Ok, I was going to vote for Barack Obama, he seemed like the ‘big-time’ candidate that had more of my interests at heart. Then he voted for the recent FISA Amendments Act of 2008 that grants telecoms immunity for helping the government break the law. This floored me… A law that protects lawbreakers. This just didn’t make sense… FISA already had rules in place for spying on Americans (FISA established a secret court a long time ago…), the government has been ignoring them for some time now. Now he wants to grant immunity from prosecution for companies (telecoms) that broke the law. He made some statements after voting trying to explain why he voted the way he did, but they are meaningless; the vote counts, not the words.

So I was bored today and looked at his voting record as a Senator. I hate to say it,  but it looks like he abstains from voting a lot… an awful lot! I had assumed that he voted ‘yes’ for bills that he supports and ‘no’ for bills he doesn’t support. Looking at his record, I think I was mistaken. Don’t get me wrong, McCain’s voting record doesn’t impress me either, but I wasn’t planning on voting for him anyway. Find out more about your Senator’s voting at project vote smart. (Speaking of US senators, I really wish that they had term limits…)

I’m originally from a farming state and it looks like he goes out of his way to abstain from voting on Agricultural issues (also budget and business issues as well). A politician who won’t vote is useless. They need to educate themselves on the issues (yes, that is their job) and place a vote. Abstaining seems like a good way to avoid upsetting people, but not a good way to promote positive change in our society. If re-election is all that matters it sounds like a good strategy to me: Try to upset nobody and tell everyone how concerned you are about the issues… but forget to show up and cast a vote. We elect officials to represent us, not rule us; not voting on issues equals not doing your job (in my humble opinion).

I now have no candidate to vote for… time to find a third party candidate I guess. I wish the USofA had a three party system.