ArtBistro

F you want real change neither McCain nor Obama will do it. You HAVE to vote third party

you need someone who REALLY will abide with the Constitution. To that end you would have to vote independent, Libertarian, Constitution. or Green Party any other vote will only get you politics as usual ---- more senseless wars more dept & more of a police state  and  less  Liberty  for us &  our children.

For the sake of the innocent people of the world, the men, women and children in Iran who want nothing more than to go about thier business in peace, but instead will be fed to the slaughter in yet another useless Oil war, I hope it is anyone other than McCain.

mjgharvey says ...

Obama/ Biden

<snip>

  But I don't understand their politics.  And I never will.

  Fortunately, you can understand their politics. It'll just take some reading.

  For foreign affairs, read www.informationclearinghouse.info/pdf/RebuildingAmericasDefenses.pdf. This is the Dr. Strangelove document that guides the sock puppet W. The neoconservative bunch planned to invade Iraq before they installed W. Note that the link I provided is not a lefty commentary; it's the neocons' own plan. For some quick commentaries, and notice how old the commentaries are, look over www.informationclearinghouse.info/article1665.htm and www.informationclearinghouse.info/article2319.htm. I simply picked the commentaries that popped up at the top of a Google search, btw.

  For further reading, check out Richard Dawkins' The God Delusion. This is an accessible book to get you up to speed on how the current administration "thinks".  Supplementary reading can include anything by Steven Pinker. He writes about how everybody thinks.

  Remember,  Kenneth Lay personally vetted the senior appointments to the Energy Department. This bunch aren't simply nuts, they're also crooks.

 I live in Berkeley, which is the most Democratic voting City in the country, about 96%, and I work as a polling inspector. I know in Berkeley pretty much what the result will be. 

But what worries me is that for every Berkeley there is an equal and opposite Republican stranglehold, sorry stronghold. Which means the election will fought out, in reality, in a few precincts in a few swing spots in the country. We gotta hope that you know someone in those very important places and you can ensure they vote. The more people who vote, the more likely there will be an Obama victory, and a McCain loss.

Just remember that when FDR got in, the public opinion did not firm until about 6 days before his election victory (remeber the words "New Deal" they only were used in the last week of the election lead up). It would be comforting to know that prime vector of real change Obama is actually ahead and not in the margin of error.

Please encourage everyone you know to vote.

The more votes, the more likely Obama will elected, just based on numbers. Sad, commentary on American Democracy.

(Personally, I would love to see mandatory voting like Australia and Luxemburg have, both stable growing countries with respect for art. --When you don't vote you get fined, in America that would solve the DEFICIT, now that was cynical!)

I snipped mjgharvey's text when I posted my comment above. I was careless, and left an inaccurate sense of her text. My comments were aimed at the current administration and the likely course of a McCain/Palin administration.

While the edit box is open, I'll mention that I had been a fan of McCain for many years. No longer. The Republican party stalwarts have hated him for years. He has recently begun pandering to the fundamentalists to scrounge up votes. He would have preferred Tom Ridge as a running mate, but Ridge is pro-choice. The mullahs would have shredded him at the Republican convention.

To those who advocate third party candidates, a word of advice. Keep voting Green or Libertarian or whatnot at your state and local level. Don't make the mistake of voting for a third party candidate in the federal election.

Just an aside:

   Please make sure all your family and loved ones are registered to vote.  That will close soon, and we need every vote we can get.

  Thank you very much (sounds like Elvis)

I KNOW IT IS A REPUBLICAN COMPANY WHO MADE THE VOTING MACHINES, FAITH,

BUT YOU HAVE TO TRY.   REGISTER TO VOTE.

 YOU HAVE TO TRY.

Agree. Verify your polling place and make sure that everything lines up...They will be checking ID's and it's best to have that stuff all under control before election day...I've read in some places that The republicans are already planning Civil Rights Era tactics to prevent everyone from having access to the polls, especially in poorer areas that may swing democratic...I will find the source for that statement...(Think it was Huffingtonpost.com)

Just ran across this on a different site's discussion forum. I just checked the original source and it's legit, but to read the whole paper requires a subscription.

Political Attitudes Vary with Physiological Traits

Douglas R. Oxley,1* Kevin B. Smith,1* John R. Alford,2 Matthew V. Hibbing,3 Jennifer L. Miller,1 Mario Scalora,4 Peter K. Hatemi,5 John R. Hibbing1{dagger}



Although political views have been thought to arise largely from individuals' experiences, recent research suggests that they may have a biological basis. We present evidence that variations in political attitudes correlate with physiological traits. In a group of 46 adult participants with strong political beliefs, individuals with measurably lower physical sensitivities to sudden noises and threatening visual images were more likely to support foreign aid, liberal immigration policies, pacifism, and gun control, whereas individuals displaying measurably higher physiological reactions to those same stimuli were more likely to favor defense spending, capital punishment, patriotism, and the Iraq War. Thus, the degree to which individuals are physiologically responsive to threat appears to indicate the degree to which they advocate policies that protect the existing social structure from both external (outgroup) and internal (norm-violator) threats.



