I can report that it was with great pleasure that I walked into the Curry Building here in Bloomington, Indiana, yesterday, and voted early (using a paper ballot that can not only be scanned but READ BY A HUMAN BEING). Early voting started Monday, 10/6.

Voting this time was pretty easy. I identified the little oval by the number for voting a straight Democratic ticket, triple checked I had the right little oval, then let my pencil speak for me.

The only other races you had to vote individually were school board and State Supreme Court. For the court races, your only options are ‘Retain in Office: Yes or No?’. It was my pleasure to vote NO, throw the bums out, for the Republican members of the bench.

The sad part is a good friend of mine is on the ballot for an empty judge slot here in Bloomington… as a Republican. I had lunch with him a couple months ago, and had to explain as best I could without hurting his feelings that although I did not categorize him with Bush/Rove/Cheney Republicanism, my conscience right now would never let me vote Republican again for any office, for any reason, as long as the Republican party remains what it has become, the opposite of conservative, and trending in fact towards full-scale corporate fascism with overtones of Stalinist communism.

One final note from probably the most liberal spot on the map in the middle of the state of Indiana, Bloomington. After voting I dropped by the barber shop to get a hair cut. Now this is a traditional men’s barber shop, not a trendy salon smelling of hairspray and dryers. I am actually amazed sometimes that they do not still have pictures of bulldogs playing cards on the walls, which I remember so fondly from my youth in the barbershops in rural Alabama where I grew up.

At any rate, once I mentioned I had just voted, and decided to test the waters by mentioning it had been a straight ticket for the first time in years (our council rep was a decent Republican), I was flabbergasted that both barbers and the other customers all took turns chiming in and denouncing McCain and especially Sarah Palin, who I think scares the bejeezus out of any sane American. It was unanimous.

FWIW, while chatting with the guy who guts my hair regularly, we continued our chat on politics, and I outlined the whole sorry history of Leo Strauss and his philosophy of the straw man popular man of the people president who is elected by the elite corporate and intellectuals so they can manipulate him to their ends; PNAC (Project for the the New American Century) and Cheney and that whole effort; and the Neo-Con takeover of the party with the goal of implementing these goals, and how that has led to the current disaster. As I was getting ready to leave, he had me write down the key words so he could goggle the topics and read up on them.

Maybe we will survive the madness and horror that Bush/Cheney and the crews outlined above have plunged us into in just eight years.

Maybe.