RANT: Lois Lerner’s emails

Saturday, August 2, 2014

http://www.therightcurmudgeon.com/2014/07/six-questions-for-the-irs-about-lois-lerners-emails

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A professional IT trade group with significant expertise in IT best practices has six questions that need to be answered about Lois Lerner’s -and at least 20 other IRS employees – email.

  1. What happened to the IRS’s IT Asset Managers who appear to have disappeared at a key juncture?
     
  2. Where is the documentation proving that Lois Lerner’s hard drive was wiped or destroyed? 
     
  3. Were the drives destroyed by an outside vendor or firm? 
     
  4. What are the IRS’s specific policies and procedures on document retention when hard drives are damaged or destroyed?
     
  5. What is the disaster recovery policy at the IRS? 
     
  6. Where are Lois Lerner’s emails from her Blackberry device? Are those secure? What is on the enterprise server? 

*** end quote ***

I would add some other questions!

  • Where all the email SERVERS backed up? (The emails should be recoverable from all the POST OFFICES that transmitted the email.)
  • What about all the people who received her, or email from the other “unlucky” folks whose hard drives died? (I have emails in MY in box from folks.)
  • What about other non-government email accounts like GMAIL to avoid to disclosure.
  • What about the NSA email snooping program? (Surely they have everything!) 

Argh!

It’s all corrupt.

And the politicians and bureaucrats have no shame.

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POLITICAL: Records retention policies compromised

Friday, August 1, 2014

http://www.therightcurmudgeon.com/2014/07/benghazi-talking-points-developed-govt-watchdogs-blast-kerry-aides-use-gmail-account

Home  Breaking News Feed  Breaking News – Daily Caller  
‘Is This How The Benghazi Talking Points Were Developed?’
Govt Watchdogs Blast Kerry Aide’s Use Of Gmail Account
Jul 25, 20140 39
By Brendan Bordelon

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Two top government watchdogs in Washington D.C. slammed a key aide to Secretary of State John Kerry for using a private Gmail account to conduct official government business, calling it “the worst possible practice in trying to maintain transparency” and speculating whether this was “how the Benghazi talking points were developed.”

*** and ***

“Records retention policies could be compromised by the use of private email,” he said, referencing Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) rules giving citizens the right to check up on their government by requesting official documents. “There are a variety of ways that federal records laws could be compromised through the use of private emails to conduct public business.”

*** end quote ***

Just another way the current administration breaks the law.

Ho hum, what’s new about that?

“Move along, people. Nothing to see here. Go home, you looky-loos.” Officer Barbrady’s Catch Phrase South Park

Argh!


JOBSEARCH: Axioms of an “employee”

Thursday, July 31, 2014

http://www.care2.com/greenliving/10-reasons-working-from-home-is-better-for-you-your-boss.html

FROM AN EMAIL

*** begin quote ***

Subject: 10 Reasons Working From Home is Better for You (& Your Boss) | Care2 Healthy Living

Should I send this to {REDACTED}?

*** end quote ***

I forwarded this link to {REDACTED}

and received these responses: 

*** begin quote ***

Yes please!

*** end quote ***

AND

*** begin quote ***

I don’t think it would do any good.  It might even be counterproductive as it expresses benefits from a perspective she does not apparently share.

*** end quote ***

MY RESPONSE

*** begin quote ***

Laugh! I agree.

{REDACTED} otoh didn’t see the “joke”.

{REDACTED} thought I was really going to forward it to {REDACTED}.

Whatanoob!

Interesting points though.

An “enlightened organization” would attempt to create shared value between the BORG (Business Organization) and “their” “Human Resources”.

*** end quote ***

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Attention: K-Mart shoppers be advise the “gold watch” era of employment is over. (Graduate college, get a good job with big corporation, stay with them for 40+ years, retire with savings and nice pension to a great “retirement”.) Folks who still believe in that will be working their golden years at WalMart as a “greeter”. Argh!  

This goes to my personal articles of faith; some of which are:

  •  Today’s “corporation” is a heartless, soulless, dishonest beast.
  • An employee is like a consultant; their ONLY job is find their next job.
  • IN dealing the workplace, one must always remember the JoHari window Johari window http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johari_window 
  • Always remember “Human Resources” sends the signal that you’re a “paper clip”. 

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INITIALISMS: PGPIRU

Wednesday, July 30, 2014

PGPIRU (i.e.,”Promote the Guilty; Punish the Innocent; and Reward the Uninvolved.”) 

Originally heard in a Tom Peters audio book long ago and far away.

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ECONOMICS: Tom Woods give a clear definition and distinction

Tuesday, July 29, 2014

http://www.lewrockwell.com/2014/07/no_author/why-were-winning/

The Role of Austrian Economics in the Liberty Movement
July 22, 2014

*** begin quote ***

Tom Woods kicks-off this year’s Mises University with a brilliant discussion of the ‘Role of Austrian Economics in the Liberty Movement’.

*** end quote ***

An interesting hour.

I was fascinated by his clear definition and distinction between “Austrian Economics” (i.e., von Mises et al.) and the “Liberty Movement” spawned by Ron Paul.

Are “we” a minority? Absolutely.

So were the Dead Old White Guys!

