Archive for November 2004
So, What’s New?
Second, gut any Bush hopes for legitimacy. Find the places in Florida and Ohio and every other state where a plausible argument for Republican vote fraud can be made. It doesn't matter whether it did happen or not. What matters is if it can be plausibly alleged to marginal Bush supporters and to the media. We also have to let the issue go where it's implausible. Hammering on voter fraud where it's not at least plausible on that level is only going to hurt our credibility. We have to sink our fangs into Republican ankles and hang onto them for dear life on the legitimacy issue. We have to make him "Bush the only American President who was never elected" whether it's true or not. From the dailykos, advocating the same old political course of action that lost them the election in the first place. Apparently, there's still enough people for whom facts of reality matter, whether pleasant to accept or not. (via Jeff Goldstein)
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The Wrap Up
Well it’s finally, FINALLY over. Thank God! Honestly, I don’t know how it is I get so caught up in it, particularly as a non voter, but I do. I’d say perhaps that it’s for the sport of it; but then, I’m not much of a sports fan, either. Oh, well; the mystery shall go unresolved. I must admit that the thought of the anguish and despair the Kerry sycophants must be feeling—indeed, feeling all over the world—delights me to a level I am unable to express in words. It’s been about a year that I’ve been passing the Kerry signs planted in lawns and flowerbeds and the bumper stickers affixed to cars in the driveway during my morning 3-mile walking ritual. Naturally, I was anxious to get out the door this morning, just for the pure pleasure of cracking a grin at each display along my route. Sweeter still is the debacle over the totally wrong exit polls. Knowing that for the better part of the day, Kerry and all his minions thought they had it dressed and bagged, only to suffer a devastating reversal, just makes the whole thing rather exquisite. I also can just barely contain my...
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Done Deal
Though I called it myself over two hours ago, based on direct state polling, it's 2145 PST and Fox just called Ohio for Bush, giving him 266. Alaska, a shoo in at a 25-30% margin gives him 269, so all he needs to do is take Nevada--my home state of what has apparently become a domain of wimps--or New Mexico. There's a few other possibilities if either of those don't pan out.
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If You Voted, Shut Up!
Defending non-voting in bars across this great land, I often hear the ultimate "shut up"—that if you don't vote, you have no right to complain about politics or society. The reality is the exact opposite: By voting, you are playing a game whose rules are that the majority vote winner gets to control the reins of government, in all its unspeakable power. If you complain about the results of the game you chose to play, you're just being a sore loser—or winner. But what if you believe that neither "winnable" candidate deserves power? Or that the whole game of majority-rule giving someone all the powers of the modern American state to wage war, arrest, tax, and regulate is inherently illegitimate? Then, don't vote, and complain all you want. Brian Doherty, who's also not voting today.
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I’m Too Incompetent to Vote
I've been asked no small number of times this year why I am not voting. There are a number of reasons why, none seemingly satisfying to those doing the asking. Voting is a form of theft by proxy. No takers. It's self debasing. Still no takers. Ok, how about I'm incompetent to decide your values for you? I think you should have a 100% say in the values you choose to pursue, how you choose to pursue them, and in whose company you wish to engage such pursuit according to whatever arrangements you mutually agree to undertake. Let me provide an example. Go look at these pictures, read the commentary, and see if you get the idea.
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The Right Stuff
Of the many books I've read in my life, The Right Stuff remains as one of the most riveting. Its author, American novelist Tom Wolfe weighs in on the politics of our day in an interesting Guardian interview. So what is it about his liberal neighbors and fellow diners in his adoptive New York that Wolfe cannot abide? "I cannot stand the lock-step among everyone in my particular world. They all do the same thing, without variation. It gets so boring. There is something in me that particularly wants it registered that I am not one of them." (link via Drudge)
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Where Credit is Due
Did the bin Laden video surprise any of you in any way in particular? I pondered that thing every which way virtually all weekend. The most obvious initial reaction was that his implicit endorsement of Kerry was calculated to have the opposite effect with Americans, helping to ensure a Bush win and a continuation of the clash of civilizations that bin Laden has championed since before 9/11. But it seems to me that if he really wanted to ensure a Bush victory, he’d have one of his followers blow himself up in a crowded mall in America on a Saturday afternoon. Let’s face it; Americans have short memories. The chief aspect of this struggle that hurts Bush, believe it or not, is the fact that we have not been attacked since 9/11. He is a victim of his own success, and now more than ever, I believe the evidence is in—in the form of that video. The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) gives some clues as to what it’s all about. Another conspicuous aspect of the tape is the absence of common Islamist themes that are relevant to the month of Ramadan, which for fundamentalists like bin Laden is...
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