Tim Blair

So all the rich, elitist, leftist, Hollywood airheads and musicians have failed to produce a Kerry bounce? Add to that list the mainstream media and entrenched academia. Maybe middle America sees through all that bullshit. I fail to see how actors, musicians and athletes have some special insight into world affairs. After the Bush landslide, we will be hearing from the shocked and clueless about how stupid the American people are for the next four years.

If it weren't for the mass assault against Bush by Hollywood and the MSM, he'd be up by 20 points. Shows what a fucking disaster Kerry is.

I'm pessimistic about Bush's chances because of this, so I try to remember that Ronnie went through the same thing. I'm just not sure it was as overwhelming then.

Moore "the best thing that has happened to America since Chomsky" ?

That Indian bloke is mad as a bag of Sicilian cut snakes. It's like saying Shaun McManus is the best kick since Paul Couch or Robert Harvey.

Gene Grant left out "The Day After Tomorrow", the by-all-accounts absurd Global Warming jeremiad.

Lefties like to mock the Religious Right for advocating teaching Creationism and according to Kerry/Edwards, we need a president who "believes in science".

This is science?

Well, there's always Fellowship 9/11. Forget Sauron and Saruman. It's all about oil!

I live in Utah, and I was going to assasinate Moore when he was here, but my stupid ass boss made me work

Elvis once sang that he believed for every drop of rain that fell, a flower grew. I beleive that every time one of these boneheads opens their mouth in support of Kerry, a vote for Kerry is lost.

Arrgh! I'm moving to Utah in two months - geez, I thought I'd be safe from the likes of MM there.

Oh well - with any luck the Blue-minded in Utah won't be silly enough to throw $40K at him a second time.

Gene Grant mentions the need for the Dems to do "the ugly and decidedly un-sexy work it takes to win elections." But "ugly" can get really ugly.

In Houston, a family member recently stood in a store line and overheard the following: "I am going to vote at least a half dozen times. Those people can't tell one of us from another. And, then, I am going to pull everybody off the street I can find and get them into the voting booth, several times over. This is about getting what's due us."

She said he sounded reasonably intelligent and quite determined. Knowing what we know about the DNC encouraging the pre-emptive charge of voter intimidation and fraud and the Dems' campaign to stop photo and other ID requirements for voting, some of us are starting to lose faith in the process.

"Those people can't tell one of us from another...This is about getting what's due us."

Can you clarify who are "those people" and who are "us"?

Angie,

The man happened to be African American. The inference was that white poll watchers wouldn't be able to tell black people apart. (And without good ID requirements, he might just be right.)

But what he said could apply to almost any ethnicity and even for minority whites voting in majority ethnic districts (like mine!) His attitude didn't appear to disturb the people with whom he was conversing. I think people are beginning to view Election Day cheating as a moral and civic "right" and not as a crime, which it most emphatically is. Rather like how some view their cheating on taxes...

Sick of Michael Moore? Burned out on his sophomoric, anti-American nihilism?

Go see Team America... I just did.

Incredibly vulgar. Absolutely tasteless. And I would never have believed you could literally weep with schadenfreude.

When you go, sit all the way through. There are two songs you will walk out of the theatre singing, but one of them is only in the credits.

If I heard anyone openly proclaiming their intention to fuck with my vote, I'd call the cops on him. I don't care what color their skin would be either. Voter fraud is illegal. Do we have a rule of law, or don't we?

If the fellow is joking, too bad so sad. I'd still like to make the jerk shit his pants.

It might strike American visitors to this site as bizarre, but here in Australia we have what might seem an anomaly in a free, democratic society, compulsory voting.

In practice, this means attendance at a polling booth and being handed a ballot paper is compulsory; actually voting with the ballot paper is not.

The benefit of this system is that it is virtually impossible for anyone to exploit minorities by claiming that they have been "disenfranchised".

Well, Pencil, you just cleared up a mystery for me. I never understood why Australia mandated voting. In that context, it makes good sense.

But we'll never see that in America. Getting people to pay taxes or drive the speed limit in town is a major battle. Mandate their voting? Perish the thought!

But I'd like to take anyone (regardless of their political leanings) screwing with my franchise in any way and throw 'em a dark hole for 5 years. With an occasional crust of bread tossed in for sustenance.

Even better, make voter fraud a capital crime.

Well, the whole compulsory voting this is about to get interesting down here, I think. Nick Minchin, a prominent Liberal party Senator, is in favour of removing the compulsion. (It is also accepted political wisdom that it benefits the ALP).

With control of the Senate, we might see some change on that front, but I doubt it.

To me, it doesn't really matter. I'd vote anyway.

Kids and dogs. They are the best judges of character!

Up till last weekend I believed that compulsory voting was a good thing. Not now.
But then my sister-in-law came by and said she didn't really take notice of the election, she doesn't like Howard or Latham and so she just voted for some fringe groups on the ballot to piss the system off. I could not believe what I was hearing.
If it wasn't for maintaining family harmony I would have thrown her out.

The flip side of "non compulsory voting" is what I call the whining fringe.

