<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1"?>
<rss version="2.0">
  <channel>
    <title>Gary Kleppe&#039;s Web Site</title>
    <link>http://www.garykleppe.org/</link>
    <description>Gary Kleppe&#039;s personal Web Site</description>
    <language>en-us</language>           
    <generator>Nucleus CMS v3.64</generator>
    <copyright>Ã¯Â¿Â½</copyright>             
    <category>Weblog</category>
    <docs>http://backend.userland.com/rss</docs>
    <image>
      <url>http://www.garykleppe.org//nucleus/nucleus2.gif</url>
      <title>Gary Kleppe&#039;s Web Site</title>
      <link>http://www.garykleppe.org/</link>
    </image>
    <item>
 <title>Dear Republicans</title>
 <link>http://www.garykleppe.org/index.php?itemid=91</link>
<description><![CDATA[<img src="images/mittbaker.jpg"/><br />
"I am the nominee, whether you like it or not."]]></description>
 <category>Stuff</category>
<comments>http://www.garykleppe.org/index.php?itemid=91</comments>
 <pubDate>Tue, 10 Jan 2012 15:10:25 -0600</pubDate>
</item><item>
 <title>Endorsed: Greg Brownfield for State Senate District 23</title>
 <link>http://www.garykleppe.org/index.php?itemid=90</link>
<description><![CDATA[<img style="float: right; padding: 0px 0px 15px 15px" src="http://yorkdemocrats.org/images/brownfield.jpg"/><br />
This race is already shaping up as one of the more active state ones in the area, with three Democratic candidates and two on the other side. For what it's worth, I endorse <a href="http://gregbrownfield.org/" target="_blank">Greg Brownfield</a> over <a href="http://www.allenforillinois.com/" target="_blank">Kevin Allen</a> and <a href="http://www.tomcullertonforsenate.com/" target="_blank">Thomas Cullerton</a>.<br />
<br />
Having worked as a legal aid attorney giving free advice to people who can't afford a lawyer, Greg Brownfield knows first-hand how the wrecked economy is affecting people. He talks about a compassion deficit, the obligation of government to the needy which is as important as its other debts; we must not balance the state's books on the backs of the most vulnerable. Brownfield is also highly skilled at bringing together large crowds of motivated volunteers, a skill that our nominee will surely need in order to take on someone with the resources of a Pankau or Ramey.<br />
<br />
Each of the candidates in this primary has something valuable to offer. Kevin Allen is a friend, a smart guy who's been active for years in local politics against the Republican machine. Tom Cullerton is the best village president that Villa Park has seen for quite some time. Either of them would make a fine State Senator, and I'd be happy to support either of them after the primary. But until then, Brownfield is endorsed.]]></description>
 <category>Local politics</category>
<comments>http://www.garykleppe.org/index.php?itemid=90</comments>
 <pubDate>Tue, 6 Dec 2011 16:01:58 -0600</pubDate>
</item><item>
 <title>Quick fixes that are actually no fix at all</title>
 <link>http://www.garykleppe.org/index.php?itemid=88</link>
<description><![CDATA[There's an email going around listing some ideas that will supposedly reform Congress. The email attributes its contents to gazillionaire investor Warren Buffet, but in actuality, Buffet only suggested the first idea in the email; the rest are by some anonymous author who evidently felt it necessary to appropriate Buffet's name.<br />
<br />
The email, with my own arguments against what it proposes, is below. I should mention that I have no great regard for (the current) Congress, especially <a href="http://roskam.house.gov/" target="_blank">my current member</a> who I regard as one of the biggest dirtbags on the planet.<blockquote>Warren Buffett, in a recent interview with CNBC, offers one of the best quotes about the debt ceiling: "I could end the deficit in 5 minutes," he told CNBC. "You just pass a law that says that anytime there is a deficit of more than 3% of GDP, all sitting members of Congress are ineligible for re-election."</blockquote><br />
<br />
It's a nice, feel-good thought, until you think about what effect it would really have. There's already a so-called "revolving door" whereby people leave Congress and go to work for corporations for whom they did favors while in office. So the money-friendly variety of Congressman wouldn't be terribly inconvenienced by this, and the people supplying the cash could always find new people to replace the old ones. Meanwhile, those few Congress members who do stick up for their constituents, the Barbara Lees and the Dennis Kuciniches, would also be gone, even if they personally didn't vote for the upper-income tax cuts and military spending that ballooned the deficit, and they're much more difficult to replace.<br />
<br />
But let's skip down to the details of what this anonymous author is proposing:<br />
<blockquote>Congressional Reform Act of 2011<br />
1. No Tenure / No Pension.<br />
A Congressman collects a salary while in office and receives no pay when they are out of office.<br />
<br />
