Take Back the Capitol Campaign

I'm inspired by this campaign from Take Back the Capitol.  Howard Dean did a great job of mobilizing bloggers and voters on the internet several years ago.

Take Back the Capitol seems to have found the right way to mobilize the internet this year.

I'll be honest, I do agree with the message even though I do not count myself a democrat.  I think we need to take back the capital as a people and the best way to do that is to apply the check and balance that removes a party that has lost its way.

I don't trust the democrats to do any better after they hold control for 6 years either, but the Republicans have obviously lost touch.  Me I'm for a policy of Voting out all incumbents every election. 

No More Incumbents!

Technorati tags: Take back the Capitol, No More Incumbents

Rush Limbaugh Was Right the First Time Michael J Fox was Faking! . . .

Well, no actually he wasn't.  Limbaugh had it all wrong. 

Limbaugh was just doing what he always does and what this poor excuse for a blog article just did as an illustration of what Limbaugh does.

Limbaugh was glamming for the headlines, the attention, his hardcore listeners and the no bad press is good press attitude that made Limbaugh and Stern and many other radio jocks famous.  Limbaugh would say that Christopher Reeves was faking death if he thought he could get another listener or a little more media attention.  I say this as a fan of Limbaugh.  I like listening to his show.

I don't agree with half the things he says, maybe not even a third or a quarter.  He's a shock jock.  He's entertaining.  He's an entertainer.

I don't always agree with Howard Stern, even though maybe more than I do with Limbaugh, but Howard Stern is entertaining (especially on a good day).

Bottom Line

Stem Cell Research needs to advance.  It needs to advance such that humanity can advance.  It needs to be encourage and not discouraged so that we can learn as a country how to utilize the knowledge and technology that will come with the research with wisdom.

The US needs to be involved and engaged in this research in order to keep up with the research being performed by countries all around the world.

Here is Michael J Fox's short ad followed by Limbaugh's retort - You be the Judge

So Rush is bascially saying that Michael J Fox came off his medication before taping the ad or before he went to testify before congress, insinuating that being off the medication would result in more visual movements to highlight the effects of Parkinsons.

To this I say, true or false so what.  The effects are still there.  The best way to silence Michael J Fox on this issue would be to cure Parkinsons -> Enter stem cell research!

Technorati tags: Rush Limbaugh was right about Michael J Fox, Rush Limbaugh was wrong about Michael J Fox, Stem Cell Research should be allowed in the US, Christopher Reeves is Dead in part because Stem Cell Research did not find a cure

Nation States vs. Tribalism - Dialogue in Cyberspace, No Advertising Allowed

There is a popular debate raging around the world these last few years.  I say popular from the perspective that it creeps into popular dialogue on a regular basis even though the topic is still being defined and understood in the new context of the internet and cyberspace.

The topic relates to the historical battles between the progression of Nation States to replace City States which wiped out tribalism.  Now it is subjective to insinuate that this progression is that natural order of things.  It may or may not be.  I have no opinion, but I do have a stake.  This ordering is more of a historical snap shot of what has been. 

The forces of culture and information are rapidly starting to take a leveling aim at this history utilizing the internet as a gattling gun.  It has been lamented in the book The World is Flat that the internet flattens society and allows people of different cultures to move away from their historical home place and live in an area far removed by distance yet retaining a connection via the internet to their people.  This is a great thing for people that have moved to keep in touch with their history, their culture and their roots.

It is also a factor that runs contrary to the recent history of the world, which led people to wander, explorer, conquer and build nations.  People used to move away from their homeland and they were forced to break some of their ties to and build fresh new ones.  This forced cultures to assimilate and in good scenarios they adopted some of the best practices of new cultures and kept or shared the best practices from their own cultures. 

The End of Assimilation?

Now people are moving, but they are no longer forced to assimilate.  Its good that they can maintain a connection to their homeland, however it also means that they do not benefit from the cultures they merge into and the cultures that receive them do not benefit either.  This creates a tribal flow of nomadic peoples from one culture into and dispersed amongst another.

From a human evolution perspective, they stop becoming, they stop compromising and they start pushing back against the culture they find themselves immersed into because they have the tribal support of their own culture backing them up through an internet connection.

Historically, Nation States have failed to emerge and grow in areas that were infused with tribal systems that could not be conquered, assimilated, or moved.  The establishment of a nation state was a brutal force.  The end result was often an extreme level of advancement for the new nation and for the world.  However, to do it over again, people would be very hard pressed to look forward with hindsight and say that the end justified the means.

In the Americas entire tribal cultures were wiped out through wars and diseases and forced relocations.  Africa and the Middle East have undergone similar episodes repeatedly throughout their histories.  Even Europe and Asia have felt the impact of this phenomena from the Scottish Highlands to the Russian steppes to the Great Wall of China.

