There was news I wanted to post I couldn’t post, so everything went a bit quiet over the last three weeks. Here’s the quick update though: my last day at my current gig is next Friday. I gave notice last Tuesday and want to finish up what I’m working on so they’re not left completely in the lurch. The new job does not involve crossing the Bay every day, and I’ll be able to take Caltrain. Plus, instead of being a grubby build engineer wrangling cantankerous old machines, I’ll be a shiny tech trainer at a green company (energy green). The job literally fell out of the sky and is quite a dream opportunity. It happened very quickly with phone screening about three weeks ago, the initial interview shortly after and then a second interview a few days later. A few days later a verbal offer was made and then I sat on pins and needles waiting for the paperwork to arrive, which it did, if a little wet from sitting out in the rain all day last Monday.
So, while I really like the people I have worked with for the last 15 months, I am rather tired of being a build engineer. I’ve learned a lot about the software dev side of the world, but I miss getting to work with customers and as the job I’m leaving is at a third email-centric employer, I’m really looking forward to working with something new. I had planned to start looking for a new gig at the start of the year, but then this landed in my lap and it’s just too cool to pass up.
In addition to the new job, last weekend Agent Smith and I went to look at a place to live, as thanks to my errant landlord, the status of this house is still up in the air. Agent Smith had been checking out Craigslist regularly and while we hadn’t actually gone to view any until this one, we both had an good idea of what was needed: 2-3 bedrooms, a garage for at least his car, a yard for doggles and a pet friendly landlord. We went over to the place for an open house on Saturday and by the time the real estate agent arrived there were probably well over 40 people out front. That much interest was a bit unusual but the location is very good and it had a lot of special features like a two-level back garden, two car garage, vaulted ceilings and a gigantic walk in closet. After viewing it about half the people left: those that weren’t couples left as while it has three bedrooms, two of them are much smaller than the master bedroom. We ended up making a higher offer right then and there after we filled out the applications and handed over copies of our credit reports, pay-stubs, etc, and that pretty much cinched the deal. We got word today that everything checked out so we’ll be signing the lease later this week and we can move in on the 15th which is rather perfect timing as my lease is up on the 15th of next month.
I’m very excited–as after a year of shuffling between his place or mine, we’ll finally be under one roof. It will be interesting to see how much we annoy each other–and how much my birds annoy him, but I really want to come home from work and be with him each night without being worried about the animals back at this place or worried about him angsting about things he’d like to do at his place but can’t because he’s over here. This of course means Nyar and I won’t be housemates, but I’m pretty sure after a year of noisey birds, smelly dog, and semi-noisey sex sounds, he’ll be happy to be of on his own.
That pretty much sums up the last few weeks: I did poke at my parents a bit more about their staunch Republican support before the election, but in the end, I had to give up. Trying to argue with them that the party they were supporting did not actually support any of the issues that were even remotely important to them failed as they just either reitterate party lines or worse things they had heard/seen on Fox News. I just wish they would have at least gone to a site like glassbooth.org and taken the voter survey, but in the end it was better to drop the subject.
Also there was tiny RIF at work last week, which since I had resigned already didn’t affect me, but I have a suspicion that my leaving saved someone’s job. I feel bad for a few of the people that were cut as while one or two were under performers, several were very bright and just what was needed there to keep the product moving along.
That pretty much sums up the last few weeks….more regular posting shall now resume.
Last night watching the closing moments of the debate I noticed how differently each candidate held themself. Not just the fact that McCain has some creapy cro-magnum stoop going, but when the respective wives came on stage, the way the each candidate greeted his wife, was greated by his wife and then stood beside his wife gave me an insight into their personal worlds.
McCain’s wife came up on the stage at the same time as Obama’s. When Michelle Obama reached her husband they immediately embraced. Cindy McCain however was overlooked as her husband reached over to shake Michelle’s hand only to be rebuffed by their momentary obliviousness. So, he turned to Cindy, gave her a quick hug, and the Obamas, probably realizing their PDA had snubbed the McCains broke apart and Michelle immediately accepted McCain’s handshake. Cindy then shook hands with Obama and then took Michelle’s offered hand.
Then, as the credits rolled and camera flashed, the McCains stood about a foot apart and waved to the crowd. The Obamas however stood quite close, eventually wrapping arms around each other’s waists waiving with their free arms. The McCains eventually inched closer, perhaps Cindy or John himself had an audio device of some sort and a poor aid was screaming at them “pretend you like each other”. Although I’m betting if there was one, it was on Cindy, as if John had one, we wouldn’t have had to watch the twitchey eyes, hear his snorting into his mic, or watch make very bizarre hand puppet-like gestures.
