I’ve seen this message floating around. I saw Noelle had typed it out and was about to post it as just text. I asked if she’d give me time to do a little stylization to it. I added some stick figure art and ~voila! Here it is.
 

Political Websites

I’ve noticed a lot of my friends here are starting to take a look at and support Mitt Romney as a Presidential candidate. I would like to list a number of websites I visit that will help explain why Mitt Romney is the best candidate to be President, and has been for many years. I will also list some sites that are Republican or Conservative in nature and will post positive and negative commentary about Romney. Some of them have comment sections and you can read through those to get a feel for the pros and cons of subject at hand.

http://www.mittromneycentral.com/ – Has a very active live chat. And many great Romney articles. Run by Nate Gunderson
http://www.rightspeak.net/ – I’m a contributor. Mostly pro Romney. Run by Bosman.
http://www.race42012.com/ – Covers all of the candidates, lively comment section by followers of different candidates.
http://www.whyromney.com/ – Sets the record straight on the rumors
http://www.aboutmittromney.com/ – Has the most complete explanations on various controversial issues about Romney. A good site for backup when someone accuses Romney of being a RINO, not a Conservative, etc.
http://evangelicalsformitt.org/ – An Evangelical take on Mitt Romney. They’ve even released a book on Amazon explaining why evangelicals can vote for Romney
http://americaneedsmitt.com/blog/ Run by Mike Sage who also has a nightly Romney radio show. Mike also has a number of other pro Romney sites, all are worth checking out. (http://mittfitts.com/, http://mittchicksrock.com/, etc)

In Response to Mancow this morning

This is an email I had intended to send to Mancow Muller, but his email form is for premium members only. Enjoy. (Any premium members want to forward this text on for me?) This isn’t the first time in this past week, I’ve taken a radio show host to task. I gave Tony Cruise a call. I found out he was for the true flip-flopping, cheating Newt Gingrich. Anyway, here’s the letter:

This morning you asked, “What conservative Republican is going for Mitt Romney?” I’m here to tell you this TEA Party supporting, Conservative first, Republican fully supports and endorses Mitt Romney for President of the United States of America.

Why? Because he has the executive experience in the private, non-profit, and public sector arenas to get the job done. What is the job? To turn around a flailing and failing economy. Who better to do it than a person who’s job it has been to do this for 100s of companies, the Salt Lake City Olympics, and the State of Massachussetts, and to institute conservative policies in the face of heavy liberalism, massive corruption, and antagonistic parties.

Why? Because he has a jobs plan more extensive than and thought out than any other candidate. We aren’t getting Hope and Change from Romney, we have 57 steps to job recovery. We aren’t getting platitudes, we’re getting promised action with a proven record.

Why? Because he is the only one organized and able to take on Obama toe-to-toe on every issue.

Why? Because I have supported Mitt Romney from way back before 2008 when Rush Limbaugh called him the embodiment of the three legs of conservatism. Romney has moved more conservative on his positions even since then.

You mentioned that some vote counter claims to have counted 20 extra votes for Romney. Why did he do that? Why is he coming out now? What is HIS agenda?

Mitt Romney buying the election? Well, yes, that’s what politicking is. Every candidate is “buying” the election. They have to to get their word out. The fact that Romney has garnered $20 million in donations in the past quarter of earning, not to mention the $15 million before that, and whatever else before that is a testament to the number of people that really do support him. Sure, there are some fat cat, former Obama supporters on Wall Street that have donated the most they can: $2500 per person. But it also means there are a lot of middle class folk, like me, who have given our piddly $20, $50, or $100 to support him. There are a lot of people in the grass roots efforts, volunteering their time to make phone calls for Mitt Romney. There are a lot of people pounding the pavement for him.

It really does make me sick, the media slandering, slanting, and misrepresenting who Mitt Romney really is. Fortunately, there will be enough people, the voters, that will see through the misrepresentations of the so-called conservative media. This is really why I am actually going to send this email, in the hopes that you would re-evaluate you language and attitude of Mitt Romney. He is the best chance to win the election and actually get stuff done.

