Giulani Loses Florida, Clinton Wins

Really, Florida was only important for Republicans. And to some the most important part was Giuliani, and if his eggs in the basket strategy for Florida would work. With 35% of votes in Giuliani comes in a distant third with 15% of the vote. McCain and Romney continue in struggle with few percentage points separating them.

Hilary won the Democratic contest, but only in name, as the DNC stripped Florida of all delegates. And since the Hilary camp has said “This is a race for delegates…It is not a battle for individual states.” But Hilary is trying to pull another trick, lobbying the DNC to reinstate Florida’s delegates.

This comes after potential election fraud in Nevada:

“We currently have reports of over 200 separate incidents of trouble at caucus sites, including doors being closed up to thirty minutes early, registration forms running out so people were turned away, and ID being requested and checked in a non-uniform fashion. This is in addition to the Clinton campaign’s efforts to confuse voters and call into question the at-large caucus sites which clearly had an affect on turnout at these locations. These kinds of Clinton campaign tactics were part of an entire week’s worth of false, divisive, attacks designed to mislead caucus-goers and discredit the caucus itself.”

In a manual for caucus volunteers, instructed Hilary’s people to instruct poll captains to shutdown polling places half an hour early. Her campaign had previously told potential Clinton supporters to come to the poll early.

Update 8:52

44% of precincts are reporting, and McCain appears to be gaining an edge over Romney. If McCain can can continue winning delegates he’ll provide a formidable force in 2008 if Clinton wins. By the way, currently Clinton has nearly a 2 times lead over Obama.

Update 8:55

According to exit polls Hilary won among white and Latino voters, while Obama took in 70% of the black vote, the other 29% voted for Hilary. Interestingly Hilary did best among voters who decided who to vote for today. Maybe thats due to several key endorsements in Florida, and an announcement that Hilary would visit Florida for a victory celebration.

Update 9:00

CNN, Fox News Channel and MSNBC have all said they can’t declare a Repuplican winner. I’m going to guess a McCain win. And if he looses, look for allegations of vote fraud in the next couple of weeks. I wouldn’t be surprised to see slick Mitt pull something like that. On the other hand are candidates scared to cheat in Florida after 2000?

Update 9:04
The New York Times says:

Well, Senator Clinton just stole the spotlight for a moment, promising at a rally in Florida to do whatever she could to seat those uninvited delegates from this state. She called their vote — which would appear overwhelming — a “vote of confidence.”

Update 9:09

Interestingly “pastor” Huckabee and Giulani are within a few percentage points. Huckabee suffered from lack of funds, one Reporter from CNN said he “Had to sit on the toilet seat of Huck’s private jet.” Giulani on the other hand spent $40 million in Florida, so there’s no money excuse for his lackluster performance.

Update 9:14

Al Jazeera is saying, “Giuliani, who staked his campaign on the Florida result, may now quit the race.” Certaintly if his money stats don’t look good for the first quarter he’ll quit, but I think he has the determination to stick it out until Super Tuesday.

Update 9:20

The numbers are holding steady in both races, with the majority of precincts reporting.

Update 9:22

The AP has declared McCain the winner in Florida, probably due to his slowly increasing numbers.

Update 9:24

Apparently some top level advisers in Rudy’s campaign have suggested he might endorse McCain in the coming weeks. Maybe Al Jazeera was right.

Update 9:30

Well even though McCain poses the largest threat to a Democratic win in ‘08, the election was a relief. Why? Because anyone is better than Giuliani. This is it for tonight from me.

Our Next President…The Final Four!

Nominations for each party are still, for the most part, a mystery. But, I believe the final four candidates to be our next president can now easily be narrowed down. Our next president will either be, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Mitt Romney, or John McCain.

The current contenders for the nomination, all of them, are:

Democrats: Top Tier: Clinton, Obama 2nd Tier: Edwards Lower Tier: Gravel?

Republicans: Top Tier: Romney, McCain 2nd Tier: Huckabee, Giuliani Lower Tier: Paul

I’ve based all positions by recent polls, amount of support, donations, the number of delegates each candidate already has, and most importantly the probability of a candidates success based my own biased opinion!

