Wednesday, November 03, 2004
Democrats: Palatable or Spoiled in Four?
Dean sums up my thinking about the Democrats and their options now. I wouldn’t be surprised if they don’t get over themselves, but I also don’t see a clear candidate for the Republicans in four years. The danger is that Democrats won’t have reformed, but there won’t be a Republican who can beat a “liberal wiener.”
The best laid plans of mice and moms…
Just when I was ready to give up on the returns and go to sleep, my daughter decided to wake up. And not in her usual three in the morning sleepy way, but in full-on morning baby mode. She’s cute when she grins like that, but I’m going to be a wreck. Fitting, I suppose, since my folks flew in today and I won’t be likely to nap. Ah, well.
Still checking in on CBS and NBC from time to time. Brokaw strikes me as an ass, as usual. Rather seems to feel that it’s all over, but CBS isn’t going to call it until more shakes out. He compared a Kerry win in Ohio to what the Red Sox did to the Yankees in the ALCS, and appears to believe that Bush is, indeed, the winner, while tiptoeing around saying as much.
Be interesting to see if Kerry can muster up some dignity and accept the inevitable come morning.
Good Night and Congratulations Mr. President
Deb tells me Tom Brokaw is doing a “Bush is stealing the election” routine, not straight out, but making noises.
I’m disgusted with the whole Ohio thing, which is probably nothing, but will have a mountain made of it. Meanwhile, there are more states that should go for Bush that will throw him above the 269 Fox left him stuck at toward the end.
I have to agree with Kevin. Bush wins. It’s just sadly not outside the margin of lawyer, as it needed to be in spades for a healthy respect for the results by all.
Since it pretty much boggles me that anyone could vote for Kerry and, my God, Edwards (have you ever seen such a phony?), I’m astounded at how many electoral votes they got. Not to mention the popular vote being only a few million apart.
Anyway, I am going to bed. Here’s hoping Kerry just concedes like a man tomorrow, so we don’t have to wait as many as eleven days to be official. Deb notes that earlier when she said there was no way they would win, she thought they were smart enough not to try to steal it. Me too. I thought they might just get a grip. As Deb just said, “I think I’m done for the night. They’re in full on election swiping mode.”
Yup. Good night.
Red Handed
Ah, more of the expected Democratic fraud gone rampant this election. Dean has a report of it in Detroit.
Fox and Friends
Deb is calling out from the other room that Fox is being amusingly reticent about calling things, compared to other networks. For instance, Dan Rather called Florida for Bush a little while ago, showing great suppression of his gag reflex.
She’s amused, flipping around, and I can stay informed without even going to the TV room. Apparently there was a campaign commercial just on! She informed the TV that “it’s too late, everybody already voted.”
Update (12:26 AM):
Deb says Fox finally called Florida. Ah, but Shep is touting the possibility of a tie. “Can you say gun shy?”
She’s also amazed by Dan Rather tonight, being accepting of the result, even poking fun of sorts at an operative who is still spinning unrealistically for Ohio. Not to mention being readier to call results than others.
Is he trying to redeem himself and go out in a blaze of - gasp! - professionalism?
On that note, I may go join her any time now and check blogs some more later or in the morning.
The Bitch Is Back
Hey, now this is a cool pledge. I will happily pledge to bitch about whoever wins, as much as my heart desires. I agree with Ith, though in reality I might try to be a little nice. Maybe. For a while.
Tuesday, November 02, 2004
Well Then…
I went to the office and managed to find a little info on the “net logon” error 10106 problem. This and that and then I was reminded that I could try a system restore, found plenty of checkpoints on the machine, and took it back to Friday.
That got it seeing the network. It still appears not to see the internet, but that is not imperative to the primary work the secretary does, and it was her internet activities, you know, totally work-related, that led to the client spending over $300 and counting. She can suffer a day more without Yahoo mail and whatever on her machine.
And the entire firm is going to get a stern e-mail reminding them why I installed Firefox on all machines that would support it and encouraged its use. Internet Explorer is a conduit for crud. So far, Firefox isn’t. It’s that simple. Never mind that it’s better.
Silly people.
Evil Vote Machinations and General Update
First, I want to point out the absolutely absurd disenfranchisement experience encountered by Blackfive, who did eventually get to vote by provisional ballot like pulling teeth. Many people probably encountered the same problem and gave up, so there’s a bunch of Illinois votes for Bush frauded away conveniently.
