Voting with Glassbooth

As you may have read in my previous post, I voted Saturday. In passing I mentioned that my mind had been changed on my choice for President. The main thing that made me change my mind was glassbooth.org. It is worth taking a look at regardless of your situation.

For instance if...
...you've already selected your candidate and you are not changing your mind:
Check out what some of the issues are and how your candidate stacks up to them. Regardless of who gets elected it is up to you make your values take shape in your government.

...you're on the fence about who to vote for:
Check out where you stand and see which candidates stand closest to you, then vote for that candidate.

...you just want to learn about more of the actual issues:
The site is set up so that each question has links to information about the issues so you can make up your own mind.

...you live in Wisconsin and you want information about the Senate and House races:
The site defaults to the US Presidential election but there is also information on Senate and House races in Wisconsin and a section about New Zealand. I'd love something like this for all my local elections.

For me I first used the site the traditional way. I used my 20 points to pick the issues that were most important to me then rated my stances on those issues and their sub-issues. After my initial results I wanted to make sure it would remain consistant for all categories, since the results were different than expected. I went through and put 20 points in each category. My results were consistant in almost every one. Glassbooth.org didn't change my vote, but it gave me the information to change my vote when I voted.

I voted, thank goodness its over.

Well I finally voted today and thank goodness I can quit thinking about it. My wife did most of the research this time around, I guess 2010 will be my turn. Actually, I hope to start the research process much earlier next time. Heck, maybe there will even be something worth running for! The great thing is that this time I went beyond just who I was voting for and begin to pick who I was voting into a certain position. That is why for some positions I felt a libertarian was a better choice or a republican or a democrat. Unfortunately I only had one place to vote for a Green party candidate on my ballot but hopefully the state party will begin the work right after the election to gain ballot access in the next election(s). ...

I'm glad it is over, for me at least. All that is left to do is wait for the results. Sure, perhaps I can change a few minds before they walk into the voting booth but at this point I don't find it too likely. Of course I did change my choice for president this morning so who knows.

One thing I grasped from the experience that I found important was the need to not vote along party lines. Voting in this country was not meant to be 'us versus them', it was created to be 'who/what do I think is best for my country/state/county/city'. With that in mind certain personal values, while important for some positions, may not even matter in other postions or it could be a bad thing. That is one reason why voting multiple parties makes sense to me. Another reason is checks and balances. Different values come together at some point, so only the most important issues will pass with ease. This keeps us from spending too much or creating too many laws just because the power is there. Finally, the best reason to vote multi party is that you get to vote for an individual. While the parties do hold quite a sway over many politicians, on the local level it doesn't seem as bad. Individuals really are just that and many( if not most ) have great dedication to their communities that can make the best candidate be someone outside of your 'chosen' party.

What do you think?

What's Your Breaking Point

With election day just a week away I thought I would ask, "What's your breaking point?" Everywhere I look, even my beloved NPR, there are only two sides to this election. While listening to NPR yesterday they had 2 people who were pro Obama and two people who were pro McCain on. Its as if there isn't anyone else to vote for. ...

The truth is, there are other people to vote for. People, by nature, don't like to rock the boat (too much) and so voting outside of the 2 main stream candidates doesn't even occur to most people. While there are some good reasons to respect both Barack Obama and John McCain, I have a feeling many people are looking at their mainstream candidates through rose colored glasses.

The economy is big. What is your candidates stand? The Iraq war is big. What plans does your candidate have? Are they inline with your ideals? There are other big issues, health care, domestic spying, drilling for oil, nuclear power, privatization, gas prices and standing behind personal principles. You may be suprised by what you see from your candidate if you actually look.

With that in mind there is a website called What's Your Breaking Point that checks your candidate versus your uncompromisable values. Check it out and see if they match. Even if you have already voted, its fairly educational.

After you are done here are some other candidates to look at:
Cynthia McKinney - Green Party
Ralph Nader - Independent ( with some help )
Chuck Baldwin - Constitution Party
Bob Barr - Libertarian Party

You also might want to check out who you really match up with at glass booth.
^{The previous picture used from lifehacker without permission and does not represent my results.}

Penn Says: You can't vote against someone

Maybe I'm in a magic mood lately. It seems I keep posting videos of magicians. Well magicians or political videos. So today I thought I would post a political rant by one of the bad boys of magic, Penn Jillette. As is usual with Penn, it is a rant but behind his abrasiveness he does make some very good points. His main point? You can't go into the voting booth and vote against someone. You can only vote for someone. ...

By the way, there is no magic in this video :)

Nader Commercials

One thing I have been quite impressed with from the Nader campaign is how organized they are for an independent run for office. The ability to get on the ballots and reach their fund raising goals is amazing. Unfortunately, I have not and probably won't see any commercials for Ralph Nader. Air time for these commercials and production costs are forcing the campaign to focus on new media - the internet. Well, since Ralph Nader's message is the same as it has been for a long time I thought commercials from his 2000 campaign would work. Just change the names and some of the stats and it's like it was made for today. ...

