Slashdot Mirror
Discuss the US Presidential Election
We made it. It's election day. Tomorrow we'll know. So for today's election discussion story, I'm throwing it wide open: let's discuss the election itself. Who are your picks and why. And also what about your actual experience voting today? Did Diebold eat your vote or did everything go off without flaw?
I am actually surprised McCain didn't try to switfboat this election. He ran a very negative campaign, no doubt, but it seems he at least had the decency not to blast his fellow Senator with inflammatory false accusations in the final hours.
A slashdotter who didn't build his own computer is like a Jedi who didn't build his own lightsaber.
Psh. You know as well as I do that Palin's gonna start her 2012 bid tomorrow.
MABASPLOOM!
When Barack Obama is president, Slashdotters will finaly have girlfriends!
As of this morning at 6:50 am there was a line of 2-300 people at our polling place. It makes me happy to see the high turnout, even at that time of day. Now bring on the free ben and jerrys, krispy kremes, and starbucks!
Why pick the lesser evil?
Monday night is a Freemasons Meeting night. we all decided last night who was going to win. they just took what they learned last night and used it.
Come on, you guys think your votes count? how cute :)
While I don't want Obama to be president.
The internet would be so annoying if he lost. All the people whining about it.
McCain FTW
"Fails To Win"?
I remember thinking this on election day 2000
Tomorrow we'll know.
You must be new here.
Dear Slashdot: next time you want to mess with the site, add a rich-text editor for comments.
Election? What election?
I pride myself on keeping apprised of current events, but I wasn't aware of an election today.
Who is running and for what position?
Srsly, whoever this CmdrTaco is who posted the story should at least give us this basic information in the summary.
She kicked it off last Saturday.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
....F#cks the world? The original "FTW"?
Returned Peace Corps IT Volunteer
I voted for Kodos.
[Insert pithy quote here]
Oh of course you're voting for Obama, Marx Mrvelous, you pinko! Allow me to dismiss your otherwise very sensible points on ideological grounds by labelling you a baby-eating socialist. You're welcome.
Sincerely,
Joe the Witch-Hunter.
You just got troll'd!
Is that what the Mayans forsaw, the event which caused the end of this round of civilization?
My first Journal Entry ever, in 8 years! http://slashdot.org/journal/365947/aphelion-scifi-fantasy-horror-poetry-webzine
You right wing nut with an identity crisis!!
(I kid I kid) ;)
This is the sig that says NI (again)
[quote]I think that's half the problem that's going to see. No matter who wins, there are going to be cries of fowl.[/quote]
Chicken! What sort of hawk would devolve to such a turkey stance? You're just pigeonholing the dodos out there.
Make sure you vote at least 5 times before lunch, and at least 3 afterwards.
Thank you.
Except for ending slavery, the Nazis, communism, & securing American independence, war has never solved anything.
... that I'm happy that it will be over at goddamn last.
I'll miss it. I've grown up in this election, and when it's over I'll have no idea what to do. I remember when I was four or five years old, back around the time Reagan was elected and The Empire Stikes Back was drawing crowds, and Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton had just started their campaigns. I remember coming out of the movie theater after seeing Back to the Future and seeing buses go by with competing Huckabee and Clinton banners on the side. I fondly recall during the first Gulf War and after September 11th the moving speeches by McCain and Obama.
Remember the Wendy's "Where's the Beef?" ads where McCain was enjoying a big square burger next to Clara Peller with her miniscule competing burger? Remember Hillary Clinton's break dancing extravaganza? Or when Seattle Grunge Artists for Obama did their tour in the early 90s and Kurt Cobain called Obama "the real spokesman for our generation?" My whole life was shaped by these campaigns. Tomorrow I may have to get a hobby.
That reminded me of the "Idiot" amendment that was on our ballot.
On Election Day, Iowa voters will have more to consider than just the usual public offices. Also on the ballot is what some Iowans are referring to as the "Idiot Amendment." The proposed amendment to the Iowa Constitution regarding voting limitations for mentally incompetent Iowans finally makes it onto the ballot 11 years after Rep. Pam Jochum, D-Dubuque, and former Rep. Betty Grundberg wrote the proposal. The proposed amendment affects Article II 5 ("Disqualified Persons"), which currently reads: "No idiot, or insane person, or person convicted of any infamous crime, shall be entitled to the privilege of an elector." Iowans are asked to vote on whether to strike "idiot" and "insane person" from ; in place of the outdated and offensive terminology, "mentally incompetent" will be inserted into the Constitution.
"He's lost in a 'floyd hole"
I saw three choices this year. I could:
1. Vote for someone
2. Vote AGAINST someone
or
3. Vote my conscience.
#1 and #2 would involve votes for people I didn't really agree with but either of which had a realistic chance of winning. Once I had worked this out, I realized that I was being suckered into the classic popularity contest. Not the one where "I'm popular", but the one where "I successfully picked the WINNER!".
That was crap.
So I went back to the ballot to find someone that I agreed with... and came up semi-blank. The solution, it was clear, was going to be more complicated that I had thought.
