http://news.bostonherald.com/

In a last-minute show of unity, Bay State Ron Paul supporters decided to throw their votes behind Sen. John McCain last night.

About a dozen Massachusetts supporters of the Texas Congressman and GOP upstart decided to back McCain only an hour before the delegates began to cast votes for the presidential pick.

“We decided the best course of action was to give a little to get a lot,” said Chris Blanc, a Cambridge resident who supports Paul. “The Massachusetts GOP really wanted to show unanimous support.”

Paul, shunned by the Republican convention because he wouldn’t endorse McCain, has been holding daily “counter rallies” in Minnesota where devoted supporters hiss when McCain’s name is uttered.

Rep. Paul Loscocco (R-Holliston) worked with Paul sympathizers to join the delegation so all 43 delegate votes would go to McCain.

“Give a little to get a lot”? Mr. Blanc, you get nothing and took two steps backwards. Bending to the will of GOP was not what you and the other delegates were sent there to do. Thank you for undermining all the hard work and dedication of Ron Paul supporters in and outside the boundaries of Massachusetts. I’m very disappointed.

My hat goes off to the delegates of Alaska, Oregon, Washington and West Virginia who stood their ground.

When asking the delegation for nominations for president, after McCain was included the person presiding asked for any more names, Ron Paul was clearly yelled several times and was ignored without any recognition.

The following states did not give all their votes to John McCain:

• Alaska: 24 McCain, 5 Ron Paul
• Idaho: 26 McCain, 6 ?
• Maine: 20 McCain, 1 ?
• Minnesota: 35 McCain, 6 ?
• Oregon: 26 McCain, 4 Ron Paul
• Utah: 2 Romney, 34 McCain
• Washington: 36 McCain, 4 “Dr. Paul”
• West Virginia: 2 Ron Paul, 30 McCain

There may have been more states but this is all I noticed.

Sadly, states like Nevada and Montana where Paul received more votes than McCain, all their delegate votes went to McCain due to party loyalists taking over state conventions. It’s also sad that some states did not give Paul, Huckabee or Romney the votes they had actually received.

When Ron Paul received votes the announcer did not repeat his name nor vote count. Just McCain’s. However, for Utah she repeated Romney’s 2 votes. For Washington, the other announcer cut off the one repeating the vote so that Paul’s name could not be said. When repeating West Virginia’s results she caught herself about to repeat Paul’s 2 votes and quickly stopped, going on to repeat McCain’s only. I guess they think if they ignore him, not say his name 3 times… he won’t show up / go away. I think they’re mistaken.

They reported Romney got 2 votes and Paul 5. That’s obviously not correct. He was explicitly given 15 votes.

Arizona delegates made mention of Barry Goldwater being another great politician from Arizona. As did a few randomly interviewed people after the convention. Funny… John McCain, at least on domestic issues, is practically the antithesis of Barry Goldwater. Barry Goldwater Jr. had endorsed Ron Paul and was at the Rally for the Republic continuing his support just yesterday.

http://www.lewrockwell.com/…

In late 2007, Richard Stengel wrote a cover story for Time magazine calling for a massive national service program to be imposed on American young people. If you’d like to read it, knock yourself out. Someone probably needs to smash it, but the avalanche of propaganda and nationalism you’ll find there was too demoralizing for me to attempt it. The very idea that helping someone in your neighborhood should be called “service to the nation” should be spooky and Orwellian enough, but for many people I guess it isn’t.

One thing I couldn’t get out of my head, even though it’s not by any means the weirdest aspect of the program, is Stengel’s proposal for a Cabinet-level Department of National Service. I think it was this piece of advice that struck me the most: “And don’t appoint a gray bureaucrat to this job; make it someone like Arnold Schwarzenegger or Mike Bloomberg, who would capture the imagination of the public.”

Translation: the American people, too stupid to engage in government-approved service projects without being prodded by their betters, need a crowd-pleasing Hollywood actor to rouse them to action. Bloomberg, possibly the dullest human being in public life, would be a better choice than Schwarzenegger from my point of view: the American people would barely be able to keep awake through one of his droning appeals.

Read More…

http://ap.google.com/…

Obama has a 2-to-1 lead over McCain among 18-to-34-year-olds, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll released last week. The same poll gave Obama an 8 percentage point lead among registered voters nationwide. In an AP-Yahoo News poll in July, the two were virtually tied among voters overall.

But does “coolness”_ or the perception of it at least — really matter to young voters?

“I don’t think you can ignore that factor,” said James Kotecki, a 22-year-old political video blogger who achieved fame on YouTube last year after he interviewed former Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul in Kotecki’s Georgetown University dorm room.

“What Obama’s been able to do is capitalize on his hipness, at least as far as younger voters go,” said Kotecki, whose video commentaries now appear on Politico.com, the Web site for the Washington political newspaper. “I think it’s not that they don’t support his issues and his policies, but younger voters are more willing to work for him and work passionately for him because he’s someone who resonates more on their wavelength.”

“Coolness” is often associated with youth, but elder status doesn’t automatically signify “uncool,” Kotecki said.

Ron Paul, 72, amassed a considerable following among younger voters, largely because his libertarian message was deemed countercultural, Kotecki said.

“You can certainly be cool at any age,” Kotecki said. “Look at Hugh Hefner. He’ll be cool til the day he dies. But for him and for Ron Paul or anybody who’s elderly and who’s cool, part of it is what they represent that makes them that.”

Largely? Really? I’ve met a lot of Ron Paul supporters. Many of them ‘younger.’ I can’t say that a single one would have said anything about libertarianism being counterculture nor did I get the feeling that was why they were there. Federal Reserve, war, growing police state, 9/11 is what I heard. I’m not saying there weren’t a notable number who joined the bandwagon… but many that did learned a lot and stayed on for serious reasons. I don’t see Obama supporters saying the same thing. In fact the opposite.

http://kotaku.com/…

Melissa Batten, 36, a software development engineer in Microsoft’s Xbox division, was murdered by her estranged husband, who then shot himself to death, earlier this week.

Batten, a Harvard-educated lawyer, was a Software Development Engineer in Test for Microsoft, supporting Rare on its 360 titles work. She had worked for Microsoft since 2002, earning credits in Halo 3 and Gears of War as an SDET. Earlier, as a lawyer, she had been a public defender for the Mecklenburg County (Charlotte, N.C.) Public Defender’s Office.

Her husband, Joseph Batten, was also 36. He had also worked for Microsoft but most recently worked for Wizards of the Coast, publisher of hobby games such as Magic: the Gathering. Melissa had obtained a restraining order against her husband on July 21. Another news story describes Joseph Batten as obsessive and verbally abusive, and when she learned he had obtained a handgun, she sought the protection order.

If our society put greater emphasis on self defense and personal responsibility likely these happenings would occur less often. It looks like Washington state has fairly liberal gun laws, if that is in fact where it happened, she could have armed herself in addition to requesting protection. Instead she went with begging the government to protect her… something which the SCOTUS has said the government has no obligation to do.

http://www.ens-newswire.com/…

Under state law, rainwater is considered a water resource of the state. To use the waters of the state, an individual or group is required to get permission from the Department of Ecology in the form of a water right permit.

The state agency wants public comment on what the threshold should be for requiring a water right permit for those systems that could affect the water supply of senior water right holders or stream flows in some river basins.

Isn’t it swell that they are asking the public to comment? If you want more water for your river feel free to send a SMS to God and ask for it.