The Song Fight Bulletin Board

Kamakura wrote:According to the 'who's going to win' poll Kerry now looks like being the next president. This is the way it should be.
Having watched a lot of pundits over the last few weeks, and being fed a huge amount of polemical 'data' I am seriously hoping you guys have the common sense to elect Kerry.
Otherwise we are all fucked.
What happens in America today affects the whole planet.

Believe me, we know. The problem is that the Bush voters don't care. They have a "we got attacked so hell with everybody else" attitude.

If Bush wins, we all apologize. After all we only get one vote apiece (except for me, who gets two. Really. I got two voter registration cards in the mail, each sending me to different polling places. Washington does not have a single database of registered voters, so this could happen. I voted last week by mail, so it's possible I could vote three times. I'm an honest guy so I won't, but I think I could.)

So, Jim, if Bush wins, it IS your fault for not voting three times!
-bill

HeuristicsInc wrote:So, Jim, if Bush wins, it IS your fault for not voting three times!
-bill

Assuming Kerry loses by two votes in the state of Washington of course *Sticking tongue out at you*

Anyone know a good website where I can track results?

Leaf wrote:Anyone know a good website where I can track results?

It'll be harder to find a website that doesn't track results, but try out http://election.princeton.edu/, cnn.com, http://www.electoral-vote.com/ (or if that's down, http://www.electoral-vote2.com/ through electoral-vote8.com/)

Also, Erik: don't jinx it.

Leaf wrote:Anyone know a good website where I can track results?

BBC News or CNN are usually fairly good with stuff like this. You can't really tell yet though as nothing's really come in yet... Wait for this evening and flip about on some reliable news sites. Something like this probably isn't the most reliable... Damn those kids with their pretty news websites.

I won't be able to vote in the next two elections as I'm awaiting my citizenship still. I know it's in an office building somewhere, it just has to get to my house, and my passport so I can vote.

Leaf wrote:Anyone know a good website where I can track results?

CNN has it down to each state's county results.

http://www.cnn.com

OUTSIDE of last year's media disaster, CNN is pretty good about getting this stuff right. Their analysis of things is usually very non partisan... but I guess it might be a little to the left... but I'm not sure...because *I'm* a little to the left and it seems all pretty fair to me *SMILEY*

Ah.... thanks dudes. Why google when you can get faster, more direct results from the sf politics thread?

I was up at 3 this morning (don't ask), and cnn.com had the following results for the town of Hart's Location, New Hampshire:

Kerry - 15 votes.
Bush - 15 votes.

I looked again at around 6am:

Kerry - 14 votes.
Bush - 16 votes.

Oh dear. It's going to be a long day.

yeah. I love those kind of results. Really instills some faith in the democratic process....

My boss KICKS ASS!!! He's giving us an hour off (not charged to your leave balance) to go vote!
Rockin good news! Too bad more bosses don't do that.

Justincombustion wrote:My boss KICKS ASS!!! He's giving us an hour off (not charged to your leave balance) to go vote!
Rockin good news! Too bad more bosses don't do that.

I'm not sure what a leave balance is, but here, we all get the day off to vote, or half the day, if we want it... but you are correct, more "bosses" should facilitate democracy....

Most of the TV I've seen on the election has been saying "It's going to be very very close. So close we can't possibly predict a winner", while gently hinting "Kerry. Probably. By a tiny margin. Because although the floating electorate don't trust him, they <i>really</i> don't trust Bush."

Personally, I suspect the election will be engineered to re-elect Bush by a very small margin. If Kerry gets in, there'll be two weeks of optimism on the left, followed by the sinking feeling that nothing's changed after all. If Bush gets in, expect more targeted tax cuts, more soldiers in Iraq, even more ways to end up in jail, and no two weeks of optimism.

But you knew all that already


.

Leaf wrote:more "bosses" should facilitate democracy....

and schools shouldn't have classes. i had to vote absentee since i'm registered back home. i just think it would be alot easier for them to throw out an absentee ballot. not that my vote carries any weight in one of the most conservative parts of the country.

i just got home from voting, yay me!
funny thing, in my neighbourhood there are more bush/cheney yard signs than kerry/edwards, but the only people who were there to greet me at the door of the voting place (local elementary school) were a couple of representatives from the washington county democratic party. maybe that's a good sign?

anyway... i thought i'd share the following, which my dad emailed me this morning. (i constantly am having political arguments with my mom because my views are diametrically opposite from hers, but i never really knew my dad's opinion on the subject [i don't see him nearly as often] although i'm pretty sure he's registered as an independant.)

There are 5 days until the election, an election that will decide the
next President of the United States. The man elected will be the president
of ALL Americans, not just the Democrats or the Republicans.

To show our solidarity as Americans, let's all get together and show
each other our support for the candidate of our choice. It's time that we
all came together, Democrats and Republicans alike.

If you support the policies and character of President George W. Bush,
please drive with your headlights 'ON' during the day.

If you support John Kerry, please drive with your headlights 'OFF' at
night.

(i saw it when i checked my mail after getting home from voting... my reply to him was, "that isn't fair! i didn't see this until after i already voted, but it's raining today so *everybody* has their lights on")

Leaf wrote:

Justincombustion wrote:My boss KICKS ASS!!! He's giving us an hour off (not charged to your leave balance) to go vote!
Rockin good news! Too bad more bosses don't do that.

I'm not sure what a leave balance is, but here, we all get the day off to vote, or half the day, if we want it... but you are correct, more "bosses" should facilitate democracy....

I'm pretty sure you can't get fired for taking time to vote today. Although, my boss would definitely get angry if one were clocked in while doing so. I came in yesterday and told everyone that I came in to make sure nothing was pending and then proceded right back out the door before clocking in. I officially clocked in 1 hour and 45 minutes late and still got pats on the back for doing so.

Here's a random blog that's posting exit poll results for the swing states. Who knows how accurate these are. (...and we all remember what happened last year when networks reported election results based on which candidate people <i>thought</i> they voted for....)

http://www.slate.com/id/2109053/

Man, I feel like a kid at Christmas waiting for Santa to come. Only, he might not show up at all (even though I've been oh so good this year) which only adds to the suspense. Wake me up when it's Nov. 3rd.

I don't remember a presidential election EVER that was this rabidly anticipated.

Jim of Seattle wrote:I don't remember a presidential election EVER that was this rabidly anticipated.

It's because for the first time we all realise how important it is from a global perspective. Whoever wins won't be perfect, but at least we might get on the right track, rather than heading for the precipice at high speed.

Just saw this news update on the Australian ABC website:

The Democrats are looking safe in Vermont, New Jersey, Merrylands, Massachusetts, Delaware, Illinois, Connecticut, Maine and DC.

Merrylands? You name states after hobbits now?

Yeah, we're big on hobbits here.
In Columbia there's a whole "village" called Hobbit's Glen, where all the street names come from Tolkein.
Yeah!
-bill