The second post comes from one of my other blogs, My Last Name Means Money. The crux of Trickle Up Economics Beats Bank Bailouts is that bailouts beget bailouts and we see that today, with the first bailout causing no noticeable improvement to the economy, a second even bigger bailout bill is now working its ways through our political offices. The Republicans are right that these bailouts represent a slippery slope, however it is not the size of the bailout but merely that we’re bailing out failing enterprises and once we began to do so we removed a huge disincentive to fail. Now that failing can be profitable, will we continue seeing more and more large corporations reporting dire economic situations and accepting government bailout loans? Call me crazy, but I believe we should give out loans only when we reasonably expect to be repaid, not when the recipients are literally falling towards bankruptcy.

Check out these two posts and if there’s enough positive response I may post my updated thoughts on the latest round of bailout bills. Take care everyone!

As a citizen who believes in the importance of principles, values and beliefs, as a citizen who supported, promoted, and voted for you and Matt Gonzalez and as a citizen who loves this country but even more so loves this planet, I must make one request of you.

If Barack Obama offers you a position in his cabinet, for the love of ration, logic and Matt Gonzalez’s 2012 campaign, accept it. Please.

The facts are that you, Ralph Nader, will never become President of these United States of America. It is simply not going to happen, unless we see a seismic paradigm shift in the mentality of the average citizen. Though it’s irrational, the majority blames you for President George W. Bush. I know, I know Ralph, trust me, I know. I’ve defended you against these claims countless times but the facts remain that a huge proportion of voters has cemented you as the catalyst for Bush.

There is only one way for the Independent party to progress forward, for you to reclaim your legacy and for the country to truly benefit from your diligent work and that is to suck it up and take a job with Obama. From the inside, you’ll be well positioned to guard against the tyranny of corporations and ensure that the environment and civil liberties are safeguarded. From the outside you have less of a chance of doing so. Plus, humbly accepting a position and doing a stellar job will only serve to promote the Independent Party’s platform.

Now, realistically I know you’ll likely not even receive an offer for a post inside the White House. Further, you’d probably decline it anyway. That’s OK, each man deserves to decide for himself what he should or should not do. However, please, please, please do not run for president in 2012. In Matt Gonzalez you have found a presidential candidate who is eloquent, charming, and intelligent. Let him carry the torch forward, for at this point you only serve to weigh him down.

Honestly, I’m sorry it’s come to this Ralph but it’s time for you to focus on doing what you do best, being a kick-ass U.S. private citizen and fighting the good fight. Fight for universal health care, fight for free and equal access to debates, fight for fair ballot access, fight for citizen empowerement and corporate restraint, but please be realistic and stop fighting for the presidency. Matt Gonzalez is more than capable of taking it from here. Let’s give him a chance.

Thank you for being a greater citizen than I’ll ever likely be.

Sincere regards,

Adam Pieniazek

President Elect Barack Obama

Photo credit to insunlight.

Congratulations to President-elect Barack Obama!

Though I voted for Nader-Gonzalez and encouraged others to do the same, I am not disappointed by Barack Obama winning the United States Presidency. Rather I think he’s a huge upgrade over Bush, purely by being intelligent, eloquent and charismatic. He ran an impressive campaign and frankly deserved to win. America’s place in the world will be much improved via an Obama presidency. I favor Nader’s stances on the actual political issues, but politics aside Obama seems to be a capable person, heck I even endorsed him on Monday.

Riding my bike through the streets of Boston after Obama won, there were people cheering and dancing and yelling and honking their horns in celebration. There were even a group of people splashing jubilantly in a fountain. There wasn’t a mass of people like after the Sox, Celtics, or Patriots victories, but nevertheless there was a lot more people out and about past midnight on a Tuesday night in November than usual. Needless to say, the vast majority of the college students and young people of Boston voted for Barack Obama and last night and early this morning they celebrated with President Barack Obama.