Next, the doctor liked my blood pressure, but not my record high weight that I knew was bad but doesn’t feel like it should be as high as it is when they weigh me. Even with my two bunches of keys and my cell phone in my pocket. He made fun of me for not calling about the gout, but seemed to like my self-diagnosis (it seems to have passed). I think my rabid agreement with his remark that it’s one of the more excrutiating pains one can have confirmed for him that my diagnosis was correct. I don’t have to go back until February 1st.
We managed not to strand Deb’s parents at the airport, though they arrived earlier than expected so we were late. Sadie was so good, she almost made it from before we left all the way until we got home before she started screaming. Unfortunately it was just a tad too long and traffic was heavy, so we got our share of mad baby telling us off. They were beat, so after some grilled cheese sandwiches, baby admiring, and watching of preliminary results, they headed off to their hotel.
Now I have to get to the office and try to take care of a couple pressing things before I turn around and come see the later returns.
Election Day Toast
Before I take off for the doctor’s appointment I wish I didn’t have today, one more post to link to Steven Taylor’s final Toast-O-Meter. It has a superlative roundup of stuff and information, including an electoral map from last time, his prediction, the county map from last time, poll closing time map, and national weather for the day. Nice. Historical links too!
Curds Belong With Whey, Not Blood
Acidman has a great list of why he voted for Bush. I especially like he number 1 reason, and quoted below, the number 2 reason:
Teresa Heinz-Kerry. ARRRGGGGHHH!!!! MY EYES!!! The very idea of that harridan becoming First Lady curdles my blood.
Just Like In Afghanistan and Iraq
As Deb noted below, we went and voted. Not as early as I’d wanted, but early enough. There was no line at all, and it was a breeze.
I actually got a bit emotional as we walked to the school door and into the gym where the voting took place. Why? Images of voting in Afghanistan, and thoughts of voting to come in Iraq and elsewhere, came unbidden to my mind. It made me feel good about what I was about to do, and how we have made that possible in places where they are closer to the memory of how sacred it is to have the opportunity to vote.
Perhaps it sounds silly, but I got spontaneously misty and had to calm myself.
I wonder if it means anything that mine was the 666th ballot to feed through the optical scanner. Heh.
Sadie was a hit with the voting staff, and was an angel in there, despite having cried in the car. Our voting at side by side booths with her behind us put her to sleep.
I Like It
Heh.
CotC Thoughts
Brian Gongol has an interesting take on exclusion of posts that are submitted to Carnival of the Capitalists. I would tend to agree, and my advice is include by default unless off-topic, and then preferably to let the person know.
We voted.
And damn, that felt good!
This, by the way, is my favorite non-serious reason to vote for President Bush. By now, y’all know my favorite serious ones, so I won’t drag this out, but you can consider this my endorsement.
Now, I’m off to feed the baby, this wonderful baby of ours. And maybe grab a nap before I break into song…
Paugus Poll
I would be remiss if I neglected to point out Chan’s informal Paugus Diner poll. I hope the result is indicative of broader reality, unscientific or not.
Lemony Fresh
I agree with Deb, who is tired of these pledges not to be so… so… Democrat… about the results if the wrong guy wins today.
Look, of course he’ll be my President regardless, but that does not mean I won’t be critical if I disagree.
However, if there was fraud, I will point it out. If he’s a train wreck, I will say so, even if I constructively note what he ought to do instead.
A pledge? Sure, I won’t make fraudulent “documentaries” or promulgate clear lies about my President. I won’t be a treasonous fool who is on the side of foreign enemies. I won’t harp about the election having been stolen if it was not. I will appreciate the honor implicit in the losing candidate not aggressively protesting election fraud if it may have caused an illegitimate win, but that’s not going to stop me from reminding people who really won, any more than it stops me from noting Nixon “lost” to cheating in 1960 and was honorable about it in the face of a need for showing unity during global (cold) war.
No, I won’t go insane over a loss. I may pine for Gore, a great candidate compared to Kerry, but Presidents generally can only do so much harm. If they do enough harm, they get turned out. Frankly, a Kerry win guarantees a Republican win in 2008. Kerry is just that bad. A Bush win is good for Democrats in the longer term, giving them a hiatus, with the potential to be less whacky than the last four years have been, in which to examine themselves, regroup, find a message and candidate. If they manage not to keep whigging out, they will be well positioned next time. I don’t see a clear “next Republican” after Bush, and success by him may be less stimulating to developing one than loss would be.
