The Exercise of Vital Powers

There is a bloodbath going on on Peachtree Street today. Earthlink (my former employer) is laying off almost 50% of its workforce. While I expect some of those jobs will be outsourced or offshored, or both (they are different), that is mostly irrelevant to my point.

Since 2000 when Earthlink and Mindspring merged, there was no one with vision at the helm. Anyone who followed the Internet industry knew that dial-up was gonna die and high-speed would be necessary to use the future internet. However Earthlink never managed to build a coherent business model. They attempted to do VOIP 3 years after Vonage became a household word. The poured millions into selling $500 phones so spoiled rich kids could myspace in class. And their Muni-Wifi project went so bad they fired the EVP responsible for that business unit.

As a free-market capitalist I’m glad to see Earthlink die. There are still (maybe?) many talented good people working there, and releasing them into the wild means that their talents will actually be put to good use.

His selection of Don Young (Porker-AK) as one of his Congressional Co-chairs should be an indication he has no intention of being a fiscally conservative President. Grab a guitar and head back to the pulpit, Governor, you’re not wanted in the Whitehouse.

9/11 and Government incompetence claim two more victims

RealClearPolitics – Articles – Free Trade: Past vs. Future Interests

Protectionism – the real threat to growth, stability

Erick Erickson posted this over at RedState that just really pissed me off. My response is as follows:

“Ron Paul has only about 3,000 real supporters nationwide. He’s got another 5000 or so who are just damn dirty liberal hippies in need of real jobs.”

Where are you getting those figures from? Certainly not the article you linked to. Most of Ron Paul’s supporters are concerned about out-of-control government spending, Democrats and Republicans who think the answer to every problem is more government intervention, and think that Republicans need to occasionally read the US Constitution (especially Art. 1, Sec. 8).

Finally I take offense at being called a “damn dirty liberal hippy in need of a real job”, as I too am opposed to closed-source electronic voting machines with no mechanism for independent review of the results (ie I want either open-code or voter-verifiable-paper-trails).

I know RedState is owned by the same company that publishes Ann Coulter, but I expected better from you Erick.

The French finally have a president with some cajones:

Leaping aboard their vessel, he grabbed a camera and harangued the offending snappers in French. His wonderful wife, Cécilia, a former model, acted as interpreter for her voluble husband. The American photographers beat one of the few retreats the yanks have ever made in front of the French, but not before taking pictures of a finger-wagging “Super-Sarko” that instantly went round the world. Paris-Match would have been proud of them.

And if I may engage in some Republican snark, It shouldn’t be surprising that the American Press are the ones who want to surrender at the first signs of opposition.

At the rate we’re going, candidates will need to announce for the 2012 race before we even know who won the 2008 race. According to Politico, Iowa may have to hold their caucus in 2007.

We need a single national primary day. If the spineless wimps on both sides of the aisle won’t do it, lets hope some “activist” judges will.

Last week, Speaker Richardson spoke at a meeting of the Georgia chapter of Americans for Prosperity. He came to pitch is tax reform proposal which he dubs the GREAT plan – Georgia Repealing Every Ad-Valorem Tax.

It has gone through several iterations since I started following the plan. The current version calls for a uniform state-wide 4% sales tax on goods and services, and the repeal of all property and ad-valorem taxes. This would include all local property taxes. Localities would be allowed to keep any existing SPLOTS, ELOTS, but otherwise would not be able to set their own sales tax rate.
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Democracy is a two-way street. The citizens have as much responsibility for our self government as the people we elect. – Senator Eric Johnson.

Yet another reason not to give an entity with sovereign immunity total control over health care:

NHS deliberately gives citizen’s AIDs infected blood.

HT: http://www.haloscan.com/comments/mikedenham/4776414445496382408/