Rajon Rando of the Celtics celebrated twice last night, winning a basketball game and seeing Obama win the presidency as he returned to the locker room. Overall, I’m proud of this country for making a historic vote and for participating in our democracy in historic numbers. Check out the Obama celebration scene outside the White House, where even the Secret Service were surprised and impressed by the outpouring of support. Say what you want about Obama or his politics but that’s a pretty cool scene there and one Americans can be proud of.

Congratulations to President-elect Barack Obama.

Massachusetts Absentee Ballot

Photo credit to Andrew Teman.

Basically, Instant Runoff Voting [IRV] is a system of voting where candidates are ranked in order of preference by the voter. Depending on the particular IRV system you can either rank as many or as few candidates as you wish or you must rank all candidates. In either case, once all ballots are cast, the candidate in the #1 spot on the ballot is awarded one vote. After all the ballots are analyzed and added up, if any one candidate has a majority of the votes (e.g. more than half), then he/she is declared the winner.

However, if not candidate receives a majority of votes then the lowest ranked candidate on each ballot is eliminated and the votes are redistributed to the remaining candidates. This process continues until one candidate has a majority of the votes cast. Like any system, IRV is not perfect, but I believe it would be an upgrade over the electoral college system and allow more candidates a realistic chance at winning, and thus increase competition which helps everyone.

My Instant Runoff Voting Ballot

If we had an Instant Runoff Voting system in place in the United States today, here is how my ballot would likely look:

1. Ralph Nader & Matt Gonzalez
2. Chuck Baldwin & Darrell Castle
3. Barack Obama & Joe Biden
4. Cynthia McKinney & Rosa Clemente
5. Bob Barr & Wayne Allen Root
6. John McCain & Sarah Palin

So let’s run through my thought process. First, all candidates were ranked to ensure that my ballot counted through each round. If my ballot only ranked two parties, let’s say Nader-Gonzalez first and Baldwin-Castle second, then if more than two rounds of run-offs were needed to get a majority winner my ballot would become exhausted and no longer add support for either Gonzalez nor Castle.

In terms of actual candidates, McCain-Palin were ranked last because they are my least preferred presidency. Next, Barr-Root are ranked second to last because frankly, I find them to be highly disingenuous and highly suspect they are Republicans masquerading as libertarians. Bob Barr ran a poor campaign and alienated those who were most likely to support him while WAR (Wayne Allen Root) comes across as someone who does not do any research and instead blindly lambasts the government for everything. If WAR is so against government he should not be running for a government job. Next up are McKinney and Clemente, who would be my number two choice but neither seem qualified to lead. McKinney, as noted in my review of her, is brash, abrasive and arrogant, which are not the traits of a good leader.

Next I place Obama-Biden. Biden scares me, but the one aspect of Barack Obama we all must admit is that he runs one hell of a tightly organized campaign. I do not agree with many of his stances, and believe he is too closely aligned with corporate interests, but Obama does have the ability to motivate a large group of people and get his message across efficiently. He might not be my first choice for president, but I’m glad he’s an American citizen and not running for president of some other country. Next up I ranked Baldwin-Castle, purely because they come across as genuine and seem willing to compromise and co-operate. I also consider myself somewhat of a fiscal conservative which aligns closely with Baldwin’s fiscal plans. Finally, I ranked Nader-Gonzalez as my top choice for president because I agree with nearly all of his stances, especially his socially liberal and progressive platform. Check out my top ten reasons I’m voting for Ralph Nader and Matt Gonzalez post for more details about the choice.

So there you have it, what would your Instant Runoff Voting ballot look like?

No word yet on whether C-SPAN will cover tonight’s debate (my guess is they’ll end up covering it at the last minute) but there will be a free live video stream at They Will Be Heard at 9 PM (Eastern), so make sure you check it out! Proletariat Power will also live-blog the debate, much like they did with the presidential debate on October 23rd. It’s nice to see that the third part candidates have begun setting up their own debates, perhaps next time they can do so before the major parties and get a head start on getting their message heard.

There was also a presidential debate this past Thursday, October 30th between Constitution candidate Chuck Baldwin, Indepedent candidate Ralph Nader, and Libertarian candidate Bob Barr at the City Club in Cleveland Ohio. You can check out the full one hour video of the debate at We Demand Videos!

