Rusty’s Blog

Speaking of gambling, I realized today I never posted results from election day over/under. Here they are:

2008 election day over/under results

Player	Points
Ben K	4
Decaturguy	3
Reid	3
Tony Ventry	3
Thomas	3
Griftdrift	3
Russell	3
Seth	3
Sara	2
Joseph	2
Garrett	0

Congratulations to Ben, who was the only person to successfully peg the Jim Martin and Jim Marshall races, and is therefore our winner.

You can view the full results spreadsheet here.

Returns from Cobb County

While that was fun, even more fun is the Cobb County write-in results (warning, large PDF) are available!

In my quixotic quest to be elected Cobb County tax commissioner as a DeKalb resident, I appear to have garnered three write-in (type-in?) votes.

For this job, I gained more votes than:

• Al Sharpton (2)
• All Idiots (1)
• Anyyone More Capable (1)
• B (2)
• Baracck Obama (1)
• Batman (2)
• Bart Simpson (1)
• Bob Barker (1)
• Boy George (1)
• Bozo Clown (1)
• B-Real (1)
• Bullwinkle (1)
• Cher (1)
• Chipper Jones (1)
• Clark Howard (1)
• D Duck (2)
• David Letterman (1)
• Dog (2)
• Drew Brees (1)
• Dude McRude (1)
• Elmer Fudd (1)
• Elvis (1)
• Fairtax Fairtax (1)
• Frank Zappa (1)
• Gen Robert E Lee (1)
• George Jetson (1)
• Herman Cain (1)
• Homer Simpson (1)
• Hunter S Thompson (1)
• I Do Not Know (1)
• I Vote Against This Person (1)
• I Want a Choice (1)
• Illegal Alien (1)
• Ima Notgonna (1)
• Jackie (1)
• Jay-Z (1)
• Jesus Christ (2)
• Joe the Plumber (2)
• John Lewis (2)
• Johnny Depp (1)
• Judge Dredd (1)
• Julius Caeser (1)
• Keith Richards (1)
• Ken (1)
• L Ron Hubbard (1)
• Libertarian (2)
• Lou Dobbs (1)
• Ludacris (1)
• Max Cleland (1)
• Michael Jordan (1)
• Mick Jagger (1)
• Minnie Mouse (2)
• Ms Piggy (1)
• Muffin (1)
• My Dog (1)
• Neal Boortz (2)
• Neither (1)
• No More Evil Nazis (1)
• No Republican (1)
• No Taxes (1)
• None I Pay Too Much Already (1)
• Not Inerested (1)
• Not Sure (2)
• Obi Wan Kenobi (1)
• Oprah (2)
• Opt Out (1)
• Paris Hilton (2)
• Paul Johnson (1)
• Pedro (1)
• Pink Panther (1)
• Pluto (1)
• Present (1)
• Prince (2)
• Rad (1)
• Republican (1)
• Right One (1)
• Rocky (1)
• Roy Barnes (1)
• RRHHFDD (1)
• Samuel L Jackson (1)
• Santa Claus (1)
• Sarah Palin (2)
• Snuffalufagus (1)
• Solomon (1)
• Spiderman (1)
• Sponge Bob (1)
• T Boone Pickens (1)
• Tax Man (1)
• The Hell With IRS ;] (1)
• Tinker Bell (1)
• Ty Cobb (1)
• Utah (1)
• Vincent Fort (1)
• Warren Buffett (1)
• Woodrow Wilson (1)
• Your Mom (1)
• Zombie Reagan (1)

Take that L. Ron Hubbard! I tied “Democrate” and Jimmy Carter, who also earned three votes each. God beat me by one vote.

I think this sets us up nicely for 2012, or whenever the next election is.

Update 12/9/2008 4:01 p.m.: Thanks for the link love from Fresh Loaf, Drifting Through The Grift, and Decatur Metro!

Prize to be determined later, but will probably involve alcohol. If you think a number is too low, take the over. If you think a number is too high, take the under. If you think it’s exactly right, say push.

• 298 electoral college votes for Barack Obama
• 53 percent of the popular vote for Barack Obama
• 57 U.S. Senate seats for Democrats
• 51 percent of the vote for Jim Marshall in Georgia’s 8th District
• 45 percent of the vote for Jim Martin in Georgia’s U.S. Senate race

So, for example, if you think Obama will win more than 298 electoral votes, take the over.

You can enter your predictions in the comments like this:
over, under, over, under, push

And if you live in Cobb County, remember to vote Rusty Tanton for tax commissioner! This is how I will run staff meetings.

Update 11:14 a.m. I’ve added a tiebreaker: name the exact minute Twitter first goes down tonight. You can’t pick the same minute as anyone else.

Also, FYI for people who pick “push” on percentages, we’ll round up decimal places five or higher (i.e. 52.3 percent counts as 52 percent, 52.6 percent counts as 53 percent).

There’s now a write-in campaign to make me Cobb County tax commissioner. I’m up to three votes! That’s three hundred percent more than I had this time yesterday!

That I live in DeKalb County is an unimportant detail. I figured I should have a platform, so here’s my first campaign promise, following Jen’s endorsement of me on Facebook:

Matt: In line to vote. Want me to write you in for anything?

Me: Dog catcher? Sanitation supervisor?

Matt: What about tax commissioner?

Me: Ha, sure.

Matt: Done.

Me: Awesome. Only about 800,000 votes to go.

I haven’t been in much of a blogging mood lately beyond NCAA Picks. It is worth noting that — barring another mishap of some sort — I’ll be having my wisdom tooth surgery for real on Monday. More on that in my original post about it.

Other items:

There’s a presidential election in less than a month. I have not written much about it here. Maybe not anything actually. If you can look at the last eight years and say, “oh yeah, gimme some more of that!” there’s probably not much I could say to you that’s going to change your mind.

I did have some fun with Photoshop the other night as I was waiting for the second presidential debate to start though, my friend:

Perhaps I’m a masochist, because I bought tickets to the Tennessee-UGA game this weekend. I’ll be traveling with Alyssa, who is good people even if she is a UGA fan.

UGA is a 13-point favorite despite losing the last two games by a combined score of 84-47. Even though history tells us anything can happen in this game, I picked UGA to cover in my picks. The tickets weren’t expensive, fortunately, and they do sell alcohol in Athens the last time I checked.

My 30th birthday is coming up in just over a month. I have no idea how I want to go about marking the occasion. Any ideas?

If you live in DeKalb County as I do, there’s at least one important race to vote in today: the Democratic run-off for CEO. Your choices are Stan Watson and Burrell Ellis, and it’s a no-brainer who you should vote for.

Watson has been a no-show for several debates, choosing to attend fundraisers instead. He has campaigned illegally in front of polling stations. And he has not denounced the distribution of a race-baiting anti-Ellis flier.

I am concerned that Ellis is a little too cozy with Sembler, a company which builds suburban-style developments in places that would be better-served by true mixed-use developments. His election would make the construction of a controversial shopping development on Briarcliff and North Druid Hills roads a near-certainty. But by all other measures it appears he would do a good job. There’s nothing illegal or unethical about taking campaign contributions from Sembler, which is more than I can say about Watson’s activities.

There’s also a snoozer of a U.S. Senate run-off between Democrats Jim Martin and Vernon Jones. It doesn’t really matter who you vote for. To lose, incumbent Republican Saxby Chambliss would need to be caught killing a baby, pulling out its entrails and wearing them as a headband—while a young male intern was blowing him. Sadly, I think the second part would be more shocking to people around here.