Politics

Today Democrats and Republicans across Oklahoma are turning to the polls to pick the candidates for their respective parties. Democrats pick Democrats, Republicans pick Republicans, and everybody else is well aware that they are not welcome. Oklahoma suffers from the horrible combination of having a closed primary, as well as the most restrictive ballot access laws of the nation.

Members of the Green Party, the Libertarian Party, the Socialist Party, the Constitution Party, and of course the Pirate Party, are unable to show their party affiliation when running for any office in Oklahoma. There might be other third parties present in Oklahoma, but they all share the same fate. I am sure that there are also many true Independents in this great state, and they proudly run for office with the label “Independent” on the ballot to show that they have shed the restraints that come with a party affiliation. But many others are proud members of the third parties that seek to make a difference in Oklahoma. Our labels mark our ideals, our convictions, and our goals. Yet the Elephant and the Donkey show bipartisanship when it comes to keeping competition off the ballot.

In addition to keeping Independents off the ballot, Oklahoma has also made it very clear that we are not welcome during the primary season. This decision is a double edged sword, keeping democracy away from the voters, and taking away the “independent vote” that could decide the election for either party.

We frequently have races where only one party is running multiple candidates for one open position. Independent voters, and voters of the opposing “major” party have to sit on their hands while a minority of voters decide who will represent us when it comes running this state or this country. We have no input on this decision, standing by as “they” declare who they have picked for us. Why do the major parties think it would be so dangerous to let independents vote in their primaries, or to let members of the “other” party vote in their primary. Closed primaries only reinforce the mindset of partisanship by forcing a mindset of “If I can’t vote for a Democrat/Republican, then I will vote for nobody!” Is it so unlikely that a Republican/Democrat might say: “I like Candidate X from the other party, I will vote for him/her in their primary so that I can vote for him/her in November.” Are the major parties so paranoid of each other that they only see manipulation instead of bipartisanship if primary elections were opened up to everybody regardless of political affiliation? Keep the current “you can only vote for one party” regulation, but open up the option of picking a primary in which to vote.

By keeping independents out of the primaries, the major parties also rob themselves of the much desired Independent Vote. Instead of letting your base alone pick your candidate, and then trying to win the independent vote after the fact, why not let the Independents pick the candidate most likely to win the Independent vote? What good does it do if the Republican that the Republicans like the best wins the primary, only to loose to the leftover Democrat who appeals to more Independents? (This scenario applies to both parties) If the Independents vote in a primary, and make a difference in the outcome, then that support will follow the winner all the way to the November elections. If a candidate wins his parties nomination with the independent vote, then he will have the backing of those independents during the general elections.

Instead both the Republican Party of Oklahoma and the Democratic Party of Oklahoma have made it very clear that they do not care about the Independent voters of Oklahoma, except of course when our few percentage points make the difference between wining and loosing in November.

Well, I have been very neglectful of this blog, and I don't see it springing to life in the near future. After reading most of the blogs on my blogroll it seems like I am not the only one suffering from this problem.

I have actually been more active in trying to bring the Pirate Party to the USA and more specifically to Oklahoma. After watching the elections in Europe and Germany I found that we are having a lot of the same issues here in the USA. I joined the German Pirate Party, I really like what they stand for and what they are trying to do.

I know that we are pretty much screwed in the USA with the two-party system, but I still think that the Pirate Party is a worthwhile project to pursue. So If you are interested in what I'm spending my time on I invite you to join me at the Oklahoma Pirate Party site. The news section is set up as a blog, and that has actually where I have been doing most of my activity lately.

In related news, we should be closing on our house towards the end of the month. I'm hoping that the adventure of being new homeowners might spring this blog to life.

I have expanded on the original idea for Radio Free Germany and started a new blog for that purpose. More information can be found at the About page on the new blog, but in a nutshell it is a project to do what little I can to fight against the slow erosion of rights in Germany. At the moment it is mainly setup to be an aggregate of posts that were originally posted by others, but compiled on the site and stored on a server that is physically located in the USA. My main goal there was to have a backup of posts and information that are out of reach of the BKA (German FBI), and that makes it harder for them to shut down Blogs and servers that are critical of the BKA. I will post other news and resources on the new blog as well, and I am not sure what other directions the new website will go.

The other main purpose for starting a new site was to keep D-USA a little less saturated with the situation in Germany. While I do have the occasional post on politics or religion on here, I try to keep D-USA on a lighter note. D-USA is mainly a means for me to share what is going on in my and Mrs. D-USA personal life, and to provide some light entertainment. The new website will also be a mix of German and English posts. I will usually post in English, just because after living here for 13 years I have a better skill at typing in English. But guest posts, and re-post of other blogs will be in whatever language they were originally posted in. For all I know the whole project may not take off, but at least I feel like I am doing something about the problem.

