It's about friggin' time...

I've been praying for years for something like this to happen. Enough of the little I-wanna-be-important weenies who only speak "on condition of anonymity because my telling you this shit is completely illegal and goes directly against my agreement with, and the good of, my employer and the public, and I don't have the balls to give up my job over a principle."

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34636278/ns/us_news-airliner_attack/

TSA subpoenas bloggers, demands sources

updated 8:49 p.m. CT, Wed., Dec . 30, 2009

WASHINGTON - As the government reviews how an alleged terrorist was able to bring a bomb onto a U.S.-bound plane and try to blow it up on Christmas Day, the Transportation Security Administration is going after bloggers who wrote about a directive to increase security after the incident.

TSA special agents served subpoenas to travel bloggers Steve Frischling and Chris Elliott, demanding that they reveal who leaked the security directive to them. The government says the directive was not supposed to be disclosed to the public. (Elliott is a regular contributor to msnbc.com.)

Frischling said he met with two TSA special agents Tuesday night at his Connecticut home for about three hours and again on Wednesday morning when he was forced to hand over his lap top computer. Frischling said the agents threatened to interfere with his contract to write a blog for KLM Royal Dutch Airlines if he didn't cooperate and provide the name of the person who leaked the memo.

‘Showed up in my box’
"It literally showed up in my box," Frischling told The Associated Press. "I do not know who it came from." He said he provided the agents a signed statement to that effect.

In a Dec. 29 posting on his blog, Elliott said he had told the TSA agents at his house that he would call his lawyer and get back to them. Elliott did not immediately respond to an e-mail seeking comment. 

The TSA declined to say how many people were subpoenaed.

The directive was dated Dec. 25 and was issued after a 23-year-old Nigerian man was charged with attempting to bomb a Northwest Airlines flight as it approached Detroit from Amsterdam. The bomb, which allegedly was hidden in Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab's underwear, malfunctioned and no one was killed. Authorities said the device included a syringe and a condom-like bag filled with powder that the FBI determined to be PETN, a common explosive.

Near-miss attack
The near-miss attack has prompted President Barack Obama to order a review of what intelligence information the government had about Abdulmutallab and why it wasn't shared with the appropriate agencies. He also ordered a review of U.S. aviation security. The government has spent billions of dollars and undergone massive reorganizations since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks to prevent such a tragedy from happening again.

The TSA directive outlined new screening measures that went into effect the same day as the airliner incident. It included many procedures that would be apparent to the traveling public, such as screening at boarding gates, patting down the upper legs and torso, physically inspecting all travelers' belongings, looking carefully at syringes with powders and liquids, requiring that passengers remain in their seats one hour before landing, and disabling all onboard communications systems, including what is provided by the airline.

It also listed people who would be exempted from these screening procedures such as heads of state and their families.

This is the second time in a month that the TSA has found some of its sensitive airline security documents on the Internet.

I'm still waiting...

...for a congressman to say that he's willing to forgo congressional health care and sign up for the new bill.

Airport security

What would have stopped the Nigerian Undiebomber is a whole body imager. But if we were proactive and used them, everyone would cry about invasion of privacy. But when we're reactive, and institute policies based on incidents, people cry about us not being proactive. Ya just can't win.

Guess it ain't Camelot after all...

The president doesn't smile quite so much any more. Looks like the pressure's getting to him.

Dear Senators Snowe and Collins:

I have a simple question. How can you call this legislation "health care reform", when it addresses not a single issue regarding why health care is so expensive? Regardless of how many government middlemen you insert in the process (those paragons of fiscal efficiency), and how many different hands you shift the money between, it's still going to cost thousands per day to stay in a hospital, an MRI is still going to cost $8000, drugs are still going to cost much more here than they do in Canada and elsewhere, and malpractice insurance is still going to be expensive enough to make doctors think twice about continuing in practice. So where is the reform? And where is tort reform?

