Do you own a yardstick?  I'm not talking about the kind you use to measure cloth, or pieces of wood, although I admit I miss seeing those big old heavy wooden rulers around.  I mean the kind of mental yardstick that you use to measure the world around you and the happenings in it.

CNN opinion columnist Roland Martin says It's our fault people aren't outraged over human abuse.

He cites a number of stories about human abuse, many of which I've never seen on CNN's web page, then attempts to scold all CNN readers for being outraged about Michael Vick's dogfighting, and not about these other issues.

I was unable to attend Yearly Kos in person, and happened to run across a few references to attending via the net, on Second Life or using the UStream  video feeds.  It seemed to me to be an excellent way to include a greater group of people in the convention.  Nothing like attending it in person, of course, but better than not being there at all.

I've been watching the Ustream Yearly Kos feed this afternoon, and it's been great.  We finally got a chance to as the Ustream admin some questions and I've got a schedule for tomorrow...below the fold.

I had a real "What the HELL?" moment today.  I received a very poorly unformatted email from someone I don't know in the least.  At first I figured it to be some sort of viral spam, but it mentions specific areas in Georgia.  I tend to think it was a real email sent to a wrong address.

Reading slowly through all the unformatted html, I caught the drift -  get your guns and lock your doors because those nasty lawless flood refugees are headed for Georgia!  

The signature included a professional medical address of some sort, and there was a reference to a patient in the email.

Get a load of this nonsense below the fold:

What happens when the news is bad for the Whitehouse?  Well, back when homeland security used the scary color codes, someone would call an "orange" and then the media pressure would drop.

Today's CNN website has this as their leading front-page story:

High Risk of WMD Attack in a Decade

John Tierney of the NY Times has written an OpEd piece titled "The Old and the Rested".  (Free subscription to the NY Times required).

In this OpEd, he tries to sell the idea that older people should stop trying to retire, and just keep working in order to stop burdening America's youth with taxes.

More below the fold...

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There are more stories coming out of Florida today about a handful of votes being found in random places. A few votes tucked away in a box here, a few found lying in a desk drawer there. Is that a ballot in your pocket or are you just glad to see me? We've moved now from Count Every Vote to FIND Every Vote.

I'm not quite finished working through the anger and despair of the election results, but I can see ahead to the day I will be rested, determined, and ready to go again.  During the election I volunteered for MoveOn, and was elated to hear of the coordination of volunteer efforts of the various groups supporting Kerry.

What now?

I've received email thanking me for my efforts, which is nice, but I've not received anything indicating that The Machine will continue to run.  There are so many groups with so many dedicated people (including the DKos community).  If we cannot stay organized and continue to work, we will lose our best resource.  Is it just too early to expect to see signs of organization?