Black and white
torvalds-family.blogspot.com
torvalds-family.blogspot.com
In fact, this is one of the things that concerns me most about Obama. I too like the fact that he sounds like a reasonable man in interviews and he seems to value his opponents' aguments. But his voting record shows none of that. By his words, he is a deeply thoughtful man. By his actions, he is a hyper-partisan.
George Bush has taught me to evaluate politicians by their actions, not their words. Ironically, if being open-minded were your highest priority for a politician, then John McCain's actions (though not his words) would place him among the best of any living politician.
Also, I'm glad we have so many people in this country who understand that the economy is driven by the working people, not the wealthy.
I don't agree with all of Obama's ideas, but I think under his presidency I will have the most freedom to be who I am without fear that my country will turn into the setting of the novel 1984.
But most of all, like Linus, I'm worried about black/white thinkers. I am happy knowing that Obama as a future president, at least shows _evidence_ that he understands multiple perspectives on a problem and can think through contradicting positions to come to a rational conclusion. Too often, difficult decisions seem to have been made, these past 8 years, based on religious views.
From a civil liberties perspective, I am not comforted by Obama's capitulations on FISA and the PATRIOT Act, and neither am I comforted by his choice of one of the fiercest enemies of privacy in Congress as his running mate. Biden bragged that he "wrote the PATRIOT Act", and he was the originator of the office of the Drug Czar.
You may think Obama is better than McCain, and that is your right, but lets have an honest view of his actions in mind when we make that choice.
On the overall topic of civil liberties, it's not even a contest. McCain's views are much closer to those of the people who once held him prisoner than they are anyone who gives a shit about civil liberties.
Oh, and Obama is pro net neutrality, McCain isn't. If you can present one instance of McCain supporting a single civil liberty that Obama does not, I'd love to hear it, because I can present scores of the opposite.
Is that an honest enough view?
Perhaps more significantly, there is no reference to network neutrality, perhaps the single tech
issue on which the gap between Obama and McCain is most pronounced. At the 2007 Google talk, Obama
declared he would "take a backseat to no one in my commitment to network neutrality, because once
providers start to privilege some applications or Web sites over others, then the smaller voices get
squeezed out and we all lose."
Go ahead, mod me down again. Have a nice cozy groupthink and keep voting whoever you fashion while shutting down any dissent. That can never go wrong, right?
Ensure the Full and Free Exchange of Ideas through an Open Internet and Diverse Media Outlets
Protect the Openness of the Internet: A key reason the Internet has been such a success is because it is the most open network in history. It needs to stay that way. Barack Obama strongly supports the principle of network neutrality to preserve the benefits of open competition on the Internet.
Edit: I know it's an important issue to some people, but it's not something that's important to voters so it's going to get dropped from speeches.
Can you explain your argument? It sounds like you're implying "If you had more information, you would reach a different conclusion," but what you're really saying is "If you were subjected to different emotional pressures, you would ignore evidence and come to a new conclusion."
I mean, if a judge is deciding a case against Philip Morris, and has all of his retirement money in Philip Morris stock, he's going to see things differently -- but it's not going to improve his decision.
Anecdotal, of course, but the people I know who have been over there or who have children in the war claim they don't see that we are going to accomplish much and want to the US to leave Iraq as soon as is feasible. Whereas McCain is more about winning the war, my impression of Obama and from his statements, is that Obama is not so much about winning as much as wanting the war to come to a reasonable end.
So yes, if you had an investment in the war personally, you would probably have more direct information rather than propaganda about the war. Regardless of your emotions.
Torvolds' blog post is well written. Most none of us gets to meet the people we vote for in person. We have to settle for what we feel and perceive. It is not black and white.
You have to assume that if he is elected, he will do most of what he says he will and live up to his words of late. He will keep or further the Bush tax cuts (or try to anyway) despite having been previously opposed to them because to do otherwise would greatly lessen his chances of reelection. Even 2nd term Presidents, who have that pressure removed, still try to stay close to their promises for the next guy from their party.
If anything, their words are probably a better predictor of future actions, since they'll be held accountable. Every time they do something opposite of what they promised, the Daily Show will roll the video they archived.
This certainly doesn't seem to have bothered Bush.
TV shows a bunch of clips of him being a moron, but for the most part he's lived up to his campaign promises.
It points out some areas where he was wrong, but not really where he didn't try to do something he said. In that video, he said he'd lower taxes and end the surplus and he did. He said he'd try to fix Social Security, and in his own way he did.
Love him or hate him, the guy did pretty much what he told us he would. The problem was he also did a lot of stuff that was clearly never discussed, like ignore Katrina or launch the Iraq war. But that's not really hypocrisy.
I would say that one was less an act of hypocrisy on Bush's part and more an adaptation to the post 9-11 world.
You would expect the same from a good President.
Actions are all that count. People are a fickle bunch, and it's an old trick to sound good on TV and then do whatever you feel like -- as long as it's complicated enough to the average Fred that he's not going to get pissed.
That's true for both parties. Look to how people act in the past -- it's a good predictor for the future. (Aside from 9-11 type events)
Weird, wouldn't a coherent ideology be something good? Because if there is no coherent pattern, I have to ask how can you be sure what he will vote next, and what if not ideology/conviction has determined his votes?
(Note: I don't know anything about McCain or Obama, just curious about the content of your argument).
The contract was eventually cancelled. I believe that this kind of protectionism harms everybody, the US and the Europeans. Now Boeing won't try their best to make a better offer than Airbus, since they know they won't be allowed to fail, and the US taxpayer will ultimatly end paying higher for an inferior product.
“Man is neither angel nor beast; and the misfortune is that he who would act the angel acts the beast.” - Blaise Pascal (1623-1662)
Well, I suppose it depends on what you mean by "best". He certainly appeals to Americans who respect those who avoid responsibility and act in their own self interest. He strikes me as the kind of person who is likely to find a way out of past promises when a better deal comes along.
How else would could you explain the way he abandoned his crippled wife for a pretty rich lady twenty years younger then himself? http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1024927/The-wife-J...
How else to explain the many ways he's changed his position since 2000 in order to gain favor with the far right? http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id=1779141 or his new position on torture? http://thinkprogress.org/2008/02/20/mccain-torture-veto
This is what he meant:
if being open-minded were your highest priority for a politician
If you had bean reading, you would have noticed this and spared us, yet another diatribe against a man that nobody here likes.
To me his words, actions and the results were all pretty consistent. Only the scale of failure of his presidency was a surprise... And the fact that he was voted in twice. You sound like you may have been one of his 'x2' voters. If this was the case it doesn't present the best credentials to be lecturing others on candidate selection.
No they won't. The 2002 and 2004 elections start on Wednesday.
I'm very thankful to Mr. Torvald's work on which I am writing this message, but I rather pass on his intransigent self-centered views on world and politics. That post is very dissonant.
Torvolds brings up his issue with Stallman/FSF/GPL3 to point out that he, Torvolds, bases his positions on situation; "it depends" which is why he titled the post "Black and white".
But hey - that's why I'm endorsing Barack Obama, not myself, for president.