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<entry>
<itemid>61431</itemid>
<eventtime>2008-11-03 11:31:00</eventtime>
<logtime>2008-11-03 16:35:00</logtime>
<subject>Our Saturday Volunteering for the Obama Campaign</subject>
<event>
Friday night I spent a good chunk of time randomly staring at numbers and positing potential gloom. I was up until about 2am. Finally, rather than continue to stay up, I decided to do something about it. The next Morning Jennifer and I talked and that evening we volunteered for the Obama campaign. We just showed up at random, and did phone calls for three hours. Basically we helped with the Get Out the Vote effort. It was pretty cool. This was not the first time we'd tried to volunteer. The first time was nearly a month ago where we tried to drive to their State HQ. It wasn't where the nav system said it was. The second time, we responded to an email, but no one ever answered us. It really wasn't viable for us to volunteer until the middle of September because of Jennifer's school (which took up a lot of her time.) And right about the time she was able to do something, Obama voted for the FISA Capitulation act so I was royally upset. Still, even though it was only for three hours, I am glad we did it. It helped make the slowest week EVER slightly more workable.
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<entry>
<itemid>61492</itemid>
<eventtime>2008-11-07 17:36:00</eventtime>
<logtime>2008-11-07 22:39:04</logtime>
<subject>Third Parties</subject>
<event>
I think Third Parties are vitally important to this country. I also think that unfortunately they've become a bit of a joke...not in reality but in practicality. They're not really viable. Ie...they don't win. The thing that frustrates me is that Teddy Roosevelt, the best president this country has (to me) ever seen after Washington or Jefferson tried forming one and failed. I intend to begin thinking a lot about how to alter things so that third parties are more viable in a REALISTIC fashion. That will probably also require some research on my part.
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<entry>
<itemid>61862</itemid>
<eventtime>2008-11-12 17:54:00</eventtime>
<logtime>2008-11-12 23:13:40</logtime>
<subject>Visibile Infiltration of the Major Two Parties</subject>
<event>
Alight, based on my observation, the strategy of Third Parties currently consists of: 1) Run prominent (famous if possible) national presidential campaigns which they don't really have any chance of winning but that will raise the visibility of the party and the issues they represent. 2) Use the legal system to challenge laws that are inherently unfair to third parties and that are hypocritically enforced. 3) Focus on local elections with the hope of slowly building up a grass roots base. Right, well, there is nothing wrong with these strategies in general. Here are my concerns, and why I, as a voter, do not vote third party anymore, and then what to do about it. <lj-cut>1) Election 2000. That's it. Pretty much. Ralphie Nader might shriek and howl about how Third Parties have a right to run just like anyone else, and he's right. But I also have a right not to waste my vote. And I'm sorry, 2000 and 2004 has shown us that there *IS* a *HUGE* difference between 'kinda bad' and 'absolutely terrible' and that a few small votes DO matter. In short, unless I believe a third party candidate has an ACTUAL chance of ACTUALLY WINNING, I'm not voting for a third party again unless the two candidates are absolutely horrible akin to George W. Bush/Palin. 2) Third Parties don't really seem to want to win. I know that's an arrogant thing to say, but having worked with third parties and gone to fund raising events and voted third party from 1996-2000, I can safely say that I don't get the sense that these are organizations that really want to win. Case in point, 1 Billion was spent by the major parties on this campaign. If I look at the percentage of people that voted third party vs the funds they actually collected, I see a rather pathetic effort by people who are voting for third parties. Talk about the corruption of money in politics all you want. I commend you your ethics, but if you want to actually WIN, then history shows that you need MONEY to make a difference. And if the people who actually vote for you aren't willing to donate to your party, then it strikes me that they're not really taking things seriously. Everything I have seen, both by personal experience and by anecdote from friends who have been involved in third parties, is that they are really more like organized clubs full of people who want to say they in politics, but aren't really trying to change anything. They want the illusion that they're trying to change things, without having to make any kind of a serious effort about really doing so. And we NEED third parties. A third party is the only true way we're going to fracture the Rephuklycan party. They're not going away. There will always be an opposition. We have to decide what kind of an opposition we want. Does anyone sane reading this really want the Rephuklycans to be in charge of ANYTHING, EVER again? They've been the same monsters for about 40 years since they embraced the Southern Racists. Before that they were the party of big business and isolation. 