http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/11/11/paul.republican/index.html

The dude's right, at least in the opinion of one who favors small government and personal liberty (ie: me).

Today's Republicans are not Republicans by definition.

I am a registered Republican (e:mrdeadlier,41599), but will be stepping down as such soon and going back to independent since the only reason I registered as one in the first place was so I could vote for Ron Paul in the Presidential primary back in February.

Clicky

So I just got another robo call. Surprising, what with tomorrow being Election Day and all, it's the only one I received tonight. Maybe everyone else used up their calling card minutes before today, lol.

Ok, so it technically wasn't a political call. It was an "ad" for Mike Ranzenhofer's firm informing me that if I was gay then I should look to them for support if I needed legal assistance of any sort. And also not to worry because gay marriage was just around the corner.

Disclaimer: This post isn't being written because I am pro- or anti- gay marriage.

It's being written because to me it seemed like a pretty dirty tactic by the Mesi campaign (ok, an assumption on my part) to associate Ranzenhofer's name with gay marriage (not ironically something he actually opposes and Mesi supports).

So now let's roleplay... If I'm some politically ignorant homophobic clown, I'm going to hang up the phone and remember that name "Ranzenhofer" since it's pretty unique and was repeated several times during the call's 60 second or so duration. Tomorrow, when I vote (being ignorant of where the candidates stand on this one specific topic) I'm going to vote for Mesi since he's on the other side of the name "Ranzenhofer" which to me now equals "friends with those gays."

Again, I'm not saying gay marriage is a good or bad thing -- that's not what this is about. I'm just saying this phone call was a pretty dirty 11th hour tactic in my opinion. In principle this call could have been referencing tax plans, it's just that someone is exploiting a hot button topic.

Yes I'm voting for Ranzenhofer but it's only because he's not Tom Golisano's puppet. I mean really... Joe Mesi? Joe Mesi? I'm sorry but I just can't do it. We're going to send him to the State Senate? A place where once you're in, YOU'RE IN FOREVER? (See Robin Schimminger, Louise Slaughter, Dale Volker, etc). He's the best option WNY Democrats could come up with now that Rath's seat is open?

No wonder this state and this region are so messed up.