I read this story and as I was about to post my thoughts. Until I read Engadget’s spin. I liked their's so here it is:
So you’re cruising along, in your GPS-equipped SUV, taking your dear wife back home to Reno. The trusty onscreen guide instructs you to “turn right” and you follow its typically reliable instructions. At what point in the next three days of plowing deeper and deeper into snow-covered Oregon do you start suspecting that maybe something is amiss? Alright, so this isn’t quite on par with others driving buses into low-clearance tunnels, dipping their cars into rivers, or jamming heavy load trucks into unsuitably tight farm lanes. But we don’t discriminate here, all instances of idiotic GPS dependency deserve their moment in the sun, so here’s to Mr. John Rhoads and his tastefully named wife, Mrs. Starry Bush-Rhoads, who are now safe and sound after their phone pinged out its coordinates to emergency services when it began losing signal.
Link
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Airport Security?
Former CIA agent Robert Baer: "You can search voting records or property lists on the Internet much quicker than the FBI can find out if someone is a bad guy on their own lists."
The Department of Homeland Security has spent more then 40 billion to strengthen our aviation security system, but have failed to put in the most important recommendations from the 9/11 commission report. One of the most important and obvious failures is they have yet to implement an effective way to match passengers names to terrorist watch lists.
Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the Nigerian accused of trying to ignite an explosive device on a flight 253, was one of about 550,000 on a terrorist watch-list maintained by the National Counter-terrorism Center. There needs to be a system that would alert the aviation security of the potential threat.
I think it is very naïve to think that we can develop a system that would keep us total safe from terrorism, but the goal should be to constantly enhance our technology. One major problem is the bureaucracy in Washington is not taking the appropriate steps to safe guard the United States Citizens. It is times like these that we need to put all politics aside and work towards solid solutions.
The Department of Homeland Security has spent more then 40 billion to strengthen our aviation security system, but have failed to put in the most important recommendations from the 9/11 commission report. One of the most important and obvious failures is they have yet to implement an effective way to match passengers names to terrorist watch lists.
Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the Nigerian accused of trying to ignite an explosive device on a flight 253, was one of about 550,000 on a terrorist watch-list maintained by the National Counter-terrorism Center. There needs to be a system that would alert the aviation security of the potential threat.
I think it is very naïve to think that we can develop a system that would keep us total safe from terrorism, but the goal should be to constantly enhance our technology. One major problem is the bureaucracy in Washington is not taking the appropriate steps to safe guard the United States Citizens. It is times like these that we need to put all politics aside and work towards solid solutions.
Saturday, December 19, 2009
Banking Act
"We need to rebuild the wall of Glass-Steagall so banks will stop diverting resources to Wall Street speculation and get back to more business lending to main street," Maria Cantwell
I would like to applaud Sens. Maria Cantwell (D-WA) and John McCain (R-AZ) for introducing legislation to rebuild Glass-Steagall. Banks need to stop diverting resources to Wall Street and act more like banks. “If enacted, the bill would mean that J.P. Morgan Chase Co. would have to give up the Bear Stearns trading operations it acquired earlier in the year, or separate its Chase retail-banking arm.”
They will be trying to restore this legislation that, was imposed in the wake of the Great Depression, put a wall between commercial banking and investment banking and insurance. In 1999, Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act passed by a huge majority in Congress and was signed by Bill Clinton which led to a lot of deregulation. This is what caused the Great Depression and what caused what ever you want to call this era (some say recession some say depression) we are in today? This is very important not only to pass this bill but to offer more regulations to the institutions that have bankrupted us.
Let’s hold them accountable. President Barack Obama argued on the campaign trail that Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of 1999, which repealed part of the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933, led to deregulation that helped cause the crisis. Now with this bill being proposed the White House has been quiet on this issue. Those who have spoken have said that these firms have already merged their banking and investment activates and it would be too difficult to separate them now. Hold them accountable write your congressman. Write your Senator. Write the President. Tell them to support this bill. Be a part of the Democratic system that we hold so dear. Tell them that we can’t let this fiasco happen again. Businesses should never be too big to fail!!!
I would like to applaud Sens. Maria Cantwell (D-WA) and John McCain (R-AZ) for introducing legislation to rebuild Glass-Steagall. Banks need to stop diverting resources to Wall Street and act more like banks. “If enacted, the bill would mean that J.P. Morgan Chase Co. would have to give up the Bear Stearns trading operations it acquired earlier in the year, or separate its Chase retail-banking arm.”
They will be trying to restore this legislation that, was imposed in the wake of the Great Depression, put a wall between commercial banking and investment banking and insurance. In 1999, Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act passed by a huge majority in Congress and was signed by Bill Clinton which led to a lot of deregulation. This is what caused the Great Depression and what caused what ever you want to call this era (some say recession some say depression) we are in today? This is very important not only to pass this bill but to offer more regulations to the institutions that have bankrupted us.
