My sister Andrea spotted this photo of disgraced Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich in the Chicago Sun-Times.

I found the above screenshot via Mashable. See my prior example of bad ad targeting.

Good news from The Wall Street Journal:

One promise of [Obama's] victory is that perhaps we can put to rest the myth of racism as a barrier to achievement in this splendid country.

In related news, Marie Curie's 1903 Nobel Prize in Physics put to rest any myths about biases against women in science.

In a previous post, I provided my favorite warped sayings, such as "more fun than a bowel full of monkeys". Here are a few more:

• "There wasn't a dry seat in the house."
• "An apple a day keeps Newton away."

Here are some word tweaks:

• "I got my second wind" (pronouncing the last word to rhyme with "bind", like winding a watch).
• "ridonculous", which I first heard from a colleague I assumed made up the word, but it's in urban dictionary.

I welcome additions.

From The O'Reilly Factor (Nov. 5) via The Huffington Post via Keith:

• Sarah Palin did not know that Africa is a continent. She thought it was a country.
• Palin could not name the countries of North America.

You can see the video at The Huffington Post.

I'm almost feeling sorry for her, especially after listening to the funny but mean Sarkozy prank call.

My sister Andrea thinks they should let her keep the clothes as a consolation prize.

While I'm generally taking this election very seriously, there is an amusing measure on the San Francisco ballot: a proposition to rename the local sewage plant after President Bush. I expected the far left San Francisco Bay Guardian to endorse the proposition, but they opposed it on the grounds that it "is a pretty good sewage plant. It's insulting to the plant, and the people who work there, to put the name of an environmental villain on the door".

The argument for the proposition in the official election guide, written by the self-proclaimed Chairman of the Presidential Memorial Commission of San Francisco, includes:

Just as France presented the Statue of Liberty as its gift to the nation, the citizens of San Francisco may now bestow their own special gift to the country by renaming our award winning waste water treatment plant in honor of outgoing President George W Bush. We think this is a fitting memorial for a truly outstanding Commander-in-Chief. On matters ranging from diplomacy to fiscal and environmental stewardship, no other President has had such a dramatic impact on the country and the Constitution in such a short time. Most presidents wait years or decades to receive their memorial airport or highway. We think President Bush deserves immediate recognition for his eight years of public service....

While the argument for the proposition nominally praises Bush, the argument against renaming the sewage plant vilifies him:

I agree that the invasion of Iraq is the worst foreign policy blunder in the history of the US. I also agree that Bush has been the most ignorant man to ever occupy the office of President. To call him the worst President since Warren Harding is to insult the memory of Harding, who at least did not enter this country into any unnecessary wars.

Moreover, the federal debt at the end of this Administration totals over $9 trillion.... Maybe it would be more appropriate to name the local bankruptcy court or a consumer credit counseling center after Bush?

Besides, if we name the local sewage plant after Bush, then what's left to name after Jesse Helms?

[The above photograph was taken by Jamison Wieser and posted on flickr with a Creative Commons license.]

Have a nice election!

Some extraordinary women, such as Marie Curie, achieved success despite their society's biases against women, leading to a feminist saying attributed to Frances "Sissy" Farenthold: "We will have a achieved equality when mediocre women are as successful as mediocre men." Sarah Palin's presence on the Republican ticket proves that this day has been reached, but feminists aren't happy!

There's just no pleasing women.

My sister-in-law sent me a copy of this ad, which she saw in the Ventura County Star, asking: "Is our economy really THIS bad that people have to buy 99-cent items on layaway?" Lest you think this is photoshopped, you can click on the above picture for the full flier, which was distributed in California, Arizona, and Nevada.

The online world is abuzz over the above Amazon search result for "terrorist costume", with outraged readers of the LA Times Blog vowing never to shop at Amazon again. Despite being an Obama supporter, I was just amused, since I know how easily computer programs can make offensive recommendations. See these prior posts to this blog:

• More bad automated recommendations [bad ads]
• Bad recommendations [MLK edition]
• McCain Zombie Freeze Frame [Google "related search" suggestion]

See also the classic Wall Street Journal article If TiVo Thinks You Are Gay, Here's How to Set It Straight.

I assume the Amazon search results came from how users tagged the Obama mask. I predict Amazon product tagging will be the new Google bombing.

Reported by Sean Quinn at election site FiveThirtyEight.com:

So a canvasser goes to a woman's door in Washington, Pennsylvania. Knocks. Woman answers. Knocker asks who she's planning to vote for. She isn't sure, has to ask her husband who she's voting for. Husband is off in another room watching some game. Canvasser hears him yell back, "We're votin' for the n***er!"

Woman turns back to canvasser, and says brightly and matter of factly: "We're voting for the n***er."

Apparently, the economy and other concerns are trumping racism.

This reminds me of the 1991 Louisiana bumper sticker: Vote for the Crook. It's Important.