2. Congress (past, present & future) participates in Social Security.<br />
<br />
All funds in the Congressional retirement fund move to the Social Security system immediately. All future funds flow into the Social Security system, and Congress participates with the American people. It may not be used for any other purpose.<br />
<br />
3. Congress can purchase their own retirement plan, just as all Americans do.<br />
<br />
4. Congress will no longer vote themselves a pay raise. Congressional pay will rise by the lower of CPI or 3%.<br />
<br />
5. Congress loses their current health care system and participates in the same health care system as the American people.</blockquote><br />
<br />
(Here should be a clue that Buffet did not write this. With all of his money he can surely afford a proofreader who understands that "loses" is singular and "their" is plural and that the two forms don't go together. But anyway.)<br />
<br />
The American people typically receive health care coverage, if at all, through their employers as part compensation for doing their jobs. The job of a Congress member is Congress member. So arguably, they are already participating in the same system.<br />
<br />
But obviously the intent of this is that Congress members should buy health coverage on the open market. This is another terrible idea. Congress is already something of a millionaire's club. It's already extremely difficult to get into Congress if you aren't wealthy and aren't sponsored by someone who is. This would take it from difficult to nigh-impossible.<br />
<br />
What Congress <b>should</b> do is pass single-payer Medicare for All, to make health coverage a public service rather than a purchased commodity. Most other countries have done this, and they spend a fraction of what we do while getting better results.<br />
<br />
<blockquote>6. Congress must equally abide by all laws they impose on the American people.<br />
<br />
7. All contracts with past and present Congressmen are void effective 1/1/12. The American people did not make this contract with Congressmen. Congressmen made all these contracts for themselves. Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, so ours should serve their term(s), then go home and back to work.</blockquote><br />
<br />
See above. Of course, if something more or less worked in 1793, it must work now, because not much has changed since then, right?<br />
<br />
<blockquote>If each person contacts a minimum of twenty people then it will only take three days for most people (in the U.S.) to receive the message. Maybe it is time.<br />
<br />
THIS IS HOW YOU FIX CONGRESS!!!!!</blockquote><br />
<br />
No. No, it isn't. It really isn't. And adding more exclamation points doesn't make it more true.<br />
<br />
Having publicly-financed elections would go a long way towards fixing Congress. If I hand my Congressman a thousand dollars to persuade him to vote my way, that's bribery, and both he and I would go to jail for it. In a sane world, supplying a thousand dollars to his campaign fund would be treated the same way. Paying for campaigns would cost the public a lot less than the money that gets wasted in order to keep the private campaign dollars rolling.<br />
<br />
But ultimately the only solution is for people to be informed and to pay attention. This letter writer obviously wants a quick fix, rule changes that he can put in place and then walk away. <b>There is no quick fix.</b> We can't have any sort of meaningful democracy unless people are engaged to the point where they can cut through the wall of bullshit.<br />
<br />
<blockquote>If you agree with the above, pass it on. If not, just delete. You are one of my 20+.. Please keep it going.</blockquote><br />
<br />
"If you agree with me, speak up. If you don't, shut up." Wonderful.<br />
<br />
]]></description>
 <category>Issues</category>
<comments>http://www.garykleppe.org/index.php?itemid=88</comments>
 <pubDate>Mon, 7 Nov 2011 14:06:29 -0600</pubDate>
</item><item>
 <title>A Tale of Two Atrocities</title>
 <link>http://www.garykleppe.org/index.php?itemid=86</link>
<description><![CDATA[<img src="/images/eldrup.jpg" style="float:left; padding-right: 15px;" />Ran a <a href="http://www.dailyherald.com/article/20111018/news/710189721/" target="_blank">torture camp for dogs</a>, using her own money. Sentenced to thirty months in jail.<br />
<div style="clear: both; height: 10px;"></div><br />
<img src="/images/george_dick.jpg" style="float:left; padding-right: 15px;" />Ran a torture camp for human beings, using public money. Left free and given fat pensions.<br />
<div style="clear: both; height: 10px;"></div><br />
Moral: Never use your own money.<br />
]]></description>
 <category>Issues</category>
<comments>http://www.garykleppe.org/index.php?itemid=86</comments>
 <pubDate>Wed, 19 Oct 2011 09:45:52 -0500</pubDate>
</item><item>
 <title>It&apos;s not just the law...</title>
 <link>http://www.garykleppe.org/index.php?itemid=84</link>
<description><![CDATA[...it's a really, really good idea:<br />