Let’s hold them accountable. President Barack Obama argued on the campaign trail that Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of 1999, which repealed part of the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933, led to deregulation that helped cause the crisis. Now with this bill being proposed the White House has been quiet on this issue. Those who have spoken have said that these firms have already merged their banking and investment activates and it would be too difficult to separate them now. Hold them accountable write your congressman. Write your Senator. Write the President. Tell them to support this bill. Be a part of the Democratic system that we hold so dear. Tell them that we can’t let this fiasco happen again. Businesses should never be too big to fail!!!
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Health Care Bill
The health care bill has become a joke and needs to be scraped. President Obama is trying to pass any bill just to claim a victory. The Republicans are trying to water it down to nothing so they can claim victory and Joe Lieberman is even blocking clauses that he believes in, like allowing 55 year olds to but into Medicare. Lieberman said he would vote for that and when they tried to appease him he said he wouldn’t vote for that. Somewhere along the way these Politian’s forgot one small detail, the people. Any “victory” at this point would be a Pyrrhic victory, because this bill will not help the people. That’s why I think we need to start from scratch and hold each of our representatives accountable.
I am in favor of a one payer system but without at least a public option there is no reform. Reform would benefit the people, not the insurance companies and not the politicians that these insurance companies own. The reform that the insurance companies want is to mandate that every citizen has to purchase insurance. That would help there investors on wall street, but that will not guarantee that prices will go down, they will most certainly go up because there is no reason to lower their prices. What ever happened to cutting the cost? In many of the discussions about healthcare reform, it has been said over and over that we need to lower cost. We need to lower premiums. How do we do this when the industry creates their prices? Without any competition they have no incentive to lower prices. This is evident by the soaring cost of insurance that goes up annually.
Now I’m not economics major, but I know if you give a drug addict some money there is a good chance that money will be used to buy drugs. There is no difference better these corporations and a drug addict. They are both doing what they need to do. What this drug is making them do. The only thing that will stop them is intervention. We can’t keep giving these power hungry industries blank checks and hope that they grow a conscience. This is lunacy and until we stop it this same blatant disregard for human life will prevail.
I am in favor of a one payer system but without at least a public option there is no reform. Reform would benefit the people, not the insurance companies and not the politicians that these insurance companies own. The reform that the insurance companies want is to mandate that every citizen has to purchase insurance. That would help there investors on wall street, but that will not guarantee that prices will go down, they will most certainly go up because there is no reason to lower their prices. What ever happened to cutting the cost? In many of the discussions about healthcare reform, it has been said over and over that we need to lower cost. We need to lower premiums. How do we do this when the industry creates their prices? Without any competition they have no incentive to lower prices. This is evident by the soaring cost of insurance that goes up annually.
Now I’m not economics major, but I know if you give a drug addict some money there is a good chance that money will be used to buy drugs. There is no difference better these corporations and a drug addict. They are both doing what they need to do. What this drug is making them do. The only thing that will stop them is intervention. We can’t keep giving these power hungry industries blank checks and hope that they grow a conscience. This is lunacy and until we stop it this same blatant disregard for human life will prevail.
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Fox News: Fair and Balanced
It is a shame that this "news" organization is still on the air. They need to fire the entire staff and start from scratch. Once again they get caught fudging their story. This time they took a poll and changed the numbers to equal 120 percent. Way to Fact check watch:
And Bill O’Reilly’s no fact zone lies and says Obama’s approval rates are the lowest ever. Bill Clintons approval ratings were 36 percent after only 5 months into his Presidency while Gerald Fords approval ratings was 37 in 4 months. A little Journalism would help Billy. Do some!
Fox news at its best. The dumbing down of America
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| Gretchen Carlson Dumbs Down | ||||
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And Bill O’Reilly’s no fact zone lies and says Obama’s approval rates are the lowest ever. Bill Clintons approval ratings were 36 percent after only 5 months into his Presidency while Gerald Fords approval ratings was 37 in 4 months. A little Journalism would help Billy. Do some!
Fox news at its best. The dumbing down of America
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Liberty and Justice for some.
Today the New York State Senate voted down a bill that would legalize gay marriage. I don’t understand what the big deal is honestly. If two people want to get married why should we stand in the way? I have to admit I don’t know a lot of gay people but I know a few and I don’t see how and why they are treated any differently then any body else. We can’t help or change our genetics any more then we can stop the sun from rising. To say you are doomed in life because of the way you were born, is the same bigoted mind state that helps nations oppress people through out history.