For the last few years I thought I new Cris, but it turns out that I was wrong...

While Cris might have been a nice neighbor, constitution loving democrat when he was still known as Y2K Survivor, the launch of his new Blog was only the beginning of a complete re-branding.

Now he is simply Opprobrious, a dirt-slinging Karl Rove Republican with the goal of becoming President of the Okie Blogs, and he will use every dirty trick known to man to get there. I was actually able to get in touch with Karl Rove and he had the following to say:

"Cris was lost in his liberal ways. I taught him everything he knows about campaigning. I had to explain to him that only Al-Qaeda still uses AOL to blog about how much they hate America, and that as a true American he needs to switch to Blogger to show how much he loves the red-white-and-blue."

Ever since Cris hired Rove to run his campaign for the Okie Blog Awards, he has been involved in the most negative campaigning ever seen in this great state of Oklahoma. (And if you have seen Oklahoma campaigns then you know how bad it really is!). He has been attacking a fellow Oklahoma Blogger, spreading mean lies about her, all in an attempt to increase his own chances at snatching this years Okie Blog Award. But I will not fall for his negative campaigning.

Cris, I am calling you out to a Blog Fight to the Death! I hereby pledge to tell the world the truth about Cris/Y2K/Opprobrious:

Not only does Cris like to drink, but when he does drink he only barely manages to crawl to his toilet and utter curses that will make your children cry while he relieves himself of his overindulgence in alcohol. If you vote for Cris, you not only vote for an alcoholic, but an alcoholic who cannot handle alcohol!

Cris also hates the Northern States of the USA. Not only does he attempt to divide us Oklahomans by trying to split apart the harmony of our Blogs, he also tries to split apart the whole country. My secret sources at the "Opprobrious For Okie 2008" campaign have informed me that if he wins the award, he will use his new power to split the country in half. He is planing on naming his half of the country "The Opprobrious States Of Cris". But I will not stand for this, no sir, I love this Country and no Y2K whatever will get away with trying to destroy what I love!

The truth is that while Cris has been busy trying to tear this great state and country apart, I was actually conducting an "Introduce Oklahoma To The World Tour" this year. While Cris was prepping his family for pre-marital relations, I was busy spreading the wholesome image of Oklahoma to Germany, Italy, Austria, and Amsterdam. Oklahoma will benefit greatly from the increased tourism to our great state thanks to all the publicity I have generated for this state on our European tour.

So I will not stoop to Cris' level and try to tell you who you should vote for during the upcoming Okie Blog Awards.....but I will tell you who you should NOT vote for!

Today is the day that I cast my first presidential vote for a Democrat. I voted for Bush in 2000 & 2004, but I will break from my Republican leanings and vote for Obama this year. This has not been an easy decision for me, but after spending a lot of time thinking, studying, and praying over my decision I believe that it is the right one for me.

The biggest factor in my decision is that I am a believer in God and Jesus Christ. I believe that God is sovereign, and that His will above all will decide what happens in this world. I try to keep in mind the principles that the Bible teaches us, and I try to match those principles up with my vote. I know that we are never able to follow the Laws of God without failing, if we could we would still be hanging out in the Garden of Eden. And I also know that no man that runs for any elected office in the USA is perfect enough for God.

By keeping these principles in mind I came to the following conclusions:

1. God has tasked us with being stewards over all of His creation. He gave us authority over plants and animals, and the responsibility to care for them. We have spend 8 years ignoring climate chance, neglected nature conservation, and had an irresponsible energy policy. I want us to focus on preserving our natural resources, to use renewable energy source. I want us to set aside more land for conservation and to protect nature. If we fail to protect nature, then we are disrespecting God's Creation.

2. "Blessed be the Peacemakers." I do not believe that God supports unjust wars. I also know that for us to try to figure out which wars would be considered just or unjust is impossible. The argument that goes around is this: "If we leave Iraq, we admit defeat." But are we in the right to stay in a country that we attacked for wrong reasons? Is locking people up in Guantanamo Bay without trial because they are enemies of the United States any different than Germany locking up their enemies of the German People during World War 2. We need transparacy there. When walking through Dachau this year I was asking myself "How could people not know? Did they not want to know?" And I was also wondering if the same kind of torture and disregard for basic human rights could also be happening at Guantanamo Bay. Could we know and would we want to know? I want a President that believes in peace, that believes in human rights. Over 5 million people died in the Congo, over 1 million people are dead in Darfur, and many more areas of Genocide have not been addressed by our leaders.

