March 24, 2005
Social Security trustees' report gives earlier date for insolvency
No crisis to see here, folks. Nope, nothing, nada! Just move along, move along.
March 15, 2005
The Lunatics Are On The Grass
I think 'G' has summed it up quite nicely.
The Colorado University at Boulder faculty have expressed their support for Ward Churchill, who lied about being a Native American, called all but the janitors killed on 9/11 "little Eichmanns", claimed other's artwork as his own, and plagiarized the writing of fellow academics.
The Harvard University faculty have expressed no confidence in Lawrence Summers, who said that women might not have as great an aptitude for science and math as men.
So let me get this straight, people actually pay money to attend these asylums?
March 10, 2005
It's Enough To Make Me Think About Changing Parties
The total sellout of the Republicans to the credit card special interests is disgusting. Beverly, you know that clip of Kennedy shouting "hello?" is from his rant on this topic. And for perhaps the very first time in my entire life, I have to agree with Ted Kennedy. Just look at this litany of rejected ammendments to the new Bankruptcy bill, (whose sole purpose is to make it harder to escape from the grasping claws of high interest debt! Case in point, the rejected Durbin ammendment which would have capped credit card interest rates at 29.99%. Now it appears that they will be able to charge stupid poor people even more.)
Vote Date Issue Question Result Description |
| 34 9-Mar S. 256 On the Amendment S.Amdt. 67 Rejected Dodd Amdt. No. 67; To modify the bill to protect families, and for other purposes. |
32 9-Mar S. 256 On the Amendment S.Amdt. 66 Rejected Harkin Amdt. No. 66; To increase the accrual period for the employee wage priority in bankruptcy. |
| 31 9-Mar S. 256 On the Amendment S.Amdt. 110 Rejected Durbin Amdt. No. 110; To clarify that the means test does not apply to debtors below median income. |
| 30 8-Mar S. 256 On the Amendment S.Amdt. 89 Rejected Feingold Amdt No. 89 ; To strike certain small business related bankruptcy provisions in the bill. |
| 28 8-Mar S. 256 On the Amendment S.Amdt. 47 Rejected Schumer Amdt. No. 47.; To prohibit the discharge, in bankruptcy, of a debt resulting from the debtor's unlawful interference with the provision of lawful goods or services or damage to property used to provide lawful goods or services. |
| 27 7-Mar S. 256 On the Amendment S.Amdt. 128 Rejected Santorum Amdt. No. 128; To promote job creation, family time, and small business preservation in the adjustment of the Federal minimum wage. |
| 26 7-Mar S. 256 On the Amendment S.Amdt. 44 Rejected Kennedy Amdt. No. 44; To amend the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 to provide for an increase in the Federal minimum wage. |
| 25 3-Mar S. 256 On the Amendment S.Amdt. 49 Rejected Durbin Amdt. No. 49; To protect employees and retirees from corporate practices that deprive them of their earnings and retirement savings when a business files for bankruptcy. |
| 24 3-Mar S. 256 On the Amendment S.Amdt. 24 Rejected Rockefeller Amdt. No. 24; To amend the wage priority provision and to amend the payment of insurance benefits to retirees. |
| 23 3-Mar S. 256 On the Amendment S.Amdt. 42 Rejected Schumer Amdt. No. 42; To limit the exemption for asset protection trusts. |
| 22 3-Mar S. 256 On the Amendment S.Amdt. 38 Rejected Durbin Amdt. No. 38; To discourage predatory lending practices. |
| 21 3-Mar S. 256 On the Amendment S.Amdt. 37 Rejected Nelson (FL) Amdt. No. 37; To exempt debtors from means testing if their financial problems were caused by identity theft. |
| 20 3-Mar S. 256 On the Amendment S.Amdt. 31 Rejected Dayton Amdt. No. 31.; To limit the amount of interest that can be charged on any extension of credit to 30 percent. |
| 19 3-Mar S.J.Res. 4 On the Joint Resolution Agreed to S.J.Res. 4; A joint resolution providing for congressional disapproval of the rule submitted by the Department of Agriculture under chapter 8 of title 5, United States Code, relating to risk zones for introduction of bovine spongiform encephalopathy. |
| 18 2-Mar S. 256 On the Amendment S.Amdt. 32 Rejected Corzine Amdt. No. 32; To preserve existing bankruptcy protections for individuals experiencing economic distress as caregivers to ill or disabled family members. |
| 17 2-Mar S. 256 On the Amendment S.Amdt. 29 Rejected Kennedy Amdt. No. 29; To provide protection for medical debt homeowners. |
| 16 2-Mar S. 256 On the Amendment S.Amdt. 28 Rejected Kennedy Amdt. No. 28.; To exempt debtors whose financial problems were caused by serious medical problems from means testing. |
| 15 2-Mar S. 256 On the Amendment S.Amdt. 15 Rejected Akaka Amdt. No. 15; To require enhanced disclosure to consumers regarding the consequences of making only minimum required payments in the repayment of credit card debt, and for other purposes. |
| 13 1-Mar S. 256 On the Amendment S.Amdt. 16 Rejected Durbin Amdt. No. 16, As Modified.; To protect servicemembers and veterans from means testing in bankruptcy, to disallow certain claims by lenders charging usurious interest rates to servicemembers, and to allow servicemembers to exempt property based on the law of the State of their premilitary residence. |
March 09, 2005
Where's The Conflict?
