At this point, I see Virginia as a more likely Obama state than either Ohio or Florida.

eta: [link]

Obama has this Ohioan's vote!

(This is the very first time I'm ever going to vote! I feel so cool!)

(This is the very first time I'm ever going to vote! I feel so cool!)

This right here? AMAZINGLY AWESOME. It's the best part.

Yeah, let's ignore all the elections I was old enough to vote in and didn't...

Yeah, let's ignore all the elections I was old enough to vote in and didn't...

Hells, no, I won't. And not in a personal or guilt-making or you-should-always-vote way, either. One of the things that's had me very (not cautiously) optimistic for some months now is the way the Obama campaign has really energized a lot of people who weren't coming out for whatever reason, and a lot of places that weren't getting the message that they even mattered to the process. New voter registrations have been massive, turnout is projected to be the highest in ages, and you're one piece of that. People who aren't voting (but are eligible) all have their reasons; a lot of those people have found reasons to vote this time around. AMAZINGLY AWESOME.

News from Georgia: More on an Obama surge: Black Georgians nearly match whites in new voter registration

Newly released figures from her office show that 406,379 new voters registered between Jan. 1 to Sept. 30. Four years ago, the number was 371,932.

Overall, that’s a 9 percent increase from ’04 to ’08 — hardly surprising in a presidential race with no incumbent. Barack Obama or no Barack Obama.

But this is far from the whole story. Those same numbers show that 164,859 of those new voters are African-American. And 176,570 of those new voters are white.

That’s a 27 percent increase in new voter registration for African-Americans over ’04, and a 13.7 percent decrease in new voter registration for whites over ’04.

This is significant given that, overall, blacks make up 29 percent of Georgia’s 5.5 million voters. And it fits with the fact that, in the first days of early voting in Georgia, African-Americans have cast nearly 40 percent of the ballots.

ION, Cartoon characters brutally killed in new Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck art exhibition

The gruesome pictures include children's cartoon favourite Daffy Duck having his head blown off by a gun-wielding Bugs Bunny, as blood is sprayed everywhere.

Another violent picture shows famous cartoon cat and mouse duo Tom and Jerry as never before - with Tom the cat chopping Jerry into small pieces in a pool of blood and guts.

A third brutal piece of artwork features long-suffering cartoon cat Sylvester with a mouth covered in blood, having finally taken a bite out of his bird nemesis Tweety Pie.

The controversial characters, all taken from the popular Looney Tunes series, are included in artwork described as 'unrelenting acts of blood and discomfort never previously witnessed on the Cartoon Network'.

The barbaric pictures by artist James Cauty are part of the 'Splatter' exhibition which will be shown at London's Aquarium Gallery.

Artist James, 51, said: "People have been saying since the 60's that cartoons should show the consequences of violence, or kids will get the wrong idea.

"Its very difficult to shock kids these days - you have cartoon characters being shot in the head and walking off cliffs, so we have decided to replace them with something more realistic.

The controversial characters, all taken from the popular Looney Tunes series, are included in artwork described as 'unrelenting acts of blood and discomfort never previously witnessed on the Cartoon Network'.

Except, of course, that Tom and Jerry weren't Warner Bros. characters, so not Looney Tunes. Sad when even the non-USian press can't be bothered with simple fact checking. Or is the Telegraph one of the tackier UK papers?

Also? They obviously haven't watched Adult Swim. Or Itchy and Scratchy, for that matter.

Yay! Sorry, Fido, It’s Just a Guy Thing

IF you ask Adam Fulrath who is the love of his life, he will barely blink an eye before responding: Parappa.

Mr. Fulrath, a 37-year-old design director at Time Out New York, keeps five photographs of Parappa, a shorthaired, bicolored, mixed-breed cat, on his desktop. He knows that it might be considered a little weird that a grown man would be so enamored with his kitty, but Mr. Fulrath, who is into video games and comic books and calls himself a “straight, geeky guy,” doesn’t care.

“She’s my primary relationship,” he said.

Mr. Fulrath is one of a growing number of single — and yes, heterosexual — men who seem to be coming out of the cat closet and unabashedly embracing their feline side. To that end, they are posting photographs and videos of their little buddies on YouTube and on Web sites like menandcats.com, and Twittering about them to anyone who will listen.

...

The image of the crazy spinster cat lady persists, and plenty of people do wonder about a guy with a cat. As a writer on adventuresofacitygirl.blogspot.com put it: “Single men and cats are like a burger and broccoli. Separately they are okay, but together it just seems off.”

But those who see a growing link between men and cats see that attitude (not to mention the cat slaying) as old-fashioned.

Clea Simon, who wrote “The Feline Mystique: On the Mysterious Connection Between Women and Cats,” said: “I do think it has become more acceptable for men to own cats — partly for practical reasons, like the growing realization that they’re better city pets, and partly the whole acceptance of our cross-gender traits that men crave intimacy, too.”

Stacy Mantle, the founder of Petsweekly.com, a magazine for pet lovers, said that men are becoming more “cat literate” because they themselves are evolving.

...

Mr. Scalzi, who is now married and has a daughter, blames Hollywood for the continual bad rap that has befallen the male cat owner. Originally, he said, only strong men like Don Corleone, or the villains in a James Bond film, had cats.

“But then in the Seventies, Eighties and Nineties, Hollywood decided that we need to have the token gay man as the witty sidekick friend of the main female protagonist,” he said. “ ‘What kind of signature thing can we give him to convey that he is not an entirely masculine being? I know! We’ll give him a big fluffy cat!’ ”

In fact, Mr. Scalzi thinks that dogs are for the weaker of spirit, since the dog is, in effect, “your wingman.”

“If you’re feeling insecure about your space in the world, you get a dog because he will always back you up,” he said. “He’s the insecure man’s best friend.”

A man with a cat, on the other hand, “is secure with himself,” he said. “He’s sharing his space with a predator.”

Many women agree that guys with cats are extra special.

“They make the best boyfriends because they’re totally cool with staying home and watching a movie,” said Elizabeth Daza, 28, a video producer in Manhattan, who dated a cat-owning man for eight years. “Straight men with cats seem to be really secure and stable. They don’t need to be running around the park and proving their masculinity like the dog guys.”

Now I want to watch some Itchy & Scratchy