MetaFilter posts tagged with usa and election

The Presidential Transition Period

brandman — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 08:18:29 -0800

Well, the Presidential election is only one day away...after which, the US begins the 11 week transition period to a new administration! As established by the twentieth amendment to the US Constitution, "the terms of the President and Vice President shall end at noon on the 20th day of January." So what exactly happens between election day and January 20th? There are a lot of interesting stories about that, which help convey the strong tradition behind lengthy transition periods in the US. In addition to the history, the General Services Administration has various (semi-)recently documented responsibilities during this period under The Presidential Transition Act of 2000, while other branches of the government focus on their respective areas. For example, the Office of Personnel Management focuses on...personnel changes, while the military plans for possible incidents during this time. But what exactly will President-Elect Obama or President-Elect McCain be doing? As you might expect, they've already started planning their administrations, an activity they have far more time to accomplish prior to the "official" transition than our friends in some other countries.

Elections are fun!

East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 09:49:54 -0800

Welcome to The Sacramento County Republican Party. The official website has removed content calling for Obama to be waterboarded. But it still contains fake quotes supposedly from Obama's memoir. In this political climate, 33% of voters do not identify Obama as Christian, and 8% believe he is Muslim. Yet, the polls predict a landslide, hinted at by early voting. McCain needs something spectacular, and he may be regretting his decision to invoke Bill Ayers in tonight's debate; and perhaps other things.

Brief History of the Twenty-First Century

phrontist — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 20:34:12 -0800

A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century

Presidential Betting Market Acting a Little Oddly

WCityMike — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 13:37:37 -0800

Nate Silver, the proprietor of the fantastic electoral projection site FiveThirtyEight.com, notices that the presidential betting market on Intrade is behaving very oddly: "[S]ome individual trader or some small group of traders are shorting all the Obama contacts in bulk and resetting the entire market. The markets then organically climb back upward until the rogue trader strikes again six or eight hours later." "So?" you say. "Meh." But adding a little curiousity to this matter, "this [rogue] trader is not only selling Obama contracts and buying McCain contracts ... they also seem to be buying Hillary Clinton contracts. [...] So someone is betting on some sort of disqualifying event happening to Obama." Is this a zomgzomgzomgCONSPIRACY?! No. But it is a intriguing little side wrinkle. And I imagine you didn't know that "[b]etween the Obama and McCain contracts, there appears to be about $400,000 in contracts changing hands every day."¹ And, as Silver points out, "I don't think this is any cause for alarm ... if Joe Biden contracts were being bought up as part of this scheme, that might be more concerning, but they aren't. Still, if I were the FBI, I would probably want to know the identity of this trader." ¹"Contract" being analogous in this case to "bet."

You say muslim, I say muslin.

blue_beetle — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 07:46:21 -0800

Perhaps you were wondering if Barack Obama is a muslin? Or perhaps a muslim?

Obama is inclusive in his support for PNGs

finite — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 16:49:51 -0800

Despite his carefully cultivated “maverick” image, McCain is playing it traditional and conservative by using HTML 4.01, the W3C spec from 1999.

Final Days

djgh — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 21:46:26 -0800

"On the weekends, he favors two-hour bicycle rides at a Secret Service training facility outside Washington, where he sometimes asks companions and agents to ride behind him so that he can have the illusion of riding alone." With all the focus on the upcoming election, what of George W. Bush?

A Speech So Stirring It Converted Pat Buchanan

WCityMike — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 21:46:30 -0800

On the 45th anniversary of Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech, Barack Obama accepted the nomination of the Democratic Party to be their Presidential candidate with a speech so well-crafted that Pat bloody Buchanan couldn't stop raving about it, and had to be cut off by his fellow broadcasters. It was an occasion so historic that McCain chose to release an ad congratulating his opponent.

Pastor Rick's Test

finite — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 19:02:17 -0800

At the risk of heresy, let it be said that setting up the two presidential candidates for religious interrogation by an evangelical minister -- no matter how beloved -- is supremely wrong. Saddleback Sideshow: Presidential Professions Of Faith Distract Voters From The Core Issues Of The Day

Doesn't everyone exaggerate the size of Lake Ontario?

goodnewsfortheinsane — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 07:40:26 -0800

Humorist and candidate for the US Senate for Minnesota Al Franken draws a map of the United States from memory.

"Are we in the midst of a coup?"

homunculus — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 20:50:14 -0800

2009: A True Story. "My name is Sara Ford and I am 18 years old. I moved to California at the end of last year. Before the first attacks... before everything changed." [Via] On YouTube: Episode 1, Episode 2, Episode 3, Episode 4, Episode 5, Episode 6, Episode 7, Episode 8, Episode 9, Episode 10, Episode 11, Episode 12, Episode 13. NSFW.

