Twitter v. Facebook

Awhile back, I looked into Twitter, and couldn't figure out why I would want to use it: if people wanted to see what I was doing, they could see my Facebook page. I got back into Twitter, though, and I'm still debating its merits. Then, I realized it's flaw.

If you make your Facebook status, "Deacon Adams is going to the bar down the street. Who's up for going out?" your friends, the people you want to see that, can either show up, or comment "me" (or now, "like" it) and you would receive an email letting you know this happened. If you do the same thing with Twitter, if a friend replies, that's a text message. Now, I'm making this argument with the thought that everyone has an email capable phone, but, the point is the same - you are charged to follow friends' tweets. Why bother?

Another Twitter problem - why don't they have an application that you can click on a desktop or phone icon, the Twitter update box pops up (not the website), and you enter your update? Makes a bit of sense, uh?

Yard Signs

Now, whether or not yard signs work in political campaigns is debatable, but, the Obama sign that read "I'm a Yard Sign, I can't vote. Go knock doors." is a pathetic argument. Go ahead, knock on a door, be lied to by the person you're talking to. Make some calls, have people look at their caller ID and not answer the phone. Help a 70 year old handicapped couple, a guaranteed vote, show their support with a yard sign, and demonstrate to a community where your candidate is not taken seriously that he/she should be. What makes more sense?

The thing is, all 3 are necessary - signs, door knocking, and calls. You knock all the doors you want, make all the calls you can, but if the people you miss out talking to don't see community support, they don't care. But, your all experts at this now, right? Your first time out, hook onto a rock star, and everything you did was golden? Stay in the game a bit, you're sure to be disappointed if you think that's how it works.

Specifics?

Whenever the President or someone from the Administration speaks nowadays, it seems to be the trendy thing to say that they lack "specifics." First, the specifics have to come from members of Congress, not the White House. It makes no sense to provide something with specifics that would, without a doubt, be wiped clean in a committee. Then, do you really want to listen to a speech full of specifics? These people are talking to the American people, not American experts. Who would listen to a 3 hour speech with specifics on how something would be done? You go and find me something that says more than 30% would want that, then I'll consider arguing for it. Here's the thing, though, if your elected official isn't doing what you want, it's your job to vote him/her out, and how often does that even come close to happening?

3rd Party Candidates

There is little doubt that the two party system has become too confrontational to be effective. Elected officials now think/are told to vote along party lines rather than work for the good of the Country. The injection of people outside of these parties would definitely help. We have the current President who ran on making people believe this is how he would operate, but we'll have to see about that. Now, I believe that once in office, the President represents the people, not his party, and think that Obama would agree, it's whether or not he actually does that determines the direction of the country, i.e., GW represented a wing of his party more than the people, and look where we are now.

So, if we need "3rd party" people to help fix the system, how do we make this happen? In most instances, state election laws make it harder for people outside of the 2 parties to gain ballot access. Candidates and independents constantly complain about how hard this is, that it is unfair, and try to change qualification for ballot access. There's two problems with this. First, if these people tried as hard to get on the ballot as they do complaining about the process, they probably would not have much of a problem qualifying. Second, anytime an individual works outside of the established parties, they automatically put themselves at a disadvantage of not having the built-in party support system. What they need to learn to do is to build this support system through their ballot access programs. Don't go and pay a firm tens of thousands of dollars to collect your signatures, build a volunteer base that will do it for you. "But, I don't have time, the deadline is too close." Well, if you cannot plan ahead well enough to even run for office, why are you qualified to be in office?

The failure of 3rd party, or outside the system candidates has as much to do with their lack of a support base as it does with some of them being perceived as nut jobs. To think that they are incapable of building the necessary support base is absurd. There are plenty of people looking to change the current system, you have to find them, and give them faith in something. You cannot run thinking that all registered party members support what their party is currently doing, there will be disenchanted Dems and Repubs looking to make a difference. There are also plenty of people outside of the 2 parties who would love to be involved.

