US POLITICS election/post-election edition: your country will improve immediately.

in the same way you might start a negotiation with an over-the-top demand.

Unless you are Obama

Shrub has to be the only President in my life I can think of who didn't lose the House in his first midterm election.

Well, being that it's only changed hands twice in 50 years...

I did a connect-the-dots ballot rather than wait for the touch screen this morning, and when I turned it in the machine told me there was an overvote. Lo and beyond, there it was: Ed Washington. Apparently I voted both for and against his reelection as one of 3423 judges.

"What happens now?" I ask the lady.

"Well, either you fill out a new ballot, or the overvote gets discounted."

"Just that one vote?"

"Yes."

"The rest of the ballot is unaffected?"

"Correct."

"Sorry, Ed Washington, whoever you are!"

My local polling place is the Teamster's Temple and the local House Rep is running unopposed. There hasn't been a Republican on the city council for 90 years. I don't think this is a sign of a particularly healthy democracy.

LOL Ohio:

10:50 a.m. --We have received an update to the earlier story about the voting snafu at R.J. Smith Elementary School in Massillon. The presiding judge of that precinct had her car stolen this morning, as she was warming it up before driving to work.

Inside the car were keys to unlock the voting machines. Without the keys, the polls were unable to the scheduled time of 6:30 a.m. The Stark County B.O.E. sent a troubleshooter to unlock the polling machines around 7:15 a.m.

As a result of not opening at 6:30, eight people were turned away at that time. At least one of those individuals has returned to cast his vote.

fucks sake

ACTUALLY one-party rule vs EFFECTIVELY one-party rule -- what else is there?

xxp

i voted green party candidate for TN gov because a.) the republican's going to win by a huge amount anyway; b.) the democrat's an anti-gay-adoption posturing legacy candidate (daddy was a guvnor back a ways); c.) the republican's sort of an ok guy by current gop standards and also mayor of my city, so on balance i don't really mind him getting elected even tho there's no way i can actually vote for him; and d.) if the green party ever ekes up over 5 percent in any of these elections, it can actually get a dedicated ballot line next time around.

i also voted against a state constitutional amendment guaranteeing the right to hunt and fish, because i'm not sure that really needs to be a constitutional right. and it's not like anyone's going to try to ban it, anyway. but i'm sure it will pass.

Matt Taibbi:

Rahm's gone, midterms are here. How do you foresee the next two years of the Obama administration playing out?

The Republicans are going to win now and retake at least one house. What few reforms have been enacted, there's going to be an effort to role those back. Nothing serious is going to get done now for at least two years. Obama's going to win re-election in 2012. The Tea Party thing is now so big that there's no way that the Republicans can nominate someone who's not friendly to the Tea Party. But whomever they nominate is going to be nuts, so that person is not going to win the swing vote. Democrats will sweep through to victory and do nothing again for four years

10:42 a.m. --Voters in Parma are having some problems finding a place to park at the polling location at Pleasant Valley Elementary.

The school is not in session for the students today, but they do have a teacher work day. With the teachers at the school, the parking lot is crowded and several voters have reported leaving the location because they can't find a place to park.

Follow Ohio election lulz here: http://www.newsnet5.com/dpp/news/political/blog-election-day-live-updates

from the other side of the rust belt, can i say, ohio, get your fucking shit together

we've only been doing this for a century or so

have these been linked yet?

http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/10/31/5-reasons-republicans-could-do-even-better-than-expected/

http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/11/01/5-reasons-democrats-could-beat-the-polls-and-hold-the-house/

from the other side of the rust belt, can i say, ohio, get your fucking shit together

everything went to hell after mark hanna died.

The Republicans are going to win now and retake at least one house. What few reforms have been enacted, there's going to be an effort to role those back. Nothing serious is going to get done now for at least two years. Obama's going to win re-election in 2012. The Tea Party thing is now so big that there's no way that the Republicans can nominate someone who's not friendly to the Tea Party. But whomever they nominate is going to be nuts, so that person is not going to win the swing vote. Democrats will sweep through to victory and do nothing again for four years

highly likely scenario imho

all comes down to who does the blame game better over the next two years. if nothing gets done and the Republicans have the House they'll have to work that much harder to justify it. Of course, the Dems are pretty useless at PR so they'll probably come out alright, which would then lead to the Tea Party nomination scenario.

yeah, i read that taibbi interview alfred excerpted. taibbi is absolutely OTM.

where's the link?

that slate article is easily the most retarded thing ive read this year

i voted absentee already. i have a great congressman so that was pretty easy. didn't vote for schumer but he'll win by 30 points anyway

While we're waiting for all that tea to get brewed.

