CORRUPTION: The SEC is “captured”

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/2009/07/02/sec-favors-special-interests-in-new-corporate-elections-rule/

SEC Favors Special Interests in New Corporate Elections Rule
Posted by Mark A. Calabria

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Yesterday, the SEC repealed a long-standing rule which allowed brokers to vote shares on behalf of their investors, unless they obtained written directions from each individual investors. While investors have long been able to direct the voting of their shares, many do not take the time to. In these cases, the brokers vote those shares, after all they are the agents of the investors and are hired to act on their behalf.

The direct effect of the rule will be to reduce the voting weight of retail investors, as represented by their brokers. In voting against the rule, SEC Commissioner Kathy Casey raised the point that the rule would skew voting toward large institutional investors and away from little retail investors.

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Then one should not be too surprised to see pension funds be allowed to cast their “uninstructed” votes while brokers cannot. The largest pension funds manage the retirement of unionized state and local employees, often with the fund management itself representing the interests of the unions. We witnessed this same favoring of union interests over the common good in the auto bailouts.

The rule once again illustrates that the new bosses in Washington are busy rewarding their allies at the expense of everyone else.

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I’m shocked — “I’m shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!” Captain Renault in Casablanca — that there is politics going on in regulation. Ever heard of “regulatory capture” or as a normal human being would call it: “The inmates are running the asylum”!

The SEC did so well in the Made-Off scandal. Never did reimpose the uptick rule. Never did figure out the “ratings agency” problem.

But they can sure pay off contributors fast!

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Posted by reinkefj

TECHNOLOGY: Data Portability

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/07/09/powercom-countersues-facebook-over-data-portability/

Power.com Countersues Facebook Over Data Portability
by Jason Kincaid on July 9, 2009

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The Data Portability wars just got a little more interesting. Power.com, the service that lets users aggregate their social networks into a single hub, is countersuing Facebook for restricting users’ ability to export and move their own data. The company is claiming that Facebook is unlawfully withholding the data that users own (as stated in Facebook’s own ToS), and is stifling competition by refusing to allow third party services like Power.com to access the data, among other things. This should be fun.

*** and ***

It’s an analogy that has been drawn since the data portability movement began, and while it may make sense, there’s no guarantee the courts will view phone numbers and a user’s social network data in the same light.

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The idea that users aren’t allowed to input their username and passwords into other services is particularly hypocritical, as that’s exactly what Facebook invites you to do to import contacts from services like Gmail and Yahoo Mail.

Facebook can point to its efforts with Facebook Connect, which lets you log in with your Facebook username at third party sites and import some select data from your profile, as evidence of its openness. But this isn’t true data portability, it’s just a new walled garden — third parties are generally only allowed to cache your data, which means that you’re still tethered to Facebook.

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Data portability is the issue.

Argh!

It’s MY data.

Argh!

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Posted by reinkefj

GOLDBUG: Myths, Misunderstandings, and Outright Lies

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

http://www.cmi-gold-silver.com/gold-confiscation-1933.html

Myths, Misunderstandings, and Outright Lies

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Well worth reading BEFORE buying or selling anything gold, silver, or other “valuable stuff”.

As a veteran “gold bug”, I knew this stuff, but it’s well written refresher.

It’s long, but let me summarize: If you see it on TV or hear it on radio, be afraid. Be very afraid!

If Wall Street is a casino, then a lot of the gold dealers are just fraudsters.

Fore warned is fore armed.

Now can I interest you in Nigerian Gold Shares?

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Posted by reinkefj

POLITICAL: Subsidies and tariffs disclosurer!

Monday, July 20, 2009

http://blogs.abcnews.com/johnstossel/2009/07/your-handout-to-agribusiness.html

Your Handout to Agri-Business
07/09/2009 10:31 AM
John Stossel

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The Atlantic’s James Gibney has this suggestion:

Every product whose ingredients benefit from a subsidy should include the following language on the label:

“This product has been subsidized by the U.S. government at taxpayer expense. For more information, please visit usda.gov.”

And every product that benefits from tariff protection should have the following language on the label:

“This product is protected from foreign competition by U.S. import tariffs. Its price is higher as a result. For more information, please visit usitc.gov.”

*** end quote ***

I LOVE it!

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Posted by reinkefj

GOVEROTRAGEOUS: Brainwashing future voters

Monday, July 20, 2009

http://www.reason.com/blog/show/134551.html

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Public schools are filled with eager, fresh-faced youngsters, and prisons contain many rough-looking adults with uninviting personalities. But put aside that difference, writes Steve Chapman, and you find some important similarities between the two places—government-run facilities where individuals are held for a specific number of years without their consent, at the mercy of their custodians. So it was a mild surprise last week to learn from the Supreme Court there are some abridgments of freedom and invasions of privacy inflicted on children that the justices will not tolerate.

