USA News reports on how the town of Edwardsville, Alabama has put forward proposals for $375 million of spending. Edwardsville has a population of 194m so that is around $2 million per resident.

Their proposed projects include:

• a renewable energy museum (cost: $32.1 million)
• scenic railroad (cost: $37.0 million)
• vineyards (cost: $9.0 million)
• replace streetlights with solar-powered lights (cost: $3,479,200),
• build solar-powered recharging stations for electric golf carts and vehicles (cost: $620,000)
• installing water pipelines beneath roads to soak up the sun’s rays, transferring heat (cost $50.4 million) that will halve the amont of energy required

So far the towns have a combined wishlist of $96.6 billion!

But the record is very clear that he was born in Hawaii, and two years after Hawaii was a state.

Talking of Obama, he officially gets elected on December 15 by the electoral college, and them confirmed by the House of Reps in early January.

Maybe while he is inside for 9 to 33 years, he can keep searching for Nicole’s killer also!

Before he killed Nicole, OJ was not just a big sports star, but almost in a large of his own. Almost every American knew who OJ was, without the Simpson. He truly has fallen a long way.

• Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Brillant for Obama as neutralises them, forces Bill to have his diary vetted, and his administration gets to benefit from the massive set fo contacts the Clintons have internationally.
• Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel. Emanuel is an economic liberal (anti regulation) and a very tough politician. Those who think Obama will pursue a socialist agenda, should look at Emanuel’s record. Of course Obama promised all sorts of socialist stuff, but he deosn’t actually have to deliver on that as people will love him anyway. Emanuel also voted for the Iraq War and doesn’t blame Israel for all the problems in the Middle East. He’s not a Republican, but he’s my sort of Democrat.
• Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner. Geithner is President of the New York Federal Reserve. He actually arranged the Bear Stearns bailout, and is a very experienced choice for these times.
• Peter Orszag is the Office of Management and Budget DIrector. He currently heads the Congressional Budget Office and even blogs from there!  A bit left for my liking but definitely experienced.
• As previously mentioned Defence Secretary Robert Gates will remain in office - the first ever Defence Secretary to do so across parties. Gates was CIA Director under Bush 41.
• Attorney-General Eric Holder has a very good career in his early days but blotted his copybook with involvment in the disgraceful Clinton pardon of Marc Rich. I suspect he will not last a full term.
• Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano is to be Homeland Security Secretary and is well regarded as a competent Governor. Homeland Security is huge though and will be a challenge.
• Bill Richardson as Commerce Secretary is anotehr former Governor. Very sensible making use of people with executive experience. Plus it is a reward for him for deserting the Clintons.
• Tom Daschle I do not like. A nasty man.  I think Secretary of Health and Human Services is beyond him and like Mrs Clinton he will fail at healthcare reform.
• Absolute genius to appoint Paul Volcker to head a Economic Recovery Advisory Board, Volcker is a God.
• General James Jones is inspired choice for National Security Advisor. Jones is a four star Marine General and has served as Supreme Allied Commander Europe and as Commandant of the Marine Corps. Condi Rice tried to get him to be Deputy Secretary of State. He declined but has done work in the Middle East for her.

So far, so good for Obama. Of course the real challenges lie ahead.

His most brillant, yet risky, move is to appoint Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State (NY Times say she has decided to accept). It unites the Democratic Party, gets his rival out of the Senate, and as an added bonus she’s probably one of the best Democrats for the job.

What is the risk? Well when has anyone ever managed to control Hillary, let alone Bill who is an inevitable part of the package? Will Hillary run her own foreign policy programme or Obama’s? Most likely outcome is his foreign policy will change to be hers. This is not all bad, as that allows him to focus on domestic issues.

But there is that risk of a falling out, which would be explosive. Thinks of Truman sacking MacArthur.

An explosion in online piracy has forced New Zealand’s free-to-air TV networks to fast-track the screening of top international shows.

Superhero drama Heroes and British car series Top Gear topped the list of the most illegally downloaded TV shows in New Zealand last year, with millions of copies hitting cyberspace as soon as they were made available overseas.

As a result, those shows and others including House, Private Practice and Survivor are aired within days of their international release.

And that is the logical response. We live in a borderless world and if people can read online the latest Heroes episode is out, they want to see it now - now in six months. If NZ is only a few days behind few will pirate it, but if it is a choice of waiting for months or downloading a copy of something that will be free to air  anyway, people download.

As a matter of principle I will not download movies, as they are distributed in NZ within days of overseas release, and you have to pay to see them.

I have occassionally downloaded a TV show if it either does not show in NZ at all, or the wait to see it will be too long. I always watch it again on the TV once they do show here also. At present I haven’t downloaded a TV show for months - partly too busy, but partly because TV networks here are screening them faster.

Tony Eaton, the executive director of the Federation Against Copyright Theft, says that the authorities in New Zealand had yet to conduct extensive research into illegal downloads.

