Mitt Romney Past and Present

I was not excited that Romney won the 2012 Republican nomination for presidential candidate. To tell the truth, I did not know much about the guy. His PR must not have been too good to start. Then I heard a disturbing story about Romney's high school antics.

Romney allegedly got a gang of high school students together to terrorize some poor schmuck. They held the guy down as Romney shaved off his long hair. It was your basic bullying/harrasment/hazing. That was a long time ago. The other perpetrators showed remorse for their actions. Romney just said he could not recall the incident.

I guess Romney is doomed either way in this scenario. He showed that he could respond with a typical slimey politician response. However I wish he would have come clean, accepted responsibility, and shown some spine. It may have alienated some voters. But it would have solidified my own.

It takes a big man to openly admit some mistakes. An apology would have been the response of a brave man. Romney only could provide a politcal and cowardly response. I am a die hard Republican. But this candidate has me thinking I will probably vote for Obama in 2012. That's how you know we have backed the wrong nominee.

Sonya Sotomayor

It looks like Sonya Sotomayor will be sworn in as a supreme court justice. This was a good move by Obama. It also uplifts the Latino community. I don't think this decision was made lightly.

Here is the bottom line. Sotomayor has a lot of experience on both sides of the bench. I had never heard of her before her nomination. But I have no qualms with it.

Now some other decisions by Obama might be questionable. But just not this one. Good luck Sonya. George Lopez gots your back.

Swing Vote

I just watched the movie Swing Vote. It had an interesting scenario. A presidential election came down to a tie in electoral votes. One election district became the one which would decide who got the rest of the electoral votes to win the election. Furthermore the the district count was equal with one vote making the decision.

This is an interesting scenario. I am not sure how accurate it is regarding the electoral votes. However I do know that there comes a time when a certain vote is the one that counts. You can't know for sure beforehand which vote that will be. Therefore it makes sense to make sure you vote in the election.

In the past I used to think my vote did not count for much. I registered to vote. But I have skipped a presidential election before because I was busy. These days I truly believe every vote counts.

I take a little time off on election day to make sure I get to the polls and cast my vote. This is not always easy to do given a hectic work schedule. However I make it my priority. You should too. And while you are at it, consider watching Swing Vote. Kevin Costner does pretty good a "Bud", the man who casts the deciding vote.

Former President Bush

Former president George Bush is leading a quiet life down in Texas. I had thought he would retire to his ranch. He and his wife Laura do spend time on his ranch. However they bought a new house down in Texas. That is where they currently live.

Bush is planning write a book that should be available in stores in a year or so. The book will cover the eight years he was in office. The goal of the book is to provide insight for analysts in years to come when the judge his presidency.

George Bush does not comment much on sitting president Barrack Obama, except to say that Obama has his silent support. Bush occasionally does speeches to raise money for a future project which I may blog about later.

Cybersecurity Act of 2009

There is a new bill being discussed on Capitol Hill. It is the known as the Cybersecurity Act of 2009. People are worried because they say it gives the president the authority to shut down the Internet if there is a cybersecurity emergency. I was concerned about this myself. So I read through the entire draft of the bill.

The overall goal is to protect the economy from cybersecurity threats. This is a bill covering many areas. Here are some highlights that I found interesting. It would establish a national certification program for security professionals. It would also require professionals to be licensed in a couple years before doing business in the cybersecurity field.

This bill also discusses creation of a new secure domain name addressing system (DNS). I assume this would protect against people spoofing domain names they do not legally have. There is also to be a federal cyber scholarship to be established by the National Science Foundation (NSF). There is also to be cybersecurity competitions administered by the National Institute of Science and Technology (NIST).

It will be most interesting to see whether this bill passes as written. For more information on cybersecurity in general, consult the Black of Hat blog.

AIG Bonuses

I cannot help but write and comment about the AIG Bonus Debacle. AIG has been bailed out will billions of taxpayer funds. Then these jokers turn around and award themselves multi-million dollar bonuses. This has resulted in a public outcry. Why should a company that almost went bankrupt and required government bailout deserve any bonuses.

Whose fault was this in the first place? Obviously something was going wrong at insurer AIG. The financial market as well has been dismal over the past year. But let’s take those facts for granted. When the government decided to step in and bail out the company, should they have ensured the bailout money come with some restrictions to prevent nonsense like big bonuses.

Where does the buck stop with the responsibility? Is the treasury secretary to blame? How about President Obama? Somebody is sure to blame here. Congress is smartly reacting by creating a new law to heavily tax these bonuses. In other words, the taxpayer is going to recoup the money paid out by these4 bonuses.

The American people are not placated. AIG is reporting that they are worried about their employees’ safety. There have been death threats on the employees. Luckily AIG has not released the names of the specific employees who received the bonuses. They do not want to put a target on the heads of these employees.

This could have been prevented by not issuing the bonuses in the first place. Even if there were some contracts in place, the bonus should not have been paid. Let any employees who think that they deserve a bonus sue the company for the bonus. I bet a judge will agree that helping drive a company into bankruptcy is not reason for a bonus.

Blagojevich Impeachment

The Illinois house voted to impeach govern Blagojevich today. This guy is charged with trying to sell the senate position being vacated by Obama. Is it any wonder that dirty deeds have happened. We are talking about Chicago here. The previous governor is currently serving a prison sentence.

A state senate trial will decide Blagojevich's fate. Even Harris, who was his eventual choice to replace Obama is having problems. Harris was denied entry to the senate in Washington DC this week. There is too much controversy for the governor's choice to count yet. I believe that problem will work itself out. Both the democrats and the senate want the Illinois seat matter resolved.

Blagojevich is still claiming innocence in the matter and has refused to step down from office. One thing is for sure. The governor has a lot of enemies in the Illinois house. Only one person out of over 100 state senators decided to vote against impeachment.