Today’s NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day has a beautiful montage of eclipse photos. For those interested in more pictures of the day, check out the main site or subscribe to the RSS feed from JWZ’s cheesegrater.

I am informed that there should be a victory post here. I don’t really know what to say. The Sox just breezed through this series… totally anticlimactic after beating the Yankees last week. I’m not sure who these people are or what they have done with my reliably-just-barely-losing Red Sox. And I’m not sure how to love a Red Sox that aren’t cursed. But I am happy. Sitting here watching TV and clapping my hands and grinning. Life is good.

The New Yorker has an article on prescription drug prices and the diverse factors that influence their prices. The United States pays for patent drugs, but remarkably has some of the lowest prices for generic drugs. Drug companies constantly alter drug formulas and repatent them in order to retain a hold on market share. In the process, they spend billions of dollars advertising their “New and Improved” product which is often nearly identical to a generic drug. Doctors aren’t free from blame either, as they are often less likely to prescribe generics and cave to advertising pressure.

As always, the debate talking point is distilled and the whole story is much more complicated.

The United States has endured a major looting on it’s watch: 380 tons of high order explosives are missing. To put this amount in perspective, one pound of RDX was used to bring down Pan Am 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. This is serious stuff. Even more worrisome is the Bush Administration’s reaction. The administration has known about the missing explosive material for over a month, though at this point it is unclear whether the President was even informed. Adding further insult to injury, this particular explosives stockpile was monitored by weapons inspectors, who were concerned about its availability to looters. The International Atomic Energy Agency were even concerned about the material, noting it could be used for nuclear weapons (although more likely they are being used for the “Improvised Explosive Devices” that have cost so many American casualties). This is no way to fight a war on terror.

The Moderate Voice has more, along with Talking Points Memo.

*jumps around excitedly*

Um.. do I even need to say anything?

*jumps around some more*

This is so sweet. (And yes, I am too young to remember the last time they made it to the Series. I think that’s mostly a good thing.)

Kevin Drum draws an interesting comparison between Jimmy Carter and President Bush. I don’t remember the Carter presidency (I hadn’t been born yet), so I am unqualified to comment on Jimmy Carter. But President Bush doesn’t have traditional Republican values and the Republican party itself has strayed from its more extreme values in order to gain broad base support. The Republican party has gained a lot of support by being inclusive and trying to appear moderate. Eventually, this will collapse when either the moderates discover the party is more conservative than they thought or the whole party trends towards centrism and leaves the right wing.

No matter which way the November election swings, I sense that Things Will Change. Things need to change. The Republican party will lose some of the support it has gained through PR, and I think we will see more movement towards independant voting.

I’m sure you’ve all seen the NYTimes Magazine piece on Bush and the role of faith in his administration. If you haven’t, go read it. Now. Anyway, over at Making Light, Theresa has a post drawing some further conclusions along those lines (Bush is a Pointy Haired Boss) and an excellent thread of comments. Good stuff.

Boing Boing has some information about voter registration. Today is the deadline for new registrations in most states. In New Hampshire, one can actually register on election day, but registering beforehand is probably a better idea. Your mission, should you chose to accept it, is to spread the word and work to give this election the highest turnout in years.

(Dyfrgi points out that its not much of a roundup if it only contains my opinions. So, it is now a “summary” :)

I would say Kerry came out ahead. Bush made a few glaring mistakes:

• BUSH: Gosh, I just don’t think I ever said I’m not worried about Osama bin Laden. It’s kind of one of those exaggerations.

  I don’t know how to respond to this. Not only is this factually incorrect, it demonstrates a serious lack of credibility. This fact is made worse by the fact that Bush’s statements about Bin Laden have been widely circulated. This was a poor start for Bush.

