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Harris Miller for Senate

Last night my lovely wife and I visited the Sunday Supper Club to hear Harris Miller (who is seeking the Democratic nomination to run against George Allen this fall for U.S. Senate). As many of you know Harris Miller will have to face off against James Webb (former Secretary of the Navy during the Reagan administration) for that Democratic Party nomination on June 13th (Primary Election Day!).

Until last night I was strongly favoring Webb because I felt, like many over at Raising Kaine, that James Webb had a better chance of defeating the evil scoundrel we have in office now (Allen). I also like some of Webb’s positions as a veteran (I am a veteran too), and his position on getting us out of the so called war in Iraq is very brutally forthright (something I value a lot in this age of spin and double-speak). Webb commands a lot of respect and that is a good thing, and his whole combat boots versus George Allen’s cowboy boots thing rocks.

Last night Harris Miller was able to completely change my mind. He has positions on many issues that align exactly with my own and I am no longer concerned at all that he will be a corrupt politician representing only corporate interests. He plainly stated that we have two types of corruption in our congress today, personal corruption like Duke Cunningham (now in jail), and corruption of interests due to campaign finance money raising, the constant hammering of too many lobbyists, and lack of access to the public’s airwaves during elections.
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2006 05 15 snolan Environment
Foreign Policy
Personal
Politics
Virginia Politics Comments (8) Permalink

Judy Feder for Congress

Erci and I attended the Judy Feder fundraiser over at Bruce and Beth Roemmelt‘s lovely home on Bull Run Mountain last night. We very much wanted to hear what Judy had to say about her campaign to become the U.S. Congress representative from Virginia’s 10th District. This was the first time we’ve heard her speak, and she wonderfully passionate about better government.

Judy spoke of many problems we are challenged with, both as a nation, and as a community here in Northern Virginia. Funding for education, making proper health care available to all Americans, and being safer and more secure from terrorism are high on her list of priorities.

I strongly urge you to get out to one of Judy Feder’s campaign events and listen to this woman speak. She will give incumbent Frank Wolf a good run this November, and that is a necessary thing. His voting record stands for itself, and he needs to be replaced. Please consider contributing some money to Judy’s campaign, as early as possible. Early money helps challengers get heard.

We also very much enjoyed running into friends we have not seen since we were active in the Roemmelt for Delegate campaign last year, and we got to meet the amazing Kenton Ngo and Greg Bouchillon face to face, though we’ve been reading their blogs for months now.

Greg has already written about last night’s event here, in case you want a different perspective. He also has photos of the event on flickr. There is a detailed PDF map of the district here, but it is nearly 5MB large.

2006 05 13 snolan Politics
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Kojo Nnamdi Show Appearance

I used up about 20 seconds of my allotted 15 minutes of fame by getting on today’s “Net Neutrality” episode of the Kojo Nnamdi radio talk show. Kojo’s show was talking about the Net Neutrality movement, and I tried (unsuccessfully, I think) to point out that what we all call Net Neutrality is really an effort to prevent the monopolies from grabbing more money. I tried bringing up the ugly truth about the Tauzin-Dingell bill and similar attempts to fleece the taxpayer to fatten the baby Bell companies and the cable companies. There are podcast copies of the show online, and I get through at about 22 minutes and 40 seconds into the podcast. They never really answer me, but it was a tough question and poorly phrased. Wish I’d had time to more properly organize my thoughts before they queued me into the call.

2006 05 09 snolan Computers
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Stephen Colbert is my hero

Two weeks ago Stephen Colbert of Comedy Central fame was the guest satirist at the White House Correspondents Association annual dinner. President Bush was there also, and he took part in a funny skit with impersonator Steve Bridges. That skit was covered on every major network news channel. What those same networks did not cover was the best 24 minutes of television so far this year, that is, Stephen Colbert’s fantastic satire of Bill O’Reilly and Fox News’s common fawning on the President.

For 24 minutes, with President Bush effectively a captive member of his audience, our hero delivered blistering criticism of the President, the White House staff, the Press Corps, the mainstream news media, Fox News, and even a Supreme Court Justice or two. It is the best 24 minutes of television this calendar year, at least so far. All captured on C-SPAN’s excellent cameras with your tax dollars. You have a right to see this footage, and you want to – trust me. It is sad that the powers that be have already pushed google and youtube to remove their copies that were posted early on.

Democracy Now has a transcript, and there are copies of the video floating around C-SPAN and Google sites.

2006 05 08 snolan Fun
News
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Weekend Update

Friday Erci and I went to Joy’s Cinco de Mayo party where we got to see lot’s of Erci’s former co-workers from Marine Scene and we met lots of new people. Erci was feeling better on her crutches and quite able to get around back to enjoy the party.

Saturday she insisted we attend Maryland’s 33rd annual Sheep and Wool Festival, so we dragged our awesome friend Kate along and hobbled around the barns, exhibits, and stalls shopping for a new 8 harness 48-54″ wide loom, and other weaving and knitting supplies. Aside from the prize winning blister she got on her hand from all the crutching around, Erci was feeling pretty good even if it did slow down her shopping. We ran into lots of old friends we had not seen in a while and had a great time. On the way home we decided to stop in for mint juleps and fantastic roast chicken from El Pollo Rico with Jeff and Dan and Jonathan. It was good catching up with friends we miss very much and Jonathan is as cute as ever.

Sunday Erci’s core body and leg felt much better, though the mint juleps took their tool. We started the day by heading down to SGI NOVA Community Center for World Peace Chanting, then went to Kelvin’s going away party (he’s moving to Las Vegas and will be dearly missed). By dinner time Sunday night Erci was feeling good enough to carefully walk around her own kitchen with no crutches.

