The Song Fight Bulletin Board

Merrylands is actually a less-than-salubrious suburb in western Sydney, probably best known for its methadone clinic.

The Repubs. were always going to struggle to win there (shit, we may as well vote, we're practically another one of your states now anyway...)

Looks like Ohio is the swinginest state in the country! Now I know why Woodward lives there.

HeuristicsInc wrote: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

i used to live in glen burnie!

in the next town up from me, there is a street called "hobbit lane", and on that street is a plan of houses collectively called "the shire".

back on topic, i'm saddened to see that pennsylvania's incumbent republican senator, arlen specter, won the race. i voted for his democratic opponent, joe joeffel, who was in the lead for most of the evening, but then as the last results dwindled in over the past couple of hours, specter came out on top.

i'm sure JB is thrilled about this, though, because i seem to recall him posting something not so long ago about being arlen's biggest fan.

sigh

I need some clarification here.
How is it that a state can call a result before all the votes have been counted, and in some cases before eveyone has finished voting?
How is it that Bush seems to have won before all the votes have been declared?
How is it that a bunch of farmers can get to decide the future of a whole fucking planet?
Bloody hell.

anybody want to talk about how seriously broken the political process is in this country? when only 50% (more or less) of the populace can get behind one candidate or the other - AND - the divide is ALMOST COMPLETELY based on what region the people come from - city vs. country? look at the map. especially the county maps on each state. something is wrong here.

for an example of what i'm talking about in my state's race, take a look at this: i'll give you one guess as to what happened here. it's called gerrymandering. howard county and baltimore city have no business voting together for the same candidate. they OBVIOUSLY have nothing in common. last election those were in two different districts and it made much more sense than this idiocy. Gah!
-bill

edit: stinking thing removed all my spaces!
edit 2: ok, that's better.

On behalf of the United States, I officially apologize for the outcome of this election. We did everything we could. Lies > truth.

Jim of Seattle wrote:On behalf of the United States, I officially apologize for the outcome of this election. We did everything we could. Lies > truth.

True. Let's hope we're all around in four years' time when this is put right; assuming there aren't any constitutional admendments to prevent you doing that. I for one can't see GWB going without a fight .. :/

j$

I've been on the fence for a long time about my vote.
For a couple weeks now, I've heard people say 'anyone who hasn't yet made up their mind is a dolt'. I've not offered to them the fact that I didn't yet know who to vote for.
I wasn't going to vote Bush. But Kerry didn't impress me much. It was inconceivable to those street logicians that there would BE a choice beyond the two major parties.
In the end, I did what I felt I had to do. Despite my strong feeling that a viable third party can only serve to help repair our crippled electoral process, I chose instead to vote for John Kerry.
This morning, I really really feel like I threw my vote away. I will not do it again.

jimtyrrell wrote: In the end, I did what I felt I had to do. Despite my strong feeling that a viable third party can only serve to help repair our crippled electoral process, I chose instead to vote for John Kerry.
This morning, I really really feel like I threw my vote away. I will not do it again.

Dear Jim, much as I like your music, and I can pronounce your name correctly, I think you're being daft.
You did the only thing you could have done, and though it seems he's lost, it wasn't a wasted vote. Your vote has become part of the 'voice' of reason, and Bush had better damn well listen to this voice before you guys have another civil war on your hands.
We face almost exactly the same problem in the UK next year.
The real problem we all face no matter where we are, is that politics can no longer be considered a national pastime. It's a global one; and now the whole damn planet has to suffer for at least the next four years.

Kamakura wrote:I need some clarification here.
How is it that a state can call a result before all the votes have been counted, and in some cases before eveyone has finished voting?

Let's say that 90% of the registered voters have already voted, and 80% of them voted for Bush. It doesn't matter who the other 10% vote for, does it?

Kamakura wrote: How is it that Bush seems to have won before all the votes have been declared?

That's not true at all. It's neck and neck now.

Kamakura wrote:How is it that a bunch of farmers can get to decide the future of a whole fucking planet?

That's a real asshole thing to say.

c hack wrote:

Kamakura wrote:How is it that a bunch of farmers can get to decide the future of a whole fucking planet?

That's a real asshole thing to say.

It may well be a real asshole thing to say, but it is nevertheless true. Sadly.

Kamakura wrote:Bush had better damn well listen to this voice before you guys have another civil war on your hands.

Why? He didn't last time, and this time he's won the popular vote. It's all the excuse he needs to carry on regardless (if he needed anything at all)

kamakura wrote:We face almost exactly the same problem in the UK next year.

