Last nights debate was interesting for a couple of reasons. Watching the great skill and calm demeanor of Barrack Obama, even during the intense and sometimes emotional discharge of Hillary Clinton was intriguing. He seems to absorb all that is being said, but quickly is able to distill the words, separating the waste from the perfumery, preparing a response.

 I don’t like his ideology, but he is a remarkable speaker and thinker.

Secondly, and perhaps most importantly, I saw Hillary quit last night. I saw it in her body language and in her tone, particulalry in the late stages of the debate. Despite Clinton reaching deep into her arsenal for some of the strongest attacks in any of the previous debates, Obama simply deflected them and selectively responded without so much as furrowing a brow.

Juan McCain will have a very difficult time against someone so talented.

Tim Russert gets some of the credit for Hillary’s awkward demeanor. Thanks Tim, for not letting her lie again about her record on NAFTA. Thank you for holding her accountable.

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I have previously posted about the allegations that Reggie Bush accepted cash gifts and other benefits while enrolled as a student-athlete at USC. In recent developments the Bush legal team continues to play a game of cat and mouse with Lloyd Lake and the NCAA. 

In a February 13th 2008 story ESPN reported that the Reggie Bush legal team hired an armed security guard to accompany them to the scheduled February 12th, 2008 deposition of Lloyd Lake. Brian Watkins, Lake’s attorney halted the proceedings after the armed guard flashed his gun. “He made sure we saw it,” Watkins said.

This is outrageous conduct by any standards, and particularly egregious conduct by an officer of the court during a formal legal procedure.

Bush was scheduled to be deposed on February 25th 2008, but according to reports published by ESPN and other news sources, he failed to appear. Bush’s lawyers instead filed a motion for protective order that would prevent Watkins from turning over depositions to the NCAA.

Hmmmm……. Is anyone else wondering what he has to hide and who he is trying to protect?

The entire legal strategy of the Bush team is to prevent the truth from being publicly aired. They clearly are not interested in having Reggie deposed under oath, and based on the recent motion filed by David Cornwell, Bush’s lawyer, they do not want any testimony that might be compelled by a judge to be turned over to the NCAA.

Which leaves us to wonder why. Reggie has repeatedly said that he did nothing wrong. He has repeatedly stated that the truth will come out and “we will all see this was nothing”. If that’s the case Reggie, step up, put your hand on the bible and answer the questions under oath. Quit playing legal games and meet your opponent on the 5o yard line as you claim you want to do.

My suggestion for USC is to detoxify your connection with Reggie Bush by openly conducting your own investigation. If you determine that your coaching staff and compliance officers had no knowledge, nor should have known about Reggie’s obvious transgressions then make that report public and vigorously defend yourself of any accusations of impropriety. If on the other hand you discover that members of your coaching staff used poor judgement or that your compliance officers failed in their duty, then admit it now. If nothing else, we have learned from others, in particular Michigan (Charles Woodson) and Ohio St. (Maurice Clarett) that if you are accountable for your mistakes early on, most folks are willing to forgive and forget. However, if you choose to wait until the proof is provided by another source, you put at risk previous championships, victories and future scholarships. The choice is yours, roll the dice hoping that Bush’s attorneys are successful in their attempt to conceal the truth, or admit your mistakes and be accountable now.

My .02

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We should insist that the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the man’s becoming in very fact an American, and nothing but an American…There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn’t an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag, which symbolizes all wars against liberty and civilization, We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language…and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people.  Theodore Roosevelt 1907

One of the questions asked of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton during the Democratic Presidential debate last week was whether or not the United States should be a bi-lingual speaking country (meaning Spanish).

The following responses are verbatim from the transcript of the debate.

Question: Right now, there are more than 30 million people in this country who speak Spanish.

(APPLAUSE)

Many of them are right here. By the year 2050, there will be 120 million Hispanics in the United States. Now, is there any downside, Senator Clinton, to the United States becoming (SPEAKING SPANISH) becoming a bilingual nation? Is there a limit?

Clinton’s response: Well, I think it’s important for as many Americans as possible to do what I have never been able to do, and that is learn another language and try to be bilingual because that connects us to the rest of the world.

