As I stroll through the various lanes that are the political discourse on the internet, I find time after time that there are certain questions people have or misconceptions about what's going on. Some of the misconceptions are held by a great many people, others only a few. And sometimes the talking head repeat these same foibles on national TV. These questions and instances of not understanding the situation of the politics of today are so glaringly obvious sometimes that it just drives me up the wall.

The origins of these gaps in knowledge can come from lack of experience, or perhaps someone is just not well read up on an unusual aspect of our democratic processes, or perhaps the misunderstanding is propagated intentionally, similar to a smear campaign but harder to spot as its not peddling known untruths, but peddling unkown untruths. So I thought maybe its time to compile a list of some of the most obvious one's that bug me.

Yes, I think its time. Its election year and since I'll be voting before to long I thought I should get off my tail and do a little more for the fellow I've settled on. Apologies if I say things you might not like in advance. But do know I could find a great many things to say to slam every candidate from both parties including my own.

For a sense of perspective, at this point I had already been a Deaniac for around 9+ months. This round I've been leaning for a while but have not declared myself to be backing any candidate 100%. Well the time has come folks. All things considered, and recognizing the state of the world and the fields of candidates, I find that I shall endorse, support, and vote for Barack Obama.

I have a friend whom I've never met in person, but whom over the course of a couple years has become a very good friend to me. He's presently studying theology, recently got married, is a very rigourous thinker, and someone whom I've relied upon, and he upon me. This last summer he's been paying the bills by lifeguarding as he and his wife settled into their new place. Summer is ending, and he's looking for a job to carry him through until at least next summer. Loans and scholarships are only helping him and his wife so far and that money will run out before the end of this year, and that's with paying the bare minimum for food and rent, so getting a new job is high priority and will mean the difference between staying in school and being forced to leave.

The problem is he is going to school in New Orleans.

I've noticed that most of the diaries I have constructed on dailykos have been either singularly focused on a goal, charged with emotion, or rather lame. I shall do my best to avoid such patterns with this one, but we'll see...

How do I reconcile the two largest factors in my mind on how to vote? On one side is the desire to preserve democracy in the US. This option points towards voting for a democrat automatically. The other factor is the desire to vote for someone and not against someone else. This option keeps evaluation of all candidates, including third parties, open on election day until I find the one whom best I can support, and if none are acceptable, not voting.

Are you a fanatic for numbers? Someone who likes maps perhaps? About 9 or so months ago I stumbled across a link here on dkos to a game called senateseeker. Since then I've become quite enamoured with the goings on in the fictional democratic party, almost as much as I am with the real life one. In my time there I've seen good and bad trends for the democrats. And lately there's been a bad trend.

That is why we need your help friends. I know most of us have crazy busy lives and spend 5 hours a day reading dkos here or out there in the field doing real campaigning. But a few of us might have an hour or two a day to goof off with right? Well, how about you join us?

Oh my. It seems that not only do those in congress 'not get it', but most of us don't get something else equaly important as a need to stand against the Republicans. Let me explain. (sorry, the geeky part is here, the hell fire is at the end)

Democrats in congress are adrift on important issue X. We call for them to stand up for position Y. Some fail to do so, even when doing so wouldn't of change the outcome due to Democrats being the minority party in both chambers. Yet Z kosmopolitans are out raged at senators/congresspersons A1 through An for not standing up for what we believe in. Congresspersons claim that on important issue X one of a set of reasons (pragmatisim, politics, personal beliefs, ideals about the senate) and the Z kosmopolitians counter and claim that spokes congress criter O and A1 thorugh An are not standing up to republicans. So, the question is not weather they should or not, but can they, if they can will they, and how do they do that exactly?

The controversy before the floor of dailykos today is in my mind, an odd one. Barak Obama, someone who I have great respect for, calls for understanding when it comes to how various democrats voted, followed by either cheers or jeers. The jeers that I've read thus far having to do with a variety of things from calling those that voted for Roberts sell outs to calls for democrats to be more decisive and active.

The second part is something democrats need to do.

Straw polls can be quite for as far as entertainment value goes at this point in the 08 campaign, mainly because the 08 campaign doesn't really exist yet out side of our minds, pundits, and those who might want to run. That being said, a few weeks ago I proposed an idea of a series of straw polls to determine favorite candidates in various idealogical sections of the democratic party and then a final one to have the previous winners duke it out for your support.

The problem being of course was that I made the diary in the AM when most kosmopolitans are sleeping (well, except for us obsessive ones who are always up to 3 am reading dkos). So here is a second attempt at a soliciation for names of candidates and categories for candidates to compete in.

All this talk about presidential ambitions of late, as well as the straw polls has got me thinking... Perhaps the best way to gauge preference is through a system of polls instead of a giant one.

