PaulDarr.org

For my fellow tech geeks that follow my postings... here are some stats of visitors to my site.

Visitors by browser: 

So for those that have not been following the news there have been several CM9/ICS development threads going on at XDA.

CM9/ICS Work-In-Progress

Iraq

December 18th marked the day that the last tactical convoy departed Iraq. The Iraq war cost the US approximately 4,500 soldiers lives and 900 billion dollars. In October of 2005 I was there assisting with the shipment of the remains of soldier number 2,000 to fall there. This year my Reserve unit was part of the team that assisted receiving the convoys in Kuwait and preparing the personnel and their equipment for the departure home.

I was at Kuwait in the fall to assist with preparing for the units but we had not received very many in until after I left for another mission. I was told the “tap really opened” in December. This occurred after talks to extend units time in Iraq failed with the Iraqi government.

What is ACTA?

From Wikipedia:

The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) is a multi-national agreement for the purpose of establishing international standards for intellectual property rights enforcement. The agreement aims to establish an international legal framework for targeting counterfeit goods, generic medicines and copyright infringement on the Internet, and would create a new governing body outside existing forums, such as the World Trade Organization, the World Intellectual Property Organization, or the United Nations.

For those that are unaware the state law in Maine allows for a two-and-half month window for which voters may Caucus. This year the state Republican party recommended the week of Feb. 4th-11th. Even with a week window, 22 of the 97 municipalities decided to not hold their caucuses over that time.

Like Iowa, Colorado and Minnesota, Maine holds a non-binding caucus, so none of the state’s 24 GOP delegates are bound to vote for a candidate. The results being released Saturday are from a straw poll taken at each caucus that has no solid relation to the state delegates chosen.

The state does have a primary in June, but the presidential nomination isn’t even on the ballot.

With Newt Gingrich’s win at the South Carolina Primary it shows voters that the GOP nomination is still anyone’s game. While Gingrich came through with a commanding lead in South Carolina, he still trails Mitt Romney by five delegates. The current delegate count is: Mitt Romney (31), Newt Gingrich (26), Ron Paul (10) and Rick Santorum (8).

The only candidate that has not one a state is Ron Paul. Yet Ron Paul’s strategy has kept him ahead of Rick Santorum who has won a state himself. With the nomination still in contention I don’t see any of the current candidates dropping out yet. Considering a candidate has to accumulate 1,144 delegates to win the RNC convention, we still have a long way to go.

Disclaimer: The results come from a sampling of visitors that voted on my website. The methodology does not represent a statistically significant cross section of any voter category.

That being said, I find the results interesting. I know I had visitors that identified as members of the Libertarian Party.  I also know that I had a large number of Independents and Republicans which visited to vote on my poll, after I posted it on my Google+ page.  Clearly name recognition has played a large part in the results of this poll. Well let me post the results and we will discuss them further.

Governor Rick Perry (TX) is expected to drop out of the race for the Republican nomination for President.  Washington news website Politico said Mr Perry would hold a news conference at 11:00 am ET on Thursday, at which he's expected to announce his decision.

When Governor Perry previously returned home to Texas, many thought his run was over. He surprised many as he returned to the campaign field. Governor Perry’s plan hinged around creating a strong finish in South Carolina but as polls have come in, his chances have kept getting slimmer.

Two bills before Congress, known as the Protect IP Act (PIPA) in the Senate and the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in the House, would censor the Web and impose harmful regulations on American business. The intent of the bills is to stop the illegal downloading of copyrighted material... the outcome will be far different.

SOPA and PIPA would allow the U.S. government to order the blocking of sites using methods similar to those employed by China and Egypt. Do we want to model our country after totalitarian regimes?

According to a recent Zogby Poll "One-in-Four Voters Say They Are Likely To Support Third-Party Candidate." This is a wonderful opportunity for Libertarian candidates. I am excited to see the field of potential Libertarian candidates. In addition if Representative Ron Paul does not get the nomination, I could see many of his supporters being swayed to vote for a Libertarian candidate as a protest vote.