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[MetatronM]

The US economy is also doing poorly, can someone please tell me what the bush government did right during it’s first term?

Bush is a likeable guy who doesn't pretend he's smarter than you and loves God (and God loves him).

That's about as good an explanation of the average American's mindset as I can give.

 

[xexex]

Bush: it's time for senator kerry to fucking concede already. the people have spoken.

 

[BruceWayne]

So many gloomy faces and voices to be heard tomorrow conceding defeat(if they have any balls):

- Kerry
- Edwards
- Michael Moore
- John Stewart
- Dan Rather
- Peter Jennings
- Howard Stern


Feel free to add to the list.

 

[Kon Tiki]

Maybe the 2.7 Million people in Texas that voted Kerry should have moved to Ohio.

 

[soundwave05]

I'm sure at least 20% was going to vote Kerry but forgot to register

WHAT? WE HAVE TO REGISTER?!?

This is sad but it's probably so damn true.

 

[snapty00]

Believe it or not, but a lot of my friends are a bit more conservative now than they were when we 18 or so. I'm not sure why, and I certainly don't know if my little group reflects the entire U.S., but if more of my friends would've voted, they probably would've went with Bush, surprisingly. That wasn't the case in 2000, though.

 

[Zaptruder]

The youth vote could've helped Kerry, but there's too much damn apathy with that crowd.

I hope Bush does reinstitute the draft, just to give some of these kids a kick in the ass.

He should've pandered to their internet needs.

Candidate in South Korea pandered to making S.K. an information superpower, and he was able to swing behind for a massive suprise victory because of the youth.

Also... it's probably made a world of difference to them in the way they live now.

 

[Do The Mario]

Voting is compulsory in Australia, you don’t have to vote if you don’t want to just get your name crossed off.

With the amount of money Americans spend on enticing people to vote it would be simpler just making voting compulsory then making money when people refuse to vote by having a $25 fine.

 

[ourumov]

To all the people from out the US that is criticizing the result: WTF did you expect ?
I am not pro-Kerry nor pro-Bush.

1. Nearly all the media in Europe has been pro-Kerry. They have manipulated the news showing an evil Bush and an awesome Kerry.

2. People hates US citizens. Why ? Then again because of the media that show US as a conglomerate of fatass people without culture nor brain and big corporations ruled by evil. It's a natural reaction to hate the rich...

These are two considerations I wanted to make about media in Europe.

3. Anti-semitism on Europe. Yes, it exists although nobody admits it but ALWAYS Israel is the bad and Palestina the good. Hell...things are not black or white. Jew lobbies only can find faith in one person for now: Bush.

Perhaps anti-semitism is not the right word but I have yet to see news in which Israel is not the bad...

4. Fear. People in the US is afraid. They won't say nor admit it but they have the feeling all the world is against them and then it comes a man who sends he will kill the baddies...Guess who I am talking about ?

If people have voted Bush is because he and HIS TEAM (don't forgett the elections don't choose just a man but a TEAM) are the right people for the moment.

 

[rc213]

I'm sure at least 20% was going to vote Kerry but forgot to register

WHAT? WE HAVE TO REGISTER?!?

Most of my friends actually were too lazy to register to vote. I am truly ashamed. <Sips Bacardi Bottle>

 

[snapty00]

Voting is compulsory in Australia, you don’t have to vote if you don’t want to just get your name crossed off.

With the amount of money Americans spend on enticing people to vote it would be simpler just making voting compulsory then making money when people refuse to vote by having a $25 fine.

Maybe so. But I don't want the government to make voting "compulary." That in itself is stupid. If I got slapped with a $25 because I didn't render my choice to vote, I'd be pissed off.

 

[MetatronM]

Voting is compulsory in Australia, you don’t have to vote if you don’t want to just get your name crossed off.

With the amount of money Americans spend on enticing people to vote it would be simpler just making voting compulsory then making money when people refuse to vote by having a $25 fine.

The right to not vote is a very powerful right for Americans. It's kind of ironic really. We would flip out if the government tried to make it mandatory.

 

[gblues]

Also remember that if voter turnout is better this year than in 2000, then 17% of this year's turnout is a net increase in total youth votes, even if the youth segment itself didn't get any bigger.

