I hate to sound like a broken record, but I know my posting has been off the last couple of weeks. A lot of that has to do with the fact that I've been up to my eyeballs in the upcoming elections. I'm not talking just Federal, but also state and local. I've been spending a lot of time doing research, listening to radio shows and watching debates and news reports. Sometime in the last couple of days I've reached a boiling point of anger and frustration that folks, honestly I just kind of started not caring.

I'm tried of all the mud slinging. Look, I don't need a commercial that twists the facts, gives partial truths and is biased to try to sway me to vote for their candidate. Seriously mud slinging is the lowest form of campaigning that I, personally, compare to bullying and playground harassment. Seriously, I know that there are some people that will fall for this type of shenanigans, I just think that if you are going to use mud slinging you are highlighting your opponents weakness because you don't have any strengths.

Then there is the endorsements. I have some news for these candidates, some of your endorsement hurt you more than help you. IE when you get an endorsement from Governor Blagojevich (with his 13% approval rating), you may not be getting the boost that you want. IE if you are trying to get me to vote for you, getting an endorsement from Blagojevich, Rockford Mayor Morrissey, local hero I've never heard of, anyone being investigated by the feds, any foreign government or figure or any celebrity is not going to help your case. I'm sorry. I mean seriously there is a local politician that has a quote from Blago on his mailer, two more have Morrissey. A man running for an elected office is using a "ten time local high school championship winning hockey coach" for an endorsement. I've never heard of this guy before, and honestly just because he can coach a high school hockey team to a championship doesn't mean his opinion means anything to me.

Then there is the buddy-buddy campaign. You know, the one where the candidate is trying to be your friend and he makes all of these promises on what he's going to do for us in the position he's running for. Then at the end he makes "the promise". ie "I'm going to save the tax payers money, you have my word on it!" Really? You're word, you don't say. Well that changes everything. I mean, c'mon, I don't know you from Adam yet I'm supposed to take you at your word that your going to do something. Since I'm just a naturally trusting and gullible individual, I'm just going to blindly take you at your word. I mean it's not like you've done anything to prove yourself trustworthy to me. As far as I'm concerned your word is no better than that of the bum that sits on the corner that promises to pick up the trash in my alley if I give him $10.00.

Now mix that in with the fact that I honestly don't like most of the candidates that are running for positions, I've just had enough. Especially at the presidential level. I stopped caring if Obama or McCain win, because honestly folks, we're screwed either way. I'm voting libertarian because I honestly can't cast a vote for either one of those tools.

Posted by: Contagion at 09:06 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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Shadoglare of Refractional Darkness is fed up with the Candidates. To be honest so am I. I've been caught muttering "McCain, Obama... either way we're screwed". Shadoglare decided to look at the Libertarian candidate running for president, Bob Barr. After checking out his website, I think I found my new candidate. I don't agree with his war strategy, but the other issues I'm concerned about are either acceptable or I agree with them. So I say, Vote Bob Barr!

Posted by: Contagion at 06:11 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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As many people are really tired of poltics and hearing about the lack luster candidates (McCain/Palin or Obama/Biden, either way we're screwed). Here's something else to make you question both of the "top" candidates.

Over at Health08.org they have a handy side by side comparison of the candidates views and platforms on Health care and Health care related issues.

"Health care has been an important issue in this year's presidential campaign and the candidates have staked out positions on key health care issues. Both major party candidates have developed comprehensive health care reform proposals addressing health coverage and access, rising health care costs and health care quality. A side-by-side comparison of these proposals has been prepared and is available..."

It's actually a very useful page, so if you want to learn more, it's a good resource.

Posted by: Contagion at 05:23 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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okay, they took down the Palin/Clinton SNL skit video, but this one shouldn't go anywhere. This really doesn't help my feelings about this election, since they seem to pretty much hit the nail on the head, both candidates are just whores for a vote.

And yes, I'm still planning on voting Obama, just because he's not McCain.

Posted by: Contagion at 04:11 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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For those of you that missed it, here is the intro to Saturday Night Live this last week. Tina Fey does an excellent Palin. She looks and sounds like her. For those that follow politics, this is hilarious.

