I actually saw a Ron Paul 08′ bumper sticker prominently displayed in Oklahoma City yesterday. Hope to see a “Ron Paul Lied, Nobody Heard It” soon.

Posted by: MGene | Jul 30 2007 21:45 utc | 4

DENNIS!!! (in my heart)
otherwise Gore vs something despicable

Posted by: beq | Jul 31 2007 1:01 utc | 6

Romney/Huckabee vs. Clinton/Richardson vs. Bloomberg/Clark
You heard it here first, and I guarantee you ain’t gonna hear it anywhere else.

Posted by: mats | Jul 31 2007 1:11 utc | 8

Clinton vs Guiliani, with a very low voter turnout, and many pundits declaring the country doomed.
I’m kidding. (I think we can do better)
Disclaimer: Not for people who are frightened by clinical depression, matchups of this kind may tend to doom a country, void where prohibited.

Posted by: Copeland | Jul 31 2007 3:23 utc | 10

And I get banned, lose two years worth of research/hotlist from Dkos for even mentioning this shit:
Three *different* e-voting systems officially hackable.
Three Vendors, Numerous Failures

Sequoia Voting Systems: They were able to gain physical access to the system by removing screws to bypass locks. They also discovered several ways to overwrite the firmware of the Sequoia system.
Diebold Elections Systems: Testers were able to exploit vulnerabilities in the operating system and take security-related actions that the server did not record in its audit logs.
Hart Intercivic: The team developed a device that caused Hart’s system to authorize access codes without poll worker intervention.

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Jul 31 2007 4:08 utc | 12

Right, Malooga, Electronic Voting is on top of the list of Elite Concerns, in more ways than Chomsky meant. Swing by mark crispin miller’s blog to get the info on the Election Deform bill that Feinstein Introduced. It would centralize control over elections in a 4 Stooges of the Predators Panel at federal level. So, not only do the Predators only have to buy 4 Am. Stooges, but presumably Mexico, Canada, etc. will be told to do the same, smoothing the way for them to eliminate America & our Constitution altogether.
@Malooga, if you’re around, do you know if Amy Goodman still gets foundation funding? I’m aghast at how marginal she is, even relative to Thom Hartmann. She doesn’t take on the Predators War on US at all…

Posted by: jj | Jul 31 2007 4:48 utc | 14

I love it! Where do I get my A+A=2008 bumper sticker?

Posted by: catlady | Jul 31 2007 5:13 utc | 16

So you think there was ‘no difference’ between the candidates in 2000?
I heard that argument from otherwise intelligent friends. Some of them voted for Ralph Nader.
Well, look at the mess we got into. I defy anyone to say that things would be as bad as they are now had Gore been the UNDISPUTED winner of that election. I will never respect Ralph Nader again–he’s done enough damage to counter all his earlier good works.

Posted by: hopping madbunny | Jul 31 2007 10:19 utc | 18

Thought you might just be interested to know that Chuck Hagel has a huge following among ‘intellectuals’ (O.K., pseudo-intellectuals) down here in Iran. Sure, he’s Republican and supported the invasion, but he has spent the entire period since the invasion condemning the Bush Administration on every front, he’s got charisma, interviews really well and looks and sounds ‘presidential’.
But these are probably the reasons why he won’t get elected, even if he runs …. (sigh).

Posted by: Parviz | Jul 31 2007 11:22 utc | 20

Kenneth Starr’s Law Firm Gives More to Clinton Than Republicans

Posted by: beq | Jul 31 2007 13:40 utc | 22

What’s struck me in all of this is that the current “phoney” electoral war is an expression of the premature power vacuum that seems to exist in Washington now, and is set to deepen over the next few months as the economy sours further and the Iraqi insurgents gear up for their “Black September” campaign.
There are at least 3 Democratic party heavy-hitters who have yet to reveal their hands: Gore, Clark and Dean ( not necessarily as a candidate, but as a “signpost” ). Obama, Clinton and Edwards are all credible candidates at this point, but the real battle won’t get started until October.
The Republicans are in a mess, and it’s hard to see any of the current crop of rabbits, and that includes Thompson, gaining any traction amongst the wider electorate. The “conundrum” for a serious Republican candidate that is still deliberating his ( and it will be HIS ) position, is that 2008 is likely to be an electoral disaster for the party, which isn’t exactly encouraging. Whilst it’s difficult to judge the texture of US public sentiment from the other side of the pond, the 2008 US elections are likely to resemble the 1997 Tory debacle.
Then again, there’s always events….and events just abhor a vacuum.