I began working my way through the party descriptions again, looking for something I might have missed. Then I compared the track records of the elected officials that identify w/ each party and worked out a rough graph with two axis to determine how well each candidate had met the stated goals of their party. I thought of it as a 'Truth in Advertising' metric. How often do candidates of party X meet their promises? Once I had that, I aggregated the data and set it aside.
I then wrote down my core beliefs and popped them into Excel alongside the data for the 'TiA' metric and generated a quick 3D histogram to find which political parties were closest both in belief to my own and high in followthrough (the TiA number). Finally, I had my spreadsheet take this graph and do a pivot on the results and generate the party answer.
Unfortunately, my grasp of Excel is presumably sub-par, so the answer field populated with some sort of complicated error. I tried debugging it, but I didn't know how to modify VBS, and then when I _could_ get to it, I couldn't figure out how to set tracepoints. I tried to bypass the error by initializing a pointer that I could push and pop to in a handy little block of assembly, but I couldn't quite seem to figure out how to use pointers in VBS, so eventually I just voted the Libertarian party.
An idiot or a lawyer? Not a very easy choice...
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
We'll see what the lines are like tomorrow, when it's the Republican's turn to vote! Don't get too cocky yet you crazy liberals!
Georgia Tech, the leader in Chia(tm) technology.
Palin may have had a shot in 2012, until Tina Fey and the rest of the cast of Saturday Night Live destroyed her political career.
Now she will always be linked to the SNL skits and not taken seriously. I would be surprised to see her make national headlines again. I don't know Alaskan politics, so it would be interesting to see if she gets re-elected up there easily or not.
Help! I'm a slashdot refugee.
I don't like either of the major candidates and am still wondering how we ended up with the two of them as our only reasonable choices. Neither were front runners in the early days.
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
Nah, she probably thinks the world will end in 2012 so she won't bother running and instead spend her time getting ready to meet Jesus in person. Yay!
Don't worry, it would be worse if it was an idiot lawyer.
Isn't it obvious??
CmdrTaco doesn't want the Slashdot community to go out and vote today, so he posted this to keep us busy with flame wars all day!!
Conspiracy!!
Hmm... knock me over with a feather -- not everyone laughs at the same things.
Ah well... I'll let this be my swan song and duck out.
(That's what you get for egging me on...)
Seems like the Mayans were a bit off...
You mean like a parity error?
If she's smart she'll stay out of it in 2012 and focus on 2016 (unless Obama's presidency is truely disasterous).
Soo.....2012 it is.
Oh please. You can't seriously claim that a destroyed pagan civilization is comparable to the end of the world.
Alexander Peter Kristopeit bought his basement from his mommy for one dollar.
I for one see no reason to plan past December 21, 2012 myself.
Supporting World Peace Through Nuclear Pacification
Don't worry, it would be worse if it was an idiot lawyer.
I disagree.
If you are not allowed to question your government then the government has answered your question.
Communism doesn't kill people, people kill people
I disagree! People with mustaches kill people.
Those of us who think they know everything annoy those of us who do.
shuttup you! =)
You just have to budget in medical costs as part of your lively hood, don't live beyond your means, and you can afford health care. Most employers offer it....when I work for myself, I buy a nice high deductible policy, just for catastrophic problems (heart attack, etc)...and I stuff to the max my pre-tax dollars into a Health Savings Account...that can grow with simple interest, or even be invested. I pay for my normal Dr. visits, and meds...I tell them I'm paying for it, and they give me usually about a 15% or more discount.
Well maybe it's time you move to a hood that is less lively. That'll help keep down the medical costs for problems like muggings and gunshot wounds.
Not if you're in the militia, as I plan to be.
And in a few years you will have the exact same situation. The problem isn't the actors, it is the stage.
Over here in Britain we have a saying:
"It doesn't matter who you vote for, the government always get in."
I dont read
I agree!
Let's get some News back in the news!
Who cares about the economy, or the wars, or human rights abuses?
Let's get back to discussing who Brittney Spears is going to be marrying next!
If the masses can keep you down, you're not the Ubermensch.
I voted, but as in the last few it wasn't for my candidate of choice, it was against the candidate I couldn't abide by winning.
My candidate would not become a whore to Corporations, would effectively ban lobbying by groups (of ANY kind).
Would respect the Constitution, even the parts they didn't like.
Would only sign single issue Bills.
Would endeavor to clean the garbage and deadwood out of the US Code of Federal Regulations and our nations Laws.
Would abandon our current taxation system and go to an end user consumption tax for ALL revenue other than import duties.
Would respect my privacy and not spy on me or my countrymen.
Would balance our budget and generate enough surplus to begin paying down our debt. (see above)
Would work with Congress to issue appropriate letters of Marque and Reprisal to eliminate those who threaten us, and bring our troops home as quickly as prudent.
Would begin an immediate effort to eliminate all Federally funded Energy programs which have not produced based upon their historical record, and transfer that funding to new programs with promise to reduce or end our energy dependence.
Unfortunately, my candidate does not exist
Never ascribe to malice or conspiracy that which can be adequately explained by ignorance or stupidity.
You forgot to mention that Obama will give everyone a puppy.
Mea navis aericumbens anguillis abundat
When you and Don Quixote find this mythical hero, let me know.