SEIZED CELL PHONE STIRS TROUBLE

Kid has cell phone. It rings at school. Teacher confiscates phone. All hell breaks loose. KTEN reports:

Charges of larceny against two Carter County school officials have been sent to the district attorney's office for consideration of prosecution. Parents of a Lone Grove High School student say the superintendent and the high school principal will not release property that belongs to them. ...

The cell phone was confiscated from the student last week after it rang in the middle of class. The teacher thought the ringing of the phone interrupted the classwork, and took the phone to the principal's office. When the student's parents went to the school to get it back, they were told it was school policy to hold the phone for five days. The mother of the student, Yvonne Walker, was upset because she says the phone is used in case of an emergency.

"He's 16, he's got a new job and I worry about him on the road," said Walker. "His father worries about him on the road, he's supposed to contact us." ...

Walker says she was treated with disrespect by the principal and the superintendent. She contacted the Lone Grove police department, who sent an officer to the school. Captain Scott Lang said, "I attempted to get the situation resolved, couldn't reach a resolution to it. I ended up having to do a report on it."

That report was sent to the District Attorney's office for consideration of larceny charges against the school officials. The student's parents say the situation could have been resolved much easier.

"I understand that they need to discipline the kids and he was wrong, and he understands that he was wrong and he should be disciplined at home, and we will do that," said Ms. Walker.

"I want the policy changed for any student, any parent," said Mr. Walker. "They should have the right to come pick up their cell phone. The superintendent says he's just following school policy."

Yeah, he's "just" following school policy. No big. Nice lesson to teach the kid.

MINORITY WHIP, OR WHIPPED?

Rep. Roy Blunt will learn on Friday whether he keeps any power in Congress. The majority whip, soon to become a member of the minority party, wants to be minority whip. The Republicans vote on Friday. Blunt says he has the votes to win.

But supposedly friendly voices, like Human Events, want Blunt gone. The Freepers have turned against him. The Richmond Times-Dispatch brings up a possible spoiler role for Eric Cantor, the deputy whip brought to power by Blunt.

Blunt's outward confidence means little. He knew he'd be majority leader last February, and he lost that vote to John Boehner. Now many conservatives want Boehner and Blunt banished to the back benches.

Blunt will be lucky if he wins on Friday.

MAY 10, 2807 B.C.

An environmental archaeologist thinks that's when something big fell from the sky and created a flood that became legend.

Bruce Masse works at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. What he thinks is becoming more important right now, because some scientists believe they've uncovered evidence pointing to a massive cosmic impact in the Indian Ocean. Massive, and recent -- about 4,800 years ago.

This report in The New York Times has a killer lede:

At the southern end of Madagascar lie four enormous wedge-shaped sediment deposits, called chevrons, that are composed of material from the ocean floor. Each covers twice the area of Manhattan with sediment as deep as the Chrysler Building is high.

On close inspection, the chevron deposits contain deep ocean microfossils that are fused with a medley of metals typically formed by cosmic impacts. And all of them point in the same direction — toward the middle of the Indian Ocean where a newly discovered crater, 18 miles in diameter, lies 12,500 feet below the surface.

The explanation is obvious to some scientists. A large asteroid or comet, the kind that could kill a quarter of the world's population, smashed into the Indian Ocean 4,800 years ago, producing a tsunami at least 600 feet high, about 13 times as big as the one that inundated Indonesia nearly two years ago. The wave carried the huge deposits of sediment to land.

Most astronomers doubt that any large comets or asteroids have crashed into the Earth in the last 10,000 years. But the self-described "band of misfits" that make up the two-year-old Holocene Impact Working Group say that astronomers simply have not known how or where to look for evidence of such impacts along the world's shorelines and in the deep ocean.

Scientists in the working group say the evidence for such impacts during the last 10,000 years, known as the Holocene epoch, is strong enough to overturn current estimates of how often the Earth suffers a violent impact on the order of a 10-megaton explosion. Instead of once in 500,000 to one million years, as astronomers now calculate, catastrophic impacts could happen every 1,000 years. ...

