US Election Diary: Alabama goes off with a bang; Media race for right results; Joker Jones hangs Obama effigy

Alabama Republicans plan to hold their election night party at a gun range. The idea being that participants can shoot a few rounds as returns come in. Naturally. The Republican Party is inviting supporters to the Hoover Tactical Firearms for a "victory party". Loaded guns will be allowed only on the firing range, and drinking won't be allowed while people are shooting.

Media race for right results

It will be all eyes on the US media tonight as various outlets race to be the first to tell us who has won the election. Memorably, in 2000, if you had gone to bed at about 3am you would have done so safe in the knowledge that Al Gore had been elected as the 43rd President of the United States, only for a collection of red-faced networks to revise their earlier predictions. No chance of that sort of thing from the Associated Press. An internal email warned staffers "not to blindly re-tweet what others may be saying" about election night results.

Joker Jones hangs Obama effigy

Pastor Terry Jones – the clown from Florida whose burning of a copy of the Koran led to attacks on US troops in Afghanistan – has been at it again. Yesterday he hanged an effigy of President Obama in the front garden of his Florida church. What a charmer!