Still up in the air, they say... Well it shouldn't be, he won, he really fucking won. Even if by some miracle there's a turnover in OH, the country wants GW to lead, he won the popular vote by over 3.5 million, let the guy have it. I can't deny that he is the man the majority of the voting populace wants. I am not happy about it (except for the secretive side of me that desires armageddon), but that's the way it is. Now the question is, how to separate myself from these freaks. Plus 12 states just added amendments to their constitutions barring a minority group from a key civil right: the right to marry whomever you damn well please. What a fucking country.

[size=xxl] Go Vote!!! [/size]

My good ole' buddy Chamille (e:southernyankee) has left us. Yesterday she took off to start her new life in a bigger city, where opportunity surely will knock. But all of us? We're left without her shining presence to give us oomph and wallah-wallah, all night dance parties, and quick trips for milkshakes. I'll be driving alone to work now (maybe I'll even make it on time now 8* ), lonely car rides to a lonelier work place. But overall I'm happy, I can't be sad when it's something I will be doing soon myself, and I can't be sad for something that will lead to so much good, plus a new vacation destination. So farewell, goodbye, and I hope you fit all that stuff into the new place, which you're probably sitting in at this moment, looking around at the beginning of your new life, at what promises to be the next phase of your happiness!

[size=m]I love and will miss you dearly!!![/size]

Over 100,000 civilians have been killed since the Iraqi invasion began. That's the result of a study done by the highly respected scientific journal, the Lancet. "The majority of victims were said to be women and children killed through military activity, the team of American and Iraqi researchers dispatched to the field found. Hundreds of thousands more innocent non-combatants have been injured or maimed." Violence topped the list as the number one killer, with air strikes the foremost cause, and women and children the primary victims.

What strikes me about this figure is just how high it is. Even liberal groups who have been keeping track, like Iraq body count have estimated a death toll in the tens of thousands. Yet the study claims that after sampling over 1000 families its estimate is "conservative" (for example, they did no sampling in some of the worst areas of violence, like Fallujah, where perhaps the most civilians were at risk). Yet the authors stand behind their work, claiming that "This study shows that with moderate funds, four weeks and seven Iraqi team members willing to risk their lives, a useful measure of civilian deaths could be obtained..." I suppose it wouldn't have been too hard for our government to keep its own tally, thereby having its own estimates to use as a counter-weight to this damning report, but as we all know, "we don't do body counts." Well thank god someone does.

MoveOn.org has a new voter protection card, which provides a list of states and DNC voter hotlines, plus emergency numbers to call if there's trouble at the polls.

And a new report by the ACLU called Puged!, details the problems each state had with the last election, the steps they've taken to remedy them (if any), and what we can look forward to facing on Tuesday.

It's gettin' down to the wire.