Palin Email Foot-Dragging

http://motherjones.com/politics/2010/12/sarah-palin-emails-governor-alaska-delay-wait

It provided the emails to the Department of Law in electronic form, hoping that office could use software it had recently obtained to review the emails electronically. This would cut out the long printing process. But, according to a January 28, 2009, memo from the Department of Law, the lawyers "found no way to convert the e-mail records from the format provided to the portable document format (pdf) necessary to use the new software, without opening each individual message to convert it." The memo also noted, "We were unable to batch-print the e-mail records in the format provided."

Once again, utter, raw, plain, unmitigated I/T incompetence among I/T professionals - this time very conveniently.  Are they so stupid that they think there's no way to batch convert text files to PDF?  Or are they so evil that they think everyone else is so stupid that they will believe here's no way to batch convert text files to PDF?

Name

Ok so there's this:

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/10/18/facebook-admits-to-privacy-issue-and-makes-fixes/

It's been all over the internet, and pouring over into regular media for the past few days - once again there's a shocking (shocking I say!) story about privacy on the internet.

I have always said that people will give up any privacy in droves, and take any risk, if they want the service.  The use of credit card for online shopping proves this (it was once something it was thought people would not do), as do many other services and toys online.  But lately I've been suspecting that, as we begin to understand that the internet can be just as secure as it needs to be to provide services, the very notion of what private information actually is may be shifting to accommodate fear and hype.  

I think this Facebook "issue" clinches it.

I've read very little about this since I don't use Facebook, and don't care.  But the other night there was a story on the News Hour about this matter.  The token expert on the panel explained what these Facebook apps have been found to be doing.  They share a user ID with interested parties (advertisers).  The expert was sheepish about explaining this because it's really, in reality, not much of an issue, and he knew it.  The user ID he explained can be tied back to a user's real name.  That's it.  Your name.

Ah, okay...  When did my *name* become some sort of secret information?  I use my name all the time.  A great many people know my name.  When I meet a new person, or interact with a business, I give my name without hesitation - even to strangers!  Is it just that Facebook users aren't old enough to know what a phone book is?  

Ok, to get philosophical about this...   It isn't just that the scope of what is thought to be "protected" on line has crept.  A name is a more interesting concept.  My Social Security number or bank number can be used to steal from me, but my *name* is an identity.  It is me, as I stand before you, living proof of my existence, and freely giving my name.   Hello, nice to meet you.

People put their names on their mailboxes.  They're not secrets.  A name is not private information.  Hello, nice to meet you, I won't give you may name because you might then believe that I exist as a person.

If you talk to anyone older than about 75, you get a very different take on identity.  Americans that remember when Social Security was created have a different mind set about identification.  They didn't like the idea of a special identifier standing in for them.  But now it seems we can't live without it.  In days long gone, a person just standing there was incontrovertible physical proof of their existence.  Apparently, among today's Facebook users, that existence is just another piece of abstract information that we worry about encoding into bits.

Check your ID each morning.  Make sure you exist.

Here's a couple other interesting stories.

http://dilbert.com/strips/comic/2010-10-13/ 

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39745797/ns/local_news-miami_fl/ 

To be fair it is probably the case that a name can be correlated with other info from other sources - but that true regardless of what Facebook does.  All that is saying is that "I" can be correlated with "information about me" - information which I have voluntarily put "out there" for my own purposes, like for example, my name, which I use all the time.

Why would someone use Facebook if they consider their very existence was a "secret?"

The story is in large part a media creation about the scary internet.  But I do also think there is something else going on when people are worried about "secrets" that just aren't secrets.

I was floored when I heard what this latest story was really about - someone might find out a user's name.  Wow.  If you don't want anyone to know your name staying off Facebook is only the tip of the iceberg of what you'd need to do.

People are stupid.

Phone

Microsoft...
Things like this ysed to make me laugh.  But now it's just sad.


http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6905PY20101002

Stupid

Image via Wikipediahttp://www.politicususa.com/en/an-epidemic-of-stupidity-is-sweeping-america

"The days when Americans valued education and technological development are gone. In America today, the value system is based on stupidity and superstition, and the right’s goal of shutting down the education system except for religious schools will ensure America remains stupid."

I couldn't have put it any better. The whole post is definitely worth a read.

http://www.politicususa.com/en/an-epidemic-of-stupidity-is-sweeping-america

The Terrible Truth Revealed at Last

http://www.theonion.com/articles/poll-1-in-5-americans-believe-obama-is-a-cactus,18127/

"According to a poll released Tuesday, nearly 20 percent of U.S. citizens now believe Barack Obama is a cactus, the most Americans to identify the president as a water- retaining desert plant since he took office."

