The people who we solely rely on to protect our freedoms can barely be honest with us? Shameful, in my opinion.

To be quite honest it makes me not even want to vote. The right that Elizabeth Cady Stanton fought for with great effort, is meaningless if no canidates can even be honest as to whom they are.

Every day I hear politicians and their administrations promote themselves. I don’t care who they claim to be; I care about how everyone else feels about their experiences with the politician.

Various citizens feel as though the Obama Administration is perhaps as curropt as the Nixon Administration was. Times have changed, technology is at its peak and entrepeneurs are crowding indutries.

However, Politicians have stepped in places we never imagined. Political Curroption is destroying America. We are destroying ourselves!

“Obama for America,” or Obama against America?  Obama’s recent $447 Billion plan to create new jobs seems brilliant from the outside perspective. However, I am not as easily convinced.

Obama claims the benefits, money, and effort put into this plan will outweigh the extreme amount of money required to follow through with the plan.

Obama is sadly mistaken and could possibly cause America even more debt and a lovely increase in taxes. After all, American’s love taxes! I mean we only fought for taxation without representation in our Declaration of Independence, but what does Independence matter anymore? Were just a forming colony for China.

The only plan Obama needs to create in regards to jobs, is a plan that disallows American companies from hiring overseas operators and engineers. He needs to help preserve American jobs. I’m not sure if Obama has noticed, but people are still losing jobs. America needs to focus on bringing back jobs taken overseas and preserving jobs still existent.

That in itself will help rebuild America, not spending more money. Besides wanting to put America in to a larger pit hole, “This proposal is really not credible,” said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.

Although Republicans are not my most favored party, but neither are liars, criminals, and Presidents heading America towards a whirl wind of debt. It seems they have became a Political party all their own.

You may see women posting something like, “I’m 4 weeks and craving skittles” or “I’m 13 weeks and craving gummy worms”. Why are women posting weeks in their Facebook status? And why are women posting something that sounds like they’re pregnant on Facebook? Here’s the email I received about the game:

Ok pretty ladies, it’s that time of year again, in support of breast cancer awareness!! So we all remember last years game of writing your bra color as your status?…..or the way we like to have our handbag handy? Remember last year so many people took part that it made national news and, the constant updating of status reminded everyone why we’re doing this and helped raise awareness!! Do NOT tell any males what the status’ mean, keep them guessing!! And please copy and paste (in a message )this to all your female friends to see if we can make a bigger fuss this year than last year!!! I did my part… now YOUR turn ! Go on ladies…and let’s have all the males guessing! .. It’s time to confuse the men again (not that its really that hard to do ) Everyone knows it makes their brains work wonders on what we’re talking about!! The idea is to choose the month you were born and the day you were born. Pass this on to the girls only and lets see how far it reaches around. The last one about the bra went round all over the world. So you’ll write… I’m (your birth month) weeks and I’m craving (your birth date)!!! as your status. Example: Feb 14^th is: I’m 2 weeks and craving Chocolate mints!!

Months

January  -  1 week

Febuary  -  2 weeks

March  -  3 weeks

April  - 4 weeks

May – 6 weeks

June – 8 weeks

July – 10 weeks

August – 12 weeks

September – 13 weeks

October – 14 weeks

November – 16 weeks

December – 18 weeks

Days of the month:

1 – Skittles

2 – Starburst

3 – Kit-Kat

4 – M&M’s

5 – Galaxy

6 – Crunchie

7 – Dairy Milk

8 – Lollipop

9 – Peanut Butter Cups

10 – Meat Balls

11 – Twizzlers

12 – Bubble Gum

13 – Hershey’s Kisses

14 – Chocolate Mints

15 – Twix

16 – Resse’s Fastbreak

17 – Fudge

18 – Cherry Jello

19 – Milkyway

20 – Pickels

21 – Creme Eggs

22 – Skittles

23 – Gummy Bears

24 – Gummy Worms

25 – Strawberry Pop Tarts

26 – Starburst

27 – Mini Eggs

28 – Kit – Kat Chunkie

29 – Double Chocolate Chip Chrunchy Cookies

30 – Smarties

31 – Chocolate Cake

After working with that client I made the false assumption that I understood that industry pretty well.  Young, pretty girls from Eastern European countries like Ukraine, Russia, and Kazakhstan, along with women from some Asian countries like China, Philippines and Vietnam list themselves in hoping to land an American husband.  But when you think of South Korea and mail order brides, you shouldn’t necessarily think about women trying to come to the United States, but more about the South Korean men bringing girls from countries like Vietnam to them.

