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toomanyhelicopters wrote:man does that guy need to lay off the drugs!

Word has it Bush II has been clean-sober ever since Jesus Christ personally stepped into his heart 18 years ago.

Dispatches from the NY Times

This one made my stomach turn:

Tom Coburn, the new senator from Oklahoma, has advocated the death penalty for doctors who perform abortions and warned that "the gay agenda" would undermine the country. He also characterized his race as a choice between "good and evil" and said he had heard there was "rampant lesbianism" in Oklahoma schools.

Jim DeMint, the new senator from South Carolina, said during his campaign that he supported a state G.O.P. platform plank banning gays from teaching in public schools. He explained, "I would have given the same answer when asked if a single woman who was pregnant and living with her boyfriend should be hired to teach my third-grade children."

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/04/opinion/04dowd.html

Perhaps it's just heavy-handed campaign rhetoric from guys mobilizing their bases. Maybe it's Dowd doing the same sort of thing. I don't know.

Is Friedman right?

But what troubled me yesterday was my feeling that this election was tipped because of an outpouring of support for George Bush by people who don't just favor different policies than I do - they favor a whole different kind of America. We don't just disagree on what America should be doing; we disagree on what America is.

...

...It seemed as if people were not voting on [Bush's] performance. It seemed as if they were voting for what team they were on.

This was not an election. This was station identification.

Is so much of the country intent on legislating Evangelical morality to save the country?

I feel like a martian. A martian with three heads and B.O., to boot.

NOFX's "Fat" Mike Burkett, the man who created the Punk Voter movement, isn't happy about the results of the election.

Then again, he's proud of the impact that his organization had to disseminate information to and mobilize young voters. While the organization's ultimate goal -- electing Kerry -- wasn't achieved, it helped introduce youth to the political process. That alone made it a marginal success, Burkett says.

While the rest of the country is preaching abosolution for the politicla division among the United States' citizens, Burkett signsa different tune. True to his punk heritage, he's urging everyone to continue putting pressure on the right wing.

"We gave it our best shot. Senator Kerry today said that now we need to come together and heal as a nation," he said in a statement on the Punk Voter site. "Fuck That. There's no fucking way I am going to come together with these homophobic, flag-waving, god-fearing, gun-toting, uneducated, isolationist, ethnocentric rednecks. We live in a country that's in a shroud of ignorance. We do not compromise or come together with them. We fight them and everything they stand for. We as a community have to take care of each other and respect each other because apparently our current government has no interest in that. They do not care about gay people, they do not care about sick people, they do not care about black people, they do not care about poor people, they do not care about the rest of the world, they do not care about our environment, and they especially don't care about a woman's right to choose. We may have lost the battle, shit we may have lost the war ... but we are not losing our minds. WE ARE RIGHT ... THEY ARE WRONG ... just because we seem to be the minority doesn't mean we come together with them."

SixOhSix47 wrote:Dispatches from the NY Times

This one made my stomach turn:

Tom Coburn, the new senator from Oklahoma, has advocated the death penalty for doctors who perform abortions and warned that "the gay agenda" would undermine the country. He also characterized his race as a choice between "good and evil" and said he had heard there was "rampant lesbianism" in Oklahoma schools.

Jim DeMint, the new senator from South Carolina, said during his campaign that he supported a state G.O.P. platform plank banning gays from teaching in public schools. He explained, "I would have given the same answer when asked if a single woman who was pregnant and living with her boyfriend should be hired to teach my third-grade children."

Jesus F*cking Christ - I'm speechless. This is insanity. I was coming to this thread to add a wee link for anyone with an interest in the extended events around the voting - http://www.metafilter.com/mefi/36770 - but this sits me on my ass. I'm so glad there's tens of thousands of kilometers between the USA and me.

skinny honkie wrote:

SixOhSix47 wrote:<snip>He also characterized his race as a choice between "good and evil" and said he had heard there was "rampant lesbianism" in Oklahoma schools.<snip>

Jesus F*cking Christ - I'm speechless. This is insanity. I was coming to this thread to add a wee link for anyone with an interest in the extended events around the voting - http://www.metafilter.com/mefi/36770 - but this sits me on my ass. I'm so glad there's tens of thousands of kilometers between the USA and me.

Your poor ass! Look on the bright side: I've already booked a trip to Tulsa. Three suitcases just filled with pajamas, pillows and pom poms!

Angry_Dragon wrote:NOFX's "Fat" Mike Burkett, the man who created the Punk Voter movement, isn't happy about the results of the election.

Then again, he's proud of the impact that his organization had to disseminate information to and mobilize young voters. While the organization's ultimate goal -- electing Kerry -- wasn't achieved, it helped introduce youth to the political process. That alone made it a marginal success, Burkett says.

While the rest of the country is preaching abosolution for the politicla division among the United States' citizens, Burkett signsa different tune. True to his punk heritage, he's urging everyone to continue putting pressure on the right wing.

"We gave it our best shot. Senator Kerry today said that now we need to come together and heal as a nation," he said in a statement on the Punk Voter site. "Fuck That. There's no fucking way I am going to come together with these homophobic, flag-waving, god-fearing, gun-toting, uneducated, isolationist, ethnocentric rednecks. We live in a country that's in a shroud of ignorance. We do not compromise or come together with them. We fight them and everything they stand for. We as a community have to take care of each other and respect each other because apparently our current government has no interest in that. They do not care about gay people, they do not care about sick people, they do not care about black people, they do not care about poor people, they do not care about the rest of the world, they do not care about our environment, and they especially don't care about a woman's right to choose. We may have lost the battle, shit we may have lost the war ... but we are not losing our minds. WE ARE RIGHT ... THEY ARE WRONG ... just because we seem to be the minority doesn't mean we come together with them."

thats what he gets for stumping for a mainstream politican. whatever happened to anarchy?

i think anarchy is a nice theory, but as a model for the world i really don't think it'd work at all. moreover, i think it shows poor form to be suggesting anarchy / not voting as a solution to the world's problems. i have respect for what fat mike tried to achieve in, as he suggested, educating people about the electoral and polital processes are: even if that didn't materialise in the result many of us would have liked.

"WE ARE RIGHT...THEY ARE WRONG" ?

I was with Burkett until he said that. it's easy to be angry right now, and i'm not sitting and having tea with any neo-cons either, but this right Vs. wrong, good Vs. evil thing is the not any better than any of the bullshit Bush and his cronies will sling at you. there's far too much grey area for people to narrow things down between right and wrong. on the other hand, i believe there is a range of ignorance to awareness that is very real and should be taken into account.

Jon wrote:i think anarchy is a nice theory, but as a model for the world i really don't think it'd work at all. moreover, i think it shows poor form to be suggesting anarchy / not voting as a solution to the world's problems. i have respect for what fat mike tried to achieve in, as he suggested, educating people about the electoral and polital processes are: even if that didn't materialise in the result many of us would have liked.

anarchy is ridiculous. and fat mike is a sellout too, for not educating the public on the alternatives other than the republicans and democrats, who havent accomplished any tangible change in this country since jfk was killed. they've done just enough to keep their jobs with the cheap lies they tell us every day. WE ARE NOT A TWO PARTY SYSTEM!!!

WE ARE NOT A TWO PARTY SYSTEM!!!

man i hate to say this since i would like some more diversity, but unless you have 2 billion dollars to throw around for a candidate of your choice to lead this country, yes, we are a two party system.