I think it is important, though, that English remain our common unifying language because that brings our country together in a way that we have seen generations of immigrants coming to our shores be able to be part of the American experience and pursue the American dream.

You know, I have been adamantly against the efforts by some to make English the official language. That I do not believe is appropriate, and I have voted against it and spoken against it.

I represent New York. We have 170 languages in New York City alone. And I do not think that we should be, in any way, discriminating against people who do not speak English, who use facilities like hospitals or have to go to court to enforce their rights.

But I do think that English does remain an important part of the American experience. So I encourage people to become bilingual. But I also want to see English remain the common, unifying language of our country.

Someone please translate the double speak for me so we all understand how English is our common unifying language, but not the official language.

In closing Hillary stumbles to the finish with this gem. “English does remain an important part of the American experience”.

The American experience? Since when did American citizenship become a day at Disneyland? Being an American citizen is a privilege. At a minimum citizens should be required to read, write and speak the language embraced by our founding fathers. It is the responsibility of legal immigrants to assimilate with America. I don’t recall seeing the Constitution or Bill of Rights written in any language other then English. Those who want to enjoy the protection offered by these documents should not be allowed to take what we have to offer in the way of jobs, health care and lifestyle and leave us to clean the cotton candy and churro wrappers left at the exit turnstiles of ‘It’s A Small World’.

Hillary says “I do not think that we should be, in any way, discriminating against people who do not speak English, who use facilities like hospitals or have to go to court to enforce their rights.”

It is not discriminatory to expect citizens to read, write and understand English. Remember Theodore Roosevelt’s proclamation? Learn the language of your adopted country. Assimilate with your fellow citizens. The promises of freedom and liberty in America require personal accountability by its citizens. Take responsibility for learning English if you want to live here.

Otherwise adios, Salaam, Tsedesutyun, Ciao, Adéu, Dag, Wiedersehen, Shalom, Bless, Daa daa, Mar sin leat, Sayonara, Ha det bra, Sudie, Bulya yo, Ate mais tarde, Hasta luego, Adjö, Sun-kia, Veda, Tam biêt, Zayt gesunt, Usale kahle, or in good ole American English… See ya.

OBAMA: Well, I think it is important that everyone learns English and that we have that process of binding ourselves together as a country. I think that’s very important.

I also think that every student should be learning a second language, because…

(APPLAUSE)

… you know, so, when you start getting into a debate about bilingual education, for example, now, I want to make sure that children who are coming out of Spanish-speaking households had the opportunity to learn and are not falling behind.

If bilingual education helps them do that, I want to give them the opportunity.

But I also want to make sure that English-speaking children are getting foreign languages because this world is becoming more interdependent and part of the process of America’s continued leadership in the world is going to be our capacity to communicate across boundaries, across borders, and that’s something frankly where we’ve fallen behind.

One of the failures of No Child Left Behind, a law that I think a lot of local and state officials have been troubled by, is that it is so narrowly focused on standardized tests that it has pushed out a lot of important learning that needs to take place.

(APPLAUSE)

And foreign languages is one of those areas that I think has been neglected. I want to put more resources into it.

Obama’s response was no more clear or direct.  ”I think it is important that everyone learns English and that we have that process of binding ourselves together as a country. I think that’s very important.”

These are two Presidential candidates who have made a political career out of manipulating the English language to frame the issues as a matter of convenience. Neither of them are committed to setting minimal language expectations for legal immigrants assimilating in America, let alone establish English as the official language.

 Any new immigration reform discussion should include an English proficiency requirement. 30 States have enacted legislation declaring English as the official language. It is time for Congress to step up and have the stugots to do the same.

 Any questions?

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Last night on 60 Minutes, Steve Kroft did an interesting segment on how important honeybees are to the quality and quantity of food produced in the United States, and presumably the world. Apparently the bees are disappearing in large numbers across the globe. Scientists and bee keepers are working together to determine why this is happening. There are no scientifically supported explanations yet. However neonicotinoid based pesticides, manufactured by Bayer Cropscience, used on certain crops seem to be a contributing factor. I thought it was worth sharing.