I just found a great video at the Al Jazeera website about South Korean men, and Vietnamese mail order brides.  One of the more interesting stats is that nearly 1/3 of men in rural areas of South Korea actually have foreign wives.

The video focuses on several women and men seeking “love” through the match makers who pair up young girls in poor countries with guys in less poor countries like South Korea.  The interview of the Vietnamese girl crying when she has to admit that she would rather go to a University than marry some stranger in a foreign land was especially heart breaking.  I’m guessing the kind of guy doing this isn’t going to allow her to better herself through education.  Most of these guys being interviewed were already complaining that South Korean women are not subservient enough.

But on the other side of things, there was a guy I understood a bit more.  He’s 45 and admitted that after focussing on work for so long, and not leaving time to start a family, he now wants one.  As someone who had a child very early in life, I can understand what he’s saying.  I’m much more ready for a child at my current age than I was at 20.  But of course if a guy wants a family at 45, he is going to have to look for someone younger.  So he ended up with a 24-year-old woman from Vietnam, and they now have a child.

There are of course the other concerns, including these women paying the ultimate price for marrying the wrong man.  It’s defiantly worth checking out the video.  One side note, I love the fact they have a “Men’s Rights Activist” in Korea.  I have never seen that here.  I don’t think we are represented, besides of course Congress, the Senate and the White House.  Other than that, who will speak for us?

In many cases, it seems death tends to make people more famous than before. Take Van Gogh for example a man whose talent was only truly appreciated after his death. Van Gogh only sold one painting before his death. Unlike Van Gogh, Amy Winehouse’s death fame will soon fade away.

I never believed she had very much talent in the first place. A death is always unfortunate, but considering the claim that she died due to an apparent drug overdose, it was pretty much brought on by herself.

With all due respect and condolences to the Winehouse family for their loss, Amy Winehouse had various issues and incidents with drugs. Most of her inspiration for her songs came from her drug use, and hey that’s what makes a great artist nowadays, right?

There have been recent occurrences where Winehouse was under the influence at some of her tour shows. Whether it is that Winehouse did hard drugs because she was struggling in life or she was attempting to fit in to the music industry, drugs can’t stabilize your life, and obviously, eventually kill you.

Supposedly, Winehouse’s “fame,” was built up during her album Back to Black, which, put nicely, made my ears bleed. I ask myself, “what fame?” What made Winehouse so special in everyone’s eyes; her drug addiction?

My heart sinks when I see how the music industry is becoming more about who you know and what kind of drugs you do, instead of the true talent someone has.

Border’s obviously isn’t aware that all book stores have had to reconstruct their business because of the economy and growing technology of e-readers. The economy may be to blame, but Borders’ faulty business attempts are a large contributing factor as well.

Borders recently employed financer, Bennett LeBow, has not been able to help Borders reconsider Bankruptcy.

Unfortunately, Borders Books employs over 10,700 people. Laying off over 10,000 people will not help rebuild the American economy. The last thing our country needs is more people on unemployment.

Although taxes may help pay for unemployment, unemployment only last for a certain amount of time, and takes away from money that could contribute to reconstructing our economy or getting the U.S out of debt.

Many Borders Bookstores are located in shopping malls and strip malls; both  will suffer a large loss considering how large Borders Bookstores are.

Borders employees, customers, lease owners, and the U.S economy shouldn’t have to suffer due to a poor business organization and adaptation. Borders claims the growing success of online bookseller is the reason their business failed. In reality, Borders has failed to adapt to the online bookselling and e-reader industry.

Borders has already let go of thousands of employees and closed down over 300 stores. It seems like the reasonable thing to do is let go of the rest of the company. This seems unfair to employees, but it may be the only option for the poorly organized company.

It seems everyone is going to be punished for Border’s failed attempts to reconstruct their business. If Borders plan’s to liquidate the remaining stores is approved, Borders will hit a quick down spiral towards unemployment and a great amount of unhappy former employees.

