Hmm… Which would you choose?

Rather than surrendering to the din of yellin’ and hollerin’ about revisionist “return to American values”, the Comedy Central pundits Jon-Jon and Ste-Re have offered, through a curious in-show marketing ploy, to hold their tandem demonstrations in Washington, DC on the National Mall.

The date: October 30, 2010.

The significance of the date: Meh.

Who should attend: If you’re curious, then you.

Perhaps it is time to bring back the core American values of common sense and moderation, either through some rational discussion and entertainment, or using extreme-burnout methods. Any takers?

So there’s the Rally to Restore Sanity, and the March to Keep Fear Alive. Take your pick, folks. Your nation will thank you. Later. Sometime. Maybe.

Yes, today is St. Patrick’s Day. It is also the day that, in a humorous bent, many people refer to each other as Irish-Americans in the U.S., as an inclusive way to harmonize with other festivity-goers for the holiday.

For me, however, it holds a deeper significance, since it reminds me of why I participate as a voter in the election process and why I try to stay current on a lot of local, state, and federal politics as it pertains to the people. Today in particular is the twentieth year anniversary of the day when I was sworn in as an American citizen. During the swearing ceremony, the judge went on record, in a jovial manner, to say that everybody being sworn in was decreed to be Irish-Americans and, like all Americans, would be expected to uphold the laws of the nation and are granted the privileges to participate in its governance. Since then, I have certainly kept myself as informed as possible about the current events and spent my time at the polling stations like all of my other comrade voters.

However, I’ve also overheard plenty of people who have grumbled about how “lousy” things are going for them because of politicians and their various hijinks and misadventures– quite reminiscent of the same chatter that reality TV shows frequently garner around the water cooler. But then these same complainers proudly proclaim that they do not vote because they do not want to waste their time voting for things that “do not matter” to them.

Unlike many of these individuals, I was not born into American citizenship; instead, I had earn it through the lengthy naturalization process and, through that process, I learned how precious and valuable that citizenship is. So, while today is one of festivity and to commemorate Saint Patrick (who was also not a native of the country that he is well-known for proselytizing in)… it is also a solemn day for me to reflect upon the American political process and how citizenship can impact how the nation functions.

Maybe this ought to be called “the FUD Edition”, Part II… After one year, remember the first FUD Edition?

As we count down the minutes to the start of 2010, let’s review some of the things that have captivated us (for lack of a better term) over the course of 2009:

• The world economy, and certainly the US economy, with odd “jobless recovery” seen in some of sectors in the stock market;
• Moderate improvement in gas prices and a lot of backpedaling from doom-and-gloom environmental prognosticators;
• Slow real estate recovery in a few select regions in the US market, leading pundits to wonder whether 2011, not 2010, is the year that consumers
• More revelations of of financial misdeeds at a variety of ostensibly “reputable” financial firms, all while their executives are cashing in BIG-TIME with huge bonuses and salary raises;
• Continued car industry collapses in the US due to [insert-your-reason-here], and attempts by a few of the big-name companies to return to relevancy in the minds of consumers, despite lackluster achievements in energy saving technologies;
• Further disastrous job loss woes in the US, depending on whom you ask… some people see the continued worsening as the unemployment rate surpasses 10% and even more people completely drop out of attempting to find jobs;
• Crazy reality show stunts, and stunts for publicity by certain individuals that revealed serious national security deficits, including at the White House itself;
• Active and even more planned tax hikes in various US jurisdictions;
• Return of the blockbuster gaming phenomenon, such as Modern Warfare 2 and Borderlands;
• …

And you can certainly add more items to the list.

So: the wrap-up message for 2009 has just got to be…

Better luck next year, and thanks for all the fish!

It’s been several years since a massive, crushing snowstorm hit the Washington, DC area, so I suppose you could say that it was long overdue.

Given the craziness of the Congressional struggle over healthcare benefits this week (which appears to be the political version of last-minute cramming for an exam, rather than steady, deliberative, organized studying) and the continued poor economic performance across multiple sectors and lackluster retail sales, having a respite in the form of severe bad weather may be a blessing in disguise.

A few minutes ago, Barack Obama began announcing that Chrysler enters Chapter 11 bankruptcy, but with the support of the agreeable lenders and shareholders, with JP Morgan, Fiat [FIATY], Daimler (Mercedes-Benz) [DAI], the Canadian government, Chrysler management, and the unions onboard with the announcement.

