We have had this problem before, but in a different sense, with the whole gender issue. So what's going on now? We're discriminating against sexual orientation? This is outrageous. Marriage is a fundamental right bestowed onto everyone! Don't take it away. Christianity's part in all of this has no value at all. Religion and Government were never meant to mix, and the only exception to this rule is different religions having levels of clergy and religious leaders. I know that I am Catholic, but I am really sick of all of the stuff that other Christians (including Catholics, since Catholicism is a Christian branch) are saying about homosexuals! I hate how some of these Republicans, and in rare cases, Democrats, are putting their faith before their political views. And the sad thing is that Christians are saying that homosexuals will burn in Hell and all of that nonsense, and I am not aware of any Christian leader, including the Pope of the Catholic Church, that shuns homosexuals. The only reason why these Christians are belittling homosexuals is because they cannot have children.

So what? What about the heterosexual couples that can't have children due to health and financial issues? Should we burn them in Hell, too? And this education issue that supporters of Proposition 8 are bringing up. How is this related to Proposition 8? So what if kids know about homosexual marriage at a younger age? You tell them about heterosexual marriage. Why not teach homosexual marriage while you're at it? And what is with this whole "kids shouldn't be gay" thing? It's better if they know that they are gay at an earlier point in their life! They can learn to accept themselves and be more open to other people. They will be able to find a suitable partner for themselves earlier in life. How is that bad? Just because they are homosexual doesn't mean they will get less opportunities in life than a heterosexual person. But if Proposition 8 is accepted by the majority, these homosexuals will lose something that the heterosexuals will retain: marriage. The legal bondage of two people in love.

United States Population 300,000,000

A little less than 64% of the voting population voted in the 2008 Election.

Found online at:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_2008

I am not writing this to complain about who won the election or to put any candidate down.  I, for once, agree with my Mother.  Don’t drop over Mom; I like a little humor sometimes too.  Simply put, “He won, now he has to prove himself.”

I may not agree with our new President’s views or plans, but I know that I trust God’s Plan.  I know where I am storing my Faith and Trust and that would be with the only one in power, God.

Knowing that one vote does make a difference and there were a lot of ‘one votes’ left out there to make a difference, I will be sure to be registered to vote in the year 2012, if that is in God’s Plan.

Voting is not something to be taken lightly and if looked at in no other way, for women at least, we should do it to honor the women who fought for our right to vote in the first place.  Lucy Burns, Dora Lewis, and Alice Paul were innocent and defenseless; they were jailed and severely beaten, tortured, and starved for picketing the White House, carrying signs asking for the right to vote.  So to those of you women who don’t vote, please have a change of heart and go register.  It has been our right and privilege since 1920.

So, whether you were registered to vote and didn't think it would matter or if you just failed to register to vote, you should know that your vote is important and your voice needs to be heard.  Looking forward to seeing more than 64% of our voting population being registered to vote in 2012.

Now one Man has the country in his hands. Wait the country has always been in one mans hands, now instead of old hands they are in young hands. Is this the change our country has always needed. We need to have little kids running around the White House, like when JFK was there.  I think that this president is going to be reminded everyday why he has the job that he has and what is really at stake. I am proud that I have the right to exercise my vote. 

My vote counted.

As a white kid going to a majority African American high school, I witnessed the rather sad racial consequences firsthand.  As I walked to class on the morning after Barack Obama became President Elect, just about every two seconds I witnessed people shouting things like "There'll be a black man in the Oval Office!" or "The black man finally won!"  I think that if civil rights leaders who fought so hard for the right to vote were to witness what I did, I don't think they'd be quite as jubilant as everyone says they'd be.

If you disagree with me, I invite you to share your reasoning in the comment area, but I believe that the fact that black people voting for Obama for the simple reason that he is part black (yes, part black--that's another issue I have, people calling him "black" instead of bi-racial, but that's another rant for another time) is a crime.  I'm not saying that every single black person voted for Obama for this reason only, but with Obama garnering 90-100% of black votes in most states, it's obvious that it's a problem.  If McCain got 90-100% of the white vote in most areas, people would be shouting that it was racism left and right.  Isn't it just as much of a crime as a white person voting for McCain simply to keep a non-white man out of the Oval Office?  Isn't that racism as well?

It's almost spitting in the face of those advocates who sacrificed so much to give African Americans, as the equal human beings they are, the opportunity to carefully consider their options and then make an informed, rational decision at the polls.  Isn't this what America itself was founded on?  The principles of intelligent thought and using the democratic power of choice for the good of all the people?

