How many people remember the movie "Brewster's Millions" where Richard Pryor played the part of a man who had to throw away $30 Million dollars in order to get $300 Million? Well, I sure do. It was a rather good movie also starring John Candy and a few other stars. The most memorable part of the movie to Me is the part where Richard Pryor's character decided to jump in an ongoing bitter political battle and waste money "buying all the votes" to spend even more money faster.

Then he turned around and told everyone he wanted them to vote for "None of the Above", because he saw all the candidates as frauds, cheat, and liars. I know in My heart that the elections are rigged and fixed as evident in the most recent few decades. The popular vote, the ones you and I choose for election are not even what counts because it's the "Electoral Vote" that actually gets the President into office.

I personally think that the voting process is guaranteed before we even know who is announced to be in the candidacy. No, I do not know who will be the President between Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton, but has anyone noticed that George Bush is staying awfully quiet on who he is backing or not backing? Usually this man can not get enough of hearing himself talk but he's unusually quiet in this heated race towards his replacement. That to Me is a tad bit suspicious and makes Me queasy as I know that there are things going on behind the scenes that we as citizens are not aware of and have no choice in changing because they are closely guarded secrets.

Who are you voting for?

Barack Obama?

Hillary Clinton?

John McCain?

Or "None of the Above"?



[edit on 25-2-2008 by SpartanKingLeonidas]

cue the "vote ron paul, he's not a liar" posts in 10, 9, 8....

honestly, i don't think all of them are liars anymore than the average human being...

Originally posted by madnessinmysoul
cue the "vote ron paul, he's not a liar" posts in 10, 9, 8....

honestly, i don't think all of them are liars anymore than the average human being...

I wholeheartedly disagree here, they are above average...liars. Thanks for the reply to My post.

I would welcome in all elections, a "None of the above" box. I exercise the right to vote but generally put a big cross on the whole paper.

It would be interest to see how many voters each candidate would get.

It does then beg the question...should not voting be illegal if you have the "none of the above" option?

Its a good idea. We are voting but not voting for the clowns that we must pick from.

You have the opportunity to help pick the leader of this country, someone who's job will effect billions worldwide, and you choose to vote 'none of the above' because none live up to your standards?

A vote like that would be the same as not voting at all, so why not choose the lesser of the evils? Such an important decision, perhaps you could help choose who would be the best of the bunch.

Why throw away such an opportunity to help decide?

And Bush has said publicly that he will (of course) support the Republican candidate. He just happens to hate John McCain also.

In all my years of participating in the political process; I don't think I have ever voted "for" a national canidate. I always just vote against the most lying, corrupt or stupid one.

However I envolve myself in local politics and work for the canidate that I feel has the intrest of the voter in mind. Not the developers.

None of the Above, while a quaint idea, doesn't address the fundamental problem.

Find a third party which best represents your views and work to get them on the ballot. I voted for Michael Badnarik in 2004, and will probably go Libertarian this election because I loath the choices we have now (aside from Paul).

The choice is between a McCain, who I see as a nothing more than a better spoken Bush, Huckabee, whom I see as nothing more than an empty Christian with an untenable tax "solution", Obama, aka Commie, and Clinton, uh, been there, done that, got the bloody t-shirt and don't feel like 4 years of wanting to hang myself.

They suck and will do nothing to adjust the morass that is the Federal Government, will not give a hoot about State's Rights, and will add some to a huge load to the Federal Government's already untenable plate.

Anyone who says a vote for a third party is a waste is either a fool or a liar.

While I don't necessarily agree with the Commie comment, that is that poster's strongly worded opinion just as much as it was your opinion that wasting a vote by voting "None of the Above" was yours. I am not saying anyone here on ATS is right or wrong but just talking about the fact that the "lesser of two evils" is not necessarily the right thing either. The lesser of any evil of this situation would be to throw any of the liars right out of office the moment they did not keep to their campaign promises actually.

We should not have to wait for four years to go by to vote someone out of office, nor have to build up steam by the process for impeachment that can take as long as a year or so to gather all the facts like it took for the attempt for Bill Clinton. I can understand someone making a mistake, I truly can but some mistakes cost many lives and have such dramatic consequences on the America populace because the misperception by the public overseas that we can actually do anything about a politician once their in public office.

