The Internet at 16

I saw a note that the Internet turns 16 today. The first site strangely enough was not a porn site. See the story here.

Another of the truly earth shaking events that we tend to take for granted. Look at all the ways the web has changed our lives, some for the best and some not so much. Research into anything is simple. When I was in school papers were drudgery because I either had to look it up in my parents 10 year old encyclopedia or go to the library. Since I would have rather been playing baseball or football, that was terrible. Today nearly any subject is just clicks away.

Commerce has become much simpler, yet more complicated. If you are a small businessman you can get your presence on the net with little difficulty. From there honing your message to get to just the right people is a little more complicated, but not impossible. For some small businesses though it has been a killer. A photographer used to get premium prices for what we can do now with photo shop. They have to find new ways to add value.

Large businesses can get help from across the world at much reduced prices. This as well has presented challenges. People here at home find themselves competing with people in India and China who will do work for a fraction of the cost. They also need to find new ways to add value.

Predators have also found a life on the Internet. I know from the news and my friends with older kids, that this is an extreme challenge. Between porn and the predators that invade chat rooms this has to be watched all the time.

Every generation or two something like this comes along. Locomotives changed the wold in their day. Automobiles changed the world. Television also to a point changed the world but not to the same degree. As humans it is our responsibility to adapt to the challenges and exploit the opportunities. In sixteen years we are just beginning to see the possibilities of where the Internet can take us.

One More Week

A little sabbatical from Politics. Next is Ohio State vs. Michigan. I live and die with Ohio State. This is the greatest game coming up.

Both of these teams are off the charts better than anyone else in the country. This SHOULD be the national championship game. Whoever the winner plays will not be anywhere near as good as the other.

Let the countdown begin!!!

Moving Forward

The next three months will paint a picture I believe for what will happen in 2008. If the Republican leadership 'gets it', they can retake the agenda and take the White House and the congress.

I believe the message that was sent is that we don't want politics as usual. In 1994 the same message was sent. In 1994 the Republicans took control with a new message. One of hope, one of enthusiasm, one of a bright future, with the same sunny outlook that Ronald Reagan brought to the White House. When Newt Gingrich left the scene, the Republicans lost their leadership. There has been no leadership since then.

The next batch of leaders has to hit the ground running. They must talk about what the party stands for. They have to describe what they mean by smaller government, what will happen if we move toward market forces for health care, what can happen if we flatten the tax code. President Bush expended a lot of political capitol by coming out for Social Security reform. All too few Republicans joined him. This was shameful. They ran for the tall grass. All they really stood for was pork!!!

The people want energy Independence. What does that mean? To some it is drilling, to some it is alternative fuels, to some it is a combination of both. This is a huge issue. The party must have a position, and communicate it.

Immigration is a divisive issue, but it must be faced. People want border security first, but I believe if they can show where border security is being accomplised people will look at normalizing illegals already here with the right mix of penalty and deporting. I don't belive the average person wants to see every illegal rounded up in the street. They want some semblance of sanity. They want employers punished who employ them, they want criminal illegals either deported or in jail. I think the rhetoric on immigration is always more extreme than what is really needed. During the days of Teddy Roosevelt, people of San Francisco started riots because of the number of Japanese immigrants. This is always a tough issue in our country, but it must be faced up to. Compromise will not be easy, but must be discussed. They cannot keep running from tough issues.

Neither party is going to get bold new initiatives done at any time. For the last fifteen years there have not been big enough majorities to do it. This is the time for talking about issues. It may take a few years to get them done, but they must show they stand for something.

The '08 Presidential campaign really has started with the end of the mid year elections. Everyone knows who the front runners will be, Clinton on the left and McCain on the right. They may or may not get their parties' nominations. I'm sure there will be a large pack of contenders on both sides. There will be many who run and don't really have a chance to win. They can still be important. Steve Forbes filled an important role by talking about the flat tax. Even though it has not been passed into law, it told the country what fiscal conservatives believe. From there it is up to whoever can win the battle of ideas. While the Democrats have to be congratulated on winning the mid terms, there has to be a better dialog than just we want change. Give the people something to want to vote for.

And it Starts

I mentioned in my last post that I believe all of the moderate talk the Democrats used to get elected will necessarily go by the wayside. You can see by the person who left a comment that this is true. This person who I'm sure is a nice person, left no comment on the substance of my opinion, they simply link to a anti Bush website.

