Mostly Harmless

Well, this is a Maverick move.  Or maybe Senator McCain is just nuts.

“We haven’t heard hide nor hair of Sen. McCain in these negotiations,” said Schumer, chairman of the Senate Banking Committee. “He has not been involved except for an occasional, unhelpful statement, sort of thrown from far away, and the last thing we need in these delicate negotiations is an injection of presidential politics.”

McCain suspends campaign, Obama plans to continue

If Senator McCain was so entrenched in dealing with this corporate welfare bailout, then maybe.  But he has not been involved and Senator Obama is right.  Voters need a president who can deal with multiple problems at once. This is just another “Why do they hate America?” stunt.

Why would anyone hesitate to give the Bush administration more cash…?

The proposal “does not include the necessary safeguards,” said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. She called for “independent oversight, protections for homeowners and constraints on excessive executive compensation.”

Paulson urges quick action on $700 billion bailout.

This might be a “Good Thing” and since it’s election time, it will pass without any examination.  But geez, is it too much to ask that the government setup some sort of monitoring?

So I booted my PC today when I got home today. I had intended to check e-mail before running out.

The damn thing won’t boot.  I’m typing this on the kitchen laptop.  It says the registry file is corrupted and I should boot off of my Vista DVD and select the repair option.  Except my PC has 4 GB of RAM in it, and the DVD I have won’t boot. That particular image will only boot with 2 GB of RAM or less.

Tomorrow I’ll pop out the RAM, pop in the old 2 GB that I have laying around and fix my PC.  How could Microsoft release such a unsupportable mess?  This is why I need to have a dual boot option and install Ubuntu Linux.  If I had an issue with Linux, I could fix it in no time at all.

Nuts.

It’s about time.  If the rules say you have to be 16 years old the same year as the Olympics, then that’s it. Putting on a 14 year old is just very stupid 1950 style communist government.

You know I hate to see any detainee die in prison. And I always believe if there is negligence or misconduct that ought to be punished. I also recognize that the population of any detention facility, whether it’s a state prison, federal prison, you’re going to get a certain number of deaths.

Aftermath of an Immigrants Death in Detention - City Room - Metro - New York Times Blog.

That must be comforting to the family of Hiu Lui Ng.  I wonder what is the percentage of deaths at a facility has to be before it’s considered a “problem”?

I know he’s a college frat boy first and President of the United States second but honestly, can we have a little common sense and dignity when he’s abroad?

Today was an odd day. Not bad exactly, but definitely odd.

I went to work for a scheduled systems upgrade.  Lily and the kids went to Central Park and after work we met in Chinatown.  When we returned to Long Island we found my front passenger window was broken and my GPS unit stolen.

Now I didn’t exactly leave the unit out, it was in the center console.  But the window mount was sealed to the window so I left it there.  The round rubber from the suction cup is still there, just not the rest of it.

According to the police there has been a rash of break-ins with people looking for GPS units.  They smash the window and look into the console for the unit.  If you don’t have a GPS then you’re just pissed.  If you do have one put away then you’re also out a GPS unit.

I’m not really angry about it since these things happen.  I’ll take the car to the dealer and hope that my insurance covers most of it.  Other than this, today was pretty good.

Things sure are weird in this country.  People will just accept the oddest things.

I wonder how long it will be before DHS can copy all photos and papers you take on a trip?  They can seize and copy your entire laptop every time you cross the border.  Next time you come back into the U.S. you lose all privacy regarding any electronic device you have.  A misinformed TSA monkeys will decide if you are a criminal or not.  Or they can take their time, since they can copy all your data to examine at a later date.

Remember kids: in the United States if you are not guilty and have nothing to hide, then you have nothing to be afraid of.  No need to count on suspicion of actually breaking the law or protection of your rights against unreasonable search and seizures.

The 4th amendment does not apply because the government says it doesn’t. the important thing is not that we are developing a police state run by brown shirts, the important thing is Security Theater.

This is insane.  This sort of thing is supposed to happen in other countries; we’re supposed to have a history of protecting our citizens rights.  It makes me wonder if the conspiracy nuts are actually on to something. Papers please.

President Nixon Bush got what he wanted: Senate bows to Bush, approves surveillance bill.

The news article mentions that the old FISA rules were a problem, and that Congress did not want to deal with this in an election year.  Even Senator Obama folded on this one.

I guess his ambition is greater than his morals.  “Vote for change”, what nonsense.

King George must be pleased to have such tame pets.  It was never demonstrated that there was any issue with using the old FISA rules.  It was only an issue because the Bush Cheney administration wanted more power.

The current administration does not want this law passed because they need it.  They don’t torture people because they need to.  They don’t disregard the Constitution because they need to.  They don’t eliminate habeas corpus* because they need to.

They do all these things because they can.

I’m pissed again, I really can’t wait till January 20th to welcome our new king.

*Some people may think that habeas corpus was something denied only to non-American citizen away from our shores.  The fact is, this administration grabbed an American in an airport in Chicago and then John Ashcroft bragged about it from Moscow.  That American, who may have been the most vile scum, was held for years and subjected to abuse before the administration moved him where the law says he should have been.  If they can do this to the worst, they can do this to anyone.

Salon has a jailhouse interview with Hans Reser from days before he made that deal.  Interesting reading.