Tag: Politics

Someone agrees with me about Al Gore

EcoGeek – Technology for the Environment – Gore Officially Campaigning…Poorly

What he’s doing here is trying to seem more thoughtful about Iraq, a very divisive issue, while relying on climate change to be his main bedfellow. What he’s actually doing is looking like a total weenie again, which is exactly what lost him the election in 2000.

Would I like a President who’s willing to do something about the horrible things we’re doing to the environment?  Absolutely.  Do I think Al Gore has any chance of winning?  No.  Do I think Al Gore running will hurt the Democratic party?  Yes.

He already lost once because he was a robot who stood for nothing every time I ever heard him or read about him.  Recently, I hear that he speaks well, and passionately, about environmental issues.  But now he’s maybe looking at another Presidential bid, and returning to his 2000 form.

Stop it, Al Gore.  Don’t run.  Throw your weight behind another candidate, get your environmental message out there, but please don’t hand another election over to someone like George W. Bush.

Congratulations to the Vice Presidents daughter

Report: Vice president’s lesbian daughter pregnant – CNN.com

Mary Cheney, 37, and her partner of 15 years, Heather Poe, 45, are “ecstatic” about the baby, due in late spring . . .

I like how CNN had to make sure they mention in the headline that she’s a lesbian.  That’s because everyone knows that lesbians have babies with two heads and shoot beams from their eyes that turn straight people to gay.

Its about time

Security Of Electronic Voting Is Condemned – washingtonpost.com

The recommendations endorse “optical-scan” systems in which voters mark paper ballots that are read by a computer and electronic systems that print a paper summary of each ballot, which voters review and elections officials save for recounts.

It’s amazing that the electronic voting systems have lasted this long. We all know that computers have problems. I mean, I’m a software engineer. I know better than most how buggy software can be. But still, we let the computer count the votes with no way to check the results? That’s insane.

Instead, we really should be using the system that this study recommends. You use a touch screen to cast your vote, then it prints out a piece of paper with your vote on it, which is both easily readable by you, and by the machine. You then stick that piece of paper into the counting machine, and you’re done. Yes, election officials have to make sure you don’t take the paper home with you. If that’s a big deal for your election officials, you need new election officials. This way, everything is quick because it’s done by a machine. But if you have any questions (Like the county in Florida that seems to have lost 10,000 votes or something in this most recent election), you can count the ballots by hand.

This system combines the best qualities of both paper ballots and electronic voting, and it makes it very hard to interfere with an election. At least, to interfere by messing with the votes. Messing with voters is a different story, but it can’t be helped if people are dumb.

Edited to add: A coworker mentions the problem here, that it’s difficult to change a vote. Let’s say you vote, and the card that prints out is wrong. What do you do? We don’t really want poll workers to be able to change the vote, or to be able to throw votes away and make new ones.

Maybe the machine will accept your old ballot, destroy it, and allow you to make a new one. If you destroy one without replacing it, the machine sounds an alarm that can be heard from space.

_NB: Any comments about Bush stealing an election will be marked as spam and deleted. _

Ive always wanted to do this

In Following His Own Script, Webb May Test Senate’s Limits – washingtonpost.com

“How’s your boy?” Bush asked, referring to Webb’s son, a Marine serving in Iraq.”I’d like to get them out of Iraq, Mr. President,” Webb responded, echoing a campaign theme.

“That’s not what I asked you,” Bush said. “How’s your boy?”

“That’s between me and my boy, Mr. President,” Webb said coldly, ending the conversation on the State Floor of the East Wing of the White House.

This is an exchange between new VA Senator Jim Webb and our intrepid leader. I’ve always wanted to be a total dick to the President, although I realize that it’s kind of childish.

I hope Webb takes a bit of this fire and desire for change and actually does something constructive with it. Going to a White House reception, avoiding the President, then being rude to him when he seeks you out is a little counterproductive, I think. Like it or not, Bush is going to hang around for another two years, and anything that happens is going to involve him. Being rude to him in public will probably endear you to the loons at Daily Kos and whatnot various liberal whackos, but it’s not exactly advancing the cause.

Edit: I realized after I posted this that it’s a little hypocritical to call Jim Webb childish, then take cheap shots at Daily Kos. So, I apologize to the Daily Kos and the surrounding community.

Good try, DC

D.C. Moves to Become Pioneer In Forcing ‘Green’ Construction – washingtonpost.com

The era of “green buildings” would include devices such as low-flow shower heads and recycled materials and would require designing passageways that encourage walking, choosing drought-tolerant plants and improving air quality by reducing the need for artificial heating and cooling.

