Tag: Politics

At Least You Know Where Mark Dayton Stands

You know most politicians who want to tax successful rich Americans usually dance around the topic by using flowery terms such as America’s highest earners. Mark Dayton isn’t most politicians:

Progressive Taxes Read my lips, “Tax the rich.” Minnesota’s wealthiest citizens pay only two-thirds of their fair share of state and local taxes. That’s wrong. As Governor, I will raise taxes on the rich of Minnesota, NOT on the rest of Minnesota.

Wait they only pay two thirds of the state’s taxes? Only two thirds? What a condescending asshole. The wealthy make up a minority of the population of this state. The average income in the state of Minnesota was $33,059 in 2001. You know income isn’t that high when the wealthiest don’t number enough to bump the average income up by any meaningful amount. This minority is already paying two thirds of the state’s tax though. What a fucking prick.

Minnesota has a slight problem at the moment. Our largest employer is the state of Minnesota. The state employs 54,900 (not including the 25,976 employees of the University of Minnesota who are also partially on the government payroll) while the second largest employer, Mayo Clinic, employs 37,318. The state employs 17,582 more people than our largest company (that’s actually a non-profit corporation). That’s a whopping 68% more people. The reason for this is the simple fact that many large companies have moved out of Minnesota due to our “progressive” taxes which involve gouging successful companies.

If Mr. Dayton gets into office I’m betting the only employer that will remain in the state is the state. Hell they may actually begin to outsource!

Using the Surveillance State to Our Advantage

So yeah I found an article in the Red Star that made me laugh. Apparently DFL candidate for Governor, Mark Dayton, made a remark about people that follow him around with cameras. He stated it’s harassment and apparently doesn’t like the surveillance state. This is what happens Mr. Politician when we use your tools against you. Notice how you don’t like being watched 24/7 by cameras? We don’t fucking like it either.

More Stupid Laws

Representative Edward J. Markey has brought forth the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act. It was just passed by the House and is on its way to the Senate.

The bill, apparently, is an attempt to force technology companies to make web sites and devices accessible to the blind. Of course it’s a rather long bill to simply accomplish that so I’m guessing there are some other hidden surprises are buried in that bill.

I have a problem with this type of legislation (if that surprises you I’m guessing this is your first time visiting my site, welcome). Back in college I had a professor who was Hell bent of forcing all her students to create accessible web sites (she was the instructor for a couple web development classes). Sure that’s fine and all until you realize one major problem, you handicap your capabilities by doing this.

This site you’re reading right now is mostly text. I post very few images or other media here. Even with something as simple as text this site probably isn’t accessible to any screen reader on the planet. Why is that? Because I use WordPress. WordPress, like almost every other content management system on the planet, throws a lot of extra junk into a website. Need proof? Look at the source code of the page you’re viewing right now.

Screen readers also can’t interface with well when a page uses scripting, which almost all pages do (as I know because I use NoScript to block most of it). Scripting is needed for a lot of things including active content (think Google Maps). You just can’t get around it when you’re making dynamic web pages (OK you can but it’s a development nightmare and requires all active work be done server side thus requires far more hardware to run the same site). And that’s just web pages.

Devices are a whole different world. I’ve mentioned the whining over Amazon’s Kindle not being accessible (which they fixed when it was brought to their attention I might add). In the case of the Kindle that is a device that can be made accessible pretty easily because it only works with text. Tell me how can you make a touch-screen based phone such as the Evo 4G, iPhone, or Palm Pre accessible to a blind person? There isn’t technology available at an affordable price that can create a braille touch screen. Combine that with the fact that since there are no physical controls on many new phones there is no way to “feel” your way around the interface even if it reads everything to you. Amazon did prove if it’s practical to make a device accessible to disabled individuals it will be done. Otherwise it can’t be done because our world is regulated by reality which most politicians don’t understand.

