Sweet, rigged voting machines isn't just an issue in Ohio and Florida, now it's happening in West Virgina, too.

Voters have been noticing rigged voting machines in West Virginia (conveniently operated solely by the Republican party) to automatically cast all votes for McCain (and every other Republican candidate on the ticket).

West More W.Va. voters say machines are switching votes

"I pushed buttons and they all came up Republican," she said. "I hit Obama and it switched to McCain. I am really concerned about that. If McCain wins, there was something wrong with the machines.

"I asked them for a printout of my votes," Ketchum said. "But they said it was in the machine and I could not get it. I did not feel right when I left the courthouse. My son felt the same way.

Wassup 2008

Neat idea. Win $20 at Amazon.com for making a sculpture out of food... www.4ty1.com

I voted today.

But since I live in Texas, my vote for the presidential race doesn't matter. If you live in Texas, your vote doesn't matter either, and here's why.

In 2004, the state-wide totals went like this (full data here):

The 2008 results will be similar. The politicians understand this, which is why there are very few presidential rallies in Texas, and instead they focus their campaign efforts in swing-states. Obama held one rally in Austin earlier this year, surely just for fund-raising purposes. Outside of Austin, everyone else will vote for McCain/Palin.

That's the problem with the electoral college. The outcome of the 2008 presidential election in Texas is certain, even now, 2 weeks before the real "election day". At best, my vote matters for determining which candidate wins Texas, not the actual presidential election. In reality, my vote only determines who will win my county, and since state-wide results depend on aggregating county results, my vote is lost between the county and state level.

A vote for McCain is a waste because he will win Texas, whether he gets your vote or not.
A vote for Obama is a waste because he will never win Texas, whether he gets your vote or not.
Same applies for that Libertarian guy that nobody has ever heard of.

So why did I vote today?

Two reasons.

First, whenever I get into a discussion about politics, being of practical mind, I bring up the irrefutable voting data within the state of Texas. "It doesn't matter who you vote for", I say. But nobody likes to hear this, most people want to feel like they make a difference, no matter what, so they push back with rude / challenging comments. Regardless of how you feel about our democratic process, the data doesn't lie: voting results are so wildly skewed (at the state-level) that you're either voting for the clear winner or the clear loser. Either way, the outcome is clear. Anyway, I don't like people giving me crap about "not voting", despite the fact that it's provably irrevelant in Texas. So there, I voted. It doesn't matter, but I did it anyway. :)

Second -- and this is the one I really do care about -- there were 20+ other positions to vote for (house representatives, judges, etc.) as well as a few city ammendments (whether to prevent future city-funded tax breaks / financial incentives to big businesses in Austin), and I know my vote makes a difference there.

I was curious about the sodium content of Jimmy Johns sandwiches, so I found their nutrition info online. Basically, everything on the menu is loaded with salt. To be fair, high-sodium content is not unique to Jimmy John's - most fast food / pre-packaged food has tons of salt in it - but I've only recently started paying attention to my sodium intake, and this is one of the first I noticed.

The small sandwiches (8") have between 1,053 and 1,658 mg of sodium. The average across all 7 varieties is 1,361 mg.

The large sandwiches (giant) range from 1,500 mg to 2,763 mg, with an average across all 11 options of 2,162 mg.

Even the "slims" are crusted with salt... ranging from 1,225 to 1,820 mg, the average of all 6 options is 1,457 mg.

The "gargantuan" (a co-worker orders this one all the time) has a staggering 3,782 mg!

A single pickle spear has 355 mg, and a whole pickle will set you back 1,420 mg.

Even the cookies... 427 mg sodium in chocolcate chip, or 470 mg for raisin oatmeal.

I didn't include chips or drinks, but they all have sodium, even the diet drinks and iced tea.

Food for thought: Sodium: Are you getting too much? from MayoClinic.com:

Your kidneys regulate the amount of sodium kept in your body. When sodium levels are low, your kidneys conserve sodium. When levels are high, they excrete the excess amount in urine.

If your kidneys can't eliminate enough sodium, the sodium starts to accumulate in your blood. Because sodium attracts and holds water, your blood volume increases. Increased blood volume, in turn, makes your heart work harder to move more blood through your blood vessels, increasing pressure in your arteries. Certain diseases such as congestive heart failure, cirrhosis and chronic kidney disease can lead to an inability to regulate sodium.

A few interesting bits from this article...

• recommended sodium per day is 2,300 mg or less for anyone over the age of -2-
  
• most Americans consume 3,500 mg of sodium per day - 50% more than recommended!
  
• cutting our sodium intake in half would prevent 150,000 deaths each year, according to estimates from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute
  

Early voting in Texas starts today (well, Monday) and runs through the end of the month. Go vote!

"Bush has now tied Richard Nixon's worst rating ever [of 24 percent], taken in a poll just before he resigned in 1974, and is only 2 points higher than the worst presidential approval rating in history, Harry Truman's 22 percent mark in February 1952," says CNN Polling Director Keating Holland.

Obama widens lead in national poll

Unregistered voters in Travis County have until Monday October 6, 2008 to register for the upcoming presidential electons. Register online here.

You can verify your existing voter registration here.

If you have moved or changed your name, you can update your registration here.

Early voting starts Monday Oct. 20 and continues through Friday Oct 31.

Early voting locations here:
http://www.traviscountytax.org/pdfs/November08EVMobileGuideNEW.pdf

and here:
http://www.traviscountytax.org/pdfs/November2008EVPermListPrintHandout.pdf