campaigning

[Stretch]

Denver votes for

Good news or bad news, you deceide:
Denver voted FOR tax increases for light rail , culture/art, and to deter smoking.

Will that improve our quality of life, or drive away business?

Commodity prices have been on the rise for two years. A big increase in tin plate steel was just announced, so stock up on your canned goods. And plant a garden. Hope you insulated your house and added storm windows. Switched to compact florescent or LED lights and got in the habit of turning off your electronics when you don't need them. Pay down your credit cards, interest rates are going up.

For every problem there is opportunity for someone with sufficiant imagination and will. I really don't care so much about equality of outcome, but equality of opportunity. I don't expect perfection in systems, but I hope for effort in individuals.

Time to get creative. Those "big corporations" everybody whines about weren't started by cyborgs, they were started by individuals. Loook at CdS.

Bye the bye, nice article by Penn Jillette (Penn and Teller) in the December print issue of Reason Magazine.

I don't know when they put the new issue on line, but quite a bit of the November issue is online now.

http://reason.com/

[Chance]

read it for yourself

Jester- The software behind the machines is protected by various copyrights and patents. In other words, no one can see it unless the owner allows it. How's that for a transparent Democracy? I am not saying Bush didn't get votes from various wingnuts, he did. But I am saying the election was rigged, which it was.

For those curious about impeachment, the People do not impeach, Congess does. And the Congess now, thanks once again to those marvelous machines, is overwhelmingly Republican.

Snow balls have a better chance in Amber's mouth...

[jester]

Ettiene.. Calm down.

Shooting Dubya would make him as posthumously popular as Bush. We have got George for the next 4 years. We can either help him make the world an even worse place by resorting to stupid things like impeachment for nothing, or we can live with it move forward and try to change a few minds and hearts.


We don't like him. We didn't vote for him, but your fellow countrymen did. Lick your wounds, celebrate your small acheivements (he got into trouble, the gap closed in the polls, it wasn't a walkover and at one point they really thought he was going to lose.)

In 1992 The Conservatives won a minority Government here in UK. We were astonished, nobody could beleive it. There followed 4 years through which John Major had to wrestle with a big recession, big problems, massive unpopularity. The people learned to live with it and get on.

Within 12 months, by 1993 the opposition were basicly the Government in waiting. By the time Labour came to power in 1997 the country was on a real high. Things could only get better and they did because business, people and industry were all fed up with the Conservatives and had just got on with it.

Meanwhile, things had improved, the struggling Conservative government had struggled and had laid the foundations for growth and stability while taking all the flak for the recession.

Things will get better. Meanwhile, things could be a lot worse. US and UK people have much easier lives than people elsewhere.

George Dubya Bush is your president. And he is no more hated than Clinton was by many people in your country. We can't change that now. It's done.

[Lynneski]

Save us, Jebus!

Lynneski's Canadian Mail Order Brides Inc. will soon be open for business - just stocking the shelves now. Guy or gal, straight or curly - we have what you're looking for. (Some models not available.)

Call for your free catalogue today!

(Buyer pays all shipping and taxes. Items sold AS IS - may not be exactly to scale.)

[le pire]

Jester,

What are you talking about?!!? Heavens to Betsy, I NEVER advocated shooting the duly elected president of the United States of America!!! Goodness, that would be a federal crime.

I simply saw a gun in photo, and thought, "maybe that fellow could go hunting or something?"


etienne

[le pire]

Lynneski,

I'm (recently converted) mormon. I'll take three please. And I'm feeling generous, so one for Dynamike, on my tab, too.

etienne

[jester]

That's it you see.

You see the gun, you start hypothesising. Then you buy a bomber jacket and start imagining a career in the army. Convenient accidents, my goodness.... You'll be a republican by the end of the week if you don't control yourself. In 12 months you'll be telling people you are a vet of the Iraqu war....

Now you can help yourself. Lock yourself in a room, away from all guns and images of guns. surround yourself with flowers and naked canadian mail order brides.... I think I don't need to tell you what to do next, it'll sort of work itself out.

Heres the important bit, just as you are about to climax sexually, at the point at which you can't prevent it, close your eyes and think of Monica Lewinski, those puffy innocent cheeks, those childlike innocent eyes....