Now I am not objecting because I don't have moderating comments selected. I don't censor comments in any way. I believe in the free exchange of ideas. Comments like this offer clarity. They show the the hard core left has no interest in debate of discussion, they simply want their way. I'm used to this, I have young chidren.

If the leadership in the House does not enact articles of impeachment and quickly these people will begin to get antsy. They will start reminding the Democrat leadership that they may go to the Green party.

I re-iterate, they will want to be paid for staying quiet during the campaign. Anything less than removal of the President will not make the Michael Moore, George Soros, Peter B Lewis crowd happy. (Note to libs you will have to impeach Cheney also. Not sure the American people would see that as anything less than a coup).

I say it again, it will be fun to watch.

Two Messages Part II

The next step of the process will be interesting. The Republican party now has to figure out how to adjust their message to win back the hearts of the American people. Lets hope it doesn't take forty years like it did the last time they lost the House. What I believe they need to do is what Newt Gingrich did. Simply talk! Tell people why limited government is best. Tell people why the minimum wage is a killer for small business. Tell people why higher taxes means less revenue to the government. Tell people why extended entitlements hurt the very people they are trying to help.

Democrats have a task also. They promised everything to everyone. Now starting in January, the moonbats are going to want payoffs. Cindy Sheehan and company are going to want something in return for staying quiet. Their money base wants immediate pullout. Will they payoff their party and cut off funding for Iraq? The American people will not stand for that. Will they try to impeach President Bush? Anything short will cause many of them to cause trouble (read not give money to the beloved Hillary).

The Democrats also talked about fixing the budget woes. How are they going to pay off all the programs they promised and still balance the budget. The told us they were able to do that. These are the original pork purveyors. Interesting to see. Clinton did it by slashing the military. Can't exactly do that while we are at war.

They also need a new vocabulary. In the last year I didn't hear a single Democrat that could complete a sentence without going into a diatribe about Bush and the Republicans in Congress. Now they have to actually learn a new language, plans about how to fix the problems that exist in our world. Change was promised, I suspect that what we will get is rehashed rhetoric from 1959.

This leads me to one of my overriding beliefs. You can be in synch with a party, you can disagree with the other party, but if you are waiting for either major political party to be virtuous, look again, they are politicians. People can be virtuous, but parties cannot. I believe they can try, but ultimately they need to get a majority in the two chambers. To do that they need to promise everyone everything. That means payoffs either in Pork, or Legislation. Both bring lobbyists, and all too often bribery.

Two Messages

The election came out pretty much like many believed. The House goes to the Democrats and the Senate is too close to call at this point, but both races involved are being lead by Democrats.

I believe the people of America sent Congress a message that they are not happy with politicians who will not lead. Ultimately it is very rare that Congress and Senate will lead no matter which party they belong to. They don't want lobbyist scandals, they don't want email and IM scandals. Shut up and legislate. Personally I think who wins elections is important. I don't think it is as crucial as a lot of people do. America is made up of people, who go about their everyday life no matter who sits in the Speaker chair. Make no mistake the Democrats will attempt to put their stamp on our laws, but the people of the country make it go.

I believe the legislators heard a very different message. Time will tell but I think the Democrats believe they heard a mandate for big government. I am just a lone voice on a sparsely read blog, but I desperately hope this is not the message that was sent. I was a little disturbed by some state issues in my state of Ohio. There was a public smoking ban, and a minimum wage amendment narrowly lost. These are big government initiatives.

The sun came up today. Our lives are still up to us to live. We make our future. Economies go up and down, but we make our future. The policies government makes matter as they can make our lives easier or more difficult, but it is still up to us. I hate to tell Democrats this as I'm sure the Republicans found out twelve years ago, your presence in Washington does not make the sun come up and go down. Our prosperity for the largest degree is determined by us, the citizens. The Congress, the Senate and the White House all work for us. If we are lucky last night will reinforce that, if not there is another election on two years.


Oh by the way, the President still has the veto pen. Lets hope he uses it more than he has in the last six years. I think it can be argued if he had used it more he would still have a majority.

What is and What Should Never Be

Be careful what you wish for. Sometimes letting the Jeannie out of the bottle is a bad thing. Had enough euphemisms? Me too!!

Certain events change things forever. I'm not talking about 9/11/2001, but that does qualify. In politics Watergate changed everything. Political corruption was not born in the Nixon White House, but the Watergate scandal gave it a face. Today every scandal has -gate attached to it. Another ill of that era is that it gave every Journalism student the idea that their job was to bring down a 'baddy'. The biggest problem was that it left the definition of 'baddy' up to them. If they feel the baddy is President that they disagree with, so be it. Do whatever is necessary to bring him down.

