The Flow of Consciousness

I didn’t blog as much as I would have liked to this year, mostly because of my crazy busyness.

My article on how to install Gears on 64-bit Linux continues to see quite a bit of traffic. I even host a copy of Gears, even though it’s likely out of date. Also in the Linux vein, my articles on how to buy DRM-free music online with Amazon MP3 on Linux and Android were moderately popular. I wrote an article on how to add CACert root certificates to Chromium on Linux and it sees more traffic than most of my other posts combined.

I wasn’t as active in the open source community as I would have liked, but I did make some contributions to Gwibber, Astrid, Celtx, and Lernid. I mentioned the first three in my Launchpad activity update. The latter is a newer development by Jono Bacon. I contributed the entire Esperanto translation less than two days after it was available on Launchpad. I have no way of verifying it, but I think that the Esperanto translation was the first complete non-English variant translation available.

I recently wrote two brief articles on how to automate some tasks on Facebook. One was how to rapidly expunge friend suggestions, and the other was how to select all friends in a friend select dialog.

I met Tom Dickson of Will It Blend? fame at CES last year. He was really cool and friendly.

I also wrote a few articles on politics, my favorite being A Comment on Socialism Defined, a comment left on a friend’s blog, Strike the Root!. I’ll not go into how much I think Obama and his friends have screwed up the country already (it’s not all been bad—he has done some good things). That’s something for another article.

A new hobby this year for me has been stock trading. I’d saved up some money and decided to use some skills I learned in middle school to make a buck or two on the stock market. Ironically, not 12 hours after I blogged about my flagship stock being up near 200%, that stock, SPNG, dropped 27.66% in one day, costing me $23,000 of value on a $10,000 investment in 65 minutes. It recovered, and I still made out with a profit, but I learned a very, very valuable set of lessons. I still kick myself occasionally because of this and probably will for a long time. My goal of getting into stocks was to generate enough money that I could pay off my student loans really quickly. I could have paid off more than 2/3 and I didn’t cash out when I should have.

I did meet many, many new people in the stock world, especially Stockguy22 and the Bulls on Wall Street crew. I said goodbye to StockTwits after I was temporarily banned for cheering on Vonage (VG) when it was less than 50 cents, riding it to 80 cents, and cashing out. They called it a worthless, crappy penny stock. A few weeks later, it spiked to ~2.20 and has been above a dollar since. HA!

I got some neat advice from friends while considering the purchase of a MacBook Pro (which I got and love) and the acquisition of a PS3 (which I did get).

The biggest changes in my life were in my location and work. I got a new job in March at Vivísimo, a search platform maker in Pittsburgh–I even wrote a post on the corporate blog! I moved in with some friends in May, but realizing we were a little cramped, I moved into a new apartment in July (I didn’t write about that!).

I wrote more than 28 articles for Bob Buskirk’s ThinkComputers. My favorites were the Masscool MP-1371RS Media Player and QNAP TS-809 Pro network attached storage device. I use the former alongside my PS3 for video formats my PS3 can’t stream from the latter. The NAS has become the central storage hub for all of my computers, replacing the QNAP TS-109 Pro I reviewed two years ago.

BIOS LEVEL was fairly inactive this year, largely because of a major server outage from May to August. I did write an article on the Orbita Mouse, which I still use to this day at work. I did record and post several videos from Ohio Linuxfest 2009, including Linux Journal editor Shawn Powers’s keynote, Jorge Castro’s talk on building a community around an open source project, and more on licensing, making money from open source, democratized design, and talking to policymakers and legislators about open source. All Ohio Linuxfest videos with a write-up are available on BIOS LEVEL, or on BIOS LEVEL’s Blip.tv channel.

Jon Daniel and I spend most of November cranking out a beta version of Profyle.at, a personal profile directory service. We’re not entirely finished yet, but sign up for our Profyle.at beta and you’ll likely get in! We want to help people find you on the Internet so your friends and family can follow you on whatever sites and networks you like the most. We pitched for funding and didn’t get it, but were cordially invited to present again during the next round in a month.

Brigette and I are still together, and going strong. We’ve spent most of her winter break together, driving throughout western PA to be with friends and family, too. She’s been working on her web site for her beagle and vizsla show dogs, Glade Mill Sporting & Hound. She’s come a long way, from using a completely WYSIWYG editor to redoing it with a mix of code and WYSIWYG with Adobe Dreamweaver. I’m eager to see what she’s planning for it.

To PA federal Senators Specter and Casey, by e-mail 9 February 2009:

I write to urge the Senator to oppose the economic stimulus bill which will be voted on soon.

This economic stimulus bill has cut out the majority of the programs which would benefit the most from it, leaving programs which already have sufficient support from private interests.

