Matt has a state-by-state map of poll closing times. (Um… can we note how gross it is that Indiana’s polls close at 6pm local time?) What the hell, we’ll just borrow the borrowed image:

He also posts on elections of note in Rhode Island. If you want to help out, you should call the Progressive Leadership Fund at 463-5368.

As Jess mentioned, we encourage you to vote YES on Question 2. We also encourage you to vote YES on Question 1, because we’d otherwise lose about $440 million in federal transportation funds. But man do we wish the state would wean itself off of bonds and borrowing. (Though this isn’t the worst time to bet that the feds will be less austere in coming years.)

And also, too:

The Liberty Elm.

New additions:

Downtown will be hopping:

The Providence Black Rep is hosting One Nation Under a Groove. It’s a fundraiser too: $20, complimentary apps. Starts at 5pm, but if you really care about how the election goes, you should probably still be phone-banking then. Goes until close.

Bravo is hosting something. I think it’s free.

The Drinking Liberally guys are hosting a free results-watching event at the Side Bar and Grille on Dorrance Street downtown.  See comment for details.

Original post:

Because people keep asking:

The Dem Party will be holding a victory celebration at the Biltmore. (There will also be a few lefty activist/Daily Doser suites scattered through the building.)

And Eric and the Loaded crew will be spinning in their usual slot, at Local 121, with TVs on loud enough to overcome the drone of the Brit-pop.

Youth in Action will be hanging out at Snookers

Anything else?

Everyone’s been obsessing over the presidential election. It’s the easiest race to follow, but it’s common for even the most well-informed voter to enter the booth and not know what the hell all these other races and ballot questions mean.

Question 2 - the Open Space and Recreation Development Bond - has gotten very little attention. The ProJo editorial board dissed it, but as we all know, I’m pretty weary of those people anyway. Here is a bit more info on the bond that Rhode Islanders can save tomorrow:

The bond will set aside $2.5 million (over the next several years) to protect natural spaces, farms, and state parks from developers. For every $1 set aside by the state, RI will receive $3-$4 in matching funds from the federal gov’t, foundations, and people with enough $$ to make charitable contributions. The bond will generate $10 million to preserve Rhode Island’s environment. If you are a fan of local agriculture, this bond is critical to its survival.

The bond must pass or these important preservation programs will end in Rhode Island. OVER. NADA. NOTHING. DONE.

So, if the bond passes, the state only has to set aside $250,000 per year to save farms, open space, watersheds, shorelines, state parks. If the bond does not pass, no money will be set aside to protect RI farmers or to preserve our state’s natural resources, and we get NONE of the matching funds from Washington. That’s $7 million in funding from outside of our state - poof- gone.

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In the grand tradition of clever people with far too much time on their hands…

FairVote RI presents its 2008 election guide. Read on for more!    -Matt Sledge, FairVote RI Director

1. Where to vote

2. How to vote

3. What to do if you run into problems

4. How to stay informed

—

1. Where to vote. FairVote strongly recommends that Rhode Island voters use Secretary of State Mollis’s Voter Information Center today. Double-check your polling place; many have changed since the party primaries in September and the presidential primaries in March. More than 80 polling places have closed since the last presidential election. Mollis expects record turnout–perhaps as many as 500,000 of our state’s 700,000 registered voters–so there could be lines.

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Hmm, that sort of sounds like something the Jersey Girls would get on about.  Well let them dress up as schoolgirls and French maids, Amanda and Alanna have loftier goals for now — getting out the vote. (Here, putting up posters today on Thayer Street.) Good costumes — Charlie Chaplin’s liberal credentials are certainly in order and Abe Lincoln is everybody’s favorite Republican. Okay girls, now take the rest of the night off. Go wild. We all need a break!

Are you looking for somewhere different to watch the election returns? Do you enjoy free pool? Wouldn’t you just love to help out a great Providence youth organization like Youth in Action? Well you can do all three at once next tuesday!

November 4, 6-11PM

Snooker’s Pool Lounge
145 Clifford St
Providence, RI 02903
(401) 351-7665

Stop in for an hour, or less, or more. Bring friends, regardless of who you or they are voting for. The election is going to be intense this year, to say the least, so why sit at home watching it alone when you can be with friends, meet new people, and support a good cause? more »

That’s an insane, Rhode Island-sized margin.  Shouldn’t take the election for granted, but if your E-Day plans are specific to the Granite State,  perhaps you can justify helping out one of the many deserving local candidates here in L’il Rhody.

Primetime Baby!

That’s right, Obama’s primetime address to the nation, all 3 million dollars of it, is already on the youtubes and ready for consumption by the TV-less. It’s embedded after the jump, and actually, there’s a video from today that I think it much more important.

Ok, first of all, that peanut butter and jelly sandwich line is ad-libbed. And it’s funny.

But I do think it’s important that Obama is pressing back hard (though in an outwardly good-natured way) against the socialism/secret communism/bullshit bogeyman spitballs that McCain-Palin has been chucking at him.

