Monthly Archives: October 2010

America’s Independent Women

By
"The Third-Term Panic", by Thomas Na...

Image via Wikipedia

I have been asked to speak on Chelene Nightingale’s behalf at Los Angeles City College during their Voter Ed seminar that they will be presenting on November 1st at 1pm. Chelene Nightingale is the American Independent Party gubernatorial candidate (Note: What a funny word-gubneratorial. Does that make all our governors-goobers? LOL) I have been officially allowed by her campaign to speak on her behalf, so it is just not me going out there as a supporter but it is in a somewhat official capacity as well.

If you look closely at this race, you will see a large number of women running for public office. We have two women running for governor and neither one is a Democrat. We have two women running for the Senate seat. Men seem almost non-existent in this race. Women and minorities have come to realize that the Democratic policies –which were supposed to make their lives better and provide equality–have failed miserably. Because of this those who were before beholden to the Democratic Party are beginning to reject it.

This has led women (and men) to leave the failing two party system and seek out other alternative third parties. While the Dems and GOP continue to fight among themselves, people are looking towards creating and promoting already established third parties. Let the Dems and Republicans mock this growing movement. As Mahatma Ghandi once said:  “First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.” We are going to win and it will be those “independent” breed of women and men that bring it to pass.

It has been an honor to work with Chelene’s campaign manager, Dani. She has been quite a  help as I try to promote Chelene as the best candidate we have for governor. Why is she the best candidate you ask? In my opinion she is the best candidate she has the best vision for California and has a plan on how to get us there. She wants to give homeschooling parents, a tax credit.  She wants to bring jobs back to California by giving small businesses tax incentives and tax breaks. She wants to halt illegal immigration by attrition. By forcing illegals to go back home, there will be more needed services for those who are in this country legally and its citizens. These reforms are needed to get this state back on its feet again.

I think it is imperative that we stop looking to the broken two party system, which is really the one party system, and start coming up with new ways to impact our government. Whether Chelene wins or loses she is taking a stand and putting the politicians on notice. We don’t need politicians, we need public servants and I feel that is what Chelene Nightingale brings to the table, more so than her rivals.

Related Articles

Related Articles

Prop. 19-The Legalization of Marijuana

By
Cannabis Mantis

On November 2, 2010, we will be voting whether or not to legalize marijuana in California. The pro hemp side is out there trying to make it sound like some harmless thing. However, I am not going to talk about the dangers of marijuana, we already know them. I am not going to talk about morality-we could talk circles around that all day. I am going to talk about from a purely capitalist point of view and why it shouldn’t be legalized.

 Listen up potheads you just might learn something! The legalization of marijuana would actually be a BAD things for you stoners! Right now, you don’t pay taxes on your weed. You go down to the corner, hand Tyrone a ten spot, he gives you a dime bag, you go home and smoke away.  Oh once in a while you get snagged on a possession charge but really it is not that hard to score and I know many people who smoke who have never got busted. So let’s not act like the jails are overrun with people on pot charges!

However, let’s get down to brass tacks as they say. If marijuana is legalized you will surely be getting a much more chemically altered form of marijuana than you are currently getting. Translation: With the government involved you will get crappy weed. First of all, unlike alcohol, marijuana is classified as a “narcotic” at least in terms of a legal sense. Yes, we know medically it is not but that is not going to make much of a difference, legally they are going to keep it a narcotic and here’s why! The drug companies are not going to let anyone just make and distribute marijuana and they will spend billions to make sure if it does get legalized that they are the only ones who can manufacuture it. Your corner boy-gone! That good Jamaican ganga you love so well-gone! Say hello to Pfizer‘s Pot! A small dose of pot and a large dose of whatever chemicals they decide to put in it! Let’s look at cigarettes. They are legal, they are also a lot more lethal too! They put in a little tobacco and fill the rest of the cigarette with embalming fluid, nicotine and who knows what else! Do you really want Phillip Morris making your joints?

Next, you will be taxed. Now the pro-hemp people are saying. They can use those additional funds to help with the deficit. First of all, how many times have we heard this new tax will help our deficit? Has it ever helped our deficit? No! They just find new ways to waste the money! We legalized the lottery with the promise the money raised from the lottery would help our schools. Yet our schools are still failing and I know a school who hasn’t bought any new textbooks in five years! And that is with the lottery!  It was supposed to help our children-well it hasn’t! We are still falling behind the rest of the nation! So you can’t believe them when they say this will be the cure to our deficit problems! Instead, you will be taxed-do you really want another tax? Right now, you get your pot tax free! So why would you want to pay more money for something that is going to be an inferior product? It makes no sense!

Third, pot legalization won’t make pot more accessible but less accessible.  How so? Well let’s look at medical marijuana dispensaries, they are closing down to the regulations they are unable to keep up with. They are not going to make it easy to sell pot over the counter, the drugs companies are not going to stand for it.  It would cut into their profits. Therefore,  before it ever becomes legalized-like alcohol and cigarettes, where you can get them anywhere, the drug companies will make sure restrictions like: 1) only a licensed pharmacist can sell marijuana 2) That no “generics” can be made except through them, etc. They are going to make it as difficult as they can for you to get the pot. If  you don’t believe me, ask someone on Medicare, who had to fight them just to get a drug they have always taken covered because Medicare decided it didn’t want to cover it anymore. This is what you are in store for.