What these candidates have to learn, though, is that even though they are running outside of the current system, they must address not only the same issues that the system is dealing with, in detail, but also how he/she is the difference needed. To be taken seriously, they cannot run on a single issue, or even two issues, they need to learn to run on the system issues, and properly present their differences. When they can learn to do this, then we can effect the 2 party system, but not before.

GPS Tracking for Road Maintenance

So, I was reading the other day that Deval(ue) Patrick is thinking of putting GPS chips in citizens' vehicles and then charging them for the distance they drive - selling the option by saying it could replace the gas tax. Well, how about the auto excise tax? The money derived from the program would go towards maintenance to repair wear and tear on the roads. Yeah? Unless you can mark every dollar it brings in as going towards public works (you can't because the stagnate mass on Beacon Hill won't let you), why would we believe you? This is a moving property tax.

Beyond the simple issues that this program would raise is also that little problem between MA taxes and residents willing to travel to NH to avoid them. Can you guarantee that these tracking systems won't be used to follow individuals to NH stores, then harass the individuals, store owners, and NH legislature to try and collect the tax avoided? Not only that, you want to pay to set up a program large enough to monitor where cars are driven - ensure that MA residents do not pay when they drive out of state, in other states? How about people who travel south for the winter, do they pay for driving on Southern roads? In what society has that ever been considered fair?

If you want to push this, Governor, just start packing up you office now.

2012

The other day, someone said to me, "Do you think all the intellectuals who support Obama will realize they were wrong if he fails, or just blame it on someone else?" Well, most will take the human way out and blame someone else, but a few might think they were wrong and retreat back into the silent majority.

If things do go badly for Obama, though, what would one do if he/she might run in 2012? Well, maybe become a distinguished professor of foreign policy, a senior advisor at an international investment bank, a senior advisor at an investment bank in the Midwest, and maybe the chairperson of a serious foreign policy think tank. At this point in time, all that seems to fit the bill for what we need, doesn't it?

Party Registration

I was looking at one of my online profiles the other day, and noticed that I had said that I am a registered Democrat, which is strange because I never have been. It made me think, though, which party would the Deacon want to be a part of? The Democrats, who seemingly aim to please as many degenerates as they possibly can, or the Republicans, who seem so far out of touch with the 21st century that they might as well not exist? Neither. The Deacon will vote for the person, not a party - every time.

So, What's the Stimulus Supposed to Do?

It seems the problem with the stimulus is what people expect it to do. Some want jobs and infrastructure. Others want jobs, infrastructure, programs, and help for organizations because they are hurting. The Deacon sees their need, but can't come to terms with the government funding programs and organizations with this money. This country was not built to fund others inadequacies. Social programs to help individuals are one thing, but providing cash to programs and orgs that simply did a horrible job of managing themselves the past few years is another. It is akin to a kick to the balls/baby maker of the American people.

The argument, though, isn't, "who are we going to help?" it is how far we are going to swing away from our economic system. Swinging far once is not an option, these people are meek and will expect it again. We cannot continue feeding programs and organizations cash and giving them spots in annual budgets. Also, there is no doubt that there can be NO PORK in the budgets of the next few years. We have to stop the bleed, not stick a finger on it and pray.

Blogging

The Deacon was looking over his blog, and thinking about the sporadic posts. The Deacon is not much of a blogger because he believes these types of discussions should take place in person, in groups, in coffeehouses or pubs. It seems, in most cases, blog posts are more untruthful to one's true self than actions during conversations. That's probably why people feel more comfortable with them.

Payment Due Dates

Now, the Deacon does not work in the financial industry, but cannot imagine that there is not a software program out there that determines credit card payment due dates. The Deacon also thinks it is plausible to believe that this software knows to bypass Saturdays, Sundays, and bank holidays. It is surprising that Bank of America doesn't seem to possess this software, maybe, in these harsh banking times, they can't afford it. Bank of America not only will set a due date on a weekend or holiday, but will not allow you to make a payment online on those days - you must make the payment on the business day that precedes your due date. BOA, why the punishment of your valued cardholders, why can't/won't you use the proper software?

