Grab your ankles

Well… the Unelected Fraud will now be ramming that God Squad right-wingnut agenda up the world’s collective butt. The Fascists are now officially running all three branches of the Amerikkkan government. And no one will be able to do anything about it for at least two years. That is, if the Boy Usurper decides to allow us to vote again…

It will also be interesting to see how much we hear about : corporate irresponsibility, Chimpy’s indiscretions with Harken, Pencil Dick’s indiscretions with Haliburton, corporate welfare, the estate tax, the handouts to the elite (which of course have been far larger than the handouts to the poor. Did you think this was a democracy? What were you thinking?), the voting irregularities from this (s)election, or for that matter any subject that makes Drinky McDumbAss and the rest of the junta look bad. Oh, and look for the powers that have usurped our freedom to try and either (i) eliminate the Democrap party; (ii) marginalize the Democrap party; or (iii) fill the Democrap party with its’ own – so even if you vote them in, you’ll still be supporting the elite.

Amerikkka needs a new political party. It would be nice to believe that ordinary people could ‘retake’ the Dems and turn them into a viable alternative in time for the next (s)election. I have serious doubts on that score. Although stranger things have happened…

In the meantime: I would strongly advise you to examine any contacts you have with anyone who voted for the Repugnicant party on Tuesday. I personally asked about a half dozen of them about alleged voter fraud and the Baltimore pamphlet, and received the following responses:

“There’s no proof that the Republicans did anything”
“If they’re stupid enough to be influenced by something so obviously fake, then it’s their own fault”
“The weather is bad today. That’s good for the Republican party. We can get to the polls on our own”
“Rush Limbaugh is on NBC tonight. The means that he must be telling the truth”
“Tim Russert did a fine job of moderating the Florida debate the other night. He didn’t look biased to me”

This sounds to me somewhat hypocritical, and it also sounds to me like they're willing to look the other way if anything illegal happens - as long as it helps them. I also heard some complaining about “voter fraud” coming from their mouths – particularly about people bad-mouthing the pResident. Except: that’s not voter fraud, people! If you were to impede a voter on his way to vote, or prevent them from voting, by any means – that’s voter fraud. A Repugnicant waving their campaign literature at me or their signs imploring me to vote one way or the other is not voter fraud, either. It just goes to show that anyone supporting this corrupt regime will use any means at their disposal to get what they want.

Do you want to associate with someone like that?

Oh, yeah – here’s another case of voter fraud:

Now please excuse me for a while. I need to try and figure out a way to survive without becoming like those I loathe…

Vote Today. Then go and support your local alcohol supplier, and get ready for a heck of a ride. Yes, the (s)elections are going to take place today, and many wonder about many things: Who’s gonna win? (for the optimist) Will there be any shenanigans this time? (for the pessimist) Will we catch any of them this time when they cheat? Will it make any difference?

I want to go and vote for a few selfish reasons: just to see what all the fuss is about, to take a look with my own eyes and experience things myself, so I can talk about how it turns out - whichever way it does – as an active participant, not a kibitzer. And to go and vote with a clothespin on my nose. Just to tell them all what I think about a bunch of people who have given non-elite nobodies like us very little choice while they fight over who is going to be running the country club for the next little while. Not that I’m cynical about this sort of thing…

Anyhow: I found this at symbolman’s zone. Listen to the tune – it’s kinda catchy – and the pics are quite nice too.

More Activities for Today

From Josh Marshall’s weblog comes a contest: pick the election correctly and win the admiration and respect of the blog community! From Josh’s site:

As true aficionados of these hallowed pages know, this site is coming up on its second anniversary. Specifically, the debut of TPM came on November 13th 2000 with a post about uber-right-wing-attorney Ted Olson, now going under the label of Solicitor General of the United States. So of course a big gala celebration is going to be held on the 13th.

