Other Choices

Notice Any Difference?

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Final Weekend of Lies

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Let Me Say It Again!

"The “least worst” [option] says they have to vote for Obama. If you don’t have a breaking point, and this is the question that baffles the progressive intelligence, how bad does it have to get before you say No More?  So some will just sit out the election. Vote Green, vote Justice Party or write in a vote. I don’t believe in staying home."      -Ralph Nader 

Don't Be Fooled

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What was that definition of insanity?

Doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result.

The Wrong Candidate Arrested

The Green Party candidate for President was arrested on Tuesday and held for eight hours for attempting to participate in the Presidential Debate.

The Commission on Presidential Debates did not allow her to join the electoral process. The CPD is wholly owned and operated by the republican and democrat parties.

and for President of the United States

Dr. Jill Stein is the Green Party nominee for President in 2012. She is a mother, housewife, physician, longtime teacher of internal medicine, and pioneering environmental-health advocate.

She is the co-author of two widely-praised reports,  In Harm's Way: Toxic Threats to Child Development, published in 2000, andEnvironmental Threats to Healthy Aging, published in 2009.  The first of these  has been translated into four languages and is used worldwide. The reports promote green local economies, sustainable agriculture, clean power, and freedom from toxic threats.

Her "Healthy People, Healthy Planet" teaching program reveals the links between human health, climate security, and green economic revitalization. This body of work has been presented at government, public health and medical conferences, and has been used to improve public policy.

Jill began to advocate for the environment as a human health issue in 1998 when she realized that politicians were simply not acting to protect children from the toxic threats emerging from current science. She offered her services to parents, teachers, community groups and a native Americans group seeking to protect their communities from toxic exposure.

Jill has testified before numerous legislative panels as well as local and state governmental bodies. She played a key role in the effort to get the Massachusetts fish advisories updated to better protect women and children from mercury contamination, which can contribute to learning disabilities and attention deficits in children. She also helped lead the successful campaign to clean up the "Filthy Five" coal plants in Massachusetts, an effort that resulted in getting coal plant regulations signed into law that were the most protective around at that time. Her testimony on the effects of mercury and dioxin contamination from the burning of waste helped preserve the Massachusetts moratorium on new trash incinerator construction in the state. 

Jill has appeared as an environmental health expert on the Today Show, 20/20, Fox News, and other programs. She was also a member of the national and Massachusetts boards of directors of the Physicians for Social Responsibility. Her efforts to protect public health has won her several awards including: Clean Water Action's "Not in Anyone's Backyard" Award, the Children's Health Hero" Award, and the Toxic Action Center's Citizen Award.  

Having witnessed the ability of big money to stop health protective policies on Beacon Hill, Jill became an advocate for campaign finance reform, and worked to help pass the Clean Election Law. This law was approved by the voters by a 2-1 margin, but was later repealed by the Massachusetts Legislature on an unrecorded voice vote.

In 2002 ADD activists in the Massachusetts Green-Rainbow Party approached Dr. Stein and asked her to run for Governor of Massachusetts. Dr. Stein accepted, and began her first foray into electoral politics. She was widely credited with being the best informed and most credible candidate in the race.

She has twice been elected to town meeting in Lexington, Massachusetts. She is the founder and past co-chair of a local recycling committee appointed by the Lexington Board of Selectmen.

In 2003, Jill co-founded the Massachusetts Coalition for Healthy Communities, a non-profit organization that addresses a variety of issues that are important to the health and well-being of Massachusetts communities, including health care, local green economies, and grassroots democracy.

Jill represented the Green-Rainbow Party in two additional races – one for State Representative in 2004 and one for Secretary of State in 2006. In 2006 she won the votes of over 350,000 Massachusetts citizens – which represented the greatest vote total ever for a Green-Rainbow candidate.

In 2008, Jill helped formulate a "Secure Green Future" ballot initiative that called upon legislators to accelerate efforts to move the Massachusetts economy to renewable energy and make development of green jobs a priority. The measure won over 81 per cent of the vote in the 11 districts in which it was on the ballot.

Jill was born in Chicago and raised in suburban Highland Park, Illinois. She graduated magna cum laude from Harvard College in 1973, and from Harvard Medical School in 1979. Jill enjoys writing and performing music, and enjoys long walks with her Great Dane, Bandita. Dr. Stein lives in Lexington with her husband, Richard Rohrer, also a physician. She has two sons, Ben and Noah, who have graduated from college in the past few years.

VOTE GREEN in 2012!

I'm Just Sayin'

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Choice?