1994: I was driving back to Minneapolis from visiting my girlfriend in Missouri. It was (and only) general election I missed voting in. That night, I was listening to the AM news stations from Des Moines and Chicago, from Newt's victory speech to Mario Cuomo going down in flames. Beating the steering wheel and going "NOooooo!"

Now it's going to happen again, and I don't think I'm going to get wound up again. I'm not going to be pleased about it, but surely if this nation could survive the Civil War, it can handle six years of Sen. John Boozman (R-Ark.) I mean, hell, it's not going to be much different than Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.)

And if Obama can successfully turn this into the "See? I Told You So!" 2012 campaign, then go for it. I'd be lying if I said I didn't have some sort of perverse deathwish to see Rand Paul elected. The weeds always grow first after a good crop burning.

Taibbi otm, making George Carlin's "Fuck voting" monologue ever more defensible.

The weeds always grow first after a good crop burning.

i like this as a "wednesday morning" slogan.

really disappointing that there aren't rent is too damn high candidates downticket on the ny ballot

Via Twitter, former Letters to Cleo singer Kay Hanley:

kayhanley
Regular Studio City polling place moved w/o warning from easily accessible loc at Laurel+Ventura to prohibitive Mulholland Dr. Outrage.

kayhanley
Nothing says "Let them eat cake" quite like moving the election to the top of a mountain accessible only by car. With no parking.

Taibbi q&a:

http://www.gq.com/news-politics/politics/201010/griftopia-matt-taibbi-breaking-america

i had no idea taibbi was behind the exile! makes sense

looking forward to voting later, but totally annoyed by all my friends spamming the shit out of Facebook with "I voted!" and "Did you vote?" posts

6 domestic terrorists inspired by Fox News

just voted and lol at Cuyahoga County (Cleveland) democracy: Four guys with the last name Corrigan and all unopposed

http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_krljc3Xjjj1qz54k3.jpg

"fuckin a right"

voted an hour again ... though it's an off-year election here in NJ (i.e., other than the House race and a local city counsel seat, nothing else) and given that i am in Hudson County the Democrat is a shoo-in.

http://www.alan.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/john_boehner.jpg

REALLY going to be wanting to punch this face for the next few years. Watched him on C-SPAN at a rally the other night saying "Obama called anyone who disagrees with him enemies. My friends, I call you patriots."

Ipso facto, I am NOT a patriot, Boehner's name-calling trumps Obama's, and somehow we will no longer be a "divided country" come Wednesday morning. Hooray.

http://www.alan.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/john_boehner.jpg

http://www.guidofistpump.com/guido%20pix/guido_orange.jpg

Boehner's got a face tailor made for black-and-white negative campaign ads.

Thing is, he's not punchable like Cheney, where I actually knew there were some (devious) ideas in his head. Boehner just seems like the emptiest empty suit ever.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_NUZ_fM-TQKQ/S9CkcY_PXWI/AAAAAAAAQyw/ZyHIWj6HjVY/s1600/428px-John_Boehner_golf.jpg

Finally, America has found a leader who's in touch with the voters.

Holy shit, thank you for that! And this from a party that questioned John Kerry's "guyness."

if this hasn't already been commented upon ... http://twitter.com/rosannecash/status/29421685199

Boehner's only point in his favor: he's an avid smoker.

He probably has a whole temperature controlled room in his D.C. house filled with free cartons from Phillip Morris.

note to self: no political discussions on facebook today

note to self: no political discussions on facebook today ever

I'm having a hard time with the temptation to visit the FB page of the guy I went on a date with who is a really vocal Tea Bagger, Palin fan, and Firorina fan. It's disgusting, especially as he is only 24. I once wrote something critical of Palin on my page and he responded "No H8!" and gave me a little speech on how Dems are very intolerant.

Some are, some aren't. But criticism of Sarah Palin is pretty objective.