Posted by: Contagion at 05:42 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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As I was stumbling through my weekly random crap I ran across a guy that found a startling resemblance between McCain and the Green Lantern.

This still will not make me vote for him.

Posted by: Contagion at 10:36 AM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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Supreme Court Says Americans have right to guns.

I received a text message in a meeting with this news. I jumped out of my seat and cheered. Then I got to explain to the anti-gun liberals at work why they were wrong!

Drinks on me tonight for anyone that can make it to my house!

UPDATE: Shadoglare sent me a link to the NY Times article (Justices Rule for Individual Gun Rights and Gun Control Supporters Show Outrage)on the story. They of course put a very anti-gun spin on the whole thing, especially the second article.

If there was any doubt that other bans would be in peril, the National Rifle Association quickly put those questions to rest when it announced shortly after the ruling that it would file a flurry of lawsuits challenging restrictions in San Francisco, Chicago and several Chicago suburbs. The law in Washington, which spelled out rules for the storage of weapons and made it extremely difficult for most people in the district to legally possess a handgun, was among the strictest in the nation.

...

In Chicago, Mayor Richard M. Daley, a staunch supporter of gun control, called the decision “frightening” and said he was bracing for a fight with the gun lobby, which has long criticized the city’s ban on the sale and registration of handguns for everyone but police officers and a handful of others. Enacted in 1982, the law was created in response to the murders of two police officers and the assassination attempt on former president Ronald Reagan.

“Does this lead to everyone having a gun in our society?” he said at a news conference. “If they think that’s the answer, then they’re greatly mistaken. Then, why don’t we do away with the court system and go back to the Old West? You have a gun and I have a gun and we’ll settle in the streets.

“They’re changing the rules,” Mr. Daley said of the Supreme Court. “Why should we as a city not be able to protect ourselves from those who want guns in our society?”

Senator Dianne Feinstein, a former mayor of San Francisco, which also restricts the owning of guns, reacted strongly to the ruling, saying she was “viscerally affected” by it and worried for the nation’s safety.

“I speak as somebody who has watched this nation with its huge homicide rate, when countries that have sane restrictions on weapons do not have that homicide rate,” she said. “And I happen to believe that this is now going to open the door to litigation against every gun safety law that states have passed — assault weapons bans, trigger locks, and all the rest of it.”

Of course they went straight to Daley. That man would try to take away any rights a person has if it was a threat to his power in Illinois. And, no we don't want to get rid of law and order. We, the law abiding citizens of the US, want the rights that are afforded to us in the Constitution. Just because I own a handgun, rifle or shotgun that does NOT mean I am going to commit a crime. In fact if you look at the statistics, most firearm violence is perpetrated by people that own them ILLEGALLY!

We don't want the wild west, we want law and order. We just want to have our own firearms and to be able to protect ourselves, go hunting, sport shooting or just collect them. But these individuals don't see it that way. They believe anyone that wants a firearm is going to commit a crime or become a vigilante.

I'm not touching the part about McCain and Obama, since they both equally annoy me and I'm not voting for either one.

UPDATE AGAIN: I thought New York was Bad, The Chicago Sun Times article, Court gun ruling has Chicago thinking it's next is even worse. The second half reads like an editorial.

Posted by: Contagion at 10:08 AM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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For those of you that don't live in the state of Illinois, or even if you do, you may not have heard but the Winnebago County Board is considering approving it's own concealed carry law. For those of you that don't know, Winnebago county is where Rockford is located, my home city. This goes against the laws that the State of Illinois has in place. Illinois is one of only 48 2 states that doesn't have some kind of concealed carry law or permit. The other is Wisconsin.

Now, none of this is new information. As you can see in the above article which was dated May 8th, 2008, this has been discussed or written about a lot over the last month. Over at IllinoisCarry.com they have a whole thread dedicated to this topic. If none of this is new, why am I posting about it?

They had another meeting with the sub-committee on it tonight. Unfortunately I was not able to attend due to work and family. Since I was not able to attend, I thought I would voice my opinion on the whole matter here. Plus if I did attend, they would have limited me to two minutes and anyone that knows me knows I can't introduce myself in under two minutes!

