campaigning

[worldwidese]

Look on the bright side

So Bush's scare tactics worked. The moronic millions believe that he really can protect them. Think again, idiots!

Me, at first I just couldn't believe that he had won. But now I'm starting to think this way- why should the Democrats have to come in and straighten out the mess as usual?
Let Bush clean up his own mess.

It's going to be tough going for the rest of us, but hopefully he'll get tried for war crimes, (all those thousands of Iraqi civilians killed,) Or get impeached or assassinated in the middle of his term, or face an uprising as people begin to realize just how they've been screwed. Or something!

I'm going to keep my fingers crossed.

[newyorkstreetdean]

This election was determined by a bunch of fu#cking homophobes!!!


Ohh Canada..

Oh shit, I think I've just brought sedition charges on myself

[Richard]

http://static.vidvote.com/movies/bushuncensored.mov

[jester]

Democracy!

It's your own fault for being democratic.

Democracy does not work.

Obviously I do not actually have a better alternative in mind just yet, but maybe you guys should consider apologising to our Royal Family and beg to become a colony again?

Nah. Monarchy sucks!

Or you could just make one of your own.


Hang on, I'll start another thread.

[NYSB_Craig]

We're all doomed

America - we blew it. We're all fucked. Any Canadians have an extra room for the next four years?

[Stretch]

H.L Menkin said:

"Democracy is the form of government, where people get what they deserve. And they get it good and hard."

Not only did Bush win, but the Republican
Party gained seats in BOTH the Senate and the House !!!!! That, I didn't expect.

Dear Martin, re: "hope of peace in the middle east" Over what time frame did you have in mind? Surely I can't be the bigger cynic! People of all stripes in all locales have, for all time waged war. An election, here or elsewhere isn't going to change that over any period of time longer than a generation or two.

If it wasn't Sadam, it would have been someone else. If not Bush, someone else. Maybe not after the first, second or even third homeland bombing, but yes, we were going to war.

[le pire]

oh well? That's the way the cookie crumbles? I wasn't campaigning for a bakery, but a country that is crumbling.

This wasn't just about ideology, for me, or education or Iraq or health care or gay marriage or any of that stuff. It was mostly about my (and possibly your) career as an entertainer.

I currently work freelance and do most of my performing at schools, universities, festivals and corporate events. From where I sit:

Funding to after school programs and "Arts in Education" have been slashed over the past 4 years. Schools don't have $$$ for books or lunch programs, let alone a juggler.

I used to work at Disney and thanks to the decline in tourism (people don't seem to have the money to go vacations like they used to), they have given the sack to more than 1/3 of the entertainers. Many of my friends with phenomenal skills and show biz resumes are now serving cappuccinos in starbucks.

Friends of mine who have worked in Vegas for years are having their shows closed and entertainment staff at all the casinos and cabarets are being serverly downsized.

Friends of mine who have absolutely top shows that sold for $1500 or more are now bottom feeding for $85 per hour walk around gigs and doing $99 birthday parties. One of my friends had to sell his house.

Festival budgets are being hacked to pieces and companies are no longer hiring entertainment for their holiday parties. Hell, they're serving hot dogs and baked beans when it used to be lobster and swordfish. (I wish I was exageratting on that one, but I'm not. I have performed at Fannie Mae's autumn employee appreciation party for three of the past five years. Five years ago there was a lobster buffet. The entertainers ate friggin LOBSTER after the gig. This year they had hot dogs and we ate nothing.)

I am also a street performer, and crowds are smaller, more stingy with their money, and afraid to laugh.

Performers are being censored and silenced-- or worse, they are censoring and silencing themselves. Performers are being driven out of work. Talented people, who have dedicated their lives to the vocation of performance are being ruined.

People in this country are more divided than ever-- just a quick look at CNN's "reaction forum" was hideous. Bush supporters praising jesus and telling people they're going to hell and Kerry supporters calling them stupid hick bigots. I saw this kind of stuff on the campaign trail too, and I was really surprised by the vitriol.

All I could think was "this is my audience, and they are ripped apart by my government. Happy, hospitible, wonderful people are being turned into into terrified hate-mongers. This has to stop."

