Depends, you know? They raised a shit ton of money, and the playing field wasn't exactly in their favor. He's not a bad chairman, when it comes to this type of stuff, but I don't like to see him on Meet the Press. Not sure who they need, but it should be a Technocrat/Businesscrat. Zell Miller, before he turrned into Emperor Palpatine

He talked about the fact that Democrats could win if they stuck to kitchen table issues. It surprises me little that the repubs made this election about everything but.. [img][632:568]http://www.blueharvest.net/images/closeups/emperor.jpg[/img]

Oh, and if you were heading to Canada, you might wanna read this first.

As an American citizen living abroad in one of the Iraq War allied countries, it's probably going to affect me more than most. IMHO, Re-electing Bush sends a message (unfairly) to the rest of the world Americans feel pre-emptive attacks and using force as the chief means of problem resolution are acceptable practices, and I'm afraid it's going to bite us (and possibly allies) in the ass in a BIG way.

I'm not surprised by the outcome, but I'm certainly disappointed. I had a nice chat with chase this morning about feeling out of touch with one half of the country. I'm sure some of my best friends from Ohio voted for Bush. A lot of them are rural, Catholic, partriotic folks who love their families and friends. It's possible that we stay friends because we don't talk politics that much, but I think about them and believe that a vast majority of people who voted for Bush are decent folks who want to live productive, happy lives and just have a different idea of "what's best" than I do. Yes, there is a lot of bigotry in the right that really irks me, but that's just not American. There are a lot of racists and bigots in Europe and everywhere else; they just might not be in charge. Likewise, I'm sure many Iranians are kind, peace-loving people; they're just not in charge.

More people voted for Kerry yesterday than for any president in any prior election (even Reagan in '84). I hope the people of the world can see that and appreciate that the actions of one administration does not reflect the attitude of an entire country.

do you live in poland!?

That's optimism.
The fact of the matter is, the majority of Americans voted for an idiot, and that makes us look like idiots as a whole. People who are looking for things to reinforce their negative opinions of the USA aren't going to look into facts like Kerry pulling a bigger vote count than Reagan 20 years ago.

hence the word "hope"

Damn, I forgot Poland...

i totally think Bush should just title his speech "Alaska, you're fucked".

better yet, He should totally try to "take it back" to Russia for a refill on the sweet black goo inside.

a lot of the people at my work who voted for bush cited the $1000 child tax credit as one of their main reasons for voting for him. yet another guy pointed out that the ridiculous gasoline prices we pay here pretty much cancel that out.

i guess i lose twice.

Bush carried Alaska, no? Hmmmm.

hey all... I wasn't around to post my sob story yesterday, but I have to agree with KPH that yesterday was probably the worst day of my life. There's now no way I can say to friends from other countries that Bush doesn't represent the majority of Americans" because clearly, he does. Luckily, my ardent W supporting family and friends haven't blasted me with "told you so" emails or phone calls. That's more than I can say for the prick over on CMJ. I will say I'm glad that my state was blue when it all came down to it.

I feel like one of those sad clowns. For a laugh, go here: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6396422/
Granted, this man is in Taipei, but I have a feeling these freaks are the same type of people who voted for Bush.

Not to be all "spammish" or anything, but I did receive this email from a friend this morning and thought I'd share. It's from Yvon Chouinard who is the owner of Patagonia, and a strong Kerry supporter:

Well, the American people have spoken. They don't want women's choice. They don't want health care reform. "Morality" is more important than having a healthy and habitable planet. They like the way we are handling Iraq. They believe the Earth is truly only 10,000 years old and there is no such thing as global warming.

With our winner take all, non-proportional form of government, and all branches of the federal government under conservative control it leaves a lot of citizens, like myself, disenfranchised. And I wouldn't bother waiting for the Democratic Party to get their shit together for the next go-round because I think these results today are just going to drive the party even further to the right.

Maybe Bush is right. Maybe we should give up on having a strong federal government. But let's not allow him to turn over the keys for the henhouse to the Haliburtons and Exxon Mobils and Merrill Lynches.

In the early days of our country and until the end of the 19th century, we had three powerful social forces: the federal government, local government, and civil democracy. Of the three, I would argue that civil democracy has been by far the most powerful. Activists were responsible for breaking away from Britain in the first place. Civil democracy, funded by private philanthropy, fueled the two great social movements of the 19th century - the abolition of slavery and the struggle for women's rights.

Creating Yosemite Park was not Teddy Roosevelt's idea. It was the activist John Muir who talked Roosevelt into ditching his Secret Service men and camping under the redwoods.

African-American kids, who refused to sit in the back of segregated buses and stood up to the federal marshalls, forced the government to finally enact civil rights legislation. Anti-war activity stopped the war in Vietnam.

Citizen kayakers and fishermen work to bring down obsolete dams and let the rivers flow. Falconers brought the peregrine falcon back from near extinction. Duck hunters have done the most to protect waterfowl in North America.

People may be afraid of the term "activist" because they associate it with eco-sabotage and violent protests, but I'm talking about normal citizens who want the government to live up to its obligation to protect our air, water, and all other natural resources. Activists have infectious passion about the issues they support, whether they are mothers fighting to clean up toxic landfills that are killing their children, or farmers losing their fourth-generation family business to urban sprawl. These are the people on the front lines, trying either to make the government obey its own laws or to recognize the need for a new law.

If you read a newspaper on any given day you will see that all the gains we are making as a society are being done by activist citizens organizations. These activists are forcing politicians and corporations to take steps in the right direction.