Dr. Masse analyzed 175 flood myths from around the world, and tried to relate them to known and accurately dated natural events like solar eclipses and volcanic eruptions. Among other evidence, he said, 14 flood myths specifically mention a full solar eclipse, which could have been the one that occurred in May 2807 B.C.

More recent are two possible craters north of Australia, "the likely source of megastsunami waves responsible for the Holocene aged chevron dunes" found four miles inland, near Carpentaria. Those are estimated to be about 1,200 years old.

MILTON FRIEDMAN, 94

The faster-than-we-are Granny Geek gets the point for the economist and libertarian.

The New York Times story that GG referenced has a howler of a second graf:

Friedman died in San Francisco, said Robert Fanger, a spokesman for the Milton and Rose D. Friedman Foundation in Indianapolis. He did not know the cause of death.

Hello -- 94? We're not even halfway there and we're always tired.

KITTY CONUNDRUM

Jim Stevenson stands accused of killing a cat with his .22-caliber rifle. The Galveston, Texas, resident isn't some sick, punk-ass kid. He's a bird lover and a published author, founder of the Galveston Ornithological Society.

But even if he isn't good for the Nov. 8 shooting with which he's charged, Stevenson is a cat killer. The Houston Chronicle reports that Stevenson admits to shooting two dozen cats on his property.

He also insists he does not hate cats. From the story:

"It has come across in articles that I hate cats and that's just not true," Stevenson said in an interview at his home today. "I actually like cats in the house. I have friends I visit and I play with their cats in my lap."

Feral cats, however, are another matter. Stevenson told the newspaper that it's not illegal to shoot feral cats, and if they're on his property, they're fair game.

But the Nov. 8 shooting happened this way, according to the Chronicle:

Stevenson was arrested last week after a toll booth worker at the San Luis Pass Bridge said he heard two shots and saw Stevenson driving away in a white van.

The bridge employee, John Newland, said he and other toll-takers feed the cats that gather around the bridge and consider them pets. Newland said he found the cat, which already had a limp from an earlier shooting, dead after he heard shots.

Police arrested Stevenson several miles from the bridge as he drove toward his home.

Problem for Stevenson: A pet cat isn't considered feral.

Stevenson loves his birds. Understood. But how'd you like to have an outdoor cat and be this guy's neighbor?

BRAIN EXPLOSION

Last June, U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) showed one of the downsides to thinking old (as opposed to being old, an entirely different experience) -- it's too hard to keep up with the technology. A few of our peers got stuck in the 8-Track Tar Pit. Others were waylaid by VHS. More can't get their heads around the whole iPod thing. Even more will never podcast and never wonder why they didn't.

Comfort over current. Known over unknown. Stevens showed how cold comfort can be when the lawmaker said this about the Internet:

"I just the other day got... an Internet was sent by my staff at 10 o'clock in the morning on Friday, I got it yesterday. Why? [...] They want to deliver vast amounts of information over the Internet. And again, the Internet is not something you just dump something on. It's not a big truck. It's a series of tubes. And if you don't understand those tubes can be filled and if they are filled, when you put your message in, it gets in line and it's going to be delayed by anyone that puts into that tube enormous amounts of material, enormous amounts of material."

This week, the talk-show host Larry King had his Stevens moment, when he confessed that he doesn't do the Internet, telling Roseanne Barr:

"I’ve never done it, never gone searching ... The wife loves it. I wouldn’t love it. What do you punch little buttons and things?"

Our own Stevens moment has arrived. This map shows what the Internet looks like -- how packets of info travel around the world. Accompanying the map is this fact:

The United States owns 74 percent of the 4 billion available Internet protocol (IP) addresses. China's stake amounts to little more than that of an American university. Not surprisingly, China is championing the next wave of the Internet, which would accommodate 340 trillion trillion trillion IP addresses.

BLAM. Our head goes back and to the left, spilling our online life: The TRS-80 running AA batteries, uploading stories at 300 baud. Rubber cups over the phone's mouthpiece and earpiece when the acoustic modem chirped. Up to 1200, then 9600, 14.4, 56k. Broadband. Pics. Vid. Streaming vid.

Now it's all tubes and buttons and things. No trucks allowed.

TOMMY THOMPSON HALLUCINATES

Tommy Thompson, the former Health and Human Services Secretary in the Bush Administration, wants to be president. The Associated Press reports that Thompson "intends to form a committee to explore a possible run for the White House in 2008."

