Governor Underwood’s memorial service was yesterday. I was around for his second term, and to be honest, despite voting for him, was very unhappy with his term.

But this isn’t supposed to be negative, I was pleased to learn that both he and his wife donated their bodies to science–his donation will help the medical education of students at Marshall.

I leave you with these two articles on his memorial service:

Charleston Gazette

Huntington Herald Dispatch

(S, I’ll have you know that these things make me think of you now, as I was looking for weird euphemisms.)

You answered 30 out of 33 correctly — 90.91 %

Average score for this quiz during November: 78.0%
Average score: 78.0%

I can’t keep my speeches straight, I can’t keep my amendments straight, and I don’t know what the public good is. :) Other than that, I’m golden.

Take the Civic Literacy Quiz yourself.

I’m going to print out the quiz so my grandmother can take it. We’ll see how she does. Probably better than the rest of us.

(via Stereo Describes My Scenario)

ADDENDUM the First:
Grandmom didn’t do as well as she wanted, but part of the problem was she kept changing her answer or knew the answer was wrong but left the wrong answer. Regardless of her score, she really enjoyed the quiz.

I found the results of the current poll to be very interesting.

Though I have to admit that I think it’s wishful thinking about Bill O’Reilly’s head.

I’ve been commenting here and there, and in doing so trying to formulate my thoughts about last night’s election results.

First of all, from an historic standpoint, last night was incredibly amazing. However, I’m not what sure I, a white woman from one of the whitest states in the nation, can say to address that subject. Other are doing if far better, so go read what they’re saying, if you haven’t already.

No, what I’ve been thinking about was broached this morning by John Scalzi, but is more than that.

I’ve become something of a pragmatist in recent years. As much as I cannot stand W and his policies, I was not so foolish as to think, like others I know, that he was evil. Misguided? Yes. Foolish? Yes. Evil? No.

In that same light, I do not believe that Barack Obama is going to usher in a new liberal paradise.

Last night, listening to John McCain’s concession speech, I was reminded why I liked him so much in 2000. And I wondered where that Senator was during the election. But more than that, I saw in McCain’s speech the things I like so much about Obama.

I urge all Americans who supported me to join me in not just congratulating him, but offering our next president our goodwill and earnest effort to find ways to come together, to find the necessary compromises, to bridge our differences and help restore our prosperity, defend our security in a dangerous world, and leave our children and grandchildren a stronger, better country than we inherited.

To find the necessary compromises. To bridge our differences.

This is what I hope that President-elect Barack Obama will be able to do.

I have strong beliefs about the way the world should be. I also recognize that what I want is not necessarily what others want, and that compromise is an integral part of creating a functioning society.

No one is going to get everything they want. That’s something everyone has to realize. It is something I believe that most effective politicians understand. Because even if you have what you think is the best idea in the world, there may be multiple reasons why it’s unworkable. Or someone may have a way to make the result better, by changing the process slightly.

It’s give and take.

This is something that W. seemed incapable of comprehending, but is something that I deeply hope Obama knows already.

To paraphrase a modern troubadour, you can’t always get what you want, but sometimes you get what you need.

What erin said.

CNN and NPR have called the election for Obama.

I have tears running down my face. I never thought I’d see this day so soon.

This is amazing.

OMG! CNN is using HOLOGRAMS to talk to corespondents!

AWESOME!

7:31
Election is called for Jay Rockefeller (YAY!) and Manchin (whatever)
7:51
They just called all the uncontested races. Big deal. That means Mollahan has it. Grr…
8:08
Workman and Ketchum are ahead for the state supreme court of appeals. I hope it stays that way.
8:12
Barth is leading by 1000 votes!
8:38
Obama is currently 6k votes up in WV! Not that I expect that to last.
8:49
Charlene Marshall is leading our Delegate race, and Cindy Frich is current LOSING! HA!
But Obama’s lead is down on 2700
9:02
DRAT. All the red counties just reported in. Capito and McCain are now ahead.
9:59
Sorry. Distracted. At least Mon county went for Obama. (sigh) But Frich is still losing. So that’s something. Capito is leading Barth. Boo.
10:49
McCain took WV solidly although Obama seems to have won Mon county. Capito is still winning, which is a shame. But it looks like all 4 of my reps won! Yay!
10:59
They’ve called it for Capito. Boo.