• Once again, I didn’t feel Bush appeared presidential. This is especially true at the beginning of the debate. Some people think this is an asset. Maybe it is to certain voters. Appeal to the common man is somewhat important in a president, but it’s last on my list.
• Neither candidate did a good job explaining anything related to health care or social security. These are incredibly difficult questions to answer. Ultimately, I feel Bush loses some points because he made broken promises during his previous campaign but didn’t have anything to say as to where he made mistakes and how he learned from them. Maybe this is because opponents would brand him as a “flip-flopper?”
• I like Kerry’s answer on abortion. Abortion should be as rare as possible. Bush makes this argument, but his own record on abstinance only sex-ed and condoms indicates to me that preventing unwanted pregnancy at all costs is not high on his list. Was it Clinton who said abortion should be “Safe, Sane and Rare?” I agree.
• Bush made an argument about Kerry’s alleged 98 votes to increase taxes. But factcheck.org has disproved this claim, noting that many of these are procedural votes, etc. Kerry’s rebuttal made a reference to this, and said he had voted for tax cuts 600 times. Bush’s response? “You voted to increase taxes 98 times.” This is not an answer.
• The “litmus test.” I know a bit about the supreme court and constitutional law. Let me spell out a fact for everyone: All supreme court nominations are political. All supreme court justices enter the court with solid ideas about life and rarely change their positions. Bush’s answer here is really another nonanswer, but I fear the general public will buy the “no litmus test” line.
• There were a few things said about being “a uniter, not a divider.” Bush sadly has not been a uniter, and as Kerry points out the country is now deply divided and bitterly partisan. This is in spite of the fact that Bush enjoyed tremendous popularity and overwhelming support - domestic and aboard - after 9/11. The president was correct in saying the 1990s were the beginning of this intensely divided politics, however, he still managed to squander the enormous bipartisan support he had and I see that as a huge black mark on his record.

That is it for now. As always, The Moderate Voice has a weblog roundup, and factcheck.org will likely have a detailed factcheck soon.

Okay, we already knew that Monsanto (who deveop genemod wheat and other crops) are kind of sleazy. But it turns out that not only do they prosecute people for having neighbors who grow Monsanto products, they apply for patents on other people’s work! Seriously sketchy.

My birthday is coming up soon, October 19th. My short wishlist:

• Panasonic DMC-FZ10K Digital Camera
• A set of wine glasses and a nice corkscrew
• Guide to Latex, 4th Edition; Addison Wesley Press
• Magellan eXplorist Handheld GPS

This was an excellent debate for both candidates. As of now, most news organizations are calling it “a draw.” I call it Kerry, by a respectable margin. I found that Kerry has clear positions that make sense. I’m not registered with a party. Initially I had doubts about Kerry. I voted in the NH Democratic Primary, and I voted for Clark. However, Kerry’s points have matured. They make sense. Kerry has foreign policy ideas which will rehabilitate our alliances with countries we have alienated. Kerry’s plan to repeal the Bush tax cuts for Americans making over $200,000 a year makes sense. Bush refutes this by suggesting it will hurt the economy. During a recession, rich people continue to spend. Middle class cut back, because they cannot afford to. This hurts the economy.

Tonite, I felt Kerry had a strong policy. It wasn’t an antibush policy. Kerry has good ideas for the domestic and foreign issues, and I’m certainly willing to give him a try. A few comments:

• Bush started the debate looking very nervous. He repeatedly interrupted the moderator, which I thought was extremely rude. After around thirty minutes, he relaxed and his demeanor improved considerably.
• Bush responded to Kerry’s comment about the 900,000 small businesses with a comment denying he owned a timber venture. The Annenberg Political Factcheck, the site Dick Cheney proclaimed as being “independant,” notes otherwise. Factcheck is an excellent site, and I encourage everyone to check it out.
• Kerry’s response to the abortion question was, in my opinion, very good. I will never have an abortion in my life. I am unqualified to make moral judgements for people who will be having abortions. Kerry is a catholic. However, he doesn’t believe in legislating his personal beliefs. This resonates with me.
• Bush gave a really disappointing non-answer to a woman’s question about mistakes he’d made during his presidency. Bush is very opinionated; I don’t think anyone can dispute that. Unlike Kerry, Bush has been very reluctant to change his mind on key issues. Is this a bad thing? Obviously not every agrees on this point. Personally, I believe accountability and recognizing mistakes is an important value that Bush doesn’t have. Others may see Kerry as uncertain. This is a fundamental difference in American attitudes towards politicians.
• Bush actually made some strong points about the economy. But, this was marred by his inability to recognize the fact that independant voters probably aren’t looking for “more of the same.”
• Bush either misunderstands or takes advantage of the fact that most Americans don’t understand the legislative process, and sadly Kerry has yet to clarify what goes on in the senate. A GOP ad accused Kerry of “98 votes” against tax cuts. But this number counts proceedural votes and budget resolutions (which the President never sees). Additionally, a repeated talking point during both debates has been Kerry’s voting record on the $87 Billion supplemental. I think this indicates that most voters don’t know about the compromising and negotiation aspects of politics. This comes as no surprised to me.
• On an entirely non-serious and unimportant side note, I’m amazed that Bush said “on the internets [sic]” on National TV. The generation gap, I suppose.

