Bushie… Heck of a Job!

<p>Paul Krugman has a great piece in the NYT yesterday [l:http://select.nytimes.com/gst/tsc.html?URI=http://select.nytimes.com/2005/12/30/opinion/30krugman.html&OP=776d72aQ2FoQ3FbQ22oQ3CHQ51ppQ3CoQ5ENN7oQ2FQ5EokNopV(E(pEokNQ7CQ51Q26fn2E0Q25Q3Cnj|unfortunately it is behind a pay-wall]. But <i>Heck of a Jon, Bushie</i> is a nice recap of all all the scandal and dissapointment and corruption flowing out of the Bush adminsitration and the Republican party.</p> <p>Krugman suggests that the President is impeachable and should be (at least that is my read on it) if it were not for the hipocritical Republican politicians who reminded us relentlously during the Clinton/Monica scandall that no one, not even presidents are above the law.</p> <p>In the year end messages from John Kerry, John Edwards, Howard Dean, People for the American Way.. none of them mentioned impeachment. Sure the may have mentioned voting the lyers out of office in 06, and yes, we need to take our country back during the mid term elections and show the bums the door, maybe that is the road to impeachment? but really, we need to do more than just "get out the vote". WE need to chanmge the discourse, reframe the deabate, expose the lies, take the media to task, build movements… empower the people.</p> <p>We have our work cut out for us on the eve of the New...

Socially Responsible Investing

<p>Anyone watching my del.icio.us bookmark feed recently has probably noticed a ton of links (well not a ton, more like 10) that I would file under [l:http://del.icio.us/GregoryHeller/Finance|finance] or [l:http://del.icio.us/GregoryHeller/socialresponsibility|social responsibility].</p> <p>I have decided that in 2006 I am going to persue some socially responsible investment. I think I'll also open up an account at the [l:http://lespfcu.org/history.html|local credit union]. I'd rather people in my community were using my money than the companies that get money from my major...

Washington State moves to a statewide voter database

Washington state has moved to a state wide voter database replacing the current 39 county databases. In part this is to comply with HAVA, but this article points mostly to the anti-fraud benefits like eliminating duplicate registrations, voting by dead people and felons. Perhaps the biggest benefit is that anyone doing voter outreach work in Washington State will now be able to make one call to the state to get voter data on all 3 million voters (rather than call the 39 counties). I am going to start reaching out an collecting the voter data formats from states heading in this direction so that we can make our voter data standard better and more...

Drupal Guild (A Prelude)

Today I am going to begin (again) to work on the Drupal Guild proposal. I’d love folks to take a little time to look at what is on the wiki and let me know if you have anything to add at this point (just edit the wiki if you have access) or send me comments if you don’t. Drupal Guild Introduction We are in a housing crisis and there are not enough skilled laborers to meet demand. In the skilled trades, unions and guilds have provided a means for workers to be trained, and gain employment. Union workers, and Guild members generally have a credential that qualifies them to perform work. Right now in the web development community anyone can download Drupal and hang a shingle out as a Drupal developer. They are judged by their customers on the quality of their work, and by prospective customers on their references. Developers learn Drupal on your own, or on the job, there are no existing training programs. Drupal development shops are experiencing a shortage of qualified Drupal developers, theme developers and application specialists to meet the demand for open source websites. Overview The Drupal Guild would provide a solutions to these problems. The Drupal guild would bring Drupal developers together in an organization that can certify skills levels, provide referral service, internship opportunities, and skills shares. As a “trade organization” Drupal Guild can provide added legitimacy to Drupal as a platform and member developers as vendors. The Drupal Guild will also be a resource for Drupal development shops looking for: qualified / experienced developers for projects “apprentice” developers opportunities to...

Unsilent Night Press

<p>A few weeks ago I participated in [l:http://www.mindspring.com/~boombox/xmas.htm|Unsilent Night] with my [l:http://gregoryheller.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_view=core.ShowItem&g2_itemId=198| little sound truck]<br /> Well i just checked my google alerts and found that an AP story about the event ran and quoted me:</p> <p><cite><a href="/node/284">Gregory Heller, an Internet developer, drove his tricked-out tiny police patrol vehicle (one of those little buggies ticket givers like to prowl parked cars in) that he bought in a government auction and outfitted with a 1,000-watt sound system. This is the second year he has joined the procession. Why? “It’s one of the most magical nights of the...