We don’t get “I voted” stickers here, so instead you get me in my Alex Ross t-shirt.

It is your duty and your responsibility. It doesn’t matter who you’re voting for (though of course I’d like you to vote for Obama). What matters is that you exercise your civic responsibility and your constitutional right.

In 2000 less than 600 votes determined the presidential election. Local elections are decided upon far less than that.

Vote.

ADDENDUM the First:
American Astronauts on the Space Station are voting.

You have no excuse not to vote.

I am constantly listening to the radio, from my alarm walking me up with Morning Edition to falling asleep to the Real Jazz channel on XM radio. My days are filled with music, but also with news and the voices that read that news.

I love the voices of Carl Kasell, Bob Edwards, Sylvia Poggioli, Noah Adams, and Susan Stamberg. Those voices make me feel calm and relaxed and even happy. (Really, how can Sylvia Poggioli’s voice not make you happy?)

But in the same way, there are voices that grate on my ears, that I do not like to hear. On NPR those voices include Liane Hansen, Joe Graedon, and Sue Scott. (Something about Sue Scott’s voice makes me run for the radio to turn it off.)

And of course there the voices of people in the news. Which brings me to my point. Now I can’t stand George W. Bush’s voice, but I think that’s more association than anything inherent about his voice. And I don’t like Al Gore’s cadences. There’s nothing wrong with his voice, but his cadences when he’s speaking formally bug me. And John Kerry, something about his voice and speech patterns.

But nothing like Sarah Palin’s voice. All it took was listening to the debate, and her voice makes me twitchy. I want to find her, and smack her into taking elocution lessons.

There’s only one other voice I can think of off the top of my head that does this to me. There’s a very nice woman in my building who has the most annoying voice every. Her voice is located in her nose, and to make it worse it’s extremely high pitched. Sometimes I just want to yell at her to speak from her chest. (Note to Gina: I am not talking about she whose computer senses fear.)

The difference is that Sarah Palin should KNOW better. She was a newscaster. She should know how to modulate her voice. Why she should choose such a nasal register is beyond me.

Especially when dropping your voice into your chest to deepen it is so much more effective when dealing with men. :)

I missed this yesterday, but was delighted to learn this morning that John McCain has been endorsed by Dick Cheney!

Really, doesn’t that say it all?

Well, I bought it myself, but that doesn’t make it any less awesome.

I bought the Alex Ross Obama t-shirt!

I also bought one for my mom, and was tempted to send one to Eric, but I didn’t know his t-shirt size.

A jury found U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska guilty Monday of all seven counts in his federal corruption trial.

What I don’t understand is why NPR is still going on about the Obama rally.

If you looked at yesterday’s pictures of the game traffic, you noticed that we have several yard signs for the election. (More than appear in the picture, actually.)

When I went to the Democratic Headquarters, I wanted an Obama sign, a Jay Rockefeller sign, and a Charlene Marshall sign. When I got there my friend Gwen was working, and she talked me into several other signs, since they were out of Obama signs, and told me she’d let me know when they got more Obama signs.

Last week we got our Obama sign, and added it to the yard.

Last night someone stole not just our Obama sign, but all the Obama signs in the neighborhood. (There were four Obama signs and one McCain sign on our drive home.) They didn’t touch the other signs, just stole our Obama sign.

We’ll try and get another sign today–assuming they still have some.

People suck.

ADDENDUM the First:
Gina For The Win!
“Yes, removing a few yard signs will totally help John McCain and Caribou Barbie win.”