Shopping for a Third Party Candidate in 08 – Part II

As was expressed here, I am interested in the delicate act of protest voting and wanted to advise all of my friends on the right who could not bring themselves to vote for John McCain. Of the candidates that have a shot in this election John McCain is by far the least bad, I support him and think there are plenty of reasons you should too. If McCain is either clearly going to win or clearly going to lose Delaware and my presidential vote wouldn’t make a difference anyway I may vote third party. Out of curiosity I also wanted to see who else was out there. Right now, this is the field;

Libertarians – The most promising place for my vote right now, the Libertarians emerged from their convention having nominated a Barr/Root ticket. I really like the looks of Barr and I’m glad to see that Root has clearly specified he does not believe abortion is a federal issue. I’d still like to know more about Barr, particularly where he stands on illegal immigration but he has a pretty solid record from Congress. Right now this is probably where my protest vote is going.

Constitutionalists – Nominated a fellow named Chuck Baldwin. Don’t know too much about Chuck but it looks like he would be a solid anti-illegal immigration, lower-taxes, shrink the government vote if Barr doesn’t pan out for some reason.

Prohibitionists – When you’ve finally had enough of politics. Not sure if they’ll be on the ballot in Delaware.

Ralph Nader – got 2,000 votes from DE in 2004, he’ll probably be on the ballot again this year.

Greens – seem set to nominate Cynthia McKinney, she may very well be to the left of Arden.

Mike Gravel! – Alas, the dream has died. After finishing fourth at the Libertarian National Convention Gravel does not appear to be further pursuing a presidential run.

There are a couple other Third Parties but it is unlikely they will make it onto the ballot in Delaware. Nationwide, if you’ve got a problem with McCain send a clear message to Republican leadership with a vote for Barr or Baldwin.

This is Obscene

http://www.citizenlink.org/clspecialalert/A000007545.cfm

I'm not even sure what to file this under, maybe "Gay Marriage"? Yeah, thats it, from now on there will be a "Gay Marriage" label.

Shame on you Colorado.

BAMF

President of the Czech Republic Vaclav Klaus has challenged Al Gore to a debate about Climate Change.

http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/208338,czech-president-klaus-ready-to-debate-gore-on-climate-change.html

What would I need if my country were ravaged by a deadly cyclone?

Condoms.

Lots and lots of condoms.

In fact, I would need about 2 condoms for every 1 person that died and I would need them before water, food, medical care and shelter had been taken care of. And throw in some abortifacient pills while you're at it.

The UN, in its infinite wisdom decided that they should use their limited resources to transport hundreds of thousands of condoms and abortifacient pills to Burma before they worried about other trivial needs like, say, water. The UN is a politicized piece of shit that should be partially defunded for this stunt. Where is John Bolton when we need him?

http://newsblaze.com/story/20080523122700krzy.nb/newsblaze/WORLDNEW/World-News.html

California Marriage Overturning

In this nation, there is a thin line between Constitutional Democracy and a 9-man dictatorship. On May 15th, California stepped over that line.

Hilary has taken the lead in the popular vote

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2008/president/democratic_vote_count.html

At this rate, even if she loses the nomination she will have gotten the most votes.

What exactly is happening in Beirut?

Lebanon has been a pretty tense place after Israel destroyed the credibility of the pro-American government and solidified Hezbollah as the dominant force in the country, but last week has been tenser than most. Hezbollah seized control of half of the capital city from its pro-American Sunni political rivals (they all have militias) and the fighting is spreading, on May 11th Hezbollah complied with army demands and withdrew from the areas they had seized.

The sporadic fighting through out the rest of Lebanon is probably motivated be multiple factors and doesn't have all that much to do with the central government vs. Hezbollah conflict. What is disturbing was the speed with which Hezbollah was able to take over, I can not stress this enough, half of Beirut without much effective opposition from the other political parties. What is highly confusing is why Hezbollah bowed to the demands of the army - the army would be no match against Hezbollah - why should they let themselves be pushed around?

Best guess is that Hezbollah knows it will likely eventually dominate the political infrastructure of Lebanon and wants to inherit an intact state. I am curious to see how this will turn out. I think to whatever extent possible we should help out the Lebanese army in this, throw em a couple helicopters or something.