Tuesday, August 17, 2004

Tales of Terror

Here's a nightmare scenario. Colorado is placing on its November ballot, a proposition which would have its nine electoral votes divided in a proportionate manner — no "winner take all." If passed, it would go into effect before the next Electoral College convenes in December to pick the winner of the Bush-Kerry contest.

Now, this would probably be good for Kerry. At the moment, Bush is polling at 48% in that state with 43% for Kerry. Bush will probably win in Colorado so in the absence of this change, he'd get all nine votes. If this new rule goes into effect, Bush would probably get 5 votes and Kerry would get 4...or it might be 6-3. The point is that Kerry will probably get a few votes that he would not be receiving without the change.

The "nightmare" part of this would be if it goes through and Kerry wins the country by a few electoral votes. Does anyone think the Republicans would then not sue to invalidate the change and demand that all nine votes go to Bush? And suddenly, we're back in the Supreme Court.

Obviously, I hope that Bush loses in November. But what I really hope is that we have a clean election where the losing side doesn't have ample reason to think they were robbed, and the winning side doesn't have to pretend that their guy won fair and square.

• Posted at 2:03 PM · LINK

Recommended Reading

Over on Slate, Kim Masters has an article on the current lawsuit involving Disney's hiring and firing of superagent Mike Ovitz. We're gonna hear a lot more about this.

• Posted at 9:53 AM · LINK

Recommended Reading

Jonathan Rauch offers an interesting piece on gay marriage and how it relates to the sad story of James E. McGreevey, the abruptly outgoing governor of New Jersey.

• Posted at 1:53 AM · LINK

Recommended Reading

If one wishes to understand John Kerry's position on Iraq, one should read this article by William Saletan and then follow it with this somewhat similar article by Fareed Zakaria. I don't think Kerry's view is difficult to understand but every time he explains it, it's almost like he's trying to make sure he gives them a sound bite that states the opposite.

• Posted at 1:46 AM · LINK

Original Cast Crisis

If we are to believe this article, the original Broadway cast album may be on the endangered species list. I know of no significant recent Broadway musical that has gone unrecorded but they're claiming it's going that way. We'll see.

• Posted at 1:41 AM · LINK

More on Colorization

My recent essay on the Colorization of Three Stooges shorts brought a lot of mail. I answer one of the most interesting over in NOTES from me.

• Posted at 12:01 AM · LINK