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Election Wrapping Up
I'm posting this so people have a place to talk about election results as they come in. The major news sites are all covering the results, but they are also really bogged down. Feel free to post mirrors and links and updates in the comments so we can all try to get the information around. And meanwhile, I'm gonna watch The Daily Show's Indecision 2000 coverage on Comedy Central. When the election is final, we'll post one more story, and kiss politics good bye for a few years. Nobody will be happier then me! (One nice thing is that many places are reporting extremely high voter turn out. At least people care). Update by CT : as of 9:30 eastern, CNN reports things very close: 185 electoral votes for Bush and 182 for Gore.
anyone wanna tell me why Clinton didn't run again.. or did he and just no-one voted for him?
If you're serious (saying you're outside the USA), the reason is that we have a constitutional limit of two terms for the president (made during FDR's 4th term in office!), and Clinton has just served twice in a row...
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Recursive: Adj. See Recursive.
It would be fascinating to prowl through these pages in a few years, especially the polls (which aren't normally viewable on slashdot once they're off the main page). Hey Rob, how about setting up a permanent archive of the election stories?
Personally, I'm happy with my choice of Gore. I'm also quite pleased that I didn't have to kill or be killed for my chance to vote. Those of you reading this who served or serve in the armed forces, thanks much.
I use Macs for work, Linux for education, and Windows for cardplaying.
Is anyone else out there just really scared? I think the world is coming to a pretty dismal end, and I'm not kidding. We've got armed U.S. forces in over 100 countries, we're putting harmless marijuana smokers in jail. The FBI, CIA, NSA, DEA make me wanna SMP (shit my pants). That post from that kid that got his computers and code taken away? That sucks! The FDA irradiating food without long-term testing, and telling people that they can't use drugs to help them ease they're pain because they're not 'approved'. I'll tell you what, if I was dying, I wouldn't care what the [enter 3-letter anacronym here] thought about what medicine I was taking.
And woah! doesn't the U.S. remind you of the British Empire back in the day? sure, a lot of 3rd world countries aren't colonies of the U.S., but the people there sure are our slaves, making pennies a day to make cheaper clothes for us. Thank god they're children are working there miserable little lives until the day they die so our children can have a plastic toy with their happy meal.
You can't even drink your water, go swimming in the local lake because of pollution. Nuclear power plants lied about how much radiation is leaking into nature. Chemical plants lie about how much pollution they're leaking. If you think about it, EVERYONE is lying, they refuse to tell the truth when they fuck up!
Carnivore. AHHHHH!!!
This is just the tip of the iceberg, I could go on and on... about how my Dad's friend got his family farm of 100 years taken away by immenent domain, only to get it back later through a long and expensive lawsuit. Or about how people in my city complained that the parking meters were overcharging, and the city refused to believe it... until an organization tested them and found that 60% were overcharging people! Then the city said that they would fix them, but it would be VERY expensive, so it would take a year or so and at a huge cost. Christ!
Speaking of Christ, don't get me started on fucked up religious people that think you should run your life like they run theirs, even though if there was a hell, THEY would most certainly be going to it. And they've spawned this whole other group of people that hate anyone that is part of any religious group, even if they're totally cool.
Great.
I'd better stop now before this starts turning into straight cussing, but holy shit am I scared about the future when technology combines with all this BULLSHIT.
We have the chance to have this kik-ass world where everyone is a part of this very loving society, but it's looking like that's not gonna happen.
john
I especially like how, at the moment, CNN is estimating Gore and Clinton victories. How nice of them to wait for the polls to close and votes tallied to declare a winner... oh wait... they're the fourth branch of government! No, that doesn't sound right... we only have three branches. Lemme see... civics book... civics book. Ah! Here we go. The three branches are "money, "television," and "bullshit."
It also give me electoral college chuckles that Bush has more than a million more votes and a few extra states than Gore, but is losing.
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Napster-to-go says "Fill and refill your compatible MP3 player", which is a lie. It's not MP3. It's WMA with DRM.
