Category: Politics

Command line colorization is a useful tool for working on the Unix CLI environment.  Here is quick tutorial on how to customize your bash environment colors.  The example is set to work just with your command prompt, but the same technique can be used to colorize anything in the Unix bash environment.

Found this link on my brother Adam’s blog.  I just about busted a gut watching it.  So, for anyone who needs a quick rundown of the story line of Fahrenheit 9/11, may I present to you Fellowship 9/11.

This article by the AP scares the holy crap out of me. Evidently the Department of Homeland Security (DoHS) feels the part of its job mandate is to enforce patent and trademark rules on US citizens. Can anyone say “night watch?” Can someone please tell the DoHS that the US economy can take care of itself just fine. If a company is worried about a trademark infringement, they can do the same thing the rest of us would do; go to the courts to have it resolved. Unfortunately the focus of the article is on the fact that the patent had expired (making the DoHS look stupid) but the real focus of the article should be; exactly what business does the DoHS have pursuing trademark enforcement?

Most of you have probably already been emailed the “Bill of non-Rights” (BNR) before; but it makes for some good reading on Monday morning. The BNR is commonly attributed to Mitchell Kaye, a Georgia state representative. In reality the original author is one Lewis Napper a 2000 Libertarian Senate candidate. In my years with an email account I have seen several different versions (the one below is the original) including such issues and English as the national language and Christianity as a core American belief. Overall, its something more Americans probably need to read.

THIS IS THE START OF A PIECE I WAS PUTTING TOGETHER FOR THE 2004 U.S. ELECTIONS: IT IS HERE FOR REFERENCE AND WAS NEITHER FINISHED OR CORRECTED.

I am a fairly opinionated individual, especially when it comes to politics. With the presidential election year in full swing it is only natural that people (myself included) start posting and discussing their œpick for President of the United States of America.

Before I get too far into my thoughts let me first be clear about my particular political leanings, because I don’t believe its possible to be entirely unbiased. It’s makes more sense to be candid about ones biases, thereby letting people weigh your arguments in the light of their source. Having biases doesn’t automatically invalidate someones opinion (because without influences we would have NO opinions) but it does allow us a context for that opinion.

If I were to use commonly defined American political œclassifications I would have to call myself a Libertarian. Generally I am socially Liberal and economically Conservative. In addition, for the last 4 years I have been a registered Republican (although that may change soon enough.) My general rule for the role of government is that; with the exceptions of national defense and law enforcement, it should do very little. I am in favor of a national sales tax and/or a granulated flat tax. I am in favor of smaller (state controlled) government. I am opposed to prayer in public schools. I am in favor of school vouchers. I am opposed to the death penalty. I am opposed to abortion. I am pro gun rights. I am in favor of legalizing most drugs.

Basically my personal beliefs fall pretty much in line with what the founding fathers conceptualized our nation being. My reasons for wanting to see the government get out of almost all aspects of our society is mostly for practical reasons. The government is, almost without exception, bad at doing things. When a dollar is given by private contribution to cancer research it is used a hundred times more efficiently than when the government issued public money’s to the very same cause.

Think Enron and MCI screwed the American people? Every year the Federal Government does more to hurt the economy than Enron and MCI did. The amount of money lost (as in they have no idea where it went) by the federal government in the last decade is in the trillions of dollars. Literally millions of jobs are lost on a regular basis because of government mismanagement. History has shown that Americans do better if the Federal Government get out of their way; instead of trying to help them. The only historical exception to this rule seems to be in the area of civil rights.

Yahoo has a great election information page that I have found useful for looking up candidates, their voting records, and local issues.  It even have functionality to send the legislator messages on issues that are important to you, the voter.

Talk about a busy day for political posts, here are two more articles I found that absolutely must get posted.

The first is an opinion column from the New York Jewish Times that talks about the plight of the everyday Israeli. The article makes a few really good points (like the fact that average Israeli is search more times per day than the average Palestinian), mixed in with some decidedly non-journalistic ranting. Definitely worth a read.

The second article is a Drudge Report exclusive. Basically it states that Congressman Hastert plans to work with the Bush White House (if Bush wins a second term) to implement a VAT, flat-tax, or federal sales tax that would effectively negate the need for the IRS. This kind of action would single handedly do more to help the U.S. economy AND increase federal income than anything else the U.S. Congress could do. The IRS drags billions (thats right billions) out of the U.S. economy every year and does more to violate constitutional rights than the Patriot Act ever did.

A fairly common academic debate I have is over the perceived nature of America’s base state. Is America an exceptional country by its vary nature. To many Americans this seems self evident. This idea of American exceptionalism is so widely held as to be a cornerstone of American politics and self image. Many U.S. presidents including FDR, Ronald Reagan, and John Kennedy strongly held to the maxim of America being a special and exceptional nation.

The reason I bring it up is because it is a long held opinion of Conservative Republicans that a disproportional number of Democrats hold a disdain for said “American Exceptionalsim”, believing that America is NOT a exceptional country and that the world would NOT be better off being more “American like.” It is often cited as a reason of distrust in the liberal establishment of the Democratic party and (I believe) the focal reason why Americans historically and overwhelmingly trust Republican administrations with national defense (present administration excluded.)

I had never actually seen hard poll numbers on this phenomenon before; leading me to believe that it was simply a social stereotype. Then I read some really interesting numbers by U.S. News & World Report pollster Scott Rasmussen. Those numbers are what follows:

• America is generally fair and decent: 64%
• America is generally unfair and discriminatory: 22%
• The world would be a better place if other countries behaved more like the U.S: 62%
• The world would be a worse place if other countries behaved more like the U.S: 14%
• (Republicans) America is generally fair and decent: 83%
• (Republicans) America is generally unfair and discriminatory: 7%
• (Democrats) America is generally fair and decent: 46%
• (Democrats) America is generally unfair and discriminatory: 37%

Those are some pretty stark numbers. I quote them here for reference, but what do you thing this seems to say about the differences between the two parties?

I often like to discuss the nature of media and its bias towards the news. People in the media generally believe themselves to be above reproach when it comes to liberal/conservative bias, but the reality is often quite different. Although there are dozens of studies (including ones from the Pew Research Center) that confirms that most major media outlets have a “left” leaning ideology; this study I found most interesting. The way the study was done was counting thing tank citations from both media outlets and (as a percentage) from both Legislative branches.

The nice part about the way the study was conducted is that it removes a significant part of human judgment from the evaluation process. A simple comparison can be done between the media outlet and the U.S. House of Representatives (generally considered the a fairly accurate reflection of the countries political leanings) as a whole. The result (not unexpectedly) was that almost all major media outlets do NOT represent both sides of the issue with balance; at least when when we discuss the practice of citation.

I don’t believe that its possible for people, companies, institutions to be un-bias. To deny the experiences that made us who we are would be to remove the life, color, and vigor of our statements. What is possible is for everyone to admit that bias occurs and to be honest about said bias. As I have said before, those who deny bias in any human endeavor are either ignorant or naive.

Candidate Map is a collection of quotations and comments from the current list of Presidential Candidates. Click an issue and then click a candidate and get a view of their opinion on a given subject. Be sure to check out Gary Nolan the Libertarian Candidate.