Consider this my way of creating one easy-to-link-to Memory...

[heidi]

There is very little original content in this post. It's more of a personal compendium of thoughts - all of which have been said more pointedly, more explicitly or more clearly over the course of the last few hours. There's a rant at the end, but

The new majority is more theocratic than Republican, as Republican was previously understood; the defeat of the old moderate Republican Party is far more decisive than the loss by the Democrats. And there are no checks and balances.
- Sidney Blumenthal, Salon Magazine

Now this man who has made an unprecedented power grab for the executive branch, who authorized the use of torture, who has trampled on civil rights, who has lied and lied and lied to the American people, is going to have the chance to reshape the Supreme Court for the next generation. Bigotry won.
- pegkerr

HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE: Ronald Reagan beat Walter Mondale in 1984, winning 58.8% of the popular vote versus Mondale's 40.4%. Now THAT'S a mandate.
-Americablog

It's alright if some things come out wrong
We'll sing a happy song
And you can sing along
Where's there's life, there's hope
Every day's a gift
Wishes can come true
Whistle while you work
So hard
All day
To be like other girls
To fit in in this glittering world
Don't give me songs
Don't give me songs
Give me something to sing about
I need something to sing about
Life's a song you don't get to rehearse
And every single verse
Can make it that much worse...
From "Once More With Feeling"

Stefan noticed the pick-up truck of the supposed county board of election - the truck the ballots for 40 precincts were loaded into - had a big Bush-Cheney 2004 sticker in the back window. Stefan did say that he followed the truck to the election headquarters, though he didn't see what transpired after the truck pulled into the election hq parking lot.
- Also Americablog

- In the comments or in your LJ, rec a story that you re-read for comfort when you need to feel better because it gives you warm fuzzies and a story (ideally long) that you re-read because you can lose yourself in it.
- More or less gacked from scribbulus_ink via rosesanguina

I don't want to read the bad news from a news station that doesn't care about the fact that this election affected me on such a deep level. I'd rather read it from you all, who are just as hurt, dejected, angry, and determined as I am.
- themorningstarr

I'm sad. I'm angry. I'm stunned. I'm disappointed. I have terrible thoughts and opinions about why we put Bush back in office, hardly a foregone, but likely, conclusion. I wonder what's going on in the minds of people in this country. I'm disgusted.


Now I'm going to be humanly pissy for the next few days. I'm not ashamed. It's natural, and I accept that. I do, however, have a moral core and compass, and I'm on a mission.
- awelkin

COP #1: Open up! We have a warrant! We have it on good authority that you have BIBLES in there!

SUSPECT: Hold your fire! I'm opening the door!

[While suspect is still opening door two cops charge at it and force their way into a small ranch house.]

COP #1: Well, well, well, what have we here? [picks up book covered in brown paper] This wouldn't be--A BIBLE? [Shakes head, speaks to partner] How do they think they can get away with it, Duane?

COP#2: [looking appraisingly at suspect] I don't know, Vern. Hey, he's got a nice butt, doesn't he? [slaps his hand on the suspect's buttocks]

COP #1: [grinning at partner] You're just insatiable, aren't you Duane? [turns to suspect] Okay, mister. Here's how it is. We might--MIGHT--turn a blind eye THIS time if you're cooperative. Duane likes you; this could work in your favor...

SUSPECT: [tries to fight them off] No! No! I won't let you sodomites do this! This never would have happened if George Bush were president!

COP #2: [chuckles] He's too green anyway, Vern. I think we need to get him ready first.

COP #1: You've got a point, Duane. [to suspect] Okay, you. Here's how it is. We're taking THIS [holds up Bible] for our nice little bonfire, and you can start reading this. [takes a full set of the Harry Potter books out of a bag]

SUSPECT: Nooooooooooooooooooooo! Not the EVIL SOUL-SUCKING BOOKS OF DOOM! I don't want to be a Satan-worshipping witch! Give me my Bible back!

COP #1: [grinning] You don't get it, do you? You've got criminal contraband here, mister. You need to be reprogrammed. And the books are just the start. We need to get you ready for Duane here. So after you've read all five books you need to go to the Potter Slash Archive and start working your way through there. Begin with the Harry/Draco pairings. That way when Duane comes back to check on your 'reading progress' [grins at partner] there shouldn't be any mysteries about what's going to happen...

SUSPECT: No! No! You can't do this!

