Vote for a sensible science policy. Vote for restoring America’s credibility in the world. Vote for opportunity for all Americans. Vote for restoring America’s respect for her own constitution. Vote for hope over fear. Vote for change.
Cosmic Variance is a group blog by people who, coincidentally or not, all happen to be physicists and astrophysicists:
Our day (and night) jobs notwithstanding, the blog is about whatever we find interesting — science, to be sure, but also arts, politics, culture, technology, academia, and miscellaneous trivia. We have similar outlooks on many things, widely disparate opinions about others, and will do our best to keep the discourse reasonably elevated.
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November 4th, 2008 at 1:26 pm
Yes. Go vote. For Change.
But, alas, there will be more wars, no less likely under Democrats, I fear. Hopefully, only those that are imposed on us, and not those we choose. Human beings are what they are.
November 4th, 2008 at 2:00 pm
If I had a vote (just a resident, not a citizen) then I would be voting for two things above the rest:
1) Voting to prevent what could easily be a quarter century of hard right-wing dominance of the Supreme Court given the likelihood that the next three retirees will all be from the more liberal wing of the court. An eight year Obama presidency will, at best maintain the status quo.
2) Voting to purge the ideologues and mediocrity installed by the Bush administration. Time after time, Bush appointed people to his administration based more on loyalty and ideology than on competence. We especially saw that in the post-invasion administration of Iraq where they even had the temerity to ask applicants if they had voted for Bush before they were given the job. But the most troubling facts of all is the number of graduates of Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University and Pat Robertson’s Regent University there were appointed by Bush. The fact that two mediocre fundamentalist Christian schools (by all neutral measure) should have such an impact on the administration of the United States should worry everyone in the reality-based community, Republican or Democrat. Other examples were attempts to mess with the scientific reports unfavorable to the Bush administration’s policies, attempts to neuter the output of PBS, and attempts to interfere with the output of the NASA press office.
Of course, there are many other reasons too for voting for Obama, but these two tend to get overlooked more often than not. While Obama is short on executive experience, one thing that has impressed me has been the quality of his campaign staff. They have been disciplined and unruffled throughout the campaign and have helped him build the most incredible campaign operation this country has ever seen. If he can translate that ability to the task of running the country, then things will start looking up.
November 4th, 2008 at 2:12 pm
And they don’t track IP addresses, so if you clear your cookies then you can vote again!
November 4th, 2008 at 2:50 pm
Quick, there’s still time to vote on that Sarah Palin poll on the PBS website!
November 4th, 2008 at 2:54 pm
voted mccain/palin – former democrat and hillary supporter.
November 4th, 2008 at 2:58 pm
Good for you…. you voted. That’s all that counts today.
November 4th, 2008 at 3:07 pm
Come on, the will.i.am thing? All the non-douchey Obama videos out there in the blogosphere, and you go with that one?
November 4th, 2008 at 3:14 pm
Go vote for your favorite power-hungry liar today
November 4th, 2008 at 5:28 pm
“Vote for a sensible science policy. Vote for restoring America’s credibility in the world. Vote for opportunity for all Americans. Vote for restoring America’s respect for her own constitution. Vote for hope over fear. Vote for change.”
Okay, I did.
November 4th, 2008 at 5:52 pm
In a word: awesome.
I’ve totally copied this and posted it on Astroengine.com.
I’m British, but live in the US and this is one of the most confusing things I have encountered in the three years out here. On the one hand we have the McCain/Palin ticket who have made it very clear that fear is their game. They have attempted to trash the opposition by connecting Obama with terrorism and their foreign policy is not to talk with problem nations, but to bomb them. Actually, I’m not entirely sure if Palin knows what a foreign policy is. As for their science policy, I’m astounded. We have Palin laughing about “pet projects” like fruit fly research and indicating that there is a creationism/evolution debate. Are we in the 21st century? As for McCain’s accusation that Obama voted on buying a $3 million overhead projector? This guy actually has some experience, he knows what Obama requested for his local planetarium. If McCain can belittle a critical educational tool, imagine what damage he can do to an entire nation.
Obama offers change, and change is needed. All his educational and science policies MAKE SENSE. He doesn’t have to try hard to argue his case because it is common sense.
I hope the US votes in favour of an intelligent president, and not in favour of the scaremongering tactics of the Republican ticket.
Phew. I’m chilling the beers for the celebration tonight (I hope)
Cheers, Ian
November 4th, 2008 at 7:21 pm
I was encouraged by the voter turn out for this election which is notoriously poor in the US. I hate to say it but I’ve been voting over 30 years in several states (not simultaneously) & have never seen such crowds. I arrived at my voting location 20 mins before opened at 7AM & there were 40 people waiting alreay. When I left there were people piling up in the parking lot. I have never had to wait to vote before..ever..it was a good feeling at 7AM. I’m glad to see that the American people realize how important this election really is..probably the most important one I’ve ever voted in.