Jerk

http://miamiherald.typepad.com/nakedpolitics/2010/09/greer-apologizes-to-obama-calls-many-gopers-racist.html


"One year ago, when President Barack Obama gave his first back-to-school speech to the nation's schoolchildren, then-chairman of the Republican Party of Florida, Jim Greer, accused him of using "taxpayer dollars to indoctrinate America's children to his socialist agenda."


"Now, Greer is facing fraud and money laundering charges and has been thrown under the bus by the state GOP, which has accused him of living the high life on party money. And so he's had a change of heart.


"In the year since I issued a prepared statement regarding President Obama speaking to the nation's schoolchildren, I have learned a great deal about the party I so deeply loved and served,'' Greer said in a written statement. "Unfortunately, I found that many within the GOP have racist views and I apologize to the President for my opposition to his speech last year and my efforts to placate the extremists who dominate our party today. My children and I look forward to the president's speech."

Painful

http://www.blueoregon.com/2010/09/theres-only-so-much-stupid-one-man-can-take/

My gosh people are SOO dumb...
How in the world does someone like Blumenauer manage to get out of bed in the morning and carry on?  These are really, really bad times in this country.

Taxing

Of course it's completely obvious from this graph:

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2010_09/025514.php

just how important it is that we preserve George W. Bush's tax rate structure.


It should also be obvious just how dumb Americans are to elect Republicans - unless of course you're in the upper 2% of incomes rates that benefit from Republican policies, in which case you're not dumb just self-serving.

Pawns

http://edsteinink.com/2010/08/30/puppeteer/

"I’ve wondered for years how so many people have been persuaded to vote again and again against their own economic self-interest. A revealing article by Jane Mayer in the August 30 issue of The New Yorker magazine helps explain it. Over the years billionaires like Rupert Murdoch and the Koch Brothers have steadily funded operations designed to stoke populist anger against the government and progressive ideas. The Tea Party, far from being a spontaneous populist movement, has been underwritten with tens of millions of dollars and coordinated through a network of organizations with names like Americans for Prosperity, with the singular goal of creating an angry block of disaffected voters who will unwittingly vote for policies that benefit the very wealthy."

Tax Dumb People

Image by leeisaku via Flickr

http://www.kgw.com/news/local/101802523.html

"The last of three men convicted for a tax evasion scheme offered in 43 states has been sentenced to federal prison.

. . .

"The main tax scheme involved in the conspiracy, the Claim of Right Freedom Program, claimed personal income was not taxable."

You can claim anything you like, but the idea that the law won't be enforced against you because of this personal claim is pretty strange.

"Bendshadler marketed and hosted seminars in Oregon detailing the tax schemes and promoted them on his weekly radio show."

 Radio...  Figures.

I find a common thread among dumb people, which is to say most people, that "rightness"  or "wrongness" has anything what so ever to do with law enforcement.  Justice and the justice system is about the enforcement of the law through a rigorous and well defined, repeating procedure.  It is not the place of those involved in law enforcement to interpret whether or not a law is just in any sort of absolute way.  Even judges can not do this, they can only make decisions in a context of existing law and precedence - not on any idea of rightness or wrongness.

In the U.S. Final judgement that a law is invalid due to being inconsistent with fundamental rights is a power given only the US Supreme Court.

A person may be able to defend themselves in the legal system on the grounds that a law is unjust, but it's a hard path to take, especially since it would generally involve admitting to committing the principle acts involved.

The bottom line is simple.  If a person violates the law, then they open themselves up to prosecution.  Their believe, the belief of a police officer, nor anyone else, that the law is unjust is just plain irrelevant.

MORE Bush, Ya That'll Help

Image via Wikipediahttp://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN2424344720100824

"John Boehner on Tuesday called for the resignation of President Barack Obama's embattled economic team, including Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and White House economic adviser Larry Summers."

WTF?

"Time to put grown-ups in charge"

Right.
This the same party that openly wants to continue the exact policies that got the economy in this mess in the first place.  In fact, maybe he'd like to just put the same crew in charge again and just replay those eight years.  How long could we go before the entire structure of society collapses?  Except for the well armed, privately secured, walled communities people like John Boehner live in...

Dumd

http://wonkette.com/417619/dumb-hick-mosque-haters-cant-even-spell-ground-zero

"America’s differently-abled freedumb fighters tend to have trouble spelling the dumb shit on their signs and banners, but this particular piece of visual evidence also calls into question their comprehension of the supposedly Hallowed Ground of the WTC site. Is it truly a “monument to terrorism”?"

