Vote '08

The big day is finally here!  Get out and vote. Vote early and vote often :)

Comments

[Mark Randall Kilburn]

I don't vote, I won't vote, you can't make me vote. I am exercising my right. When our politicians swore an oath to uphold the constitution and military members swore to protect this country from all enemies both foreign and domestic. Brave men and women are getting limbs blown off and killed to protect us from having to deal with terroists within our borders. Our politicians are crooked, corrupt and inept. They send our soldiers to fight and then do not supply them with the neccesary equipment.

NO THANK YOU!! I will not participate in this organized psychosis we call voting.

The system is not broke it is fine, it is the greed and corruption and lust for power that ruins the core of this country.

We do not need change, we need honesty.

[Kyler MacDonald]

Dear Mr. Kilburn,

I agree with you on a few points: three to be exact. Firstly, you are exercising your right by choosing not to vote. Also, it's fair to say that brave men and women are being blown limb from limb; indeed, I pity them most for the way our politicians and suit wearing strategists are pawning off their lives and treating them like a rich kid treats the toys that he got on christmas. Finally, we certainly could go for some honesty.

Great.

We can also agree that I have every right to not participate in work, social life, family life, and most other aspects of life. Hell, I could set up an air mattress and lie down in the basement in the dark and stare at absolutely nothing for hours on end. Living as such, I'd still be completely within my rights, right?

But I don't do that, because that would be stupid. Indeed, if your reason to not vote is for the sake of not voting, why not also exercise your right to cover your walls in peanut butter and then stick the family dog to the deliciously sticky new wallpaper? You know...for the sake of exercising your right to do that?

Voting aside, it saddens me to think that you don't see the chinks in the system. Yes, we need honesty, but that's not all. Being honest about tapping every phone in the nation and listening in on private conversations does not make it okay. Sending innocent teenage boys of Arabic blood to prison camps such as Guantanamo Bay is still wildly immoral regardless of whether or not the president tells us he is doing it. And the idea of men like Dick Cheney, who dodged the draft in his time FIVE TIMES CONSECUTIVELY, piss away the lives of brave American citizens is repulsive to me, even though we are honest about our war.

Assigning crookedness to every politician is a bland and easy route to remain apathetic or flaunt what few rights our previous government, and I stand firm when I say previous, have left for you to juggle with. But politicians are just people, and people range anywhere from hideously evil to saintly. And although rare, occasionally a good person manages to slip into a position of power. Obama is one such man.

Failing to acknowledge a legitimate chance for a positive change is not simply cynicism in all situations. It's just illogical.

Good luck.

[Mark Randall Kilburn]

Kyler,

Very well written, but your assumptions about who I do support are way out of context. I have never supported Bush/Cheney. I despise people like Dick Cheney and Robert McNamara who were two of the American architects of the Vietnam conflict. I am not a left/right brain thinker anymore ( I was stuck there in my youth ). I do not see the world as digital. Black/White, On/Off etc. I have long since moved past using only my reptile brain.

People don't "slip" into power. They are put there by others or they take it away from others or they create it themselves. I have nothing against Barack Obama. I think having a professor of constitutional law could only be good for the country. Our rights stand on their own under our constitution, regardless of what administration is in power. I am tired of hearing .."eloquently tailored, empty suits".. make promises with no idea how to keep them. I am now the age of 50, I have seen this cycle of promises over and over again. My choice not to vote is not based in apathy or cynicism. It is my way of remaining free from the spiritual entanglements of the corruption and greed that are so entrenched in the world of politics. The negativity just ends up feeling like peanut butter stuck all over my soul. I do not do it just for the sake of doing it, that is too bi-polar (digital) for me. I will be happy to see a very successful Barack Obama deal with the eastern european missile crisis that is looming ahead. Hopefully, our "new" government will have what it takes to stand up to China in about 15 years when they decide to flex their muscle. I am all for change, although .."change is not a destination". To me it is a process and requires a plan. I have not heard a plan from either candidate in this election. I wonder how Mr. Obama will end this war so quickly without leaving a stinking,smoking void in the middle of Iraq that some other country rushes in to fill.
I moved from Las Vegas 2 years ago, I don't
need good luck.

[Mark Randall Kilburn]

Hey, everybody, where are all the liberals complaints about the electoral college now? is it still unfair? outdated? useless?
just think if we would have done away with it in 2004 our new Messiah would probably be counting votes for a week.

"HERE I COME TO SAVE THE DAY!"...Mickey Mouse.

[Kyler MacDonald]

Mark,

Thank you and likewise.

Never meant to imply that you do or don't support people like Dick Cheney. To make an assumption like that would entitle me to your and perhaps others' scorn.

And as far as the whole right/left, black/white, on/off style bi-polarity, I agree with you whole heartedly. It's bullshit. I cannot even yet begin to imagine how much evidence you have seen of the grayness of the world in 50 years, how many times you have seen the pendulum of change and chance swing back, forth, and everywhere in between. You call it a cycle of promises, and that is a very well worded way to put it; after all, didn't bush promise to put an end to the bipartisanship in the nation?

Me too, Mr. President.

The only comment that I have is on your statement regarding a voting. Just to clear the air, I don't much care one way or the other whether or not a person votes or chooses not to. Indeed, in my opinion, I don't give a hoot as to what most people do, as long as they think it out first - I could very well be wrong, but I don't see ignorance as bliss, but as a dangerous and terrifying weapon of extremism (not the political term, but the actual word that you'd find in the dictionary). As I'd hoped, your reasons to not vote are much more well founded than in the field of apathy.