So that leaves the top 4 upper tier candidates within the most likely positions to receive their party’s nomination. Clinton, Obama, Romney, McCain.

In the general election:

I see John McCain as Hillary Clinton’s worst nightmare. And Mitt Romney as Barack Obama’s. Regardless a Democrat will be elected president, but in those two matchups, I see the Democratic candidate facing their toughest opponent. It’s too early to even begin to hypothesize the Democratic and Republican nominees, and unlike other pundits, I believe we have to let the voters decide first.

Obama routs Clinton in South Carolina

The AP is projecting, at 7:00PM, Barack Obama will go on to win the South Carolina Democratic Primary by “a substantial margin”

Fri. January 25th Live Podcast: Episode 23: The South Carolina Primary

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In this episode, we discuss Dennis Kucinich dropping out of the race, Hillary Clinton’s recommendation that the Democratic Party count Michigan and Florida’s delegates, Should Edwards stay or go? Including our new segment, “Tell Us Something We Don’t Know!”

Johnny: The New York Times does not endorse Rudy, instead they choose McCain. Poor McCain.

Dan: Hillary is the strongest general election candidate.

Jeff: Explains the “voting present” ways of Obama.

Theo: Below the Mason-Dixon Line, Obama is polling at 10%. But it’s okay cause they probably hate Hillary too!

Henry Wincen: It’s Australia Day!

And Our South Carolina Predictions:

Jeff, Johnny, Dan, Henry: Obama, Clinton, Edwards

Co-hosted by Dan Solis, Jeff Pritchard, Johnny Camacho, Theo van der Deer, and maybe even Henry Wincen.

Fri. January 18th Live Podcast: The Lost Episode 22: The Nevada Caucus

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Including our brand new segment, “Tell Us Something We Don’t Know!”

Dan: Hillary most fiscally responsible.

Johnny: Edwards burns Feingold.

Jeff: Mike Huckabee is crazy!

Mike: Canada Adds U.S. to List Of Nations That Torture.

And Our Nevada Predictions!

Co-hosted by Dan Solis, Jeff Pritchard, Johnny Camacaho, Mike Rushmore, Theo van der Deer, and maybe even Henry Wincen.

Bill O’Reilly disgraces himself….again.

Recently, in reference to our nation’s homeless veterans, Bill O’Reilly said: “They may be out there, but there’s not many of them out there. Okay? … If you know where there’s a veteran sleeping under a bridge, you call me immediately, and we will make sure that man does not do it.”

He raises an important issue. Unfortunately, he got the facts wrong.

According to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, almost 200,000 veterans are homeless on any given night in America, accounting for about one-third of the adult homeless population. (IAVA)

It may just be me, but I don’t think there is ever a time when this man is graceful or a time when he speaks with any sort of competence. This man has the audacity to slam John Edwards for speaking about the homeless veterans in our country. That’s not all, he also says the problem is nothing but a lie.

The link that I have posted will bring you to the IAVA site which was founded in 2004 and is the largest group that is in support of the troops and veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan.

This is another blow to the face of Americans, and every man woman and child who has been subjected to this mans nonsense should be highly insulted. This man is nothing but a den of propaganda and deceit. He is challenging the intelligence of the American people by full out LYING to them. This is not an opinion he is speaking, he is telling his viewers (the ones dense enough to LISTEN and BELIEVE him) that there is NO homeless veterans and if there are there aren’t that many.

I have nothing against the republican party, other then Bush and a few others of the mischievous sort, but I think the people that he is supposedly representing should do something about him. He is bringing everybody around him down. Well, he’s BEEN down he’s just throwing his fishing lure out into the lake and catching the few that will bite.

The Top 3 Democrats are Insincere

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6NhJX1g3qyU[/youtube]

Republican Congressman Supported al-Qaida and Taliban

Just when you thought Republican corruption had hit a peak, a Kansas City grand jury charged former representative Mark Deli Siljander (R-Michigcan), who was also Reagan appointee to the UN, with money laundering, fraud and 42 other counts. Here’s what the Kansas City Star said:

A Kansas City grand jury has charged a defunct charity in Columbia with sending money to an Afghan terrorist with ties to al Qaida and the Taliban.