On one level, yes. But actually the big danger over here is that the split of the votes between Labour and Lib Dem weakens the stand against the Tories, who have no equivalent right-wing party to syphon off the votes. Also there is a real danger of a hung parliament this time round, which I don't believe the US is as likely to suffer from (though I may be wrong on that). That voice of reason, as hard as it is to swallow, should be telling the UK to vote Blair in again, not out.

kamakura wrote: now the whole damn planet has to suffer for at least the next four years.

That's our governments' problem, really, not an American voter's. If we didn't go round sniffing at America's feet every time we could, then it wouldn't be an international problem.

I predicted all along that Bush would get back in. Now he has (by all but a statistical long-shot) I am filled with nameless terror.

J$

j$ wrote:

kamakura wrote: now the whole damn planet has to suffer for at least the next four years.

That's our governments' problem, really, not an American voter's. If we didn't go round sniffing at America's feet every time we could, then it wouldn't be an international problem.

I think you missed my point. It's not an international problem, it's a global problem. No matter who you are, what language you speak, or what your political persuasion is, we all live on the one planet...Though I agree Blair's toady attitude doesn't help.

j$ wrote:I am filled with nameless terror.

Me too.

Kamakura wrote:

c hack wrote:

Kamakura wrote:How is it that a bunch of farmers can get to decide the future of a whole fucking planet?

That's a real asshole thing to say.

It may well be a real asshole thing to say, but it is nevertheless true. Sadly.

Well, on behalf of all the farmers in the US, fuck you you elitist prick.

Just because someone's a farmer that means they're not smart enough to vote responsibly? I'm sick of people thinking that people in the rural areas of this country are stupid just because they don't live in a city, or maybe haven't gone to college. You ever think that there are valid reasons for voting for Bush? No, just because someone doesn't agree with you that makes them a podunk hick.

What do you do for a living, anyway? I'd be surprised if more than half the people here had more noble professions than farming.

j$ wrote: I predicted all along that Bush would get back in. Now he has (by all but a statistical long-shot) I am filled with nameless terror.

What are you talking about? I'm looking at cnn.com right now, and it's 254 to 252 in Bush's favor.

c hack wrote:What are you talking about? I'm looking at cnn.com right now, and it's 254 to 252 in Bush's favor.

And Ohio unreleased, which is worth enough points to clinch for either of them; last I saw, Bush was winning OH by about 200k votes, with somewhere between 175-250k uncounted. There's your statistical longshot.

All farming aside, am I the only one who looks at the red/blue map and thinks, "gosh, maybe the US should be more than one country?"

Bush seems to be ahead in Ohio by ~150,000 votes and there are ~250,000 ballots still to be counted. Not exactly a "long shot" but it is in Bush's favor. Is this a good time to complain about the electoral college system? Ha. Anyway.
I fully expect Bush to see getting re-elected as some sort of mandate from the masses again...
The farmer remark was kinda out of line, I think. People have different priorities. I was trying not to put any value judgements on the country vs. city thing.
However, I don't know why people in the general populace aren't more afraid of Bush. I'm worried that he's going to get us into a nuclear war, further destatbilize the Middle East, cause more hatred for Americans worldwide, and screw up my honeymoon plans. Argh.
-bill

BZL:

No, you are not the only one. I've gone so far as to consider the fact that perhaps we should be 50 different countries and just totally get rid of federal government in favor of some kind of administration that mediates between states. Ok, sure, maybe the New England states would want to band together to become the country of New England, but I think Texas would do pretty well on its own. The danger of all of that being the possibility of warring between states becoming common. Also, it'd make it more difficult to travel around the country, probably.

H Inc:

What We Need More Of Is Nuclear Wars (maybe)

Really, people vote their priorities. The fact that there are huge differences between the rural/agrarian and urban votes don't signify a simple lack of education. I know plenty of intelligent, well informed people who voted Bush.

Rural folks tend to be in favor of the Republican agenda of low taxes, small government, & religious morality more often than the Americans who live in diverse urban communities.

The only problem with that is, Bush has delivered none of those things either. Well, I guess we got a tax cut, but with his rate of spending that can't last forever. So it's very sad really. All of us lost this one.


But yeah, Bzl, this morning I wondered how it would be if the North lost the Civil War....

c hack wrote:Well, on behalf of all the farmers in the US, fuck you you elitist prick. - And other guff

Chill dear boy, I obviously rattled your cage. Apologies.
Perhaps using the word farmer wasn't very politic (hmm). What I meant was a weency percentage of people who happen to live in Ohio (which is a believe a farming state - ergo farmers).