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[Va]

Don't vote.

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

[Bozack]

...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.

[Va]

This is why I think the left really needs to popularize the term "Religious Reich" TM Eric Szulczewski

Ahem.

[andalucia]

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.

[Schkura]

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.

[Va]

From John Varley's FAQ:

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.

[Limmo]

Here's a piece about how Democrats panic at moments like these.  Guilty as charged, I guess.

[Va]

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)".

[jough]

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!

[side_show]

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.

[Va]

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.

[TALKYdude]

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.

[Ben-San]

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.

[TALKYdude]

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.

[andalucia]

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.