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Stupid Gerrymandering UPDATED

Columbus area congressional districts with results

Make any sense?

Barack Obama won Franklin County, Ohio, where I live by 19%.  Because of inane congressional districting Franklin will be represented by 3 Republicans in Congress.  Franklin County is the second largest county in Ohio, home to Columbus the largest city, and to the Ohio State University, the largest university in the US.  Franklin County’s congressional districts purposefully carve up Columbus with its great diversity, split the affluent suburbs, and reach far out into the rural surrounding areas.  Franklin and Columbus have not sent a Democrat to Congress since 1982 because of this.

I will be represented by this white dude:

Steve "douche-nozzle" Stivers

Steve "douche-nozzle" Stivers

The only words I have ever heard him say are “I’m Steve Stivers and I approved this message.”  All of his ads I saw, were attack ads, including one that literally had money on fire.  As far as I can tell he will just bring his ominous voiceover guy to DC to continue to speak for him.  I seriously doubt he will champion urban causes when all his votes came from rich fiscal conservatives in the suburbs and “values voters” in the farmlands.  Plus, he just looks douchey.

I really wanted Mary Jo Kilroy to win.  I must admit a big part of it was because she actually said something in her campaign ads.

UPDATE: Looks like CNN.com is lame.  The race isn’t called and MJK is closing in down by a few hundred votes.  I guess there are thousands of ballots not counted in Franklin County.

This is at least a day late…

I was sitting in a coffee shop today and I overheard someone say, “They voted for Obama?  Didn’t you tell them he kills babies?”

I’m a strong pro-life supporter and it is one of the major reasons I voted for Barack Obama.  That might make you scratch your head because Barack Obama is pro-choice.  Here is my take on why Barack should be (or should have been) your choice if you are pro-life.

Abortion has been legal nation wide in America since 1973 when the Supreme Court ruled that the Constitution contains an implicit right to privacy for Americans.  With this privacy a woman can choose to have an abortion up until the “point at which the fetus becomes ‘viable.’”  I strongly disagree with the idea that a fetus does not have its own right to live.  Unfortunately, I am not in the majority.  More Americans want legal abortions than don’t.  Ardent pro-life supports need to realize this and work for a solution that can actually be achieved.  What I think most Americans can get behind is a real effort to reduce the number of abortions.

If current rulings on legal abortion were struck down, it would be up to states to decide abortion laws.  Most abortions happen in states that would not outlaw it.  For instance, New York City is the abortion capital of America.  If you lived in a state that outlawed abortion, you could still have one in another state.  So realistically, packing the Supreme Court with crazy conservative justices like Scalia won’t significantly reduce abortions (and you can say good bye to things like Miranda rights, suing polluters, and habeas corpus).   John McCain will not be able to get a Scalia-like justice on the Supreme Court with a 55+ seat Democratic Senate anyways.  You’d get a milquetoast judge who was ambiguous on Roe v Wade. 

I believe the Republican Party is only nominally pro-life.  For six years the presidency and congress were Republican controlled and as far as I know the only real effort to reduce abortions was to try to ban partial birth abortion (a very small fraction of all abortions) and promote abstinence-only birth control (which has raised the number of teen pregnancies).  I think abortion is a wedge issue that keeps pro-life people voting Republican, so Republicans realize it is not in their best interest to actually reduce abortions.  Single issue voters are easily manipulated voters.

I believe that abortions, by and large are not of done casually.  Others just don’t see the world like I do and I can’t change that and I try not to judge it either.  Women who are poor or young or uneducated often feel they have no other solution.  Even if you think they do, they don’t think they do.  To reduce abortions in this country you have to educate, empower, and uplift women.  

Barack Obama will improve the lives of the poor and the middle class.  With affordable healthcare that doesn’t call pregnancy a “pre-existing condition”, tax cuts, and raised child tax credits, the financial burden on anticipating mothers will be greatly reduced.  He will restore full sex education to our nation’s classrooms and expand access to contraception.  I believe this is a realistic approach that most people can get behind.

So that’s how this pro-life person can feel really good about voting for a pro-choice candidate.

