BALTIMORE (AP) - Community activist group ACORN is suing the makers of a hidden-camera video that showed employees of its Baltimore office giving tax advice to a man posing as a pimp and a woman posing as a prostitute. The liberal group contends that the audio portion of the video was obtained illegally because Maryland requires two-party consent to create sound recordings. The two employees seen in the video were fired after it was posted online. The lawsuit says the employees, Tonja Thompson and Shera Williams, suffered "extreme emotional distress." The multimillion-dollar lawsuit seeks damages from James O'Keefe and Hannah Giles, who played the pimp and prostitute in the videos, and from conservative columnist Andrew Breitbart, who posted the videos on his Web site.
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Just too Damn Funny: ACORN Sues Hidden-camera Filmmakers
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Texas Bored of Edukation - Houston Problem? Duh?
As part of the process a Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills review team composed of parents and teachers has suggested removing Neil Armstrong from a "science strand" in a 5th grade social studies book. Effectively this would remove the mention of Armstrong has a figure of historical significance from 5th grade textbooks. I asked board spokeswoman Debbie Ratcliffe why this change was made and she explained: The team said they made this proposal because he was not a scientist. The State Board of Education has not voted for or against that proposal yet. It won't vote on the social studies proposal until January.
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Today's NEA: LBJ Would Be Proud!
We won and that’s exciting and now we have to take all that energy and make it really meaningful. I’m in the White House now and what I’ve learned is that change doesn't come easy, but now that I’m actually in the White House and working towards furthering this agenda, this very aggressive agenda, I’m really realizing that… we’re going to need your help, and we’re going to come at you with some specific asks here.
We wanted folks to connect with local nonprofit organizations in their community. We wanted them to connect with local city council members or local elected officials. We wanted them to connect with federal agencies, with labor unions, progressive groups, face groups, women’s groups, you name it.
Then we have Yosi Sergant, the NEA offical who is perfectly in sync with our President's pledge of no lobbyists. If this is not illegal, it is at least sleazy. But he was apparently the sacrificed lamb so to speak, and as a result of this call? Well, he got re-assigned. You can read this link. All that effective work doing community outreach with MoveOn, RockTheVote - gone. Apparently over a conference call. Makes you wonder who is not corrupt. Those means are being justified.
We fought for a chance to be at the table and not only at the table but we’re setting the table. And now [we're setting] the official rule of the National Endowment for the Arts, as director of communication and say, we here at the NEA are extremely proud to participate in the president’s United We Serve initiative.
This is a chance to partner with the White House. … This is just the beginning. … We are just now leaning how to really bring this community together to speak with the government. What this looks like legally, we’re still trying to figure out the laws...
Friday, September 18, 2009
The Return of Jimmy Carter
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
ISP Diagnosis: The Cisco Phone Burned Out the Router
Monday, September 14, 2009
Obama's "Hope" For NASA? More Russian Rockets
Mr Obama's transition team is demanding spending cuts to the Constellation Project, the successor to the Space Shuttle, which is supposed to create to a permanent manned base on the Moon by 2020 before a mission to Mars.
The president-elect's team is developing plans to scrap the new Ares rocket, designed to blast a new generation of astronauts into space, NASA advisers said.
This decision seems to have been made a year ago, yet announced just last week!
The article goes on to say:
On the campaign trail, Mr Obama first called for cuts and delays to the Constellation programme to fund his education policies but then later pledged to increase NASA's $17-billion budget by $2 billion, a move apparently calculated to win votes in the Florida and Texas primary elections, where NASA has its two main bases.
But that was before the economic meltdown.
An aerospace contractor who advises NASA told The Sunday Telegraph: "Constellation ought to be the kind of thing that would appeal to Obama in restoring American pride but he's been blowing hot and cold.
- Net Jobs created
- Net college applicants created
- Net GNP contribution
Saturday, September 12, 2009
Obama Administration No Friend of NASA
Friday, September 11, 2009
AntiVirus 2010 - Beware!
