Aug
24

The latest mission for members of the Colbert Nation: “The Stephen Colbert Bridge”

By DB on August 24th, 2006 ·

It’s official – STEPHEN WON!!!!!


Name this Hungarian bridge after Stephen Colbert!Final Vote Counts (Top 5) as of September 8, 2006 2:32 PM CST:

Round 1-

Stephen Colbert híd 17231725 [53%]
Zrínyi híd 2062649 [6%]
Pató Pál – híd 1805118 [6%]
Bethlen Gábor – híd 1735587 [5%]
Hunyadi Mátyás – híd 1478020 [5%]

Round 2-

Stephen Colbert híd 93163 [25%]
Jon Stewart híd 85171 [23%]
Zrínyi híd 83966 [23%]
Eötvös híd 37042 [10%]
Perl-Script híd 17354 [5%]




The mission, should you choose to accept it:
Get Stephen Colbert’s name voted in as the bridge name for this new bridge in Hungary spanning the Danube River.

To accomplish your task:

To vote, go here-
http://www.m0hid.gov.hu/

UPDATED! Phase II Voting instructions: Walk-through of the voting process

  • Click on the “Regisztráció” link on the top left-hand corner of the page.
  • Write in your email, and your password, and a repeat of the password (your password confirmation) in the three blank fields (IN THAT ORDER).
  • In minutes, you get a mail with a confirmation link and your password. Click on the link included in the e-mail.
  • When you click on the link in the e-mail, you will get redirected to the voting page.
  • Type your e-mail in the E-mail cim field, and your password in the Jelsó field.
  • Select the radial button by “Stephen Colbert híd” and click the Belépés button. You will be taken to a screen with the vote tallies. To vote again, click on the Kilépés button.
  • “Belépések száma” means “Number of logins”. It does appear that you can vote unlimited times, but you have to be registered to do so.
  • “Összesen” on the bottom means “All votes”, and the Toplista tally page seems to be working again if you would like to see the tally of all of the votes.
  • And, in case you’re wondering, yes the Colbert Nation has already found a way to cheat stuff the ballot box on this round of votes, too. But Colbert has requested (via the ColbertNation.com forums) that everyone play nice so that we don’t block out all of the other people from around the world who might want to vote. In other words – don’t cheat. Do it the long way.

A translation of the new front page:

On the main page shortly:

On 22 Aug the phase 1 of voting has closed. They are happy for the lot of ideas, some funny, some biting, some offensive. [First link to see the phase 1 nominations]

Against our plans, the lots of voters changed our mind: we send further 25 names instead of 10.

We don’t wait new names, but wait for new votes for the existing top 25.

The next phase last until 8 Sept, and you can vote only after registration. The votes made in the 1st phase _are nulled_. chanches are equal from now.

(some info about who will make decision blah blah) The winner of the second phase has a great chanche to be the name of the bridge.

A big HUUUUUGE and sincere Thank You to my faithful reader birogeri for getting a translation of the new page and new voting instructions.

Vote often because as Stephen Colbert says, “Carpel Tunnel is a small price to pay to give this gift to the Hungarian people.” Also, if you decide to use this information for your own web page, please put a link to this site on your blog. Thank you.

Learn how to vote for the name of the Saginaw Spirit mascot here!


VOTE TALLY
Phase I
8/15/2006 11:29 PM CST – Stephen Colbert híd 45,029 [0%]
8/16/2006 8:45 AM CST – Stephen Colbert híd 167,139 [1%]
8/16/2006 11:19 AM CST – Stephen Colbert híd 420,770 [3%]
8/16/2006 6:56 PM CST – Stephen Colbert híd 438,049 [3%]
8/20/2006 10:21 AM CST – Stephen Colbert híd 3,018,675 [17%]
8/21/2006 1:19 AM CST – Stephen Colbert híd 4,073,616 [21%]
8/21/2006 10:18 AM CST – Stephen Colbert híd 5,733,710 [28%]
8/21/2006 9:33 PM CST – Stephen Colbert híd 6,302,505 [30%]
8/22/2006 5:30 AM CST – Stephen Colbert híd 12,982,389 [46%]

Phase II
8/22/2006 9:22 AM CST – New instructions on manual voting
8/22/2006 9:49 AM CST – Stephen Colbert híd 104 [10%] (Ranking: #4)
8/22/2006 10:33 AM CST – Stephen Colbert híd 231 [18%] (Ranking: #1)
8/22/2006 12:51 PM CST – Stephen Colbert híd 2498 [64%] (Next closest – Pató Pál híd 275 [7%] )
8/23/2006 9:45 PM CST – Stephen Colbert híd 10,603 [39%] (Next closest – Jon Stewart híd 3913 [14%])
8/23/2006 11:58 PM CST Stephen Colbert híd 56,324 [77%] (Next closest – Jon Stewart híd 3975 [5%])
8/24/2006 11:14 AM CST Stephen Colbert híd 81,564 [80%] (Next Closest – Szent Korona híd 4294 [4%]
8/29/2006 1:02 PM CST Stephen Colbert híd 85,903 [55%] )

The Top Nominees: http://www.m0hid.gov.hu/toplista


Go Digg this story here: The Latest Mission for the Colbert Nation: “The Stephen Colbert Bridge”


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142 Comments

1

I don’t think the server can cope. I’m getting bizarre error messages.

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2

I think you’re right.