On and end note, Ron Paul would be great, but he could never win the nomination or general election. Even if he did, he would not be able to rally the legislative branch around his ideas. He’s had 30+ years to do that and has not succeeded.

Virginia Republican Presidential Primary Election Rules

UPDATE: § 24.2-644.C At all elections except primary elections it shall be lawful for any voter to vote for any person other than the listed candidates for the office by writing or hand printing the person’s name on the official ballot

As we are just now finding out, Newt Gingrich and Rick Perry failed to qualify for inclusion on the VA Presidential Primary ballot. Only Mitt Romney and and Ron Paul have qualified. Rick Perry, Jon Huntsman, Michelle Bachmann, and Rick Santorum didn’t even try. (How sad is that? That’s 10% of the delegates lost right there!)

This post is going to be a slightly technical post regarding what I have found so far regarding the Virginia Republican Presidential Primary Election. Why am I doing this? Because there is a rumor floating around that VA is not a write-in candidate state for the primaries. I will address this topic and a few other tidbits I’ve found.

First, this is rumor (as I’ve not read an article, but only a comment on this topic), That there was only 1 candidate in past years that did not make the ballot in VA, and it was because they were 15 minutes late. All other candidates in the recent past have been able to meet the VA ballot requirements. That we’ve had 2 candidates fail and 3 not even try is, frankly, sad. It proves the point that the Republican field is utterly weak. (Mitt Romney excepted.)

Okay, about that rumor. If it is true that write-in candidates are not allowed, that would be huge because the winner would have to be selected between Mitt Romney and Ron Paul. No one else would be accepted. Is there any truth to this? Let’s find out.

So, I started my search. I first found the information about the above rumor as posted in comment sections related to articles about Newt’s failure to make the ballot. I could not find that specific language in any article specifically or anywhere else, but in comment sections.

After broadening my search, I came upon another document regarding write-in candidates. According to VA’s laws, the definition of a candidate includes write-in candidates. This is specified in a document detailing that write-in candidates must also submit financial disclosure forms if they wish to remain a candidate and viable for office.

I then found the Deadlines, Duties and Ballot Access Requirements for the Presidential Primary Election pdf document, and this is what I am basing the rest of my information on.

I could find no language in that document regarding write-in candidates. It just did not state whether or not it is possible. The closest thing which might indicate that a write-in is not allowed is this line:
Candidates wishing to participate in the presidential primary must follow the procedures outlined below.
Since the definition of candidate includes write-in candidates, does that mean they must be ballot qualified to “participate” and, as such, a write-in nullifies their opportunity, because by logical definition, a write-in failed to be ballot qualified? Ambiguous at best.

I did find some other tidbits of information. While the rule is 10,000 total signatures with at least 400 signatories from each Congressional district, they suggest between 15,000 – 20,000 signatures, with 700 signatories from each district.

VA is an open voting state, but a primary voter must only participate in one primary. This applies to signatures as well. A registered voter from an opposing party may sign a candidate’s ballot petition as long as they state they plan to participate in the Republican primary and not in any other party’s primary. (Not difficult in an incumbent year.)

There is NO filing fee to get on the ballot. (Thus the need for signatories.)

Finally, the State Chairs have until close of business on Tuesday, the 27th, to certify the candidates who will appear on the ballot. The next day a drawing will be held to determine the order of placement of candidates’ name.

I’m calling the rumor a hoax. However, I welcome the chance to be proven wrong on the write-in rule.

UPDATE:
Newt is going to try a write-in campaign

UPDATE:
Write-in’s are not eligible according to this tweeter McCormickJohn

Expect this issue to get muddy.

Mitt Romney Central friends

Here is a fun little thing I came up with today.
Copy any of the code below and paste it into the MRC chat.