1 Department of Political Science, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE 68588, USA.

2 Department of Political Science, Rice University, Houston, TX 77251, USA.

3 Department of Political Science, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA.

4 Department of Psychology, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE 68588, USA.

5 Virginia Institute for Psychiatric and Behavioral Genetics, Richmond, VA 23298, USA.



* These authors contributed equally to this work.



Link to complete article: http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/sciencenow;2008/918/2

Short answer, Obama/Biden.

Long answer, I used to be a fan of McCain. That is, the 2000 model, not the 2008 model. I've been nagged by a particular question since at least eighth grade: why do people believe in, and act on, things that are obviously false? I found Steven Pinker's books to be enlightening. I just finished reading Richard Dawkins' The God Delusion. He would do well to do more research on fields outside his own; sometimes he resorts to arguments that are weak or unsubstantiated. Nevertheless, the meme notion goes a long way toward explaining the wierd thoughts of fundamentalists and other extremists.

Another notion that I've found useful in understanding human behavior, including politics, is that we are neolithic hunter-gatherers. Take for example the stereotype of the woman shopper. In our past, knowing where the fruits were ripening, and where they'd be ripe in the near future, was a survival skill. I see echoes of that in bargain hunting. I watched my own reactions when my usual grocery store closed and I had to learn the aisles at a different grocer. Yep, just like any other animal transplanted to a new range.

What has this to do with politics, you ask. Ignorance of the world makes it a scary place. Fear responses cause people to hunker down in a familiar hole. Just So stories helped make sense of the frightening, dangerous world. Accumulation of wealth or power are strategies to reduce uncertainty and fear. Holding false and comforting delusions is a strategy to reduce uncertainty and fear. Our society and civilization are so rich in food, shelter and safety that people who hold false beliefs can survive and thrive. In a more desperate climate, wishing that the berries were ripe would lead to starvation.

If you're in a desperate, but surviveable situation, change is probably the wrong thing to do. Natural selection will hardwire that behavior pretty darn quickly, either through genetics or culture. Progressives are the ones who seek out new avenues for better living. Conservatives are clinging to what they think they know.

A culture of only progressives would dissipate, losing too many people to new avenues that don't work. A culture of only conservatives would stagnate, overwhelming the resources of the home range. A balance works well. That notion of competing lifestyles and ideologies is embedded in Western liberal democracies, to their great benefit.

One side of the US political spectrum wants to enforce its own delusions on the world. If only everybody would do as they were told, all that scary uncertainty would go away. There is not one iota of difference between an extremist Muslim mullah and an extremist Southern Baptist mullah.

I'm doodling a way to make art out of all this. Something like a whole universe and a tiny little box which has cut itself off.

Obama/Biden

Obama picked Biden because he thought Biden would be the best to handle the job as V.P.

MaCain picked Palin not because she would be the best for the job but because he thought Palin could win him the election. I shiver in my shoes when I think that Palin or McCain could have anything to do with my future. How could McCain have any idea of what my life is like when he has to ask his "staff" how many houses he owns? I agree with you grassinmytoes, I also fear that there are enough blind Americans who vote to put McCain in office. How bad do things have to get before we wake up as a country? Having a country run on greed and fear is not a very good diet but unfortunately a very alluring one.

like i said before, unfortunately it's all rigged.....

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but hey i'm just a dumb blonde....

peace....

faithhopefreedom says ...

An estimated 5.3 million Americans are prohibited from voting because of a felony conviction, and in 10 states a felony conviction can result in a lifetime ban from voting...

I have no problem with banning felons from voting. What's worth protesting is the policy of, for example, Florida under Jeb Bush to purge voter registration rolls of people whose names resemble those of felons in a transparent ploy to prevent blacks and hispanics from voting.

This one is for Kilhoyer-

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This is my response:

Right or wrong, I believe what u said is true.

McCain needed a fabric softener and a brightening agent that would fit in with his conservative views.

It was a no brainer. Sort of like when 2 lawyers go up against each other. It's unfortunate that it's not always about right or wrong (justice, which is what the process was set up to be) but about who can tell the more convincing story.

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Thank you everyone for your views.

Obama/Biden

I wish there were strong candidates from other parties to challenge the Big 2, but the 3rd party vote would be wasted and we would probably be shackled with another 4 years of Republican hypocrisy. I for one am tired of being an economic  slave for the hypocrites who spout family values and don't know the meaning of anything truly American. My husband and I both have ancestors who fought in the Revolution and in almost every war since for true freedom, not the tyranny we are currently forced to endure. It's time we the people took back our government and our society, from the federal level to the local level. I am voting for the best chance we have to be Americans again. I really respect the way Obama handled the whole preacher mess, he showed alot of intelligence and maturity, something I haven't seen in people in general in a long time. When the rest of the world is excited about one of our candidates in a positive way, that's something to take note of. Please vote everyone!!!