. . . a fork has three or four tines

Voter Suppression

For those few who want to shout - "Hey it's Obama who is trying to deny the military the right to vote in Ohio." Please check your facts. Do not rely on some thirty-second political commercial run by some sleazy Super PAC.

I don't care for Obama either but like any other politician you don't have to make up shit about them, what they actually do is more than enough to dislike them. 

The voter suppression in Ohio and other states is completely a republican maneuver.

Stop the Madness!

Some of you are going to thank me for this, others will think I'm crazier than the Mad Hatter himself.

First a question. Have you decided to vote for either Mitt Romney or Barack Obama? You have. Well then let me offer you a piece of sanity you may not have considered.

You can stop following the presidential campaign today. With 56 days to go until election day, you can opt out of any more negative ads, political talking heads, friendly and not-so-friendly discussions at home, work and with friends or neighbors.

You can chose not only your own sanity but the peace and quiet of bullshitlessness for nearly two full months. Why torture yourself? Nothing is going to change your mind and you are likely not going to persuade anyone else either. Imagine the tranquility of stopping the campaign today. You can do it.

However, should you take this sage advice you are required to continue to read my blog. You can skip any blatantly political posts but you have to read the ones that attack both political parties. It's only fair, I showed you the way out of this dirty little campaign, so have the decency to muck about once a week with me and my dark shadow [1969 B.S. Political Science - Kalamazoo College].

Money and Democracy

“The fate of our country is now in the hands of people 

who don’t think about what they want until 

they get right up to the register at McDonald’s.”

-Stephen Colbert

By most conservative estimates the two political parties will spend around $150 million dollars this month and another equal amount in October. In the first five days of November when almost no voters are still to be won over, the campaigns will throw every last nickel they have at nearly no one still willing to listen.

As of right now most pollsters and political academics calculate that 95%+ of the potential voting public have made up their minds and cannot be swayed in their decision. So there are less than 5% of the voters to spend all that money on. In addition because of our antiquated voting process most of those voters are in states that have already been conceded to one candidate or the other. 

The overwhelming majority of nearly half a billion dollars will be concentrated in the final seven "swing" states: Virginia, Florida, Ohio, Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire and Colorado. Less than 5% of the voters in 7 states will be the target of $500 million dollars worth of advertising of which we are told 70% will be in the form of negative ads.

Is this any way to elect a president? Is this any way to elect a dog catcher?

And by the way, this half a billion dollars does NOT include all the private money going to Super PACS, of which we are told more than 90% goes to negative advertising. 

To my libertarian friends who would answer: "It's my money, I can do whatever I want with it." I would answer: "It's my country and it isn't for sale to either side."

The Math for Mitt

The "fight" for the republican nomination is over, done, finished. If you would like to keep up with the current hard numbers as they emerged and to play a bit with the speculative "what if's" Here is a neat little interactive delegate counter that will allow you to fantasize about any and all possibilities - none of which rationally lead to anything other than Obama vs. Romney in November.

For me I will be ignoring the remainder of the primary season unless, as they say, a candidate gets caught in bed with a dead girl or a live boy. But I would like to leave each and every American citizen and those watching from around the world with this thought - there are actually hundreds of thousands of voters who actually think a woman hating, religious bigot like Rick Santorum should be President of the United States. That thought makes me cringe more than even the nightmare of Dan Quayle a heartbeat from the oval office.

Political Signage

With the ability to post a picture on Facebook available to anyone with an internet connection there is a lot of political commentary that crawls through the photoshop process before leaking out into the collective unconscious of the cyber cesspool. Most of the messages are silly or mean; partisan and generally wrong. I tend to rate them on a scale from flat-out stupid to deliciously devious. 

But every once in a great while one comes along that I just can't dismiss. I mean when politicians get so outrageous that they make both sides of their own inane argument, you just gotta marvel at what we produce in the way of political candidates. He is a brilliant example thus just defies rebuttal.

Mississippi For Instance

Yes, in Mississippi Rick Santorum got a couple more votes than the other guys.

Yes, between them the ultra-conservative Santorum and the slimy not as conservative Newt Gingrich got over 64% of the vote yesterday.

No, all of you liberals and other sane voters there is no need to worry. The wacko fringe of the republican party is not about to take over the country. Here are the numbers.

