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Congressional Elections - Who's Good for IT Folks?
rlp asks: "Most of the articles appearing in Slashdot's new political section pertain to the U.S. Presidential election. However, most of the political issues facing American IT people are issues that are dealt with (or more often caused by) Congress. Therefore, my question is: who are the heroes and villains (for U.S. IT people) in Congress that are running for office this year? How does your local Congresscritter (or the person running against them) feel about copyrights, privacy, data security, H1-B, outsourcing, software patents, Open Source, tech education, R&D funding, anti-trust, etc?"
Ted Kennedy and John Kerry - neither seem to be very good for IT - certainly better than the likes of Orrin Hatch, but they don't seem to mind catering to big business either.
(Sponsored by cheeseSource for President 2012)
But Carol Mosley Braun and Sheila Jackson Lee have been great promoters of software freedom as well as the rolling back of property rights.
Dancin Santa
Doesn't really matter, because IT has become such a neccessity, and such a commodity, that it's silly to say "who should I vote for? who will support IT the most?". It's a non-issue. It's like saying "gee, which party will support accountants more?" or "which party supports telephone use?". It just isn't one of those economic sectors thats on one side of the spectrum politically, like trial lawyers.
Life is hard, and the world is cruel
Do you mean intellectual property rights? Or just property rights? (Or both?)
Liberals tend to value the needs of society above those of the individual, and hence, sacrifice property rights for environmental protection. (Often this is good; sometimes it goes too far without compensation for property owners, but that's another debate.) Perhaps that's an angle that we can use in lobbying our Congressmen on the Democratic side--emphasize the societal benefit of looser IP laws.
1) Like a lot of people, I live in a heavily gerrymandered district. My Congressional election is essentially over, with the Democratic incumbent (who didn't bother campaigning in the primary) running against some no-name Republican and whatever Randroid has decided to take the Libertarian plunge this year. What I'd really like to see is some Iowa-style restrictions on districting that make House races meaningful.
2) While there are heroes and villains in government, routinely talking about elections in those terms is part of why the US political process is so psycho nowadays.
3) Saying "Congresscritter" wasn't even funny when it was new, and now it's just completely stupid.
What I'm listening to now on Pandora...
I have the honor of living in the district of Rep. Rick Boucher
It feels odd to have to feel "lucky" that my congressional representative's The Real Thing. Frankly, I don't like guys that run for congress because they think it's a good gig.
There is no bigger geek rockstar in the House than my representative, Rep. Rick Boucher (VA-09). The guy advocates the protection of Fair Use, a Digital Milennium Consumers' Rights Act, opposes the DOJ's anti-P2P work, proposed a great anti-spam act in 2003 (it didn't pass; that crappy CAN-SPAM did, instead), he sponsored the Digital Media Consumers' Rights Act, and he testifies before various House committees all the time, representing, effectively, Slashdot. :) See the Internet section of his House site for more information. Alternately, you could see any of the Slashdot stories about him from over the years, including Slashdot | Rep. Boucher Outlines 'Fair Use' Fight, Boucher's Anti-DMCA Bill Gets High Profile Allies, Anti Spamming Act 2001 Proposed, and Webcasting and the DMCA.
:)
:)
;)
Hell, Boucher guest blogged for Larry Lessig a few weeks ago, and the stuff that he wrote about is like a Slashdotter's wet dream.
He doesn't talk about these things in his campaign literature -- much of the very-rural, poor population of southwest Virginia just wouldn't care. Read over his campaign website and you'll find more about the tobacco buyout, healthcare and tourism than technology.
And everybody else in the House sucks.
-Waldo Jaquith
There is a democratic representative who has consistently supported similar positions to the average /.er. I cannot remember his name, but he has been featured on /. YRO articles before. I really cannot think of any presidential candidate who has a real position on IT.
Degaussing scares the bad magnetism out of the monitor and fills it with good karma.
How do you come to that conclusion?
There are only about 30 seats with even a remote chance of changing hands. Realistically, there are about 15 competitive races, and five of these were created by the retaliatory Republican gerrymandering of Texas.
Thanks to a combination of Gerrymandering, Entrenched incumbents, and the McCain-Feingold legislation (which prevents parties from using soft money to neutralize the advantage of entrenched incumbents) congressional races are entirely uncompetitive. Charlie Cook today says that there is virtually no chance of the house changing hands.