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3

Server got Colbered

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4

I made it through the wilderness…the wilderness of the Hungarian Internet Superhighway Offramp, that is! Yes, the server was contacted, my vote registered (number 185 and counting!), and I sit in self-satisfaction at having contributed to the website vote in something not wholly unlike democracy in action — you know, anonymously canonized candidates without portfolio pandering for votes, a dearth of readily available educational material about the details of the issue at hand, blatant attempts by at least one candidate’s (Colbert’s) minions to stuff the ballot box, and so on. God bless the erstwhile southerners of the Eastern Bloc for showing all us in the USA How It’s Done!

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5

I’ve been refreshing that page for the last 45 minutes or so. This last time, about 100-150 candidates loaded before the whole thing cut off, and thus there was no stephen colbert. I did notice, however, that tupac shakur (sp?) and mel gibson were on there.

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6

I just voted for the Man! 2187 and counting! Keep the faith, Nation!

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7

Too bad they’ll probably name it after one of the Hungarian saints or some historical figure anyway. No sense of humor in our administrative circles :D

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8

Hungirl, I don’t think it’s funny when a bridge is called “Chuck Norris” or “Stephen Colbert bridge”. Okay it’s funny for like 2 minutes. (Amúgy meg szerintem a Szent István híd az teljesen jó:)

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9

A Chuck Norris bridge wouldn\’t be funny, because Chuck Norris is a moron who doesn\’t deserve anything named after him. A Stephen Colbert Bridge would be terrific. Although still not as funny as \”F@#!ing, Austria\”.

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10

I don’t think any of the voters took the voting seriously – who the hell would name a bridge after Chuck Norris, a dwarf ex-sportsman who cannot act at all? He is a joke. I think it is funny in a way (or more like pathetic) to see there are people who think the result of this voting means anything in Hungary. The government’s got a few ideas from us, but it’s not you/us who will decide. Honestly? I don’t really care. Why not name bridges like North Bridge, Long Bridge and Black Bridge, you wouldn’t have to rename it with every regime :)

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11

Hi folks!

Just to clean the mess up a bit:
- I’m a Hungarian, and personally nationalist enough to do my best against giving our bridge the name of a foreigner and/or some fancy thing someone thinks funny
- Our government doesn’t really care about the name of the bridge, as you can see from the fact that they even didn’t restrict voting to Hungarian ip-s
- However, I _do_ care, so it’s mainly me who is rolling the counters
- There are at least two of my kind, who do their best to propagate their favourite choice, which both are names of valuable Hungarian persons, and so would perfectly fit for the name of the bridge
- There are some mentally infantile groups who try to propagate some fancy things also
- Both their and your attempts are futile, you simply can’t win, as there is a group of ours who didn’t forget the pride, the knowledge and the might we inherited from all our ancestors of more than a thousand years
- So please take my sincere apologises about hindering your attempt, all I can suggest as a replacement is to set up a voting about re-naming the Buckingham Palace or the Washington Monument about Mr. Colbert or Mr. Norris instead

Sincerely yours:
Attila

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12

Mwahaha I can keep voting again and again bye deleting all ALL browser history including cookies and caches!

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13

just calm down. the lovely nationalist pride will not be sullied. the favorite name has over 1 million votes (colbert is sadly only just over 51,000). since we cannot even access the website often enough to vote once an hour i don’t think Hungary is in danger of having a tupac, chuck or colbert bridge. to the Hungarian that is annoyed: just relax, this is a juvenile, but fun, american pasttime. why when we have elections dogs, cartoon characters and ex child stars are allowed to get on the ballot, and sometimes we even elect them. nobody is slandering Hungary, nobody really thinks our beloved fearless leader, mr. colbert, will suddenly be honored by having a bridge named after him. but it’s fun to do something so odd and futile.

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14

Nobody thinks Colbert will get the vote. It’s just fun to see how many votes he gets.

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15

I would like for the Hungarian people to stop the insanity. Please vote for a real hero like Stephen Colbert. The ‘Colbert Bridge’ sounds better than the ‘Itztyuadfah Bridge.’

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16

if you clear your cookies and history you can refresh the page and vote unlimited times on the same computer. sorry if this has already been said. GOOD LUCK COLBERT NATION!

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17

interestengly, “Stephen” in Hungarian is “István”… Therefore “Saint Stephen Bridge” (Szent István hid) is in 5th place!! Maybe Colbert could make something out of that…

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18

sorry, meant 10th place…

anyways, maybe “Colbert István” would be a good compromise?

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19

I can’t wait for the next poll numbers update. The site updates so infrequently. :(

I’m betting that it will be… special.

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20

To all you hulye Hungarians, I voted 24 times. Keep voiting.

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21

I’m watching the Colbert Report, and all I have to say is:

“You’re welcome, Steven.”

Any other Linux users in the Nation?

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22

Great Job we have over 400,000 now. Keep Voting!

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23

colbert sends us to his website http://www.colbertnation.com
and it dose not work.
If you are going to send
people to a web site,
make sure it works !

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24

@dale:

Don’t blame Colbert – it’s not his fault that the servers of his site crash every time he mentions it on his show.

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25

Good news nation!

Almost 1/4 of the way to naming the colbert bridge! Keep the vote alive people. Tell your friends, neighbours, brother, sisters and parents (I have!). This isn’t juvenile humour people, this is giving the Hungarian people the gift of Stephen Colbert. We will win this! Don’t give up!

