A Few Thoughts…

I sit here in Caribou Coffee trying to work on some homework, I can’t help but overhearing people sitting near me who are apparently campaigning for one of the major candidates (which will remain unnamed in this post). But it’s making me finally move to write this post, which I’ve been thinking about for some time regarding the topic in the post title.

First off, I understand that it takes a lot of money to run a national campaign. It’s nothing new, and it’s been happening for many years. Clearly though, the cost of a national campaign today is much higher than that of some of the early campaigns in our country. And I would argue (though I have no hard numbers to back this claim up) that it is MUCH higher than the cost of inflation over the past 200 or even 100 years. I arrive at this conclusion based on the number of media adds which wouldn’t have existed before.

A quick glance at some numbers from the website opensecrets.org gives me a rough idea of how much money has been spent by all of the presidential candidates currently making national campaign runs. The total: ~$700 million. This of course doesn’t include all of the congressional races which also regularly run into the millions of dollars for a campaign.

Now, a quick what-if scenario for you. What if this money (which in the case of at least one of the candidates has been raised completely from private sources – no matching dollars from the government’s campaign financing fund) was put towards researching a cure for juvenile diabetes, or cancer, or leukemia & lymphoma. Or what if it was divided equally among all of the house of representatives (~$1.6 million for each of the 435 voting members, and the sole non-voting member representing the District of Columbia), with the goal of use for social programs like helping fund soup kitchens, or job retraining programs for those who have lost jobs.

What could be done, if every person who donated $5 to a campaign (which they’ll never see again) decided to donate that $5 to a charity of their choice? What social ailments that our country is seeing could be cleaned up, and prevented in the future. Maybe this next statement is a little pie-in-the-sky, but what if all of us just helped each other? Not rely on campaign promises, not rely on federally funded social programs, not wait for someone else to fix things for us. Clearly it doesn’t take much for the $5 contributions of many to add up to a large sum of money which could be used to help the country.

Regardless of your political affiliation (and I hope I managed to keep my political bias mostly hidden in this post), please consider helping out those in need this year. If you contributed to a political party, or if you didn’t, please contribute to the organizations in your community who are trying to help out those less fortunate than you are: be it a church organization, a soup kitchen, a homeless shelter, or all of the above. And think for a minute what could be changed if all of the people who are helping out with this year’s presidential campaigns exerted half of the effort to help out their community.

What do you want to see achieved? Please, leave your comments! If there’s an organization you work with, let me know! Or if there’s an idea that you would like to see get more traction, write it here! Maybe this can be the spark to connect people who have the same passion for helping people!

Now, back to my homework….

So, before I started working on my final paper for advanced OS this morning, I read a few friend’s blogs, and came across http://www.politicalcompass.org.  I’ve taken these sorts of surveys before, and can usually determine what things the authors are really trying to ask on various questions.  I was somewhat surprised with the results – putting me almost dead center of the grid, with leanings into the “authoritarian left” quadrant.  My dot lined up with the supposed dot of Pope Benedict XVI (of which I share a birthday, first name, and almost initials JAR vs. JBR – kinda weird).

Anyway, it was a nice short diversion, though I think they focus mainly on the social programs, and not nearly enough on fiscal views.  Even still, I’m not really sure where they get putting me on the left side of the line, but hey – maybe part of it was the lack of morning coffee talking

I’ve been meaning to post this for quite some time – since I saw Barak Obama present the keynote at the 2004 DNC Conference. What I saw him present that night reminded me very much of the videos I have seen of a previous young, charismatic presidential candidate – then Sen. John F. Kennedy. In fact, Sen. Obama made reference to President Kennedy in the speech he made that night. He has a certain air of authority in his communication with the people of the nation, which if nothing else, makes me listen to what he has to say.

Now, I am a conservative on just about every issue that comes up (I like to consider myself independent, since there are many Republican candidates now are starting to move away from both social and fiscal conservative viewpoints to get elected), so the title of this post may seem a bit unusual. But with comments like the one below, he has a direction which could be very beneficial to the nation in bringing everyone back together.

The pundits like to slice-and-dice our country into Red States and Blue States; Red States for Republicans, Blue States for Democrats. But I’ve got news for them too. We worship an awesome God in the Blue States, and we don’t like federal agents poking around in our libraries in the Red States. We coach Little League in the Blue States and yes, we got some gay friends in the Red States. There are patriots who opposed the war in Iraq and patriots who supported the war in Iraq. We are one people, all of us pledging allegiance to the stars and stripes, all of us defending the United States of America.

Sen. Obama recently announced his plans to run for president in 2008. The critics are now calling his skin-color into question, saying he’s not black enough since he is the child of parents who were not the same race. Saying that any black candidate who gets a lot of attention from white people will be questioned, and that many black leaders have allegiance to other candidates (such as Sen. Clinton) already, and won’t sever their ties. I believe this sort of division will ultimately lead to his loss, probably in the primaries, for the 2008 bid.

The country as a whole is so divided that any candidate will have trouble winning the election based completely on a “we need to change” strategy. It’s far too early to develop a strong platform, since we are over a year away from general elections, and there’s no telling where the country will go in the mean time. The president in 2009 will enter leadership of a divided nation, and will probably not be able to change much. The DNC will learn from the mistakes of division, and will nominate Sen. Obama for a 2012 bid for the White House. If he sticks to his “unity for the nation” message, he will gain support from a majority of the nation, who will long be ready for a change in political rhetoric, and he will win the general election by a landslide.

Well, that’s my prediction anyway…I’m interested to hear what you have to say on the issue!