The indictment, returned early this afternoon, also accuses a former U.S. congressman of money laundering, conspiracy and obstruction of justice.

Siljander received $50,000 in stolen money to lobby the US senate to remove the terrorist financing organization from a list of banned non profits. The money was removed from the U.S. Agency for International Development. The charges where appended to an investigation of Islamic American Relief Agency, which has sent money to al-Qaida and Taliban

Huckabee Says Amend Constitution to “God’s Standards”

If anybody needs more proof that Mike Huckabee is one of those crazy baptist ministers that wants to gather all the atheists in the town square and stone them, here it is. Mike Huckabee made a speech on Monday in which he said that he wants to amend the constitution to be in line with “God’s standards.”

He says:

“I have opponents in this race who do not want to change the Constitution, but I believe it’s a lot easier to change the Constitution than it would be to change the word of the living god. And that’s what we need to do — to amend the Constitution so it’s in God’s standards rather than try to change God’s standards so it lines up with some contemporary view.”

Who knows what that means? At the very least, he is suggesting a series of amendments banning abortion and gay marriage and maybe something on how government derives its power from God, and most be obeyed at all times. At the worst, it could mean he wants to go as far as implementing whatever the Christian equivalent of Shar’ia law is in order to bring us back to the days of stoning adulterers. But nobody really knows how far he wants to go. He hasn’t expanded on what “God’s standards” are (to my knowledge).

Keep in mind, it doesn’t really matter what specific changes to the constitution he is suggesting. Any amendment that would introduce the Christian God into the constitution is uniquely un-American. As all good liberals know, the separation of church and state is a fundamental part of American democracy. A constitutional amendment that brings our government in line with one man’s interpretation of the Bible is not just breaking that church state barrier, but an encroachment on civil liberties.

Luckily, I have faith that even if Huckabee became president, he would have a hard time dragging the constitution down to the level of his theological beliefs because there are enough Americans that don’t agree with his exact religious views, but we need to be careful. Huckabee is crazy. Anybody who says otherwise has just been fooled by his charm. He is just a steaming pile of charisma who has shown all signs of being intent on creating a Christian America.

Why I’m Vegeterian

Last year the FDA said “Preliminary investigations showed no signs cloned meat was unhealthy.” This year they announced that it is “Okay to sell cloned meat on grocery store shelves.”

Almost exactly a year ago I became vegan after hearing the news. I’m not the only one who feels cloned meat might pose health risks. The FDA received a whopping 145,000 public comments in regard to cloned animals. This caused a delay in approval from 2007 to 2008

Cloned meat won’t be labeled (although FDA certified organic food can’t be cloned). 145,000 people didn’t write a letter to the FDA to urge them to approve something the FDA was already likely to approve. Clearly Americans are wary of putting experimental food on their tables.

The FDA only approved certain forms of cloned meat and milk, which includes cows, pigs, and goats. Sheep where left off the list of approved meats, probably because of the poor health and early death of cloned sheep, Dolly.

To be honest no new diseases have been discovered from cloned animals. But they are not like their more naturally bred siblings. For one thing, clones tend to come down with genetically inherited genes quicker. Wired magazine (November 2007, page 235) says many times the lab has to clone an adult multiple times because the baby dies before it’s shipped to the farmer:

Within weeks of delivery in September 2002, the first piglet got sick and died. Another dropped dead two months later. A few days before Christmas, Earnhart walked into his heated barn at feeding time and spotted his last two piglets belly-up in the straw. [...] “I felt sick, ” Earnhart says. “I thought maybe someone was telling us we shouldn’t have done this.” ViaGen promised to ship replacements, but Earnhart says he was told that two more litters had died at the lab.

In another instance the reporter was eating some cloned beef and said:

My inch-thick slab is an unpalatable cadaver-gray. I have to saw gingerly to avoid snapping my plastic utensils. I make two perpendicular incisions in the meat. When it seems loose enough, I pinch a small chunk between my fingers and start twisting in circles to get it loose. I pop a morsel into my mouth and immediately regret it — it tastes spongy and stale. I try not to gag.