But, wait,wait, let's go further back into the pre-history of TPM. Don't be afraid, we'll go through it together ... TPM started during the 2000 recount when news really did change almost every hour or every day and unlike almost any other political story in more than a century the country's entire constitutional order was in uncharted territory and, in a sense, in danger. But there was a sort of pre-Talking Points Memo just before the election: a contest to see who could come closest to predicting who would win the presidency, what the percentages would be, who would win the House and the Senate, and so forth.

You can see the results of the contest here -- Check it out. It's like a serious TPM relic. Amazing stuff, I assure you.
Now needless to say the whole matter of the presidency turned out to be rather more complicated than we'd imagined. But, you know, let's just not get into that right now.

In any case, it's time for another contest. Tell us your predictions for the United States Senate.
Here's the deal.

1. First predict the final partisan split, how many GOPs, how many Dems, etc.

2. Then make your call for the fourteen Senate races in Arkansas, Minnesota, South Carolina, Colorado, Missouri, South Dakota, Georgia, New Hampshire, Tennessee, Iowa, New Jersey, Texas, Louisiana and North Carolina. (In your email write each state on a line and then the party or candidate name of the winner. So like this ...

Tennessee Democrat
New Jersey Republican
Missouri Democrat

Please do it this way and not in discussion form. Otherwise it'll be impossible to go through them.

3. If you want you can then predict the actual spread in as many of the races as you choose.
The way the contest will be scored is that we'll go from one tier to the next. If you get the overall spread right you advance to the next section. If you don't get it you're out. Then if you get each Senate race right, you'll advance on to the tabulation of individual spreads in specific races. The person who gets either all the races right or who gets all the races right and the most race percentages right, wins.
Is all this clear? Frankly, I'm not even sure it is to me. But whatever... You get the idea.

All entries must be received no later than 9 PM East Coast time on Monday evening. Send them to contest@talkingpointsmemo.com. The results will be announced after they're tabulated and after the results of the various races are known -- which frankly may take a while.
As for the prize: fame, celebrity and renown among TPM readers worldwide.

-- Josh Marshall

Send YOUR Somewhat Amusing Suggestions for the Election now! You have 2 hours and a bit after this posting to do so…

Activities for Today

I was directed to this by blah3.com. I would suggest you take a look at it some time today, and make your voice heard before dissention becomes officially illegal.

Subject: Dissatisfied with accounting cleanup efforts

Dear President Bush / Vice-President Cheney ,
The SEC board should not be spending its time cleaning up itself. They need to focus on protecting investors, not protecting themselves. The only way to get back to the business of protecting investors is for Mr. Webster and Mr. Pitt to resign and save themselves and investors from an investigation of this debacle. The very fact that such an investigation is necessary, regardless of the outcome damages investor confidence and Mr. Webster's credibility to lead the board. The only solution is for the widely-supported investor champion, John Biggs, to be chosen as the chair the new accounting oversight board. I am deeply disappointed that the cleanup efforts of the SEC's new accounting oversight board have now been derailed.
Instead of cleaning up bad audits and preventing investor losses, the oversight board itself is now under investigation because of revelations that SEC Chair Harvey Pitt hid William Webster's failure to fully investigate accounting problems at U.S. Technologies as the head of that company's audit committee before the SEC vote to appoint Webster as chair of the SEC board.

I have recently stopped contributing to my 401K, and will not be investing any more money in any mutual funds, stocks, or anything with an element of risk in it whatsoever - if I ever manage to find capital to invest again. I have no faith in the 'oversight board', nor any other board of directors currently in place. I have no trust in any financial institutions. Now that your administration has firmly and utterly convinced me that your 'compassionate conservative' rhetoric was smoke and mirrors, and in fact that the current administration is more dishonest amd corrupt than any in American history, I will curtail my support of any and all large corporations - particularly if I find out that they have been providing financial and idealogical support to the current administration.

Sirs: You should be ashamed of your lies and hypocrisy. There are more and more of us who have become aware of your duplicity and banana republic tactics of late. You may find that we do not follow blind arrogance quite as well as your poll numbers suggest. Do us all a favor and resign before you destroy the entire economy along with large numbers of indigent foreigners in your lust for even more power and unearned wealth.

Sincerely:

(: Tom :)