OK, you lovely cynics.  After a three-month absence (oh man, work has just been peachy in that time), I’m back.  And not a moment too soon, for we got ourselves some Wiscocentric denouement tonight.

The read at this early stage is that turnout has been positively massive.  But that could cut both ways.  The energy on both sides is probably at a fever pitch (whipped up no doubt by… excuse me…. 33 MILLION CLAMS shelled out for the nine recalls), so more than half of the turnout could be Wisconsinites angry at unions for, well, whatever foul they may have committed.  And “more than half” is the name of the game in elections, as you know.

So, the p0lls close — nominally — in 15 minutes.  (Polls can stay open so long as people are in line — a rule that approximately 7,000 lawyers know by heart and are poised to enforce to their hearts’ content.)  Then, the story shall unfold before you, old-school OPEN THREAD style.

(Note: picture above, right, is a scene from a Wisconsin hockey game.  Hockey is popular in Wisconsin, where winter is about six weeks away.)

ADD: The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel has the best live-results page in the state, and therefore that page is linked…. HERE.

Just when you thought it couldn’t possibly get any dumber, along comes Tea Party in Space, vowing to fight NASA’s intransigent socialism and replace it with free-market space travel.

Not content with blowing apart the economy, the Baggers are now planning their assault on the final frontier. Space! (bow chicka bow chicka bow bow)

Book your seats now. What could possibly go wrong?

Full disclosure: Part of me suspects this is a joke. But let’s all believe it’s real. It’s funnier that way.

John McCain is having a Bad Day:

Tea-party activists called McCain “out of touch” when the senator said he didn’t know about United Nations “Agenda 21.” One man described the initiative as a “takeover of the United States of America by taking over our farms.”

“First, our firearms, then our farms,” another man added.

Couple of things. First, we love the name “Agenda 21”. We can see a trailer featuring Matt Damon battling a conspiracy of nondescript men in fedoras terrorizing the world’s PowerPoint presentations.

Second: What the hell is Agenda 21?

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While we’re celebrating Blessed Events, meet Sophie Allouache and Penny Wong. Sophie’s due in December, and Penny’s delighted. “Like any expecting parents, the prospect of welcoming this child into our lives fills us both with joy,” she says.

And while Australia has yet to approve gay marriage, best wishes are being offered by such notables as Prime Minister Julia Gillard, Treasurer Wayne Swan, and even Deputy Opposition Leader Julie Bishop, although the NSW Christian Democrats leader would prefer they keep the news to themselves.

Why the high-profile attention? Seems Penny is Australia’s Finance Minister. And we’re having a very difficult time imagining similar news being greeted so gingerly here.

Finance Minister Penny Wong and partner are to have IVF baby [The Australian, via CheapBoy]

Congratulations go out to Track and Britta Palin, who have just welcomed their first child a scant three months into their marriage. Kyla Grace is described by proud grandmother Elizabeth Hanson as “beautiful.” We await word from the child’s more famous grandmother, Sarah Palin, who has yet to comment on the miraculous delivery of a healthy six-months-premature granddaughter. To our knowledge, aunt Bristol has also not yet chimed in with her thoughts. No doubt she’s too busy reminding America that premarital sex is a sin to comment on the good news.

(Via Andrew Sullivan, of course.)

We received a Google+ invitation last night from a Stinquer, which was very kind, but since Google won’t yet allow Google+ participation from Google-managed domains like stinque.com, we had to decline.

We probably would have declined anyway, since Google+ also doesn’t allow pseudonyms, like “Nojo”. Instead we would have to use a Real Name, which takes all the fun out of it, unless we chose a real name like, oh, “Mike Lee”, which could be a lot of fun, especially since we’ve long said that Mike Lee is a Fucking Asshole, and we’re really looking forward to the defamation lawsuit.

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Rudolf Brazda, the last known living “pink triangle” survivor of Nazi concentration camps, died on August 3 at the age of 98. He spent three years in Buchenwald.  He once commented that his oppressors “were never able to destroy me. I am not ashamed.”

Born in Germany to Czech parents, after liberation from the camp, he lived in the Alsace region of France, including 52 years with his partner, who passed away in 2002.

The photo of Mr. Brazda on this post was taken in 2008 at the dedication of a Berlin memorial to the gay (and presumed/perceived gay) victims and survivors of the Third Reich. In April of this year, he was awarded the French Legion d’Honneur for promoting awareness of the deportation of homosexuals during WWII.

Meanwhile, a few days after Brazda’s death, GOP Presidential candidate Guv. Good Hair prayed at an event sponsored by a hate group that says gays were responsible for the Holocaust.

[LAT & SF Sentinel]