The OFFICIAL Unofficial Achewood Message Board
Trivial Pursuits => History => Topic started by: Limmo on September 01, 2004, 04:38:38 am
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This is something that I posted in my sad little blog. Keep in mind I'm on Day 2 of the South Beach Diet, so I might be insane right now. I need someone to talk me back into voting in November. Please help.
I am so fuck*ng goddamned angry about America. Every day it seems like we hit a new low of civility and bad public discourse. Watching the events of the past two weeks has made me start to feel crazy.
An odd thing occurred to me while reading an article about the success of the Swift Boat Veterans campaign: I may not vote for John Kerry after all. I may just sit this one out. Why? Because Democrats are always trying to be nice and take the high road. Democrats are so concerned about being painted as wild-eyed frothing liberals, they won't go on the offensive, even when it is clear that that's what is called for. And the Republicans, and their media outlets, just fling more slime, while the more moderate elements of the media like CNN just kind of sit back and say "Well, how is Fox covering this?"
I don't want John Kerry to be nice about this. I want him to tear George Bush a new asshole in public. I want him to run ads that say "George W. Bush is a fuck*ng COWARD." I want someone who will say "Are you people COMPLETELY ASLEEP? Look at this asshole's record!"
I want someone who will STAND UP FOR HIMSELF, GOD DAMN IT! FIGHT!
I realize that John Kerry has fought for me once already, when I was still wearing diapers. He doesn't owe me anything. But there is a war being fought here. Now. In America. The only person a bully respects is the person who gives him a good shot in the teeth and says "Knock it off." And that's the only way things are going to change. I'm really starting to doubt whether John Kerry is the person who's going to do it.
I apologize for sullying TOUAMB, which has been blessedly free of partisan ranting up to now.
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So vote for a third-party candidate. At least that way the angry vote and the apathy nonvote won't end up in the same "ignore" pile.
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I don't know, I'm basically sick of everything political. I'm in New York now, in the thick of the protests, and I was standing around Union Square waiting to buy weed, and I saw all of these protestors. You know what's sad? The one thing that depresses me the most about this whole convention thing is not the fact that New York is essentially bankrolling the co-option of tragedy, but the protestors. And I'm voting DEMOCRAT this fall! And I'm a teenager, too! These should be my people! But I really can't stand them. These people, mostly white upper-middle-class kids, came to New York to essentially agree with eachother. No delegate is going to see a "BUCK FUSH!" t-shirt worn by some Mumia-fan and suddenly switch to the Green Party. Everyone who lives in New York is already voting Democratic. What are the protestors doing here, other than making a shitty situation even worse for the people who live here? The best answer I've gotten is something about "solidarity," which I think translates as "we're here to jack each other off about how right we are." And every night the protestors all go party in some rich trust-fundians loft apartment, because when you're serving up allegations of an illegal war which has left thousands dead all day, you really want to go just have FUN at night!
I don't know. Maybe I'm a crotchety bastard. Maybe the protestors are serving as, as Limmo said, as the "low roads" for the Democratic party. Hell, no major media outlet is really covering that much of this stuff, because God forbid we don't find out the latest about Laci Peterson; maybe the protestors will force people to reconsider their opinions. But I doubt it. I get the feeling that everyone will just have their stereotypes refueled and walk away.
However.
I don't want this to get into a massive political shitfight, so let me just say this, in as non-partisan a matter as I can put it. I have an option of voting in New York, where my vote won't matter because the state is overwhelmingly Democratic, or in Kentucky, where my vote won't matter because the state is overwhelmingly Republican. But no matter how disgusted I get with our political process, I have to vote, and believe that my vote somehow matters, because without that simple idea, my political viewpoint would be a lot more cynical than it is right now, and I'd probably go into politics, and in 10 years the U.N. would have to launch an offensive against my evil stronghold of Latveria. I guess I'm going to vote for, really, selgiraffe reasons- I need to maintain this illusion.
Hey! A wandering, pointless post. Hit me in the face.
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I get the feeling that everyone will just have their stereotypes refueled and walk away.
