Stephen Colbert, that 200+% real 'Murican, has been denied a place on the South Carolina primary ballot.

Colbert will get his $2500 check back though.

The Republicans denied Colbert a place on the ballot since he didn't file with the state party and the FEC by Thursday and pay the $35,000 fee.

Obviously the electoral process in this country needs two immediate reforms, the first being the abolition of the Electoral College, and, second, radical changes to the state primary systems.

Stephen took it pretty well, though, just spraying crushed Doritos around the studio.

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I think this is OK because it's political science, not politics.

But I wonder if there are other countries that have open primaries like in the US. AFAIK, nearly all countries have candidates selected by the party leadership. The net effect of the primary system in the US is that the parties mean nothing, essentially. Legislators vote on their own without instruction from the party leadership. I suppose it's got its benefits and drawbacks. One problem may be that in a state where one party always wins the election, people who don't agree with that party's platform may register as members, simply because the primary is the only election that counts.

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As above, so below

Colbert's got my vote---for the most obnoxious man on TV!

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I take it you don't watch Fox "news"?

Meanwhile Stephen still has the independent route open to him. We'll find out about that as soon as the writer's strike thing is settled.

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I thought he was going to register as a Republican candidate, too?

At any rate, if he does get on the ballot somewhere, it'll at least be fun watching the FEC figure out how to apply McCain-Feingold and all the other "campaign finance laws."

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SeanF

"Ask to understand, but don't challenge unless you have the knowledge."--NEOWatcher

The contents of this post are ©2008 by SeanF and may not be copied or retransmitted in any form without the express written consent of SeanF

Stephen is the obvious choice for President: no coherent platform, extensive corporate backing, nice suits and best of all he and I share a name (his first, my middle). I admit I have a minor quibble with one of his major talking points (I prefer Cool Ranch Doritos), but feel sure he could create the Party of the Big Bag, or maybe the Party Bag Party.

I'm also glad he didn't cave in to the pressure to spell his name 'Steven'; the digraph 'ph' has a noble history, even if it is pronounced 'f'. And like the acidity scale, his positions often seem to obey an inverse logarithmic relationship to hydrogen ion activity. At least in dilute solutions.

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He was. But the Republicans wanted $25,000 to put his name on the ballot. The Democrats wanted $2500, which could have been waived had he gotten enough signatures on a petition. (From South Carolina residents, naturally.)

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Gillian

"Now everyone was giving her that kind of look UFOlogists get when they suddenly say, 'Hey, if you shade your eyes you can see it is just a flock of geese after all.'"

"You can't erase icing."

"I can't believe it doesn't work! I found it on the internet, man!"

I've been saying this for years too. The Electoral College is now doing exactly the opposite of what it was originally designed for. It was put in place to make it necessary for candidates to appeal to a large majority of the population with their different issues and interests, forcing them to garner suppport from all over the country. Now, a candidate only has to win 11 key states to become President.

As for primary and campaign reform, it is LONG overdue. Originally, the best person could run for PoTUS, now it's just the person with the deepest pockets, be the pockets their own or those of the corporations that bought the candidate.

(lets get rid of lobbyists while we're at it! )

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I was just sitting here contemplating the immortal words of Socrates who said, "I drank what?"

"Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot." --Carl Sagan "Pale Blue Dot"

...And as long as I'm wishing, I want a pony, Santa.

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"If this were play'd upon a stage now, I could condemn it as an improbable fiction."
Shakespeare, Twelfth Night
Illuminati's Razor-The most complicatedly evil answer is usually the most correct answer. - Fazor
"Every book is a children's book if the kid can read." - Mitch Hedberg
"Distance doesn’t matter much in space, where if you just start a thing off with the right kind of shove, sooner or later it will get where you want it to go." -Frederik Pohl, Mining the Oort

Stephen is onto something. Instead of pussyfooting around, I think we should try full corporate sponsorship of elections and government. Imagine "The Nextel White House" or "The Washington Mutual Monument." They pay for the upkeep and get advertising in return.

