9pm

9:10 Damn. Saxby Chambliss is going to win. Come on, Georgia! Get with the program!

9:13 No more Liddy Dole. No more Liddy Dole. Godless heathens rock. OK, I feel better now.

9:15 And theCSO called. Back in a few

8:30

(At eight I was in the car.)

I am now camped out in front of my TV and intend to remain here until I have to go get theCSO from his precinct. As you can see from the photo, Dr. Frank-n-furter is running my research department.

8:33 I have real mixed feelings about Christopher Shays losing in Connecticut, which the exit polls say he will do by a large margin. Radley Balko says of Shays "Shays has a reputation for being “thoughtful” because he makes a public show of agonizing over big, important votes before casting them. Then, almost without fail, he ends up voting the wrong way."

I get that, but at the same time I really liked having some liberal Republicans around and he struck me as a fundamentally good guy.

8:39 Asshat Virginia Incumbent Democrat Jim Moran and Asshat Virginia Incumbent Republican Frank Wolf are both going to win their elections. Sigh. I would have been fine with losing both.

8:44 Right now Obama has slightly under three times McCain's electoral votes, but McCain is actually winning the popular vote. Electoral math. Sigh.

8:50 Forgot to mention, Liddy Dole is going down in North Carolina. Wahoo! Remind me to tell you about the time in my reporter days I gotcha'd her. It was awesome.

8:54 I had the chance to go to some of the big election watch parties and decided to stay home and blog instead. I am 90 percent OK with that decision. But as I watch the black church in Atlanta singing a Dresden Amen as civil rights leader Andrew Young is saying "This is a victory of faith over fear, grace over greed, and vision over violence," I kinda wish I were there.

7pm

I'm not doing well paying attention. It's a good thing I studied this morning. I will have to look over this stuff again.

The professor has asked for election results two more times. I kept my mouth shut.

Some people are already calling VA for Obama. I look forward to doing that, but I'm not ready yet.

CC

6pm

During class, the professor asks "have any states been called yet?"

"No," I respond automatically, thus outing myself as someone who was watching the results, not the professor.

Nice one, Einstein.

We're doing 1016(a)5, which is about taxation of premium bonds. It's making my brain hurt.

As of this moment, Obama's winning Indiana.

CC

5pm

Chili and biscuits is traditional. I think it started at the Kerry election, when theCSO went to work as a poll worker even though he was really sick. I brought him chili for dinner. Since then, I've brought him chili every time he works the polls.

I'm so charmed that he's a poll worker every election. It makes me feel snuggly inside. I'm a sucker for a guy with a sense of civic responsibility.

It was fun to bring him his chili and kiss him hello. He said that the turnout has been immense, even though there were so many absentee voters.

In other news, Ralph Nader and Joe the Plumber are clearly having some sort of contest to see who can be the biggest chode.

CC

4pm

Left work a little early because one of the associates needed some papers dropped off with an attorney who was on my way to school. I managed to drop the papers off without getting lost. I will take my victories where I can get them.

I can tell the anticipation is bugging the anchors on the news channel almost as much as it is bugging me.

CC

3pm

I've written a few more letters and I go hang out with one of the lawyers for a bit.

We talk about the election in general terms, how nasty things have been and how we can see rational reasons to vote either way, so we don't understand why anybody really cares about William Ayers and such. I feel like there are people all over the country having exactly the same conversation.

At some point, the talk moves to our families and she says:

"My mother-in-law and sister-in-law found a plastic surgeon who is having a mother-and-daughter special. By the time I go down for Thanksgiving, they're both going to have new boobs."

Now THAT conversation might be unique to us.

On a more serious note, read this beautiful thing that a Chaliccesseur sent me. Especially if you're voting in Virginia as I did.

CC

2pm

Waiting (and waiting, and waiting) room. Nothing much is happening. I left work, went by the bank and came here for an appointment that should have started fifteen minutes ago.

No news on the election. It's all waiting.

1pm

Sigh. My time is submitted, now I'm returning a few phone calls before I leave for the dentist.

Pardon my lack of groovy politics link this hour. Not much is going on.

CC

Noon

Lunch of the Gods. Of course, I'm dining at my desk because I'm using my lunch hour for the aforementioned dentist appointment.

Here's a list of places that are giving away free stuff to people wearing 'I voted' stickers.