The reason the GOP is pushing the “spread the wealth”/socialism argument is clear, and it ain’t tax policy. As Hertzberg explains, it is laughable to think that “the difference between capitalism and socialism corresponds to the difference between a top marginal income-tax rate of 35 per cent [Current] and a top marginal income-tax rate of 39.6 per cent [Obama/Clinton].” Of course, it’s also laughable to think that Obama is some type of Eugene V. Debs, or for that matter that the GOP even cares about spreading the wealth, at least when it comes to spreading it to, say military contractors, or for that matter the people of Alaska. So what then? Here’s John Judis:

McCain and Sarah Palin’s attack against Obama for advocating “spreading the wealth” and for “socialism” and for pronouncing the civil rights revolution a “tragedy” because it didn’t deal with the distribution of wealth is aimed ultimately at white working class undecided voters who would construe “spreading the wealth” as giving their money to blacks. It’s the latest version of Reagan’s “welfare queen” argument from 1980.

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We’ve reached that point in the Nader campaign life cycle when the candidate lashes out at former friends and allies who, with the rest of the herd, are blinded by the luster of Gore-Kerry-Obama, and naively think it reasonable for Ohioans to vote for the Democrat.

Yesterday’s tirade was pretty mild — a rant at the newly ‘unprincipled’ Norman Solomon, who’s been writing and activisting away for a few decades, but who disembarked from the U.S.S. Nader somewhere off of the coast of Florida in late 2000. (Nader had insinuated to many activists that he was only going to campaign hard in safe states, so as to not help tilt the election to Bush.)

It makes for a great chance to recall one of Nader’s craziest public fits of all-time — when he put out a press release and open letter during his 2004 effort, making fun of Michael Moore…. for being fat…. and offering to help him lose weight:

On Thursday, Moore was the recipient of an open letter from independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader, who seems stung that his former friend and supporter has parted ways with him and gone to the Democrats. Miffed that he was not invited to the Washington premiere of “Fahrenheit 9/11,” Nader, whose 6-foot-4 frame is a lean 190 pounds, said Moore’s former Naderite friends are “trim and take care of themselves. Girth they avoid. The more you let them see you, the less they will see of you.”

Let’s be honest, the Republicans probably give out better Halloween candy.  An Obama household might be trafficking in those tiny bags of g.o.r.p. or free-range organic fruit leather. I hope we see some of this creative carving around here. This one is from Texas of all places — how long did it last on the porch I wonder.

See, isn’t that much better than the insane racism that attends a Palin rally? You know, like the type that gets so bad that when someone straight up yells out that Obama is a “n*****”" DURING her speech, LOUD ENOUGH FOR HER TO HEAR , then she just goes on without saying anything? Like the type that gives sanction to idiots like this guy, to say nothing of Ashley Todd?

I suppose the simple point is just GOD BLESS THESE CHILDREN, not only for whats actually a pretty catchy version of T.I.’s Whatever You Like, but also for being awesome. You can vote however you like. Damn right.

Full video and lyrics after the jump, along with the tale of how Joe Biden became a Florida 5th grader’s “homeboy.” more »

You probably remember these guys from 2000. Where are they now?

Whassup 2008

We’re one week out from the Nov. 4 election and the polls are tightening. What once seemed like a sure thing, now looks in danger of slipping away. FiveThirtyEight.com is calling it a “toss-up.”

I’m talking about California’s Proposition 8, a measure that would amend their state constitution and abolish over 11,000 same-sex marriages in America’s third-biggest state. The “Yes” folks are gaining; the No on Prop 8 campaign needs your help.

Why contribute to defeat a California ballot initiative? For one, it’s the right thing to do. The legal, secular institution of marriage should not be subject to religious abrogation (see: First Amendment). And the moral argument particularly falls to pieces when you consider that heterosexual couples don’t consider marriage all that sacred anyhow. Political issues are rarely so cut-and-dried. In Providence, a city that has a gay population 75% higher than the national average, California’s fight should be near and dear to many of our hearts. This is a flashpoint. To allow Prop 8 to pass would be huge setback in the struggle for marriage equality, and loss for us all.

You can donate here.

Ohio… get it? Not a joke really, but a reasonable facsimile. And if I lived in Ohio right now I would be getting both high and round.

The best thing in Cuyahoga County, Ohio may be the egg drop soup at Frank Sterle’s Slovenian Country House. I think it’s just a bowl of warm melted butter, but it is fabulous.  So I wanted to go on record saying something nice about Ohio before discussing….

… the worst thing in Cuyahoga County, Ohio which has to be the whole elections situation there. We all remember 2003 when Walden W. O’Dell chief executive of Diebold Inc. (the company that manufactures touch-screen voting machines and is based in Canton) sent out a fund-raising letter to fellow Republicans with the extraordinary promise

“I am committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president next year.”

He turned out to be a man of his word. (He later apologized, and resigned in 2005 amid allegations of securities fraud.) But he wasn’t the only problem. The vulnerability of these machines is truly distressing.

If you have yet to see ‘Hacking Democracy’ it is running tonight on HBO, and ironically, again on Halloween… and wicked-ironically again on election day (schedule).  After watching you will need fourteen Xanax and a huge bowl of egg drop soup.

Happily, the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections trashed the Diebold machines last December because of problems (law suits going both ways) and they have switched to electronic scanners, with tons of voters taking advantage of the absentee ballots.  As of last week, over 200,000 absentee ballots had been cast. So, hooray! Right?  Except…

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