Feet up! : rants/us

So they've voted him back in

Apart from the incredulous reaction here - "why?" seemed to be the most popular response to the result - things go on much the same as normal.

Maybe the Democrats had "misunderestimed" Bush's appeal to the god botherers in middle America? Who knows?

There's a few things that stand out, the primary one is that the US voting system is in dire need of electoral reform (don't get me started on the UK system which also stinks).

When one of the largest democracies in the world has an election regarded by international electoral observers as more flawed than that of backward third World countries, something is seriously wrong.

The electoral process needs to be accurate and just and also to be seen as such. For example the voting machines with no audit trail provide no proof of their accuracy, we can only surmise this is because they have something to hide. After all, why else do the states using these machines have a higher discrepency rate between the exit polls and the votes declared?

The next election starts now for both parties, part of that process must be to produce an electoral process that can be regarded as fair to all citizens, otherwise every American has disenfranchised themself. Wouldn't you want your vote to count?

Doing the right thing

There's a great phrase much loved by Australians - "do the right thing".

Today's the big day for many Americans. Here's to them doing the right thing.

Bush and disbelief

Still astonished here that Bush stands any chance whatsoever in the US elections - a colleague who's worked in New York keeps telling me that Americans are certainly unusual, but still...

Perhaps that's why global outrage and protest against Bush is rather muted, we really can't understand why anyone would vote for him. The prospect of someone so visibly flawed and incompetant being neck and neck with another sane looking candidate is just surreal.

One possible reason for Bush garnering any vots is that the US Govt and media have been systematically lying to the American public, Diego's questions for Bush supporters certainly tests about this theory. If you're American and you don't get it, please read Diego's article.

Global internet polls, whilst far from being statistically valid (similar to voting in Florida I suppose), certainly provide significant indications of how unelectable we think Bush is, circa 10% of the vote and only ahead in Niger and Lichtenstein is hardly a close run thing.

Given that the Bush administration's attitude towards the world is clearly shown by their mal-administered website, I guess the antipathy is mutual

Osamatober, coming to a TV near you soon?

So we're well into Osamatober and the guy with the beard hasn't been paraded before us yet, have they decided it's a stunt that no-one will believe? Or did he die under torture?

It looks like Osama is not an ace up George's sleeve, although there's plenty of other curious bulges in that ill-fitting whistle...

Four years on, and Florida votes still unreliable

You'd think that after the 2000 election debacle, heads would have rolled and Florida's voting system would have been improved.

Apparantly not...

The old adage "vote early and vote often" seems apt here, or should it be "no taxation without representation"?

Leaning Into It

Russ and Joi want us foreign bloggers to start leaning into it a bit more over the US presidential election, so here's my angle.

Am I too late? I don't know, maybe American voters are experiencing candidate and election fatigue, I can certainly understand that, as I'm no lover of politicians of any type.

However, I'm going to post a few items here over the next month or so, posing a few questions about the US presidential election. All I'm asking is that the American voters who read this blog take a tiny slice of their time to read these items and ponder them.

Sure, you might think some of these will be rants from a Limey who has no business poking his nose into US politics, but I hope that my readers are open minded and responsible enough to realise that US politics casts its influence and actions over the rest of planet too.

With power comes responsibilty, US voters have the power to elect the right guy, and as a disenfranchised observer, I'd like to think that US voters will be responsible in using their vote. Well, I can hope, can't I?