Paper, Scissors, Rock -> Nation State, City State, Tribalism

Its like a historical game of paper, scissors and rock.  A city state will beat a tribe and encapsulate it taking it over and providing the benefits of commerce.  A nation state will bring together multiple city states and form a nation often built up with an assimilated or assimilating culture and usually on the remnants of the remains of the tribal systems buried below the cities.  The Catch 22 is that a Nation State can not fight well against a tribal system, or a Tribal system can wreak havoc on a nation state splitting the country into multiple factions and bringing about a civil war or complete chaos.

Recent history has provided examples of this in Somalia, and the former Yugoslavia and even in Russia.  Now, most recently we see things playing out in Iraq, Pakistan, Lebanon and Israel.  Countries that fail to assimilate cultures and create an environment where those cultures benefit from assimilation run at a great risk of suffering from a break down.  The former USSR came very close to succeeding in assimilation by force, and they almost proved the exception to the rule.

Internet Advertising - Tribal Forces

Companies like Google and Yahoo! find themselves being used by all of the groups involved in this political and physical warfare.  Their technologies enable people to stay in touch and shun assimilation.  This could be one of the reasons why modern day China views the internet like a viper slithering under a baby crib.  China has a population of many different groups, city states and tribes.  Like the former USSR the people of China were forced to assimilate for over fifty years.  Now China is trying to reform not just to stay ahead of the economic curve and to battle the United States and Europe in trade wars.  China is attempting to convert to an incentivized assimilation process where people will want to assimilate to get ahead. 

Technologies that slow down assimilation or encourage people to retain their tribal identities in historical terms might sow the seeds for dissent and rebellion.  This may or may not be the case, but they definitely empower groups of people across a wide geographic area to share their ideas and join forces.  China thwarts the openness of the internet to prevent this tribalism in order to survive and keep from breaking apart much as the Soviet Union splintered.

Recently, I read about an author whose book was banded from Amazon and whose advertising was banded from Google Adwords and from Yahoo! well.  The author, Obadiah Shoher writes a blog Samson Blinded, and a book called  Samson Blinded: A Machiavellian Perspective on the Middle East Conflict.

I make no statements of agreeing nor with disagreeing with the books nor the blogs.  However, I can see that in the blogs Obadiah (which is a pen name) advocates the removal of Palestinians from Israel.  He is advocating the removal of a tribe from Israel to Jordan.    This has proven to be a very controversial and provocative topic, one that Google and Yahoo! and Amazon chose not to touch, despite the fact that their technologies have helped create the foundation under which a significant amount of turmoil has flourished throughout the world.

Now, this is not a new concept.  In fact it has been debated since before the creation of Israel.  There are also many Palestinians that have proposed the same cure but in reverse; the removal of Jewish peoples from Israel has been a goal of Palestinians for many more years than I have been alive.

Both tribes realize that they cannot live peacefully together.  Both tribes realize that they cannot assimilate given the current state of things.  There is no physical force than can force either side to assimilate and the economic motivation for assimilation has been replaced with the spark of terrorism, which reduces peoples from both tribes.  It forces them to fight for survival  and prevents them from moving towards higher needs of their civilization.

Iraqis and Empire

Iraq is similarly spiraling out of control due to the manipulations of tribal systems in the area.  These tribal systems like in Israel are being fueled with a removal of economic incentive on one side of the fulcrum and an infusion of religious incentive and retribution on the other side of the fulcrum.  The fulcrum itself is proving to be a wedge that is splitting the Nation State of Iraq into fragments of kindling and we can even see the slow emergence or resurgence of individual city states throughout the country fighting against the tribal infusion.

The United States has failed to win the peace in Iraq for the last three years.  President Bush attempted to launch a war on a morale mandate even though he seemed to be hiding behind the real motive, which was purely economic - OIL.  The moral mandate made it seem evil to take Iraqi oil and use it for any purpose including Iraqi purposes.  This coupled with the breakdown of Iraqi infrastructure created an incentive power void.  People had no economic incentive to assimilate, come together and rebuild Iraq. 

Instead they found themselves isolated and left to fend for themselves, striking or reverting to tribal allegiances and religious ties.  The key to Iraq is the oil.  If the oil flows, the world will calm down and Iraq will build the financial capital it requires to calm its people and begin to envision a peaceful future.

The key to Israel is intellectual property.  If the intellectual property can begin to build with both sides racing to contribute, the Palestinians and Israeli's can find a future together.

If these two solutions can not be achieved, then the tribes will need to be separated and separation requires brute force.  There is no other way.  My hope is that the keys will be employed and that brute force can be spared for the benefit of the entire world as well as the people in the region.

 

Technorati tags: Tribalism, Nation States, City States, Iraq, Israel, China, Internet Technology levelling assimilation

China Benefits Crazy, Nuclear North Korea

Many people, groups, politicians and news agencies are fast to point out that Kim Jong-il, the Leader of the People's Republich of Korea (PRK) - aka North Korea, is crazy.  He's critized as being Hitler like, starving his people while he eats American food and maintains a harem.

Personally, I don't dismiss any of this criticism.  In fact, I agree with it and suspect it to be true.

A crazy leader is a Red Herring.

