Tuesday, November 02, 2004

Election Day 2004 Journal

By Mark Hand

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Posted 11/02 | Add a Comment

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  1. This election has become a joke.

    Posted by MDPB from  on  11/02  at  08:56 AM

  2. Woodrow Wilson ... eh? Good choice. I’ll have to agree. There are pretty good arguments to nominate Clinton for laying “neoliberal” globalised foundations for the “neoconservative” imperial moment. But I guess it’s not a very powerful statement that one: “Bush is the worst president we’ve had in four years!”

    Posted by Theo from  on  11/02  at  10:10 AM

  3. I like it--I hadn’t counted the flu kills in his total. I was going to say Harry Truman for being proud of the fact that he never lost a night’s sleep over ushering in the atomic era by incinerating two cities, but that would be too easy.

    The anti-Nader stuff is just disgusting. I had TWO workmates ask me this morning if it was literally true that their write-in votes for Nader would be counted as votes for Bush. New voters who have seen how fucked up the system in their adopted country is, they think it just might happen--friends have been shoving “a vote for Nader is a vote for Bush” at them for months, and they have admirably resisted.

    Posted by Dan Welch from Massachusetts  on  11/02  at  10:51 AM

  4. Mark,
    It would be useful if there is a submission guide regarding what to disclose when sending in an article.  When you get a chance, you may want to provide such a guide for contributors. 

    I should point out that “Abu Spinoza” is a pen name.

    Cheers,

    Posted by Abu Spinoza from  on  11/02  at  12:38 PM

  5. 2:55pm PST: Ate some soup and the letters spelled out: “K E R R Y I N A L A N D S L I D E”

    PS - San Diego might have a write in mayor

    Posted by Kap Fulton from San Diego, CA  on  11/02  at  05:57 PM

  6. Don’t make me puke alert: Commondreams.org has the headline blaring: THE DAY THAT WILL DECIDE THE FATE OF THE WORLD. Holy moly, what can I do to help to make sure one of two ruthless white bred war criminals can serve our national interest in order to continue global genocide/ecocide/omnicide?

    On the other hand, Gary Leupp at Counterpunch has written a scholarly, substantive historical piece reminding us that: “elections, (even the freest) do not necessarily have anything to do with freedom. The freely cast vote of an individual whose opinions themselves are shaped by a social structure may easily become a vote for more oppression.” In other words, manufactured consent.

    Thank you for voting for the candidate of their choice! (this ad paid for by the global monetocracy).

    Posted by Rhino Rick from  on  11/02  at  07:06 PM

  7. I think you are hinting that they will continue to do nothing. They might march.

    Posted by Theo from  on  11/02  at  07:13 PM

  8. 8:42 PST: With 24% of presincts reporting in San Diego County:

    David Cobb: 150
    Leonard Peltier: 135

    Posted by Kap Fulton from San Diego, CA  on  11/02  at  11:44 PM

  9. “An election is a pre-arranged auction of already stolen property.”

    Afghanistan and Iraq are the new stolen properties.

    Posted by MDPB from  on  11/03  at  09:08 AM

  10. I was never a fan of Clinton’s, but Mark Crispin Miller makes a very complelling case in his new book Cruel and Unusual: Bush/Cheney’s New World Order that Clinton might have accomplished much more had he not had the rabid Republicans constantly at his throat.  I know it sounds outlandish, but he makes a very plausible case comparing Clinton to Jeffersonian and Madisonian idealism.  Speaking of whom, I wonder if Mark would consider in the same group of criminals and scoundrels as the rest of the presidents.

    Posted by Tracy McLellan from  on  11/03  at  01:35 PM

  11. For those of you that still have faith in voting and the Green Party, check out these numbers from CA:

    David Cobb (Green) 31,683 0.3
    Leonard Peltier (Peace & Freedom)21,553 0.2

    Only 10,000 votes separating the so-called “third party” from a guy who campaigned from jail to bring attention to his case. Nice work Green Party! BTW, I voted for Peltier and San Diego looks to have a new write-in mayor, Donna Frye.

    Posted by Kap Fulton from San Diego, CA  on  11/03  at  05:58 PM

  12. Would I put Jefferson and Madison into the criminal/scoundrel presidential category? As fellow Virginians and given the fact I attended Mr. Jefferson’s university in Charlottesville, I probably should grant them clemency from such labels. But they were part of the privileged elite in late-18th century America who used their wealth, prestige and political authority to profit from the common people and then went on to engage in various forms of domestic repression during their terms as president in the early 1800s. Jefferson, as we all know, was a major-league slave owner (a friend of mine at U.Va. proposed that we start an activist group at the university called Jefferson’s Mulatto Children in honor of his offspring—this was more than 10 years before Sally Hemmings’ relationship with Jefferson was validated—but we never got the group off the ground), while Madison had a couple slaves but was notable for holding anti-slavery opinions. So the fact they owned slaves qualifies both as criminals and scoundrels.

    As governor of Virginia during the Revolutionary War, Jefferson signed a bill granting every white male who enlisted for the duration of the war 300 acres of land—certainly a nice gesture on this part. Also included in the incentive package for enlistees, though, was “a healthy sound Negro between 20 and 30 years of age...” Once again, the content of Jefferson’s character is revealed.

    Madison presided over the nation during the war of 1812 when the British burned down Washington. I’m sure many of his fellow elites thought his conduct as Commander in Chief was criminal for not preparing the nation for the war. But he had earlier helped to author the celebrated Federalist Papers and did lobby to have George Mason’s Bill of Rights added to the Constitution, so maybe Madison wasn’t such a scoundrel after all.

    Posted by Mark Hand from  on  11/03  at  08:17 PM
    13. Commenting is not available in this weblog entry. {/if}

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