Furthermore, this bill does absolutely nothing to stimulate the taxpayer. The money from this stimulus will simply line the pockets of government contractors at every level of government. Moreover, it will yet again increase the size of the government, creating more bureaucracy and wasting more taxpayer money.

The worst part is that it is essentially deficit spending. We’re cutting taxes while increasing spending. We’re living beyond our means, and because of it, we are destined to live beneath our means.

Since Congress often defenestrates principles such as these during heavy votes such as this, I also will point out that a vote /against/ this bill is far safer politically than a vote /for/ it. If the Senator votes for it, the bill passes and it proves ineffective and wasteful, the vote could be ammo for a political rival. If the senator votes against it and it proves ineffective, he can say “I knew it wouldn’t work.” If it doesn’t pass, he’s safe on any vote.

I again urge the Senator to oppose this legislation.

Nancy Killefer, Obama’s choice for the newly created "chief performance officer," has tax problems: she failed to pay unemployment taxes for household help at her D.C. home. She withdrew herself from consideration.

Tom Daschle, Obama’s choice for the Secretary of Health and Human Services, has tax problems, too: he "recently filed amended tax returns and paid more than $140,000 in back taxes and interest for 2005-2007," according to CNN. He withdrew himself from consideration, as well, and Obama publicly blamed himself for his "embarassing" choice.

Timothy Geithner was approved as the Secretary of the Treasury despite having underpaid his own taxes by $43,000 while involved with the International Monetary Fund. Read that article—it’s entitled "A Comedy of Tax Errors" and it’s totally fitting. "A future Treasury secretary using TurboTax? The mistakes were multiplying." I agree. The worst part of this one is that Congresspeople on both sides of the aisle were defending him. What a farce.

Hilda Solis, Obama’s candidate for Secretary of Labor, does not herself have tax problems, but her husband does. He neglected to pay $6,400 in business taxes on his auto repair business for more than 16 months. NBC Los Angeles reports, though, that "White House spokesman Tommy Vietor said Solis and [Sam] Sayyad [her husband] were unaware of the liens until asked about them this week." Her nomination is delayed while the Senate discusses the effects of this tax problem.

Tie this in with the non-tax-related withdrawal of NM Gov. Bill Richardson as Secretary of Commerce amid grand jury investigation into a state contract awarded to political donors, and one simply has to ask a question.

What is Obama thinking? Do we have a worker in office instead of a leader? I question Obama’s ability to pick legitimate candidates for the posts which he is Constitutionally tasked with filling. I also must question the Senate’s motives in approving a Secretary of the Treasury who was involved in the IMF, which is essentially a worldwide central bank (but then I remember that most of Congress believes in statist Keynesian economic theories, not the sound, libertarian Austrian economic theories of such scholars as Ludwig von Mises).

The representatives of the American public sided with it in the electoral college and chose this president. Can this president chose a staff which meets his goals of transparency, efficient government, and change?

Update 3 March 2009: Obama’s nominee for U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk agreed to pay taxes he owes. The madness continues!

Update 1 April 2009: Health and Human Services nominee and current Kansas governor Kathleen Sebelius paid nearly $8,000 in back taxes.. You know where you and I would be if we didn’t pay our taxes? Jail.

Who did we just elect? Where Obama and I differ on social and economic policy, as well as civil liberties and philosophy of the role of government (read: just about everything), I thought we agreed on military service and conscription.

Apparently, that’s not the case.

Obama calls for US military mobilization.

But it’s also important that a president speaks to military service as an obligation not just of some, but of many. You know, I traveled, obviously, a lot over the last 19 months. And if you go to small towns, throughout the Midwest or the Southwest or the South, every town has tons of young people who are serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. That’s not always the case in other parts of the country, in more urban centers. And I think it’s important for the president to say, this is an important obligation. If we are going into war, then all of us go, not just some.

I don’t know how I missed this back in September. I don’t know how I don’t know about this. It’s conceivable that I was on a mental vacation that day, but I would think that there would have been more hullabaloo about it on the news.

Oh, wait, the Republicans wouldn’t mind it, too. They’re just too smart to sponsor at this time H.R. 393, the Universal National Service Act of 2007, also known as the latest version of NY Democrat Chuck Rangel’s Draft Reinstatement Act.

Here are the particularly scary parts of H.R. 393:

SEC. 102. NATIONAL SERVICE OBLIGATION.

      (a) Obligation for Service- It is the obligation of every citizen of the United States, and every other person residing in the United States, who is between the ages of 18 and 42 to perform a period of national service as prescribed in this title unless exempted under the provisions of this title.
      (b) Forms of National Service- The national service obligation under this title shall be performed either--
            (1) as a member of an active or reserve component of the uniformed services; or
            (2) in a civilian capacity that, as determined by the President, promotes the national defense, including national or community service and service related to homeland security.
      (c) Age Limits- A person may be inducted under this title only if the person has attained the age of 18 and has not attained the age of 42.

