Election Day in America

[oVo]

The Ballots are in motion and there's nothing you can do now.
So you might as well just sit back and enjoy it.

[Symmetry]

Oh it's fascinating seeing some of the dirty tricks Repubs have been putting into play:

My wife and I went to the voting booths this morning before work. There were 4 older ladies running the show and 3 voting booths that are similar to a science fair project in how they fold up. They had an oval VOTE logo on top center and a cartridge slot on the left that the volunteers used to start your ballot.

I initially selected Obama but Romney was highlighted. I assumed it was being picky so I deselected Romney and tried Obama again, this time more carefully, and still got Romney. Being a software developer, I immediately went into troubleshoot mode. I first thought the calibration was off and tried selecting Jill Stein to actually highlight Obama. Nope. Jill Stein was selected just fine. Next I deselected her and started at the top of Romney's name and started tapping very closely together to find the 'active areas'. From the top of Romney's button down to the bottom of the black checkbox beside Obama's name was all active for Romney. From the bottom of that same checkbox to the bottom of the Obama button (basically a small white sliver) is what let me choose Obama. Stein's button was fine. All other buttons worked fine.

I asked the voters on either side of me if they had any problems and they reported they did not. I then called over a volunteer to have a look at it. She him hawed for a bit then calmly said "It's nothing to worry about, everything will be OK." and went back to what she was doing. I then recorded this video.

There is a lot of speculation that the footage is edited. I'm not a video guy, but if it's possible to prove whether a video has been altered or not, I will GLADLY provide the raw footage to anyone who is willing to do so. The jumping frames are a result of the shitty camera app on my Android phone, nothing more.

[Symmetry]

Meanwhile in Florida:

Not a good start in Pinellas County on Election Day

ST. PETERSBURG – An hour after polls opened today, the Pinellas County Supervisor of Elections Office mistakenly placed hundreds – possibly thousands – of automatic calls to voters instructing them that they had until 7 p.m. tomorrow to vote.

Polls actually close at 7 p.m. today. Any ballots turned in after that time won’t be accepted.

The calls went out between 8 a.m. and 8:30 a.m. because of a glitch with the SOE’s phone system. Calls were made Monday alerting voters who had requested mail ballots but had not returned them that they had until 7 p.m. “tomorrow” to get them turned in.

About 12,000 calls, however, didn’t get through, said SOE spokeswoman Nancy Whitlock. They were stored in a queue and recycled this morning. The “tomorrow” in the message meant for Monday was incorrect when it was delivered today.

“About 30 minutes the calls were going out,” Whitlock said. “We stopped it immediately when we found out about it.”

But it wasn’t easy alerting elections officials of the erroneous messages, said one of the voters who got the call.

Kathie Spitzer, a 55-year-old St. Petersburg resident who works from home, said she got the recorded message at 8:07 a.m.

It was a recording of a woman’s voice. She identified herself as an employee with the Pinellas County Supervisor of Elections office, Spitzer said, and she had something to tell voters.

Election Day would be tomorrow.

“She said that they would take ballots through 7 p.m. tomorrow,” Spitzer said. “I couldn’t believe it. It was very upsetting.”

Spitzer said she called the phone number that came up on her caller ID. It led her directly to the supervisor of elections office. When she told the woman who picked up the phone about the call, she was told it was impossible, there was no way such a call was made. She was directed to another woman, who also told it that it was impossible and no such messages were sent out.

“They were very uncooperative,” Spitzer said.

Whitlock said she doesn’t know how many of the 12,000 calls went out in 30 minutes. She said it wasn’t anywhere close to the total number of calls stored in the queue.

Whitlock said a second message was quickly sent out informing those who received the incorrect messages that today is Election Day and the final day to accept ballots.

“We encourage anyone with a mall ballot return it by 7 p.m. today and disregard the call this morning,” Whitlock said for those who left after the second call was made.

Link

[Frigidus]

I can't wait for election season to end. So tired of listening to people I normally respect getting out the pom poms and embarrassing themselves.

[saxitoxin]

You've still got a few hours left before you need to decide which headline to use, Symm.

