Update on the Primaries
Mar 5 at 12:12pm by Jagwire X
Republicans & Democrats
Well, we already know that McCain has essentially won the Republican nomination and gained the blessing of George Bush, to the delight of both Democrats and Republicans.
The Democratic nomination is still up in the air. As of noon central time the Democratic Party delegates are distributed as follows:
| Obama 1,520 | Clinton 1,424 |
| Pledged: 1,321 | Pledged: 1,186 |
| Superdels: 199 | Superdels: 238 |
| Needed to Win: 2,025 | |
The caucuses in Texas are still counting but apparently Obama currently has a slight edge of 52% to 48%, again as of noon central time.
Take a look at the New York Times election guide also for alternative tallies.
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March 4th Primaries
Mar 4 at 10:10pm by Jagwire X
Republicans & Democrats
Well today is the day. Well not THE day. But it’s the day that will most likely decide who the presidential contenders are.
At this point John McCain is already the presumptive nominee for the GOP. Not too surprising there - another militaristic rich white guy is what Republican constituents think this country needs. I think not.
Meanwhile on the Democrats side of the fence we seem to have all sort of craziness going on. The nomination is down to Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. Either way it’s historical precedent. There are reports of voters overwhelming caucuses and claims by the Clinton camp that Obama supporters are illegally obtaining caucus packets in the several Texas caucus precincts. I don’t know the ground rules for caucuses and I probably should but I am to understand that to some degree it’s a first come first server sort of deal where the packets are concerned. Then there are allegation about the Clinton campaign regularly claiming caucus irregularities with the Obama campaign to the point that it seem to have become a tactic of the Clinton campaign.
There are also reports in Ohio of precincts closing down early because they have run out of ballots because a large number of people wanted to vote on paper. I can understand that. Otherwise in Ohio the only real problems seem to be the winter weather making it difficult for people to get out and vote.
So right now the democratic nomination could go either way. From what I see in the various media Obama is ahead by a small but significant margin. Now just to make things interesting the Democratic Party does not use a winner takes all approach to the votes in the primary - it’s proportional. So even if Clinton wins in Ohio it doesn’t mean she gets all the delegate - if she wins 60% of the vote she gets 60% of the delegates and Obama gets the remaining 40%. So this primary could remain close until the very end. Superdelegates are another story - they can vote for whoever they like and can be persuaded by the nominees (or even the voters) to vote one way or the other. It’s all very exciting and tomorrow morning we may well have a better idea of who is likely to be the next president of the United States.
For the record I prefer Obama to Clinton but, as I said before, either way it’s historical precedent. And I frankly just don’t want another rich white guy to be president. That is hardly representative of a country that is comprised of so many non-rich, non-whites and non-guys. Not to mention people who just are fed up with politics as usual. Being a politician shouldn’t be a career option - it should be a duty.
For those interested in hard numbers you can check CNN (they also have a lot of information about how the primary process works) or look a the latest Daily Kos post.
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Election Year
Jan 28 at 3:03pm by Jagwire X
Ballot Box
Well it’s that time again folks. That’s right I speak of election year - two thousand eight. And once again we are presented with such a limited bunch of self-serving ego maniacs that I continue to wonder how this country keeps together at all. Really, my biggest complaint is the party system. We have a two party system, Democrats and Republicans. We allegedly have a multi-party system, with Greens, Socialist, Libertarians and other, but they are never in contention. It sort reduces the choice from an array of candidates to, well, two. The National Football League has a better selection process for how teams get to the Super Bowl. I don’t buy all the crap about uncommon and unconventional ideas remain non-influential and so a two party system flourishes. It’s a strategy to keep any other parties from gaining traction. It’s not like various Socialist ideals don’t overlap with Democrat ideals, or Libertarian ideals don’t have companion ideals that find traction in with Republicans.
Actually are some interesting candidates, Barack Obama (D, IL), Ron Paul (R TX), Mike Gravel (D AK) and Dennis Kucinich (D OH) for example, less self serving that most I’d say, but still full of sound and fury and a bit of demagoguery, you don’t run for president without a formidable ego at very least, even if you aren’t maniacal. You’d go home in tears every night.