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By most estimates there are between 3000-8000 illegals entering this country every day. Undeniably the overwhelming majority enters from Mexico and is of Hispanic descent. 

 They come here for a better way of life and to support their familes. 

• The Federal Government spends approximately 12 Billion dollars per year on education for Illegals.
• The Federal Government spends another estimated 17 Billion dollars per year on education for the American born children of Illegals.
• The Federal Government spends 1 Billion dollars per year reimbursing hospitals for health-care costs directly related to illegals, which represents only a small fraction of the real cost. The rest is paid for by hospitals, passed on to tax payers through local tax levies and bond measures.
• It is estimated that thirty percent (30%) of the prisoners incarcerated in Federal prisons are illegals, at a cost of 3.3 million dollars PER DAY.
• There are between 12-20 million illegals in this country today. Census Bureau’s projection of population in 2050 because of mass immigration is 404 million at the mid range of estimates.
• Federal law mandates hospitals treat anyone, including illegals, requiring emergency care and prohibits a patient being denied treatment on the basis they cannot afford to pay.
• LA county spent about $350 million last year providing health care to illegal aliens, the Department of Health Services said. Massive health cuts, including the closure of 16 health clinics and possibly two hospitals, as well as slashes in services, could have been avoided if that money was available for other uses, officials said.
• Without illegal aliens Hospital emergency rooms across the southwest would have about 20-percent fewer patients, and there would be 183,000 fewer people without health insurance in the southwest region alone.
• Without illegal aliens OBGYN wards would have 24-percent fewer deliveries, maternity-ward deliveries in Los Angeles would drop by 40 percent and maternity billings to Medi-Cal would drop by 66 percent.
• Without illegal aliens Youth gangs would see their membership drop by 50 percent in many states, and child-molestation cases would drop by 34 percent and auto theft by 40 percent.
• Analysis of the latest Census data indicates that California’s illegal alien population is costing the state’s taxpayers more than $10.5 billion per year for education, medical care and incarceration. Deducting the estimated tax contributions from illegal aliens, the net cost to legal taxpayers is still nearly $9 billion.
• Based on estimates of the illegal alien population in California and documented costs of K-12 schooling, Californians spend approximately $7.7 billion annually on education for illegal alien children and for their U.S.-born siblings. Nearly 15 percent, or one out of every 7 of the K-12 public school students are children of illegal aliens
• Analysis of the latest Census data indicates that Arizona’s illegal alien population is costing the state’s taxpayers about $1.3 billion per year for education, medical care and incarceration
• Based on estimates of the illegal alien population in Arizona and documented costs of K-12 schooling, Arizonans spend approximately $820 million annually on education for illegal alien children and for their U.S.-born siblings.
• Colorado taxpayers would save almost $3,000,000 in one day if illegal aliens did not access any public services, because illegal aliens cost the state over $1 billion annually according to the best estimates.

These are the facts.

Congress and authorative Federal agencies have failed to enforce the laws which mandate apprehension, documentation and deportation of individuals in violation of Federal law and statutes. The INS has statutory authority under Title 8 USC Sec. 1357, and designated officers or employees of the Service have the power without warrant to interrogate any alien or person believed to be an alien as to their right to be or to remain in the United States. The INS simply ignores this obvious opportunity to remove illegal aliens from the United States. The official policy of the INS is to target employers of illegal aliens in an attempt to remove the reason why illegal aliens come to the United States.

Cowardly congress members pandering to special interest group voters have allowed progressive lobbyists and left wing community groups to influence a slippery slope policy in this country to the detriment of our sovereignty.

Just for clarification, immigration law violators are not immigrants. They are aliens who are in the United States in violation of law. There is a profound difference between individuals who legally apply for admission and fulfill all the requirements for admission, and those who decide to enter the United States in violation of law. Labeling them as immigrants misrepresents the issue and is skewed logic. Two important distinctions of aliens and immigrants are criminal and health background checks. Those entering the country legally are subject to a review of any criminal history and a health screen. This seems like a reasonable request and a good idea to me.

