Starting a Political Career with Open Source?

byronmiller desires to get to the root of the following issue: "I have chosen to run for office to represent the people of the 16th district of Pennsylvania. I am looking for software and solutions to help manage a grass roots and budget friendly campaign. What applications are available for everything from district management/contact management solutions to online fund raising and campaign management solutions? We are already rolling out staff PC's running Suse 9.2, OpenOffice.org and of course Firefox. Are there any collaboration suites and mail systems that we can use for calendaring, notes, email and conferencing? Anyone build a campaign using open source technology or is Politics still only putting money where your mouth is? Technology is a major initiative of my campaign and i'm very interested in what political software and civic solutions are available - especially experience and reviews of such."

Comments

Re:Why not read me website..

[demachina]

" Will you make it easier for me to send my child to a private school where they will receive a far better education than the local school district offers, without me having to pay for both schools? (Yes, that means waivers.)"

This is such an odd concept. You see I pay for the public school system through property taxes and Federal income taxes and I DON'T HAVE ANY KIDS. Why exactly should you be exempted from paying taxes for public schools, or get vouchers, so you can defray the cost of sending your kid to a plush private school while I still have to help pay for public schools, probably even more so if you people opt out, and I DON'T HAVE ANY KIDS. Either you go to a system where only people with kids in public schools pay for public schools at which point they stop being public schools or everyone shares the burden. Not sure why I get to help pay for both public schools and your kids plush private education and I DON'T HAVE ANY KIDS.

"Would we be the richest nation on Earth if we did dump all kinds of money into a national health care system?"

I'd say its a stretch so say the U.S. is the world's "richest nation". The U.S. is the world's biggest debtor nation to the tune of 7-8 trillion. The U.S. is rich in terms of GDP but the EU which is pretty much a "nation" now is pretty close to the same size. China will almost certainly pass the U.S. in GDP in another 20 years barring calamity. If the U.S. continues to drown in debt the U.S. economy could easily collapse before then. The U.S. requires foreign countries, mostly central banks, to buy $2 billion worth of our debt a day and all indications are Japan, Korea and others may stop due to the fact the Bush administration is letting the dollar collapse and the U.S is no so fiscally unsound it is turning in to a bad investment which is pretty much a first. If central banks stop buying dollars and our debt this country is going to be in a world of hurt.

China, Canada, and most EU nations have universal health care in one form or another and it doesn't hurt their competitiveness at all, in fact it probably helps. Their systems aren't perfect but the U.S. system is far from perfect. Canada is the fastest growing country in the G-9 at the moment.

Actually we would probably have a dramaticly healthier economy if we did have universal health care and regulated drug prices. Our private and public health care system combined has reach the point it is bleeding our economy white, mostly due to out of control inflation, inflation far beyond the rest of the economy.

The cost to employers for insurance in the U.S. has become prohibitively expensive and is a huge factor in making them uncompetitive globally. Employers in countries with socialized health care don't have to bare this cost(except through taxes). At this point many companies are cutting health care for employees or dropping it all together, meaning the U.S. increasingly has great health care only if you are rich enough to afford it.

The drug companies in particular are engaged in such massive profiteering that they are the single most profitable business in the U.S. Unchecked drug costs are going to wreck the U.S. economy almost single handedly. Of course lawyers, insurance companies, HMO's and giant health care companies are all taking hung chunks out of the U.S. economy too.

"I consider it a fundamental freedom to own and legally make use of a firearm."

I keep hearing right wingers rant about that but I really don't know why. It is incredibly easy to buy all the guns you want in this country, more so than almost any other country. If the (D)'s are trying to outlaw them they are doing a crappy job of it and its not an issue worthy of deciding who runs this country. About all the D's have done was some registration which isn't entirely bad, and they did pass an ineffective ban against some assault weapons which has since lapsed. It was easy to circumvent and I really, honestly don't entirely understand why people really need to own