9 times out of 10 since its founding, the Republican party has been on the wrong side of history. They've gotten it right a few times, but generally speaking, the country under Republicans SUFFERS greatly. But it also suffers under one party rule. So if the Democrats rule for 4 years, 8 years, 12 or even sixteen, sooner or later they're going to get corrupt and complacent and arrogant and detached. And the Rephuklycans will be right there waiting in the wings to pick up the pieces. Can this country really afford 4 more years of W, or his descendants EVER again? I say thee nay! But that means changing the system to make it easier for third parties to run and be viable. That means changing the laws for ease of ballot access. It means debates hosted by third parties with real money to mock people that don't show up. It means having control of the levers of power. Well guess what folks, the levers of power are IN the two parties. That means you can keep banging your head against the wall and kick against the pricks like third parties have for the last hundred and fifty years and getting NOWHERE or you can do something different. What, you ask? First, understand that this is the long haul. This will not happen in 2 years or 4 years or probably even 20. But it will require consistent effort over time. It means creating a specialized Reform brand, with a simple platform that is not amendable to addition. Individuals can believe whatever they want, and have multiple brands, like Pro-Gun, Pro-Choice etc. They will either be Pro or Anti reform. Which of course means you can't actually use the word "Reform." I'll use the term "Word X" for now until I think of something later. But Word X basically means you support: 1) Ease of access to third parties via legislation. 2) Changing the FEC to include third party members, even if it is only one to break ties. 3) Making major debates in all local, state and federal elections include the top four polling candidates for an office. MAKE IT THE LAW. That's it. Its that simple. Sure there are a lot of other ideas out there, and people should go for those, but for real change, you need a simple single message that you either you support or you don't. Word X is like Organic. That means it has a specific meaning and you don't let people dilute the brand like they do Natural foods, which means nothing. Meaning you have a PAC, that exists to support any candidate in either party that has trademarked Brand X and sues the crap out of anyone (ie Rephuklycans) that try to steal or change it. You can be all those other things, but dammit, if you're in favor of Word X, you'd better actually vote that way or people are going to know about it. </lj-cut>
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<entry>
<itemid>61952</itemid>
<eventtime>2008-11-18 17:26:00</eventtime>
<logtime>2008-11-18 22:27:35</logtime>
<subject>AngerVault.org</subject>
<event>
We need a political website that will take any money you want to donate in a fit of rage, and lock it in a box that you can't alter without great pain and annoyance (or only at a certain time) so that you can contribute for or against a politician WHEN they annoy you, so that if someone does something and isn't up for reelection in 4 years, they know they've got a little surprise waiting for them at the end of that time. Might help make people a little more accountable.
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<entry>
<itemid>62411</itemid>
<eventtime>2008-11-20 23:32:00</eventtime>
<logtime>2008-11-21 04:35:59</logtime>
<subject>Too Much Guilt</subject>
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According to <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20081120/cm_csm/ystuhldreher;_ylt=AsiI_FH0Km33FZFosQ_2Z.T9wxIF">this person</a>, Somali pirates only started doing what they were doing because their fisheries were not protected. Darn it, if only they had a government....this never would have happened! Except, of course, for the fact that Somalia is a hodge podge of chaotic relationships that makes any society I've ever ready about look simple by comparison. The only attempt in 30 years to make them even remotely resemble a cohesive government involved the Tabliban franchise which would basically shoot you if you didn't do what they want. Funny thing is....people are saying, "There is nothing we can do about the Pirates." We used to have Pirates. The British got rid of piracy over a hundred years ago. By killing them. That's kind of what the Marines used to do under Jefferson. The fall of Rome wasn't "Bread and Circuses" it was when they farmed out the army to mercenaries and tried to ransom their way out of the problem. Some people are not to be be appeased. Pirates are one of them.
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<entry>
<itemid>62686</itemid>
<eventtime>2008-11-25 13:21:00</eventtime>
<logtime>2008-11-25 18:23:35</logtime>
<subject>Obama's Biggest Mistake</subject>
<event>
I don't expect perfection from Obama, and I know for a fact he's going to do things like the FISA capitulation bill that are going to drive me nuts. It also seems that he's not going to go after Bush and his cronies like I want him to. I'm not happy with that, but I can live with it. But the thing that worries me is if Obama takes it a step too far. It is one thing to avoid making Cheney do the perp walk in an orange jump suit.... But if Obama PARDONS Bush.... Well I don't want to think about it...because I'm otherwise expecting great things.
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