I know one woman (around 30) who believes that her vote doesn't count, and refuses to exercise her franchise. However, she has no problem complaining about how "the government is screwing things up".

I expect that the real reason is that she doesn't want to do the work to vote intelligently. But I got tired of her whinging one day, and told her that until she voted, she has no reason to complain about anything in the government, since she made no effort to participate in the system.

Her mouth fell open, and she didn't complain in front of me again. I don't know that she ever voted....but she did get the message.

Recently some actor being interviewed by Andrew Denton of'Enough Rope' and another on 'Rove' stated they felt it was their duty to speak out on political issues.
I beg to differ- I would prefer that they stick to what they are best suited to, regardless of their political persuasion.
They may be brilliant actors who,through their skill able to give great pleasure however if they come out loudly condemning something I happen to believe in such as freeing Iraq from Saddam then I do not want to ever see them on screen again-ditto singers, models ,any celebrities. Forever I will not see the character they portray but the character that they are---people who denounce and scorn their own goverment, using the very free that they would deny others and whose soldiers die to protect. I would be more tolerant if I saw them marching on the Arab Embassies and crying for help for the people of Rawanda or Darfur, saw them donate seiously big money to aid worlds suffering rather than'Pastiche' film clips of them nursing a starving child whilst plaintively asking me to donate a few dollars most of which won't do more than getting a few aid workers there to struggle against the overwhelming tide of human suffering.
My 200 dollar donation geos nowhere- lets have less of the false modesty of these super heros and see them give a few of the undeserved and unearned millions they aquiered for little talent- Michael Moore could donate ALL the money from F9/11 to help the children of Iraq and Darfur and redeem himself a little.
However who am I too grumble- he is the best asset for the Bush Campaign- he reminds us that he represents all that is ugly, evil and undesirable in the Democrats. Credit where due

That Indian bloke is mad as a bag of Sicilian cut snakes. It's like saying Shaun McManus is the best kick since Paul Couch or Robert Harvey.

Putin is the best Russian leader since Stalin!

It's like saying Shaun McManus is the best kick since Paul Couch or Robert Harvey.

Worse! It's like saying Rove McManus is the best thing that has happened to Australia since Don Lane.

If you want to understand the evolution of elitist political correctness (reductio ad absurdum), study the modern history of India.

Anand Patwardhan belongs to the Indian leftist elite who respond to a century of Islamic Terror on the subcontinent with handwringing and self-hatred, or like Arundhati Roy campaign for urban masses to go without good water and electricity supply (Narmada Dam) so that a few tribals can continue to live their stone-age lifestyle.

The 'Mahatma' Gandhi himself popularised the 'cycle of violence' theory by which any attempt at self-defence or proportionate response is 'merely exacerbating the problem'.

Thanks for that, Mahatma and Co.!

Muslim separatists began agitating in India for their 'land of the pure' (Paki-stan) and the return of the Caliphate about 90 years ago. Their method? Massacre large numbers of innocent Hindus, especially women and children, as cruelly as possible, then when the Hindus respond, claim that Muslims are the real victims. Thus they got what they wanted, and they've been on a roll ever since...

Sound familiar?
Coming soon to a theatre near you!

With regards to compulsory voting: If you pause to think about the concept, it cannot be justified on any grounds. The whole thing is an oxymoron: You are being forced, under the threat of being fined, to exercise your democratic right! So, either it's a right, or it's a compulsion; it cannot be both.

Having worked on polling stations in the past elections handing out How-To-Vote cards, as well as scrutineering, I have seen first-hand the outcomes of forcing people to vote. People turning up drunk & stoned, voting for the "Legalize Marijuana Party" as the one most appropriate to the occasion. Others casting their vote for Santa Claus and Mickey Mouse. Yet others asking who the candidates were, with names mentioned of famous politicians of 20 years ago. -- A total mess.

At least when the process is voluntary, people who turn up do so because they have an interest in the whole thing. If some of them choose to be "disenfranchised", so be it - it's their choice. And it need not mean low voter turnouts - as evidenced by New Zealand, which regularly achieves turnouts comparable to Australia.

Additionally, one of the biggest benefits of voluntary voting is the fact that it would make "safe" seats much less so, in forcing the politicians to have to motivate people to turn up and vote in the first place. I can't see why that would be a negative, either.

Cheers,

JPB

The irony is that compulsory voting was instituted because both sides of politics were worried about the low turnout in the 1920s.

The figure was...69%.

Heh.

Thanks, Tim, for making my life a little more surreal. That Gene Grant column ran last Thursday in the Albuquerque Tribune. I just got around to reading it fifteen minutes ago, and suddenly I'm seeing it again in an Australian blog?

Incidentally, Mr. Grant is by far the most reasonable and non-idiotic local columnist in that paper. The rest of them are such a gaggle of knee-jerk left-wing morons that I almost never read the damned thing.

While I support the president, this report about the Canadian "swing states" and the overseas vote -- apparently pro-Kerry -- really bothers me ... what's being done to counter it? :(

Or do we have enough of a lock on the home vote (and the military vote) to protect it from them and Democratic attempts to disenfranchise our military?