Yes, it's true. A 46-year-old longhaired and bearded Iowan businessman, Daniel Kingery, is campaigning all across the United States for presidential candidacy. As follows, the URL's for an article on him and his own website. Enjoy.
http://sungazette.com/page/content.detail/id/506516.html?nav=5011#
http://portablepublishing.com
Yours for the longhaired vote,
Quenyan
Yes I saw that and didn't even have to use Babelfish!
Cheers,
John.B
Interesting. A laundromat owner conducting his campaign from an '86 Crown Vic with 172k miles on the clock, who wants to abolish congress and govern by referenda.
I've always thought direct democracy was better than representative democracy (if that's what he's advocating). It quite effectively eliminates one of the main problems of democracy: special interest groups. While this accounts for a load of trouble, including the petrocratic attitudes of the US, the war in Iraq, agricultural and manufacturing protectionism, etc, we're still left with all the other problems that a democracy entails.
Eitherway, I've looked through his youtube account and he talks a lot of sense about many issues. And since Ron Paul isn't going to be nominated, I suppose if you still want to vote for freedom, vote for this guy as an independent.
Petrocratic
Where did you find this word? I like it, but it's not in my dictionary!
"Petroleum rule/power"??
Perhaps ultimately from "petra" - Gk. for "rock" + "krateo" - "be powerful or conquer"? Or I guess it has to be "petroleum" clipped to the first part of the word "petr" to stand for the whole; what's that, metonymy? It's getting too deep in here, OK, I guess that means petroleum is "rock oil" then ;-)!
The technology now certainly allows it. It did not in 1783 when the Constitution was written. If 40 million people can vote on American Idol in a matter of hours, matters of far more importance could be submitted to the electorate instead of their being determined by a few hundred people in Congress.
As for the guy running for President, my sister in law lives a few miles from where he once lived. She just e-mailed us with this comment:
I know of him - he used to make the headlines here. He bought a building and at one point he had a strip club there, a night club, (I don't think he had any/many customers), was in trouble with the town for not fixing the "fence" (Jersey barriers I think) in front of it, tried running for Selectman (and probably got one vote). A real character. I read that he lives in Arizona now and thinks anyone can run for President, as he is evidently trying to show.
Bill
But then if you like Ron Paul have you checked out the
libertarian party?
Ron Paul ran as the libertarian party candidate in past years.
There are many such candidates, all over. Usually they don't impact the election. Back home, we had a perennial fringe candidate, C.W. "Levy" Levi. He was an elderly man who ran in any race for which he was qualified. He could often be seen collecting signatures outside public libraries, to get on the ballot. If he couldn't get on the ballot, he would hand out materials for his write-in campaign. It was not unusual for uninformed or disgusted voters to give him 3-5% of the vote, or even more. I heard some serious distaste expressed for him by someone associated with on of the major parties, because he could act as a spoiler. And yes, he was, IMHO, insane. He never actually got in, but I think that expression of disgust is proof that one man "can make a difference". As long as the two major parties continue to offer us a choice between dumb an dumber, the alternative, no matter how wild, will continue to hold some appeal.
Every year 165+ people run for president. Most stand
no chance of getting elected.....the next president will
be named Obama, Clinton, or McCain.
Especially where Kerry spent $345 million in his
loosing bid in 2004.
And we've had several long hair run. Bill Clinton and
John Kerry to name two.
It doesn't count if you sell out and cut your hair first!