Note: This article is written as a companion piece for the one to follow. In 2004, US Democrats were presented with a very winnable election. A less than popular president, associated with a less than popular war was presiding over an economy that, while improving, was not what we remembered from the 1990's. The Democrats could do no better than John Kerry, whose lack of charisma and a consistent, coherent platform (he should have just made his campaign slogan "Bush sucks!" It probably would ...

Link In the most recent news about Tom Delay, Texas state Democrats have wn an injunction to keep the state Republican Party from naming a replacement for Delay in the Texas election, arguing that Delay's move to Washington was a sham designed to allow the GOP to skirt election rules. Frankly, I don't like what Delay did. In fact, I believe it IS a sham, basically. But, laws are laws, and Delay and his advisers apparently did what they had to to stay within the law and allow the GOP to ...

In the wake of the William Jefferson scandal, Nancy Pelosi has led the charge against the way the FBI executed a search warrant on Congressman Jefferson's office. And the problems she has with the investigation are quite legitimate problems. She is correct in demanding that Jefferson's rights as a citizen be preserved in the investigation. Now if we can just get her to extend the same rights to American citizens, we'd be fine. She and many others in Congress have been quite reluctant to allow...

George Clooney tops my list of interesting celebrities. While I don't hold the same political views as him much of the time, I respect the fact that he takes the opportunity to actually LEARN about something before speaking off the cuff about it (much of the time, anyway). And, to my own surprise, I am agreeing with him on the need for US involvement in Darfur. But Clooney has missed something. You see, the reasons we should get involved in Darfur are the same reasons we were right to get inv...

With the climb in gas prices at the pump, it is only common sense that we need a vast change in our way of living to bring them back down, or at least, check their double digit inflation. But it's not a "Republican" issue, as some would have you believe. While Democratic spinsters have successfully spun the blame to Bush, just as GOP spinsters successfully spun the blame for the 2000 spike to Clinton, the truth is, it is ALL of our policymakers, of both parties, but notably among the democrats w...

One of the most glaring oversights of our founding fathers was in not adopting English as the official language of this country. Virtually every other country on the planet has at least one (some, like Canada, have two...damn frenchies!); we have none. As we discuss the plight of millions of individuals in this country who demand to be recognized as American citzens despite the fact that they are habitual criminals, and who refuse to learn the accepted if not official language of this country...

Monday should be an interesting day. It is the day many immigrants are planning to walk out on their jobs and boycott all American industry, in support of those here illegally, who they feel should be offered blanket amnesty and be given a national anthem in their own language, rather than in English, to sing. In the midst of the discussion, some angry voices have come out. While I hope these voices are in the minority, I am concerned they may not be. One individual expressed the fact that he...

President Bush's selection of Fox News commentator Tony Snow to replace outgoing press secretary Scott McClellan was an interesting one, to say the least. For many years, Fox News has tried to portray itself as "fair and balanced", and has chided other stations for either getting in bed with the current administration, or putting the administration in their sights, whichever accusation best supported the thesis of the pundit making it. Their commentators have taken on the self appointed mant...

As the debate goes further on reparations for African Americans for years spent in slavery (despite the fact that no African American living has lived under LEGAL slavery in America), it is important to note why the reparations movement should NEVER be successful. Pro and con arguments can be advanced, but the simple fact is, reparations as proposed are unConstitutional. You see, our Constitution specifically prohibits the introduction of ex pos facto laws. That is, you cannot impose a penalt...

The illegal alien situation in the United States is reaching a boiling point. I know of absolutely nobody who has gone unaffected by this issue. The anger of many Americans, while justified, over our government's failure to enforce our southern border, is being directed at people of Hispanic heritage (or in some cases I could cite, who APPEAR to have Hispanic heritage). I am afraid that if we are not extremely careful on this issue, we could wind up repeating some of Germany's mistakes in the le...

Link In testimony this past week, Alberto Gonzales left open the possibility that President Bush could order warrantless wiretaps on domestic conversations, in direct defiance of the fourth amendment and multiple high court rulings. When the wiretap story broke, we were assured that the only warrantless wiretaps that were allowed in America were international calls that included a terror suspect on one or both sides of the conversation, despite the fact that under FISA law warrants can ...

An interesting bit of news came across my desk the other day. Seems there is an independent who has filed to be considered on the ballot in my race. Because he filed as an independent, though, he needs to gather 500 signatures to get on the November ballot (harder than it seems--those 500 cannot have voted in either of the primaries or in a third party convention, such as Libertarian). He filed under the impression he was the only other candidate on the ballot. I called him and spoke with him...

In the recent discussion on the resignation of Texas Representative Tom Delay, I expressed a frustration with the status quo that preserves the GOP's place on the ballot, no matter what. I had to file, and every other candidate had to file, by January 2 to be on the November ballot, and I believe that the same should be said for Delay's replacement. Heck, we're even a month and a half past the Texas Ethics Commission's deadline for Personal Financial Statements (the biggest barrier to candidates...

The following information was copied from a Libertarian candidates newsgroup, of which I am a part. My comments follow at the bottom: With news that Tom DeLay is withdrawing from his House reelection contest, the question is what happens now in his race. It appears that the following is the applicable Texas law (putting aside any caselaw that might affect interpretation of these chapters): Under Texas Election code section 1.005(7) , DeLay was running in a 'General electi...

Now I have the district, county and precincts out of the way. I mailed the required forms to the Secretary of State to be on the ballot in November. One more hurdle down on the race to the statehouse. I would like to point out that I am, technically ahead of Gubernatorial candidate Kinky Friedman in this regard, as he has yet to collect all the signatures necessary for ballot access. I am ahead not because I have worked harder, but because of the ballot access efforts of the Libertarian Part...