The bottom line is people with disabilities have special needs. I’m sorry to say but these people need devices that are specially made for them. It’s a fact of life that when a minority of people exist that have needs different than the large majority not every device can be crafted around that minority. Doing so would slow our technological progress to a crawl or make everything so bloody expensive nobody could afford them. Just imagine how expensive automobiles would be today if they had to be accessible to the blind. Yes it would have to drive itself which would require a ton of on board sensors, computers, and other pricey equipment. Needless to say it’s not practical by any means so the blind simply aren’t allowed to drive.

You can call me an insensitive asshole for stating this but that doesn’t make it any less true. I simply am a big enough asshole that I don’t care what people think of me and thus am willing to state the blatantly obvious.

The RIAA and Logic, It’s Like the Brady Campaign and Logic

Apparently the RIAA is lobbying for the mandatory inclusion of FM receivers in all mobile devices. I can’t for the life of me follow whatever passes for logic with these people. How can you justify making a law to mandate the inclusion of FM receivers in mobile devices? Seriously what’s your justification? Please tell me because I my head hurts just trying to figured it out.

Is it to get people to listen to the radio? That probably isn’t going to work and I’ll tell you why. My Evo 4G has an integrated FM receiver (it wasn’t mandated by law but HTC figured if they’re going to throw in the kitchen sink then why not an FM receiver). I assume it works because everything else on the device does but I’ve not actually tried it. In fact I haven’t listened to an FM radio station since… shortly after I graduated high school I believe. That’s about the time I discovered FM transmitters that plug into iPods.

Now with my Evo I have an amazing data connection with Pandora and Last.fm. If I want to listen to a radio station I just punch up one of those two streaming services and listen to a station that doesn’t have advertisements and plays music I like (or at least attempts to). I pair that up with my Motorola T505 which connects to my Evo via Bluetooth and transmits the music I’m playing over a selected FM band. This means while I’m driving around I have my Pandora or Last.fm radio station playing music over my FM radio. Oh and it doubles as a hands free calling device to boot.

Sorry RIAA you’re business model is dead and buried. You can’t salvage it at this point and frankly nobody likes listening to the radio anymore because they play more ads than content. After all you can lobby for a law which forces every mobile device to have an included FM receiver but you can’t force anybody to utilize it.

No You Can’t Buy Your Property Back

A while back it was announced that South Korea was going to sell America back a bunch of M1 Garands. All the gunnies jumped up for joy and much cheer was spread throughout the land. Gunnies were getting their checkbooks ready in anticipation for the arrival of certified military M1 Garands. Alas joy has left the land as Say Uncle reports the United States government isn’t going to allow those South Korean rifles to be sold back to their original owners, the American people.

Yup our government is barring us from buying property our tax dollars originally purchased. How nice of them. Their reason:

“The U.S. insisted that imports of the aging rifles could cause problems such as firearm accidents. It was also worried the weapons could be smuggled to terrorists, gangs or other people with bad intentions,” the official told The Korea Times.

So terrorists are going to purchase a semi-automatic rifle that uses an ammunition that’s probably much harder to obtain than 7.62x39mm? Really? Instead of… fully automatic AK-47s that can be built in a cave? Really? That’s the best excuse those idiots on Capital Hill can come up with? Why not just say you don’t want the American people to be able to purchase these rifles? At least that would be honest.

Also now that the rifles can’t be sold to American collectors what’s to stop South Korea from selling them to a terrorist group? Logic fail!

Why I Don’t Contribute Money to Politicians

Says Uncle made a post exemplifying why I never made campaign contributions. Not only are politicians crooked and back away from their promises the second the gain power but most of the time they do something I like but also something that pisses me off.

Target recently donated $150,000 to Tom Emmer. Tom Emmer’s main campaign promise is to build jobs here in Minnesota through attractive businesses. Because he actually wants to improve conditions for businesses here businesses like him (strange huh). I’m willing to bet money that’s the reason Target donated money to his campaign but of course Tom Emmer isn’t liked by gay rights activists so they now hate Target.

No matter who you donate to somebody is going to hate them and thus in turn hate you.