First off I applaud Doug Aurand, D-3, and Randy Olson, R-1 who are chairing this committee. It's nice to see two politicians of different parties putting lines behind them and doing something that not only is right, but also actually beneficial for the community. In this state of strong anti-firearm sentiment, AKA Chicago dictating policy to the rest of the state, to have two politicians buck the questionable legislation in this state to keep firearms out of the hands of honest, law abiding citizens is refreshing!

Secondly, anyone that has done any reasonable research into gun control knows that concealed carry actually does deter crime! There are numerous sights that support this, one of the better free online resources is GunFacts.info. There are other sites out there that also confirm the fire arm statistics. It's hard to argue with the statistics, well you can if you want to completely just ignore they exist. Firearms in the hands of honest citizens that own them legally deter crime, plain and simple.

Now I know that if Winnebago county passes this, the State of Illinois will bring down it's full wrath upon it for going against them. The whole thing will end up in the courts and what not. I'm hoping that this legislation and, more than likely, upcoming lawsuit is something that brings about freedom to the rest of us living in Illinois.

It will let us take back our streets.
It will let us take back our neighborhoods.
It will let us take back our cities!

And more than likely, it won't be because we fired a gun, but because criminals hate an armed populous and the fear of honest, armed citizens will push them back into their holes.

Posted by: Contagion at 06:13 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Anyone that lives in Illinois knows that Chicago is the 300 pound gorilla that controls the state. It seems that what ever the politicians, AKA King Richard Daley and his cronies want, they try to stuff down the rest of the states throat. It makes living in this state dang near a headache. Heaven forbid you donÂ’t agree with something that Chicago wants. If you do than they feel you are an uneducated rube that needs them to take care of you for them. Chicago is the starting point for every anti-gun law, stupid tax and freedom ban in what used to be a free state.

Now it seems that Chicago wants to do a hostile takeover of the rest of the United States. They are no longer happy just controlling us lowly serfs here in the Socialist Republic of Illinois. Nope, the city council has decided that they are going to vote on a resolution to ban the war in Iran. Yes, I said Iran. HereÂ’s the PDF version of the resolution from No War on Iran.

The last time I checked, the city council of Chicago, let alone any city, has the right to ban or stop the Federal government from doing anything. Okay, really the resolution is a message to the Illinois Congressional delegate and this may just be a symbol of how strong they feel about a war on Iran, but seriously donÂ’t the people in Chicago think that there are better things that their City Council could be handling? LetÂ’s face it, this is a waste of tax-payers time and money.

Posted by: Contagion at 09:56 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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Shadoglare sent me notice of a story in the Chicago Tribune. Boy, 4, wounded on South Side after gun hidden in oven discharges, cops say.

This whole thing is a tragedy, fortunately it sounds as if the kids are going to be okay. What really gets me about this story is

Smith, a felon, had hidden the revolver in the oven in a home in the 4800 block of South Racine Avenue, Bright said.

First I thought handguns are banned in Chicago. Wait, they are. See how well banning handguns and firearms works from people getting hurt?

Secondly this guy is a felon. Which means that even if he left the city of Chicago to buy a handgun, he can't legally own one in Illinois. That means he bought it... ILLEGALLY! That's right, he probably bought it on the streets. I know he didn't buy one in the store because he can't have a FOID (Firearms Owners Identification) card that you must have in Illinois to even buy a firearm. As soon as he's convicted of a felony they suspend the card and when the background check was run, they would have red flagged this guy.

If the mighty Mayor Daley and the Chicago police can't even keep a felon from obtaining and owning a firearm with in the limited confines of their little kingdom, what makes them think that they can do anything about the rest of the state.

We don't need more gun laws. We need to better enforce the laws that we have. Banning doesn't work.

Posted by: Contagion at 05:24 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Even though I don't have any official figures, I think yesterday went really well. According to reports thousands of firearms owners lent their support. I also don't have many pictures as I forgot the digital camera at home... again. Actually I remembered to grab it yesterday morning. Making sure I wouldnÂ’t forget it, I set it on the shelf next to my phone and some other items I was taking with me. Upon my return home, there it still sits. Yes, I had my phone with me, but for whatever reason, I left the camera here. I did try to snap some pictures of the event on my phone, only two really turned out. Sorry for the quality.

