[link|http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2004/07/27/unions_might_be_better_off_with_kerry_loss_leader_says/|David Broder] opinion column:

Breaking sharply with the enforced harmony of the Democratic National Convention, the president of the largest AFL-CIO union said yesterday that both organized labor and the Democratic Party might be better off in the long run if Senator John F. Kerry loses the presidential election.

Andrew Stern, head of the 1.6-million-member Service Employees International Union, or SEIU, said in an interview with The Washington Post that both the party and its longtime ally, the labor movement, are "in deep crisis," devoid of new ideas, and working with archaic structures.

Stern contended that another four years of Bush policies might be less damaging than the stifling of needed reform he said would occur if Kerry becomes president.

He subsequently "clarified" or "revised and extended" his remarks...

He's got a point. If liberals/progressives/whatever feel that they have no choice but vote for Kerry, then they'll have little clout with a Kerry administration (in the same way, as Bush pointed out, as African-Americans are taken for granted). And if Kerry wins, people will argue, "Hey we won! We don't need to change anything!"


I'm rather pessimistic about the election this time around. I agree with [link|http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2004/07/30/rushed_speech_lost_opportunity/|Tom Oliphant] that Kerry blew a great opportunity (the speech was rushed, it was too poorly edited, etc.), but he did a passable job I guess. Kerry didn't offer any specifics about how he was going to all the wonderful things he wants to do, but I didn't expect any in that setting. We'll see if he starts taking a real position on things like Iraq, or just continues to hope that he'll be elected as ABB. I have not warmed to Kerry and I don't know if I will.

It seems to me that Kerry should be a lot more than [link|http://www.rasmussenreports.com/Presidential_Tracking_Poll.htm|3 points] ahead at this point. Bush is vulnerable, but Kerry seems unwilling to take a stand on Iraq or trade or the budget or the coming crisis due to baby boomer retirement or ... other than to say he'd do a better job because he spent 5 months in Vietnam 35 years ago while Bush didn't.

I don't like his and Edwards' crying about "negative attacks" either. Give me positive attacks! :-/ It sounds like they're afraid of the schoolyard bullies or something.

(I'm tempted mention "ass clowns" and insert Danno's closing here...)

[link|http://www.seattlewebcrafters.com/php/countdown.php|154 days to go] - I'll let Ashton keep track of the hours. ;-)

Cheers,
Scott.

:-)

That web link actually says -153 days till election day at the moment. There seems to be a bug in that [link|http://www.seattlewebcrafters.com/php/countdown_code.html|PHP code].

[link|http://helios-arts.com/clock.html|This] active election count-down clock seems accurate.

Cheers,
Scott.

// Get server timestamp
$today = time();

// Get number of days from today until the end of this year
$rest_of_year = date('z', mktime(0,0,0,12,31,date('Y', $today))) - date('z', $today);

// Get number of days from the 1st of 2004 to election day
$election = date('z', mktime(0,0,0,11,2,2004));

// Add the days remaining in this year to the number of days in 2004 prior to election day
$countdown = $rest_of_year + $election;

It seems clear enough that they're making a mistake in the calculation.

I think it should be:

$countdown = $election - ($length_of_year - $rest_of_year);

or more simply:

$countdown = $election - $today;

(where $length_of_year is calculated using the date function).

Checking:

July 31 is the 213th day of the year, so 153 days remain (leap year and all that) in the year. Election day is November 2, 306 days from the start of the year and 59 days from the end of the year, so the net is 153 - 59 = 94 days (or 93+ days). To get -153 days, they must have taken 153 - 306 days.

The coder apparently got mixed up in knowing whether s/he was counting from the first or the end of the year.

Or something like that.

Cheers,
Scott.