Posted by: dan | Jul 31 2007 14:47 utc | 24

It’ll be Clinton vs Giuliani, with Mr Skull-in-Drag as your newly resident White House death’s head by a landslide. But I won’t be living here by then – shame.

Posted by: Tantalus | Jul 31 2007 16:39 utc | 26

Alright, hopping madbunny,
Despite the fact that Shrub, et Pere, sat smugly before the telly watching his bro and cousin, John Ellis, work their selection night mojo without the slightest concern in the world, and despite the fact that if an accurate election and counting had taken place Gore would have won by over 100,000 votes (2%), and despite the fact that I personally like Gore best among the predator charlatans, and despite the fact that I have spent a bit of time with Nader and find him one of a handful of the most compelling people I have ever met, let’s take you at your word and imagine where the world would be if Gore had been legitimately elected (and not then forfeited the office in a subsequent news conference).
The issues, as I see them:
Global Warming, Sustainability
The right-wing Congress, aided and abetted the right-wing Press, would have not missed a beat from their endless demonization of the “liberal” Clinton, to the endless demonization of the “liberal” Gore. Beleagered and scandal ridden one-term President Gore (America’s first Buddhist President) would not have had enough votes to pass even a modest pro-corporate energy bill calling for very modest increases in gas mileage, as “liberal” Detroit Democrats like Levin joined “centrist” Blue-doggers like Landrieux of Louisiana in defecting and supporting a more “balanced” bill that called for increased drilling in America combined with Secretary of Agriculture Gephart’s and Sec’y of the Interior Vilsak’s “Ethanol Independence Proposal.” A blue-ribbon panel would study the advisability of building more nuclear reactors to increase our energy independence, chaired by former New Mexico Governor “Uranium Bill” Richardson. $500 million would be thrown very publicly at solar and wind power, the majority of which would have gone to the US’s largest wind power manufacturer, Enron (seriously), rescuing it from bankruptcy, and making its CEO, Ken Lay, an “American Hero.” There would be a few credits thrown at domestic energy efficiency, with most of the profits going to insulation manufacturers like Dow Corning, and Home Depot. Domestic energy consumption would temporarily fall by 1%, and the average size of new houses would increase by 5%. The next President, a Republican, would have the support of Congress to push forward a modest energy efficiency bill, giving US corporations more regulatory certainty over their future. (Advantage: Even)
Iraq, Israel, Middle East resource grab, “War on Terror,” Militarism, and Global Empire
Yes, 9-11 would not have been allowed to happen, and we would not have invaded Iraq. We would have kept up the no-fly zones and the sanctions, threatened military build-up, agreed to Saddam’s concessions to USuk oil company exploration, and still been responsible for the deaths of only another half-million Iraqis. Oil would have remained in the $30-40/barrel range, and world-wide oil consumption would be 2% higher than it is now.
Secretary of State Soros, and National Security Advisor Fuerth (not Feith, but not far off, either) would have engineered a series of successful “Color Revolutions” throughout the ‘Stans. Initially, this would have been promoted as a Democratic success, until the Russian-backed insurgencies in Uzbekistan began to escalate Vietnam-like, with US advisors being replaced by troops supplied by way of Afghanistan, which we had invaded after they blew up the Buddhist statues.
Of course, none of this would be front page news — it would all be small peanuts — compared to the growing insurgency in Venezuela, after the US backed coup succeeded in removing the “hateful dictator” Hugo Chavez. The “War for Democracy in Our Backyard” would be spiralling out of control as Colombia, Paraguay and Chile support the US, but the violence would have spread to Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia following surprise coups in those countries. Brazil and Argentina would follow policies of official neutrality despite covertly supporting the US position. The furor created by this covert support would have enraged and split the citizenry of those countries, resulting in harsh repressions and a return of “disappearances.” President Gore, echoing Presidents McKinley, T. Roosevelt, and Reagan would have claimed that “we must support the democracy-fighters in our own hemisphere.”
Vice-President Lieberman’s public claim “that the Palestinians never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity” following the failure of Mid-East advisor Dennis Ross’ seventeeth attempt at a brokered peace, which offered the Palestinians a full 63% of the land promised at Oslo, would overshadow the fact that the settler population in the West Bank had now un-officially exceeded 1M.
Africom would be doing fine, but African Ambassador-at-large Obama would be off on a humanitarian tour of the continent, along with Bono and Madonna, and her new husband, World Trade Org. head Wolfowitz, encouraging governments to sign on to the “Afro-American Free Trade Agreement,” which would aim to ameliorate starvation (caused by the Gore-induced global ethanol binge doubling world grain commodity prices) and disease through the gifts of GMO and terminator seeds, and the enforced purchasing of US manufactured HIV vaccines. They would also be pushing the eventual adoption of the widely heralded “Universal Healthcare” measures (see below) just made into law in the US. Phizer, Monsanto, ADM, and Cargill would open shiny regional offices in Pretoria. (Advantage: Bush)
Corporatism, The “Contradictions” of Capitalism,” Growth as Metaphor
No big changes here. The US middle class would be better off for several more years before the crash comes. We would still be trying to grow our way into “full employment,” something which we have not succeeded in doing in our previous 225 year history. Gore would have immediately upon taking office increased the national minimum wage to $6.25/hr., thus killing off all state measures to push the minimum wage over $7/hr. We would still be speaking about the “War on Drugs,” and not nostalgically, and building prisons to contain the war’s vast bounty.
The global paradigm shift will still occur only after the world’s ocean harvests fail catastrophically, perhaps in about ten years. (Advantage: Even)
Domestic Social Concerns
Gore would have succeeded where Hillary failed in passing “Universal Health Insurance,” similar to the plan recently passed in Massachusetts by then Gov. Romney, which mandates that all people buy health insurance from insurance companies, and threatens to criminalize and jail all those too poor to comply (See above: Prisons). Now that we have National Health Insurance, bankruptcies and malnutrition levels would “inexplicably” rise.
Gays would still not have the right to murder those that they don’t know somewhere across the world, in the military. We would not have heard of Terry Schiavo, and we would have passed a stem-cell bill, saving absolutely zero lives but throwing several billion dollars at the starving pharmaceutical companies. But First Lady Tipper, continuing where she left off, would make sure that Howard Stern served out his life sentence for pruriency, her favorite cause.
Some of our privacy rights would not yet be eroded, but the laws would sit written waiting for the next Venezuelan terrorist attack. (Advantage: Even)
*******************************
I could go on, but I think you get the point: The empire is a shark that has to kill to stay alive. The shark is an intricate system, but it has a very small brain. It doesn’t matter who is selected to be the brain, the shark still gets hungry at the same intervals. It just might look somewhere else for its meal.