March to the Capital (We were in the middle of the the march.)

End of the March.

Rally at the Capital Steps.

Both of the pictures are from the march. My friend J-man went with to show his support. We started at the Springfield Hilton hotel where we received instructions, an agenda, lobbying cards and various speakers, Senators and State Reps gave speeches regarding the individual right of the public to have firearms. One of the speakers, whom I can’t remember his name, made the comment along the lines that “… as Firearm owners we all must stick together.” I can’t remember exactly what he said, but basically the Constitution does not guarantee your right to hunt or target shoot. It guarantees your right to own firearms. If you are a trap shooter, or a target sportsman or even just a casual firearm owner, we all need to stick together. Any law the effects one will sooner or later affect the other. Even if you only shoot shotgun and you don’t own a handgun, you still should stand up against the banning of handguns. No, it may not directly affect you, but they could use this later on as a stepping-stone to ban shotguns. I believe he called it the “The gun owners UN”. Not that I support the UN, but I do support this idea. I may not own a shotgun, but if they made a law banning shotguns, I’d be against it.

After the speech we all marched to the state capital building. It wasnÂ’t a long walk, but I think we made our presence known. We had permits and a police escort so everything was nice and legal. At the steps of the capital there was a quick rally with a couple of more speeches and words of encouragement for politicians. To be honest since I have a deep mistrust of 99.9% of elected officials, IÂ’m not sure I trust anything these politicians said for their actual beliefs or if they were campaigning. Especially since there were a couple of comments made regarding two of them possibly running for governor in the future.

After the rally we headed in to deliver lobbying cards to our State Senators and Representatives. I hit both Dave Syverson’s and Chuck Jefferson’s office. Neither one of them were in. As much as I believe Senator Syverson is pro-firearm, I also believe that Chuck Jefferson is anti-firearm. It would have been nice if either one of them had been in their offices when I stopped by, but they weren’t. I really wanted to speak with Chuck Jefferson since he has never returned a phone call or e-mail of mine over the last 3 years. I guess since either I’m independent or pro-firearm; I’m not worth talking to in his mind. We also had cards for the Senate and House Majority and Minority leaders. If I’m not mistaken the leaders of the Senate and the House are anti-firearm and deeply involved in the Chicago “good ol’ boy network”. Meaning they are heavily anti-firearm.

After delivering the cards J-man and I hung around for a while going to let our presence be known by the politicians. Most of the committees seemed to be scheduled early that day, so we didnÂ’t get in to too many of them. The ones that were being held were packed.

Overall we had a good time. I think we did good and at the very least I hope we hope to hold our ground so that no new anti-firearm legislation can be passed.

I would like to thank the Illinois State Rifle Association, Illinois Carry, Champaign County Rifle Association and the Sangamon County Rifle Association for organizing and hosting this event. Keep up the good work!

Posted by: Contagion at 04:00 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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I'm getting ready to head down to Springfield (The State Capital of Illinois for clarification). I'm picking up my friend J-man and we are off to IGOLD 08. We are doing this to speak up for our rights as legal firearm owners in the state of Illinois. If we are lucky we'll at least do as well as last year and stall out all of the anti-firearm legislation. If things go really well, maybe we can get some looser laws. And in my dreams, concealed carry.

Wish us luck.

And for those of you that wanted to make the trip but just couldn't. I'll make sure to speak up even louder for each of you. If you have my cell phone and want an update on how things are going live. Feel free to call or text me.

Posted by: Contagion at 06:25 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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1 Rights? For peasants? Bwahahaha! Good luck with that.

Posted by: Ogre at March 11, 2008 07:27 AM (oifEm)

2 Thanks for going. I wish I could have made it. I have talked to my State Rep on this issue and his view as far as stopping this horrid legislation that is currently in the General Assembly. Look forward to hearing about the day and seeing the good you do today stop the idiocy in this state.

