Here's the link that shows all the states: http://www.acorn.org/

no, no--I wasn't saying those are swing states. I'm saying those are the states ACORN's voter registration project is in....my sarcasm got in the way of my actual meaning :) ...I was listing several states they're targeting that are most definitely NOT swing states.

I was curious, so I checked (a big map is the first thing on their website, so it was pretty easy). ACORN's voter registration project is in 26 states, including such noted swing states as Texas, California, Connecticut, and Louisiana. If Texas is a swing state now then McCain's in bigger trouble than I thought.

Well, my uncle is probably the most Republican person I know, and he owns a winery. And my Democrat husband brews beer. Make of it what you will!

DH is a high school teacher, and I just heard on NPR that education, health care, and the government are the only sectors that aren't losing jobs. So I guess that's reason for optimism. He supplements his income with a lot of private tutoring, though, and I wonder how that will be affected. It hasn't been yet.

Somebody at the fire safety exhibit at Disney World asked my kids that a few weeks ago. They stared at him blankly. We actually USED to have an escape plan, but I haven't reminded the kids what it is since the middle one was an infant.

I looked at those links, and I'm not seeing the same thing at all. The stats are for the county that Indianapolis is in, not the city itself. I see total 2007 population as 876,804, and registered voters as 677,401. ??? As for all the rest, I'll just say that none of the "Obama people" here that I've seen are defending any illegal actions. ACORN is under investigation, and from everything I've heard they're cooperating with the investigation. If they are found to have participated in illegal activities, then they certainly should pay the consequences for that. The arguments I've seen are that: 1. Guilt by association is a bit of a tricky thing, and a slippery slope that McCain might well be making a mistake by getting into. 2. Election fraud in this country is most certainly a bi-partisan affair. If I started a thread every time the lefty blogs started talking about vote suppression or fraud on the part of conservative groups, I could crash the server in no time. I would refer everyone to Jimmy Carter's book, Turning Point and particularly the chapter "The Dead Voted Alphabetically" for just a bit of insight into the long and proud history of election fraud in the US.

Depends on how you do it. The cheapest on property hotels are around $80/night + taxes in the off season, more during busy times of year. Off property you can spend as much or as little as you want, pretty much. We rented a townhouse this past trip, 3 bedrooms, 5 minutes to the parks, a bit over $800 for the week. I like staying on property and will probably go back to that next time, but staying off property is definitely a way to save money. Tickets are expensive, and the only area where you likely can't save much money. The longer you stay, the cheaper the per day price is. You can look up exact prices online, but we pay something like $8-900 for week long tickets for the 4 of us who need them. Although this past time we went during "homeschooling days" and got a great deal on tickets that way. If you have flexibility with your dates, you might want to look into that. Food, again, you can spend as much as you want. If you're staying somewhere with a kitchen, you can eat breakfast at the place, pack lunches, and then cook dinner. If you want to eat on property and in the parks, food adds up fast. The meal plan gives you 2 meals a day plus a snack and runs somewhere around $40/day for adults. The past several Septembers they've offered free dining as a promotion, and that's a great deal if you can get it. Disney has a calculator on their site where you can put in your dates and play around with package prices. Mousesavers.com is a good place to find out about discounts. It's all ridiculously complicated, really!

You can just broil it, but it might be kind of tough. I wouldn't cook it like a pot roast, but you might want to marinate it before you cook it to tenderize it. Usually you serve it by cutting it into thin slices against the grain. Try a google search and I'm sure a million recipes will come up--pick one that sounds good!

http://news.racinepost.com/2008/09/gop-absentee-ballot-mailings-called.html In Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin, Democratic voters received a mailing containing tear-out requests for absentee ballots addressed to the clerk in Caledonia -- the wrong location. In Middleton, Wisconsin, Democratic voters received absentee ballot requests addressed to the clerk in Madison -- the wrong address. Both mailers were sent by the McCain campaign. Now, I believe this kind of stuff IS a felony, so if anyone gets convicted, you'll have your convicted felons right in the McCain campaign. Does McCain "palling around" with convicted felon G. Gordon Liddy count for anything? I'm pretty sure he tries to stir up votes for McCain with his radio show.

links, please? That's the sort of claim that should be very easy to prove or disprove.

