We are all coming to terms, now, with the fact that, as President Retarded Monkey says, "America has spoken"; and that, just now, it's not really our country any more. In a world where John Kerry is too far to the left, Richard Nixon was a centrist, and those of us who think rationalism and realism matter; who believe that people should help each other and that government can be a powerful tool for doing that; who believe in the liberty of the individual even in the face of external threats, up to and including the right of self-determination for what happens to our bodies; who believe in privacy; well, we're pretty much fucked, at least for the next four years, possibly for the next several decades. I'm very seriously considering that since America has affirmed the neo-conservative way of doing business and its vision for the world, that perhaps the American experiment has finally failed.

The California propositions had looked more hopeful, and then flipped around midnight of election day. From the final results, I conclude that Californians don't know what DNA is (starting in 2009 the state collects DNA from people *arrested* for a felony, let alone charged or found innocent), and feel no need to differentiate between dealing marijuana and murder (they declined to reform our three-strikes law). On the bright side, voters rejected a horrid initiative for open primaries (anyone could vote for any primary candidate, regardless of voter party affiliation, but only the top two vote-getters would advance to the general election, even if they were from the same party); and it was 55-45 in favor of stopping a large and unwieldy and generally bad local development project.

And no, you're not a political refugee.

The general consensus seems to be that America has decided that preventing gay marriage trumps every other issue: the economy, soldiers and Iraqis dying, presumably the environment, though no one mentioned it this election. I think writer Adam Felber articulates pretty well my basic feelings on the situation.

Dallas County in Texas pulled a major "what the hell?".

There's always at least one piece to make things worse. Kerry's concession isn't legally binding, so I think it'd be a hoot if the outcome were changed in the final count.

And, finally, in the "I feel safer already" department: a National Guard F-16 strafes an elementary school in New Jersey. The commander says they were 3 miles off-target, and they're looking into it. Good work, guys.