My Letter to the Editor

Piece I responded to (Bristol Herald Courier):

"Was vote against Boucher rigged?

Virginia’s longest serving U.S. Congressman, Rick Boucher, is beloved by all of the people of his district, having served them through 14 terms. He received 68 percent of the vote in 2006 and was not even contested in 2008. So does anyone think it a little strange that he lost his seat garnering only 46 percent of the vote?
It reminds me of the curious result in South Carolina where an unknown, unemployed black man named Alvin Greene beat a well known state senator with 59 percent of the Democratic vote in the primary. He then lost the general election 68 percent to 28 percent to Jim Demint, the incumbent Republican.
Did Rick really lose? He deserves this theory be presented: It has been documented time and again by the best computer scientists in the country that 80 percent of America’s votes in 2010 were tabulated by hackable, inaccurate, unreliable, electronic voting machines. After a university team hacked into California machines, that state outlawed electronic voting machines for the 2010 election. In another instance, computer scientists tested the vulnerabilities of a mock District of Columbia election in 2010. They were able to infiltrate the online system and change votes without leaving a trace.
Do the research and you will find that this is a taboo subject. Perhaps it is because both parties are involved. I don’t know!
There are several documentaries out there exposing the fraud. One was produced by HBO, called "Hacking Democracy." Bev Harris at blackboxvoting.org has been on this for years. This, in my opinion, is the reason Boucher lost. It does not deserve to be pushed under the rug by those in charge of voting in the Fightin’ Ninth. Rick Boucher’s congressional career could have been terminated because of it.

Gary Carrier
Bristol, Tenn."


My response:

"Mr. Carrier is mistaken that Mr. Boucher’s loss in November was the result of a 'rigged' election. It was the result of the people of the ninth district of Virginia changing their minds about the Congressman. While the results of the election were much different from previous years, and would have to be for Mr. Griffith to win, that does not automatically point to foul play.

Boucher received 46 percent of the vote in 2010. In 2006, (the last year it was a contested race) he received 68 percent. While this 22 percent difference is quite large, Boucher himself knew it was going to be a tough race. According to OpenSecrets.Org he spent 2.9 million on media, campaign expenses, and administrative support in 2010. He only spent $828,000 in 2006 on the same items.

Boucher lost because the ninth no longer wanted his services and he most definitely saw this change coming."

Another Week in DC

Monday - I the second half of the medicaid event. I just sold books but I enjoyed it. I also stuffed letters for Caitlyn's "Gokhale" distribution list.

Tuesday - I did more letters. Oh joy. I also sold books at another event. I did Cato Today too. I'm getting pretty quick at it now. Definitely not the four hours like the first time.

Wednesday - I worked on Caitlyn's RSS feed again. Give it a week and it really piles up. I had to go through close to 300 articles. I did CT again and we had another interesting GA meeting.

Thursday - I delivered more handbooks after we did a hill briefing. Then I went on a dome tour with several of the LU kids. One of the most epic things of the semester so far.

Friday - I put together an email for Brandon and I worked on something else. Can't think of it right now though...

A sweet reminder of home...

Well this past week was good week. On Saturday we went to the Eastern Market. Epic. I got an awesome shirt. I'm going back next weekend fo sho. The last couple (3) Sundays I've been volunteering at Ebenezer's (8:20 in the AM!) and its been pretty awesome.

On Monday, I did Cato Today once again and I did Caitlyn's RSS feeds. (I need to do that this week...).

Tuesday, Catinca, April, and I reorganized the book room. As in alphabetized several hundred books. They moved the book room from the basement to the second floor so everything was crazy. Took several hours but it looks quite lovely. (insert faux British accent). I also put together two packages for Caitlyn filled with Bad Medicine (one of our publications).

Wednesday I did Cato Today and we had another incredibly topically random GA meeting. We started googling congresswomen that we thought were good looking. Very interesting choices mentioned. I also delivered some more handbooks to the hill.

Thursday, I worked on a large mailing which used the contact info for the Gokhale distribution (over 300 contacts).

Friday we had another informal libertarian lunch group on the hill and as soon as I got back to Cato, I left for the Planet Wisdom Conference in Woodbridge, VA. It was so awesome to get to hang out with my church. I missed that! Great friends and great times. Thanks guys!

Two weeks...

So I've been incredibly lazy and I haven't posted in forever (2 weeks).

Last week...

Monday - I worked on the list of new freshmen and on Tuesday I finished it. Not exciting.

Wednesday - I did an email and fax and I did Cato Today which got out by 11:30.

Thursday - I delivered some handbooks to the hill.

Friday - I did Cato Today and I went to the hill with more handbooks. I went to the capital hill club after work and got free food.

Weekend - worked on my Govt 302 paper and went to the National Cathedral.

This week...

Monday - I went with Brandon to the RSC. Always cool. Saw Ben

Tuesday - I started a project for Caitlyn where I went through her RSS feed and summarized all the stuff happening (state agencies). I also took testimony to Dirksen and we had an event where I found my backup job...

Wednesday - I did CT, worked on Caitlyn's RSS feed thing, and Nita Ghea spoke to us. We had a GA meeting where we talked about dogs, gay congressmen, hot congressmen (?), and retro music and tv.

Thursday - ?

Friday - Handbooks on the hill

Parental Units

As the previous post said, I was off on Monday. Awesome. Tuesday I worked on the Report for Government Affairs and on Wednesday, I finished it. Also I did Cato Today in 2 hours! The quickest I've done it. I started at 8:30 so I had to wait 30 minutes (until 11) to send it out. I went to the the informal lunch group and I met a mult-millionaire. Pretty epic. I also did an email for Brandon. On Thursday, I didn't do that much. We had a lecture with Tom Palmer (my favorite) and I did a mailing for Caitlyn. On Friday, I did CT in 2 hours again! On a roll baby! I also started putting together a list of freshman congressman and their offices so we can deliver handbooks to them. My parents came up on Friday so I hung out with them all weekend. It was awesome to see them again. We had dinner with all my DC friends on Saturday and Kayon started talking "real suthern" like my parents. pretty funny!