And the day's off to a good start...

[A Black Falcon]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hart%27s_Location

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dixville_Notch

(hint: The bottom of each article)

:)

[Dark Jaguar]

123456 POKEMON!

[Weltall]

I'm excited.

[A Black Falcon]

Quite.

I voted today... have you?

[alien space marine]

I actually voted for the first time ever this year, I was amazed at how simple it is.

Those who can vote but choose not to , Are just completely lazy .

My idea, Is to reward voters with " discount coupons or tasty treats" it might be enough to give a excuse for why the lazy slacker should get off his ass and vote.

Hopefully you americans wont have another fiasco like in 2000 .

[A Black Falcon]

They had cookies at our polling place, actually... and those great "I Voted" stickers of course. :)

[EdenMaster]

Yep, voted. There are all kinds of things being offered from what I've heard. Among them, a free coffee at Starbucks and a free donut at Krispy Kreme.

There was a bake sale at my polling place. I partook.

[Weltall]

I voted for the loser (whom, unlike the last two losers, conceded with dignity).

But I'm not entirely upset, either. I had few moments in which I truly believed McCain had a legitimate shot, both because his campaign was extremely weak and poorly-managed, and because, credit to the Obamanator, his campaign was absolutely fantastic. Unlike Al Gore in 2000, who should have run away with the whole thing effortlessly, Obama and his staff understood that it was his election to lose and played like a winner the entire time. Kudos and congratulations to him. I don't know what kind of president he's going to be (hopefully nowhere near as socialist as he seems), but I would gladly take him over featherweights like Gore and Kerry.

[Dark Jaguar]

Socialist? What is your basis for that?

At any rate, I didn't vote for him because he was a "fine speaker" but because of his specific policies being superior to the alternative. I don't agree with everything Obama says he'll do, but one thing's for sure, I didn't agree with even one thing McCain said. Palin is completely ignorant of the world around her, demonstrated every single time she stated something. She doesn't appear to stand for anything but some ideal form of a total lack of education, and she wore it like a badge of frickin' honor. One who knows nothing can understand nothing.

[Weltall]

When a candidate says we should "spread the wealth", I see a red flag that will likely result in my taxes being raised, perhaps for social programs with which I do not agree.

He votes with the party more than 90% of the time (the few times he actually executed his duties as Illinois senator), so I have every reason to expect a liberal administration.

[A Black Falcon]

When a candidate says we should "spread the wealth", I see a red flag that will likely result in my taxes being raised, perhaps for social programs with which I do not agree.

All Americans of both parties support "spreading the wealth" unless they're radical libertarians or anarchists, essentially. This is the effect of having "taxes". For instance, here's a good video of McCain advocating "spreading the wealth".

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Obama is less of a socialist than much of the Democratic party, in fact; he's opposed to true universal health care, which a very substantial part (a majority, I absolutely believe) of the party supports. One of Hillary Clinton's major attacks against Obama was that his healthcare plan wasn't a universal health care plan, in fact... he's no more "socialist" than any other American politician.

I, of course, wish he would support universal health care...

Oh, and on a related note, I really liked how the Colbert Report dealt with this... Steven Colbert had the actual Socialist Party candidate on the show, who was very clear about how socialist Obama wasn't. :)

He votes with the party more than 90% of the time (the few times he actually executed his duties as Illinois senator), so I have every reason to expect a liberal administration.

You know who has the most missed votes in congress in the past two years?

John McCain. Yes, he even managed to beat Tim Johnson in misses, and Johnson missed a year with a brain tumor! Astounding...

You're right that all of the candidates missed votes, but that's true for all candidates of both parties who were holding elected offices, and it's just a side effect of being a candidate and an officeholder at the same time. But anyway, those 'most liberal in the Senate' ratings, etc, are extremely deceptive. There is absolutely no way he is the most liberal person in the Senate, absolutely no way.

[lazyfatbum]

Just keep your fingers crossed.

Socialist? srs. Come on. Liberal yes and that doesn't NECESSARILY equal a bad thing. His team is win, you cant deny that they have the golden testes and the sack of whupass this rock needs. Even if it's 100% front, it's going to put us in the right direction. I'm sick of our glaring faults and nobody doing anything about it except adding to it. Obama's the fucking Wii - if these United States were the blue ocean, demographics got tripled and 18 year olds actually VOTED because Lexington Steel represents a clean slate for the whole game. Whether it's true or not.

I wouldn't judge Palin so harshly, its like wuts his nuts all over again LMFAO HE CANT SPELL POTATO OBVIOUSLY A BAD PRESIDENT or when Bush slips a line. Dan's a retard for his execution of guidelines and strength in his fortitoods and Bush needs to be fucked with a rake regardless of his speech patterns.

Completely serious; he's not going to deliver on all fronts. It's impossible. But when he fucks up he's going to accept the responsibility and do what he can to unfuck it. He's going to watch the popular tally like he's got OCD and wear the People's President Mask his entire term and mean it. McCain wouldn't do that, Maverick yes but he's still in that boat with the other old white people who dont know how to get a country motivated.

"Votes with the party more than 90% of the time"

Two words. Team Player. Who do you always want on your team? The black guy. Dont deny it.

[Dark Jaguar]

lazy, she lacks information on the basic history of our country, on the basic makeup of the world OUTSIDE our country, and the basic FUNCTION of our country.

She didn't just mispronounce nuclear here, she's been saying one thing after another that's plain factually wrong, demonstrably so.