Republicans, Libertarians, and honorable folks temporarily voting for security over treasonous minds are not the ones who need to take some kind of pledge to be nice if their guys don’t get picked to play run the country.
YAE! (Yet Another Endorsement)
In an absolutely shocking, unanticipated development, Eric has endorsed President Bush, correctly noting that it boils down to leadership in keeping us safe, confronting terrorism, and abandoning the long discredited policies of appeasement others would again embrace. Well, that’s my verbose summary of Eric’s thoughts, anyway.
Stress, Drugs, Their Fetal Role
Speaking of medical posts, Caltechgirl has a fantastic post on prenatal research into medicine side effects, the misunderstandings people have, and how people tend to get crazy when it’s about their babies. A snippet:
There are a lot of things that pregnant and pre-pregnant women think they need to do these days in order to improve their baby’s health. Things like prenatal care, special multivitamins, folic acid, excercise, and staying off of certain medications are all good things for babies. These things have been demonstrated both preclinically (in animal studies) and epidemiologically (prospective and retrospective studies that use patient and case information to assess risk/reward statistically). We know these things to be true, but there are a number of other things rumbling about in the popular press that haven’t been verified that are being bandied about as scare tactics to guilt new moms into using products they don’t need or into stopping the use of things they do need.
Deb was especially excited to see the bit about ultrasounds. There are some absolute whackos out there who can’t handle the evidence of years. If ultrasounds hurt Sadie’s brain, then it’s a good thing we had so many or she’d be a freak instead of simply being clearly bright enough we already feel like we’ll be over our heads. Some people would have you thinking those weekly ultrasounds and twice weekly fetal monitorings would turn her into a retarded gob of protoplasm. Yet she’s already clearly brighter than the average bulb.
Grand Rounds Is Up
Looking for something different to read this election day? Try this week’s Grand Rounds, a carnival of medical links hosted by Sydney Smith. Yes, it does include election-related posts, as well as Red Sox ones. How cool.
Monday, November 01, 2004
Timing is Everything
So I went in this evening to work on that client computer that got malwared (and/or messed with by the user to try to fix the malware) into not being able to see the network.
Three and a half hours later, the computer has not a scrap of malware of any kind present and able to run (that was the relatively easy part), and finally knows the network exists and was able to rejoin the domain. That last required I assign it a fixed IP address. Especially on an XP machine that should be unnecessary.
Well, now it refuses to actually log into the domain, rather than locally, even though it sees the domain exists, because the “net logon” service will not start. It’s unclear why. It’s not a dependency issue, as it is dependent on the “workstation” service, and that starts just fine.
The most intriguing, clever in an evil sort of way thing I found was there was a file named winlogon.exe and a file named “w?nlogon.exe,” with a newer date and smaller file size. I did a lot of exploring and cleaning up at safe mode command prompt. Such a file ought not exist, and made life interesting because ? is a wildcard character and shouldn’t be in an actual file’s name. Depending on the operation, doing something to one of those two files does it to both. I had to be a bit circular about changing attributes from SHR on the bogus file and renaming it without winding up with the real one renamed too.
And it appears to be the real one, having the correct date, size and internal version information. I assume the other existed for some reason connected to adware/spyware. A quick Google search confirms that.
Anyway, what fun. This evening I had gotten past any chance of fixing the van, so it was available to relax, maybe blog election-related, maybe make the house less messy, maybe get another night of surprising duration sleep. But no, someone who refuses to use Firefox and freely grabs things like screensavers from online gets hosed.
I was able to confirm well before I was done that there was no problem with the network jack or cable. Nor with the card, far as I can tell. I put a new one in during the process, but ended up getting it almost working with the original. Neither the new card nor installing drivers fresh for the existing one mattered.
So tomorrow the user is not there. In between voting and oil changing and doctoring and airporting and election viewing (something I always love to do the night of, the way another might enjoy a ball game), I have to research the problem and work on it some more, having it working before she returns to her desk Wednesday if there is any way possible. Yay.
Maybe there is something worse than spammers.
Ah, interlude over. Came home to find baby sleeping in swing and wife sleeping in bed. Sadie just starting complaining and woke Deb up.
I’m pleading with you…
Enough with the pledges, already.
