How to Quench the "Obama Backlash" on the Right

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Wednesday September 16, 2009 · 6:56 PM PDT

2009/09/16 · 18:56

As one of those Republicans for Obama (who is still behind the President), I hold a helpful perspective on how the White House, and Organizing for America might act dynamically to quench the rising tide of "buyers remorse" now erupting in Town Halls across the country and mass marches on Capitol Hill.

Make no mistake, this is not some 'last gasp' of the racist, reactionary 2% of the population who are evolutionary throwbacks. It is an expression of conscience representing at least 20% of the population. If you do not short out their intellectual momentum, it will grow, and fester, and blossom into political victory, just as the Progressive cause did during the Bush years.

(more...)

Poll

23 votes Show Results

I'll take Smaller Government if it gets us

23 votes Vote Now!

I'll take Smaller Government if it gets us

Fewer & Smaller Families Locked into Poverty

0 votes

The End of Famine on Earth

0 votes

Gigatons of Carbon Sequestration

1 vote

Cheaper Prescription Drugs

1 vote

Dozens of New Green Car Choices

0 votes

Corrupt Federal Bankers in Jail

1 vote

Jobs for Millions of New Farmworkers

0 votes

Consitutional Intelligence instead of Artificial Intelligence

1 vote

More Environmental Energy Research

0 votes

More Effective Regulation & Benefits Programs

2 votes

Away from Frankenfoods and Nanobots

0 votes

Thousands of Scientists Freed from Military Research

2 votes

Thousdands of Alphabet Spooks Taking Early Retirement

1 vote

Any or All of the Above

13 votes

None of the Above is Worth Giving Up on Bureaucracy for

1 vote

Reducing Cost in Health Care

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Tuesday July 21, 2009 · 8:09 PM PDT

2009/07/21 · 20:09

Lost in the debate over who to cover with health insurance and how to structure it is any meaningful discussion of how to substantially reduce the costs of these [already bloated and oversubsidized] industries, of 'Medical Care' and 'Health Insurance'.

As long as we continue the flawed "Cost-Plus" arrangements in health care that are now [thankfully] being abandoned in defense procurement, costs will continue to escalate - even if we didnt cover one additional person.

Merely extending the Medicare/Medicaid strategy of establishing "Price Supports" - minimum federal price guarantees - under every procedure, to 47 million additional victims will not only waste money, it will cost lives. There are better ways to do this...<more>

Poll

18 votes Show Results

The best way to promote Public Health is to...

18 votes Vote Now!

The best way to promote Public Health is to...

Put more people into Hospitals, for more Tests, Procedures, Surgeries, and Medications

3 votes

Keep more people out of Hospitals altogether

15 votes

Launch TWITSAT, End Tyranny

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Monday June 22, 2009 · 4:16 PM PDT

2009/06/22 · 16:16

The ongoing situations in Iran, China, and elsewhere demonstrate the potential for social networking communications to confront corrupt totalitarian impulses run amok. The problem has been that conventional internet architecture continues to include network access "choke points", which allow national governments the power to shut down global communications to and from their constituents.

As long as dynamic, realtime services such as Twitter must operate through telephone central office switchgear and their IP traffic flows through telecom carrier network access points, individual liberty will remain hostage to the power of tyrants. Fortunately, technology enables us to construct an alternative, beyond the reach of bureaucratic censors, in any jurisdiction in the world.

A global civil liberties movement, in cooperation with high technology industry (and some greedy multinational media conglomerate with deep pockets) could rapidly design, build, and deploy a new constellation of dozens of small satellites which would forever end the government's control over the thoughtstream of their peoples... (more)

Poll

23 votes Show Results

TWITSAT would be

23 votes Vote Now!

TWITSAT would be

Great, becuase without censorship, tyrants cannot survive.

19 votes

Dangerous, because our people could tell the world anything

0 votes

Dangerous, because the world could tell our people anything

3 votes

Great, because it would create new jobs in Silicon Valley

1 vote

Cybersecurity vs. Human Extinction

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Monday June 01, 2009 · 3:00 PM PDT

2009/06/01 · 15:00

The recent White House Cyberspace Policy Review which charts a path for the Administration's high level cybersecurity initiative, incorporated input from all the normal constituencies and stakeholders in the conventional interpretation of the issue.

