By 3:30 pm my precinct had

... only 298 votes cast, but there's been close to that number since. We're voting this year at the Holiday Inn at Reliant.

I'm not worried about turnout; it seems like a presidential year, judging from my vantage point outside the hotel pushing cards. And in 2004 my precinct went 79% for John Kerry.

I just hope I squeezed all of the juice out of it this time.

Not you, Elam

I have some extra invitations, but none with your name on them. You're an "outside" dog, anyway:

You are invited to spend the evening of November 7, 2006
with David and Rachel Van Os
in their suite at the Stephen F. Austin Hotel
Austin, Texas

After David wins the election,
we will all march to the Capitol
where he will make his acceptance speech
and take back Texas for the People.

Sounds elitist, doesn't it Chris? It won't be (except for excluding people like you).

Cheer up though, little buddy. I won't make it either. I'm working my precinct all day.

Hey, why don't you crash it? I'll bet you've never had your ass kicked by a couple of pipefitters...

Top Ten Reasons to Vote Republican

... but only if you're an idiot, of course:

10. Vote Republican if you think it's a good idea to post detailed nuclear bomb-making instructions -- in Arabic -- on the Internet.

9. Vote Republican if you want to stay the course in Iraq.

8. Vote Republican if you think the President should get advice on gay-bashing from a fundamentalist pastor who secretly bangs gay prostitutes.

7. Vote Republican if you think the best way to deal with a child predator is to cover your own ass.

6. Vote Republican if you hate the military.

5. Vote Republican if you like people who will literally say anything to get elected.

4. Vote Republican if you think the best way to answer a tough question is to have your questioner beaten up.

3. Vote Republican if you think laws are for other people -- particularly brown, Democratic people.

2. Vote Republican if you think it's cool for Congressmen to pay their mistresses to keep quiet until after Election Day.

and 1. Vote Republican if you think this bunch is NOT the most corrupt, hypocritical, worthless bunch of asshats you have ever seen in your life.

In the past six years Republicans have had total control of the US and state government. They have held onto that power by literally terrorizing their constituents, fooling them into believing that if the GOP isn't running the show then Uncle Sam will be blown up by terrorists, buggered by a homosexual and lose his job to a Mexican.

The politics of fear have allowed Republicans in Washington and Austin to wipe themselves with the Constitution, redistrict themselves into semi-permanent majorities, take away rights that human beings have relied on for centuries, devastate our children's healthcare and education, abandon their responsibility to check the power of the presidency, enrich themselves and their corporate clients while assaulting the middle class, and ruin the lives of countless thousands of people from Baghdad to New Orleans and East Texas. They've done all this by following a strict doctrine of "divide and conquer," turning American against American and Texan against Texan while their cronies sit back, laugh, and rake in the cash.

If you have friends, family, neighbors, or co-workers who are as disgusted by the modern Republican party as I am, make sure you get them to the polls on the day after tomorrow. The GOP has spent the last six years telling us what cannot be done. There remains a long road ahead, but many Democratic victories on Tuesday can be the first step toward repairing the damage these idiots have done, and making the USA -- and Texas -- great again.