Category Archives: Politics

Geek Stuff, General, Politics

Telecoms Winning the WiFi War (washingtonpost.com)

Telecoms Winning the WiFi War (washingtonpost.com) This article in the WP discusses how the Pennsylvania legislature is passing a bill that will prevent local municipalities from setting up Wi-fi networks and providing free or low-cost internet access to its citizens, in competition with the local Telco. If the muni wants to do this it needs to talk to the LEC (usually Verizon in PA). If the LEC can’t commit to delivering a local Wi-fi network in 14 months then the muni can deploy their own. Philadelphia has already got permission from Verizon to go ahead with its Wi-fi network that has been i the plannig stages for awhile. (evidently this is what sparked the legislation in the first place. )

So why wouldn’t every muni in PA immediately go to the LEC and make the request RIGHT NOW? Verizon hasn’t bothered to widely deploy broadband services for several years. Why should they start now. And then, in 14 months, the Muni’s that don’t have a Wi-fi network can build their own if they have the interest then, or the money. Just because they start the clock ticking now doesn’t mean they have to build anything in 14 months, but at least they have the option.

General, Politics

Government Priorities

I believe that one of the government’s greatest responsibilities is to protect its citizens, the People that the Government is for, from the inhuman entities that rule most of society’s financial life. I speak, of course, of corporations.

On the whole, I support the principle of corporations. A corporation provides a means for a group of people to create and develop goods and services that can’t be done by individuals, even individuals trying to work together as a group. But they need to be watched closely, monitored and reined in at all times. Unfortunately, it appears that the group mentality needed to make a corp work overrides a lot of the individual cares and concerns that the government should be concerned with. There is plenty of historical precedent with the manufacturing industries, the rail industries, the mining industries, the shipping industries, the banking industries the insurance industries, the petroleum industries, the agriculture industries, the textile industries… Are there any industries that haven’t abused the group power of corporation?

At the simplest level, I think it starts when the person who hires an individual isn’t the one who pays the individual. The hirer is an agent for someone else and may have the power to hire/fire/promote/ individuals, even say how much they will be paid, but the wages come from somewhere else. This is the beginning of a corporation. At this point the worker starts to lose the ability to negotiate face to face with the persons ultimately in charge since the they are distant or a distributed group.

At this point, the government should be providing some oversight, ensuring basic employee rights and minimum wages.

Once a corporation is selling stock for public ownership the government should be monitoring these public companies to make sure they are not lying to the public and that they are following generally accepted accounting principles. As someone who worked for WorldCom, I really, really would have liked to see a little more oversight of public companies.

There are plenty of historical incidents that demonstrate that corporations do not act in the best long-term, or short-term, interests of the citizenry. And that Corporations will use their money to buy social and political influence to weaken whatever monitoring is in place.

Once the People have been badly burned and have put strait-jackets on corporations to prevent them from repeating the sins of the past, everyone starts to game the system and tries to come up with a strait-jacket work-around. What’s even more mind boggling is that these are individual citizens that are working to screw the rest of the country. Part of the game is to avoid taking responsibility for the negative impacts that the gaming will produce.

to be continued

General, Politics

Making Light: From correspondence

Making Light: From correspondence An intresting discussion on Teresa Nielsen Hayden’s blog about what to call “Christian Fundamentalists” who don’t seem to accept the teachings of Christ. The Sermon On the Mount may be considered “Liberal” preaching, by some. There is a growing interest in ‘Leviticans’ since they seem to take their core beliefs from Leviticus. I am partial to some derivitive of Pentateuch, a collective name for the first five books of the bible, (should that be capitalized?) the books of Moses. “Pentatookies”, “Pentations”, “Pentatents”? Mosaics? Maybe something will come of it.

Whatever, these are the folks with the moral values to support torture, suppression of rights, and general warlike nastiness, if the Republican Press can be believed and it is the “Moral Values” that made a difference in this past election.

General, Politics

Duty

“We have a duty, a solemn duty to protect the American people, and we will. ” Source: GWB Press Conference Nov 4, 2004

I was double checking the President’s duties and I don’t see this one there. Check out Article II, Section 1, clause 8. I think that’s the only ‘duty’ the president has. No, also “he shall receive Ambassadors and other public Ministers; he shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed, and shall Commission all the Officers of the United States.” (II,3) But if I read this right, Congress has the duty to protect the American People (I,8,1). The President is merely Congress’s agent to do so. And if Congress doesn’t mandate protecting the people then it isn’t the President’s ‘duty’.

Of Course, I am interpreting the Article 1, Section 8, Clause 1 wording: “provide for the common Defence”, to mean some protection of the American People.

From Constitution
Article. II.

Section. 1.