Unfortunately, the most serious and probable cybersecurity catastrophes fall outside the range of the normal and conventionally expected threats. It is their very 'bizarreness' which keeps them from being taken seriously, no matter how much evidence accumulates that they are on the verge of becoming inevitable.

The following is an email message which this writer has sent through Whitehouse.gov to suggest the Administration take cognizance of such issues. Though it will probably get lost in the avalanche of incoming White House email, perhaps public discussion may raise the profile of these issues while there is still time to debate them. (more...)

Poll

52 votes Show Results

A 'Full-Duplex' Brain/Computer Interface:

52 votes Vote Now!

A 'Full-Duplex' Brain/Computer Interface:

Would be kewl to have, or to get my kids for Christmas

3 votes

Will replace my cellphone, mouse, keyboard, monitor, radio, and TV

11 votes

I'd sell my grandmother by the pound and camp out in line overnight for one

12 votes

Is the "Mark of the Beast" from the Book of Revelation

2 votes

Will do for the Brain what Cigarettes did for Lungs

2 votes

Is the greatest threat to Public Health in the 21st Century

2 votes

Cannot be firewalled from AGI, and so must never be used.

3 votes

Front edge of The Matrix or Invasion of the Body Snatchers

6 votes

All of the Above

11 votes

Memo to Kundra (CIO) & Chopra (CTO)

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Monday April 27, 2009 · 7:48 PM PDT

2009/04/27 · 19:48

[Open letter to the new federal Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra and new federal Chief Technology Officer Aneesh Chopra]

Gentlemen:

Below are given 10 specific reccommentations with respect to IT policy initiatives which the Obama Administration might consider, to help make the federal government more efficient, effective, transparent, and useful.

As one of its last official acts, on January 14th, 2009, the previous Administration released a study by Dr. Marburger's OSTP, entitled "Harnessing the Power of Digital Data for Science and Society". Its recommendations should be implemented, but it doesnt go nearly far enough; a follow-on study should be undertaken immediately with a broader - and more specific - mandate.

The following suggestions are vendor-independent and do not entail large new investments in hardware or dramatic changes in the deployed computer infrastructure of any federal agency.

Poll

42 votes Show Results

Federal performance would benefit most from

42 votes Vote Now!

Federal performance would benefit most from

Bar Codes for Improved Property Control

3 votes

Abandoning Legacy Print/Disk Media Storage

8 votes

Making Federal Data Free to All

9 votes

Webcasting All Federal Agency Deliberative Meetings

7 votes

Crowdsourcing Federal Grant Selection

5 votes

Crosscutting Thematic Bitstreams Between Agencies

1 vote

Archiving Complete Genome Sequencing of Every Federal Employee

1 vote

Mining & Refining the Data/Information/Knowlege Already Collected

1 vote

A virtual Federal Academy of Science & Technology

5 votes

Divest Legacy Publishing to Endow a Knowledge Institute

0 votes

Other (Add Constructive Comments Below)

2 votes

What's in Vial #3?

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Thursday April 23, 2009 · 8:22 PM PDT

2009/04/23 · 20:22

Have any other news junkies out there connected these three dots over the last few days?

ITEM: Ft. Dietrick, MD - USAMRID (Army germ warfare lab) concedes that three vials of highly infectous viral agents have disappeared, confirming that Venezuelan Equine Encephalitis (sleeping sickness for horses) was among the missing samples.

ITEM: Palm Beach County, FL - A total of 21 horses belonging to the Venezuela-based Lechuza Caracas polo team died after a sudden sickness characterized by dizziness and rapid physiological deterioration, on the grounds of the International Polo Club Palm Beach.

ITEM: California/Texas - The Centers for Disease Control - CDC - has confirmed seven recent sudden human deaths from a previously unknown strain of Swine Flu, but that none of the victims has had direct contact with pigs.

More?...

Poll

18 votes Show Results

I believe the official story

18 votes Vote Now!

I believe the official story

Lee Harvey Oswald did NOT assassinate President Lincoln.