[Symmetry]

You've still got a few hours left before you need to decide which headline to use, Symm.

I just enjoy the theatre. It's not like Florida is byword for running responsible elections.

[thegreekdog]

Oh it's fascinating seeing some of the dirty tricks Repubs have been putting into play:

My wife and I went to the voting booths this morning before work. There were 4 older ladies running the show and 3 voting booths that are similar to a science fair project in how they fold up. They had an oval VOTE logo on top center and a cartridge slot on the left that the volunteers used to start your ballot.

I initially selected Obama but Romney was highlighted. I assumed it was being picky so I deselected Romney and tried Obama again, this time more carefully, and still got Romney. Being a software developer, I immediately went into troubleshoot mode. I first thought the calibration was off and tried selecting Jill Stein to actually highlight Obama. Nope. Jill Stein was selected just fine. Next I deselected her and started at the top of Romney's name and started tapping very closely together to find the 'active areas'. From the top of Romney's button down to the bottom of the black checkbox beside Obama's name was all active for Romney. From the bottom of that same checkbox to the bottom of the Obama button (basically a small white sliver) is what let me choose Obama. Stein's button was fine. All other buttons worked fine.

I asked the voters on either side of me if they had any problems and they reported they did not. I then called over a volunteer to have a look at it. She him hawed for a bit then calmly said "It's nothing to worry about, everything will be OK." and went back to what she was doing. I then recorded this video.

There is a lot of speculation that the footage is edited. I'm not a video guy, but if it's possible to prove whether a video has been altered or not, I will GLADLY provide the raw footage to anyone who is willing to do so. The jumping frames are a result of the shitty camera app on my Android phone, nothing more.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/11 ... officials/
http://mrctv.org/blog/obama-poster-hang ... ng-station
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/11 ... ting-site/
http://washingtonexaminer.com/philly-go ... Jkm9sXA-4d

Fair and balanced.

[thegreekdog]

Practically anything could happen in today's election. Some projections suggest Mitt Romney will win the popular vote, while Barack Obama will keep the White House by winning the Electoral College. If this happens, please let it be the spark that sets fire to that anachronistic institution.

In 2000, Al Gore won the popular vote, but George W. Bush took the Electoral College. In 2004, Bush won the popular vote while John Kerry came within an eyelash of taking the Electoral College. If either Romney or Obama takes the White House today while losing the popular vote, please let this catalyze change.

The system of having the president chosen by electors was designed partly to protect slavery. Slave states worried that the populous North would elect an abolitionist president. The Electoral College, combined with denying slaves the vote but counting them as three-fifths of a person for the purpose of allocating electors, helped preserve an abomination for another seven decades.

Some of the Framers opposed slavery but favored the Electoral College, because they did not trust average people. The Constitution was written to have average people represented in the House, via direct election; the landed gentry represented in the Senate, with senators chosen by state legislatures it was assumed the well-off would control; and presidents chosen by councils of electors isolated from what Thomas Jefferson called "the passions" of the illiterate masses.

Maybe that was the right call in 1789. But then, average people were uneducated. Today literacy is universal, and nearly everyone has some education. Direct election of senators was adopted in 1913, with ratification of the 17th Amendment. A century later, there's still no direct election of the president. The United States preaches one-person, one-vote to the world, yet here at home, uses a system that makes a voter in Florida, Ohio or Pennsylvania much more important than a voter in California, Texas or New York.

In current application, the Electoral College over-represents some states, under-represents others, and discourages voter turnout in California, Texas and New York, the nation's most populous states. Sunday, Obama made his seventh campaign appearance in New Hampshire, population 1.3 million -- the president has made no campaign appearances in Texas, population 26 million. Hundreds of votes in California, Texas or New York can mean less than a single vote in Wisconsin. This is what the United States wants to tell the world is a democratic ideal?

Because of the anachronistic Electoral College, issues that matter in battleground states -- coal use in Ohio and Pennsylvania, anti-Castro sentiment in Florida -- get more attention during elections than issues involving much larger numbers of people, such as the quality of public education in California and Texas. And the attention doesn't even help battleground states. In the past three presidential election cycles, both parties have treated Ohio as the center of the known universe. Yet Ohio remains a troubled state, with industrial decline and government corruption.

