Looks like I was right to be freaking in my previous post. I'm reading that the networks are calling this for Bush (can't stand to watch'em). The only explanations I can fathom are: The Christ-squad came out in force to defend their False Jesus; the youth vote stayed home; and in the months before the election, the right wing media (meaning the networks, newspapers, etc) continued to bestow the appearance of legitimacy on Bush even though he's an election cheater, debate cheater, and killer of thousands of innocents. Fuck.
Juan Cole has a recap on where the race actually stands as of the wee hours Wednesday morning. If offers some hope but not much.
UPDATE, Wednesday: So, I see Kerry has conceded. Ouch.
UPDATE 2: I had an epithet directed at young voters that has been deleted. According to Joshua Marshall, "Young voters showed up at a far higher level than they did four years ago. But everyone else did too. And so the proportion of the electorate made up by the youth vote did not increase. At least not dramatically..." I've heard one reason for the Bush victory was people don't want to change leaders mid-War. To some extent this is an indictment of Kerry's failure to offer an alternative. But we know he would have lost on a peace initiative. I think what it comes down to is the majority of Americans are racist and aren't offended by the idea of genocidal war.
UPDATE 3: This 1972 Hunter Thompson quote from Billmon says it better:This may be the year when we finally come face to face with ourselves; finally just lay back and say it -- that we are really just a nation of 220 million used car salesmen with all the money we need to buy guns, and no qualms at all about killing anybody else in the world who tries to make us uncomfortable.
Tweety was speaking as if an effort to count ballots would besmirch the chimp's victory. The script is cast.
Until tonight I haven't allowed myself to contemplate the consequences of a Bush success.
We got an espression in Texas: show yer hand. Well, us 'Merikuns done did that to the world. And the cards say, "Fuck you and fuck all your puny little friends; I'm the asshole in charge, and I'll do what I want."
(Hope I'm wrong!)
i think it hinged on not wanting to change leaders mid-war. unfortunately that was a self fulfilling prophesy with a preemptive war. there are more of them than us now, but there's a 48.0% mandate to the contrary.
Arg. We watched in solidarity. I honestly do not understand why it is so close (eventhough Kerry is about as charismatic as a log). Just posted this bit below by Ken Wiwa on my page as well. It's by far the most encouraging thing I've heard about the election so far, which is pretty dark:
Excerpt from Ken Wiwa's "Look Out: There's a Flu Under Every Bush," from Saturday's Globe and Mail:
... [T]here is a school of thought that hopes Mr. Bush gets a second term, and I've already enrolled in that program.
I don't know whether it is my immune system's defensive reaction to Bush flu -- the shiver one feels at the thought of opening the papers to front-page pictures of a smiling George W. on Wednesday morning -- but I have already rationalized a Bush second term as serving my global interests. I've always subscribed to the notion that an empire is at its most vulnerable at the height of its power.
It is an immutable law of nature that condemns the powerful to overweening ambition: Think of the Roman Empire, Napoleon, Conrad Black and the New York Yankees. What with that monstrous budget deficit midwifing the economic miracle of a jobless recovery, the loud commitment to policing the world at any cost, and a seemingly implacable addiction to market forces in every public sector from education to health care -- another four years of Bush flu may be tough medicine. But it might, just might, weaken his country and make the rest of us stronger.
On the other hand, John Kerry might, just might, pull America from the brink of self-destruction -- that is, if he succeeds in balancing the budget at the same time as extending the reach of social programs. He just might succeed in getting the rest of the world to help America police the world, to continue to float America's trillion-dollar debt, to pull us all out of our irrational anti-American senses and persuade us that if America sneezes, we might all catch a cold.
Whatever the outcome, I'm going to get myself a flu jab.
I just want to cry and vommit...at the same time…why are Americans so stupid…it all makes me very sad
I still like 55,132,116 of you. (give or take a few 100,000.)
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Looks like I was right to be freaking in my previous post. I'm reading that the networks are calling this for Bush (can't stand to watch'em). The only explanations I can fathom are: The Christ-squad came out in force to defend their False Jesus;
the youth vote stayed home; and in the months before the election, the right wing media (meaning the networks, newspapers, etc) continued to bestow the appearance of legitimacy on Bush even though he's an election cheater, debate cheater, and killer of thousands of innocents. Fuck.Juan Cole has a recap on where the race actually stands as of the wee hours Wednesday morning. If offers some hope but not much.
UPDATE, Wednesday: So, I see Kerry has conceded. Ouch.
UPDATE 2: I had an epithet directed at young voters that has been deleted. According to Joshua Marshall, "Young voters showed up at a far higher level than they did four years ago. But everyone else did too. And so the proportion of the electorate made up by the youth vote did not increase. At least not dramatically..." I've heard one reason for the Bush victory was people don't want to change leaders mid-War. To some extent this is an indictment of Kerry's failure to offer an alternative. But we know he would have lost on a peace initiative. I think what it comes down to is the majority of Americans are racist and aren't offended by the idea of genocidal war.
UPDATE 3: This 1972 Hunter Thompson quote from Billmon says it better:
- tom moody 11-03-2004 9:36 am
Tweety was speaking as if an effort to count ballots would besmirch the chimp's victory. The script is cast.
Until tonight I haven't allowed myself to contemplate the consequences of a Bush success.
We got an espression in Texas: show yer hand. Well, us 'Merikuns done did that to the world. And the cards say, "Fuck you and fuck all your puny little friends; I'm the asshole in charge, and I'll do what I want."
(Hope I'm wrong!)
- mark 11-03-2004 11:46 am
i think it hinged on not wanting to change leaders mid-war. unfortunately that was a self fulfilling prophesy with a preemptive war. there are more of them than us now, but there's a 48.0% mandate to the contrary.
- bill 11-03-2004 5:33 pm
Arg. We watched in solidarity. I honestly do not understand why it is so close (eventhough Kerry is about as charismatic as a log). Just posted this bit below by Ken Wiwa on my page as well. It's by far the most encouraging thing I've heard about the election so far, which is pretty dark:
Excerpt from Ken Wiwa's "Look Out: There's a Flu Under Every Bush," from Saturday's Globe and Mail:
- sally mckay 11-03-2004 6:15 pm
I just want to cry and vommit...at the same time…why are Americans so stupid…it all makes me very sad
- Lauren 11-03-2004 8:06 pm
I still like 55,132,116 of you. (give or take a few 100,000.)
- LM (guest) 11-03-2004 9:18 pm