“Our primary focus has been the film industry but in saying that we have turned our attention to television more,” he said.

“It makes sense for networks to make shows available as soon as possible on television here.”

Good to see FACT agreeing.

The trend may explain why the big two free-to-air networks offer legal downloads of top shows for a limited period after they screen on TV.

“It may be that online availability of programming is actually having the effect of boosting television viewing - that is certainly the case with `catch up’ television,” said Richards.

I have no doubt this is the case.

On the popular vote Obama has 63,687,862 to 56,283,891 for McCain - 53% to 46%. Obama got around 1,600,000 more votes that Bush did in 2004.

The states Obama picked up from Bush are Florida, North Carolina, Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, Iowa, Colorado, New Mexico and Nevada.

In the Senate the Democrats did quite well but well back on their target of. They started with 51 seats (including two Independents) and now have 56 - picking up North Carolina, Virginia, New Hampshire, New Mexico and Colorado. Sadly they did not defeat Ted Stevens in Alaska.

In the House they picked up 19 seats and the balance is now 254 to 174 with 7 undecided.

The exit poll results are quite interesting also:

• Obama vs McCain was 49% to 48% amongst men and 56% to 43% amongst women
• White men went McCain 57% to 41% and white women 53% to 46%
• Blacks went 95% for Obama
• Latinos around 67% for Obama
• McCain won over 65s 53% to 45% while Obama won under 30s by 66% to 32%
• Obama won amongst the 6%  earning over $200K by 52% to 46%
• 14% of white Democrats voted for McCain while 8% of white Republicans voted for Obama
• 20% of Conservatives voted Obama
• 11% were first time voters and they went Obama 69% to 30%

And then there were state ballots:

• Arizona voted to bay gay marriage and hiring illegal immigrants
• Arkansas banned gay couples adopting children
• California also voted to ban gay marriage and for parental notification of teenage abortions
• Colorado voted to end affirmative action and to ban abortion by defining human life as beginning at conception
• Florida voted to ban gay marriage
• Maryland voted to allow a video lottery
• Massachusetts voted to repeal state income tax
• Michigan voted to allow medical marijuana and stem cell research
• Nebraska voted to end affirmative action
• South Dakota voted to ban abortion except for mother’s health, incest or rape
• Washington voted to allow doctor-assisted suicide

Many of the state polls will be found to be unconstitutional and never put into effect incidentally.

I predict he will get over 300 easily.

5.25 pm: McCain is doing his concession speech.

5.33 pm: Obama now has 333 votes to 155 for McCain. He has picked up Florida (27), North Carolina (15), Virginia (13), Ohio (20), Iowa (7), Colorado (9) and New Mexico (5). He also leads by 3% on the national vote or by 3,000,000 votes.

1.12 - Democrats win one Senate seat - Virginia. Up to 52. They want 60.

For updates and discussion of the US election results.

If McCain had been elected, he would have been one of the most independent Presidents in history. His legislative history as a Senator speaks for itself. His independence from some of the religious lobby groups would be especially useful - abortion and civil unions should not be the number one issue for a country.

America would have had its most ardent pro free trade President in history - McCain supportes free trade agreements with every country, except those they have security issues with.

On fiscal issues, Bush has left a disaster of a deficit, and McCain would probably have been pretty effective in reducing the deficit. Bush in fact has massively expanded the federal budget.

On Iraq, he was the main proponent of the surge strategy, that basically suceeded. The challenge would have been to then reduce numbers in Iraq over time so that the Iraqi Government can govern without the need of foreign troops. A McCain presidency would be given more time by am impatient public to withdraw. Obama may find it very difficult to reconcile the expectations of his supporters and the obligations to the Iraqi Government not to pull out too quickly.

It would be fascinating to know what would have happened if McCain had won against Bush in 2000 and then been elected againgst Gore. I suspect he would have been a far more sucessful President than Bush.

But his presidency will be the realm of “what if” writers as 2008 is not his year. It is a credit to McCain that he is still so close to Obama in the polls, when you consider only 10% of Americans say the country is heading in the right direction and 88% say the wrong direction. The candidate for the party of the incumbent should be miles behind. He won’t lose by miles but I don’t think it will be close either.

In one’s lifetime, you witness a handful of seminal events. For me they have been the day the Berlin Wall came down and September 11. The election of an African-American to the United States Presidency may join that league.

It is not only the fact that the US once had slavery that makes his election remarkable. Those days were many generations ago. But just a few decades ago the US had wide-spread segregation. It shows the remarkable ability of some cultures and societies to change that within a lifetime you can go from a country where blacks are segregated as second class citizens to having a black man elected President.

The United States is far from perfect, but if you have to choose one country in the world to be the super-power, I am damn glad it is the United States. There are many great things about the country - the constitution, the bill of rights, term limits, massive inwards immigration, the ability of poor immigrants to rise to the top etc etc.