A destructive dynamic exists between the Electoral College and modern techniques of targeted lobbying and ZIP code analysis of voter tendencies. The better campaign consultants become at manipulating votes, the more the Electoral College becomes a tool for special interests, favoring them versus the overall national interest.

The Electoral College locks the country into a two-party system in which true alternative voices are not heard. If a third-party candidate cannot take all the electors of a state, that candidate cannot be anything but a spoiler. This forces third parties into a negative role, draining the creativity from national politics.

The problem could in theory be solved if every state legislature switched to awarding electors proportionate to votes, rather than winner-take-all. Currently, only Nebraska and Maine use this enlightened approach. The trouble is that if many states began enacting proportional-elector laws, each four years as the presidential endgame became clear, Republican-controlled or Democratic-controlled states would change their laws to put their candidates over the top. That's the fatal flaw of this otherwise worthy initiative.

The solution is a constitutional amendment establishing direct popular election of the president. This is needed to bring the United States into the 20th century, to say nothing of the 21st century. We can't lecture the world about representative democracy when we still don't have it here. Yes, popular vote would make big cities more important than rural states -- but big cities are more important than rural states, and at any rate, the composition of the Senate adjusts for small-state concerns. There's just no reason to keep the antiquated Electoral College. The only ones who benefit from keeping the system the way it is are campaign consultants, lawyers and corrupt politicians.

If there were direct election of the president, nonsense like the 2000 Florida recount-of-the-recount-of-the-recount would not happen, nor would nonsense like this. The whole reason for the 2000 Supreme Court decision effectively choosing the president was that the Electoral College disenfranchises some while magnifying the votes of others. Was the George W. Bush presidency legitimate? Will the Mitt Romney or second Obama presidency be legitimate? With popular-vote election, we'd be sure.

[saxitoxin]

You've still got a few hours left before you need to decide which headline to use, Symm.

I just enjoy the theatre. It's not like Florida is byword for running responsible elections.

true -

Official-looking but bogus letters telling mostly Republican voters that their citizenship is in question are turning up in Florida. The phony letters have been reported in 23 counties so far in an apparent attempt to intimidate voters, Department of State spokesman Chris Cate said Tuesday.

http://www.king5.com/news/politics/Bogu ... 29761.html

[Symmetry]

You've still got a few hours left before you need to decide which headline to use, Symm.

I just enjoy the theatre. It's not like Florida is byword for running responsible elections.

true -

Official-looking but bogus letters telling mostly Republican voters that their citizenship is in question are turning up in Florida. The phony letters have been reported in 23 counties so far in an apparent attempt to intimidate voters, Department of State spokesman Chris Cate said Tuesday.

http://www.king5.com/news/politics/Bogu ... 29761.html

That Chris Cate guy turns up a lot in stories about dodgy Republican electioneering in Florida, thanks for pointing him out.

Florida, which is expected to be a vital swing state once again in this year’s presidential election, is enrolling fewer new voters than it did four years ago as prominent civic organizations have suspended registration drives because of what they describe as onerous restrictions imposed last year by Republican state officials.

The state’s new elections law — which requires groups that register voters to turn in completed forms within 48 hours or risk fines, among other things — has led the state’s League of Women Voters to halt its efforts this year. Rock the Vote, a national organization that encourages young people to vote, began an effort last week to register high school students around the nation — but not in Florida, over fears that teachers could face fines. And on college campuses, the once-ubiquitous folding tables piled high with voter registration forms are now a rarer sight.

Florida, which reminded the nation of the importance of every vote in the disputed presidential election in 2000 when it reported that George W. Bush had won by 537 votes, is now seeing a significant drop-off in new voter registrations. In the months since its new law took effect in May, 81,471 fewer Floridians have registered to vote than during the same period before the 2008 presidential election, according to an analysis of registration data by The New York Times. All told, there are 11.3 million voters registered in the state.

