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	Stu Stu: Did you vote yesterday? Scott: Yeah, but I'm not sure I did a good job, though. There were a lot of issues that... I never got one of those voter pamphlets that kind of explain the issues. I never got one of those. Stu: I know, I got mine late. I don't know what was going on. Scott: So there were a lot of issues that I didn't know about. I kind of glanced at The Stranger's cheat sheet, but... Stu: I always bring those in with me. I bring The Stranger's cheat sheet and The Weekly's cheat sheet. Scott: Are they really different? Stu: Naw, they are usually pretty much the same except for a couple things. Like The Stranger endorses a republican for one thing, and The Weekly didn't endorse any republicans. And The Stranger endorsed Tim Eyman's initiative, and The Weekly didn't. And of course, The Weekly was against the monorail and The Stranger was for the monorail. Scott: Yeah, I was surprised about the republican. I just kind of felt like they didn't want to be considered strictly a one party newspaper. Stu: Yeah, it's kind of like a contrary nature. But it's so slim between republicans and democrats in the State congress as well as the federal congress that I don't think you can afford to vote for republican. Scott: Right. I agree. I thought it was a pretty risky suggestion. I voted for the Tim Eyman thing because The Stranger suggested it. Stu: *laughing* You did? Scott: I didn't have enough time to read up on it, and it wasn't till afterwards that I realized it was that jerk's initiative. *laughing* Stu: *laughing* Scott: And then you're voting for all those judges who are running unopposed and you're like - are we really in a democracy? Stu: I know. It's like one party. At first I was voting write-ins. I put Miriam in for a couple positions. I put Trip in for a couple. I think I put Stacey down. I put Reggie Watts down. And after awhile I was like there are so many unopposed that I just gave up. Why should I even vote for them at all? They're gonna win. Scott: You're just throwing that vote away, Stu. Now the guy who was running unopposed it definitely gonna win. Stu: Yeah, my theory is maybe if enough people don't vote for unopposed people, they'll have to do a do-over. *laughing* Scott: Right. Or if somebody says, Wow 23% of the vote went to a dead rock star or someone's dog, maybe I should run against this guy. Stu: The Stranger endorsed the Tim Eyman thing, cause part of it was to cut Sound Transit by 20%, and they felt that was worth it. But it cut so many other things, it's about so much more than that. It's kind of dumb. Scott: I was really ticked off about the license tab, uh, his first initiative that passed. I can't really complain, though. I was working in england at the time and I just didn't get off my ass to get an absentee ballot. So I can't really complain, I guess. Stu: Your roommate voted for it. *laughing* Scott: Did he?! Stu: Yeah. Scott: Why?! Stu: Cause he was tired of paying expensive tabs. Scott: On a broken down, no bumper, broken trunk Thunderbird. (Sorry Stacey!) Stu: *laughing* Scott: He got it running. It's parked across the street cause he got a ticket. Stu: For just sitting there? Scott: For having expired tabs. So he voted for that, yet he didn't renew his tabs. So he hasn't even benefitted from the cheaper tabs. Stu: You can get a ticket for just sitting on the street with expired tabs? Scott: Yeah. I have before. Neal was telling me that if you're car is not registered, it can't even be on a public street. So every now and then I see an old car parked on his backyard. Then they can't ticket you for that. Stu: But on Wednesday morning after the election, my alarm goes off. The very first thing they say on NPR is "Good Morning. The Republicans take Congress and gain seats in the House." And I wake up Miriam by yelling, "FUCK!!!!!" And I was in a bad mood for the rest of the day. Scott: I thought for sure, people would come around. Stu: Well, #1 The was low voter turn out, of course, as there always is in mid-term elections. Scott: I thought they were saying it was higher than normal. Stu: It might have been. Scott: I called Stacey up, cause I went down to the school where I vote, and there was no indication that voting was going on there. I just didn't want to walk into an elementary school, you know? Creepy guy walks in... Stu: Chicken hawk! *laughing* Scott: And so I called Stacey and said, I don't know where the voting place is. And he was saying, "See, that's what's fucked up." Stu: Yeah. Scott: It turned out that once I got out of the car and walked over, I saw really tiny signs inside the tinted windows that said "Vote Here". Stu: We should just vote online for everything. Get rid of our representatives. Everytime there's an initiative to vote on, just get online and... Scott: Just go to the CNN polls. Stu: Ha ha, yeah! Scott: There is one republican guy I like. I don't really know his issues that well, though. John McCain. Stu: Yeah. Scott: Everytime I see him, I think, "What a cool guy." How is he a republican? Stu: Well, he's a republican on foreign policy issues, I think. He was for invading Iraq. But on a lot of issues, I like the fact that he bucks his party's majority alot. Scott: I wonder what's going to happen these next couple years. I mean I've been shocked what's happened the last two years. Stu: I know. Who would have expected. Scott: Bush doing shit I didn't know a president could do. Stu: Or Ashcroft doing stuff. Yeah, who knew the election was going to be down to a couple votes down in Florida and that the supreme court would basically appoint Bush. Scott: Yeah, just hand it to him. Stu: Who knew that September 11th would happen and give Bush the opportunity to do anything he wanted from that point on. And nobody can question him on any issue now. Scott: No! Or you're labelled unamerican. Stu: And like this mid-term election... I think I heard it's the first time in 80 years that the same party that's in the White House has controlled the Congress and not lost seats or turned it over to the other party. The thing is, I heard there are like four justice's who are about to retire. And Bush can say... Scott: He can just roll people through. You think they (the judges) were waiting for this? Stu: Yeah. *laughing* The only thing is, some of the justices that are about to retire - I guess one of them is Rehnquist and he's one of the three hard-core conservatives. Even if they replaced him with a conservative, that would just be one for one. Scott: Yeah, even if they get a staunch conservative in there. Stu: I think the other's are moderates. Scott: It's gonna be a weird time. Stu: The other thing is that I can't see the democrats putting up anybody against George Bush in the next election. So we can pretty much be guaranteed of him being re-elected. Especially with his popularity right now. Scott: Right. You just wonder what's gonna happen in the next couple years. It's like you don't want bad shit to happen, but I kind of secretly hope that some shit happens that... Stu: ...makes it bad for him? Scott: Yeah, just destroys his popularity. The thing that struck me about this whole Iraq/war monger thing was that none of the hijackers of the planes were Iraqi, but we're not gonna go bomb Saudi Arabia. North Korea, one of the "Axis of Evil", comes out and actually says they are working on a nuclear bomb, but we're not gonna go over and start bombing North Korea. Stu: nope. Scott: Selective war mongering. Stu: And then the other "Axis of Evil" country, Iran, is actually reforming. They're democratic. The Reform Party is in power and they are popular. And we still condemn their country instead of helping them out. Scott: I read an article in Harper's recently about America's defense policy drafted by Dick Cheney and Colin Powell. The basic idea was that we need to squash any potential threat to our superpower. Not even a threat to America, but if some country gets so powerful that they will start to threaten our rule over the world, then we would have to do something about it. This is total U.S. policy now. Stu: Yeah, we're The Empire now.