COP #2: [opens the first Harry Potter book, shoves it into suspect's hands and pushes him into a chair] We can and we are. Get used to it. THESE are your bibles now. [points at HP books]

- psychic_serpent, an excerpt from an episode of COPS in the Kerry Alt Universe, as aired by FOX News

Everybody who's in the party of Barack Obama, line up after me.
- anneu53714

"There are 39 states that didn't pass gay marriage bans last night!"

And just remember guys, it's not a complete loss. Alan Keyes could have won. Then we'd be fucked.
- jackoweskla, as posted at ash_grey_sky's Democrat/Left/Civil Libertarian/Concerned Conservative Cheer-Up Post

Crossposted from scieppan's LJ:

A friend of mine was a poll watcher in Broward county. She went to her polling place at her assigned time to find out...it had disappeared. Gone. No signs, no notices. Luckily, a woman drove by and told her (and the rest of the people standing around looking confused) that the poll had been moved.

Turns out, the precincts had been redrawn last week. Precincts were combined, often absurdly. A condo complex, for example, which had always voted in precinct X got moved into precinct D - all but one building. In fact, couples who live in the same condo were assigned two different polling places.

Once my friend got to the correct polling place, the poll workers tried to call the sheriff to have her removed. She was able to stay, and watched - in horror. The poll workers, bless them, were all about 75 years old and moved at the speed of a glacier. They were given a cel phone to use in the case of voter questions or problems - and there was only sporadic cel service. And no analog phones. In a precinct that should have received hundreds of voters all day, they got 100. Many people left after waiting for 45 minutes to find out if they were allowed to vote there - once the cel phone worked, they waited on hold for 15 minutes to talk to a clueless elections worker on the other end.

The lawyer watching the polls with my friend had a log book 2 inches thick by 11 a.m.

Oh, and the old polling place? Folks from ACT went by to put up flourescent signs at all the old polling places, directing them to the new ones. My friend's boyfriend witnessed a truck (with Bush stickers all over it) drive up and pull those signs down. She called the Justice Dept. and logged a complaint.

Do you think this was in a lower class neighborhood, that typically votes democratic. You bet your ass it was. Do you think this was relegated to one precinct in Broward county? Fuck no.

So, a couple of questions:

1. Why isn't there more coverage about Florida voter fraud?
2. Why do we continue to let this happen in our country?

The majority of people in this country have an identity and a lifestyle that I do not understand, that I will never understand. And yet, those people yesterday cast their vote partially based on an assumption that they understand MY lifestyle and needs. They said to themselves they were going to vote for Bush to 'protect America'... which really means to protect New York City. And yet, those people, all those middlestate people, don't know squat about what ... New Yorkers need.
pot_pal_ashley

You can have it all
You can take it all away
From where we left off
Living it all
Your way
If you'll stand in my shoes
If you'll do what I do
Wages Day by Deacon Blue

I could say I’m disappointed in my country, or disgusted in my country, or repelled by my country, but that’s not how I feel. Mostly I feel a great blankness and a sense that this isn’t my country at all...
epicyclical

Shouldn't someone official... you know, in the government... decide who's won a state based on, I don't know, actually counting all the votes, and then deliver that decision to the media to report? ... I'd be happier if they (I'm not sure who they should be, but, there's gotta be a they, right?) said, "Look. There aren't going to be results tonight. Let us do our thing and actually count the votes and we'll declare a winner on Friday. Take a nap. Take a walk. Enjoy some TV without the political ads. You've waited this long, you can wait a few more days." *sigh*
- laughingirl

Current Mood: enraged
- potterstinks

From the Tyne to where to the Thames does flow
My English brothers and sisters know
It's not a case of where you go
It's race and creed and colour.
From the police cell to the deep dark grave
On the underground, a stop away
Don't be too black, don't be too gay
Just get a little duller.
But in this green and pleasant land,
Where I make my home, I make my stand...
Love is international
And if you stand or if you fall,
Just let them know you gave your all,
Worry about it later.

Good Morning Britain (Roddy Frame & Mick Jones)

And now, for the rant. I don't think I'll be able to speak to my sister's friend Jenny ever again without thinking, "I hate you."

She didn't vote yesterday. Now, I have seen a few people on my flist say they didn't vote for president because they couldn't decide who they'd be willing to see in office, and I understand that. While I think it is important to go to the polls for each election, I don't think it's necessary to vote in every race every single time. And I have at least one more person on my flist who didn't vote, but I've already expressed my displeasure to her, and while I think what she did was incomprehensible to me, for some reason, I find what Jenny did less forgiving.

