After two years, we finally get to pull the lever.

I do not propose to get into specifics, here about what I’m going to do. I don’t suppose I will need to.

You see, when I vote today, I’m going to remember which party made possible another vote recently, and which party decided fighting for freedom wasn’t worth it.

I strongly suggest that you should, as well.

Cross-posted from BitsBlog.

Addendum (Art): Great point, Bit.  It’s also great to see American’s taking their right to vote this year as seriously as Iraqis do.…

If you need them, free voter tools and endorsement information are in the center sidebar.  We want to help you out today as much as possible.

The numbers are not completely up to date yet, but it looks like over 30 million Americans have voted in early balloting (up through November 3) for this election.  That’s almost 25% of the total votes cast in 2004!  Depending on how and when different states are counting these ballots, Tuesday and Wednesday could be an interesting time… and I doubt that exit polling will have the same level of predictability it had in years past.

Wow.

It’s awesome to see the power of the people brought to bare… the results are certainly unpredictable, but that’s part of the …

I’ve only provided endorsements for President and for legislative contests that affect me directly.  Unfortunately, personal and work commitments have kept me from providing a broader assessment of candidates.

If you have not had adequate time yourself to interact with candidates or research them at their web sites, I can make a couple of simple suggestions:

There are a number of web sites with candidate assessments from varying perspectives, including general political principals and specific policy areas.  Using various Google searches (such as “2008 Congressional candidate comparison tax“) you can find sites that provide scorecards or other comparison tools.

One site that I think provides good comprehensive information based on candidate provided content in a non-partisan presentation is at Congress.org/election/home.  The site …

Yes, I am specifically attached to this race since I live in the district currently served by Leonard Boswell (D).

Leonard came into office in 1997. When he first entered Congress, he promised that he would serve no more than 4 terms. He has served 6 already. He votes along party lines over 95% of the time. Although he has supported President Bush on some key bills that served a more conservative agenda, he also voted with Bush on the $700 Billion Bailout. Reviewing his record, he appears to be both socially and fiscally moderate to slightly liberal.

Kim Schmett (R) has served as the chief administrative law judge with the Iowa Department of Inspections and Appeals, the investigations division administrator for the Iowa Department …

Less than 72 hours remain until the polls will close across the country, and we’re already getting plenty of messages intended to demoralize McCain supporters. DON’T LISTEN TO A WORD OF IT!

The model for this was set during the primaries… a great analysis and prediction of repeat offenses are described at the HillBuzz Blog.  It’s a great read if you have time, but the point of it that they will do anything to convince you to skip voting if you’re planning to vote for McCain.  Three core efforts (and tell me you haven’t seen this already) are:

• Calls for McCain to just give up and quit, because the race is over
• Wild claims of Obama winning states that shock and surprise you
• Repeated

…

Early state-by-state voting numbers are available at this link.  For Iowa, we have already had nearly 340,000 votes cast this year.  In 2004, there were a total of 1,521,966 votes cast, which means we’ve already seen over 20% of the 2004 total voting in the early polls!  That is awesome, and again speaks to the likelihood that the numbers will likely be even higher than 2004 when the dust settles.

Out of the early numbers, registered Democrats make up 48.9% of the votes, and registered Republicans make up 28.5 (the 22.7% are independent).  That does NOT mean that Obama has 49% of the vote in the early polls!

There was TV ad put together by some Hollywood heavyweights that, regardless of the political leanings …

This year, the US Senate seat currently held by Tom Harkin is up for grabs. I say “up for grabs” in an attempt to relieve us of the idea that the incumbent has no chance to be unseated.

Harkin has been in the US Senate now for 6 terms (24 years).  Without a doubt, he has done some good things while in Congress.  Probably the most positive, and the one he speaks of the most, is his authoring of the Americans with Disabilities Act.  He has also been a big supporter of farmers and Iowa’s universities.

Harkin is also known in the state, like Neil Smith (former Congressman from Iowa) was, for bringing a large amount of money back into the state, to the …

I am not surprised at the guilty verdict handed down against US Senator Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) on seven counts of making false statements.  And nor should anyone else.  I stated earlier in the year that Alaskan Republicans needed to find another candidate, but they failed.  It amazes me that people like Ted can imagine that they are not only above the law, but that in the midst of failure they should continue on with their struggle for power when they should be focusing on dealing with the issue at hand… planning a appeal.   From The Hill:

The senator vowed to “fight this unjust verdict with every ounce of energy I have” and said he would return home to defend his seat.

“I am innocent. This

…

The Feds managed to spoil a new plot by apparent amateurs who wanted to try and kill Barack Obama.

Repudiating any attempt to take a life is easy.  Seeing what this can mean is a little harder.

Strong emotions are clearly evident across the country, and varying degrees of violence are queuing up to be released in very short order.  I am watching people on both ends of the spectrum, and even many in the middle, becoming so charged with anger and frustration, and yet often end up misdirecting their fire.  I’ve been on the receiving end of that recently, and I don’t think some people know when they are doing this.

I’m convinced there will be violence after this election regardless of who wins.…

The Supreme Court today backed the petition of the Ohio Secretary of State‘s position that they did not need to verify the records of about 200,000 new voters this years whose ID information did not match government records.  That’s more than 25% of the new voter registrations in Ohio.

Although it’s a fairly partisan confrontation, it highlights something that is becoming more endemic across our fruited plane: in our attempts to ensure that people are able to exercise their right to vote, we are becoming more and more at risk of exposing a larger segment of ballots to fraud.

The problem extends beyond just the sublime attempts to cast ballots in the names of the dead or those not inclined to bother voting.  Lacking …