Regardless of his mental faculties, Kim Jong-il is very valuable to China.  I am not going to speculate in this article on the potential for China and even Russia to indirectly support North Korea.  Regardless of their support, China directly benefits from a crazy North Korean leader.  They benefit even more from a crazy North Korean leader with nuclear technology.  They may even think that they will benefit from a renewal of hostilities on the Korean penninsula.

Why do they benefit?

Money.  Its very simple.  China competes on an economic level with both South Korea and even with Japan for manufacturing work and even some service jobs.  If South Korea is perceived as being slightly more risky or even destabilized by a potential artillery or nuclear attack from its northern neighbor, business may diversify or redirect itself to China as a growing manufacturing power.

Despite its rapid growth and recent capitalistic changes, China is still considered to be relatively stable from a political perspective.  There are also few scenarios where North Korea might attack China.  So a destabilized or riskier South Korea, would be an item that potential South Korean customers would have to consider when choosing a manufacturer.  It may not be the only thing that turns them away from South Korea, but it could tip the balance in China's favor.

Similarly, if North Korea were to launch an attack on South Korea, it could have a severe and direct impact on South Korean manufacturing capability.  China would stand to benefit from less manufacturing competition in Asia.

Even Japanese manufacturing might be hurt in favor of Chinese outsourcing.  Japanese technology is widely seen as beeing superior to Chinese technology.  However, China is racing to close the gap.  China has been repeatedly accused of attempting to steal technologies from many countries including Japan, South Korea and the United States.  If North Korea were to attack Japan, the attack itself would have a very serious impact on Japan.  A single Nuclear Bomb would not obliterate the country of Japan, but could disrupt a key city or two, but again the perceived instability of the region might direct some business to mainland China.  Japanese companies might even consider pushing more of their own manufacturing capabilities onto mainland China, where the technology could be at greater risk.  A potential necessity to avoid political instability and damage from attacks.

By far South Korea is in the most direct line of fire from North Korea.  The potential for real destruction from a 1-6 nuclear bombs combined with the destruction from countless conventional missiles and artillery weapons, could level a significant portion of the South Korean manufacturing capability that has not already moved off shore. 

China might not only benefit fromt he new business, but from its perceived role as a benefactor and aid provider to the victims of both sides of the war.  Providing Chinese capital and Chinese goods.

I'm sure that many factions of China are in favor of a stable Asia and are not in favor of a renewed war in North Korea.  The primary reason might even be the desire to keep additional US troops off the Korean penninsula.

We should not be into believing that it is completely in China's interest to calm North Korea down.  China benefits from all the talk and hype about North Korea's crazy leader.


Technorati Tags: China, Nuclear Technology, North Korea, Follow the Money

Calling for Speaker Hastert's Resignation

The House Republicans have shown that they can be just as morally and ethically bankrupt as Bill Clinton was in his acts that initiated the Monica Lewinsky scandal.

Bill Clinton had an affair with a White House intern, an employee of the White House that worked for him. Regardless of the morality of having an affair, his conduct would have been treated as sexual harassment in any corporation in the country.

Now House Republicans have two lightening rods to deal with in their own ranks and own bankrupt actions. Congressman Foley of Florida, who was the co-chairman of the House Caucus on Missing and Exploited Children, sent emails and text messages to Congressional pages that have indications of sexual predatory mis-conduct. One of the men charged with protecting children in congress apparently 'had a reputation' among the congressional pages for chasing after at least one young boy, a sixteen year old page.

Speaker Dennis Hastert of my own home state of Illinois, has stated that he knew about some of the deviant emails that were sent and that he learned about these early this year along with several other members of the House. No one including the speaker did anything to initiate an investigation, call the matter to the attention of the house nor protect the congressional pages of the House from a potential child predator.

For this Speaker Hastert should resign. When leaders fail to lead, fail to exercise their authority to protect even the people that work for them in a professional atmosphere, when they fail to protect minors serving as volunteers in our nations capitals, they do not deserve to continue holding office.

The Washington Times in an editorial similarly calls on Speaker Hastert, "Resign, Mr. Speaker".

"House Speaker Dennis Hastert must do the only right thing, and resign his speakership at once. Either he was grossly negligent for not taking the red flags fully into account and ordering a swift investigation, for not even remembering the order of events leading up to last week's revelations -- or he deliberately looked the other way in hopes that a brewing scandal would simply blow away. He gave phony answers Friday to the old and ever-relevant questions of what did he know and when did he know it? Mr. Hastert has forfeited the confidence of the public and his party, and he cannot preside over the necessary coming investigation, an investigation that must examine his own inept performance."

The Republican Party has lost its way and lost its principles along the path towards total and complete corruption. What happened to the Republican House that worked to bring a Contract for America?

Many of them came with ideals and are now rapidly leaving under the shadow of conspiracies, corruption, moral and ethical bankruptcy and a cloud of ineffectualism.

It is my view that Americans need to step up in November and vote out all incumbents. The Democrats in office today are little better than the Republicans, we need a fresh start. We need to impose term limits not as called for in the Contract for America, but as provided and protected in the Constitution. The oldest form of term limits is the voice of the people that vote bad politicians out of office