Bush backers counter election apology site
Web photo sites offer the world dueling messages of apology and unrepentant glee over presidential election results.
The U.S. polls had barely closed last week before Sorry Everybody appeared online, posting penitent photos from Kerry supporters. "Sorry, world (we tried)," reads one typically hand-scribbled sign in a posted photograph.
In a move that could keep the Net as polarized as the electoral map, Bush supporters responded with their own site, We'reNotSorry.com. The Web site offers a more red-state vision of the election, displaying photographs of people with messages such as, "Hey World, try thanking us sometime."
"There is no reason for us to apologize to the rest of the world because of our belief in Freedom and Democracy," the antiapology site tells visitors.
The Web has been home to some of the most vigorous and passionate political campaigning over the past few months, and the two sites are putting a more human face on the debate.
So far, actual apologies (and nonapologies) are outnumbering the online victory dances.
About 12 pages of photos supporting Bush had been posted as of mid-Friday afternoon, compared with 238 images of people expressing their regret over the election results.
Both sites are run anonymously. Sorry Everybody's operator noted that the site was created to reassure people in other countries that dissent was still active in America--and also because the idea was funny.
"Rarely do people on the Internet apologize," the site's operator wrote on a "Frequently Asked Questions" page. "I thought it was high time. The world needs to understand that there are people in America who don't like what our government is doing."
The antiapology site's creator says in a Web log that We'reNotSorry was started as a response to the Sorry Everybody site.
The sites aren't going unrecognized beyond U.S. borders. Another site, called Apologies Accepted, is posting pictures of people sympathizing with the Kerry supporters.
"We up here in Canada know you tried your hardest," reads a sign displayed in one woman's snapshot. "I got a spare couch...if any of y'all need a place to hang out for 4 years."