Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Ask Slashdot: What Planks Would You Want In a Platform of a Political Party?

Posted by Soulskill on from the mandatory-pi-day-celebration dept.

An anonymous reader writes "I am the Technology Manager of the Justice Party (sorry, no relationship to the Avengers). We are currently working on our Platform (version 2.0) and I would be interested to know what people in the science and technology field would like to see in a platform of a political party. For example, we are considering planks that relate to Open Government (data) access, science and maths promotion, space industries, promotion of open source, dealing with SOPA/ CISPA laws, improvement in user privacy and much more. Give us your comments so we can help build a more tech-savvy America."

4 of 694 comments (clear)

  1. Hold tech companies' feet to fire about H1-Bs by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Years ago, local industry where I lived had a problem getting qualified workers with the right skills. Folks said, "Like what skills?"

    Industry said, "CNC Machinists."

    So, the local tech schools, colleges, industry and governments got together and created CNC programs and solved the problem. Now industry has has a steady flow of qualified workers, people who may not have the talents or inclination to be a white collar cube worker have a career path to a middle class life, government has an ever increasing tax base and the local community is thriving. (CT, Pratt & Whitney, Sikorsky Aircraft, etc... to name some names.)

    Contrast with the tech industry:

    "Waaa! We can't get qualified workers with the right skills!! Waaaaaaa"

    The rest of us, "Like what?"

    Tech industry,"Waaaaa! We can't get qualified workers we need more H1-Bs! Waaaaaaaaaa!"

    I think they won't mention the skills or qualifications they need because we will all see that the Emperor Has No Clothes. We would see that in fact, every college and university in the US is producing folks with the right qualifications and that the tech industry is full of shit and made up the "lack of skills and qualifications" as an excuse for H1-Bs - to state the obvious.

  2. Re:Third parties, generally, are not good by Mashdar · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Or possibly a plank for election reform: (N-1)-round single elimination elections. Voters order their preference of candidates. Their vote rolls to their next choice upon elimination of their current choice.

  3. Fix it. by Frobnicator · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Restore the vote by eliminating gerrymandering.

    Restore the courts by eliminating plea bargains by prosecutors. (Defendants can still plead guilty and ask for mercy from the court, not from the prosecutors.)

    Restore accountability in government by reducing government immunity from lawsuits. Those who enforce the law should not be immune from it. Police officers who lie under oath should be jailed. Destruction of evidence, including failure to collect exculpatory evidence, and the failure of prosecutors to reveal potentially exculpatory evidence as required by the Constitution, should also not be prevented by governmental immunity and should result in prison time for any detectives and prosecutors involved.

    --
    //TODO: Think of witty sig statement
  4. Re:Secularism by mevets · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Serious answer: you have it backwards.
    Our religious beliefs are derived from our intrinsic sense of morality and ethics.
    That and a healthy side dish of hatred, prejudice and self aggrandizement.
    Although Genesis proclaims ... So God created man in his own image, ...
    I rather prefer: ... So Man create God in his own image...