Once that politician is in office he or she only has to appear to try to make the people happy who elected him or her to office in the first place not to actually do it. All it takes is a policy shift or a congress fighting that person's view or policy by railing against it in the press or office or for some numbskull to decry "National Security" and hide behind the blanket of the veiled threat that the entire nation will fall apart to change, cover up, or hide their lies. It would be tremendous if the rattling saber were to actually not be used to make people see the boogey-man to hide a politicians lies for once. It would be amazing to actually not see Police corruption for once. It would be fantastic to not see government handing us the bill for some assinine project that we can barely stop unless enough people get together with a petition for once. It would be delightful that a politician would actually in fact keep to their campaign promises 100% for once.

I would be amazed if a politician even knew what the definition, meaning, and concept of a promise was to begin with and if they actually had the integrity and balls to risk their pissing off one side to jeapordize not being re-elected by keeping to what they originally stated as their stance was while begging for money to be put into office in the first place. We all know that the majority of the bills in Washington DC are combined with multiple bills so that the Congress can speed up the process but the most important bills should be separated to a large extent so that you can not hurt your own stance while voting what you know to be the exact opposite of your constituents want you to.

[edit on 25-2-2008 by SpartanKingLeonidas]

The best way to vote "none of the above" is to vote a straight libertarian ticket. That's what I did in the last Presidential election, so don't blame me for Bush.

Are you guys aware of the vote fraud the Republicans got away with by challenging provisional ballots? A guy from the BBC did a show on it, looks like Kerry probably should've won. So Bush scammed the election twice. Same craps probably going on now... look into challenging to the provisional ballot

Okay, I agree to some extent in what was said here. The question is, when was the last time you ever, and I mean ever, saw a Libertarian get elected to office. The Republican't and Democrap's have a stranglehold on the body of getting into the highest office of the land.

[edit on 25-2-2008 by SpartanKingLeonidas]

i dont trust any of them and i seriously doubt the peoples vote carrys any weight any more with all the voting fraud, diebold machines, and the electoral college voting for who they think should be pres not who there people think should be. i dont belive my vote would be of any worth the whole system is corrupted and broken and i refuse to waste my time doing a vote that dont matter. in stead ill stay home and waste my time in a way that pleases me .

If voting really made any difference, it would be illegal.

Originally posted by bigbert81

Where the hell do these people get their information from?

Why exactly is there so much anti-Obama smear without sources going on in this forum?

It's not a smear. What exactly would you call him if not a heavy socialist (otherwise known by me as Communist)?

His "Change" message basically equates to increased federal involvement, regardless of how much you clean up the system, adding more just perpetuates the problem.

If you are so concerned about sources, why don't you refute it with some instead of doing what you seem to have a problem with?

Originally posted by bigbert81

Because I'm honestly getting tired of these debates and don't want to get in to deep with this one.

I don't disagree, which is why I didn't leave fingerholds for folks to grab onto and start one.

I left it cut and dry opinion.

How about, if you don't mind, explaining WHY you feel that a vote for Obama would be a vote towards Communism. I just don't seem to make this correlation you apparently have.

Aside from the CFR connection, the vast majority of his solutions involve the Federal Government. I think it's safe to say that as we centralize further and further, we move past the moderate Socialism we have today into more serious Socialism. To me, and by definition, Socialism is but a transitional government moving towards Communism unless constantly and virulently hounded.

Considering the current hands off position of the American people, I have serious doubts of the legitimacy of any increase in the Federal Government. Our lack of conviction can only lead to ever worsening situations, greater power for them, and less power for us.

He is simply the most dangerous and liberal candidate there is on the block, not to get too deep into it.

Candidates make all sorts of promises during their campaigns that cannot be kept. This is not because they are liars or corrupt but because Congress has to cooperate and pass the bills they need in order to fulfill their promises, and that often doesn't happen. The government has three parts, and the executive branch holds only some of the power.

People sometimes get disillusioned with presidents who aren't all-powerful and able to satisfy the wishes of every citizen. And sometimes they get angry if the president wields too much power, as in the case of Bush.

Our system for electing presidents isn't perfect--I personally think there should be more than two parties who have powerful influence--but who's got a better one?

Ron Paul had his chance but just didn't get enough votes to become the Republican nominee. I don't think anyone can reasonably argue that the process wasn't fair to him.

I think it's better to vote and have some say in who runs the government than to disdain the whole process and have to live with other people's choices. Even a third-party vote is better than complete disenfranchisement.

[edit on 27-2-2008 by Sestias]

That gives me an idea, if Ron Paul does not make it, how about we all write a big V and circle in red marker on the ballots? (V for Vendetta, Guy Fawkes) That would be a charming gesture.