2012 Republican Primary Mississippi
Santorum         93,200
Gingrich           88,700
Romney            86,000
Paul                  12,500

Total Vote       283,000

2008 National Election Mississippi
McCain           687,266
Obama            520,864

Total Vote     1,224,000


Only the heavily motivated conservative vote turned out yesterday. The great middle of the voting public is really not "anyone but Romney" they are "anyone but Romney except not these guys." Given an actual general election between Obama and Santorum or Gingrich there are some red states that will go for the republican party but the margins will be much smaller than those McCain numbers from '08 and the overwhelming majority  of the country will be blue.

This Obama reelection scenario does not make me particularly happy but I have to admit the potential for a strong third party showing in '12 is being slowly eroded by the republican road show. The more these guys talk, the more independent and liberal voters who have been turned off my Obama are thinking - "anyone but these guys."

And the Losers Are . . .

Results 2008 New Hampshire Primary

             John McCain          86,571          7 delegates

             Mitt Romney          75,546          4 delegates

             Mike Huckabee      26,859          1 delegate

             Ron Paul                  18,308         0 delegate

             Hillary Clinton        112,404        9 delegates

             Barack Obama         104,815        9 delegates

             John Edwards            48,699        4 delegates

Results 2012 New Hampshire Primary*

            Mitt Romney              97,532        7 delegates

            Ron Paul                     56,848         3 delegates

            John Huntsman         41,945        2 delegates

            Newt Gingich             loser

            Rick Santorum           loser 

            Rick Perry                   loser

*Only 12 delegates at stake reduced from 23 by the republican national committee for moving the primary up to January.

Speaking of relevance, the Jan. 31st republican primary in Florida already has more absentee ballots requests than all the votes cast in Iowa and New Hampshire combined.

2286 - number of delegates to republican convention

1144 - number of delegates to win nomination

    37 - number of delegates decided thus far

    20 - number of delegates committed to Mitt Romney

So how is it possible that Mr. Romney is now being declared the winner by so many knowledgeable sources or when did 20 become 1144?

Pie Chart Your President

Mother Jones magazine has this really cool interactive tool that allows you to predict who will win, lose or draw each of the upcoming republican presidential primaries. They call it the GOP Primary Predictor: Play Along at Home. You can prognosticate on what percentage of the votes each of the candidates will get in all of the upcoming 55 primaries.  Yes, I did say fifty-five.

Here is a list of the primaries along with my less than scientific commentary.

Jan. 3   Iowa - Santorum or Romney they don't really know yet

Jan. 10 New Hampshire - Romney wins big
Jan. 21 South Carolina - the last real chance to derail the Mitt
Jan. 31 Florida - 50/50 chance for Romney to wrap it up

Feb. 4  Nevada
Feb. 7  Colorado
Feb. 7  Minnesota
Feb. 11 Maine
Feb. 25 Mariana Islands
Feb. 28 Arizona - it's over, Romney wins both; everyone else quits
Feb. 28 Michigan - it's over, Romney wins both; everyone else quits

None of the remaining 44 primaries matter as far as the presidential nominations go

Mar. 3  Washington
Mar. 6  Alabama
Mar. 6  Georgia - March 6th: eleven states in one day with no meaning
Mar. 6  Idaho
Mar. 6  Massachusetts
Mar. 6  North Dakota
Mar. 6  Ohio
Mar. 6  Oklahoma
Mar. 6  Tennessee
Mar. 6  Vermont
Mar. 6  Virginia
Mar. 6  Virgin Islands

Mar. 10 Kansas
Mar. 10 Wyoming
Mar. 12 Guam
Mar. 13 Hawaii
Mar. 13 Mississippi
Mar. 13 American Samoa
Mar. 17 Missouri
Mar. 20 Illinois
Mar. 24 Louisiana
Mar. 24 Puerto Rico

Apr. 3  Washington
Apr. 3  Maryland
Apr. 3  Wisconsin
Apr. 6  Alaska
Apr. 6  Texas - Rick Perry who?
Apr. 24 Connecticut
Apr. 24 Delaware
Apr. 24 New York - sorry it was Romney two months ago
Apr. 24 Pennsylvania
Apr. 24 Rhode Island

May 8  Indiana
May 8  North Carolina
May 8  West Virginia
May 15 Nebraska
May 15 Oregon
May 22 Arkansas
May 22 Kentucky

June 5   California - largest single electoral state votes 3 months too late
June 5   Montana
June 5   New Jersey
June 5   New Mexico
June 5   South Dakota
June 26 Utah

Now I would be happy to be wrong about this, if only for the entertainment value a longer race would give to The Daily Show and Colbert Report. But my overall 2012 position remains the same - whether you are choosing the lesser of two evils or seven, you still get evil.