(Yeah, I know, I prattle on about this from time to time, but I just posted this on a local newspaper forum, so I thought I'd drop it here too, and on my blogs.)

In this year of candidate pandering and debates and prattling on of issues and face time on TV, it's important to note that, to paraphrase, "all you see is not all you have".

It's important to note that while you see plenty of "Democrats vs Republicans", there are many other candidates out there that should be considered as well. You may not like some or any of them, but just as the Democrats and Republicans, they too should be given the appropriate attention.

The media has long since ignored both those alternative candidates as well as the Rights of the citiznes. Oddly enough, one of the cries of the mainstream news media has been "The Public has the Right to know". Yet, when it comes to elctions, only a limited number of "approved" candidates are given attention. Where is the Public's Right to Know now?

I am also aware that the election system itself is designed to violate the democratic process of Popular Vote with the inclusion of the Electoral college. And, indeed, those applying to run for various positions have been turned down, not because of not meeting the requirements of office, but because the evaluators personally decide that the proposed candidate isn't of worth to be allowed to run for office.

I don't endorse any one particular cadidate, and I certainly don't want you to worry about "throwing away" your vote. However, I DO believe that every citizen should know their options that really are available since the mainstream news media has failed you in that regard.

For my own uses, I've turned to [URL=http://www.vote-smart.org]www.vote-smart.org[/URL] .
You may be familiar with other sites and certainly we all would like to hear about them as an informed citizenry is an empowered citizenry.

I'm not the owner or even moderator of the site I mentioned above. This isn't advertising. And further discussions are welcome and I'll participate as I can. I suspect there will be plenty who have a negative view of Independant and Unaffiliated candidates. But as I said, it is still important for citizens to have ALL the knowledge they can. Otherwise, the democracy has truly failed.

Have at thee!

Nightwng2000