We need a third party

On October 19th I early voted. For one of the first times in my voting history I voted a straight Democratic ticket. Beyond President, Senators and Congressmen (both national and state) I had no clue who I was voting for. I was voting against a party. So I looked seriously for other options.

New Mexico has in the past been host of a relatively strong Green Party. And I have voted for them in local offices. This election they did not seem to be running any candidates. There were six people running for President. I have a friend that is an advocate of the Libertarian candidate Johnson.

Sadly our current campaign laws and financing make it impossible for a third party to compete. And given the huge division between the two parties we now have we need a third party. Badly. If for no other reason that to make our two party system pay attention to itself and realize how very much they have turned off a large proportion of the populace. While that bile is still lurking in our mouths we need to get serious about campaign reform. No longer than 100 days and no more money spent by a candidate than twice the annual salary of the office they are campaigning for. And definitely no out of state or out of district funds.

A third or fourth party candidate could compete viably in a campaign under such restrictions. And the American people would benefit from having more choices. How many of us are truly red or blue, Jesus or Darwin like the illustration. I think of myself as a centralist more than liberal or conservative. I admit to some believes that are far right (not beyond Attila the Hun but out there) and others that are as far left. But I am not Christian (and the more fanatic the fundamentalist become the more that is true). And while Darwin's work was ground braking current science is proving him wrong in some instances. Like it may be survival of the fanciest and not the fittest. Scientific theory is a moving target. Quite literally were earth sciences are concerned but that is another blog.

I believe in my right to carry a gun, and in the right for same sex marriage. I think the US is not a Christian nation and would fight to defend that. And contrary to my blog friends that did not vote for either of the major party candidates because they did not mention Global Warming, I seriously believe it needs to be a campaign issue. But because of our entrenched two party system the only topics that get heard are those that are important to five or six swing states that because of the Electoral college matter more than the one citizen one vote principle. We are a republic and not a democracy.

If there is good news in this election it is that it has made some people truly upset at the sad state of affairs. We could end up with a Mormon Theocracy if Romney wins or a totally broken Republican party if Obama wins. Frankly I am for the latter because it gives us a real chance to end the Red State/Blue State civil war.

Either way we are going to have a large group of people very upset about the sorry state of politics in the United States. Read up on Article V conventions. Let's change the path we are taking.

Words and Phrases I Would Ban

It has been a long, long, long campaign and a particularly divisive one. I do not even have access to television stations to be bombarded by campaign ads. But social media on the internet has been bad enough. And if I get another request for campaign funds via an e-mail I may just scream

I do not live in a critical swing state. I can image what it is like for poor Ohio. I frankly think the political process is seriously broken and I do not know if I ever want to participate on any level in another campaign ever again. And as I told a friend recently I want to ban several words and phrases.

Do not ever in my presence say we are a Christian nation! We are not. The word Jesus (which I also want to ban) is not mentioned anywhere in any of the federalist papers. Nor do I want to be told that Sandy was an act of God. I never want to see the word RAPE with a modifier. And the phrase legitimate rape should carry a prison term if used in a political speech or a police station.

We are not a democracy. I think the Tea Party has proven that beyond a shadow of a doubt. We are a broken Republic in my humble opinion. I got really tired of hanging chads in the 2000 election and I am really, really, really tired of voter ID requirements. Voting is a right and not privilege like driving or buying liquor. I need a photo ID for the last two but not the first one.

No doubt because of Sandy and the suspected faulty voting machines owned by the Romneys I will get really tired of the word recount. I am tired of dressing the stage at campaign events and photoshopping crowds to double their size GOP. And I am sick to death of the fact that only Ohio and Florida count.

I plan to work hard for an Article V convention to move for campaign and electoral reform. But I am not going to refriend anyone that was abusive to me because of my views not matching theirs. I am fed up.

BTW this is just a short list.

