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OPEN ELECTION THREAD
Gloat if Republicans or Democrats win! Seethe if Republicans or Democrats lose! It’s your choice!
UPDATE. Attention, voters! Is it raining where you’re at? If so, that’s the work of Gaia and Rove:
A new study of voter behavior confirms something political operatives have long suspected: rain hurts Democrats and helps Republicans. The study found that 1 inch of rain reduces overall turnout by slightly less than 1 percent and cuts the Democratic vote by 2.5 percentage points.
UPDATE II. Patricia: “I think tomorrow everyone should all meet in the public square and have a big fistfight, until we are spent. The anger in the land makes the 2000 election look like a love-in.”
UPDATE III. Greg Palast:
Here’s how the 2006 mid-term election was stolen.
Note the past tense. And I’m not kidding.
And shoot me for saying this, but it won’t be stolen by jerking with the touch-screen machines (though they’ll do their nasty part). While progressives panic over the viral spread of suspect computer black boxes, the Karl Rove-bots have been tunneling into the vote vaults through entirely different means.
Means explained by Dave S.: “All went according to plan. The poll worker who was handing out the ballots pulled up her sleeve a bit, showing the Mark of the Beast on her wrist (a ‘KR’ encircled by a dragon eating its own tail, for those who missed the meeting - I’m looking at you, Wron). I gave her the verbal countersign (‘There was blood on the moon last night’), and she handed me the special ballot and directed me to booth #13, where I found the invisible-ink pen and wrote the initiation code (‘666/Scorpius’) in the appropriate place. I fed the ballot into the Diebold, it gave the confirmation tritone (the first three notes of ‘Black Sabbath’), and bang! There’s my 100 votes!”
UPDATE IV. Post-election discussion tonight at the Nelson Hotel, Oxford St., Bondi Junction from 8pm. Wear protective attire.
UPDATE V. Paperweight deployed:
A man who reportedly believed Republicans were conspiring to steal today’s election entered an Allentown polling site, signed in and proceeded to smash the screen of one of the electronic voting machines with a metal cat paperweight, poll volunteers said.
UPDATE VI. Jonah Goldberg: “It looks bad for the GOP right now.”
UPDATE VII. NRO has excellent ongoing coverage here. Outlook remains grim for Republicans.
UPDATE VIII. Richard McEnroe: “Lamont crashed and burned. Kos is now officially O-for-EVERYTHING.”
UPDATE IX. Ramesh Ponnuru: “If I heard him right, John Kerry just called Ted Kennedy the greatest senator in American history.”
UPDATE X. Mark Steyn: “So much for post-9/11 realism: The United States now has its first self-declared socialist in the senate - my Vermont neighbor, Bernie Sanders.” Also from Steyn: “The Democrats are close enough to smell those House chairmanships now - as well as the big chairwomanship.”
UPDATE XII. An election promise from Michael Moore:
I’LL PUT YOU ON MY WEBSITE. That’s right. You can appear on my home page and be seen by millions later today. All you need to do is bring a broom when you go to vote. The broom is our mascot today because we’re going to sweep the crooks and the warmongers outta office. Take a picture of yourself holding a broom outside your polling place, e-mail it to me, and I’ll put as many of you as I can up on the home page of my website.
UPDATE XIII. The SMH:
Democrats swept Republicans out of power in the US House of Representatives today, riding public doubts about the war in Iraq and President George Bush’s leadership to victory.
UPDATE XIV. Steyn: “Okay, looks like it’s time to start saying ‘Madam Speaker’ ...”
UPDATE XV. Ned Lamont is a Hero.
A fair bit of what’s been laid on the heads of the GOP as “incompetence” belongs elsewhere.
The inability to reform national intel into something functional is largely due to obstructionist federal employee unions, irrational rules and laws regarding the retention of malcontents and non performers and not enough of a majority to break through the “scorched earth” politics of obstruction and delay from the left.
There’s no way of learning who actually spent what in our national budgets. The system is set up to protect thieves and liars. That’s an old problem that just wont go away, ever. But anyone who really believes that the left didnt add hugely to the gross overspending by tacking endless lists of pork to bills that had to be passed, for political, as well as national protection reasons isnt dealing with a full deck.
Of course, GOP members also “got some of theirs” in the pork barrels, after all, pork aint pork if it’s spent in your district, it’s only the other guy that’s being a pig.We should have made it loud and clear that anyone not voting for line item veto would be replaced by someone who would.