"NIXON-AGNEW", in red and in blue.

goodnewsfortheinsane — Thu, 15 May 2008 18:49:33 -0800

United States election logos, 2008-1960.

The story of the Democratic primaries so far, boiled down to seven minutes.

goodnewsfortheinsane — Tue, 06 May 2008 16:10:22 -0800

The Democratic Primary Season in 7 Minutes.

US Presidential Greatness as a Function of Experience

East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 06:25:50 -0800

Is an Experienced President a Good President?

Unflattering Photos From The Campaign Trail

mr_crash_davis — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 15:51:18 -0800

Unflattering photos from the campaign trail. My personal favorite is this one: NOMNOMNOM

caustic acrostic

plexi — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 13:39:09 -0800

The Iowa Scam. Christopher Hitchens confronts a system where "only 124,000 Democrats voted last time, less than a quarter of those eligible. So if Barack Obama, say, edges Hillary Clinton by 2,000 votes, he'll be hailed in headlines as a giant-killer despite the tiny margin."

Who's afraid of Obama?

Milkman Dan — Fri, 15 Dec 2006 11:55:59 -0800

“President Barack Hussein Obama – it does have a ring to it, doesn't it?” – Who’s hot for (and who’s not for) America’s up-and-coming presidential wonderboy.

Oh, Cruel Fate To Be Thusly Boned Or How To Steal An Election

sparkletone — Wed, 25 Oct 2006 22:41:02 -0800

A manual for electoral apocalypse in America. Quite a bit's been written both on MeFi and other places about how bad Diebold machines are. Rolling Stone wrote an article about election fraud in 2004 that was discussed here on MeFi. Tonight, Ars posted a very thorough, very clear article about how we are completely screwed if we do not enact expensive, fundamental changes in how we handle elections in America. It's too late to do anything about the elections in a couple weeks, but perhaps steps can be taken to fix things before 2008...

Diebold

Protocols of the Elders of Awesome — Tue, 13 Dec 2005 12:06:42 -0800

Diebold boss resigns pending fraud investigation

Deafening silence over GAO e-voting report, new evidence of abuse.

dinsdale — Wed, 16 Nov 2005 13:18:57 -0800

Mainstream Media to American Democracy: Drop Dead! Brad Friedman ask alarming questions about the complete lack of attention which has been paid to the GAO report on electronic voting technology (PDF link) released more than a month ago, which confirms what security experts have been saying for years: these systems are vulnerable to multiple independent attacks targeting system and network vulnerabilities, access controls, hardware controls, and overall management practices. If you're short of time, at least read Rep. Waxman's fact sheet summary.

Ultimately, there is no real security on these machines; the report shows that overturning election results would not be at all difficult for even a single moderately skilled attacker. And now Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman are wondering if American Democracy has died an electronic death in the wake of massive discrepancies between final pre-election opinion polls and the results of several citizen initiatives designed to reform Ohio's electoral processes.

Blackout

sparky — Thu, 20 Jan 2005 07:56:13 -0800

Blackout Some sites have gone black today in protest of black box voting and/or four more years of Bush. But, actually, I haven't seen many. Are people tired of fighting or is this just a poorly-organized effort no one knows about?

Bounder!

Pretty_Generic — Wed, 05 Jan 2005 07:31:50 -0800

Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell was in charge of making sure the election in his state was free and fair. With his recount was still progressing, he revealed his true colours. You remember towards the beginning of Fahrenheit 9/11, where the objectors to the electoral result needed just one senator to come out and support them? Well, it's that time again.

I want that troutfishing Memorial Axe-Nubbin nice n shiny!

Pretty_Generic — Thu, 23 Dec 2004 03:55:29 -0800

John Conyers, Jr., Ranking Minority Member of the House Judiciary Committee, accuses TRIAD Governmental Systems Inc. of pretty transparent recount fraud in Ohio, as well as having a really suspicious-sounding name. Get Your Democracy On.

BE THE MEDIA

Pretty_Generic — Mon, 20 Dec 2004 13:33:37 -0800

The Diebold Variations. Yes, I'm in a one-trick pony mood.

If you live on Planet Earth, you might be interested in this

Pretty_Generic — Sun, 19 Dec 2004 10:31:24 -0800

Clinton Eugene Curtis gives sworn testimony to the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on the Judiciary. [RealPlayer, sorry]
Yang Enterprises (YEI) respond.
Brad Friedman responds in kind.
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