Recently in Political News Category

I'm sure you've read it elsewhere, but they're still counting votes for the senate race up in Minnesota with the race between Al Franken and current Senator Norm Coleman.  The current totals, which are going up and down with the tally, rests at about 220 votes between the two of them.

Think about that for just a second.  There were nearly three million votes cast for the seat and we have a difference of just 220 votes.  That's less than one one-hundredth of a percentage point.  Or, to put it another way, a penny compared to a hundred dollar bill.

It was a bit larger but they found 100 votes in one county cast for Mr. Franken that were missed due to a typo.  And the state is having problems with the voting machines.  Note the 870 comments on that one.  The absentee ballots are giving them trouble as well.

I have to admit that I didn't hold out much hope for Mr. Franken when I first heard he was running. (Hmmm, I thought I had something bookmarked on that.  Oh well.  I'll find it later.) But then again it is Minnesota.

Well, I guess Barney's upset that the Republicians pretty much lost the election.  He took out his anger on Jon Dekker, a member of the White House Press Corp from Reuters.

Maybe, as First Lady Laure Bush put it, "he was done with the paparazzi."

He's probably lucky Dick Cheney didn't shoot him. :)

As an aside, what Barney was probably concerned about what all that stuff in the reporter's left hand.

I was reading this article on the WSOC website about the pending change from analog television signal to a digital one starting on February 17th, 2009.  That's only a couple of months away.  After that date, local television states will only broadcast a digital signal.  At least that's what's planned for here in the United States.

The cool thing is that the government is printing up these coupons where you can basically get a converter box for a small amount of money.  Neat, right?  Never mind that they're spending tax money to support businesses and all that.

Here's the problem.  The change over occurs on February 17th, right?  As I read the article, the coupons won't be going out until the converter boxes are in stores.  No problem with that but the boxes themselves aren't due until "the end of February or first of March."

Anyone else concerned about the boxes not being available until after the change over occurs?

It appears that one of the towns local to my home town may be getting a casino.  At least they understand the need for hiring more police and the like.  That what they did when Pineville got Carolina Place Mall.  Although they still have a volunteer fire department.

Reuters is reporting that Russia has taken the lead in dog tracking technology.  Russians can now use the military GLONASS satellite global positioning system to monitor the movements of their faithful companions as they save the word from the evils of American capitalism.  No news from the American military on when or how they plan to catch up with our pesky Commie friends.

So beware that lovable stray that you throw scraps to.  He may be helping to planing routes for the next Soviet invasion.

:D