So who cares where the candidates stand on the issues when only a very few people actually have the oppotunity to cast a meaningful vote.
Let's just say he's the only guy in Congress to vote AGAINST the Patriot Act. From his website (russfeingold.org): Senator Feingold supported 90% of the provisions of the PATRIOT Act, but too many provisions were deeply troubling. Certain provisions may infringe on the rights of law-abiding citizens, while doing little protect our country against terrorists. If he ever runs for President, he's got my vote.
OK, but how do I register with the Republican party so I can get my QUID PRO QUO job. Do I have to work for Halliburton?
You want a job? Vote Republican. I know that's hard for liberal slashdot to swallow, but it's the truth.
No, it isn't.
In fact, we're better with neither .
But it might help get an idea of where people stand:
www.vote-smart.org lets you look up the voting records of Concresscritters.
http://tinyurl.com/4ny52
Given the actions of the current administration, that's a complete falsehood.
SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
I don't remember who said this:
If you want to live like a Republican, vote Democratic.
Yet Another Web Site
Note that when we combine a free market like the USA and a non-free market like Mexico, we damage the free market in the USA. For example, the influx of illegal aliens is created by horrible intervention by the Mexican government in the Mexican economy. This influx then destroys the normal market forces in the labor market for unskilled labor in the USA. Ultimately, the USA no longer has a free market.
Note that before the influx of illegal aliens, the free market worked fine in the USA. Unskilled laborers earned enough money to support their families.
Similar comments apply to H-1B workers from India, China (which includes Taiwan province and Hong Kong), etc. They destroy the normal market forces in the market for high-tech labor.
Supporting free markets means that the USA engages in trade (which includes the exchange of labor like engineers, farmers, vegetable pickers, etc.) only with other free markets like that in Canada, Europe, Japan, etc. Supporting free markets means that we defend the border against the influx of illegal aliens and canceling the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).
Supporting free markets means that H-1B engineers from Europe, Japan, and Canada are allowed into the USA. H-1B engineers from India and China are banned.
Supporting free markets means that we terminate unfettered trade with China and India until both societies commit to free market principles. They go hand in hand with democracy. Note the presence of Chinese soldiers in Tibet, and the large number of Taiwanese who have spied for Beijing.
If you hate what is happening to our nation, the USA, then please write the following on the November ballot.
president: Bill O'Reilly
vice-president: Tammy Bruce
This Bill O'Reilly? Why would anyone want to vote for a clown with such skewed view of reality?
Yet Another Web Site
OK, but how do I register with the Republican party so I can get my QUID PRO QUO job. Do I have to work for Halliburton?
I'm afraid the good paying Halliburton jobs are taken, at least until Ayman al-Zawahri creates a few new openings -- in the necks on the next two unfortunate contractors who couldn't find a safe state-side job in Bush's economy.
But the way things are going, the Republican party will ensure you a job if you GO ARMY!
Opinions on the Twiddler2 hand-held keyboard?
Naturalised citizens are here because they chose to be, people born here are here because of accident of birth and either never had the ambition, means, or desire to go anywhere else.
WHat does this have to do with being "geek friendly"? Nothing at all.
Is there something wrong with people who have come to our country from somewhere else and found enough love for the place to go through the process and take the oath to become a citizen?
If the country and even the district is now their home, why should they not involve themselves in the government there. It is their home. Or do we lose all right to participate (which is more than the vast majority of peopl ein the district do I imagine, born there or not) in the community and the government?
Should they just be dowtrodden outsiders, taking it as its given to them and liking it?
-Steve
"I opened my eyes, and everything went dark again"
I'm a democrat and the reality is all the politicians are owned by the corporate PAC's and donors. Kerry is better than Bush in my opinion but not by much.
Enjoy the land of freedom or what little of it remains. For the Inc, by the Inc, of the Inc.
I've heard all the typical rhetoric from the DNC and Kerry campaign about "stopping the tax incentives for companies who outsource jobs." The message, if not the proposal, seems to indicate targeting those who were spurned by the dot-com bust and who are struggling in the current state of the high tech industry.