When he was governor of Wisconsin, Thompson became known as the guy who reformed welfare in his state. But we remember him more fondly for his absolutely worthless leadership during the 2001 anthrax killings. Of special note is this quote from Thompson's Oct. 4, 2001 press briefing, as he discussed how tabloid photo editor Robert Stevens contracted inhalation anthrax:

"We do know that he drank water out of a stream when he was traveling to North Carolina last week."

We also know that White House staff were given the antibiotic Cipro starting the night of Sept. 11, 2001, three weeks before the first reported anthrax attack. Maybe they'd been drinking water from a stream in North Carolina, too.

SNAKES IN A DUPLEX!

In Indianapolis! Holy mamba! The Associated Press reports:

Conservation officers who entered the home of a man who sought treatment for a poisonous snake bite found 15 venomous vipers, including cobras and rattlesnakes, inside.

Michael Fillenwarth, 47, was taken into custody but later released after Monday night's raid on his home due to medical issues related to his snake bite, officials said.

Authorities learned of the snakes after Fillenwarth sought treatment over the weekend for a bite from the highly venomous green mamba, native to Africa.

Sgt. Dean Shadley, an Indiana Conservation Officer, said Fillenwarth did not have the proper permits to keep the snakes, which Shadley described as "extremely poisonous." He is charged with possession of a dangerous reptile without a permit. ...

Officers confiscated five types of rattlesnakes, three types of cobras, along with gaboon vipers, copperheads, a puff adder, and two green mambas from Fillenwarth's duplex on Indianapolis' east side. They also seized caged quail Fillenwarth was using as food for the reptiles.

As Fat Jack might say, it's a good thing the mamba didn't bite him in the flanderdoodle.

DON'T KNOW MUCH ABOUT HISTORY

David Paszkiewicz is a history teacher at Kearney High School in New Jersey. His version of history, however, is distinctly different.

Chew on this riff of his:

"He (God) did everything in his power to make sure that you could go to heaven, so much so that he took your sin on his own body, suffered your pains for you and he's saying, 'Please accept me, believe me.'"

"If you reject that, you belong in hell. The outcome is your prerogative. But the way I see it, God himself sent his only son to die for David Paszkiewicz on that cross ... And if you reject that, then it really is to hell with you."

What the hell? The Star-Ledger reports that Paszkiewicz is still teaching, despite audio recordings that seem to prove the teacher is a liar and a hypocrite.

Matthew LaClair, the 16-year-old student, taped Paszkiewicz. The teacher said the theories of evolution and the "Big Bang" were bogus, and that dinosaurs were hanging out on Noah's ark.

The student complained to the school principal. The teacher denied every allegation. The student unveiled his audio proof.

Paszkiewicz is also a Baptist preacher. He should stick with that calling and leave the teaching of history to others.

IF?

Great holiday programming from Fox later this month, according to The Associated Press:

Fox plans to broadcast an interview with O.J. Simpson in which the former football star discusses "how he would have committed" the slayings of his ex-wife and her friend, for which he was acquitted, the network said.

The two-part interview, titled "O.J. Simpson: If I Did It, Here’s How It Happened," will air Nov. 27 and Nov. 29, the TV network said.

Glove didn't fit, jury did acquit, but O.J. still killed them.

'WAR ON CHRISTMAS' NOISE STARTS AGAIN

Social conservatives made a lot of noise about this last year. They're going to make an even bigger racket this year.

Already, Wal-Mart has announced it will use "Merry Christmas" in its advertising. The heathens at Best Buy, however, will use the generic:

"We are going to continue to use the term holiday because there are several holidays throughout that time period, and we certainly need to be respectful of all of them," said Dawn Bryant, spokeswoman at Best Buy Co. Inc.

Note to social cons: If you're serious about waging war, there are real ones in Iraq and Afghanistan.

CLEAR CHANNEL AXES LIB TALK

Madison, Wisconsin is the scene of the radio crime. The Wisconsin State Journal reports:

Just three days after Madison's left celebrated wins by the Democrats, broadcasting behemoth Clear Channel Radio delivered a stunning right hook Friday, announcing it would silence Air America in the Madison market and replace the liberal talk-show format on WXXM-FM (92.1) The Mic with an all-sports format from Fox Radio Sports.

