Has anyone seen Happy Warrior around? I haven't seen him since we started and I'm a little worried he's not been on and France won't submit orders or something. Anyway, we'll see what happens.

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I got a whole bunch of favourite hymns.

I used to play trumpet in my church worship team band, but I haven't picked it up since I moved interstate (my trumpet is still back home). A few weeks back I picked up a James Morrison cd of hymns (James Morrison is a phenominal jazz musician, for those who don't know), and while it's not on this cd, he does this amazing jazz version of Old Rugged Cross.

I think my all-time favourite is It Is Well With My Soul, although some of the other ones on here are great also.

The way jmfcst is going, he'll have a bigger win than Reagan 1984!

The Hackers hate our Freedom.

Sorry, the humourous tone of voice didn't carry across in my post.

Destroy Turkey! Keep the state out of religion!

No, no, no, for the last time, no!  Fight the Cypriots!

I was hoping to bust this out if we ever had a Russian/Turkish clash on our Diplomacy game, but here goes:

We don't want to fight,
But by Jingo if we do,
We've got the ships,
We've got the men,
And got the money too.
We've fought the Bear before,
And while we're Britons true,
The Russians shall not have Constantinople.

You're just trying to stir up anti-Erc feeling on the site!

I will only vote for candidates in favour of quelling this threat! Join with me in proclaiming liberty on this site by supporting the Protecting Atlasian Territory Regarding Incidents Obstructing Telecommunications (PATRIOT) Act 2008.

lol... well I'm glad your computer is feeling better!

I realised I hadn't seen you around, but I didn't know if you were just busy or whatever, or just lurking in threads I wasn't reading.

Welcome back. Hope you're feeling better now.

This by-election will not be a test of Harper's leadership... it will be a test of Dion's.

Westmont-Ville-Marie is safe Liberal. The Conservatives know that they can't win it - but if the NDP picks it up, or even sees an increase in their vote at the expense of the Liberals, it really shows more about the failed Dion leadership.

Any increase in NDP vote or even Bloc, probably has more to do with Dion's carbon tax fiasco and Liberal voters deserting a failing party.

This should be an easy win for the Liberals - if their vote falls at all from 2006 levels, it shows that voters are searching for alternatives outside of the Liberal Party and that there is something structurally wrong with the Liberal Party and the Dion leadership.

Go!

[Mikado]

I would walk several miles in the snow to vote for Mark Warner.

why?  he's just a politician, not a poet or savior.  these people aren't worth your worship.

And what would make a poet worthy of worship? Or a singer? An actor?

I didn't mention the final two, but a poet doesn't forgo truth for power, unlike the politician.

What about a politician who delivers all his/her speeches in iambic pentameter?

If he did it well, I'd vote for him no matter what he stood for.  That's just awesome.

I can see you now, Mikado...

ANTONY
Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears;
I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him.
The evil that men do lives after them;
The good is oft interred with their bones;
So let it be with Caesar. The noble Brutus
Hath told you Caesar was ambitious:
If it were so, it was a grievous fault,
And grievously hath Caesar answer'd it.
Here, under leave of Brutus and the rest--
For Brutus is an honourable man;
So are they all, all honourable men--
Come I to speak in Caesar's funeral.
He was my friend, faithful and just to me:
But Brutus says he was ambitious;
And Brutus is an honourable man.
He hath brought many captives home to Rome
Whose ransoms did the general coffers fill:
Did this in Caesar seem ambitious?
When that the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept:
Ambition should be made of sterner stuff:
Yet Brutus says he was ambitious;
And Brutus is an honourable man.
You all did see that on the Lupercal
I thrice presented him a kingly crown,
Which he did thrice refuse: was this ambition?
Yet Brutus says he was ambitious;
And, sure, he is an honourable man.
I speak not to disprove what Brutus spoke,
But here I am to speak what I do know.
You all did love him once, not without cause:
What cause withholds you then, to mourn for him?
O judgment! thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason. Bear with me;
My heart is in the coffin there with Caesar,
And I must pause till it come back to me.


First Citizen Mikado
Methinks there is much reason in his sayings.