Call for an Article V Convention

Last Friday a friend and I headed east to Raton, New Mexico to cast our ballots in the 2012 United States Presidential election. The two hour drive across the plains gives you a lot of time to think and talk. We did not have to think about our vote because our minds were firmly made up. But we talked about how deeply divided our country has become. This great experiment of ours is not working. Something has to change.

I am reminded of Abraham Lincoln's Springfield, Illinois speech of June 18, 1858 in which he addressed the issue of slave vs. free: "A house divided divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free." It took the bloodiest war in the history of the world to resolve that issue. And the years I lived in the south made me doubt that the wounds of that war were ever going to heal.

Now we are divided Red and Blue, Republican and Democrat, Christian and freedom to believe as you will. Politicians have played on the differences and erected fences against either side talking to each other. Such must have been the tension along the Mason Dixon line in the days before war broke out with brother fighting against brother. To avoid another civil war I think we need to call a Constitutional Convention as provided for in Article V of the Constitution. Our system is broken and it needs fixed.

 "Even though the Article V convention process has never been used to amend the Constitution, the number of states applying for a convention has nearly reached the required threshold several times. Congress has proposed amendments to the Constitution on several occasions, at least in part, because of the threat of an Article V Convention. Rather than risk such a convention taking control of the amendment process away from it, Congress acted pre-emptively to propose the amendments instead. At least four amendments (the Seventeenth, Twenty-First, Twenty-Second and Twenty-Fifth) have been identified as being proposed by congress at least partly in response to the threat of an Article V convention."

What is clearly broken is the election process, including but not limited to the Electoral College. At the time our constitution was written maybe we needed two years to campaign for office. Not so today in this age of rapid communication. And maybe we needed the safeguard of the Electoral College procedure to prevent a do over of the election should a candidate die between election and swearing into office. But not so today. Nor should candidates be allowed to buy an office. Or buy the voting machines that will tally his votes for that office.

We need to put a sense of power back into the hands of the people and that means taking that power from the millionaires and billionaires and mega corporations and lobby groups. "Government of the people, by the people and for the people . . ." Enough already! This election has shown just how bad it can get. And there is a real danger of a popular vote for one candidate and election of the other by unfairly distributed Electoral College numbers.

At the county court house in Raton a 91 year old couple, the Romeros of Raton, were voting early. And a young woman came in with her daughter to vote. The court house staff gave the little girl a sample ballot and pencil to fill out. I hope when she is old enough to vote voting will still mean something. And that it will continue to mean something until she is 91 or older. But if that is going to be true we have to do something decisive and we have to do it soon.

After you cast your vote connect up with others in your state to begin the process of calling for an Article V convention. Save our noble experiment.

After?

What is it about the whole election process that seems to bring me to wanting to ask the Queen of England if she will take us back?

Mind you I was a very political animal in my youth (voting for Snoopy not withstanding) and my sister would say I am too political now. But there are things I find worth fighting for - women's rights being the primary one this election. What a shock to find that one on the cutting block again. And obviously wishing the rapture would come and the fundamental Christians be whisked away did not work.

Given those two issues alone I definitely cannot check none of the above. In fact for the first time in my history of voting I am not voting for a single solitary Republican. I have been a registered Republican. I have worked for a US Senator that was a Republican. It was definitely a different Republican party. I frankly cannot see myself voting for a Republican candidate ever, ever again. This has been a horridly divisive election. Have have some Republican ex-friends I may never ever chat with again on line.

All of which begs the question of after the election. Regardless of who wins. But it will be worse of the Republicans win. See paragraph about women's rights and Christian Right. But also my truly rude and crude Republican acquaintances will be graceful winners. And if they lose they will be even worse.

I do have some friends across the aisle that have behaved well. We have tap danced around all the forbidden subjects. So win or lose I will be able to talk to them for as long as the world lasts. I am not sure the US will last if the Republicans win all houses. I know I am considering leaving social media. And of course asking England if they will take us back is an option.