The Presidential election of 2000 changed everything. Even though every independent recount showed that the result was correct, the belief on the left that it was stolen persists. Along with that is the unwritten right on the fringes of all ideologies to maintain their own facts, no matter what real facts show. That election also brought us electronic voting machines. The victim crowd told us that we could not trust hanging chads etc any longer. Now the same crowd knows for a fact that Diabold is a Republican company and has tilted the voting machines to elect Republicans.

It is known fact on the left that the White House 'outed' Valerie Plame, even though a long expensive investigation showed that her name was given by Richard Armitage a well known opponent of the war, and not even a Bush supporter, and that she could not be outed because she was not undercover.

It is a known fact on the left that Bush lied about the case for weapons even though every congressional or other investigation shows that the intelligence may have been wrong, but no one swayed it.

Since people have taken it upon themselves to pronounce things as fact they have never been, what is there really to believe. Documentaries based on half truths and clever editing create an alternative reality (yes I mean you Mr. Moore).

Be careful what you 'know'. It can be dangerous it it is built on ideology and not facts.

Two Americas

In 2004 John Edwards talked about two America's. He of course meant that one of them was victimized, and being held hostage by the other. His prescription was big Government and more help from the Democrats.

I have recently become convinced of at least two Americas. The difference between me and Former Senator Edwards is that I don't begin to have the answer.

Go into any inner city and see the 'other' America. People who through their circumstances have lost all hope, and belief in what is good and right. No hope of realizing what we know as the American Dream. When I refer to the American Dream I am not referring to material goods, although at some point it is part of it. No I am referring to the freedom to go in a direction of their choice.

At age 31 I made a drastic change. I changed careers. I felt like I would be better served in another walk of life. I was able to make that choice. The people in the other America don't have that choice. Make no mistake there have always been the poor, and I suspect there will always be the poor. These people are different. They have given up all hope of a decent life. It's almost as if they are invisible. We drive past them, and sometimes feel pity, sometimes give them a buck.

When hope leaves other things take the place. For some it is drugs, for some alcohol, for some it is just nothingness.

Next week we have an election. It is an important election. For an increasing amount of people they don't know it. They don't care. They can't name the Secretary of State, cite what the Preamble of the Constitution says, or tell you the score of the last World Series game.

How did they get here, and for that matter how did we get here? I have some ideas. It is not politics, and neither political party can fix it. Around 35 years ago a set of ideologies came to into play. Dedicated people who believe in a utopian world started to spread their beliefs. People who believed that there is no moral and immoral. No reason for winners and losers. They took the idea of an equal society to a new level. They convinced politicians to put in policies that they believed would implement their utopian society, or at least the start of it. Both parties subscribed to it. I believe in my soul that they believed it would help.

Along the way families were replaced by checks. The guidance of fathers and mothers was replaced by vouchers. Two generations later we have people who cannot take care of themselves, they just don't know how. They didn't finish school, they never found a passion in life. People with good intentions helped to take that away.

This is an area of my society I believe strongly about. I don't have the answers. I know that only these people can turn it around. Politicians cannot. They have done enough. Charity organizations try their best. They can make it easier for these people to put aside the horrors, but only they can truly put it away.

My prayer is that we can all find a way to help in our own way. It may be money, it may be time, it may just be prayers. I believe in my heart that a loving God can make it happen, but only through us. I am confident it will not happen through government action.

John Kerry is just an example of the Problem

By now everyone has heard about the comments John Kerry made concerning the troops which he later said was not about the troops. Here

From my reading of his comments they cannot be anything else. That being said my purpose is not to jump on Senator Kerry, enough people will do that today. No my purpose it to put blame where it belongs, the voters of Massachusetts. He has been making these comments for thirty five years. He compared Viet Nam troops to Ghingis Khan. He lied at the Winter Soldier hearings. No need to rehash all of this. He may have personally served honorably, but afterward he slimed his fellow soldiers.

Enough is enough. There are too many examples in our land. Let me list a few. Ohio governor Bob Taft, (I accept the blame, I voted for him in a lesser of two evils vote. Now I'm not sure that is true).

Ted Kennedy (two for two Massachusetts) Need we say more??

Dennis Kucinich (Another vote for Ohio).

Do these people really represent their constituency?

Time to stop blaming the politicians and put the blame where it belongs, the people that put them there.