Nerd News: Election Results Via Google

 Edited to add:  Like this one a lot (NoScript will block Chrome won't) http://www.politico.com/2012-election/map/#/President/2012/


Link: https://www.google.com/search?q=e%3Bection+results&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US

There are many ways to follow the US Presidential Election, as a Nerd I tend to use Google for a lot of things.

Though I am not following the election closely, this lets me check Presidential, Senate, & Congressional results at a glance, with plenty of more detailed links if I want to drill down.

Though I don't agree with President Obama completely, I have to say of any of the US presidents, of the ones I have been old enough to care about, Obama is my favorite.

Though I am Libertarian, which is not at all the same as Liberal or Democratic Party in the US, though the word sounds similar.

Though I am not actively political now, I was very much so late in High School, and in College.

I ran for and was elected to Student Government in my first two years of college, and was the person on campus that arranged for politicians of all parties to come and speak on campus.

I also attended all of the local press conferences, along with the President/Head Editor of the College paper, for all of the parties in our Town/County.

Not just Republican and Democratic ones, but also Communist, and couple of others that were more like special interest groups than true party.

I had planned to do a few blog posts about Politics over the previous two days, but I have been really sick with Asthma issues, so this single post is all I am planning to do.

Though I might do another one after the election, if I feel a lot of motivation to do so.

Just going to close with a few of my thoughts and observations between Republicans & Democrats here in the US at the Federal level.

[Note:  IME State and Local level is a lot different in my experience, I have met Politicians from both parties at the local and state level that I respected.]

For the Republican Presidents, and generally congress members as well, the ones I can really remember tended to really mess up National Economy, usually by removing or weakening a lot of regulations and oversight on Business.

See:

• Notes President Name Red=Republican Blue=Democrat; Green Number%=Trend is improving, Red Number%=Getting Worse; Also note when a Pres takes over with Green or Red % from previous Pres, and it changes in one year, especially with "War on Terror" going one (Wars waste money like a drug or gambling addiction) http://www.skymachines.com/US-National-Debt-Per-Capita-Percent-of-GDP-and-by-Presidental-Term.htm
• http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21565623-america-could-do-better-barack-obama-sadly-mitt-romney-does-not-fit-bill-which-one

Republican Presidents also seem to like to invade countries, which always involves actually killing many good people on both sides, and completely messing people up as badly as child abuse impacts kids (I know more than a couple of Combat Vets, I have been involved with Criminology, Military History, and Physical Security for a long time, and have worked with and made friends with a lot of Active, Reserve, and Veteran Military people).

They seem to like to invade countries for pretty bad reasons.

See:

• " Former chief counter-terrorism adviser on the National Security Council Richard A. Clarke believes Bush took office with a predetermined plan to invade Iraq." From interview http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2003_invasion_of_Iraq#cite_note-22
• Also Richard Clark's book Against All Enemies [Clark was the one wanting to brief Bush on threat of al-Qaeda & bin Laden, but kept getting brushed off by Bush, until after 9/11 he was also the one making decisions when 9/11 actually happened, Cheney was there but deferred to Clark's expertise] 
•  Joseph Wilson's book Politics of Truth , Wilson was an Ambassador that was stuck in Iraq as Acting Ambassador, during Iraq's invasion of Kuwait.  During that invasion, which lead to the First Gulf War, Wilson was essentially a hostage, Saddam Hussein could have had him killed at any time. Wilson's book covers what he calls the lies that led to GW Bush's invasion of Iraq, his efforts to try to prevent US invasion of Iraq, & what happened to him as a result of that.
• Valerie Plame Wilson's book Fair Game: My Life as a Spy, My Betrayal by the White House, she was a CIA case officer, her specialty was WMD, her husband was Josep Wilson, mentioned above.

Many Republicans also seem to have real difficulty dealing with, to the point of not even admitting there is a real problem that needs addressing, the real world.  Thinking of Hurricane Katrina and Global warming specifically here, but there are some other pollution issues as well (see weakened Business Regulation & Oversight above).

