Federal law or State law

In US, every State can make their own law, in some areas. This has advantages and disadvantages.

This model helps when we are trying to solve a problem which needs some kind of radical action. In such circumstances, adventurous State can take the first leap, recklessly, when every other States are contemplating. Such adventurous states set standard and cultivate the minds of dis-aggrieng people to accept the change. Example: Califorina seems to take a leap when it comes to environment laws, and this may convince other states to adapt atleast some of the changes.

Negative thing is, when we are trying to solve mundane problems. In these circumstances, we may end up solving same problem again and again for every State. Example:- When it comes to voting policies, every state has its own law, and a good voting system is needed, and this is something for which everyone is going to agree, so we can make a one blanket federal law to solve once for all states.

I should conclude saying that this is lay-man's view.

On Obama before the election Day

This is the first time I am blogging specifically about Obama, but have lot to say because I have tracked him consistently, and this is an email that I wrote to my friend living in India.

I do not know to what extent you are in touch with presidential election in US. I have followed this election since 2 years and understood how US presidential election works; it is made up of Primary race which is confined to a political party and eventual Presidential race. Leave these procedure aside, I am writing this to tell my views about Obama.

Saying Obama is a charismatic person is a understatement, and his continental background makes other get curious. He looks studious too. Obama has become a phenomenon is US; TV comedians call him has magician and say he has hypnotic power. Media loves Obama and so many young people. Sometime I get a feeling that supporting Obama is making me look trendy. Few thoughtful Obama supporters, who have understood candidate's policies make fun of other blind followers. I think it is these political-junkies who sit and read online newspapers, blogs understand candidate's policies.

Obama has auto biography called "Audacity of hope", and a reviewer interviewed the author(Obama), on NPR radio, and that interview went for an hour, and that is when I heard about Obama for the first time(Interview was on Diane Rehm). He sounded interesting. Then he started running for presidency and think that was 2years back. I should point out that this presidential campaign started way too early, that is nearly 2 years before the actual election day, and I have followed since then, I should say, on a daily basis.

Obama has many good qualities; he is humble when compared to other, US presidents. In some of his speeches he implied that America is not a perfect country, which one would think is a sign of modesty, but his opponents staged it as unpatriotism. Obama has spoken about integrity and has proved it, in his campaign by being civil towards his opponent and refraining from character assassination. And Obama is good at disagreeing without angering the other person and I have heard him do that many debates. Obama has not shown any intention to exploit his race, in fact he has tried to under play the role of race, and this reticence has made conventional black leaders(like Jessie Jackson) say Obama is not black enough, alluding to the fact that he was bought up by white mother (His dad, Kenyan, was black).

Obama has many qualities but he is not Gandhi, I mean does drive against wall. To give you an example, Obama's full name is Barack Hussein Obama, and he does not use his middle name very often, and I think that is because any association with Islam, including a name, is not popular in US.

Obama is a great orator; his sentences are not exotic but deliverers very effectively. I say 'effective' because it changes voters' mind. Let us go back a bit; when he started his campaign two years back, hardly anyone knew his name, and this is not surprising because he has not spent 20+ years in Washington like Hillary or McCain. Many people, who did not know him at all, have said that they decided to vote for him after listening to speech. People throng to his rallies; last week. in Colorado, he had 100 thousand people and that is not unusual for him; few months back he went on a world tour to meet world leaders, and he was more than well received in EU and middle-east. In that world tour, which was big success, he gave a speech in Berlin and 200 thousand people came to listen to it. As the election day approached, I heard listeners call radio program and tell that after hearing Obama's speech they decided to vote for him.

Obama's consistency, in past 2 years tells something about his discipline; and in past 2 years he has climbed a big mountain, inch by inch slowly showing his stamina. To become nominee of Democratic party he had to defeat Hillary Clinton; she is a such a political heavy-weight to Democratic party, Clinton is somewhat like Gandhi family is to Congress party(Note Kennadies are not that active now.). In fact Hillary Clinton thought that she is entitled to become the presidential nominee of Democratic party and she could not.