So long, political debate and comment. Hello, serve, set, spike and point.

"I find it puzzling as to the timing given the election results," said Terry Kelly, one of the founding members of the Air America network and a longtime Madison businessman. "There is no business reason that is apparent to me (for the change), therefore, one wonders what the real reasons may be."

The move by Clear Channel, which operates 1,140 radio stations in the United States, comes after the radio station posted a solid gain in the Arbitron ratings, going from a 2.3 share in the summer of 2005 to 3.7 this summer, placing 11th in the market for listeners 12 and older. It also means that beginning on Jan. 1, one of the most liberal cities in the country will be without a commercial radio network of the same tilt.

In a perfect world, this would be followed by Springfield flushing the local talk-radio venereal disease out of its system.

THREE? OR FOUR?

Death comes in threes, they say. Why they made the rule -- and who "they" are -- is besides the point. It's the Second Law of The Game of Mortality, neither new nor from Milton-Bradley, that chunk of steak wholly owned and currently residing in the intestines of Hasbro.

The First Law of The Game of Mortality, of course, is that everyone eventually plays.

Ed Bradley did. So did Jack Palance. Now the gang of playas -- MIT and Smitty, Mayor Dan and Brother Richard, Doc and JJ and Marmot -- can speculate on the identity of lucky number three. But now the game gets murky. Is it Basil Poledouris, composer, best known for scoring the Conan movies? Yes, we know, Arnold Schwarzenegger did a lot of scoring on the Conan movies, too. But Poledouris also scored "Robocop" and won an Emmy for his work on the miniseries "Lonesome Dove." And he was born in Kansas City.

Or does the prize go to Gerald Levert, the R&B singer? He will swear no more; he was 40 when he died Friday in Cleveland. Son of Eddie Levert Sr. of the O'Jays. Had a group in the 1980s, Levert, with his brother and a friend. Did LSG in the late 1990s with Johnny Gill and Keith Sweat.

We consult the Fourth Law of The Game of Mortality: When playing the home edition, the name of the departed, or the work they've done, must be immediately recognizable. "Robocop" was cool, but we can't hum the theme. Levert makes us think of that deodorant soap, Lever 2000. Which makes us think of André 3000 from Outkast, and now the space madness descends. No points.

JACK PALANCE

A flurry of contestants for this one in our continuing game of mortality. Jack Palance is dead. Wikipedia's bio info:

Jack Palance, (born Volodymyr Palanyuk on February 18, 1919, in Hazle Township, Pennsylvania), an Academy Award-winning American actor, died November 10, 2006.

With his rugged facial features and gravelly voice, Palance is best known to modern movie audiences as both the characters of Curly and Duke in the City Slickers movies, but his career has spanned half a century of film and television appearances.

Palance had recently placed his Butler Township, Pennsylvania, Holly-Brooke Farm up for sale and its contents, his personal lifetime collection, up for auction.

As of Friday afternoon, November 10, 2006, the Associated Press is reporting that Jack has passed away at his home in Motecito, CA.

MIT rang with the news around 4:15 p.m. Brother Richard e-mailed at 4:35. JJ brought in the listing at 4:07 p.m. We didn't know Jack, literally, until MIT called.

WRECK KILLS 2, INJURES 10

Twenty-five people have died in wrecks in Springfield this year, according to police. The latest two deaths happened Thursday on Interstate 44 at the Kearney Street overpass and involved four vehicles, including a school bus. According to a police news release:

The crash occurred in a marked and designated work zone, established by the Missouri Department of Transportation. The exact sequence of events is still being determined, but at this time it appears that traffic had slowed and was traveling in the outside lane, as the inside lane was closed. The lead truck, a 1999 Freightliner was struck in the rear by a 2007 Bluebird school bus from the Weaubleau R-3 school district. The school bus had been struck in the rear by a 2005 Buick which had been struck in the rear by 2004 Freightliner. The impact of the 2004 Freightliner striking the Buick apparently caused an intense fire which engulfed and completed burned the Buick and the cab of the 2004 Freightliner.