You're right about that.
It's also nice to know that Dr. Doom cared enough to respond to my post!
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I figure that I will always vote, because politics is always going to be a goddamned circus--no matter what the day or age--and that I may as well quit bitching about it and participate in my country's political process.
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I'm voting for Yelnik McWawa, as always.
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This is my first presidential election for which I will be eliglble to vote. Damn straight, I'm voting in it.
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I'm voting, this'll be my second Presidential election. Nader last time, Bush this time.
You've changed man.
Yeah, I've changed, man.
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If anything, Limmo, you should vote to cancel out mine :wink:
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If anything, Limmo, you should vote to cancel out mine :wink:
Very true, and why I will be reluctantly casting a vote for Kerry come November. I just wish he'd quit fuck*ng around.
However, I'm happy that this thread seems to have inspired the best Jough avatar yet. For America!
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I'm voting, this'll be my second Presidential election. Nader last time, Bush this time.
Seriously? Not to start a debate (not that this thread isn't already headed towards that particular train wreck), since I don't even live in America, but what for?
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Limmo, I know exactly how you feel and you put it really well. But it just makes it worse if thoughtful, passionate people like yourself don't vote.
I actually hate voting even at the best of times. It feels like the SATs - it's all official and I'm not sure I studied enough, what if I don't have the right answers? But you just gotta. If only because I feel if you don't vote, you don't have a right to complain about whatever the next administration does. And not complaining about the behavior of the government for four years... well, I don't know about you but I'd probably explode.
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Just once I'd like to vote for somebody instead of against somebody else. But I guess that's the price I pay for living in Virginia.
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A wise man (http://www.dailykos.com/) said, "Politics isn't about what you want, it's about what we get." At least in the general election.
Yeah, I want Kerry to just come out and tell it like it is about Dubya and his crew: that they're a bunch of lying mofos who only pretend to love Jesus so they have the support of "good Christians" while they turn this country ever more into an oligarchy. But for whatever reason, Kerry can't or won't do that.
So sad. But to abstain from voting for that reason is ultimately self-defeating. Just imagine Bush and Cheney on a stage the night of the election, smiling like smug fucks, with Karl Rove hanging around in the background. I don't want to look at that and wonder if we couldn't have done more.
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Yeah, I want Kerry to just come out and tell it like it is about Dubya and his crew: that they're a bunch of lying mofos who only pretend to love Jesus so they have the support of "good Christians" while they turn this country ever more into an oligarchy. But for whatever reason, Kerry can't or won't do that.
This is why I think the left really needs to popularize the term "Religious Reich" TM Eric Szulczewski
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Don't vote. (http://www.voluntaryist.com/articles/103.php)
Your vote is worth less than nothing. You are far more likely to be killed in a car wreck on the way to the polls than you are to influence any election. Voting is a symbolic action people perform because it is easier than actually doing something to make the world more like they want it to be.
And I don't want to hear another fuck*ng word about the "religious right". The left is just as religious. This is a religious country. Am I the only one who has noticed that the only group of people it's still okay to slur in the U.S. are atheists?
I don't care who wins the elections in November as long as the executive and legislative branches are of opposing parties. The more gridlock there is in D.C., the safer we all are. I marginally favor Kerry, because that would get rid of Ashcroft, who is the most dangerous person in the FedGov right now. And that fucker isn't even elected.
Do you really think Kerry is substantially different from Bush? He voted for the Patriot Act, and he doesn't even know what it says. You think fighting in Vietnam is something he ought to be proud of? Fighting in Vietnam was "defending us"? WTF?
I never ran a flag up a pole
Like Mr. Red-White-and-Blue down the road
But I'd never call myself a hero
For killing unknown communists
I can walk into any old bar
And find a fight without looking too far
But I'd never kill someone I don't know
Just because somebody told me to
-- Camper Van Beethoven When I Win the Lottery
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...Eheheheheheheeeeee. Well, that JibJab video is MIGHTY COMICAL, huh? It was actually done by graduates of my school! Isn't that great!