I’m very much on board with getting companies to build greener.  And this not only promotes recycling, but health, too, with better air quality and getting people to walk.  My one problem here is that they’re forcing companies to do it.  I’d rather see them give incentives first, and if not enough companies do it, then think about legislating it.  For example, if you give tax breaks for meeting some or all of these standards, something to offset the increased cost, then you’ll likely get more support from the business community.

As it is, they’re kind of salty because they think it will raise costs by 11%, instead of the 2-4% that supporters claim.  But DC is pioneering this sort of program in a large city.  Maybe the next city to try it will go a different route.

Election withdrawl

I got used to having political stuff to talk about all the time, and now there doesn’t seem to be much going on.  I’m sure there is, but it’s not plastered all over the front page anymore, and I haven’t taken the time to go find it.

It was as if everyone let out a collective sigh of relief – “Oh, the Democrats took both majorities, now they’ll fix everything.”  Sure, that would be cool.  But it’s not going to happen right away.  I think it’s important that we, the people, continue to pay attention and put pressure on our representatives to do what they’ve promised.  You want us out of Iraq?  Tell your representatives that we need plan, now, that gets Iraq stable and self-sufficient so we can get the heck out of there.  Is illegal immigration your issue?  Tell them that Bush’s big wall is a stupid idea, and we need to figure out a way to deal with this that doesn’t involve racist Texans shooting at Mexicans.  There’s a whole lot of compromising room between amnesty and deportation of all.

I know I’ve been slacking, but November is really busy.  I promise to write a letter to a representative (I’m thinking new VA Senator Jim Webb) the first week in December.  I don’t know what I’m going to write, but I’ll write something.

Im special

I just got a letter from the Virginia Department of Transportation.  It seems that Senator Saslaw and Congressman Moran passed my letter along, and now I’m going to be notified by a member of the Traffic Engineering Section concerning the results of their effort to provide “innovative guide signage and pavement markings”.

And people said I was crazy to write to my representatives.  But you see here that it makes things happen.  I mean, who among you has received a letter from VDOT?  I’m holding one in my hand right now.  Maybe I’ll frame it, and put it above the mantle next to the flag football trophy.

Looks like its almost over

Allen to Concede Election This Afternoon – washingtonpost.com

Virginia Sen. George Allen (R) will concede that he has lost the election to Democrat James Webb at a 3 p.m. news conference in Alexandria, according to a source close to the campaign with direct knowledge of the senator’s intentions.

Now it’s time for the Democrats to come through on all the stuff they promised.  I mean, they have a few weeks before they have to start campaigning for the 2008 Presidency, right?  Let’s get some bipartisan compromising done!

And it comes down to us.

They just called the Senate race in Montana for Democrat Jon Tester.  So now control of the Senate rests with Virginia, and Jim Webb’s 7000 vote lead.

Do you see now why I tell everyone to vote?  The difference between a Republican controlled Senate and a Democrat controlled senate is 7000 votes.  That’s it.  I’m going to punch the next person who says his vote doesn’t matter.  Yes, I meant to say ‘his’.  I won’t punch a girl.  I’ll just glare at her sternly.  Perhaps waggle my finger.

Change of plans

Last night, when I went to bed, I was all ready to yell this morning about how residents of the bigoted, intolerant commonwealth I live in couldn’t manage to see past their homophobia and vote against an overly broad amendment banning gay marriage.  I guess I should have expected it when even the campaign signs against the amendment said, “Read the whole thing!”.  As in, it’s okay to ban gay marriage, but do you have to ban civil unions, too?

But this morning I’m feeling much better about things.  I’m still mad the amendment passed.  But the Democrats took control of the House, and maybe will get the Senate, too.  My wife is happy because the race is close enough that her absentee ballot might actually mean something.  She’s out of town until Thursday, so she dutifully voted absentee.

So, for all of you who voted Democratic, either because you agree with the Democrats, or because you’re fed up with this administration and want a change, we’re heading in the right direction.  But we have to keep at it.  I urge you to write your representatives.  Tell them that we want a plan to finish what we started in Iraq and get our troops home.  We want our civil liberties back.  We want to once again respect the Constitution at ALL times, not just when it’s convenient.  We want a government that focuses on compromise and serving the people, not this partisan bickering that has taken over.

What are you waiting for?  Go write a letter.  Well, if you have a new representative, you can wait until he or she takes office.  But write the incumbents now.  It’s never to early to let them know how you feel.