3. God created us to be in Fellowship with each other. This starts with family, friends, and extents all the way up to the nations in the world. We need to look at our neighbors across the street, and across the world. We need to be in conversations and relationships with them. Isolating them or Isolating ourselves serves no purpose. Jesus also sought companionship with strangers. And by falling from God's grace due to sin, we are all strangers from God. But God wants us to be in a relationship with him, to know him. In the same light we should seek to be friends with the strangers in the world, and not give in to Xenophobia. We need fair immigration policies, but we need to quit being afraid of people who are different than us. We also need to quit attacking each other based on political believes.

4. All life is sacred. We need to end racism, xenophobia, and the basic disregard for each other that is running rampant in society. We need to give our fellow man a way out of the cycle of poverty, violence, and crime. We need to establish a health-care system that allows everyone to live a healthy life. In 2008 an infant has a higher chance of surviving in South Korea or Cuba than in the United States. We need a health-care system that allows every mother to receive quality prenatal care, each child to grow up healthy, and for each adult to have quality preventative health-care to keep us from getting sick.

4.5 Of course this also brings us to abortion. Abortion is the main reason why most Christians vote Republican in the Unites States. My problem with this is that the current Republican standpoint is this: "Teach kids that sex is evil and that they should never have sex ever! We don't need to talk about condoms and the pill, because they will never have sex because it is evil! If they do have that evil sex, they MUST give birth to the child because abortion is evil!" I do believe that making abortion illegal does not address the root of the problem. If you minimize unwanted pregnancies, then you minimize abortions. Get your head out from behind that giant wall of denial that makes you think that every boy will be able to keep his penis out of every girl until they are married and realize that humans are horny creatures. God made sex, God made sex feel great, God made us want sex and He wants us to enjoy sex. God also made sex to be enjoyed between two married people. But remember, if we were perfect then we would still be hanging out in the Garden of Eden. If God was okay with having a Plan B (If man screws up, sent Son down to die on their behalf so that they may still have a relationship with Me), then we should be okay with a Plan B (If my son screws up and has sex before he is married, make sure he knows how to use a condom). We need to make it easier for people who want to adopt a child to do so. We can also work at preventing the reasons for unplanned pregnancy by reducing the risk factors for them. Why are 12 year old's having sex? Is it because they are horny, or is it because they come from a broken family and they are seeking love and acceptance in any place that they may find it? Is it because they are horny, or is it because a family member has been raping them since they are 6 years old? Is it because they are horny, or is it because they were kidnapped on their way home from school and trafficked across the nation to be prostitutes. There are many more reasons why people have an abortion other than "I am horny, and if I am knocked up I just have it suctioned out of me!" And last but not least I have this personal opinion: Maybe, just maybe, if we could quit looking across the pews at church at that pregnant 14 year old girl with the facial expression that screams "slut", then maybe she would not feel like she has to have an abortion because she feels like she will be judged by her church and family in Christ for being pregnant.

5. Give unto Caesar...: I don't mind paying taxes, and I am not worried about higher taxes or lower taxes. I believe that God will provide me with all the money I need. Maybe not with all the money I would like to have, but God knows what I need. I don't "need" a fancy house, fancy cars, and fancy toys. God might not bless me with those "wants", but he will bless me with all I need to keep a roof over my head and food in my belly. Voting on taxes alone seems greedy to me. If your main concern is how much money you will take home at the end of the month, than you have the wrong priorities. The love of money is the root of all evil, and if we vote because we love our money we will vote for evil. Would you go to a church because they reduced their Tithe to 9%? So why would you vote for a politician that might let you keep more money, but goes against the principles you believe in.

In the end I would like to point out that I don't know If I am voting for the right guy. In my heart I believe that I am, but each and every person needs to look inside himself and figure out what is right for their conscience. I especially don't think that I even come close to knowing what God's will is for this election and for the United States. I know that He placed a burden on my heart to vote for Obama, and I am glad that my church has not joined the bandwagon of political endorsements and instead urged each of us to seek out the Lord and decide for ourselves what is right.

I hope that each and everyone of you is voting today. I don't care if you vote for Obama, McCain or one of the 3rd party candidates (although is you are voting 3rd party, you obviously don't live in Oklahoma). But do make use of the gift of the freedom to vote that has been given to us.

...The Republican Party is smoking just a little bit too much crack.

As most people know, Obama just spend a week going oversee, visiting with leaders of foreign countries. He also visited Berlin and gave a big speech there. After complaining that Obama has not spend enough time out of the country to be an effective leader, they are now complaining because Obama spend time out of the country.

