Geeky Ramblings

I like this …

It’s a fun political ad … I really like the ending.

I found this on CNET (via Slashdot) today:

In what appears to be a first, the US House of Representatives now has a Congressman who can code…in assembly. That’s right, a Congressman with geek skills.

Democratic Representative Bill Foster won a special election this past Saturday in the 14th Congressional District of Illinois. This was the district that former Republican Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert held from 1986-2007. Hastert stepped down in November of 2007.

- The tech world rejoices: A Congressman who can code.

Ok, this guy is officially my second favorite politician after Barack Obama. Even if he doesn’t represent our district (Melissa Bean is pretty good too).

Not only did he eat the republicans lunch, cast the deciding vote in a major ethics reform bill, but he knows the difference between ram, rom, dasd, and control structures.

Apparently he’s proficient in Assembly, Fortran, and VB (two out of three ain’t bad). Sadly, RPG is apparently not among his skills.

Well, it seems that the Iowa Caucuses are over and Obama has won.

I, for one, am quite pleased with this result. I have to admit that I was worried about Clinton. I’m not going to get into why I don’t like Clinton … that’s for another post.

Aw heck, I will get into it … it might annoy some people, but so be it.

In my opinion, Clinton has absolutely NO RIGHT to her position as Senator for New York. She was basically appointed to the position by the Democratic party. They wanted her to be in the congress and had to figure out where she could run. She didn’t even live in NY when she ran for office. Yes, she won in a free and fair election … but people were not voting for her because she could represent them … they were voting because she was famous (same reason, btw, that Schwarzenegger won in California). The fact that she (and Schwarzenegger) just happen to do a reasonably good job is just happenstance. I don’t know who said it … but I stick by the adage: Any decision, made in haste (or for the wrong reason), is invariably flawed.

The only thing I really want in the primary season is for the final candidate decision not to be made before the Illinois primary … so I have a chance to make my choice known.

Of course my choice is going to be Obama … and it may be a forgone conclusion by February 5th … but I at least want some semblance of a say in the matter.

On a slightly different note … I am REALLY confused by the Iowa Caucuses process. It seems so labor intensive … almost as if it’s designed to keep people from participating. I like the primary process Illinois uses. It’s a lot easier for people to participate in (not that they do).

This video was found on YouTube by someone who subscribes to my CPF0000 mailing list. Quite enlightening, don’t you think?

Here’s my contribution to spreading the word.

Ok, yeah, it’s Saturday Night Live … and, yup, it’s the election season … but I really enjoyed Barak Obama’s cameo on TV …

And, yes, I still think that Clinton has absolutely no right to her current position in the Senate … and absolutely will not vote for her in the primary. If she happens to win the primary, I will do a write in vote for president.

WASHINGTON (CNN) — President Bush has commuted the prison term of former White House aide Lewis “Scooter” Libby, who faced 30 months in prison after his March conviction on federal charges of perjury, obstruction of justice and lying to investigators.

CNN – Bush commutes Libby’s prison sentence

Poor attempts at rhyme aside … this is absolutely ridiculous … how the hell can Bush justify this?

Based on recent actions … it’s clear to me that the executive branch of our government considers themselves above the law.

Have you ever wondered if Open Source software could be a factor in the success or failure of a political candidate?

Douglas Karr has an interesting political analysis on his blog … Which candidates are running which servers.

Here’s a quick breakdown …

• Democrats: 90% are running open source operating systems (Mostly Linux, however Barak Obama is running FreeBSD, but that is just fine with me) . Hillary Clinton being the only democrat to be running Microsoft.
• Republicans: 69% are running Windows Server 2003.

Very interesting analysis … and it pretty much breaks down the way I would expect, and hope, it would.

As a believer in free content, I salute Senator Obama for his request to license the democratic debates under the Creative Commons (Attribution) license.

I am a strong believer in the importance of copyright, especially in a digital age. But there is no reason that this particular class of content needs the protection. We have incentive enough to debate. The networks have incentive enough to broadcast those debates. Rather than restricting the product of those debates, we should instead make sure that our democracy and citizens have the chance to benefit from them in all the ways that technology makes possible.

- Obama’s Letter to Howard Dean

Bravo.

Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) has announced that he has filed papers to create a presidential exploratory committee. The announcement, which was made on his Web site, is a first step in the senator’s potential 2008 run for president.

- NPR: Obama Pursues Presidential Candidacy

Although I’m sure Obama would make a fine president … and I would / will probably vote for him … I’m not sure he’s quite ready for the presidency (he’s only been a senator for 2 years) and I’m SURE that the country isn’t ready (there are far too many bigoted people out there).

I worry that, if he runs, the democratic voters will be polarized … and that will cause us to loose the Whitehouse again.

[tags]president, obama, whitehouse, politics[/tags]

According to this quiz, I’m a Libertarian.

I never thought of myself as a Libertarian, but I guess it fits … although I don’t agree with most of libertarian gun control ideas.