----- Original Message -----
From: LEE GRATER

To those of you who know me and some better than others. I am up to my ass tired of having my vote be manipulated by delegates and committees. It's high time we should do away with the electoral college and have our votes count. I have proposed this idea to Patty Murray a state senator from Washington State and have asked what steps need to be taken to change this. Why can't we simply pick one day to all vote in our primarys instead of letting Newhampshire and Iowa decide who will be running for president. I realize it's a bit more complicated than that. However I feel that this countrys leaders need to be elected by it's People.
Tyranny is when the people fear the government.
Democracy is when the government fears the people.
I hope to start a website and have discussed this idea wiith a few friends and all are excited about it. I may be asking for support in the near future. This will work for ALL AMERICANS.

I'm put off by inaccurate or distorted campaign publicity. I hope the Democrats set a high standard in this campaign. We're off to a mixed start and yet I'm hopeful. I just saw some information on Fact Check.org at worried me. While their article addresses what they heard might" happen I'm writing in hopes that their concerns do not come true. Their posting follows if my attempt to copy it works. Hoping for the high road!

Smear or Be Smeared?
February 8, 2008
The DNC plans "unlimited" spending against McCain; some of its claims are misleading.
Summary
The Democratic National Committee proposes to spend unlimited amounts of money to "tell the real story" about John McCain before Republicans can "start smearing" the eventual Democratic nominee. But the line of attack the Democrats outline to their potential donors in an e-mail contains some claims that are false or misleading.
The DNC paints McCain as favoring "endless war" in Iraq. What McCain actually said is that he wouldn't mind a hundred-year troop presence "as long as Americans are not being injured or harmed or wounded or killed."

It says McCain "looked the other way" rather than investigate Jack Abramoff and a Republican "Culture of Corruption." In fact, McCain's investigation led to a prison term for Abramoff and the downfall of several powerful Republicans. His investigators didn't probe members of Congress directly, but that wasn't the job of his Indian Affairs Committee. And in any case, federal prosecutors opposed a competing congressional investigation which might have interfered with their own efforts.

The DNC message makes criticisms of McCain that could be directed at its own leading candidates as well. It notes that he lacks training in economics, which is equally true of Clinton and Obama. And it accuses him of "staggering" reliance on lobbyists for campaign help, when Clinton also has substantial aid from lobbyists and Obama has some from former lobbyists.
If recent history is any guide, the preemptive attack that the DNC outlines in this message will be followed by similar attacks by Republicans. Past elections have included spiraling rounds of attacks by both parties, in which each side claims to be responding in kind to the other.
Note: This is a summary only. The full article with analysis, images and citations may be viewed on our Web site:

Nothing like changing the subject, guys.

So there has been more RNC fuzzy math accounting methods unveiled by the FBI. It makes you wonder what the Bush administration has been doing for the last seven years with the nation's treasury...and every other federal department report that they have made public.

Good gracious, what's in those reports that they never released? Vote a straight Democratic ticket this time and we'll all find out.

Ok, I understand distaste with negative campaigning. I share the sentiment.

However, I understand that the reason George W. is in office is due to the amazing effectiveness of past smear campaigns. (i.e. Swift Boat Liars for Smearing John Kerry's Good Name)

I also understand that John McCain himself has started the rush to paint Democrats as wanting to "surrender" to the terrorists, and wanting the United States to fail in Iraq.

Mitt Romney is already breaking out the "White Flag of Surrender" type rhetoric as well.

At some point when smear campaigns become one-sided, it doesn't matter how much you refute...because then the public sees you constantly refuting rather than putting out a positive message.

Sometimes, fire must be fought with fire. If you've ever seen a field set ablaze, you know that sometimes it takes a controlled burn to use up the fuel that could take that fire to the forest.

This is not an election where we can pull punches, and the simple fact is John McCain supports fighting to the end...whether that's 100 years or 1000 years...according to John McCain, the terrorists are the ones who will surrender [eventually].

The reality is, occupation breeds contempt, anger, and violence which threatens the the very values we are trying to instill in Iraq.

100 years of troops in Iraq will cause 100 more generations of terrorists and sympathizers who grow up under a regime of American occupation.

Aha, so the NRCC is doing some Enron style accounting. They are in big trouble.