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November 12, 2001

See For Yourself

Well, it's a moot point now - since Bush has been in the White House for quite some time... but I think you should see this for yourself.

Virtual Voting Booth

It allows you to choose different scenarios and then compiles the votes that would have gone to each candidate under the chosen conditions.

What I find interesting is that the OVERVOTES made the biggest difference. They spoke about votes where Al Gore was selected and then people WROTE IN Al Gore's name - thus producing an invalid ballot. (Guess it's pretty obvious who they wanted to vote for, but they did it in the wrong way, so nanee nanee boo boo - it doesn't count...) Gee, I wonder how that happened? Do you think it happened because people were alerted early that the butterfly ballot was producing erroneous results? That indicates to me that people were wanting to make sure that the vote they cast went to the person they wanted to vote for... How many people do you know that say they want to go to the polls and vote for "both of them" or "all of them" or think they're going to find a way to "vote for the same guy twice"...? Now stop and think of how many people wonder if the vote they cast went to the person they tried to vote for... Living in Florida, there's a much larger number of those that wonder if their vote counted. And for a lot of people, it didn't get counted.

The thing they still can't prove/disprove, but I am sure of : More people wanted Al Gore for President. The registered voters in Florida that left their homes to vote for a president on Election Day...most of them tried to vote for Al Gore.

The things they still haven't fixed : There are still no clear standards for the voting process and there are no clear standards for evaluating the votes cast. I was lucky. In my county, they used a ballot that looked very much like a lottery ticket. There weren't very many problems with that ballot (wonder why?).

It's a mental exercise. It's a numerical result to a what-if scenario. The larger what-if scenario concerns what the world would be like today if the outcome would have been different. That's what I mostly wonder.

I wonder if the terrorists would have attacked if someone other than THE SON OF GEORGE BUSH was in the White House. People in other countries see much more of a connection between the two than we do. Remember the comments about America having a "dynasty" with Bush's son in the White House?

Perhaps we wouldn't be in the place we find ourselves if the voters had gotten their choice. Maybe those thousands wouldn't have died. I know - it sounds silly. It sounds like a rationalization. But I just know that when "Slick Willie" was in, we didn't have anything like this. Did we have a false sense of security? Well, we believed nothing like this could ever happen - and it didn't. I wouldn't call that a false sense of security. It was security. We _were_ safe. We aren't now.

People love to bash Clinton. It's become a habit. You know, I really don't care who he did or didn't have sex with - and I don't really care who he did or didn't lie to about it. Apparently he focused more on the important things. Things like having a working economy. Things like keeping the country safe. And Al Gore was a part of that. The people who were "running the country" - you know those crazy liberals - they didn't have to ground all the airplanes in the country. There was no need. Now we have someone who's supposedly "strong" and "moral"... Well, while he's worried about morality and hacking away at the separation between Church and State, terrorists are flying planes into our buildings.

Now, if you're not scared enough - take a look at our economy. Clinton beat Bush while people screamed "It's the economy, stupid!" I remember that. Apparently Bill remembered that too. During his time in office -aside from everything else that happened - the economy boomed. Unemployment figures kept getting lower and lower. Jobs were everywhere. Companies were sprouting up left and right.

Okay now let's make it personal. While Clinton was President, I had a job. During that time, I changed jobs a few times. I never had any trouble finding work. And I never had trouble finding a better job as my qualifications increased. When Dubya was sworn in, the company I worked for was struggling. Not long after, most of the workers were laid off. The "core" employees (about 7 of us) were able to hang on for an extra few months. Emphasis on the word FEW. Those jobs then disappeared into thin air. And the new jobs to take this job's place? Gone. The better jobs for increased qualifications. Gone too. Oh, well...let me change career fields (yet again) - don't bother, those jobs are gone too. Well, let me pick up a service job for a bit...nope. Service jobs are disappearing due to the floundering tourist industry - which fell victim to the aftermath of the attack on America.

When a Democrat was in office, my income was doubling every couple of years. I had a job and all I had to do was add to my "skill set" and I would be able to get an even better job. Now that a Republican is in office, I have no job. This is not a whine about my own personal situation. There are many of us in this situation. And it sucks. All those people who were making lots of money. All those people who were paying taxes on those high salaries. All that tax money is gone too. What do you think is going to happen next in the economy? Hmmm... maybe those few government jobs and government contracts are going to fall down the same black hole as the dotcom and tourist industry? What about all the shopping that isn't being done? You think it's because we don't feel safe going to a shopping mall? Maybe it's because - we don't have the money that we would have had if we still had our jobs! I expect the next news reports will be on the dismal holiday sales for the retail industry. The auto industry is so desperate, they're trying to sell cars with 0% financing. Who ever thought THAT would happen?

My grandma always told me that we have to be ready just in case there was another Depression. We had to know how to pinch a penny here and there. We had to learn how to not be wasteful. Chicken today, feathers tomorrow. She had a dishtowel in the pantry with that saying on it. She taught me how to make the most out of whatever I had. And I learned a lot from her teachings. I listened and learned because it was a way to connect with her - a way to know the past. I never thought it would become the present.

I just hope I don't have to wait for a Democrat to take office before I'm able to get another job... And I hope you don't have to wait that long, either.

Posted by BlueWolf on November 12, 2001 03:41 PM