POLITICAL: CA debt is a Federal problem?

Thursday, May 28, 2009

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20090527/D98EPK2O1.html  

Calif. wants federal government to back its loans
May 27, 3:52 PM (ET)
By JUDY LIN

*** begin quote ***

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) – If AIG was too big to fail, how about the world’s eighth-largest economy?

In a move with only one modern-day precedent, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Democratic lawmakers are pressing the Obama administration and members of Congress for federal loan guarantees to help the state out of a desperate, multibillion-dollar jam.

California is not asking for cash, like the tens of billions given to AIG, General Motors or Morgan Stanley. (MS) Instead, the state with the worst credit rating in the nation is asking that Washington act as a sort of co-signer on the state’s borrowing, to be backed up with money from the Troubled Asset Relief Program.

*** end quote ***

No!

The S&L crisis started with Federal guarantees.

And, why should the taxpayers be bailing out CA bond holdrs?

Sorry, that the breaks.

Maybe CA should elect some politicians with fiscal responsibility.

What happens when and if CA goes under?

Has it ever happened before?

Maybe CA should secede? Or the USA from it.

Like voting it off the continent?

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Posted by reinkefj

GOVEROTRAGEOUS: The Gooferment; do you trust it?

Thursday, May 28, 2009

http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2009/05/on_the_anonymit.html

May 21, 2009
On the Anonymity of Home/Work Location Pairs

*** begin quote ***

“On the Anonymity of Home/Work Location Pairs,” by Philippe Golle and Kurt Partridge:

   Many applications benefit from user location data, but location data raises privacy concerns. Anonymization can protect privacy, but identities can sometimes be inferred from supposedly anonymous data. This paper studies a new attack on the anonymity of location data. We show that if the approximate locations of an individual’s home and workplace can both be deduced from a location trace, then the median size of the individual’s anonymity set in the U.S. working population is 1, 21 and 34,980, for locations known at the granularity of a census block, census track and county respectively. The location data of people who live and work in different regions can be re-identified even more easily. Our results show that the threat of re-identification for location data is much greater when the individual’s home and work locations can both be deduced from the data. To preserve anonymity, we offer guidance for obfuscating location traces before they are disclosed.

*** end quote ***

Bruce Schneier highlights that “anonymous data” ain’t so anonymous. AND, the Census is going to collect geo tracking data in the next census. Good bye privacy.

Who authorized the gooferment to do more than count?

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Posted by reinkefj

LIBERTY: The video camera is the new gun of the Liberty Army

Thursday, May 28, 2009

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XR0YAghdHSY&feature=player_embedded

Fifteen minute video as Judge N helps rally the People against the power of the overbearing State.

Highly recommended on several levels.

Obviously, the Judge was impressed with the use of technology.

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Posted by reinkefj

LIBERTY: Search by the FCC?

Thursday, May 28, 2009

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2009/05/fcc-raid/

FCC’s Warrantless Household Searches Alarm Experts
    * By Ryan Singel Email Author
    * May 21, 2009 |

*** begin quote ***

You may not know it, but if you have a wireless router, a cordless phone, remote car-door opener, baby monitor or cellphone in your house, the FCC claims the right to enter your home without a warrant at any time of the day or night in order to inspect it.

That’s the upshot of the rules the agency has followed for years to monitor licensed television and radio stations, and to crack down on pirate radio broadcasters. And the commission maintains the same policy applies to any licensed or unlicensed radio-frequency device.

*** end quote ***

Sure, the Fourth Amendment no longer applies in Amerika!

Argh!

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Posted by reinkefj

POLITICAL: Chryslerdealer closings politically motivated? Shocking!

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2009/05/more_evidence_emerges_that_chr.html

May 27, 2009
More evidence emerges that Chrysler Dealer closings was politically motivated
Rick Moran

*** begin quote ***

This story is about ready to explode. All the ingredients are there for a gigantic political scandal that would shake the Obama administration to its foundation and perhaps take down several high ranking officials. All that’s needed is one connecting piece of evidence that would tie the White House Automotive Task Force to some political arm of the Democratic party.

*** end quote ***

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“I’m shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!” Captain Renault in Casablanca

I’m shocked that POLITICS might have entered into the consideration of what dealers got nuked.

Chicago style?

Hopefully those dealers will get some measure of compensation from an obvious violation of the Fifth Amendment (The “takings” clause for those who went to gooferment skool!)

And, maybe the mainstream media will recover some stones to do some real reporting.

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Posted by reinkefj

POLITICAL: Notre Dame accomplished labeling Obama as an abortionist

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=98649

2 points of truth among Obama’s ‘wild word fraud’
Posted: May 20, 2009
Jill Stanek fought to stop “live-birth abortion” after witnessing one as a registered nurse at Christ Hospital in Oak Lawn, Ill.

*** begin quote ***

But one thing is for sure: Obama has now been branded as radically pro-abortion. What pro-lifers have unsuccessfully attempted since 2004 when Obama ran for U.S. Senate, he and Notre Dame accomplished in a month.

*** end quote ***

I guess we outed two abortion supporters — Notre Dame and Obama.

It was terrible price to pay. The loss of a once great Catholic university.

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Posted by reinkefj

TECHNOLOGY: My book “CHURCH 10●19●62” gets put on Amazon automagically

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

200905270823.jpg

A few interesting points:

  1. The name gets screwed up; the dots don’t translate.
  2. There is an out of print entry created.
  3. The Amazon mark up; why not just buy it from Lulu?
  4. There’s no vanity URL; finding it is a chore.

If you are interested in buying it, save yourself the 30% markup going to Amazon and go buy it directly from Lulu.

Easiest way to get to the book on Amazon is by searching for “church 10?19?62”.