It’s a shame that the technical rise and economic fall hit industries at the same time.

A few years ago people started declaring the worst president in United States history.  These views were shot down by people educated in political history of the U.S.  But that was a few years, and a awful lot of polls, ago.  George Bush is now at a 70% disapproval rating.  To put that into perspective, Nixon, while leaving the White House to avoid criminal prosecution, was around 66% disapproval rating.  

But popularity doesn’t make a president great, or the worst.  It is possible that over 210,000,000 people are wrong.  After all, it was the wisdom of crowds that won Bush the election.  Of course that’s not 100% accurate, as we now know, Bush didn’t win the 2000 election, but he did win re-election.  

But when we look at the ongoing fiasco that will become the Bush legacy, it’s easy to see how the case can be made that George W. Bush is indeed the worst president in history.  A war we shouldn’t have started, American’s rights being stripped away at a never before seen level, and now the biggest economic melt down since the great depression.  George W. Bush has been very efficient at showing how fragile our country really is when in the hands of an incompetent and self-serving administration.

Thankfully it seems that we are not doomed to repeat this in the next election.  Barack Obama is starting to pull ahead in the polls, beating the margin of error numbers for the first time in this election.  And with Thursday debate coming up between clearly one of the dumbest people to ever be nominated to office, Sarah Palin, and Senator Joe Bidden, things should be even better by the weekend.

Second, I’m anti-death penalty. This belief has gotten me into the most passionate of arguments. People often think that when one doesn’t believe in the death penalty, that they also don’t believe some people deserve to die. That is simply not true. In fact I think there are crimes that people should die for that are not even legally considered capitol offenses.

My stance on the death penalty is not about what would be justice, it’s about the flaws in the legal system and the people who abuse it. DNA has cleared hundreds of people that were previously found guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. Some of those “criminals” were cleared too late. Mistakes are made, police get over zealous, and occasionally the wrong people get convicted for crimes, including capitol offenses. As New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine has perfectly stated, “Government cannot provide a fool-proof death penalty”.

Now of course this is little comfort when looking at the people the New Jersey ban spares, including Jesse Timmendequas, the monster who is the reason Megan’s Law exists. I think we can all agree that anyone who takes the life of a child…well death seems to easy for all the pain they have caused. But we can take some comfort in knowing that the killer is off our streets forever, and prison is not much fun, especially for a child killer.

If we want to get tougher on crime, the time is not just after the murder, but let’s stop these things before they happen. If our children are as precious to us as we say, we do we let criminals who victimize children out or prison so easily? I feel that if anyone harms a child, they should not only go to prison for a very, very long time, but they have given up their freedom on the outside as well. They should be tagged and monitored at all times. If they are caught anywhere near a child again, automatic parole violation and back to prison. If we want to get tough on crime, let’s not wait until it’s too late. Parole for these criminals should be indefinite.

But overall I very much agree with Gov. Corzine’s ban. I think it’s a step in the right direction. The fact is that there has never been any studies I know of that show a correlation between violent crime and the death penalty. I doubt the deterrent of the death penalty is much more than the deterrent of life in prison.

And then there is the cost of seeking the death penalty. It’s estimated that the death penalty has cost New Jersey over $250 million dollars since 1983. That’s a lot of funds that could go to better use to protect the public. Like better monitoring paroled sex offenders.

And the final argument is of course the moral implications of state sponsored homicide. We are Americans, and we are supposed to value human rights more than any other country. But take a look at the company we keep with our death penalty laws.

According to Wikipedia, in the number of death penalty executions in 2006, we are number 6. We fall behind human rights legends such as China, Iran, Pakistan, Iraq and Sudan. Is this where we should be?

Although it should be said that China has gone a little crazy in that they reportedly have executed up to 8,000 people in 2006. Something to think about while in Walmart picking out Christmas gifts that were made in China.

As I said in my post about drunk driving laws, criminal law is not supposed to be about punishment, but about protecting the public, and setting a precedence. If the death penalty is not a deterrent, than it is simply punishment. And we are not protecting the public by executing innocent people. We are Americans, and we are too good, and too evolved for the death penalty.
[tags]death penalty, jon corzine, jesse timmendequas, megan’s law, criminal law[/tags]

After moving to Oregon I decided to try live healthier. Part of that was weight loss, and another part was reducing my footprint on the planet. Here are some changes I have made and why they’re important.