But a vote for Kerry can't be considered a vote to stop outsourcing, can it? Can we really reverse the trend of high-paying jobs outsourced to India, etc, and will that translate to better, high-paying jobs in the US? The question for me is, how exactly do you portend staving off outsourcing as a campaign plank, other than a completely transparent attempt to capture votes from disgruntled former high-tech employees?
Sure, flipping burgers sucks when you were making $100k/yr with stock options, but what exactly is the point, here? Can any candidate deliver on a promise like that?
Depends on your definition of "IT folks". If you mean shareholders and senior management of technology-related companies, then anyone in their wholly-owned subsidiary known as the US Congress is good for IT folks.
If, on the other hand, you mean people who work for a living, I can't think of a single person who supports us.
It's simple: I demand prosecution for torture.
So does part of your post: terminate unfettered trade with China and India. A truly free market doesn't care who you trade with. All that matters is money.
When you get to hell -- tell 'em Itchy sent ya!
You're right. We should concentrate immigrants in camps. It's clear that immigrants are destroying our strong american values, and should be segregated from us good folk.
Also, I'm pretty sure that Poland presents an imminent threat to our homeland security. We should probably pre-emptively attack, for our own protection.
Seriously dude, you don't have to comment on EVERY SINGLE friggin thread. Please take a week off from slashdot or something.
I'd really love to see some sort of mathematics applied to Gerrymandering. Something to the tune of limiting the perimeter of a district to 3 or 4 times the square root of its area. Some sort of allowances would need to be made for irregular state borders and natural features like rivers or mountains. For that matter, I'm not that hung up over the number 3 or 4, just some reasonable limit.
It would be really fun to look at some Congressional districts and find their Gerrymander-Factor=perimeter/sqrt(area).
The living have better things to do than to continue hating the dead.
You play the game of the Chinese bigot and the American politician. They ignore the inputs.
WHat does this have to do with being "geek friendly"? Nothing at all.
You may not have realized this because it hasn't touched you personally- but for the past 4 years, the high tech job market has been a depression, and at the rate things are going, it's not likely one we're going to pull out of EVER.
Is there something wrong with people who have come to our country from somewhere else and found enough love for the place to go through the process and take the oath to become a citizen?
There is when they want to be a representative of the population, but in action only serve a narrow industrial/ethnic community.
If the country and even the district is now their home, why should they not involve themselves in the government there. It is their home. Or do we lose all right to participate (which is more than the vast majority of peopl ein the district do I imagine, born there or not) in the community and the government?
I'd say those who have a family tie to the land and community ought to get first dibs on any such position- if for nothing else, because they KNOW the greater community, and thus are going to be less likely to be selective about their representation.
Should they just be dowtrodden outsiders, taking it as its given to them and liking it?
As long as what is given to them is no more than what is given to anybody else, why not? If they don't like it, they can go back where they came from.
Now I'll admit right now, I've got Native American blood in me, and despite my few European ancestors, I do feel that we'd have been better off in Oregon if white man had never come. The fact that large numbers of other tribes were directly killed to clear land for the settlers here is a part of that. I see NO difference whatsoever with Middle Eastern (Goli is from Iran) and Chinese (Wu) people being elected to local REPRESENTATIVE positions, illegal aliens from Mexico who refuse to even learn Standard American (we don't speak English in Oregon, we speak Standard American, a distinctly different dialect), or the white man who came to force their culture on us in the 1830s. They're all basically foreign invaders.
SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
American Corporations use H-1B, L-1 visas to bring in "guest workers" to undercut the American Job Market. Once a person becomes a NC he is no longer a cheap commodity labor. He's part of the expensive American Labor force.
Either way we shouldn't be robbing the world of valued labor to feed our greedy corporations. How bout we(USA) stop supporting dictators that run their countries so bad that the people flee them.
Or how bout we stop raising our National Debt so freeking high that our Dollar has more buying power overseas then it has here.
Slashdot, home of supporters of free software, free music, and free speech.Except for Moderators that disagree with you.
As you flat-out say in one of your later posts, you have a small amount of European blood in you. So why can't someone who's entirely Native go and call you a dirty forgeiner? Ameri's been in this country for about 35 years, Wu about 45 - what's the difference between them and the local people you say that these jobs should be reserved for? In my books, living in a country for 35 or 45 years makes you count as a local.
