Amerikan Voting Anecdotes
7:30AM. Going to the retirement center where they've set up the polling booths. I was woken up at around 4:30AM by someone shouting in the streets about Eric Schneiderman, the dangerous insider-populist attorney general candidate I'm voting against. He sucks.
I was going to wear my Obamunism t-shirt to the polls, though don't want to start trouble and I have to go to work afterwards. Happy voting to the Amerikans! Let's see how it goes...
Please tell me someone gave you that t-shirt.
Happy voting! May 2010-2012 be as entertaining as 2008-2010.
I could have had class. I could have been a contender.
I could have been somebody. Instead of a bum
Which is what I am
I aim at the stars
But sometimes I hit London
I almost ran over 2 sign carriers on my way to work. They walked into the intersection, I'm thinking they didn't see, because they had their signs in front of their faces.
Good luck Californians!
Sigh. Dread, you contradict yourself. You clearly want to start trouble, or you wouldn't wear that shirt to the polls.Originally Posted by Dreadnaught
Why participate on election day? Early voting is where it's at.
Your search had no results.
Especially if you work at the same location as early votingMore than a million Floridians voted early this.
Actually bought it for my Halloween costume. I was dressed as "Your next Congressional delegation."Please tell me someone gave you that t-shirt.
It's fun to mess with people's sensibilities in what is a bit of a one-party town. The fact that it would have started trouble is the point.
The voting itself was fine. Our new electronic scanner voting requires that we fill out little bubbles with pens. It gave me flashbacks to taking the SATs. Sadly I didn't vote for any Democratic candidate. This is the first election where I haven't found even one Democratic candidate whom I felt generally deserved my support. Still unclear why someone was screaming in the street about our Democratic AG candidate before sunrise.
Heh, people in my district were complaining that their candidates weren't on the ballots. When they called election officials to complain, they were told that the candidates they were referring to weren't in their district. LOL
There have been two candidates in a neighboring district that spent a ton of money on ads; every time there was a commercial it was one of them slinging mud at the other.
Our congressman has been an incumbent so long that he didn't run any ads. There was someone opposing him (oftentimes he runs unopposed) but he'll probably be re-elected by a landslide.
It was funny that people were so focused on the ads they forgot what district they were voting in. I admit I almost had forgotten myself; I wasn't even going to vote I was so angry at those two idiots until I realized they weren't representing my district anyway.
I worked at my precinct again, we had quite good turnout and were busy all day. Early voting for the county was also quite good.
The pubbies will win, of course. I'm waiting to see if there will be a runoff.
We're stuck in a bloody snowglobe.
Early voting would have seen one of my picks for city council wasted, since the guy I would have chosen died after I'd have sent the absentee ballot in.
Last night as I lay in bed, looking up at the stars, I thought, “Where the hell is my ceiling?"
My roommate didn't realize that he couldn't vote at our campus today like I had last Friday. He realized this around 4 and had class at 6. Me, being the extremely gracious person I am, drove him through stormy gridlocked traffic to our precinct's polling location on the opposite side of the city even though we have significantly different political opinions.
That's unfortunate. I wonder how many votes he received.
Your search had no results.
*yawns* I voted, but it was a bit of a waste. No close races in Maryland, really (well, one US House race was fought out but that's about it, and it wasn't my district). I was really annoyed that the MD Republican party didn't do a better job of providing decent candidates for many of the state and county positions - some of the candidates were grossly unqualified. I would have been happy to vote for someone to overturn a few of the entrenched politicians here if they had a halfway decent background and set of policies, but sadly most of the competition was pretty awful.
One pretty scary thing - the House of Delegates here elects three reps from each district (generally out of a field of 6); in my district, the lower five candidates are pretty indistinguishable in number of votes - only a few hundred separating each of them (the top candidate walked away with over a thousand votes over #2, mostly because she's seen as an actually decent politician with a good record). Honestly, at this level it seems like people were largely guessing and didn't have a clue who to vote for.
Also - why did we call for a constitutional convention again? Confusing.
800 last time I managed to get through to the county election office's website. Which means he's beating the other candidate I voted for.
Last night as I lay in bed, looking up at the stars, I thought, “Where the hell is my ceiling?"
Eric Schneiderman won the election. In fact, all of the worst Democrats in NY state were elected. Cuomo isn't terrible, but these guys are. Stunning.
Every single apparatus of Michigan government went Republican yesterday. I can't wait to see what happens next. Hopefully I get a tax cut, but not likely. Michigan's unable to fund even maintenance of basic infrastructure at this point. 25% of our bridges are rated in poor condition and/or obsolete. Ugh. Sucks for the poorer communities around the state - the Republicans don't really care about those. Detroit especially isn't going to be getting much state help now, not that the state's even capable of helping much. Oh well, that's the way it goes.
The Rules
Copper- behave toward others to elicit treatment you would like (the manipulative rule)
Gold- treat others how you would like them to treat you (the self regard rule)
Platinum - treat others the way they would like to be treated (the PC rule)
Maybe many people considered the worst Democrats in NY better than the best Republicans.
. . .
Still claiming to be a liberal? I don't think you can even claim moderate, especially considering your message over the last couple of years.
Don't the moderates running in NYC generally run as Republicans to avoid the brutal Dem primary?
Last night as I lay in bed, looking up at the stars, I thought, “Where the hell is my ceiling?"
Moderates rarely win Democratic primaries in NYC.
Hope is the denial of reality
I know. Its pretty hard to be a moderate when both sides say that they're going to reform Albany, create jobs, cut taxes, reduce extraneous spending, get our schools back in order, etc. etc. blah blah...
. . .
A Bangor, ME. police officer in uniform was told by an election poll steward he could not vote until he surrendered his weapon to another cop outside...