Remember, I write this as neither a Republican nor a Democrat, for I am neither, but as a white girl watching from the sidelines, I have something to say to all of the skin-deep Obama fanatics:

I have a dream, a dream where all Americans, regardless of race, can look past skin color and realize that the races aren't competing in some vast competition that Obama just "won."  American will fail and continue to be divided if we keep up this modern form of racism.  The only "change" in our us and them mentality will come from putting race aside.

It was an astonishing event that the world has ever seen.

But, what made me astonished is that it took only a few hours to proclaim the next president of the most powerful nation in the world. Polls were computerized, everything was so organized.

Now it made me think that recently, I've seen in the local news that a computerized voting system is being forwarded for approval in the Philippines for the 2010 election. A group of bidders came to the goverment and presented their deals of automated machines that will serve as the voting poll.

To me, it was like a nice move by the government to gain back the trust of the nation. Every election in the Philippines that I've witnessed within my seventeen years of life seemed to be dirty and bloody. And with that computerized voting scheme, the upcoming election won't repeat what happened to the previous years.

Votes back then were counted manually by underpaid public school teachers. And when evening comes, the next day, people would hear in the news that a precint staff was murdered and the ballot box stolen. A voting precint classroom was burned down by some mercenaries, trapping the staff inside and killing them and at the same time, burning the ballots. This is actually so common here. And even before the election, a candidate would be in the news--ambushed, murdered, and even forced to step down. That is how dirty politics here.

Now back to the computerized election, it is a very great idea to keep the election clean. No more stolen ballots, no more precint teachers killed and robbed, no more sabotaging of classrooms for the children who need it.

The plan was going smoothly in the introduction of it on how it works, it was fool proof. All the data is immediately forwarded to the election commission, so foul play can be greatly avoided.

Then a group of officials suddenly opposed to this scheme and insisted to keep the election handled manually. Their reason was the government spending, that there's too much money concerned with it and the number of contractors that are suspected to be fictitious.

Then the project was dismissed and was never heard of, until now.

In my opinion, the money that's going to be used on this project is not even a good reason the oppose this. If this computerized election was going to be implemented, then don't they(opposing officials) even think that the Philippines will end up with more righteous officials and actually stop unnecessary release of funds? The poor Philippine nation has suffered enough with their votes ending up into the corrupted menaces of our society. We don't need more corrupted leeches feeding into the money of the nation.

                Firstly, those polled are not always a completely random sample. People in certain locations or of certain races, sexes, or religions may have similar opinions that may skew the resulting data. The wording or order of questions may cause confusion and “loaded questions” suggest at a specific or “right” answer which also contributes to the inaccuracy of polling. An example of a document containing is one that when it asks “Do you vote? (in political elections),” fails to specify what elections or the frequency of said voting. This poll was also taken via a website, a means that brings with it a myriad of problems; a sampling can hardly be completely random if taken from the internet as the people involved must volunteer to take the poll and must also be in possession of a computer. People who participate in online polls also often have the chance to vote multiple times, again distorting public opinion.

                People also have certain attitudes concerning polls that may affect the results. The same document’s question pertains to voting, a certain civic duty that the participation in tends to be valued by Americans, according to Wilson in American Government. Because of this value of voting, some people may be more likely to claim that they voted in order to appear in a better light even if they did not vote, hence the discrepancy between general the number of people who claim to have voted and who actually voted.

                Reflecting again upon the public’s attitude towards polling, the public also tends to trivialize polling, as illustrated in several political cartoons, which suggests such in that they are cartoons, things to be taken light-heartedly, used for amusement amusement. This comical exemplification of one of the flaws in polling reflects public opinion on polling itself. In a way it becomes a sort of circular paradox: polls may often be inaccurate or skewed so people take them lightly and because people take them lightly the results of polls may be skewed or inaccurate. Considering the intrinsic problems of polls as well as the public’s attitude towards polling and one may consider this method a poor means of attempting to measure the many-faceted and ever-changing public opinion.

be a natural-born citizen of the United States;
be at least thirty-five years old;
have been a permanent resident in the United States for at least fourteen years

I would like a president that knows what I am going through.  I do not feel like anything these guys are saying is true and furthermore going to happen when they are in office.  I do not plan on voting and will not be suprized when Obama wins, I will however be suprized when McCain wins.  I expected Hillary to stay in the running but once she was gone I already know who they had decided would be going to the White House.  Our government is becoming more and more curupt and being run in a manner that the generations to come are not gong to appreciate because there is no one there to speak for them.  So when you are on your way to the poles think about what you want the next 4 years of your life to be like and what the geration after is going to think about it, Did you waste your time, that extra sleep before work, your lunch break for nothing?  Or did it matter, did you count?

