Good points...
I haven't missed voting since 1960!

BB --

Shamefully, I have a few times, usually because of absentee and travel issues, but not in recent years, and hopefully never again.

That said, the next two elections (06 & 08) are going to be crucial, elections no one should abstain from voting in, and from doing so without equipping themselves adequately and accurately with information about those between whom they are choosing and what they stand for.

Seth,
I wonder sometimes about choices..our first district has a democrat, recently returned from silicon valley, a Republican running on 'Abortion causes breast cancer' and an independent whose cause celebre is converting the nation to hydrogen-fuel. I can see why you might have missed a couple of elections? [er,
hydrogen doesn't cause prostate cancer does it?

BB --

I haven't voted in NC yet, but when I lived in San Francisco, we used to receive a book listing all the candidates in an election, what propositions they had or were supporting, etc, plus a list of all the propositions that were up for a vote. I'd always leave the book on top of the commode tank in the bathroom, and read it while I was "otherwise occupied". By the time election day rolled around, I knew all I needed to know to vote on each choice.

For state elections, I simply voted Republican across the board except for my own little joke, voting for the Democrat for insurance commissioner. Voting conservative out there is a joke, anyway, so I just had fun. I paid infinitely more attention to San Francisco elections because there, you have to go for the least far left in each choice -- believe it or not, Gavin Newsome was actually the best choice on the mayoral ballot for a conservative, which illustrates my point. You also have to pay close attention when studying the propositions -- there's more than a little manipulative doubletalk where the city supervisors want voters to think they're voting for something else to conceal something they did or want to do without consulting their constituents.

NC's unusual because while it's a liberal state that elects mostly Democrats to local and state positions, our two senators are both staunch and tenacious conservatives.

Seth,
Huh, didn't know NC was liberal...sort of thought maybe there was a Ft Bragg/Camp LeJeune bunch vs a Duke/UNC bunch. One of my girls spent a summer at UNC microbiology. She came very close to doing her PhD there, but opted for
U Iowa, worried about hurricanes. She went through two tornados in Iowa City. Heh

BB --

Here in Charlotte, we are far enough inland that hurricanes aren't a worry -- since moving here, the heaviest weather I've seen has been an occasional powerful thunderstorm, and those seem to be our share of hurricane weather passing along the coast or heavy storm activity up north.
Since I love storms, I have no problem with them. When I was around 5 years old, I played in my grandparents' backyard with Hurricane Donna raging around me and had a great time.

Tornados -- I'm pretty sure they're the only kind of natural destructive element I haven't experienced firsthand, but I have spent some time in the midwest, including rural Illinois, and I've heard accounts and seen some damage after the fact. I'll pass on that experience.

I've experienced two tornadoes. I guess I don't have to explain that I survived them. LOL!

Seth, I can't see the right side of the comment box. While I type it seems to run into the sidebar. Just thought I'd let you know.

Excellent post and thank you for the link and the trackback!

Though I am in many ways less than thrilled with the GOP, I will be voting for them because they at least are serious about our nation's long term survival as a free nation.

I expect the GOP to lose a few seats but there will no real shift of power except in the imaginations of the MSM.

Gayle --

Glad you survived!

It's the sudden randomness of a tornado's occurrence and subsequent changes of direction that I don't care for, as well as the concentrated destructive force in one of those things.

We've both had some experiences at one another's sites, LOL. I typed a fairly lengthy comment on a post over there earlier, and got hit with "page cannot be displayed" -- the comment disappeared after that, and I had to head out to do something. I don't know whether it was a Haloscan thing or if it was my wireless router doing something -- the durn thing goes through these phases from time to time.

Shoprat --

I agree, the bulk of power in Congress will remain with the Republicans.

As far as voting Republican goes, there is no other way to vote. Despite problems I am also having with the way they are doing their jobs, giving control to the left at this juncture would be tantamount to screwing America six ways from Sunday.

Not only would we be issuing Jihadis a no bag limit hunting license on U.S. soil, we would be engendering the transformation of Iraq into a terrorist run country, which would eventually destabilize the entire region, we would be giving them the opportunity to sink our recovering economy and on the social issues end of things, welllllll....

No, thanks. I'll vote Republican.

I do have comment moderation turned on, Seth. Also, it's possible you posted at the same time that either I, or someone else was posting. That happens to me frequently, which is why I copy my comments before I publish them.

Back to politics, I knew you would vote Republican. Wonder where I got such an idea? ;)

I vote in every election. The way I figure it: I have no right to gripe if I haven't cast my ballot! I'm not thrilled with the GOP, but the Dems are so much worse.

The media are pounding George Allen, Senatorial candidate for the Republican Party. I've got two of his signs posted in my front yard. I know that some of my neighbors don't like seeing those signs. But this is MY yard!

The media are 'pounding' George Allen (finally) because he has it coming.