Posted by: Petey at March 11, 2008 09:21 AM (tmnSV)

3 Illinois is a state? Here I thought it was some sort of third world dictatorship loosely affiliated with the US like Puerto Rico

Posted by: BloodSpite at March 11, 2008 10:34 AM (pOo0j)

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When I saw this article: Weather Channel Founder Wants to Sue Al Gore, I laughed. I laughed for multiple reasons.

ohn Coleman wants to sue Al Gore for fraud. Coleman, who founded the Weather Channel in 1982, thinks taking legal action against Al Gore would be a great "vehicle to finally put some light on the fraud of global warming." Coleman rejects the notion that people must take drastic actions to reduce their energy use.

First I don't buy the global warming alarmist stuff, I don't see enough scientific data to prove anything. I'm sorry, the earth has been around more than the 100 years worth of reliable data they are basing this on. There is other evidence that the earth goes through cycles like this over large spans of time. So we are on a warm up, well in so many years we'll have a cool down. If Coleman won, I would love to see Al Gore's reaction. Which would probably be the same he has for everything else, damn robot.

Second, As much as I would love to see this happen, I think the guy would be throwing his money away. There is no way that any judge would let this go to court. Most of them wouldn't want to stand in the middle of this kind of political mess. Even if it did go to court, I highly doubt a judge would rule in favor of Coleman.

Anyways, It made me chuckle.

Posted by: Contagion at 04:48 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I just returned from running to the store to pick up some necessary items. During my travel there and back I was listening to talk radio. The host and callers were talking about how Bush was surprised to hear that they are forecasting gas to rise over $4.00 a gallon. Most of us have been hearing this for over a month now.

I'm not a Bush supporter. What he's done in office angers me on levels more than I can fathom. And no, I didn't vote for him last time. I didn't vote for Kerry either, I ended up writing in a candidate. With that being said, this really doesn't surprise me. But then again I don't think most politicians have any idea what the average American citizen pays for things and what the costs are going to be on those items in years to come.

Honestly I think if you went up to any politician and asked them the simple question of "Do you know how much it costs to fill the gas tank on a (insert car here)?" they probably wouldn't know. Now of course if I asked many of you "Do you know how much it costs to fill up a Chevy Silverado or a Chevy Venture?" you'd probably be able to get close to the ball park. Why? Because you pay for your gas.

Most of the politicians I know and have worked with have staff that fills the tanks on their cars or has someone drive them, especially at the Federal level. I'm sure career politicians probably couldn't tell you what side of the car their gas cap is on. And this is just another reason I believe they are out of touch with the American public.

So does it surprise me Bush didn't know? Not at all.

Posted by: Contagion at 03:21 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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There is still hope, a place fore a disenfranchised individual as myself to go. up until about 100 years ago there was always someplace for an individual to go when they were tired of their government. It was the frontier. People that wanted to get away from government persecution or what they felt where unjust laws or just to get away from others would head to the frontiers. Hell, North America was originally settled by people trying to get away from the government.

So where is this place? Why, it's Montana. That's right, Montana. According to the Washington post, "Montana insists on gun rights" Do you hear that? It's the sounds of angels singing.

Montana officials are warning that if the Supreme Court rules in the D.C. gun ban case that the right to keep and bear arms protects only state-run militias like the National Guard, then the federal government will have breached Montana's statehood contract.

I've already spoke with Ktreva and depending on how things go, we may up and move. If on the off chance they actually do try to break free of the ever tightening grasp of the Feds, I'd help them out.

Thanks to Ogre for the good news.

Posted by: Contagion at 05:58 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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If you wondered why I'm taking my time to attend the Illinois Gun Owners Lobby Day (IGOLD), an article in the Rockford Register Star sums it up, Gun Control Proposal Clears House Committee. Now, this has just passed the committee, it hasn't actually passed the house or been made a law yet, but lets take a look at what this law is trying to ban.

Proposals that would ban semi-automatic assault weapons and outlaw the purchase of more than one handgun a month cleared an Illinois House committee today....

