Why I am Voting This Time Around 2

“Obfuscation” used to be my favorite word. A perfect onomatopoeia; when I used it, people would look at me quizzically, “Say, what . . .?” Now, thanks to the Bush Administration, everyone knows what the word means. Just another thing they've ruined for me.

It’s personal.

Whenever I watch President Bush speak on TV, I see worms squirming around in his mouth. Obviously, this is an extreme reaction, and I am such a hard-core anti-Bushite that there would be no dissuading me. However, this near-psychotic reaction to the President is a bit extreme, even for me.

One day the answer came to me as I pondered my past career. I know where these strong feelings come from.

It’s personal. So let me tell you some personal history.

In the 1980’s, when I foolishly tried to run my own company, a small corporation named Microsoft came into being. Even though their technology was inferior to what I was working with, everywhere I went to sell my wares I was asked “Is it Microsoft compatible?” “Of course not,” I’d reply, “This computer is better than that one in every way!” This was true, actually. Legend has it Bill Gates found the inspiration for MS-DOS from computer printouts he retrieved from the trash. I have seen the inside of MS-DOS; there was a reason why that code was in the trash! However, what I did not understand, and Bill Gates did all too well, is that quality software was not the requirement at the time (despite the testimony of all my prospective customers). A winning business model was.

Which I lacked, and it took me way too long to figure it out. The sting still persisted, though, as I watched over the years as Microsoft crushed one superior technology company after another with ever burgeoning resources and a business model more resembling the herding of lemmings than rational decision-making by corporate executives. I could go on about this for days, but I won’t. I am getting to why I am voting this time around.

In April 2000, a long string of attempts to rein in the Microsoft juggernaut finally won a victory. The Department of Justice (a little-heard from agency of the Federal Government) proved in court that Microsoft had engaged in illegal (anti-trust) activity in crushing Netscape corporation’s opportunities in the marketplace. Microsoft, as the defendant, had delayed, lied and obfuscated their way through their defense, as they always do (you may not have noticed, but I have).

Case in point: They did a demonstration to show that their new “integrated-browser” operating system (read “tie-in”, a violation of anti-trust regulations) would connect to the Internet twice as fast as the old “non-integrated-browser”. For their demonstration they set up two “identical” computers, one with the old system on it, the other with the new. Oh, just one minor difference, Your Honor. The new one has a 33Kbaud modem, while the old one is only 28Kbaud. We couldn’t find two identical computers with exactly the same modem (at the time, Microsoft was valued at about 500 billion dollars and modems could be had for less than fifty dollars at any computer supply store). But they are very similar, Your Honor. No objection from the plaintive? Ok, let’s proceed. Sure enough, the new OS connects twice as fast as the old OS!

Well, what I know, and the defendants undoubtedly knew and hoped the plaintive and the judge did not, is that because of a peculiar synergy of the TCP/IP connection protocol, a 33Kbaud modem will always connect twice as fast as a 28Kbaud one. It has absolutely nothing to do with the operating system!

If this seems eerily similar to the logic coming from the Bush Administration, you are prescient. A long and hard case won against a monopoly with massive resources, successfully prosecuted, finally, with the help of the Federal Government. Sometimes a problem becomes so onerous it can be remedied only with the help of the Federal Government.

But this is a democracy, right? Governments change.

In April, 2000 Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson recommended his remedy that Microsoft be broken up into two smaller companies. On Sept 6, 2001 (Microsoft had delayed long enough to get a new DOJ), the new Administration announced it would seek a lesser penalty. A few months later, the new DOJ gave Microsoft a slap on the wrist and told them to “go forth and sin no more”. Which they did (well, the first half, anyway).

In their first year, the Bush Administration was already on its way to a pattern which is all too familiar to anyone who has not been sleep-walking through the last four years. The Patriot Act, The Forest Protection Act, Weapons of Mass Distraction, “Mission Accomplished!”, Tax-cut “Stimulus” (if I had taken a 500 billion dollar loan, and arranged for someone else to pay it off, I know I’d be doing a lot better now), Leave No Child Untested, Swift Boat Captains for Obfuscation and Distraction. Since the economy is so weak, and the war is going badly, let’s ban gay marriage. If you are anti-war, then you’re unpatriotic (rather than on the side of the angels?) I’m expecting anytime now to hear someone whisper, “Yes, but some are more equal than others.”

President George W. Bush put to rest the notion that it doesn’t matter who gets elected. It does matter. It will affect you personally.

Last week, Yusof Islam (formerly known as Cat Stevens) was arrested and detained for a day and a half. They suspected him of terrorism. He was deported after being denied entry to the United States.

So, I know why I’m voting this time around. Do you?

It’s personal.