Please don't start fighting, please don't start fighting.
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This is why I think the left really needs to popularize the term "Religious Reich" TM Eric Szulczewski
Ahem. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godwin's_law)
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When I Win the Lottery lyrics
That's funny, I had always heard it as "killing a Known Communist". The correct way makes a little more sense.
And excellent call on Godwin's law.
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Think your vote's worthless? Try living in Mississippi. I think we get half an electoral vote now, and guess who's going to get that.
To veer further off topic, how fair is the electoral college? I'm pretty sure we'd have to get around to issues that mattered to people every once in a while if the popular vote determined the election's outcome. I'm fairly tired of these whack-offs discussing whether or not Graham Norton should be Constitutionally barred from marrying Frank DeCaro while schools rot, people (including myself- yay) are losing their health insurance at an alarming (and alarmingly underdiscussed) rate, and we're fighting an unwinnable or not war on terrorism.
Also, is there an elixer that deactivates coffee and is not booze? I'm a little hype today.
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From John Varley's FAQ (http://www.varley.net/Home.htm):
Q. Where the heck are those chemical, biological, and nucular weapons? I’ve been searching high and low for ‘em, and I gotta find ‘em before, say, late October. Where should I look next?
George W. B., Cowflop Ranch, Crawford, Texas
A. Try Los Alamos, New Mexico. For chemical weapons, Dugway, Utah, and Umatilla, Oregon. For biological, Fort Detrick, Maryland, is your best bet. There are also rumors that many are scattered through Montana, the Dakotas, and Nebraska, and on atomic submarines all over the world, but I can’t help you there.
Heh heh heh.
Boo hoo hoo.
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Here's a piece (http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/week_2004_08_29.php#003390)about how Democrats panic at moments like these. Guilty as charged, I guess.
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That's funny, I had always heard it as "killing a Known Communist". The correct way makes a little more sense.
I may well be wrong, I didn't look it up or anything, but that's what it always sounded like to me. When we saw them in June, David sang "unknown islamists" (or, possibly, "a known islamist") instead of "communist(s)".
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Yes, I decided on my presidential run while reading this thread.
While it's true that I cannot constitutionally become president YET I decided that my 2012 campaign would be that much stronger if I threw my hat into the public arena this time around.
So for those of you who are dismayed by the entire process of both parties putting up scumbags for office, VOTE JOUGH and send a message to those fools back in Washington.
It's not like the popular vote counts for anything anyway!
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I am a huge supporter of (if you don't like any of the options you can vote for) going in and spoiling your ballot. Every vote is counted, including spoilt ones and ones for random write-ins. At least take the time to voice your dissatisfaction, even if you're just writing "FUCK YOU" across the voter card. Or find a write in candidate that you agree with, and add their name to the ballot. (I don't know if it's the same in the US, but up here in the True North, the amount of votes the non-winning parties get still helps to determine if they get funding or not, and if so how much.) Or vote for Ray Smuckles. VOTE JOUGH. Remember silence equals acceptance -sitting on your ass is not a form of protest, it's a way of saying "whatever happens, I'm cool with it." You have no right to complain about a situation if you're not willing to do anything about it.
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I would vote, if and only if, None Of The Above was a valid ballot choice, and if NOTA won the race, the office would stay vacant.
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I'm voting, this'll be my second Presidential election. Nader last time, Bush this time.
Seriously? Not to start a debate (not that this thread isn't already headed towards that particular train wreck), since I don't even live in America, but what for?
Nader, or Bush? I assume you must be talking about Bush. I'm of Palestinian muslim extraction and know exactly what radical Islamists are all about. My father used to raise funds for Hamas when I was a child. But I'm completely American in outlook and 9/11 hit me just as hard as it hit most people who woke up that day. I like Bush's response, I like how he's brought freedom to some of the millions of Arabs who are stuck in the middle east and have been under the boot for generations. I've seen the things that my people [Palestinians] have done to the Israelis and it breaks my heart, and now that my (larger) people [Arabs] have brought it to the place I call home...I don't want it to happen. The Islamists aren't going to stop; either we let them keep on the way they've been until they hit us so hard we have to nuke them, or else we reform Arab societies to drain the swamp. I like that we're even trying that. I remember everyone I know on 9/11 saying "tomorrow morning somewhere in the middle east will be a glass parking lot". The implication being nuking. And Americans were just that angry. But their better nature won out and now we have something like a World War II and a Marshall Plan, but simultaneously, on a rolling start.
