To the polls!
Sun Jan 27, 2008 23:25 EST (UTC -5)

I can't imagine spending two whole years running for president. In November 2006, I started hearing about people gearing up to run. Finally (well, not finally), on Tuesday, Florida has its primary, where the people will get to choose their party's candidate... or not.

Okay, so here's the deal. Certain states arbitrarily have super-early primaries, meaning that they're often the most influential. Florida wants a piece of the action, so they move their primary from March to January. The Republicans punish Florida by stripping the state of half its delegates to the nominating convention, and the Democrats decide to remove Florida's delegates entirely. So, as a Florida Democrat, my vote actually doesn't count... maybe.

To make things worse, the dude I was going to vote for dropped out of the race on Thursday. That's right: Dennis Kucinich has called it quits. I could go on like certain people about how he was ignored by the mainstream media, but it's really a chicken-and-egg issue, isn't it? A lack of support leads to a lack of media coverage, which leads to a lack of support and so on. But he probably was the most liberal candidate in the race, and it seems that you have to be close to the center to get the votes.

Way back in August, I took a political quiz to see which candidates would be closest to my viewpoints. Kucinich topped my list at 88%, which is how I actually heard about him in the first place. But the playing field has narrowed down quite a bit -- case in point -- so I thought I'd take the test again to see how things have changed.

  1. Barack Obama (85%)
  2. Hillary Clinton (76%)
  3. John Edwards (72%)
  4. Mike Gravel (63%)
  5. Ron Paul (45%)
  6. Wayne Allyn Root (30%)
  7. Mike Huckabee (29%)
  8. Rudolph Giuliani (27%)
  9. John McCain (27%)
  10. Mitt Romney (22%)

There were actually 31 results in all; the 21 I haven't included were people who had dropped out of the race or were rumored to run but didn't. I actually got a 0% match: Stephen Colbert.

So, Tuesday is the first time I vote ever. I've decided who I'm going to vote for instead. I mean, I wouldn't feel bad about voting for Kucinich just to show my belated support, but it doesn't really matter anyway.

I knew my Greasemonkey user script MySpace Ignore Bulletins was popular, but I didn't know until recently that it was given a 5-star rating in a review on About.com. The reviewer calls it "handy," "easily configurable," and "a nice ability to have for any MySpacer." (Not "fun for the whole family"?) I'm surprised at how good the review was, especially since it doesn't make reference to even more convenient features I've added (probably after it was written). The only bone I have to pick is that he says "The instructions in the show/hide box are slightly misaligned in My Bulletin Space." It's aligned that way for a reason: so you can still right-click and copy your friend's profile link when the box is open. But oh well. It's a pretty nice honor. The article has even been Dugg. My next two most popular scripts also have reviews: MySpace Birthdays on Homepage earned a 4/5 and MySpace Go Right Home got a 3.5/5.

This guy made up a detailed list of every Bush scandal. The result: a 60-foot-long scroll. (The list is here. Some of them aren't very scandalous, and some aren't his responsibility, like #81: "Selling creationist materials at the Grand Canyon gift shop claiming it was 6000 years old." But many of them are egregious.)

I bet you've always wanted to read a list of animals named after celebrities. Well, here you go. Thanks, Wikipedia!

Here are some fun examples of folded currency.


6 comments

#1 by Kirsten | Sun Jan 27, 2008 23:42 EST (UTC -5)

Primary: in which you vote for the candidate you want to put on the ballot so you might be able to vote for them in the final playoffs Presidential election. Democracy at its best!

#2 by Kirsten | Sun Jan 27, 2008 23:43 EST (UTC -5)

final playoffs was supposed to be in strikeout. I used the wrong code.

#3 by Luke | Mon Jan 28, 2008 10:58 EST (UTC -5)

Jordon, I am sorry about the election in general. It's a cruel system.

#4 by Daniel | Mon Jan 28, 2008 22:23 EST (UTC -5)

You don't have to win a primary to win the presidency, it should be noted.

#5 by Jordon | Tue Jan 29, 2008 13:05 EST (UTC -5)

You don't even have to win the general election to win the presidency.

#6 by kevin | Wed Jan 30, 2008 01:35 EST (UTC -5)

I really liked Dennis Kucinich too! I agreed with everything he stood for; I thought I was the only one. since he had almost no support, I decided to spend my energy on Barack and Hillary.

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