Partisan Free Politics

Could it really be? With all these billions of dollars being thrown around on ad-time and barnstorming? Have all the campaigns just coincidentally skipped over an issue of such great importance? An issue that almost undoubtedly will be thoroughly lobbied, legislated, and litigated throughout the next President's term? Well, unless I missed something on my recent search through candidate websites and an extensive collection of youtube videos (and please feel free to check in with your favorite personalities if you can find anything) that appears to be the case. [Outside of John Edwards' plan for a "New Deal"-like national broadband project, to connect all wireless devices, and ensure that internet providers do not discriminate ...

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Part of my wonky nature, is my interest in the systemic components of democracies (wow, I know that sounds exciting, doesn't it?). There is a battle raging between the local politics and the DNC and RNC. It seems that citizens in states like Florida, New Hampshire, Wyoming, Michigan and South Carolina and others are tired of the primary process (read the NY Times article here). It is unclear what the outcome will be, but the national parties have threatened various sanctions including denying the states ability to seat a delegation at the parties nomination conventions. A DNC spokeswomen has already brought up a 25 year old supreme court case, which allows the parties and not the states to decide their nomination ...

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Since 9/11 the federal government has been doing it's utmost to protect us from ourselves. Thankfully however, the plug has been pulled on two controversial data-mining programs citing massive privacy invasions. The first program was called ADVISE (Analy­sis, Dissemina­tion, Visu­ali­zation, Insight and Semantic Enhance­ment), brought to you by Michael Chertoff (a possible candidate for replacing Alberto Gonzales) and the Department of Homeland Security. The CS Monitor reports that ADVISE was "designed to ingest information from scores of databases, blogs, e-mail traffic, intelligence reports, and other sources". Apparently the DHS missed the memo about the constitution (that it indeed exists). The project was discontinued after a report released by the Office of ...

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Part 1 - Republicans (updated 9/2/07) Issues of health are definitely on my mind these days. It may have something to do with the fact that I am uninsured with a type 3 or type 5 AC separation in my shoulder - that may or may not need surgery (I'll find out on Wednesday). Taking a step back, I am only one person among 46.6 million uninsured Americans. (check out the U.S. Census for more information) To the point: I thought I would conduct a YouTube analysis to see what the presidential hopefuls were saying. Starting with the Republicans: I was shocked that ...

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As I'm sure most of you have already seen, our President actually had the audacity last week to compare Iraq to Vietnam.  Now I know what you are thinking: we've all been comparing Iraq to Vietnam for years, and it actually is a pretty good comparison, so how has Bush screwed this one up?  Well, Bush wasn't saying Iraq was another Vietnam and the only way out was America's withdrawal, and a painful internal process of reconciliation in the country.  No, Bush actually is making the argument that we left Vietnam TOO EARLY!!! and that our leaving led to the violence and tragedy that followed both in Vietnam and in neighboring countries, like Cambodia.  The idiocy and myopia that he ...

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President Bush's steadfast support of Alberto Gonzalez has been an example of the major problem that arises when loyalty trumps all other qualities, be they competence, political viability, bipartisanship, or anything else. Whether an individual supports or opposes Bush, there is little likelihood that you can be proud of or confident in the performance of Alberto Gonzalez. This is something that should have happened long ago . Now is an opportunity for Bush to be a uniter not a divider. Nominating someone who is not a Bush loyalist, not an insider, but a moderate bipartisan bridge who could, heaven for bid, even be retained under the next Administration, even if it is a Democratic ...

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Pakistan is a diverse nation struggling under the rule of a Secular-Progressive Military Dictator. Even as President Musharaf has installed himself as 'President for Life' (however short that may be); he has also enacted legislation such as the Women's Protection Act (which ostensibly makes rape illegal), and brought large amounts of economic aid to the country. While I am not and nor feel the need to defend the man, he is said to see himself as an Ataturk type leader (I see him as very Pinochet-esque). To the point. As Pakistan continues to roil internally, trouble is brewing on the Eastern front. In November of 2006 a bi-partisan Congress passed the United States-India Peaceful Atomic Energy Cooperation Act, granting ...

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Well due to the popularity of my last NFL-related post, I figured I should add a little update. For those of you who haven't heard Mike Vick is facing a deadline tomorrow to accept a plea deal, or a grand jury will meet to consider more evidence and additional charges against him. Rather than rehash what I've said so far, I wanted to take this opportunity to shed some light on actions of the NFL that even I missed, mostly because I am not a resident of Florida. Since January, Deion Sanders, the only arguably more recognizable Atlanta Falcon alum, has been writing a weekly column for The New-Press, a media outlet based out of Neon Deion's hometown, Fort Myers, Florida. He ...

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At the risk of penning yet another unreadable post, I feel I must share this article in the Guardian, which discusses a recent South African report blaming the UK for Zimbabwe's economic demise. According the South Africans: "The most worrisome thing is that the UK continues to deny its role as the principal protagonist in the Zimbabwean issue and is persisting with its activities to isolate Zimbabwe." This, to borrow an English phrase, is complete bollocks. While I agree with South Africa's claim that "targeted sanctions," which would only impact the Mugabe administration and their families might be preferable, no one but Mugabe himself is to blame for the almost unanimous international scorn the country is now ...

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