smells like teen spirit?

Alternet says the truth regarding the youth vote (ages 18-24) lies somewhere between the A.P.'s gloom report and the Mercury News's beacon of hope (free registration required):

Now that some of the smoke has cleared and the data has been crunched, it's clear that 2004 was, in fact, an amazing year for young voter participation. Whereas only 42 percent of 18-29 year-olds had voted in 2000, a whopping 51 percent showed up at the polls this year, making for a 9-point increase. The catch? Everyone else came out in record numbers too.

Hans Reimer, director of Rock the Vote, describes the youth turnout as “exceeding all expectations.” He points out that the percentage of youth who came out to vote this year was four points higher than in 1992, a number he says is “phenomenal.”

Still, it's hard for me to get excited about even 51 percent. With that much of your life left to go, how can you sleep at night knowing that you're virtually shredding your future rights?

One interesting thing though, Republican senator Arlen Spector has has warned Bush against trying to appoint an anti-abortion judge to the Supreme Court:

``The president is well aware of what happened, when a number of his nominees were sent up, with the filibuster,'' Specter added, referring to Senate Democrats' success over the past four years in blocking the confirmation of many of Bush's conservative judicial picks. ``... And I would expect the president to be mindful of the considerations which I am mentioning.''

With at least three Supreme Court justices rumored to be eyeing retirement, including ailing Chief Justice William Rehnquist, Specter, 74, would have broad authority to reshape the nation's highest court. He would have wide latitude to schedule hearings, call for votes and make the process as easy or as hard as he wants. ...While Specter is a loyal Republican -- Bush endorsed him in a tight Pennsylvania GOP primary -- he routinely crosses party lines to pass legislation and counts a Democrat, Sen. Joseph Biden of Delaware, as one of his closest friends.

A self-proclaimed moderate, he helped kill President Reagan's nomination of Robert Bork to the Supreme Court and of Jeff Sessions to a federal judgeship. Specter called both nominees too extreme on civil rights issues. Sessions later became a Republican senator from Alabama and now sits on the Judiciary Committee with Specter.

Despite a bruising challenge from conservatives this year in Pennsylvania's GOP primary, Specter won re-election Tuesday by an 11-point margin by appealing to moderate Republicans and ticket-splitting Democrats, even as Pennsylvania chose Democrat John Kerry over Bush. (via Salon)

Oh, and Salon just reported that, yesterday, Elizabeth Edwards was diagnosed with breast cancer . The political process truly can be poisonous. Best wishes to her and her family.

P.S. Thank goodness for the absurdist sanity that is the British press.