LOL! Here's a site with a pledge that you can take to help encourage people to vote. You have a choice of three levels of pledge:

] Citizen:
] I pledge to withhold sex from non-voters for the week
] following the election.

] Patriot:
] I pledge to have sex with a voter on election night and
] withhold sex from non-voters for the week following the
] election.

] American Hero:
] I pledge to have sex with a voter on election night and
] withhold sex from non-voters for the next four years.

Oh, and for more laughs, be sure to read the fine print. It's pretty damn funny too. :)

RE: Take the Votergasm pledge

A list of the local issues that I will be voting on in tomorrow's election. I always feel like I'm cramming for a test, since some of the names and propositions I've never heard of.

Where I grew up in California, we'd be mailed a complete sample ballot before the election, so we could see a complete list of what and who we were voting on. Here in Missouri though, it's always a struggle to find out ahead of time what's going to be on the ballot!

St. Charles County Voter Guide

This seems to be one of the better organized providers of St. Louis area haunted attractions for this Halloween. Judging from the reviews, "Silo-X" is probably the best one this year. Weather permitting, I'll check it out this week. I'm looking forward to the part where we get to walk through a "real" missile silo. Stay tuned for my review...

St. Louis Halloween Attractions: Scarefest.com

] The Electoral College ties and Congress chooses the
] president. State delegations can't decide. The
] Senate splits. Republican Speaker of the House Dennis
] Hastert becomes president.
]
] The scenario may seem outlandish but it's certainly
] as plausible as what the world witnessed four years ago
] when a split Supreme Court ended the Florida recount and
] crowned George W. Bush the leader of the free world.
]
] In 2004, we have new solutions that may create new
] problems -- a federal mandate to count provisional
] ballots; electronic voting machines that give no paper
] proof that a vote has been cast.
]
] But it's the nearly 220-year-old Electoral College
] that may be the bane of Election 2004. Here are some
] far-fetched and not-so-far-fetched possibilities:

An interesting article that does a thorough analysis of the "What if" game, if Bush and Kerry were to get identical numbers of electoral votes. Worth reading. :)

What if it's a tie? -- Electoral College Scenarios

] The good news: International intelligence expert George
] Friedman's "America's Secret War," says the United States
] is winning the war against al-Qaida around the world.
]
] Then what's bad news, at least for the administration of
] President Bush?
]
] "The decision to invade Iraq was not a good one and very
] few in the administration thought it was. It was the best
] of a bad lot," Friedman writes.
]
] In short, Friedman contends, Bush didn't really go to war
] because he was worried about Iraqi weapons of mass
] destruction or links to terrorists. But those were
] concerns he could use to sell the war to the American
] people, and now he may pay the ultimate political price
] for that.
]
] Who is Friedman and why should we believe him? His
] company, Stratfor (short for Strategic Forecasting), a
] private worldwide intelligence company, has been given
] credit by Barron's magazine for being "miles ahead of CNN
] and all the other media" for its online reporting. The
] American Spectator has written that "Stratfor is changing
] the way we think about news," while the Wall Street
] Journal said the "predictions have made George Friedman a
] hot property these days."
 . . .
] If you prefer books coming from a strong political bias (for or
] against the war, for or against Bush, etc.), "America's Secret
] War" is not for you. But if you wonder how and why things have
] gone the way they have since 9/11, this is an eye-opener.

There's also a somewhat horrifying alternative review of the book in one of the Saudi papers, that says: "Sir George Friedman, the author of the book ' America's Secret War,' which is going to be released this month, revealed that the Bush administration is set to invade Pakistan and divide it." That review can be seen here: http://memri.org/bin/latestnews.cgi?ID=SD80604

Psst ... U.S. winning terror war (Review: 'America's Secret War')

] At a convention on the subject of "Pluralism in Islam"
] which took place in late August, 2004 at the Egyptian
] Journalists' Union in Cairo, Sheikh Dr. Yousef
] Al-Qaradhawi, a leader of the Muslim Brotherhood movement
] and one of the most important religious authorities in
] Islamist circles, issued a religious legal opinion
] permitting the abduction and killing of American
] civilians in Iraq in order to pressure the American army
] to evacuate its forces.

A very interesting read from MEMRI (Middle East Research Institute), with translations of several different reactions about the Fatwa. Though there are many fundamentalists who support it, there also appears to be a growing opinion among other Muslims that "whoever encourages terrorism should be treated as a terrorist." There's also an interesting proposal from one of them:

] "What then is to be done? There is only one solution. A group of
] progressive Arab intellectuals ready to put their lives in danger
] must meet and write a humanistic, international, progressive
] statement written in the language, way of thinking, and logic of
] the 21st century. It must present this statement to the U.N. and
] demand that the Security Council discuss it and pass a resolution
] on it that will grant the U.N. [the authority] to establish a
] tribunal, which will be called the 'Terrorism Court.' All those
] who foment terrorism and disseminate Fatwa s encouraging
] terrorism, and all those who carry out terrorism, will be brought
] before this tribunal. [This is necessary] since terrorism has
] become a global, international problem and does not only concern
] the Arabs…"

Interesting reading, of a wide variety of viewpoints.

