In order to truly calculate a fair popular vote total, you need to adjust upwards proportionally the number of caucus votes by the average ratio of caucus goers to primary voters.

I am going to try and prove this with some numbers from a simple scenario.  Say there is one caucus goer for every 10 primary voters.  Say there are 3 states with these results:

Primary 1 Clinton Wins 60-40%
Population 1000 - 300 Clinton Votes,           200 Obama Votes

Primary 2 50-50% Tie
Population 500  - 125 Clinton Votes,            125 Obama Votes

Caucus 1 Obama Wins 60-40%
Population 1000 - 20 Clinton Caucus Votes, 30 Obama Caucus Votes

If you add up the total votes you get: 445 Clinton to 355 Obama, a 55.6 to 44.4% Clinton win.  You have two large states, with the same population, going for opposite candidates by the same percentage, which should cancel out.  The other state is a tie, so the result should be a tie.  But by just counting VOTES, this gives one candidate an unfair win.   The smaller state primary vote is skewing the results in Clinton's favor in this example.

The fair way to create an apples to apples popular vote count is below the fold.

From the Texas Democratic Party Precinct Convention Results
"acknowldgement to view results" page:

I understand these results are unofficial, and official results will not be available until they are certified by the Credentials committee at County and Senatorial District Conventions on March 29th. I also understand that these results are nonbinding, and delegates are free to vote for whomever they choose. Allocation of delegates to the National Convention is not finally determined until the June 6-7 State Convention.

So, they are nonbinding, AND they are not finalized until the June 6-7 Texas State Democratic Convention.  

So, Texas Obama County Convention Delegates, be prepared to fight for your vote to be counted at the county conventions, and at the state convention in Austin in you are elected a State Delegate.  I am one and will be joining you!

It was a long poll.  It started out with questions on how I felt about the country, right track wrong track.  They then went on asking about favorable, unfavorable opinions about Huckabee, McCain, Bloomberg, Obama...

Some policy questions, if I voted in the past and was planning on voting in 2008. Then about how I felt about economy, Democrats, Republicans.  Would I consider voting for an independent...

Then they went to the biggie, who would I vote for McCain, Clinton, or Bloomberg, then McCain, Obama, or Bloomberg.  They then tried to read me a glowing biography paragraph about Bloomberg, but I had had enough, and got off the line.  Interesting and disturbing... I sure hope he stays out of it.

Confirmation that tax rebate will not have to be paid back.

There was a discussion earlier today about the rebate checks and having to pay them back or pay taxes on them in 2008 returns.

The latest from CNN Money is that no, you get to keep them.

Details below the fold:

I am very disheartened that Hillary Clinton in one of the two remaining
choices for the Democratic nomination.

So, without further ado, 10 SERIOUS reasons why Hillary Clinton should not be chosen as the Democratic nominee for the 2008 election.

10 reasons after the break...

Not that they are advocating for Edwards, mind you.  Far from it.  My translation of what they are telling all the business folks is "fight for Obama or Clinton if you want to keep your unseemly profits coming in."

You see, the Washington Bureau Chief of Fortune Magazine says that The Democrats Don't Really mean It! when it comes to holding corporations accountable and changing the system.

All of them except John Edwards!

The title of her article of what the moneyed interests think of the Democratic Candidates is:
Democrats' war on corporate greed: Mostly bluster.

More of the corporate opinion below the fold:

There was an diary yesterday on Daily Kos highlighting a hit piece on
Lou Dobbs.  I had done research that really debunked the article by David Leonhardt, and was preparing my own diary in defense of him. He beat me to the punch with his own response.

Go check out his response on CNN if you believe in hearing both sides of the story.

Since I did my own research before I saw this, and found out that the Leonhardt article was a hit piece, I believe Lou Dobbs on this, and give him the benefit of the doubt.   He admits the mistakes he made readily in his article.  I wish David Leonhardt would do the same, but don't expect it.

