CNet runs a story earlier this week on the Democratic challengers for President, and their respective stances on various tech issues. Sadly, this article was written mainly from the perspective of tech industry groups, and had very little to say from the perspective of tech industry employees or internet users.

For instance, on the concern over the off-shoring of white-collar tech industry jobs:

“One of the concerns I have is what happens in this situation when, in their eagerness to create a policy issue, some of them have engaged in a lot of antitrade rhetoric and antiglobalization rhetoric,” said Harris Miller, president of the Information Technology Association of America (ITAA). “From the association’s perspective, it will be an ongoing concern if it turns into a hard-and-fast policy concern in the general election.”

I just now scoffed. The article then goes on to extol the virtues (as the suits in Sillicon Valley see them) of Sour Joe Lieberman, who is happy to both help ship American programming jobs overseas and to ban the sale of some violent video games. Thank god he’s almost out of the race.

Near the bottom, they get around to a consumer-advocate from EPIC, who mentions that Edwards is better than the (abysmal) average on privacy. As the capper, they call the Cato Institute “nonpartisan”. I’m scoffing again, because Dr. Lessig totally demolished this conceit this week.

Can someone explain why hardly anyone wants to do this? It seems sensible enough to me. I’m looking at some whiz-bang candidate finder, and of all the candidates in the race (including Bush) only Kerry and Sharpton favor the idea, and that only “somewhat”.

I heard on NPR Monday night that turnout at the Iowa caucuses wasn’t up to expectations, but I’m reading now that turnout may have been an all time record. Does this bode well? Iowa has open caucuses, that is, voters can declare party affiliation at the time they show up to caucus. How many of these caucus-goers were first-timers or usually unaffiliated voters? Let’s look at the poll results:

19% “independents” and 45% first-time caucus goers. Is this a nationwide trend, or just an Iowa thing? New Hampshire won’t really be a guide, since it requires voters to declare party affiliation at the time of registration. South Carolina has an open primary. Let’s hope for high turnout there.

From 411:

WWE management has told Goldberg to stop using the Jackhammer as his finisher and just stick with the Spear. WWE’s thinking is that the Spear is over and that the Jackhammer is not needed.

“Hey Bill, we’re thinking that more than six offensive moves is too many for our fans to handle. If you could be a lamb and cut down to say, the irish whip, a punch, a kick, a clothesline, and your ‘spear’, that would be great. I guess you could use a headlock too, if you get tired. Okay? Great.”

This is a shining example of how the WWE writers/bookers/management are consistently condescending to both their fans and their wrestlers. Up until the late 1990’s, Vince McMahon never lost any money by following P.T. Barnum’s maxim, “Never underestimate the stupidity of the American people.” Now, I think, the WWE is overestimating our stupidity.

I’m building one of these, and yesterday I discovered I’m going to want a hundred or so of these:

Confused? Well, it’s a “HOLDER LED PANEL 3MM BLACK NYLON”, Lumex part number SSH-LX3050.