6 votes

WTC Building 7 was destroyed by Sasquach

3 votes

The skies over Phoenix are just naturally 'chunkier' than other places.

2 votes

Ghosts are merely the shadows of undocumented migrant workers.

1 vote

Chemotherapy is an antidote to Marijuana addiction.

1 vote

Rising sea levels will wash the radioactivity from Bikini Atoll.

3 votes

The Bailout TARP is made from 85% post-consumer recycled nylon.

2 votes

Whither the Poor? Bailing from the Bottom Up...

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Friday January 30, 2009 · 6:18 PM PST

2009/01/30 · 18:18

Amid all of the political pandering to "the middle class", with "middle class tax cuts" and a "Commission on the Middle Class" led by the Vice President, and the whirlwind of rhetoric abuot "helping the middle class" from both parties in Washington, something seems to have gotten lost. Something seems missing, somehow, as if its fallen through the cracks.

The Rich? Every hour the news channels treat us to new stories about The [suddenly less] Rich, and how they're faring, and where they screwed up, and what new oversight, taxes, and regulation they may/should/will be subject to in the future. The Rich are still very much in view.

So, who have we forgotten then? Oh yes, The Poor! Nobody is actually poor anymore, are they? ...at least, no one worth bothering about. Amid the Trillion Dollars of relief for bankers, automakers, homeowners, small business, and everyone else with their hands out, let us consider a modest new approach to helping the least among us...

Poll

20 votes Show Results

$17 Billion to do this is...

20 votes Vote Now!

$17 Billion to do this is...

Too Little - Just throw lots of money at the problem, however its spent.

4 votes

Too Much - What's wrong with living in the Great Outdoors?

5 votes

Better spent putting more Cars on the Road & Bridges to Nowhere

1 vote

Enough to weatherize every DMV office in the United States

0 votes

More likely to work than what's been tried so far...

10 votes

An America Flush with Infrastructure: Why They're ALL "Bridges to Nowhere"

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Tuesday November 18, 2008 · 1:03 PM PST

2008/11/18 · 13:03

In the stampede to bring new infrastructure 'investment' programs onto the agenda of the incoming Obama Administration, Progressives are in the process of being seriously rolled by the Old Left, and some tragic public policy mistakes seem about to be made as a consequence. A chorus of calls for new "make work" spending on "Roads & Bridges" (led, behind the scenes, by the multinational Civil Engineering contractors who stand most to benefit), neglects obvioius facts of the 21st Century, as if this were the 1976 Transition that's upon us.

Cross posted from Blog for Our Future

(Below the fold: Psst!...Its the plumbing, stupid!...)

Poll

173 votes Show Results

Infrastructure Investment priorities should focus on

173 votes Vote Now!

Infrastructure Investment priorities should focus on

Roads & Bridges - My Car Hurts!

17 votes

Water, Sewage/Garbage to Clean Energy

147 votes

The Digital Environment

9 votes

3:00AM Phone Calls: You Decide

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Friday September 12, 2008 · 7:13 PM PDT

2008/09/12 · 19:13

Because the Obama campaign has been ineffectual [thus far] in attacking McCain (the "he's just like Bush" meme simply isnt working), the public has settled into a comfort zone with the belief that Grampy Old Fart is the safe hand on the tiller, with the sage wisdom of experience to answer that 3:00AM phone call as President.

The call, it is assumed, must inevitably relate to some sudden diplomatic or military crisis in the world; "Russia Conquers Georgia, Cuts Off Winter Gas to Europe", "Pakistan's Nukes Stolen by Islamic Radicals", "China Blockades Straits of Hormuz", that sort of thing. Yet, in the modern world, Presidents are not caught 'off guard' by such things; they know its coming, even if they ignore the warnings.

Pres. Bush Sr. knew that Saddam Hussein would invade Kuwait. Bush Jr. knew that Bin Laden would attack the U.S., and he knew, from the Ruth Report, sitting on a bookshelf in the West Wing, that a Hurricane like Katrina would do to New Orleans exactly what it eventually did.

But what about the truly remarkable, existential threats that demand more than harsh diplomacy? Some of these will certainly confront the next President, as well...