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26

wow dude…i want to vote so baaadd but the server is so jam packed and im getting many many many error messages…i will keep trying though

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27

have anyone noticed that the 3rd top vote is for the “perl-script” bridge? This is fricken funny as hell because that is just how they’re voting for it.

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28

Keep the faith! ‘Colbert Bridge’ will win, and yes tell all your friends in life and on forums you are part of to vote for Stephen Colbert. He could be the President if he wanted to!

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29

The number of votes for Colbert is the same as yesterday?!?! It would’ve surely gone up by at least a hundred thousand. Does anyone know what’s going on?

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30

6 digits!!!

Let’s get 7

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31

Its jamming up the colbertnation site, we have to make it more public, get the word out to more people. Keep going we can get the bridge named after Colbert (2nd choices for names are chuck norris and chewbacca, lol) . THE NUMBER ONE CHOICE IS STEPHEN COLBERT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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32

No votes are changing. None have changed since yesterday at around 11:30 or so, in fact. I wonder what the site admins are up to. I hope the massive voting spree launched by my script (to compete with our opponents’ scripts) wasn’t part of the problem.

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33

Yeah the running count is still standing at 438,049. I think Rei’s right and the admins are doing something. It wouldn’t be a bad idea to purge a lot of these bs nominees off the list with one or zero votes like 101kiskutya híd or achtung baby. But I’m really afraid that they might purge Stephen and Seagal and Chuck Norris off as well, especially if they catch on to these scripts. But keep it up everyone! The page finally loaded so I’m voting again!

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34

Hi folks in USA,I am afraid that Stephen Colbert is not as famous here in central Europe as he is in USA. Ive been to Hungary several times, its an interesting country, but people there are unfortunately nationalistic. They wont name bridge after “some entertainer” who called their national hero “as*hole”. They will blame us for cheating, which some morons really do and even suggest it to others. Hey we dont need this, its UNAMERICAN behaviour! We can win it fairly! Support Stephen Colbert – Americas leading patriot

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35

Mayde all double and triple voting is messing up Colbert’s chances. Just vote on more computers.

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36

If you vote more than one time, and they find out, does that mean your vote won’t count or it only counts as one?

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37

how come the “Perl-Script” is 4th place? thats what I call BS!

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38

[quote]They will blame us for cheating, which some morons really do and even suggest it to others.[/quote]

Are you calling Stephen Colbert a “moron”? Because he’s the one who suggested to people to vote until they have carpal tunnel.

As for scripts, I hate to say it, but if your opponents are using a script that votes once every second, the only way to beat them is to have scripts that get in two votes every second.

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39

For some reason i get on easily.. I have voted about 50 times!

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40

This is great.. lol I wonder if Hungary is mad.

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41

lol i vote @ least 10 X a day.. you all should too! Stephen Colbert Bridge ftw!

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42

Why not the Tek Jansen bridge? It sort of sounds Hungarian.

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43

Stephen Colbert híd 5592496 [27%]

Doing just great…

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44

woot! We’ve got this one in the bag.. 27%.. Stephen Colbert bridge all the way!

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45

As a Hungarian myself who was lucky enough to get exposed to Colbert while being in America, I strongly encourage everyone to vote for him.
As an alternative, one could initiate the procedures to name Steven Colbert a saint, in which case the already running name “Saint Steven Bridge” could apply to Steve, too. I hope Vatican has an online voting system…

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46

Hey,

I do not want to cross the Stephen Colbert bridge in the future, sorry folks.
Personally I prefer the “Bridge over River Kwai”-bridge! Please vote for that!
Search for the following name: Híd a Kwai folyón-híd

Thanks a lot!
Judit from Budapest

PS: But I think that the government has shut down the vote.

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47

Hail Great Stephen Colbert.

We have done your bidding, faithful and devoted we are!!!, using are time to please you. You are now at 53% we have vanquished and brought Freedom to the Hungarian people.

Although I am confused now, the pattern has changed in their voting site and does not allow me to vote. Please fellow followers tell me how to vote now.

Great Colbert, please we need your leadership tell us how to proceed now on your show today, we hope for your blessing and guidance.

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48

[...] I wouldn’t go so far as agreeing with Geraldo on this one, but the power Colbert yields depends more on other information channels than just his show. Flooding a website with traffic is nothing new. The Slashdot or DIGG effect has run several servers to the ground over the last few years. Several times a day to be honest. So what of the Colbert Effect? His Wikiality comments tested the dedication to some of the editors on Wikipedia, but the Colbert Effect died after a few days. The lock on the elephant page has been removed (you still have to have an account) and every sign of a lock on the Latchkey Kids article has been completely removed. Wikipedia isn’t the big bully censor after all. As for “The Stephen Colbert Bridge”, the voting site is still overwhelmed and nearly impossible to reach after two days but that doesn’t mean Colbert has really accomplished anything. Firstly, there’s no reason for a site like that to expect all that many daily visitors, a slight infusion of random traffic will take down the majority of the websites on the Internet. Secondly, according to a comment regarding the Bridge on the No Fact Zone, Colbert had a total of 2187 votes. That pales in comparison to the 156741 votes Chuck Norris already has (who is a distant second to the leader, Zenebutik-Zenehíd which has 260730). Sorry to say, what Colbert has achieved is simply a matter of hype for his television show. [...]