Also I’m not one to defend a politician but I need to point a few nuggets of information (they aren’t verifiable facts, just hearsay and information) I have at hand in regards to this article. The article states the following:

Follow the money. At least, that’s the message delivered by an article at sfist.com by Matt Baume, who tracks $150,000 from Target’s coffers, through a political action committee (PAC) known as Minnesota Forward, all the way to Tom Emmer, who himself supports a Christian rock band in Minnesota that travels around the state saying that it’s moral and righteous for religious people to kill gays and lesbians.

The group they’re talking about is You Can Run But you Cannot Hide. It’s a “band” with at least one member who goes around spewing anti-homosexuality propaganda. From an article posted on a Minnesota liberty group I partake in the following was stated with one of the “band” members on a ministry radio show (I can’t back this up and fully admit it is hearsay, don’t take it as actual evidence but me providing the information I have at hand):

‘Muslims are calling for the executions of homosexuals in America,’ Dean said on a ministry radio show May 15. ‘This just shows you that they themselves are upholding the laws that are even in Bible of the Judeo-Christian God., but they seem to be more moral than even the American Christians do, because these people are livid about enforcing their laws. They know homosexuality is an abomination.’ “

So yeah not a nice guy and I can see why gay-rights activists are alarmed by anybody who associates with this group. What has been reported is Tom Emmer has had Dean over to his home at least once. There hasn’t been any mention of him giving money or support to the group or even talking to them since that one meeting. It could mean Emmer is a huge Christian who believes in pushing his religious agenda or, more likely, it could just mean the group asked to meet with him once and he obliged.

I’ve mentioned Tom Emmer on here before. Another pro-liberty group I hang out with met with Mr. Emmer and did a question and answer session. I walked away with the impression that he’s pro-liberty enough not to push any religious agenda but of course being a politician he could change the second he gets into office. Either way I figured I should present the information I have at hand so you know all the cards on the table.

The EFF’s Review of Verizon and Google’s Net Neutrality Proposal

The EFF has released their review of Verizon and Google’s recent Net Neutrality regulation framework. They have made many good points and I must say I agree with much of the review. I’m glad to see they are concerned about using government regulation as well:

Efforts to protect net neutrality that involve government regulation have always faced one fundamental obstacle: the substantial danger that the regulators will cause more harm than good for the Internet. The worst case scenario would be that, in allowing the FCC to regulate the Internet, we open the door for big business, Hollywood and the indecency police to exert even more influence on the Net than they do now.

Being their in the communist block country of California this mention of potential regulatory abuse shows me that they aren’t going to run to government blindly. The biggest concern the EFF has is the mention in the proposal of “unlawful traffic.” This is a point that has been eating at me in the proposal as well, they mention a difference between “lawful” and “unlawful” traffic but never define that difference. If you’re going to propose a framework for future legislation by Odin you should define all of your terms precisely.

It’s a good and concise read to click the link and read the material.

Freedom isn’t Free

It costs $250. At least according to personal reports found by Days of our Trailers Chicago is charging $250 for a handgun license. It’s nice to see your rights are for sale in Chicago and priced at such a level that those poor peasant can’t hope to afford any firearms. But when you think about it that makes a lot of sense. You don’t want the slaves overthrowing King Daley.

Minnesota Primary Results

Well the (few) votes have been counted and the unofficial results are in for the Minnesota primaries.

Running for governor the Republican Party has Tom Emmers, Democrat Party has Mark Dayton (although by a narrow margin), and the Independence Party (which shouldn’t be a party considering they claim to be independent) has Tom Horner.

The interesting one was the Democrats who seem to be torn between Mark Dayton and Margaret Anderson. She was ahead when I went to bed last night but Dayton was declared the winner when I woke up. The other two parties seemed to be pretty unanimous in their decision.

Honestly the turn out at last nights primaries were so low a ghost town could have obtained more voters.

Ted Stevens Declared Dead

Former senator Ted “Series of Tubes” Stevens has officially been pronounced dead in the earlier mentioned plane crash.

Former chief of NASA, Sean O’Keefe, was also in the plane and died in the crash. A total of five people are reported dead with four survivors; two of the survivors are listed in critical condition.

Rest in peace.

EDIT 2010-08-11 11:59: I was incorrect when I stated Mr. O’Keefe died. He and his son both survived the crash fortunately.