Who in the %$&! am I supposed to vote for?

Okay, so I've been watching the debate tonight, while at the same time researching third party candidates. Now I've come to a definite conclusion...I don't know who to vote for.

I don't want to vote for a Republican or a Democrat. To me, they represent corporate politics and represent no change for American government/politics. They have been selected by wealthy and powerful politicos and have been set out for us to choose. The current party system works to perpetuate itself and maintain barriers to entry for other parties. For this reason alone, I feel compelled to vote outside the norm.

On the other hand, all of the "third" parties that are on the ballot here in Nashville have serious things that make me hesitate to support them --

- Libertarian Party: I thought this was going to be my party when I first started reading the Libertarian views. The idea of protecting personal liberty and property and minimizing the government's involvement in the lives of the citizenry is really attractive. The thing is that I think it is actually good to have some government involvement to help take care of members of society that need aid and to prevent damage to the whole society by individual parties. The Libertarian idea of eliminating government regulations would encourage increased oil drilling rather than helping to drive the economy toward new energy resources. I really thought I was a free market guy until I read their platform.

- Green Party: I really do like the social justice and sustainable living aspect of the Green Party. I really would love to have the country be more influenced to move in that direction. What really holds me back with the Greens though is the amount of spending and programs that they are in favor of. I don't see it as additional spending, but I really feel like the government needs to drastically reduce spending and drastically reduce the tax burden on the people.

- Constitution Party: Similar to the Libertarians, these folks are primarily concerned with personal liberties. They do believe that if government is left unchecked, it is in its nature to usurp the liberty of its citizenry and become a major violator of human rights. The Constitutees are interested in addressing some so-called social issues with federal legislation (e.g., marriage). Gun rights are huge for them.

Anyway, I feel stuck. I'm still checking out Nader...maybe he'll be the guy.

In the meantime, consider a third party candidate. Break the cycle of the status quo!

Two things: The Sword In Concert -and- Boring Conference Calls.

The Sword in concert was one of the most fun concerts I have ever been to. Shawn and I went Wednesday and saw them at Cannery Ballroom. They opened for Clutch…I wasn’t familiar with them, or any of the other opening acts, the only one we saw was Graveyard. The Sword exceeded all expectations that I had, after seeing them at Bonnaroo. Somehow, they are a mix of Metallica and Black Sabbath with a little bit of Rush thrown in. The highlight of the night was their cover of the KISS song “She.” That and jumping into the mosh pit. While I have to admit that it was a pretty tame mosh pit, it was still exhilarating to do it. By the end of the night, I was on such an adrenaline rush that I got home at 12:45, but couldn’t go to sleep until 1:45! For anyone into classic metal, check out The Sword .

Boring conference calls should be outlawed. For a call that opened at 2p with the phrase, “I want to make sure we keep this short,” I was surprised (not really) when, an hour later, we had completed item 1 on the agenda. I really feel sorry for the 4 people on the call that did not have any business with item 1. I guess to be honest, I should admit that right now (3:12) I am still on the conference call.

…

I had to break and come back. Now I’m on call number 2. This one seems to be going forward a little more quickly. Anyway, I need to know if either Obama or McCain has voiced ideas for changing this dire situation.

Thirdly (I know it wasn’t in my title…let’s step outside of the box), I feel like I have to say something about the idea of the government bail out of “the economy” … come to think of it, I’ll save that for later.

Shine on Doc.