Other Posts
Many of my programming posts are Flex or Actionscript related and will now be posted in the FlexCoders group. So I haven't stopped posting about programming, just moved where much of it occurs.
Lieberman v2.0.0.8
Being a fan of minor parties and independent candidates, especially Ralph Nader, I read and hear lots of arguments about how much better of a President Al Gore would have been as compared to George W. Bush. What people often forget is the role of Vice President in the executive branch. So it was nice to see an editorial in the New York Times all about what's new with Joe Lieberman in 2008. Most notably his devotion to Republican candidate John McCain. ...
Green Party and Nader supporters often cite that Al Gore is doing more for the environment outside of the politcal arena than he was able to do while he was Vice President. Much of that surrounds the corporate interests he was beholden to at the time.
We've seen some of the affects Dick Cheney has had on American policy, how would Lieberman have affected it? These are important questions to ask when people claim to know how much different things would be if Gore/Lieberman had won in 2000. Would they be different? Sure. What would be different? I don't know.
Fish Out of Water
In the 2004 elections the WWE invited the Presidential candidates, John Kerry and President George W. Bush, to debate in front of a live WWE audience. As you may have guessed( or remembered ), it didn't happen. This election cycle is a little different. Rather than debate, the candidates were invited to submit a video to address the WWE fans on Monday Night Raw. This must have seemed more politically safe because the three major party candidatates each has a video this past Monday. I must say, they were all out of their element. ...
To me they each seemed out of their element. The stream of catch phrases was a little annoying( one or two is enough ). I also feel that they didn't respect the fans intelligence enough, or at least whoever wrote the speeches didn't. Sure, the WWE fans like catch phrases - but only ones that they have latched on too from people who have earned the fans respect. I'm impressed that they took the "political" chance, but they still need some work.
It would be great to see how a former wrestler running for office would handled the situation. There always seems to be a rumor that Jesse Ventura will make a run, I'm sure his speech would have been much more audience appropriate. I keep wondering, "How would I have done it different?"
For a wrestler's perspective, here is JBL on Fox news:
Nader on C-SPAN
Independent candidate Ralph Nader gave a speach at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, PA. C-SPAN was there to capture the speech. Rather than wait for the time when it is on C-SPAN you can view it here. Just go on to the article and the speech should start immediately. ...
Throwing Votes...Away?
Today I had a political conversation with someone that shares a lot of my political views. While we were discussing how democracy is being overrun by capitalism, I started to talk about what we can do to bring the two back into balance. Since fighting for the people's rights over corporations means standing with candidates who are not mainstream he brought up the point that, unfortunately, you have to vote for the lesser of two evils otherwise you are throwing your vote away. My vehement response,"Hell no it isn't!" got a response of attempting to explain to me why it is. Since we have similar political views, he allowed me the privilege of explaining my reasoning and at the same time why voting for the lesser of two evils would be throwing my vote away. This got me thinking about the many reasons why people might think that not voting for a major party candidate is throwing your vote away. ...
Be Part of a winning team:
Many people just want to be a part of a winning team. When it comes to party politics, even minor party politics, people feel very strongly about their team. From a psychological standpoint, it is understandable. Much like sports rivalries, political party rivalries get in the way of objective thought. Many people have chosen Democrats, many have chosen Republicans and while quite a bit less many have chosen other parties such as Green, Libertarian, Reform, Constitution and oh so many more. Let us not forget all the candidate who choose not to be tied to a party but instead choose to run as Independent, Declined to state, et cetera. These differing groups are representative of the opinions of all types of Americans. It is important that as many of these voices as possible get heard. By voting for a minor party and/or individuals that share your values you give them a better chance of being seen and heard. If you vote Democrat or Republican just because they are more likely to win it just keeps these important voices away from view, unable to make any real difference. Remember that many, if not all, of the most progressive changes in the United States have started from the voices of independents and minor parties.
A Vote for X(non-evil minor candidate) is a vote for Y( the greater evil )
Then there is the reasonable argument that a vote a minor party candidate is a vote for a competing major party candidate because it takes votes away from the lesser evil major party candidate. On the surface, this argument makes sense. It makes sense, especially if you are in say the Democratic party, that someone who says they are going to vote Green or for Ralph Nader would most likely doesn't want to see a Republican in the White House so they should vote for a Democrat to make sure that doesn't happen. This really goes back to the 'Winning Team' argument. People in the Democratic party often mistake all progressives as Democrats while non-Democrat progressives often do not find the main stream Democratic party candidates as very progressive. From what I've read, many Republicans mistakenly think all conservatives are Republicans but many conservatives don't find the main stream Republican candidates conservative enough. It sounds like a whole lot of people need their voices heard, and that isn't going to happen by voting for major party candidates. Besides, a vote for a minor party candidate is only a vote for that candidate because no one else earned that vote. If you want people to rank their votes by preference, take a look at (instant) runoff voting and make it happen.
