Would you vote for Bush or Kerry?

This is a Muppet News Flash.

President-elect Zoot has reportedly seen the doctor to consult about headaches caused by VP Link Hogthrob. His opponents have stated "This idiot can't make it through one day, let alone four years. We are emigrating to Australia."
*yells* Link, get away from that azalea bush!

All male citizens of America must register within 30-days of turning 18 with the Selective Service System. If you do not register, you could be prosecuted and fined up to $250,000, be put in jail for up to five years, and/or considered a felon. Registration is a requirement to qualify for Federal student aid, job training benefits, most Federal employment, as well as other jobs.

If a national emergency arises and the draft is "turned on" by congress and the president (which looks unlikely anytime soon based on what the president has been saying), males between 18 and 26 registered with the Selective Service System could be called by the draft. Although you may be called physical or moral conditions/objections could prevent you from being in combat or any military branches. If you are a male US citizen between 18 and 26 and have not registered with the Selective Service System you are breaking federal law.

The exceptions to this rule are very few and include: nonimmigrant aliens on student, visitor, tourist, or diplomatic visas; men on active duty in the U.S. Armed Forces; and cadets and midshipmen in the Service Academies and certain other U.S. military colleges. All other men must register upon reaching age 18 (or before age 26, if entering and taking up residence in the U.S. when already older than 18).

Disabled men, clergymen, and those who believe themselves to be conscientiously opposed to war must register because there is no draft in effect, nor is there a program to classify men at this time. Should the Congress and the President reinstate a draft, a classification program would begin. Registrants would be examined to determine suitability for military service, and they would also have ample time to claim exemptions, deferments, or postponements. To be inducted, men would have to meet the physical, mental, and administrative standards established by the military services. Local Boards would meet in every American community to determine exemptions and deferments for clergymen, ministerial students, and men who file claims for reclassification as conscientious objectors.

For more information on this, I urge you to visit the SSS website at http://www.sss.gov/ and register. The government does crack down on this, it may not be immediate but I know some people who were late registering after turning 18 and got in big trouble. Please don't let this happen to you (or your family members). It is the law.

You miss my point. As the parent of a service-age young man I am entirely familiar with the above. The point being made was that people can in fact work with and within the "system" and retain their wish to remain civilian in every sense of the word, without penalty. And that is a fact. It can be done.

Well, Bin Laden will be hard-pressed now to attack every state in Bush country, as promised, as most of the country is red. He's sitting in his hovel thinking, Geez, four more years till I get a bath. Four more years till I can come out and wash this picnic cloth on my head. Four more years of Lice R Us.

Hey Everybody,George Bush Is The Winner!!!

Quick.. someone call a gardener... Bushes belong OUTSIDE the White House not IN IT.

Anyone got a weed-whacker?

~Beth C

Oh well, 4 more years.

Interesting thread, some thoughts from a non-American outsider who's watched this race with interest (me):

For all the flack it takes, I think the the Electoral College is not a bad system. During most of America's history the electoral college vote has more or less accurately reflected the popular vote. Sure there are a few abnormal years like 2000 where the popular vote doesn't line up with the electoral vote (and consider that had a recount taken place in Florida, Gore would have likely won in 2000 and that year would have followed the normal trend).

The big problem with a popular vote system is that you often end up with endless run-off elections and/or third party candidates with regional or "special interest" agendas sometimes get elected with less than 50% of the population's support. The U.S. system as it is now is a very good one, set-up with many checks and balances.

What I do think Americans should be concerned about - whether you're a Democrat or Republican - is that soon all three branches of the U.S. gov't will be in the firm control of one party (I know the Supreme Court is supposed to be bipartisan but we know that's not really the case). America has handed a blank cheque to one party. That's not what the Founding Fathers ever intended for the U.S.

Interesting to hear that polls were done in various countries before the election and virtually every nation on earth (the exceptions were Russia, Isreal and a few small islands no one has ever heard of) did not want to see George Bush re-elected. I've seem some U.S. media outlets spin stories like this in the past as global anti-Americanism. It's not.