The two occupants of the Buick were determined to be deceased at the scene. The driver of 2004 Freightliner was able to exit his truck and he was taken to a hospital with injuries not believed to be serious. The school bus contained 15 boys and girls, ages 12 and 13, and an adult attendant and the driver. All the children were transported by ambulance to St. John’s and Cox, with it later being determined that 9 children were actually injured. None of the children had injuries that are believed to be serious.

Names of the dead haven't yet been released. The wreck turned the eastbound lanes of I-44 into a parking lot.

FUTURE SHOCKS

We wonder:

•Now that Roy Blunt is a member of the minority party in Congress, will he bug out while he can? The soon-to-be ousted majority whip probably won't succeed in a leadership post with the minority GOP; he's not trusted by his own colleagues, and enough of them already think the current leaders (Blunt, Dennis Hastert) are the reason they've been relegated to the back benches.

So what can Blunt do? Lobbying seems a little farfetched right now. With the GOP in the minority, who needs Republican lobbyists anymore? It's more likely that Blunt will fade into the background, emerging only when the coast is clear and he can run for U.S. Senate.

He won't stay in Congress for long, however. That much is certain. Look for Blunt to make this his last term in the House. After taking a pass at challenging Blunt in the 2006 election, southwest Missouri Democrats may actually get a second bite at the 7th District apple. Their chances are improved if, as expected, Matt Blunt packs it in, decides not to run for another term as governor and makes a bid for Congress (after all, he already lives in Springfield). A Matt Blunt vs. moderate Democrat race for Congress would be competitive.

•If the social conservatives of the GOP don't screw it for him, Rudy Giuliani will be the next Republican candidate for president. This AOL poll shows the former NYC mayor running ahead of John McCain, Condoleezza Rice and dark horse Newt Gingrich for the 2008 GOP nomination.

If the social cons don't screw it. Big if there. Because:

•The war for the guts of the GOP is in full fire. Old-line Republicans (the small government/Low taxes kind) say their party lost Congress because it was too focused on pleasing the theocrats. Social cons, meanwhile, say the party lost power because it wasn't conservative enough on issues like abortion and gay rights (and stem cells, dammit, stem cells).

The social cons despise Giuliani and his pro-choice, gay-rights-loving ways. Ditto for the way they feel about McCain. If they have their way, Jeb Bush will be their standard-bearer. Or Mitt Romney. A Dem can only hope.

ED BRADLEY, 65

The CBS "60 Minutes" correspondent died of leukemia, according to CNN.

LIBERTARIANS BIG WINNER ON TUESDAY

In Missouri's U.S. Senate race, at least, especially here in the 7th Congressional District of southwest Missouri. First, the statewide numbers:

Talent WON in 2002 with 49.8 percent of the vote, to Jean Carnahan's 48.7 percent.

Talent LOST in 2006 with 47.4 percent of the vote, to McCaskill's 49.4 percent.

The Dem gains .7 percent; Talent loses 2.4 percent.

A glaring difference: The Libertarian candidate went from 1 percent in 2002 to 2.3 percent in 2006.

Libertarian gains were more pronounced in Missouri's 7th District:

•In Lawrence County, McCaskill pulled 35.2 percent -- exactly as much as Carnahan in 2002. But Talent's share dwindled from 62.2 percent to 59.7 percent. The Libertarian candidate received 1.9 percent in 2002 and 3.9 percent in 2006.

•In Polk County (home to Southwest Baptist University), Talent defeated Carnahan in 2002, 62.4-35.5 percent. This year, Talent was held to under 60 percent -- 58.7-36.5, with the Libertarian share growing from 1.4 to 3.8 percent.

•In Taney County, Talent went from a 64.3-33.9 split in 2002 to a 60.6-34.8 victory in 2006. The Libertarian vote grew to 3.4 percent, from 1.3 percent in 2002.

•In Christian County, Talent lost more than 3 percent of his support (63.6 in 2002, 60.5 in 2006). The Democratic share grew only slightly, from 34.6 to 35.3 percent. But the Libertarian vote more than doubled, from 1.2 to 3.1 percent.