49

they reset the votes and now you have to register with a valid email account to get a vote counted… stephens at 77 percent wooo hooo! go nation!

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50

Our goverment is a crazy team! :)

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51

Már nem lehet felpörgetn ia szavazást… :)!!!

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52

oh my god – he’s in the lead! just cast my vote – #4889…. stephen’s already got a clear 75% of the total vote. next closest competition – pato pal with only 5% of the vote. hot damn – stephen’s gonna win!!

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53

Keep it Going Guys! Keep Jon Stewart down and Colbert in First!

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54

Hm well why is Jon Stewart on this? It was Colbert’s Idea let him win!

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55

right now he metioned on his show that its up to 17 million plus votes…and thats 10 million more people then the population of hungary haha

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56

Colbert has the contest locked up.. I say we go Colbert Stewart Norris as the 1 2 3 to show hungary some great American icons

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57

Fisrt of all, Steven Colbert is my second favourite person next to Jesus Christ, but he’s a close second. Secondly, It’s not just Americans that voted for Steven Colbert, Canadians have also contributed to the naming of the bridge. Me and my friends have voted many times to help this mission be completed so when he wins,( Im not saying if, I know he’s gonna win) It will not only be an American victory it will be a combined North American victory. A victory that shall be celebrated massivly until Steven ask us to do somthing else, then we will come together again and prove to the world that Steven Colbert is the man.

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58

here is the toplista I am just guessing this is the rankings page. as of this posting

Stephen Colbert híd 6802 [63%]
Jon Stewart híd 1365 [13%]
Perl-Script híd 435 [4%]
Chuck Norris híd 362 [3%]
Pató Pál híd 350 [3%]

And I deleted the rest. It looks to me that as of now Colbert is getting 4-6 votes a minute

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59

Hey,

I want my bridge to be named PATÓ PÁL – please help! Otherwise I will ask the Chinese government to make Chinese people vote for this. ;-)
Anyway, no one can pronounce here the name: Stephen Colbert – bridge.

Judit from Hu

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60

The only problem is, nothing (no bridge, street or anything) here in Hungary is named after someone who is still alive. It’s just something we’ve learnt after 50+ years of fascist and communist regimes. So, if you really want that bridge to be named after Steven, there’s one more little thing to be taken care of. ;)

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61

I think someone should draw Mr Colbert’s attention to the fact that: 1. according to Hungarian law no living person’s name can be given to a geographical site or bridge or the like; 2. the final decision about the name is made by a commission which overrules any result of any vote. my wild guess is that Stephen does not qualify in the first category and does not stand a chance in the second one.
a Hungarian in Budapest

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62

but its a great confidence-booster, I’ll give you that

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63

As a Canadian studying in Hungary, I LOVE THIS IDEA!!! HAHA!!!!
Go COLBERT!!!!

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64

I have a Great Idea!!!!
Why doesn’t Comedy Central have something similar, where followers of Colbert and Steward will battle it out voting. And the Winner will have the 10 pm slot and the looser will stay/moved to the 10:30 slot.
Hey Comedy Central!!! , are you listening, we want a free for all Stewart vs CObert. Bring it on!!!

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65

Don’t forget that Mexicans also voted for Colbert. It was a combined effort of all North America. JAJAJAJAJAJAJAJJAJA

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66

sorry guys, this is only some kind of survey.. Even if he wins, its totally sure that it will have a hungarian name.

Otherwise !!
The hungarian law says that a bridge cannot be named after a living man. This is a fact. Sorry.

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67

It’s not giving me my registration email back. :( Damn, I really want to vote. A lot.

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68

Edit: Ok, got my email. I’ve just voted seven times. I’m gonna go for another hour then I’m off.

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69

Hey Istavan, Stephen won the first category and is kicking a$$ in the second! GO COLBERT!

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70

If the intentions of Mr Colbert are serious, someone let him know that he should offer something in return, because i don’t think that the deciding commission will approve someone who tagged one of our national heroes an as’ole… Should he apologize and maybe offer to arrange to name a piece of fence or something in new york Zrinyi, he might really end up with a bridge :)
By the way I am Hungarian and I also voted for him :)

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71

Come on Guys!!!! We must stay the course!

Did the Cubans in Miami stop voting for Bush in the last elections? No, they voted, 2,3,4 and in some cases 5 times.
Lets follow their example and vote for Colbert!!!

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72

I just hope all you 7 million+ Colbert fans actually go to the real polls and vote in November. Maybe not as fun, but way more important.

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73

Well folks, believe it or not Stephen is sturring up a large debate over here in Hungary. I just love it! A couple of days ago, the spokesperson of the Ministry of Transportation who organized the voting said, that he thought Colbert was pretty funny. Today our main opposition party, Fidesz gave out a statement, that it is unprecedented and shocking, that a high official thinks calling Zrinyi an asshole is funny, and they want him to resign.

In the meantime, Népszabadság, Hungary\’s largest selling serious newspaper put out an article in support of naming the bridge after Stephen!!! Here\’s the link: (Colbert bridge? – The perfect choice!)

I\’m not gonna translate the whole thing, unless someone is really interested, but here\’s is the last paragraph: \”Returning to our bridge in Budapest, I think Stephen Colbert would be worthy to name a bridge after him. Of course we can ponder over our history and find a heroic godfather like Zrinyi or Saint Steven, but a modern bridge should have a modern name. Colbert reminds the entire western world how we got into this unending war against terrorism, and how we threw away our common sense in the face of danger. We, Hungarians have our share in both of these. I voted for the Colbert Bridge. Take a look at the videoclips and join me!\”

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74

Thank you for that Szutyok!

