It’s About Making Babies!

I found an interesting note on what a few web designers considered important, leading up to yesterday’s election:

Nathan Steiner took a closer look at the candidates’ technology positions, and writes:

Just for fun, compare the first google results for “Obama on technology” vs. “McCain on technology.” Obama’s result leads to his own page on the subject, which includes three clear and important priorities: net neutrality, broadband for everyone, and grants for research. McCain’s result leads to a third party site listing his positions on technology, most of which reveal a generic focus on financial and taxing issues. I don’t believe that either candidate would be considerably better or worse on issues directly related to web developers, but Obama has shown an understanding of the power of social networks and how to hook-up a grass-roots financing campaign into the web with unprecedented success. It seems that the health of the web as it relates to US business interests would greatly benefit from a president who understood it as clearly as the Obama camp does.

and another:

Finally, spare a thought for this guy:

I currently work for a company that relies pretty heavily on large enterprise customers and government agencies. So how those organizations’ spending is affected by the policies set by government, and however directly or indirectly by the person sitting in the Oval Office does affect my company, my job, and any rewards I may earn as a result of our success. So ironically while I am very politically liberal in beliefs and in how I vote (I’m a Green Party member who votes Democrat), my company may benefit from policy makers who benefit large corporations, which I am generally opposed to.

Of course, changing from Bush to Obama I expect to see a flurry of ‘affirmative action’, crony sweetheart deals, and an overall swing from the companies doing business with Defense and the the government to benefit all the big-money types, like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, for instance – remember Obama, the Black Congressional Office, and today’s (returning) Democrat-led Congress created the credit crisis – that contributed so heavily and drove the Obama Campaign Train.

Speaking of credit, I expect to see a lot of increase in the cost of doing business, and especially in the cost of credit. Accepting credit cards will be more risky. Credit Card companies already penalize – heavily – merchants for ‘bad’ credit purchases. Initially the drive was $25k here and $25k penalties there to “stem the use of credit cards for porn” – but it turned out to be really, really lucrative for MasterCard. So many small businesses have had to really think twice about taking credit cards.

This may complicate billing practices. We may be looking at 60-90 day cycles to get monthly bills paid. At the same time that Obama promises to quadruple our electric bill. According to Sharon at Casaubon’s Book, electric companies have been disconnecting for non-payment at an accelerating rate the last year or two, anyway, as real buying power keeps declining and electricity costs have risen.

The Democrat-led Congress just pushed through a sweetheart DRM (Digital Rights Management) bill that favors Hollywood and (inept) Big Music companies. And penalizes the average US citizen. With a Democratic Obama in the white house, privacy rights and copyrights and software patents may or may not change character – and may or may not seriously impair whether America is allowed to maintain a serious Internet presence, outside of Obama’s cronies and government sites, of course.

Labor unions have traditionally favored the Democratic party, and opposed doing business with employers. But this election cycle the unions have been relatively quiet, at least around my little corner of America. Will a Democratic white house restore labor unions to power – and will that, as in the past, raise the cost of doing business for employers, raise product prices, and escalate the current inflation cycle?

Not that nothing Obama has said has anything to do with raising wages, increasing buying power, or preserving what works today.

At least, it won’t start until January 21, 2009. Until then Barack Obama, Senator of the US Congress for four years without accomplishing anything but accepting $126,000 from Fannie Mae and protecting Fannie Mae interests, is still President-Elect. And that doesn’t actually occur until the Electoral College meets and votes.

There were a lot of reports of electronic voting that went awry, Pennsylvania’s violations of federal court rulings imposing Republican monitors to assure massive voter fraud was detected, and the apparent time, about 10 days? for Alaska to complete it’s vote count. It may be apparent, but the election hasn’t actually faded from attention just yet.