How did you vote today?

Yes. In Florida, there was a State Constitutional amendment change to eliminate a 1926, never used or enforced provision. They need to "clean up" the Constitution. My question, why is now, after 82 years, important?

I pressed the touch-screen where indicated for the candidate of my choice, then "submit ballot".

I early-voted a couple of weeks ago. Interestingly, there were no referendums at all this year on my ballot.

I didn't vote. If I was *forced* to pick a candidate, then it would be for Obama. I thought McCain generally did a good job. Joe the Plumber seemed like a paid hack. A dumb one at that. Palin seemed likeable overall, but dumb. Biden seemed like he lost a few steps.

I guess mainly I felt a little cheated that President Bush wasn't running again. I think Bin Laden probably feels like President Bush is his best buddy in the world. And, given the government's new math President Bush ought to have demanded $50 trillion dollars for the government's phoney War on Terror. Works out to something like less than $175 per person! Hmmm . . . perhaps $50 trillion dollars is too meager. Do I hear a mere $500 trillion? :)

There were 12 propositions and a few transportation-related "measures" on the California ballot. Most of it was CRAP. I voted "no" on everything. Most of these props were just a big waste of time & money.

Rationally.

I live in a vote-by-mail state. I voted two weeks ago.

I voted, but where I live, they are knee-jerk Republicans so it probably didn't matter that much.

I voted early. No ballot propositions, but the DA position was wide open when the former DA was forced to leave office. He was having an affair with his secretary and he got caught sending very regrettable racist emails. Likewise, the Sheriff was also corrupt and he was voted out.

I did vote libertarian (most strip club friendly political party)

Dudester,

Wouldn't it great if some parties that get nearly 0% of the vote could become mainstream?

By paper ballot- had the quickest line over electronic ballot.
Clubber- If that happens, mainstream won't matter. Can you imagine winning candidate being the one with 30% of ELECTORAL VOTES, and the Habla Espanol Party and Uno California Party coming in 2nd & 3rd??

minnow,

Yes, I can imagine that, if The Constitutional Party were to win, even win 15%. Will I see it in my lifetime, NEVER! Luckily, I won't be around to see most of the damage obama and his ilk do to this country. For my children, I feel sorry. They voted with intelligence, but most did not.

Yep, The Constitutional Party seems like a winner in regards to this bullshit government's War on Terror and financing foreign governments [gee, I wonder which foreign government(s) the U.S. is funding and arming??? Would you know clubber? LOL!]. There is no such thing as a small government with endless government wars like the War on Terror. Excerpted from The Consitution Party website:

"America is engaged in an undeclared war with an ill-defined enemy (terrorism), a war which threatens to be never ending, and which is being used to vastly expand government power, particularly that of the executive branch, at the expense of the individual liberties of the American people.

The "war on terrorism" is serving as an excuse for the government to spend beyond its income, expand the Federal bureaucracy, and socialize the nation through taxpayer bailouts of the airlines, subsidies to the giant insurance corporations, and other Federal programs.

We deplore and vigorously oppose legislation and executive action that deprive the people of their rights secured under the Fourth and Fifth Amendments under the guise of "combating terrorism" or "protecting national security." Examples of such legislation are the National Security Act, the USA PATRIOT Act, and the proposed Domestic Securities Enhancement Act (colloquially known as "Patriot II"), and the Military Commissions Act.

The National Security Act is used by the federal government as a shroud to prevent the American people and our elected officials from knowing how much and where our tax dollars are spent from covert operations around the world. The National Security Act prevents the release of Executive Orders and Presidential Decision Directives, e.g., PDD 25, to the American people and our elected representatives. Not only are many of these used to thwart justice in the name of national security, but some of the operations under this act may threaten our very national sovereignty.

The USA PATRIOT Act permits arrests without warrants and secret detention without counsel, wiretaps without court supervision, searches and seizures without notification to the individual whose property is invaded, and a host of other violations of the legal safeguards our nation has historically developed according to principles descending from the Fourth and Fifth Amendments.

Since we will no longer have a free nation while the federal government (or the governments of the several states, as the federal government may authorize) can violate our historic rights under such laws, we call for the rejection of all such laws and the ceasing of any such further proposals including the aforementioned Domestic Securities Enhancement Act.

