Compare a county-by-county 2004 electoral map with a NASA satellite photo of the United States at night.
*** UPDATE 3/31/2005 ***
Following a link from the Air America web site on the eve of its first anniversary, I see the "purple map guy," Robert Vanderbei, also made this comparison
http://www.princeton.edu/~rvdb/JAVA/election2004/
*** UPDATE 6/6/2005 ***
Even more on US state maps and their statistical interpretations. Link.