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I've got a new goal... $2000. This is my most ambitious, yet. Can you help? (Click the rocket)[br][center] [url=https://www.mittromney.com/donate/?fid=7314&sc=EKY002]
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[/center][br]Only if you can. Thank you.

[br][b][color=red]UNINSTALLING OBAMA[/color][br] [color=darkgreen]███████████████████[/color][color=black]▓▓[/color][br] [color=red]6 days remaining[/color][/b] A Tomato to throw during debates for bad answers, bad moderators, bad commentators, or whatever…
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Pain on the Cain Train

For those who are keeping up on politics and have heard about the sexual harassment accusations laid at Cain’s feet, I hope to clarify a few things here.

1. In my opinion, these claims are frivolous. I’m hoping the situation is that these were gold digger ladies or highly sensitive ladies who, like many others in the 90’s, threw the SH accusation whenever the wind blew wrong (doing a major disservice to people who were actually sexually harrassed).

2. Companies will pay out on these claims because the cost to litigate is more than the payoff. If you have no virtue, you can sue a company or government for all sorts of discriminations, and if the payout is less than litigation, they just might pay it.

3. Cain handled answering the claims VERY badly.

3a. He had 10 days to come up with a decent complete answer before the information was published.

3b. When the info was released Cain had 4 different answers on day 1. With 10 days prep time, he should have had 1 very good answer, or better yet, released the info ahead of Politico.

3c. On Day 2, he played the race card and blamed Perry for the leak (not Romney). This, unfortunately, makes Cain look petty. I doubt Perry was the source of the leak.

4. Perry deflected stating it was probably Romney who leaked. “I could see him doing that.” (Real slick, Rick, you sleaze.) For the record, I don’t think Perry or his campaign are the leak either.

5. Romney and his campaign have no knowledge of any of this besides what is in the media currently. Despite petty commentators at sites like Red State who actually accussed the leak of being in Romney’s SuperPAC (the guy is in Perry’s SuperPAC) and Limbaugh who made the allusion that it was Romney, it was not Romney who made the leak. Romney is a classy guy and proves this over and over (including his answer to Cain’s trouble on ABC yesterday).

6. I was really hoping Cain would get a VP consideration. The handling of this situation and other situations proves he is not ready for either the POTUS or the VP nod. This makes me sad. his campaign staff are the minor leagues in a major league campaign.

The media and so-called conservative commentators are doing the GOP no favors through these accusations, their lying about people’s records (especially Romney’s), and their blaming anyone without proof.

VIRUS WARNING

Wow! Did I ever receive a very convincing email today. Since I did have a mistake on my tax return this year, I almost fell for the ruse. A couple of things stood out from this e-mail. It was unsolicited, it was from a person I had not dealt with, and it was saying my bank returned my tax return funds to the IRS. (Your bank would not do that without first notifying you.)

Of course, it also had a link to a “PDF” file. Why do I put that in quotes? Because when I hovered my mouse over it, the link actually showed me that it went to some other website. Look at the picture to see the website. DO NOT go to the website.

I REPEAT THIS EMAIL IS SPAM AND A VIRUS. DO NOT FOLLOW ANY LINKS IF YOU RECEIVE A SIMILAR EMAIL.

The HEADER
As a side note, I have no idea how it passed the Barracuda spam filter. The email says it is from Pam_Delany @irs .gov but the message-id is from 5624897102.4PPR0IZP169555 @ bwhsagtmxa.foczytgll.ru (Note the .ru TLD, that’s Russia)
and the envelope from field is from helpfullyj @ pado.com.br (Brazil) The message passed through galati.astral.ro which is Romania.

7 years

As of last Sunday, Noelle and I have been married 7 years. Pretty dang cool. The only reason I thought about this is because my artistic creative juices have been flowing and it reminded me of our wedding announcement. (I got a fine compliment on how well done the layout was – telling me I should be a layout artist. heh) Besides, I really like how we look in this picture.

After 7 years, I love her more now than I did then. But more than that, I appreciate her more now than I did then.