I know, that sounds self-evident.  However, for too many people, all that matters is that they voted for the guy who eventually won, rather than the guy they would have preferred to win.  Or, all their friends, co-workers, and other acquaintances say they’ll be voting for one guy, so they vote the same way to fit in.  Either way, I want to discourage such behavior in the strongest possible terms.

If you don’t vote for the candidate you prefer, there is no way he can possibly win.  If all your friends say they’re voting one way, go ahead and vote the other way if you want to.  Maybe your friends are atypical, and the majority agrees with you.  Or maybe they’re lying because they think that’s what you want to hear.  Or maybe it really is a foregone conclusion that your chosen candidate cannot win your state, in which case your vote for the preordained loser is purely a personal stand against your own hypocrisy and for your own principles.  And maybe you’ll wind up being pleasantly surprised.

You don’t get anything for picking the winner.  It’s not a horse race.  Your taxes won’t be any lower.  You don’t get five minutes alone with the winner to suggest things.  You might get a warm fuzzy for “being on the winning side,” but that pales in comparison to the pain of four years of the nation being driven the wrong direction when you had a chance to prevent it and did nothing.

Remember, it’s a secret ballot.  Vote for the guy you want.  Claim you voted for whomever you feel like.  No one’s going to go back and check.

Also remember that the exercise of your right to vote is intended to be your voice in the Great Experiment of American representative democracy.  People gave their lives, and are still giving their lives, so that you, the average American citizen, could have a say in how the nation is governed.  That simple notion, which most people take for granted or ignore completely these days, is astonishing, ridiculous even.  Ultimately, everything the United States does is the responsibility of each of its citizens, because we vote to choose the people who make the decisions that affect the entire world, or because by not voting we allow others to choose those people for us.

So vote.  Exercise your power as an American.  Select the candidates whose policies and positions you think would be most beneficial to the United States, or your particular state, as applicable, and vote for each one for that reason.  Don’t follow the crowd.  Don’t worry what people will think.  Don’t give away that most precious of rights, self-determination.  You have the right to make up your own mind and do exactly what you want inside the voting booth.  Don’t screw it up.

Think.  Decide.  Vote.

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Chaplain Ken Higgins told students in a Sept. 18 e-mail, “If you’re scared about the prospects for this election, you’re not alone. The most important way to make a difference in the outcome is to activate yourself. It would be just fine with McCain if Obama supporters just think about helping, then sleep in and stay home between now and Election Day.”

Higgins added that an unnamed “sponsor” in the university’s History Department would offer a two-credit independent study for students willing to canvass or volunteer on behalf of the Democratic nominee.

That’s right, folks, campaign for Juggy Bear and we’ll toss in two FREE college credits.  Unless the school administration finds out and then, um, we’ve never heard of it, yeah.    

One honestly wonders if the school is so much worried about ethics violations as it is losing all that tuition money.  And I’d damned sure want to know the identity of said “sponsor.”  That individual has no business being in the History department if they’re incapable of learning from it.

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It’s so sad when one of our most venerated and learned scholars loses his fecal matter in such a publicly embarrasing fashion. Let us all bow our heads for a moment in respect and sorrow.

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[11:37] Friend: you asked me yesterday why people despise sarah palin

[11:37] Friend: i was thinking about that while i was sweating what’s left of my ass off

[11:37] Hazel: virulently despise

[11:38] Friend: willfully uninformed: that’s one of the reasons i can’t stand her, but more to the point, i can’t stand her because what that pick says about mccain

[11:41] Hazel: so what does palin say about mccain?

[11:41] Hazel: i don’t like the old fossil, he’s too goddamned old for the job…ANY job…and he’s actually more Dem than Rep

[11:41] Hazel: not that i’ve been a Rep for years

[11:41] Friend: he picked someone he didn’t want, hadn’t vetted, doesn’t know, and actually railed against

[11:42] Friend: to appease the far right portion of the party

[11:42] Hazel: because they all think he’s a rino

[11:42] Friend: so, despite all his lip service to being a “mavrick”

[11:42] Friend: and against govt waste, hammering people for lack of experience, for not visiting iraq

[11:43] Friend: he picks someone just like that, has no clue about the economy

[11:43] Friend: his tax plan is bogus

[11:43] Friend: he won’t release his medical records, even though he’s an old fart with medical history