Poll

47 votes Show Results

It scares me to think of McCain trying to cope with

47 votes Vote Now!

It scares me to think of McCain trying to cope with

Runaway Molecular Nanotechnology ("Grey Goo")

0 votes

Genetic Engineering and Synthetic Biology

0 votes

Strong Artificial Intelligence - the first Artilect

0 votes

FISA & the Consumer Brain/Computer Interface

0 votes

A Practical Thanatronic Interface vs. Religion

0 votes

A Temporal Modem, Communicating Through Time

0 votes

Practical Robots of Human Capacity

0 votes

UFO Disclosure -OR- First Contact

2 votes

Limitless Zero-Point/Quantum Vacuum Energy

0 votes

A Collider Accident at RHIC or LHC

0 votes

GeoMagnetic Pole Shift

2 votes

Cosmic Ray Burst @ Wolf-Rayet 104

0 votes

Entheogens as Cognitive Prosthetics

0 votes

The Next Overwhealming New/Big Thing

1 vote

Any or All of the Above - He'd be Clueless

42 votes

Gidget as Veep: Palin' by Comparison

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Friday August 29, 2008 · 3:01 PM PDT

2008/08/29 · 15:01

As a Republican for Obama, I cant help but wince when my old party blunders on, further into the wilderness. Team McCain realized they were in a hole, and handed Grampy a shovel and told him to keep digging. Gov. Sarah Palin, with just 18 months experience beyond that of Mayor of Wasilla, AK (Population 6,500), is a truly frightening choice as a potential President of the United States. As others have pointed out, merely having a vagina on the ticket is no sure way to bring America together.

One thing this will do: Gov. Palin certainly provides the ultimate motivation for Hillary Clinton to go the extra mile for Obama. If McCain/Palin were to win in November, it is a virtual certainty that a President Palin would become the first woman in the White House, relegating HRC to a footnote in history.

Press to Digitate

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Monday July 28, 2008 · 12:39 PM PDT

2008/07/28 · 12:39

Platform for "The New Reality" Part I addressed the path to a new National Environmental Energy Infrastructure, a Science & Technology Policy for Modern America, and Social Justice for National Economic Security. These crosscutting issues profoundly affect Municipal Revenue, Criminal Law Enforcement, Foreign Assistance, Military Preparedness, and Education at both the High School and University levels.

The results of this exercise will be contributed to both the Democratic and Republican online platform development suites, and to the integrated Netroots Platform Composition System. Its objective is to propose bold innovative solutions, in a political process mired in bland conformity; it matters not which party adopts these - or other - new ideas and carries them to fruition. All we know for certain is that past approaches have been timid and suffused with failure. (more...)

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Friday July 25, 2008 · 9:41 AM PDT

2008/07/25 · 09:41

The following are conceptual elements being submitted to the 2008 Democratic Platform through Barack Obama's "Listening to America" web utility, and to the 2008 Republican Platform via the RNC's Online Platform input system. Neither party has a monopoly on new ideas; in fact, recently, at the party level, they both seem almost completely devoid of them. Let us hope that Senators Obama and McCain, as both somewhat 'unconventional' candidates, can change that, in the final analysis.

While it is unlikely for the following to work its way through the various levels of active screening (or lack thereof) in either party to actually reach any of the policy wonks or K-Street hacks who will handcraft the two platforms, the formulation is a useful exercise nontheless.

This is not intended to be a comprehensive prescription to cure the nations ills, merely some supplemental thinking to address some of the most compelling priorities that are recognized across the political spectrum. (more...)

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How to Quench the "Obama Backlash" on the Right

Reducing Cost in Health Care

Launch TWITSAT, End Tyranny

Cybersecurity vs. Human Extinction

Memo to Kundra (CIO) & Chopra (CTO)

What's in Vial #3?

Whither the Poor? Bailing from the Bottom Up...

An America Flush with Infrastructure: Why They're ALL "Bridges to Nowhere"

3:00AM Phone Calls: You Decide

Gidget as Veep: Palin' by Comparison

Platform for "The New Reality" - Part II

Platform for "The New Reality" - Part I