Nathan

 

[XMonkey]

Compulsary voting isn't too great of an idea. You get people voting who really don't want to be there and vote. It ends up deluding the votes of those who really felt compassionate enough to get off their ass and vote.

 

[Do The Mario]

Still you don’t have to vote if you don’t want to you just get your name crossed off the register and tell them you don’t want to vote.

 

[xabre]

To the people apathetic about voting because it doesn't seem to make an effect (which choice is taken)...

can I borrow your machine that lets you travel to alternate universes and timeline?

It&#8217;s easy to see where this apathy comes from; say if I vote for Candidate A and a million other people vote for Candidate B, exactly what difference have I made? In this context, voting contrary to that of the general public regardless of whether or not they&#8217;re right or wrong is totally futile. Another reason for apathy is to consider the fact that the voting power of the most intelligent and educated intellectual is equal to that of the most easily manipulated and downright dumb redneck. And yet another reason is that the general public is so easily swayed by the corporate media, general public sentiment and downright blatant government propaganda that the whole 'democratic' system itself is far too easily corruptible and manipulated.

At the heart of the matter though, is not the one person one vote principle, the problem is the environment the democratic process takes place in itself, it is so terribly flawed that it tends toward corruption, manipulation and what has been referred to as tyranny of the majority. It also tends toward this general apathy from those who ask what the point of the exercise even is, that those in positions of power and influence can simply manipulate their way into positions of government based largely on the use of fear driven rhetoric and mindless propaganda with typically little grounding in reality; and to vote against such is to be a drop of rationality an ocean of brain-dead idiocy.

 

[snapty00]

Forcing voting is stupid. Driving is a privilege. Should the government say, "Hmm, it appears you haven't driven today. $25 fine. Please drive your car tomorrow to avoid penalties."?

 

[DJ_Tet]

I heard that only 17% of the youth vote bothered to vote, about the same as 2000


PRETTY FUCKING SAD

VOTE OR DIE!


or VOTE OR GET SHOT BY A MULTIMILLION DOLLAR RAPPER/SAMPLER.

 

[Alcibiades]

To all the people from out the US that is criticizing the result: WTF did you expect ?
I am not pro-Kerry nor pro-Bush.

1. Nearly all the media in Europe has been pro-Kerry. They have manipulated the news showing an evil Bush and an awesome Kerry.

2. People hates US citizens. Why ? Then again because of the media that show US as a conglomerate of fatass people without culture nor brain and big corporations ruled by evil. It's a natural reaction to hate the rich...

These are two considerations I wanted to make about media in Europe.

3. Anti-semitism on Europe. Yes, it exists although nobody admits it but ALWAYS Israel is the bad and Palestina the good. Hell...things are not black or white. Jew lobbies only can find faith in one person for now: Bush.

Perhaps anti-semitism is not the right word but I have yet to see news in which Israel is not the bad...

4. Fear. People in the US is afraid. They won't say nor admit it but they have the feeling all the world is against them and then it comes a man who sends he will kill the baddies...Guess who I am talking about ?

If people have voted Bush is because he and HIS TEAM (don't forgett the elections don't choose just a man but a TEAM) are the right people for the moment.

this post makes a lot of sense...

especially the anti-Jew feelings that have being boiling underneath in France and Germany, it's amazing...

Bush is not going to be the end of the world and neither would John Kerry have been...

 

[Tenguman]

Problem w/ Kerry is they played on the "anybody but bush" ticket for too long. They needed to convert Bush people who were leaning on the fence.


In fact, I think stuff like Moveon.org and Fahrenheit 911 made things WORSE for Kerry. Things like that got many semi-Bush-people to rally back around Bush -- people who otherwise would have had an open mind about Kerry.


Bush is winning by a landslide by the popular vote, and it shows the disconnect Kerry had with semi-right-wing voters.

 

[DJ_Tet]

I hope Bush does reinstitute the draft, just to give some of these kids a kick in the ass.

Wow. That's pretty harsh.

 

[SD-Ness]

CNN is getting crazy.