MEMRI: Muslim Intellectuals' Reaction to the Fatwa Calling for Abductions of Civilians in Iraq

] On June 30, 2004, Maj. Gen. Charles H. Swannack, Jr.
] addressed The Washington Institute's Special Policy
] Forum. General Swannack commanded the 82nd Airborne
] Division during Operation Iraqi Freedom, conducting
] combat and stability-and-security operations. The
] following is a rapporteur's summary of his remarks.
  . . .
] The primary mission of the 82nd Airborne was to capture or kill
] those trying to kill U.S. soldiers. In order to achieve that
] goal, the division had to gain the support and assistance of
] local populations. In August 2003, the division received an
] average of twenty tips per week regarding insurgent activity. By
] March 2004, this figure had increased to 300 per week.
] Encouraging Iraqis to support the U.S. military is the key to
] achieving stability, and these figures show that U.S. forces have
] made significant headway. As little as one percent of the
] population is actually interested in attacking coalition forces.
] Most of the remaining 99 percent of Iraqis are on the fence; they
] are potential supporters of either the coalition or the
] insurgency. For the most part, it seems that they have supported
] the coalition because they want a better future for Iraq.
]
] That 1 percent, however, has sought to intimidate the majority.
] Hence, in order to gain the trust of the Iraqi people, the 82nd
] Airborne went after the insurgents with surgical precision. It
] also created a public works program that stimulated the economy
] and employed Iraqis -- principally young, military-eligible males
] who were potential insurgents -- so that they could provide for
] their families through legitimate rather than nefarious means.

An interesting report from the commander of the 82nd Airborne Division.

Policywatch: Lessons from the Sunni Triangle

] 19 October 2004 -- Elections in Iraq, scheduled for
] January 2005, are on track and should take place if the
] situation holds, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi
] Annan said today.

Elections in Iraq on track, Annan says

] Spanish police have arrested eight suspected Islamic
] militants. Authorities say they were planning to carry
] out a terrorist attack in the center of the capital.
 . . .
] A ministry statement says the suspects belonged to a
] terrorist cell and were in touch with individuals in the
] United States, Europe, and Australia.
]
] Interior Minister Jose Antonio Alonso says the suspects
] were preparing to bomb the headquarters of the Superior
] Court in Madrid.

Spain Arrests Terror Suspects

Earlier this month I had the opportunity to have a chat with an Army Sergeant who had returned to the States from a one year tour of duty in Iraq. It was my first opportunity to really sit down and talk face to face with someone from one of the combat zones, and I had a thousand questions for him. I did my best to just listen to what he had to say without comment, so often it wasn't so much a discussion as a debriefing. I did check with him several times as to whether or not he was comfortable talking about things, but he said it was fine, and actually somewhat therapeutic.

I'd like to share some of the things that he said. I agreed with some of it, and disagreed with some, but I'm going to do my best to present the information here, as he said it.

He's an E-5, a combat engineer, who's been in the service since before 9/11. His unit is based in Kansas, and while in Iraq was assigned to an area near Fallujah. His unit arrived there about a year ago, had a few days of overlap with the previous unit, and then the old unit completely left (rotated out). When his own unit was replaced, it was the same thing -- a new unit came in, overlapped for a brief time, and then he and his entire unit rotated out at the same time. I asked if it might have been better to leave a few people from the old unit for continuity, but he said, "No, not a good idea. Everyone arrives at once, everyone leaves at once. No one gets left behind. If someone was left behind, it would be bad for morale."

He got back to the States in late September, and is currently on 30 days leave from his base in Kansas, traveling around, seeing friends. After St. Louis, his plans were to head to Illinois to see his grandparents, but while in St. Louis he was here to hang out, drink beer, catch up with people he knows, and try to figure out how to fill his days, since he couldn't remember the last time he had this much time off!

During his year in Iraq, nine members of his unit were killed, and two were injured. He said he was shot at many times, and mortar or RPG attacks against his base were a routine occurrence. But he followed that by saying that the enemy was a lousy shot!

He said a common way they'd be attacked is that the insurgents would set up some sort of mortar or rocket attack, fire at the base, and then run away. The U.S. soldiers would then respond with an anti-personnel counter-battery. After that died down, the insurgents would return to regather their equipment. After this happened a few times and it became clear that the insurgents were getting the timing down, suggestions were made about changing the timing and so tactics were changed, so it was a constant evolution.

He said he went into town and walked the local streets many times, but that soldiers never walked alone. They always walked fully-armed, in groups of at least four. To go in smaller groups, he said, would probably have meant certain death from the insurge... [ Read More (0.8k in body) ]