Of course we’ve been dropped into an economic, social, political, and diplomatic mire, for which mitigation will be difficult at best, by the current Republican administration, so I shouldn’t hold too high hopes for the next CEO of the USA. Which is the problem, this is a government of the people, for the people and by the people - not a corporation to be run as so. We, citizens all, are stockholders in this nation and it is up to us to decide what we want. Or are we to lazy to make decisions for ourselves?
But I do hold out hope that things will get better. In any event this being an election year should provided plenty of fodder for blogging. We don’t intend to be another DailyKOS or Crooks and Liars (you should read them too) but we do hope to provide a skeptical (or perhaps cynical) view of the political landscape.
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Steal This Country
Nov 7 at 1:01pm by Jagwire X
Ballot Box
Well it’s Steal This CountryTM day. I’m curious if the mainstream media will continue to gloss over election fraud and voter manipulation. I have absolutely no faith whatsoever in the election process at this point. I do not trust electronic voting machines - never have - as a programmer I know what can go wrong and that’s without people deliberately adding code that might be used to manipulate votes. I don’t like that I can’t get a paper receipt of my choices. Hell anything I order online and can print out a receipt for. Anything I buy at a store I can get a receipt for. But something as important as voting - “Nope, sorry pal, you’re out of luck. Just trust us.” Yeah, right.
No transparency means no trust in my eyes. As things stand now, voting is a privilege. It should probably be mandatory for everyone over the age of eighteen. At least that should be the case in national elections, hence the will of the people. When elections are won based on who can market their candidate better and move people to vote based on that marketing determines the turnout there’s something seriously wrong with this basic premise of a democratic republic. Failing the marketing campaign there’s always the possibility of just altering you non-transparent, receipt-less electronic vote.
I am extremely disgusted with the amount of corruption in our government. There is so much I can’t even keep track of it all. The level of hypocrisy that the Republicans have managed to attain alone should be cause for their being voted out of office, or in some cases jailed. No sane person should even consider voting for any of them at this point. I think it’s going to get worse before it gets better. Now I’m not saying the Democrats don’t have problems - no one party could ever come close representing me but the Democrats are generally closer than the Republicans at this point.
Its obvious that a two party system is not working. Vote for the lesser of two evils. Meh. I want some freaking choices here people! I want to be able to elect candidates that arent politicians, but rather statesmen. I want to see the money taken out of their pockets. I want to choose someone who, really cares about the environment. I want to elect a scientist. I want religion out of politics. I want to elect candidates who have a long view. I want to elect someone who doesn’t care about politics. I want to elect no one.
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What’s wrong with the right
Mar 13 at 11:11am by Jagwire X
Rush Limbaugh - A Pundit
This primarily applies to right-wing pundits, political leaders, journalist, and bloggers and it’s simple really.
They can’t stand anyone whose opinions or beliefs differ from theirs because, like someone who’s done too much cocaine, they think they are right, and there is no other possible way to be. They often pretend to speak for God, they have feeling of superiority. In fact they are just dumb-ass mob rule followers. Any objective student of history could recognize this happening time and again.
This allows them to win a lot of arguments. No need to think, just stick to their position and denigrate their opponent, and insist their position is the only correct position. No rational thought involved no substantiation for their “talking points“, and no reality whatsoever. The talking points allow the creation of some virulent and unhealthy memes which takes some serious mental effort to resist.
They are wrong on most counts and they know it. They just don’t care so long as they get their way, can manipulate others and consolidate power. This is being irresponsible as a human being.
So just remember, calm and rational arguments won’t work. Take a heavy handed, aggressive, yet rational approach if you get into a debate with the right, use empiricism, skepticism and especially philosophical sophism (e.g. Like Socrates.) You’re sure to beat some sense into them.
If all else fails insinuate that if they really believe what their saying then their intellect is on par with that of an 8 year old then drop the subject. At least that way they probably won’t talk to you anymore.
This post was made possible by the likes of Sean Hannity, Bill O’Reilly, Rush Limbaugh, Tucker Carlson and all other “conservative” / neo-con self-serving sycophantic pundits, politicians and demagogues.
Where’s H.L. Mencken when you need him.
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