With such a large field of potential candidates for the Presidency, it’s helpful to be able to compare views to understand which candidates may be worthy of your support or scorn. Now, this tool is only as good as the data that is being fed into it, and these are all politicians, so you know what that means – the position today is in no way guaranteed to be the position tomorrow. But even with those limitations, this is an interesting and useful tool.

Essentially, it allows you to select your preference for an issue and assign each issue a weight. Left default, each issue is worth 1 point. If you think a particular issue is important, it increases the point total on that issue to a value of 2. If you believe an issue is key, it increases the point weight to 5 for that issue. I encourage you to try it out, first with defaults and then with increased weight to key and important issues. I was surprised somewhat by the results it produced for me, posted below.




Once you’ve tried it out, leave a comment if you learn something. I’d really like to see more commentary on the blog vs. the out of band email that has been routine. Have you seen other tools that would be interesting and useful? Please share them.

Popular Mechanics recently published a study that shows if there is an incident in your aircraft, it’s statistically safer to sit in the back of the airplane. So, the next time you are sitting in the back of the airplane with no leg room, remember, if there’s a problem, you’re more likely to survive than those folks who bumped you from your business class upgrade…

The CNN/YouTube debate was an interesting experiment and had the potential to introduce a new type of dialogue in the political process. But, CNN’s selection of questions and questioners (for the most part) was bad and the candidates responses were canned and automatic. Honestly, did you really see anyone you would want to lead the country in that debate? (And don’t say any of them would be better than Bush, probably true, but that’s a VERY LOW STANDARD.)

In the center of all this mess is a missing character, Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi. In a time the country needs leadership, she’s nowhere to be found. Ms. Speaker, you are shirking your duty and you are not providing leadership. The change that was voted in last November was done so to take action. Get on with upholding and protecting the Constitution or get out of the way.

As many people suspect, the Democrats provide no real alternative to the Republicans. It’s time for a 3rd choice where the government leaders actually represent the people.

There is a terrorist incident, or thwarted terrorist incident in the near future. We’ve had our warning from the Feds which means their collective butt is covered (and a large butt it is.) In order to keep us scared and compliant, there needs to be an “event” – which cynically, might be under production by the people who need it, but more likely will be a case of success through benign neglect.

What do I expect? Somewhere in the heartland this calendar year, an event in a crowded, soft target (like a shopping mall) that isn’t terribly destructive or is partially thwarted resulting in loss of life and injury. Perhaps a street fair or festival in a smaller town. 24/7 coverage of the event soon to follow with every pundit analyzing the event and putting forth even more draconian ideas to prevent the next event. Let’s face it, TV gives good disaster.

The Bush Administration is vindicated because the “threat” is now real to Americans again, the media is happy because ratings are through the roof, the defense industry is happy because record earnings are assured to continue at least until the end of the Bush Administration, the election issues turn to defense and terrorism – one has to admit, such an event would be convenient for the current power elite driving a status quo agenda.