I watch less than a half-hour of television a week. As a result, it came as a shock when I discovered that the election is happening in the last week of this month.
I mean, didn't they just call it? Shouldn't it take a few months? I thought the CRAP (Combined Reform and Alliance Party) just elected their leader -- how's he supposed to compete when he hasn't even had a chance to settle into the job?
It's all happening way to fast for me, and I haven't found (well, I haven't looked for) a good, independent web press site to get informed. I'm going into this election much more ignorant than ever before. It's scary.
I sure hope there's been good television coverage, for the rest of the Canadian electorate, who's probably all too likely to spend their life in front of the tube.
I did overhear something about Stockwell Day saying he was going to legalize marijuana. I'm not a drug user (save caffeine), but I'll vote for him without hesitation if he really means it. I'd really like the cops to go back to doing something more useful than busting small-time users.
Anyone have a web resource where I can get informed about my choices in this election? Thanks in advance!
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Don't like it? Respond with words, not karma.
Yahoo is good for that sort of thing:
US overview here
State-by-state breakdown here
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What bullshit!
And the brethren went away edified.
The Texan voter's dilemma is an interesting one... do we vote Bush out of office, or take one on the chin for America by keeping him here?
- Michael
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Go ahead, blame me... I voted for Nader!
Another interesting thing is the type of candidate we get. Our federal elections, though on the outside may appear to be a personality conest, in the end, our citizens do vote for the person who can get the job done. Our current Prime Minister (John Howard), is deemed by many to be pretty much a joke. Gosh knows how many times he's embarrased himself, yet he gets the job done. The opposition leader (Kim Beazley), on the other hand, is the most cuddly, adorable person in politics, yet, in the end, he lost an unlosable election (the main issue was tax reform, during which the opposition campainged a whole lot of FUD, yet when the system came into place this year, the general verdict was, 'hey, it's actually pretty good!').
I think it's a shame that the US elections are a personality contest. Clearly Gore is the right man for the job. Though he may appear robotic in exterior, he doesn't seem to be the sort of person who'll muck things up. Being the most powerful country in the world, the US simply cannot afford having a person with little expertise at the helm. I also think that it's an even bigger shame that there will be some people who won't take advantage of the opportunity to vote simply because the weather may not be in their favour, hence potentially jeapordising the outcome. if I'm not mistaken, the average turnout is about 50%. That really is an appalling figure. For a nation of people renouned for their patriotism, it is quite sad that half of them don't care who's in charge.
Tony
Whaddayamean, "no choice??!?!"
;)
We've got a rich white guy in his 50s vs. a rich white guy in his 50s, debating about whether we should cut taxes, or whether taxes should be cut; whether there should be a prescription drug benefit as part of Medicare, or whether Medicare should pay for prescription drugs; whether the military should get bigger, or whether the military should be increased in size, etc.
There's lots of choice! Just not according to the news!
I personally voted libertarian.
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Napster-to-go says "Fill and refill your compatible MP3 player", which is a lie. It's not MP3. It's WMA with DRM.
Okay, why is NBC using a whiteboard on someone's knee to show the latest tally? It is kind of retro...
Keep your eye on the Battle Ground states that are won like Florida, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Missouri. These are states that are to statistcally close to call but were leaning slightly towards Gore.
You will notice that most of the Strong Bush States are going Bush but the first of the needed Battleground States (Florida) has been taken by Gore.
It will be interesting to see how this turns out because I was doing a little math and if the Really close gore Leaning states go Gore instead of Bush... the Gore Finishes with 280 Electoral votes... but not necesarily a majority of the popular vote.
Right... Napster, Copyrights, Patent laws, all that political stuff is behind you for the next four years until the next opportunity to put a mark on a piece of paper....
I'm Canadian, so our election is still a few weeks away.
`ø,,ø`ø,,ø!
