the tindog coffeehouse

Obviously desperate for new programming, NBC has rehashed the old American Gladiators musclefest with new gladiators such as “Justice”, “Mayhem”, and “Fury”. But there other gladiators that didn’t make the cut.

With apologies to David Letterman, here are the Top 10 Rejected American Gladiators:

10. Ethanol
9. Viagra
8. Cameltoe
7. Dramatic Chipmunk
6. The Hoff
5. O.J.
4. FEMA
3. Gallagher
2. The Gladiator Formerly Known as Prince

And the number 1 rejected American Gladiator:

1. Hillary

(Alright, whatever.)

The blogosphere is buzzing over Tuesday’s New Hampshire primary, suggesting that the Democratic portion of the election was either rigged or at least wasn’t accurate, falsely giving Hillary Clinton a victory over Barack Obama.

The Citizens for Legitimate Government website has posted these numbers comparing the paper ballots vs. electronic ballots for Clinton and Obama:

Hillary Clinton, Diebold Accuvote optical scan: 40.121%
Clinton, Hand Counted Paper Ballots: 34.703%
Barack Obama, Diebold Accuvote optical scan: 35.756%
Obama, Hand Counted Paper Ballots: 38.785%

Other websites are also pointing out that the Diebold electronic voting machines are the same ones that were hacked in the HBO documentary Hacking Democracy, suggesting that the election might have been rigged in Clinton’s favor.

In and of themselves, none of these facts prove any kind of conspiracy, and it may not matter in the long run anyway, but clearly these machines are not without their flaws. It will be interesting to see how this plays out over the course of the election.