The interesting part is about “we are winning” because “our” ideas align more closely with reality that do the Keynesian Economics and the big Gooferment welfare / warfare state with it’s Crony Capitalism, corrupt politicians, and lifetime lazy bureaucrats.

On to New Hampshire, as part of the Free State Project (http://freestateproject.org) to make it the FIRST truly “Free State”.

Argh!

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SECURITY: Hackers impersonating E-ZPass

Monday, July 28, 2014

Cyber Security Alert: Potential Phishing Attack
Hackers impersonating “E-ZPass Service Center Personnel” are trying to steal customer information by sending an email that contains a malicious link. Attacks have been targeted at personal email addresses stating that they have an overdue toll debt.

The attack tries to trick the user into clicking on a link to view an account invoice. The URL linked in the email directs the target to a malicious website that compromises the user’s personal account information. E-ZPass has identified the following subject lines in connection with the attack emails [PDF]: “in arrears for driving on toll road”, “Payment for driving on toll road”, “indebtedness for driving on toll road”, and “Pay for driving on toll road”.

If you receive such email in your personal mailbox, do not click on the attachment or forward it to anyone. If you have clicked on a link via your personal email account, we recommend that you change the password for any information that you entered into the malicious site.

# – # – # – # – #  2014-Jul-28 @ 11:05  


RANT: Ukraine Deploying BUK Missiles In East

Monday, July 28, 2014

http://www.lewrockwell.com/2014/07/no_author/awkward-questions-for-us-ukraine/

Russia Says Has Photos Of Ukraine Deploying BUK Missiles In East, Radar Proof Of Warplanes In MH17 Vicinity
By Tyler Durden
ZeroHedge.com
July 22, 2014

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7. Why was not completely closed to civilian aircraft airspace over the combat zone, especially because in this area there was no solid field of radar navigation?

*** end quote ***

Argh!

Another tin foil hat item.

I don’t think Putin or “the separatists” did it.

Cui Bono!

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RANT: Old credit card details?

Sunday, July 27, 2014

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/07/ars-editor-learns-feds-have-his-old-ip-addresses-full-credit-card-numbers/#p3

Ars editor learns feds have his old IP addresses, full credit card numbersFOIA request turns up 9 years of records, including plaintext credit card numbers.
by Cyrus Farivar – July 19 2014, 8:00am EDT

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I was most surprised to see my credit card details—full card number and expiration date—published unredacted and in the clear. Fortunately, that credit card number has long expired, but I was nonetheless appalled to see it out there. American Airlines, which had created that particular PNR in 2005, did not immediately respond to my request for comment on how or why such detailed personal information would show up here. (In other instances, the majority of the number was X’d out.)

*** end quote ***

We have no clue as to what the Gooferment is keeping on us.

Let alone why.

I think the “carry cost” (i.e., the dollar cost of the electrons in some data center somewhere) has arched the “trivial level”.

Not that if you were paying the bill would YOU think it was trivial, but to those folks, who say “not my money”, it’s trivial.

Argh!

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INTERESTING: Value Is Based on Your Reputation

Saturday, July 26, 2014

http://www.wired.com/2014/07/document-coin

A New Digital Currency Whose Value Is Based on Your Reputation
BY KLINT FINLEY   07.18.14  |   6:30 AM  

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Unlike with bitcoin—which keeps its currency scarce by rewarding it only to those who participate in what amounts to a race to solve complex cryptographic puzzles—anyone will be able to create a new Document Coin anytime they want. The value of each coin will be completely subjective, depending on who creates the coin and why. “For example, the coin my disco singer friend created and gave me at my barbeque might be what gets me past the rope at the club,” Anderson says. A coin minted by tech pundit Tim O’Reilly might be highly prized in Silicon Valley circles, but of little interest to musicians. “It’s a bit like a combination of a social network with baseball trading.”

*** end quote ***

Maybe some day, a “FERD” or a “jasper john” would actually be worth something?

Laff!

Not bloody well likely.

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TINFOILHAT: TWA 800 — a terrorist attack OR a US Navy blunder?

Friday, July 25, 2014

http://www.americanthinker.com/2014/07/why_congress_must_reopen_the_twa_800_investigation.html

July 7, 2014
Why Congress Must Reopen the TWA 800 Investigation
By Jack Cashill

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There is much more, and I would invite those interested to read Hughes’s testimony in full. “During the course of my 42-year career as an investigator,” Hughes concludes, “the investigation of TWA Flight 800 was the only case in which I witnessed deception, lies and corruption on the parts of investigators and their management. The extraordinary measures to which the NTSB, FBI and CIA went to falsify and distort witness statements or accounts of what occurred, to alter and hide physical evidence and to mount a false public relations campaign to misinform the public, was unconscionable.”

Given its need to protect the “corporate memory,” no one really expected the NTSB to open this potentially criminal can of worms on its own. Now it is left to Congress, and if Congress does not act, no one will.

*** end quote ***

Either this was a terrorist attack OR a US Navy blunder. Nothing else makes sense.

Personally, I would accept either explanation if it was the truth.

Of course, a terrorist attack would not fit the political narrative that “the Homeland is secure”.

A naval blunder would be almost as embarrassing.

Sigh!

Unfortunately, once again, “We, The People” may never know the real truth.

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