Free Software: Like love, it grows best when given away.
don't get me started on fucked up religious people that think you should run your life
A lot of them do think they should be able to run your life. But at least they don't have the power to actually do so. Every other case you mention either involves direct government action against you (Carnivore), or government explicitely allowing criminal acts to occur (chemical plants).
It's perfectly okay for people to tell you what to do. It is NOT okay for them to FORCE you to do what they tell you to do. Don't direct your anger at the wrong people.
A Government Is a Body of People, Usually Notably Ungoverned
Discussing the general election here at work over the last few days a lot of us seem to conclude one thing. This race would have been a heck of a lot more interesting had it come down to Bradley/McCain rather than Gore/Bush. Two candidates with divergant views and values and positions as compared to the slightly right centrist and slightly left centrist choice we have right now.
*sigh* Sadly, I wish I could have voted for Skull.
Ad in classifieds: Pandora's Box (no box) $5
.. but not because of issues. Rather, it is because he is the tallest candidate, and has the best hair. (He invented hair!)
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CitizenC
has anyone noticed that CNN reports Gore at 231 EVs when the website reports 230?
Ok, who has the off-by-one error?
Joseph W. Breu
On behalf of the State of Texas, I'd like to apologize for George W. Bush. We promise we won't do it again.
Visit the
At this time(2030 EST), the race is still too close to call.
In the next few hours, a President will be elected. It'll be George W Bush or Al Gore.
No matter who it is, let's not make the same mistakes we made last time.
Let the new guy do his job. Let's not pick through his sexual past. Let's not drool over blue dresses, and piccadilloes that no one really cares about.
Congress, stop playing like a bunch of whiny crybabies. Work positively, not negatively. Don't investigate the President. Leave him be. You blew too much money on absolutely nothing. Let it go.
If your party gets defeated, take it. Deal with it. Work to make the country better. Five year olds hold grudges - not the men we put in office.
This time, let's come behind our President. He really is OUR President. He may belong to one party or the other, but he is ours. Support him as much as you can. You can disagree, but he is our symbol.
Good luck to all.
If Gore wins, just announce that you'd like to stay in Miami with your uncle and Janet Reno II will send you to Cuba for free.
And what's so wrong about felons being able to vote? This whole subject would be pointless if the U.S. had an incarceration rate up there with the former Soviet Union.
Of course, the Soviets had zero tolerance for "crimes" against the Communist party, while the U.S. has zero tolerance for "crimes" against the self, namely drugs. I have a friend who can't vote because he committed the "felony" of giving $20 worth of marijuana to an undercover cop -- there was no violence, and no sale ever actually took place. Did he deserve to lose his right to vote and do jail time? I think not.
I registered my hate for Jon Katz
Sure, with the chick vote making the difference, usually it's the taller guy, but Al Gore has the personality and charm of a wooden plank.
Let's say roughly 90% of people are too dumb to follow the issues. The 45% dopey men are influenced by a variety of factors, but mostly it's pack-think and they vote for the man they'd like as the captain of their football team; the important thing here is that the male candidates understand these factors, and the Democrats and Republicans are about equally good at fighting over them. The 45% dopey women judge the men as members of the opposite sex, and vote for the one they'd rather mate with, which usually means the better looking one, but they must be able to have some sort of emotional connection, and Al Gore has no warmth. The candidates don't understand the women's vote as well, which is why it tends to be the deciding factor.
Don't laugh, I'm not joking: Clinton got in last time on "bad boy" sex appeal.
As for the 10% of men and women bright enough to form a reasoned opinion based on the issues, they are irrelevant when the other 90% are voting Gore or Bush (who are pretty much the same). They are bright enough to recognize that there aren't enough of them to bring in another party, and try to shift the balance; once you decide that you have to choose the lesser of two evils, there's so little to recommend either one that this vote is split, too (and a significant number end up just saying "to hell with it, I'd rather pretend it's meaningful and vote for who I really want", or just choosing not to vote).
Democracy just doesn't work.
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The Onion's election coverage.