Sorting Out The Issues For November

This doesn't have much to do with what you are talking about except that you mentioned voting, which made me think of what happened yesterday at the fireworks celebration I attended.  There was a young lady going around to people asking if they were registered to vote and would they like to.  The young man next to us said a couple of things very quickly that I did not hear but what I did here was "Not this year."  What a puzzlement that was.  Why would one give up the right to vote "this year".

Forgive me Solo for making you listen to my mind wandering.

Read,

Fear not, we all wonder out loud, quietly or to ourselves.  Besides, hasn't any one ever told you of the benefits of rambling & wondering?  It's a good thing.

@ voting/ not voting.  There are so many thoughts on this, some we have covered here.  Perhaps the the most  coverage has been the age old complaint, justified in many examples IMHO, is that we would be voting for the lesser of two evils, the least offensive of the choices presented to us.

When I heard this week that Obama would not only continue, but actually expand the faith based initiative plan that Bush started by executive order, I told my wife that he just lost my vote.  Thankfully, he went on to explain that he would put legal restraints on the program, so I'll give it some further considration.

Point is, to your query at least, is that I can understand the frustration some people would feel @ voting in this year or any given year.  Let's hope that in the intervening months before November, that we can learn more @ the two candidates.  In other words, mo knowlege, mo power.  JATFUR.

Rich K

I can understand why someone would chose not to vote for any of the presidential candidates.  Personally, I am NOT going to again vote for the "lesser".  If I cannot legitimately pick one based on merits no matter what 'party', then I may not make any choice at all for President.  Same with local contests.  If I don't like ANY of the candidates for a position in the August primaries, I will not vote for one just because they might do less harm than the others. 

HOWEVER!!  And it is a big however, there are many more candidates running on every level of government this year and in addition there are several amendments to consider.  For someone to say "not this year" because they don't like the presidential candidates, is another example of the sheeples who don't pay attention to what's going on and depend on the "government" to do the right thing by them without any research or input.  To not be a registered voter gives one absolutely NO options and also, IMHO, it is just plain ignorant.  This is a huge year all around, and I urge everyone to register and vote! 

Now I'll get off my soapbox - I've got some NY hotdogs to eat!

Have a great remainder of the weekend.

Oh goody... Another person who decides not to vote. I’m lovin’ it. That means that my single vote counts twice as much. If my vote isn’t being counteracted by someone else’s opposing vote, then it’s almost like I had the opportunity to vote two times. It looks like my write-in vote for Mike Heemer could be the clincher for Board Chairman At-Large.

Walt - never thought of it like that!  If people don't register to vote they cannot vote against our candidate, so I guess in a strange way, you could take people not registering as a plus for our side! 

Solo;

Are you trying to say that it would be a good idea for people to actually read the full text of all the Constitutional Amendments before deciding which way to vote?

I'm sure you know that the vast majority of voters will not do that. They'll take a look at the title and say 'this is a good thing'.

1. Religious Freedom - Great title. Everyone should be for 'Religious Freedom'. How could you not be? That is what this country was founded on. Read the text and you can see that the primary reason for this is to re-invent the 'school voucher' program. Look a little closer and you can see some holes that are going be opened for any number of other 'programs' that no one thought about.

2. Relating to Property Rights/Ineligible Aliens - This one sounds OK but I see some major holes here too. Does this mean that any lending institute that operates in Florida is going to be required to write a mortgage regardless of an individual's immigration status (or lack thereof)? What of individuals that we would not grant citizenship to due to criminal activity? Suddenly they can buy and sell property with their ill gotten gains?

Everyone really should read the full text. The old saying of 'Don't judge a book by its cover' could just as easily be stated as 'Don't judge an amendment by its title'. Read them, study them and think worst case scenario before making up your mind about whether to vote yes or no.

I'll even provide a link:

http://www.clayelections.com/Index.htm

Go to the link then select 'Proposed Constitutional Amendments. When you're done with those, check out 'Proposed Charter Amendments'. You might want to go back to the latter to check out the last of the three citizen's amendments that hasn't finished the BCC process yet.

