Two things.

Well.

I almost don't know what to say. Arizona has now institutionalized racism, but at least we'll be able to get around better in Phoenix. Presumably, then, the INS paddy wagons parked at our hospitals and firehouses will be able to move our Spanish-speaking citizens who neglect to stop on the way out of their houses while bleeding to death to pick up their birth certificates out of the country that much more quickly.

With regard to the presidential race, I'm angry, but not for the obvious reason. I don't want to look at Ohio. Lots of people are doing that. Everyone is, in fact. Where will it go? I don't know yet.

But there are some things I'm thinking about. One, we know that the lost popular vote was something that weakened the Republican hand in 2000. Ultimately, they triumphed, but not for any reason we'd recognize as fair. So they knew they had to win the popular vote. That's the first thing.

Second, we know well the BushCo politics of distraction. They always counter stuff they don't want you to hear with some shiny object off to the side that everyone chases.

In other words, I don't think Ohio is the story. I think they pulled crap in other states, all across the country, in subtle ways that are harder to point to and, lacking the light of national and international scrutiny, we won't see it. I think they need to count and recount pretty much everywhere.

None of it makes sense. It's not just an upset; the whole thing, the whole country wide, smells to high heaven.

In any event, if BushCo does get another four years, I'm walking a delicate tightrope.

I plan to get married. I plan to adopt children. If this country turns, as I fear it may, into a fundamentalist theocracy over the next four years, I am out of here. To be fair, we've got a long way to go before that happens.

And until that happens, and until I haven't a shred of hope left, I will fight. The battle is just beginning, not ending.

Oh, and John Shadegg needs to go down. I have two years.