I will say though, in my limited experience, that I have found avoiding all of the spiritual entanglements and corruption and greed in (much more than just) politics to be about as likely as dodging bullets while cemented to the ground in no man's land during d day. And yes, the negativity really does start to feel like having a peanut butter smeared soul.

But I'm not looking to have empty suits, even empty Obama pin suits, fulfill the destiny of the nation. After all, this is a republic - it is our job to change the world, not his. That is the problem of our time...one of them anyhow. Expecting the government to solve all of our problems is even unrealistic to somebody like myself who identifies with Socialism more than any political party.

Now let's get angry together at some political slime. In CT, the question on banning gay marriage included neither of those key words in it. It asked if "a convention should be held on amending the constitution."

Dear homosexuals of the world, I'm sorry to say that CT has probably just collectively, accidentally denied you your right to legally marry. Frankly, a convention implies a discussion.

No such luck, folks! Not even in Vegas.

[Kyler MacDonald]

By the way, Mark,

Liberals are currently too busy squealing in joy at the moment to make any comments about the electoral college, I assume. They will resume complaining about everything as soon as the initial high wears off.

Thanks KV for teaching me one of few universal principles, recognized by whites, blacks, hispanics, rich, poor, gay, straight, religious, atheistic, democrats, and republicans: sugar is sweet.

Let's move on from there.

[Mark Randall Kilburn]

I am baffled by "Obama-mania" This is worse than when the Beatles played Shea Stadium. This is bizzare.

What exactly is he supposed to do? and How is he proposing to do it? or is it just the fact that a ..."black man is in the white house"?? I have not heard one concrete, solid, real world method of acheiving his stated goals. Bill Clinton USED the gay community as an ATM machine in his elections by making promises he knew he could not keep. Maybe situations like that were why he was impeached. yet Bill Clinton promised ..." the most ethical administration ever"..

Yes, I am happy America has a new messiah.

WAKE UP PEOPLE!! Obama is a slimeball Trilaterist with globalist agenda. He was selected and not elected. No doubt he will be attending the next Bohemian Grove party and chanting to the big stone owl.

In this order: 1st amendment,
2nd amendment, 4th amendment. Next will be
mandatory financial contributions under the "fairness doctrine". Then the cashless society. CHURCH, OK, you can attend as long as we approve the sermon. GOD help you if you are caught with marijuana. Political correctness will rule. Mandatory "anger management" classes if you get in a fistfight. People will be banned from practicing martial arts. I can see more "hate crime" legislation being crafted as we speak. Isn't a crime a crime? does it matter what your motivation was when you commited it? This Obama-mania is going to implode on itself and leave people babbling on about "How did this happen"

people think this is far-out? Nobody dreamed the twin towers would fall either.

This is how it starts.

[Mark Randall Kilburn]

I heard Barack Obama at the press conference and I have a hunch he is going to do well. He IS smart.

I am happy to have forums such as this to express my opinions

[Mark Randall Kilburn]

Check out Obama's speech in Berlin on youtube....."there will be NO choice"

Referring to joining a globalist society. So, Barack Obama is going to decide my future whether I like it or not? I am going to be a global citizen whether I want to or not? I am glad Barack Obama said that because now we know where he is coming from.

[Kyler MacDonald]

I am happy that we have forums like these too.

You heard him at a press conference? You think he's smart?

Um.

He was indeed elected, by a landslide popular vote - we're not even talking electoral, here. Graduated at the top of his class. That, at least, is why I'm excited. We have an intelligent president! It's not even about what he will do or says he'll do for me. Politician's words are more like suggestions in my mind anyway, so I don't care if he tells us a concrete plan. I expect to see him actually act one out.

And that's it. I expect it of him, and I can legitimately do that because his brain functions. I haven't been able to think, "well, this is unfortunate. maybe the president will be able to get us out of trouble" in eight years. The man who will be representing us to the rest of the world will be respectable!

What the hell is going on?

Of course, it's crazy to assume that Obama is going to be the next Christ and just up and change the world. What politician doesn't say that they will? But it's equally crazy, then, to assume that Obama's administration or anyone's administration will demand anger management classes for people who get into fights, and some states are finally lightening up when it comes to marijuana.

I can't say that I know what any messiahs or antichrists or anybody will do, but I can finally hope that there is some slim margin of a chance that our government is going to stop being as fucked up as it has been.

And yes, you are a global citizen whether you like it or not. Because you are, after all, a citizen and you do indeed inhabit this globe. Sorry.

[Mark Randall Kilburn]

Our government has always been messed up.

It is an organization that devours cash and then turns around and hands it out as it sees fit. Government is an expense to the people. Government does not make or create anything and operates at a financial loss 100% of the time. Just because a brain-child like Barack Obama spews out a bunch of self important rhetoric about change does not mean he has the capability to make it happen. He is not now, nor will he ever be, a one man show.
That is one reason why we have the constitution. It is our primary default mechanism, that when properly upheld and abided by, we will always know where we stand.
I may not agree with you, but it is your civil right to speak your mind. I was married to a woman from another country for ten years,( Thailand )and have lived abroad ( Europe & Asia ) for short periods of time. There are MILLIONS of people clamoring to get into the USA because it is a GLOBAL model of freedom & opportunity.
Idoits and old boys like George Bush will come and go with little legacy. This recent election is nothing more than a speed bump in the road we call U.S. history.
It will not be a life changing, historical
moment unless all you see is color.
If Dr. Martin Luther King, or one of his contemporaries like J.C. Watts were ( past tense ) elected then we might ( have )realize(d) the "CHANGE" we so desperatley need(ed). Barack Obama is a "product" of 1960's counterculture radicalism. He is fighting a battle that was finished thirty years ago, and does not even realize it.
He is nothing but a brainwashed soldier by proxy.