My friend chided me for predicting, a couple of years ago, that she would fade away. I assuaged her frustration by reminding her that Palin is a lot closer to Snooki than elected office.

it's a nice clear day today nationwide. that's one very small bright spot

You're urging Dems to stay home and enjoy the weather, aren't you.

i made a mistake, posted some diatribe about how the country has always been full of shit and ideals should be left behind on election day (didnt say who to vote for or even any modern policy) and then got hit with someone talking about how they work for their money and dont want to have to rely on obama and all the standard republican talking points. at the end they asked "where does socialism actually work?" and i was tempted to write about my wonderful recent vacation in sweden (also including fellow socialist hell denmark) but figured i should just pull the plug on the FB all together today...

No, you should have said "Sweden, where PS they also aren't afraid of non-white ppl" and THEN pulled the plug on FB

so not sorry to see Rangel gone.

he's still in office, y'know. I'm sure the GOP chairman is a pillar of virtue.

lolbama damage control on GE story:

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20047212-503544.html

Embarassing.

some tax experts question what taxpayers are getting in return. Since 2002, the company has eliminated a fifth of its work force in the United States while increasing overseas employment. In that time, G.E.’s accumulated offshore profits have risen to $92 billion from $15 billion.

Yep,GE's Ceo will sure help with job creation ideas. Ha.

sooo there's this asst prosecutor from indiana who's just been fired because it has emerged that he sent some emails advising WI gov. walker to fake an assassination attempt or something.

well, someone found an amazon reader review of his from 99. praising a race-war prep kind of book:

http://www.amazon.com/review/R1QGK1DF4QHDMC/ref=cm_cr_pr_cmt?ie=UTF8&ASIN=0929408179&nodeID=&tag=&linkCode=#wasThisHelpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Very good predictions, December 18, 1999
By
Carlos F. Lam
This review is from: Civil War Two: The Coming Breakup of America (Paperback)
This book is an excellent prediction of what is to come in the next century. Not only are black and hispanic militancy on the rise, but White movements are gaining adherents daily, probably in response to the crimes perpetrated against Whites by these other races. Mr. Chittum's predictions are also backed up with statistics, and he also shows that past multiethnic empires have broken up. Read it and prepare.

the book:

http://www.amazon.com/Civil-War-Two-Breakup-America/dp/0929408179/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1301087863&sr=8-1

Product Description
This fascinating book looks into the very real possibility that America could descend into a racial civil war in the coming decade. Frightening, but full of facts that are difficult to argue with. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author
Thomas W. Chittum was a rifleman in the United States Army in Vietnam in 1965 and 1966, a rifleman in the Rhodesian Territorials in the early Seventies, and a rifleman in the Croatian Army in 1991 and 1992. He was a computer programmer for most of his adult life. He is now a writer and lives in rural New Jersey. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

forget about GE, what about the oil subsidies. Obama proposed a relatively (and pitifully) small 4 billion dollar reduction in them, but we won't even get that.

ohhhh yeah

So, I understand and agree completely that oil subsidies are a much bigger deal, but that kind of reaction is kind of what's wrong with the left's response to stories like this. Do not forget about GE, it was on the front page of the NYT today and has people angry right now. Anyone who thinks corporate welfare is absolute bullshit should be talking about pretty much nothing else but GE in their political discussions for the next week, at least. Not about issues that are similar to GE, not about bigger issues than GE, but GE, GE, GE, because GE is a story with traction right now.

Here's a softball for the President Gas crowd:

http://www.nationaljournal.com/columns/political-connections/obama-a-lot-like-ike-20110324

I think it's a good piece. It tries to explain a common method in the way Obama approaches things, pointing out the advantages and the costs in almost equal measure. It's tilted a little towards the sympathetic side. (I wanted to check to see if someone's already linked to it, but loading this whole thread has become a nightmare. Should someone maybe start a new one?)

yeah it's getting to be that time

US POLITICS SPRING 2011 - Let's just call off this country

yes!

US POLITICS SPRING 2011: Let's just call off this country.

I've been hesitant to get into this guy, but I really can't find anything assailable about this piece:

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-real-housewives-of-wall-street-look-whos-cashing-in-on-the-bailout-20110411?page=1

It's like he writes what at first sounds like needlessly inflammatory hyperbole, but then when you go over it everything he's saying is true.

SORRY! WILL REPOST TO NEW THREAD!