Or, How Not Finding Something Is Not Proof That It Doesn't Exist.
This report by Chief Clueless 'Investigative Corespondent' Brian Ross made me blow my stack. Full Frontal Fisking Follows:
A secret FBI report obtained by ABC News concludes that while there is no doubt al Qaeda wants to hit the United States, its capability to do so is unclear.
Hmmm, as I recall there was quite a bit of doubt about al Qaeda's ability to hit the United States back before September Eleventh! And guess what, we were wrong.
...And for all the worry about Osama bin Laden's sleeper cells or agents in the United States, a secret FBI assessment concludes it knows of none.
Kind of like how we had only suspected two (three?) of the 9/11 hijackers of suspicious activity before 9/11?
The 32-page assessment says flatly, "To date, we have not identified any true 'sleeper' agents in the US," seemingly contradicting the "sleeper cell" description prosecutors assigned to seven men in Lackawanna, N.Y., in 2002.
Well gee whiz Beaver, do you think a true sleeper cell would be going out of its way to attract FBI attention? Like maybe putting a sign in the front yard that says "Terrorists Live Here"? Or would they be keepin' it on the down low?
"Limited reporting since March indicates al-Qa'ida has sought to recruit and train individuals to conduct attacks in the United States, but is inconclusive as to whether they have succeeded in placing operatives in this country," the report reads. "US Government efforts to date also have not revealed evidence of concealed cells or networks acting in the homeland as sleepers."It also differs from testimony given by FBI Director Robert Mueller, who warned in the past that several sleeper cells were probably in place.
"Our greatest threat is from al Qaeda cells in the United States that we have not yet been able to identify," Mueller said at a Senate Select Intelligence Committee hearing in February 2003. "Finding and rooting out al Qaeda members once they have entered the United States and have had time to establish themselves is our most serious intelligence and law enforcement challenge."
I suppose it's possible that Mueller's testimony really does differ in some respect from this 'secret' report, but I don't see how we get there from here, using only what Chief Clueboy Brian Ross has provided in his article. Instead, I have to agree 100% with Mueller, that any undetected al Qaeda cell(s) remaining in the United States would be the greatest threat facing us... I mean, isn't it obvious? What threat could be greater than that? A surprise attack on Pearl Harbor?
Or maybe Brian just doesn't understand the fundementals of logic and language. What do they teach them at Journalism School these days anyway?
March 04, 2005
Hewlett Packard Lightscribe dvd640
The short review: It's worth the money-- barely.
The long review: So I went to Wal-Mart and picked up Hewlett Packard's latest technology toy, the LightScribe 16x DVD+RW. I think this must be the sleeper product release of the year, since I was able to buy these things for $99 at Wal-Mart and then turn around and sell them on eBay for $140, but that's another story.
I have to say I was favorably impressed with the bundled software, which worked correctly the first time I tried to use it and never crashed. However, the big thing of course was how awesome was the LightScribe disc etching? Unfortunately, the answer is 'underwhelming'. Not only did the test image that I burned into the disk look like crap, but it actally took 35 minutes to complete the LightScribe burn. We're talking just the label here folks!!
Obviously, this is something HP is gonna have to fix if they expect people to use it. I didn't buy the thing to save money on labels, I bought it because I thought it would be faster and more convenient. Wrong on both counts.
So, my conclusion is, buy it-- but only for $99 or less.
