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Mixed thoughts for today.

By The Armorer on November 4, 2008 | | Comments (36)
Purple Finger Time

Anybody who wants the presidency so much that he'll spend two years organizing and campaigning for it is not to be trusted with the office.
- David Broder

We'd all like t' vote fer th' best man, but he's never a candidate.
- Kin (Frank McKinney) Hubbard, 1868 - 1930

There were so many candidates on the platform that there were not enough promises to go around.
- Ronald Wilson Reagan, 1911 - 2004

It is useless to hold a person to anything he says while he's in love, drunk, or running for office.
- Shirley MacLaine

It is dangerous for a national candidate to say things that people might remember.
- Eugene McCarthy

If God had wanted us to vote, he would have given us candidates.
- Jay Leno
 
 
H/t, Jim C.  That said - Go vote.  People with purple fingers, who took real risks and had real inconveniences, well, they pretty much demand that you go vote.  And regardless of who wins, just go to bed, okay?  The sun will rise tomorrow, and it doesn't need to rise to columns of smoke.  Good golly, people, we're the worlds oldest functioning Republic, let's behave like it.  If your guy loses, get with like-minded folks and figure out how to make your ideas resonate next time. 

Do it for the kittehs.

I can has kwyet elekshun nite, plz? T'anks!

 
 

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36 Comments

By Semper Fi Wife on November 4, 2008 7:44 AM
I'm going to vote this morning and hunker down with the last three series of Foyle's War.
Paid the $3.99 extra to have it delivered this morning.

I am NOT going to watch the election coverage. 
 
By fdcol63 on November 4, 2008 7:55 AM
That cat's thinking:  "I can't believe he did this to me .... again."  LOL
 
By BillT on November 4, 2008 8:12 AM
Voting's the way you say "Thank you" to those who put their tomorrows on the line in order to give the rest of us a tomorrow.
 
By Jason on November 4, 2008 8:28 AM
Amen. At least we don't have to have indelible ink on our fingers...
 
By Argent on November 4, 2008 9:02 AM
I like the ink fingered picture. Good voting to you all.
 
By Spanky on November 4, 2008 10:24 AM
That cat is out right now doing recon for a night attack when you least expect it.

  1st feline recon 7th cav     WE OWN THE NIGHT !  ME OOH RAH OW !!!!!
 
By AFSister on November 4, 2008 12:16 PM
Voted.  So did my parents.  They said the line at the school was 2 1/2 hrs long early this morning, but they just walked right in at 11am.
My Mom told my boys that if Obama wins, we have to rally behind him as a united country.  I say BULLHOCKEY to that.  That's one of the reasons we're a FREE country- free to support, or not support, our leader.  I, and our military, may be bound by his decisions, that doesn't mean I have to support them.  If Obama does win, I wonder how enlistment and re-enlistment rates will be affected.  He's already promised a 25% cut in the military's budget to fund the rest of his socialist, er.. marxist, programs.
happy happy
 
By John of Argghhh! on November 4, 2008 12:26 PM
We can support him (and the country) by opposing those ideas we think are wrong, offering up our alternatives for consideration, and not engage in the mindless drivel of personal attacks that the Right gave Clinton and the Left gave Bush.

It doesn't mean we roll over.

It means we be adults.

Your ideas fit in that paradigm.
 
By Cannoneer No. 4 on November 4, 2008 12:58 PM

He may occupy the office because of voter fraud, and I may outwardly respect his rank as Commander-in-Chief in the interest of good order and discipline, but I’ll be faking it.

They have sown the wind.  I will observe with vicious schadenfreude the Category 5 whirlwind they reap.

 
By MikeD on November 4, 2008 1:37 PM
The sun will rise tomorrow, and it doesn't need to rise to columns of smoke. Good golly, people, we're the worlds oldest functioning Republic, let's behave like it.

The fact that you even felt the need to say this makes me sad.  This is America.  We shouldn't have to remind folks to NOT act like a third world nation.
 
By John of Argghhh! on November 4, 2008 2:06 PM
You Stand with Watie, then...?
 
By John of Argghhh! on November 4, 2008 2:10 PM
That last was meant for #4, not MikeD.

I debated whether or not to say it, Mike.  I decided to because of the tone of reportage on the possibilities, and how people seem to take excessive counsel of their fears.

I really hope that tomorrow, I'm embarassed by it.  And, in general, I suspect I will be.

 
By Justthisguy on November 4, 2008 2:24 PM
Done! For teh kittehs! I was at the polls at 0706 this morning, with four dozen people ahead of me. Voted for Sarahcuda and the Naval Angriator, naturally.
 
By Cannoneer No. 4 on November 4, 2008 2:48 PM
I'm more of a Jo Shelby fan.
 