I’ve learnt more about Hungary in the last week than I have in a whole lifetime. Colbert is a very important spokesperson in North America, and I’m personally happy to see that he can reach the world stage. PEOPLE NEED THE TRUTH!

Diddy

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75

As an American that lives abroad, I am happy to see that the Hungarian People are being good sports about this, frankly that very surprising, imagine if this contest was being done in the “200 Troop giving” country of France, they would be insulted and burning American flags, I know it’s a common Family weekend activity in Paris, but they would be doing it every day!!!
God bless the Hungarians!!!, frankly this has really brought our to Nations together and now us Geographically challenged Americans know where Hungary is, who is Zrinyi, what is Szent Korona, who is Steven the Saint King, etc.
Hmmmm… And we exchange let the Hungarians know who Colbert is. Sound like a fair trade.

GOD Bless The Nation
Truth, Justice and the Colbert Way!!!

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76

[...] The coolest thing about all this incessant babbling this blog has done about the Stephen Colbert Bridge is that I’ve seemed to have collected a rather sizable group of Hungarian readers. Which is incredibly fun. Today I received a very interesting comment from one of these Hungarian readers: szutyok said: August 24th, 2006 at 2:33 am [...]

77

‘ello USA

I want the bridge is named after Hofi Géza. He wuz a great Hungarian actor too, like your nation leader Colbert.

Pls help and let Hofi win the naming contest.

S.

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78

I rather choose Colbert Bridge than Szent Korona (Holy Crown) Bridge.

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79

Zrinyi, from a historic Croat aristocratic family, is also dear to the Croatians. So Mexicans on the American side, Croatians on the Hungarian side, this could be an interesting postmodern-postnationalist mixup of identities.

Evidently Zrinyi has a much better chance winning the contest than Colbert, given the composition of the committee that will decide on the name of the bridge, but it has been fun for several weeks now, so go on play the game for some more time :-)

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80

It’s funny to try, but only a storm in a teacup. It’s all about demonstrate Colbert can win this vote, no more.
AFAIK this vote is for Hungarians, because bridge will be theirs.

Ohh, and Colbert is only a mediaclown, but Zrinyi was a national hero from the time when usa hadn’t existed so far. Four hundred years later nobody will know, how was Stehpen Colbert, but Zrinyis remembrance never die.

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81

Um, didn’t Stephen tell people to stop?

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82

Sorry this is just a quick translation, I hope it’s readable…

Bridge-burlesque: three dead Colbert and a pig
• Index
2006. August 24., Thursday 16:15
Continuing in a burlesque way the bridge naming campaign in the internet. The American humorist, Stephen Colbert’s show had a longer block about Hungary, his fans created a homepage to help the ones speaking only English with the second level of the voting process, where registration required. In the meantime the searched and found dead a couple of Stephen Colberts, which is important because living person’s name cannot be used naming a bridge.
Stephen Colbert’s followers know no limit, to win the competition with their humorist the funny Hungarian voting for the name of the bridge. Although the more and more popular Colbert asked himself his fans not to cheat, the legal tools supporing his victory spreading on the internet.
Helping with a web page
In the NoFactZone.net just before the first turn showed up a page which encourage to vote and give help to English speaking people. This web site were refreshed for the second turn of the voting process to avoid problems with the registration process. They translated the Hungarian bridge naming web page and site called: The latest mission for members of the Colbert Nation: The Stephen Colbert Bridge has a dramatic effect which can be seen: Colbert name jumped to the top in the voting.
His dominance is bigger than ever before, more than 80000 people voted to him which means 80%. The second place with 4255 votes the name “Holy Crown” bridge jumped up, the third with 4002 votes Jon Stewart, the fourth is Chuck Norris with 2698 supporters. Our name idea: “Pató Pál” (last century literary anti-hero, never done anything in time – pointing to our impotent government) much less than 1000 votes only in the eight position.
So he must be dead!
Because the present Hungarian laws state living person’s name cannot used to name any public institution, so the American heroes would fall out of the race. But creativity is a big force: Colbert’s fans found already three dead Stephen Colberts in the American history. – told us by one of our readers. The colbertnation.com bridge-naming forum unfortunately was not accessible when we wrote this article, so we don’t know that the deceaseds how and when become famous in their live. So in theory it could be a Stephen Colbert bridge, and of course it would be named after somebody else the name would be the same as the humorist.
Of course about that the Hungarian government will have a word or two. The GKM (the Ministry) specified the voting as not a decide the name of the bridge only give suggestions. From the name of the bridge a special geographical committee will make a decision based on the language and geographical conditions. Other than your suggestions the local government, chartographers, linguists and other organizations suggestions will be considered. – can be read in the home page of the bridge. The ministry will added: “The second turn most voted suggestion has a good chance to become the name of the bridge (M0 – North Bridge) if it acceptable to the committee.
Country ad for free
Thanks to Colbert, news about the bridge voting process and from Hungary more and more internet portal gives news out and because of the voting process Hungary were already three times showed up in Colbert’s show the Colbert Report which spoofing American news and magazine shows.
Last time and the longest the 22 august showed our country. Colbert in this broadcast “celebrated” the 17 million votes, and he talked about not only the voting process and the bridge but he had another segment about Hungary as well. The “Tribute to Hungary” block had socking fake-art music, after from Saint Stephen through pigs till the Rubic’s cube he tried to summarize what could be interesting for an American viewer. He designated Hungary as war-worn country mentioning Tatar, Turk, Nacis and Soviets. Colbert asked for forgiveness for joking with Miklos Zrinyi (national war hero from the middle age, fighting against muslims – turks in that age) calling him asshole because he was leading in front of him for awhile. The videos of the show can be found in the home page of the Colbert Report. And the whole show can be downloaded in AVI format from here.

