Can't vote but can run

In America they have laws that prohibits convicted felons from voting. Now these laws vary from state to state, some states allow felons who have served their time to vote, but for the most part they are barred from voting.

Now take the case of Ted Stevens. Longest serving republican senator. An Alaskan senator who has just been convicted for corruption. He awaits sentencing.

Stevens is up for reelection next Tuesday and while this setback is likely to cost him his seat, it's still no guarantee, BECAUSE HE'S STILL ALLOWED TO RUN.

That's right. There is no state or federal law that prevents a felon from contesting, winning and holding a seat. You can't vote in who rules, but you can damn will rule.

But I shouldn't be too surprised. If they didn't allow criminals to run for elections they would be no one to vote for.

Quibbling semantics

It turns out that Sarah Palin doesn't think people who bomb abortion clinics are terrorists.

"There's no question that Bill Ayers by his own admittance was one who sought to destroy our US Capitol and our Pentagon. That is a domestic terrorist," Governor Palin said, referring to a 1960s leftist who founded a radical violent gang dubbed the Weathermen and who years later supported Senator Obama's first run for public office in the state of Illinois.

"Now, others who would want to engage in harming innocent Americans or facilities that it would be unacceptable to ... I don't know if you're gonna use the word 'terrorist' there,"

So, what does terrorist mean?

Dictionary.com says that a terrorist is

1.	a person, usually a member of a group, who uses or advocates terrorism.

2.	a person who terrorizes or frightens others.

3.	(formerly) a member of a political group in Russia aiming at the demoralization of the government by terror.

4.	an agent or partisan of the revolutionary tribunal during the Reign of Terror in France.

–adjective

5.	of, pertaining to, or characteristic of terrorism or terrorists: terrorist tactics.

It defines terrorism as

1.	the use of violence and threats to intimidate or coerce, esp. for political purposes.

2.	the state of fear and submission produced by terrorism or terrorization.

3.	a terroristic method of governing or of resisting a government.

So, on one account Palin is correct that they weren't an agent or partisan of the revolutionary tribunal. But then, neither was Ayers. What was the goal of the people blowing up abortion clinics? To punish the people for killing babies? To make others realise the consequence of abortion?

Sounds like terrorists to me.

But to be fair, lets look at some other definations

American Heritage:

n. One that engages in acts or an act of terrorism. adj. Of or relating to terrorism. Word.com by Princeton noun a radical who employs terror as a political weapon; usually organizes with other terrorists in small cells; often uses religion as a cover for terrorist activities

Ah, semantics

Early voting

Voting has already started in the US. Originally introduced for serving soldiers, early voting has become convenient for many in 33 of 50 states as they have removed the need to provide an excuse, such as being away, sick etc, in order to prepoll.

Now I understand that in the US there is a need to encourage people to vote and here it is mandatory, but I believe that rather then an election day, we should have an election week.

The reasons that discourage people from voting, other then apathy, disenchantment etc, exist here and often piss people off - long lines, push campaign workers, work, illness and even plain forgetfulness.

Just last election, the local council elections, I finished work at 0715hrs. Drove home, picked up my Mel and proceeded to walk over the bridge towards the school to vote, believing that we'd be voting early and bet the crowds. It was only 0810hrs.

The I saw the cars, and then the line. Every man and his dog had the same idea. Five minutes I had to wait. Granted that's nothing like the nine hours some people in the US have to wait in line (Which also doesn't sound right. Waiting 9 hours to vote should only be in Dictatorships, not a "free" democracy.")

At the last federal election, the polling booth physically closest to my house for was another electorate. My polling booth was on the other side of the suburb. Granted not that big a disadvantage, but for someone knocking off work it's a pain in the arse.

Why not an election week, or even a half week? Why force millions of people to vote on the same day when you can spread it out over a few days and make it more convenient for everyone

The changing faces of McCain

Found this interesting article on the McCain campaign.

For those of you interested in this sort of thing

Got to love the family guy

Originally wanted to show you the brief scene at 18 minutes that so offended Fox news (Family guy is on Fox network). But Youtube and Fox kept pulling it down as fast as it was being posted. So I have to show you the whole thing.

Sound sync is way off but hey, you get what you pay for.

This is why I prefer Family guy to Simpsons. They'll go that little bit further.

Costa's looking for a job

So we haven't heard the last of Michael Costa. He has written an opinion piece in the Australian defending financial institutions, banks and corporate CEOs.

In his article Costa berates Rudd's claims that the "Gordon Gekkos" of the world are responsible for the current financial crisis, painting the PM as "old labor" and states that it is because of

"Government regulatory failure, not the greed of investors or speculators, is at the core of present financial problems."

Okay Costa. Most financial experts agree that the current crisis began with the subprime mortgage situation. How is government regulatory failure the core of the subprime mortgage crisis?

It is true that the US Federal government at the time, under Clinton, did pressure Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to give housing loans to candidates that "did not meet the current guidelines for a loan" i.e poor credit history, low income etc.

Thing is, neither of these stock holder owned, government backed enterprise, corporations directly lend money to home buyers. Their role, the purpose they were created for, was the boost the secondary mortgage. By purchasing and securing mortgages, they facilitate liquidity in the primary mortgage market by ensuring that funds are consistently available to the institutions that do lend money to home buyers. Basically, they buy mortgages off banks and other institutions so they'd always have money to lend to other people.

There were anti-predatory regulations in place that disallowed risky, high-cost loans from being credited toward affordable housing goals. These rules were overturned in 2004*. The subprime mortgage market boomed and then, of course, collapsed.

So, Costa was right, regulation or the lack thereof does feature heavily in the current crisis. But are the investors innocent of wrong doing?

There was obviously a market for subprime loans prior to Presidential pressure on Mae and Mac. And while the sudden market boom when regulations were lifted?

With Mae and Mac ready to buy even the most undesirable mortgages should anything go wrong, banks and other lenders went nuts. They continued to give out loans while constantly reducing their lending standards to the point where a trillion dollars had been given to people who really had no chance of paying it backed (this figure is derived from the fact that the US mortgage market was sitting at 12 trillion prior to crisis with an esitimated 9.2% of mortages being subprime) New lenders were springing up over night, onsell at PROFIT loans to bigger banks etc and disappear after making a few millions.

How is the greed of the investors not at the core of the problem? True, deregulation allowed this practices to happen, but why did these practices happen?

Avarice.

Costa finishes his article with

By the way, Prime Minister, what got Gordon Gekko into trouble was not greed but criminal behaviour (insider trading).

Mr Costa, as a former police minister, you should be aware that for a person to comit a crime three things are needed : means, opportunity and motive. What drives a man to commit insider trading? Greed.

Oh and I should point out Mr Carr has lamed to blame for the state finances solely at Costa's feet.