SEC. 103. INDUCTION TO PERFORM NATIONAL SERVICE.

      (a) Induction Requirements- The President shall provide for the induction of persons described in section 102(a) to perform their national service obligation.
      (b) Limitation on Induction for Military Service- Persons described in section 102(a) may be inducted to perform military service only if--
            (1) a declaration of war is in effect;
            (2) the President declares a national emergency, which the President determines necessitates the induction of persons to perform military service, and immediately informs Congress of the reasons for the declaration and the need to induct persons for military service; or
            (3) members of the Army, Navy, Air Force, or Marine Corps are engaged in a contingency operation pursuant to a congressional authorization for the use of military force.

The bill requires women to register for selective service, as well. It addresses conscientious objectors by placing them in noncombatant positions, meaning there is no way out of this.

The bill does not specify penalties for noncompliance, nor does it address post-secondary students (does allow high schoolers to continue until they earn a diploma, drop out, or turn 20).

What’s the likelihood of H.R. 393 suddenly getting passed? Slim and none. However, it exists, and Congress has been rather swift to move on things such as the PATRIOT Act, the DMCA, FISA Amendments, and the recent Wall Street bailout. Moreover, there is significant, indefatigable evidence that Obama supports the reinstatement of the draft.

Congratulations, Senator Obama. You’ve beaten John McCain by approximately six percent of the popular vote, and you’ve more than exceeded the 270 electoral college votes. You’re now the president-elect, and you’ll be the first African-American to be the president of the United States of America.

On January 20, 2009, you’ll be sworn in by the Chief Justice. Your oath will be:

I do solemnly swear 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.

Will you preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution?

You’ve barely mentioned it at all during your campaigning. I’m very skeptical, sir. A lot of the things you want to do would require constitutional changes, and it’s likely that fighting for those constitutional changes will be even harder than your fight to win the presidency.

Follow the constitution and your presidency will be one of the greatest. Exploit it, circumvent it, or ignore it, and you will be just another politician who somehow managed to get the seat in the Oval Office.

I bid you good luck and wish the blessings of the God or Gods of every American upon you. You will need them.

By this time next week, the initial hullabaloo of the election will be finished and hopefully—barring a Florida-2000-scale mess—the United States electoral college will have chosen a new president for the nation. The people will have spoken, having chosen from the two candidates the media has spoonfed to them since the candidates’ nomination.

On one hand, we have Barack Obama, the junior senator from Illinois. The Democrat hails from Chicago, where he was a lawyer before finding himself in the Senate in 2000. Opponents have connected him with various unsavory characters throughout his short political career, yet the man overpowers their cries with his charisma and eloquence.

Obama is basically a socialist. His plan to tax the wealthiest Americans more than the poorest is a clear indicator of his desire to redistribute wealth amongst the people, as if his plan for universal healthcare wasn’t socialist enough to prove it. He’s in favor of pulling troops out of Iraq, but, to my knowledge, he plans to keep them in Afghanistan, Vietnam, Korea, and all those other 137 countries where we have bases. He’s in favor of more economic regulation and more Federal meddling in education.

Obama has, however, supported network neutrality and wants to see more transparency in the federal government, but that doesn’t really mean anything. There was a study a while ago (I don’t recall if I blogged about it or just twittered it) which showed that transparency in government does little to reduce the corruption.

Honestly, Obama wants to do good. He’s just not willing to stay within the rights granted to the Federal government in the Constitution. In fact, I’ve not heard Obama say the word “constitution” in all of the debates I’ve watched.

Then, there’s this elderly guy from Arizona by the name of John McCain. He’s the senior senator from the state; a warrior by training. He was a soldier in Vietnam, staying in the Hanoi Hotel for several years. He’ll remind Americans—"my friends," as he calls them—of that every chance he gets, even though it has no bearing on his policies whatsoever. His supporters also tout this at every opportune moment. Annoyingly.

McCain promises to lower taxes, like Obama. The former is lowering them for everyone, especially the $250K+ crowd who already pays more. The latter actually plans to raise them for that crowd, while heavily lowering them for everyone else.

Before having an orgasm because of this tax thing, keep reading.

McCain however wants to tax healthcare benefits. Yes. Insurance. He’ll give you back money from your income taxes, but he’ll turn around and take it all away in insurance taxes.

McCain is a warrior. He fights wars. He wants to keep our foreign presence active for eternity, no matter the cost. Oh, and he makes laws like McCain-Feingold, which he’s almost broken several times.

McCain would give an education credit—a voucher—to every parent who wanted one so that they can send their children to another school if their school is failing. Yes, this means that McCain fully supports No Child Left Behind. That support alone is sufficient to lose him support of any teacher who is in his or her right mind.

