Originally an internal tool for ABC News, “The Note” has become the site for daily political gossip and commentary in The Beltway:

The Note, which culls and analyzes political news from at least 40 newspapers, magazines, and television shows, went online January 14. Before that, it was an internal guide to politics meant to help ABC’s staff plan the day’s newscasts and come up with story ideas. But The Note didn’t stay inside the office. Bootleg versions were sent to friends, sources, and fellow journalists. […]

Mr. Halperin said just when he and his colleagues started grappling with The Note’s unwanted circulation, ABC’s Web team asked them to maintain the politics content for the Web site. Mr. Halperin decided to use a slightly modified Note as the site’s anchor. […]

This article was the first I’ve heard of The Note, but I like it already. Political news can easily be dry, but The Note manages to be glib and almost witty at times.

From a Washington Post article from October 21st (their online links only go back two weeks), William Raspberry writes:

“We invoke the public health as the reason we make certain substances illegal, but then we allow our policy to be driven by the illegality rather than by health considerations. If the illegality is the main consideration, then maybe it makes sense that Strawberry is behind bars. And if health is?”

Hmm, I hadn’t thought about it that way before.

In my last post, I lamented the lack of a civil-liberties based voting guide. Well, a quick search on Google lead me to the ACLU Scorecard.

Of course, like any voting guide, it has the deficiency in that it can only rate the incumbents (since, by definition, most challengers don’t have a voting record).

Still, even this voters’ guide is not infallible. For instance, they list the results of a vote on school vouchers (so far, so good). However, they note that “The ACLU opposed the amendment”, which seemed a bit odd to me since vouchers would only offer parents more choices in the education options of their children :-/.

Leave a comment below if you have any other voters guides to recommend.

If, like me, you’re having trouble deciding who to vote for, ITIC has a High Tech Voting Guide. There, they list whether Senators and Representatives voted “pro-IT”.

According to a C|Net article on the voting guide, apparently Republicans are generally more pro-IT than Democrats (which surprised me a bit).

The trade association released only a list of how individual politicians voted, but an analysis performed by CNET News.com shows that House Republicans voted in accordance with the tech industry's views 89 percent of the time, compared with just 43 percent of the time for Democrats. […]

But then, I came across this bit which explained how the (sometimes) freedom-restricting Republicans ended up with such a pro-IT rating. Essentially, the guide ends up being pro-IT business, and not necessarily pro-technology:

Two votes that ITIC liked—on a computer crime bill and on an exemption to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)—were controversial among civil liberties and privacy groups.

In July, the House voted for a computer crime bill that would allow for life prison sentences for malicious computer hackers and expand police ability to conduct Internet or telephone eavesdropping without obtaining a court order first. The liberal Electronic Privacy Information Center and the conservative Free Congress Foundation both opposed it, but ITIC and other business groups lobbied for the measure.

Hmm, maybe this particular “high-tech guide” isn’t so great after all... Now, if only I could find a freedom-based voting guide :-/.

Tuesday is voting day. And, being relatively new to the area, I haven’t yet made up my mind about who I’m going to vote for. So, if you feel strongly about a particular candidiate, please add a comment below. Even a one-line comment along the lines of “Please vote for candidate xx because he feels yy about issue zz” would be fine.

I’ve already found a few voters’s guides, and those do help a bit:

• The WFAA comparison of political races includes US House of Representatives, Senator, Governor, and Attorney General.
• And, Issues 2002 lists “Every Political Leader on Every Political Leader”.

One issue that interests me is each candidate’s stance on the War on Drugs. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to find much in that regard.

According the Dallas Morning News’ “how to read your voter card”, I believe I’m in Congressional District 32, State Senate District 16, State House District 108, Justice of the Peace / Constable District 3, School District DA02, and City District DA13 (if any of that helps).

I’m also in precinct number 1210, so I’ll have to find out where the polling place is for that. Oh, here we go — Election Day Locations.

From The Seattle Times, Atheist Scout fights decision to boot him:

The Chief Seattle Council of the Boy Scouts has given Eagle Scout Darrell Lambert about a week to decide “in his heart” if he’s truly an atheist. If he insists on sticking to his belief that there is no God, the Council will terminate his membership. […]

Hmm, I’m not sure how I feel about that one. Sure, the Boy Scouts have a right to boot him if they want to, but I’m not sure if that’s the right thing to do. (Link from ObscureStore)

Newsday has a good Overview of Changes to Legal Rights since 9/11 of 2001 (from the Associated Press). Among them:

Right to Legal Representation: Government may monitor federal prison jailhouse conversations between attorneys and clients, and deny lawyers to Americans accused of crimes.

Freedom from Unreasonable Searches: Government may search and seize Americans' papers and effects without probable cause to assist terror investigation. […]

Yay freedom.

A new study from the Justice Policy Institute, a Washington, DC-based think-tank that advocates for alternatives to prison, has found that after two decades of harsh criminal justice policies, there are more black men in jail or prison than in college. At the end of 2000, 791,600 black men were behind bars and 603,032 were enrolled in colleges or universities. By contrast, in 1980 — before the prison boom — black men in college outnumbered black men behind bars by a ratio of more than 3 to 1, the study found. […]

Whoah. I know that many black men are in prison, but I had no idea that it was to this extent.

I was going to e-mail my brother about this, but I figured that I’d post it here as well. He and I were talking on the phone the other day when the conversation came around to Bush and our respective opinions of him.

Though I didn’t vote for him, I generally supported Bush in the past. For instance, I was pleased that he was elected in the electoral college over Gore. If for no other reason, I knew that Bush was more likely to enact tax cuts than Gore (I’m not generally in favor of the government deciding “it knows best” how to spend my money).

However, after the 9/11 attacks, the USA PATRIOT Act (yes, it’s an acronym) was quickly pushed through Congress. Though under the guise of preventing terrorism, it was full of bad ideas:

• Allow for indefinite detention of non-citizens who are not terrorists on minor visa violations if they cannot be deported because they are stateless, their country of origin refuses to accept them or because they would face torture in their country of origin. […]
• Give the Attorney General and the Secretary of State the power to designate domestic groups as terrorist organizations and deport any non-citizen who belongs to them. […]
• Expands the use of secret searches. Normally, a person is notified when law enforcement conducts a search. In some cases regarding searches for electronic information, law enforcement authorities can get court permission to delay notification of a search. The USA PATRIOT Act extends the authority of the government to request “secret searches” to every criminal case.

The ACLU also has this chart that compares various before-and-after effects of the act.

And, after all this, I’m not sure what I think of Bush. Sure, economic freedom is a plus, but that’s no good without civil freedom.

The Ad Council — the group that puts out all those public service announcements on TV — has a new collection of commercials that they call “Campaign for Freedom”.

For example, the “Library” PSA shows a young guy asking for a book from a librarian, who informs him that it is no longer available and then asks him why he wants to read it. They pan the library and all these government agents pop out of hiding.

The idea is something along the lines of “Look at what could happen if we weren’t protected by the Constitution — it’s a good thing are freedoms are intact in the U-S-of-A!” Really, the ads end up saying “Look at the direction we’re heading”. The Library spot in particular ends up frightningly close to the mark:

Those of us in the library community find the pro-liberty ad in which the young man is approached by unidentified security types after asking for particular library book interesting, particularly in light of the fact that the PATRIOT Act allows the FBI to access any library records on demand (books checked out, computer sites visited...), and forbids library employees from telling anyone that such information has been provided in response to the demands.

Connie Jo Ozinga, Library Director
Elkhart Public Library Elkhart, Indiana