From you post it makes it sounds like you'd like some sort of caste system, where "foreigners" (a term you don't really define) are second class citizens - unless they've been here as long as you, in which case they get to criticize new foreigners. Which, by my reading, kinda goes against the American Dream. Ohm and what about Arhhhhhhnod - does he still count as "contracting out" the governorship of California?
As for who to vote for (taking aside their races), I would vote for Wu. He's a nice guy, a former small businessman, and has more experience than Ameri.
Cue The Sun...
Properly written and enforced, anti-trust laws help protect the free market by
preventing monopoly powers from interfering with normal market forces.
*sigh* back to work...
Thank you.
http://www.opensecrets.org/ is a great place to find out what organizations and industries are giving the most $$ to each candidate.
There's a lot more content than that there, check it out.
- Preferences: Solaris 10 (servers), Ubuntu (desktops), Solaris 11 (personal servers) -
:-) Nice try, but I recognize a Nazi reference when I see one- I'm not going to argue with you on that.
SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
SHUT UP SHUT UP
cut his internet connection...
It's 10 PM. Do you know if you're un-American?
-- instead of asking readers to anecdotally/idiosyncratically characterize the positions of various candidates, for the story to PROVIDE references where readers could FIND this info, to help their voting decisions.
This shouldn't be about Pork for IT. It should be about common sense. Stop whining about what your congressman is going to do for your iPod, and start looking at what he or she stands for as a WHOLE. Yes, we probably all want our jobs back from Bangalore. But at any cost?
I want my congressmen to be operating under the premise that government exists solely to protect the lives, liberties and properties of its citizens, that government is the servant of the people and not its master, and that honest (and genuine) free trade is the best foreign policy. I don't expect any candidate to be perfect, but one who made the previous the foundation of his platform and could demonstrate he was serious about it, would have vote.
Don't blame me, I didn't vote for either of them!
Hatch is Mormon. Utah is mostly Mormon. You do the math. It's about as polarized as votes along racial lines, to be honest. Of course, I'm Mormon and I think the guy is a putz, but I don't live in Utah either (nor would I ever). Maybe some of you Utah geeks need to get off your duffs and do something about Hatch. Maybe even run against him.
There is a difference between "insightful" and "inciteful" other than spelling.
That is ridiculous. First off, your link assumes that current economic prosperity is somehow causally linked to who the president currently is. I think it would be more realistic to speculate that economic change has a lot of inertia and attibute econimic prosperity to previous administrations/congresses. What that time constant is I have no idea. Along those lines, I would much rather see the same data correlated to who is control of the congress, state legislatures and governors,... all of who probably have more of a real impact on the economy than a sitting president.
"It takes considerable knowledge just to realize the extent of your own ignorance." - Thomas Sowell
Why not vote for Badnarik for President?
Sounds like a tech person to me!
Became a Computer Programmer in 1977 for Commonwealth Edison at their nuclear power plant in Zion, Illinois; taught control room operators about computers. Was promoted to Senior Software Engineer for their Braidwood Nuclear Simulator project, which he managed from '82-'85 (his favorite job assignment, basically a $6-million "computer game" for which he was totally responsible). Moved to Montebello, CA, and held a "secret security" clearance at Northrop to work on the Stealth Bomber simulator, '85-'87. Relocated to San Luis Obispo, CA, in 1987 as a System Administrator and computer trainer at PG&E's Diablo Canyon nuclear plant; spent 10 years as a member of the Applied Technology Services Team writing software and traveling the state installing real-time data-collection servers to their remote power stations; was an instructor for hundreds of employees teaching state-of-the-art systems being installed. Moved to Austin, TX, in 1997 where he was a programmer and a trainer for Evolutionary Technologies International. He quickly became the Senior Trainer and began traveling across the U.S., and to Canada, England and Australia, as instructor, consultant and "high-tech diplomat." Became an independent computer consultant in 2001, but began to turn his attention (and talents as an instructor and communicator) to teaching his 8-hour "Introduction to the Constitution" class.
-------
Bite Me Fanboy!!
Drat, I forgot to close my bold tag after $90 billion.
This makes sense if you think of the Democrats as a centrist party. 'Liberal' more accurately describes a party like the Greens.
Vino, gyno, and techno -Bruce Sterling