The Constitution Party is unalterably opposed to the criminal acts of terrorists, and their organizations, as well as the governments which condone them. Individuals responsible for acts of terrorism must be punished for their crimes, including the infliction of capital punishment where appropriate. In responding to terrorism, however, these United States must avoid acts of retaliation abroad which destroy innocent human lives, creating enmity toward these United States and its people; and

In accord with the views of our Founding Fathers, we must disengage this nation from the international entanglements which generate foreign hatred of these United States, and are used as the excuse for terrorist attacks on America and its people. The 'war on terrorism" is not a proper excuse for perpetual U.S. occupation of foreign lands, military assaults on countries which have not injured us, or perpetual commitment of taxpayer dollars to finance foreign governments." http://www.constitutionparty.com/party_p…

Anyway, if the government is to be one of endless wars, then small isn't even desirable; the bigger the better especially in support of the poor and middle class! :)

"Current Issues
The War in Iraq
Like most Americans, Libertarians are appalled by the actions of the terrorists on 9/11. However, it is important that we ask ourselves whether Osama bin Laden or the Iraqi people are our enemy.

There has been a great deal of controversy about so-called facts presented by the White House about the initial cause for military action in Iraq; it is time we look at some real facts. We are indeed nation building. We are playing policeman in a civil war. We have attacked and killed thousands of people in Iraq because of the actions of a terrorist from Saudi Arabia. We have chased non-existent weapons of mass destruction instead of the terrorists who killed nearly three thousand Americans on 9/11. We are creating more terrorists on a daily basis because of our intervention in Iraq. In short, we went after the wrong bad guys and are now stuck in the middle of someone else’s civil war.

While American public opinion has radically changed about our continued occupation in Iraq, the President wants to send a "surge" of troops to Iraq, while adding nearly 100,000 new members of our armed forces to the ranks. The Democrats don’t seem poised to do anything which will substantially change our presence in Iraq. It is time for U.S. forces to withdraw from Iraq as quickly as possible in a manner consistent with the safety of our troops." http://www.lp.org/issues/current-issues



"Dudester,

Wouldn't it great if some parties that get nearly 0% of the vote could become mainstream?"

You mean like The Constitutional Party and or the Libertarian Party? As long as they're in favor of terminating the government's War on Terror lock stock and barrel any party including the communist party or the old small government Republican party becoming mainstream would be good news! :)

I didn't vote. First time in many years. I had a cold and worked my normal 12 hour shift from 6 AM to 6 PM. It was 645PM when I drove past my polling place. If I thought that my vote would have had any impact, I would have stuck it out but by my emails and public polls, I knew that McCain would carry all of GA. And he did. What pisses me off are people that bitch about the government but never vote. Straw poll of the strippers at my favorite club in SC told me that he would carry that state also and he did.

Hi shadowcat,

What pisses me off are people think voting is a positive civic activity! My lady friend has a view similar to yours and almost by reflex, I verbally snapped her head off. She was surprised anyone could view voting as negative.

Well, I do view voting as negative. And, not just when uninformed people are encouraged to vote. I've never understood how that is supposed to improve democracy when the person votes and yet doesn't know the issues or even if they know the issues vote "bad." What is voting "bad"? Well, voting for President Obama could be seen as bad if he is really going to destroy the country and destroying the country is negative.

Although I've gone thru a litany of reasons explaining why I stopped voting and don't believe in voting, probably the biggest reason is that almost always I'm given a choice between the lesser of 2 evils. McCain has some good points, but he wishes to go full steam ahead with the government's War on Terror. Obama wants bigger government and that is normally something that I detest, but even if I figured America is now at the point (I am at that point now, btw) where bigger government is the solution, he will just redirect the government's War on Terror (assuming he is telling the truth). I guess you could argue well vote for a third party candidate----that wouldn't be so bad if I didn't believe voting under the current rules is bad activity.


Besides when a person really doesn't care whether tweedle dee or tweedle dumb is elected, then why not let someone cares, someone like shadowcat, make the decision?

I didn't give a flying fuck if Clinton or Bush was elected. At the time, I did follow the campain and the issues and etc. Bottom line I found Bush to be a lying piece of shit---remember read my lips? Remember the arrogance when it was stated who cares if conservatives are upset his tax fraud, because who are they going to vote for?


Again, I detest this country shadowcat----mainly because I don't have any important rights like freedom of speech or a jury trial of my peers or the right to bear arms or etc. (Yes, you may disagree with me on every point, but that isn't the point.) The point is where I do NOT care about candidate A or candidate B, then why shouldn't I allow voters who do care, shadowcat for example, make the determination?

Can you answer that one question?

Really, if McCain had won then it would be ok hopefully he'll be as incompetent as Bush. If obama won, then it would be ok well hopefully he socializes the country because that is better than a "free market" in a country dedicated to endless war. Whoever won didn't make any real difference to me. I did want to see Republicans at the lower lever get slaughtered. I don't even think there are Republicans in my district, but they don't have a chance in hell anyway.

