I've been involved in politics since I was in Jr. High School, believe it or not. I was able to vote for the first time in 1976. I turned 18 less than two weeks before the presidential election that year.
Prior to that, I'd been outside of grocery stores twice collecting signatures on weekends (since I was in Jr. High School during the week) for two different political issues regarding the state of Colorado...at two different times. Once I gathered signatures to get phosphate levels lowered in laundry detergent, when I was in 7th grade. There were no standards or regulations regarding that...and the rivers were filled with bubbles as fish and plants died. That was before Richard Nixon created the EPA.
We lost that one...never made it on the ballot.
The second time I gathered signatures outside grocery stores regarded the Winter Olympics in Colorado. I was in 9th grade. The problem for Coloradans at that time, was there was no corporate sponsorship for the Olympics. It was still "clean" (har)...from "professionalism," or so it was still believed and sold to be. Every person living in Colorado would have had to shell out about $1300 each to build all the stuff needed for the Winter Olympics of 1976. No way could Coloradans shoulder the entire cost of that! We won this one. The Winter Olympics didn't happen in Colorado in 1976.
I grew up in Denver.
Prior to the 1976 presidential election, my friend Brian and I started up the campaign for Jerry Brown for President entirely ourselves in Boulder County Colorado. I was going to the University of Colorado then. Jimmy Carter eventually became the nominee.
That's a little bit of my activities in political history. More below the fold.
The Republican Presidential Campaign:
I have watched the national conventions of both parties from 1976 to today. I've always been very interested in learning about the platforms of each party to know specifically how each candidate and each party plans to govern the country if elected.
This election cycle has been drastically different, however. The Republican National Convention was the strangest one I've seen in the 36 years I've been watching them. They truly didn't present a platform. When Paul Ryan actually spoke about $716 billion and Medicare...he simply bald face lied. He claimed President Obama was going to end Medicare because he was going to just take that $716 billion away from Medicare.
The truth is that is exactly what Paul Ryan's own plan will do ---> take $716 billion away from Medicare entirely...then give seniors a voucher to help them pay for their own private health care insurance policy they would have to buy from a for-profit insurance company.
On top of this voucher, this will cost each and every senior an average of $6000 more per year out of pocket to buy that health care insurance policy.
PLUS, there is a much bigger problem with this scheme. Since Paul Ryan would also "end ObamaCare" as well, how on earth would seniors even qualify in the first place for a health insurance policy if that happened?
President Obama's plan takes $716 billion away from profits that private health insurance companies would make in the next 10 years in exchange for 30,000,000 million more customers that will buy health insurance policies from them. The for-profit insurance companies negotiated this with Obama. They want it. It's more lucrative for them.
Obama's plan closes the "donut hole" in Medicare, which was a massive give away to the for-profit health insurance companies by G. W. Bush...never paid for...and which is now costing seniors $thousands when they "fall into the donut hole."
The Republican Party decided to let Clint Eastwood have a discussion with an empty chair. He made up a fake Obama with which he had a fake discussion. Pretty pathetic.
When asked yesterday about the Romney economic plan, Paul Ryan said it would take too much time to explain.
Interesting! Especially odd when we now know actually what the Mitt Romney economic plan for the future is by way of that leaked video...the "47% video."
Speaking to the guests who'd paid $50,000 a plate (the yearly average income for Americans) Mitt said he would do NOTHING at all. His economic plan is to just let things continue exactly the way they are because the economy is better already. So by Mitt doing nothing at all...nada...zip...the economy will come back just fine.
Not really a ringing endorsement as to why Mitt Romney should be our next President.
Our local race for US House Representative:
It's between Jim Reed (D) and Doug LaMalfa (R). LaMalfa won't debate. Here is Jim Reed talking about this "chicken-ism" on Doug LaMalfa's part (or is it just plain snobbishness and arrogance by a man who truly just doesn't care?)
I believe we deserve to know how much money he just takes from tax payers and his future plans on doing more of the same for his personal gain.
LaMalfa has said some odd things lately. He said if a women has an abortion, she then has a greater chance of developing breast cancer. This is a complete lie, but certainly follows the desire of the Republican Party to stop allowing abortions...which, of course, would be unconstitutional.
