Uninformed voters = voters who make decisions based on emotions = democratic voters.

Why would anyone think that a higher quantity of votes cast by individuals who have to be motivated to even show up would somehow improve our country? That for some reason putting more power in the hands of self-described slackers is going to result in the kind of change that is has a positive long term affect?

Who else but get-out-the-vote liberals would so actively target and recruit morons?

Sound cynical?

More cynical than appealing to the lowest common denominator for political gain?

In response to Noreen’s News, I sent my state assemblymember this friendly note:

You state that Republicans are making “simplistic claims that we can cut our way out of this budget crisis.  However, such deep cuts would decimate funding for all or most of the services California voters demand.”

The government cannot be responsibly run by catering to every “voter demand.” It is your responsibility to spend only the money you have. Increasing taxes in “bad times” is the worst thing you can do as a legislator.

Regarding the governor’s Executive Order S-09-08, which halted the payroll payments, you said: “However, according to our State Controller, the state has enough cash to pay all of its bills through September.” Having enough cash does not justify paying state workers when there is no budget in place and therefor no money allocated to these wages. The governor is doing what is in his power to try to make you legislators do your jobs.

When my family is having money problems, we turn to simplistic claims that we can cut our way out of this crisis. You need to learn a lesson from the real world.

Taxachusetts, RIP

A statewide poll found that the average Massachusetts voter believed that 41 cents out of every state tax dollar is wasted — the exact percentage of the state budget funded by the income tax.

If only California voters could be this gutsy.

In response to Woolsey’s Washington Update, I sent my congresswoman this friendly note:

“Increase the number of women and minority college professors”? I’d rather increase the number of “competent” professors than any other demographic. It is wrong for any other discrimination, pro or anti minority, to affect hiring decisions. Shame on you for promoting this kind of racism.

“Women continue to receive lower wages than their male counterparts.” Again, stay out of it. The government has no place telling any employer what to pay his/her employee, ever, period.

“Help families facing foreclosure keep their homes?” The government should allow all these families to lose their homes (or find assistance through charities) and let our society learn not to get in over their heads - that the government will not be there to pick up the pieces. Your “solution” is short-sighted and contributes to our debt-minded irresponsible culture.

“The Republicans recently defeated a proposal that would have cracked down on irresponsible oil speculation” ? Again, you are so out of touch with reality it is unbelievable. Free market capitalism. Ever heard of it? Maybe you think you’re elected by the EU or the UN, but you’re elected by voters in the United States, which has not succumbed to the level of socialism that you appear to promote.

It is appalling to realize that you’re approaching almost every single issue in the most big-government way possible.

I am ashamed to call you my representative in Washington DC.

Sincerely,
Ben

Pelosi: Save the Planet, Let Someone Else Drill

Should the US continue indirectly funding environmental horrors to avoid directly funding environmentally responsible drilling?

The Democrats think so. There’s something about being once removed from destroying the planet that makes it easier to sleep at night. As long as ANWR remains untouched, it doesn’t really matter that Nigeria is spilling oil everywhere in the mad dash to supply our economy’s lifeline, does it? As long as our legislators are not directly imposing “a gas tax (equivalent) levied on the paychecks of American workers and poured into the treasuries of enemy and terror-supporting regimes,” their reelection isn’t in jeopardy. So is it really their problem?

Kudos to the Democrats in Congress for their shameless cynicism and disregard toward the underlying values of their cause.

Don’t worry, Nancy. No one really reads that Washington Post or whatever it’s called.

Since California Lawmakers have been unable to do their job and come up with a budget for the next fiscal year, Governor Schwarzenegger has decided that no budget means no money allocated for salaries. And no money allocated for salaries means the only rule that applies is federal minimum wage. Brutal, but makes sense.

On NPR the other night the host interviewed a spokesman from the Governor’s office as well as State Controller John Chiang. The Governor’s spokesman explained the legal precedent that justified this course of action. The Controller stated that he is in control of payroll, and would simply refuse to follow the Governor’s order.

It was surprising to hear how openly arbitrary and defiant the Controller’s position was, not citing any legal precedent (despite his quote in the LA Times accusing the Governor of faulty legal premises). He should be embarrassed.

It’s all rather symbolic anyway given that “If the governor is successful in cutting the employees’ income, they will receive their full back pay once a budget were signed.”

Anyway, it seems unlikely that Sarah Connor would have been nearly as frightened if she were being pursued by the Controller.

vs.

A week and a half ago at the Amazon Independent Online Seller Conference, during a Web Services presentation, someone asked if the Amazon Flexible Payments Service (Amazon FPS) was intended to compete with PayPal. The question’s intent was pretty clear: Does Amazon have something in the works to compete with PayPal? The Amazon execs gave a beautiful response that any politician would be proud of: no, none of these [web services systems up on the Powerpoint slide] are intended to compete with PayPal.

Then what do we find a week later? Amazon Payments.

Nice work, Amazon execs. Transparency and frankness, with just a hint of deception.

Nice to know that California’s governor supports the massive expansion of the state’s tax on stupidity.

Raise taxes? Cut spending? Why do that when we can try something even crazier and put more burden on future generations?

We never liked future generations anyway. What have they ever done for us?

Yes Cuil is brand new, so I guess I should cut it some slack, but relevancy is everything in search. Who cares how many pages you have indexed if you can’t pull up the most useful ones?

It’s like having warehouses full of file cabinets and having to dig through drawers to find the file you’re looking for.

Although TechCrunch points out, “Cuil does a good job of guessing what we’ll want next and presents that in the top right widget. That means Cuil saves time for more research based queries.”

Virgin Galactic Launches the White Knight 2

Virgin Galactic is Sir Richard Branson’s latest venture which should put the rich into outer space where they can no longer harm us, the poor.

I hope that happens some day: a stratified society where the rich live in space and rule over us.