What was really clever about this technique was that when I went to go renew my current anti virus product, Webroot I was redirected to a page that warned of 'unsafe' content when I attempted to enter the shopping cart to pay. I was given two choices. Protect my machine or continue to the site was attempting to visit, which of course was not recommended. By selecting the second choice, nothing would happen. In addition, I could not launch SpyBot or any other tools to remove. I eventually got out of the muck. But, again guys - Bravo.
Rhetoric in the Bully Pulpit and Owed Apologies
The President did worse than lie. He misled. He was supposed to be above this type of behavior. Yes, Rep. Wilson was impolite. He was politically incorrect. Maybe he was fed up? But what about the merits of the argument? We cannot build that wall and lock out illegals. We want, we need these workers. No 'citizen' is going to take these jobs, that is supply and demand. So when these people get sick today, where do these people go today and who actually pays? If they wait until it's critical, what is that cost to society? So, at best, it was dishonest. But, we are not going to solve that problem, so why pretend? Why even bring it up? It's a distraction we do not have time for. I personally do not want this country to be in the position where we envy the jobs people are crossing the border in the dark of night which they covet as their best hope for a life. We once coveted such work because of little other opportunities and the only resolution was to join up into a war machine known as World War II. Do we want that again? Besides, I was offended by other insults to my intelligence, which is not respectful of the dignity of the office he has the privilege of serving.
Consider your money. Consider how the government today views taxes. We hear terms like how will we pay for tax cuts? Tax cuts are not paid for per se. Meaning, the government does not distribute income to you, we the people return money back to it. That is simple pandering to class warfare and he should be above that. Most of us, at least for today, work for the private sector and are taxed on productivity to society, subsiding those are less productive to a far larger proportion of the overall budget than any other component. Government spending is paid for through taxes and borrowing. That is it. These twists on words are Orwellian doublespeak. The fact that this does not bother the general population should be alarming. But, to use an old phrase, Politicians and Dictators prefer unarmed peasants. By peasants, I mean under educated on the facts and a democracy cannot exist without an educated population. Presidents and any other politicians should be challenged each and every time they spew such nonsensical rhetoric, whatever forum they abuse. Unarmed, in our case is stripped of our financial security. To steal from the Bard, do not play the [American people] like a violin.
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Which Barney is Which?
Here is Barney claiming in 2005 he is pushing for more housing ownership and there will not be the bubble.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iW5qKYfqALE&feature=player_embedded
Here is he is July 2009 claiming, Hey, I was in the Minority! I had no say!
http://www.businessinsider.com/henry-blodget-barney-frank-i-didnt-cause-the-housing-bubble-2009-7
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
From Abundance to Dependance
“A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the majority discovers it can vote itself largess out of the public treasury. After that, the majority always votes for the candidate promising the most benefits with the result the democracy collapses because of the loose fiscal policy ensuing, always to be followed by a dictatorship, then a monarchy." - Elmer T. Peterson
Many people fail to realize the slippery slope this suggests. Government is like a narcotic, a credit card out of control, or any other vice. It's best kept in administered in moderation. I really enjoyed the movie An Inconvienent Truth. Especially the point Mr. Gore made about placing a frog in a pot of boiling water as opposed to a placing it in a slowly warming pot. That frog will allow itself to get cooked, slowly. Folks, tyanny is like that. You can slowly let your government take a bit of control here and there. Pretty soon, there will be a camera in your home and your hope for employement or a paycheck will not be from a well paying job to live well, but to survive. The state will depend on you to serve it, rather that it serving you. The argument will be the intrusion into your privacy will be for your own protection. if you are doing nothing wrong, you should have nothing to worry about. A certain Mr. George Orwell warned us about that long ago just as he did about today's friend is tomorrow's enemy. Iran and Iraq ring a bell under Bush I? Maybe instead of Health Care reform we need education reform as people tend to forget? Who polices the police? Consider your money. Consider how the government today views taxes. We hear terms like 'how will we pay for tax cuts'. Tax cuts are not paid for. Government spending is paid for through taxes. These twists on words are also Orwellian doublespeak. The fact that this does not bother the general population should be alarming. Presidents and any other politicians should be called on this fact each and every time they spew such nonsensical rhetoric.
