Thursday, November 14, 2002

Elections Twain Votes
It's official: Mark Twain received more than 500 votes in La Crosse County as a write-in candidate for Ron Kind's 3rd District congressional seat in the Nov. 5 election.

Not bad for a dead guy.
· Vote Early and Often and for the dead [LacrosseTribune]

It was a bad election (sic).

Of that, we can all agree. But what made it bad? On that, there is not universal agreement. For those who were most closely following the race for governor, the intensely negative tone of the campaign - and the amount of money spent by allegedly independent political groups on nasty TV ads - was the main issue. Voters who are tired of having to choose between Republicans and Democrats are disappointed at what they see are the lack of real choices in the elections and the lack of independent and third-party candidates in debates. Some debates were limited to the two major parties, and some were not. What solutions there are to these concerns depends on who you ask.
· Home Remedies [LacrosseTribune]

Some things never change...

Comrades! We must abolish the cult of the individual decisively, once and for all
- Nikita Khrushchev

The main plank in the National Socialist program is to abolish the liberalistic concept of the individual
- Adolf Hitler

At a time when our entire country is banding together and facing down individualism, the Patriots set a wonderful example, showing us all what is possible when we work together, believe in each other, and sacrifice for the greater good
- Ted Kennedy, 2002

There is the great, silent, continuous struggle: the struggle between the State and the Individual
- Benito Mussolini

We must stop thinking of the individual and start thinking about what is best for society
- Hillary Clinton, 1993

All our lives we fought against exalting the individual, against the elevation of the single person
- Vladimir Lenin