The best way to fix our Presidential primary system (with poll)
Sat Oct 13, 2007 at 11:34:24 AM PDT
Is it fair that Iowa and New Hampshire always get to have their primaries first? It does emphasize direct exposure to candidates over fund-raising ability. But if we keep choosing the same states in the same order, year after year, certain issues like corn-based ethanol will receive favoritism they don't deserve, and certain demographics, such as African-Americans and the poor, will be continually under-represented.
This sense of unfairness had led to "front-loading," as more and more states push their primaries and caucuses earlier into the calendar year. Some states have scheduled their primaries so early on that the results cannot be counted in the national party conventions in late August or early September, and other states are even discussing moving their primaries to the previous year. While this may be somewhat helpful to early frontrunners in a Presidential race, it means that Presidential campaigns are more expensive and more about the money, and they are also more exhausting to candidates and electorate alike.
We need to fix our Presidential primary system (more below the fold).
Why is John Edwards WINNING the Presidential election? (with poll)
Sun Sep 30, 2007 at 08:03:24 AM PDT
He's not winning the race for the Democratic Primary, at least not yet. He's not winning the race for campaign dollars, at least not yet. He's not winning the race for name recognition. So how come, matchup after matchup, especially in battleground states, he has the best chance of beating our eventual Republican opponent?
NYC, the newest battleground against toxic sludge in our food supply
Sat Sep 30, 2006 at 10:37:14 AM PDT
Associated Press
Days after city health officials proposed outlawing trans fats in eateries, Mayor Bloomberg defended the ban and tried to drag Robert De Niro into the debate because the actor's restaurants do not use the man-made oil.
Confessing his love for french fries and oily popcorn, the mayor said everyone could still enjoy those snacks because they can be made without the artificial trans fatty acids, which are thought to cause cholesterol problems and increase risk of heart disease.
Experts say corn, canola and soy oils are safer but generally taste and cost the same as the trans fats.
"You're getting an ingredient out that nobody's going to miss," Bloomberg said.
(The science of trans-fats in a nutshell and some possible actions you can take below the flip.)
Black market employment ring busted up (with poll)
Sat Apr 15, 2006 at 05:18:57 PM PDT
On April 14, Matthew Dolan reported this for the Baltimore Sun:
The owners of Kawasaki restaurants pleaded guilty in federal court in Baltimore Friday, admitting they hired illegal immigrants as low-wage employees at their well-known Japanese eateries, forced them to hand over their tips and funneled the profits from their labor into expensive real estate and luxury cars.
Ah, sweet music to my ears. Laying blame where it belongs (the employers) and kicking them where it hurts (their wallets). More below.
Getting Tough With Black Market Employers
Tue Apr 04, 2006 at 10:08:16 AM PDT
I think most Americans agree that it is the black market employers of "undocumented" workers which helps create the economic pressures on foreign citizens to illegally immigrate to the United States so that they can try to better themselves, and because these "undocumented" workers are willing to work under worse conditions and for less pay this in turn drives American wages down. We already have laws against the hiring of "undocumented" workers, but a huge problem with these laws is that they simply are not enforced.
There is a solution to this problem, albeit, given the history of the solution, a potentially very ugly one. America has faced the problem of its laws not getting enforced before, and come up with an incentive program that was an instant success. It's called...
The "Patriotism" Act (with poll)
Tue Mar 28, 2006 at 10:53:17 PM PDT
Bush's USAPATRIOT Act does more than trade freedoms for the illusion of safety. By implication the law also tries to redefine patriotism as willingly surrendering personal freedoms to the government and not asking questions of them. But patriotism is not about disempowering the individual and it should never be defined that way. Patriotism means being a good citizen, but patriotism is something that empowers the individual by making them a meaningful part of the political system. Progressive Democrats should be standing at the ready with corrections to and solutions for the civil rights abuses of the USAPATRIOT Act, but that's not all. Progressive Democrats also need a "Patriotism" Act by which they can fix the damage that Republicans have done to the concept of patriotism itself. Something that can easily be compared to Republican efforts.
Framing Idea: Lies of the Bush Administration
Fri Jan 28, 2005 at 08:14:24 PM PDT
I recently read that one of the most influential philosophers to the neoconservative movement was a guy named Leo Strauss, and that one of the key features of his philosophy was that he believed that those in charge, who really know what is going on, need to lie to the masses for their own good because only they know what is really best for everyone. Well, hey, look at all the lies of the Bush Administration...
