Elections 2012 [third-party candidate option added]

[Word]

To which I was about to respond...

Just to clarify, I didn't mean they got those jobs because they deserve them but because the government didn't care about their qualifications and thought most of them would leave the country again when we could do it all on our own.

[Cody]

I thought everyone here knew my secret identity. Hmmm............ Better go read my web comic, and while you're at it, look at the URL.

I knew it was you, lold thats why i said "i hope such a person doesn't exist" tehehe both jokes got wrangled up into one lold

OH SHOOT, i meant to add a winky face to my original post. lol my bad.

[Phytotron]

Saw this last night: BBC World Service poll, Preferred candidate for US Presidential election. I don't think it means much, but it's pretty hilarious.


Next, for anyone interested, the Free & Equal Elections Foundation hosted a third party debate last night, which was covered by C-SPAN (click under 'Video Playlist'). There will be a second debate this coming Tuesday, featuring only two of the four, as voted on through instant-runoff on the Free&Equal website, ending tonight at 10:30 EDT.


I've also been reminded of a couple electoral reforms I want to add to my list a couple pages back. One is term limits for US Senate and House members.

The second regards apportionment in the House of Representatives. Article I, Section 2 of the US Constitution states that "The Number of Representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty Thousand." However, in 1911 the total number of Representatives was fixed at 435, simply due to the size of the physical House. Consequently, the number of citizens per district has risen from an average of 33,000 based on the 1790 census, to 212,407 based on the 1910, to over 700,000 presently. That's too high a ratio. I don't think it needs to be as low as 30,000—that would result in a ridiculously large House membership of over 10,000, heh—but it should be significantly lower; that is, more Representatives per smaller number of citizens. Indeed, the first proposed Amendment to the Constitution, never ratified, would have put in place a method of growth for the House to keep with population growth.

[Word]

I bet the ones from Gore vs Bush were even higher because everyone seemed to hate W.

[Word]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/com ... _blog.html

[Phytotron]

Blah. My wife and I always cringe whenever we read or hear some reporter, columnist, tv host, pundit, politico, "political analyst," or other talking head use the phrase "court[ing] women voters." Or asking whether women will be "turned on/off" by something a male candidate said or did.

Man Finally Put In Charge Of Struggling Feminist Movement

[Lucifer]

Blah. My wife and I always cringe whenever we read or hear some reporter, columnist, tv host, pundit, politico, "political analyst," or other talking head use the phrase "court[ing] women voters." Or asking whether women will be "turned on/off" by something a male candidate said or did.

Man Finally Put In Charge Of Struggling Feminist Movement

I am currently courting a woman voter. Because, you know, getting married doesn't mean you stop courting.

[Phytotron]

Wocka wocka!

Colbert opened his show last night on the above pulled CNN article. See here.

Also,


2012 Republican Platform

[Phytotron]

WHEEEEEEEW

Not woohoo, but whew; not celebration, but relief. I actually had logged on about an hour and a half ago when they first called it for Obama, but as I was in the middle of typing up the post I heard that Rmoney and Rove (over at GOP HQ, aka FOXNews) weren't yet conceding Ohio. But as I type this Rmoney is giving his concession speech. My wife went on to bed earlier, and now finally so can I.

Now that the election is finally over we can get on with the business of Obama giving the Republicans everything they want and them replying with a big "NO-FU!" God Bless you all, and God bless the United States of America!

[Word]

Daily Currant - Bush accidently votes Obama

http://dailycurrant.com/2012/11/06/geor ... tes-obama/

[Jonathan]

Now that the election is finally over we can get on with the business of Obama giving the Republicans everything they want and them replying with a big "NO-FU!" God Bless you all, and God bless the United States of America!

You guys are so enlightened.

Daily Currant - Bush accidently votes Obama

Fake.

Not fake: People being prevented from voting. Long lines in Florida, attempts to pass absurd last-minute legislation in Ohio, and who knows what else. Again, enlightened.

[Word]

I know, but I think it could be real too

[Phytotron]

People being prevented from voting. Long lines....

"By the way, we have have to fix that."


My local newspaper had a special section on the elections rather than putting it on the front page. But on the front page of the special section the headline read: OBAMA ROCKS. I predict angry letters-to-the-editor from Republicans in tomorrow's edition.

Favorite Wins: Elizabeth Warren and marriage equality in three states. Additional women in Senate (points off for still being less that 20%), including first openly gay and first Asian woman.
Favorite Defeats: Richard Mourdock, Todd Akin, Joe Walsh, and Allen West.

[Word]

It strikes me that this week three people used the Colbert Report or the Daily Show to present their works about outstanding American presidents (Jefferson, Lincoln, Washington). Maybe that is already expressing the desperate need for bipartisanship?

[Phytotron]

Books on those fellers come out all the time, and they are usually promoted on those shows; the late-night talk shows, too. They've become regular stops on the book tour circuit. I've seen authors in the same day on three shows wearing the same outfit.

There is also probably (I've never checked) an uptick in publishing of said books around election time, for obvious reasons. No coincidence that Lincoln movie is coming out now, either.

Don't know what that has to do with bipartisanship, either, other than the bipartisan endeavor of each party trying to claim one or another Founding Father for its own. To that end, a few Lincoln quotes:

"Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration."

"I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. [C]orporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed."

"These capitalists generally act harmoniously and in concert to fleece the people, and now that they have got into a quarrel with themselves, we are called upon to appropriate the people's money to settle the quarrel."

"I care not much for a man's religion whose dog and cat are not the better for it."


And these Republicans today dare call themselves "The Party of Lincoln," or as the Wisconsites who founded the party in 1854 declared, "the Republican Party is opposed to special privilege and monopoly." Har!


[The history of the Democratic party is a bit more complicated. As Will Rogers famously said, "I am not a member of any organized political party. I am a Democrat."]