Please keep in mind that this election the web address is www.VoteNader.org

^{Some of these kids probably have grown up and can vote now. I hope they aren't apathetic.}

It's good to watch Phil Donahue from 2000 as well. He is a respected tv personality who communicates the reasons Ralph Nader is running well.

Ron Paul and Ralph Nader on CNN

Earlier today on CNN, Ron Paul and Ralph Nader showed up together to answer questions from Wolf Blitzer. Why were they both on? It seems there is a minor party agreement on four issues affecting our country. These 4 points have been agreed upon by 4 minor party candidates with the hope that it will either force the issues to be taken up by major party candidates or get a minor party candidate elected President. ...

Details of the 4 points of agreement between the 4 candidates can be found on the voteNader.org website, but they include foreign policy, national debt, privacy and the federal reserve. While I'm not a Ron Paul revolutionary like many, I think what he is doing speaks volumes. He is not supporting the party he is a member of he is supporting his values. No wonder so many people stand behind him as a political messiah. Thank you Dr. Paul, you have my gratitude.

The audio from the 4 candidate press conference led by Dr. Paul is available online. I hope to link to the C-Span coverage in a forthcoming post.

Why I support Ralph Nader

Read on to see a well put together speech by someone ( not me ) who supports Ralph Nader and why. For me, this puts into words what I sometimes can't. Perhaps Nader is not the candidate who supports your values, but which candidate best supports your values? Is it Barr, McKinney, Baldwin... just look through the list of candidates on Wikipedia. ...

Green on Green

The following is a video I found when visiting the Green Party's website today. It's a succint look at the 4 Green Party candidates, why they are running Green, why you should vote ( and vote Green ) and the benefits of minor parties running in an election. ...

Reducing voter rights

Beware, voter right are getting reduced. Of course, in many states, voters rights are limited because laws work to keep minor parties off the ballots thus taking away voter choice. And while that is a valid issue, that is not what I will be writing about today. It seems that Missouri is looking to make a (state) constitutional amendment to require proof of citizenship when someone registers to vote. On the surface this makes sense, but look deeper and it has further reaching problems without much cause. ...

The article from the New York Times is a pretty good news story. It shows both sides of the story. On one side it talks about the numbers of non-citizens who may have registered to vote. That number is 624. It also gives the numbers from October 2002 to September 2005 of people indicted by the justice department for registration fraud or illegal voting. Those numbers 40, with only 21 being non-citizens. Those seem like pretty small numbers to me. What will be the financial cost to the taxpayer to ensure this level of registration checking. Most likely it is small, but you will be paying for it with your tax dollars.

How else will you be paying for it? What if you are poor, elderly or for any other reason you have difficulty providing adequate proof of citizenship. In that case you will pay for it with your right to vote. That's correct, your rights as an American get revoked so that Missouri can keep a possible 624 non-citizens from voting. How many people will that actually affect though? More numbers from the article are 38,000 and 70. 38,000 is the number of voter registration applications that have thrown out since Arizona adopted its proof of citizenship requirement in 2004. 70 is the percent of people who stated under oath that they were born in the United States. I'm understand people lie, even under oath, so let's say only half told the truth. By my calculations that is 13,300 people whose voices aren't heard so that we can stop what could be 624 people who are not citizens from voting. Of course, that is just an assumption that half of the 26,600 people were telling the truth. Maybe only a quarter told the truth( 6650 ), at least then only about 10 times as many Americans as illegal aliens are having their voices silenced through a new loophole around the 15th Amendment. Perhaps we can possibly find ways around the 19th amendment as well. Moving backwards is fun.[END Sarcasm]

If you live in Missouri, please take a stand against this amendment. Write to your state senators and congressman. If you are in another state that is thinking about this law ( Florida, Kansas, Oklahoma and South Carolina ) then please do the same. You will be fighting the propaganda machine against these bills but please keep in mind what these bills actually accomplish. Sure, they keep illegal immigrants off the ballots however a much greater number of honest Americans who have difficulty proving their citizenship will be affected. Those affected will be the poor, the elderly and I'm guessing a majority of those people will of groups we label as minorities.

It's our turn to fight for our rights.

Debating the Role of Minor Parties

I have always considered myself an independent. When it comes to my party affiliations it wasn't until relatively recently that I decided to choose a team to play with. After my one visit to a Democratic party meeting in my area it was clear I didn't want to be known as a democrat. After some research I chose the Green Party. But what use is it? Here's a short video made by the same people who created "An Unreasonable Man"( In fact it is from that DVDs extras ) talking about the role Minor parties play in the USA. ...