Basically what I'm getting at is that I support what Bush is doing, because the alternative, eventually, will be much much worse. I'm very liberal and would probably vote Kerry this election if I didn't believe it was really urgent to deal with these threats. I'll revert to normal voting behavior in about two elections from now, I think, because that's how long I think it'll take to reform enough of that part of the world that we can start feeling safe again. Kerry has tried to position himself to the right of Bush on the war on terror but I just don't believe him, at all. I think he's fundamentally an appeaser, I look back at his behavior after he returned from Vietnam. Then I look at statements he makes like that he would send nuclear fuel to Iran as an inducement to open their facilities to inspection-yeah, right, because that worked so well for the Carter-negotiated treaty with North Korea in the early 90s, and look where we are right now. I just don't trust the man to fight this war, and I do trust Bush. I would never vote for Nader again, after he made those extremely antisemitic remarks. That was a big disappointment for me because I thought he had very cogent things to say about the evils of the legal fiction of corporate personhood removing personal responsibility from people who do bad things. I probably think of myself as a Bush Democrat now, the same way a lot of people were Reagan Democrats and then went back to just being plain old Democrats after he left the scene.
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Am I the only one who has noticed that the only group of people it's still okay to slur in the U.S. are atheists?
I don't know, I've gotten plenty of slurring for (ghasp) being a faithful practitioner of an Abrahamic religion while still having a mainly liberal political agenda.
That said, I think "the religious right" is a valid term for the rather loud voting bloc that has fused extreme religious views and extreme right-wing political views.
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I'm an atheist so I'm not exactly fond of forcible religious intrusion in the public sphere. This really bothered me:
Sherman: What will you do to win the votes of the Americans who are atheists?
Bush: I guess I'm pretty weak in the atheist community. Faith in God is important to me.
Sherman: Surely you recognize the equal citizenship and patriotism of Americans who are atheists?
Bush: No, I don't know that atheists should be considered as citizens, nor should they be considered patriots. This is one nation under God.
Sherman (somewhat taken aback): Do you support as a sound constitutional principle the separation of state and church?
Bush: Yes, I support the separation of church and state. I'm just not very high on atheists.
But I'm very much heartened by his son's stance, which is
Government programs should be committed to pluralism—not discriminating for or against Christians, Muslims, or Jews—or good people of no faith at all.
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Thanks Talky, that is indeed a very valid argument, and I hope the question didn't offend: it's just really rare to hear anyone support Bush either here in Canada or on any of the corners of the Internet that I happen to frequent.
And I agree that the junior Bush has been, as far as I'm aware, generally quite fastidious in his religious tolerance, whether or not it's heartfelt. He did fuck up pretty egregiously with the whole "crusade" comment right before the war, but I recall him strongly insisting on the war not being exactly that.
That said, he does drop the name of (the Christian) god quite a lot, and obviously he's loathable in ever so many other ways.
Hope things work out ok for America eventually.
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My SO is an athiest and a professional feminist so she's constantly pointing out offhand comments by people that I wouldn't otherwise take notice of (ex. a lot of people are pissed that Ah-nold keeps saying "girlie-men" as an insult).
Because of that I've noticed just how many vague religious references politicians make. Like how they keep saying marriage is "sacred." So there are all kinds of religious conotations and denotations without overtly invoking religious prohibitions.
But that's okay. I know that my God can beat up their god and in the end It will perform a celestial wedgie of epic proportions
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ETAed out of existence, for the good of just about everyone.
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la, la, la, cough. cough, cough. la, la la la la LA.
ok.
AAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGG GGGGGGGGGGGG
GGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG, *gasp*,
GGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG GGGGGG!!