Using insurance to pay for medical care was a bad idea when it was invented, and still is. The principle behind insurance is to spread a small risk among many insured. One of the first insurance policies in this country was written by a group of farmers who got together to insure each other's barns against fire, on the premise that maybe one or two barns might burn, but not so many that the rest couldn't pay for it. But when it comes to health care, EVERYONE'S barn burns down eventually. Everyone has a 100% of eventually needing more medical care than a lifetime of premiums can pay for. The only choice health insurance companies have to stay in business is to get rid of high risk people. It has always been that way, and will always be that way, until medical costs are low enough that a person's premiums have some chance of covering the costs. It is simple mathematics.

Therefore, as my representatives in the Senate, I direct you to vote against this legislation. Thank you for your time.

If you were eating here tomorrow...

...you could have a piece of pie.

How can Maine be...

...59% stoners and 53% bigots at the same time?

It's hard to credit that people can be that greedy

Pay "czar" Feinberg (does the fact that every damn government adviser has to be a "czar" irritate everyone as much as it does me?) got to cut some incompetent bankers' and car makers' pay packages today, and I bet it felt really good. But "Recent news that Goldman Sachs Group Inc (sic) had set aside $16.8 billion for compensation, so soon after repaying $10 billion in taxpayer money, fueled concerns that Wall Street was already returning to the lavish pay practices that were commonplace before the financial crisis struck."

"Feinberg hinted the bailed-out firms did not seem to get the message adding that without exception, all of the pay plans that they submitted were inconsistent with the public interest."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20091022/bs_nm/us_financial_pay_5

I was in a Bank of America branch a couple of weeks ago, waiting for my boss to withdraw cash to pay me, and some manager leech actually walked out of her office, came over to me and said "People hanging around in sunglasses make us nervous. Are you with (my boss)?" I was pissed, so I answered "yes, but I have my passport if you'd like to see it." She proceeded to ask me what I did for him etc., with seemingly no idea what a rude idiot she was being. I was so taken aback that I couldn't think of anything to say, so I gave her minimal answers. This is the same bank which charges me $6 to cash my own paycheck, unless I start an account there. Highly friggin' unlikely. These people are incredibly oblivious to the image they project. They just don't get it, do they? If I had any assets in any of those companies, I would be yanking them out sooooo fast... It pisses me off to no end that my money goes to save these supercilious, smug, greedy bastards, just to watch them hand out bonuses and act like there was never any crisis, and that they earn every penny, even though without your and my help they'd all go under. "Too big to fail"? Bullshit. Let 'em go under.

R.I.P. Soupy Sales

One of the classy ones.

The classless of '09

I see very little class in Hollywood/L.A. these days. The latest batch of "stars" are nothing but drugged up, feuding, dime-a-dozen waste products called "starlets", and graceless, wimpy little pretty boys who think tattoos and acting like assholes make them look tough. Their egos make me laugh. The singers can't sing without computers to put them back on pitch, and the ability to hold a note is apparently a lost art. And the acting? Bah. Where are the Cary Grants and Katherine Hepburns? The Paul Newmans and Meryl Streeps? The Aretha Franklins and Tony Bennetts? Instead we have Lindsay Lohans and Justin Timberlakes, John Mayers and Nelly Furtados. People who can't even go out to dinner without causing a scene, usually out of some self-awarded sense of deity. (Didn't anyone ever tell them not to piss off the person that's making their food? Have they never seen the kitchen scenes in"Caught on Tape"? Sushi isn't supposed to smell like ammonia, ya know.). People who think everyone on Earth needs to prostrate themselves before the greatness of their talent. People who no doubt embarrass their mothers every time they open their mouths. Take some of those ridiculous salaries, buy some class, do your jobs and stfu! While you still have jobs!

WTF is wrong with Oklahoma?

Like someone else said, why don't they just tattoo a big red "A" on their foreheads? Would be more honest...

Two women are challenging an Oklahoma law that will require the state to create a Web site where any woman who has an abortion will have to provide intimate details about her choice -- including her relationships, financial situation and even her motivation for seeking the abortion.

A Michigan protester's murder sparks national fury over the abortion debate.

