collection of random rants

* the illinois senator situation is actually quite infuriating. the system has been hijacked. it's clear that neither blagojevich nor the person whom he appointed, roland burris, are acting in the interest of the people of illinois. these are elected positions, intented to represent the will of the people. regardless of whether or not he has broken any laws, i don't believe anyone from illinois wants blagojevich in office anymore and he refuses to step down, even though it would be the right thing to do. similarly, it appears that his appointment is legal and the senate will have to allow it, burris should recognize that source of his appointment is not representative of the people and by extension neither is his appointment. i think blagojevich knows he's screwed at this point and is doing his best to stick it to everyone on his way to jail and burris is a egotistic powerhungry opportunist. at any rate, it's very sad to see such blatant disrespect for the spirit of democracy. here's a snippet from a new york times op ed on burris.

On the negative side, you might want to include the fact that Burris has already constructed a mausoleum for himself that is topped by Illinois’s state seal and the legend “Trail Blazer.” Those are followed by a list of his historic firsts, ranging from the impressive (first African-American elected to a statewide office in Illinois) to some stuff you would really try to refrain from bragging about except at parties in which there had been a great deal of drinking (first African-American exchange student from Southern Illinois University to Hamburg).

There also is a sidebar granite slab for “Other Major Accomplishments.” As the mausoleum illustrates, even in an occupation in which oversized egos are practically a career requirement, Burris can be a little alarming. The fact that he made Illinois history by being elected state comptroller in 1979 is something you would feel like admiring a lot more if Burris had not told The Associated Press in 2008: “I’d say if there hadn’t been a Roland Burris, that there would not have been a Carol Braun or a Barack Obama.

* the government tv converter box coupon program has run out of money. lots of people are whining. get over it. the government is not obligated to pay for you to watch tv. plus, who knows how many people got the coupons because, hey, free $40, even though they have cable and don't need them.

* all of the bridges from virginia into DC are going to be shut down on inauguration day. i don't quite understand how they expect to get 4 million people in and out of downtown dc when the only way in or out is going to be up through maryland. and while i am fortunate enough to not have to go downtown or even leave my house that day but 4 million people PLUS all the vendors, hotel staff, restaraunt staff, security staff, metro staff, organizers and various other people will. metro certainly can't handle it. i will either be blockading myself into the house or trying to get out of town the day before. by the way, there is anecdotal evidence that people, as i imagined, are not getting the ridiculous amounts of money for renting out their houses during inauguration.

* monday night i stepped in dog poop. it was not a little poop either. i might have to incinerate my shoes. i'm pretty sure it's one of our neighbors who just lets her dog out of her house because she is too lazy to walk them. it sorta wanders around until it finds a shoe to poop under and she opens the door and starts hollering for it to come back. this is also the same neighbor that while she rarely picks up after her dogs, when she does, she leaves a little pile of poop filled bags by her front door for days and days while flies congregate around them. she is also the neighbor who has a really obnoxious barky dog and leaves the windows open during the summer so they can see ever person and squirrel that walks by and bark at them as loudly as possible. i've also seen her sit in her car (which is filled with garbage) smoking a cigarette with the engine running listening to the radio for up to 20 minutes on some occasions.

on politics...

so i voted this morning. i hope most of you did too, after doing your research of course. here is a collection of random thoughts on voting and on this election...

on throwing away your vote...

i voted libertarian today. a lot of people think voting for a 3rd party is throwing away your vote. i would argue that the only votes that are thrown away are:

• those which are not cast (due to either lack of interest, or disdain for both major party candidates)
• those which are not cast for the candidate that you think would make the best president. but instead cast for someone just so the other guy doesn't win.

in either case, you've wasted your chance to speak up about who you would like for president. if you don't like either of the candidates, vote for someone else, there are plenty of other options (green, constitution and libertarian are the most well known). sure, they have no chance of winning, but with enough votes, they get federal funding for the next election cycle and that's a start.

at the very least, you can get a bunch of free food if you vote today, which is probably about as a good a reason as any to vote.

on voter turnout...

before voting, watching the morning news and after voting, on my way into work i heard an awful lot about voter turnout and how this is expected to be one of the biggest turnouts in recent history. i can't figure out why, when it seems to me that there is such a small difference between the democratic and the republican parties as they both move towards the center. regardless of who wins the election today, our government still spends too much money and that's not likely to change. our economy will still be in a slump and we will give away billions trying to fix it, the only difference is who those billions are going to. neither party is willing to place any blame at all on the people who took out mortgages they knew they couldn't afford. neither party is truly willing to stand up for gay rights (democrats might say they are, but they won't back gay marriages, just "domestic partnerships", which is a cop out to avoid alienating borderline voters). i could go on.

so in a seemingly irrelevant election, why the large turnout? am i totally wrong here? does anyone have any theories?

on voting systems...

lastly, i'd like to voice my support for alternative voting systems. the problem of people voting just so the other guy doesn't win really bothers me. i think everyone should be able to find a candidate that they support, not just one that they don't hate as much as the other one. one way to fix this problem is to change the voting system.

there are many alternatives and i haven't researched all of them, but my favorite so far is an approval system, where each person votes for as many people as they would approve of being in office, instead of just one. the person with the most votes wins. similarly, a ranked system would allow you to, as the name would suggest, rank in order of preference the candidates for office. today with presidential elections being as close as they are, only a tiny fraction more above 50% (or in the case of 2000, less than half) of the people got their chosen candidate in office. in an approval or ranked system, maybe not everyone gets their first choice, but maybe 75% could get someone in their top 3 choices. some people also predict that these systems would reduce attack ads, which would be a tremendous relief. unfortunately, it would take congress, which is comprised of nearly all republicans and democrats to actually pass a bill to give up their stranglehold on power and it will never happen.

you should be outraged.