You'll be a democrat again!

[Lynneski]

And yes, your ass does look fat in those pants ...

This from today's front page (Kitchener-Waterloo Record):

"We could be living in a "very dangerous world" with the re-election of President George W. Bush to the White House, says Paul Heinbecker, Canada's former ambassador to the United Nations.

Heinbecker said he's worried about the potential for war when an American public supports an administration that "overthrew 70 years of international law" to attack Iraq under false pretences.

A kind of populist movement that's "anti-intellectual, ant-international and xenophobic" seems to have overtaken the country, Heinbecker said.

Seventy percent of Bush's supporters still believe there were weapons of mass destruction and connections between Saddam Hussein and 9/11 - even after investigations that proved otherwise, he said.

"If you're dealing with a population that will not see reality and believes that it is acceptable for its president to take the view that if he sees a gathering danger, it's legitimate to go and attack whoever he decides that is, then we're living in ... a very dangerous world."

With his re-election, Bush has been validated and vindicated "on a decision to launch a war the rest of the world considers illegal," Heinbecker said.

The only thing to stop him now is reality, he said. "They're not doing very well in Iraq. I think the American population is in denial over Iraq.""

And this, from columnist James Travers:

"Less than 24 hours after Kerry conceded defeat in a long and brutish presidential race, this country and the one next door are, more than ever, an odd couple. Differences are now so marked that there is little truth or comfort in federal government assurance that it's business as usual.

...

Here's what the [Canadian] prime minister and his cabinet will have to consider at a meeting today with Canada's ambassafor to the United States, Michael Kergin. With no future election left to contest, an already radical and transformational president is now free to swing even harder to the neo-conservative right with domestic and foreign policies likely to shock, and perhaps appall, a majority of Canadians.

The list of what's ahead is as long as it's worrying. Federal officials are predicting privately that Bush's second term will include new tax cuts, energy policies that open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling, and up to four new appointments to the Supreme Court that can safely be expected to alter the social landscape.

All will create new stress in a relationship already made difficult by lingering trade disputes, Canada's refusal to enlist in the Iraq misadventure and the Bush administration's insistence that this country join the technically suspect and ruinously expensive plan to erect a ballistic missile defense shield.

...

What has become painfully clear is that countries with quickly converging economies have rapidly diverging world and domestic views."



I think BBC and CBC news ought to be required watching all across America, so you can see what you really look like in that suit.
(Italics mine)

[NYSB_Craig]

to my friends...

I wish I was here yesterday so I could chime in; but I literally stayed at home and pulled the covers over my eyes. Was this real? Jerry Fallwell says so and he's laughing all the way to the bank with a pocket full of soiled under-roo's. But where's the "true" God when you need him? I swore I'd awake to clouds of locusts raining down on our fine country- with frogs pouring through the drains and leporsy in the pants of the wicked. But alas, today the sun is actually shining and the earth has not cracked...not yet at least. So where does this leave us? I have found great comfort in the political/social galvanization of all of my closest friends. I envy the action that has been taken by some of you, which has by far exceeded my own. We rolled the dice and it seemed easy, but history has repeated itself once again. And of course!!! How could we be so blind? God's will had been cast down on the sodomites, just as it had been asked for. But I'm not talking about the God of unconditional love. No...not the one you might pray to. I'm talking about the God that killed Ken Kasey and George Harrison right before the first war of the new millennium. I'm talking about the God that hates the Eiffel tower and drives a date-rape 4 wheel drive with chains draggin on the concrete and a Confederate flag waving in the course wind.

So that leaves us standing here angry and feeling alone...but we are not. Canada looks good and Molotov cocktails look even better...believe me. But I believe that we have a real "moral" obligation to this country at the moment. Our generation has been cast as the apathetic, branded with an X and left for dead years ago. Now we find ourselves on the brink of another major Civil Rights movement and many of us have stood in opposition to the war (and much earlier than the anti-war movement in the 60's began I might add). And I understand the proverbial eye-roll that might come from some of you about this, and that's what I love about you. But, when it's all said and done we will all do the right thing. So in other words, we have A LOT to fight for. Let me say that my belly still aches with affirmations of our leaders, but they've let us down time and time again. And as we will find in the People's History of The United States, it is always up to us to lead this place in the right direction. It's a large party to join as we can remember from long hours ago. So now, after the dust settles, we must dig our feet in deeper and roll around in the mud a little longer. I look forward to it and I look forward to seeing you there. It will be alright.