•In Barry County, Talent was held under 60 percent (59.2, from a high of 63.3 percent in 2002). Dems inched up from 34.8 to 35.5 percent. Libertarians increased their share from 1.4 to 3.9 percent.

In all five counties, Democrats didn't grow their share by more than a point. That's not to say the Democrats didn't do their fair share of damage to Talent in the 7th District. The senator suffered a significant setback in Greene County, where he won 59 percent of the vote in his 2002 race against Carnahan.

Talent's vote share was 49,164 to Carnahan's 33,144.

This year, about 17,500 more people voted in Greene County than in 2002. Talent gained about 4,000 votes. McCaskill piled 10,000 more votes on top of Carnahan's mark.

Percentages: 58.6-39.5 in 2002; 53.6-42.6 in 2006. Claire breaks 40 percent in the county.

RUMSFELD RESIGNS

The latest casuality in the midterm elections. Just breaking on The Associated Press.

This is a surprisingly tone-deaf side of the Bush Administration. Just last week President Bush reaffirmed his support of Rumsfeld and said he would stay on through the end of Bush's term. Now, in his news conference, Bush admits the change was already being planned when he misled reporters. Had Bush been able to get out the word that Rumsfeld was on his way out, the midterm elections outcome could have been much different -- and much better -- for the GOP.

ELECTION DAY THREAD

2:20 a.m.
Stem-cell has cracked a million and is up by more than 25,000 votes (about 10,000 more people voted against stem-cell initiative than voted for Talent). Tobacco tax is dead. Minimum-wage increase has 76-percent approval. McCaskill and Montee both crack the million-vote mark.

2:00 a.m.
At this rate it looks like Democrats may well retake the U.S. Senate (McCaskill wins, Webb holds on in Virginia, Tester wins in Montana). Freepers get angry while DUers gloat about McCaskill.

Susan Montee, the new Missouri auditor, is quite the fresh deal. She's outdrawing McCaskill by more than 35,000 votes.

One more thing about the Greene County statehouse races. Each state rep's district in Missouri covers about 34,000 people. The two districts now belonging to Democrats -- Sara Lampe's 138th and Charlie Norr's 137th -- had the two lowest vote tallies in the county.

In the 137th, a total of 8,166 votes were cast.

In the 135th, Charlie Denison got 9,864 votes. In the 139th, Shane Schoeller got 8,379 votes. In the 140th, Bob Dixon tallied 8,952 votes.

The good side for Greene County Democrats: Three of their four defeated candidates for the Missouri House still earned more than 40 percent of the vote.

The problem for local Democrats: Their strongholds ain't so strong when it comes to voting. A devoted campaign worker was walking the northside late Tuesday, knocking on doors to get people out to vote before the polls closed at 7 p.m. A surprising, and disheartening, number of people said thanks, but no. On their lawns were signs for Democratic candidates.

1:30 a.m.
McCaskill wins.

1:15 a.m. Wednesday, Nov. 8
McCaskill is ahead by about 35,000 votes now. More than 3,300 reporting precincts, with another 400 to go. Stem-cell initiative has pulled ahead by more than 10,000 votes.

Roy Blunt has to look at Tuesday with pause. Two years ago, local Dems spend a quarter-million dollars and ran a credible "name" candidate in Jim Newberry. Blunt won Greene County, 65-33. This time out, Jack Truman ran (despite the wishes of official Dems). Truman dabbles in porn production and lives in Lamar. Randy Turner at The Turner Report has been following this story since since last March, and it's a hoot.

With virtually no funding and absolutely no credibility, Truman bested Newberry's high-water mark in Greene County by a point-and-a-half. Truman didn't matter; it was Blunt's weakness. He was held to 62 percent in Greene County. A buttload of votes, sure, but:

•In 1998 he got 71 percent of the vote.
•In 2000 it was 70 percent.
•In 2002, 72 percent.
•Being held to 65 percent in 2004 was considered a remarkable accomplishment for Democrats.

The three-point drop in Greene County that Blunt experienced on Tuesday shows the fervency of anti-GOP sentiment across the country. A red-drenched county like Greene had a significant drop in support for a powerful, popular Republican congressman. In a more moderate political environment, a guy like Blunt could have been red meat for hungry Democrats.

