(I want to get this one in before new polls reflecting the landslide triggered by Kerry’s Knockout win in tonight’s debate, render it all Moot… Loy’s Law: Election problems never occur when it isn’t Close… :)
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According to both the humble Associated Press and the exalted New York Times, the ballots for eligible Americans Abroad (some 500,000 military and 4 million civilian) are becoming a problem.

Gee. Ya think?

Hey — add it to the lawyers’ ammo pouch. It’s all good. :)

Excerpts - emphases & [> commentary <] added:

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I’m surprised Brendan hasn’t mentioned this one yet, but Seattle Mariner’s right fielder Ichiro Suzuki is only 2 hits away from breaking one of the oldest records in baseball.

In 1920, George Sisler of the St. Louis Brown’s hit an amazing 257 hits in one season.

With 5 games remaining in the Season for the M’s, Ichiro is only 2 hits shy of breaking the record.

The Patriot Act begins to crumble. Comments, anyone?

Boston’s big day didn’t go so well. The Red Sox lost, and the Yankees won twice, so New York now leads the AL East by 4 games and has clinched a tie for the division championship. Either a Yankees win or a Red Sox loss in the next four days would seal the deal. Boston can force a one-game playoff only if they win out and the Yanks lose four straight. Three words: Not. Gonna. Happen.

Oh, well. The Sox are in as the wild card, so as a practical matter, this just means the Yanks will have home-field advantage in a potential ALCS showdown with their archrivals. That’s fine. The Curse will still be Reversed, dammit. :)

We link, you decide.

@messaging.sprintpcs.comBecky’s here!!! Yay!!! :)

Scientists have upped the alert level at Mount St. Helens to Volcano Alert. They think the earthquakes are being caused by magma, and an eruption is likely soon.

The Expos are officially moving to D.C.

SpaceShipOne had a scary but ultimately successful first flight this morning, ushering in a new era of private spaceflight. Its creators have to repeat their feat one more time, and they’ll win the $10 million X Prize.

Meanwhile, asteroid 4179 Toutatis is making its closest pass to Earth today, less than a million miles away.

Scientists say it’s no threat to hit us, “but they’ll be monitoring it closely anyway,” according to SpaceWeather.com. Of which Joe Loy no doubt approves. :)

Hee hee.

Today will be a pivotal day in determining whether the Red Sox — who have already clinched at least a wild-card berth — can overtake the Yankees to win the AL East (and gain home-field advantage in a possible ALCS rematch).

Boston currently trails New York by 2 1/2 games in the standings with 5 games left in the season for the Sox, 6 for the Yanks. Two of New York’s games are today, a doubleheader against Minnesota. Meanwhile, Boston plays Tampa Bay.

If the Red Sox win and the Twins sweep the Yankees, Boston would pull within 1 game of the lead (with 4 games to go for each team). On the other hand, if the Sox lose and the Yankees sweep, New York’s lead would be 4 games with 4 to go — meaning they would clinch at least a tie for the title. New York’s lead could also be 2 or 3 games under the various possible outcomes. So today is indeed an important day. I’m wearing my Red Sox shirt in honor of the occasion. :)

Meanwhile, Anaheim and Oakland are now tied for the lead in the AL West, with Texas 3 games back. The Angels and A’s play each other in the final series of the season, Friday through Sunday. Over in the National League, the Dodgers are closing in on the NL West title (magic number: 3), while the Cubs and Giants are tied for the wild card with the Astros a half-game behind.

The Division Series start Tuesday!

First it was attacked by giant bugs — now Mount St. Helens has been overtaken by The Nothing!

Latest image here.

Over on TNR’s blog (which, by the way, is a good source for rational pro-Kerry commentary), they’ve got a good post on the aforeblogged topic of Bush’s and Kerry’s respective campaign tactics in this post-9/11 world:

[T]he Kerry campaign’s appeals [to pessimism] have been much, much more circumspect than the Bush campaign’s. … [I]f the president isn’t accountable for the soldiers who’ve died in a war he chose to start, and if he’s not accountable for failing to catch an Islamist nut-job who killed 3,000 Americans and is plotting to kill thousands more, then who is? These are very specific allegations, based entirely on the president’s record in office. I don’t quite see the equivalence between these claims and the Bush campaign’s vague and baseless claim that Kerry’s “weakness” would invite additional terrorist attacks–the charge in an ad they began running yesterday. (And I say this as someone who thinks they have every right to run such an ad.)

To paraphrase an Indian official whom my dad loves to quote, they are keeping up the fear-mongering…

As Brendan has pointed out I was in South Bend this weekend for the pummeling…errr…football game between Notre Dame and the UW. Other than the game it was a pretty good trip. The band stayed at the Essex Hotel in downtown Chicago which gave us the opportunity to check out some of the sites.

Unfortunately for me the one place I really wanted to see, the Chicago Field Museum closed at 5 every day and because of our scheduling I didn’t get a chance to go. The Field Museum is home to a variety of exhibits including the famous Lions of Tsavo, which many of you may remember from the movie The Ghost and the Darkness.

I did, however, get to take in a few of the sites including Wrigley Field and the Sears Tower. The best part of the trip was the comedy show we caught at Second City. The Second City has produced a plethora of comedies greats including John Candy, Jim Belushi, Dan Castellaneta, and Mike Myers. The current show was absolutely hilarious, best two hours of comedy I have ever seen. Poking fun at the current elections they at one point give various reasons of why they are voting for one candidate or the other. My favorite was when one of the females walked out and says “I’m voting for Ralph Nader because I’m an a**hole.

Oh and everything you have ever heard about Chicago pizza is true. If you are ever in the area I suggest Gino’s East ,Giordano’s, or Pizzeria Uno.

All in all Chicago was a great place to visit, although I don’t know if I’d want to live in such a large city. It was much better than L.A. in terms of greenery though, and it does actually get weather, although a little more than I would probably like.

Next time, my thoughts on Notre Dame.

BTW
Hey Brendan, I have an L pass with a few bucks on it which is going to do me no good. Send me your address and I’ll mail it to you.

Time’s Peter Beinart is wondering whether Dean would be doing better than Kerry is. It’s something I’ve pondered frequently in the last few months. Of course, I’ve also pondered whether a trained monkey would be doing better than Kerry, but that’s beside the point. :) Read the whole thing.

Oh, and here’s some additional evidence on why Kerry won’t win.