stinerman's blog

Ender's video which featured the former Clinton supporter indirectly reminded me of the topic of judicial appointments and its effect on voters.

A common argument for McCain that has been used to shore up his support among the base is that he will appoint strict constructionist judges in the mold of Antonin Scalia while Obama will try to pack the court with far left ideologues. That, in and of itself, is a good enough reason to pull the lever for McCain, regardless of what views he may have on other issues. Indeed, a McCain presidency could finally be what overturns Roe v. Wade. Lets take a moment to dissect these arguments.

Over the course of the next few weeks or possibly months, I'm going to pose a high-level political process question to the SC faithful. These questions will be mostly about how the government is fundamentally structured rather than on some sort of issue. My hope is that we can all debate from first principles on an issue that isn't readily discussed in normal political discourse.

Today, I'll ask questions about ballot access laws.

I wrote this in response to this diary over at Daily Kos. I usually don't post there, but I was feeling in the mood to put in a few words about Nader as I do from time to time. The comment grew a bit longer than I had realized, so it became a diary here. Also, I hope to be back posting open threads by the 7th. I hope everyone is having a good summer thus far.

I completely empathize with the Florida debacle, but I find the idea that everything was Nader's fault overstating the case.

I'll level with everyone here. Yes, if Ralph Nader didn't run for President (or had at least endorsed Gore in Florida or New Hampshire) Al Gore probably would have won the Electoral College. I say "probably" because public opinion preferences are chaotic.

Pundits and commentators have made much hay out of the demographic trends in the Democratic primaries. This is really to be expected given the candidates and their policy. Never have voters had to choose between a woman and a biracial (yes, Virginia, Obama's mother is white and from Kansas -- it doesn't get much whiter than that) man. Given the haphazard coalition that the Democrats have cobbled together to form a working majority, it would make sense that identity politics would take center stage, especially so in this historic election.

I took the liberty in creating an SC Folding@Home team .

For those of you not familiar with F@H, I'll let their FAQ do the talking. Essentially, you run a program that runs only when you are not actively using your computer. It does complex mathematical calculations involved in protein folding, which has applications in treating many diseases.

Back when I was contemplating a Political Science minor, I took a few upper level poly sci courses. Posted below is one of the essays I wrote in PLS 462 -- Comparative Revolutions. It's a long read, but it might interesting to the SC crowd. If anyone is interested, I can email them the full PDF. For copyright purposes, this can be considered public domain.

Apparently more than a few northeast Ohio Republicans decided to cross over in the March 4th primary and presumably vote for Hillary Clinton by choosing a Democratic partisan ballot.

We're used to hearing about partisans trying to game the system by voting insincerely for a candidate that they don't support. Democrats attempted exactly the same thing in Michigan by voting for Mitt Romney since they knew their votes for President would not be counted due to DNC rules. But Ohio law is very different from Michigan law regarding the procedure in primary elections.

Often we hear from the President that his first duty is to protect and defend our country from those who would harm us. We hear from not only the President and other Republicans, but even Chris Dodd that civil liberties must be given up in face of increased security to help prevent any further terrorist attacks. But is this really so? Let’s check the oath of office for the President of the United States:

Most people who regularly post here know my basic political temperament. At the core, I'm essentially a progressive/socialist with a few odd libertarian and federalist streaks. What puts me solidly in the libertarian camp on federal issues is my strict constructionist/originalist view of the Constitution. For instance, I really like the idea of social security, Medicare, the welfare state, etc., but in my view the Constitution authorizes no branch of government to create these programs. The Supreme Court has ruled otherwise.

A recent comment about my Wikipedia userpage led me to the idea of asking everyone where else they have online presences. I know Second Life is somewhat popular in these parts. At what other websites do you have an account?

Obviously, if you aren't comfortable divulging anything, please don't. Google and a few bits of info can get the home addresses of just about everyone.

After a bit of debate on an open thread with GoRight regarding the intersection of creationism and science, I had a bit of time to think about what he said and the points that were raised throughout the thread.

I posted something similar to Kos.

In short, who is the least worst on the other side of the aisle. If a liberal/Democrat leaner, post your favorite Republican ticket. If conservative/Republican, your favorite Democratic ticket. If other, give your favorite from both major parties.

Remember, don't vote for who you think would make it easier for your side to win, but for whom you think would be best in the White House.

EDIT: I meant to limit everyone to announced Presidential candidates and possible VPs, but the discussion is going well enough.

As we all know, many people vote D or R not because they support the party, but because they dislike the alternative. They have swallowed the argument that voting for a minor party or independent candidate is a vote for the other side. Most times this is manifested as a Green Party vote over a Democratic Party vote or as a Libertarian or Constitution Party vote over a Republican vote.

Of course, we know that minor parties and independent candidates don't get a fair shake due to our system. Here are some possible ways to make our government more responsive and get more people involved.