Jason Aaron Kiesel

The current regime of Senators and Congressmen(women) need an attitude adjustment. I read recently that there is on OpenCongress' Blog that there is a Senator blocking the nomination of the watchdog protecting our $700 Billion bailout of the financial industry. Why would this person want to remain in secrecy? My guess is that he's got some big banking lobbyists backing him up.

The report goes on to say that Senator Jim Bunning is the one that is suspected of blocking the vote. He's quoted as saying, "I wonder why taxpayers should have to pay $50 million to a watchdog who will have nothing to watch."

Maybe someone should write this guy a letter and "encourage" him to get off his high horse and start representing the people that elected him. It's attitudes like this that upset so many Americans. He's basically said that we should just "trust" the financial community with the $700 Billion. Yeah right. I'm going to settle for some accountability and transparency.

The total tally of the bailouts is up to over $4 Trillion. Yes, that's trillion with a "T". Seriously, why don't they just give every American $25,000 and call it a day? This is just stupid. I am constantly reminded of both the stupidity and hypocracy of our elected officials.

Normally, I'm quite elated when I'm right about things (which would explain my typically 'happy' demeanor). This time, however, it's a bit different. I've been reading some numbers regarding the voter turnout for the 2008 Presidential election, an election that has lived up to the historic proportions predicted.

From what I can find, voter turnout in 2004 (George W. Bush v. John Kerry) was 125 Million (my sources are listed at the bottom). In 2008, my sources indicate the same number for voter turnout – 125 Million. This would mean that the voter turnout actually decreased due to the 6.1 million increase in eligible voters in 2008. It's of considerable note as well how I calculate the percentage. I am basing voter turnout on total eligible voters from the entire US population, regardless of voter registrations.

So while I am happy to have participated and voted in this monumental Presidential election, this data only further reinforces my notion that people still really don't care. "Transforming Civic Engagement" is one of the foundations for why I created FreedomSpeaks. Can we as a nation ever get to a voter turnout of 65% or even 75%? I can't answer that question, but I am confident FreedomSpeaks can be a significant factor in getting us there.

Sources: http://delicious.com/DotNetAllDay/turnout

For all of you that joined FreedomSpeaks and Causecast last night, thank you for making it a truly memorable event. We voted, and then we partied late into the night. And we got to watch President Elect Barack Obama give his acceptance speech on monster 10' screens. Thanks again everyone. It was great to see the people taking an interest in the political process again. I hope we can keep that momentum for future elections!

I think this about sums it up perfectly.

A friend of mine recently emailed me a link to a website on the "profits" that Exxon Mobil makes. His subject headline read, "we should keep giving them tax breaks". He was, of course, being sarcastic with his subject and was implying that it's ludicrous to give such a huge, powerful corporation additional tax breaks. He feels, I think, that we should be taxing them more. After all, they are evil. Tsk, tsk.

It just so happened, though, that on my way to work this morning, I was listening to conservative talk radio and this very subject came up. The host made the point that Exxon Mobil has been paying more tax very much in line with the increased revenues. Makes sense, right? You make more money, you pay more taxes.

I checked it out online and this is what I found. Exxon Mobil's earnings before tax in 2006 was $67.4 Billion (this is total revenue). That year, they paid out $27.9 Billion in taxes. That's a 41% tax rate. The same rates held true for 2007. The highest personal income tax rate is currently 35%. I'd say their tax rate is more than fair.

The fact is, Exxon Mobil is a GLOBAL company, and does business in many countries. Oil, as it turns out, is in high demand, and not just by the United States. China and India have increased their consumption of oil exponentially over the past two decades. Simple economic theory dictates that prices go up. So while I do feel it (and I mean personally) at the pump when gas is $4 / gallon, I can't blame the oil company. I blame myself for not investing in a car that doesn't use gasoline. I'd like my next car to be run completely on electricity. If you want to really stick it to the mean, evil corporations, don't buy their products. But don't increase their tax rate because they actually make a profit. That sounds a lot like Communism to me.

Additional References:
 - http://www.taxfoundation.org/blog/show/2195.html

My friend Kurt Daradics & Baron Miller are having their monthly MOTM tonight. They’ve asked me to present my site, FREEDOMSPEAKS.COM and I’m honored by their invitation. The night will start off with drinks and networking, followed by my presentation, some Q&A, and finally some more networking. I hope to see everyone there. It should be a great night. More info follows:

When: Tonight, October 28th @ 8:00 PM
Where: Suki 7 in Westlake Village, CA
Who’s Going? Everyone who’s cool…

Be sure to bring a stack of your business cards!

I read a post on a voting system report being sealed. This seems pretty simple to me. If it has anything to do with our government (barring, of course, national security), it should be made COMPLETELY transparent and available for inspection/accountability. Why on earth do these voting machine companies want to make their technology proprietary? Government systems should be built on the premise of open source, and this is a perfect application of that.

This madness has got to stop. Feel free to write your representative on this! I know I will.

I'm sorry, but these recent bailouts authored by Secretary of the Treasury Robert Paulson are absolutely ridiculous. When all is said and done, we'll have spent almost $1 Trilion! Yes, that's right people. That's trillion with a capital "T". I'm not the only one that's upset about this. Apparently, most citizens think our government just prints out more money when we need to fund something. This, tragically, could not be further from the truth.

The billions and billions our government is spending to bail these PRIVATE companies out belongs to the taxpayers of this great nation. Isn't our economy based on free markets? Should companies be able to succeed and fail without government intervention? What happens when the top level executives get their golden parachutes amounting to tens of millions of dollars when these bailouts go through? If you want my opinion, they should be put in jail and barred forever from the financial industry.

One of FreedomSpeaks' members wrote a pretty good letter on this subject (I've quoted him/her in some spots here). I think this is a pretty non-partisan issue, so I'm passing their letter on to you. Have a look and forward it to your own reps. This is a perfect example of government waste. Another trillion of our taxpayer dollars are now down the drain and the middle class has nothing to show for it. Great job politicians! Get us further in debt so the Chinese can buy more of our valuable assets.

I just read Scoble's incinerating post on the less than spectacular demos for DEMO this year and I have to say, I agree with him wholeheartedly. I went through most of them and was unimpressed as well. I hate to be dismissive or negative, but I'm not really seeing much innovation lately, and this isn't the first time I've written about it (see my previous post on TwiistUp 4).

I did come across something interesting amongst the demo'ers. A site called crowdspring.com caught my eye, mainly because I have a design background and good design always me double take. On first glance, the designs they were showcasing were actually pretty good (logos, branding, etc.) and the quotes the designs were being submitted for relatively low (under a $1000). It's hard to find good designers and even harder to find inexpensive good designers. I think I'll be using this service in the future.

I won't blast Scoble for being honest. To all the startups out there, I have some advice – take it or leave it. Just because you are a startup, doesn't mean your site should look like crap. Since you are a startup, your site is really the only thing people are going to judge you on. Make it look nice, and don't let your engineers design it. Get a designer to do it, it's well worth the added cost (and the cost isn't always as outrageous as you think).

Great post Scoble. I'm glad someone is being candid and getting through the buzzwords and bull****.