It's hard not being a member of a political party. Hard and inefficient. When people talk politics they first establish their stances. This is very easy for a Republican, Democrat, Libertarian, Green or Communist. When you know what party they support you immediately have a general idea of their political beliefs. You have an established starting point.

Now it's true that next to nobody embraces all of the party line but when you have that known starting point it is very easy to clarify your positions. "I'm a Republican but I support freedom of choice" or "I'm a Democrat but I think socialized medical care is the wrong way to go" or even "I'm a Libertarian but I have a sneaking suspicion that the complete elimination of government would be a bad move".

For those of us who can't identify enough with a party to claim membership it is very difficult to even get to a conversational starting point. Before our debate can begin we need to essentially outline our complete political viewpoint. How do you feel about abortion? How do you feel about welfare? How do you feel about progressive taxation? How do you feel about government subsidies, social security, proactive national defense, deficit spending, etceteras, etceteras, etceteras. It can take fifteen minutes of this before you're even at a point where you can start discussing issues. more...

Posted by: Jim at 12:15 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Dopple-G here, everyone. I'm the source of much of Jim's inanity, but today I bring you a political rant all my own.

For the many who claimed that they were leaving the country if the challenger didnÂ’t win the presidential election, IÂ’d like to extend this opportunity to encourage them to follow through with that promise. more...

Posted by: Garret at 12:25 PM | Comments (9) | Add Comment
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Ilyka is exploring the age old question of what makes a person decide to be a Republican. For me it was pretty simple. When I was a young idealist (making no money) I was very much a Democrat, and proud of it. I thought that it was absolutely wonderful that the Democrats wanted to take care of all of my problems and fix all of the ills of the world. That was a concept I could really get behind!

But as I started to make more money I realized something. First, the Democrats didn't take care of my problems. Not a one. Zilch. Zero. Nada. I did it by myself. I realized something else. They didn't fix all of the ills of the world either. They really weren't fixing any of the world's ills.

But the government was taking my money. In larger and larger amounts. And the Democrats wanted to take even more to fund all of these wonderful problems that never helped me or mine and these other huge programs that never fixed the world's ills.

The more I made, the more they took. But no matter how much of my money they took they still weren't taking care of me and they still weren't fixing the world's ills.

I got pissed. I got Republican. They had loads of bogus promises too but the big one was that they didn't want to keep taking more and more of my money. They wanted a smaller government without so many useless programs that required less money out of my pocket to throw into the great bureaucratic black hole of incompetence. That rocked!

I've toned back quite a bit since then. By this time in my life I'm more of a lower case "l" libertarian than anything else. Perhaps a good description would be "moderate disestablishmentarianist". If the government was completely scaled back to the point where they didn't screw with my life at all unless I was in the process of screwing with somebody else, and vice versa, I'd be perfectly happy.

So long as they stopped taking my money of course.

Posted by: Jim at 06:29 AM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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Everybody has seen the map of America with the red states and the blue states and it makes it look like the coasts versus everybody else. Get a bit more granular and a whole different picture emerges. We're all just shades of purple.

(Hat tip to Dopple-G)

Posted by: Jim at 06:18 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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While waiting for the elevator in the front lobby I overheard this conversation:

Old (very old) Lady: ...but he's NOT on the side of good. He's on the side of EVIL!

Security Guard: But he's...

Old (very old) Lady: (Interrupting) He's evil! You can't support something that's evil!

Security Guard: I don't think...

Old (very old) Lady: (Interrupting) I don't care if he did win the election. He'll never be my president!

Security Guard: It's not like you have a whole lot of choice at this point.

Old (very old) Lady: The hell I don't! I'm fighting for the side of good. I'll fight everything he does! And so will every other good Democrat!

Security Guard: (mutters)

I don't know what the muttering was but I can guess that it was along the lines of "Yeah, that's what I'm afraid of, you crazy old bat."

Thankfully this isn't a person I work with. From the looks of her she wandered in for a captive ear, knowing that the security guard couldn't leave the front desk area. My elevator got there at this point so I don't know how the security guard managed to end the conversation. They are armed with tasers and batons though so we can always hope...

(Credit for "Overheard" theme goes to Flibby. Here's a recent example of his handiwork in the arena.)

Posted by: Jim at 04:03 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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(Click for supah-size)

Sorry, y'all. I couldn't resist.

(Hat tip to Lovely Wife)

Posted by: Jim at 12:03 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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"We are not going to give up until the last vote is counted."

"We give up."

Okay, it was a cheap shot but I couldn't resist. Kerry could have protracted things and extended the exceptional division that has marked this election. After some time to look things over and examine the options and probable repercussions he chose not to do so. Now lets see if they can put those thousands of lawyers back into Pandora's box.

Posted by: Jim at 12:02 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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We at the Flying Pig party would like to thank all of our supporters for the hard work they did during this exciting presidential campaign. It was a good run, hard fought, and dearly paid for.

The contest was close but our analysts tell us that it is statistically impossible for us to pull in Ohio. To avoid the trials and tribulations of a protracted and divisive struggle we are conceding the Presidential race. We will not contest ballots in heavily Piggish districts nor will we file lawsuit after lawsuit in a pathetic attempt to escape the inevitable.

This is a time for healing the self-inflicted wounds that split our country during this highly charged election. A time to make rational thought and cooperation our goals. A time to erase the tri-partisan nature of our politics and make our government simply partisan.

Don't lose heart my friends. The Flying Pig party is still strong and dedicated. We will be back again in 2008 when next these elections come around. In the meantime we fully intend to support President Nader in any way possible and encourage all Piggies to do the same.

Thank you for your support,
Jim Peacock
Former Vice Presidential Candidate, Flying Pig Party

Posted by: Jim at 08:55 AM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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1 2008! If it weren't for our last-minute candidate change, we would have had this in the bag.

Posted by: Flibbertigibbet at November 03, 2004 12:59 PM (yaMs/)

2 You were robbed. You had at least one vote in Hong Kong, but it didn't show up on CNN.

Posted by: Simon at November 04, 2004 12:05 AM (OyeEA)

3 Well he had a vote from Israel also. I'm writing an angry letter off to fox and cnn. Heck, I'll just write off a whole lot of angry bitter letters. (can I run in 08? I'll let you get top billing!)

Posted by: Rachel Ann at November 04, 2004 05:35 AM (0uyki)

4 "to pull in Ohio". That means something very different to the English/Aussies/New Zealanders Are you trying to be elected, or get laid?

Posted by: Helen at November 04, 2004 06:15 AM (hT/v7)

5 Flibby - If only we hadn't lost Florida we would have had a chance. We'll get 'em next time. Simon - That's normal. Absentee ballots generally aren't counted for several after the election. I'm sure it'll show up in the final numbers. Rachel Ann - We can use all the help we can get and I'm sure we could find a cabinet level position for you. How does Secretary of State sound? Helen - Why not both? It worked for Clinton.

Posted by: Jim at November 05, 2004 05:42 AM (GCA5m)

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Waiting time to vote this morning was close to two hours. Later in the day it was still an hour plus. I left work at 4:30 and got to my polling location at 5:15 (did I tell you that I'm a commuter now? Yay).

No line. None. I was in and out in just a couple of minutes. The handful of people there with me were laughing and joking, their fear of a lengthy wait dissipated and leaving them lighthearted and lightheaded.

I'm assuming there was a lot of lightheadedness in the 4th Congressional district where they elected the shame of Georgia Cynthia McKinney again.

The moral of the story? Procrastination pays.

Got a minute? Why not stop by the Flying Space Monkey's totally unscientific but still relatively impartial exit poll?

Posted by: Jim at 10:13 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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