weekend update

Progressive Political Action Committee MoveOn.org has taken a firm stance on the Specter defection, and with good reason. The projected budget deficit for FY 2009 in the Keystone State was 3.2 billion dollars, which would trample the value of many seniors with social security and health benefits.

Mentioned in the link above, Specter has before flipped the coin to see who he’d be taking marching orders from. This time though, his hand may be slapped out of the way before he can catch the coin to look for heads or tails.

The day after positioning himself more to the left, Specter voted against President Obama’s budget and thus drawing a defining ideological line in the sand in Washington. The budget was the biggest piece of legislation to date for the Obama Admin. Specter’s party flip-flopping exposes a huge hole that exists in our bureaucracy: that of closed door, handshake meetings. But thank goodness, we live in a Democracy.

This entire situation, I believe, is turning into a classic “bait and switch” campaign. Obama said that he would campaign for the guy if he wanted to run for re-election as a Dem, but it’s likely that this promise was made when the Democratic primary was basically, a done deal. And I’d bet that the campaigning promised was designed to hit home near election time, after the primary.

With the pull out of MoveOn.org’s financial and grassroots clout, questions are looming in the Senior Senator’s head. MoveOn went to bat for Dems across the board in 2008, and the $38,123,090 that they spent running ads, strategizing and online organizing, no doubt, helped to swing many races. Now they have established themselves as progressive heavyweights, a voice to be reckoned with.

So what does all of this mean? Best case scenario, the Dems put up a few other candidates, including progressive Pennsylvania Rep. Joe Sestak, which will dilute Specter’s chances of winning the primary. Then, once Sestak wins out in round one, he will have a bruised Pennsylvania Republican Party opponent to beat up on in the general election. WHAMO! Now that is some “strategery.”

Photo courtesy of the Associated Press.

earth

Everyone knows there has been much debate over the issue of global warming. Conservation and environmental groups such as Greenpeace and the Sierra Club have been leaders of this movement, by putting heavy pressure on elected officials and staging public demonstrations to take a firm stance.

This year, for the first time ever, the Environmental Protection Agency stated publically that global warming is a real threat to the planet. Soon there will be stringent penalties imposed to those who dump toxic chemicals into the environment.

I remember learning about global warming in elementary school. We had a little jingle about recycling that I recall today: “Recycle, reduce, reuse, and close the loop.” The analogy of a car with its windows rolled up during the summer, while heat was getting trapped inside of it was a good learning tool.

Young people today are more conscious of global warming than any generation ever before has been. Congress is acting quickly to curb damages, and with any luck, we could soon be a nation powered in part by renewable energy. Just like we are leaders in fields such as engineering, science and technology, the United States has a duty to the industrialized world to set pace for curbing climate change.

Earth Day is tomorrow and I want to urge everyone out there to do something to reduce their environmental footprint for the day.

Starting a recycling program at home is easy, and it can save you money! First, check with your local recycling program to see what they will take.

The first place to look for material to recycle is in your kitchen. Everything from aluminum and tin cans, plastic from product packaging, and that junk mail on your kitchen table are probably all recyclable! To be sure look for the logo on the bottom of the container or on the packaging.

Once you have determined what is recyclable, set up a small trash can with a plastic grocery bag in it as a liner. Make sure to rinse out cans and drain all liquids to prevent having a mess to clean up! Throw in everything you come across until the bag is full, tie it up and toss it in your bin outside. After replacing the bag for the second time in one week you will notice that you are significantly reducing your load in the garbage and saving money on trash bags. You may even want to look into a Pay-As-You-Throw program, where you will only be billed monthly for the amount of trash you consume.

technology

For many years the Internet has been an ingredient in my daily life. I remember back in 90’s during the first days of AOL, they offered a trial Internet offer of 500 or 1000 minutes. This was mailed out on a CD, the cutting edge media for those days. We used a modem to connect to AOL at blazing speeds of up to 12.5kb/second.

Not only the information technology (IT) was lacking, there was also a lack of intuition coming from developers and packagers of these products. At the age of twelve or thirteen the Internet started getting discovered and mined by my family, myself being the driving force of curiosity. Around the same time my brother and I discovered that you could re-order another CD from AOL, disconnect your current account when it got to the house, pop in the CD, and simply create a new user name to use the trial version again.

Many things have changed in the past fifteen years in IT. Cyber security is an issue on the minds of everyone from an identity theft victim, to a website designer and even the US State Department. Last year during the Russia/Georgia fiasco, a massive denial of service attack on Georgia’s information systems caused devastation of unmeasured proportions.

What does the future of IT hold for the developing world? Is it possible that we could ever have a Terminator 2 type scenario? The artificial intelligence (AI) is there. In fact we have been using drone planes (no pilot) to do a lot of bombing in the mountains of Afghanistan.

AI and bionics/prosthetics are of particular importance to me for two main reasons: strong opposition to the Iraq war, and that if this technology was affordable and readily available, it could dramatically change my father’s life.

When pops was a child, he was diagnosed with the Polio virus. Although this condition was eradicated right around that time, he did not escape its wrath. Doctors said he would never be able to walk. Through sheer determination and the great work of doctors and rehabilitators at the Shiners Hospital, he has been able to live a “healthy” lifestyle. He’s is fifty-four years old and he walks every day. Polio attacks the nerves on one side of the body, and so even though he is able to walk decently, he has never been able to use his left arm effectively.

I wanted to share a video with you about new developments by a bright group, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). DARPA teamed up with the creator of the Segway and scientific venture capitalist Dean Kamen in conjuncture with President Obama’s new $100 million research program, “Revolutionizing Prosthetics.”

CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE NEWS ARTICLE AND VIDEO

congrats

I just want to send big CONGRATULATIONS to my little bro for his accomplishments yesterday!

It was quite an interesting day in the history of this friend and relative's life; he left on a journey to visit the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, VA and Georgetown University in Washington, DC. He mentioned that the campus was nice in Virginia but I know him, he was really curious to see what DC and in the next days New York City had to offer.

Coincidentally, on this day this young man shared the campus of Georgetown University with our current President, Barack Obama. This perk, not foreseen during the initial trip planning process, would set the stage for what could be one of the most exciting days of his life. Inevitably spirits were high during this occasion, and I believe this coincidence melded a strong framework of conviction and interim success.

Set out to tour New York University on Thursday, my dad and he found limited time to tour the school in DC. The admissions staff at the University was top notch and busy as a bee, nonetheless they made personal time to speak with and accommodate the family.

As the two were about to leave after their tour and a quick Q&A session, a nice employee of the University equipped my brother with a packet deemed a “parting gift.” Undoubtedly this present was the gift that keeps on giving: Georgetown Law admission information. CONGRATS BRO!!!

politics