Thank you all for your chanting and prayers; Erci is recovering very quickly, though it will be some time before she can dance.

2006 05 08 snolan Personal Comments (0) Permalink

Check out your candidates!

Erci and I plan to go hear three (at least) different candidates in May to find out who we are supporting in the Fall elections for US Congress and US Senate from Virginia. So here are a few opportunities we know about:

May 12th – Judy Feder will be speaking at a small fund-raiser at Bruce Roemmelt‘s house (Bull Run Mountain, near us).

May 14th – Harris Miller will be the guest speaker at the regular Sunday Supper Club meeting (Warrenton).

May 22nd – Jim Webb will be the monthly breakfast speaker for Dulles Area Democrats (Herndon).

In case you do not know, all 11 Virginia Congressional representatives are up for re-election, that is districts 8 (Jim Moran), 10 (Frank Wolf), and 11 (Tom Davis) in Northern Virginia. We also have one of our two Senators, George Allen, up for re-election in November.

Facing off against them, according to Politics1.com are:
For US Senate:
George Allen (R) (Incumbent, and likely Republican candidate for President in 2008)
Either Jim Webb or Harris Miller, depending on the June 13 Primary
Gail Parker (Ind. Green)

For the 8th District:
Jim Moran (D) (Incumbent)
Either Mark Ellmore or Tom O’Donoghue, depending on the June 13 Primary
Jim Hurysz (Independent)

For the 10th District:
Frank Wolf (R) (Incumbent)
Judy Feder (D)
Wilbur “Bill” Wood (Libertarian)

For the 11th District:
Tom Davis (R) (Incumbent)
Either Andy Hurst or Ken Longmyer, depending on the June 13 Primary
Ferdinando Greco (Ind. Green)

Please register to vote and take the time to research your choices before you vote in every election.

2006 05 07 snolan Politics
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Unpimp Congress

A friend and co-worker of mine, and his wife, designed these really cool and poignant bumper stickers, and they are selling them in person and online (paypal needs JavaScript and Cookies).

Unpimp Congress

image of unpimp congress sticker

2006 05 05 snolan Personal
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Mac OSX Virus Rumors

John Gruber has an excellent and very sarcastic article poking a little fun at the recent hype about the possibility that someday there may in fact be a virus for Mac OSX. The fact is well known and common sense, but why is there repeated story after repeated story about new Mac viruses (there are no actual viruses yet), and such hysteria?

We are all watching the security nightmare Windows users experience every day. Thousands of viruses a year, hundreds of malware programs that illegally rob cycles and memory from unsuspecting user’s computers, and that there is a possibility of one on the Mac is news!? Yes it is possible. Someday it will happen. Trust me, we are watching and learning from the Windows security nightmare. Very smart people are ready to stop the first Mac virus when it appears… some day. Sigh. Guess it must be a quiet news week…

On a lighter side, Apple has a really spiffy and poignant ad campaign about this very issue and about why years ago I switched from Amiga and Irix to OSX and not to Windows XP. Check them out for yourself, they are very funny, even if you prefer those Windows machines: http://www.apple.com/getamac/ads/

Oh yeah, and to engage in “post mortem equine floggery” – once again (and for many years now) Apple’s own website requires no cookies, no Java, no JavaScript, and no ActiveX to work – meaning you do not have to lower the security of your browser to visit their website and conduct meaningful business. Hurrah… I sure wish other merchants would figure that out, perhaps they’d get my business then.

2006 05 03 snolan Computer Security
Computers
News
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DMCA sponsor finally getting challenged

I am so happy that Pete Ashdown will be running against Utah’s Senator Orrin Hatch, the arrogant sycophant of big media industry who sponsored the DMCA legistlation as a bill. The fact that he backed DMCA is alone reason enough to wish Senator Hatch an early retirement, but his views on almost everything else warrant action as well. Consider contributing to Pete Ashdown’s campaign if you do not live in Utah, because he does have an impact in our lives; and if you have voting rights in Utah get out and vote and campaign actively for a change of representation. For all our sakes.

Wired has a quick interview here.

There are many, many, many reasons why the DMCA is one of our nation’s dumber laws. Most of those reasons are published on anti-dmca.org.

2006 05 01 snolan Politics Comments (0) Permalink

Sometimes Life Throws You a Curve Ball

Erci is resting up now, she has a seriously pulled groin. She and her dance instructor heard a loud pop last night, and then she was in so much pain should could hardly move and she could not put weight on her right leg anymore. She called me to come get her, and on my way there my car stopped running. It would not restart, so I had to call for towing and Erci ended up getting a ride to Fair Oaks Hospital in an ambulance. Our good friend and heroine of the evening, Leslie, picked me up after the tow truck took my car away and took me to Fair Oaks where we checked in on Erci.

Erci was still in-processing and felt safe and secure, though she was still in pain. She was worried about her car, so Leslie took me to get the Prius and I went back to the hospital where Erci already had x-rays taken and an initial exam. They gave her vicodin and pronounced her injury a groin pull and dismissed her around 11:30 last night, very hungry.

She’s on crutches now, and still in pain; but recovering. We’ll be moving slowly for a bit now, but still having fun. Many thanks to Leslie, the very fine folks over at Fair Oaks Hospital, and to the friendly and helpful staff at Silver Diner in Fair Oaks who took care of our late night hunger, and to the wonderful staff at Arthur Murray Tyson’s Corners.

2006 04 29 snolan Personal Comments (0) Permalink