I was born in Minnesota in 1968.  My mother is slightly right of center and my father is exceeding far left.  Both my sisters are right of center.  My younger only slightly so, but my older is near on evangelical.  I broke away from my fathers religions mold.  He spent some time in the seminary and continues to be a church deacon.  I’m an agnostic.  I remain so due to a mix of all the common hypocrisies and logical inconsistencies in religion.  I understand the draw of community, traditional and social aspects of formal religion, but don’t accept much of the dogma. 

I spent 4.5 years in the Army as a 98G (radio intercept linguist) after graduating from high school.  This included training for 18 months of Arabic language school in Monterey, 4 months in Texas and 2 months in Massachusetts.  I deployed with the 101^st Airborne to Saudi Arabia in ’90 and was on the first flight that established FOB Eagle in Iraq during desert storm.

My father had some serious issues with George HW Bush.  He entered into a lawsuit on my behalf having to do with the involuntary extension.  (re: Cindy Sheehan)  I got a special ride out of Iraq back to Saudi to talk to the JAG.  They asked me about my father and I got to respond something along the lines of:  “I’m not pleased about the extension, but when Congress declared the state of emergency on Jan 12 everything was much clearer as per the contract I signed like everyone else.  I was not a party to my father’s activities.  I was then put back on a chopper to FOB Eagle.

Once out of the service, I got my BS in Comp Sci and started working for Intel Corp.  I’ve held positions like Sr. Automation Software/Systems Developer/Engineer (mix and match) for 12 years.

I’ve always been interested in Political Science and even took a few electives in college.  I don’t really think I woke up to how things worked until maybe 2002.  In the 5 years since, I’ve shifted more to the “right”.  I had always been a small government/fiscal conservative, but my social leanings were more moderate if not left of center.

Here is a look at my voting record.  Bush, Clinton, Clinton, Gore (can I get a do-over?!), Bush.  The only Dem I can reasonably see even considering this time around is Bill Richardson.  The Republicans that I prefer are Mitt and Rudy.  While I like Newt and Fred in the game from an ideas aspect, I don’t see them as having the resume for the job.  I don’t think Rudy makes sense as a VP for Mitt, if he’d even take the job.  Of the crop of 2^nd tier candidates, Duncan Hunter appears to have the best package to round out a prime ticket.