Idiots are controlling the national agenda.

Is President Obama a Muslim?

Article VI of the U.S. Constitution:


"The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the members of the several state legislatures, and all executive and judicial officers, both of the United States and of the several states, shall be bound by oath or affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States"

Enough said.

Think? No Thanks!

Image via Wikipediahttp://notalwaysright.com/freedom-of-screech/6616

“You don’t need freedom of speech if you let Jesus think for you.”

Yep.

Who Would Jesus Hate?

Image via WikipediaAmerica, a land established on values of individual and religious freedom, live and let live, right?
Wrong. America is a land of intolerent bigots that not only disrespect but hate and wish violence on those different from themselves.

http://cbs4.com/local/burning.quran.outreach.2.1867754.html

"Gainesville officials denied a burn permit for a church that plans to burn copies of the Quran on the ninth anniversary of the September 11 attacks.
. . .
"In an e-mail sent out Wednesday, the church said, "City of Gainesville denies burn permit – BUT WE WILL STILL BURN KORANS."


This "Christian" church doesn't even respect and recognize American law - their own local authorities, much less the Bill of Rights, or even the concept of private property.


This is why we have a Constitution with inalienable rights.  Because the people do not respect, or even want, a free society.  There is required a Constitutional framework, above the laws people enact, or would like to enact, to resist the people's ever present push toward theocratic dictatorship.

Instead of using 9/11 and a new community center in New York as an opportunity to highlight the freedoms America stands for, the people use it as an opportunity to show the pent up hate, fear and bigotry that is their true religion.


They will not change.  They won't ever stop.  In the end, the people will win and bring society into a new middle ages.

Broken

This is why democracy doesn't work:

http://pewresearch.org/databank/dailynumber/?NumberID=1057

"Only a third of Americans (34%) correctly say the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) was enacted by the Bush administration. Nearly half (47%) incorrectly believe TARP was passed under President Obama."

The economic collapse brought on by 8 years of Republican policy is the most significant trouble of our time. An entire generation is permanently impacted, and America as a nation is likely now in irreversible decline.

This decline is not because of the TARP program, which was an act of panic and desperation. The decline is due to years of massive tax cuts for the wealthiest and for large business, the shifting of jobs overseas - as a policy, the gutting of regulation, and massive, unproductive, Republican spending, in particular on two completely unfunded, open-ended wars.

It's almost comical to be reminded that Bush's tax cuts for the wealthy was itself an economic stimulus plan put in place short after he took office and intended from the beginning to expire - even they knew it was unsustainable.

And people cheered. All the way, right over the cliff.

But since Americans are so completely intellectually unable to follow current events, they will likely elect Republicans again, and do even more harm to themselves. This time though, they've made things so bad that the nation itself is a risk.

But people can't think. They can't learn from experience. Enough Americans are completely unable to reach a reasoned conclusion based on facts, that the country has no future. The great experiment is a failure. They will get the future want they want and deserve.

Breaking News!

Image via Wikipedia

No, not the overturning of California's proposition 8 ban on same-sex marriage... This is huge!

http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2010/0730/Monkeys-hate-flying-squirrels-report-monkey-annoyance-experts

Monkeys hate flying squirrels!

Bob Ingil On The Tea Bags

Image via Wikipedia

"I sat down, and they said on the back of your Social Security card, there's a number. That number indicates the bank that bought you when you were born based on a projection of your life's earnings, and you are collateral. We are all collateral for the banks."

http://motherjones.com/politics/2010/08/bob-inglis-tea-party-casualty

It's well worth reading what Bob Ingil has to say. It's pretty clear that either the Republican Party is finished, or the nuts that they now depend on will win elections and the US is finished.

The Republican Party Today

Here's some southern politics for you....

http://savannahnow.com/news/2010-07-06/handel-oxendine-plagued-their-past

It's old vs. new.
Here you have a classic old-school, corrupt, southern politician (is that redundant?) running against the "true conservative" insurgent tea-party-type; a woman in this case, endorsed by Sarah Palin no less, that is now desperately lying in attempts to cover up that she's a lesbian.

Comedy.
Really sad comedy.

One of these two fine examples of southern citizenship is very likely to be the next Governor of the fine state of Georgia.

This is America

Image via Wikipedia

http://thinkprogress.org/2010/06/11/knotts-censured/

Last week, South Carolina state Sen. Jake Knotts (R) came under fire for calling President Obama and Nikki Haley, his party’s nominee for governor, “a raghead.”