"A friend said it best: It's like undressing women in public, exposing their most personal issues on the Internet," said Lora Joyce Davis, one of the plaintiffs working with the New York-based Center for Reproductive Rights to fight the law, which goes into effect Nov. 1. 

Called the Statistical Reporting of Abortions Act, the law requires all doctors to file information on a woman's age, marital status, education level, number of previous pregnancies, cost and type of abortion, as well as the mother's relationship to the father, with the Oklahoma Department of Health.

Though it does not ask for names, the form poses 37 questions detailing a woman's personal situation. Critics say the first eight questions alone could easily lead to the identification of a woman who lives in one of the state's many small communities. 

"This law asks for so much information, and they are going to put it on the Internet for public scorn," said Davis. "Women who have abortions are considered murderers by many people, and you are going to put the name of a town of 200 and the fact that the girl is 17 and it's her first pregnancy and she in the 10th grade. People are going to know who it is."

Many questions fish for more, critics say. "Was there an infant born alive as a result of the abortion?" and "Was the abortion performed within the use of any public institution?" 

Doctors who fail to provide information would face criminal sanctions and loss of their medical license. 

While the litigants object to the invasion of privacy, their lawsuit challenges the law on more technical grounds. It charges that House Bill 1595 covers more than one subject and therefore violates the state constitution.

The plaintiffs hope to delay implementation of the law and the planned March 1, 2010, launch of the Web site.

Last month, the organization used the same argument to successfully strike down a 2008 law that would have required women seeking abortions to have an ultrasound within an hour of the proceedings and require doctors to describe the picture to their patients in great detail -- down to the numbers of finger and toes.

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/MindMoodNews/oklahoma-abortion-law-requires-women-disclose-personal-details/Story?id=8838428&page=1

Are there any well-run companies left in the world?

Doesn't seem to be many left. I'm not talking about just companies run by egotistic idiots that fail and take half of us with them, like banks or car manufacturers. I mean companies that are bearable to work for, for those of us who AREN'T unimaginative worker drones. Companies that promote on merit, not on yes-man skills. Companies that realize that their employees generate all their income and deserve to be compensated with a livable wage and benefits. Companies who value imagination and foresight in their managers, at whatever level, so that when plans are made, at least the most obvious flaws are seen and  dealt with before the plan is implemented. Companies that realize that cutting frontline staff is not always the best place, nor should it always be the first place, to start when cutting costs. Companies that actually pay attention to what their employees are doing all day, so that 4 out of every 8 man-hours are not spent texting boyfriends and forwarding 50 year-old jokes and inspirational little friendship chain letters. And people say Bush ruined the economy. What a joke. The economy sucks because companies suck. The economy sucks because CEOs suck at their jobs. The economy sucks because people aren't doing their jobs. Period.

I call 'em female comb-overs.

Ya know those middle-aged women who wear their hair long and close to their eyes, to cover up laugh lines? Ain't foolin' anyone...

Cowcharge's Law of Verbodynamics

As f(Bs) and f(Wtf) --> Nbl, and (Az+Hol) --> Oh, (U+Ly)+(.)(.)+(Ys/Wcn)=O/b

As the Coefficients of Oratory (Bs) and Gullibility (WTF) approach infinity (Nbl), subject to the behavioral modifier Character (Az/Hol) as it approaches zero (Oh), the  variables Integrity (U+Ly), Action (.)(.) and Hope (Ys/Wcn) all approach zero (O/b). *

*Link to Mathematical proof: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091009/ap_on_re_eu/eu_nobel_peace

Congratulations Chicago!

You dodged a huge bullet of debt and embarrassment by avoiding having to host the Olympics. You know as well as I that you would get stuck paying for the inevitable cost overruns as Daley and Obama's buddies mismanaged things and lined their pockets with development money. Besides, wouldn't you rather turn on your TV to see Brazilian waxes than beer bellies with Bears logos on them?

Advertisers...

...be aware, that I vow to NEVER buy anything from an advertiser who uses pop-ups. EVER.