Mike Heemer

Mike,

Perhaps I expect too much from the average person.  Heck, it wouldn't be the first time & probably won't be the last.  But you are absoutely correct. I don't know how Florida compares with other states, but I have been told on numerous ocassions by any # of people that the legislative process in this state is tortuous, to say the least.

You also hit the nail on the head with the benign nature of the titles.  A little studying can see the behind the scenes hand of former Gov. Bush, which also has to be the worst kept secret in this state.  We can thank numerous journalists from some of the newspapers in this state for keeping us up to speed on his shenanigans.  I have to wonder if he is in some kind of contest with his brother ro see which one can be the most shameful.

Knowlege is power, so you are right again by telling people to actually read some of these proposals.  Thanks for providing the link.  I'm going to dive into that some time today.  Have a great week ahead & don't take any wooden nickels.  JATFUR.

Rich K

Fred Catchpole Office 904-771-6852 Cell 904-708-5541

Walt I understand that if your are voting for a particular candidate and someone who opposes that candidate does not vote that your vote now means more than it would have otherwise.

I am sure you, Mike and I have lost a lot of friends and relatives who gave their lives so that all Americans can enjoy the opportunity to vote.  Sometimes our choices are limited by the two party system, however here in Clay County we have not even had that small limited opportunity until the coming election in November.

Of those of us running in November you now no longer have to choose from the best of the worst, or the best of the best, or the best looking from one party.  You now have a choice of voting for a snowballer or a politician.  Now how will you label that, the least likely to hurt the taxpayer or most likely to hurt the taxpayer or the least pretty versus the more pretty.

We know the election in August, is what I refer to as the beauty contest, will choose a politician.  The election in November at least you have the opportunity to chose a person or a politician.  Most of our greatest leaders were not politicians but patriots who worked as teachers, writers, farmers, and military.  22 of our presidents were trained as lawyers, of those I did not recognize too many our greatest leaders among them.  None of the 22 made my top 10 Leaders.

Anyway I encourage all to vote in each election if you can.  It is the first step in getting more of the citizens to participate in our governmental process.  Choose your candidate and support them by voting. 

Fred Catchpole

Lincoln was a lawyer.  He's also generally considered the best politician in our country's history.  Everyone is entitled to an opinion, but I would put the man who saved the union and abolished slavery in the top 10.  I would consider John Adams, Jefferson, Wilson and FDR to be patriots and leaders and excellent politicians as well.  They were all lawyers.   Founding our country, writing the declaration of independence and leading our country to victory in two world wars should at least qualify for honorable mention on a list of great american leaders and presidents.

Every citizen in the United States proudly says that this country is a Democracy. WRONG!!! I’ve said many times that we only get the chance to live in a Democracy a few times every four years. The only times that this country is a Democracy is when every one of us gets the opportunity to cast a vote for whichever candidate or issue that is listed on a ballot. All other times, we live in a Republic. We are then at the mercy of those selective gangs of thieves, whether they are in Green Cove, Tallahassee or Washington D.C. Our only hope is that we’ve done our homework and elected a conscientious servant of the people and not a puppet of some political party or a bought and paid for politician from a political action group.

ByronM- Lincoln was a lawyer, that’s true. Whenever great presidents are listed, his name is always mentioned. History books have  been favorable to him but in reality, when he was alive, he was one of the most hated men in America during his Presidency. The South hated him of course but not many in the North liked him either. His executive orders placed this country in almost a state of martial law. He suspended the right of Habeas Corpus allowing officials to lock someone up without evidence of a crime. He started the military draft that caused riots in the streets and income taxes to finance his war. He was even in favor of packing up all the blacks and sending them back to Africa. Heck, George W. hasn’t gone nearly as far as ol’ Abe did.

I agree with Walt, Lincoln was lame.

Sincerely, George Wallace