. . .

In response to the censure, Knotts said he “could care less” and would not resign. In a separate interview, he said the censure was “all politics,” and warned that libertarians had “infiltrated” the party. He said he had not called Haley to personally apologize, and that the “press has given Nikki Haley a free ride.” When a reporter asked where the press had failed to hold her accountable, Knotts said, “have you ever asked her if she believes in Jesus Christ as her lord and savior and that he died on the cross for her sins? Have you ever asked her that?”

Shirt

This is simply the best zombie shirt, ever.

http://www.threadless.com/product/2059/The_Horde

Bobby Jindal, Governor of Louisiana

Image via Wikipedia

"We’ve got to be completely focused on defending this coast. The cost—the difference between keeping this oil out and having this oil in this wetlands, it literally could be life or death for many of these species."

-- Bobby Jindal, Governor of Louisiana

http://www.democracynow.org/2010/5/20/headlines

Interesting how concerned he is isn't? Meanwhile...

"In 2006, Jindal sponsored the Deep Ocean Energy Resources Act (H.R. 4761), a bill to eliminate the moratorium on offshore oil and gas drilling over the U.S. outer continental shelf. A poll taken while the bill was being debated, showed that 73% of the U.S. public supported the measure. Jindal argues that 30-40% of oil reserves of the United States are near the Louisiana coast and increased drilling would reduce American dependence on foreign oil.^[109] This prompted the watchdog groups, Republicans for Environmental Protection as well as the nonpartisan League of Conservation Voters to rate him among the lowest in Congress in 2006."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bobby_Jindal#Environmental_issues_and_offshore_drilling

"The House vote was a huge victory for Pombo, two Louisiana lawmakers — Republican Bobby Jindal and Democrat Charlie Melancon — and Rep. John Peterson, R-Pa., who spearheaded the drive to lift the moratorium."

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,201703,00.html

Seeing Bobby Jindal in the news talking about this issue is one of the most disturbing things about the BP oil spill.

Bobby Jindal is the face of the contemporary Republican Party.

Education

Image by wstera2 via Flickr

http://www.forbes.com/2010/03/18/tea-party-ignorant-taxes-opinions-columnists-bruce-bartlett_3.html#

"Whatever the future of the Tea Party movement in American politics, it's a bad idea for so many participants to operate on the basis of false notions about the burden of federal taxation. It only takes a little bit of time to look at one's tax return to see what one is actually paying the Treasury, calculate the percentage of one's income that goes to taxes, and compare it with what was paid last year and the year before."

There's a big flaw in this argument - part of the strategy is to make sure no one knows enough arithmetic to actually do this. Seems to be working...

Doom

Image via Wikipedia

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0310/34808.html

“Unless this trillion-dollar assault on our freedoms is repealed, it will force Americans to purchase Washington-approved health plans or face stiff penalties,” DeMint said in a release. “It will fund abortions, raise taxes and insurance premiums, while reducing health care choices and quality.”

He left out mandatory euthanasia, forced gay marriage, one-world currency, re-education camps for Republicans and occupation by UN troops (every single one of which has been threatened by members of Congress and/or Republican leadership at the nation level, seriously).

http://www.salon.com/news/2010/03/11/us_forgotten_lawmaker/index.html

"When Juanita Goggins became the first black woman elected to the South Carolina Legislature in 1974, she was hailed as a trailblazer and twice visited the president at the White House.

"Three decades later, she froze to death at age 75, a solitary figure living in a rented house four miles from the gleaming Statehouse dome."

It's hard to understand the arc of some lives, but it's easy to understand the insensitivity of society.

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Health

Image via Wikipedia

Now here's a solution that hadn't occurred to me... Make the US look better by comparison!

http://techdirt.com/articles/20100306/1804328453.shtml

"US Government Working With Pharma Companies To Raise Drug Prices In Other Countries"

Trim

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/03/09/florida_crash/

"Trooper Gary Dunick, who attended the scene, gasped: "If I wasn't there, I wouldn't have believed it. About 10 years ago I stopped a guy in the exact same spot ... who had three or four syringes sticking out of his arm. It was just surreal and I thought, 'Nothing will ever beat this.' Well, this takes it."

In case you're wondering just why Barnes was trimming her hedge, she explained that she was on her way to a rendezvous with her boyfriend and wanted to be "ready for the visit"."

But her husband was driving??