This is certainly interesting: there is a hoped-for accelerated reorganization that, Obama mentioned, would “deal” with the hold-out money lenders (while he did not name any specific targets, Obama mentioned hedge fund managers and “certain” investment banks). In the meantime, greener tech from Fiat is expected to be imported into Chrysler to jump start innovation in the company, with the expectation that newer, more fuel-efficient and ecology-friendly products would be released.

Bob Nardelli on CNBC interview, 4/30/2009

N.B.

Robert Nardelli, the current CEO of Chrysler, is expected to leave once the company leaves Chapter 11 (good or ill).

No way out?

After days of intense haranguing, negotiations, tirades, tentative agreements, and lots of other drama, it seems that there are a few key money lenders in Chrysler that are refusing to deal with the federal government, the unions, Fiat, other shareholders, and other interested parties. Thus, it appears that, without that last minute change-of-heart, Chrysler will be entering into Chapter 11 shortly.

This would change the landscape of the automotive industry in the US…

A Little Bit:

Today is declared by the U.S. State Department to be “Passport Day in the USA”, which launches a new outreach program to encourage U.S. citizens to acquire and/or update their travel documents, as part of the larger Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative. Additionally, appointments and “expedite passport” fees are waived for today only.

Unfortunately, for most people, getting everything ready to go to approach their nearest agency location in a matter of hours’ or (in some cases) minutes’ notice will be tricky and difficult at best.

I managed to catch part of the broadcast of Obama’s town hall meeting earlier today. It was quite interesting in the response from the public, especially those who were leveraging the Internet to tap into it and, in some cases, actually pose questions for the President to answer. The town hall meeting was touted by news outlets as being generally successful and allows for better accessibility to Obama.

But, as I was driving and contemplating various mobile security exploits that nefarious people typically and not-so-typically employ, I began wondering: does the White House IT staff carefully screen and track the Internet traffic for identity purposes for things like online town hall meetings?

After all, in the realm of influencing U.S. politics from abroad, a new emerging trend is for offshore entities to use new and established botnets and traffic redirectors to impersonate the American public. In addition to outright criminal enterprises, manipulating the perceptions of American politicians by pretending to be their constituents will most likely continue to escalate as interest continues to gather in the wake of decreasing prosecution (and in some cases, reversal of guilty verdicts) for spamming and online identity fraud. 

Other countries have realized that controlling the critical access points to their segments of the Internet is key to managing and monitoring traffic. This has been detailed in literature before, like in Who Controls the Internet?: Illusions of a Borderless World (an excellent read, if you have the time).

Management Perspective

There is definitely a place for gathering and evaluating international sentiment and attitudes toward the U.S. government and the American people; but there is also a great need for accuracy when collecting information, including public opinions, from people who should be the American public. Leveraging appropriate cybersecurity measures to guarantee that people are exactly who they claim to be is critical to properly monitoring and basing decisions upon online traffic and interactivity.

N.B.

It has been several months since we attempted to populate the Amazon-based storefront…

For those of you who are not aware (yet), I– and many other Mac users– am a frequent user of the Adium (or AdiumX) messaging client. Originally, I used it for AIM, but eventually branched out to the other supported services.

As Zac has mentioned, however, Twitter support will be making an appearance soon as an Adium feature, with the next major release: 1.4. This is apparently a frequently requested feature and, since the massive upsurge in tweeting among the Washington insider crowd and reporters, this will be a much desired capability.

During today’s interview of Geithner by the Senate panel for the upcoming financial fixes, Mark Warner (D-VA) made a notable comment about how there should be a strong expectation that Geithner and his department must provide transparency quickly to the public about how the TARP monies have been spent and how the new heavy-duty econo-package (the new USD $800,000,000,000+ plan that Obama is trying to pass) is going to be expended. Additionally, Mark is also looking for details about the financial returns coming back from the purchases that the federal governement made, as well as where those funds are being placed and how that relates to helping out Americans.

Geithner acknowledged that a lot of work has to be done to get that information ready and available, but he pledged to doing so. Furthermore, the data would be provided on a public Web site. Mark tossed in that the site should be relatively user friendly and understandable, in addition to being accurate and timely.

Out of all of the comments from the senators, this one appears to be the only one that directly addresses how to use evidence-based information as a way to regain the faith that the American public had placed on the new administration. It also is the only statement about how current technology should be used to facilitate the communications pathway between the insulated government and the (very) anxious people.