Winter

 The groundhog said winter will end early then we got a blizzard so my right wing friends must be right that global warming is a hoax and Al Gore is fat.

I left a case of Yuengling Lager on the porch and it didn't freeze but is just the right temp. Now I'm going to grill some lamb chops but won't post a picture of the end product as I don't won't to annoy the Yonk.

 My new Toro snowblower works as advertised. It doesn't clog and even throws slush making life easier on my back. Thanks to ZEN for the recommendation.

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Now I'm nestled into the Gort42 command bunker listening to the Sue Henry show on WRKC.

PA Electoral College votes

I am not usually in favor of amending the Constitution unlike some of my "conservative" friends who swear fealty to the document but want repeal the amendments they don't like and propose all sorts of changes.

After the 2000 election when Al Gore got 500,00 votes more than Bush I was disappointed that there wasn't a bigger push to scrap the Electoral College. The founders made it hard to change the process of electing a President as they didn't trust the people to elect the leader of our country and put it in the hands of state legislatures. The person with the most votes would be President and the the second place finisher would be Vice President. The election of 1800 revealed a flaw in the system when the ticket of Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr both got the same amount of votes and the House of Representatives had to decide the thing after 20 something ballots. The 12th amendment was passed shortly after that. The constitution was a living document even then.

Now Republicans in the Pennsylvania Senate have to decided to try to game the system proposing to award Electoral Votes by congressional distinct instead of the winner take all standard that is used by 48 other states. Nebraska has the CD requirement and is looking at changing it because the President won one of five of the Electoral votes in 2008.

I actually like the idea of awarding the electoral college vote by congressional districts but every state has to sign up for it to work. It doesn't require a constitutional amendment If Texas. Mississippi, California, Utah, New York, etc agree to it I'm all for it but that is not going to happen.


Be careful what you ask for as it just might backfire.

Some people in the Pennsylvania Republican party are freaked out by this idea.

House GOP fret over new Pa. electoral plan

Capitol Ideas is all over it.

In this case I'm all for amending the constitution scrapping the Electoral College. The winner of the popular vote should be the President.

Hillary, Barack or someone else?

In wide ranging and sometimes contentious debate at yesterday's impromptu sub-committee meeting at our favorite watering hole an unlikely but possible scenario was discussed. After the Obama supporter was shouted down by a room full of Clinton backers someone suggested that the best outcome for the Dems would be to nominate Al Gore. The reasoning is if this goes to the convention the losing side will have a hard time backing the winner so a unity candidate should be found. I don't see it happening but anything is possible. This is not a new idea as I've seen it kicked around the lefty blogs and even by a few talking heads on TV. A month ago our local political historian, the Yonk, even outlined a possible turn of events in Denver.

So what do you think? I put up a poll on the sidebar.

Below we see the winner of the 2000 election showing off his green thumb.

Run, Al, Run

Susie has been chanting it for months as have others.

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So Al Gore added to his hardware by winning the Nobel Peace Prize. He also won an Oscar and an Emmy so now all he needs now is a Tony and a Grammy. I'm sure he can sing better than John Ashcroft. And we all know that he won the People's Choice Award in 2000.

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I haven't picked a candidate for President yet because I believe that any Democrat can win the White House next year. Against the Republican pygmies (thanks Newt) I would vote for the Easter Bunny, even paint eggs for him. If the Democratic nominee is anybody but Hillary it won't even be close.

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So far it looks like a contest between Hillary and Obama with Edwards leading in Iowa but running out of money. I like Mike Gravel because he speaks his mind and Mrs. G's favorite is Dennis Kucinich for the the same reason but they are not going to get the nomination or even come close. The sleepers are Bill Richardson, Chris Dodd and Joe Biden who are as qualified or more to be President as the big 3.

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The small "d" democrat in me hates the idea of Bush, Clinton, Bush, Clinton. Not that I don't think that Hillary wouldn't be a good President but we are a nation that should not let the same 2 families run things for 20+ years, it's not healthy. Barrack Obama is exciting and represents a generational change along with getting over some other hangups. I'm not going to worry about what's on his lapel.

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If the Vice President gets into it the race instantly comes down to a choice between him and Senator Clinton.

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Run, Al, Run. You will make this guy happy.