This didn't go over well with our local TV media who called LaMalfa out on it. That is very strange around here. The local media is almost completely in the bag for the GOP.
And LaMalfa isn't liked even by the RightOnLine folk (this is strange too.)
No ethical or moral Republican voter should ever seriously consider voting for Doug LaMalfa under any circumstances. That is why this Conservative Republican Leader is advising any Republican voter in the 1st Congressional District to withhold their vote from Doug LaMalfa.
Whole article here:
http://www.rightondaily.com/...
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LaMalfa also said that he agreed with Mitt Romney when Mitt stated 47% of Americans are moochers and victims. BUT, LaMalfa said the numbers were off. He said it is only actually 23% of Americans. WHY? Because if you are a registered Republican and get government assistance, it's not your fault. Times are tough. BUT, if you are a registered Democrat and get government assistance, you're a moocher.
Doug LaMalfa is very rich. He's a rice farmer who gets government assistance every year in the form of farm subsidies, even though he his a multimillionaire.
The maximum amount each farm owner can get in farm subsidies is $180,000. Doug LaMalfa simply changed the ownership of his rice farm from just himself to an additional 5 family members on paper. That way he can collect $1,080,000 each year in government farm assistance. He has famously made over $5,000,000 over the years FROM the government.
WE the taxpayers have given him that money. But, of course, IOKIYAR.
What is Mr. LaMalfa's platform? We don't know. All we have is his slogan to go by: "He's one of Us."
One of whom?
The multimillionaire government subsidized folk who, in his case alone, get 21.6 times more than the average American makes in an entire year in FREE money! (or 2160% more per year, if you prefer...or what it takes the average American 21.6 years to make, if you prefer)
I don't know anyone personally that LaMalfa is like.
The only other thing we can go by to find out about Doug LaMalfa's platform is from his campaign web site. It states but one and only one goal...to get rid of ObamaCare
Our nation is at a critical juncture, as significant aspects of Obamacare (the universally mocked Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act) are being debated before the U.S. Supreme Court. When held under the light of freedom so carefully constructed by those who penned our U.S. Constitution, I have faith that this seizure of our health care system will be abolished. Moreover whether this law is eliminated by the courts or the citizens themselves this seizure of our basic rights cannot stand.
See the rest of Doug LaMalfa's able-to-be-known-entire platform:
http://www.douglamalfa.com/...
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So, with next to nothing for we...the citizens who really want to know about the candidates we will vote for, WHY WON'T DOUG LaMALFA DEBATE JIM REED?
LaMalfa flatly refuses to have any debates. WHY? What is he afraid of? The guy is a multimillionaire. He gets tons of free money from all of us every year. He wants to deny anyone who isn't a registered Republican from getting any of that sweet milk he suckles on from that big government teat.
He is part of a group that is now working on getting our local underground aquifer...the Tuscan Aquifer drained to be sold on the cheap ($10-15 per acre-foot) to some billionaires in Southern California who bought the empty aquifer down there (the one that got drained to water LA sprawl and the Imperial and Owens Valley farms).
Those guys want to fill it up with our local Tuscan Aquifer water bought cheap...then wait for a drought year to resell it for $1500 per acre-foot down in Southern California.
Why would LaMalfa be behind this? Is it the fact he's made a sweet deal with these guys to change how he waters his rice field? He would change from mostly watering with the surface water he's allotted, to exclusively watering from water taken from the Tuscan Aquifer...so he can then sell his surface water for BIG, BIG bucks to Southern California.
Could that be it?
Of course locally people who rely on a well they had dug for their home water would have no more water. Vast areas of Oak trees, Cottonwood trees and several streams would die and disappear in areas within 6 different counties up here in Northern California.
Doug LaMalfa leaves us with next to nothing to really learn about his political platform other than "He's One of Them," the 1% who still are so, so happy to get free money from the government while setting up new schemes to get richer and richer by selling off all of our water and destroying all of our habitat...because IOKIYAR.
Doug, I'd be a chicken to debate too. I mean you being such a selfish oink-piggy and all.