Good Lord, they're a dumb lot.

Millions of Americans in 24 states are turning out vote to in Super Tuesday presidential primaries from Georgia to Alaska today. Meanwhile, some dedicated if confused Florida voters are trying to, as well.

Elections offices across the state are reporting hundreds of calls from voters wanting to know where they can vote today. The answer is that Florida already had its presidential primary -- last week.

"We've had over 100 calls at least over the last two days," said Kathy Adams, a spokesperson for the Palm Beach County Election Supervisor.

Closer to home, Orange County elections officials say they are dealing with a combination of confused voters from Florida and California.

"One of my staffers has figured it out," said Orange County Election Supervisor Bill Cowles. "They are California voters going online and looking for the Orange County [California] election office and calling us instead."

Of course that doesn't explain the man who showed up at a polling site this morning in Orlando wanting to vote, Cowles conceded.

Cowles and his fellow election supervisors in Seminole and Osceola counties each reported at least two dozen similar calls. Even in Leon County, which saw some of the heaviest turnout for last week's election, has received its share of calls.

"It's funny that they want to argue with us about it," said Janet Olin, assistant elections supervisor. "We absolutely have had more than a handful, and they are a handful."

One University of Central Florida political science professor speculates today's confusion may reflect greater voter interest in this year's presidential race.

"There is a fairly large part of the public that doesn't pay much attention to politics," said Aubrey Jewett. "I supposed all the hype and talk about Super Tuesday finally convinced them to come out to vote."

Jewett said he isn't surprised by the confusion.

"Hopefully they will pay more attention to the process and will be ready to vote the first Tuesday in November, and not the second Tuesday," he said.

Thanks to Kid from Brooklyn.

Posted by: Ace at 04:57 PM | Comments (33)
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Will McCain's Stalking Horse trample him under-hoof and wind up bringing this to a brokered convention?

In California, McCain leads by just 4%, but as Geraghty notes it's hard to divine what that means giving that most delegates are awarded by congressional district.

And in case you haven't voted yet:

I can't believe I have to write this, but if you're in a state that votes today and you haven't yet, go out and vote. Don't let some report on a blog discourage you from exercising a right that our forefathers fought and died for.

The basic count, based on these polls, is 7 states for Mc, 4 for Romney, 4 for Huck, according to JackM. But California could possibly give Romney a win -- even if he falls behind in the popular vote, he could win in the district-by-district delegate allotment.

Although McCain will grab the three big prizes of Connecticut, New Jersey, and New York, Romney could take Colorado, California, Massachsetts, Utah, and Delaware. And maybe Missouri, too.

We could end the night with McCain just barely ooching ahead in the delegates.

Romney has issued this statement on McCain's backroom deal with Huckabee to deny him the West Virginia caucus:

Today, Romney for President Campaign Manager Beth Myers issued the following statement regarding the outcome of West Virginia's Republican Party convention:

"Unfortunately, this is what Senator McCain's inside Washington ways look like: he cut a backroom deal with the tax-and-spend candidate he thought could best stop Governor Romney's campaign of conservative change.

"Governor Romney had enough respect for the Republican voters of West Virginia to make an appeal to them about the future of the party based on issues. This is why he led on today's first ballot. Sadly, Senator McCain cut a Washington backroom deal in a way that once again underscores his legacy of working against Republicans who are interested in championing conservative policies and rebuilding the party."

Well, with Huckabee perhaps about to sweep the southern bracket in Mega Tuesday Madness, maybe this has backfired on him a bit.

PS: It's possible McCain might lose his home state of Arizona.

Arizona voters, get votin'.

Posted by: Ace at 03:12 PM | Comments (64)
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CIA Director Michael Hayden confirmed today what ABC news reported months agoÂ…The US waterboarded a grand total ofÂ…3 people.

Those subjected to waterboarding were suspected Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and senior al Qaeda leaders Abu Zubaydah and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, Hayden said at the hearing on threats to the United States.

He said waterboarding has not been used in five years.

