The Political Thread

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Richard Dawkins. Typical Aries.

[The Doctor Alt 8]

AS candidate I can believe in...
Cat Gets Thousands of Votes in Mexico Election

PHOTO: "I came for the rats," reads this campaign Facebook meme for Morris the Cat. "And I'll trounce the vultures with my legs."
"I came for the rats," reads this campaign Facebook meme for Morris the Cat. "And I'll trounce the vultures with my legs." Despite being a cat, Morris obtained some 12,000 votes in the election for mayor of Xalapa, Mexico.

By MANUEL RUEDA (@ruedareport)
July 15, 2013
Morris, the cat whose underground political candidacy won him headlines around the world, lapped up 12,000 votes in the election for mayor of Xalapa, Mexico, his handlers claimed on Monday.

The vote tally was nowhere near large enough to give this feline candidate the mayoral job. But it did place Morris fourth in a field of 11 candidates in the race to run Xalapa, population 420,000. Morris earned more votes than the candidate from Mexico's most influential left-wing party, the PRD.

The idea of running a cat for mayor was devised a couple months ago by two recent university graduates, who said that they did not identify with any of the city's human politicians.

On Facebook, the grads joked that Morris would rid the city of its corrupt political "rats" and said that voting for Morris would enable citizens to express their dissatisfaction with the city's rulers in an election that was already "a joke."

The cat's candidacy was hugely popular online, and it prompted disgruntled citizens elsewhere in Mexico to nominate more animals for office.

But Morris' campaign also generated political controversy, with some critics claiming that the pawed pol may have split the opposition vote in Xalapa, enabling Mexico's powerful ruling party, the PRI, to come out victorious.

Morris' handlers lashed out at these criticisms on Monday, in an oped published on the news site Animal Politico.

"Let's be realistic," Morris's campaign team wrote. "Who divided the vote? A simple cat, or the fragmented opposition?"

"If you combined the votes of [the top two opposition candidates], they would have easily had more votes than the PRI."

Critics are also questioning whether Morris actually secured the 12,000 votes that his handlers said he got.

Election officials in Xalapa did not allow the cat to officially register as a candidate (he is not human, after all) and said that any ballot in which someone wrote the cat's name would be considered an "invalid" vote and not be counted.

The votes that Morris supposedly got, are therefore, the votes that have been counted as "invalid" by officials, but of course there are numerous other reasons why votes can be determined to be invalid, like when someone ticks two candidates pictures.

To get their message across however, hundreds of Morris supporters took cell phone pictures of their ballots on election day, showing how they wrote in the cat's name.

Morris's campaign team thanked its supporters online, and promised that the famous cat would not disappear from politics. His Facebook page, in fact, now advocates for a series of animal rights laws in Mexico.

"We want to thank you," a banner on Morris' page reads. "The evolution of this project is just getting started.

[von Boom]

AS candidate I can believe in...
Cat Gets Thousands of Votes in Mexico Election

PHOTO: "I came for the rats," reads this campaign Facebook meme for Morris the Cat. "And I'll trounce the vultures with my legs."
"I came for the rats," reads this campaign Facebook meme for Morris the Cat. "And I'll trounce the vultures with my legs." Despite being a cat, Morris obtained some 12,000 votes in the election for mayor of Xalapa, Mexico.

I think this is how planet of the apes will begin.

[Frank]

Polling day in Zimbabwe's general election. Can't wait to find out who wins.

[LorcanQ]

Just read Chomsky - Hopes and prospects

Anyone read Chomsky? He's fucking brilliant. If he was president of the US, the world would be a truly truly better place

At the moment, am reading all the Celtic Tiger/recession books. Frustrating stuff.

[JayzusB.Christ]

Just read Chomsky - Hopes and prospects

Anyone read Chomsky? He's fucking brilliant. If he was president of the US, the world would be a truly truly better place

At the moment, am reading all the Celtic Tiger/recession books. Frustrating stuff.

I've listened to a lot of the Chomsky chap's interviews and lectures; it made the stress of living in Beijing last year a bit more bearable.  He's great; the best anarchist in writing since Alan Moore

[TordelBack]

I went to a series of lectures Chomsky gave in Dublin 20-odd years ago (covering all  of his various fields), they were mind-expanding in the genuine sense of that phrase.  By the end of the series they had to do video feeds to two other theatres to accommodate numbers, meaning he had an audience of about 1,200 - not bad for a talk on linguistics! 

I have a notebook sketch I did of him at the lectern that is the best thing I ever managed to draw, not long before I realised that I have not an atom of artistic ability. So he inspired in many ways.

[JayzusB.Christ]

I would really like to see your drawing anyway! Go on, you know you want to.

[JOE SOAP]

The battle between Chomsky & Zizek is a battle more about how much time we're willing to spend listening to them when we could be doing something else than it is about theory versus pragmatism:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWRqPbwwYS0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZ1ylGxGBF4

[TordelBack]

I would really like to see your drawing anyway!

What, and find my precious IP adorning a pedestrian crossing in Leixlip next week?   

Even as I wrote that post, I realised I have no idea where the hell it is.  A notebook.  Somewhere. I think I'll do a Kickstarter to fund the search.  Stretch goals include typing up my notes from the actual lecture, and for top-level pledges a facsimile edition of my Star Wars Sequel Decalogy (1983-7).  Trust me, there'd be no need to manufacture consent on that baby.

I'll have a look, but it's not worth the wait.

[Ancient Otter]

WWIII Queen's speech' script revealed in U.K. national archives released today. Also in the archive: sacrificing Kent and Essex to save London in tidal flood.

[JOE SOAP]

and for top-level pledges a facsimile edition of my Star Wars Sequel Decalogy (1983-7).

You could've saved Lucasfilm a lot of money.

[JayzusB.Christ]

What, and find my precious IP adorning a pedestrian crossing in Leixlip next week?   

[TordelBack]

You could've saved Lucasfilm a lot of money.

Probably not.  The SFX costs of two galaxies colliding! would have been considerable.

[JayzusB.Christ]

You could've saved Lucasfilm a lot of money.

Probably not.  The SFX costs of two galaxies colliding! would have been considerable.

It sounds frickin' awesome.  I'm sure George Lucas would happily find a way to fuck it up then sell it to Disney.