Comments on: Resistance is NOT Futile. Please Register and Vote.

By: David Forbes

David Forbes — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 15:29:39 +0000

Done! Over here in Asheville, 47 percent of all registered voters in the county have already done so early. Added to today's voters, that means that turnout could easily top 65 percent. In NC as a whole, the early voting numbers are already 70 percent of the entire total vote for 2004. It's going to be a record-breaking day.

By: Oddly

Oddly — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 08:49:11 +0000

‘Technically, you don’t have to be able-bodied, even.’

Word.

Hell, you don’t even have to haul your ass to the polls any more, so there is no excuse *including laziness* for any legally able person in this country not to vote. *Is that a double negative?*

http://www.canivote.org/ <- Info/Registration for Absentee Voting

The first time, I knew I was going to be out of the country for Election Day. Since then, I’ve just been lazy, but thanks to Absentee Voting, I can still let my voice be heard!(**)

I got my ballot in the mail earlier this week, filled it out, slapped a stamp on it and plopped it into the post box today. No excuses, people!
I’ve got good, intelligent friends who live in this country whose voices can’t be heard simply because they weren’t born here. Many of them are working hard to become citizens so that they can have this choice. On the other hand, I know many others *friends, also* who choose not to vote, then complain endlessly when things go bad.

Probably preaching to the choir, but hopefully, not.

(**)My voice: though some what loud and shrill, not responsible for the avalanche of chaos insued over these last 8-ish years.

By: Catherine Traub

Catherine Traub — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 18:00:39 +0000

THankyou!! I can’t explain to you how many of my friends do not want to vote this year.

This is great.

By: Mer

Mer — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 02:21:07 +0000

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/us_elections/article4926283.ece

By: Nadya

Nadya — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 10:17:43 +0000

Mer, to follow up on this, I think McCain heard Schaeffer loud and clear. From CNN today:

At a rally in Minnesota on Friday, a woman told McCain: “I don’t trust Obama. I have read about him and he’s an Arab.”

McCain shook his head and said, “No ma’am, no ma’am. He’s a decent family man…[a] citizen that I just happen to have disagreements with on fundamental issues. That’s what this campaign is all about.”

One man at the rally said he was “scared of an Obama presidency.” McCain later told the man he should not fear Obama.

“I want to be president of the United States, and I don’t want Obama to be,” he said. “But I have to tell you, I have to tell you, he is a decent person, and a person that you do not have to be scared as President of the United States.”

But then…

McCain’s response was met with boos from the crowd.

By: Nadya

Nadya — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 23:44:31 +0000

@ Mer: I know. I sat that creepy video of the Palin-McCain Mob from that’s been floating around, and it gives me the willies! That one girl is SCARY!

There is no doubt that Obama is going to win, but then what? He needs to have TOP security and never address people in open spaces. I worry about him and his family.

By: Mer

Mer — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 23:25:01 +0000

Ugh…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVFWahLTdUo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jw3o3y77MaA

What’s happening right now, in the final weeks before the election, is beginning to outright terrify me. As a friend of mine put it: “the environment is beginning to feel like the 1960s in the south. Or worse, Germany in the 1930s. I am no longer watching this campaign with anxious anticipation, I am watching it with fear and dread.”

A piece in the Baltimore Sun by Frank Schaeffer:

October 10, 2008

John McCain: If your campaign does not stop equating Sen. Barack Obama with terrorism, questioning his patriotism and portraying Mr. Obama as “not one of us,” I accuse you of deliberately feeding the most unhinged elements of our society the red meat of hate, and therefore of potentially instigating violence.

At a Sarah Palin rally, someone called out, “Kill him!” At one of your rallies, someone called out, “Terrorist!” Neither was answered or denounced by you or your running mate, as the crowd laughed and cheered. At your campaign event Wednesday in Bethlehem, Pa., the crowd was seething with hatred for the Democratic nominee – an attitude encouraged in speeches there by you, your running mate, your wife and the local Republican chairman.

Shame!

John McCain: In 2000, as a lifelong Republican, I worked to get you elected instead of George W. Bush. In return, you wrote an endorsement of one of my books about military service. You seemed to be a man who put principle ahead of mere political gain.

You have changed. You have a choice: Go down in history as a decent senator and an honorable military man with many successes, or go down in history as the latest abettor of right-wing extremist hate.

John McCain, you are no fool, and you understand the depths of hatred that surround the issue of race in this country. You also know that, post-9/11, to call someone a friend of a terrorist is a very serious matter. You also know we are a bitterly divided country on many other issues. You know that, sadly, in America, violence is always just a moment away. You know that there are plenty of crazy people out there.

Stop! Think! Your rallies are beginning to look, sound, feel and smell like lynch mobs.

John McCain, you’re walking a perilous line. If you do not stand up for all that is good in America and declare that Senator Obama is a patriot, fit for office, and denounce your hate-filled supporters when they scream out “Terrorist” or “Kill him,” history will hold you responsible for all that follows.

John McCain and Sarah Palin, you are playing with fire, and you know it. You are unleashing the monster of American hatred and prejudice, to the peril of all of us. You are doing this in wartime. You are doing this as our economy collapses. You are doing this in a country with a history of assassinations.

Change the atmosphere of your campaign. Talk about the issues at hand. Make your case. But stop stirring up the lunatic fringe of haters, or risk suffering the judgment of history and the loathing of the American people – forever.

We will hold you responsible.

By: lizzelizzel

lizzelizzel — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 12:35:45 +0000

Ugh, those videos. It scares me when you can see stupidity AND hatred in someone’s eyes.

By: January

January — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 17:14:18 +0000

Thank you, Pamela, for bringing up our elections- it is incredibly easy to be distracted by US politics- two girls I sit near at work are constantly chatting about the US elections, but had no idea that our own are happening next week. *shudder*

By: Polyvalence

Polyvalence — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 13:38:05 +0000

I suddenly ask myself what is the % of the right that hesitate to vote versus the left %. I might be wrong but I doubt the take it so lightly …

We have the luck of being in country where you CAN vote, people died, and in some place still do to get that power, to be able to voice your opinins, yes it is imperfect but if we wait for perfection we’d better get back to our bed and don’t get out of it, ever.

I totaly agree with the anarchist, voting is only playing the game, BUT I also realise that if it is only a bunch of us doing so there is no point to it. Like DJ VELVETEEN said the real change is gonna come from the choice we make has individual, and the first should be to vote.