"Cliffhanger in Ohio!"

 

[DJ_Tet]

Also remember that if voter turnout is better this year than in 2000, then 17% of this year's turnout is a net increase in total youth votes, even if the youth segment itself didn't get any bigger.

That's a good point, and one that should not be overlooked in this massive thread.

 

[soundwave05]

Wow. That's pretty harsh.

Why is that harsh? If there's military action in the future against Iran for example, this could happen. If it does, I don't think young people should then turn around and complain if they didn't bother to vote.

Just a hypothetical situation.

 

[videogamer]

Problem w/ Kerry is they played on the "anybody but bush" ticket for too long. They needed to convert Bush people who were leaning on the fence.


In fact, I think stuff like Moveon.org and Fahrenheit 911 made things WORSE for Kerry. Things like that got many semi-Bush-people to rally back around Bush -- people who otherwise would have had an open mind about Kerry.


Bush is winning by a landslide by the popular vote, and it shows the disconnect Kerry had with semi-right-wing voters.

How did moveon.org and F911 hurt Kerry? There was plenty of negative stuff on the other side. Not only that, moveon.org was a wonderful grassroots organization.

 

[Do The Mario]

Forcing voting is stupid. Driving is a privilege. Should the government say, "Hmm, it appears you haven't driven today. $25 fine. Please drive your car tomorrow to avoid penalties."?

I will Stress that you don’t have to vote, however you have to go to a polling station on Election Day and get your name crossed off. Just think about how much money that could be saved and placed into health care, infrastructure rather then spend money pork barreling people to get them to vote.

Just think of what the money spent on the “war on terror” could have done of the US health system.

 

[xabre]

Forcing voting is stupid.

More than that it is totally undemocratic.

 

[snapty00]

fact, I think stuff like Moveon.org and Fahrenheit 911 made things WORSE for Kerry. Things like that got many semi-Bush-people to rally back around Bush -- people who otherwise would have had an open mind about Kerry.

That's how I was. I wasn't anti-Bush, but I was definitely undecided. But that movie especially...I thought the agenda in that was so disgusting and strong that I couldn't even see myself being associated with Democrats after that. That's how much that movie swayed my opinion in the opposite direction of what it was intended.

 

[Tenguman]

The Ohio spread just got bigger

~145,000 spread in favor of bush; up 1,000

they say there about 170,000 provisional ballots, and on average 90% of those are elligible for counting.

so ~150,000 provisional ballots, John Kerry will have to win almost all of them


Though not counting the absentee ballots, which are mostly military

 

[Alcibiades]

So many gloomy faces and voices to be heard tomorrow conceding defeat(if they have any balls):

- Kerry
- Edwards
- Michael Moore
- John Stewart
- Dan Rather
- Peter Jennings
- Howard Stern


Feel free to add to the list.

-Terry McAuliffe
-Al Franken
-Bruce Springsteen
-Hillary Clinton, oh wait...


scroll down a bit and you'll find some predictions here:

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/commentary.html

 

[Jim Bowie]

I had this exchange a good thirty times yesterday:

Me: Hey, did you vote?
Person: I forgot to get my absentee ballot.
-or-
Oh, yeah, I accidentally didn't sign the ballot.

 

[DJ_Tet]

Why is that harsh? If there's military action in the future against Iran for example, this could happen. If it does, I don't think young people should then turn around and complain if they didn't bother to vote.

Just a hypothetical situation.

Because I don't think dems or pubs want the draft to be reinstated? Because that's a damn harsh lesson to learn with your life? I think it's harsh to wish that on people who didn't vote, or Americans in general..

 

[snapty00]

I will Stress that you don’t have to vote, however you have to go to a polling station on Election Day and get your name crossed off.

Like I said, that's stupid. And like xabre said, it goes against the very nature of a democratic system. I mean, forced voting...say that to yourself. That really does sound like a Socialist mandate.

 

[cybamerc]

I'm truly puzzled that Bush seems to have gotten more popular since the last election. Where have people been for the last four years?

 

[soundwave05]

Life is harsh though, I think kids these days are babied way too much into their teens and even 20s.

 

[Do The Mario]

More than that it is totally undemocratic.