The 7th District numbers are equally blunt for Blunt. Two years ago he trounced Newberry, 70-28. This time out, a no-name gained three while Blunt lost four (66-31). He also lost his majority whip's job. Blunt has never served in the minority, having come to Congress in 1997. His mentor, Tom DeLay, is gone, and the Dems have captured DeLay's old seat. Does Blunt bide his time and hope the Missouri GOP dream scenario comes true? It goes this way: Reliable but aging warhorse Kit Bond retires. Gov. Matt Blunt appoints Roy "Dad" Blunt as Senator. Governor leaves his icky Jeff City job and runs for Dad's old seat in Congress. A dynasty is preserved.

Observation: The national Republicans may have taken a smacking on Tuesday, but the Missouri GOP is a machine like few others, especially when it comes to last-minute negative mailings.

11:50 p.m.
At this late stage, Claire McCaskill is still behind by 45,000 votes, but Jim Talent's lead is shrinking. McCaskill drew 42.5 percent of the vote in Greene County -- a full two points better than expected, and above the alleged threshold for keeping Republicans safe in statewide elections.

Locally, Democrats did not do as well as expected. While Sara Lampoe easily trounced Steve Helms, Doug Harpool lost to Norma Champion in the state senate race. An aside about that senate race: It is a testament to the GOP's ability to churn out the vote. Four years ago, Champion garnered 25,900 votes to defeat Craig Hosmer (he drew 24,400 votes). This time out, Harpool earned almost 27,000 votes -- but Champion increased her vote total from 2004 by more than 8,000.

In local state rep races, Jamie Schoolcraft and James Owen did not win. Nancy Hagan ran a better-than-expected showing but still lost by 10 points.

Charlie Norr won a northside state rep's seat, but let's put it in perspective. Norr won with about 4,600 votes. By comparison, Tonya Cunningham suffered the greatest defeat among Dems in other state rep races -- and she drew 4,800 votes. The Democrats own north Springfield, but turnout there was terrible, less than half of the Hagan-Charlie Denison dust-up.

Of course, Dems did pick up one state representative's seat in Springfield, and that's better than a total blank.

Off to crunch some numbers and analyze. Statewide, stem cell looks like it's squeaking back. The tobacco tax looks less likely to resurrect. Minimum wage will probably pass with 80 percent of the vote.

6:30 p.m.
Early returns from Kentucky and Indiana offer a mixed bag, but signs are clear that there will be no cakewalk, especially for Republicans. In Indiana, incumbent Republican congressman John Hostettler (waltzed in during the 1994 GOP takeover) is getting crushed, 70-30. His sister was his campaign manager. Nice job, kids.

This afternoon, CNN broke programming in "The Situation Room" to let us know that Britney Spears has kicked her husband to the curb. Nothing more needs to be said about the states of American politics and media.

Local Dems are holding their watch party at the Clarion Hotel. We were there in 2002, when the party quickly became a wake. A changed atmosphere seems to be in the air.

Local bloggers are gathered at the Patton Alley Pub, churning out analysis and otherwise typing the good fight. Find the stuff on Rhetorica's Springfield Citizen-Press site.

===

Voted earlier and not often. Heavy turnout in Greene County. The county clerk says turnout could top 50 percent, maybe even hit 55 percent before the polls close at 7 p.m. Translation, please.

Off-year elections are the equivalent of the opening act at a concert. Could be good, could knock your socks off, but the crowd is there for the headliner -- in this case, the presidential election cycle.

In November 2004, 68.5 percent of registered voters in Greene County -- 126,258 people -- cast ballots. That's the power of a presidential election.

Two years before that, in November 2002, turnout was 47.74 percent. That's 84,548 voters. And that was a strong off-year showing.

The off-year election of 1998 -- the Clinton scandal was all the buzz -- drew only 41.57 percent of registered voters, or 67,598 people.

Are people more interested in politics this year than in 2002 or 1998? Yes. Lingering wars tend to draw out the activist in many otherwise docile people.

Does that mean Democrats are free and clear to celebrate? No more than they were in 2004, when so many were certain that John Kerry would win the White House.