Vote third party!

So far Ralph Nader, Chuck Baldwin and Cynthia McKinney have confirmed their attendance. Bob Barr is stating he has a scheduling conflict, though the even organizers are stating he wants to only debate Ralph Nader. In either case, Barr is running a very odd campaign, first ditching uber-popular Ron Paul and now refusing to participate in a debate with his fellow third party candidates.

Right now there are actually two debates scheduled, on being an online debate this Sunday from 7pm to 9pm while the other is a physical debate starting at 8pm. Seeing as how the physical debate is being televised by CSPAN and moderated by Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman it seems the online only debate organized by Trevor Lyman will fall to the wayside, especially seeing as how only Cynthia McKinney has confirmed she’d participate.

In either case, three of the four candidates will be at the physical debate, hosted by The Free and Equal Elections Coalition and the Columbia Political Union. So confused yet by the varying debates and times and places? Well so are the candidates who are now waffling about whether they will or will not attend, even though three of them confirmed their attendance a few days ago. In either case, the debate is scheduled and set up and now it’s up to the candidates to show up. For the sake of progress for our democracy, let’s hope they do show up. Send e-mails to your candidates encouraging them to show up! Even Barack Obama and John McCain are invited, let’s have one debate between all six candidates!

10 Reasons I’m Voting for Ralph Nader & Matt Gonzalez

1. Universal Health Care.

The argument over whether socialism is good or bad does not matter. Our government has already decided it will act as a socialist entity with Medicare, Social Security, bank bailouts and endless other infiltrations into the free market. To not provide universal health care is to openly admit we do not care about the well being of our citizens. This strategy must come to an end. As one of the richest countries in the world, we cannot afford to not provide our citizens guaranteed access to health care.

2. End to all wars.

The money to pay for universal health care and other infrastructure and development projects, within the U.S.A., will come from the savings of bringing every soldier home. Currently, more than half of every discretionary dollar spent by the U.S. government goes to military funding. Simply put, we are spending too much money killing people and not enough helping them.

3. End to corporate personhood.

I have railed against corporate personhood before and truly believe it is one of the reasons we are seeing the manufactured economics crises today. Many people do not realize that corporations are legally viewed as people, just the same as you and me. Corporations twisted the law freeing slaves to force corporate personhood and it’s time we end this disgrace. Corporations are not people.

4. Impeach Bush and Cheney.

Impeachment is simply an analysis of whether the President and Vice-president committed crimes. So far, our politicians will not even debate whether we should debate if crimes were committed, eventhough Bush and Cheney openly and flagrantly admit to committing multiple crimes against our citizens, government and world.

5. National Initiative.

Perhaps the greatest of the Nader – Gonzalez plaform, the National Initiative would allow regular American citizens to petition and demand change from the government easily and reliably. A strong democracy is one where citizens may easily redress the government when it creates laws to benefit the few and harm the many.

6. Energy Policy.

Hands down the best energy policy of any presidential candidate. The Nader platform looks forward to the future to realize that we must act now to invest in and install clean, efficicent renewable forms of energy such as wind and solar power. Doing so will create new manufacturing jobs and break our need for dirty and expensive forms of energy such as nuclear, coal and oil.

7. Fair Tax.

Are you sick of hearing about corporate loop holes that allow big businesses to pay no taxes while half your paycheck goes to Uncle Sam? Me too. Ralph Nader realizes how broken our tax system has become and offers the fair tax which would close corporate loopholes and begin taxing negative things we do not want, such as pollution, to discourage the negative and encourage people to work and earn money.

Makes a lot more sense than our current system.

8. Ballot Access.

Currently each state in the union has their own ballot access laws, creating a stressful and chaotic scene where it is often a battle in and of itself for viable candidates to gain access to the ballot. Nader-Gonzalez propose one standard for all the states to ensure all candidates have fair access to the ballot, thus providing citizens with greater choice and creating greater competition amongst candidates, thus helping our democracy for everyone.