Stopped drinking bottled water: American’s purchase 28 billion water bottles per year, and 80% of those end up in land fills. The bottles water industry also consumes 17 million barrels of oil per year, and contributes 2.5 million tons of CO2 into our air. And these numbers are growing dramatically every year.

Since I have been working on weight loss, more water has been essential. But I now just own a couple sturdy water bottles and fill those up with the filtered water from my refrigerator. Not only is this better for the environment, but I am also saving nearly $70 per month on bottled water.

Bring my own bag shopping: Both paper and plastic bags cause significant drains on the planets resources. We use about 4 – 5 trillion plastic bags per year, and only .06% of those bags are recycled. This build up of bags have effects that range from wildlife eating the bags and of course dying, to helping cause a major flood in Bangladesh.

And if you think paper is better, be aware that paper bags are usually made of virgin fibers that cause en estimated 14 million + trees to be cut down each year.

It’s not always easy to remember to bring a canvas bag with me, especially for non-grocery shopping. So I keep some in my car, and when I forget, I punish myself by not using a bag. I’m sure that when you look at how many bags you use, you see it’s a small step to make a big difference.

Use CFL light bulbs: Lighting is one of the primary drains on electricity. So why is it that a product that costs about the same as a regular light bulb, yet saves people 75% off their lighting bill only has a 6% adoption rate in the US? Seth Godin wrote a great article exploring that issue. He also mentions that if everyone switched to CFL bulbs, we would eliminate the need for foreign oil without lifting one Hummer off the roads.

I have replaced all the bulbs in my house and it looks to be making a nice big difference. It’s an easy step to take to reduce power consumption in the country, and the bulbs are now nearly $1 per bulb at some stores. This more than pays for itself in no time, so put this on your list of things to do next weekend.

Energy Efficient appliances: Every now and then the government does something useful for the environment, although not so much lately. Back in 1992 they started the Energy Star program as a voluntary labeling initiative to inform consumers that the product had met energy efficient guidelines. The EPA is estimating that this saved $12 billion in energy costs in 2005 alone. Another appliance technology that has come to market recently is HE washing machines. These machines use 20% – 66% of the water a traditional washing machine uses. But you have to use HE labeled laundry soap.

Here is something I thought was interesting; you save more water by using an efficient dish washer than washing them by hand.

All my appliances are Energy Star compliant, and my washing machine is HE. My last place didn’t have those things, and I notice a big difference on my electric bill.

Eco-friendly cleaning products: Obviously toxic chemicals rarely help the environment. So using an eco-friendly laundry soap and cleaning supplies can help cut down on the amount of toxic waste the planet has to deal with.

Also, using smaller container of concentrated liquids help reduce the amount of package waster, and shipping weight.

For example, I use non-toxic laundry soap in a big concentrate gallon that is HE complaints. I use white vinegar as a natural fabric softener.

Tankless water heater: Heating water account for 14% of the average Americans energy budget. That can be significantly reduced by using a tankless water heater. Traditional water heaters sit around, sucking up power to heat water your not using. Tankless heaters heat water as needed. This is obviously an even better value if you travel and go long periods without needing hot water.

I have a tankless water heater that works great. Less maintenance, and never ending hot water in a sometimes shower busy house. I hate cold showers! I do have to wait about 2minutes for the water to heat up occasionally, but that isn’t usually much of problem.

Purchase Green Tags: We have a program here in Ashland that allows us to purchase Green Tags. This is a small price increase to run off of renewable electric energy. Because we are very efficient now, we pay very little difference for this, I expect my electric bill will remain under $100 per month, and it’s nice to know that our home is running of clean, renewable power.

I’m not sure who widespread this program is, but it may be worth checking out to see if there is something in your area.

Recycle: Most cities now have decent recycling plans, we just need to take advantage of them. I have found this isn’t as difficult as I once thought it to be. Just be conscious of the fact that whatever I put in the trash has to go somewhere is enough to keep me recycling. But you can also go the extra mile and look for products that come from recycling as well. Obviously when you purchase paper products you should be looking for the little recycled logo.

