Tuesday, November 30, 2010

A System So Good We Want To Opt-Out


From The New York Post.

We all know that Sen. Ron Wyden is attempting to get a waiver from the onerous Obamacare that he helped promote, but here is a complete List as of now of those that have been granted.

The United Federation of Teachers -- one of President Obama's key political backers -- is the biggest beneficiary of a White House sweetheart deal that will exempt certain outfits from complying with new health-care rules, officials revealed yesterday.

The one-year waiver, approved last month by the Department of Health and Human Services, covers all 351,000 members of the UFT's welfare fund, which provides health care and other benefits.

"Big labor spent millions of dollars pushing ObamaCare, which they made sure was stuffed full of union giveaways," said Patrick Semmens, spokesman for the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, which represents businesses.

"So the fact that the largest waiver now belongs to New York teachers union bosses might be funny if the rest of America wasn't stuck complying with the bill's onerous mandates."

For The Net Neutrality Debate

From Dvorak Uncensored Blog


Comcast Corp. has begun imposing a fee on Internet middleman Level 3 Communications Inc., one of the companies that Netflix Inc. has hired to deliver movies and TV shows to Web customers.

Comcast, the largest U.S. cable TV company, has set up an Internet “toll booth,” charging Level 3 whenever customers request content, the Broomfield, Colorado-based company said in a statement yesterday.

Level 3 plans to complain to U.S. regulators who may enact so-called net-neutrality rules next month. The Federal Communications Commission is seeking to bar phone and cable providers from interfering with legal traffic on their networks. The rules are backed by President Barack Obama and companies led by Google Inc., EBay Inc. and IAC/InterActiveCorp. Phone and cable companies say rules aren’t needed and may hurt investment.

“This action by Comcast threatens the open Internet and is a clear abuse of the dominant control that Comcast exerts in broadband access,” Thomas Stortz, Level 3’s chief legal officer, said in the statement. “With this action, Comcast is preventing competing content from ever being delivered to Comcast’s subscribers at all, unless Comcast’s unilaterally determined toll is paid.”

Netflix accounts for more than a fifth of the traffic downloaded during the peak hours of 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. in the U.S., according to a report from broadband network company Sandvine Inc. Level 3 has said it will add capacity to its network to handle the extra load from Netflix’s movies.

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Planes Bad, Trains Good.

From The Dvorak Uncensored Blog.

The push for high-speed rail is on. While making a simple trip to the airport as expensive and humiliating as possible Obama and gang are tossing out millions to those that will spend the money on developing high-speed rail.
One of the main selling points of the rail is that you can avoid the nude scanners and strip searches. But wait I guess that Home Land Security Czar Nappy Napolitano didn't get the message. To quote her, “[Terrorists] are going to continue to probe the system and try to find a way through,” Napolitano said in an interview that aired Monday night on "Charlie Rose."

“I think the tighter we get on aviation, we have to also be thinking now about going on to mass transit or to trains or maritime. So, what do we need to be doing to strengthen our protections there?”
Napolitano isn’t the only one who’s suggested that advanced scanning machines could be used in places beyond airports.

Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, introduced legislation this past September that would authorize testing of body scanners at some federal buildings.

Friday, November 19, 2010

From The Greely Gazette.

What will happen when political correctness runs head long into national security?
We will soon find out.
"The Council on American-Islamic Relations, CAIR, has expressed concern with the TSA over the regulations and recommended special procedures for dealing with Muslim women. The organization issued a travel advisory for Muslims over the procedure.

In the advisory CAIR advises all Muslims to contact them and file a complaint with the TSA if they experience any “disturbing incidents” with the new procedures and they feel they have been unfairly singled out for screening.

It goes on to make special recommendations for Muslim women wearing a hijab covering their face. The advisory says women are to inform the officer they are only to pat down the head and neck and says “They should not subject you to a full-body or partial body pat-down.” They also recommend that women should be permitted to pat themselves down and “have the officers perform a chemical swipe of your hands.”

Barack Obama’s Homeland Security Czar, Janet Napolitano, is considering changes to the procedures to address the issues raised by CAIR."

If Jay Has His Say.

From
The Daily Caller.




Democratic Senator Jay Rockefeller seems to believe that somehow congress should be the arbitrator of what is acceptable news and even entertainment programming.
In this clip he says: “I hunger for quality news. I’m tired of the right and the left,” Rockefeller bemoaned during a recent hearing on television retransmission consent. “There’s a little bug inside of me which wants to get the FCC to say to Fox and to MSNBC: ‘Out. Off. End. Goodbye.’ It would be a big favor to political discourse,” he added.

