Jacob’s Blog

Dear friends and loyal readers,

Please remember and take the time to vote. If you haven’t voted yet, and you have the next 30 minutes free, I suggest voting now–don’t put it off any more. Even if you haven’t reviewed all the issues, at least vote on the few issues you know about.

For those of you in Oregon, remember that it is too late to mail your ballot, that you will have to drop it off at a collection site by 8pm tonight.

I would also encourage you to make sure you vote Ron Saxton. He has pledged to put partisan politics behind and work not for any particular political party, but for Oregon. Oregon needs change, and Ron Saxton will get it done (or you can elect someone else next time).

Oh, and the whole measure 45 thing about term limits for state legislators… vote that down please. Term limits may have a place on the national scene, but local politicians don’t really carry huge names or budgets (like national politicians do), so it is more important that we allow experienced representatives to use their experience in office. Besides, we already have term limits… if someone has been in office too long, then we just vote for someone else. At least that is what the Hillsboro Argus said, and I agree.

It wasn’t democratic Governor Ted Kulongoski. It was Republican State Senator Bruce Starr. He wrote it, and brought it up before the state legislature. Starr was the principle sponsor of the bill, but when legislative leaders blocked a vote on it, did Starr get help from Kulongoski? Not really.

Jessica’s Law mandates convicted molesters of children 17 years of age and under serve a minimum prison sentence of 25 years.

Bruce Starr drafted a ballot measure and began collecting signatures. Only when it became clear that the public overwhelmingly supported Jessica’s Law, was the bill brought up in a special session of which Kulongoski urged the Legislature to “limit its attention.”

Finally, it passed and Kulongoski signed Jessica’s Law into law. And now Kulongoski wants to take credit for the whole thing.

Please read this excellent editorial, about just how offensive it is that Kulongoski wants to take credit for Jessica’s law, when true credit should go to Bruce Starr.

Oregon Measure 43:

Requires 48-hour notice to unemancipated minor’s parent before providing abortion.

Currently in Oregon, anyone 15 years or older may consent to and obtain an abortion without parental notification. So let me get this straight. If you are 15 and miss a day of school, the school phone robot calls home to let the parents know. If you are 15 and want to get a body piercing, you have to have parental consent and accompaniment. But if you are 15 and want to get an abortion, the parent doesn’t even need to be notified.

I’m voting in favor of Measure 43. It just makes sense that a parent of a minor should at least be notified before their child gets an abortion.

If I’ve met Everett Curry, it was only briefly, but I have a lot of respect for him and what he wants to do for the State of Oregon. Curry is running toward Salem to be a State Representative.

Curry seems like a good, honest man with morals. His campaign has been clean; I don’t even know who he is running against, which is evidence that Curry has run a positive campaign. Curry also seems like he is a hard worker, without personal agenda, just trying to do the right thing.

I’ve decided without any provocation or incentive to write this blog post. I’m doing so because I really like Curry. Please join me in voting Everett Curry for State Representative.

If you would like to learn more about Everett Curry, please visit his election website at www.VoteForCurry.org . Oh, and he is a ham radio operator, which I think is pretty cool.

Recently there has been new legislation introduced in congress what would ban minors from accessing social networking sites. The bill, known as the Deleting Online Predators Act of 2006 was introduced by Michael G. Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania.

The bill uses broad language to define a social networking site as one that: “allows users to create web pages or profiles that provide information about themselves and are available to other users; and offers a mechanism for communication with other users, such as a forum, chat room, email, or instant messenger.”

This language is so broad, that many websites would fit into their definition, possibly even this blog. Blogger, slashdot, even Gmail might all be banned under this description.

What this bill does is effectively limit minor’s abilities to speak freely on the Internet.

While I’m against predators from using the Internet to find minors, I don’t think banning minors from using certain Internet technologies is the right way to solve the problem. The bill encroaches on parental responsibilities to encourage their teens to be safe online.

Sure it may be unsafe to post personal information online, just as it may be unsafe to cross the street–you may be hit by a car! Does that mean we need a law that bans minors from crossing the street?

All secret operations need to be finished. That means, if they are to remain secret, they must be cleaned up, and all evidence destroyed or disposed of. Next time there won’t be room for such sloppy operations. Clean, percise, finished.

Well, the day after the 2004 presidential election and Larry King is already trying to make a big deal about Hillary Clinton running for president in 2008. If that isn’t scary, I don’t know what is.

But let me list some reasons why I don’t think she will be elected. If I’m lucky, this blog will endure until 2008

The big one is that most people said in the exit polls yesterday that morals were a big issue. And I think the Hillary Clinton is going to have a really tough time making a case why she promotes moral values better than the next candidate. Another reason, is that she is going to have a hard time convincing a lot of Americans that she has enough qualifications to be elected President. She has only been elected to the Senate in New York just a couple of years now, and I don’t think that she is going to win based on the issues.

Her only chance is to make the non-issues issues. Like that fact that she would be the first woman President, and foo like that. If she can make that center stage, then she will have an easier time convincing voters.

Recently I’ve been seeing all these “register to vote” or “rock the vote” commercials. They are interesting, because although they may seem like a public service announcement, it almost seems to have a political agenda behind it.

I think that certain organizations know they have a viewer base that strongly agrees with their political views. Therefore, the more encouragement these groups give to their viewers to vote, the more votes will be cast in the direction they would prefer.

J. Edward Carter & Cesar V. Conda on 368 Economists Against John Kerry

I’m convinced that Bush will only win if his supporters are vocal. This is my voice. I think that Bush has a better plan for the economy than Kerry. This article supports this.