Democrat Presidents only do one thing, in general, that I think is comparable to the harm Republicans do, there are lot of things they do that I disagree with on political grounds, but the only pattern I have noticed that objectively harms people, is Democrat Presidents like to appoint very politically or publicity hungry Attorney Generals.

See:

• Waco an Excellent Documentry of the entire Waco Texas incident 
• Waco Texas incident http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waco_siege
• Bio of Janet Reno which covers how she runied a lot of peoples lives over false charges of child sexual abuse.
• Online Newspaper article documenting some of the bogus child sexual abuse trials http://www.sptimes.com/2002/04/28/Perspective/Reno_owes_the_public_.shtml

I have a teacher, who I also consider a friend, that was involved in 3 separate cases, as part of the defense team, as an Expert Witness, for people accused of a crime by Janet Reno.

In every case, that the defense team my Teacher/Friend was a part of won, not because of some brilliant work by him or other members of the defense team, but because there was no real case.

But the Attorney General wanted to push the cases for political, personal, or publicity reasons.

For normal people, defending themselves from that kind of legal abuse is financially and emotionally crippling.

Dollar wise it is similar to struggling with a really bad type of cancer.

While the stress and public, working, and even family damage is hard for most people that have not experienced it, or had close friend/family member suffer it, to even conceive.

It will often cost your job, perhaps even your career, because of what employers or clients see you accused of in the news.

Anyway, this is more than a bit late, and I don't want this blog to stray to far from Gaming and Computer related issues.

Though as I have stated before, in connection to SOPA and ACTA, I think politics does and always will impact Gamers and others that use the internet, computers, and related technology.

GL HF,

~Cliff

PS  I plan to add links to document the Negative Comments I made about both parties in my comments above, I strive to be clear about things that are a matter of opinion vs things based on observations.

I prefer the word "data" to "facts" since I am a good researcher, with pretensions to being a Scientist, I don't think any Scientist actually believes in facts.

Rather at most, a Scientist uses working Hypothesis, that is continually refined as new verifiable data becomes available.

Though my health is slowing me down a lot though this week, and I felt strongly about blogging this before election is over.

So check back later, or post comment, if your wondering what data some of my comments are based on.

Nerd News: Internet Defense League

The goal of the Internet Defense League fits with what I do already, so I gladly joined today, see link for full information http://internetdefenseleague.org/ snippet below gives a concise idea:

The plan

When the internet's in danger and we need millions of people to act, the League will ask its members to broadcast an action.  (Say, a prominent message asking everyone to call their elected leaders.)  With the combined reach of our websites and social networks, we can be massively more effective than any one organization.

ACTA defeated in EU

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2012/07/europe-declares-independence-from-hollywood-with-acta-vote/

Good News.

As always with Ars, I suggest reading through the comments, often you will find more information in comments section of Ars than in the article itself.

Nerd News: "Top EU court upholds right to resell downloaded software"

Some really big news IMO http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2012/07/top-eu-court-upholds-right-to-resell-downloaded-software/

Maybe this is the start of a more reasonable balance between current situation, and consumer rights?

What do you think?

I know if us followed suit on this, it would probably change my buying habits.

I don't spend much money on software, including games, for various reasons.

I do buy the best hardware for my needs as I can afford, but I have to be careful with how many games I let myself have, because it is to easy for games to take over my life, so I get nothing else done.

Additionally, for software in general and games in particular, I don't like spending a big chunk of money on something that I will only use for a few weeks.

I do put a lot of money into books, but if I spend $25-30 on a book, I know that 5 or 10 years later I can read it again no problem, or if I know I won't want to read it again I can sell or trade it for another book.

With computer games, or other software, after 5 or 10 years, I might not be able to play the game at all, or if I can I will need additional software to let me run it, usually with bugs and crashes, on modern computer and OS.

More on SOPA: RIAA CEO Hopes SOPA Protests Were a 'One-Time Thing'

From an Internet Evolution story by Nicole Ferraro:

To some, January 18th -- the day the Internet came together in protest of SOPA and PIPA -- was seen as a day of important democratic action. To others, like the RIAA's CEO Cary Sherman, it was seen as a great failure of the democratic system. An act of "demagoguery" rather than "democracy."