In fact, try "The Capitol One - Who's in YOUR Pocket?"

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The Devil offered me power. I told him I preferred aperture.

Brilliant!

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"If this were play'd upon a stage now, I could condemn it as an improbable fiction."
Shakespeare, Twelfth Night
Illuminati's Razor-The most complicatedly evil answer is usually the most correct answer. - Fazor
"Every book is a children's book if the kid can read." - Mitch Hedberg
"Distance doesn’t matter much in space, where if you just start a thing off with the right kind of shove, sooner or later it will get where you want it to go." -Frederik Pohl, Mining the Oort

And the Cosmos DVDs.
Okay, but no ads on spacecraft.
The spirit of adventure is all that's in my rocket.

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"If you think the LHC will create black holes, you might as well believe Hobbits are at the bottom of your garden."- Dr. Mike Inglis
Rovers forever! - ToSeek
"Carl Sagan sent a message to ET,
Neil Armstrong walked in the Sea of Tranquility
Steve Squyers built Spirit and Opportunity
Dan Haylen upchucked in zero gravity." -Brent Simon, The Space Camp Song

<Nitpick>Only one "d".</Nitpick>

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"If this were play'd upon a stage now, I could condemn it as an improbable fiction."
Shakespeare, Twelfth Night
Illuminati's Razor-The most complicatedly evil answer is usually the most correct answer. - Fazor
"Every book is a children's book if the kid can read." - Mitch Hedberg
"Distance doesn’t matter much in space, where if you just start a thing off with the right kind of shove, sooner or later it will get where you want it to go." -Frederik Pohl, Mining the Oort

Heck, my name is on Mars (Planetary Society) along with a Lego logo.

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The Devil offered me power. I told him I preferred aperture.

Some more ideas:

The Taco Bell Grande Burrito Canyon

Hello, Kitty Hawk

Mount Rush Limbaugh More

The Lincoln Navigator Memorial

The Great Marlboro Smoky Mountains

The Golden Arches Bridge

Yellow Cold Stone Creamery Park

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The Devil offered me power. I told him I preferred aperture.

McD's is more likely to go after the St. Louis Arch, all it needs is a paint job to conform to their logo.

Ben & Jerry's Rocky Rhode Island?

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"If this were play'd upon a stage now, I could condemn it as an improbable fiction."
Shakespeare, Twelfth Night
Illuminati's Razor-The most complicatedly evil answer is usually the most correct answer. - Fazor
"Every book is a children's book if the kid can read." - Mitch Hedberg
"Distance doesn’t matter much in space, where if you just start a thing off with the right kind of shove, sooner or later it will get where you want it to go." -Frederik Pohl, Mining the Oort

Yes, excellent pickup on StLouie.

In fact, McD could lease the arch, then after a few years say they need a second arch and if the city doesn't come up with the money to build one threaten to move the franchise to Nashville, or somewhere. The City Fathers will go berserk at the thought of losing the franchise and ram through a $600,000,000 bond paid for by increases in property owners taxes, cigarette and liquor taxes and cutting art and music from the local schools.

Five years later McD will move anyway, when Nashville offers to build them arches twice as high, at city expense.

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The Devil offered me power. I told him I preferred aperture.

Sounds like an Amazing Untrue Business Forcast

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I was just sitting here contemplating the immortal words of Socrates who said, "I drank what?"

"Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot." --Carl Sagan "Pale Blue Dot"

I remember an article in Discover magazine from about a decade ago, in which a mathematician showed that the Electoral College system (assuming the winner of the popular vote in a state gets all of the electoral votes for that state) actually increases voter power over a simple nation-wide popular vote. The classic analogy is the World Series: a team can win the series while scoring fewer overall runs.

Unfortunately, I can't find the article in my Big Box 'o Back Issues so I haven't been able to track down the journal article it's based on.

I do agree that the primary system needs a major overhaul. It's too bad that some of the more interesting alternate systems won't work here because they require the voters to be either educated or honest...

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"How many times have you gone rooting through your junk drawer, muttering to yourself, 'where'd I put that gun?'"