican*, especially since it's a one-party town.

* I know about the history, but still.

||
Ted Stevens convicted on all counts! Woohoo!
|>

)

118: WHOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!

Hmmm:

Despite being a convicted felon, he is not required to drop out of the race or resign from the Senate. If he wins re-election, he can continue to hold his seat because there is no rule barring felons from serving in Congress. The Senate could vote to expel Stevens on a two-thirds vote.

Is there a rule barring people currently in prison from serving in Congress?

Alaska is felon-friendly. This will probably help him.

Felons: the last minority we're free to abuse. But not in the Alaska Republic!

What about felons who get pardoned by Presidents with nothing to lose?

If chosen as president, would Governor Palin have to stop being the governor? I thought Huey Long was both a senator and a governor at one point.

According to a friend from Anchorage (who knows Begich's wife from HS and has been following the campaign), the consensus in Alaska has been that Stevens would go down if not cleared on all counts. We'll see in a week, I guess.

Long left the Senate seat vacant for the first year after his election while he served out the end of his term as Louisiana Governor. He wanted to keep the Lieutenant Governor from becoming Governor before he had a chance to get an ally of his installed as his successor.

126 has been my sense as well - Stevens was vulnerable (due primarily, but not exclusively, to the various corruption allegations), and so he needed to be completely cleared to wipe that away.

Felons: the last minority we're free to abuse. But not in the Alaska Republic!

Because they aren't a minority there?

118: YES!!!!!!!

I guess the jury didn't buy Stevens' line "Some guys just came by and put an addition on my house. I didn't know where it came from."

It was rather like Neil Bush's assertions that he didn't know clients hired prostitutes for him. Strange women just came to his hotel room and had sex with him out of the blue.

I voted early today. Election day I have a meeting out of state. The wait at Arlington County, VA's only polling place was about 30 minutes and, at mid-day, the line wasn't any shorter when I left than when I arrived.

I saw that we have TWO Green party tickets this year. Green and ExtraIndependent-Green. Still, I voted for Biden.

Wow, I just found out that my grandmother is voting for Obama.

This is kind of monumental. My grandma is a crazy lady who converted to fringe charismatic Christianity upon immigration to the states. She speaks no English, so she gets her information from limited and incredibly biased sources, and generally votes however her lunatic sect tells her to. My efforts to persuade her are unavailing, because, sadly, I'm not a Christian.

Anyway, apparently my mom and dad convinced her. My mom called me to brag. I don't know how they did it. Yay them.

Voted! Entered data with the cool scanner thingie! Entered data manually! Helped staff a huge volunteer event via which we made thousands of calls and knocked on many hundreds of doors! Obsessively looked at my new favorite election site, 270towin!

the old black women who (mostly) man the election desk

Dude, seriously?

Way to go, jms' parents!!

I sacrificed a goat.

I sacrificed a goat.

The one aspect of election night I am not looking forward to is the Fox News coverage of international reactions to Obama's victory. The memo has probably already gone out to the international bureaux to get footage of jubilant Palestinians, a man-on-the-street interview with an obnoxious Parisian communist, and a scene of some swarthy Africans dancing to some kind of jungle drum beat.

Also, the one idiot in Los Angeles or Detroit who sets something on fire or fires a gun in the air in celebration is going to be on endless loop for days.

the one idiot in Los Angeles or Detroit who sets something on fire or fires a gun in the air

Or the drunk redhead in Durham, NC running pantsless through the streets with strategically placed sparklers.

the international bureaux

Three cheers for KR!

Or the drunk redhead in Durham, NC running pantsless through the streets with strategically placed sparklers.

Always a crowd pleaser, that one.

strategically placed sparklers

This phrase raises way more questions than it answers.

I'm not giving away my strategy ahead of time, KR.

Apo and KR are brilliant. Those of us who don't have goats can sacrifice a black and a white chicken, correct? I think the Obama campaign should make this part of the canvassers pitch.

136: You also have to dance the gay voodoo limbo tango and wango dance, apo.

(not sure if this is the right thread)
I just read that you need tickets to attend the big election-night party in Grant Park, Chicago and they're already out. Does anybody know an alternative?

Also re: Grant Park, did any other Unfoggers manage to get tickets?