About as undemocratic as invading another country then forcing democracy on them?

Did people even read my post were I discuss how you can exercise your right not to vote?

 

[Tenguman]

How did moveon.org and F911 hurt Kerry? There was plenty of negative stuff on the other side. Not only that, moveon.org was a wonderful grassroots organization.

Realize that the name "Michael Moore" resonates a lot of anger among even the most slightest of republicans. Moveon.org tends to get lumped in with him.

I think things like F911 helped anger Bush's base and gave him a more solid ground to stand on.

 

[videogamer]

Like I said, that's stupid. And like xabre said, it goes against the very nature of a democratic system. I mean, forced voting...say that to yourself. That really does sound like a Socialist mandate.

HUH? I don't ever remember reading anything about Socialism forcing people to vote.

 

[XMonkey]

I will Stress that you don’t have to vote, however you have to go to a polling station on Election Day and get your name crossed off.

When it comes down to it, that really isn't any different than our current system.

You're just making people waste their time getting off their ass to say they won't vote instead of them sitting there and not voting.

 

[Jak140]

I'm going to make it clear that I might be talking out of my ass here, but I've heard rumors that some people who used the electronic voting systems in Ohio ran into problems. Someone told me that two of his relatives in Ohio that voted Kerry ended up with reciepts that said they voted for Bush. Of course if this was really widespread (or even true), it would probably be on the news by now, so I'm pretty skeptical, but I thought I'd share it with you guys anyway. Has anyone else heard anything like this?

 

[snapty00]

About as undemocratic as invading another country then forcing democracy on them?

Did people even read my post were I discuss how you can exercise your right not to vote?

The right is TO vote, not to exercise your right NOT to vote!

Clearly, we just disagree with you about this, and that's that.

 

[videogamer]

Realize that the name "Michael Moore" resonates a lot of anger among even the most slightest of republicans. Moveon.org tends to get lumped in with him.

I think things like F911 helped anger Bush's base and gave him a more solid ground to stand on.

Ann Coulter resonates with a smaller group of Democrats? And the Republicans can't tell the difference between moveon.org and Michael Moore? Hmm...

 

[Meier]

I've heard rumors that some people who used the electronic voting systems in Ohio ran into problems. Someone told me that two of his relatives in Ohio that voted Kerry ended up with reciepts that said they voted for Bush.

It begins. :lol :lol :lol Gotta love the Dems.

 

[impirius]

NBC finally calls MN for Kerry.

 

[Do The Mario]

That really does sound like a Socialist mandate.

How is it socialist?

I about to pull out some political texts to check this out

 

[Kuroyume]

It begins. :lol :lol :lol Gotta love the Dems.

So fucking cliche "IT BEGINS"

STFU

 

[MetatronM]

Also remember that if voter turnout is better this year than in 2000, then 17% of this year's turnout is a net increase in total youth votes, even if the youth segment itself didn't get any bigger.

Nathan

Yes, it is true that the actual number of young voters is higher, but at the same time, the numbers are up for all the other groups too, and the youth vote didn't keep up or gain on the pace of other age groups. They were still an insignificant minority, as they always are.

Joe Scarborough was on MSNBC earlier and he was saying how he was one of the only ones saying before the election that the youth vote wouldn't be a factor, and he pointed out that every year you hear "this is the year America's youth comes out to vote" and it just never happens. We're so reliably unreliable it's disgusting.

 

[videogamer]

How is it socialist?

I about to pull out some political texts to check this out

I think it's more American misunderstanding of Socialism. The word "Socialist" sounds fine in many different parts of the world, but when it comes to America, it suddenly becomes some bad word.

 

[Kettch]

Woah, what happened in New Mexico?

It was a 28,000 lead for Bush and now it's down to 6,000?

http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2004/pages/results/states/NM/P/00/index.html

I guess it doesn't matter without Nevada though.

 

[nathkenn]

It begins. :lol :lol :lol Gotta love the Dems.

fuck you, these voting problems are serious for all of us, the fact that anyone allowed the other type that have no receipt is unmotherfuckingbelievable. so would you be happy to find out bush was by cheating if that was so?