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[what the Dominant Paradigm candidates are running deleted for brevity]

Harry Browne (http://www.harrybrowne2000.org/) - Apache on BSD

Steve Forbes (http://www.forbes2000.com/) - Netscape Enterprise on Solaris

Alan Keys (http://www.keyes2000.org) - Apache on Solaris

And just for the halibut, my favorite undeclared choice, Jesse Ventura, who, while he doesn't have a campaign website, does have a website on his current administration (http://www.jesseventura.com/), which runs (drumroll please) Apache+PHP on Linux! (My man is with it.)

Normally, I'm not a karma whore, but folks need to know about more than just the aforementioned heffalumps and woozles when they go to choose who will lead this nation into the 21st century (which starts in another 345 days!) For freedom, eh?

p.s. these are NOT THE ONLY GOOD CANDIDATES, go find your own, alreddie... and post back!

--
Elephants and asses
are scamming the masses

Forbes, above all the other candidates, looks like he has a clue. Though I don't think he has a chance at winning, he is the only one actually presenting some interesting ideas. Skimming his site here: http://www.forbes2000.com, these are his main points concerning technology:

1) Steve has pressed Washington to ban taxes on Internet commerce; repeal the "Gore Tax" on long-distance phone service

This is not too insightful, Gore is so stupid it makes me laugh.

2) Pass tort reform laws to stop trial lawyers trying to destroy the technology industry

Uh oh, Microsoft and RIAA, among others, won't like this one bit

3) Eliminate capital gains taxes to create more high-tech small businesses and generate more high-paying American jobs

Stick it to The Man!

Ok I know I shouldn't trust politicians, no one here does, but I consider Forbes to be a "cleaner" candidate because he does have his own money, and is not afraid to take a position, rather than just saying "let the market work itself out."

You just described Steve Forbes. I detail why in this article. Also see the Forbes website.

Forbes made a speech advocating privacy and how he planned to do it, just two weeks ago. There's a transcript available on his web site. You can also search other candidate statements at http://www.vote-smart.org.

Re unemployed hardware engineers: this happened mostly because the Defense Department procurement budget was gutted by the Bush/Clinton administrations and the pre-11/94 Democrat congress. So far the post-11/94 Republican congress has failed to correct the damage, courtesy of Clinton's veto pen. Decimate the biggest market for those engineers and yes, salaries and employability go all to hell. Throw in the technophobic attitudes towards nuclear power for good measure. (Had an interesting conversation with a disgruntaled nuke-tech a while back...)

Re don't spend the future: ditto. I'm keeping my debt level in check, even tho the U.S. federal tax code is rigged to encourage massive mortgage debt (best tax deduction on the books). All these folks with their heavily mortgaged McMansions and nice debt-fueled stock portfolios are going to look real stupid when/if the market tanks and their debt level doesn't. (This is what Greenspan is really worried about when he talks about "irrational exuberance", but he hasn't found the right words. Nuking the deductions in favor of a dramatically lower tax rate, as the Flat Tax proposed by Steve Forbes does would correct this serious economic instability.) I'm not saying don't have a little fun, and certainly not saying don't buy stocks, just watch that debt!

On the national level, the Flat Income Tax plan proposed by Steve Forbes is the way to go. 17% of income above a five-figure personal deduction ($13K per worker plus $5300 per dependent), no more screwing over renters who lack the mortgage interest deduction, no more loopholes for special interests to buy and corrupt the system. One nice, simple, high-profile bill you can calculate on a postcard. And no government bureaucrats fussing over each and every transaction you've done (and where and with whom). Sure, it'll put hundreds of thousands of accountants, lawyers, and lobbyists out of work, but isn't it worth it?

We're having similar discussions in Ann Arbor, Michigan (home of the University of Michigan, lots of software companies, very tech-friendly, cable modems), tho on a much smaller scale. Lots of people moving in, lots of farmland in surrounding townships being built up, housing prices appreciating 10% or so a year, traffic getting to be a problem. Still, our definition of "insane" housing prices is California's definition of affordable, average house is $170K. I did the math and decided to stay put, commuting 3 miles from my condo to my current job.

Problems? The usual suspects: idiot socialists running city government, cranking up property taxes (approaching $5K/year on that $170K house, tho much less in the townships), driving developers nuts with arbitrary rulings and delays, density restrictions, and what not. City Council is spending $$$ on consultants to help address the "affordable housing crisis" (hello, see property tax rates). Some parts of some townships mandate huge lots (10 acres!), which gobbles up ridiculous amounts of land. Lots of $400K McMansions being built to take advantage of the mortgage interest deduction (replacing that with a 5-figure personal deduction, as the Flat Tax proposed by House Majority Leader Dick Armey and Presidential Candidate Steve Forbes would do, would do a lot to curb the speculative excesses of the housing market). Putting up high-rises (well, 12 floors?) in downtown Ann Arbor would make a lot of sense (tear down some crappy run-down student ghetto housing to make room), the one high-rise they did manage to build is supposed to be very nice (built back in the '60s), but again, local gov. gets in the way. (Used to work downtown, lots of software companies there, including Outrage Entertainment, lots of great restaurants, some loft apartments, hub of the first-rate bus system so you don't absolutely need a car. I took the bus to work. Borders flagship store is there too. Really miss that and the restaurants.) Nice thing about high property values is that it makes land-efficient (high rise) housing economical, but government gets in the way of this obvious free-market counterweight to runaway costs, so away we go.

I keep waiting for big SV companies to build well-equipped high-density studio apartment housing for their (single) employees on company land, maybe add on a couple floors to office buildings, wire 'em up real well (direct Ethernet to the company's Internet feed), nice appliances and all that. Land cost is not a problem in this arrangement. Of course, the socialist legislature in the Peoples Republic of California (and their trial lawyer patrons) would probably get in the way. (Another nice thing about Michigan, state taxes are half that of California. Too bad the weather sucks 75% of the year...)