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83

This is such fun :) I live near the bridge-to-be in Budapest and am keeping fingers crossed for Mr. Colbert! If you go to http://www.m0hid.gov.hu/uj_hid you can also see pictures what the bridge will look like. Isn’t it cool? ;)

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84

If properly transcripted Stephen Colbert would be Kolbert István in Hungarian — and actually that is an absolutely valid name! So much so, that among others there was a “minister without portfolio” by that very name in the previous period of the current government. :)
(in Hungarian “c” is pronounced as “ts”, so Colbert must be Kolbert to get the right pronounciation.)
Still, he’s not famous enough and neither dead, but it’s a more common name than I expected, so go historians go, find a dead Kolbert István — the fame and significance we can add later.

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85

@Martisco

Pretty much. “Avery” said, in a nutshell, no more bots, and Stephen declared “Mission Accomplished” on his show. But he seems to have opened a bit of a Pandora’s box with this one. This blog’s official stand is that if you want to vote, vote, but don’t cheat. That’s not nice and Stephen wouldn’t approve.

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86

Dear Stephen Colbert!
Thanks for putting Hungary on the map. Many Americans so far didn’t even know whether this country existed. And never mind these humourless Hungarian natinalists. (I am a Hungarian, too, but with a sense of humour.)
I have to say that your actions in the last two weeks were more beneficial in building the image of Hungary in foreigners, than the whole yearly budget of our government spent on promoting our country abroad.
Just keep up the good work!
Cheers.

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87

I am a Hungarian and I don’t really give a shit about the name.
I just want to use is – after 20 years of promising maybe I’ll have the chance not to go to the City every time I go to the other side.

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88

In the other hand this vote made Colbert famous in Hungary.
Before this vote show nobody known Colbert here.

So itt was beneficial for both side. :-)

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89

If some one in the Hungarian Government is reading this ( Or knows some one), use the free and overwhelming publicity!!!!. Put adds on the Bridge website… You have the chance to reach an incredible amount of Americans that may even want to go to Hungary after this and spend good old Dolars!!!
Make ##$%% Lemonade!!!! Call the Bridge Colbert for 3 months, use the publicity even get some tourism and then rename the Bridge what ever you want to call it.

Hungary be smart, be capitalist, make money!!!!

GOD Bless the Nation
Truth, Justice and the Colbert way!!!

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90

Hey!

I’he heard a lot about this voting in the hungarian press, and finally I’ve watched some Colbert videos on youtube. He’s cool! Thank you all for voting, and making publicity. And now I have another item on my weekly download list just right to Stargate :)

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91

[...] Thank you so much, my readers from Hungary, who are contributing like crazy to the Bridge thread and this blog. It’s making my day terribly entertaining. [...]

92

What a brilliant stunt to bring two countries together in a time of worldly turmoil.

3 Cheers for Stephen! Hip hip hooray! hip hip hooray, hip hip hooray!

Now if you can just get people this interested in voting for a “descent” President you’ll be a REAL HERO!

Keep up the good work…Love your show

BLuECaT

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93

A Big Thank You Stephen!

We love you even in Hungary, I watch all your shows and they really rock!
Just ingore those idiot pseudo-nationalist wannabees (Fidesz), they are just bored with their life and misunderstood you, misunderstood Hungary, the history of Hungary, and themselves as well.
Keep up good work!

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94

Hey all,

As a Hungarian I laugh a lot on the whole thing started with that bridge. Regardless of the attention of any press, be sure to know this: the purpose of the vote is getting ideas, not to decide. It is a great thing USA is talking about our country, nothing is better than free advertisement. ;-)

Keep voting if you like guys, but no matter how big is Colbert, we won’t have a bridge named after him.

Anyways, I really thank you for the great effort you put into this guys, it is really good to hear about Hungary from the foreign media.

romagen
ps: we have many-many far more interesting things here than a bridge: try the spicy food, see the sight, forget about French wines; try Hungarian ones, oh, and just for your information: Hungarian girls are the most beautiful in the world (everyone knows that in p*rn business :-D)

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95

keep voting, keep up the media frenzy
having a hell of a time :))))

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96

You just know those ex-commies have something to hide. Time for some Freedom (TM).

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97

Do you really think that Stephen Colbert will be the name of this bridge??
Anyway thanks for your free advertisement and as romagen said, come to see our beautiful country.
[ And come to see our new bridge, as well ;) ]

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98

Come on name the Bridge Colbert!!!! It will bring in tourism for some 3 to 4 months. Then after the hype has gone done call in what ever you guys would like.