This doesn’t stop relentless America bashing as if it was the most evil country on the planet. People would have you think it was a white Christian fundamentalist country that causes poverty in Africa, demonises Muslims and is controlled by a military industrial cabal that keeps Bush and Cheney in power forever. The fact that the Republicans are about to get trounced should silence the conspiracy fanatics for a while about Bush and Diebold stealing elections.

The symbolism of Obama’s election is massive. This half Kenyan American managed to beat both the Clinton machine and the Republican machine to win the most powerful job in the world.

Obama is not Muslim, but his father was and he attended a Muslim school for a couple of years growing up in Asia. His middle name is Hussein. That should make it a lot harder for the forces of jihad to gain supporters in their war against the United States and western civilisation more generally. Unless they call him an apostate, he is a much harder figure to demonise.

The election of Obama will be a profund display to the world, that for all its faults, the United States is a country that can put race and prejudice to one side - maybe not everyone - but most of them. If I had to use a local comparison I would cite the election of Georgina Beyer as MP for Wairarapa in 1999. Again, I may not have supported Beyer’s politics, but I thought it was a great tribute to NZers that they would elect who they saw as the best person to be an MP, even though they were a transexual who went from being a man to a woman. Having said that, I don’t think Obama is a Beyer - he has shown himself to be a truly accomplished politician and gifted orator. I recall blogging before the 2004 election that I thought he would be President one day.

So Obama has a great opportunity ahead of him. He will have an extended honeymoon from the media, from his public and from much of the world. He may be able to do more to defeat anti-Americanism than any otehr person or event.

But with great opportunity comes great risk. Many of his supporters, both domestically and internationally, see him as above politics. And he is not. He will, as President, have to make decision that will not sit well with some people. And the greater the expectation the greater the disappointment. Will people understand when he still has troops in Iraq in 18 months time? Will they understand when the US still does not sign the Kyoto Treaty?

And most of all, what will happen when he may have to pull the trigger, as Bill English put it. Countries like Iran may seek to test Obama. Will he allow them to develop nuclear weapons? What will he do when North Korea reneges on its agreement to cease nuclear testing? Foreign Policy is often a case of choosing the least worst alternative.

As I said at the time:

They were talking about the US election and Obama and McCain. Wallace Chapman mentioned that McCain was around the same age as Jim Anderton, and Robson’s nasty littlre retort was:

But Jim can put his hands up over his head and claim victory, McCain can’t do that

How disgusting is that? To denigrate a man who is crippled due to years of torture as a prisoner of war? From Wikipedia:

In August 1968, a program of severe torture began on McCain. He was subjected to rope bindings and repeated beatings every two hours.

Some of the injuries came from his initial treatment when shot down:

Some North Vietnamese pulled him ashore, then others crushed his shoulder with a rifle butt and bayoneted him.

Now this is a war crime and against the Geneva Conventions. Robson has spent a lifetime going on about the Geneva Conventions, and war crimes, but then shows his real colours, by justifying the torture of McCain (after Paul Quinn pulled him up for his offensive comments), and bayoneting of a wounded surrendered solider on the basis that McCain had taken part in a war that killed a lot of people.

Now above is the video extracted onto You Tube, so people can easily judge for themselves what Robson was doing. Prog Blog has ludicrously tried to argue Robson was referring to McCain not winning as why he would not be raising his hands in victory, but that is crap as Robson explictly refers to the inability to raise his hands. Prog Blog should be ashamed it is trying to defend such a loathsome comment from Robson.

It is worth remembering that Robson is the Deputy Leader of the Progressive Party which is a formal part of the Government. Wonder what Phil Goff thinks of his comments?

But as far as campaigns, we don’t know dirty.

Picking recent and ongoing campaigns in Nigeria, Russia, Austria, New Zealand, Taiwan and Zimbabwe, they remind that we’re watching a Stepford Wives Tupperware gathering by comparison …

What a wonderful list of countries we are included with?  I guess they have noticed the unrelenting campaign of secret tapes, stolen e-mails, insinuations of being a “domestic shouter”, complaints about temper tantrums etc etc.

There were 18 states in 2004 that had a margin of victory of less than 10%. Every single marginal state, except Arkansas, has Obama in the lead in state polls.

Obama needs 269 electoral votes to win. At present he has 286 locked in and 364 likely. It would need something massive to happen to stop him.

Recieved a phone call while walking home afterwards from a retired lady wanting to know if I was related to a Captain Roger Farrar, who had helped her during WWII. I explained that my immediate family are not related to any other Farrars as our name was anglicised from Feuer after leaving Austria.

She them exclaimed “Oh you must be Jewish, I thought you were from Television”. I laughed that the nose must give it away. It seems the other Farrar she knew many years ago was also Jewish - Scottish Jews. Of course I’m not actually Jewish as the Jewish ancestry comes from my father’s side and it only counts if it is on the mother’s side.