Gay

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/03/04/anti-gay-lawmaker-reportedly-gay-club-dui-arrest/

"A California state senator who reportedly has voted against every gay rights measure since he took office eight years ago was charged with driving under the influence on Wednesday, reportedly after leaving a gay nightclub in Sacramento."

What, another one?

"He was arrested after leaving Faces, a gay nightclub in midtown Sacramento, according to cbs13.com. A male passenger, who was not identified as a lawmaker, was also in the car but was not detained, the TV station reported."

Shocking!

Republican Ideas

Image via Wikipedia

http://www.blueoregon.com/2010/03/when-will-republicans-get-serious.html

"Twenty years ago, Republicans hypothesized that cutting taxes and deregulating industry would spark an economic boom that would make up for lost tax revenue. It seemed plausible, and even moderate Democrats played along. We ran the experiment. Guess what? Cuts mean cuts. Republicans refused to make any hard choices about which programs they wanted to scrap, and instead were content to watch tax cuts lead to fiscal crises and ultimately to unplanned, indiscriminate cuts in services."

I was listening to the radio this morning when I heard a story about a local Republican that opposes a certain idea that was floated by the state's governor - the exact idea is not significant to my point. The speakers objection was that if the state needs to save money, which it does, then instead of the governor's idea, the state just needs to "cut unnecessary spending."

I thought, cut unnecessary spending! Why that's brilliant! Why didn't we think of that at any time over the past TEN YEARS as revenues declined. Why, it's so simple! Just cut unnecessary spending.

I picture a bureaucrat someplace in the capital running a finger down a list of line items until it comes to "Unnecessary Spending". All we have to do is zero that out. It's so obvious!

Foreign

This morning I saw this story before coming to work:

http://thinkprogress.org/2010/03/03/afa-seaworld/

Then when I get to work and see this:

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6230J720100304

I tell you, there is no future for this civilization. In 4 or 5 generations people will be living in mud huts and terrified of eclipses. For a thinking person, this is becoming a very strange and unknown land.

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Facts?

Image via Wikipedia

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2010/2/23/839587/-Those-Torture-Worked-Memos-of-Cheneys

So again, at the end the writer asks:

"There was wall-to-wall media coverage last spring of Cheney's claims that these memos would show that torture worked. Will there be wall-to-wall media coverage of the fact that the memo was "plainly inaccurate" and that Cheney was, and is, full of shit?"

Over and over I read stuff like this, and over and over people are railing against the universe that Cheney can just SAY stuff, for example, and they are all "look over here, proof that his claim is bogus!" I just have to laugh! They don't get it! But Dick Cheney does get it, all too well.

"Facts are meaningless. You could use facts to prove anything that's even remotely true!"

-- Homer Simpson

Gun Control

Image via Wikipedia

Here's one:

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2010/2/23/837354/-Brady-Center-Gives-Obama-F;-NRA-Still-Not-Happy

No matter what Obama ever said from the campaign on, the Idiot Nation still believes Obama will (somehow) take away their guns. Now the administration is having a real impact - you can now take a loaded gun onto public lands and into parks. Does the hard fact of this material change alter what idiots believe? No. It does not fit their made up world, therefore it is not happening.

People are stupid.

What I Can't Figure Out About Health Care

Image by seiuhealthcare775nw via Flickr

I can't figure out why so many people can't understand this:

A. Your health care is tied to your employment.
B. If you get really sick, you won't be able to work.
C. If you can't work, you lose access to health care.

Why is that hard to understand?

Twitter for Dogs

Image via CrunchBase

http://www.ohgizmo.com/2010/01/27/mattels-puppy-tweets-is-a-sure-sign-its-time-to-bail-on-twitter/

Oh, so THAT's what Twitter is good for!

When I first saw it I though, oh maybe it has a GPS and it could broadcast the location of your dog. That would be cool...

Nope.

Ok, maybe it has senors you can install here and there that trigger a Twitter message when the dog goes by?

Nope.

In fact it pretty much does nothing. Just like Twitter; utterly useless 140 characters at a time.

The End of the World

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/01/01/BA8V1AV589.DTL

"Harold Camping lets out a hearty chuckle when he considers the people who believe the world will end in 2012.
"That date has not one stitch of biblical authority," Camping says from the Oakland office where he runs Family Radio, an evangelical station that reaches listeners around the world. "It's like a fairy tale."
The real date for the end of times, he says, is in 2011."

Wow, is that funny or just sad?
People have been talking about the end of the world, and predicting it, for as long as there have been people. I always wonder if people like this are disappointed when the world doesn't end.