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99

Uh oh! Jon Stewart is gaining ground fast!!! Colbert is down to 56% from 80 plus and Jon is at 16%. I’ve been watching it the past few days and Jon’s votes are coming in faster than Stephen’s. Where are all the hackers and computer geeks?
Come on guys, Stephen just has to win. At the rate Jon is going he’ll overtake Stephen before the weekend.

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100

Does anyone know when the voting closes for the bridge? I voted and want to know when to expect to see stephen’s name on the bridge :-)

If he doesn’t get it, all of the Colbert fans should block it off in protest, taking shifts until it is fairly awarded to him!!! LOL

Go Colbert!!!!!!

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101
Csabi from Hungary
August 29th, 2006 at 7:50 am

hey friends, you should read the rules of the vote. I translate for you a part of that:
“After the vote the local goverments of the accefted towns, topographers, philologists and members of other organisations will make a proposal for the name of the bridge. This motions and the top voted names will be audited by Geographical Name Delegation of Hungary, and his delegation will choose the final name of the bridge.”

So I think its name won’t be Stephen Colbert Bridge…
Sorry for my English. :)

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102

I don’t think most of the americans voting and posting here actually expect to get it named (though it would be cool :D ). But instead want to show our support of the great Colbert! So have fun, drink, and learn some hungarian while you wait for the next new episode of The Colbert Report

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103

Dr. Colbert is trying to bring democracy to Hungary. This is by far the most important vote the in the history of Hungary (Historians debate how long Hungary has been around). How many bear attacks have been reported in the past year? I’ll tell you how many…ZERO*. Why burn bridges when you can build them and name them after a great American? I call out to the Hungarians to show the world that they can be great Americans.

-CrazyPills69

*Applies to what I want to believe and not actual facts. I don’t have time for research.

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104

today was my first time i saw and heared about this vote. It is very funny but i dont know why i want the bridge to be colbert.
I know how you hungarians feel about forign media talking about hungary. it gives me goosebumps to here about Armenia that
shows you have pride in your country and love it.

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105

Man, Hungarians sound like a pretty dour people, based on the humorless comments here. EARTH TO HUNGARY: IT’S A JOKE! It’s your bridge, your country put it to a vote. Do what you want.

I plan to vote for a true world hero, Stephen Colbert. I’m sure no one, in America’s 300+ years of history, or Hungary’s thousands of years of history (Love those barbaric Huns!) has had a greater influence for good.

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106

Stephen Colbert híd 86662 [53%]

theres my vote

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107

Do you know after who was America named? Amerigo Vespucci, an italian explorer.
Do you know after who was Amerigo named (besides his daddy Vepucci ;) )?
Amerigo was a Saint, he was the only son of Saint Stephen first king of Hungary.
(The name is Emre, it has turkish origins. Hungarians use it as Imre, it latin conversion was Imericus. It sounds latin alright. Italians used to name their kids after saints to have a family patron, so little Vespucci became Amerigo).

Have a nice day :)
boo smartguy!

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108

I registered and voted, as indicated, but when I clicked to vote again, it asked me to log in again. So I did. And then it showed it the current standings (53%!!) so I clicked on Kilépés, as it says to above.
Then it asked me to log in again.
Long story short, I’m unable to vote again.
Help?

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109

Ah i keep getting this weird erra message in red after the hole e-mail and password thing and i cant Read it T_T

And i still havent got an E-mail from them

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110

Does anyone know what “Az adott felhasznalónév már foglalt!” means? It says that whenever I try to register…

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111

Well, Colbert has sunk to 51% and Jon Stewart has 21%. People seem to think Colbert has it in the bag and don’t realize that Jon is looking to be the winner here at the rate he’s gaining. Sob… if Stephen doesn’t win I’m going to throw a pot of my delicious goulash at the T.V. screen the next time Jon’s on.

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112

I just voted as of 8/30/06 and it said he had the top vote! Dude! Stephen Colbert Rules!

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113

Stephen deserves to have the bridge named after him!! Vote Colbert! b

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114

Stephen: 88726 (49%)
Jon: 43641 (24%)

Looks like Jon will hit the halfway point tonight.

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115

Yep, halfway point has almost been reached. Stephen is down to 49% and Jon has 24%

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116

Finally, the Hungarian government listens to me and put ads on the site. Now place the links and sites in ENGLISH. That would HELP!!!!!! Guys Think!!!! I’m even thinking of going to Hungary after all this, they tell me the country is incredible, it’s not so expensive and that the girls are incredible.

But please Hungary; give me an English website to see.

P.S. Name the bridge Colbert a couple of month and I’ll bring my friends with me.

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117

re: Stephen Colbert Hid (Bridge)?
WHAT ARE THEY SAYING IN HUNGARIAN

For a Free Online Hungarian>English>Hungarion Dictionary- does not seem to do complete phrases like freetranslation.com but can help with individual words/terms

http://www.ectaco.co.uk/English-Hungarian-Dictionary/

A slight help but hard to copy and paste linked text

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118

Dear STEPHEN COLBERT

We Hungarians respect you as a god.
Please let us give you this little bridge which cost 90 billion $ for our poor country.
If you could help us whit getting the visa easily we would change our countrys name to yours.

Staying your loyal slaves

The hungarian nation

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119
chris in Long Beach
September 2nd, 2006 at 10:33 pm

I tried to register and got this — Regisztráció
A regisztráció sikeresen megtörtént!
Pár perc múlva megérkezik e-mail fiókjába a sikeres regisztrációról szóló levél. Kérjük, kattintson a levélben található aktivációs linkre a regisztráció megerősítéséhez.
Köszönjük, hogy regisztrált!

