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Presidential Candidate 'Computer Dating'
engywook writes "On National Public Radio's Morning Edition this morning, there was a story that mentioned the SelectSmart Presidential Candidate Selector. This was described as a kind of 'computer dating service' for deciding which of the remaining presidential candidates match your views most closely. According to the story, it is not limited to just the Democratic and Republican candidates. Might be just the thing to help gel a decision in swinging undecideds!"
PROFESSIONAL
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.
But, his background is not as illustriously geeky as Al Gore, whom we all know invented the internet.
Choosing from my results, i will probably vote for: Warning: mysql_db_query(): Access denied for user: 'root@localhost' (Using password: NO) in /usr/www/users/ssmart/PRESIDENT/president.php on line 45
All of these posts of SQL errors (that poor server was slashdotted about two minutes after the story went live -- and the story isn't even on the front page) and nobody has pointed out that they are using the root SQL account with no password on a website? I guess all of the security gurus are probably over here this morning.
In any case I hope their SQL server is behind some sort of firewall. Not that anybody could manage to get into it while it's slashdotted... but still.
I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
Of course corporations don't pay taxes. I own a small business, which is set-up as a sub-chapter S-corporation. Last year the corporation reported a profit of $38 on the corporate tax returns. So were no taxes paid? Of course we paid taxes. The actual profit from the corporation came to my wife and myself and our employees as salary and dividends, and we paid personal income taxes on those.
If the corporation had saved money for itself, and thereby been required to pay taxes on it, sure, money would have been paid to the federal government, but where would it have come from? It would have come from customers of the business. Taxes are just another business expense, and would be included in the price of goods and services. For example, if a corporation sells a widget that cost $90, and needs to make a $10 profit on it, it can expect to pay $1 in taxes (10% corporate tax rate). So do you think the corporation charges $100 for the widget and then just eats the $1 in taxes? Of course not. The corporation charges about $101 (fine, $101.11) for it and passes the taxes on to the government. Customers (citizens) still pay the tax, they're just unaware of it...the corporation is a tax collector for the government.
Corporate taxes are simply another way congressmen hide the tax burdens with which people are really saddled.
We don't have a state-run media we have a media-run state.
www.vote-smart.org
enter zip code = get all candidates you can vote on
choose a candidate and you can find out:
-a terse biography
-their voting record
-their publicly stated policy
-their financial backing
-how a rainbow of interest groups approve/disapprove of their voting record
the site is simplistic and packed with unslanted info. just as i like 'em. it's by far the best resource i've come accross yet.
to give credit, i came accross this site via one of my Senators' websites, Russ Feingold. He was cosponsor along with John McCain for campaign finance reform, and I couldn't be more pleased with him.