My mini’s HD is finally dying. I have managed to get the box booted and ever so slowly am transferring off the two files I want to keep and my iTunes settings.
Hopefully by tomorrow it will be a happier machine.
I typed this in response to my father forwarding me his source on the ACORN voter registration news pieces. The source he forwarded to me had this at the very end of the message “Paid for byMcCain-Palin 2008″
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So, I did a bit of research on Acorn and cries of foul regarding it. This is what I found:
If you read the history of these issues you will find that the fraud is committed by people _hired_ by ACORN. These people are sub-contractors hired short-term/part time. When indictments have occurred it is because ACORN officials have submitted the fraudulent forms to prosecutors. In most cases it is ACORN that discovers the problem registrations and notifies the authorities so that if there is ample evidence, the authorities can address the issue.
Yes, voter registration is fraud: workers are registering people that don’t exist. But from all the news stories over the last 8 years (and if you google search and click “news” you will see them), they’re all the same. People have been found guilty, but this fraud does not affect the out come of an election because fraudulently registered voters don’t show up. If they attempt to vote via absentee ballot, the fake voter still must be verified. The minimum time need to verify a voter is 3 weeks. That is why this year’s deadline to register is the 20th of October.
All sources I’ve read have concluded that this is the same tactic that is played ever election year. The numbers are exaggerated to suit their desire to raise the fear level of their base.
See this URL: http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/1008/Acorn_pushes_back_hugs_McCain.html?showall
I think the quote “Bertha Lewis, Acorn’s chief organizer, said in a statement that came with the photo, “It has deeply saddened us to see Senator McCain abandon his historic support for ACORN and our efforts to support the goals of low-income Americans.”" sums up what the Republican party is doing fairly well.
So, taking the email you received from the Republican campaign at face value without looking into the matter, I can easily see how you would think that ACORN is defrauding the voting system. What is really happening is that the McCain campaign is playing on the fears and mis-education of their base voters. McCain himself, until last week was just as closely tied to ACORN as Obama.
Remember, don’t accept things from anyone at face value without adequate sourcing. If you don’t determine truths from propaganda you’re not really casting your own vote.
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Yeah my last line was kind of preachy, but now that I have him sending me his source material, I want him to actually do research. Accepting what any political party tells you without checking on your own is just not responsible.
I’m in heavy debate with my father regarding his party choice for this election.
He has admitted he is only voting based which candidate he thinks supports his 2nd amendment views (I need to debunk his current opinions on Obama, but the FactCheck.org folks have most of that covered–I just need to pinpoint the exact fallacies and sources.)
I decided last week to take a different tactic:
Over eighty years ago liberal thinking people took on an important issue and won. They argued in a court of law that science and it’s principles should be taught in schools. Today, those principles are at risk because religious zealots in the Republican party who wish to infiltrate our government are legislating their way to power. How can you support a party and its candidates that wish to abolish what these men and women stood for?
–adjective 1. disposed to preserve existing conditions, institutions, etc., or to restore traditional ones, and to limit change
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What vexes me the most is that he does not go out and find out what is really going on. Instead I get links to things off FoxNews. He’s very smart, but instead of learning about issues, vetting sources and debunking the campaign lies on both sides via reputable sites like FactCheck.org (my new spot of fun), he sticks to the tried and to him, true.
In his defense, he’s over extended socially and busy with his work at NASA, visiting my grandmother-who-is-not-there and running his small business. Thus he always tells me he doesn’t have time to read websites or source arguments and instead he keeps giving me the party line. I wish I could just do a giant mind meld similar to Dr Zarkov in Flash Gordon and input all the facts and stories from the last 12 years into his head.
Last week there were a slew of emails back and forth. Below is the largest exchange.
Father: Barack Obama’s record on legislation shows conclusively that he does not believe that the operative clause of the Second Amendment is the second clause and that he has a no clear idea as to what the word “infringe” means,
The NRA is complaining about McCain and his alliance with anti-gun groups (http://www.nraila.org/GrassrootsAlerts/Read.aspx?ID=88). Neither candidate may have a proper understanding of the 2nd amendment, but the Heller decision (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/District_of_Columbia_v._Heller) is a large help.
