We are in Michigan.

Police say a 25-year-old man who accidentally shot himself in the hand ended up killing a dog at a home in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.

The Daily News and WLUC-TV report officers responded about 8:30 p.m. Saturday to a 911 call about the shooting in Iron Mountain.

The man was taken to a hospital for treatment of injuries that were described as non-life-threatening. Police say the dog was killed by the bullet that went through the man’s hand.

I hope there is such a thing as dog ghosts and this dog is one of them.

You made a REAL difference.  Thank you again for your generous contributions toward this effort.

There has been a huge increase in mail-in-ballots thanks to the Texas Democratic Party’s vote by mail program.

In January, we sent more than 116,000 annual applications to eligible voters so they could vote by mail in the Democratic primary, runoff, and the general election. This set the stage for success this November.

We followed-up that successful program with more than 637,000 applications mailed in September.

You help to make that happen all across the state.

“The number of mail-in ballots received by close of business on the first day of early voting more than doubled from the last midterm elections.” [Corpus Christi Caller-Times,10/23/2014]

“…a surge in mail-in ballots could benefit Democrats more “based on the logic that Democrats are much more active this year than in the past in promoting mail ballots while the GOP does not appear to have ramped up its mail ballot efforts as substantially compared to past elections.” [Austin American-Statesman, 10/23/2014]

“…El Paso and some other counties had a big uptick in mail-in ballots through two days of early voting. At the close of business Tuesday, the number of such ballots received in the El Paso County Elections office was up 146 percent compared with 2010, to 1,919.” [El Paso Times, 10/22/2014]

“Almost 3,000 more mail-in ballots brought the percentage of registered Hidalgo County voters who’d cast a ballot to 4.9 percent — just a touch higher than Galveston County’s 4.82 percent.” [McAllen Monitor, 10/22/2014]

“An additional 5,703 ballots were cast by mail in Fort Bend, up from 4,240 in 2010.” [Houston Chronicle, 10/21/2014]

No matter what happens tomorrow we have built a base for ballot by mail.  That will serve us well in 2016.

Thanks to John Kwitkoski for the graphic.

Fenway Fran sent us a weird story from Washington State.

A GOP candidate for state senate was trying to raise money for a canvassing team.  It’s a close race.  If Democrats flip two seats, they win control of of the Washington state senate.

At the King County Republican Party Liberty Dinner and Auction (tickets were $125 each), Republican Andy Hill made some odd comments about his opponent’s canvassing team.  Hill claims that Democrats told him that they will not open the door for his opponent’s canvassing team because “they look like thugs.”

Here’s the Democratic team:

Here’s Andy’s team:

His canvassers look like a cheating scandal at an ivy league school.  The Stepford kids? And, of course, the future CEOs outnumber the 87% salary earners with hooters.

The problem with being a libertarian is that it is impossible to be ideologically pure and govern and the same time.

Take, Rand Paul for example.  This week Paul had a whole mess of trouble trying to explain if he would quarantine people who have been exposed to Ebola.  His first response is that government should not have the right to detain people.  Then he adds —

“I think there is a reasonable public concern to say, ‘You know what, you really should be going to the discotheque; you shouldn’t be going to the local bar; you shouldn’t be going to the local school cafeteria, so I think there are reasonable precautions,'” he said. “I think we have to be very careful of people’s civil liberties, but I’m also not saying that the government doesn’t have a role in trying to prevent contagion.”

The discotheque?  There’s still discotheques?

So those mirrored disco balls are what is to blame for his hair?

Rule of thumb:  Never go to a discotheque – whether you have been exposed to Ebola or not.  Just don’t go.

Louisiana’s Mary Landrieu is not my favorite Democratic senator.  Truth be known, on my list of likes she’s somewhere around Tierra Del Fuego.

She ain’t much of a Democrat so I was shocked when I heard her say that the South “has not always been the friendliest place for African-Americans.”  I know that’s pretty much a DUH statement but coming from Landrieu, it’s something.

Well, the minute she said that, the wheels came off hell’s hot rod.

Republicans are calling on Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu to apologize after she suggested Thursday that President Barack Obama’s deep unpopularity in the South is partly tied to race.

The comments came after an NBC reporter asked the senator why Obama has such low approval ratings in Louisiana. Landrieu’s first response was that the president’s energy policies are deeply disliked by residents of the oil and gas-rich state.

She then added, “I’ll be very, very honest with you. The South has not always been the friendliest place for African-Americans. It’s been a difficult time for the president to present himself in a very positive light as a leader.”

Now, to you and me, that’s a pretty tame statement.  It’s a fact based on the Civil War, Governor Orval Faubus standing in the school house door, Bull Conner turning the dogs on freedom fighters, Rosa Parks going to jail, Alabama State Troopers standing at the entrance to the Edmund Pettus Bridge, the bodies of four little black girls in a Birmingham church, the first bus boycott in Baton Rouge, the voting rights act, and damn Dixie flag still flying in Louisiana.

State Republican Party Chairman Roger Villere issued a statement late Thursday calling Landrieu’s remarks “insulting to me and to every other Louisianian.”

Republican Gov. Bobby Jindal issued a statement calling Landrieu’s comments “remarkably divisive.”

Oh give me a headache and a half.  Racism is not divisive but speaking about it is? “The Governor doth protest too much, methinks.”

Now if Landrieu does apologize, I’m going to call her office and make biological sounds into the phone.