Sunday, July 6, 2003

What I would do if I were President of the U.S. OK - right off, if I were President of the U.S. I would never be elected for a second term because what I think would be good for our country and what I would lobby Congress and the American people to support would be bad politically: Flat tax - no loopholes what so ever except for a single large deduction for every family member (as a result, the very poor might actually get a small payment instead of having to pay taxes) Make it absolutely illegal to make any form of campaign contributions. Candidates who get sufficient popular support would get a very small campaign allowance - basically travel expenses, and some TV/radio access No more welfare as we know it - work programs yes, but no welfare. Substitute negative tax (i.e., payments) to people with proven disabilities Reduce social security payments in order to make social security solvent over the long haul. Reduced expenditures for hi-tech military equipment. Substitute better pay for soldiers (officiers are probably fairly compensated, but let us get our enlisted people off of food stamps - pay them enough to support their families). Never go to war with another country unless either we were attacked or in the case of preventing genocide, go to war only with many other countries actively engaged in any warfare. Going to war just to take people's minds off of economic problems and other domestic problems would not be permitted. Recognize that education for all children is in our long term national interests. At least keep expenditures on education constant, if not increase funding for education. Consider reducing the number of foreign students allowed in our universities unless they would (individually) agree to work in the U.S. for a few years (at least) after getting their degrees, or, in the case of the brightest foreign students, be willing to apply for U.S. citizenship. Basically, what I would promote would be living within our budget at the national level. In other words, take away the federal government's credit cards! 12:22:34 PM

Sometimes it is the platform, not the language I was talking to another programmer this week and the subject of languages came up - specifically Ruby vs. Python. I have looked at Ruby and it is certainly a nice language - however, Python has similar Object Oriented features and Python has both a huge collection of utilities and libraries and compelling software stacks like Zope/CMF/Plone. Anyway, like Java, Python is a complete platform. I use OS X a lot and I am pleased that Apple by default installs usefull scripting languages like Python, Ruby, and Perl by default. 12:03:37 PM

California's Economic Meltdown My wife has the news on - Governor Gray Davis is being interviewed. I moved out of California almost 6 years ago, so I have not followed his recall election problems very closely. That said, it sounds like Davis is being used as a scapegoat. Consider this: there has been absolute gridlock in the state legislature (both Democrats and Republicans) in dealing with California's unsolvable economic problems: California state bonds continue to be downgraded - how will California raise money if they can not sell bonds? Many states are facing insolvency, but California is arguably in the worst shape because of their huge expenses and huge job loss rate (reduces tax revenues) California is strongly affected by the massive fraud at the federal government level - as Senator John McCane repeatedly points out, the American people are getting cheated by the large scale buyout of the U.S. Congress (and I would add the Bush administration's sellout of the American people to political backers). The only way I see out of this slowly building catastrophy is the effective conviction and jailing of both executives who illegally buy influence and by Congress people who illegally accept soft money. - This will not happen - they will continue to change the laws to their own advantages and to keep themselves out of trouble. Corporate fraud (again, the perpetrators seem to get a free ride if they have strong political connections) - reduces taxes, reduces the value of the U.S. stockmarket, sets a bad example for kids growing up: they see illegal behavior, greed, and avarice paying off. It is sad, but I think that California is going down for the count. No matter what state you live in, please vote wisely for polititions who stand up for what is good for the average person (not the economic hyper-overlords). There are good and decent candidates in both the Republican and Democratic party so it pays to choose carefully. (I voted for President Bush - but, I feel like I have been let down because he seems to have broken most of his campaign promises - I think that Bush is a good man, but has let people like Karl Rove lead him on a path that is bad for the American people). 11:31:03 AM

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