The reason to vote minor party / independent
If, like me, you were raised that America is the land of the free because of the brave this is a no brainer. Often, people hear( or read ) that statement and think of soldiers only. There is another group of brave men and women, people who stood up to the status quo to change things for the better. Think it's great that a woman has a chance at being president? Women have some brave independent souls to thank for the privilege to even vote. Think it is great that a man of color might be president? Once again, it was independent third parties( abolitionist ) who first brought the idea of ending slavery to the table( Abraham Lincoln was a Republican when that was a minor party ). Don't forget the brave independent thinkers who gave all citizens, regardless of race, the opportunity to vote and run for office. And for those of you who are thinking there is still work to be done, let me tell you, that is status quo getting in your way. I apologize to the conservatives, but being a liberal it is difficult for me to cite examples - oh yeah, Ross Perot actually got a tax and spend Democrat to balance the budget and lead us toward a budget surplus. However, the Commission on Presidential Debates( corporation run by Dems and Reps ) made sure noone heard him debate the 2nd time he ran and in doing so made it near impossible for any minor party or independent candidate to be a part of the national debates.
Voting for a minor party or independent candidate is never a wasted vote. Unless you believe in the democrats or republicans and what they stand for over any other candidate, a vote for a major candidate is a vote thrown away. You have not made them earn your vote. They can now take your vote for granted and go to work for the corporations, which they can't take for granted, instead of you. Write letters, tell them how you feel, it won't make a difference if they can count on getting elected next cycle. I am open to a major party candidate earning my vote. They have until November. Until then I currently have 3 choices, Ralph Nader, whomever the Green Party chooses and Mike Gravel; if the Libertarians choose him as their candidate.
Of course, these are only a couple reasons why people think one way or the other. Do you have another perspective? I would love to hear it. Please comment below.
Thank you Ric
My favorite wrestler is Triple H. Triple H's favorite wrestler is Ric Flair. Ric Flair retired after Wrestlemania so some people have put together some tribute to him. I thought it would be a good idea to share those with you here. ...
And the WWE put all of this together into a montage that made me want to make this post:
Tales from ballot access land
The Nader team is working on getting ballot access in a few states right now. Things seem to be going well, but people have strong opinions about who should and shouldn't have their name on the ballot. In an article on the VoteNader.org website there was an interesting incident from New Mexico that got mentioned:
In an attempt to stop us from petitioning at the National Hispanic Cultural Center, the onsite administrator said, "You can’t do political work on state property!"
No wonder much gets done in government, you can't actually do political work at the workplace :lol:
Degrafa post at Flexcoders
I just posted a short article on Degrafa - the declarative graphics framework for Flex. Check out the article over at the Flex coders group.
A little from Kent Mesplay
Kent Mesplay seems to come across as a quieter Presidential candidate from the Green Party. When he speaks though, he comes across as very intelligent. I've liked him since the Green Party debates in January. However, being quiet, I don't hear much from him very often. So I was quite happy to see his name in an article, not as part of a list of Green Party presidential candidates but as the focus of the article. He talks about Nader running as an independent, Jesse Johnson's recent vocal endorsement from Mike Gravel and what Green's need to do to get noticed by the media. ...
Also at the end of the post is a short clip from a documentary called "Seriously Green" so that people can put a face to Kent Mesplay.
And here is a blog radio interview with Kent Mesplay as well. (So you can put a voice to the name I guess :) )
Gravel goes Green
Last week you may have missed it. In the political brouhaha that is American politics during a Presidential election year, you often hear about candidates supporting other candidates but only after they have dropped out. What isn't usually newsworthy is the fact that they always support someone from their own party. So why, when a candidate who hasn't dropped out of the race supports a candidate in another party is there so little news on the event. Well, last week Mike Gravel gave his support to Green Party presidential candidate Jesse Johnson. ...
Like Mike Gravel, when I first saw Jesse Johnson in a debate I wasn't that taken with him. Perhaps it was because he wasn't officially running for president at that time. Sure, he said his first focus was to get the Greens on the ballot in West Virginia but he wasn't officially running so I didn't take him seriously. He was very intelligent and well spoken but until his run was official I just decided not to pay attention.
Recently Jesse Johnson finished getting the Green Party candidates on the ballot in West Virginia, even though the Mountain party ( the Green party affiliate in West Virginia ) has a different name. Way to go Jesse, he can make things happen. That's a bonus in my book.
Then when he is freed up from ensuring a more democratic ballot in the mountain state he did indeed officially announce his run for president. No sooner did that happen then the big new. Mike Gravel,a Democrat still running for President himself, endorses Jesse Johnson for President of the United States. I didn't think an endorsement would make any difference for me, but this one sure did.
Perhaps we'll see more of this. Disenchanted major party candidates supporting minor party candidates. Minor party candidates supporting each other. Joint tickets between minor parties? Okay maybe that is pushing it, I'm open to the idea though.