Votemaster == Famous American Geek in Holland

The "Votemaster" at the now famous electoral-vote.com has revealed himself. It's original MINIX author Andrew Tanenbaum, who set up and ran the site from The Netherlands just on his own whim, which is pretty damn cool. The editorial tone on the site has been slightly anti-Bush, I've thought, but never close to, let alone over, the top. Which I think is also pretty cool. But now he has unmasked himself, and in his description of why he ran the site, he's come out clearly as anti-Bush and pro-Kerry:

In a nutshell, because living abroad I know first hand what the world thinks of America and it is not a pretty picture at the moment. I want people to think of America as the land of freedom and democracy, not the land of arrogance and blind revenge... The administration simply misused the horror of Sept. 11 as a convenient excuse for doing something that was already in the works.

Let me tell you a short story. When I was in elementary school, the school was plagued by a bully. He was the biggest, strongest kid around and would beat up anyone he didn't like. We were all exceedingly polite to his face, but hated his guts behind his back. One day he was chasing some poor kid and he tripped and skidded a considerable distance, scraping his face on the rough asphalt of the playground. He was bleeding and in pain, screaming for help. But nobody came to help him. We all just walked away. George Bush is the world's playground bully. The world sees him--and by inference, America--as arrogant, self-centered, and mean. I spoke to Americans from dozens of countries at the DA caucus. Everyone told the same story--the world hates America. When talking to foreigners, I can tell them about the Bill of Rights or freedom or World War II, or whatever I want, but all they see is this big, stupid, arrogant, playground bully and a stolen election in Florida last time.

Postscript: Mr. Tanenbaum's entry on Wikipedia has already been updated with this "Votemaster" story. Wikipedia is just a badass like that.