US Presidential Candidates

Who would I choose?

Based on: http://www.selectsmart.com/president/2008.html – a decent survey of issues (mainly US ones, but still)

1. Theoretical Ideal Candidate (100 %) (she’s even an atheist!)

2. Dennis Kucinich (89 %)

3. Barack Obama (85 %)

4. Alan Augustson (campaign suspended) (82 %)

5. Joseph Biden (80 %)

6. Hillary Clinton (77 %)

7. Christopher Dodd (75 %)

8. Wesley Clark (not announced) (75 %)

9. John Edwards (72 %)

10. Al Gore (not announced) (71 %)

11. Michael Bloomberg (not announced) (69 %)

12. Mike Gravel (66 %)

13. Bill Richardson (60 %)

14. Elaine Brown (48 %)

15. Ron Paul (44 %)

16. Kent McManigal (campaign suspended) (38 %)

17. Rudolph Giuliani (30 %)

18. Mike Huckabee (28 %)

19. John McCain (24 %)

20. Tommy Thompson (21 %)

21. Mitt Romney (17 %)

22. Chuck Hagel (not announced) (17 %)

23. Sam Brownback (14 %)

24. Newt Gingrich (not announced) (12 %)

25. Tom Tancredo (9 %)

26. Fred Thompson (not announced) (9 %)

27. Duncan Hunter (7 %)

28. Jim Gilmore (withdrawn) (5 %)

After you finish the survey you can look through a comparison chart of the candidates. I have to agree with it, Kucinich is my favourite, Obama’s against gay marriage (not civil unions though) and has a few other slip but is overall decent. So let’s see the Democrats, and then all Americans elect Kucinich for 2008.

A solution to the homeless problem?

So there is a lot of tension in the city of Edmonton right now. A tent city of about 200 residents currently exists, and there are thousands of other homeless in the city. Part of this is due to the fact the average rent has risen somewhere around 10-20% (or more) since last year (my rent was $600 when I moved in here May/06, and will be $850 for whoever moves in Sept/07). This has put a lot of people out on their own with nowhere to live. The current occupancy is somewhere below 1% in Calgary and Edmonton.

So how do we fix this?

The idea I have is that if premier Ed Stelmach really cares at all, he can open his own door and let some people move in with him. If he’s not willing, perhaps some people should just start knocking his door down.

At the very least action like this would prompt him to explain where the supposed housing for these people are.

America: from freedom to fascism

I watched a cool documentary this morning called America, from freedom to fascism, which was directed by Aaron Russo.  The premise is Russo tries to find a law / constitutional requirement for citizens of the USA to pay income tax.  What he finds is that in 1913 when the Federal Reserve was created it began a slow decent from a free country to a corporate owned fascist dictatorship.

He finds that the IRS has no legal precedent to  force Americans to pay income tax, to seize their property, or to arrest them for tax evasion.

He finds that the majority of income tax simply goes to paying off the national debt which is mainly controlled by the Federal Reserve.

He finds that the Federal Reserve is in actuality a  private-owned bank, whose owners are unknown (likely the major banks of America).

Near the end he also goes into how acts like the Patriot Act,  and the coming of national ID cards (May 2008) will further evaporate American civil liberties and create a fascist police state.

Very enlightening, and it would be naive to think a lot of this isn’t happening here in Canada too.