And yes, latching onto "spread the wealth" is kinda silly considering that ever since our country has had taxes, that's what we do anyway. Our nation runs on functions that could be considered socialist, the question is to what degree we have it. No one's in favor of a full blown socialist regime where people forcibly take everything you own and distribute it that way. Universal health care has become a pretty important thing to me, so yeah, I certainly hope that he votes "liberal" this time around. Most of my family can't afford to see doctors. One of them has thrown her back out to the point where she can't even work. How is she supposed to work harder to earn that doctor visit if her body won't cooperate?

I'm no fan of communism, it's an easily corrupted "solution" that ends up hurting the majority of people. Before anyone says "China", the reason they are doing so well is because the chinese government actually backed off the communist control angle enough to let their market flourish. However, TOTAL let it alone economics results in problems like the one we are in. It's a balancing act.

Personally, I think the best economic system is post-scarcity, where techonology reaches the point where we don't need workers to do manual labor and it's all automated, in which case no one owns the means of production except our metal overlords. Everything we do now is merely baby steps towards that glistening crystaline future. In that scenario, people are free to run their businesses as they see fit, but money will be meaningless, and companies will basically be run just like freeware outfits, where people just make things for the joy of doing it. See: the internet for a small preview of what post-scarcity looks like.

[Geno]

Let me just say that because a person promises change does not mean they're going to cause mass genocide like Hitler. Also, Kerry didn't concede with dignity? I seem to recall that he did, though my memory could be fuzzy after four years. Hm.

That said, this was my second time voting and the first time the guy I voted for won. Let us hope that he lives up to his promises. They say that the night is darkest before the dawn. Things sure have been dark lately, so maybe this will be the dawn we've been waiting for. Go on, turn that metaphor into a pun about Obama's skin color. I've left it wide open for one.

[Dark Jaguar]

Hitler had a mustache too. You can't just pick superficial similarities, point out why his plans are flawed, in detail.

At any rate, "they" don't say that Geno, Gandalf says that. As poetic as the expression is, I'm a nerd, so I nitpick.

It's not darkest "just before dawn", that kinda goes against how the day/night cycle works. It's darkest right at the middle.

[Geno]

Touché. Though I was actually thinking of Harvey Dent in The Dark Knight when I spouted that quote.

[lazyfatbum]

Batman - Teaching us politics since 1943

[Geno]

Batman should be president of the universe.

[Weltall]

To wit, my signature is not suggestive of Obama's personality, goals, or political leaning (obviously). It's making fun of his campaign. There are very obvious differences between the two certainly, but there are also some funny similarities; the vague promises of change without revealing much of the plan is one. The similarity that most piqued me was not about Obama at all, but his supporters; the kind who swoon at his every word, who wear t-shirts with his face and carry his portrait in rallies and shout his slogans. Obama has created a personality cult that almost seems to worship him, just as Hitler did. And I would never suggest that Obama's got anything like a world war or holocaust in store for the world because he obviously doesn't, but it's still kind of frightening to see.

[lazyfatbum]

I thought the same thing, I was talking to people that it resembled a Hitler speech and I got bad looks by everybody. :D But the fact of the matter is that it's just pride and it's a welcome change of pace.

[A Black Falcon]

I think these maps are really interesting... says a lot about the state of today's Republican party.

The red counties are counties that voted for McCain in 2008 by larger margins than they voted for Bush in 2004.

The blue counties are counties that voted for Obama in 2008 by larger margins than they voted for Kerry in 2004.

Essentially, Republicans only made gains in a strip from Appalacia to Oklahoma, parts of the Gulf Coast, and Arizona thanks to McCain being from that state. It's really quite striking.

[A Black Falcon]

To wit, my signature is not suggestive of Obama's personality, goals, or political leaning (obviously). It's making fun of his campaign. There are very obvious differences between the two certainly, but there are also some funny similarities; the vague promises of change without revealing much of the plan is one. The similarity that most piqued me was not about Obama at all, but his supporters; the kind who swoon at his every word, who wear t-shirts with his face and carry his portrait in rallies and shout his slogans. Obama has created a personality cult that almost seems to worship him, just as Hitler did. And I would never suggest that Obama's got anything like a world war or holocaust in store for the world because he obviously doesn't, but it's still kind of frightening to see.

You'll like this then... (it is funny, for sure... :))

http://www.theonion.com/content/video/ob..._obsessive

[A Black Falcon]

Silvio Berlusconi is an idiot... not that that should be news for people who know much about the guy...

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europe/11/...index.html

BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) -- Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has dismissed criticism of his description of U.S. president-elect Barack Obama as "tanned" and walked out of a news conference after blasting a journalist who pressed him on the issue.
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi at a news conference in Brussels on Friday.

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi at a news conference in Brussels on Friday.

Berlusconi appeared annoyed after a Friday summit of European Union leaders when reporters questioned him about the possible political fallout of the comments he made Thursday in Russia.

The outspoken Italian leader appeared to be joking when he said Obama "has everything needed in order to reach deals with him: he's young, handsome and even tanned."

Berlusconi later said the remark was meant to be "cute" and called those who disagreed "imbeciles, of which there are too many."

He once compared a German lawmaker to a Nazi camp guard and asserted after the September 11 terror attacks that Western civilization was superior to Islam.

More recently, he said the new Spanish government had too many women.
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Italy's only black lawmaker, Jean-Leonard Touadi, called Thursday's comment embarrassing.

"In the United States, a joke like that wouldn't just be politically incorrect, but a great offense to this amazing example of integration, which it seems the Italian premier should take as an example," Touadi said.

You know how Obama often said "this could only have happened in America"? It's things like this that are why, I think... though of course, even last year a lot of people would have said that there's no way America would elect a black president so soon, so you never know... but it is a real accomplishment.