Worldwide, more than 100,000 nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) are working on ecological and social sustainability. In the United States alone over 30,000 nonprofit organizations are addressing such issues as biodiversity conservation, women's health, renewable energy, climate change, water conservation, trade laws, population growth, and wilderness protection. The fact that they have all arisen independently, without any common institutional framework, is a tremendous statement of the extent of the environmental crisis. Many of these grassroots organizations are far more capable of solving problems than are self-serving multinational corporations or government agencies. Most of them are local groups working long hours with minimal resources, and they are hanging on to existence by the thinnest thread, depending on small donations and fund-raising events like benefit auctions and bake sales.

So I say now, more than ever, we need to encourage civil democracy by joining up, volunteering or supporting these groups financially. We can still have a voice in democracy.

Very cool email. You're friends with the owner of Patagonia?

well, at least you can count on the british media for calling it like it is.

No, I'm not friends with the owner of Patagonia, but my friend who works at Nike obviously has connections.

Yesterday I never had the chance to be here and weigh in on this.

Instead I spent my honeymoon in a part of Illinois that was much farmland. Josh was wearing his Kerry/Edwards button tuesday night and I have to admit I was a tad afraid of what some of the reaction to it would be but then the woman at the front desk of our Irish Hotel pleasantly and positively told him it was great.

But later that night we sat in the bar with some younger folks and three of the four went on to say they voted for Nader which almost made me want to scream "why?". But it wouldn't have made any difference since IL was already captured by Kerry. Now if we were in Ohio or Florida I maybe would have. But in a more inquisitve way.

As a parent I worry about Bush being in office another 4 years. I worry about our health care system, and about the education system my son is in that can't seem to keep its teachers or its programs intact. And one thing that made me sad was just before Kerry conceeded there was a news report on CNN talking about how they discovered some more disturbing news about the Global Warming effect and the Ice Caps melting much further. As if Bush will care.

My father last night on the phone told me that Bush has done much for the unemployment rate and will continue to do so. I told him "tell that to the friends of mine who were laid off and then without work for months not being able to support their families and faced with having to take lower paying jobs". My father(who has a lot of money) like many republicans sees Bush as being a saviour to this country. We argued a bit further and I had to get off the phone.

All I know is that this election taught me that I need to be more aware and more involved. Which means that I will educate myself on the politics of this country and volunteer and help the Democratic party in any way I can for this next election.

Oh, and NEVER take your honeymoon during an election. All I can say is this, we were both totally down and or drunk during the two days. It was rather depressing for both of us. Ugh.

i think all of us have to accept the awful truth that keeping gays out of marriage and that saddam "attacked" us on september 11 is more important than people getting jobs and being able to have affordable drugs and healthcare. *sigh* thats just the way it is.

First you worry that your beau will get hassled for his voting preference, and yet you feel no qualms about hassling others. Then you go on to admit that you consider yourself inadequately educated "on the politics of this country". Who the fuck are you to publically ridicule *anyone* for the choice for President?


As for your education system, take it up with your beloved democrats who have controlled and run your city into the ground.

For the record at least I'm honest about my qualms and fears. You're just an asshole who likes to ridicule others because of theirs.

To me voting for Nader is akin to taking votes away for either Kerry or Bush. I don't see the need to have this third running party for those who care less. At least I DO care. I do know some but maybe not a lot about politics. And I at least CARE to learn more rather then feel the need just to vote to vote and pick the candidate that I know less about.

Fuck off. Sometimes you're no better then that troll 4030.

And the only reason I had the issue with the button was because all the signs going into the country, mind you very small town farm country, was littered with Bush signs. So frankly I didn't want my honeymoon mired by some hotel clerk being an asshole to us because of it. And you don't like my answer. I don't care. And I never said I was going to , just said I felt like it on the inside. I generally have more compassion then to open my mouth and openly ridicule people.

Unlike you.

You're absolutely correct. You do need to educate yourself on "the politics of this country."

Unemployment rate is under 6%, about the same it was for Clinton.

Kerry opposes gay marriage, and voted to authorize the invasion of Iraq.

He was not much of an alternative to Bush.

yeah easily. which is a damn shame because their massive, beautiful state is going to be reduced to a pile of smoking rubble in a few years.

Wanna put money on that? I'll even give you odds.

Man, you nail it.

I had a knock down drag out argument with the head of the consulting firm I work with, a guy who has been in the business for 25 years, knows all the heavies, etc, about a year and a half ago. I said that no one would beat Bush. They effectively communicated the message that they "inhereted a recession, and the economy was worsened by the tragic events of 9/11" That plus $150 million in attack ads, that your opponent does everything he possibly can to promulgate (i.e. "Kerry's a flip-flopper," "I actually voted for the $87 Billion, before I voted against it") and there was no way to beat him.

Sorry, kids, I actually LIKE John Kerry, have had the pleasure of meeting and talking with him on several occasions, and wasn't just voting against Bush, but he never really stood a chance.

in the near term, things are going to fo to shit for the Dems. Not many people are going to jump at the chance to run for office next year, especially in the South, and the tort reform battle is about to CRAZY.

I hope all of you are ok with the fact that soon Ford Motor Company's liability for your car exploding will soon be capped at $250,000. I mean I think that's fair for gross negligence, don't you Billzebub?

Didn't the Bush Administration also pass a law that made it illegal to require auto makers to release safety testing information about their automobiles about a year ago? In other words you won't even know that your car has the potential to explode and then you'll be capped at $250,000.

edit: source - http://www.freep.com/money/autonews/nht ... 040818.htm