Tuesday, November 25, 2003

Bashing Greens Won't Help. Enough of chads, butterfly ballots and the whole lot. Let's say that we should have a democracy, and that it should work. After all, people died for the right to vote, and everyone's vote should count. I also happen to think that people should be able to vote their conscience, and vote for what they believe in. I'd like to work on making a democracy that lives up to that potential, which means that even third parties should be able to participate (remember that the Greens had to litigate to get on the ballot in nine states, which is somewhat of a challenge to democracy in itself). I believe in making America better, and refuse to be called unpatriotic, or have it suggested that "Nader not only elects Republicans, he's starting to sound like them." (I would assume that some of this flak is supposed to carry over to me.) While Ralph may run, I don't plan on it, at least this election. But here's a bit of advice for those who don't support Nader or other Greens. If you don't like the Green candidates, don't vote for them. And if you want to win an election, go out and get some folks to vote for you -- like that 50 percent of the American voters who represent the largest party in America, the nonvoters. On the way, you might build a party and a platform with some integrity, not just insults. (link) There's a lot of Democratic partisans that need to listen to this. If you want the Green vote, go out and win it, don't try to intimidate Greens to vote Democratic by blaming them for Bush. This is a democracy not a playground. [Al-Muhajabah's Islamic Blogs] The same applies to libertarians. What's the point of voting if you don't vote for people who will actually represent you? 11:57:39 AM    comment () Ron Paul's Texas Straight Talk - Medicare Plunder - what Congress wrought over the weekend. The new Medicare Prescription Drug insurance plan will likely cost $1 trillion over 10 years. The vast majority of older Americans already have private prescription drug coverage that they don't want changed, and this 78% of seniors may well lose their good private coverage altogether. In fact, the government's own Congressional Budget Office estimates that at least one-third of all private companies will dump their retirees into the Medicare system as a result of the new bill. Big corporations love the Medicare drug plan, because they want to shift the responsibility for providing drug benefits to their retirees onto taxpayers. Dozens of major companies shamelessly advertised in the Washington Times and elsewhere in support of the Medicare bill for this very simple reason. Their pension plans are dangerously underfunded, so naturally they use their lobbying influence to promote a Medicare drug system. In this sense the Medicare bill is a taxpayer-funded corporate bailout for hundreds of American companies. [End the War on Freedom] Can anyone remind me what the difference is between Democrats and Republicans? 11:55:05 AM    comment () We don't need your stinking badges!. A small Kansas town has decided it doesn't need police, and has required citizens to arm themselves (a la Kennesaw, GA). Naturally, the county Sheriff, who just saw his power decline precipitously, is outraged. The only question is, how long... [LewRockwell.com Blog] Too bad this will never happen in Los Angeles. 10:50:49 AM    comment () YOU WANT TO KNOW WHY THEY HATE US? YOU'RE THE REASON THEY HATE US.. This will necessarily be a lengthy post, in large part because a regular perusal of blogs reveals that many readers do not follow links, and therefore do not have the full context necessary to an understanding of a writer's views. So I will include here all the relevant points, so that I will not be misunderstood. (That will undoubtedly not prevent many people from willfully misunderstanding me anyway, but at least I will have done my best to prevent it.) For purposes of this... [The Light of Reason] An excellent article on the delusions of the Crusaders. 10:14:47 AM    comment ()

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