Fourth, you will pay alot more than the ten bucks you pay now for a dime bag. That will be history. You will pay considerably more and won’t get nearly the “good stuff” you get now. Instead, you will pay about 20 or 30 bucks, plus the state tax, plus the local tax, plus the sales tax and then when you are done paying all those taxes, you might get one or two joints out of the whole deal. How many joints do you get now? More than one! So you pay more money, get crappy weed and get less of it. Yeah, sounds like a winner to me.

Of course, we know things like driving under the influence will skyrocket once it is legalized and there will be more accidents of people driving while stoned. We know crime won’t go down but will go up.  Just like alcohol is involved in many domestic violence and child abuse cases, so will be the case with marijuana as people are smoking more and more of it. But I won’t get into all of that.

 So there you have it in a nutshell, go ahead and legalize marijuana, it will be the stupidest thing you potheads could ever do! But then potheads are not known for being terribly bright are they?

Related Articles

Third Parties-Are They Viable?

By

There are plenty of “third party” parties out there. You have the Constitution Party, American Independent Party, The Green Party, Libertarian Party

(which to me is the Democratic Party on steroids.), The Peace and Freedom Party and the list goes on.  However, when you ask most people about the third party candidates, you often hear one familiar refrain-“voting for a third party is a waste of a vote because a third party can never win.”

Good thing no one told Abraham Lincoln that back in 1860, when he was running on a third party ticket, the newly formed Republican Party for the Presidency.  Maybe they did but he just didnt’ listen. Maybe he had more faith in his party, more faith in his capabilities as a lawyer, a Congressman and future president and definitely more faith in the American people not to get sidetracked by Whigs telling him he didn’t stand a chance!

The Republican Party went from a lowly third party to being not only a major party but giving us the most Presidents out of any party! There are some really good parties out there, all it takes is stop the defeatist attitude that voting for a third party always means certain death and start searching out parties that truly reflect your values. If you are a crazed communist bent on world domination and global socialism. Then maybe the Democratic Party is for you after all.  For the rest of us, it is time we fight the two party system and start electing people that are truly “representative” of us and our beliefs.

Are third parties viable? Only if we make them viable. Only if we stop thinking we have to take this broken system and continue using it. Of course, third parties will continue to lose if we don’t back them. But as the Republican Party has shown us, third parties are not doomed to be third parties forever and it is time that the American people to show the politicians who really is in charge! It is through times of adversity that greatness is revealed, not success. In order to gain back our liberties, we need to stand against the Whigs and Democrats of today!

I think since the days of Lincoln, slavery and Confederacy has there never been so great a need for a third party in this country.  Status quo has never achieved anything worthwhile, so it is time we revolt against it and show these modern politicians what “We the People” really means! The more  people are willing to leave the failing two parties, the more they will have to work to retain our vote. Don’t think it is time they start working for us again people?

Related Articles

Will Conservatives Blow It in 2010?

By

 

When Republican Newt Gingrich took his place as Speaker of the House in 1995, he made a “Contract With America.” It was supposed to save our country from the future onslaught of  liberal policies and return our country to the  former constitutional republic it had been.

According to Wikipedia:

Proponents say the Contract was revolutionary in its commitment to offering specific legislation for a vote, describing in detail the precise plan of the Congressional Representatives, and marked the first time since 1918 that a Congressional election had been run broadly on a national level. Furthermore, its provisions represented the view of many conservative Republicans on the issues of shrinking the size of government, promoting lower taxes and greater entrepreneurial activity, and both tort reform and welfare reform.

The “Contract With America” was seen as a tremendous victory for the conservative movement. However, even with such an surge of political activism and  a burgeoning political movement-it failed. It failed not because the Contract itself was defective but because we rested on our laurels. The Republicans had reclaimed Congress after forty years of a Democratic majority. However, instead of using that victory to make permanent and lasting changes to our government we simply gave up.  We thought we had won the fight and that nothing else was needed.

During the Impeachment Hearings in 1999

We are pretty much at the same point 15 years later.  In 1995, the Republicans gained their victory because the Clinton Administration  was falling apart and Clinton was constantly under attack for charges of misconduct. With Gennifer Flowers, Paula Jones, Monica Lewinsky, Whitewater, the Foster suicide among other events, the Clinton Administration was seen as “corrupt.” Even the impeachment of the President was a mere three years away. It was a troubling time. Had the Republicans not won the majority in such conditions-that would’ve been the shocker.

So here we are again with the Obama administration and his flagrant disregard for the Constitution itself, let alone the America people. His approval rating is slipping. Obamacare has turned out to be his biggest mistake which he still refuses to recognize. He has taken over private industry like with GM and he has put the most rabid, radical people in his cabinet, going so far as to create “czar” positions that are accountable only to him. The bailouts, the debt, the birth certificate no one has seen, all these things have made Obama-the worst president ever. With Obama, Pelosi and Harry Reid all under attack, the Democratic party  is falling apart.  So it is only logical  that the conservative movement via the Tea Party is growing exponentially again. 

Will we have learned our lesson from 1995 though? Will we take the momentum that we have built over the last decade and waste it? Or will we blow it like we did in 1995? The biggest problem is that everyone wants to be on the winning side, so when they see it is profitable for them to be conservative-they all jump on the bandwagon. When it stops becoming convenient they will abandon it in a minute. This is most especially true of our politicians. It is time we find those who are committed to the conservative cause and place them in the power of leadership. Not just at the federal level, but the local level as well–which has a bigger impact on our day to day lives anyway. It is time to stop falling for the “Contracts with America” and start concentrating on the only “contract” that matters and that is the Constitution.  I hope we have learned from our mistakes in 1995 so when we regain the House again, we will peter our chance to make real changes in this country all away.

Related Articles