But regardless of the outcome of the election we need to change the election process: length and financing has got to be changed.

Here we go again

Warning: This is ultimately a political statement but unpaid.

I will accept contributions, however. I need the money to replace the failed Samsung Galaxy Tab, and to save up for a new desktop.

The Tab was just over 6 months old and the HP Pavilion Desktop is still under the two year warranty and has its second failed hard drive if you do not count the one they first sent with a hard drive that never worked.

Every time I have trouble with my HP I get the MAC users telling me how trouble free their MAC's are. Go away. In the last three months I have had three MAC friends (PC's vs MACS is about as entrenched as Republicans vs. Democrats so I count myself lucky we still talk) that have had failed hard drives. And from what I gather their customer support sucks. HP, the last time this happened, did offer data recovery. Not MAC.

One of my friends with the failed MAC has informed me that 99% of all hard drives be they in a Dell, MAC, HP or tablet or laptop of any of those brands probably come from the same off-shore company. And what incentive do they have for making a dependable product? NONE. It is win/win for them even if we lose. They get to continually make replacement hard drives. And all their people that can speak even a modicum of English get employed in tech support centers.

We have come a long way since my mother's 25 year old Maytag that was still working when Dad bought her a new washer and dryer set. 

So it is not all about American jobs overseas. It is about accountability. Your neighbor working at the assembly plant in Detroit took pride in his role in producing Fords and he did not want to hear us complain about them. But the workers in China do not know us. And if introduced would not even understand what we were screaming. I wonder at times about even the tech support people.

HP does seem to be working on its customer service image. It was once rated one of the worst in the industry. Just a bit better than Dell. I have a friend that told me Dell has gotten better but I have no intention of finding out. But this time from HP I received an e-mail I am able to respond to about the tech problem being experienced. Last year it took me something like 6 days and twice as many phone calls to get my problem escalated (don't you love that word) to someone that might actually own a computer and know that the DVD tray is not a cup holder. It did take me over 30 days to get the computer fixed. And then it didn't work when I got it. Fortunately that time I was able to immediately talk to someone that speaks computer.

So this morning I emailed HP and let them know I think the solution their tech (I do hate using that word for someone speaking from a set list of phrases that constantly has to put you on hold to go ask someone else what to do if that just did not work) came up with is wrong. A recovery disk returning the computer to factory specifications won't work. There are bad sectors on this hard drive. And if I have to go to the problem of restoring all my programs and backing up all my data I want it to work.

I do not want to go back to the incident on the last computer where I insisted it was a hard ware problem and they were adamant it was not. Two days of erasing and recovering and it did not work. Turns out that when they replaced the memory sticks (those had failed in 30 days) they had unplugged the wireless internal modem.

But I do not know that industry today wants anything to work. They make too much money re-selling you a new version of the failed product and promising that major improvements were made. It isn't just that all our money goes overseas it is that it does it again and again and again.

My first computer lasted me over 12 years. I bought a new one because of the internet and a need for more RAM because I changed what I did with it. Since then no computer, except my laptop, has made it past four. It is the manufacturing version of the food industries smaller packages at the same prices. In case you hadn't noticed there is no such thing as a 50 pound bag of dog food any more. And the 25 pound bag is now 17.

I do not think I want to trust my government to a CEO. Their track record with the products I purchase is not that good.

Can we be too scared?

I have gotten to the point in this election and this last two decades when like a cat in a Skinner Box I want to just sit and shiver. Why even bother jumping to the box without the electric shock?

I vote. I always vote. I will vote this time but I have this feeling that it will make entirely no difference. And it is not the campaigning which has been dirty on both sides, or that the GOP tea party was so obstructionist that Obama was not able to effect any change beyond ACA. Or that I am scared to death of what Romney/Ryan will do to this country if they win.

It is that at my heart of hearts I know it will not be fair. For once in my life I totally understand what people under repressive regimes felt when forced to go to the pools and cast a vote they know will not be counted. I have absolutely no faith in a fair election in this country unless the United Nations is called in to oversee the registration of voters, the voting and the counting of those votes.