I would walk several miles in the snow to vote for Mark Warner.

why?  he's just a politician, not a poet or savior.  these people aren't worth your worship.

And what would make a poet worthy of worship? Or a singer? An actor?

I didn't mention the final two, but a poet doesn't forgo truth for power, unlike the politician.

What about a politician who delivers all his/her speeches in iambic pentameter?

Great work on that cover!

Intrinsic characteristics of Utah, Colorado and Wyoming all suggest mountains or mormons to me...

Wyoming never used to suggest mountains to me until I saw David Attenborough's Life of Mammals in which he showed a colony of beavers in Wyoming and it was very beautiful there. Until a few nights back when I saw it, I always thought of Wyoming as something like Kansas - flat with wheat farms, so I probably don't have the best idea of the intrinsic characteristics of those states. (Sorry all Wyoming inhabitants out there).

On a similar theme to my previous 3 maps (here).

1912?

Margin of Victory - Roosevelt vs Wilson, assuming all other votes distributed to Roosevelt? For example, Nevada - Wilson 39.7 vs Roosevelt 27.94+16.47(Debs)+15.89(Taft) = 39.7 vs 60.3. or a little over a 20% margin of victory?

Rough calcs in my head made it look like it would also work for other states, too, but I haven't run the numbers on them.

Xahar: Any clues?

Republican Party: 49%
Democratic Party: 46%
Ind/Minor Parties: 5%

This is the same as the earlier one I posted a few days back, but including the Independent/Minor Party figures. What does it represent?

I remember in 1988 my class teacher explaining that Reagan wasn't allowed to run again but that his VP, Bush, was running. I was sad about that because I liked Reagan and therefore hoped Bush would win and was glad when he did. I was eight at the time.

I remember in the 1989 Queensland election, that the father of my brother's best mate from preschool (Wayne Goss) was running for Premier and I remember coming home from my grandparents (we went there for dinner) and hearing on the car radio that Goss (Labor) had won.

I also remember polling days when I was a child - elections in Australia are always held on a Saturday, and the voting booths are usually schools. My parents would vote at my primary school, and I remember going up with them a few times when I was young.

Can we take this to mean that Utah has no chance of winning?

I've heard quitting smoking is easy - I've had mates who've quit several times (each) already!

Coat-tails only work if they bring out voters who would otherwise stay at home. Obama in Illinois may have had cross party appeal, and that may have boosted his result, whereas the Republicans who voted for Obama then went and voted for Bush over Kerry.

[AYE.]

The Its People Act - Nay
Preferential Voting Act - AYE.
Regional LEED Standards Bill - Nay
Northeast Speed Limit Standardization Act - Aye.

[BRTD]

I'd win due to winning both the votes of the left and the anti-Clinton hard right.

No. The hard right would vote Clinton unanimously. A far left socialist against a hard right conservative(Clinton)? The contest is unanimous.

They hate him and hated Hillary more than anyone else until Obama. BRTD

Ind-474...44% popular vote
Dem-38...27% popular vote
Rep-26...28% popular vote

HINT: This map was made using stats from the 2004 election.

Registered Democrats vs Registered Republicans vs Independents?

Nope... it's what would happen if every member of the voting age population who didn't vote registered and turned out in 2004 to cast a ballot for the same 3rd party candidate.  Red states are states still won by John Kerry despite the 100% turnout and the blue states are states still won by Bush.  People who don't vote could alone elect a President in a landslide.

The really interesting thing is that even though the Wisconsin result was incredibly close, Kerry still would have won - likewise, even though Iowa was close, Bush still would have won - indeed, the strongest wins by the Independent candidate would be in the safest states for either the Democrats or the Republicans. I guess this is a combination of two factors:

i. In states that are "safe" for a particular party, voters may consider their votes worthless, and not bother showing up to vote, since a party will win it anyway.
ii. The GOTV campaigns are strongest in swing states, which reduces the impact of factor i, but also actively gets voters to polling stations.

Even in the states below that would have been won by the independent candidate are the ones which were closest - Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Colorado and Missouri.

This map you've done is exceptionally interesting - it does a particularly good job of showing states with a higher voter turnout and states with a lower voter turnout. Very interesting! Very good job!