Tag: Election
How I’m Voting
I’m deeply conflicted about electoral politics. I participate, and I vote, but I’m skeptical of the whole process, and it frustrates me. I’m edumacated. I’ve studied up on tomorrow’s election. But I can’t say I’ve got any confidence in the decisions I will be making in the booth. And if it’s hard for me, who […]
Read More → How I’m VotingDon’t Believe the Polls
I’m skeptical of the polls on the upcoming New Orleans elections. It’s difficult to conduct an accurate poll under our current circumstances. I’ve seen at least one that used pre-Katrina landline phone numbers. The flaws in that methodology should be obvious to anyone familiar with recent events here, but just to drive the point home: […]
Read More → Don’t Believe the PollsDistrict B Scorecard
I went to a candidate forum last night for City Council districts A, B, C and at-large. As an experiment, I kept a crude scorecard as the District B candidates answered questions. I marked a + if I liked their answer, a – if I disliked it, and a 0 if it didn’t move me […]
Read More → District B ScorecardNot So Greenless After All
I recently bemoaned the lack of any Green Party candidates in the upcoming New Orleans elections. But apparently I was wrong. Somehow, I overlooked Paul Mirarchi Massa who is running for Clerk of Criminal Court as a Green, according to the sample ballot provided by the Secretary of State. Assuming this information is correct, his […]
Read More → Not So Greenless After AllDistrict B
I live in New Orleans City Council District B, which includes part of Mid-City, the CBD, the Garden District and Irish Channel, Central City and Gert Town, most of Broadmoor and a little bit of Uptown. [PDF map] We have six candidates running for this council seat in the next election. The League of Women […]
Read More → District BYes, Virginia
Mayoral candidate Virginia Boulet spoke for about ten minutes at a neighborhood meeting I attended last week. I really liked what she had to say. She talked about issues and little else. She didn’t indulge in any of that self-aggrandizing prattle that politicians often use as a substitute for actual substance. She seemed intelligent and […]
Read More → Yes, VirginiaGreenless
The qualifying period is over, and the field is jam-packed. Two dozen candidates for mayor alone! I’m sorry to say that no one is running as a Green. Les Evenchick is running for City Council At-Large, but his party affiliation is listed as “no party,” which is probably accurate since I think he quit the […]
Read More → GreenlessA Ballot in the Head
There’s a climate of anger and anxiety in New Orleans these days, and amongst displaced New Orleanians wherever they are. There’s also a heightened level of political awareness. People are paying more attention to their government, and they’re pissed off at every level of government: local, state, federal, you name it. In our supposed democracy, […]
Read More → A Ballot in the HeadJazz Funeral for Democracy
I posted a set of photos from the Jazz Funeral for Democracy.
Read More → Jazz Funeral for DemocracyPurple States
If the electoral votes for each state were allotted proportionally, a map like this might make sense. Puts things in a different perspective, doesn’t it? The “winner takes all” method used by most states creates an artificial polarization, but this map shows a continuum that is much more reflective of how people actually voted.
Read More → Purple StatesTragic Gaiety
It doesn’t take a genius to discern that, even though the election results are not official yet, there is much wailing and gnashing of teeth, not to mention rending of garments and beating of breasts, amongst those who voted for Kerry and those who despise the Bush administration. But that’s absolutely the wrong attitude! Yes, […]
Read More → Tragic GaietyVote
Xy & I voted this morning without incident. The cops still have Xy’s drivers license, but she presented an expired one, and it was accepted by the poll workers without comment. Besides the presidential election, we’re also looking at senate and house races and four constitutional amendments here in Louisiana. On the local level, there’s […]
Read More → VoteElectoral Strategery
Two days until the election. I know a lot of people are sick of the hype. If you’re sick of it, please read no further. I just want to record my thoughts on the election before it goes down, for my own sake at least. I predicted a Bush victory six months ago, and I’m […]
Read More → Electoral StrategeryEndorsement
Today our local news daily, the Times-Picayune, weighed in on the presidential race. They are endorsing… nobody. …we cannot recommend either George W. Bush or John Kerry with confidence…. We take the endorsement process seriously and would like to be able to offer voters our advice in this race, as we have in so many […]
Read More → EndorsementHateful
Man, I thought the political rhetoric was pretty shrill this season, but last night I got an earful of some conservative AM radio that made my toes curl. This dude called the Democrats “vermin” and said the choice was between “Bush or death.” He also said the American people “fear” Teresa Heinz Kerry. I was […]
Read More → HatefulElectoral Vote Predictor
There’s a lot of presidential poll data flying around these days, but I’ve noticed very little of it mentions the electoral college. That’s kind of dumb, considering we don’t directly elect the president, more’s the pity. The Electoral Vote Predictor website breaks it down the way it needs to be done: electoral vote count. It […]
Read More → Electoral Vote PredictorTop 10 Reasons Why Presidential Debates Suck So Bad
Connie Rice has a great list of Top 10 Secrets They Don’t Want You to Know About the Debates. There’s plenty of scandalous stuff here that I never knew. We really are getting a raw deal. I especially like her first secret: “They aren’t debates!”
Read More → Top 10 Reasons Why Presidential Debates Suck So BadCobb on Slashdot
Holy shit! David Cobb is on Slashdot today. I guess I missed the initial call for questions last week. Today, they feature David’s answers to the twelve best questions from Slashdot readers. (Well, I say “best” but actually they’re voted on by other readers, so perhaps “most popular” would be more accurate.) The questions are […]
Read More → Cobb on SlashdotDebate
The Kerry-Bush debate inspired me. It inspired me to donate $35 to David Cobb’s campaign.
Read More → DebateFiasco
The Times-Picayune is calling Saturday’s election the “biggest election fiasco in modern Louisiana history.” This is not buried on the op-ed section. It’s on the front page. The article mentions an online petition but gets the name of the website wrong, so I thought I should post the link here in case anybody wants to […]
Read More → Fiasco