For further information and how variations, actual attributions of these words visit http://www.lorencollins.net/tytler.html and you may be surprised. However, the message is still one which rings true and has been disproved. We are headed for bondage, dependance is here. After all, the point was to form a more perfect union to prevent the errors, learned of and from the past.
Obama in Schools
When I was a child, I had to take the Presidential Fitness program in my public school. It had a message from the POTUS. Again, were we being indoctrinated or are you jokers simply so dishonest and lack any dignity you actually believe most people are ignorant? This speaks a lot of about the memory issues of your viewers and their own intellectual dishonesty issues if they can feign outrage. What exactly was the specific outrage after all? Sadly, this is about making big money by selling commercial time targeted to people who never paid attention in school in the first place and really do not understand the concept of critical analysis. As Rush would put it, for those of you in Rio Linda, that is considering the merits of the argument against known facts and offering a valid counter argument.
So, at the end of the day, Beck and Limbaugh out of apparent paranoia and inconsistent logic manage to get school districts in my home state to prevent students from hearing a positive message from the President. The young minds full of mush as Rush would put it once again, in Arlington, TX get the privilege of being taken out of school, bussed to the new Cowboy's stadium and hear the previous President speak.
I wonder what he'll talk about?
- Spending untold trillions without knowing your history?
- Wasting tax payer money?
- Appointing incompetent staffers?
- How to kill a political party?
- Letting religious 'leaders' in the Oval office? (worse than an intern for national security BTW, at least she was direct about it)
- How to skirt by life and still get a job for a few years with a great retirement package because your family name?
Where will Beck be on these views? Will he be silent? Who knows? Maybe W. will come clean and tell these kids it is up to them to fix the mess he created and it will take about 15-20 years to do so, possibly requiring a major war, and it will be a lowering your expectations speech ending with a sorry about that.
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
What Drives Health Cares Costs?
Naturally, as an incentive to keep my costs down, I [often] avoid getting speeding tickets and I [generally] avoid side swiping the vehicle next to me. I may drive above the posted speed limit, but I am at least am aware of cause and effect. For example, a nice empty highway vs. a busy city street. For those who cannot quick grasp that lesson, they get to pay for the mandatory insurance state required insurance. In reality, younger drives pay more for the privilege to drive, simply because they cost more. On the other hand, with health care - there is little consequence to unchecked behavior. At the moment, there is little consequence to my wallet directly when I seek to go from doctor to doctor, as long as I can find a willing insurance company to pick up the tab, or the state. That is a difference, and until the individual is motivated to treat their physical well being at least as well as their vehicle, health care costs will continue to rise. This all speaks to a message that our President spoke of during the campaign and today. Taking some Personal responsibility. Ben Franklin, with all his foresight, envisioned a system where you paid in periodically so it was there when you needed it, money would be there to cover expenses. In my opinion, if you demand more of any product - you should pay more for it. Of course, the obvious exception is person who hits my car, burns my house down, or causes me to get sick. Well, they need to pay more as they did not keep their end of the civil bargain. Their insurance rate should rise and they should pay a premium. That is only logical.
Who knows, maybe our President will speak up and say he let congress try to figure this out and it did not quite work out as expected. He will advocate something like car insurance SR-22, direct cash for insurance, and exercise incentives. One thing is certain, for all but appearances - you are pretty much stuck with the body you were born with. There will be no cash for clunkers programs.
Monday, September 7, 2009
Hertz Hurtz
See what others say...including employees. http://hertzsux.blogspot.com/
Too Much Power in the Hands of Too Few
When I was in high school during the mid 1980s, I never imagined George Orwell's pessimistic futuristic view of 1984 of unchecked tyranny, where the population looks to the government for answers as the sole benefactor without appreciating the the cost would appeal to the voting class of the USA. There is no free lunch folks and if you ask for your government to take care of you and you were afraid of the power W. and Cheney had, you have not seen anything yet.