The British paper The Guardian Weekly has launched Operation Clark County. No, they do not mean our friends across the Columbia river. They mean Clark County, Ohio.

According to The Guardian:

You may not have heard of it, but it’s one of the most marginal areas in one of the most marginal states: at the last election, just 324 votes separated Democrats from Republicans. It’s a place where a change of mind among just a few voters could make a real difference.

I’m assuming that by “marginal,” what The Guardian means is “close.” “This is a place,” says The Guardian where a few votes could make a difference.

Operation Clark County pairs a Guardian reader with a Clark County voter. Entering an e-mail address in the provided registration box returns the name and address of someone in Ohio. The Guardian explains:

Writing to a Clark County voter is a chance to explain how US policies effect you personally, and the rest of the world more generally, and who you hope they will send to the White House. It may even persuade someone to use their vote at all. [...] Of course, who you urge your voter to support is entirely up to you.

Helpful hints are provided, such as be courteous and charming, don’t make assumptions, explain why you are writing, etc. The Guardian promises to publish a selection of the most persuasive letters on October 20th.

And, although the reader is not advised which candidate to suggest, sample letters from British luminaries leave little doubt:

As the bumper stickers put it, “Re-defeat Bush”. But, this time, do it so overwhelmingly that neither his brother’s friends in Florida nor his father’s friends on the Supreme Court will be able to rig the count. Decent Americans – there are absolutely more intelligent, educated, civilised, cultivated, compassionate people in America than in any other country in the western world – please show your electoral muscle this time around. We in the rest of the world, who sadly cannot vote in the one election that really affects our future, are depending on you. Please don’t let us down.

It’s always interesting how others see us.

The last debate between Kerry and Bush — not a decisive win for either. But what color is Bush’s sky?

I got really tired of Bush repeating that the cure for everything — the economy, jobs, taxes, anything — was education and the No Child Left Behind Act. I wanted him to have to answer these questions:

* When all of these well-educated kids graduate from high school / college, where in the hell are they going to find jobs? Do you expect them to move to India?

* If I lose my job to outsourcing, while I appreciate the thought that I may get a pittance to help me retrain, how the hell, as a single mom, am I supposed to feed my family in the meantime?

* What exactly are the “jobs of the 21st century?” I have what I was told 10 years ago was a “job of the 21st century.” I’m watching all of my friends and colleagues losing their jobs to outsourcing.

* Do you have the remotest clue that an $60k+ professional position and a minimum-wage burger-flipping job are not synonymous? Do you know how many workers at Walmart qualify for government aid?

At least Kerry seems to live somewhere on the same planet that I do.

The New York Times reports today on the hue and cry in the blogosphere regarding the mysterious bulge in Bush’s jacket during the first debate.

First they [campaign and White House officials] said that pictures showing the bulge might have been doctored. But then, when the bulge turned out to be clearly visible in the television footage of the evening, they offered a different explanation.

And Bush accuses Kerry of being wishy-washy!

“There was nothing under his suit jacket,” said Nicolle Devenish, a campaign spokeswoman.

“It was most likely a rumpling of that portion of his suit jacket, or a wrinkle in the fabric.”

Ms. Devenish could not say why the “rumpling” was rectangular.

Nor was the bulge from a bulletproof vest, according to campaign and White House officials; they said Mr. Bush was not wearing one.

So the question remains… Was there a bit of Milli-Vanilli action going on during the first debate? Or not? And if not, what was that bulge?

Check out this picture.

Apparently Bush had a radio receiver fastened to his back during the first debate so he could receive messages (see the bulge marked by the arrow). Perhaps this is why his campaign insisted on a “no camera shots from the back” rule? Perhaps this is why sometimes he stumbled over his words? I know he does that anyway, but it seemed worse than usual.

It will be interesting to see how tonight’s debate goes. Since the candidates can get up and walk around the stage, it will be harder to hide a receiver.

I notice that the Electoral Vote Predictor in the side blog is projecting Kerry-280/Bush-239. This is the first time for a long time that Kerry has had enough electoral votes to win. I think it’s still a pretty tight horse race. Tonight’s debate is important to both candidates.

I’ve been meaning to blog about why keeping the electoral college is important. Maybe I will this afternoon if I feel better.

Kerry’s debate experience showed last night. If only he had more than one expression. I kept wondering how much botox, exactly, has come his way.

On the other hand, Bush looked, as my coffee lady Kathy put it, “like a baby with a bad case of gas.”

