Walt Schmidt

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey of likely voters finds a hypothetical 2012 election match-up between Republican Congressman Ron Paul and President Obama to be virtually dead even.

This is encouraging to those of us who are frustrated with business as usual.

Paul gets knocked for being too idealistic and not living enough in the real world. But it doesn’t have to be all or nothing. Even embracing the spirit of some of his ideas would be an improvement.

Congressman Paul’s son, Rand, is seeking the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate in Kentucky. He recently commented on “extreme” ideas.

“People sometimes say to me, ‘Aren’t your views a little extreme?’ ” Paul recounted. “I say to them that I don’t think a balanced budget is extreme. I think a $2 trillion deficit, now that’s extreme.”

The Coalition Opposed to Additional Spending and Taxes is helping two Cleveland area groups in petition drives aimed at ridding Cleveland and Garfield Heights of traffic cameras.

It seems that Cleveland Law Director Robert Triozzi is a bit taken aback.

“It’s a sad reflection when liberty is equated with the ability to break the law at will. If motorists slow down, don’t run through red lights, and obey the traffic laws, then the issue of traffic enforcement cameras is moot.”

How conveniently simple.

See, what Mr. Triozzi and other city officials will tell you is, it’s all about the safety. And about the children, too. Perhaps cute puppies.

What they won’t tell you is this they view this as an easily defensible tax on drivers. What kind of malefactor would be against saving lives and punishing those who are wrong?

But is it really about the safety?

I’m not a fan of traffic cameras, but I certainly don’t mind speed traps. What ultimately bothers me is their use as revenue tools, especially considering the conflict of interest.

Imagine this scenario. Let’s make all traffic fines payable to an unrelated state fund. That money can be spent on highways, transportation, widgets or whosiewhats. The point is to eliminate the conflict of interest.

With money going elsewhere, do you think the City of Cleveland’s interest in safety stays the same? Do you think North Olmsted police officers will live in blind spots on I-480?

Until that happens, you’re not a public servant. You’re just a politician.

Adobe’s John Dowdell: “I know that a number of good people work at Apple. If you’re seeking a more ethical company, Adobe is hiring: adobe.com/aboutadobe/careeropp” (link)

Adobe’s Career Page: “Adobe has a new talent acquisition system. This system is optimized for performance on IE 6 or IE 7, running on Windows XP. Unfortunately it is not supported on Firefox, nor is it supported on a Mac at this time.”

John Gruber: “A new system optimized for a 10-year-old version of Windows.” (link)

Gruber 1, Adobe 0.