The NRA has alerts for BOTH McCain and Obama: http://www.nraila.org/GrassrootsAlerts/Read.aspx?ID=88
In addition, a non-partisian site, FactCheck.org debunks your statement completely:
http://www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/nra_targets_obama.html
More about the site here: http://www.factcheck.org/about/
I highly recommend reading through FactCheck.org as it covers what _both_ candidates are saying and what truths actually lay underneath the greasepaint and advertisements.
Father he has stated that Federal Judges should construe the Constitution and other laws to suit their personal beliefs and agendas instead of applying them as written and intended by their legislative authors thereby obviating checks and balances,
Have you forgotten the crisis in the Justice Department? Gonzalez finally resigned after weeks of damning information regarding the federal attorneys and judges being harassed and fired because they did not support the current Republican dominated administration. Those Federal prosecutors who were assigned cases to investigate and press against high ranking Republican party members were fired. How can you defend their behavior by painting Obama with the brush Republicans have wielded for the last 8 years? Add to this the recent stacking of the US Supreme Court with two additions who have both ruled to suit their personal beliefs and agendas and I just think you are parroting party lines.
he has never disavowed his power base, the world renown corrupt political machine that is Cook County Illinois (welcome to the Whitehouse), and he has never addressed the issue of poverty as an inability to create value because of a public education system that begs to be restructured and a racist black culture that blames whitey and sucks entitlements.
There is a power base behind every candidate on the national stage. Take a cold hard look at Palin’s power base. It’s Rove, Cheney and the rest of the lot that backed Bush. These are the people who back Charles Keating (the architect behind the last two financial crisis:http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/9/21/9322/74248/245/602838), have authorized Gitanmo and unwarranted (as in no warrant gained) wire tapping. Palin was chosen because a) they want to remain in power and b) there is a high likelihood that McCain will not live the full four years of a Presidential term. She will be a pretty figurehead for the NeoCon agenda.
In terms of financial workings: in his own biography McCain admitted that having such close ties with Keating and the resulting meetings with him and financial deregulators in 1985, three years after the deregulation of the S&Ls were “the worst mistake of my life,” yet McCain sponsored and voted for bills in the last decade that once again gave Keating and others similar powers and once again led to financial instabilities. (And until last week McCain’s top campaign advisor was still on the Freddie Mack payroll.)
As for sucking entitlements you are once again parroting party line. BOTH parties are guilty of this behavior, but without sourced material backing up your argument, I find it difficult to give serious consideration to the statements. In addition, I have half a dozen friends who grew up in the Chicago area and/or went to college there and/or live there now and when I asked them about the Cook County political machine all of them responded that forty years after the race riot, such a thing only exists on the pages of history books.
What if the “blame whitey and suck the entitlements” is really just a fallacy. What if both “sides” are guilty? Guess what, they are. All “groups” seek assistance from the federal government and those that may not need it or who think they are above it will have their own opinions on the matter.
On the Republican side, McCain rails against earmarks ,yet look at his RNC selected running mage. [Earmarks: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earmark_(politics) ]
If you look at Palin, you will find ample sourced articles that detail her heavy appropriation of earmarks for state projects and her penchant for placing her friends and relations into high paying and high power goverment jobs. (One was appointed head of the agriculture board because she had always loved cows.) (The New York Times ran a piece on this two weeks ago: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/14/us/politics/14palin.html?_r=2&hp=&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&adxnnlx=1222374382-J/h9ta3M9emlQDemD4fjqg&oref=slogin) . **
So what has Obama been doing for the last 20 years? He has served in the US Senate and Illinois Senate. While serving in the Illinois Senate he also taught as constitutional law professor at University of Chicago. Before that, while attending Harvard, he was President of the Harvard Law Review. These are facts. I know people who went to school at the U of C Law School while he taught there and who took classes with him. Obama lives by example. He has 1 house, 1 car, a bike and enjoys living in the community he represents. As for how he might apply his experience and knowledge, I found this article to be insightful:http://www.slate.com/id/2183930/ .
And McCain? 20 years ago oversaw one financial crisis (in the mid 1980s) when the deregulations he sought of the Savings and Loans industry were approved by Congress and then he the continued his tenure in the Senate to put in motion and then oversee yet another crisis which is currently playing out. Has McCain, with his 7 houses, 12 cars and jet airplane ever addressed the issue of poverty as an inability to create value? If so, please cite examples.
Moving on….
Father: Obviously I am not a member of the “Religious Right”, I believe women should hash out the issue of abortion
The Religious Right are not the true source of the desire to ban abortion. The issue of religion has been co-opted because at it’s core, this is about control. Those with power wish to maintain that power. If women do not have adequate resources to choose when and how to raise a family and if children in schools do not receive adequate health information regarding procreation activities, then those in power assure themselves another generation of relative safety. Such people who are “dumb” enough in their eyes to have to focus on raising children when they do not always have the resources, ensures those individuals will not disturb the machine.