Technically these are two separate bills, one for the assault weapons and one for the handguns. We can't expect the media to get anything everything correct.
Not that I've ever bought more than one handgun a month, but I really don't think the government needs to tell me I can't. Seriously, if I went out and bought a handgun only to turn around a week later and find a really good deal on another, (estate sale, friend selling one, gun show, etc.) then I should still be able to purchase it. Hell that's how we obtained Ktreva's Colt 1991. This is just a silly piece of legislative BS brought on by people that are afraid of firearms and want to take them away from law abiding citizens like myself.

House Bill 4393, sponsored by Chicago Democratic Rep. Luis Arroyo, would limit handgun purchases to one every 30 days...

..."For years, weÂ’ve been trying to pass common-sense gun-law legislation," Acevedo said.

His House Bill 4357 would ban the sale or purchase of semi-automatic assault weapons, assault weapon attachments, .50-caliber rifles or .50-caliber cartridges.

"These military-style weapons have no place on our streets," a supporter of the bill, Nina Vinik, legal director for the Evanston-based Legal Community Against Violence, told the committee.

Common sense gun law? It's only common sense if you A) don't know much about firearms, B) Have an irrational fear of fire arms, C) What to use this as a stepping stone to disarm the masses or D) all of the above.

None of the weapons they want banned are truly "Military-style". They may look like it, but trust me our military more than likely wouldn't use them unless they had no other option. The military is more fond of fully-automatic. If you are not sure what the difference is, see this excellent video. 50 caliber is military grade? The sad thing is that if you read the actual bill, it doesn't specify modern or black powder. So any of us re-enactors wanting to buy a .50 cal black powder rifle in the future may have problems, it says there are exceptions but it doesn't list them. I wonder what they would think of my .75 caliber Brown Bess Musket. Hell it's a military style weapon, it was what the British used mainly during the Rev War. Mine has a bayonet, military sling, etc. I guess it could be considered an assault weapon.

It's because of these types of laws that I'm going to go lobby against them. I'm tired of the government taking away my rights and liberties just so they can better control me. Well I'm not going to go down with out a fight.

Thanks to Shadoglare of Refractional Darkness for getting my blood pressure up again.

Posted by: Contagion at 03:58 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Ogre's Politics and Views directed me to an article written by Chuck Baldwin titled John McCain is a Liberal Gun Grabber. Where as I am not familiar with Chuck Baldwin, his radio show or his principles, I do know that I agree with what he wrote here. He has a lot of good points and even some outstanding ones.

Let me say it straight out: a John McCain Presidency would be far worse than a Barack Obama Presidency. With a Democrat in the White House, conservatives and Christians suddenly find their principles and are able to offer resistance. Put a Republican in the Oval Office, however, and those same people become blind, deaf, and dumb to most any principle they profess.

I've been saying basically that same thing for a long time now. I've had the arguments that "Obama or Clinton in the white house would deliver us into a state of ruin." The problem is that, so will McCain, he'll just have an R behind his name. Shadoglare did a nice little breakdown of the candidates and which one came across as the best. It was good and informational. The only beef I had with it is that it's based on quotes not voting records and that the quotes can be interpreted differently be each reader. He ended up taking a stance that he's going to vote for the lesser of evil or the candidate that is closest to what he believes. (Albeit it none of them really are close at all.)

I've stated and sticking with my stance that I'm not casting my vote for McCain (or against his opponents). That doesn't mean I'm voting Obama/Clinton that just means I may end up writing in a candidate or seeing if there is a third party candidate I agree with more.

But if you want to know more about McCain and his voting records regarding firearms, please go read the article by Chuck Baldwin.

Posted by: Contagion at 07:04 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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There were a couple of primaries over the weekend, some of them had interesting turnouts, or so I thought. The fact that Huckabee won Kansas, Louisiana (although not by enough to get any delegates), and Washington was too close to count so they have to continue to do so today before they call it. Right now McCain is in the lead.

Since I brought that up, does anyone else get bothered when they call an election with less than 95% of the votes in? ShouldnÂ’t they at least pretend that our votes matter and count them all before they name a winner? I saw one last week where it was at 54% reporting, it was a narrow margin (Less than 4% difference) and they were calling a winner already. If IÂ’m not mistaken those other 46% could have voted for the underdog and it actually turned out they won.