America welcomes more immigrants than any other country. But in keeping open that door of opportunity, we also must uphold the rule of law and enhance a fair immigration process. Don’t apologize for those breaking the law by blaming America for being a prosperous country offering opportunity. That opportunity was built on the backs of my grandparents and yours who came to this country legally, learned the language and were honored to assimilate as Americans. My grandfather didn’t ask for schools to teach in Italian. He didn’t ask for voting ballots written in Italian. He didn’t ask or expect to be able to “Press 2″ for an explanation in his native tongue. We are the most generous, caring, loving and humanitarian nation on the planet. We are being taken advantage of and it is time to stop the insanity.

What do you think?

We must humanely regain control of our borders and thereby preserve the value of one of the most sacred possessions of our people: American citizenship.” - Ronald Reagan

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The Supreme Court seriously erred in their 8-1 ruling in favor of Medtronic inc. The Justices ruled that Congress has granted the FDA sufficiently broad regulatory authority and control over the approval of medical devices in the market place. The ruling prohibits consumers from suing the manufacturers of defective products if federal regulators (FDA) approve such devices.

This decision harms consumers, limits the protection mechanisms available to us and provides companies like Medtronics unprecedented shelter under the umbrella of the federal government. This is simply wrong minded. 

Medtronics is a 12.5 BILLION dollar company. They should be held accountable for their actions, particularly in cases of gross negligence when their products cause great harm and it can be demonstrated that they should have known. The FDA can approve product design features and standards, but they can’t necessarily guarantee that manufacturers like Medtronics follow the regulations or won’t encounter flaws that are present in after market testing.

Decisions made by the Supreme Court tip the ideological scales between liberal and conservative views on a broad range of topics. I generally find myself agreeing with the conservative base on most subjects. I am very comfortable with the current make up of the Court. However, in my opinion they got this one wrong.

What say you?

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It is time for Congress members in Washington DC to start behaving like members of Congress, instead of like star struck teen age girls at a boy band concert. This entire issue is repugnant. We are a country at war, we face major economic problems, immigration laws are not being enforced, health care costs are out of control, as is the price of fuel. Despite the significant domestic problems, lawmakers are spending time fawning over a baseball player.

Nothing was resolved. Baseball should handle its own disciplinary problems. Roger Clemens is behaving like a spoiled 13 year old. As a child when I lied to my parents I got my butt paddled with the wooden spoon and then I was grounded. It worked. Baseball should deliver its equivalent of a spanking and suspension.

Congress should have minded its own business, as it has plenty to attend to, and let Bud Selig discipline his own children. I resent that Bud Selig dumped his garbage on our door step. Tax payers are now ponying up to clean his mess.

I must admit that I did get a little thrill seeing Henry Waxman appointed to a job he can actually handle. If you recall, he was one of the 3 stooges that led the Democrat fight song about how they were going to balance the budget, end the war, and impeach Bush. His companions Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi have disappeared quietly into the night.

I defer to my earlier post about the OWL Party. “Out With Lunacy - In With Logic”

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Officer J.D. Tippit lost his life on November 22nd 1963, shortly after the JFK assassination, allegedly at the hands of Lee Harvey Oswald . Tippit was a 39 year old father of three, husband, brother and veteran police officer.

The events at Dealy Plaza that day have been vetted ad nauseam by hundreds of authors, law enforcement agencies, conspiracy theorists and the Warren Commission. Omitted from many discussions on this topic is the tragedy of Officer Tippit’s murder. There have been many theories offered that differ from the official police record regarding his murder. What is not in dispute is a police officer was gunned down on Tenth Street in the Oak Cliff neighborhood in Dallas, about 2 miles from the Texas School Book Depository where the JFK assassination occurred.

The short version of the events are that Oswald left the depository immediately after the assassination. By most accounts he traveled by foot, taxi and bus. First to his home and then to the Oak Cliff area where the killing occurred. While patrolling the area in his marked police car Tippit came across a pedestrian walking in the same direction on the sidewalk. Upon seeing the patrol car Oswald abruptly changed directions. Tippit stopped his car and called for him to stop. According to witnesses Oswald spoke to Tippit through the open right front vent window. After a brief conversation, Tippit exited his car. As he approached the drivers front panel, Oswald pulled out the .38 caliber pistol and began shooting. Five rounds were fired. Four of which hit Tippit killing him at the scene. Half an hour later, while in possession of the .38 pistol, Oswald was arrested at a movie theatre approximately eight blocks away.