So here's the idea. Create several categories that resemble various sections of the democratic party. I'd suggest the following: True Moderate, Centrists, Progressive, Far Left, Labor, Socially Conservative, and Libertarian. For fun we can also do a 'fantasy' classification for fictional or historic characters. Some of these categories may have very few candidates in them, but bear with me. The next step is to assign the 15-100 potential candidates to these groupings. That's were you come in kosmopolitans.

A major problem that I see with American politics is the straight ticket vote. I'm talking about the option at the top of many ballots to indicate weather you want all your votes to go party X or party Y. It often times helps us, but it also helps the Republicans.

So why is it a threat? How can its removal help us? And why is it a good thing to pursue? Well let me muse on this subject a little bit.

One thing I noticed this election, as have all of us who have seen and felt it, was the amount of anger and fear on both sides. Now, fear is difficult to fix, as is anger. But there are ways to use anger to our own advantage. Of course, some of what I'm going to suggest falls dirty tricks territory, but I know democrats do them to, just in less quantity. And most dirty tricks are stupid or hurt those they try to help (stealing lawn signs, electoniering primaries and caucuses, urinating on absentee ballots.... ya know, that stupid stuff). So, why not figure out which help and which hurt... But that's not what I want to talk about today. These are some suggestions for non-illegal dirty tricks.

In order to distract everyone from the Osama fearfest, I shall propose the following election time entertainment: Election 2004, the Musical!

Basic rules of play:

Choose a network/TV station for the entire evening. As that network starts calling states for Kerry or Bush, play different songs. Of course, it helps if the song has some sort of connection with the state, but sometimes a mood song is required.

Here is a suggested list, divided into safe states (with lists for Kerry or Bush, depending on who is likely to carry it), and swing states (which have a song for both).

One of my hobbies over the past year and a half has been to locate and read electoral college predictions and related websites. As one who loaths the electoral college, I find my fascination with it indeed disturbing. But what I find more disturbing is how many websites there are that appear to have ludicris predictions. But thankfully, they are getting pushed out of the early google locations by poll based predictions sites. But going through the lists, I came upon my old friend, Dave Leip's Atlas of Presidential elections. I enjoy the variety of electoral college predictions posted by various members of his site, since when they are averged togeather, show a pretty close race. However I discovered an oddity with another part of his web site. There is a section where users can vote and get their vote tabulated in an electoral college system based upon their location (which is of course determined by the user). The funny thing is, that the vote system has apparantly been overwealmed by pro-Libertarian people. Thus, I thought it might be interested if I were to post the link here and see if we Kossacks can do them one better.

Remember, this is for fun, don't hurt any small animals on your way over there or else I'll be quite cross.

The Mock Election

I posted a report last night about 1 am about my experiences at the 2nd district convention in Iowa. Not my favorite political experience, but not the worst either. Please also note my disclaimer at the begining.

But I'm posting this diary to make sure people who read the day time diaries can get a chance to look it over them selves. I should really stop getting in the mood to write at 11 pm...

Enjoy!

The District Convention

No, not the national. The 2nd district Iowa Convention! Here be my synopsis of my experience as a delegate to the 2nd district convention. Note, that I probably got the speaches in the wrong order, but it was early in the morning. Please forgive me. And as usual the other warnings apply: I'm a Deaniac who is ABB, but still a Deaniac when it comes to conventions, I don't like funny business, and I'm falling asleep as I post this, so my inhibitions are falling with every key stroke (thank goodness I wrote most of it when I was awake!)

Now presenting for your enjoyment, a district convention!

I present to the dailyKos a rundown of my experiences at the Johnson County Iowa Democratic County Convention. And comments, critiques, or questions are more than welcome. I've had a busy day though, so I might pass out soon, but I'll get to all questions eventually.

And for all those who remember my diary on the Iowa caucuses, I had a much more...sane...time at this event, though the physical stress level was much greater (I had duties to perform). The delegates present seemed in general to have had a good time despite several contenious issues and votes.

A good many of us loath the conventional media in some form or another. The trouble is that most of us feel that the only way to improve things is to get your candidate into the White House and to pass sweeping media regulation legislation. However, I propose an alternative method.

As Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. showed us, that if we can get by with alternative means even if they are of different quality, we can easily boycott a flawed institution with the intention of forcing that institution to reform. So, in that spirit, I call upon you and all others to boycott all televised broadcasts origionating from major media networks, channels, or affliated corporations. Urge your friends and relatives to do the same. The drop in ratings will make them notice that something is wrong. And when they look to see what is wrong, they will see us, and they will see our message to either shap up or ship out.

Let's get the progress on, oh yeah.

Here I present a brief thesis on what I believe will be a beneficial election reform that will help increase voter participation and insure that the nominee is selected democratically.