[11:43] Friend: and on and on

[11:43] Friend:: last time he said he’d rather lose the election than his honor

[11:44] Friend: this time, he’s sold his soul for a chance to win an election, engaging in the dumbest, sleaziest tactics ever

[11:44] Friend: i think he’s figuring this is his absolute last shot at the office

[11:44] Friend: and he’s doing whatever he has to to get there

[11:44] Hazel: so tell me what you don’t like about the messiah

[11:45] Friend: i’m not a huge fan of handouts, number one, never have been

[11:45] Friend: guess that doesn’t make me the best dem ever

[11:45] Friend: ha

[11:45] Hazel: you know you don’t have to be one  :)

[11:45] Friend: i don’t like his tax plan either, because the only right thing to do is the unpopular one: don’t give tax cuts to anybody

[11:46] Friend: i can’t very well be a republican

[11:46] Hazel: haha, they do let teh gays in you know

[11:46] Friend: and hate them, that’d be swell

[11:46] Hazel: gods, join the rest of us

[11:46] Hazel: they ALL suck

[11:46] Friend: except when it’s them having teh ghey in a men’s bathroom

[11:46] Hazel: we’re frickin pagans…i think they’d rather hang me than you

[11:47] Friend: lol

[11:47] Friend: i’m an atheist

[11:47] Friend: so we’d be swinging together

[11:47] Hazel: id still go first  :)

[11:47] Friend: yeah, heathen

[11:47] Hazel: there’s a specific fucking commandment for me

[11:47] Friend: lol

[11:47] Friend: besides, all those pervs think girl on girl is hawt

[11:47] Friend: guy on guy is gross

[11:47] Friend: haha

[11:47] Hazel: i just think the crazies are all over the place and id rather have someone willing to shoot them

[11:48] Friend: so they’d probably give me a pass 

[11:48] Hazel: haha, they might

[11:48] Hazel: and i got my own kids to support, goddammit, why i gotta support other people’s

[11:48] Friend: i was thinking about that, too, since some retard (R) mayor got caught on gay.com or something soliciting for meetups

[11:48] Friend: why are they so freaking uptight about sex

[11:49] Friend: clinton’s blowjob and whatnot is the end of the world

[11:49] Friend: but abuse of power and stripping of civil liberties is fine and dandy

[11:50] Hazel: it’s because we’re a puritan-based culture

[11:50] Hazel: EVERYONE is frickin uptight about sex

[11:50] Friend: they need to pull the sticks out of their asses

[11:50] Hazel: of course I don’t get having sex in a nasty public bathroom

[11:50] Hazel: or in the woods

[11:50] Hazel: damn, get a room

[11:50] Friend: at least, yeah

[11:51] Friend: oh, and one more thing that peeves me off about mccain

[11:51] Friend: palin is against abortion, any time, even for rape and incest

[11:51] Friend: mccain had other female choices to make a run

[11:51] Friend: none of them passed muster because each of them was pro-choice

[11:51] Hazel: it was totally a sop to the evangelicals

[11:51] Friend: well, the gov of hawaii is a jew, too, so there’s that

[11:51] Hazel: but SHE aint going to get shit changed all on her own

[11:52] Friend: no, she isn’t

[11:52] Hazel: i comfort myself with this thought

[11:52] Friend: it’s a pandering choice to women, to the righties, and so on

[11:52] Hazel: when i see what there is to choose from

[11:52] Friend: it’s insulting and demeaning at the same time

[11:52] Hazel: the only thing I really like about her is she is NOT an old fucking white man

[11:52] Friend: haha

[11:52] Hazel: of course i can’t say the same about obama because his socialist agenda makes me sick to my stomach

[11:53] Hazel: never did like being told what to do

[11:53] Friend: oh, but he’s a secret mooslim, ya know

[11:53] Hazel: whatEVAR

[11:53] Hazel: if he is, i’m sure secret service will pop him one as soon as the bastards start landing on the white house lawn

[11:53] Hazel: problem solved

[11:53] Friend: lol

[11:53] Friend: and someone has been calling up jewish voters in south florida, telling them he donated to the plo

[11:54] Hazel: now that’s just rude

[11:54] Hazel:: fuckin fanatics

[11:54] Friend: and illegal

[11:54] Friend: yep

[11:54] Friend: and people wonder why i just sit here insulated in my little world

[11:54] Friend: keeping contact to a minimum

[11:54] Hazel: if they had brains they wouldn’t wonder

[11:55] Friend: sort of a catch 22, that

[11:55] Friend: since brainless simps are the reason, but they won’t be able to recognize it

[11:55] Hazel: haha

So, I don’t know that the conversation makes me understand libs any better, but it gives me a better understanding into *her* choice, which is exactly the same as I feel like I have to make in every single election…the best from a pool of really crappy options.