It's been an exhausting day, and more exhausting days are to come. I was looking forward to a Kerry victory so I could become less involved in politics. I don't really care for all the schmoozing, handshaking, pandering and butt kissing for the sake a few votes. I have to do that crap for my business, and really that's enough for me. I was looking forward to an end to the fight. Not being worried that the supreme court would be stacked. Not worrying that our Government was going to go off starting wars for profit, that insurance companies would extort health care. I was looking forward to people wanting art and entertainment. I was looking forward to more laughter, more joy, more solidarity. But now, the fight must go on.




etienne

[worldwidese]

Budget Cuts

Couldn't agree with you more. Entertainment or culture is the first thing that suffers when people are tightening their belts.

Ditto the government. Why give money to the Arts when it could be diverted to buy arms or Haliburton services in Iraq?

Don't look for improvement any time soon. At least you (and we) can get gigs overseas if we wish to earn a little extra.

But what about the hundreds of thousands of poor slobs who lost their blue collar jobs, and then their homes and cars because they couldn't keep up the payments? And we aint seen nothin' yet!

We are in an age where we are just serfs at the mercy of the Corporate- Military Complex.
Aux armes citoyens!
Formez vos bataillons,
Marchons, marchons!
Qu'un sang impur
Abreuve nos sillons.

Aux armes, Citoyens!

[Doctor Eric]

We impeached Nixon.

We almost impeached Clinton, for getting a blowjob.

Why can't we impeach Bush?

The message that we send to the rest of the world seems to be "Oh, sure, we don't mind an unsanctioned and ill-planned war, costing trillions of dollars and hundreds of thousands lives, but oral sex? THAT's where we, the american people, draw the !@#?ing line!"

Maybe if we could get some photos of Georgy sneaking in Laura's backdoor late at night, we'd gain a little bit of ground. I shudder at the mental image, but desperate times call for pornographic measures! (I once screamed that same thing, naked but for a cowboy hat, atop a broken dresser in an even more broken hotel room in Juarez, Mexico, but that's another story...)

[Peter Voice]

I have, fortunately foreseen these events and have taken appropriate measures.

There is an island about 200kms off the coast of Tasmania (Aust.) that used to support a rare metal mine. The village that housed the mine workers has more than a hundred empty houses, a recently decommissioned school, sports field, public swimming pool, library and a hall (complete with kitchen) that can sit 600 people for dinner. The lot was sold recently at auction to indisclosed bidders for undisclosed amounts.

As far as I can tell it is a far away from George, Osama, Blair, Putin and our own home grown monster little Johnny Howard as I can possibly get.

I can't say Beverly has really figured out what I'm doing yet but I sure she'll love the sea air.

The first festival will be in March 2006, invitations will start soon. Immigration or defection may be possible.

[jester]

u

Within one hour of Kerrys concession, Republican Advisors were attacking Hillary Clinton on our airwaves.

20 mins of apparent grace, 30 mins of less dignified smugness than back to good ole repbulican hatred.....

The TV schedules in UK are completely stuffed, everybody expected a long protracted legal battle with recounts.... Now there are politicians and pundits desperately inventing new ways of saying..

"Well Bush won the popular vote, there's a surprise."

You can't impeach Bush. Thank heavens for the "Two Terms" rule.

Wait till his kids are ready to run for office. Don't impeach him, sterilise the entire family..... Q

[Chance]

it's the machines, stupid

The new paperless -- i.e., unverifiable -- voting machines were used by approx. 50 millions voters. The candidates earned near 55 million votes each. The machines, many thousands of them in total, were provided by just six companies, and all six are owned by well known Republican friends and donors. One, the owner of Diebold, bragged openly about six months ago that he was going to bring in Ohio for Bush with his machines.

And let's not even talk about the rampant Rebublican dirty tricks regarding youth and minorities.

America DID NOT vote for Bush. In an honest election I have no doubt Kerry would have won by 20 million votes or more.

[Mr.Taxi Trix]

Regarding Dr Eric's post, the best bumper sticker I've seen this election showed Clinton's face, and the following...


"Better blow jobs than no jobs!"

[jester]

Actually you can verify the votes on a machine, to a degree.

I would hope (but the world can be dumb) that both Democrats and Republicans had their own experts look at the finer workings of the machines before they were put to use.

I am suspiscious of machines because I don't fully understand them, however, I would assume that the programming and code were transparent to other experts.

I think people really did vote for Bush. People can be stupid.

"Better the devil you know." is as far as many people get to thinking about politics.

[le pire]

We impeached Nixon.

and we shot kennedy... and reagan.

I think it's time for the doctor to put that gun to good use.