It is difficult to say just how much of the decrease is due to the restrictions in the law, and how much to demographic changes, a lack of enthusiasm about politics or other circumstances, including the fact that there was no competitive Democratic presidential primary this year. But new registrations dropped sharply in some areas where the voting-age population has been growing, the analysis found, including Miami-Dade County, where they fell by 39 percent, and Orange County, where they fell by a little more than a fifth. Some local elections officials said that the lack of registration drives by outside groups has been a factor in the decline.

In Volusia County, where new registrations dropped by nearly a fifth compared with the same period four years ago, the supervisor of elections, Ann McFall, said that she attributed much of the change to the new law. “The drop-off is our League of Women Voters, our five universities in Volusia County, none of which are making a concentrated effort this year,” Ms. McFall said.

Florida’s law — which is being challenged in court by civic groups and, in counties covered by the Voting Rights Act, the Justice Department — is one of more than a dozen that states have passed in recent years that have made it harder to vote by requiring voters to show photo identification at polls, reducing early voting periods or making it more difficult to register.

Republicans, who have passed nearly all of the new voting laws, say the restrictions are needed to prevent fraud. Democrats note that such fraud almost never happens, and say that the laws will make it harder for young people and members of minorities, who tend to support Democrats, to vote.

Chris Cate, the communications director for Florida’s Department of State, which oversees the state’s Division of Elections, questioned how much of the decline in registrations should be attributed to the new law, noting that four years ago Floridians were registering to vote in both Democratic and Republican presidential primaries, and gearing up for a constitutional amendment about property taxes, which generated interest and enthusiasm. “To suggest the new elections law had a greater impact on voter registration than the election ballot itself is a leap of logic,” Mr. Cate said.

The law in Florida, which was passed by a Republican-controlled Legislature and signed into law by Gov. Rick Scott, a Republican, also reduces the number of early voting days in the state. While the effects of those changes may not be seen until the fall, the new restrictions on voter registrations are already being felt — as Sabu L. Williams, the president of the Okaloosa County Branch of the N.A.A.C.P., discovered this year when he registered some voters during the Martin Luther King’s Birthday weekend.

Mr. Williams’s group registered two voters on the Sunday of the three-day weekend, and noted the time, as required by the law: 2:15 p.m. and 2:20 p.m. When the local elections office reopened on Tuesday, Jan. 17, the group handed the forms in. They were stamped as received at 3:53 p.m.

This resulted in a warning letter from Secretary of State Kurt S. Browning, who noted that the state can levy fines of $50 for each late application, with an annual cap of $1,000 in fines per group. “In your case, although the supervisor’s office was closed on Monday, Jan. 16, the 48-hour period ended for the two applications on Jan. 17 at 2:15 p.m. and 2:20 p.m.; therefore, the applications were untimely under the law,” Mr. Browning wrote. The letter said that “any future violation of the third-party voter registration law may result in my referral of the matter to the attorney general for an enforcement action.”

Mr. Williams said he could not believe it. “We’re out here trying to register voters, and I’m being threatened for doing it because we missed the time limit by around an hour — and we’re doing it on the first business day they were open!” he said. But he vowed to continue registering voters.

Mr. Cate, the spokesman for the Department of State, said the letter was meant to inform Mr. Williams of the law, which he said was a typical response when the state believed that someone had been unaware of the law and violated it unintentionally. Deirdre Macnab, the president of the League of Women Voters of Florida, filed suit with other civic groups to overturn the law. “Basically our volunteers, after 72 years of registering voters problem-free, would now need an attorney on one hand and a secretary on the other to even attempt to navigate these new laws,” said Ms. Macnab, whose organization has sued the state over past restrictions.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/28/us/restrictions-on-voter-registration-in-florida-have-groups-opting-out.html?_r=0

[keiths31]

I didn't realize politicians had so much say in where and when people could vote in the USA. This seems...wrong

http://www.cnn.com/2012/11/05/opinion/frum-election-chaos/index.html

[saxitoxin]

You've still got a few hours left before you need to decide which headline to use, Symm.