She didn't vote because she had other things to do. She is planning on sending her oldest to public school next year, but she couldn't be arsed to choose a school board candidate. Her husband is a litigator, and she couldn't be arsed to make a decision about the Full Funding For Insurance Companies amendment to our state constitution. She has lived in this community for twenty eight of her thirty two years, and she couldn't be bothered to choose a mayor, or a state house representative.

If she ever dares complain about anything, she's going to get an earful from me. To keep the peace with my sister, I won't shout at Jenny when I see her this weekend. But someday, I'm afraid, I will. I am disgusted with my age group - the polls show our percentage of voters between 30 and 44 was down this year. What sort of example are they setting for their kids?

The moms I hang out with were all devistated this morning. I've never seen so many pairs of sunglasses covering un-made-up faces. Everyone had red eyes, either from sleeplessness or from crying. Or from both. I'm in the last category. But now, I'm off to play with my kids, and figure out which particular progressive group I want to get involved with. twistedchick posted a list of ten here. If I can make the time, with my two-going-on-three-kids + part time job + community projects I'm already committed to...

And the last song I listened to before I got out of the car today, on the way home from my doctor's visit...

The public gets what the public wants
But I want nothing this society's got -
I'm going underground,
Let the brass bands play and feet start to pound
Going underground,
We'll let the boys all sing and the boys all shout for tomorrow
Some people might get some pleasure out of hate
Me, I've enough already on my plate
People might need some tension to relax
Mem, I'm too busy dodging between the facts
What you see is what you get
You've made your bed, you better lie in it
You choose your leaders and place your trust
As their lies wash you down and their promises rust
You'll see kidney machines replaced by rockets and guns
And the public wants what the public gets
But I don't get what this society wants

We talk and talk until my head explodes
I turn on the news and my body froze
The braying sheep on my TV screen
Make this girl shout, make this girl scream!
Going Underground by Paul Weller (girlified, though)

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to start floating a trial balloon for the Barak Obama & Harold Ford ticket in 2008. And if anyone who lived through Britain under Thatcher has any comments to make about my gacking of anti-Maggie songs into this anti-administration context, I'd love to hear it.

Comments

[heidi8.livejournal.com]

Anyhow, he'd be rolling in his grave right now, he really would.

So would my grandfather, the staunch republican who believed with his heart and soul in Science, and who spent the 50s fighting C Everett Koop for the ability to do transplants at the hospital they were both with in Philadelphia.

Koop thought transplants were against God. He's changed his mind, but don't we see that argument being made again these days? It's all about the context.

[melodylemming.livejournal.com]

I very much want to add this entry to my memories, but I'm not seeing any way to do that. Any ideas?

As for me, I was utterly miserable yesterday for resons of my own, and I thought that even the election couldn't make me feel worse. I was wrong. I am angry and frustrated and I feel more helpless somehow than I did during the last election when I couldn't vote.

[verstehen.livejournal.com]

You know, this may sound weird, but I really hope Obama doesn't run in 2004. I live in Illinois, so what he does is going to directly affect me. All the talk of him running for president, while great and I'd love to see it (in 2008), is going to hurt him in terms of getting anything done in Illinois. And if he does spend the next four years as a staging arena for a bigger election and leaves his Senate seat open without completing his term especially since an overwhelming majority of the state voted for him, I won't vote for him. I don't want a political grandstander like that as president. I don't want a man who would so publically spit in the face of his ardent supporters as president.

I guess it sorta comes down to a character objection.

[valarltd.livejournal.com]

Actually, y'all can have the Ford dynasty. We're tired of them here in TN.

[shusu.livejournal.com]

I hesitate to link this 'cause... 1) I wrote it, 2) I'm not in HP fandom anymore, 3) you'll note right away that I haven't answered any of the comments to this fic.

But Heidi you and the fen have done so much for me... here's my little morsel of Trio fic. Trefoil (http://www.livejournal.com/users/shusu/186185.html).

Thank you thank you thank you for all you've done.

[shezan.livejournal.com]

It is perfectly logical that you should gack anti-Maggie songs in the context of your opinions, and I suspect their authors would be pleased.

For the record, I lived and worked as a journalist in London during the Thatcher years, and from the first day she was elected to the one she was miserably betrayed by little men who would have been nothing without her, I worshipped the ground this magnificent woman tread on. I can't think of no other woman who did more to make men pause and realize that yes, male organs had nothing to do with having brains and balls.

[heidi8.livejournal.com]

I think you can add it via this. And I hope you have a better tomorrow.

Just so you know, I couldn't vote in 1988 - my birthday was 10 weeks after election day. But I got lucky with the next election - I supported and voted for My Bill. Hope you get your chance for change in 2008.