Being conscious: Simply being conscious is a big part of the effort. Making sure to keep lights off when not in use. Walking to the grocery store, video store and movie theatre has made it where I only have to fill up my tank once per month. Consolidating trips so that I can make less of them, and use less trash all starts to add up to not only reducing waste, but being healthier and saving money.

Here are some the areas I would like to improve in:

Buy a hybrid: I honestly looked at Hybrids, but didn’t see what I needed. I needed a small SUV with AWD. The hybrid SUV’s I looked at didn’t really seem to save much gas and cost a lot more. I really liked the RX400h, but there is no Lexus dealer within 2 hours my house. So I went with the best I could find. I’m averaging about 20 MPG, which considering I only fill up once per month, is better than most people.

Buy more local groceries: I am aware of the issues in trucking groceries across the country. I’m trying to be better at buy more locally grown foods, but it’s not as easy as it should be.

Solar panels: I have to admit that I think I just like the tech of solar panels more than I think it will help, or be worth the money in my case. If I spend less than $100 per month on power, and I already use renewable power from the city through green tags, then it’s more eco-bling than anything else. But I do like the idea of it.

Hopefully this will be helpful to anyone looking to make some simple changes to be more eco-friendly. You can check out my other Blog Action Day post on Switching to Ethanol at NetResults.com.

It would be great if others left their suggestions here as well.

[tags]blog action day, cfl, environment, seth godin, green tags, he washers, energy star, recycle, tankless water heaters[/tags]

First you have the language barrier. Don’t be fooled by the fact they say they speak English. Call up a Dell customer service line and see the level of English we’re talking about. It’s not their fault. I mean they have a lot more knowledge of our langauge then we do theirs, but it’s just not fluent enough English to communicate properly.

Second you have the time barrier. Again, don’t be fooled by the idea that they can just work your hours. Even when they say they will, that never quite seems to be the case. Again, not their fault. I’m sure no one reading this wants to drag their ass into work at 3am.

Then there is an issue that I feel is difficult to mention without sounding very offensive, but here it is. Don’t expect an offshore company to be as into their work as a US company. Now it’s wrong to speak in such broad context about the work ethic of other countries. We have plenty of horrible companies in the US, and I’m sure there are some exceptional companies in India and other countries who do work from the US. But I have to say that in my years of working with at least a dozen of these companies, I have never found a solid company to outsource to in India or Ukraine. The fact is I have just not seen the level of competency I would expect in an US company.

I was hoping to find something different in Brickwork India. They were mentioned in both The World is Flat, and The 4-Hour Work Week. Supposedly major companies use their services, and some people have written some wonderful things about them. But my experience with them has been nothing short of laughable. At lest most of the offshore companies I have dealt with are anxious to get going. Evidently Brickwork India is so flush with business, they don’t respond to email more than once per week (They must have read Tim Ferriss’s book!).

I tried to try their services out with a personal assistant, and all I got was a complete runaround. After 3 weeks of emails (mostly on my end), an uncomfortable Skype all, and begging for a response from them, I’m still at a loss for what the next step is in hiring them.

My initial email was from someone named Vivek Kulkarni. His email was short and professional. He referred me to someone named Satwik Joglekar. This is where things started to slow down. Email to Satwik went unanswered. The only time I could get a reply is when I copied other people at Brickworks India.

It’s a shame that I couldn’t hook this up with them. I had such renewed optimism for the outsource model after reading 4-Hour Work Week. I was thinking I could use them for a number of tasks. The bad part about this is now I question all outsourced models again. For example Corefino. I would really love to give those guys a try. But companies like Brickworks India, who supposedly are among the best in India let me down, how could I even think about handing over something as vital as accounting to an offshore company.

The fact is, you get what you pay for. The company we use at USWeb for outsourced development is a US based group of programers. They are not cheap, but damn are they good at what they do.

If anyone out there has some feedback or advice on this, I would love to hear from you. Until then I guess I’ll just keep looking for the Made in USA logo and leave offshore to Wal-Mart and Kathy Lee.

Creating a sort of MySpace for voters is an interesting approach.  It will be interesting to see the impact of allowing people to donate money, or possible even shop through connected affiliate programs, will raise.  This will be an exciting election even from just a pure technology standpoint.
[tags]barack obama, myspace, tom, social network, president, election, fund raising[/tags]