US Presidential Election
Even if you’ve been living under a rock on the other side of the globe with your eyes and ears taped up, you’ll still be aware that today America goes to the polls and, unless some sort of mass voting machine breakdown occurs, Barack Obama will very likely be voted the next president of the United States.
Although it seems this election has been in the news for the last four years, there’s little mention of Obama or McCain on the images of Google Earth. However, we can find messages to the skies about the soon-to-be ex-President.
Underneath the approach to McCarran International Airport, someone has scrawled a message on the roof urging you to “Vote Bush” which, luckily, America is prevented from doing this time around.
In contrast, we find a “No W” logo in Lakewood Park, Massachusetts. It’s possible that this person is simply expressing their hate for the twenty-third letter of the alphabet, but the symbol is more commonly used to protest against George W Bush.
Whoever you prefer, we urge our American readers to stop messing about on the internet and go and vote.
Thanks to Brian LaPointe & SpiderX22
So “brand new”...” 
President Obama in a landslide!!!!! America can be proud again and more importantly the REST OF THE WORLD can be proud of us as well….
When I saw the ‘vote bush’ one I thought it said ‘Die Bush’ at first!
Done.
And I’m with #2. Perhaps it was what I would have preferred to see.
I find it unprofessional that Google Sightseeing would post political opinions on the blog. I’m not a Bush supporter by any stretch, but it still seems very inappropriate that a blog dealing with satellite imagery would presume to take a stance on US politics at all.
@Ross;: We frequently post sights related to big events on that day, such as Halloween just last week, and our entries often contain the opinions of the author. I don’t see this sight as any different, but I apologise that you find it “inappropriate”.
Anyway, we can’t help what people choose to write in fields!
James, this is not at all about “what people choose to write in fields”, and you know it. It’s about this: “which, luckily, America is prevented from doing this time around.”
I certainly agree with Ross here, you are being very unprofessional.
I’d like to point out that yes we did just poke fun at soon-to-be-ex President Bush, but that isn’t remotely unusual for this site. We’ve insulted kooky religions, creationists, scientologists, as well as the political leaders of North Korea and Iraq.
Bush isn’t treated any different to anybody else on this site, we’re totally inclusive, and will happily poke fun at anybody who turns up in these satellite images!
Bravo!
When GS STOPS poking fun at things and people I will stop visiting. When that time comes the pc brigade can have it all to themselves and be miserable. I think the main point made – which I support wholeheartedly – is GO VOTE … if you’re allowed to
Agreed, Tammo! How can you expect GS to not publish things like this? It would be partisan to not acknowledge them…
I don’t usually think of professionalism when I’m looking at a kid crash his scooter, or a guy flip off the street view cameras.
To All:
In hindsight, it was rash of me to post my original comment. I’m certainly not against freedom of speech, and I know that the authors of GSS are and should be allowed to post whatever they want…be it fact, opinion, or anything else…on their blog.
My personal philosophies are such that I should have thought objectively about what was being said before taking personal offense to it. I agree with Tammo that being PC is no fun, and I personally think that PC is causing harm to our society in ways that most people don’t even realize.
I think the reason that I originally felt put off by the quote about “luckily, America is prevented,” is that it lumped all Americans together into a giant pro-Bush crowd…as if, were it not for our Constitutional amendment limiting presidential terms, we would all want him back for a 3rd time around.
I can assure you that (at least personally) that is not the case. I think I was more offended by the fact that in order to achieve a humorous tone, James grouped all of us together on an issue that has had our country severely divided for the last 8 years.
So I wanted to apologize for my original comment that did not align with my personal beliefs and is not something that I should have posted. Politics is a sensitive subject, and I’m sorry that it clouded my judgment enough for me to post a comment like that.
Thanks for reading.
What have i missed?
This is much more exciting than the election coverage!
I see i’m not the only only one that read it as “DIE BUSH”
It is of course possible that the people who created the “No W” symbol are just opposed to the National Association of W Lovers.
Which, by the way, might be an appropriate activity for the soon-to-be-ex president of the US. Or is that very unprofessional for me to say that here?
like I said yesterday….President Obama in a landslide!!
my grandma always told me, not to talk about religion, politics or soccer on a party if I don’t want to start a fight…..