Being gay isn’t a choice. I am a firm believer in that. I didn’t wake up an say, hey I’m going to be heterosexual. I was born this way. I challenge any one to say they woke up and decided to be attracted to someone. I knew at an early age that I liked girls from as far as I can remember. And the few gay people that I have talked to say they had their feels, albeit most tried to suppress it because of religion and society constraints. I can’t imagine any one putting themselves in a situation to be discriminated against on purpose. Why would someone choose to be bullied, spit on, and made to be an outcast on purpose?
“I've always tried to analyze things because I want to be lawyer,” Will said. “I really don't feel that there's currently liberty and justice for all.”
This was said by a 10 year old who disagreed with the treatment of gays in this country so he decided not to stand for the pledge. I applaud this kid who made a decision not to dignify this hypocrisy. I didn’t stand for the pledge in school either. It didn’t make the headlines back then shows you how times have changed. This is what brave people do, they stand up for what they believe. I hate discrimination. And I am appalled by people that discriminate. That is way I didn’t stand the and thats why I'm taking a stand now. I will never take an oath or pledge of hypocrisy. It doesn’t matter if you aren’t gay. What matters is we have no right to tell someone how they should live their lives.
The vote was 38-24. All 30 Republicans voted against. The latest polls show 51 in favor and 42 opposed. New York politics at it’s best.
To Be Continued…..
Being gay isn’t a choice. I am a firm believer in that. I didn’t wake up an say, hey I’m going to be heterosexual. I was born this way. I challenge any one to say they woke up and decided to be attracted to someone. I knew at an early age that I liked girls from as far as I can remember. And the few gay people that I have talked to say they had their feels, albeit most tried to suppress it because of religion and society constraints. I can’t imagine any one putting themselves in a situation to be discriminated against on purpose. Why would someone choose to be bullied, spit on, and made to be an outcast on purpose?
“I've always tried to analyze things because I want to be lawyer,” Will said. “I really don't feel that there's currently liberty and justice for all.”
This was said by a 10 year old who disagreed with the treatment of gays in this country so he decided not to stand for the pledge. I applaud this kid who made a decision not to dignify this hypocrisy. I didn’t stand for the pledge in school either. It didn’t make the headlines back then shows you how times have changed. This is what brave people do, they stand up for what they believe. I hate discrimination. And I am appalled by people that discriminate. That is way I didn’t stand the and thats why I'm taking a stand now. I will never take an oath or pledge of hypocrisy. It doesn’t matter if you aren’t gay. What matters is we have no right to tell someone how they should live their lives.
The vote was 38-24. All 30 Republicans voted against. The latest polls show 51 in favor and 42 opposed. New York politics at it’s best.
To Be Continued…..
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
I just don't know
Unlike Dick Cheney’s absurd assessment, I appreciate the length of time it took to come to this decision. President Obama listened to many opinions and made a decision. His decision was to send 30,000 more troops in to Afghanistan to “win” this war. With the Generals praise of the President, I think it would be safe to say that he listened to their expertise and made his decision based on their knowledge. That’s shows sound judgment when it comes to winning a war. And it has pissed off both the right and the left so it sounds good to me.
But after further review I didn’t see a good out come in Afghanistan. This is the third poorest country in the world so you can’t expect the inhabitants to be educated enough to govern themselves. Even though the Democrats are good at throwing money at a problem this will not work here. So what do they mean when they say “win” and how do we “win”? These are the questions that nobody has an answer to. Even if we are successful at pushing the Taliban and Al Qaeda out, then what? We can’t educate the whole country, we can’t build their infrastructure, and we can’t even train them to build an army. So how long will it take to “win” and after we are gone then what? Some other group will come in use fear and take over. Say old story just different oppressors.
But after further review I didn’t see a good out come in Afghanistan. This is the third poorest country in the world so you can’t expect the inhabitants to be educated enough to govern themselves. Even though the Democrats are good at throwing money at a problem this will not work here. So what do they mean when they say “win” and how do we “win”? These are the questions that nobody has an answer to. Even if we are successful at pushing the Taliban and Al Qaeda out, then what? We can’t educate the whole country, we can’t build their infrastructure, and we can’t even train them to build an army. So how long will it take to “win” and after we are gone then what? Some other group will come in use fear and take over. Say old story just different oppressors.
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Tea Baggers show there true colors
Chicago Tea Party Patriots sent out a flyer to encourage attendance at the event, saying Lipinski had “sold us out!” by voting “to pass socialized medicine.”
This is what we have become? A nation so consumed in our own lives that we have no compassion for anyone else’s life. Laughing and heckling a grieving woman. Even if I agreed with your cause they lost me with your delivery. Do any of the idiots realize how ridiculous it is to laugh at someone who is grieving a loss? How can people that are against abortion laugh at the loss of a child? Hypocritical! Look its ok to disagree but this is over the top.
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