From barackobma.com:

“Barack Obama is an original co-sponsor of legislation to expand access to contraception, health information and preventive services to help reduce unintended pregnancies. Introduced in January 2007, the Prevention First Act will increase funding for family planning and comprehensive sex education that teaches both abstinence and safe sex methods. The Act will also end insurance discrimination against contraception, improve awareness about emergency contraception, and provide compassionate assistance to rape victims.”

The Political Compass

I have taken the test and here is my result:

Economic Left/Right: -6.25
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -5.03

My plot on the compass, almost in the center of the Libertarian Communist quadrant.

Obviously, I am a crazy libertarian communist.  I guess most of America is in the top right quadrant.

Check it out here

It’s all relative

A CNN reader comment sums up my feelings pretty well:

Republicans lowered my taxes, and will keep them low. But the value of my home has dropped 20%, my health insurance costs have doubled, gas costs $4 a gallon, and my investments are in the tank. Please, tax me.

P.S. Obama would actually lower my taxes by taxing the ultra rich more (but still less than during the Raegan era)

A Tommy Update

Thomas is growing up so fast.  He is now 17 months old.  Walking so fast he almost runs, talking non stop, and getting into all kinds of fun.

Thomas has lots of words lately.  Some of his new ones are: grandma (mmmah), wall, drawer, “blow bubbles”.  But my favorite is still when he says “no no no” and shakes his finger.  He seems to understand a lot.  I can tell him things like, “put the dinosaurs in the bag” or “clap your feet” and he puts it together and does it.

KIF_3651KIF_3619

Some of his favorite toys are balls, bubbles, and big blocks.  He loves to play in his sand box too.  He likes to pick out books and point at things and have me say what they are.  He now sits at the table and eats with a fork. 

Tommy and DaddyIce Cream with Grandma

He still gets sad to see Tracy go to work, but gets over it soon if he sees the cats (all cats are “Maybe” after our cat).  He squeels when he sees his grandparents or his friends.  We are getting a bike trailer so we can all go for rides together this fall.

Everything is a phoneKIF_3576

more photos here

Obama on Gustav

Via Time’s blog, here are Barack Obama’s remarks in Milwaukee.  Certainly not the normal stump speech and I found it quite moving.

That spirit of looking out for one another, that core value that says I am my brothers’ keeper, I am my sister’s keeper, that spirit is most evident during times of great tragedy, it’s most evident during times of great hardship, it’s most evident when natural disasters strike because we understand that only God has control and so it takes it out of the realm of politics. We all understand that we have to come together.

But that spirit can’t just be restricted to moments of great catastrophe. Because as I stand here today and look out at the thousands of folks who have gathered here today, I know that there’s some folks that are going through their own quiet storms.

[…]

There’re people out there who’ve seen their jobs shipped overseas. There’re people out there who don’t have healthcare, maybe they’ve been trying to pay it on a credit card but mostly they’ve just been putting off trying to see a doctor. There’re seniors out there that don’t know how they’re going to pay their home heating bill this winter. There are folks out there that don’t know how they’re going to fill up the gas tank. There are young people in this audience right now that have graduated from high school, have the grades and want to go to college, but don’t have the money. There are young people being born in the inner cities, right here in Milwaukee, that don’t see any prospects for the future that think the only path available to them is a casket or a jail cell.

All across America there are quiet storms taking place. There are lives of quiet desperation. People who need just a little bit of help. Now, Americans are a self-reliant people, we’re an independent people. We don’t like asking somebody else to do what we can do ourselves but you know what we understand is that every once in a while somebody’s going to get knocked down. Every once in a while somebody’s going to go through some hard times. When we least expect it tragedy may strike. And what has always made this country great is the understanding that we rise and fall as one nation, that values and family, community and neighborhood, they have to express themselves in our government. Those are national values. Those are values that we all subscribe to. And so that the spirit that we extend today and in the days to come as we monitor what happens on the Gulf that’s the spirit that we’ve got to carry with us each and every day. That’s the spirit that we need in our own homes and it’s the spirit that we need in the White House. And that’s why I’m running for president of the United States of America.