*pant*pant*pant*
*gasp*
*wheeze*
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Has anyone seen Arkabee's inhaler?
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TalkyDude, thanks for one of the better articulated posts from that side of the fence I've read in quite some time.
Of course, I still disagree. My big problem with the "war on terror" is that you cannot fight an abstract noun. If it was "war with al-Qaeda" and our efforts were focused in that direction, I'd be all for it. But instead we have this fuzzy definition of "terraists" being whoever Bush and his crew feel like going after. There have been reports that immediately in the wake of September 11 for someone to cook up a link between those attacks and Iraq. They knew from the day they took office that they wanted to go to war in Iraq, they just needed an excuse. And that, in my opinion, will create far more Islamic militants than it eradicates. Not to mention what their cowboy MO has done to our standing in the rest of the world. I don't want the rest of the world to hate Americans to varying degrees. It sucks.
But their better nature won out and now we have something like a World War II and a Marshall Plan, but simultaneously, on a rolling start.
World War II had a broad coalition. The Marshall Plan gave money to the countries that were rebuilding, not to administration cronies like Halliburton who then failed to do what they were being paid way, way too much money to do. The goals may be admirable when you put them like that, but fact is BushCo is incompetent, and they've completely fucked it up.
I just don't trust the man to fight this war, and I do trust Bush.
Well, if that's how you feel, I don't know what to tell you. Personally, I find the suggestion that "Only Bush can defend America," and the insinuation that a Democrat would, I dunno, turn the country over to al Qaeda, to be insulting. The idea that an American president would willfully fail to defend the homeland is ridiculous. (You can disagree on how that's to be accomplished, sure.)
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I've been a proud member of the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy my whole life.
I think that the Democratic party is more fragmented than the Republican Party and has been for some time (although the Republican party isn't 100% in cohesive lockstep either). I think the reason is that the diversity of Core Values among the Democarats (on the individual level) is much broader than that of the Republicans.
Obviously this is not an indictment of either party; I think, though, that that fact naturally creates problems when you are trying to appeal to your 'base'. I think that it is easier for the Republicans to identify and address the needs of that base than it is for the Democrats.
I wish I still lived in Chicao, I'd definitely have to buy TalkyDude a beer. I am always intrigued by the fact that people who have lived outside the US or have significant ties outside the US are able to articulate politics in ways that we with only purely 'American' life experience can not. I know that there are many 'Bush Democrats' out there; certainly many more than there are "Kerry Republicans". This is a very interesting election in that there are so few undecided votes to fight over. I wish there was more talk of substantial issues - I still have no idea what Kerry plans to do. I heard some talk that he's a Vietnam veteran; apparently he has met with many world leaders which he can't name and although his assets and his personal campaign contributions exceed his income as a Senator logarithmically, apparently there is no need for his wife to release her tax records. All I want to hear is a platform and a plan; isn't that what the convention was for? And still, nothing beyond some well-exploited statements that make him look like he changes his mind frequently.
19 years in the Senate should account for something - what is Mr. Kerry's signature issue or namesake legislation?
Yes, I'm voting for Bush. Because I have not heard one single reason to vote FOR Kerry and I don't think it's too smart to vote the other guy nearly blindly because you don't like the incumbent. That's too much like a pig in a poke.
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I know that there are many 'Bush Democrats' out there; certainly many more than there are "Kerry Republicans".
Guess we run in different circles, because I know many more Republicans who are fed up with Bush than Democrats who are planning to vote for him.
I wish there was more talk of substantial issues - I still have no idea what Kerry plans to do....All I want to hear is a platform and a plan; isn't that what the convention was for?
Now Dawg, I don't mean to single you out here. You are far from the first person I've heard state that they don't know what Kerry's platform is. I could understand that coming from someone who doesn't have access to that Interweb thingy and is reliant on our crappy media to get information.