At is a cumulative effect. First came 2000 and Florida and hanging chads. But that also had a black voting district with major street construction and detours put into effect that morning of the vote. And the strongly Jewish district that supposedly voted for GW after in uttered a slur against their religion.

In 2004 the UN asked to be allowed to monitor our election process and GW refused to let them. The BBC sent over investigative teams and found 11 states with questionable returns. And hundreds of precincts where the exit polls did not match the voting tally. In 2008 I was one of the volunteer poll watchers. And in 2012 we still have voting machines that can be altered from the parking lot with a cell phone. And the Republican Attorney general of NM didn't order enough voter registration forms and those she sent to predominately Republican districts.

Across the nation they are altering voting laws to exclude women, seniors, minorities, etc. Not since the fight for civil rights in the early 1960's as so much been done to exclude people from their right to cast a vote whether or not it is accurately counted. I fear violence on election day. And maybe that is a good thing. I was proud of our people in 2000 when we did not riot after the Supreme Court did what it had not constitutional right to do. But I figured law and justice and right would prevail. But 2004 showed that was wrong. Today I think if there are any irregularities at all in the 2012 vote we should riot. We should overthrow the government. Democracy is dead. It has been a slow death but I do think that what the Taliban wanted to do on 9/11 we have achieved for them.

The trouble is we were always the country that rushed into emerging young democracies and helped them keep the peace. Who will help us? This morning a political commentator said it isn't even about red states and blue states any more. Because of an out dated and abusive electoral college system it comes down to seventeen counties in the entire US. And Mitt Romney has enough money to buy every single one of them.

But even scarier is that he thinks God want him to do it.

For Sale - The White House

FOR SALE:  This historic mansion set on beautifully landscaped lot in a National Park has 132 rooms, 32 baths on six levels. Built originally in 1800 it was totally renovated in 1952 and refurbished in 1979. The east wing and various balconies and porticoes were additions to the original structure. It comes completely furnished and with a resident staff.

The four year lease on this prestigious residence in its prime location of downtown Washington, DC will be offered at public auction on Ebay beginning the first Tuesday in November. Minimum opening bid of $150 million. Additional related offerings include a large number of congressional seats. Please submit a birth certificate and 3 years of certified tax returns to qualify to bid.

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I came up with this wild and crazy idea while sleeping. Properly executed it is an end to our economic woes and we get out of two years of campaign ads. We sell the White House and all congressional positions. We can do it with a bidding war on Ebay.

If it is true that the candidate who raises the most money wins then why vote? Why let the advertising companies and media get all the money? Why live through all those polling calls? We just put it all up for sale and take the winning amounts and put them in programs to aid the other 98%.

And here is the best part of this dream - we do not let any of those bidding for congressional office to pass laws. Hey, they are not in it to help the US anyway. They just want to pontificate on the evening news and get lobbyists to send them on junkets. And they seem to be willing to spend any amount of money, even several times what they stand to make in salary, to get those positions. So since the salary seems of little consequence we eliminate that straight off.

And we are not actually selling the property and seats but short time lease/lends. Everyone knows you cannot sell National Park land. So every two to six years we are able to put it all up for bid again. We will have a constant and dependable income to use in credit references.

And we the people of the United States of America will hold all governing rights. What has the congress done for us lately but repeal our universal health care 33 times. We the people will govern ourselves with a political FB. Legislation can be proposed by any adult registered voter. A law passes with the most likes or shares or a combo of both after a period of open debate and amendment. Don't tell anyone but this is a nice opportunity to put in place an ad hoc literacy law. Clearly you have to be able to read and write to participate.

I like it. If you do just leave a comment or go to this blog linked on Facebook and hit like. Please share.

Oh, and  BTW we are not changing much. It has always been for sale given our current campaign laws.