Cheapest way to get the book is on Lulu directly: http://stores.lulu.com/store.php?fAcctID=638039

p.s., On Lulu, the download version is only a few dollars. Unless you need a big bug killer, I’d go for the download.

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Posted by reinkefj

WRITING: The Last Reader (An index card novel)

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

“News 8 has recently revealed serious flaws in the way the FAA licenses mechanics who fix planes.”

# – # – #

The downward spiral continued. At first, schools just papered it over with phony tests and declining scores. But soon, it was official. Future generations were not learning to read. Not that they could not; just that they would not. Large percentages of the population were content to ignore the way data, information, knowledge, and wisdom were transferred. And, it was global; although the debate was over willingness or poverty. Some said it was the iphone. Some said it was TV. Some said it was “society’s fault”. The conclusion was that in “rich” countries it was unwillingness and in “poor” countries it was access. Bottom line: humans were losing their ability to communicate with past generations or with each other without speaking.

# – # – #

John was an old man. Luckily, he’d chosen to live in the Pennsylvania Dutch country. An area that was gently stuck in the late 1800’s. It meant that he could eat locally. Commerce had retrenched into a 1890’s model. Goods and services didn’t move more than twenty miles. Maintaining cars and refining gasoline require people who can read. Humanity had regressed to an oral model of knowledge transfer. People traveled great distances with documents for him to read. There was no electricity anymore; there was no one to read how to maintain the systems. Medical care had regressed to the same era; the medieval apprentice model was in use for training new doctors. Specialists and lab tests were a thing of the past. Drugs were just unavailable at any price. Politics was very local. There was no newspapers; no news and no way to transmit it. Eventually all the ipods and iphones died. There were massive die offs in the cities as people fought for ever scarcer stuff. Turf wars erupted. Refugees from the city, (the so called golden horde), were killed by the rural peasants who had not enough for themselves, their families, and their neighbors. 300 Million become 3 million. Two political parties emerged — the Democrats saying that they had led us to save the planet and the Republicans saying that they had led us back to the simpler time we all wanted. Luckily, there wasn’t much wealth to be political about; politicians starved just like ordinary people, just a little slower. John died that winter of a flu. Some flu or another.

The human population was eventually extinct. A victim of technology and stupidity.

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Posted by reinkefj

RANT: TARP Golden chute end run!

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

http://www.propublica.org/ion/bailout/item/bailed-out-bank-tries-golden-parachute-loophole-526

Bailed-Out Bank Tries Golden Parachute Loophole
by Paul Kiel, ProPublica – May 26, 2009 2:34 pm EDT

*** begin quote ***

The agreement anticipates that the arrangement might not fly with government officials. According to the agreement [3] (see Page 6), if the Treasury Department or the bank’s regulators determine that it breaks the ban on golden parachutes, the bank will try to work something out – either by tempering the agreement to conform to compensation restrictions or getting a waiver to break them. If that doesn’t work, the agreement says Ms. Binder will just have to wait until the restrictions are changed or the bank pays back the TARP funds. Then she’ll get her money in a lump sum.

*** end quote ***

The taxpayers are such suckers!

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Posted by reinkefj

TECHNOLOGY: CNET 100 aka my “shopping list”

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13546_109-10244820-29.html?tag=mncol

Audio & Music

   * Amazon MP3

   * Grooveshark

   * iTunes

   * Jamendo

   * JamLegend

   * Lala

   * Last.fm

   * Nexus Radio

   * Pandora

   * Project Playlist

Browsing

   * Diigo

   * Firefox

   * Flock

   * Google Chrome

   * iGoogle

   * Internet Explorer 8

   * Maxthon

   * Opera

   * Safari

   * XMarks

Commerce

   * Amazon

   * Craigslist

   * Elance

   * Etsy

   * Eventbrite

   * PayPal

   * Woot

   * Zillow

   * ZipRealty

   * ZocDoc

Communication

   * Digsby

   * Dimdim

   * Gmail

   * Pidgin

   * Postbox

   * RingCentral

   * Skype

   * Windows Live Hotmail

   * Windows Live Messenger

   * Yahoo Messenger

Infrastructure & Storage

   * Adobe Air

   * BitTorrent

   * Carbonite

   * DropBox

   * Dropio

   * Facebook Connect

   * Mozy

   * OpenID

   * Windows Live SkyDrive

   * YouSendIt

Location-based services

   * FlightStats

   * Goog411

   * Google Earth

   * Google Maps

   * Live Search Maps

   * OpenTable

   * PolicyMap

   * Topix

   * TripIt

   * Yelp

Photo & Video

   * Amazon Video on Demand

   * Flickr

   * Hulu

   * Justin.tv

   * Photobucket

   * Picasa Web Albums

   * Picnik

   * Ustream

   * Vimeo

   * YouTube

Productivity

   * FreshBooks

   * Google Calendar

   * Google Docs

   * Intuit QuickBase

   * LogMeIn

   * Microsoft Office Live Small Business

   * Microsoft Office Live Workspace

   * Mint

   * Remember the Milk

   * Zoho

Search & Reference

   * About.com

   * Answers.com

   * Ask.com

   * eHow

   * Google

   * Live Search

   * Scour

   * WikiHow

   * Wikipedia

   * Yahoo

Social & Publishing

   * Bebo

   * Drupal

   * Facebook

   * Gaia Online

   * Hi5

   * Meebo

   * MySpace

   * StarDoll

   * Twitter

   * WordPress.com (with WordPress platform)

Editors’ Choice

   * Amazon Web Services

   * Aviary

   * Cuil

   * Evernote

   * Farecast

   * GoodGuide

   * Google Voice

   * Mobile Me

   * OAuth

   * Presently

   * Twitter Search

   * Windows Live Sync

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Posted by reinkefj

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