Every now and then I go to digg without having logged in and I’m bombarded with left-wing-political craziness or anti-Christian “authorities” who seem to blast everything in the Bible. Usually these two go together. Digg was a great place when it was about technology. But when they decided to have extra news, things went from good information about new products/tech stuff to a veritable soap box for people to shout from about their personal beliefs about things, and then berate those who might disagree. (more…)

It’s not yet memorial day, but this sentiment is not reserved solely for one day. Memorial day has been held yearly since 1866, though wasn’t officially know by its current name until after World War II. It is intended to be a time to remember those who have died in combat for this country.

I enjoy watching war movies – especially some of those made recently like Saving Private Ryan, Black Hawk Down, and the HBO series Band of Brothers. These movies are violent, gruesome, and probably only show a very little part of the life the soldiers lived. They open a window to a world that you and I can only imagine the pain, suffering, grief, and shear courage of the men and women of the United States armed forces. But because of their dedication to this country, and all it stands for, I can sit in my condo typing whatever I want, whenever I want to. And you can sit anywhere in the free world and read this.

Both of my grandfathers fought in World War II. I do not know the full details of either of their times on foreign soil because they died when I was very young. They lived through the war, and came home. If there was one thing I could change about my childhood, it would be to have them around so I could talk to them, listen to their stories, and learn lesson which only they can share.

The men and women who have given their lives for this country must never be forgotten. Even today, they make the ultimate sacrifice so that you and I can live our lives in whatever way we choose. You may not approve of the war, but don’t hate the warrior for doing their job. I urge all of you, if you know a veteran, thank them, and ask them about their story. Find out about any honor services happening in your area on Monday from the local VFW post. And if you are a veteran, thank you for all you have done.

My salute may not mean much to those, as I do not hold a position of distinction in any way shape or form. But to all the fighting men and women, if any may read this, I salute you, and sincerely thank you for the job you do.

Okay, no you can’t vote right here on this website. Voting is the single most important act asked of Americans on a regular basis, and most people don’t bother to head the call. Voting is simple – and especially in off-year elections, doesn’t take much time to do either!

Don’t go empty-handed. My Dad has a saying that if you don’t know a name on the ballot, how can you make a good decision. Find out who is running for what positions. Don’t just listen to what has been said on TV, go read candidate’s positions on issues if you have time!

Here are a few links to help out

• Current Election Information
• Butler County Poll Lookup
• Hamilton County Poll Lookup
• Clermont Count Poll Lookup – Nice website design, the image was taken from there…
  

I don’t care who you vote for – that’s your choice, just GO VOTE!

In a wonderful little article over at the Financial Times website (see link below) there is an article about the chairman and CEO of AT&T and his plan for making more money…I mean…getting better return on investment. He’s wanting to charge big websites (and what exactly defines ‘big’ is not mentioned…more on that in a minute) to provide access to his customers. Let me sum that up, cuz it doesn’t make any sense to me either: He wants to continue charging consumers for access to the internet, and then wants to charge companies like Google and Yahoo! for the ability to provide content to the consumers. Well, more exactly a certain quality of service.

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From an article in the New York Times no less, an NYT/CBS poll of Americans found 53 percent saying they were okay with warrantless wiretaps in an effort to reduce terrorism! When asked a different way:

In the poll, 70 percent of respondents said they would not be willing to support governmental monitoring of the communications of “ordinary Americans”; 68 percent said they would be willing to support such monitoring of “Americans the government is suspicious of.”

The article is a decent read, and I don’t generally read through political articles in the NYT. There is still an obvious twist on things – the numbers didn’t quite come out as they had hoped, but there was enough to make a story where they could put their own slant on what the numbers mean.

Not according to some research done by Wake Forest economics professor Robert Whaples.

[We] measured the cost of each major American war up through the first Gulf War. We took these costs and compared them to the cost of the Iraq war and found that the Iraq experience has consumed a smaller percentage of GDP (just 2 percent of one year’s wealth creation) than every other American war except the first Gulf War (which measured just 1 percent of GDP).

This stands in stark contrast to the Vietnam experience, which opponents have often attempted to liken to the Iraq war. Vietnam comprised a much heartier 12 percent of GDP at the time. Other conflicts, such as World War II, took a remarkable 130 percent of a year’s GDP to see through to success

Go check it out

If I had to pick a favorite…I think it would be #1 – that’s how I try to run any organization I’m in charge of.

Courtesy of Doug Ross @ Journal:

10. “Politics is supposed to be the second oldest profession. I have come to realize that it bears a very close resemblance to the first.” —Remarks at a business conference, Los Angeles, March 2, 1977

9. “You can tell a lot about a fellow’s character by his way of eating jellybeans.” —The Observer, March 29, 1981

8. “Thomas Jefferson once said, “We should never judge a president by his age, only by his works.’ And ever since he told me that, I stopped worrying.” —Circa 1988

7. “I have left orders to be awakened at any time in case of national emergency, even if I’m in a cabinet meeting.” —Said often during his presidency, 1981-1989

6. “How do you tell a communist? Well, it’s someone who reads Marx and Lenin. And how do you tell an anti-Communist? It’s someone who understands Marx and Lenin.” —Remarks in Arlington, Virginia, September 25, 1987

5. “The government’s view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.” —Remarks to the White House Conference on Small Business, August 15, 1986

4. “I am not worried about the deficit. It is big enough to take care of itself.” —Said often during his presidency, 1981-1989

3. “All great change in America begins at the dinner table.” —Farewell Address to the Nation, The White House, January 11, 1989

2. “I’ve noticed that everyone who is for abortion has already been born.” —The New York Times, September 22, 1980

1. “There is no limit to what a man can do or where he can go if he doesn’t mind who gets the credit.” — First Inaugural Address, January 21, 1981