Bush came out of this debate with a strong demeanor and attitude. He handles himself much better in the “town hall” format used by this debate. However, his temper showed at the beginning to a degree that bothered me. On the other hand, Kerry is not a particularly emotive or charismatic person, and this hurts him in the informal town hall debate. I think Kerry came out above Bush on the issues, but Bush did a better job of delivering them to the common man.

For some more comments, check out The Moderate Voice and Rooftop Report. There are countless more, and you can probably find them through those sites. Additionally, expect a detailed fact check from factcheck.org within a few days.

We got back the first half of our first exam in my law class today. After we take the second half, the two scores will be added and then curved. The first test we took was multiple choice with some questions having up to nine choices. It was fifty questions, fifty points. I had the highest grade in the class, a 43. The second highest grade in the class was a 36, and the lowest was a 13. I feel pretty good about my score today, although I do feel bad for “breaking the curve.”

I never before realized the amazing similarities between Dick Cheney and C. Montgomery Burns. But, this wonderful photoshop brought immediate laughter. Even the liver spots match.

Eeeexcellent. (Via Boing Boing and many, many others.)

Andy Laudano hates email, so his compromise is that his office phone number forwards to his cell phone, and he’ll always answer it. About once a week, he gets a call during my bio class, and they’re frequently amusing.

“Hi, this is Andy.”
“Hey Brenda. I’m in class right now, so….”
“I’ll be there at eleven, yeah.”
“Pizza.”
“Hawaiian, pepperoni…”
He looks at the class. “What else do you guys like?”

The Moderate Voice has a really nice summary of different VP Debate opinions. Their own conclusion is that it was a tie, and I largely agree. Cheney and Edwards are both excellent debaters. Right Thinking from the Left Coast said:

You know what thought kept entering my head while I was listening to the debate? “Why aren’t these two guys running for president instead of the two jackoffs we have right now?”

Dick Cheney made an interesting gaffe during the debate. He misspoke and said “factcheck.com” when he meant “factcheck.org. Factcheck.com was originally unused, but someone (identity unknown at this time) redirected it to George Soros’s site. The real factcheck.org is a very responsible institution affiliated with the University of Pennsylvania. Unfortunately, their site has been under very heavy load today and has been hard to reach. Once the storm dies down, I encourage all to take a look at it. They do a good job checking the facts of both candidates during the campaigns.

UPDATE: Kevin Drum has some information about the factcheck.com switch.

Apparently, many people are not aware of the proceedure for stopping a runaway car. Here is the correct proceedure:

1. Regardless of whether you are driving a manual transmission or an automatic, shift to neutral. The engine will rev up and hit redline, but the car’s computer will prevent the engine from damaging itself. The transmission will not be damaged.
2. Use the brakes to stop the car and the steering to stop the car. In a car with a gasoline engine, power brakes may be slightly less effective. Just continue braking. Steering ability will not be diminished as long as the engine runs.
3. Once you get the car stopped, set the parking brake securely.

These are the don’ts:

• Don’t turn off the engine until you are stopped. You will lose power steering and brake assist.
• Don’t try to brake before the vehicle is in neutral, unless the vehicle is stuck in gear. In this case, use your muscles to brake over the engine until you get the vehicle under control.

The American Prospect has an article about how an incumbant candidate with less than fifty percent of the vote rarely gets reelected. Undecided voters are more likely to vote against the incumbant, and recent efforts to register new voters in swing states have been very successful. A tie in the polls may be promising for Kerry.

In case you missed it, John Eisenhower (son of Republican President Eisenhower) wrote an editorial in the New Hampshire Union Leader. Eisenhower claims the Republican party has drifted away from its roots and conservative ideals. He has changed his voter registration to independant, and plans to vote for John Kerry. His words are a valuable read for anyone who considers themselves a true conservative.

The Rooftop Report has some information on quote fabrication by Fox News earlier today. On the front page of the Fox News site, an aricle penned by Carl Cameron contained several falsified quotes attributed to Kerry. Carl Cameron is Fox’s chief political correspondant. According to Fox, he has been reprimanded for his “lapse in judgement.” Fox called the article “a poor attempt at humour.” Fox typically is not known for journalistic excellence, but this is pretty extreme.

A search of Media Matters reveals that Cameron is hardly a neutral party. If I were in charge I certainly wouldn’t have given this man the job of chief political correspondant. Although we’ll probably never know the sequence of events responsible for placing the fabricated quotes on the frontpage, Cameron certainly wasn’t the only person who looked at the article.

Talking Points Memo had some email correspondance with Fox over this as well as some additional commentary.