"The circumstances are different than they were in late 2001, early 2002," Hayden said. "Very critical to those circumstances was the belief that additional catastrophic attacks against the homeland were imminent. In addition to that, my agency ... had limited knowledge about al Qaeda and its workings. Those two realities have changed."

Hayden told reporters later that the interrogations of Mohammed and Zubaydah were particularly fruitful.

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is of course the man behind the 9/11 attacks.

Abu Zubaydah was a top operations officer for al Qaeda

Abd Al-Rahim al-Nashiri was head of al Qaeda operations in the Persian Gulf region and was behind the attack on the USS Cole.

In short, they weren’t just ‘some guys’ picked up in Afghanistan or somewhere. They were high level members of the group responsible for killing thousands of Americans and who were key players in planning future attacks.

I am sure the hysterical types and the reflexive anti-American crowd will tell us that waterboarding even one person taints our national soul. The important thing to remember is people who say that are idiots.

Waterboarding didnÂ’t hurt AmericaÂ’s imagine abroad. The constant attacks by these people who used the specter of every person being a potential target of waterboarding as weapon against the US are responsible for that. Naturally, they had willing allies in the media.

UPDATE: Commenter Z Ryan prompts a thought...more protesters and media members subjected themselves to waterboarding than the CIA did terrorists. How did that work out for you guys?

Posted by: DrewM. at 02:40 PM | Comments (31)
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Polls will start closing on the east coast in just under two hours. It was Pat Buchanan's point on the Sean Hannity Show that west-coasters need to be wary of listening to the media report the results from the east coast. He sounded worried that if voters--in California especially--hear that McCain is sweeping the east coast, they may not bother voting. That sounds reasonable.

It is also something that we, Moron Nation, should keep in mind as the results start to come in. McCain is expected to do well in New Jersey and Connecticut. We've already heard about the shenanigans in West Virginia. Georgia is supposed to be a close race, which means that a McCain win there will be trumpeted to high heaven by legacy media commentators.

California morons, don't let that stop you from voting. Those who are just commenting, don't forget: California has as many delegates in play as New Jersey, Connecticut, and Georgia combined (although the proportional vote mitigates that voting power).

L.A. County Voting Problems? Drudge Report and local radio have been saying that some L.A. county polling places are having trouble with voting machines not working. Also, several polling places did not open on time this morning.

Voting in California will be problematic for a few reasons. Most of the state's electronic voting machines were decertified last year and replaced with older optical-scan paper ballots, which must be manual fed into the scanning machines to be counted. First-time voters are being required to show ID before they are allowed to vote, which is causing some outcry among Democratic voters who seem convinced that they have the right to refuse to show ID. Finally, independent voters in California are allowed to vote in the Democratic primary, but not in the Republican primary. This may be causing some problems for McCain supporters.

More: There is a possibility, depending on how close the races are, that California will not be able to announce the winners until Wednesday. From the San Jose Mercury News:

— Late-arriving absentee ballots will be tallied only after the precinct ballots are counted, and then only after a painstaking verification process. The sheer number of late-arriving ballots could leave registrars unable to call races until Wednesday, or later.

— A switch back to paper ballots has forced four of California's most populous counties—Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego and Santa Clara—to count ballots centrally, often with too few high-speed scanning machines to tally the votes rapidly. Los Angeles and Sacramento also will haul their ballots back to a single location.

— A lack of optical scanning machines at individual polling places means precinct workers will not be able to catch errors made by voters and have them correct their ballots. Any ballots that are incorrectly filled out will have to be reviewed, and in some cases hand-copied, at central counting locations.

Congratulations, Thompson Voters You deserve medals, each and every one of you. You might as well have filled out a ballot for Mickey Mouse. And you just lost the right to complain about the eventual Republican nominee.

The only excuse for that is if you filled out an absentee ballot before Thompson dropped out of the race.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 02:14 PM | Comments (45)
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See-Dub wonders what the freaking point is.

McCain Goes to the Danger Zone: Amusing mash-up by MKH featuring Maverick McAmnesty vs. by-the-book "Iceman" Mitt Romney.