Also there is the fact that today per the previous Republican dominated House, Senate and incumbent President, ANY foreign aid the US gives out has the stipulation that any health programs that include any sort of reproductive education must be abstinence only. No factual information regarding STDs including AIDS, no condom hand outs, and certainly no abortions. Why would the US enforce such an agenda on other countries?
Consider the statistics (http://www.whiteribbonalliance.org/): Every minute, a woman in the world dies in childbirth. For each one that dies, 30 more will suffer complications. You can form your own conclusions from these statistics, but as a woman, I see this as a international power struggle as the haves and patriarchal societies seek to keep the masses as uneducated and impoverished as possible.
Father: and keep the guys out of it, I find it curious (for cultural and economic reasons) that we do not seem to have as much trouble with our much larger northern border as we do to the south,
Perhaps, because like we discussed before Canadian also suffer from the blue-collar blues and are not interested in seeking work as farm hands, dishwashers, line cooks, house cleaners, construction workers, etc. Also, the history of Canada is much different and much less conflicted (leaving out the question of Quebec) than any of the Latin American countries. The question regarding immigration is incredibly complex and neither candidate has a perfect solution, but then everyone agrees that there is no perfect solution.
For a good summary of how incredibly difficult it is for most people to legally immigrate and become US citizens under the current laws, please see this diagram.
http://i424.photobucket.com/albums/pp328/lorgonumputz/bigUSimmigration.jpg
Fasther: I believe in published rates for medical care as a competitive mechanism compared to the “carte blanch” system we now have,
That’s quite a valid ideals. The official positions and proposals of each candidate are available.
http://www.johnmccain.com/Informing/Issues/19ba2f1c-c03f-4ac2-8cd5-5cf2edb527cf.htm
http://www.barackobama.com/issues/healthcare/
Father: I believe that gays have rights and should have legal relationships as long as they do not screw with me,
This is a tangled issue as well, as once again religion has been brought in to cover up the issues of power and control. Marriage is a financial contract. It has always been so. Up until 100 years ago it was a way to unite pools of wealth and/or ensure financial stability. The “partners” now agree to share the financial responsibility of living together, and very often, raising a family. Why has this now become a “religious” issue for many? Because it’s another minority seeking equality and thus the power of choice.
Father: I believe the overthrow of Sadam was essential for the area but that Rummy screwed it up,
Why was it essential? What gives the USA the right to decide what is right or wrong for sovereign countries yet to then turn around and say countries don’t invade other countries in the 21st Century (Condoleezza Rice: last month said “Russia is a state that is unfortunately using the one tool that it has always used whenever it wishes to deliver a message and that’s its military power. That’s not the way to deal in the 21st century.” See for the full details:http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/08/19/rice/
History has proven that there were no weapons of mass destruction and that the statements to the American People made by top advisors and the President himself were false and that worst of all, they knew their statements were at the time not true. What has the elaborate shell game of let’s go attack a second Islamic country on tenuous grounds gained the American nation? Nothing because Haliburton moved to Dubai last year: http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Politics/story?id=2943017&page=1and http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/13/business/13halliburton.html?fta=y
Also, the current administration has publicly admitted admitted that the war in Iraq is/was about the oil all along:
http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/90509/
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/09/16/3879/
I believe that using geothermal heat sinks and nuclear power are the most practical methods of reducing carbon emissions and that enhancing the ocean’s bio-mass could be dangerous and tip the balance in the other direction that we cannot fix.
Something to agree on! I do think more solar power should be used, as in some areas it’s incredibly valuable.
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End result: my father sent me a link to the recent FoxNews story about how the current credit crisis is all the fault of those democrats and he is now standing in the corner saying for him he’s voting based on the candidates second amendment stance.
Considering how maligned Obama has been by the NRA (go go FactCheck.org) and how a bit of research debunked his assertions, I thought I was making progress and perhaps, just perhaps at the very least when all of this is over, he won’t watch Fox news but will turn on NPR.
Sadly though, he’s got his head buried in the sand and is espousing the “when you’ve had a much experience as I have” line. Why do ALL conservatives do this? Why do they refuse to look at facts objectively? Why do they refuse to seek truth and require truth from their sources of information? Why are they incapable of change?
I must change tactics if I’m going to get him to question things on his own.