Seriously, though, I did think that Kerry came out ahead. Kerry came out slugging and kept the pressure on while still managing to respond to accusations of indecisiveness. Bush started out strong, but by the end of the first 30 minutes he was starting to stumble over his words and kept repeating the same scripted responses. There were times when he appeared to competely lose his train of thought.

Kerry had the best zinger of the night:

You can be decisive and still be wrong

He went on to say that, if you are wrong, you need to own that and correct your course. This is a point that Bush does not seem to understand.

I did think that Kerry missed an opportunity at one point late in the debate. Both candidates were asked to clarify if they agreed on the dangers of nuclear proliferation. Bush responded, “In the hands of terrorists.” I thought that Kerry’s response would have been stronger had he pointed out that this is a fundamental difference between he and Bush, as Kerry does not limit the danger to only terrorists.

In other news, John Eisenhower has changed his registration from Republican to Independent and will vote for Kerry. Eisenhower, the son of Dwight D. and a lifelong Republican, says that, rather than his own views changing, the GOP has left its own values behind. The article is an interesting read!

During the 2002-2003 school year, there were 16 school-associated violent deaths of students in the United States. This included 3 shootings, 6 suicides, 2 murder-suicides, 4 stabbings and 1 “other.” Granted that this is 16 too many, it still translates into less than one violent death per 1,000,000 students enrolled, or 0.0001%. Kids ages 5 to 19 are at least 70 times more likely to be murdered away from school than in school. I’m not trying to discount these deaths. If it were my kid I’d be devastated, and my heart goes out to the families and friends of those that died. But the fact remains that I probably have a better chance of winning the lottery than of having my kid die from violent crime at school.

Hudson, Mass., population 18,000 or so, is a quiet, predominantly white, relatively affluent community about 30 miles from Boston. Hudson bills itself as an, “unpretentious community with a strong sense of tradition, a tolerance for differences and a willingness to embrace change.” There are about 3025 students enrolled in Hudson’s 6 public and 3 private schools. The city-data.com crime index for this period is low — 66.9 vs. the US average of 330.6. In 2002, there were 255 total reported crimes in Hudson, of which 3 were assaults. There were no murders in Hudson, in school or out, in 2002. Zero. Nil. Goose egg. Nor were there any in 2001.

What does the second paragraph have to do with the first? This from an AP news article on Yahoo:

Election Booths in Schools Draw Concern

Tue Sep 28,10:23 AM ET Elections – AP

HUDSON, Mass. – Dozens of parents have signed a petition asking town officials to remove election booths from schools out of concern for terrorism.

Say what?!? Parents in Hudson are that afraid that terrorists are going to strike the small schools in their sleepy little town? Why?

Sally Morgan cited the potential for terrorists to try to disrupt the Nov. 2 presidential election, as well as the school hostage crisis in Russia earlier this month in a petition sent to the town’s Board of Selectmen.

Ah! I get it! Half a world away in the midst of a brutal, decade-long revolution, a school hostage crisis ended in a bloody battle between Chechen freedom fighters and Russian commandos. That’s sure to be repeated in Hudson! And because Dubya wants us to be afraid, in the vain hope that fright will (1)encourage us to vote for him and (2) keep the focus away from the real issues.

Somehow I think that Sally’s logic may be a little flawed. But Sally isn’t alone:

The petition, signed by 125 parents, asks town officials to move polling places to more secure locations such as the town library, fire stations and churches.

Is a church or library really more secure than a school? That makes me wonder a bit about Hudson’s priorities. Let’s keep our books and altars secure. Damn the kids! ???

Selectman Joseph J. Durant argued that pulling the election booths would rob students of an opportunity to see how democracy works. He also denied a threat to children exists.

“I think when fear and insecurity is introduced into Americans’ everyday lives in something as simple and fundamental as this, it is a sad state of affairs,” he said.

I have to agree with Durant on this. We should not be living in fear. We should not be teaching our children to live in fear. There isn’t a bogeyman behind every bush. There isn’t a terrorist stalking every school. Chances are very small that we will be blown up at our polling places as we vote. Chances are vanishingly small that doing so would interrupt the election enough to change the outcome. The citizens of Hudson are pretty darn safe.

Morgan has also taken her concerns to the town’s School Committee, which has reviewed voting day security at the schools.

Maybe that will calm Sally down a bit. If not, I have a lottery ticket to sell her.