<img src="{att_thumb}01-flashtub.png" href="{att_link}01-flashtub.png" align="left" class="frame" alt="Cobra Commander" title="Cobra Commander (courtesy of Something Awful.com --- see link below)">We are approaching launch for the three-month quadrennial extravaganza known as the US elections. If you're a concerned citizen, you're letting yourself get whipsawed by <a href="http://www.electoral-vote.com/">Electoral Vote</a> as it updates itself daily with more and more data from the "meaningless" polls, grinding your psyche as your favorite teeters on the brink of ruin, only to come storming back and take a commanding 50-point lead. It's like pro wrestling, in a way. Since both parties have already sworn to challenge the results if they lose, there's a good chance that another election like that in 2000 will spur some secessions and perhaps even a military lockdown on US soil. Should be fun to watch from over here. Ahem. Apparently, there's an army of 10,000 lawyers that lurks inside Florida's borders, amassed and waiting to prolong the nation's agony for months and months. <h>People are voting</h> Despite the best efforts of the two dominant parties (Democrats supressing Nader, Republicans suppressing everybody), early voting is taking off. Well, taking off is a bit of a euphemism for standing <iq>outside for an hour, in the blazing sun, then inside for another four hours as the line snaked around the library</iq>. But, it seems people are turning the other cheek to all the bastards that are trying to keep them from voting and just doing their worst. They're sticking it out to cast their ballot. Most of these people are <i>not</i> voting for Bush. <a href="http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/week_2004_10_31.php#003880" source="Talking Points Memo">A letter from Florida</a> writes that <iq>there were tons of first time voters</iq> and they were just <i>determined</i> to get their votes in. The poster of the letter omitted a bunch of detail about the roadblocks thrown up for the voters, but <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2004/10/31/192155/73" source="Daily Kos">Voter fraud and disenfranchisement</a> provides the gory details: <ul> <iq>calls ... made to ... democrats telling them that they were not registered to vote.</iq> Democratic call-centers with their <iq>phone relay point into the building ... purposely severed.</iq> Misleading people by telling them they can <iq>vote at the polling location of their choice.</iq> The ever popular exhortation to vote on <iq>November 4th, 2004</iq> </ul> The wheels of justice do turn, albeit slowly, and those perpetrating voter fraud are brought to heel: <bq>[some Republicans] in Ohio ... tried to challenge 35,000 new voters... [a]fter hundreds of hearings found zero illegal registrations, the entire lot of challenges was thrown out and the Republican masterminds now face criminal charges.</bq> <h>Young voters aren't counted in polls</h> <a href="http://www.williamgibsonbooks.com/blog/2004_11_01_archive.asp">William Gibson's Blog</a> (November 1st) offers up some interesting points about the upcoming election. Young people don't <i>have</i> telephones. They have mobiles. Polls conducted with a phone book are skewed. <bq>Zogby has just released a path-breaking presidential poll conducted exclusively on mobile phones. And the winner is John Kerry by a landslide margin of 55 to 40 percent. Jimmy Breslin and others have been complaining that traditional telephone polls just aren't capturing the new voter realities, because so many young people are only reachable by their Nokias.</bq> So maybe the Bush dynasty does indeed some to an end on Tuesday. But only a blowout of major proportions could stem the tide of bile ready to spill forth should Bush not ascend, once again, to the throne. He continues with quotes from a Salon article, with a letter supposedly sent by a black man, representing black America. <bq>Yes, Democrats take us for granted and regardless of which party, we are at the bottom of the totem poll, but we realize that Democrats talk to us, try with us, are down with us, and give us a seat at the table. We are gamed to what the GOP do, or rather don't do for us.</bq> As a <iq>young 'un</iq>, he further predicts that <iq>Kerry will take about 70 percent of the young vote.</iq> This election has gotten so many people <iq>riled up</iq>, that the participation numbers should be through the roof. <bq>On average 30 percent of African-Americans vote. Expect a minimum of 50 percent this time, maybe close to double. That is anywhere between 7 to 9 million more blacks voting. Young'ns will have a similar margin. Again, we at most vote at a 40 percent rate. Young'ns will easily double their numbers, going from 18 million to about 36 million.</bq> I'm including these unsubstantiated quotes because, well, I hope it happens. India had elections earlier this year; all predictions were completely and entirely off. The poor people of India swarmed to the voting booths and blew the incumbent party right out of office in a roar of disapproval. Here's hoping America is as clever as India. <span class="notes">Of course, India has the advantage of being less "wired" and less likely to be brainwashed by a lockstep media army.</span> <h>Osama's endorsement</h> <a href="http://www.williamgibsonbooks.com/blog/2004_10_01_archive.asp">William Gibson's Blog</a> (October 29-30th) also makes some interesting points about the Osama video. Gibson thinks Osama wants Bush because he's a known quantity: <bq>why allow the other team to introduce an unknown when your familiar power-symbiote has always proven so wonderously adept at doing everything you'd most want him to do? ... OBL and Bush are symbiotic, feeding one another power and (at least as crucially) meaning.</bq> The response to the video (from my small view into CNN here) seems to be people reacting like a deer in headlights, not wanting to change anything, hoping the problem will solve itself. As Gibson fears, <iq>some crucial percentage of our dimmer, more reactive voters will flash back to 9-11 and the Bush of the bullhorn, the Bush buffeted with the heartbroken grit of Ground Zero, and vote for that</iq>. Like the deer, though, that isn't going to solve anything. Apparently, this <a href="http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/79C6AF22-98FB-4A1C-B21F-2BC36E87F61F.htm" source="Al-Jazeera">Osama Video Translation</a> is the one to use. Reuter's is not as accurate. <h>Video documentation</h> There have been a lot of videos zooming around "the Internets", showing key moments in the last few years, like statements that are later claimed never to have occurred. <a href="http://www.internetvetsfortruth.org/">Internet Vets for Truth</a> is a truly awesome site, with seemingly hundreds of video clips, ranging from key phrases and speeches given by Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice et. al. to Jon Stewart's crushing interviews on various crap news networks. Everything's available in BitTorrent or Quicktime and it's all housed one of the most ambitious page layouts I've ever seen. Hell, you can even watch the entire Michael Moore 9/11 documentary. I don't need to download it --- Swiss TV showed it tonight as a prelude to the election coverage tomorrow. I heard Sinclair Broadcasting is doing the same in the States. <h>Third Party Candidates</h> No, this isn't about Nader. It's a glimpse into a future where third-party candidates are not only supported, but encouraged. Sure, Nader's got all of the issues nailed and doesn't have any crazy skeletons in his closet. He's pinpointed having sold the country to all-controlling corporations as the reason for our woes and our social backwardness. But ... he lacks pizzazz. <a href="http://www.somethingawful.com/articles.php?a=2463" source="Something Awful">Cobra Commander 04</a> introduces you to the candidate of the future ... a candidate that a kinder, gentler America would welcome with open arms. Happy election day, everybody. Hang on tight.