To the people who are not planning on voting bush:

i think the link is down.

here's a link off the Cato homepage that might be what s5 wanted to link to, if not, sorry.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A20247-2003Nov28.html

yeah, I don't know, s5, personally I think when they've got John McCain red in the face over corporate welfare and prokbarrel legislation, that's more indicative of division in the ranks.

Not that I expect McCain to do a Jefford or anything...but he is one Conservative I respect...and I'm a socialist.

Yes! That's the point exactly. Even from my hardcore liberal perspective, I think there are some good conservatives in the government (McCain for sure, I like Arlen Specter, Dick Lugar (on occasion), and some others) and these folks seem to be getting the short end of the stick. I'd like to see them try to recapture the Republican party - I might have often disagreed ideologically with them, but at least I understood where they were coming from, and usually figured they had the country's best interest in mind.

you have no idea just how right on that statement is. I lived in Texas (one of many times) and in Oklahoma (my home state) while Bush was governor and I thought to myself that I might actually register as Republican in order to vote for McCain in the 2000 Primary. My thinking was that if a Republican were to beat Gore, I'd want McCain. Alas, I couldn't do it. I'm too honest.

Well, actually, I was living in California at the time. And from I understand, even though they have an Open Ballot in primaries, the votes don't count if they don't come from within the party. And I don't know about Texas, in Oklahoma they have a Closed Primary.

Al Sharpton for PREZ! ya I'd vote for him if in the primaries If I thought he had a chance in hell of winning. Apparentl politcalcompass thinks he's the most left of all the canidates I think he sits pretty close to Nader. Man seeing him speak is cool though. He chews out pundits all the time.

Al Sharpton?...uh, Tawana Brawley?

I found out one of the few journalists I respect, Matt taibbi, is covering the Democratic candidates for The Nation magazine. Here's Taibbi talking to one of Clark's supporters, explaining exactly why I am leery of Clark andwhy I admire Taibbi's work:

At one of the Clark meet-ups in Boston, at a bar near Faneuil Hall, we volunteers were addressed by a man who was introduced as the highest-ranking Massachusetts politician to have endorsed the Clark campaign--a member of the state Democratic committee named Steve Driscoll. Here is how Driscoll opened his remarks:

"The thing is," he said, "being electable means having certain qualities. And unfortunately, many of those qualities are superficial qualities." He paused. "General Clark has depth, but he also has those surface qualities. He appeals to people who don't have time to think about the depth part."

Jesus, I thought. They're just coming right out and saying it.

Clark's True Colors

[Edited on Dec 08, 2003 by stockula]

Kucinich is my hero on his drug policy alone. I'm reading up on his other policies right now.



He looks like a dork, but I think it's time we have a cool prez.

As i was driving down the road the other day, I saw a bumper sticker that said, " Help beautify the White House, plant another Bush."

If my car insurance was not expired, I would have ran that mo-fo off the road.

My girlfriend's grandmother has a HUGE American flag sticker on their front door that says (in huge letters written ON the flag) "Thank You President Bush!"

Maybe he meant in the rolled-up in a carpet kinda way?
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I think I’m gonna have to go Kerry. Dean is just another quasi republican candidate. Everything’s a state issue with him. Kerry is only slightly less wishy washy, but at least he has a chance. And besides hes married to the Hienz Ketchup lady. America loves its Ketchup.



[Edited on Dec 08, 2003 by TheRedBaron]

[Edited on Dec 08, 2003 by TheRedBaron]

Dennis Kucinich!!! Haha, no I'm Canadian but that's who I would vote for of the democrats. Lieberman seems to have the best personality, however, but how can you not love a guy as crazy and passionate as kucinich? I mean check out this campaign video of his http://www.kucinich.us/dk.html and then go to the root of that link and check out the hip-hop for kucinich logo in the bottom of the page...here's a man who's willing to do whatever it takes to win, except betray his ideals, haha. Anyways I agree with anthropoid, bush is the worse of any of the evils you can vote for so do everyone a favor and don't let him bully you, under the guise of patriotism, into voting for him.

As a registered independent you can PICK whether you vote Democrat or Republican in the primaries. they'll as which ballot you want.

*edit: Maybe that was just a Massachusetts thing, I don't know what they do here in Hawaii. gotta figure that out soon though.

[Edited on Dec 09, 2003 by Mylf]

please vote third party or don't vote at all.

from the perspective of maintaining power, our political system should not be viewed as democrats versus republicans. it is much more useful to recognize that they share the throne. they are well aware of this, and are quite happy to be in bed together if it means maintaining a stranglehold on our government.

in the grand scheme of maintaining their overall power, it's rather unimportant which party wins any given election. all that is important is that one of them wins, and that they consistently flip flop winning and losing back and forth. this continues the illusion of choice and democracy.

this means their number one priority is keeping votes directed towards one of the main parties. unfortunately for us, the best way to achieve this is for both parties to consistently nominate people that scare the hell out of the members of the opposing party. to put it more bluntly, it is in the best interest of both parties to put forth awful candidates. this creates the trap of 'the lesser of two evils' that we are all so familiar with, regardless of political orientation (bush vs. gore? ugh).

in other words, i am saying that our current system is set up in such a way that the two main power players actually benefit from putting up crap candidates - candidates so bad that even the people voting for them often don't like them... they just hate the other guy more.

this is the fatal flaw (well, one of many) our our current political system. this is why our candidates get worse and worse. this is why our presidents are laughingstocks.

voting for the lesser of two evils will only continue our descent into crap. we need to break the cycle. vote third party or don't vote at all (none of the above).

I saw a bumper sticker of the American Flag and it's accompanying text was "These Colors don't Run"

The flag was faded...is that ironic?

No kidding. Here and here.