I just enjoy the theatre. It's not like Florida is byword for running responsible elections.

true -

Official-looking but bogus letters telling mostly Republican voters that their citizenship is in question are turning up in Florida. The phony letters have been reported in 23 counties so far in an apparent attempt to intimidate voters, Department of State spokesman Chris Cate said Tuesday.

http://www.king5.com/news/politics/Bogu ... 29761.html

That Chris Cate guy turns up a lot in stories

Well, since "that Chris Cate guy" [sic] is the spokesman for the Florida elections department, I imagine his name would "turn up a lot in stories" [sic] about elections in Florida.

http://www.linkedin.com/pub/chris-cate/a/6a2/1b0

In other news, White House spokesman Jay Carney turns up a lot in stories about the White House. Another conspiracy theory, Symm? Does he know where the secret treasure is buried maybe?

https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&gl= ... 0rsrPhqNVo

[Dukasaur]

direct popular election of the president.

Direct election of the Prez would accelerate the concentration of excessive power in the Oval Office and the American slide into dictatorship.

The original founders saw legislative leadership proceeding from the people, through their representatives in Congress. The President was meant to be an executive officer. In other words, the guy who sees to it that the decisions of the Congress are carried out, not the guy making the decisions, except for his veto power which was a line of defense against implausible decisions.

Yet, within 20 years after the founding of the American Republic, presidents were proposing legislation instead of simply carrying it out. Within 80 years, a president was proposing legislation and then carrying it out without even waiting for the formal approval process. Within 150 years the majority of legislation was being written by Presidential order before being forwarded to some sock puppet in Congress who would sign his name as the official mover. Like the Roman Senate, the Congress has become more and more just a toothless tiger, free to cheer the Presidents decisions when they go well and to be scapegoated for them when they go badly.

If the Republic is to be saved (highly unlikely, of course) the role of Congress must be reclaimed, and for that the Pharoanic treatment of the President should end. Presidential elections should be done away with, along with the veto and other special Presidential prerogatives. The President should be reduced to his proper role as CEO and nothing more: the highest-ranking bureaucrat in the federal bureaucracy. He should be prohibited from political activity and judged by his bureaucratic functions only. He should be appointed by the House Ways and Means Committee or some such body, completely without fanfare, and have no fixed term, subject to summary dismissal by the same Committee.

[thegreekdog]

direct popular election of the president.

Direct election of the Prez would accelerate the concentration of excessive power in the Oval Office and the American slide into dictatorship.

The original founders saw legislative leadership proceeding from the people, through their representatives in Congress. The President was meant to be an executive officer. In other words, the guy who sees to it that the decisions of the Congress are carried out, not the guy making the decisions, except for his veto power which was a line of defense against implausible decisions.

Yet, within 20 years after the founding of the American Republic, presidents were proposing legislation instead of simply carrying it out. Within 80 years, a president was proposing legislation and then carrying it out without even waiting for the formal approval process. Within 150 years the majority of legislation was being written by Presidential order before being forwarded to some sock puppet in Congress who would sign his name as the official mover. Like the Roman Senate, the Congress has become more and more just a toothless tiger, free to cheer the Presidents decisions when they go well and to be scapegoated for them when they go badly.

If the Republic is to be saved (highly unlikely, of course) the role of Congress must be reclaimed, and for that the Pharoanic treatment of the President should end. Presidential elections should be done away with, along with the veto and other special Presidential prerogatives. The President should be reduced to his proper role as CEO and nothing more: the highest-ranking bureaucrat in the federal bureaucracy. He should be prohibited from political activity and judged by his bureaucratic functions only. He should be appointed by the House Ways and Means Committee or some such body, completely without fanfare, and have no fixed term, subject to summary dismissal by the same Committee.

I like your suggestion. Do you have any reading materials on that?

[Symmetry]

You've still got a few hours left before you need to decide which headline to use, Symm.

