Early (read: unreliable) indicators are good. Turnout appears to be high. Exit polls suggest a national referendum election. There seems to be a strong investigative response to most reports of problems.

In any event, I'll be lurking around kos and mydd, watching TV (prolly MSNBC and Olberman, who's one of the few personalities I can stand) drinking and enjoying the returns.

First real results in 5 minutes or so.

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There's a strong push from the talking heads (who I don't watch much for this reason) to push the narrative that this election is about "moderate Democrats," with anti-choice Bob Casey (who won in PA) as the poster-boy.

This is pretty much nonsense, or at least it's not grounded in emprical reality. Check my dawg Sterling Motherfucking Newberry for the details.

But basically this is a great example of how insular the world of the DC power elite -- political careerists and the media figures who they mingle with -- really is. As I'm fond of saying, adult life is disappointingly like highschool. That unfortunately means that these narratives can be quite powerful, because in spite of the facts "everyone knows" that it was moderate/centrist candidates who made the difference.

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Another observation, not a mention has been made as to "what are the Republicans going to do?"

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What's really hillarious is that presumptive Speaker Pelosi is deemed as too conservative in her home district of San Francisco. Egad!

Just read a very nice post by Chris Bowers about the new emerging progressive political culture that rings very true to me. He's got a neat video at the end which I'll stick down at the bottom here too. Anyway, it's election day on Tuesday. Go vote, sucka.

I cracked the election book tonight to start sorting out ballot measures, etc. On candidates I'll probably vote the D-line. After my experience in 2000, I don't support third-parties as a gesture, only when there's a real chance for something to happen, though your mileage may vary.

Nationally it's looking like the Democrats will take the House, which would be an important and good (if not foolproof) check on the GOP/Bush power. That's exciting, most of all because it will mean a change in the atmosphere and a lot of new energy to mix it up. We need that.

Locally we don't have much. I live in an unincorporated community (just a water district) so pressing issues like potholes are solved ad-hoc by people getting fed up enough and buying some gravel. County elections are in an off year, and the state scene is pretty dull.

However, down in town there are a few zingers. My favorite is Measure W, which seeks to remove Fluoride from the drinking water. There's a pretty decent round-up of the issue in the North Coast Journal that sums it up in reality, but I just love the whacky symbolism of protecting our Precious Bodily Fluids.

My comrade and colleague Farsheed has posted another of his amazing picsound creations. I just love these things. Basically, he makes some music, then does a little animation or image to go with it. It's bonafide internet art. Awesome.

Ted Haggard, leader of the biggest Evangelical Church in America, and a regular chit-chatter with President Boosh (good background from Harpers magazine), apparently likes to get high on meth and down with male prostitutes:

The accusations were made by Mike Jones, 49, of Denver, who said he decided to go public because of the political fight over the amendments.

"I just want people to step back and take a look and say, 'Look, we're all sinners, we all have faults, but if two people want to get married, just let them, and let them have a happy life,"' said Jones, who added that he isn't working for any political group.

Jones, who said he is gay, said he was also upset when he discovered Haggard and the New Life Church had publicly opposed same-sex marriage.

"It made me angry that here's someone preaching about gay marriage and going behind the scenes having gay sex," he said.

Jones claimed Haggard paid him to have sex nearly every month over three years. He said he advertised himself as an escort on the Internet and was contacted by a man who called himself Art, who snorted methamphetamine before their sexual encounters to heighten his experience.

This is going to be a hard thing for a lot of people to deal with, and it's too bad this guy's life is probably ruined now, that his family's going to be all weirded out. Still, I find it hard not to appreciate the irony, especially considering I think what Haggard was doing with his life previously was destructive to society.

Someday, when we as human beings cease to be sheep and blind-believers in significant number, this sort of thing is going to stop being so surprising. Those who thunder hardest against what they consider sin and vice are usually battling some internal discrepancy in themselves.