] Welcome to the new, deluxe, leather-appointed limited
] edition of sorryeverybody.com. We've made a few changes
] around the shop.

Sorry Everybody

] To put it bluntly, Americans have chosen to return a man
] to the White House who has supervised the killing of more
] civilians than Slobodan Milosevic. We have signed onto a
] President who sanctions torture, who wantonly rejects any
] international treaty--Kyoto, the ABM and the
] International Criminal Court--that doesn%u2019t suit his
] messianic agenda. Who truly believes %u201CGod
] Almighty%u201D is on his side.
]
]
] America, in short, has become a criminal nation, and it
] must be stopped. (Yes, there are many other criminal
] nations, but aside from Israel how many even have the
] pretense of democracy? Russia? The Sudan? China? India is
] perhaps one; and given its sordid occupation of Kashmir
] it shouldn%u2019t surprise that a US-India-Israel axis of
] occupation and Islamophobia is one of the most prominent
] features of the world%u2019s geo-strategic post-9/11
] landscape.)

[ From Mark Levine, courtesy of Juan Cole. He's more emphatic than i would be. Bush isn't an international war criminal, though it's not an impossibility either. -k]

Informed Comment : 11/01/2004 - 11/30/2004

] The Moose pledges to be ever vigilant for hubristic
] Elephant droppings - today's winner - that debonair
] apologist for the comfortable Grover Norquist -
]
]
] ""Once the minority of House and Senate are comfortable
] in their minority status, they will have no problem
] socializing with the Republicans. Any farmer will tell
] you that certain animals run around and are unpleasant,
] but when they've been fixed, then they are happy and
] sedate. They are contented and cheerful. They don't go
] around peeing on the furniture and such."

[ What a lovely man, that Grover. -k]

Hubris Watch

] The election was a victory for George Bush and Rovianism,
] a victory for Grover Norquist. It was also a victory for
] Osama Bin Laden. I don't believe for a moment Bin Laden
] was trying to sway voters to Kerry with his taped
] address. This was the outcome he wanted, a gift from us
] to him: an unapologetic Christian Crusader in the White
] House whose reelection giving lie to the notion that Abu
] Ghraib was an aberration and that the deaths of thousands
] of Iraqi civilians weigh upon America's conscience. This
] morning America could not look more like a grinning
] aggressor to the Arab world, an aggressor with fresh
] marching orders.

James Wolcott: Anyone Know How to Make a Noose?

] I want to tell you how much Japanese business man is
] tired.
]
]
] I have experience to work in other countries. So I know
] how hard Japanese business man work comparing with
] American people, Chinese people and Thailand people.
]
]
] I never say that all foreign people is lazy. But I never
] hesitate to say that Jap is fucking hard worker.

[ I can't tell if this is a hoax, but i doubt it. Let me register my opposition to corporate enslavement now, ok? -k]

MasaManiA : Japanese salarymen passed out all over the place

] We as a nation are living beyond our means. The federal
] government is in debt. Most state and local governments
] are in debt (their form of deficit spending is to issue
] bonds). Most assuredly the American consumer is
] dangerously in debt. And, finally, the American dollar is
] losing its purchasing power steadily and daily. Remember,
] debt is the promise of future income to pay for today's
] consumption. Nobody is guaranteed a future, much less
] future income.

[ Yeah, we're all in rough shape. For myself, I've made it my goal to get out of debt, ideally in under a year. I'm about 24k in, which isn't so bad compared to many, but i feel like i'd be a lot happier if i didn't have this shit to think about. If only the government was as simple. -k]

A Storm Is Coming by Charley Reese

[ Do it. Outsource yourself. ;) -k]

Doonesbury@Slate - Daily Dose

] The Open Voting Consortium (OVC) is creating a
] trustworthy, cost effective, voter verifiable voting
] system using open source software components on industry
] standard computers.. A primary element of this Open
] Voting system is the use of software through which the
] voter creates a printed paper ballot containing his or
] her choices.

[ For those who haven't seen it. One suggestion for voting system reform. -k]

The Open Voting Consortium

] The map gives the superficial impression that the "red
] states" dominate the country, since they cover far more
] area than the blue ones. However, as pointed out by many
] others, this is misleading because it fails to take into
] account the fact that most of the red states have small
] populations, whereas most of the blue states have large
] ones. The blue may be small in area, but they are large
] in terms of numbers of people, which is what matters in
] an election.
]
]
] We can correct for this by making use of a cartogram, a
] map in which the sizes of states have been rescaled
] according to their population.

[ Neat. Particularly the last two maps... -k]

Election result maps

Things are often funny because they are true. I'm watching the Daily Show right now, and they just made a point that made me laugh out loud at first and then, well, it really pissed me off. It goes back to previous comments I've made about the split in this country being urban vs. rural.

As we know, voters for Bush overwhelming said Moral Values and Terrorism where their top concerns in the election. Voters for Kerry cited Iraq and the Economy. See the BBC article in my MemeStream.

Now, consider that by and large the "Red States" where people are really concerned about Terrorism are places where there is almost no practical risk of a Terrorist attack. Al'Q is not going to set off a dirty bomb in Nebraska. Al'Q is not going to deploy chemical weapons in Arkansas. Al'Q is not going to crash airplanes into buildings in Montana. There are several exceptions to this, but most of the places where the risk of Terrorism exists are "Blue States."

Manhatten, where terrorist attacks actually occured, and is still the highest risk area, voted Kerry by 82%!
Washington DC, where terrorist attacks actually occured, and is still the second highest risk area, voted Kerry by 90%!

Furthermore, even in "Red States" any terrorist attack is still likely to happen in an Urban area. The urban counties in Atlanta went Kerry by 60% and 73%.

The Daily show went on to note that the gay people that the Red states are so concerned about also tend to live in urban areas.

Their response, from New York, was to thank the Red States for "saving us from ourselves."

Daily Show on the Election