It's all over but the counting. & the lawyering. & the blogging about the counting & the lawyering.
voted. Not for Bush though. Not for Badnarik either. I went with Peroutka. Long story ehind that decision but more or less I felt he was a better representative of my views. Not that I thought he'd have a chance at winning, but if he got enough votes it would send the same message to the republicans that they should stop leaning left & send one to the libertarians: either shape up or get behind this party.
For senate I went with Coors. While not perfect on the gun issue he has potential. Plus he seems to be reminiscent of an actual federalist. In short I think he might turn out alright. I could be wrong though. & considering he's trailing Salazar (whom some damn rag around here claims supports the 2nd amendment) we may not get a chance to find out. Be a shame though: my first vote for a republican for naught. At least this should prove to some people that 100% agreement isn't necessary - the high 80's to low 90's will do til we can work on them.
I went with Clyde Harkins for the house seat. He's American Constituion Party (like Peroutka) & seemed a better choice than Beauprez.
If it came down to a republican & a democrat, I wnet republican. If there as a libertarian or american constitution party candidate I went with one of them instead.
Of course I voted no on amendment 36 (the altering of the electoral college thing) but then again I voted no on every damn thing, except a local measure to change county elections to the first tuesday of November. No judge was safe for retention, no tax was secure in passing - at least if my vote was the deciding one.
Amendment 35 looks like it'll pass. That bumps the tax on cigerettes from 20 cents to 84 cents. 8.40 dollars a carton in tax. I smoke the cheap stuff; $20 per carton. It'd be 18 without the state tax we have now. If amendment 35 passes it'll be $26.40 per carton. That's the cheap stuff. We'd be looking at $31.40 for name brands, assuming they have a $23 base price (minus the state tax).
I'm from North Carolina. Back home we're partial to our tobacky & unpartial to revenuers. Needless to say I'm not happy. Switching careers from guitarist to tobacco smuggler has crossed my mind. Tarheels used to run shine. I don't think tobacky would be that hard a transition, & in spirit it'll be the same. & if you think I'm serious & wish to talk me out of it let me assure you that it's not necessary. Oh I am indeed serious, you just won't be able to talk me out of it.
Bloody socialists. I've been asking every damn body I know how they voted on amendment 35. I pity the statist bastard who tells me they voted yes. (No, I won't take a swing at them no matter how tempting, but using language they've probably never heard before to call their ancestory into question is very probable).
Some other taxing measures look like they'll pass. Bastards.
Getting back to the general election, it's close but I think Bush will pull it off. Course Kerry will challenge it in the courts & it'll be up in the air for a while. What concerns me most is Bush or the senate trying to push through an "assault weapons" ban between now & January. It's possible it'd come after January, but I try to worry about no more than 2 months at a time. I'll keep watching for it though & I encourage you to do that as well.
The libertarians & the american constitution party didn't seem to have enough of a turn out to affect things much if at all. That's discouraging but not surprising unfortunately. Too many people were caught up in the alleged urgency of this election to vote third party & risk "throwing away" their vote.
I have three posts I'm meaning to write. All responses to arguments that are brewing either here or on another site. In fact an interesting one will be over at Stop The Bleating. In addition I have a post or two I'm meaning to write for The Shooter's Carnival (yes they'll include gun pics as well as target pics). That's in addition to the real life concerns that seem to have been eating up so much of my posting time. I did make it to the range a few times in the last few weeks. Matter of fact one trip was to the Boulder Rifle Club. Nothing like shooting a Garand in Boulder. It's even more satisfying than chain smoking on the sidewalk in front of their city hall. But more on that when I get around to writing the posts for The Shooter's Carnival.
So I'm gonna be busy. To steal a line from Bradley Felton, "I vote for more ammo."
Posted by Publicola at November 3, 2004 03:14 AM