Posted by: Malooga | Jul 31 2007 21:04 utc | 28

heh. good to have ya back, malooga. i’m betting hopping madbunny meant ‘things would not be so bad for themselves/us‘ (tho i never was good at gambling)
my prediction (another thing i’m not good at) is that the selection will again go to the candidate from yale
some yale alumni include
– g. ford
– g. bush sr
– w. clinton
– g. bush jr (who ran against fellow alumni j. kerry in ’04 & in ‘0 against the ticket of a. gore – harvard – and j. lieberman – yale!)
– h. clinton

Posted by: b real | Aug 1 2007 3:26 utc | 30

Uncle Scam wrote: We can’t reboot till the system crashes and it’s going to crash. Lets get it over with so we can rebuild. Right. General Strike to speed it up.
Why should Gore run? He knows why he lost the last time; that is not the kind of role one takes on again. (see jj as well.)
I’m with Copeland: Clinton vs. the Ghoul -iani. She doesn’t win.
Uncle you got banned for that? Dkos is the pits, surprised you bothered. The internets and bloggerdom were sure to be exploited by the PTB, but it was impossible or difficult from above, so it attracted opportunists from below.
Debs at 15 wrote: But the truly sad part is they don’t need to rig the poll.
Your arguments are fine, I agree, yet: the system is built on sloppy control from top to very bottom, so the votes are controlled, or manipulated, as well, because they want to, because they can, because * it may count. *
For ex. in this poll, Newsweek, attitudes to Muslims, 35% prefer (“lean towards”) the repub. party as opposed to 51% > Dems.
msnbc

Posted by: Noirette | Aug 1 2007 16:50 utc | 32

More of the same.
is there no end to insanity?

Posted by: beq | Aug 1 2007 18:10 utc | 34

uncle #17.. yeah!! you can be our sec of state!

Posted by: annie | Aug 2 2007 16:31 utc | 36