But I'm surprised to hear this coming from people who are Internet-savvy. When geeks such as we need information on something? Google that shit, find the official web site, get the stuff. So have those of you who are wondering about Kerry's platform visited johnkerry.com? You can get the whole plan laid out (http://www.johnkerry.com/plan/), and if that's not enough detail you can download a whopping big PDF file (http://www.johnkerry.com/pdf/our_plan_for_america.pdf) with more. Yeah, he spent too much time at the convention flogging his vet status, but even so I'd say there was more discussion of domestic issues at the Democratic convention than at the RNC so far.
Now of course I wish there was more of a real debate on this, but you can blame a lot of parties for that: our suck-ass media who would rather report bullshit scandals like those Swift Boat fuckers than anything genuine, a right-wing propaganda machine that exploits that condition, a cowed Democratic party that can't get its shit together, and a slack-jawed American public who would rather watch Trading Spouses than talk about the merits of a single-payer health plan.
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Firstly: <mod hat="on">Thanks for keeping it civil. Thank you.</mod>
Now: If we're going to discuss the finer points of voting against Kerry, let's not leave out the finer points of voting against Bush.
- The PATRIOT Act has begun the unravelling of the very civil liberties our prior commanders-in-chief and their armies and soldiers died to guarantee for us. Don't invoke their honor when dismissing a decorated veteran who saw wrong in a policy and practice then tried to correct it.
- 1.3 million (1,300,000) more people this year than last live below the line of poverty. The economy is up? Home ownership is up because homes are effectively cheaper: incentive-providing interest rates, "creative" accounting, and sub-standard construction materials and practices allowed for more people to buy homes as investments to dump in the short term. Also, 25 percent of our population is without healthcare of any kind (I join those ranks in a couple weeks, unfortunately) and nearly 6% of us are unemployed. It's better than many countries around the world, but none as developed as we purport to be.
- The No Child Left Behind legislation has arguably left more children behind than it has salvaged. Test scores have not markedly improved, and "teacher accountability" has stressed the budgets of elementary and secondary public schools to the point where overcrowding and out-of-date texts (though being fought) are revealed as the greatest cause of failure. There is such a thing as "environmental accountability" which has yet to be explored.
- Though America and the world may be safer since Hussein was ousted, it must be admitted that our current President had - and this is a biggie - absolutely no legitimate cause to invade Iraq. Doing so eliminated the international support we were granted after the Sep.11 tragedy, and doing so with such poor intelligence information eroded the faith our people require in our administration, our intelligence services, and our armed forces. One order from Bush would have pre-empted the entire issue: "Tell me where in Iraq the WMDs are."
- The prescription drug plan delivered by this administration falls so far short of that promised and needed by our poor, disabled, and senior citizens it can be argued that it leaves each of them off in a worse place. People that could barely afford their medicine previously now can't afford anything but.
- Social Security is gone. Oh, people will still be able to collect for the next few years, but by the time those of us who put in more money for social security per capita than anyone else in its history are eligible to collect it, it won't be there. There was a solution, and a damned good one, but it belonged to the guy who never actually claimed to invent the internet.
- The demeanor and behavior of the administration and their party as a whole has from the start been one of deceit, destruction, and dementia. Okay, not dementia necessarily, but it sure reads well, doesn't it? Cheney's Halliburton back pay for one. Bush's brother's crony and henchfolk barring legally allowed voters from exercising their right, for another. The illegal connection to the Swiftboat group. The revenge on Saddam for an assassination attempt on W's daddy. I could go on, but I just done typed a whole bunch already.
This: I'm self-employed, have been for a month. The wife and I are trying to get our personal chef service off the ground (check our site! (http://www.thissideofwonderland.com)) and I've been delivering lunches and marketing to offices, which entails a lot of driving. In the morning, I listen to conservative talk radio (Glenn Beck, Laura Ingram, Rush, Prager) and in the afternoon I listen to moderate talk radio (NPR). I read the New York Times by email and watch the local Fox affiliate news. I avoid cable news like the plague. I do these things to get an all-around view of every issue I can (I'm a Libra, it takes me a lot of information and digestion to make a decision, except from a menu at a restaurant). I claim no party, and probably never will. In this election I'm supporting Kerry, because I know that he'll begin to right the wrongs incurred by George W. Bush and his employees at the White House. He may not finish the job in even two terms, because it's a hell of a task he's got to undertake, and if you don't understand that, well, I don't think I even want to know you.