Short story: both McCain and Obama’s tax policies suck. McCain’s is better for the rich, Obama’s is better for the poor and middle class. Neither is fair, really. Neither really wants to do anything sensible and new about foreign policy. Both voted in favor of the bailout, so neither has a sufficient grasp on non-Keynesian economics to understand why that was a bad move. Neither acknowledges that the Federal government has screwed up education royally.

Shorter story: Neither McCain nor Obama are fit for the office of President of the United States of America.

I’ll not be voting for either, and I urge you to vote otherwise, too. I prefer to vote for a candidate based on principle, not on fear that another who is worse would win. I vote for a candidate as if I am personally responsible for everything that candidate does, good and bad.

If more people voted like that, we’d have a good president for the first time in a long while and his (or her) name would not be Obama nor McCain.

My predictions: Obama will win. It will be a 8-9 point difference. That is, if the election isn’t stolen. In that case, McCain will win by less than 1 point. Obama would face an assassination attempt before the end of the first year, because some crazy redneck doesn’t like the new black president. It won’t succeed. McCain probably won’t survive the four years, as his health is already arguably declining.

I’d rather have President Biden than President Palin. The latter scares me more than anything, even more than a President Huckabee (at least Huckabee supported the fair tax).

Locally, Jason Altmire will defeat Melissa Hart for the PA 4th Congressional seat by double digits. He’s worlds better and will make for excellent opposition when I potentially run for Congress sometime after 2010, when I turn 25.

I don’t care much for the other races, other than a really local one (Michelle Brooks will defeat Duke Whiting…again in the PA 17th state legislative district). Brooks is pretty cool (met her in July in Erie) and opposes Real ID, so she’s got my vote.

While explaining to someone on a gaming forum I frequent essentially the content of my previous post, I cited my Table of Agreement on the Issues post from January. I decided to take the test again to see how my views have changed.

I’ve become even more of a Paul supporter. My Obama level dropped significantly, and my Kucinich level dropped just a little. The only other candidate level to increase was Gravel, who since then has switched to the Libertarian party.

Ron Paul did something today which I think only a few people saw coming, but is not surprising at all.

He essentially recommended that his supporters support one of the third party candidates. That’s Chuck Baldwin of the Constitution party, Cynthia McKinney of the Green Party, Ralph Nader the Independent, and Bob Barr of the Libertarian party.

He and the third-party candidates outlined four major issues which must be addressed in this election, and every election. The full declaration is on the Campaign for Liberty web site, but here’s a summary:

Foreign Policy

Pull out of Iraq. Cease war propaganda. Open up trade. Return to non-interventionism.

Privacy

Repeal FISA, PATRIOT, and Military Commissions Acts. Reject presidential signing statements and executive orders. Deny immunity for illegal corporate cooperation with the government.

The National Debt

No increase in the budget. Diminish the debt as a top priority.

The Federal Reserve

Investigate this private organization. Deny corporate bailouts, no matter how large or detrimental it shall be. Punish corporations for fraud and criminal acts.

He also gave an outstanding statistic (emphasis mine):

The system we have today allows a President to be elected by as little as 32% of the American people, with half of those merely voting for the “lesser of two evils”. Therefore, as little as 16% actually vote for a president. No wonder when things go wrong, anger explodes. A recent poll shows that 60% of the American people are not happy with the two major candidates this year.

Later in the day, Paul appeared on Wolf Blitzer’s show with Ralph Nader.

It’s amazing that Blitzer can’t seem to wrap his head around the fact that Ron Paul will not vote for McCain or Obama because he does not feel their policies are sound. Blitzer’s stuck in the “if you’re not voting Republican, then you must be a Democrat” mindset which plagues this country.

No, the third-party candidates don’t have a chance of winning this year. That’s not the point. It was fairly easy to see that Obama would be the Democrat candidate and McCain would be the Republican. I forecast this almost a year ago (I wish I could find that damned post). However, they’re not out to win.

They’re out to convince Americans that the two party system is broken, and that there really is little difference policy-wise between Obama and McCain, and that neither would adhere to the oath which they will take in their inauguration:

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.

McCain and Obama have consistently avoided Constitutional issues and citations, and that’s just part of the reason why neither will see a vote from Ron Paul, or myself for that matter. In fact, Obama didn’t even say the word “Constitution” in one of the debates I blogged. I have yet to hear McCain say anything about the Constitution in any recorded or live capacity.

The key goal of the press conference was to urge the press to open up the dialog between all of the candidates who are on enough state ballots that they could garner the 270 electoral votes necessary to win. Any candidate who meets that requirement should be invited to the debates.

Congratulations on your victory, Senator Obama.

Now, agree to abolish the IRS, sever the ties with the Federal Reserve, and end our overseas empire, among other things, and you could have my vote.

McCain would rather run against Ron Paul in November, said he on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart Wednesday night.

McCain wouldn’t stand a chance if the mainstream media covered Paul like its does Obama and Clinton.