The Deacon wonders what happens in those 3 days - if your payment is due on a Monday that is a holiday, you have to make it on the Friday before. The Deacon would not be surprised if interest accumulated twice on that account - the first payment period that occurs until that Monday, and then Saturday, Sunday, and Monday on the 2nd period that begins on Tuesday. Or, maybe, BOA gives you those days interest free? Yeah, right.

Economics of This Country

The Deacon loves the mechanics of how our country works, and always has. A while back, though, he started to say "..but..." after saying that. Why? Unrestrained capitalism could not go unchecked forever, and we'd possibly be destroyed by it. So, the Deacon is a communist? Socialist? No, the Deacon believes in this country wholeheartedly. He believes in the survival of the fittest and the struggle through life that capitalism creates.

What does he mean by "unrestrained capitalism," isn't capitalism a free system, ergo, one without restraint? Sure, but so is anarchy, and, thinking of capitalism in political terms rather than economic, that is what unrestrained capitalism is, anarchy. With no guidelines, regulations, or oversight, there is nothing to stop a capitalistic mind, and, given that all can partake in the capitalist dream, that's not always a good thing. What we get with unrestrained capitalism is what we have seen over the past few months - people buying homes and real estate outside of their means, mortgage companies financing them without a care, and banks praying on both - unrestrained capitalism in all its glory.

So, to fix this, does Congress have to destroy our capitalist system? No. There is no doubt that there has to be some government injection of cash into the economy (infrastructure, please!), that there has to be stricter guidelines, regulations, and oversight, but we don't need to transform our economy, we just need to set up a perimeter around what can be done. Hopefully, the egotistical, out of touch people who hold Congressional office will have the balls to make this happen. The Deacon asks them, "Of what use is re-election if the homeless can't vote and the United States of America no longer exists?"

"Stimulus"

The Deacon wonders if anyone actually understands what the Stimulus is supposed to be. At this point in time, the country needs a cash injection for infrastructure rebuilding and corporation crutches, i.e., we need to establish job growth. When we needed to do this during the Depression (possibly soon be called the 1st Depression?), we built things; after WWII veterans came home and needed work, we built things. Well, those things need to be rebuilt, and we need jobs, so let's go!

So, what is the problem the Deacon has? Well, you have health groups asking to call your Senators so the NIH receives it's $50 billion in the Stimulus package, groups like the Pickens Plan who want you to call your Senators simply because there is funding for wind energy technology within the over $800 billion package, even if you don't agree with the rest of the package. What? Let's burden everyone else for your selfish dreams? Who cares if there's wasteful spending in there! We can get something we want, and that's all that matters! That's the mindset that put us where we are. The Deacon wants you to think for a second. What happened with mortgage lenders? They were getting what they wanted, regardless of outcome, and where did they end up?

Say the Stimulus passes, and all those hundreds of billions of dollars is doled out to groups. Oh, they'd be so happy! In the years to come, what will they say when the budgets are introduced, and there's no money for them because of what happens in the next few weeks? They'll whine and whine and whine, and we'll fall farther.

Infrastructure, infrastructure, infrastructure, and the jobs will follow, the lending will stabilize, and the ship will be righted.

Fluency in Spanish a Necessity?

The Deacon has seen more than a few job postings recently that hinted that one shouldn't apply if Spanish skills were lacking. Really? So, the world has returned to an international language system, and chose Spanish? I understand that this country has no official national language, and refuses to establish one to avoid hurting peoples' feelings. I understand that there are millions of Spanish speaking people in this country that need help. Well, the Deacon believes that we should help them the way any other immigrant has been helped who has come to this country - learn the dominant language, communicate in English!

The Deacon believes that one needs to experience pain in order to deal with it, but to require someone in America to learn Spanish to deal with immigrants rather than have immigrants learn English to properly survive is anti-Founders. It is anti-Founders, and anti any immigrant who entered this country before we changed our boxers to panties.