11am

Memo is done. Now I will tweak last month's accounting of my billable hours a bit before I submit it. I am notorious for having spelling mistakes on my bills and while they get corrected before they go out, I still think it looks tacky and I try to prevent it.

The Agitator has a decent slate of election predictions.

10:00am

Good news and bad on the research front. I found a perfectly on-point case--in Oklahoma. Also, it's against us.

I stopped by the associate's office to tell her and she said she didn't think there was any way that opposing counsel would find the case I found. I beamed at the implicit compliment to my research skills and went back to work. I will write my memo now.

In other news, the Barack-Obama-themed-burrito won California Tortilla's mock election, the Obama-themed-omelet won Silver Diner's mock election and the Barack-Obama-themed-ice-cream won Baskin and Robbin's mock election.

And Nate Silver reminds us to ignore exit polls.

CC

9:00 am

One of the associates gave me a difficult research task on a DC case*. I've done the initial research and found that there isn't much on point, but I decided to do it again before I wrote my memorandum to that effect.

As I was working on it, I said out loud, "Damn it! I can't find anything on point."

One of the secretaries looked up "What does 'on point' mean?" she asked.

I walked over to her desk and gave her the five minute talk on the common law, using Scott V. Shephard** as a basis for explaining how the laws on the books don't always give the fairest result and judges need to improvise, then these improvisations become part of the way that area of law is decided.

She did a nice job of faking interest and her responses indicated she understood my explanation. She will be a good paralegal someday if she wants to be.

Then we both got back to work.

Wonkette has New Yorkers talking about lines around the block, but my secretary said that she voted within about 15 minutes this morning.

CC

*Most research tasks on DC cases are fairly difficult as it is a city, not a state, and thus has correspondingly less caselaw. The courts often follow Maryland, but I always spend lots of time trying to find a DC case anyway.

**A prankster tossed a lit firework into a market. It was quickly thrown away to another person and another, and it ended by exploding in the plaintiff’s face.

Even though the prankster wasn't the last to touch the firework, he was liable.
The guy who actually threw the firework at the plaintiff was just trying to get a lit firework away from himself and was not liable.

I find this is a good case for explaining the common law as it is a wacky enough situation that people easily believe that the laws on the books wouldn't quite be equipped to handle it, particularly given that it happened in the 1700s.

8:00 am

And I drive to work. I'm listening to a lecture on Corporations law on CD as I drive. (I'm really not a very good student and have to put this stuff in front of me in multiple formats to do a decent job of picking it up. Tax law is fairly logical but quite complex and corporations law is pretty weird in general.)

Fivethirtyeight.com says the freaky little town in New Hampshire is not predictive of the rest of New Hampshire, to say nothing of the country.

Ah well, to work.

CC

7:00 am

Still at it, more or less.

OK, I took a break to take a shower and get dressed. But yeah.

Now I'm back to reading about depreciation recapture. Trust me, you're happier not knowing.

Still, it's good that I'm getting all this reading done now. I have a dentist appointment over lunch, so I won't get to read then. I always feel like if I don't at least review my reading in the 12 hours prior to class, I will sound like Sarah Palin if I'm called on.

In actual news, for some values of "news", that freaky little town in New Hampshire where everybody votes at midnight went to Obama.

CC

6:00 am

I got back from taking theCSO to the polls and realized that I wasn't going back to sleep. This is actually OK with me as I need to review last week's tax class and what we're talking about tonight.

Had some cheerios, got to work.

I will spare you the details, and thus not betray any misunderstanding I might have of them, and say simply that what we did last week is how one defines a "Capital Asset" and what qualifies as an expensing, depreciating or non-wasting expenditure and what does not. (E.g. If own a meat-packing plant and oil from a nearby refinery starts seeping into the basement of my plant and I repair the walls so this won't happen, was that an ordinary cost of doing business or an investment in the future of my plant.)

CC

An election day in the life of CC

(In which I liveblog an entire day that sure as hell better be historic)




4:58 a.m.
CC: Dude?
TheCSO: Yeah?
CC: What time do you have to be at the polls? Your alarm has been going off for like a weekend.
TheCSO: (thinks) Five a.m.
CC: It's 4:58

By 5:15, he's getting out of my car at the polls.

TheCSO: Love you
CC: Love you. Call me if you need anything.
TheCSO: Will do
CC: And text me to let me know how turnout is looking
TheCSO: Uh huh.