Edited to add (I know, I know, enough already): That last line was cribbed from a TV show. Sorry. I don't care who you vote for -- well, I do, a little, but I'm only trying to sway, not force, you to do that -- just go vote. Don't throw away a national right, a human right, and a global governmental privilege for which so many have yearned and fought and still yearn and fight.
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did anyone watch ted koppel tonight? did you see the end segment where he's "chatting" with john stewart?
i'm so sick of lies, and liars. i'm so sick of the people who are so fuck*ng good at the game but have no purpose except to play the game. do you want to lead people? no, you want to win. win win win win win. yay, so i guess everyone else just has to lose, huh? you are a winner. yay! go team! wooohoooo!!!
lies. lies lies lies lies lies.
and then there's some truth, somewhere, but it's taken out of context.
i'm going to uncloset myself as a huge dork, but i went to Badger Boys State when i was in high school. boys state is some, thing, where in "the future leaders of america" go to this campus for a week, and set up a mock government, yadda yadda yadda.
16 year old boys setting up government.
i swear to god it must never have stopped for them, because low and behold it's the same thing.
i remember one kid's campaign to be elected, um, something, was "little, yellow, different." he was asian and short. he won, because he based his campaign entirely upon a slogan comparing himself to an over the counter pain medication.
VIVA LA BOYS STATE, WHERE IS MY KING?
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i remember one kid's campaign to be elected, um, something, was "little, yellow, different." he was asian and short. he won, because he based his campaign entirely upon a slogan comparing himself to an over the counter pain medication.
...the slogan of which was changed, and which then disappeared from the market, due to pressure to be politically correct and not potentially insulting to asians.
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i remember one kid's campaign to be elected, um, something, was "little, yellow, different." he was asian and short. he won, because he based his campaign entirely upon a slogan comparing himself to an over the counter pain medication.
And now it's a pretty good weblog (http://www.littleyellowdifferent.com/).
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I saw a bumper sticker on a truck yesterday afternoon that said "Nobody for President" and I cheered!
There's also a hell of funny shirt on tshirthell.com that bites the style of the Bush/Cheney '04 stickers but it says "Do we have to have a president?" Sorry no link, but it's blocked at work. If anyone is curious, I work on an Air Force base, so jough, if you're seeing hits from niprnet, it's not the FedGov spying on you, it's just me. Probably.
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You should Google "Nobody for President". Nobody for President is a touring campaign/event/party/freakout thing put on by Wavy Gravy among other people. They came to my college campus in 1984 which is where I found out about 'em. They were, in a word, a hoot.
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I get hits from _____.cia.gov all the time. Maybe they think I'm foreign or something.
It's okay - when the spooks look into my web server, my web server also looks back into THEM.
Back to the topic at hand, I'm a registered Republican, but mostly because ALL of the local politicians are Republican and sometimes I may need them to do things for me. So it helps to be one of their constituents.
HOWEVER
I'm pretty case-by-case when it comes to the presidency. I voted for Clinton, I voted for G.W. Bush last election, which I REGRET now because all Bush did was fuck up the country.
So this time I'm debating between Kerry and Nader. I'm not crazy about Kerry, but I think that he'll be good for the economy, which is my #1 concern right now (being unemployed for about two years - if you don't count my web business) so I won't be voting FOR Kerry as much as AGAINST Bush.
I mean, I knew he was an idiot when I voted for him, but I figured the president doesn't really make any important decisions anyway, and he'd be hand-held by his daddy's friends, whom he gave all of the key positions to.
What I didn't consider was that his daddy's friends would so unabashedly help out their business partners to the detriment of the american people. I mean, they don't even try to hide it. They have balls, that's for sure. If this wasn't the 21st century and we didn't consider ourselves civilised we would have beheaded the lot of them by this time.