By John of Argghhh! on November 4, 2008 3:01 PM
I figured, but it wasn't as much fun (or nerdly geeky) as Stand with Watie.
 
By Katherine Optima Maximae on November 4, 2008 3:08 PM
Voted at 2pm.  Steady stream of people going in and out.  No lines per se.  Just a steady stream. 
 
By John of Argghhh! on November 4, 2008 3:08 PM
Speaking of Shelby - are you *sure*?  'Cuz it means you have to accept the outcome...
Shelby lost much of his feistiness over the next three decades, but not his reputation as a Confederate hero, and he never abandoned his adventurous style of living. He became involved in Democratic politics (although he consistently refused to run for public office), tried several business ventures (with only modest success), assisted former rebel soldiers (including Frank James, the outlaw), and, having accepted an appointment as federal marshal for western Missouri from President Grover Cleveland, helped break the Pullman Strike of 1893. His appointment as marshal also forced him finally to take a postwar oath to uphold the Constitution of the United States. But, then, after he returned to Missouri in 1867, Shelby never showed signs of bitterness toward the North. In that sense, O'Flaherty's portrayal of him as an undefeated rebel masks an important subtlety. Shelby's refusal to admit defeat in war did not imply blind devotion to rebellion. Rather, he was undefeated in the sense of remaining undaunted, capable of rising above the ruins of the Confederacy, maintaining his personal dignity, and accepting the political and economic necessity of sectional reconciliation.

It is an interesting distinction, only partially realized in O'Flaherty's biography, but an important one for understanding Shelby's postwar years—and perhaps something about his character. Certainly Shelby repented his role in Bleeding Kansas. "I went there to kill Free State men," he confessed in 1897. "I did kill them. I am not ashamed of myself for having done so, but then times were different from what they are now. . . . No Missourian had any business there with arms in his hands. The policy that sent us there was damnable and the trouble we started on the border bore fruit for ten years." The passions aroused by the debate over slavery made men "irresponsible," and, Shelby concluded, "I now see I was so myself" (p. 44).

Yet, like most old Confederates, Shelby could not—or would not—fully reject the cause of his youth. "We failed but we (the South) have the satisfaction of Knowing that no people on Earth endured or fought more from patriotic desires," he wrote to a former comrade in 1885. "It is over, and as we all surrendered it behooves us all to abide by the terms imposed" (p. 353). Shelby became active in the United Confederate Veterans, which kept him and his reputation firmly tied to the Lost Cause. He served as the commander of the Missouri Division of the UCV in the years before his death, and just months before his passing in 1897, he attended a grand Confederate reunion in Richmond. Speaking briefly to the convention, which had gathered to lay the cornerstone of a monument to Jefferson Davis, Shelby remained a symbol of the Confederate Trans-Mississippi: "We are here, as ex-Confederates, . . . and I stand here as a representative of the Confederate cause west of the Mississippi, and I speak for the Missourians when I say that this for all time shall be our Mecca" (p. 393).
 
Swiped from this website.
 
By Cannoneer No. 4 on November 4, 2008 4:12 PM
Just because Shelby finally reconciled doesn't mean I have to.  

 
 
By John of Argghhh! on November 4, 2008 4:26 PM
But, but, but you *said*!
 
By Cannoneer No. 4 on November 4, 2008 5:06 PM
Lone Watie:  I heard,  uh,  General Jo Shelby and some men refused to surrender.  They're goin' down to Mexico.  I think I'll join them.

Josey Wales:  Shelby?  I didn't know there were others that hadn't surrendered.

Lone Watie:  I didn't surrender neither.  But uh, they took my horse and made him surrender.  They have him pulling a wagon up in Kansas I'll bet.
 
By Cannonshop on November 4, 2008 10:05 PM
It's not fraud...at least, not "voter fraud".  Vote fraud like what ACORN was pulling only works in CLOSE races, where a few hundered to a couple thousand phony votes can tip it one way or the other.

This one isn't even REMOTELY close-our countrymen really ARE that stupid.

Gods help us.
 
By olga on November 4, 2008 10:48 PM
yes, as of 2345 ET we are officially in the stage of the democracy cycle when the masses vote in only those who dole  out of the nation's treasury... very sad... I hoped witnessing the demise of one's home country was a once in a lifetime event...  I guess, not...
 
By Cricket on November 4, 2008 11:21 PM
Benjamin Franklin said we had a Republic, if we could keep it.  'Nuff said.
 
By Barb on November 5, 2008 12:07 AM

True 'nuff, Cricket.  Let's hope that the transition goes quietly, as John said.

 
By Josh on November 5, 2008 12:21 AM
At least we don't have to have indelible ink on our fingers...