No email link has arrived in a funny font. I’m waiting to be able to vote for Colbert hud.

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120

The Colbert Nation is in danger of loosing the naming rights of the bridge. An update shows that the boosty named Zriyini is closing in the gap with 7000 votes behind Colbert.
As of 9/3/2001 with one week left of voting

Az indoklás megtekintéséhez kattintson a névre!
Stephen Colbert híd 90421 [31%]
Zrínyi híd 83583 [29%]
Jon Stewart híd 58496 [20%]
Perl-Script híd 12211 [4%]
Pató Pál híd 11833 [4%]
Chuck Norris híd 10706 [4%]
Hacker híd 10371 [4%]

we need to keep the voting up, lets smoke these loosers

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121

[...] For those of you keeping track, here’s the latest in the Hungarian Bridge naming contest: [...]

122

Yea clearly hungary is cheating now in this competition. There is no way that guy is as close to steven as they say he is. Its sad we will have to lose like this

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123

Yeah! where ALMOST THEIR

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124

We vote for Colbert for the sake of comedy. They cheat for….Zrinyi….because they suck….yeah I’m going with that. To Hungary: Stop being such babies.

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125
Wilba the Canadian
September 6th, 2006 at 9:50 pm

I can’t believe the obvious cheating that the Hungarian government is committing in this election. It’s a sad day for freedom and liberty when the tyranical government of Hungary is trying to subvert a democratic process as important as naming some bridge somewhere. What kind of sick and evil person alters the results of a public and democratic vote? I blame Osama.

All I can say is this; if you aren’t voting for the ‘Stephen Colbert híd’, then you’re voting for the terrorists. long live truthiness.

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126

[...] Bridge possibly named after Colbert, currently 92k+ votes [...]

127

Hungarians can be very nasty… um but Colbert is a Yanquee so they better watch it, eh.

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128

I cant get in to vote any more. They removed the button. Does that mean it’s over? Stephen colbert is in the lead!!!!!! (By a little bit)

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129

I do believe we have conquered the Hungarians!!!! Colbert is on top of the world (and Chuck Norris–in a way that wont threaten his heterosexuality)!! …I cant vote anymore…its sept 8 and theres no more option for voting *tear*
its okay, hes still way ahead

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130

what im thinking is that the Hungarian gov has not named it The Stephen Colbert Hid(bridge) because on the site it has sum other name which i have no idea wuts going on about that.

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131

I like hungry people

I like colbert people

Why can’t they just get along?

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132

well, if they’re not going to name the whole bridge after Colbert, maybe they can name part of the bridge after him.. like the footpath. It would make an interesting story for tourists.

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133

YOU’RE ALL WRONG…STEPHEN COLBERT HID BABY!

The Colbert Nation, you truly are the king of kings!

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134

[...] There isn’t much online about this confirmation (this is the only thing I could find), so you’re on the bleeding edge of the news . Very cool. [...]

135

[...] My White Friend Allen: Reporting gossip, George “Macaca” Allen’s “Ethnic Rally”, Hungarian Bridge update, Hungary’s ambassor to the United States, András Simonyi (Hungary Man, Hungary Hungary Diplomat) [...]

136

Ok, here’s the challenge:

Someone, anyone, find a man named “Stephen Colbert” from any other time period. Of course, this means he will be dead. Post a biography of this man (however short) on this forum.

YOU MUST SITE ALL OF YOUR SOURCES!!! This is VERY important!!! There is no way the Hungarian Government will deem this a feasible solution to the problem unless there is proof of this man’s existence. If this man also has the same middle name as our hero (Tyrone), this would be a bonus, but not necessary. This would be the best way to avoid even the remote chance of Stephen not getting the “hid” named after him.

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137

Stephen Colbert needs to fake his death like Jack Bauer or have a double like Saddam and the double needs to be dead

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138

The official name is “Megyeri híd”, referring to the place where it stands, based on the committee’s decision. They didn’t give a damn about the results of the vote. Too bad, I really started to like the name “Saint Stephen Bridge” – of course, on the basis of spencer’s deduction above :)

http://index.hu/gazdasag/magyar/hid060927/

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139

Mr. Webmaster,

Thank you for posting the Youtube clip, I have been traveling and were I am I can’t get comedy central. Thank you!!!!! Now I have a smile on my face!!!!.

Guess What nation? Why dont we all arange to fly to Hungary in support of Colbert if he goes to Hungary? That sounds cool!!!! I would pay my good dolars for a trip to Hungary, see the country, the girls, the bridge and most important meet the big guy himself COLBERT!!!!!!!

GOD Bless The Nation
Truth, Justice and the Colbert Way!!!

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140

*tear*
…I was starting to like the Hungarians…
Why, oh why would they hold a contest and then decide he had to be dead?!?!?!?!??
CHEATERS!!!!!!!!! If they wanted Zrinyi that bad they shouldve just done so to begin with!!!!!
I say we declare war!! Or get them to offend Kim Jong Il…
Either way, cheating or not, we know Stephen won! Fair and f*cking square!!!
So Colbert Nation, teach your children–let all generations know!!!

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141

This is proof of how democracy can lead to mob mentality, and it is not the perfect form of government.

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142

lmao “you have to be dead.”
well so much for that…

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