9. Open the debates.

Currently, we allow a private corporation to host debates between two political parties and allow this private corporation to ban other viable candidates from the debate. We cannot say we live in a democracy when we prevent candidates from having a seat at the table.

10. Federal Budget.

The Nader-Gonzalez campaign describes it perfectly:

The United States needs a redirected federal budget that adequately funds crucial priorities like infrastructure, transit and other public works, schools, clinics, libraries, forests, parks, sustainable energy and pollution controls. The budget should move away from the deeply documented and criticized (by the US General Accounting Office, retired Admirals and Generals and others) wasteful, redundant “military industrial complex” as President Eisenhower called it, as well as corporate welfare and tax cuts for the wealthy that expand the divide between the luxuries of the rich and the necessities of the poor and middle class.

Yes, rebuild America!

These are my reason for voting for Ralph Nader and Matt Gonzalez in the 2008 presidential elections. The points I’ve outlined above are the ten of most important points to the future sustainability of this country and are clearly above and beyond any platform stance of any other presidential candidate. Simply put, the Nader-Gonzalez platform is not only good but also correct.

Do yourself and your country a favor and vote for Ralph Nader and Matt Gonzalelez in 2008.

Repeat as necessary until government simply owns medical industry.

As I turned around I saw another fire truck come rumbling down Roseclair, immediately followed another truck and an SUV. Moments later, the fourth and fifth truck showed up and within a minute the sixth and seventh truck arrived too. All of a sudden the whole street was lined with fire trucks, and as I stood on the corner of Roseclair and Greenhalge I saw yet one more truck making its way up the street!
This last truck was an ambulance and fire truck in one vehicle. Quite an impressive machine.

A few people were shocked at the sheer number of trucks but my thoughts are that I’d much, much rather see too many fire trucks than not enough!

Thank you to the brave men and women of the Boston Fire Department for doing such a great job. Our street has a few retired firefighters living here and we know that it is not easy work, especially on a warm day like today. Thank you again BFD, you all rock!

You can see more photos of the incident at my photos page.

After going around in circles for a few minutes trying to pinpoint the fire sirens (they were on the other side of a hill) I finally found them, over a mile away at Trull Street, off Hancock Street. Loyal readers will recall that Hancock Street was also mentioned in this cycling encounter. No, I don’t know if this house is in anyway related to the driver from that story but even if it was in no way would I wish harm on that person or his family.

The fire must have been huge as there were a half dozen, if not more, fire trucks at the scene. By the time I arrived the firefighters had done an amazing job controlling the fire and had it nearly put out completely within minutes of my arrival. At that point they were mostly searching for anyone left in the house. The word on the street from people watching the scene was that everyone got out and firefighters were merely being cautious. Luckily it seems everyone made it out alive though I’m unsure of their conditions.

Here are a few pictures of the scene. My apologies for the sub-par quality; the pictures were taken with my iPhone which does not have a flash.

A lot of fire trucks were there when I showed up. This photo is from Hancock Street looking down Trull Street.

Here’s a photo closer to the home. The yellow at the top of the photo is a light or lights, not the fire, though there were flames near that light but the trees make it tough to see.

I did not know fire fighters also utilized bicycles but, as this photo shows, they do. Later on as I was leaving I saw a firefighter using the bicycle to get up Trull Street quickly to get to a supply van parked on Hancock Street to get a case of water bottles.

Finally, I saw this doll attached to the front of one of the fire trucks. All I know is I have the utmost respect and admiration for firefighters. Obviously they risk their life day in day out and though there are scandals (Boston recently had a firefighter collect disability pay while also moonlighting as a bodybuilder), the majority of fire fighters are hard working blue collar guys trying to help their communities. I didn’t ask but I’d assume this doll was either from a fire or from a family member for good luck. In either case it was a down to earth sign that firefighters are just regular people yet they constantly perform heroic acts.

There’s a few more pictures from this fire on my flickr page.

My condolences to the families involved in this traumatic event. Hopefully everyone made it out OK.