I don't know, I kind of like the ink idea.  It's better than those wimpy "I VOTED TODAY" stickers.

Besides, anything that might cut voter fraud is good, no matter how primitive!
 
By Casey on November 5, 2008 1:24 AM
Just in case y'all are worrying about Ohio, we have a strict requirement for a photo ID to vote. Failing that, you may present a military ID, copy of a current utility bill, bank statement, government check, paycheck, or other government document that shows the voter's name and current address.

Voters who do not provide one of these documents will still be able to vote by providing the last four digits of the voter's SS#, and by casting a provisional ballot. Voters who do not have have any of the above forms of ID, including  a SS#, will still be able to vote by signing an affirmation swearing to the voter's ID under penalty of election falsification and by casting a provisional ballot.

The above is quoted from the card sent me from the Butler County Ohio Board of Elections. Some abbreviations (eg SS# for social security number) have been made for brevity.

In other words, potentially doubtful ballots are cast as provisional. You can register all you want, but you need to provide substantiative proof that you are a legitimate elector, or cast a provisional ballot.


Looks like Barry is the next POTUS, Lord help us. That said, I refuse to engage in any of the cheap-shot petty sniping I've seen the past eight years.

Anybody wants to go all "Florida 2000" on me, I'll tell you what I told them: you lost. Get over it. Move the frak on.

 
By wolfwalker on November 5, 2008 4:10 AM
For the second time in my life, the United States has elected a known criminal to the presidency.

He is not my president and never will be.

May he have many failures, no successes, and leave office in four years as a broken man.
 
By BillT on November 5, 2008 5:28 AM
Interesting e-gram from a Viet-Vet buddy:
WTF? last week Joe Biden claims he voted absentee, then this morning the
MSM showed him voting again.

Comments? Confirmation?
 
By AFSister on November 5, 2008 6:14 AM
"This one isn't even REMOTELY close-our countrymen really ARE that stupid.  Gods help us." ~Cannonshop

"we are officially in the stage of the democracy cycle when the masses vote in only those who dole out of the nation's treasury... very sad... I hoped witnessing the demise of one's home country was a once in a lifetime event... I guess, not... "  ~Olga


Yeah.  What they said.
I'm too depressed to put anymore of my own thoughts into words.
 
By Life long democrat on November 5, 2008 6:40 AM
Good lord. I voted for McCain/Palin for oh, so many reasons. Geeze I really like my job, I hope I still have it next year. I guess affirmative action is no longer necessary. Wow, I'm still trying to absorb this. I have always been one to concede that no matter who I voted for the fact remains that the President elect, becomes my president. It's the way our republic works. I just hope they don't let old rambling Joe, talk to any heads of state on our behalf. I hope the same thing right now that I hope after each election, "God, please don't let them screw it up too much!" And the Dems (whom I currently have NO confidence in) picked up seats! Oye! This is going to be an interesting four years. oye.

I think I'm going to become an Independent.
 
By RetRsvMike on November 5, 2008 7:04 AM
positive confirmation from the East Coast: the Sun, did, in fact, actually rise this morning.

Happy Guy Fawkes Day!
 
By Jason on November 5, 2008 8:40 AM
Mmmmmmm..... anticipating my Midwestern steak dinner.....    ;^)
 
By John of Argghhh! on November 5, 2008 8:46 AM
Better hurry, Jason - PETA will have a stronger voice in this administration, and we all know that cattle are a prime cause of Global Warming... so you may not have long before the Slaughter of the Herds...  oh, wait, no, we can just re-settle us midwesterners to either side of the Appalachians and Rockies and let the cattle and buffalo run free!
 
By Josh on November 5, 2008 8:14 PM
I have always been one to concede that no matter who I voted for the fact remains that the President elect, becomes my president. It's the way our republic works.

I always thought that, according to the way our republic works, the President is the President of the states, which is why the electoral college selects the President, whereas the senators and representatives directly represent the people, which is why they are elected by popular vote.

I know it's sort of esoteric...I guess it's a federalism thing.

 
By AFSister on November 5, 2008 9:29 PM

Bill-
I know Biden was on the ticket twice- both as VP and Senator, so everyone in his district could have voted for him twice.  I wasn't able to find anything on him voting early, and yesterday though.  There is video of him going to the polls yesterday with his mother, wife, and daughter.

 
By BillT on November 6, 2008 12:51 AM
Sooooo, if my bud hasn't suffered a senior moment about this, putting it in the best light means he lied (*yawn* "Well, that's just Joe") about voting by absentee ballot and at worst, it means he's guilty of fraud (*yawn* "Well, that's just Joe").

Either way, it doesn't surprise me.