Monthly Archives: November 2006

If You Can’t Do Your Job Leave It For the Next Team

This entry was posted in Federal Government on by

Demonstrating that the voters made a good choice to kick them out of leadership the republicans reneged on their basic work as congress critters:

Republicans vacating the Capitol are dumping a big spring cleaning job on Democrats moving in. GOP leaders have opted to leave behind almost a half-trillion-dollar clutter of unfinished spending bills,

Of course, they and the dems could complete this work quickly: delete everything that they do not have the revenue to pay for.

Double The Pleasure

This entry was posted in Democrats on by

You all know the good news. Beginning in January there will no longer be a republican congressional rubber stamp. The bad news is that the democrats will have a majority in congress.

With this situation the pleasure of political opining will be doubled. For the past 6 years the republicans have been sitting ducks. There have been daily opportunities to point out their stupidities, foibles and immoral behavior. To be honest they are getting a bit boring. While we will still have the daily disaster of bush we will get the added pleasure of fresh meat in congress.

Gosh, they aren’t even waiting until January. At least one senior democrat wants to bring back the draft:

U.S. Rep. Charles Rangel, the incoming chairman of the House of Representatives’ tax-writing committee, said he would introduce legislation to reinstate the draft as soon as the new, Democratic-controlled Congress convenes in January.

Asked on CBS’ “Face the Nation” if he was still serious about the proposal for a universal draft he raised a couple of years ago, he said, “You bet your life. Underscore serious.”

“If we’re going to challenge Iran and challenge North Korea and then, as some people have asked, to send more troops to Iraq, we can’t do that without a draft,” he said.

Rangel, who opposed the 2003 invasion of Iraq, also said he did not think the United States would have invaded Iraq if the children of members of Congress were sent to fight. He has said the U.S. fighting force is comprised disproportionately of people from low-income families and minorities.It is a bit ironic that the party, or at least one if its current leaders, that brought us the Vietnam war and riots on the street in opposition to the draft now wants to bring the draft back.

rangel’s proposal may be nothing more than a ploy to try to reinvigorate antiwar sentiment by tying it back together with the draft. Unfortunately he might get what he asks for not what he may be wishing for and is there any doubt bush would sign such legislation? What a treat for him. No more worry about recruitment rates getting in the way of a supply of bodies and he can blame the dems.

rangel also argues:

“I don’t see how anyone can support the war and not support the draft. I think to do so is hypocritical,” he said.

Supporting the war and not supporting a draft is not hypocritical. The latter, in fact, is a position all those who believe in freedom should support.

In the case of war supporters, well, they should all be automatically noted as volunteers for military service. No draft needed.

Also curious is why a black congress person would argue to bring back slavery…

Let Google Do Your Dialing

This entry was posted in Technology on by

I suspect Google already knows exactly who you are if you use their search, mapping or other services. Why not, then, give up your phone number? Now, they provide just a bit of incentive to do so.
If you are doing a business search on Google Maps they provide a feature that will call that business for you:

Search for a business, like a hardware store, on Google Maps, and click the ‘call’ link next to its phone number. Then, enter your phone number and click ‘Connect For free.’ Google calls your phone number and automatically connects you to the hardware store.
There are two things that I really like about this. The business’s phone number is automatically stored in your caller ID so you can easily call back in the future. And by checking the box to remember your phone number, you can make future calls from Google Maps with just two mouse clicks (and picking up your phone, of course).
We’re providing the ‘call’ link as a free service to all businesses. These aren’t ads and don’t influence the ranking of businesses in the search results. We foot the bill for calls (local and long distance), but airtime fees or other mobile fees will still apply if you use a mobile phone number.

The click to call feature is currently available only within the US and they say that they eventually delete your phone number from their servers. But they most certainly have added the information about your search and your phone call(s) to their growing file on you. If they really want your phone number later there are plenty of ways to acquire it.
On the other side, and it may not really make a difference, there are still quite a few people that delete Google cookies after every use. But, for that to mean anything, you’d better change your IP address every time as well.

Or use something like Tor.