The point of cloning animals is to have exact copies of your most profitable animals. Obviously they wouldn’t have cloned a cow with spongy, foul tasting meat. So something must have been wrong.

No one can guarantee meat is not from a clone says ViaGen, a cloning company, “The likelihood that anyone could credibly say ‘Our animals are not descended from clones’ is zero.” So even if your meat does claim to be clone free, it could still be contaminated.

So instead of hoping, praying, and writing letters me and my mother switched to a vegan diet (milk, egg, and meat free), which was the only way of making sure we didn’t have to eat something we didn’t want. Besides after reading “Fast Food Nation” I had stopped eating beef and pig after learning how the meat packers, animals, and prepared meat where treated. It’s a shame when the agency charged with protecting your food sells out to business interests and literaly lets crap (Fast Food Nation) be served to consumers.

Post Baby Boomers Will Have to Carry National ID Cards

Just when it seemed controversial laws requiring all Americans use a standardized “national ID” style card, Bush put the brakes on the program, but only temporarily. Full implementation occurs in 2017 which is hopefully enough time for a saner president to scratch the program.

But in the meantime citizens of states opposing Real ID will find that in May they’ll no longer be able to enter federal buildings, visit national parks or fly on aircraft. Is it true democracy to force states like New Hampshire that nearly unanimously barred the state from participating in Real ID?

The program will be introduced in phases. In 2011 states will have to extensively verify the authenticity of identifying documents. By 2014 all citizens born after December 1st 1964 will have to carry these national ID cards. By 2017 the program will apply to all Americans.

Besides invading privacy, these cards will take extra time resulting in long lines (2007 passport fiasco anyone?), and longer times before getting your ID cards. Birth certificates, social security cards, and other identifying information will have to be handed over to government agencies for detailed study, and already the Department of Homeland Security (who is behind Real ID), leaked thousands of names on a website.

An old American saying is “Give me liberty or give me death,” and Bush has infringed on our civil liberties at the excuse of protecting us from an omnipresent enemy he can’t quite place. I would think in 21st century America we could bury that saying in history books, but alas if we’re not careful our government will take our very liberties that our ancestors died for.

Read more about this national ID card at realnightmare.org

Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano Endorses Obama

In a move that will win over more female votes for Barack Obama, Arizona’s governor Janet Napolitino offered an endorsement. This comes only a day after he landed John Kerry’s endorsement. The WaPo writes:

Napolitano praised Hillary Rodham Clinton as a strong candidate, but said, “This is not about Senator Clinton. This is about what is the unique freshness. He does bring the unique ability to excite, to bring young people into the process…and to attract independent voters.

The Napolitano endorsement could help Obama in Arizona’s Feb. 5 primary, but its larger significance is to signal that Clinton does not have a lock on support from top female Democratic elected officials.

To the surprise of many pundits, Obama has gained several high profile endorsements even with his loss in the New Hampshire primaries. Despite the 3 point lead held by Clinton, Obama and the former first lady are both tied in terms of New Hampshire delegates.

In states turning moderate like Arizona, Obama would naturally be a choice for endorsement. He is a uniting progressive who has even won crossover votes from Republicans. Pink and purple states will be the most important in a general election and right leaning independents and moderates would be far less likely to vote for a person they view as polarizing and ultra-liberal.

Mike Huckabee is not an intellectual.

Wear Orange On January 11th

Tomorrow, I will be wearing orange to protest the detention center at Guantánamo Bay. The ACLU is asking conscious Americans to wear orange on January 11th to protest 6 years of detentions at Guantánamo Bay. I urge every person who cares one tiny bit about human rights to wear orange as well.

Maybe this is just another one of those pointless protests that won’t cause any change, but I know that I hadn’t really done the math. Guantánamo Bay has been open for 6 years! How can it take 6 years to close something like that down? Maybe wearing my orange t-shirt will just make me feel a bit cold tomorrow, or maybe it will help bring an end to indefinite detentions.

Join the ACLU tomorrow and wear something orange. Get the word out. We have a democrat controlled congress. They may be lazy, but closing Guantánamo Bay is no brainer. The American people just need to demand it. Wear orange January 11th.

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