If you really feel the need to pledge that you won’t turn into some bizarre TraitorPundit if the other guys win (whoever your other guys may be), then you’ve got problems.
Some things ought to go without saying.
In other news, I saw a Christmas-themed Target commercial today. WTF? When did the day after Halloween become the new day after Thanksgiving?
Sigh.
An Election Coverage Goldmine
It is well worth noting that The Command Post will be featuring wall to wall election coverage, with 86 new contributors covering all the states, on top of the regular contributors.
They also have a mailing list for breaking news alerts you can sign up for here.
To go straight to the 2004 election coverage section of Command Post, click here.
Sympathy? Me?
Not this time.
Since I’ve used Firefox, I’ve had no more problems with malware. My big client was having more and more people affected, including one who ended up so bad he couldn’t even get online anymore.
After that I installed Firefox for people there and encouraged them to use it.
Around the time I had gotten home from work and had the van blow up in my face, a bit of bad luck to balance the server problem having been no biggie, I got an e-mail from on secretary telling me the other secretary couldn’t “get into anything.” This is a surprise, as it’s the most geekish secretary who was having the problem.
E-mail went back and forth and I established that she’d been totally stricken with malware, including almost certainly cool web search.
So I noted how surprised I was she’d gotten afflicted while using Firefox, by way of making fun of her, knowing by the outcome that she’s been using IE instead.
She replied that she “hates that Firefox stuff” from her neighbor’s e-mail. Heh.
So sad. Now I have to turn around and go back there this evening to try to get her clean enough to function. Last time this required fdisking, to which she said “NO FDisking!!!” Heh. Actually, I have learned more about how CWS works and should be able to trash it. Just might take a couple hours and some patience.
But really, when it was like “help, please, NOW!” my reaction was something like “aw, you got your computer filthy when daddy said not to take it out in the dirt, now daddy will clean it whenever he can get to it and you can just wait.”
Yeah, so I’m off in a few to the office again. Sheesh.
Car Update
Doh!
I had to go to the office for a while to take care of a discrepency between two queries on cases closed during October, and serup a new attorney who started today that they forgot to tell me about.
Then the plan was to get back, loosen the van’s alternator and get the belt off it, then try starting and see if it would run.
Yes! It starts right up as if it had just been parked yesterday. But it made a racket when I first started it, as the bracket that holds the alternator broke off and made a fast repair impossible. Probably a junkyard will have the part. The alternator is in fact quite dead, totally frozen, and was the issue.
Meanwhile, at the same time as the bracket broke, oil came gushing out under the front of the van. Oops. I haven’t investigated closely, but 95% probable it’s a hole in the filter. Replacing it and adding oil should deal with that problem.
The thing is probably going to be okay, but there’s no more chance of having it ready for tomorrow.
Meanwhile, a note to the comment spammer: Die you asshole. Go fuck with someone else, or better yet, get a life. Well, or an afterlife. Yeah, that would be better. Preferably a harsh one.
That’s a Lotta Crazy Moves
The 1000 Fighting Styles of John Kerry is an amusing pictorial by Ian Hamet, who feels a bit sorry for Kerry yet luckily does not let that stop him from poking fun.
Swift Boat Interview
Dean has an excellent interview with Steve Gardner, who served directly on John Kerry’s boat.
Carnival of the Capitalists Is Up
Will Pate has the November 1 edition of Carnival of the Capitalists for your business and economics reading pleasure, intentionally rendered relatively politics-free on the U.S. election eve. Looks like a ton of good stuff.
Next week will be hosted by INCITE. Send entries to cotcmail -at- gmail -dot- com, preferably with post URL, post title, blog URL, blog name, and a brief description of the post. The last helps the host understand it if it’s esoteric, and helps point up how it’s on-topic in the area of business and economics if it might not otherwise be clear.
Future hosts and info can be found at the Carnival of the Capitalists page. There is also a list of past CotC locations.
“It All Started in Tehran”
This is a most excellent article I found linked by MommaBear. It fills out facts I was unaware of with respect to the Carter administration’s Cold War policy toward Iran and the Muslim world.
That there was a method to the start of the madness is no excuse for what was essentially a wimpy handling of terror tactics from Tehran through Reagan, Bush 41, and Clinton, inviting increasing vehemence until they picked the worst administration for the worst attack.
But Carter set the tone with an inexplicable response to something we could overwhelmingly have nipped in the bud.
Excellent article you really should read.