So, let’s see, what’s going on? Ten days until the end of daylight savings time (for those of us who observe it, that is). Whattya say this year we set the clock back 25 hours instead of just one? I need an extra day of sleep. Eleven days until the launch of Nova M radio (and the return of Mike Malloy). Will there be a Marc Maron show? And something else is coming up, too. Can’t quite remember what it is. Something to do with a Tuesday in November….

Speaking of which, with all due respect to KStreetProjector and his or her “the sky is falling” diary at Kos, if anybody’s worried about the status of their voter registration, then contact your board of elections. Now. In my county, at least, I can just go online and enter my address and DOB, and it tells me I’m registered, and where my polling place is. If you can’t do that where you’re at, then call or stop by in person and make sure you’re eligible to vote. If your state has early voting, then do that as soon as you can.

We all know Ohio, Florida, and every other dirty state is gonna do their best to screw people over (again), so don’t show up on election day only to find out you’re being fucked with. I mean, c’mon, we know the plan – we’ve seen it at least twice now. Fool me once, uh…shame, shame on, uh, shame on you crazy diamond. Or something.

In Ohio, the really interesting thing will be if Blackwell has the balls to toss Strickland out on a baseless technicality, and if Ohio voters will roll over for it. You wouldn’t think so, but time will tell.

I’m frankly having a very difficult time doing anything but following the elections (I’m wearing out my F5 key over at MyDD, tyring to stay on top of the polls). I’m trying not to allow myself to get set up for a crushing letdown (ala 2002, not to mention 2004, and of course 2000), but goddamn it, here in NY (and Upstate, in particular), we have a chance to run these criminals out, and I really hope it happens.

One thing that a lot of people don’t understand is just how depressed the economy in Upstate NY has become over the last 30 or so years. Companies like General Electric, Carrier, Kodak, and Xerox were huge employers in the region, and have all but dried up now. Things are so bad that we’re (well, not me, but some poor suckers here are – including Republicans that are in bed with him) pinning our hopes on a scam artist who’s trying to leverage a “promise” of building a “really big” mall here into not having to pay property taxes. Oh boy, jobs in retail, at the expense of taxes for the schools and the infrastructure. And people who can are fleeing the area – especially young people; anybody with brains and skills gets the hell out of here as soon as they can (which perhaps tells you where I’m at, in terms of brains and skills).

You can say a lot about Hillary (I know I have), but one reason she’s done very well here is that she’s taken the time to come up and learn about us and our problems. It’s not something a lot of politicians on the state and national level tend to do (Chuck Schumer has been pretty good at it, too – both of them learned well from Daniel Patrick Moynihan, in that respect). And she’s tried to help.

She hasn’t been able to bring the 200,000 jobs back here that she set as a goal, but there’s a real sense that she actually cares, and has tried (in spite of laboring under a Republican stranglehold on the Federal government). I know that’s something people from outside the region really don’t give a shit about, and while I’ll be casting my vote for Howie Hawkins in November (because it’s safe to do so; I’m really not stupid enough to think we’d be better off with John Spencer), I certainly hope that the blue tide that appears ready to sweep NY State and (hopefully) the country will be the first step at making things better. Not the solution, but a first step. Hillary is far from perfect, but we could do a whole lot worse.

Hell, at least we won’t be electing Arnold Schwarzenegger governor.