Lou Dobbs has been working for the middle class for a long while, and deserves some props from people.  I am sure his corporate leadership was not terribly thrilled with some of the positions he has taken. Just because someone disagrees with you on an issue, don't smear them.  The smearing tends to happen a lot, but it is dishonest.  Go after their position, not their person.  You might actually change some minds.

This diary is a combination of a couple of comments that I have made while discussing the "collapse" of the war funding resistance.

Here is the deal:

You give up and go away, they win.  That is what they want you to do.  They LOVE controlling the agenda in both parties.  If you leave, they get to keep pretending to be an "opposition party."  You can only change that if you can take back control of the Democratic Party.  The corporatist single party folks CONTROL both parties right now.  There are some signs of life in the netroots of the Democratic Party, and the DNC, but they are weak,and need to be fed and watered and nourished mightily, as the Lieberman victory pointed out.  

We need to keep fighting the corporatists for every house seat, every senate seat, every precinct chair, every state executive committee member, every county chair, every party chair until we take back our party, just like the Right Wing religious folks did in the Republican Party.

Join me on the flip side for why the Third Party way won't work...

8 CNN stories on the Virginia Tech shooting, yet they still,
bless them (snark), have have room on the front page of CNN for:

Edwards campaign picks up the tab for pricey haircuts

The shooting coverage was disgusting, but to have this alongside it should be criminal.

I want an American BBC.  Public non profit news.

/end rant

What is the matter with Texas?  And with our society's Draconian Law and order mentality. I
s this what "Zero Tolerance" leads to? (I say this as a resident of Texas.)
According to CNN - LINK - 40 students were arrested on FELONY charges of FELONY THEFT and ORGANIZED CRIMINAL ACTIVITY after collecting items (stop signs, garden hoses were mentioned) for a scavenger hunt. The felony theft carries a max 2 Years, $10,000 fine, and the organized crime a max of 10 Years, $10,000.

What is up with our society's Draconian Law and order mentality?
Is this what "Zero Tolerance" leads to?
Forty students playing a game (yes, an illegal one, granted) are facing 12 Years in Prison, $20,000 in fines, and a felony status that will follow them around for life.  Ridiculous. I think whoever charged them with organized criminal activity (This is supposed to be for Mafia types of crimes!!) should be immediately fired.  

What is wrong with this society when a prank like this with massive student involvement is treated like the Sopranos. I hope this city comes to its senses, and comes up with a more realistic charges and punishments for these poor students.

Is it possible to have an immigration debate without having a flame war, troll rating war,
pie war, or any kind of war?  Without calling people racists and bigots? Let's try!

Lou Dobbs had an article on the front page of CNN a few days ago:

Democratic hacks embrace lunacy of amnesty

This seeks to portray all democrats as in the pockets of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce
and the Catholic Church, and others, and says that we are letting industry write the
new legislation.  Some of this is accurate, some inacurate.  

Regardless of this, if we can't come to a consensus (or even have a civil discussion),
the issue WILL be taken out of our hands, and solutions put in place written by industry that no-one likes.

So I have a question for the community:  What are YOUR solutions to the issue?  (I am assuming everyone thinks there are some issues with our current system)

Continued Below...

Do we need a new bannable offense?

Being a staffer or official campaign volunteer or blogger without disclosure?

There seems to be a LOT of people on the site suddenly who come in with positive comment after positive comment about a candidate, and I would like to know that they are not being paid and are not working for that campaign.  I don't know who is unafilliated, and who is pushing / advertising their candidate.

If you are on the staff of a candidate, should they add something like:

"Note: I work on the Texas XXXXXX for President Campaign" to their sig line or something?

If they don't, should they be banned?

I think there is a similar rule at our state convention, that if you are declared for a candidate, it needs to be on your badge.

Do we need this, or should people just have enough ethics to do this without being forced to?  And if they are found out, should it just be exposed to the community?  

Agree / Disagree?  Right on?  Too Hard to enforce?  Thoughts?

