Out for the Holidays -ns

I wanted to take the time and wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! I will be off for the holidays and will return on the 2nd. In the meantime, check out my top rated articles:

Boston Tea Party and Ron Paul?

Will the Internet Help Ron Paul Win in 2008?

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BBW Nude Appreciation Revisited

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Murder by Tylenol

Does your vote count?

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Enjoy the articles and enjoy the holidays! I will see you all next year!

Boston Tea Party and Ron Paul?

On December 16^th, 1773, American colonists entered Boston Harbor and climbed aboard British ships. Once aboard, the colonists proceeded to throw all the crates of tea overboard in protest to being taxed without being represented in Parliament. Large amounts of American colonists also began to boycott tea imported by the British government or their companies. Some believe that these actions helped stem the American Revolution a few years later.

Fast forward 234 years and you will find a tea party of another kind. Ron Paul, a Republican candidate popular on the Internet, has organized a fund raising campaign. The goal is to gather donations from citizens around the country interested in changing how America operates.

Ron Paul is on record for wanting to pull the troops out of foreign wars (i.e. Iraq and Afghanistan), tighten our borders and above all, reduce government involvement in our lives. He feels the government places too many restrictions on our daily lives and looks to the Constitution as his reference.

At the time of this writing, Ron Paul's “tea party” has raised over $1.4 MILLION dollars. These donations come from average citizens looking to change America to begin a new trend of defending our own borders with our own military, remove troops from other countries, reduce government involvement, and protect our environment.

If you feel like these are policies that affect you and are important to you, then you should consider contributing to Ron Paul's campaign to protect the American way of life and our liberties.

Will the Internet Help Ron Paul Win In 2008?

The Internet seems to be a great predictor of many outcomes, but will it allow Ron Paul to ride to the Presidency? Recent research compiled by Compete indicates that Ron Paul is getting almost double the traffic than his closest competitor, Mike Huckabee.

Forbes also shows that if the race for the Presidency were to take place online, Ron Paul would overtake Hillary Clinton. They show that Ron Paul is the most Googled candidate, even though in the news media he is a relative unknown.

Others have pointed out that the Internet has become the ultimate equalizer. News media still controls which candidates they favor, and if you aren't on the list, chances are you are going to get the votes at the poll.

I'm very excited to see that other candidates can use the Internet to their advantage and overcome this media obstacle. Hopefully this will encourage the media to be more open in fair in their debates and coverage. Ron Paul could be paving the way for other great non-traditional candidates to be heard. Imagine a Presidential race that has an independent third party candidate in the lead!

I'm also on the Ron Paul bandwagon as he preaches against the corruption in Congress, the bloating, and the negative issues that stem from there that others seem to ignore. He also stems from a libertarian background, believing that less governmental control is better.

I hope that Google, Compete and Forbes are correct and Ron Paul can pull into the Presidency and reclaim this Country.

Does your vote count?

When the Constitution was created, there were provisions included within Article II that provided us with a body of electors from each State. These electors were to cast their ballots for who they wanted as President and then cast a separate ballot for who they wanted as Vice-President. Each State is awarded a certain number of Electoral votes based on the number of Senators and Representatives in the House. When all votes are tallied in each State, the electors will compile their votes and the candidate with the most electoral votes will get those electoral points.

Here is where it becomes redundant. 27 of the 50 States require the electors to vote the same way as the popular vote. Some of those States even have penalties for those who do not do so. I'm not saying this is wrong, but what I don't understand is if they are required to vote the same as the popular vote, why have the Electoral College at all? Why not just tally up the popular vote and the candidate that wins in that State receive those electoral votes?

The answer lies in Article II of the Constitution and Amendment 12 of the same document. These require States to have electors. There have been a couple of attempts to change this, but nothing has ever come close to being passed through the House or Senate.

I don't believe we should have electoral votes or points at all. Like we saw in the 2000 election, the candidate with the most popular votes did not win the election (Al Gore). Although this is very rare, it should not happen. There should not be a reason why the candidate with the most popular votes should not receive the Presidency.

Direct popular vote would also encourage more third party candidates. Since most third party candidates are not funded as well as their more popular adversaries, they find it difficult to travel to a lot of States and try to "win" each. With the popular vote, they could easily be seen on T.V. debates, or on the internet and people would know that their vote did not get wasted because of the electoral college process.

Of course, the Electoral College has at least one benefit. When and if there is a recount needed, it is only done in the particular state where there may have been a discrepancy. There may not be a way to differentiate votes by State in a popular vote contest, leaving a recount to the whole country.

Overall, I see the electoral process as a big waste of time. I feel that if people thought that their votes really counted in an election, such as with a popular vote contest, that there would be more people at the polls.

Are there any other opinions on the subject?

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