tvashtarkatena

Amputee Olympic hopeful (NYT)

Wow. 68 whole votes on your "honor poll" and counting. Thanks for your invaluable contribution to this forum. Great mountains have their mosquitoes, and great men their armchair critics.

I take the same size 5.10 rock shoe as my regular boots/shoes for a comfy, all day fit. I mail ordered mine (the Spire) because I've been wearing that brand for years and I know they fit my feet. At first they seemed WAY TOO SMALL, but after waiting a day and trying them all I realized that they fit exactly like my previous pair (different model, same fit). I wouldn't mail order a rock shoe I hadn't tried on first, however. Different brands fit different foot shapes differently, mkay?

Where is Superpartisan when you need him?

Mt. Cook from the summit of Mt. Olivier, the first peak Sir Edmund ever climbed. It was an honor to share this panorama, however separated by time, with him.

Over 90% of blacks vote Democrat, so impeding the voting process in any majority black precinct is an effective way to bias the election for the GOP. This type of interference was widespread in Fl in both 2000 and 2004, and confirmed to be present in OH as well.

Truth and accuracy provided by Fairweather TM. "You report, he decides"

FYI: Gold just hit an all time high.

The suction toilettes were really cool. Ping pong does suck...when I'm your doubles team member. Here's to a quick recovery, Billcoe.

Clearly. I agree. You are still too deeply entrenched in you own Bushrage and political bias to carry on a reasonable conversation. Fortunately, you have Tvashtarketena to help validate your world view. Hugh believe whatever hugh want there, FW.

Sir: Please pull forward to the window. Shuddup, Tvash!

life in the slow lane

I can't help but note how much time and energy you've expended trying to piece together just about every aspect of my life beyond the maoi; appearance, marital status, finances, career, physical health, friendships, love life, military service, education...the list goes on and on. You search for, examine, and paraphrase every online tidbit about me in your self imposed mission to expose some huge lie you feel is being perpetrated upon the planet. It's hard not to get the feeling that you really, really want something, and who knows what that could be, from what is essentially just another avatar on a bullshit online forum. Contrast this to the utter lack of interest I have in you beyond occasionally helping you to make a fool of yourself online. Someone told me you were a Pepsi distributor once. That's pretty much all I know, or care to know (actually, I don't really care much about that, either) about your life. Despite the unrequited curiosity, you respond to everything I post as if it were written specifically for you personal audience. Very strange. Well, for once, here's one just for you. I don't care really; whatever floats your boat. I suppose I should be flattered, but, frankly, like any reasonable person, I find your obsession with 'the real tvashtar' a bit odd.

Yes, I came to the same clear conclusion here. But, as we well know, our FW believes, and doesn't believe, all kinds of things.

Funny. My father is a poll watcher too and regularly has to ask sign wavers - by his account exclusively WEA members and Democratic candidate campaigners - to remove themselves from the restricted space around the poll site. Not funny: normal, if these people were campaigning. As I've already stated, but will repeat for your benefit, active campaigning (which does not include poll watching/getting out the vote) ie, soliciting voters in or near the polling place, is unlawful in Washington. Had we engaged in it, we would have been removed from the polling place as well. I would recommend as a "super partisan" (who's never gotten out the vote or worked for a campaign?), you actually become a poll watcher or get more active in some other capacity (you vote in EVERY election? Wow...that's impressive) so that you may familiarize yourself with the process a bit more.

Well, I've got my life to live, and you're just an avatar.

Fortunately, the Thought Police do not yet differentiate between those who are "allowed" to participate in the democratic process and those who are not. The democratic process is equally open to everyone...as it should be. Never heard of ACORN. My (two separate) get out the vote programs were coordinated by the Democratic party and Moveon. Anecdotally, the only violation I witnessed at the polling place in 2004 was by the Republican poll watcher, who challenged a hispanic voter I had driven to the polls for proof of his citizenship; a flagrant violation of Washington State law. I immediately notified the non-partisan ACLU poll watcher, and that little misunderstanding got cleared up right quick.

All I can say is that you must hang with a bunch of couch potatoes if you think that list is so impressive as to be incredible. It seems like a pretty standard 20 year career in tech, to me.

You should not be allowed within 100 meters of a polling center on election day - except to cast your vote. (And neither should I.) No, poll watchers are allowed access to this open process, and should be. We are allowed, and should be, to track whether or not individuals have voted and to contact them if they have not and urge them to do so. We go to there homes, drive them to polls, even translate languages for them. We can't know how they voted, of course, but we can know whether or not they've voted, because they must sign a register at the polling place, and, as a public document, we can track that register. We only track infrequent voters: registered democrats who have voted in at least 1 out of the past 4 elections but not in all 4 of the past election. For this we use county voting records, which list registered voters name, contact info, and whether they voted or not in any given election (but not who they voted for). This is a public document, of course. We are not allowed, however, to challenge voters or attempt to pursuade voters withing a certain distance from the polling place, nor are we allowed to, nor can we display campaign signs within this distance. Thinking of "sitting out the next election?" Think again. If you miss an election, you become an infrequent voter, and people such as myself will bug the living shit out of you until you drag your lazy ass to the polls and fulfill your democratic responsibility. I realize this process may seem strange to someone who's never participated this actively in the democratic process, but that's how get out the vote efforts work, and it's worked this way for a long, long time. It's an open process, as it should be. I'll be getting out the vote this year, as I do every election. As for people such as yourself who don't believe in this kind of thing: great. Better for our side.

my poopers an isolator - traffic only goes one way. out your mouth?

Wow! Right on cue!

All my reading came up with the same conclusion in FL: a Gore victory. And there was so many irregularities in OH that anyone who gives a rip about the integrity of the voting process, regardless of party affiliation, should be greatly concerned. There's not "conspiracy theory" here. A US Presidential election is the most important decision made. It should come as no surprise that there are those who would use every means possible to ensure a desired outcome. You won't get any non-tabloid quality sources from KKK. He's always been long on opinions but short on credible supporting evidence. He's a type. When you shine a flashlight on him, he scurries away yelling "why should I bother arguing with an idiot like you?!"

is there anything I do thats funny? Polarized up the pooper.

The Florida ballots were examined over and over and over again, including by biased left-winger journalists trying to overturn the results (they would benefit hugely by this if they could do it - back to the sensationalism and profit-maximization theme). The results were always the same, no matter how you looked at all those chads - Bush won. In Ohio, the margin of victory was huge and there was not enough basis to claim that election was fradulent. If there were, the lefties would have pursued this to the bitter end. I conclude they didn't because they would lose - it just didn't happen. But you can believe to the contrary all you want. Keep grasping for straws, man. As for media bias - the way the election results were reported in 2000 was a clear demonstration of that. The media wanted to discourage R turnout, and slanted the coverage to make it look unnecessary - e.g. the Fla panhandle districts. And I'll never forget the glum depressed looks on all the faces of all the major TV network news coverage when the R's took congress in 1994, or Bush was reelected, and how OPPOSITE the tone was when the gleefully reported a D victory in congress in 2006. But of course you didn't see that. Talk about ostriches. Support your statements about FL and OH.

Maybe we should bring in observers to monitor our elections - just like we do in other countries. No, I'm not joking. There already are observers in polling places, from both parties and independent watchdog groups. Lack of observation is not the issue. You can't "observe" what's going on inside a voting machine. That's the issue.