[Jim]

Interesting graphics

If you thought the state by state election results looked really RED, check out the county by county result map below. Holy crap. At least it looks like every county went for Kerry in Massachusetts!



Also these are pretty funny:

"Canada 2.0"


"JesusLand"

[Woofnah]

"I'm so happy I can't see"

That does look rather bleak ...

I haven't checked our local elections. I fear devastation of the lowest income bracket. I foresee uncontrolled outbreaks of TB and deadly strains of influenza. I see the poor living in Soylent Green crowded households which promote disease and dispair.

Can you tell I'm a "Public Servant" by day? Health Department. We've lost 6 people in our program for 2005.

[Drew Richardson]

It's a purple country:

http://www.boingboing.net/images/Purple-USA.jpg

[Butterfly Man]

Kerry To Lead Breakaway Republic


Boston (Reuters) In a fiery concession speech at Boston's historic Faneuil Hall, defeated Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry
accepted the now inevitable conclusion of a long 2004 election night: New England and New York City seceding from the Union.
"The voters have spoken and I respect that process," said the Massachusetts senator, before an audience of friends, family, supporters and campaign staff. "And the voters have told us that it's time for tolerant, open minded and sane Americans to form our own nation."

Kerry gave words to what many of his fervent supporters have long believed. "If the rest of the nation wants to be led by a bunch of
gay-bashing, war-mongering, corporate-whore evangelicals, so be it," said the Senator. "We chose to live in peace, harmony and fiscal sanity east of the Hudson river."

Legions of lawyers working for the Kerry campaign have shifted their attention from voting booth challenges to the legal paperwork required for setting up a new country. "We'll have the world's 6th largest economy, the world's most highly educated populace, the best NFL team, and the best baseball rivalry," said Kerry. "Once Kofi approves the paperwork and the new letterhead comes in we'll be our own. Thank god."

Kerry stressed this path was the only way for the nation to begin the process of healing. "As a thrice decorated Vietnam vet I saw men whose only hope of life was the sweet, swift and sharp healing of amputating an infected and shrapnel filled limb," said the hoarse Senator. "And now we must amputate the cancerous red state tumor that is otherwise known as Bush's America."

Details were not firmed up as to the fate of Democratic supporters in the mid-west, Pacific west coast, and District of Columbia. "Blue state citizens will be automatically eligible for membership in New America (TM)," stressed Kerry. "The rest of you bible thumpers, Humvee drivers and NRA members can take your assault rifles, Confederate flags and gay marriage bans and choke on the arsenic laden water and $6.50 per gallon gas prices that your vote has bought you. Best of luck with Iraq, by the way."

Bush officials had no comment, other than to confirm the pending elimination of the E.P.A., the reduction of the minimum wage to $2.00
per hour, the reinstatement of the Dred Scott decision and the nomination of Ralph Reed to replace William Rehnquist on the Supreme Court.

Meanwhile, Providence, Rhode Island was being strongly considered as a symbolic location for the new nation's capital. "More than 300 years ago, Anne Hutchinson led a stubborn band of colonists who refused to recognize the maniacal, religious right morality of the Puritans and went off to form Rhode Island," reminded Kerry. "Today, we refuse to recognize the Puritanical zealotry of John Ashcroft, Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld and form our own nation, free of Cracker Barrels, Dale Earnhardt memorials and Lee Greenwood. This is a great day for New England."


P.S. Puna District ... just south of Hilo (on the Big Island) ... password is "pitch" .... shhhh!

[jester]

I think I said you were "Seldom" witty, but as the hilarious peice below proves, your efforts are better directed in your humour than in your anger.

Very good Mr Butterfly man. I have read it three times and laughed out loud every time...

[jester]

Jim

Can we put the Kerry to Lead Breakaway... in the articles section so we can copy the URL and direct our friends to it. It may get more people on the net, and it is simply brilliant isn't it?