Wouldn’t it be nice to have a political system that included people you voted FOR instead of AGAINST?

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Oh, so then Palin is going to crucify Obama?  I’m good with that.  

This guy isn’t even smart.

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It’s almost as if the virulence of their attacks is compounded by the fact that Palin is a woman.  As if her meteoric success, and absolute hard-nosedness, is an affront somehow to those of us with tits.  

*blink*

How is that again?  Is that not what we, as a species, have been looking for since the brassiere-burning days?  Break the glass ceiling, woo!  But not if you’re an evil conservative, boo!

You could just spread that irony on toast, couldn’t you?

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Biden, oh Biden…you are all that one could hope for.  The practice of “political correctness” should be folded into all corners and shoved up the arse of the guy what invented it, but since it’s here, and apparently not going away any time soon, I’m happy to call you out when you poop all over it.

During a campaign event in Columbia, Missouri, Biden did not mention his Republican counterpart by name but said, “I hear all this talk about how the Republicans are going to work in dealing with parents who have both the joy … and the difficulty of raising a child who has a developmental disability, who were born with a birth defect.”

Biden’s support of stem cell research is at odds with the position taken by the Republicans’ vice presidential nominee, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, whose 5-month-old son, Trig, has Down syndrome.

You did know that, Joe, didn’t you?  Your campaign handlers made sure you knew her youngest was one of those special needs kids, didn’t they?  If they did, you totally look like a tool.  And if they didn’t, you still totally look like a tool. 

Obama, oh Obama…you are also all that one could hope for.  And you gave us a two-fer!

“You can put lipstick on a pig,” he said as the crowd cheered. “It’s still a pig.”

“You can wrap an old fish in a piece of paper called change. It’s still gonna stink.”

*claps hands gleefully*  

This, ladies and germs, is where the true lack of experience shows.  At least in Obama’s case.  Biden’s only excuse is plain old stupidity.

UPDATE:  Ted tells me The Messiah is speaking now regarding the lipstick comment, and is blaming the hoorah on the media instead of apologizing for any misunderstanding.  Would this be the same media who routinely tongue-bathes you, B?  That very same media?  

Well played, Anointed One, well played.  *snerk*

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I find it seriously baffling that these Experience Floggers seem to sincerely believe that 143 days in the Senate constitutes more experience than the governor of a state that just happens to be spitting distance from one of the biggest threats to our way of life.  No, no the Canadians and their pernicious poutine, dammit, I’m talking about Tsar Putin and his tendresse for the Bad Old Days.  (Ha, “poutine” and “Putin,” you see what I did there?)   You think you can be ignorant of foreign policy or trade agreements in that position?  Unpossible.

It has to be the result of the same thing that blinds them to his Marxist values and yeah-I’m-saying-it-right-out-loud agenda.  Or maybe all those nine-dollar Harvard-y words are confusing them.  

“Mommy, what does ’socialist’ mean?”

“Oh honey it means we’ll be going to lots of parties!  Won’t that be fun?”

*eyeroll*

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Hatred is the most powerful emotion in politics. At present, American liberals are not fighting for an Obama presidency. I suspect that most have only the haziest idea of what it would mean for their country. The slogans that move their hearts and stir their souls are directed against their enemies: Bush, the neo-cons, the religious right.

And:

In an age when politics is choreographed, voters watch out for the moments when the public-relations facade breaks down and venom pours through the cracks. Their judgment is rarely favourable when it does. Barack Obama knows it. All last week, he was warning American liberals to stay away from the Palin family. He understands better than his supporters that it is not a politician’s enemies who lose elections, but his friends.

Now, if we can just keep The Messiah’s friends from figuring that out.

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And Matthews…he’s just loud, without the benefit of either wit or style. Darryl Hammond does a better Chris Matthews than does Chris Matthews.

Well, both of them are off the MSNBC news anchor rotation for live political events, which is good since both suffer from a particularly virulent strain of RDS (Republican Derangement Syndrome), and no one wants to see grown men faced with this cry like little girls:

It’s unseemly.

(Image “borrowed” from RL.)

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