Oops, how could I forget. Rights like freedom of speech, trial by jury, the right to bear arms, etc. according to judge Bork take away as much freedom as they grant in a democratic society. Thus, in his view my voting is the only important freedom because that allows my democratically elected "representative" to make the decisions.

And, Bork is Supreme Court material? He is an intellectual? By reading different opinions from justices of the Supreme Court, he wouldn't have been much if any downgrade. And, this type of freedom has any value? It may to you and that is wonderful. To me that freedom is as meaningful as the supposed right to bear arms; nonexistent.

Way to got Dudester. I also voted Libertarian. I suppose it was somewhat a "wasted" vote, but so be it. I refused to vote for McCain, who seems, to me anyway, to want continue the same course in Iraq as Bush - and that is not acceptable. But I couldn't vote for Obama either.....I know he is an intelligent guy...charismatic, articulate, likeable, and all that, but just is way too liberal. And I gotta question his judgement when he has friends like Bill Ayers and Rev. Wright. But I will give him a chance...maybe things will be OK. Certainly can't be any worse than it is now.

I took me about 30 seconds to vote. I voted Libertarian for President and for the candidate for the House of Rep. and I voted for our incumbent Republican governor. I left everything else blank. Most of the local candidates were unapposed and there were several questions regarding "should we retain so and so for judge". How the hell should I know. Unless the judge had been involved in some scandal, the average person does not have the knowledge to answer that in most cases.

straight Republican, of course---I have never voted Democratic in my life and never will!!!!!!!!!!!!!

jablake: If you detest this country so fucking much, why don't you just leave?

By walking down to the church.

I woke up early in the morning to vote, and I hate mornings. I feel that if I vote later in the day, it will somehow "count" less. Stupid, I know.

"jablake: If you detest this country so fucking much, why don't you just leave?"

I've answer that question a few times. I note that you didn't answer the question I asked you.

I did make the painful decision to leave friends and family and relocate to Haiti. Yes, I wouldn't normally associate Haiti with a place to move to and yet over the years I've heard from both whites and blacks that Haiti was their choice and that it is an especially good choice for whites. One gentleman after living in the U.S. for 5 years was actually leaving a wife he loved to move back to Haiti. He detested almost everything about the U.S. except the dollar. :) His wife unfortunately for him loved the U.S. and had refused to leave with him. He claimed she was all about the shopping malls.

Anyway, I'm sure you've heard about the real estate mess here in Florida and you may have read on this board that my health continues to deteriorate.

It is sort of surprising the number of Americans that I've met here in Miami who detest the U.S. even more than I do. Of course, the obvious question that I always ask after telling them that I agree with them is why are they still here!? Sometimes they've already left and have briefly returned to visit loved ones. Sometimes they're financially trapped. One non-American who had fought against Castro says that he would love to return to homeland even if he was required to apologize publicly to Castro and the Cuban people. Anyway, he takes small pleasure in that he costs the taxpayers money; yep taxpayers need to be raped. As I've said in the past, I meet people from all over the world that are visiting or live in Miami and some love America, some hate America, and some don't care. One man who didn't care told me government the world over is crap so he didn't care about the U.S. one way or the other.

I remember this Argentinian dancer at The Trap. She told me Americans and America are the world's best. I couldn't believe it, but she started telling me about different countries she'd visited and she claimed she found Americans to be much nicer. I said in Miami??? She said yes even in Miami. I asked about the government and she said governments in other countries are even worse! Worse??? OK, I can believe other governments are worse. :) BTW, I met another Argentinian woman about the same age who wasn't a stripper who liked her country much better.

Shadowcat,

You have this "voting mania" or belief in voting and yet when I asked you a rather straight forward question you chose again not to answer it.

I've met other people with your same view on voting; a view I find revolting. In old age I've mellowed a lot, however, when my lady friend blurted with smugness that if you don't vote you can't complain, I wasn't so calm, cool, or collected. She is intelligent and educated and this is a view that, imo, doesn't make a cents worth of sense. She didn't seem to have an answer for me other than it is a civic duty to vote. Coming from her that is a piss poor answer. Normally, she is very capable of supporting her beliefs.

Even as a youngster, the mantra was vote even if you don't care or don't know. The important thing is voting. I assumed the reason the vote was important even if you didn't care or didn't know is because it shows support for the system. BTW, dictatorship may provide much more freedom than a democracy, imo: Bork's love of having democratically elected representatives decide all issues is, imo, a vile form of government that I wouldn't support one iota by voting or otherwise.