Pork should be outlawed and moved into the criminal code as grand theft. Then we, as a nation, would have some hope of staying solvent. Pork during a time of war should be prosecuted as war profiteering and have a mandatory sentence of death in Federal Court. But that’s just me being a silly utopianist.
The reality is, the left has done harm to this nation and its war effort without hesitation at every opportunity and as an organization, has been inseparable from the foreign enemy in goals or rhetoric.
Those that believe this war is being fought according to the whims, wishes or will of a political party that was sitting in the slimmest majority, does not have a firm grasp of recent history.
Our military, as it now functions, is the product of 30 years of hostile oversight and reaction to a civilian population that can be counted upon to jump to the worst possible conclusions when the mere suggestion of wrong doing is vomited into the public consciousness by a malicious media.
Our military leaders know full well that if they fight a war as a war should be fought, everyone at any level of command would be up on charges for mass murder. Our current military leadership has developed in an environment where it is taken as given that the citizenry they serve to protect are every bit as much a threat as the enemy they stand against.
The actual fact is, much of our population are about as bright as a box of dull rocks and have given themselves over to the propaganda of the defeatists, appeasers, and kneejerk anti-ists.
And last, but definitely not least, anyone who truly believes that serious and comprehensive border control measures can be implemented without kicking off a full fledged civil war in this country, aint paying attention.
Much of this is due to the reality that most humans do not deal in a world of reason. They deal in a world of rote learning. They believe what they believe because that’s what they were told to believe and reason has no part in their world view.
And sadly, those that deal with reason tend to hold to the belief that reason will win out in the end on its own merits and therefore dont meet aggressive propagandizing with a counter aggressiveness and so fall into the pattern of submissives in the war of ideas.
Those that count on the multitude of idiots for their votes win because they know this and so keep their messages short, easily chantable and appealing to those who dont want to think.
Mark DeWine lost. Another ass.
His name is Mike, and you are correct, ed. I held my nose and voted for him, but I won’t mourn him.
the Devil hates laughter, so this is the place to be over the next two years, if you are concerned about your immortal soul.
No truer words, Paco. I look forward to many more flash novels about Detective Paco and Sheila, more Ali/Farouk/Achmed debates, and more Tardis adventures featuring wronwright’s never ending search for shinier weapons and spirits with historical alcohol content. Not to mention the astonishingly perspicaceous insights of all the other commenters here. A huge thanks to Tim Blair and Andrea for the opportunities.
Hmmm.
@ yojimbo
1.
Yo1 Ed! Read #240 & 241
I read them. What’s your point in asking me to read them again?
2.
You want to nuke Iran, fine, do you think I, stopping you.
Well nuking Iran is always a pleasant afternoon diversion. But there are many options less drastic than that. My point is that Iran has entered into war against America and yet Bush has avoided doing anything about it.
Iran is singularly vulnerable to a lot of different actions. If nothing else how about targeted killings of the members of the Iranian government? Aren’t the Iranians doing their best to kill our soldiers? Aren’t we entitled to strike back at them?
What the F**K is the point of fighting a war in such a completely stupid manner?
3.
I would also like to point out that I am living in Tucson. Get a bleeping map out and take a look! Those are our trauma centers out there that are being dismantled!
And yet you’re still a Republican?
Let me know how well that works out for you.
4.
Do you think I care about clowns like Chafee in R.I. Try finding a compass!
Have you published a list of all the things you’re not interested in and is it posted in a public area accessible according to the guidelines of the ADA?
Otherwise am I supposed to read your mind?
5.
We have two parties right now.
At the moment.
6.
The one with the conservastives in it is the Rep party.
Was. The correct tenses is “was”. As in “The one with the conservatives in it *was* the Rep party.”.
7.
The only way you even got a fence authorization was because of the conservastives within the Rep. Party.
Ahh yes. The “fence”. 700 miles of a 2,000 mile border. With the proviso that the federal government will “try” to build the “fence” but doesn’t guarantee the full 700 miles. ... If there’s enough funding because the Republican party decided on giving it less than 20% of the funding needed.
Oh yeah I find that extraordinarily impressive. I’m really just goggly-eyed right now with worship.
8.
Without the Reps in the majority;
Large parts of the Patriot Act are BLEEPING DEAD.Really? Are you sure about that? It was *Clinton* after that started rendition and sending suspects to be tortured by the Jordanians.
I suspect that the Patriot Act will become much less of a issue now.
9.
Bank surveillence is BLEEPING DEAD.
It already is dead or haven’t you read the New York Times?
10.
Terrorism as a police issue ALIVE and WELL!
Well that makes me really glad the borders are so secure.
11.
