File it under: Liveblogging Texas
| As promised yesterday, I will be liveblogging TX and its 34 electoral votes. 6:33 am: I took my car in for servicing this morning. Stopped by a Starbucks to get one of those Pumpkins Spice Latte's. Starbucks is brilliant, as that seasonal coffee makes me warm and fuzzy* for fall. 7:10 am: Waited about 20 minutes in line to vote. Was ballot #121 in my precinct. I went straight Republican party as reasoned below. Not too many signs - no propaganders from either side were present anywhere. Line was quiet and orderly. Weather was cool with a light drizzle. 8:45 am: Audi dealership called. Total maintenance/repairs are going to run probably $800+. Dammit. It's ok. Still cheaper than a new car. Paid this one off in 3.5 years so these repairs are like having a car payment for a couple of months. No biggie. Plus I've only got 60,000 miles on a 5-year old car. Gonna keep her for a while. Nice cars. The Germans suck for Iraq war support but sure can make a nice auto. 9:37 am: Exit polls are probably still hours away. No word on how close it'll be here in Texas. Most polls show Bush with a slight lead but a CBS poll released on October 31st showed Kerry with a 27 point lead here. So averaging out the polls, it's almost a toss-up. 10:45 am: Starting to get hungry. Lunch in an hour. Gonna probe the co-workers on lunch suggestions. Anyone in the blogosphere have any suggestions? 11:09 am: The markets are rallying today. I'm not sure if it's because of economic news (none significant that I saw today) or if they're getting excited that a second Bush term won't roll back the tax breaks on dividends that only the rich people can afford**. Maybe they are predicting Kerry will be back in the Senate soon voting against more troop funding. 12:31 pm: Had Jason's Deli for lunch today. It's a nice weekly lunch staple. Tried the Philly Chick Wrap (in honor of the election fraud alleged there). It's on their "lite" menu - ~575 calories, a little fat, shitload of sodium. Fairly tasty. The markets are raging ahead. This is a good sign, IMO. Also, the Terrorxchange has some Bush movement up with Kerry movement down. That's another good sign. Word also is electronic gaming sites involving real money look good for Bush. As far as the Texas update goes, nothing so far. It's nifty to think Texas could swing the election one way or another. 12:42 pm: Just a note, I'm not sure how much web traffic I get daily. I'm estimating a couple hundred-thou a day. If anyone knows anyone in corporate Starbucks, let me know. I could advertise for them in exchange for free Pumpkin latte. Or maybe some free stir sticks. Whichever. 1:41 pm: Drudge is panicking Bush supporters. No specifics. I'm not sure if he's trying to rally the red voters or if Terry McAuliffe has temporarily taken over Drudge's website. No word yet if any of those states include Texas. As of 1:41 pm CST, with 0% of precincts reporting, Bush and Kerry are tied with 0 electoral votes each. A dead heat. 2:00 pm: Karl Rove's Operation:Oprah has been executed beautifully by Drudge. With the election "all wrapped up" by 2PM, Kerry supporters can now stay home and watch Oprah, Judge Judy and many other mid-day favorites, including all soaps. This is also the code word to release bus-load upon bus-load of Bush supporters at all polls, load them up again, then vote again at different polls where they are registered as well. Pure genius. 2:34 pm: The markets took a huge shit on the Oprahvote exit polls. It's amazing what the threat of a tax-raising democrat will do to the markets. Exit poll was based 60% female. What states? What areas? Lots of questions. If you were banking on the market's big move today, blame Drudge. And Karl Rove. Sneaky bastard. 3:05 pm: My stomach hurts as I've been kicked in the nuts to the tune of auto repair costs of $1,100. Note to Audi owners: emissions systems and/or engine mount repairs are steep. For that kind of scratch I feel like I should pull out of there with some gold rims blingin'. 3:07 pm: A friend's buddy has a co-worker who's wife's sister is high up in a local journalistic ring. A Texas exit poll shows Kerry with a 59%/40% lead on Bush. However the sample pool seems be weighted heavily towards recently released inmates and moveon.org members. More as it breaks. 3:33 pm: Terrorxchange update: The TX is holding strong. Not much shift in BUSH/KERY as of now. As a head's up, I'm sitting on 650k shares of BUSH, 100k shares of KERY and T$25 million in cash. I plan on throwing that around as the real returns begin pouring in. I'm the George Soros of the TX, minus the dipshittiness***. 4:00 pm: Nice. Our boss has allowed those that haven't voted yet to leave at 4PM to beat the crowds. I told him I voted this morning but I'm registered in four different Texas counties. I'll probably take off in a bit and see if I can get my vote in for all of them. New Texas exit poll out: new poll has Bush up 100% to 0%. However this poll had only four respondents, me for all four of my county registrations. Go figure. 4:51 pm: I'm about to leave work and head to get my newly tuned-up car. I'll then proceed home and glue myself to the t.v. to bring you the latest from the great state of Texas. I'll probably talk about what I'm having dinner and stuff. Thorough coverage: I Digest. You Decide. If you'd like to donate to my 5:57 pm: The polls in Texas close in about an hour. So we're still a little while out. Blogging may be more spotty than expected, as my democrat girlfriend is coming over to watch the election coverage. I'm a good winner and won't gloat to her if Bush takes it. I'm not sure what she'll do, though I imagine it won't piss me off too much. The CBS poll I mentioned early is proving to be bogus, as the blogosphere has produced hard evidence that CBS only polled a handful of people in Midland Texas. The new average has Bush at about 60% in Texas - a solid number that will be hard to usurp. I'm pretty sure our 34 votes will go Bush. More as it comes in. 6:20 pm: The TX is giving me a 404 error. It may be getting slammed with people buying up all the BUSH stock. As of now Bush is slaughtering in the EC, up 34 to 3. Ok, so only four states have been called. Put enough of these small victories together and we'll be on our way to a second Bush term. 6:46 pm: Girlfriend got $20 and headed to Central Market to get dinner. I refused to leave as this is exciting for me, at least now. Texas polls close in 15 minutes and if Texas goes to Bush, it'll almost double his current EC vote count. Eat that, bitches. 6:53 pm: The TX is up again. It didn't occur to me that it may be the 12:00AM GMT turnover/maintenance that shut it down. Never noticed it before but it's up and running now. Gonna make a little move here... 6:54 pm: Check that. No TX. Screw it, I'm going back to check on Texas. 7:00 pm: Wow the whole effing internet is getting pounded. Most of the blogs I visit and other miscellaneous sites are having very long load times and other issues. To hell with it. I'm calling Texas for Bush. You heard it here first, folks. Add 34 to the Bush tally. 9:01 pm: Well, Bush needs 100 more EC votes to take it down. The TX is still shitcanned so I can't dump any more money into Bush. Did I call Texas or what? Gotta keep the girlfriend entertained, so it's back downstairs for me. Toodles for now. 10:44 pm: Last post. Bush takes FL, poised to grab OH. Damn straight. Watched Man On Fire with the girlfriend tonight, which ironically enough is describing Bush, at the moment (HEY-Oooooooh). Great flick. I'm off to plunge myself into more pundit speak. Will post a summary tomorrow. Thanks for reading. ***** *Sounds democrat-emotion-driven-touchy-feely-ish but it's damn tasty latte. Plus I went straight ticket (R). ** Rich people and senior citizens of many tax brackets, who use dividends as an income stream while trying to stay retired. And myself, who is not rich but does have investments. ***Copyright 2004 Hoodlumman vocabulary Labels: fiu's greatest, politics |