Mickey Z
Cool Observer
Tuesday, November 07, 2006
Don't forget to get your annual dose of "democracy" today
Yeah! I am not voting today, and proud of it. There will be no good outcome of this election. The Democrats are moving to the right, and moderate Republicans are endangered.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/11/02/politics/main2143948.shtml
I remember during the recent Mexican elections (even though the outcome was bullshit)a headline in the mainstream American press that said, “ Mexicans choose between Right, Left.” I thought, “Lucky them, we don’t even get that illusion.”
Posted by Brian on from Belly of the Beast 11/07 at 08:52 AM<img src=http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/martin_rowson/2006/11/06/rowson.jpg>
Posted by Robert B. Livingston on from San Francisco, California 11/07 at 08:53 AMOne more cartoon:
(Not sure if this proper-- hope you fix it or eliminate my posts if there are problems-- Thanks Mickey)
Posted by Robert B. Livingston on from San Francisco, California 11/07 at 08:57 AMvoting is the most passive of acts. sign a piece of paper, Here take care of my life for me the next halfdecade please. Plus it contributes to the illusion that social engineering runs in four-year phases.
p.s. Mickey, I didn´t get to reply to you before the weekend as I went into the countryside, about when you said perhaps I was giving the state too much credit re: engineering unrest in the middle of a peaceful protest. I wish the state was fun by folk as dumb as its figureheads, and at a protest it´s quite easy to spot the professionals at work. The last summit in Sweden the crowd of protestors had the good sense to separate themselves from and vocally point out a bunch of blackmasks in Palestinian scarves they had identified as police.
Posted by owen on from barcelona 11/07 at 11:08 AMI’m a little out of the Cool Observer loop lately...I’ve had time to pop in now and again and lurk, but that’s never enough to get through all the links and keep up with conversation.
Just thought I’d say ‘Hi’ to all the Expendables and add that the worst thing about this election is all the real news that’s not being covered. Ok, it’s pretty high hoping that the absolute destruction of Gaza would get any real coverage whether or not there were an election, but you get the gist.
Mickey you’re absolutely right that there’s little difference between these two parties...it’s just that one of them will sugar coat things in a much more pallatable manner and perhaps throw a few more socially forward programmes into the mix to keep the hordes quiet.
No reason to “expect” more than that.
Posted by Amelopsis on from Canada 11/07 at 01:37 PMHello Expendables. Today started out relatively warm and sunny but I think we’re about to get rained on now.
Should I translate the low number of comments here as a sign that you’re all out voting?
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 11/07 at 02:12 PMI just got home from voting. There is a big turnout here. I know that we Expendables are not supposed to vote, but I couldn’t help myself. I really like the Carlin statement on the main page. I forwarded it and others also like it. BUT, the way I see it there are 3 choices---cast an uninformed vote, or cast an informed vote, or don’t cast any vote. Not voting at all eliminates the responsibility of having legitimized a corrupt system, so that is probably the best choice, BUT only if enough people fail to vote. Casting an informed vote is good only if enough voters are informed, so for me it is a toss up. The rule I am going by today is not to vote for any dem or repub, and definately not to vote for any incumbent.
Posted by RMJ on from Churchill 4 Prez Hdqts 11/07 at 03:08 PMRMJ, as you know, there’s no “supposed to” around here. Voting, to me, is like protesting. I personally don’t think either is effective but I sometimes indulge and don’t judge others for indulging.
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 11/07 at 03:32 PMAesop sez: “We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office.”
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 11/07 at 06:18 PMHi everyone. I’m sorry that I haven’t been able to post anything lately, but I have lurked a bit here and there. I got your email too, Mickey, and I appreciate the effort you put in to try and keep this community together. Could turn out to be very important someday, I think.
I voted today, just for the fun of it. Some socialists, some libertarians, even a Republican (I had to vote against Hillary, I know pretty much everyone is equally corrupt, but she just turns my stomach). I’m pretty proud that I “wasted” my vote in every possible way.
Completely unrelated, but last time I was around we were discussing monetary matters. I got a chance to watch the Money Masters as was recommended and I was very impressed. That really filled in a lot of gaps in my knowledge and lead me to come up with an interesting idea, which I’m sure someone has probably advanced before: Is the American dollar based on the Oil Standard now? It makes a lot of sense and it would explain the question that I posed a few weeks ago about why exactly Iraq switching their oil trade from the dollar to the Euro would cause such a problem.
Posted by Banta on from Inner Circle of Hell 11/07 at 06:33 PMWell, it’s all very depressing. To think there will be no improvement for the American people if there is a change made. To us looking in though, a change would give us a little bit of hope that there may be some variation in policy. Perhaps a lessening in military actions? A little more compassion?
Keeping close to the TV tonight, anyway.
Good evening from Montreal to everyone.
Posted by Canadian Observer on from 11/07 at 06:52 PMGood evening to Montreal and everyone else too. The news tomorrow will probably report that we now have a Socialist in the Senate. Bernie USED to be a Socialist. To see the truth you have to go to the Liberty Union site or look at Bernie’s Congressional voting record on the war. It will be interesting to see if the Press gets this one right. As Canadian Observer says, “It’s all very depressing.”
Posted by RMJ on from Churchill 4 Prez Hdqts 11/07 at 08:13 PMWell, then, I guess nobody will castigate me here for confessing that I never bothered to get my absentee ballot.
Posted by Jeremy on from Taipei 11/07 at 11:27 PMI voted today and I also witnessed The Decemberists play an amazing show in Ponitac, Michigan. The latter takes the cake.
Posted by Ender on from Detroit, MI 11/08 at 02:21 AMDouble post (sorry).
I was thinking today that a lot of fed-up Americans will probably view the Democratic takeover of the House as a shimmer of hope in our government’s policies. Perhaps this will serve as an appeazement that obstructs would-be activists and radicals to stay moderate as “democrats” or “liberals.” So even if the Democrats do make things slightly more bareable, any imporvements are just hurting us in the long run.Posted by Ender on from Detroit, MI 11/08 at 02:28 AM
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