Clause 1: The executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America. He shall hold his Office during the Term of four Years, and, together with the Vice President, chosen for the same Term, be elected, as follows

Clause 2: Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors, equal to the whole Number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress: but no Senator or Representative, or Person holding an Office of Trust or Profit under the United States, shall be appointed an Elector.

Clause 3: The Electors shall meet in their respective States, and vote by Ballot for two Persons, of whom one at least shall not be an Inhabitant of the same State with themselves. And they shall make a List of all the Persons voted for, and of the Number of Votes for each; which List they shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed to the Seat of the Government of the United States, directed to the President of the Senate. The President of the Senate shall, in the Presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the Certificates, and the Votes shall then be counted. The Person having the greatest Number of Votes shall be the President, if such Number be a Majority of the whole Number of Electors appointed; and if there be more than one who have such Majority, and have an equal Number of Votes, then the House of Representatives shall immediately chuse by Ballot one of them for President; and if no Person have a Majority, then from the five highest on the List the said House shall in like Manner chuse the President. But in chusing the President, the Votes shall be taken by States, the Representation from each State having one Vote; A quorum for this Purpose shall consist of a Member or Members from two thirds of the States, and a Majority of all the States shall be necessary to a Choice. In every Case, after the Choice of the President, the Person having the greatest Number of Votes of the Electors shall be the Vice President. But if there should remain two or more who have equal Votes, the Senate shall chuse from them by Ballot the Vice President.

Clause 4: The Congress may determine the Time of chusing the Electors, and the Day on which they shall give their Votes; which Day shall be the same throughout the United States.

Clause 5: No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States.

Clause 6: In Case of the Removal of the President from Office, or of his Death, Resignation, or Inability to discharge the Powers and Duties of the said Office, (See Note 9) the Same shall devolve on the VicePresident, and the Congress may by Law provide for the Case of Removal, Death, Resignation or Inability, both of the President and Vice President, declaring what Officer shall then act as President, and such Officer shall act accordingly, until the Disability be removed, or a President shall be elected.

Clause 7: The President shall, at stated Times, receive for his Services, a Compensation, which shall neither be encreased nor diminished during the Period for which he shall have been elected, and he shall not receive within that Period any other Emolument from the United States, or any of them.

Clause 8: Before he enter on the Execution of his Office, he shall take the following Oath or Affirmation:–“I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”

Section. 2.

Clause 1: The President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States, when called into the actual Service of the United States; he may require the Opinion, in writing, of the principal Officer in each of the executive Departments, upon any Subject relating to the Duties of their respective Offices, and he shall have Power to grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offences against the United States, except in Cases of Impeachment.

Clause 2: He shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur; and he shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, Judges of the supreme Court, and all other Officers of the United States, whose Appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be established by Law: but the Congress may by Law vest the Appointment of such inferior Officers, as they think proper, in the President alone, in the Courts of Law, or in the Heads of Departments.

Clause 3: The President shall have Power to fill up all Vacancies that may happen during the Recess of the Senate, by granting Commissions which shall expire at the End of their next Session.

Section. 3.

He shall from time to time give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union, and recommend to their Consideration such Measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient; he may, on extraordinary Occasions, convene both Houses, or either of them, and in Case of Disagreement between them, with Respect to the Time of Adjournment, he may adjourn them to such Time as he shall think proper; he shall receive Ambassadors and other public Ministers; he shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed, and shall Commission all the Officers of the United States.

Section. 4.

The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.

General, Politics

Mandate

Vice President Cheney said that Bush had run on a clear agenda and that “the nation resounded by giving him a mandate.” Source: WP

Main Entry: man·date
Pronunciation: ‘man-“dAt
Function: noun
Etymology: Latin mandatum, from neuter of mandatus, past participle of mandare to entrust, enjoin, probably irregularly from manus hand + -dere to put
1 a : a formal communication from a reviewing court notifying the court below of its judgment and directing the lower court to act accordingly b : MANDAMUS
2 in the civil law of Louisiana : an act by which a person gives another person the power to transact for him or her one or several affairs
3 a : an authoritative command : a clear authorization or direction b : the authorization to act given by a constituency to its elected representative

Source: Merriam-Webster Dictionary of Law, © 1996 Merriam-Webster, Inc.

So indeed, a majority vote does give Bush a mandate, under definition 3b:, except that the President is not an elected Representative, especially of the constituency of American Voters. Representatives are in Congress.

But I think most people think of ‘mandate’ in terms of 3 a : an authoritative command : a clear authorization or direction. I don’t see where a 51-48 edge between some rather conflicting philosophies provides any clear authorization or direction. Of course, Bush does not need a mandate from the electorate since he has one from a higher power…

General, Politics

Four more years

Four more years of simplistic thinking, of torture, of theocratic thinking, of government meddling in personal affairs, of uneducated children being trained to support my Social Security fund, of partisan bickering, of hypocrisy and of discrimination. Hard to get motivated for tommorrow.