[melodylemming.livejournal.com]

Thanks. I'm just so scared of the next four years.

[casfic.livejournal.com]

A fic that gives me the warm fuzzies is Black Dog by essayel

After a battle when the smoke rises, survivors look about them with gratitude and grief and find some way of coping. Some find forgetfulness in the arms of a lover, some oblivion in the comforting depths of a bottle but there are alternatives.

Appropriate, no?

Alternatively, for sheer escapism, bury yourself in any Georgette Heyer, say These Old Shades or Friday's Child.

[bordergold.livejournal.com]

I should probably look this up myself, but will Obama be too young?

He looks awfully young

[dragongirlg.livejournal.com]

As does Edwards, who's in his fifties. He looks like he's in the mid-30's.

[lainiekins.livejournal.com]

Thank you for posting this-- between my cold, massive exams, and the election, I was starting to loose touch on what really mattered. Sure, we lost... but that doesn't mean we're out of the game yet. I had decided to avoid LJ today (again, massive studying = denial), but posts like this and the rallying over at bush_sucks has taken the darkness out of today. Thank you.

I'm not reading or recing fic today-- instead I rented the first disc of Season 4 of M*A*S*H from the local library. I refuse to let Bush take away my smile for the next 4 years.

[(Anonymous)]

fiction recs: Sense & Sensibility. I'll probably watch the DVD tonight as a quick infusion. Fanfiction recs: Stealng Harry.

Although, honestly, I'm about too upset to distract myself (I have just about enough attention span for Thompson's S&S right now...)


The following was posted for someone named Kathy on the DemocracyForAmerica.com blog. Since Ohio and Florida both use these machines and went just the way this ex-system's programmer feared I found Kathy's stats very chilling...



Please look at the FL county percent change numbers below.

I am a math type and I found some very surprising results in Florida counties by doing some fairly simple examination of Florida's county results by voting machine types - not AT ALL what I expected to find, in fact just the opposite!

Is it possible to rig op-scan voting systems? Or is there another plausible explanation?

Source for this info is http://vevo.verifiedvoting.org/verifier/map.php?&topic_string=5std&state=Florida
and
http://enight.dos.state.fl.us/

I calculated "percent change" comparisons of election results by county with voter party registration by county, so I compared voter party registration rates in each county with election results by party in each county in Florida, and look (below) what I found!!

I calced "differences" between expected votes based on voter registration for dems and repubs in each Florida county times the actual total vote counts, divided by "expected" results based on voter registration proportion times actual vote counts in each county.

There is a striking difference in patterns with a HUGE percent change that Republicans picked up in op-scan counties that is amazingly larger than in DRE counties.

Even given possible demographic differences, I would never have expected such a huge difference in percent change based on voting machine type.

Please take a look. It might be interesting to determine why the pattern in Florida's op-scan counties are so amazingly different than one would normally expect to find.

COUNTIES USING DRE ES&S TOUCHSCREEN:

County REP DEM
Broward 29% 27%
Charlotte 24% 35%
Collier 22% 40%
Hillsborough 51% 11%
Indian River 17% 30%
Lake 27% 14%
Lee 24% 34%
Martin 9% 51%
Miami-Dade 32% 25%
Nassau 48% -29%
Palm Beach 20% 35%
Pasco 35% 19%
Pinellas 27% 31%
Sarasota 12% 45%
Sumter 43% -11%


COUNTIES USING PRECINCT OP-SCAN SYSTEMS:
REP DEM
Alachua 259% -15%
Baker 312% 12%
Bay 126% 82%
Bradford 253% 13%
Brevard 123% 58%
Calhoun 741% -23%
Citrus 141% 46%
Clay 77% 197%
Columbia 219% 19%
DeSoto 293% -2%
Dixie 565% -11%
Duval 171% 25%
Escambia 128% 60%
Flagler 145% 34%
Franklin 529% -24%
Gadsden 793% -64%
Gilchrist 229% 20%
Glades 303% -11%
Gulf 276% -2%
Hamilton 571% -30%
Hardee 274% 9%
Hendry 225% 4%
Hernando 142% 36%
Highlands 125% 53%
Holmes 369% 6%
Jackson 355% -14%
Jefferson 382% -39%
Lafayette 656% -11%
Leon 276% -35%
Levy 262% 5%
Liberty 1173% -28%
Madison 571% -36%
Manatee 126% 71%
Marion 132% 47%
Monroe 159% 36%
Okaloosa 75% 214%
Okeechobee 236% -2%
Orange 185% 24%
Osceola 205% 29%
Polk 157% 38%
Putnam 256% 2%
Santa Rosa 79% 175%
Seminole 124% 80%
St. Johns 88% 105%
St. Lucie 174% 40%
Suwannee 273% 11%
Taylor 429% -16%
Union 447% -4%
Volusia 178% 18%
Wakulla 313% -14%
Walton 100% 99%
Washington 293% 6%

Do you know how I can obtain a breakdown of votes in Florida by county by:

1. cast precinct
2. cast paper mailin
3. cast early - machine and paper

so that I may see if there are other interesting results that would correlate or reinforce these numbers or not?

