Not Just Spoilers

I hate the myth that if I vote for a certain thrid party candidate, it's an automatic vote for some other guy. I'll either be voting for Nader or Barr.

If I vote for Nader people will say it's a vote for McCain on the false assumption that it's a lost vote for Obama, but I would never vote for Obama to begin with.

If I vote for Barr people will say it's a vote for Obama on the false assumption that it's a lost vote for McCain, but I would never vote for McCain to begin with.

My vote isn't McCain's or Obama's to lose, I would never vote for either of them. This whole myth is perpetuated by the major parties to discourage third party votes.

If people had real access to third party candidates(real debates, with all candidates on enough state ballots to win) and people voted for who they really wanted, not the lesser of two evils, things would be drasically different. Who knows, we might have had President Pat Buchanan with everyone blaming Gore for Nader's loss in 2000.

Time For A Change

Yesterday, our nations leaders igrnored party lines and came together against a common foe, the American people. I hope it's now clear that the majority of People in Washington don't care about the interests of most Americans.  We need change. Real change, not Obama's hopey sound bite change, he's as much a part of the problem as McCain and all the rest. As I've already said, we should all vote against any one who voted on the bailout(Senate and House). I've also implored you to look past McCain and Obama for president, with two really good choices being Bob Barr and Ralph Nader. What we need to do is attack the root of our problems, the two party system. While the Democrats and Republicans put on a good show around election season, there's no real difference between them, just cosmetic ones. Just look at the last mid-term elections. The Democrats were swept into the House and Senate, largely to end the war and keep Bush in check. What happened? The war continues unchanged and the Democratic leadership explicitly took impeachment off the table. Instead, the Bush imperial presidency contines unchanged. We need other alternatives, not just for the presidency, but for all levels from house and senate all the way down to city council. Look at your state secretary of state's web site for a list of candidates or possible on the site of your county board of elections to see the choices. While I mostly lean Libertarian, I'm not suggesting them as the only choice, have a looks at your local Green, independent, and other cadidates. What ever you do, seriously reconsider the broken two party system. Rememer, voting third party is only a wasted vote when those in power convince everyone that it's a waste. 

Grab Your Ankles, America

Well, they've done it now, the House of Representatives has authorized the destruction of the dollar, and possible the economy and America as we know it. In order to save the barons of Wall Street, you may see taxes rise, but even if taxes aren't araised directly, you will almost certainly see an invisible tax through inflation. The goverment doesn't have $700 billion to bail out the banks, so how are they going to pay for all this? Simple, print more money. The problem? It makes your current money worth less. What can we do about it? Unfortunatly not much, the bailout is passed. One thing that we can do is look up who voted for the bailout here, and vote out everyone who supported it. We need to send a message to Washington that we wil not stand for this anymore.

Disaster in the Making, Call Your Congressman Now.

The Senate, whose members are usually wealthier, and more entrenched with the elite, just passed a pork filled $830 million bailout for the rich. Why did they pass this bill with so many people opposed, and yet the House wasn't? Simple, only a third of he Senate is up for re-election this year. They are counting on peoples' short memories to forget about the whole thing in the next 2 or 4 years. Don't let it happen. Here is everyone who voted for the bill. Remember who voted yes and vote them out of office for supporting the biggest swindle pulled on the American people. I have it easy, both of Ohio's senators voted for the bill, so I just have to vote against both in the next two election cycles after this year. Also note that McCain and Obama both voted for the bill. Neither deserves our vote for president, so pass them over and vote for some who spoke out against the bailout like Barr or Nader.

Don't forget that it's not a done deal yet, the house will vote again. Call and e-mail your Congressman and urge them to oppose the bailout. Stick to your guns, if anyone supports the bailout, vote against them. Send a message that the American public will not stand idly by and be robbed for the benefit of Wall Street.

Abby Trying to Walk

At Least There's A Stumble

All hope doesn't seem to be lost. The bailout plan that looked like it would get whisked through with wide bipartisian support seems to have hit rough times. Of course it's not all bright and sunny, there is still a very good chance something will get pushed throuhg, and what ever it is will be bad and costly. But we should still use this time to bug our senators and congressmen and urge them to oppose the bailout. I've sent them a shorter message this time asking them to just say no, and I let them know that if they do vote yes to the bail out I will do everything I can to opposse them the next time they come up for election. Sure I can't do much alone, but if they get flooded with similarr e-mails they might rethink their plans.

It may be over

I know I'm stating the obvious, but the era of definitive American power and prosperity seems to have reached an end. Then end of American power has been here, but most people aren't paying attention to that, and now our financial prosperity as center of the world economy looks to be coming to and end as well. So what's brought us to this point? One major problem is our empire itself. We have the most massive military imperial complex the world has ever seen, not to mention we are engaged in two losing wars. The problem is that we can't afford it, and what we do to make it look like we can afford it makes the problem even worse. We have a central bank artificially manipulating the monetary system by pumping out cheap credit. Sure, it creates a nice temporary boom, but the supply and demand of the system is skewed, especially in the housing market. The demand isn't real demand, it's phony demand backed by debt, debt that the debtor can not afford. With enough cheap credit, this can go on for years, but eventually a breaking point is reached, such as now, and the bubble bursts.

 

So what do we have? A behemoth military cracking at the seams. A rouge central bank manipulating the money supply. Everyone, individuals and government, in debt well past their ears with a collapsing financial institutions.

 

What's the government going to do about it? Stay the course in our wars, leave the overseas troops in place while threatening war with Iran and Pakistan. Ask the central bank to print more money. Transfer debt from the financial institutions to the government, so that debt can eventually be covered my the taxpayers.

 

Suffice to say it's not a pretty picture and the future looks bleak. When I think of the worst of the third world countries I think of a country whose government is corrupt to the core, an economy in shambles, seems to always be fighting wars, and a defeated population with little to no civil liberties. Unfortunately that could be the US in the coming decades. Given all that we're up against, is there really anything left to do, is participating elections even worth it? I'm pretty cynical these days, but I'm not quite ready to give up on them yet, though we are very close to a one party system, even though that one party goes by two different names. Luckily all non-state sponsored candidates haven't been barred from running yet, so there is still hope. For far too long we as Americans have ignored real alternatives at the ballot box, instead voting for the lesser of two evils. Unfortunately that lower threshold for evil continues to climb. I'm not saying every single major party candidate is bad, but most of them are, and we need to be more open the the third party candidates. If anything, the best place to start would be by voting out the incumbents. Just don't vote for the Democrat because he's a Democrat or the Republican because he's a Republican, actually look at who you voting for and what they stand for. The only wasted vote is the vote cast blindly.

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