What Is Up With Politics Today?

Tomorrow is the day we’ve all been waiting for (for what feels like a very long time).  While I usually say I don’t care who anyone votes for as long as they do vote I want to amend that today.  I want you to not vote for McCain.  If you are in a battleground state, please vote for Obama.  If you are in a state that Obama can’t lose or can’t win vote for Barr and make a statement to our Republican leaders that we want them to change (because everyone will see a Barr vote as a vote McCain lost).  If you read my blog on a regular basis you already know I voted for Obama but that my heart (and policy beliefs) are with Barr.  If you can’t bring yourself to vote for Obama please consider voting for Barr instead of McCain.  I really believe that Barr represents many of the things that most McCain voters believe in.  Please, please, please, vote…for Obama …or Barr

PS

I’ll be back live tomorrow as well, for any who have missed me

I have been fighting with myself for the last several days about who to vote for.  I know I said I decided I was going to vote for Barr but as I’ve been out and about I’ve been talking to different people (You’ll be shocked I’m sure but I love to talk to people and I swear I could strike up a conversation with a deaf mute) anywho everyone I talked to was voting for McCain.  Everyone. 

As you all know I live in Florida, a ‘battleground’ state that now has a chance to go either way.  Usually Florida goes Republican so voting for Barr would have been a symbolic vote for me.  (I’ve decided I am straight down Libertarian and have never voted Democrat in any major election) BUT….I don’t want McCain to win.  I don’t even want him to win a little bit as a matter of fact I want him to LOSE.  After a lot of thought I realized that if I voted for Barr and McCain won it would be partially my fault (on the flip side if I vote for Obama and he is the socialist lefty that I fear I’m screwed and I just sold my sold my soul to the devil) but ultimately there were several things I do like about Obama and so I played my ‘you have to choose’ game and decided that if I had to choose between just Obama and McCain I’d choose Obama.

So….I voted for Obama. 

Now I’m going to have to make up for it by becoming rabidly libertarian for the next four years

PS

I’m sorry Bob

Electoral College

First some background.  An absurd number of people have no idea what the electoral college is or how it works so I’ll start there. 

Now if that was to boring or technical for you here is a more amusing explanation :) 

So why do we still use the electoral college instead of the popular vote?

What is the difference between John McCain and Barack Obama?  According to Bob Barr, not much..actually ‘not a dime’s worth of difference’.  H e focuses on their response to the economic crisis. . . actually he comes down pretty hard on McCain.  As we all know, I hate that thing. 

Now I know most of you reading this are voting for Obama.  I’m not going to try to change your mind but if you are thinking about voting for McCain this is for you!  Don’t do it!  Watch the video and think about all the times McCain has claimed to be a maverick or against pork and realize that it’s just talk. 

No, really.  According to CNN a group has counted all of the jokes made about either the dems or the pubs in the last five weeks (since Palin was put on the ticket) on late night television…the results?   286 jokes about McCain and Palin and 42 about Obama and Biden.   You can watch the experts talk about the reasons here.

I suppose that there is the perspective that any media coverage is good media coverage but really….McCain and Palin being a made into a joke on the late night talk shows is going to hurt them on November 4^th.  Why? Because who’s going to vote for someone who is already the punch line?  We shouldn’t have that much material on someone in the executive office till they’ve been there for a few years.  I think is just another nail in the coffin of the republican ticket. 

So for all of you who were thinking about voting for McCain instead of Barr because Barr doesn’t have a chance.  Think about it this way….McCain doesn’t have a chance either so you might as well send a message to the government and vote for Barr

PS

I will be able to find out with the rest of you who Powell endorses because I can’t walk or drive due to an unavoidable collision with the ground earlier today.  Silver lining and all that.

I tried to watch Barr’s counter debate last night but couldn’t get the feed to work properly (boo).  I’m still waiting on them to post the video from last night so I can post it for everyone here to watch (crossing my fingers).  Till then here is a little clip of Barr on CNN this morning. 

