November 4th: Vote, if you dare.

[Pertains mostly to Massachusetts residents]

Voting in modern society has become a cruel game. Somewhere along the way, America lost its entire value system and replaced it with a lowest common denominator. Now, voting is just a way to fit in, as it doesn't really change much, and is more of an advertisement than anything else (see my recent Corrupt.org article here for more on the 1960 election and how it symbolized a change in the way Americans viewed political candidates). However, there are a few ballot questions and candidates that may finally get me to the voting booth come Tuesday.

You can see from my posts below that, in my opinion, the only effective Presidential candidate, until he dropped out of the race, was Dr. Ron Paul. He's the only one who could actually tout a decades-long voting record of limited government, traditional American values, and more power to the states with a more realistic and sane fiscal and foreign policy platform. Unfortunately, the government bailout and what will surely be a resulting recession, if not decade-long depression, is occurring too late for the 2008 election. People still stare at the TV, convinced that Obama The Messiah is somehow going to dangle whatever they want in front of their eyes; they're going to be transfixed by it and vote for it, but in the end, we're going to be worse off when no one realizes how to pay for any of it. The below excerpt from the Campaignforliberty.com website is a great analogy as to how I feel about Obama:

The most eye-opening civics lesson I ever had was while teaching third grade. The presidential election was heating up and some of the children showed an interest. I decided we would have an election for a class president. We would choose our nominees. They would make a campaign speech and the class would vote.

To simplify the process, candidates were nominated by other class members. We discussed what kinds of characteristics these students should have. We got many nominations and from those, Jamie and Olivia were picked to run for the top spot.

The class had done a great job in their selections. Both candidates were good kids. I thought Jamie might have an advantage because he got lots of parental support. I had never seen Olivia’s mother. The day arrived when they were to make their speeches. Jamie went first. He had specific ideas about how to make our class a better place. He ended by promising to do his very best. Every one applauded. He sat down and Olivia came to the podium. Her speech was concise. She said, “If you will vote for me, I will give you ice cream.” She sat down. The class went wild. “Yes! Yes! We want ice cream.”

She surely would say more. She did not have to. A discussion followed. How did she plan to pay for the ice cream? She wasn’t sure. Would her parents buy it or would the class pay for it. She didn’t know. The class really didn’t care. All they were thinking about was ice cream. Jamie was forgotten. Olivia won by a land slide.

Every time Barack Obama opens his mouth he offers ice cream, and fifty percent of America reacts like nine year olds. They want ice cream. The other fifty percent know they’re going to have to feed the cow.

http://www.campaignforliberty.com/blog.php?view=3270

Obama is a commercial, an advertisement for how 95% of the morons in this country want the government to simply provide for them without working for it. Dr. Paul is a candidate who simply wants to return to American values - keep prices low by using sound currency, allow people to work for whatever they get, and government can be there simply to protect the American people from fraud or liberty violations. Our founding fathers were libertarians; it's time we go back to simpler government and less illegal, undeclared wars.

Specific to Massachusetts, I'm supporting the following candidates and proposals:

• Brion Cangiamila for State Senate: wants less government involvement, lower income taxes, lower levels of corruption, elimination of red tape - in short, simplifying state government and taking the pork out of the barrel. Easy decision.
• Question 1: Cut state income taxes. Our government has shown just how corrupt it has become - we're the fourth most taxed state in the nation, and yet we're about to become the most bankrupt, without any money for fixing crumbling infrastructure while toll collectors make $70,000 per year, not even collecting enough money per day to pay their own salaries. Send a message to the MA State House by voting YES on this measure.
• Question 2: Reduce penalties to those caught with less than one ounce of marijuana to essentially a speeding ticket. I support this law because there are far too many drug busts with very limited amounts of a substance that doesn't cause nearly the reckless behavior that legal drugs, such as alcohol and even cigarettes, can cause. Pretty simple here, no reason to lock people up and have a CORI entry (background check) for less than an ounce of weed. This would hopefully be a small step toward legalizing many substances our pharmaceutical company would rather keep to themselves or regulate for the sake of pumping millions of chemical substitutes into the market. Voting YES on this measure.
• Question 3: Eliminate dog racing in Massachusetts. At first, this seemed like an easy "Yes" vote. But after learning that veterinarians are on hand during these races and that most of these dogs are treated fairly well and are adopted out once their careers are over, I'm not so sure this is so cut and dry. I'm probably voting "No" on this simply because the state would take back all of the land owned by the dog racing tracks, and that would result in a lawsuit - this is more red tape we don't need.
• United States Senate: Though there is no acceptable third party candidate, Jeff Beatty (Republican) seems to have a good head about him, and has worked with a few counterterrorism agencies in his time. He's no fan of the war in Iraq, and any opportunity to unseat John Kerry is one I'll gladly take. I'm voting for Mr. Beatty in this election.