Most people are unable to bring themselves to do the things Police Officers do on a daily basis. Without their courage and commitment we would not have the quality of life we enjoy. All to often we seem to be immune or insulated from the ugly and and sometimes frightening societal conduct that they endure for us every day. People like JD Tippit are heroes whose life came to an abrupt and senseless end. Don’t forget him or others like him who have died or been maimed in the line of duty.

I have several relatives serving law enforcement agencies, including a cousin, two brothers, two sisters and a brother-in-law. They risk their lives every day to protect the communities in which they live. They have spouses, children, extended families and friends, as did Tippit. I haven’t before taken the time to express my appreciation for their thankless work and the work of their peers.

Thank you for your valuable service and may God keep you safe. 

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Political attack ads are nothing new. In fact, politicians use negative campaign ads to attack opponents records, conduct and personal values in ways that are often times misleading or just simply dishonest. Television provides a powerful medium to frame messages that will influence voters decisions.  

According to strategic researcher Frank Luntz the goal in any advertising effort is to activate “mental imagery” — the mental images that the messages create in consumer minds — visual analysis is far more effective than auditory processing. Furthermore, scientific studies completed in the past decade using focus group methodology have proven that “how it is said” and “what is heard” is more important than “what is said.” For example, focus groups have alerted media consultants to the importance of “auditory stimuli” (i.e.,back  ground music and sounds) to increase attention, recall, and persuasiveness.

On the other hand, focus groups have occasional difficulty measuring the “sleeper effect,” a gradual acceptance of a particularly hostile stimulus. Americans generally have a negative reaction to negative advertising. However, the palpability, and so the persuasiveness, of the information often increases as the viewer sees it multiple times.

In one of the more controversial political ads, known as the Daisy Ad, Lyndon Johnson used the threat of nuclear war to scare voters from voting for Barry Goldwater in the 1964 Presidential Election.

Goldwater delivered a speech a few days before the ad aired, in which he said “extremism in the pursuit of liberty, is no vice”.

This was spun by the pundits to make people believe he was hawkish. It is relevant to note that in 1964 America was fighting a controversial war in Vietnam, while we were engaged in the cold war against Russia. The threat of using nuclear weapons was a very real concern. The ad aired only once before being pulled by the Johnson campaign, but is credited with being widely influential and a contributing factor to the outcome of the election.

Since then there have been several copycat versions of the ad. For example, in 1984, Walter Mondale’s presidential campaign used ads against Reagan with a similar theme to the Daisy ad. The advertisement showed children and then footage of ballistic missiles and nuclear explosions, with Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young singing ‘Teach Your Children Well’ as the soundtrack.

Other forms of attack ads are designed to assign blame. In the 1988 Dukakis vs Bush campaign the Republicans ran the famous Willie Horton ads in successful effort to cast Dukakis as being weak on crime.

Humor in political ads are more of a rarity, but score big points with me. In this ad, Christy Mihos is running for Governor of Massachusetts. The Big Dig is a 3.2 mile tunnel that when construction began in 1985 was estimated to cost $2.4 billion dollars. In 2006 with the project still not complete, the cost had soared to $14.5 billion. Very funny ad that gets right to the point without targeting anyone in particular.

This site  has a rich library of television political ads dating back to the 1950’s. If this topic is of interest to you I would suggest checking it out.

The next 8 months will be interesting. I am looking forward to seeing the new version of the swiftboat ads that will undoubtedly be used by both parties. Afterall, the end justifies the means in American politics.

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In order to fully understand the genesis of the mortgage crisis we need to examine policies and practices that have slowly occurred over the last 3 decades beginning with the Carter administration. In 1977 the Community Reinvestment Act was passed by Congress under pressure from ‘progressive’ community organizations advocating liberal lending standards to meet the needs of low income borrowers . In fact, banks were evaluated by federal regulators to ensure they were in compliance with the loose underwriting standards. The result of those assessments were used to weigh future applications for mergers, acquisitions and branches. In other words banks were encouraged to portfolio some bad loans in order to improve their chances of being granted favorable reviews.