I suggest clicking on the link above and reading the whole story.

For those not familiar with RIAA it is, in their own words:

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is the trade organization that supports and promotes the creative and financial vitality of the major music companies. Its members are the music labels that comprise the most vibrant record industry in the world. RIAA® members create, manufacture and/or distribute approximately 85% of all legitimate recorded music produced and sold in the United States.

PSA: Facebook, Your Data, the Government, & More

Forbes, just released an online story about Facebook's Chief Security Officer, I recommend everyone that uses social media to read the story, it reveals a lot of information about how Facebook handles Data Privacy and related topics like cyber crime.

[If this leaves you looking for more you can read Computerworld's "Facebook settles FTC privacy complaints" and PC World's "Facebook Commits to Changes Following Critical Irish Audit" details of the Irish audit: Report of Data Protection Audit of Facebook Ireland.  But this Blog post is about the Forbes article.]

You will probably find some things that surprise you, like how many people working at Facebook just deal with law enforcement requests for information.

Or the Security Bug Bounty, where you can make money as an  Ethical or White Hat Hacker.

One thing I learned that maybe I heard, but if so it didn't stay in my memory, was that Facebook partnered with Sophos to take down some Russian cyber criminals.

I follow the Sophos Naked Security Blog, one of the best IT Security blogs out there.

I usually run into a few people every month in the Starcraft 2 community, that are surprised that I am not on Facebook at all, usually they are not aware of these issues.

When I read the Forbes article, I felt that they provided a very good overview of Data Privacy as it pertains to Facebook.

Thought there was a slight, but clear bias for Facebook in the Forbes article (ie they are painted as "good guys" and no mention is made of the Irish Audit, I think Forbes has done a much better job of explaining the Data Privacy risks of Facebook,  than I have ever done.

So I encourage everyone to read it, and please note:  I am NOT saying you should not use Facebook, I am saying that you should do so with a clear idea of what that means for anything and everything you put on Facebook.

Forewarned is Forearmed 

You may also find Nerd News: Post SOPA, EU vs USA Internet Freedom & Rights worth reading.

Nerd News: ACTA being referred to the European Court of Justice (will review impact on Rights & Freedoms)

Full story at http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=MEMO/12/128

"As you are no doubt aware, within the EU institutional process, the European Commission has already passed ACTA to national governments for ratification. The Council has adopted ACTA unanimously in December and authorised Member States to sign it. The Commission has also passed on ACTA to the European Parliament for debate and a future vote.

That said, I believe the European Commission has a responsibility to provide our parliamentary representatives and the public at large with the most detailed and accurate information available. So, a referral will allow for Europe’s top court to independently clarify the legality of this agreement."

If you read the full story, it sounds, at least to me, like more of a political move, to get some of the pressure from the public shifted to another part of the governments.

But I confess my knowledge of EU government & politics is far from detailed.

I would welcome comments from any readers that have more expertise or experience.

PSA: SOPA, ACTA, & Secret Treaties about Copyrights

Go read this, from Ars, "ACTA is part of a multi-decade, worldwide copyright campaign."

If your not sure you should take the time, consider this snippet from that article,

"Ars Technica recently talked to Michael Geist, a legal scholar at the University of Ottawa, about this effort. He told us that rather than making their arguments at the World Intellectual Property Organization, where they would be subject to serious public scrutiny, the US and other supporters of more restrictive copyright law have increasingly focused on pushing their agenda in alternative venues, such as pending trade deals, where negotiations are secret and critics are excluded."

This really disturbs me, seriously, why do things like this in secret, unless you have dishonest, discriminatory, or perhaps even malicious, motives?

I can't think of any other reason for negoatiations on Copyrights, and the related laws and agreements, to be held in secret.

Can you?

We need to let the politicians know we don't support this type of behavior, anymore than we did SOPA, or ACTA!

Though it is hard to protest about things that are secret isn't it?