I have not seen this mentioned enough about the State of The Union Address.

A huge theme of Senator Webb's response was that the middle class is being very hurt by the current economy, and steadily losing ground.  CEO Pay is skyrocketing, good jobs are being decimated by outsourcing and immigration H1B visas, and the inequality of incomes is steadily increasing.

So what is the (no so great) Great Decider's plan for Health Care?  Throwing another anvil of taxes on the despair of middle class workers.

After SIX freaking years of reducing the taxes on wealth, and increaing the taxes on work, his plan taxes the steadily decreasing health insurance benefits of the middle class to give the working poor access to crappy (And insanely profitable for the insurers) private health insurance.

The Democratic Party and its leaders better be all over this and denouncing it or they will hear about it from all of us middle class workers.

$17,000 per month - That is what a military contractor says he is making in Iraq at the
following article: http://news.bbc.co.uk/... in the "In Iraq for the Money" section currently at the bottom of the page.

What the Frack?

How is the privatization of this service helping our country get things
done MORE EFFICIENTLY as promised.

Why the hell can't we pay our SOLDIERS what they are worth, and put these clowns out of business.

If the GRUNTS are making this much $$$, what are the CEOs / business men / war profiteers making?

Join me on the underside...

Time has a new article about Gingrich's 2008 run entitled:

Gingrich '08: The stealth candidate

If can be found at this Time Article.

Highlight from it:
Gingrich revealed to Fortune that he plans to create a draft-Newt "wave" by building grassroots support for his health care, national security and energy independence ideas.

It says he has been peddling them for 6 years.

If he comes out for Universal Health Care, Jobs through Energy Independence, and a Sane Foreign Policy, ALL of which we have been screaming about for years, he could get the moderate Republicans back from the Right Wing, and be a real force in 2008.  

Does anyone take this threat seriously?  Do we have any Democratic Leadership that can get out in front on these issues, so they are not stolen and used against us?

A filibuster, while it would be great, is not needed. All ONE senator (Feingold?) needs to do is to withdraw unanimous consent from everything, and the senate will be forced to a crawl to follow the full, lengthy, archaic rules of the Senate on everything.   (See entry from Wikepedia in extended copy below the fold)

The Democratic Senators should filibuster, it is the right thing to do.  If they don't want to do the right thing for ANY reason, revoke unanimous consent and run out the clock. Call for quorum every 10 minutes, make privileged motions for a closed session.  Do WHATEVER it takes! They could USE the slogan Let the voters decide!  This will completely nationalize the election to STOP TORTURE. Whatever is done, the trampling of our constitutional rights and the condoning of the barbarism of torture MUST NOT be written into our laws.

The DNC has a brand spanking new ACTION web site up that
was made possible by the Democracy Bond holders in our
nation.  

www.100actions.com

I received information in an email from
Chairman Dean today on it.

It is going to list 100 concrete things that can be done to
take this country back, starting TODAY, all the way
up to the November elections.

Time to STOP TALKING, and START DOING, though I am
positive some of the steps will be talking to friends and
neighbors.

Everyone please go to this site DAILY, and let get this
party started!

CNN is reporting today that a poll for the 2008 Presidential Race was done (+/- 3 MoE)
and that Gore, Clinton, and Kerry all have very high negatives.

Almost half of the population definitely would not vote for
Al Gore (48%), John Kerry (47%), and Hillary Clinton (47%).

Two of the Republicans did better with McCain at 34%,
Gulianni at 30%.

Thankfully, one Republican from a fairly well known
political family did the worst of all, Jeb Bush at 63%.

I would say the 2008 race is wide open, and it is definitely time for new leaders
to step up and get this country back on the right track.
Perhaps one of Clark, Edwards, Feingold, Richardson,
or Warner will do the trick.

Update - Poll Instructions and Any Option: Assume you are voting
for the Democratic Primary, since of course all of us would support
almost any Democratic nominee against the Republican candidate.