Santiance » Politics

Oregon Wastes Money On Purpose

Kristopher Ives — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 20:10:17 +0000

Since I’ve been jumping between Salem, McMinnville, Keizer, Woodburn, and Willsonville (Fry’s) recently for work and all kinds of things, everyone who is paying any attention is noticing that roads are being repaired simply for the sake of spending the money and “Putting Oregon Back to Work” Interestingly, this is being noticed by the mainstream media and legislators as well, which actually surprised me.

When we waste our time/money on unneeded road repairs, we lose time we could spend making something of real trade value. What irritates me is knowing that a relatively simple road-side operation is paying out thousands upon thousands while legitimate inventors are deprived of the capital.

Interesting to see how other states draw business while Oregon drives it away.

Google Flops on Net Neutrality

Kristopher Ives — Sat, 14 Aug 2010 02:24:03 +0000

After reading Google’s backpedaling about their lobbying with Verizon, I have a lot to say, but thankfully someone named peter seemed to say the same:

By creating an alliance with Verizon you created a precedent. Now when others start doing the same they will point to Google and Verizon, “they’ve done it, we’re just following their lead, shut up and take it?” The fact is that right now we are more neutral than we’ll be in the future, and this pact legitimizes the less neutral future. I’ve lost a sizable chunk of my respect for this company.

Pledge Tracker

Kristopher Ives — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 17:24:50 +0000

While it might not look pretty, theres been a lot of work done in a very short amount of time on the Pledge Tracker. This is a simple tool that tracks progress about the Tenth Amendment Center Pledge. I’ve added some more filtering options, statistics, and a way to visualize the time data:

It could look better, but most importantly it gets the job done. This time analysis is available for each House Representative, and really helps me better judge the best time to call a representative. Any feedback on how I could improve how it looks would be much appreciated. I’m also looking for ideas on how to visualize the weekday analysis.

I also started fleshing out what the Pledge Tracker will become as it matures into a general solution. This project was created to solve a need that has grown legs, and hopefully will more support soon.

Secret ACTA Legislation Leaked Would Kill Dynamic Content

Kristopher Ives — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 14:51:22 +0000

You might have heard me ranting about the new administration wearing the old “national security” hat to keep information about the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) a secret. Information about the agreement was released to a select group of organizations with watermarks to “protect” from sharing, and they all required NDAs. Thankfully it’s been leaked and we’ve got a chance to see what’s happening before it’s too late.

To start with it’s pathetic that we have to read legislation drafted by public officials we elected in the form of a controversial leak. Also irritating is that this is obviously a Copyright agreement, not a Counterfeit agreement. Not surprisingly the representatives involved received over $250,000 in “donations” from media corporations over the past 2 years, based on research I conducted on OpenSecrets.org. The usual players: Time Warner, News Corp, Sony, and Disney.