He's a racist.

AOW:

I had a sign "Support Our Troops" when the war with Iraq started and it was stolen within 12 hours. That's the kind of liberal trash we have where I live. They are remnants of the 60's, and their kids and grandkids. None of them have respect for people's private property.

I'm afraid to have any bumperstickers on my car as many cars with conservative or Republican bumperstickers get vandalized.

So much for the "tolerant" left.

He's a racist.

I heard in grade school that he defaced something by writing graffiti.

Oh, what an evil man you Lefties have exposed! Thanks for the scrutiny.

Noticed that Arthur always cries "racist" for everything.

He has the rhetoric of an 8 year old.

Atheling2,
That yard sign vandalism even happens in our small town. Last year us GOPs and Dems living next door got trashed by the same band of youngsters. They also manage to steal christmas bulbs and turn over pumpkins. My experience is that there is a 13-14 yr old segment that is too
dumb to be liberal (or conservative), you know the type, hair-in-face, pants falling down, vacant look. Through the years, I've noticed that some kids grow up and leave and things are
fine. Then new ones move in. Agreed there are
some 'trash' types, but not sure they are liberal
unless in the sense that they think about politics in the least.......I still host political signs in the yard (as well as pumpkins,
Christmas lights and a bunch of moonbeam coreopsis plants. I agree about car stickers, that seems to draw out the uglies in parking lots and should be avoided unless one drives an old beat up jalopy.

BB,

The targets of vandalism here are only Republican and conservative signs, bumperstickers, etc... It's so obvious that an article in the local rag was published.

There are a myriad of signs in people's yards saying "Impeach Bush" which have been up for YEARS. No one touches them.

2+2=4

Atheling2,
Well you have every right to be irate..sounds like Haight-Ashbury. As AOW noted above, your yard is your property. I may have liberal opinions, but I would never put up something as
crass as your neighbors. Your location definitely sounds unpleasant. Good luck!

Atheling 2,
Signs in my yard are rarely stolen. I have a chain-link fence. In the 2004 National Election, everyone in my immediate neighborhood had a sign. One might have called the phenomenon a war of political signs, but none of us stole or vandalized others' signs. One sign was handmade: "Vietnam Vet Against John Fonda Kerry."

One of my Support-Our-Troops car magnets was stolen in a parking lot, however.

Arthur,
He's a racist.

Um, no. Don't believe everything you read and hear.

I assume that you oppose Senator Byrd? He has a checkered past. And what about Teddy?

All here --

Yesterday {wee hours} my modem stopped working, so I haven't been on-line since then. I only just found it operable, though I have a Roadrunner (Time Warner) house call type coming later today. As a result, I just spent quite a bit of time weeding out spambot comments not only in this thread, but in various others.

I don't know how I'm back on line, since the tech guy's supposed to arrive 7 - 11 hours from now, but since I am, I intend to take advantage of it.

Gayle --

I know, many are surprised when I announce my Republican leanings, LOL.

AOW --

The only symbol of political belief on my property is an American flag beside my front door, and unfortunately, it is a great landmark for people who are coming to visit me for the first time because I can tell them, "It's the only house you'll run into with an American flag out front."

My neighborhood is off the beaten track just enough that the only people who drive through either live here or are here to visit those who do.

Arthur's biggest problem is that he knows nothing and seeks to know nothing. He seems to acquire the bulk of his political opinions off bumper stickers, and has a problem reading any articles that are linked to blog posts that disprove in advance the content of the comments he spews.

It must be sad, being Arthur....

BB --

Folks who deface other folks' property are almost always, even if they need to put on a few more years to do so, leftward voters.

Their argument always seems to involve the First Amendment. Spamming, defacing and slander are popular tools of the left.

When one doesn't have a good argument, I suppose one does what one has to do to try to compensate.

Atheling2 --

Arthur is a worthless excuse for an American, assuming he is one.

He would be one of the first people to employ French capitulation procedures in the event of an invasion, and he'd be the first person on his knees offering up "special favors" to an invader.

It is great that he isn't representative of Americans.

Arthur --

You lefties ALWAYS accuse right thinkers of racism when we don't agree with your social dogmas.

It's only because you really haven't any legitimate arguments and using racism is convenient.

In that respect, the left is singularly responsible for every riot from Watts to the aftermath of the Rodney King debacle, and beyond.

You folks create the riots, then blame them on the right.

Shame on you and all your generations.

Arthur cries "racism" even when it's not race but religion. But who cares about details like that when you're an automaton liberal?

As George Allen would say,

Macaca!

Have a great weekend folks.

Atheling2 --

Like most extreme lefties, Arthur obviously has some serious emotional issues. Couple that with his craving for the attention he obviously doesn't get anyplace else, we have the ultimate troll.

I think he comments the most when he's off his meds.