Except for a few weird countries like Cuba, Iran and North Korea that are run by tin pot dictators and assorted other Fruit Loops the world loves America even if we are pretty anti-Bush. It's just that the "Bush Doctrine" and the whole concept of going it (almost) alone, pre-emptive invasion and abandoning international institutions like the UN and the Geneva convention really freaks everyone out. Many of the post-9/11 policies - whether you agree with them or not - unquestionably go completely against the ideals that America spent the 50 years prior to Bush spreading around the world.

Whether you're on the right, the left or stuck in the middle like me I'd encourage all of my American friends to just remember the values that make America the great country it is - truth, liberty and justice for all.

You guys sneeze, the rest of us catch a cold. You're the good guys, please fight the good fight. We need you. If you're not on side the rest of us are in a whole lot of trouble.

The elctoral college DOES work and is a good system. Without it candidates could completely ignore the smaller states and campaign only in the larger populated states like California and New York.

The draft will NOT be reinstated. The bill to reinstate the draft was floated, as previously stated, by two democrats. It was primarily an election time gimic to spark this very type of discussion and frighten many young voters into voting for Kerry. Politics as usual.

The military is opposed to the draft. They want somebody that wants to be there. In addition, under the draft system you are committed for two years. In today's highly technological military that simply isn't long enough to train. The current system does work extremely well.

You can have my mom's!

I agree, a draft would be lunacy. For one thing the military couldn't handle the massive influx of conscripts.

Then again, they didn't want to go in to Iraq either.

To be fair to the Democrats, this rumour also started (on "the internets" as Bush would say) because the U.S. military (or whoever looks after a draft) has taken steps to put the pieces in place so a draft would be possible, should Congress want one. They've rented offices and identified potential draft board members supposedly, but what's not said in these reports is that during a time of war the military puts together all kinds of contigency plans they'll never use. The Pentagon employs buildings full of people who do nothing but plan for things like "what if we go to war with Norway? How do we invade Greenland?"

I agree w/ Dantecat here. I voted for Kerry but since I didn't know much behind his things that I glad that Bush won. GO GO GO BUSH!!!!

That's a beautiful post Buck, and thank you. And entirely correct on all points. The best thing about living here is that we can change anything we have the gumption to change. Nothings ends with an election, and we can fight and agitate and effect change not just through those who represent us but through our own efforts and energies. It's hard for some to see any benefit out of 9/11 but I see quite a lot. It woke us up out of a mighty comfy, too comfy, 20-year snooze brought about by unprecedented sustained economic comfort and relative peacetime. It woke up voters, who had been turning out in lower and lower numbers every four years. It forced people to start paying attention again. We ARE the good guys, and I'd be hard-pressed to find an American who isn't acutely aware of the unreal responsibility of that. (For people like me, one part of that is knowing, when you have sons and they are little, that someday they may go fight for the sake of another place, another people. Part and parcel of being us.) It's up to all of us to keep on doing the best right things. I think we can.

Look out there, Link's in there with Hilary again. Pharmaceutical stocks skyrocketed yesterday when President-elect Zoot ordered several thousand cases of headache medication, anticipating a trying first term in office.

Now that it's over I just have to add this. When Kerry cussed out his Secret Service agent for tripping him up on the ski slopes of Idaho early in the campaign, using the ahem um Frenchtoast word repeatedly right in front of the press corps on a man who would take a bullet for him, that was who John Kerry really is. I know, I live in New England. It isn't about his being a Democrat. It's about who he really is. Thank God he's history, and we fully intend to do everything we can to get both him and Teddy Kennedy out of our Senate, where they have both embarassed us long enough. Doesn't matter what party they belong to. They are both reprehensible individuals regardless of affiliation.

I would have to agree with Beebers. Kerry came across as somebody who would do or say anything to get elected. His laughable goose hunting trip proved that. And he actually showed up in Green Bay and in an attempt to relate to local voters he referred to the home of the Packers as "Lambert Field" (It's Lambeau).

It is a shame though. The Democrats had an excellent chance to win this election. Bush was very vulnerable. And they ran such a poor candidate with very few ideas or substance. About the only thing he had going for him was "he's not Bush".

Besides, why would we possibly NEED a draft? The casualties of American soldiers have been so low in this war and the military has never been more attractive for people to join than it is right now. There's no way we could ever have a shortage of soldiers.

My sentiments exactly.

I really hope you're being sarcastic.