After a call to the Sec. State...the steward resigned...
Anyhoo, for the first time in I believe forever...Maine has gone totally Red on the State level! Governor, State Senate, State Legislature.
So they have 2 years to make any improvements before it switches back.
Quite shocked I must say. We kept our Democratic Congressman/woman however.
Brevior saltare cum deformibus viris est vita
Thinking impersonally, what is the economic benefit of investing much in urban Detroit versus other areas of the state?
Hmmm..... what do you mean by economic benefit? Benefit to the economy of the state? What's the economy of the state for? To ensure the citizens can provide for themselves, right? Isn't that what an economy is all about, ultimately? So....? I don't understand what you mean, I guess.
The Rules
Copper- behave toward others to elicit treatment you would like (the manipulative rule)
Gold- treat others how you would like them to treat you (the self regard rule)
Platinum - treat others the way they would like to be treated (the PC rule)
I guess I'm asking if the state should explicitly abandon putting as much resources into Detroit and focus on other areas. If I'm to believe what I read, they're already actively demolishing large numbers of homes, right?
While I'm a big advocate of cities, I'm also a big advocate of fresh starts and creative destruction. Maybe the state of Michigan is being dragged down by its largest city.
I did vote, but only because we had a couple of local spots open that needed filled. Other than that, Wyoming went to the idiots...again! Maybe someday this state will wise up and realize that the Republicans are detrimental to our economy!
I don't have a problem with authority....I just don't like being told what to do!Remember, the toes you step on today may be attached to the ass you have to kiss tomorrow!RIP Fluffy! 01-07-09 I'm so sorry Fluffster! People who don't like cats were probably mice in an earlier life! My mind not only wanders, sometimes it leaves completely!The nice part about living in a small town: When you don't know what you're doing, someone else always does!
Atari bullshit refugee!!
To be honest, I'm not sure what the state is doing for Detroit. I know they took over Detroit's school system. I know Detroit's trying to consolidate its low-population density areas and tearing down burned out houses but I'm not sure if there's state money for that or not. The state of Michigan has a revenue sharing program with all the cities, I'm not sure if Detroit gets anything special though.
Hmmm. I really don't think so. It may be that Detroit's in the sorry state it is because it was walked away from to a certain extent. To be sure, the racial upheavals drove away a lot of people and a lot of potential suburban collaboration over the decades.... But SE Michigan is more than just Detroit, its still a major industrial area, and there's a lot of very prosperous communities here. To say, hey, no more revenue sharing with the City, lets just abandon it and move everyone out, is frankly a little abusrd. The effect would be catastrophic for the entire region.While I'm a big advocate of cities, I'm also a big advocate of fresh starts and creative destruction. Maybe the state of Michigan is being dragged down by its largest city.
The Rules
Copper- behave toward others to elicit treatment you would like (the manipulative rule)
Gold- treat others how you would like them to treat you (the self regard rule)
Platinum - treat others the way they would like to be treated (the PC rule)
As far as I've read, the major employers in the city itself are the city, the state, the federal government, the state university, the hospitals and the remaining auto jobs. And they are still running an operating deficit of about 30%.
I'm not saying that the area isn't economically important, but the looming bankruptcy and decades-long urban failure of detroit can be a drag on the state itself. Which itself has been hit pretty hard.
Well, you've not read much, eh? There's three big casino hotels in the city that employ quite a few. There's the stadiums and the theaters (the Fox and the Fisher and the Opera House) too, plus all the associated restaurants. I'm personally familiar with a number of auto suppliers / service providers (freight) in the city limits but AFAIK there's no factories from the Big 3, though GM's HQ is downtown which employs a LOT of people. There's also Compuware's headquarters, which they built Detroit's newest office building to house. And Quicken Loans has relocated downtown recently as well, but that's only a few hundred jobs. But that's downtown and a lot of people commute downtown for those jobs.
The other problem in Detroit is the neighborhoods. This is the sprawling, low population density part that the city does not have the revenue to service. This is the part the city government wants to move people out of and literally cut off - either convert to farm land, or, I suppose, abandon in place. And I guess this would be the part that you suggest might be "dragging the state down."
So, if you cut off Detroit to put resources in other parts of the state, how would that work? Just stop providing municipal services to the neighborhoods? Let the lights go out, the gas stop flowing, don't deliver mail, don't provide fire and police protection, don't collect the garbage anymore? No housing inspections, no social workers, no school buses, no schools in fact, no road repair, no sewer repair, no drinking water. Just let the people revert to something like Somalia? Would you put a fence up so they couldn't leave those neighborhoods too? Starve and freeze the problem away? You see what I mean? I don't understand what you mean when you say Detroit is an anchor dragging the city down and it should be cut off. What does it mean to you to cut 3/4 of a million people off and focus on developing other parts of the state?
The Rules
Copper- behave toward others to elicit treatment you would like (the manipulative rule)
Gold- treat others how you would like them to treat you (the self regard rule)
Platinum - treat others the way they would like to be treated (the PC rule)
The more I read about employment statistics and the budget situation, the more I'm convinced you're mentally overweighting the stadiums and theaters as an employment base.
But yes, I am talking about accelerating what Detroit itself is already doing and walking away from providing services. Radical? Cold hearted? Possibly. But success depends on creative destruction. Unless the city changes policies and becomes the next Wilmington (which itself isn't exactly a success of urban planner), what is next for Detroit?
Call me a liberal but I think abandoning 3/4 million people sounds pretty wrong.
The Rules
Copper- behave toward others to elicit treatment you would like (the manipulative rule)
Gold- treat others how you would like them to treat you (the self regard rule)
Platinum - treat others the way they would like to be treated (the PC rule)
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