MADER'S 'BRANTS Bush wins the Election November 7, 2004 - After much brouhaha and months of mind numbing rhetoric, the election season is finally over. Bush won. Yes deny it all ya want but the little guy from Texas pulled it off, and he pulled it off big. What I found fun was just how many people got a dose of reality on that Tuesday. People like Howard Stern, Michael Moore and most of Hollywood, as well pundits like Bill O’Reilly or Tucker Carlson or virtually anybody in the media biz discovered that their opinions are irrelevant. None of them changed the voter’s minds once the curtain closed on the booth. How humbling it must be for people of such immense egos as Stern, Moore and O’Reilly to find they are not even remotely part of the equation. Stern got slapped with big fines by the FCC, and as a result, changed his support from Bush to Kerry. He sat there on the radio every morning for months complaining like a 4-year-old about the Administration and proudly said, at one point, that he would give the election to Kerry. That he could deliver his 18 million listeners and take the White House. I hear crickets Howard. By the by Howie. It will be tough spending that 100 million dollars a year you will earn on satellite radio. The fines where the best thing that could happen to you. Shut up and move on. Michael Moore played true to his part in this play. As the whiney little fat kid he alienated more voters than he brought in. Simple truth about humans is they hate being preached to and will often do the opposite just out of spite. As for Mr. O’Reilly, he was too busy sexually harassing one of his employees to have an impact on the election. When he wasn’t busy making obscene phone calls, he tried to be relevant, but in the end he suffers from the same problem as Moore. He is just the other side of the same coin. It turns out that the main drive for a lot of voters was moral issues. In many ways I take heart. It means we are not a country of sheep to be swayed by the opinions of a select, privileged few. What that says about us as a nation and our morals, I wouldn’t even hazard a guess. A side story to the celebrity involvement in politics was the huge drive by people like P Diddy and others to get people to register to vote. It seemed very altruistic and patriotic. Then CNN reported Friday after the election that most of the high profile celebrities involved in the rallies and drives ended up not only not voting, but also not even being registered. Celebrities using an event to only garner good press and exposure? Naaawwwwww! Say it aint so. Not to be cynical, but if you take political advice from any of the groups I have mentioned, ya pretty much get what you deserve. ;-) The final note on the election was from Europe. It seems that many leaders felt disappointed at Bush’s re-election. But they hope that they might be able to improve their relationship with the US over the next 4 years. Here’s a tip guys and gals, the first step in improving relations might be to not acting like spoiled children that didn’t get what they wanted for Christmas. If you where Bush, would you listen to a group of people that publicly admit they didn’t like you and wanted you to lose the election? I think not. I think you would give em a big ole American FUCK YOU! And wave good bye. Last but not least. Could we please let Christopher Reeves rest in peace? His injury and death was tragic. He will be missed. But do we really need to turn him in to a modern day saint? The man wasn’t Jesus Christ. He couldn’t walk on water. Hell! Come to think of it, he couldn’t walk! He could roll…. kinda…..but not walk. Let alone on water. Mean of me I know. But it had to be said. Later, Mader