I just enjoy the theatre. It's not like Florida is byword for running responsible elections.

true -

Official-looking but bogus letters telling mostly Republican voters that their citizenship is in question are turning up in Florida. The phony letters have been reported in 23 counties so far in an apparent attempt to intimidate voters, Department of State spokesman Chris Cate said Tuesday.

http://www.king5.com/news/politics/Bogu ... 29761.html

That Chris Cate guy turns up a lot in stories

Well, since "that Chris Cate guy" [sic] is the spokesman for the Florida elections department, I imagine his name would "turn up a lot in stories" [sic] about elections in Florida.

According to their website, he's the entire office of communications for the Florida department of state.

http://dos.dos.state.fl.us/news/communications/index.aspx

I can see why he's been busy.

[saxitoxin]

According to their website, he's the entire office of communications for the Florida department of state.

http://dos.dos.state.fl.us/news/communi ... index.aspx

I can see why he's been busy.

OK

direct popular election of the president.

Direct election of the Prez would accelerate the concentration of excessive power in the Oval Office and the American slide into dictatorship.

The original founders saw legislative leadership proceeding from the people, through their representatives in Congress. The President was meant to be an executive officer. In other words, the guy who sees to it that the decisions of the Congress are carried out, not the guy making the decisions, except for his veto power which was a line of defense against implausible decisions.

Yet, within 20 years after the founding of the American Republic, presidents were proposing legislation instead of simply carrying it out. Within 80 years, a president was proposing legislation and then carrying it out without even waiting for the formal approval process. Within 150 years the majority of legislation was being written by Presidential order before being forwarded to some sock puppet in Congress who would sign his name as the official mover. Like the Roman Senate, the Congress has become more and more just a toothless tiger, free to cheer the Presidents decisions when they go well and to be scapegoated for them when they go badly.

If the Republic is to be saved (highly unlikely, of course) the role of Congress must be reclaimed, and for that the Pharoanic treatment of the President should end. Presidential elections should be done away with, along with the veto and other special Presidential prerogatives. The President should be reduced to his proper role as CEO and nothing more: the highest-ranking bureaucrat in the federal bureaucracy. He should be prohibited from political activity and judged by his bureaucratic functions only. He should be appointed by the House Ways and Means Committee or some such body, completely without fanfare, and have no fixed term, subject to summary dismissal by the same Committee.

I agree with Dukasaur for different reasons. A popular vote would require a separate national agency just to administer those elections, like Canada has for Commons, separate from provincial elections departments. Otherwise individual states would be incentivized to play with their results. Texas might decide to guarantee a Republican victory by dropping their voting age to 15, thus increasing the size of their voting rolls. California might respond by allowing prisoners to vote. Etc.

[Dukasaur]

direct popular election of the president.

Direct election of the Prez would accelerate the concentration of excessive power in the Oval Office and the American slide into dictatorship.

The original founders saw legislative leadership proceeding from the people, through their representatives in Congress. The President was meant to be an executive officer. In other words, the guy who sees to it that the decisions of the Congress are carried out, not the guy making the decisions, except for his veto power which was a line of defense against implausible decisions.

Yet, within 20 years after the founding of the American Republic, presidents were proposing legislation instead of simply carrying it out. Within 80 years, a president was proposing legislation and then carrying it out without even waiting for the formal approval process. Within 150 years the majority of legislation was being written by Presidential order before being forwarded to some sock puppet in Congress who would sign his name as the official mover. Like the Roman Senate, the Congress has become more and more just a toothless tiger, free to cheer the Presidents decisions when they go well and to be scapegoated for them when they go badly.

If the Republic is to be saved (highly unlikely, of course) the role of Congress must be reclaimed, and for that the Pharoanic treatment of the President should end. Presidential elections should be done away with, along with the veto and other special Presidential prerogatives. The President should be reduced to his proper role as CEO and nothing more: the highest-ranking bureaucrat in the federal bureaucracy. He should be prohibited from political activity and judged by his bureaucratic functions only. He should be appointed by the House Ways and Means Committee or some such body, completely without fanfare, and have no fixed term, subject to summary dismissal by the same Committee.

I like your suggestion. Do you have any reading materials on that?