<blockquote>No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, <b>nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law;</b> nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.</blockquote><br />
(Emphasis added, of course.)<br />
<br />
This applies to people regardless of whether we like them, whether they like us, whether they like our country, or whether people of similar skin color and religious background once carried out an attack against our country.<br />
<br />
It applies to everyone, because if it doesn't then it applies to no one.]]></description>
 <category>Issues</category>
<comments>http://www.garykleppe.org/index.php?itemid=84</comments>
 <pubDate>Fri, 30 Sep 2011 12:50:10 -0500</pubDate>
</item><item>
 <title>Promoting Violence?</title>
 <link>http://www.garykleppe.org/index.php?itemid=82</link>
<description><![CDATA[<img src="http://www.rawstory.com/rs//wp-content/uploads/2011/07/yt_mitchell_book_110718a.jpg" style="float: left; width:250px; height: 165px; margin-right: 10px;"/>From <a href="http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/07/18/google-suspends-for-book-critical-of-atomic-bomb-cover-up/" target="_blank">Raw Story</a>:<br />
<blockquote>Greg Mitchell's new book, Atomic Cover-Up: Two U.S. Soldiers, Hiroshima & Nagasaki and The Greatest Movie Never Made, is the first to be devoted to the historic full-color footage that was covered up by the U.S. government for decades.<br />
<br />
Google's "ad word team" notified Mitchell Monday that an online ad for the book's video trailer was being suspended because it "promotes violence."<br />
<br />
"At this time, Google policy does not permit the advertisement of websites that contain the promotion of violence," an email to Mitchell said. "As noted in our advertising terms and conditions, Google may refuse any ads or terminate any of your ad campaigns at any time, for any reason."</blockquote><br />
<br />
You can watch the video trailer at the Raw Story link above. At no point does it advocate violence against anyone. By exposing the harm that war can cause, it might in some small way help to deter violence.<br />
<br />
A lot of people think of Google as a benign alternative to some of the more obviously scummy corporations like Microsoft. They aren't. When it comes to corporations of that size, there's no such thing as benign. Think about this before you decide to trust them with custody of your email or any other documents.]]></description>
 <category>Issues</category>
<comments>http://www.garykleppe.org/index.php?itemid=82</comments>
 <pubDate>Mon, 18 Jul 2011 15:38:51 -0500</pubDate>
</item><item>
 <title>Microsoft: &quot;Give us free money, or else&quot;</title>
 <link>http://www.garykleppe.org/index.php?itemid=79</link>
<description><![CDATA[<img src="images/vercotti01.jpg" style="float:right; padding: 10px;"/>Via <a href="http://blogs.forbes.com/timothylee/2011/07/07/microsofts-android-shakedown/" target="_blank">Forbes</a>:<br />
<blockquote>In the 1980s, attorney Gary Reback was working at Sun Microsystems, then a young technology startup. A pack of IBM employees in blue suits showed up at Sun headquarters seeking royalties for 7 patents that IBM claimed Sun had infringed. The Sun employees, having examined the patents, patiently explained that six of the seven patents were likely invalid, and Sun clearly hadn’t infringed the seventh.... An awkward silence ensued. The blue suits did not even confer among themselves. They just sat there, stonelike. Finally, the chief suit responded. “OK,” he said, “maybe you don’t infringe these seven patents. But we have 10,000 U.S. patents. Do you really want us to go back... and find seven patents you do infringe? Or do you want to make this easy and just pay us $20 million?” After a modest bit of negotiation, Sun cut IBM a check, and the blue suits went to the next company on their hit list.<br />
<br />
Android has roughly 10 million lines of code. Auditing 10 million lines of code for compliance with 18,000 patents is an impossible task—especially because the meaning of a patent’s claims are often not clear until after they have been litigated. Most Silicon Valley companies don’t even try to avoid infringing patents. They just ignore them and hope they’ll be able to afford good lawyers when the inevitable lawsuits arrive.<br />
<br />
So Android, like every large software product on the planet, infringes numerous Microsoft patents. And Microsoft is taking full advantage. They’re visiting Android licensees and giving the same sales pitch Reback remembers from a quarter century ago. “Do you really want us to go back to Redmond and find patents you infringe? Or do you want to make this easy and just pay us?” Once again, many of the targets are writing checks to make the problem go away.</blockquote><br />
<br />