Carter was slightly ahead in the polls throughout most of the election season. 1980 was a situation where people were generally unhappy with both candidates (Mort Sahl famously said, "Reagan won because he ran against Jimmy Carter. Had he run unopposed, he would have lost.") Things turned around very late in the race, after the debate a week before the election where Reagan had his "Are you better off now than you were 4 years ago?" moment. Keep in mind, too, that the election was VERY lopsided in the electoral college, but not nearly as dramatic in popular vote. Reagan won just 50.75% (Carter 41.01%, with the rest going to 3rd party candidates). Certainly it's possible that there will still be a game-changing moment like the debate in 1980. But it doesn't usually happen that way.

I don't find it ironic at all. If everyone voted solely based on economic self-interest, after all, Democrats would win in a landslide every year and the party would embrace its populist roots a lot more openly than it does now. Republicans traditionally (at least in the past 60 years or so) win by turning the focus away from economics (see: The Southern Strategy). Most of the time they don't actually SAY that that's what they're doing, like McCain's campaign has, though.

The argument against voter ID laws, particularly photo ID laws, is that the poor, elderly, and minorities are going to be disproportionately affected, because they're more likely not to have proper ID (i.e. drivers licenses). I remember thinking in MA, though, how very easy it would have been for me to vote as someone else, so I'm not sure what to think. At any rate, though, in many states there is nothing improper about not asking for ID and it would, in fact, be illegal for a poll worker to turn someone away for not having one.

http://www.ncsl.org/programs/legismgt/elect/taskfc/voteridreq.htm Only 7 states require photo ID 17 more require some form of ID

wait a second--it's not the law in every state that you have to have ID to vote, is it? I remember they just changed the law in Georgia, and it was not without controversy. In MA, I never had to show ID.

Thanks everyone--keep 'em coming! I am geekily excited about spending an evening looking into all these suggestions and picking out some games :001_smile:

I've taught freshman comp classes before, and one thing I'll say is that the level of writing for most of the students (and this was at a very selective college) was so low that they were just not ready for any kind of serious critical analysis. They had to learn how to form a coherent sentence first. I wonder if the rationale is that students should learn how to structure an argument well first with an "easy" topic before they try to form an argument about something intellectually challenging....that they have to know what a thesis looks like (and virtually none of them do) before they can come up with a good, original one. I'll also say though that I gave a grand total of one assignment where I asked students to write about something personal. I was shocked at how confessional some of them were--and then I had to GRADE their heartbreaking stories about when their best friends died in 4th grade or whatever. "Yes, that's very sad, but it's also full of sentence fragments--C-!" Shudder. I think training wheels are necessary, but after that I went with easy but impersonal stuff.

Yes, Paul Krugman had a column a couple of weeks ago addressing this. Basically, as I understand it, it's moving money around in a circle. There's no money required up front, because it will all come from Treasury notes. It will increase the national debt, though, so someone will have to pay for it sooner or later.

Because Christmas is coming, and my kids love games. The kids I'm thinking of are 5 and 7, and I'd love stuff to reinforce just basic skills (grammar, reading, spelling, math, etc) and also specific topics we're covering: American history, Bible (without a particular theological slant, preferably), and Spanish. We're also doing Chemistry, but I don't know that there's much out there for kids their age. TIA!

Carville says a lot of things :). But in context, that quote is about what will happen if the polls stay where they are (with Obama up by a wide margin) and the election is called for McCain. I think the suggestion about the anger that would provoke has nothing whatsoever to do with Obama's race and everything to do with what happened in 2000.

I'm resurrecting my own thread, since Spanish stuff comes up pretty often and someone else might be interested.... I looked through all these links and a gazillion more (more or less), and finally ordered something! I went with Espanol para los chiquitos plus The Fun Spanish (thanks, Stacia!). The Fun Spanish hasn't gotten here yet, but the other one came today, and I'm pleased with what I've looked at so far. They have another program for older kids, but this one is aimed at ages 4-7, so I thought it would be good for us since my 5 year old will be doing it, too. It has a workbook with CDs, an activity book with flashcards and a bingo game, and then a teacher manual. There are 12 themed units, and the teacher's manual divides each one into 4 lessons plus a review. The workbook is really colorful and there's lots of fun stuff like drawing and games. So I'll report back after we've tried it out for awhile, but it looks good at first perusal!

I stand corrected :). We have a volunteer fire station in my community but, AFAIK (i.e. no one's ever asked me for a donation), the equipment is paid for with taxes.

not for salaries. But I'm guessing they don't buy their own trucks or maintain the fire hydrants themselves.