Not really. It's been 22 years since I was involved in politics, and I haven't bothered keeping up with the new stuff more that what I come across in this forum. I remember Inquiry magasine had stuff in this vein back in the day. No idea if they still exist.

But if you're waiting for me to make an Argument from Authority, don't wait. Most of my stuff, while it of course owes partial intellectual debts to everything I've read at one time or another, is ultimately self-synthesized.

[thegreekdog]

direct popular election of the president.

Direct election of the Prez would accelerate the concentration of excessive power in the Oval Office and the American slide into dictatorship.

The original founders saw legislative leadership proceeding from the people, through their representatives in Congress. The President was meant to be an executive officer. In other words, the guy who sees to it that the decisions of the Congress are carried out, not the guy making the decisions, except for his veto power which was a line of defense against implausible decisions.

Yet, within 20 years after the founding of the American Republic, presidents were proposing legislation instead of simply carrying it out. Within 80 years, a president was proposing legislation and then carrying it out without even waiting for the formal approval process. Within 150 years the majority of legislation was being written by Presidential order before being forwarded to some sock puppet in Congress who would sign his name as the official mover. Like the Roman Senate, the Congress has become more and more just a toothless tiger, free to cheer the Presidents decisions when they go well and to be scapegoated for them when they go badly.

If the Republic is to be saved (highly unlikely, of course) the role of Congress must be reclaimed, and for that the Pharoanic treatment of the President should end. Presidential elections should be done away with, along with the veto and other special Presidential prerogatives. The President should be reduced to his proper role as CEO and nothing more: the highest-ranking bureaucrat in the federal bureaucracy. He should be prohibited from political activity and judged by his bureaucratic functions only. He should be appointed by the House Ways and Means Committee or some such body, completely without fanfare, and have no fixed term, subject to summary dismissal by the same Committee.

I like your suggestion. Do you have any reading materials on that?

Not really. It's been 22 years since I was involved in politics, and I haven't bothered keeping up with the new stuff more that what I come across in this forum. I remember Inquiry magasine had stuff in this vein back in the day. No idea if they still exist.

But if you're waiting for me to make an Argument from Authority, don't wait. Most of my stuff, while it of course owes partial intellectual debts to everything I've read at one time or another, is ultimately self-synthesized.

No offense, but I cannot imagine you are the first to think of this type of solution. I will see if I can find anything arguing for this idea.

[Phatscotty]

Huffington Post calls it for Romney
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/steve-lom ... 81881.html

[rdsrds2120]

An amusing article from the Huffington Post:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/steve-lom ... 81881.html

Click image to enlarge.

BMO

[Phatscotty]

[Swimmerdude99]

Yeah Republicans rigged the votes last year too, they changed em around so they could get Obama in president seat.......

[Funkyterrance]

Sunday, Obama made his seventh campaign appearance in New Hampshire, population 1.3 million -- the president has made no campaign appearances in Texas, population 26 million.

Actually, that post was very sensible. Thanks, TGD.

[thegreekdog]

Sunday, Obama made his seventh campaign appearance in New Hampshire, population 1.3 million -- the president has made no campaign appearances in Texas, population 26 million.

[/url]


Actually, that post was very sensible. Thanks, TGD.

Not mine. It's from Gregg Easterbrook - Tuesday Morning Quarterback on espn.com. He writes some good stuff and is pretty nonpartisan.

I was thinking about this tonight as I'm watching CNN. In states like Vermont or New Hampshire, where everyone knows who is going to win before the election takes place, will we ever see like no Republicans voting someday?

[Funkyterrance]

Sunday, Obama made his seventh campaign appearance in New Hampshire, population 1.3 million -- the president has made no campaign appearances in Texas, population 26 million.

Actually, that post was very sensible. Thanks, TGD.

Not mine. It's from Gregg Easterbrook - Tuesday Morning Quarterback on espn.com. He writes some good stuff and is pretty nonpartisan.

I was thinking about this tonight as I'm watching CNN. In states like Vermont or New Hampshire, where everyone knows who is going to win before the election takes place, will we ever see like no Republicans voting someday?

It was pretty cold here tonight, they could have stayed in and at least stayed snuggly.