A look back -- Post Election, Final

OK, so I had some illusions of grandure on this whole election process. Through the whole election and just after I though that if I voiced a few things, it would change the way people though... Over the past week, I realized that is just not what I am about. I am more of live and let live kind of guy. I cherrish other peoples thoughts and opinions, and I believe in free speech.

By the way, I voted for Kerry (like you couldn't have guessed).

And my final election issue, Where I live we had a local tax levy to give more funding to the schools. It failed, for the 7th straight time. Now our local school district will be placed in a fiscal state of emergency. The state will come in, fix what it feels needs to be fixed, turn control back over to the school board, then require repayment of what it spent. So, in the years to come, we will get control of the school back, with higher expenses, which will require a tax levy to pay for, and we will have to pay back the state. In my opinion it would have just been better to pay for it now, and keep control.

My wife and I are wanting to buy a house. We are sure that it won't be in the city we currently live in. Although we don't have children, and aren't that concerned with the quality of the school, it does affect the property values. Currently prices are really low, which makes it attractive. But who wants to live there? The town will have a hard time attracting families because of the school system.

I know that I'm ranting now, but what I'm trying to get to is a problem in the Cleveland metro area. The general feel is that "It's not my problem, let the state change the way it funds education" The state needs to give us more. Granted, Cleveland is rated as the poorest city in the U.S. If taxes are raised, it won't effect that many people, since they are mostly not paying taxes anyway. Just give me more. It's almost as if this city wears it's problems on it's sleve like a badge of honor.

Now, you would thing that with who I voted for is contradictory to my thoughts about Cleveland. I don't think the problem with Cleveland is with the politicians in D.C. or even the state capital. I do think it is with, to some extent, the politicians in the City level, and more so with the general attitude of the public. In the City goverment there are a lot of good people there, doing good work. But there are also way to many corrupt, well, politicans.

I'm sorry, as I look back on this post, even I have a hard time following it. But that is the way that I am. I just think aloud most of the time. And I'm going to leave it as is.

Mandate from the People -- Post Election #3

Sorry It's been a couple of days.

There is something that is troubling me. I have heard many times now from the Spin out of the white house and the GOP that the Bush administration has received a mandate from the public. Yes, Bush (jr) is the first US president to receive the majority of the vote (greater than 50%) since Bush (sr). But I would hardly say that he received a mandate from the people. When you look at it, he won by just over 200,000 votes (that was the margin of victory here in OH). Had Kerry won Ohio, the results would have been different. Yet the administration gets up in front of the camera and acts as if it had won by 15% or more. When in reality they barely edge Kerry out.

I think it's a sad state when the race is so close, they consider it a major victory if the election isn't decided in the courts.

My point is, will this lame duck president follow the will of the people, or will he only go more conservative, because he knows that he won't be up for re-election in four years. One thing is for sure, this adminstration will be different for his last. There are already rumours that the big players in his cabinet are leaving (Rice, Powell, Aschcroft, Thompson, Ridge and maybe even Rumsfield sorry if I mispelled any of them). Will he replace them with people that better reflects how divided our country really is, or will he replace them with even more conservative people?

One thing I find outright scary is how much of Karl Rove we have seen since the election. For those of you who don't know who he is. He is the presidents main political advisor. It is even rumoured that he is the one responsible for speading romours about John MacCain, having a black child out of wedlock, during the 2000 election. If that is any indication of things to come, it scares me.

My prediction, if Bush goes more moderate, it will start to heal the division in the country, but alienate the hardcore conservatives. Yet if he goes more conservative, it will deepen the divide in the coutry, and all of the conservative will be basking in glory. If the later happen, look for a really ugly election in 2008.

Up next -- Who did I vote for?

Every Vote Matters -- Post Election #2

Shouldn’t it be every vote counts? Ideally, yes, but let’s be realistic. We are asking a small group of people to accurately count over 100 Million ballots in a couple of hours of time. It’s obvious that it will not be 100% accurate. I’m sure that spread over the country that several hundred, or even several thousand votes were mis-counted. But let’s face it, those miss-counts should statistically follow the voting. I’m sure that close to 51% of the miss-counts were votes for Bush, while close to 49% were votes for Kerry. Statistically it shouldn’t affect the overall outcome of the election.

It may sound a little harsh to open admit that we shouldn’t expect to have a 100% accurate vote count, but we need to be realistic. There is a way to ensure a more accurate vote count, but it would never be allowed. My recommendation would be that we take more time to count, as I mentioned in my last post.

Taking more time to count would allow the election officials to take time, and not be rushed. It would also allow all of the provisional ballots to be investigated, before they are counted and finally it would allow all of the absentee ballots. If you remember, absentee ballots are how most of our military personal vote.