It did not matter if the people standing in line with me were black or brown or white. We were all American's. I live in an area of town where I am the minority. Occasionally I am treated with great distain. Twice I have stood in line at a fast food restraunt and the cashier waited on the person that came in after me and totally ignored the fact that I was even there. My point is racism is alive and well in our society.

It breaks my heart to know that so many men and women have died for the freedoms we enjoy and we can not even treat one another with respect. I believe that untill we stop trying to classify everyone by race it will never change. Why is it that we have to know the demographics of every race in America.

I believe that change will not come untill we stop the classifications. Why is it on every form we fill out the question of race is even on it? We will never get past racism untill we stop the need to know everyone's race. Shouldn't the question be 'Are you an American'? Not are you Native American, Caucaian, African American or Hispanic, but 'Are you an American?' What a fabulous shift in consciousness that would be.

I think that from now on every time I see the question of race on a form I will check other and write in 'American'. For us to truley be a united people we have to break our own barriers before we can break the barriers that outsiders place on us. Let's truley be a United People living in the greatest nation of the United States of America.

Kevin Rudd, who become leader of the Labor Party just a year or so ago lead the Labor Party to government under the banner of ‘time for a change’ The Howard Government had been doing a fine job.  The PM was strong in foreign policy, he was respected by his peers overseas, and the economy was strong.  His cabinet had introduced the first Home Owners grant scheme that was very successful.  Why then did he lose the 2007 election?  The only thing that I can put it down to is that Australians were seduced by a clever campaign of the need for “change”.  The catch cry in the streets was “Oh look Johnny’s too old, and he’s been there for 11 years, it’s time for a change.” But this catch cry was fueled by clever campaign advertising by the Labor Party camp. 

In America there is another push for ‘change’ and it is being propagated by, surprise! It is the Democratic Party, which has the same philosophical base as the Labor Party in Australia, why, they even removed the U from labour no less.  There is a major difference though between Obama and Rudd.  That is, that while Obama is a good orator and speaks well and sound great, there is not much substance to what he says.  I’m not American so I won’t have a vote but I did have a vote in Australia and I didn’t vote for Rudd.  The same thing is happening here in America as happened in Australia.  Even though voting is compulsory down under there are still many who don’t vote.  How can they fine you for not voting if they don’t know you exist because you aren’t registered to vote?  However, in USA voting is voluntary and many people just don’t bother.  I hate to say this but there are many people who have been encouraged to vote for the first time this time around who have no business voting at all, basically because they don’t know anything about the election process or the candidates. This was the case also in Australia last year.

Those of you who have read my other article called Bottom Up and Top down Economics will have an idea of what I am on about.  Voting for a liberal political party is very attractive to the middle class voter because they can see the immediate benefits of higher taxes to the upper classes.  They do not see the long term effects of these taxes in higher production costs and loss of jobs, and in the long run higher prices and lower real wages. No matter how good the argument of the conservatives may sound, the promise of more cash in the pay packet is extremely attractive.  So how does this relate to America’s Obama and Australia’s Rudd? Obama has had a huge campaign of early voting and he has pushed a campaign of registering for people who’d never voted before.  A poll which was taken outside the polling stations revealed that many of the voters barely knew their presidential candidates and certainly weren’t very clued up on the respective running mates or policies.  The same thing basically happened in Australia with the challenging party running a campaign to register and vote to have a say, meaning implicitly, as long as you vote for us.

Perhaps it is more beneficial to learn about how the system works and what values are at stake in the election process before voting.  Maybe the electoral commission could institute a rudimentary test to qualify to vote.  On this test they could ask who the candidates are, which party they represent and which policies they champion.  Perhaps then the person who is elected to lead a country will be deserving of the confidence of their electorate. As a teacher I know that the citizenry are supposed to learn about politics at school in a subject called Social Education or Geography and Society in Australia and social Studies in America. Something is not happening in our schools and many students graduate from high school without a clue about politics or how their country functions politically and socially, nor do they care.  This is evident for Australia as well as for America.  The old adage that a nation gets the leadership that it deserves seems to be well said, because if we go to the polls in ignorance then we waste the gift that Democracy is supposed to give us.