Because if there’s a poor child out there, that’s my child. If there’s a senior that’s having trouble, that’s my grandparent. If there’s a guy who’s lost his job, that’s my brother. If there’s a woman out there without healthcare, that’s my sister. Those are the values that built this country. Those are the values we are fighting for.

God Save the Pandora

I have listened to Pandora radio just about every work day for over 2 years.  So obviously, I think its a great service.  Pandora selects music that it learns you will like.  After 2 years its pretty good at picking music I like.  I have come to depend on Pandora during work.  I remember, before Pandora, how I used to worry about what music to play, and when it stopped, I had to lose my focus on my work.  Now it just streams things I like all day.

Rudy Guliani talking into a microphone with an incredulous look on his face.

If you have ever listened to me talk about the music business, you’ll know I have lots of opinions regarding artist and consumer rights.  For what ever reason, the music licensing companies have decided Internet radio stations like Pandora, should pay more money then regular and satellite radio.  Pandora may go under when the new rates come into effect.

Now I’m sure there is a place for telling Pandora that they should figure out how to make more money, be leaner, etc.  But it is absolutely in the music industry’s interest to have fair fees in an emerging music market.

Pandora keeps track of all the music you select as “thumbs up”.  I took at my list and selected which groups or songs Pandora introduced to me.  Of the 154 songs, 91 fit the “new to me” description.  That’s pretty remarkable, considering I like to hear music I know while I work and I don’t bother tagging most songs.  Many of the new songs are from groups I have bought multiple albums of.

If my results are common (and certainly Pandora can do some statistics for the general user base), to me that is strong evidence that Pandora can work as a marketing tool not just as a revenue tool for the music industry.  Getting paid to advertise sounds like a good deal to me.

Here is my full list of “thumbs up” songs: (Continued)

Web Accessibility Is Important

Working with the Guide Dog Foundation for the Blind upcoming new website (launching October 1st {crosses fingers}) has really focused my attention on web accessibility.  This is my second project with Fusion that put accessibility as a high priority.

Text of an empty alt tagIt’s not something that gets a lot of attention in CIS programs at colleges or in other training programs.  When you hear about new web technologies like AJAX and SilverLight, rarely is there a technical discussion of how to make them accessible.

But I have come to the conclusion that it is important, it does matter, and every web developer needs to make it a priority.  Perhaps you are like me and surf with a non Microsoft web browser.  Do you ever go to a site that tells you to use Internet Explorer to continue or renders incorrectly?  Its frustrating, especially if you don’t run on Windows and can’t use IE.  This is similar to users who use screen readers or adaptive technologies.

As the Internet becomes the foremost place for information and communication in our society, we risk excluding a group of people solely because they have a “non-standard” means of reading and inputting data.

Web technologies have their power not in their appearance or their particular interface, but in the global transfer and processing of data.  How a particular user needs to view or send that data should be abstracted.  It shouldn’t matter if a user uses a keyboard or a mouse to select hyperlinks.

When developing a site, developers know to keep security in mind.  They know to test the site in multiple browsers.  But I know until recently, I did not even think to consider how my HTML would be read by a screen reader.  Developing with accessibility in mind, doesn’t make development very much more difficult.  It can feel pretty good that more people can access and enjoy your sites.

Most sites can become drastically more accessible by making a few changes.  I am still learning how to develop truely accessible sites (I’m sure sidesinger.com isn’t).  Here is where I suggest developers start.

The Fail Blog

Tracy and I have started reading FailBlog while waiting for NetFlix watch it now to stop failing*

Here are examples of why I love the low brow hilarity that is fail blog:

* Netflix has the gaul to blame my internet connection and not thier crappy servers for why it takes an hour to buffer a 40 minute show.

Regular Expressions

I found the following regular expression sites extremely helpful.  I seem to be doing RegEx quite a bit lately and I never seem to memorize all the rules about them. Plus you have to test them.

RegExPal - Visual real time RegEx testing
Mozilla RegEx Guide - pretty near complete
Regular Expression Library - a giant site of expressions to steal