The results could be certified as soon as it is statistically impossible for anyone but the leader to win. But votes would continue to be counted until every vote was counted. Once the results were certified, the results would be released. Now obviously it would take a little longer to find out who won, but isn’t it important enough to get an accurate count. Let’s look at other countries. Afghanistan just had an election, a couple of months ago, yet they are only now declaring a winner. Is it that important to find out immediately who won? It only serves a selfish purpose to find out who won, on the day of the election.

I just realized that there would be another side benefit for not releasing results right away. It would minimize bogus claims of voter irregularities. Individuals would have to file a claim immediately. One would not be able to come back a couple of weeks later, after they found out that their guy is behind.

I think I’ve rambled enough for this post.

Up next: A mandate from the people.

It's Over -- Post Election #1a

It just came across that Kerry conceded. Did someone email my blog to him?

It's Over -- Post Election #1

Someone tell the Kerry camp that it's over.

As the title would suggest I'm going to do a series of these. I'll let you know where I stand on some issues, and on some candidates. I do have a lot of opinions regarding this election. Some of them may be obvious, and others not so obvious. I do vote my gut most of the time, so I may not have the empirical rationalization that some of you may like, but that's how I vote. Please let me know what you think, so please post comments. With that in mind, I won't allow it to turn into "you're a right wing nut case" or "you're a pink-o commie" discussion.

First things first. I am most satisfied with the fact that the news and commercials can move on to something other than people claiming that your candidate is not good enough. We can get back to legitimate commercials for feminine hygiene products and hair transplant procedures, and serious news stories about how a crazy woman had 57 cats living with her in a one bedroom apartment. Thank god for TIVO!

I am disappointed though with the news coverage, and how the states are handling it. It's now Wednesday morning, and a winner hasn't been declared. Last nite all of the networks wanted to be the first to have the results. Yet this morning, even though the results are obvious, they aren't calling it. And it's all because of the state I live in (Ohio).

Let's look at the numbers from Fox News. They have called Ohio for Bush. I don't dispute the results. Yet we all know that there is a question mark by the Ohio results (However improbable that question mark is). With that in mind, it gives Bush 269 electoral votes, one short of having the 270 needed to win. Now on the other hand, Fox News is not calling the Iowa election. The report that Bush has a lead of approx. 25,000 votes, and 100% of precincts reporting. Seems like a done deal to me, yet they don't call it. Why? Well if they did, then they would have to call Bush the winner of the whole thing. But what if for some reason Ohio's results swing the other way. Then they have egg on their face. They would rather have to change the outcome of one state, rather than the whole country.

Now, I'm not picking on Fox News. It appears that all of the networks and news organizations are in the same boat. Others just claim that Ohio is still in play, while they have called states that would have less of an impact on the overall outcome.

In my opinion, we should take away from this media circus. I think we should ban the release of election results until they have been certified.

In my next blog: Every Vote Matters?

It's Early, and I'm Pleased

No, I cannot see into the future, no I do not know who is going to win the election, and no, it not because I think my guy is doing well. In fact I think it will be weeks, if not months before we find out who won the election. For that reason, I'm not pleased.

The reason I'm pleased is to see so many people out to vote early, and the general mood is quite pleasant. My wife and I got the our polling place early. In fact my wife was ballot #2 and I was #3 in our polling place. The election workers were a little frustrated because the person bringing the tables hadn't shown up yet. They were all crammed onto one 8 ft table. I feel for them if they can't get any more tables. My wife and I talked with people in line with us. Everyone was really upbeat. No one was talking about if this guy get in, we'll be headed down the wrong path, or you're crazy if you vote for this issue.

I got done voting so early, that I had time to get some breakfast before I went to work. As I was walking into McD's, I met an entire family at the door that were all wearing a certain candidates shirts. They saw the sticker I was wearing that said I had voted. They asked if my polling place was crazy (busy). Evidently where they vote was so busy, they were going to try again later. It's almost as if voting makes you part of a group, and it doesn't matter who you voted for. I would say exclusive group, but there's a lot of people out voting today.

The American public can do some pretty amazing things. Sometimes they do some pretty stupid things, but today they are showing us that the election process isn't that bad. I think the election process would be ten times better now if we could only get rid of all of the political stratagist, lawyers, and for that fact the politicians. I think one of the main problems is the entrenched political system we have. I will not say who I voted for, or what party afiliation I have. But I will mention two things that I feel strongly about. First of all is real campaign finance reform, and the second is term limits. Get rid of the old cronies who spend less time in their own district (in non election years), that another state, campaigning for someone else.

But more importantly, if you are he in the U.S. and you are registered to vote, make sure you do. If you don't know where your polling place is, find out. If you are in one of the areas where your polling place will be chaotic, Have patience. We feel for you.