Celebrity robocallers whose messages I've received in the past few days:

• Sheryl Crow
  
• Billy Jean King
  
• Lance Armstrong
  

How about you all? What celebrities have been leaving you voice mail?

I feel obliged to write something about my response to the presidential election, but I haven't bothered to organize my thoughts into a coherent entry. And I won't. I'll just list them as bulleted quasi-factoids.

• I voted on Tuesday after work, around 5:45 p.m., and there was no line at my polling place.
• This was the first presidential election in which I voted for a major-party candidate.
• We need far more open, accountable voting systems. I just joined the Open Voting Consortium and encourage you to do the same.
• While I lean toward the conservative side when it comes to fiscal policy, I don't think Bush is any more responsible than a Democrat would be. So I voted largely on social issues (what you might call "morals and values"), on which I don't think Kerry was liberal enough. (Motto: "Kerry 2004: He'll do".) Needless to say, I was especially disappointed at the eleven states voting to ban gay marriage.
• I know a couple people who will be emigrating from the U.S. at least partially because of the direction we're headed in politically. Emigration has crossed my mind, but not very seriously. Not because I want to stay to fight it out, but because I have a husband, job, friends, and family here, and I'm a wuss.
• I've heard a number of people theorize about a new political party to replace the Democrats. Challenging, but intriguing.
• Why is it that the liberal nutjobs supposedly discredit the Democratic party while the religious right nutjobs don't seem to discredit the Republican party?
• A few years ago, I read some David Horowitz book wherein he said that Republicans could learn a few lesson in PR from the Democrats, who seemed to be so much better at marketing themselves. How times change. Now I hear hope that this election will spark a Goldwater-esque turning point for Democrats.
• Like many of my fellow webloggers, I feel a little taken aback when I see how socially conservative the "rest" of the country is. It's like I'm in a bubble of tolerance, along with most of my friends and acquaintances.
• I wonder what this country would be like if the South had won the Civil War and seceded? Your thoughts are welcome. I'd like the idea of being in a separate country from most of the socially conservative folks, but I'm sure there must be some downsides I'm not thinking of. I mean, other than the absence of Cracker Barrel.