In software development, in which I myself am gainfully employed, you often find that there's one clear best way of doing something. You may reinvent it without knowing or caring who did it before you. Should that entitle the first person to solve the problem &mdash; or the person who patented the solution, who probably wasn't actually the first &mdash; to free money from you? That's a bit like saying that I need to cut a check to Karl Fredric Gauss' decendants every time I solve for three unknowns in three linear equations.<br />
<br />
Microsoft, of course, doesn't follow its own rules. The Win-D'Ohs operating system borrowed heavily from Mac OS and OS-2. The .NET platform is basically Java with some not-very-useful extra features thrown in. And so on. You'd be hard-pressed to find any product these guys put out that somebody else didn't do first, usually better, and almost always cheaper.<br />
<br />
So to all the readers out there -- yes, both of you -- please don't buy any Microsoft products. If you need a PC, get <a href="http://www.ubuntu.com/" target="_blank">Ubuntu</a> instead. After all, Microsoft will get your money anyway.]]></description>
 <category>Software</category>
<comments>http://www.garykleppe.org/index.php?itemid=79</comments>
 <pubDate>Fri, 8 Jul 2011 10:30:52 -0500</pubDate>
</item><item>
 <title>Support your local sheriff, and he will support you</title>
 <link>http://www.garykleppe.org/index.php?itemid=77</link>
<description><![CDATA[The <a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ct-met-sheriff-contributions-20110707,0,7220623.story" target="_blank">Chicago Tribune</a> reports on activities of DuPage County Sheriff John Zaruba that would be considered endemic of rampant corruption if Cook County Democrats did them:<br />
<blockquote><ul><li>The Zaruba campaign has regularly sent letters to employees seeking donations&mdash;helping him raise a much larger portion of his campaign cash from deputies than other current sheriffs. Scores of his employees also have done campaign work.</li><li>Political supporters were more likely to receive promotions&mdash;at times over peers who scored higher on tests and job reviews. He promoted one supporter over more than 20 higher-ranking deputies.</li><li>Political supporters also have been more likely to receive lighter discipline in recent years than nonsupporters. One federal suit alleging favoritism led to a $65,000 settlement, while other suits are pending.</li></ul></blockquote><br />
Sadly, there will probably be no consequences for Mr. Zaruba, since the first law of DuPage government is that there are never any consequences for anything.]]></description>
 <category>Local politics</category>
<comments>http://www.garykleppe.org/index.php?itemid=77</comments>
 <pubDate>Thu, 7 Jul 2011 15:10:45 -0500</pubDate>
</item><item>
 <title>Peter Roskam tells me everything he knows about job creation</title>
 <link>http://www.garykleppe.org/index.php?itemid=75</link>
<description><![CDATA[An actual screen shot from my email this morning (with a me-specific link blocked out):<br />
<img src="/images/rawscum.jpg" style="width: 600px; margin: 20px 0px;" /><br />
My "nohtml" address filters out HTML formatting and only leaves the text part of the message. It's possible that Roskam's people only filled in the HTML part of the message and left the text one empty. Or they might have sent a blank message by accident. It happens. Can't really blame them for that.<br />
<br />
But symbolically, this is too perfect to pass up. There's only one job that Mr. Roskam really cares about: his own. In order to keep his job, he serves the big-money interests that bankroll his campaign. These interests have no desire to see jobs created; they <b>like</b> a high level of unemployment, because it keeps working people too hungry and desperate to effectively fight for their rights.<br />
<br />
No doubt if the text of this message had come through, it would have talked about big, scary debt; how we need to destroy Medicare in order to save it; how we need more tax cuts for the rich and austerity for everybody else. These policies won't do anything to create jobs or reduce the debt, as we should know by now from experience. But they're what will benefit Mr. Roskam's sugar daddies, so he tries to con us into thinking they're for our own good.<br />
<br />
Thankfully, I'm being redistricted out of Mr. Roskam's neighborhood, and come November might be represented in Congress by somebody with some basic decency.<br />
]]></description>
 <category>Local politics</category>
<comments>http://www.garykleppe.org/index.php?itemid=75</comments>
 <pubDate>Tue, 7 Jun 2011 08:06:21 -0500</pubDate>
</item><item>
 <title>I&apos;ve been elected galactic emperor!</title>
 <link>http://www.garykleppe.org/index.php?itemid=73</link>
<description><![CDATA[Really! I know it's odd that I hadn't said anything before now. But there were these 140,737,488,355,327 votes for me in a file that I was editing in TextPad, and I forgot to save it. Good thing I eventually noticed.]]></description>
 <category>Issues</category>
<comments>http://www.garykleppe.org/index.php?itemid=73</comments>
 <pubDate>Fri, 8 Apr 2011 10:22:36 -0500</pubDate>
</item>
  </channel>
</rss>