Also, do you really think 9/11 would have happened if Gore was president at the time? I thinkn't.
Anyway, that's neither here nor there. You can't really BLAME Bush for 9/11. It's just another black eye on his presidency.
So in the end I will *probably* vote Kerry, just to make sure that Bush doesn't win again.
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Also, do you really think 9/11 would have happened if Gore was president at the time? I thinkn't.
Actually, I do. I think they had been planning it for some time and would have done it either way. Furthermore, in the immediate aftermath of 9/11 I think Gore would have done just about the same things Bush did; thus the "We're so fortunate Bush was our president on 9/11" talk of Guiliani et. al. is freakin' silly. What, specifically, did Bush do that week that was A. so damn great and B. something no other potential president would have done in the same spot?
Concurrently, I find the "the terrorists want Bush to lose" to be freakin' ridiculous. I think they will continue to hate us regardless of who our president is. And if al-Qaeda quakes in their boots at the thought of the mean, terrorist-ass-kickin' Republicans, why did 9/11 happen on their watch, then?[/i]
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I mean, I knew he was an idiot when I voted for him, but I figured the president doesn't really make any important decisions anyway, and he'd be hand-held by his daddy's friends, whom he gave all of the key positions to.
I cannot entirely fathom deliberately voting for a man you believe is an idiot, but different strokes for different folks, I suppose.
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Concurrently, I find the "the terrorists want Bush to lose" to be freakin' ridiculous. I think they will continue to hate us regardless of who our president is.
Maybe. But (http://uk.news.yahoo.com/040317/325/eotq9.html)...
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Yeah, I don't buy the "If you vote for X the terrorists have won" propaganda.
But do you seriously think that the Bush family and terrorists (i.e. Al Quaeda) have no connection? The attack just *happened* to occur while the second president of the Bush family dynasty was in power?
I mean, I'm hardly a conspiracy nut but I don't brush off the obvious as mere coincidence either.
And yes, the presidency is more than a man. The presidency is a group of people. Both sides are pretty much beholden to the same power source in the U.S. - those campaign contributors give money to both parties, and they stand the most to gain or lose by who is in power. There are only so many incredibly wealthy people of influence in the U.S., and they make sure that things go their way.
If you're stupid enough to think you want to wear the big boy ##### because you're the "president" you'll likely end up choking on a pretzel.
In any case, at least the Democrats *pretend* that they care about the people of the U.S. and will occasionally throw a bone our way - the Bush Republicans are so blatantly pro-rich-white-guys that they may as well all grow thin mustaches and wring their hands together while bellowing "BWOOHOOHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
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In any case, at least the Democrats *pretend* that they care about the people of the U.S. and will occasionally throw a bone our way - the Bush Republicans are so blatantly pro-rich-white-guys that they may as well all grow thin mustaches and wring their hands together while bellowing "BWOOHOOHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
This would make a good political cartoon. They could be tying ECONOMY to the railroad tracks or something.
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In any case, at least the Democrats *pretend* that they care about the people of the U.S. and will occasionally throw a bone our way - the Bush Republicans are so blatantly pro-rich-white-guys that they may as well all grow thin mustaches and wring their hands together while bellowing "BWOOHOOHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
This would make a good political cartoon. They could be tying ECONOMY to the railroad tracks or something.
Such as making KERRY walk the plank, or scoffing in tophats as as CIVIL RIGHTS begs for money on the street corner
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In any case, at least the Democrats *pretend* that they care about the people of the U.S. and will occasionally throw a bone our way - the Bush Republicans are so blatantly pro-rich-white-guys that they may as well all grow thin mustaches and wring their hands together while bellowing "BWOOHOOHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
"Upon entering the Young Republicans all members must take a 2-day class on maniacal laughter"
</Far Side ripoff tribute>
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I'm feeling much better now.
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EXCELLENT news, Limmo. Excellent.
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Glad you're glad. I didn't know you were a chef!
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Now you do!
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This website (http://www.kerryhatersforkerry.com/) made me very happy when I found it yesterday.