As of August 2006, there were 180,071 registered voters in Greene County. Leaving that number static, a 55-percent turnout means more than 99,000 voters -- more than triple the primary turnout.

ELECTION PREDICTIONS

How many seats will Democrats pick up in the U.S. House of Representatives?

How many new Democrats will be in the U.S. Senate? Enough to regain control of that club?

Our best guesses, based on too much reading:

•House goes to the Dems, 235-200.

•Senate splits 50-50. Claire McCaskill wins, 51-48. She gets 40.2 percent of the vote in Greene County.

In state issues:

•Missouri's Amendment 2 -- the stem-cell issue -- passes, 54-46.

•Amendment 3, the smoking tax, wins approval with a similar margin.

•The minimum-wage increase passes with 63 percent of the vote.

Your turn.

THE 23RD HOUR

No time and all the time in the world left before Tuesday's election. We chatted/debated with a Nancy Hagan door-knocker on Saturday. Her counterparts in both major parties were doing likewise all weekend. Lit drops. Phone banks. Official work.

The mailbox is full of literature. Republicans have a clear money advantage; how else to explain the six lit cards we've received from the Missouri Republican Party? Every piece claimed Democrats would raise taxes and go nutballs on spending.

(The funniest GOP card said taxes and spending are out of control. Pardon us, but who's running the government these days? When one party rules the house, senate and executive on both the state and national level, that party owns the cake.)

An automated phone call comes from John Ashcroft, who insists Jim Talent is the pro-life candidate. Glad to hear the former Missouri governor and U.S. attorney general is adjusting to life as a telemarketer.

Official busywork leading to Monday, when the calls and cards will increase. Expect amplified cussing and cordless phone destruction in some households.

But plenty of unofficial tasks are being done on behalf of candidates for public office.

•Granny Geek confirms that Hagan, a candidate for state representative, has hired private security because of "disturbing" phone calls.

•Someone ran over the signs in our yard for Doug Harpool and Dave Coonrod.

•Others report having signs stolen or uprooted from their yards.

No one can, or should, be surprised by the hoodlums. Punks like them are a dime a dozen. And that's suggested retail.

FINGERPRINTS FOR FOOD

The school district in Hope, Calif., wants to quit using paper and pen to figure out how many students eat lunch in the cafeteria. The Associated Press reports:

The Hope Elementary School District has notified parents that, beginning this month, students at Monte Vista, Vieja Valley and Hope elementary schools will press an index finger to a scanner before buying cafeteria food.

The scan will call up the student's name and student ID, teacher's name and how much the student owes, since some receive government assistance for food.

It is meant to speed up cafeteria lines. ...

Currently, the information is written on paper and transferred to computer so reports can be compiled and sent to the state and federal governments, which reimburse school districts for the subsidized lunches served.

If this came to your school district, would you let your kid participate?

JUST IN TIME FOR NEXT CHRISTMAS

Got an extra $200,000 stuffed in the mattress? Samsung has something for you. TechEBlog explains:

Samsung has partnered with Korea University to develop a machine-gun equipped sentry robot, which consists of "two cameras: one for day-time and one for infrared night vision, zooming capabilities, a speaker for notifying the intruder, sophisticated pattern recognition to detect the difference between humans/trees, and a 5.5mm machine-gun."

The 'bot will be available in late 2007, according to Samsung. Scary part: South Korea is reportedly planning to deploy the machines along its border with North Korea. Deep kimchi.

THIS, THAT, TESS

Our cousin Tess -- such a lovely one -- celebrated a birthday on Friday. A highlight for her, for sure, and also for us. It doesn't have anything to do with politics. Like time-addled punks on goofballs we careen, eschewing the "years" part to shout: "Four more days!" Not even that, anymore. Three more days in 12 more minutes.

Happy Saturday to you. TV and radio will be awash in political ads; we've heard more than one story about candidates and causes outbidding each other to buy what little prime eyeball time remains on the network affiliates. Some will spend more than $250 a second to get their message out. And they say drugs are overpriced.

It shouldn't be this way, of course, but our not-so-inner cynic is in bloom. For American politics, it's SNAFU. The only possible repair is a mighty vote. The cynic shouts: Never happen. His Polyanna yin replies: A girl can dream, can't she?