Posted by: Ace at 12:41 PM | Comments (65)
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"Selected, not elected."

If this comes to pass, the smart thing to do is of course give the nomination to Obama.

But will they? How much of a hold does the Clinton machine have on the superdelegates?

If the party establishment denies the nomination to the black man, especially if he's ahead... well, there would be some anger.

Posted by: Ace at 12:22 PM | Comments (36)
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Kind of a different topic from the primary head-buttin. In this morning's co-blogger staffwriter's assignment and deep tissue massage meeting, Laura pointed me to a (possibly) never before published photograph of war correspondent Ernie Pyle shortly after he was killed by a Japanese soldier on the island of Ie Shima on April 18, 1945, just a few months before the end of the war.

I added "possibly" since the AP writer said same; a search showed a few copies in existence and no trace of the original negative.

Laura said she thought it was odd that we were spared this image when we've seen so many other horrors of war. I had a different take on it, possibly because I'm hungover and travel-weary. more...

Posted by: Dave In Texas at 12:20 PM | Comments (6)
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Hate speech?

...it seems some Camden-Rockport Middle School eighth-grade boys are taking it to new heights and making a game of seeing who can expel the loudest and grossest [farts].

According to this week's Fire Cracker school newsletter though, the joke's on the boys as the penalty for "intentional farting" is now a detention.

"Strange, but true, thanks to a bunch of 8th grade boys, intentional farting has been banned from CRMS," the newsletter said. "It started out as a funny joke and eventually turned into a game. This is the first rule at CRMS that prevents the use of natural bodily functions. The penalty for intentional farting is a detention, so keep it to yourself!"

According to a group of seventh-grade students milling around downtown following Friday's storm-related early release, the eighth-graders' escapades are well known in the school.

"They would do it in science class and other places," said Jordan Tyler. "It's a natural occurrence and we all do it 16 times a day."

When questioned where he learned that information, Tyler and the other students all said it was true, though they couldn't remember where they heard it..

Note the provenance of this story: It's from the "Fire Cracker" middle-school newsletter. So probably a goof.

Thanks to Locusts & Honey.

Posted by: Ace at 11:42 AM | Comments (38)
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Romney finished ahead on the first ballot, but no one got a majority. So Ron Paul was excluded from the next ballot and his supporters chose between McCain (trailing badly) and Romney and Huckabee.

The rEVOLutionaries chose Huckabee. As did McCain's people.

I have to think these idiots think that this move might help bring about a brokered convention, at which, of course, everyone would finally realize that Ron Paul (Ron Paul!) is the Only Man Who Can Save America.

Correction: I'm told it was McCain's people who went for Huckabee, presumably to deny Romney the win.

Last Correction: It appears McCain and Paul both sent their supporters to Huckabee.

More: Stalking horse:

But before HuckabeeÂ’s surprising turnaround at the convention, McCain delegates told FOX News they had been instructed by the campaign to throw their support to Huckabee.

McCain delegate John Vuolo said former Louisiana Gov. Buddy Roemer approached him and other McCain supporters at the convention and told them he had spoken to McCain, and that the best thing to do was to support Huckabee in the hope that Huckabee could beat Romney in this winner-take-all state.

That account could add fuel to RomneyÂ’s claim that Huckabee is only undercutting his support base on Super Tuesday, and that a vote for Huckabee is a vote for McCain. ThatÂ’s a claim Huckabee has fiercely denied.

Posted by: Ace at 11:27 AM | Comments (39)
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Straight Talk:

The New Yorker’s Ryan Lizza asked whether the radio hosts’ displeasure might be explained by “the fact that you never tried to court these people, suck up to them like Romney did.”

“Great question!” McCain answered, laughing at the thought. “I never would suck up the way all those other guys did, those suck-ups.”

Dan Riehl notes that McCain did "suck up" -- to the NYT editorial board.

So I guess sucking up to liberals is okay.

Posted by: Ace at 11:12 AM | Comments (30)
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