Itel Agencies as a greater threat than terrorists ALIVE and WELL!
Bush has avoided striking at enemies such as Syria, Iran and North Korea. Of course their intelligence agencies are alive and well. If you don’t attack them, they generally don’t up and die all by themselves.
12.
Any hope for a fence-DEAD!
Anyone who thought for a second that the GOP was going to go through with that fence is frankly fooling themselves. A lot of conservative pundits, who have zero credibility, want to give a lot of kudos to the House Republicans for holding the stern line on enforcement on illegal alien issues.
Only problem with that of course is the reality. A couple Republicans in the House introduced the tough amendments. The House Republicans pissed their pants trying to get those same amendments removed and only desisted when they realised just how well those amendments were polling.
The Republicans haven’t been serious about the borders for 30+ years. If that doesn’t clue you in, then nothing will.
13.
Now you go mail that to bleeping 1600!
? Why would I want to?
Posted by memomachine on 2006 11 08 at 04:23 PM • permalink#1: I certainly understand your point of view, Auntie. Working here in Washington has given me some painful insights into politics, in general, and it can be a sordid business with plenty of dirt on both sides of the aisle. My agency gets Congressional inquiries occasionally, and they’re usually from some elected bonehead nagging us about not doing enough for his constituent, who, by the way, gives every indication of being a con artist, as often as not - but can’t let that trump campaign contributions, now, can we! And I’ve encountered a disturbing number of Republican reps who are among the loudest hounds baying for pork. My father is fond of saying they ought to cancel the next election and have a public hanging, instead.
Hmmm.
@ yojimbo
Well there you have it!! Per Bush, with a “Democratic Congress”, immigration “REFORM” is now possible.
Did you ever think that wasn’t going to be the outcome anyways?
Just about every single conservative I know personally was not voting Republican because of a list of issues that had immigration near the top. And yet Bush comes out and pontificates that illegal immigration wasn’t a big issue? I seriously question that.
But lets face it. Just *who* in the GOP was against amnesty? Really against amnesty and not just lip-syncing it.
Not many.
Posted by memomachine on 2006 11 08 at 05:16 PM • permalinkNow why would Donald Rumsfeld resign? Hasn’t everything—yes, absolutely every-bloody-thing—gone so well? This, surely, is no time to be resigning—just when Iraq is on the very brink of turning for the better. What a strange time to be running away, just when victory is is within sight.
Looks like George has found you a scapegoat blogheads.
Posted by Miranda Divide on 2006 11 08 at 06:33 PM • permalinkMirander, it was just that Rummie found his way to these pages and read your input, and became so besotted with you that he realized that he could no longer give his position the full attention it deserves. Instead, I’ve heard he’s going to go on a full-time, all-out search for his True Love—you! Get your bags packed, baby, you’re going on a trip to the moon!
Posted by Andrea Harris, Administrator on 2006 11 08 at 08:23 PM • permalinkIf every day were sunshine and lollipops, you’d end up with skin cancer and tooth decay.
That one goes up on the wall.Posted by SwinishCapitalist on 2006 11 08 at 09:22 PM • permalink
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Well said, Ed. I can’t join Paco in a cold one unless it’s a tall glass of sweet tea, but he’s right, excellent points you made.
If it wasn’t for my concerns for Texas Bob & our other Heroes, I wouldn’t give a shit about this. THEY are the ones who matter & Congress is about to fuck ‘em again with no KY jelly. Pisses me right off.
MOST politicians, IM(seldom)HO, are so out of touch with the real America lived between Interstate 5 & Interstate 95, I think they should ALL be thrown out after 3 years. How much tax money does Teddy really need? They don’t give a rat’s ass about us, cuz dammit, they got theirs. War On Terror? Ain’t ever gonna affect them in any significant way, so WTF, vote the way their biggest owners say to vote. My fervent hope is that Texas Bob and his Brothers & Sisters keep safe IN SPITE OF the sellouts in Congress.
Bet there’s people willing to pay for that damn fence out of their own pockets, but we can’t do that cuz we gotta kowtow to the bureaucracy. THEY keep their jobs for fucking EVER.
Fuck ‘em all, Democrat, Republican, whatever, they’re in it for them, not the country & I don’t believe a word any of ‘em says. People who can be bought by one “special interest” just prove they can be bought. Ain’t THAT a fine thing to be able to tell yer grandkids?
I WILL be happy with my little island in the middle of this city in the middle of this swamp, but it isn’t because of anything any damn politician did or didn’t do. It’s because I’ve decided to be happy. I know what misery feels like & I ain’t goin’ back.