He is a very good example of a politician that doesn't get it.  If he actually watched Fox or MSNBC he would see that the current mood of the PEOPLE has dramatically moved toward less government not more.  An unprecedented number or incumbents were turned out in the last election because Americans finally woke up to the fact that congress is dysfunctional and the only way to correct this is to vote the bums out.  Unfortunately, he wasn't one of them.  Maybe next time.

Mr. Rockefeller appears to be unaware that congress has no constitutional or legal authority to regulate the cable networks content.  The FCC has authority only over broadcast channels.

My advice to Mr. Rockefeller is put down the remote, pick up a copy of the Constitution and study it.  Thanks to the cable channels and the internet we are no longer limited to what Mr. Rockefeller and his kind decide what is "appropriate" information to consume.  I'm sure he rues the day that his buddy Al Gore helped to invent the internet, the only chance we have of insuring that these dinosaurs are relegated to the dust bin of history.

Thursday, November 18, 2010

We're All Cons Now.

From Reason TV.
This is a funny remix of ConAir clip TSA style:

You Don't Want To Make The Hulk Angry.

From Fox News

People crossing the border illegally may be doing double takes, because a TV superhero is going to be on patrol.

Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio on Wednesday swore in 56 members of a new volunteer sheriff's posse group that includes "The Incredible Hulk" star Lou Ferrigno.

The sheriff says action-film star Steven Seagal and actor Peter Lupus of TV's "Mission: Impossible" fame also are members of the posse group, though they weren't sworn in at Wednesday's ceremony.

The new posse group will specialize in helping deputies crack down on illegal immigration.

The sheriff says the volunteers' duties will include bringing arrestees to jail and handling demonstrators who interfere with immigration patrols.

Some of the nearly 3,000 people who were already part of Arpaio's volunteer posse had played a support role in earlier immigration patrols.

Caution-entering TSA Groping Zone.


From BoingBoing

Go Ron Go

Ron Paul goes on a rant about the TSA overreach, or should I say underreach?

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Full Body Xray Machines

The following letter expresses concerns that some scientists at UCSF have concerning the possible harm that the use of the new full-body xray machines may cause.  If you believe the common quoted concept that the new machines are as safe as using a cell phone, that may not be true.  There may be a reason that the TSA machine operators are forbidden to wear xray dose monitors at work.

Letter here.

Sunday, November 14, 2010

America The Pityful

A California school has done a U-turn after it forced a student to remove an American flag attached to his bike, saying the Stars and Stripes could spur racial tensions on campus.
Cody Alicea,13, had been flying the flag on the back of his bicycle for almost two months to show support for veterans like his grandfather, Robert Alicea.
But just in time for Veterans Day, school officials at Denair Middle School told Cody he would no longer be allowed to display the flag, citing complaints from other students.
Now, after a public outcry, the school has decided that the grand old flag can come back.




Friday, November 12, 2010

Possible Good News For The Holidays.

Amazon.com is hiring more than 15,500 to fill temporary holiday jobs at shipping centers around the country, more than last year.
"Many retailers are increasing their hiring this season. Kohl's Corp., Macy's Inc., Toys R Us, Pier 1 Imports Inc., American Eagle Outfitters Inc. and others plan to hire more temporary holiday workers."

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Opt out, We have an Opt Out!!!!

 Found on NoAgenda.com



Beautiful babe is "randomly" selected for full body scan.  She refuses and from there it goes downhill.
Welcome to Gitmo Nation.

Sunday, November 07, 2010

Music For Your Eyes

Found these extremely captivating time lapse videos.  Please watch them in full screen with the volumn up.  You won't be disappointed.


TimeScapes: Rapture from Tom Lowe @ Timescapes on Vimeo.


Timescapes Timelapse: Mountain Light from Tom Lowe @ Timescapes on Vimeo.


Timescapes Timelapse: Learning to Fly from Tom Lowe @ Timescapes on Vimeo.

Monday, November 01, 2010

I Forget

From The Blaze.com:



These people seem to have selective memory.  They forget who was in control of the congress and senate for the last four years and the presidency for two years.  They forget who facilitated the housing bubble and bust and who spent us into the highest national debt in history.