Thomas J. DiLorenzo professor of economics at Loyola College in Maryland describes in some detail the effects of those policies on the financial markets and the contributing factors of the current economic climate. DiLorenzo claims that “community groups” like ACORN use the threat of issuing a ‘protest’ to enforcement agencies because the law is set up so that any bank merger, branch expansion, or new branch creation can be postponed or prohibited if a CRA “protest” is issued by a “community group.” This can cost banks great sums of money, and the community groups understand this perfectly well. It is their leverage. They use this leverage to get the banks to give them millions of dollars as well as promising to make a certain amount of bad loans in their communities.

The effect of these policies forced banks to increase fee’s on higher risk or “subprime” loans. The same community groups who extorted money from banks then claimed that the higher fee’s are “predatory”, resulting in price controls legislated by lawmakers and regulated by Government agencies.

Stan Liebowitz Professor of Economics in the Business School at the University of Texas reports in the New York Post that in the early 1980’s left wing activist groups such as ACORN claimed that redlining practices by lending institutions unfairly discriminated against minority borrowers. Data verifies that minority borrowers as a whole are in fact in many cases poorer, and therefore not qualified for mortgage loans. Ignoring the facts, political pressure from these so called ‘community groups’ resulted in amendments to the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act requiring lending institutions to collect racial data on borrowers. That data was so badly flawed that according to Liebowitz it included “thousands of egregious typos, such as loans with negative interest rates. Our study found no evidence of discrimination”.

There can be no doubt that greedy lenders, greedy title companies, greedy appraisers, unscrupulous mortgage brokers and irrational borrowers were willing participants in the second greatest economic collapse in American history.

But the fact remains that the slippery slope of left wing ideology at work for 30 years made it possible. This is a perfect example of the stark differences of the ideological struggle between left and right philosophy. The fiscally conservative right, advocates free market policies. The left promotes the socialist agenda of ‘government knows best’ politics. Government should do what it was intended to do, for example, secure our borders, enforce constitutional law and limit intrusion in business and personal affairs. Government should not implement huge regulatory agencies, dictate health-care, meddle in the affairs of states, business or the individual.

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I dutifully went to my local polling place this morning to vote. I approached the 3-4 white haired women volunteers sitting behind the desk in the corner and proudly announced my arrival. I signed the register as instructed and waited for my ballot. The woman on the end said “you are undeclared, you can have either the Democratic ballot or the Independent ballot, but not the Republican ballot”.

Recognizing the confused expression on my face, she continued without me saying anything. “When you registered to vote you did not declare party affiliation. In California the GOP decided that they would only allow registered Republicans to vote for Republicans in the presidential primary election”.

WHAT???????!!!!!!!

According to California Republican Party spokesman Hector Barajas the California GOP decided to exclude unaffiliated voters in February in the belief that only registered Republicans should be able to select the presidential nominee.

Has the California GOP lost it’s freaking mind? When did R.P. McMurphy and Cheswick start running the milieu? Is this how the GOP grows its base and invites everyone to join them under the big tent?

I recently moved from San Diego County to Riverside County. When I registered to vote in Riverside County I decided not to declare my Republican Party affiliation in order to avoid receiving unwanted phone solicitations, spam email, and piles of recyclable postal mail. I consider myself to be pretty well informed. I closely follow the news and try to stay abreast of the topics and issues. I completely missed this one.

So, I’ll bet you’re wondering what I did. Since I was prohibited from voting for a Republican presidential candidate… I voted for Obama. Before you start spamming me with your hate mail, consider my logic. First, it would do no good to write in a Republican candidate since the Republicans will not accept a vote, even a write-in, from an undeclared. Second, the Libertarian (Independent) candidates who were available to me on the ballot are not an acceptable alternative. Third, it felt good to give the GOP a deserving finger wave from under my chin. Lastly, a vote for Obama is a vote against Hillary. Since I couldn’t vote for the person I want, I voted against the person I don’t want. Makes perfect sense to me. Now I have to wait for the general election to cleanse myself. Gawd, I feel so dirty.

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