Election Eve and CC can't sleep

Bleh.

There's something rather anticlimactic about having voted already.

Sure, it was convenient. Saturday afternoon, theCSO and I went to the county government center and waited in line for an hour. We talked and I finished The Essential Dykes to Watch Out For which, by the way, rocked.

Virginia allows people who meet one of about a dozen conditions to vote early. We got to vote early because TheCSO will be a poll worker* and I go to school out of state. Not FAR out of state, mind you, but out of state.

The machines were optical scan. Yay! And I even thought to get an extra "I voted!" sticker that I could wear to Starbucks tomorrow.

So that's good.

And it's not like Obama's done anything to change my mind in the last 48 hours.

Indeed, after I voted, I said to theCSO "Now we will go home and hear on the news that Obama tortured a kitten."

TheCSO responded, "If McCain's the alternative, I'm willing to believe the kitten had it coming."

Goodness knows I will be at the polls enough tomorrow. I drop theCSO off at some ungodly hour, then will take him a bowl of chili for dinner on my way to class, then will come to get him after the polls close.

The chili's our tradition.

But it still feels weird that my voting is already done. And I'm not nervous about the election, and indeed kinda tired of other people being nerous about the election, but I still can't sleep.

oh well

CC

*I realize I totally have a nerd fetish, but to me there is something very hot about a man with a sense of civic responsibility.

Keith Olbermann: Not the worst person in the world, but still kind of a tool, IMHO

Ok, so this weekend, SNL had Ben Affleck doing a parody of Keith Olbermann.

I thought it went on too long, but was actually pretty funny.



Olbermann, however, didn't like it so much. His full reaction is here. Basically, him being made fun of is part of a massive conspiracy:

Since spring they've been trying to cajole, sweet-talk, bully, threaten, blackmail, and bribe everybody at NBC from the pages to the presidents to get the milquetoast coverage they want - especially to shut me down.

This reminds me of nothing so much as Michael Moore's claims that his movie Canadian Bacon flopped because of a Hollywood Conspiracy, when the truth of the matter is it sucked.

CC

NOTE: Folks in the comments have mentioned that they think Olbermann was being tongue in cheek here. If so, we're reading it really differently, though Wonkette and New York Magazine and MediaBistro all read it the way I did. That said, I will confess that I don't see why it would remotely be in Conservatives' best interest to shut him down. Much like with Bill O'Reilly on the other side, I doubt he wins over anyone who didn't agree with him in the first place and he serves as a useful example of the evils of the other side to those with disagree with him.

And Olbermann himself certainly doesn't shy away from hinting at violence, so that someone did the same to him is unfortunate, but nothing new.

Well, duh...

Your result for Are You a Jackie or a Marilyn? Or Someone Else? Mad Men-era Female Icon Quiz...

You Are a Katharine!

You are a Katharine -- "I am happy and open to new things"

Katharines are energetic, lively, and optimistic. They want to contribute to the world.

How to Get Along with Me

• * Give me companionship, affection, and freedom.


• * Engage with me in stimulating conversation and laughter.


• * Appreciate my grand visions and listen to my stories.


• * Don't try to change my style. Accept me the way I am.


• * Be responsible for youself. I dislike clingy or needy people.


• * Don't tell me what to do.

What I Like About Being a Katharine

• * being optimistic and not letting life's troubles get me down


• * being spontaneous and free-spirited


• * being outspoken and outrageous. It's part of the fun.


• * being generous and trying to make the world a better place


• * having the guts to take risks and to try exciting adventures


• * having such varied interests and abilities

What's Hard About Being a Katharine

• * not having enough time to do all the things I want


• * not completing things I start


• * not being able to profit from the benefits that come from specializing; not making a commitment to a career


• * having a tendency to be ungrounded; getting lost in plans or fantasies


• * feeling confined when I'm in a one-to-one relationship

Katharines as Children Often

• * are action oriented and adventuresome


• * drum up excitement


• * prefer being with other children to being alone


• * finesse their way around adults


• * dream of the freedom they'll have when they grow up

Katharines as Parents

• * are often enthusiastic and generous


• * want their children to be exposed to many adventures in life


• * may be too busy with their own activities to be attentive

Take Are You a Jackie or a Marilyn? Or Someone Else? Mad Men-era Female Icon Quiz at HelloQuizzy