By county exit polling data would be very helpful to compare with results by voting machine system type also.

Regards,

Kathy

i have no hope for my country...

~Vlad (no LJ but vlad at caledoniamission.org)

[nextian.livejournal.com]

I live in San Francisco, and the air today was entirely depressing. Somehow your post kind of exorcized that air of blankness and dead shock; I feel better, detemined, and a little teary-eyed.

So, um, don't let anyone tell you you don't make a difference, ever, 'cause you just did.

May I friend you?

[trinity_clare]

I don't know if this has been said, but Sam just put LC4 up. Now would be a good time to read the whole thing again. I'm probably going to.

[selinakyle47.livejournal.com]

Let Barack serve out his term first. Then we can talk Obama 2012. :)

I've gone through anger, grief and now determination. I hope everyone can come back from this setback and make some progress in 2006.

[naufiel.livejournal.com]

Hi. You don't know me, but I've been cruising the HP-fandom blogs commenting on everything political.

There is a lot of anger and hurt in pretty much every forum I've seen today. A lot of my friends cast their ballots in Ohio and are livid. I'm not even touching the Diebold machines and the exit polls.

I am past angry, though. And past hurt. 51.1% of a record voter turnout said they want Bush in office for four more years. Starting tonight, the other 48% need to start a new campaign - to educate and to inform.

[sundancekid.livejournal.com]

The majority of people in this country have an identity and a lifestyle that I do not understand, that I will never understand. And yet, those people yesterday cast their vote partially based on an assumption that they understand MY lifestyle and needs. They said to themselves they were going to vote for Bush to 'protect America'... which really means to protect New York City. And yet, those people, all those middlestate people, don't know squat about what ... New Yorkers need.
Er... I understand the rest of what you posted, but I'm confused by this one. Protecting America doesn't just mean protecting New York City - it's a big country, and there are plenty of other places to attack. If someone's interested in attacking America, their options aren't limited to NYC.

Not to mention that you (not you specifically, you in general) vote based on say, tax policies, when you don't necessarily understand how they will affect people with lower incomes or who live in more rural areas, but you still assume your candidate will be the best for everyone - the same way "middlestate people" make "an assumption that they understand [your] lifestyle and needs."

I mean, I voted Kerry, but I know tons of people who didn't. Because they have a different concept of what the government should do and what it shouldn't, of what's right and what's wrong. I don't agree with them, and I don't agree with the man they've voted in as President, but that doesn't make their needs less valid than mine.

[nmalfoy.livejournal.com]

Fiction recs: "Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH" (Robert O'Brien)
"A Wrinkle in Time" (Madeleine L'Engle)
"A Canticle for Leibowitz" (Walter Miller, Jr.)
The Harper Hall trilogy by Anne McCaffrey

[virginia-bell.livejournal.com]

It sucks living in a swing county in a swing state that swung Kerry and was supposed to be reallyreally important - and then learning that, no, it doesn't matter that where I live delivered for Kerry (and put a Democrat in the House). Bush still won.

My friends and I wore our Kerry-Edwards buttons yesterday, as well as black shirts. I found that I could not pledge to the flag of the country that's just made one of biggest mistakes in its history. I was more numb than I was angry, really.

[sff-corgi.livejournal.com]

She didn't vote because she had other things to do.

Lazy... [degratory descriptive of choice]. She had a FULL MONTH to either vote early or request an absentee ballot. Kick her inconsiderate behind for me too when you can't hold yourself in any longer.

[heidi8.livejournal.com]

Hey, I still don't know. What happened to arlen spector?

[naufiel.livejournal.com]

He won, 53% to 42%.

[naufiel.livejournal.com]

*blush* Thank you.

[virginia-bell.livejournal.com]

Arlen Specter was reelected. Joe Hoeffel (who was my House rep) only captured, what, three out of the however many counties in PA. There are rumors that Hoeffel will run for the Senate against in 2006 against Rick Santorum, who, might I add, must go. I'm ashamed of calling him my senator.