*** end quote ***

And, why does a freedom loving America permit the gooferment to brainwash future voters?

Notice where Obama sends his children for their education.

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Posted by reinkefj

TECHNOLOGY: Kindle and its ilk too pricy for me

Sunday, July 19, 2009

http://www.macworld.com/article/141620/2009/07/kindle2_pricecut.html?lsrc=rss_main

Kindle 2 price plunge signals e-book reader competition
by Melissa J. Perenson, PC World

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Amazon quietly lowered the price on its Kindle 2 e-book reader Wednesday. That didn’t take long: The Kindle 2 became available only about five months ago. And the price cut is a significant one: Amazon cropped $60 off the top price of its second-generation e-book reader, which now carries a more reasonable price tag of $299.

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I’d suspect that before I leap on any bandwagon it has to be under 100$. (Minimize my buyer’s remorse.) And, I don’t like wht I’ve been reading about the price fixing on Kindle Books. (That is that despite near zero cost, everything is 10$.) Add to that DRM and you have to rebuy if you need to redownload too many times. (Not my idea of a good user experience!) Argh! So, I’m not in the ebook market yet.

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Posted by reinkefj

GOVEROTRAGEOUS: Government isn’t transparent, but you can see right through them

Sunday, July 19, 2009

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124657655235589119.html

The EPA Silences a Climate Skeptic
By KIMBERLEY A. STRASSEL
The professional penalty for offering a contrary view to elites like Al Gore is a smear campaign.

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Unable to defend the EPA’s actions, the climate-change crew — , led by anonymous EPA officials — is doing what it does best: trashing Mr. Carlin as a “denier.” He is, we are told, “only” an economist (he in fact holds a degree in physics from CalTech). It wasn’t his “job” to look at this issue (he in fact works in an office tasked with “informing important policy decisions with sound economics and other sciences.”) His study was full of sham science. (The majority of it in fact references peer-reviewed studies.) Where’s Mr. Hansen and his defense of scientific freedom when you really need him?

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Yeah, I remember in the Eighties that “Global Cooling” was the reason that the government had to control whatever. Now it’s “Global Warming”. Although they have been trying to shift message to “Climate Change”. You really have to be stupid to NOT see that it’s all about CONTROL.

Sigh! Sheeple!!

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Posted by reinkefj

INITIALISMS: PROBLEM

Saturday, July 18, 2009

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/07/medicalrecords/

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Whether CCHIT should have such power is arguable, said Fred Trotter, co-founder of the Liberty Medical Software Foundation, a group devoted to promoting open-source EHR systems. In a blog post published in June, he described their certification process as “a check-list for a Proprietary, Rigid, Overweight, Bloated, Loaded, Expensive, and Massive (or PROBLEM for short) EHR products.”

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Great find!

Can apply to most IT infrastructure projects today.

I’d call “o” as over-budget!

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Posted by reinkefj

SOCIALISM: Take the company for the UAW and screw the killed and maimed

Saturday, July 18, 2009

http://abcnews.go.com/Business/Story?id=8016340&page=2

Bankruptcies Leave GM, Chrysler Defect Victims in the Dust
General Motors and Chrysler Are Rebuilding but Those With Injury, Death Claims May Not Get Their Day in Court
By ALICE GOMSTYN
ABC NEWS Business Unit
July 8, 2009

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Asked about consumers’ pending claims against GM and Chrysler, the Obama administration, which has worked closely with the companies on their reorganization plans, reiterated its support for both automakers.

“This was a commercial decision by the company, which we are confident will not interfere with the future viability of GM. While the U.S. Treasury was engaged in this process, GM was responsible for determining the best approach going forward,” an administration official said.

Chrysler’s decisions, meanwhile, were “consistent with conventional bankruptcy practice,” according to the official.

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I thought the Democrats were the party of the working man.

Silly me!

The White House was up to its elbows in this deal which was a payoff to the UAW and seizing the wealth of honest people.

(The majority of the bondholders were banks who received TARP money. Of course, they voted like the whores to the Government they are. I’d be very circumspect about any bond or any claim made by a politician!)

Screw these little people.

Maybe ABC should ask Obama these questions in his next staged press conference that they get to play act in.

(The mainstream media is just as big a whore for the gooferment as the banks.)

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Posted by reinkefj

GAMBLING: Roulette is fixed

Saturday, July 18, 2009

http://artofmanliness.com/2009/07/17/a-primer-on-roulette-why-are-you-playing-this-game/

A Primer on Roulette: Why Are You Playing This Game?
by Brett & Kate McKay on July 17, 2009

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I am going to explain to you how the game is played, and explain why you can’t win. And if you have any sense, you will never play.

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Wife does pretty good being a lucky guesser; I, on the other hand, never play.
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Posted by reinkefj

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