Friday Ark #113

This entry was posted in Bird Blogging Cat Blogging Friday Ark Invertebrate Blogging Pet Blogging Weekend Cat Blogging Weekend Dog Blogging on by

We’ll post links to sites that have Friday (plus or minus a few days) photos of their chosen animals (photoshops at our discretion and humans only in supporting roles). Watch the Exception category for rocks, beer, coffee cups, and….?

We add boarders all day Friday plus intermittently on Saturday and Sunday so visit frequently.

Do link to the Ark every week!

You can find out how to board the Friday Ark at the Arkive page.

Alert: The Ark staff is traveling again today, 11/17. After the first round of early morning boardings updates will be intermittant…every few hours at best.

Cats

Dogs

Other Vertebrates

Invertebrates

Birds

In Memoriam

Didn’t Make It

  • x

Exceptions (inclusion not guaranteed)

Extra, Extra: All Ark boarders are invited to shout out at the Friday Ark Frapper Map. (73 shouts as of 11/16)

Dog folks: remember to submit your links to the Carnival of the Dogs hosted by Mickey’s Musings. Also, there are more doggies at Weekend Dog Blogging hosted this weekend by Sweetnicks.

Cat folks: remember to submit your links to the Carnival of the Cats which goes up every Sunday and the 138th edition, 11/12, is up at This Blog Is Full of Crap. The 139th edition will be hosted by Mind of Mog on 11/19. There are more weekly cats at Weekend Cat Blogging hosted on 11/18 by Catsynth . Do go shout out at The Catbloggers Frappr Map.

Bird folks: I and the Bird: A Blog Carnival for Bird Lovers is published every 2 weeks. The 36th edition is up and hosted by Words & Pictures. The 37th edition will be hosted on 11/30 by Five Wells.

For the spineless: Circus of the Spineless. A monthly celebration of Insects, Arachnids, Molluscs, Crustaceans, Worms and most anything else that wiggles. The 14th edition is up at The Neurophilosopher’s Weblog. The 14th edition will be hosted at the end of November by Ocellated.

For other current carnivals check out The Conservative Cat’s Carnival Page, The Blog Carnival and The TTLB Uber Carnival

Note for Haloscan Users:

Over the past month or so Haloscan started (the end of July) handling of trackbacks has improved though it is still pretty broken for carnival type posts. Now, instead of rejecting every attempt to ping it accepts single pings for a while and then will start rejecting them. I will keep trying to track back to Haloscan boarders but can make no guarantees for any particular week.

Note for Typepad Users:

Typepad continues to behave similar to Haloscan for trackbacks. I have, though, for the past month been able to get trackbacks to most, if not all, Typepad based boarders. I have to do it one at a time and wait a while in between pings but Typepad does not go into semi-permanent rejection mode like Haloscan.

The International Traveler

This entry was posted in Anarchism Government Law Enforcement Libertarianism War on Terrorism on by

Kafka would be hard put to one up the folks at homeland security:

Under the proposed rules, orders by the CBP [Customs adn Border Patrol] to common carriers not to transport specific persons would not be based on restraining orders (injunctions) issued by competent judicial authorities. Instead,they would be based on an undefined, secret, administrative permission-to-travel (“clearance”) procedure subject to none of the procedural or substantive due process required for orders prohibiting or restricting the exercise of protected First Amendment rights.

Jill provides perspective:

I remember watching Sound of Music when I was a child and feeling my heart race as the Von Trapp family made its escape from Nazified Austria. I could never have imagined that a day would come when those wanting to leave the United States would be forced to “make a run” for the border to evade a myriad of obstacles placed by an American government in the path of those who wished to exercise their fundamental human right to emigrate.
That day has not yet arrived. But it will on January 14.

Don’t count on the Mexican or Canadian borders being your safety valve. The fences and the electronic surveillance can be just as effective at keeping people in as at keeping people out.

The newly powerful dems need to put the elimination of this star chamber behavior close to the top of their early 2007 agenda . If they don’t then a free people would be well within their rights to take the job into their own hands.