One of the things that completely amazes me is that there are so many people who really think their only choice is Obama or McCain.  There are other ways to fix our country that very few people are talking about and as Barr points out one of the main goals for this election should be to boost awareness of the alternative options so the party can grow and have a real chance in future elections.  (although it would be nice if he’d win).   I’m hopeful that if enough people vote for Barr (or, heck any third party candidate) the ‘big boys’ will see that they need to start thinking outside of the Washington shaped box.

Third Party Watch is a website I just found (if this is something you’ve known about and haven’t shared with me tsk tsk) The website is a blog but it is updated multiple times a day with news stories that focus only on third parties.  Pretty nifty, right?  The best part is that it has been up and running for three years now and it doesn’t look as though it will be going anywhere in the near future.  Pretty nifty resource even if it does talk about all the alternative parties and not just about the Libertarians.

Some of my favorite posts are Stop the Smearing because I would like for everyone to stop attacking each other politically and a post about Third Party Candidates for Congress where I was surprised by how many third party candidates are on various state ballots. 

A question and answer session from Barr on the night of the last debate (from which he was excluded).  I’m going to be focusing pretty heavily for the next few weeks on why everyone should support Bob Barr and NOT Obama or McCain. 

I have recently heard more coverage in the media about Barr but just yesterday I had someone ask me who I was talking about when I mentioned I was voting for Bob Barr.  I really thought she was joking, but she had no idea there were options other than Obama and McCain. 

The video is only about seven minutes long.   I hope you enjoy it

He is losing, he is getting angry, and he is getting off topic.  He has stopped being the ‘maverick’ and become more of a politician saying things I think he is probably not proud of.  I really don’t think he has a chance of winning and he needs to step down.  It’s the how that would be important.

He should say this race has become nothing but  fodder for SNL and that he wants what is best for the country.  He should go on to say that Obama is not what this country needs and then throw his support behind Barr.  After that one statement he should get out of the way.  Barr could be put in the debate in McCain’s place and everyone could stop focusing on how tired, old, bitter, and angry McCain is and how laughable Palin has a tendency to be and could focus, for a change, on the issues.

Reasons I’ll vote for Barr Part 2:

We do need change.  Obama and McCain aren’t offering change I can believe in.

Education

He believes it is the parent’s job to raise and educate their children.  Points out that the government has an almost absolute monopoly on education and they are failing miserably (Sorry, but it’s true.  I was kneecapped at every turn when I tried to make people actually ::gasp:: work and forget about teaching anything that isn’t on a standardized test.  For example history, economics, and civics)

His plan…abolish the Department of Education, get rid of grants and regulations and put education in the hands of local and state governments.  Make tax credits available to parents who home school and let public schools be managed locally with an emphasis on parental involvement.  Make education a competitive private system.

~before any of you get all frosty on me know that I don’t think he’d ever be able to deregulate it that much and I do think that every child deserves and education but free education could still be had at a state or local level.  Totally possible. 

Property Rights & Eminent Domain

He thinks the Kelo decision undermined basic property rights and thinks that any portion of the government that wants to take land should pay full market value and must actually have a compelling need for the land and use the land for the public good.

Second Amendment

I’ll just use a quote from Barr on this:

“I oppose any law requiring registration of, or restricting the ownership, manufacture, or transfer or sale of firearms or ammunition to law-abiding citizens.” 

I get a little pissy when people try to tell me I can’t own guns. 

Taxes

He believes that to reduce taxes we must reduce government spending and we need a simple and fair tax code.He is open to a flat income tax, consumption tax/Fair tax.  Repeal the 16^th amendment allowing the government to tax earnings so that both a consumption tax and an income tax aren’t in place.  Is completely open to other tax methods ultimately looking for something that is fair. 

Equality

He’s short and to the point on this one.  All men are created equal and no laws should be made that make them unequal. 

MarriageThe government should not regulate relationships or allow for discrimination against people based on their preferences.  Marriage is a state issue.