Obama stormed the Dems winning Nebraska, Washington and Louisiana primaries. HeÂ’s still behind Clinton in the overall, but itÂ’s only a 30-point difference. At least this race is still close. Obama and Clinton really have their work cut out for them if the want the nomination, unlike the Reps primary. Heck, Huckabee doesnÂ’t even have as many delegates as Romney does and Romney is out of the race. McCain has three times the amount of delegates as Huckabee does. As for Ron Paul, I know some of my readers are staunch supporters of his, but seriously, he only has 14 delegates so far. Do you really think heÂ’s going to be able to pull this off?

Actually after doing the math, itÂ’s not possible for Paul to win. You need to have 1,191 delegates to win; there are only 2,380 total delegates. 1,265 of those delegates have been designated already. That leaves 1,115 remaining nominations. So if Paul received 100% of the remaining nominations it leaves him at 1129, well short of what is needed. If that does happen, no one would have enough, and IÂ’m not sure exactly what happens. I just donÂ’t see that as happening. ItÂ’s really looking like it is going to be McCain for the Republicans. Honestly I think a little part of me dies every time I type that.

IÂ’m still at a loss as to what IÂ’m going to do for the presidential race. No one has sold me on why one of the probable candidates would be best for the job.

Posted by: Contagion at 09:37 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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First Bloodspite sent me an e-mail warning me. Then I get home and see this headline: McCain all but clinches: Romney Departs. Okay, he wasn't the most conservative candidate running, but he was more conservative than McCain. He actually had a snowballs chance of winning. But he dropped out.

It dawned on me. First I threw my support behind Thompson and he dropped out. Then I threw my support behind Romney and HE dropped out. So I got to thinking, hey, if I throw my support behind McCain maybe he will drop out. At this point my sadistically cruel loving wife pointed out that "The third time's the charm." Meaning that if I supported McCain he'd win.

DAMMIT!

I really hope a decent third party/independent candidate comes crawling out of the wood work. Because there is no way, no way that McCain will ever get my vote.

Posted by: Contagion at 06:59 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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I wrote and published a post yesterday that has since disappeared. IÂ’m really not sure what happened to it, but itÂ’s gone. IÂ’m not going to try to re-write it as it was a lot of my venting anger and frustration at the current state of politics and voting in the US. The main gist of it was that I backed down and actually voted for one of the candidates that were still in the running. I voted for Romney, mainly because out of the four front runners I felt he was closest to what I want for our government. It didnÂ’t matter because Illinois went to McCain. For those of you that think that if you vote for a third party or Independent candidate that you are throwing your vote away, well the same can be said if you vote for the loser.

Any way I canÂ’t replicate what I was feeling when I wrote that post, so IÂ’m not going to try. Mainly that is because I have a different anger and frustration today, McCain.

I can NOT believe that McCain is doing as well as he is. LetÂ’s face it; it looks like he is going to take the Republican nomination. He is the clear front runner and has a commanding lead over Romney and Huckabee. But since when is the Republican Party Liberal? DonÂ’t tell me itÂ’s not. If it really wasnÂ’t, McCain wouldnÂ’t be in the lead. Please, McCain, Clinton, Obama are all cut from the same material. There really is not that big a difference in on their platforms or positions.

The only thing I can figure out is that the sheeple of the US would rather see someone in the White House with an R next to their name, even if they truly don’t uphold the party beliefs. I know, I’m not Republican, but I am financially conservative. I want lesser taxes, lesser government, secure borders and national defense. Socially I’m liberal, or as some people say, “Libertarian”. I don’t care about abortion, gay marriage or religion; I don’t think the government really should be involved in those topics. Since I am more conservative I do look to the Republican Party more for politicians that I agree. How anyone that considers themselves a true conservative could vote for McCain is flabbergasting.

I will tell you this, if it does end up with McCain as the Republican candidate for president and there isnÂ’t a good independent candidate running, I probably will vote for Clinton or Obama. At least with them I know for sure what IÂ’m getting. McCain will never, ever get my vote.

Posted by: Contagion at 12:39 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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