But here is the newest reason why Obama would be a bad President. Obama is bad, because Germans like him. Thats right ladies and gentlemen, if you are loved by the Germans, you must be bad. Just look at David Hasselhoff, bad actor/singer, but loved by Germans everywhere.

To make their point, the Republican Party produced the following commercial that is currently airing in the USofA.

I think that the Republican Party must be getting pretty desperate if that is the best anti-Obama ad they can come up with.

So now that the Primaries are almost over with, I would like to remind my loyal readers of my original picks and predictions:

Here were my two picks for the Democrats and the Republicans.

So I was rooting for Obama and McCain, and now it looks like thats who we will have to pick from this fall.

The only explanation I can think off is that my Blog has enormous power over the masses. I tell the nation who I want to pick for President, and the nation delivered me my candidates. Thank you my loyal subjects.....I mean my loyal readers.

I will contact you when I need you to do my dirty work for me again....

I can honestly say that I have no idea why any of the Political Candidates spend so much money on TV Ads in Oklahoma. I don't know about the rest of this Nation, but in Oklahoma the best way to influence voters is by e-mail.

After talking to people at work yesterday it turns out that the candidate I support is not so great after all. Obama is an America Hating Extreme Muslim with a Dad that is a member of Al-Qaeda and a hippie Mom.

I know its hard to believe people, I was just as shocked as you are now. But it has to be true, everyone I spoke with knew this FACT!!! After all, they all got the same e-mail telling them the TRUTH!!!

What, the Internet is always right? My e-mail account is filled with prophetic, truth filled, e-mails? Obama is a terrorist, hot 18 year old virgins are waiting to have sex with me, I can get $0.05 a pill Viagra, and I really really can make my manhood grow by 5.34 inches in JUST 2 WEEKS??? Now where is that damn e-mail from the Nigerian Finance Minister.....

Yup, the vast majority of people I talked to believe that Obama is a Muslim Extremist because they got an e-mail that said so. Lets not watch the news people, lets not watch the debates, lets not make an active effort to find out the truth about all the candidates, but lets base the next 4 years of our future on what happens to be in your e-mail account today.

By the way, I got an e-mail that Hillary is a member of the Nazi Party. They are trying to take over the United States by electing one of their own as President. It's true, just look at this picture:



So do what you can to elect a non-nazi as your next President. The future of this country depends on it. E-mail this post to all your friends!!!!!

(This author does not believe that Hillary Clinton is a Nazi, he just believes that she is a mean manipulative person.)

Yup, I voted today, how non-American of me (although it seems like people actually care this year and are voting like crazy). I was not able to change my political affiliation in time to vote for the person I really really wanted to vote for, so I voted for my favorite from the other party. If you remember an earlier post I am backing Obama for Democrats and McCain for Republicans.

And today I will go on the record with my prediction for the outcome of the Presidential Election (with a small part of what-ifing going on):

McCain is going to win the Republican Nomination. I'm pretty confident with that part of my prediction.

If Hillary wins the nomination for the Democrats I predict that despite 8 years of Bush, McCain will win and the Republicans will keep the White House. McCain is pretty moderate when it comes to Republicans. The Hardcore will vote for anyone that gets the Republican nomination just because they hate Hillary. I think its save to say that most Republicans will vote for McCain just so they can vote against Clinton. McCain also draws Independents like crazy, so by drawing his own Party, and the Independent swing votes I believe that the Republicans would take the Election in '08.

Clinton vs. McCain: Hello President McCain.

If Obama wins the Democratic Nomination the whole election is just a wide-open stab in the dark. Both Obama and McCain are moderates in their Party as far as I'm concerned. And thats why I like them, they don't have a problem with being bi-partisan and using compromise to get something done. They both have a huge appeal to Independent voters, and I think they would both be able to draw a sizable amount of votes from each others Party. Throw in the possibility of a popular Independent Candidate throwing his head in the ring, and I don't know what will happen.

Obama vs. McCain: No Freakin Clue.

Although either way would be an improvement over the last decade.

This Political Opinion was brought to you by the German-American Voting Institute of Oklahoma.

My name is Marcus Kesler, and I approve this message.

The Presidential Race has officially begun.

I'm supporting Obama on the Democratic Ticket, and I am pro McCain on the Republican side. If either of them get the presidential bid they will have my vote. Lets see how Round 1 looks by the end of the night.

UPDATE @ 2247

Well, it looks like Obama won Iowa with Clinton landing in 3rd *satisfactory smirk*. Huckabee won the Republican vote, with McCain finishing in either 3rd or 4th at this time. Lets get ready for the next round.

Stay tuned at D-USA.info, official political headquarters of the German-American Vote in Oklahoma!!!