Checksum Arcanius

1,371,153 - 48.8666% - Christine Gregoire - Democrat	
1,371,414 - 48.8759% - Dino Rossi - Republican	
   63,346 -  2.2576% - Ruth Bennett - Libertarian	

You know its tight when the Secretary of State goes up to four decimal places. A mandatory recount is in order, and Rossi is having to fight for a certain type of provisional ballot to be counted in some counties where he leads (which happen to have Democrats running the show) while Gregroire is getting the same types of ballots here in King county, by court order.

Of course, republicans were earlier arguing not to let any of those ballots be counted, but I think the law, once ruled upon, should be applied uniformly. The article fromt he Seattle Times follows:
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There has been some major sparsity over the last week, something I aim to correct here.

There were several contributing factors:

• I was feeling bad
• I was doing things
• Lego League is getting busy
• Work was getting hectic
• I was behind in math

Notably, Half Life 2 is not yet on that list.

Now, I am all caught up in Math, work is going well, TRC is decently on track, I am feeling great, work is moving along nicely, and, well, as soon as I finish my Math test on Monday, you might not hear from me for a while due to HL2.

Oh, there’s also real work going on on a site update, look wise. Don’t get too hopeful too early though.

Check out this piece by Tony Snow. An excerpt:

Elected officials derive their legitimacy from a system of government that lets citizens pick their lawmakers. Officeholders do not acquire additional “legitimacy” by virtue of the electoral margin. (Had that been the case, Ronald Reagan should have been able to assume czarist powers, and Bill Clinton would have enjoyed less proper authority as the winner in 1992 and 1996 than Richard Nixon did as the loser in 1960.)

Therefore, we now are ready to explain the 2004 election result in a simple declarative sentence: George W. Bush did not win a mandate; he got a job.

The same holds for the opposition. Democrats have an obligation to work with the president when they think he’s doing the right thing and to resist him when they think he has gone off the rails. Our system of government, like the legal system, thrives on adversarial conflict — the clash of ideas.

So, to summarize: The president doesn’t have a mandate; doesn’t need one; couldn’t get one if he wanted. He survives on the basis of popular support and consent — both of which he needs not just on Election Day, but every day. If he fails to persuade people that he is doing the right thing, he will bring his party to ruin, and perhaps his country. Ditto if his policies backfire.

But here’s the magical part: Every four years, we get a chance to correct our course. That’s because we — not a president — have the mandate.

Robots queued up in my house to be taken back to the school.

From the New York Times, via New Media Musings:

President Bush isn’t a conservative. He’s a radical – the leader of a coalition that deeply dislikes America as it is. Part of that coalition wants to tear down the legacy of Franklin Roosevelt, eviscerating Social Security and, eventually, Medicare.

Well dang. If I had known that this was his agenda, I might have supported him for re-election.

And here’s a great piece by Tony Snow that mentions this article as well.

Thinking about some things in my life can be a bit depressing. Either that, or the fact that I didn’t make it into the Costco pharmacy tonight is starting to present it self. Or maybe its a little bit of both. A lot of things seem to be caused by combinations these days.

Today is – well, yesterday was – my birthday. I think I am officially over the hill – I have reached the age where I only get older, without recieving any additionl benefits from society for the increase in age. Well, I guess there’s the whole car rental and insurance cost thing at 25, but thats not really much of a landmark, in my opinion.

After a short day at work, followed by lego league, robotics administrivia, homework, and class, I ended up with my family, and my good friends Shai and Theo, at P.F. Chang’s for the third time in recent history. We were treated to the same waitress we had the first time – and due mainly to my mother’s persistent questioning, we actually learned quite a bit about her. Life stories aside, however, she is probably the best waitress I have ever had, at any resturant, ever. She is quick, accurate, courteous, fun, talkative… realy quite a delight to interact with. It just too bad that Maneesh and I didn’t have the luck to have her wait our table when we ate there. We seem to have bad luck that way.

But anyway, the food was excellent, and as the fourth meal of the day for me, I ended up, especially after the generous helping of cheesecake, stuffed quite to the gills, an effect I am still trying to come down from.

Seeing Theo again was a good experience, and Shai too since I haven’t seen him in a while either. My Mom took it upon herself to buy me a box of chocolates, which she promptly proceded to eat most of herself while offered the rest to everyone else. I actually managed to eat one before the night was over, as did our waitress. My dad, always finding strange gagets, found me another one – its a smoke torroid launcher.

Yeah. I may fill you in on what that means sometime later, but I have early work tomorrow and all that.