Obama has non-intrusive foreign policy; he is not planning to police the world, like George Bush or RNC; instead he wants to negotiate with Iran while his opponent, McCain wants to start war with Iran. People around the world seems to have recognised this attitude of Obama, so he was well received when he went on his world tour. In fact people outside US speak as if he is already a president. In fact, some Canadian's said "US, if you do not elect Obama, we will take him :-)".

Obama has bought so many young voters this year. Till now, youngsters were not active in politics, as if country is outsourced. Now Obama has bought back many of those. Obama he is a big hit in college campuses, there are so many teenagers working for free for his campaign. Some college students, who are working as volunteers, go to night-clubs, in the early hours, looking for eligible voters. I think 75% of people(<30yrs) are voting for Obama. There is so much enthusiasm that people make joke saying that Obama is a messiah and no wonder his opponent, McCain lessened Obama by comparing him to Britney spears and branded Obama as a rock star candidate without any meat. Obama has used Internet and text messaging effectively to keep the all those activists connected/informed. For us technology is a usual thing but it is new for politics.

And candidates have the option rising money for campaign, and Obama made a record in campaign fundraising; traditionally big corporates are the main source; and there are limited corporations and there is a limit on corporate funding too, so corporate funding saturates at some point. But Obama revolutionised fund rising by going directly to regular people, using Internet, and highest percentage of contributions are less than 200$(according to law, maximum a person can contribute is $4K ). So this model of depending on people is highly scalable, compared to depending on corporations. My colleague (an Indian) gave $700, and I gave lowly 10 :-)

Internet has played a big role in Obama's campaign. If you search in google, there are so many bloggers writing/defending Obama's policies, and those bloggers is made of professionals and armatures like you and me. This election season is like festival for bloggers; what surprises me is there are so many people like you & me doing it. And I think party with more educated members gets more bloggers; for example, Democratic party having more educated followers, has edge when it comes to Internet presence.

Internet is so crucial in organizing people for campaign, for example: if I want to work for Obama's campaign, I can go to a website, enter my ZIP code and get the address of nearest office. In any election, irrespective of roar of campaign, what matters is how many people actually vote; so parties should make sure that their supporter make time for voting. Yes, we in s/w know that technology can do many things, but very few can use this in such a mass scale and still make it sound it like a symphony.

In India we take it for granted that anybody can become Prime minister(off course, it happens because of wrong actions) but in US it has taken so many years for black person to become President, so this is going to be a historic election. Still there are people in West Virgina, who say(on BBC radio) that they are not going to for Obama because he is black. And some Jewish people think that Obama is a Muslim so do not want to vote for him. But, but, Obama seems to have turned such crowd in to minority, which is a tremendous work. And people are worried about threat Obama's life; there are people in US who can not accept black person as their president and they could resort to kill him. Many of my friends expressed concern about Obama's safety.

I am writing this because I wanted to let you know and also wanted to document for myself. I wanted to send this few weeks back but did not make time but I can prolong no more because election is on Nov 4th and I am sure Obama is going at least win if not sweep :-)

Democracy

I am not at an expert in constitution and structure of Govt. My knowledge comes by what I hear on radio.

I believe both US and Indian democracies should be decent, but Indian democracy if drenched in corruption. The load of corruption is makes one feel that they are not living in on; it is a window with think coat of dust. If some one can clean that, for which we may need a miracle, then citizen would *really* see the power of democracy. Voting does not make a place, democratic.

In US it feels the people really have rights because one can it working; so feels like you are living in a democracy. What is the use of democratic constitution, however stellar it is, if it is just limited to paper?

May be it was my ignorance, in Bangalore I always felt that Govt. is entitled to access every bit of my information, but in US rules are very different; till they came up with 'Patriotic Act' Govt. did not have free access to public libraries records.
And when Govt. fails protect people from morality police, like Shiva sena, democracy looks useless.

Sex laden TV shows breed teen pregnancy-Solution

Sex laden TV shows breed teen pregnancy... Link

Well, i suggest viewers, young and old, should wear condom before turning on the TV.