California Legislature Surrenders Database

"Settling a lawsuit with political-watchdog and open-records groups, (California) state officials have agreed to provide a computer database for tracking thousands of legislative votes." http://bit.ly/2AoCYG

Blogola: The FTC Takes On Paid Posts - BusinessWeek

The Federal Trade Commission wants bloggers to disclose when they've been wooed with cash or freebies from companies they cover

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What to do when you're stopped by police along the road

What should you do if you're traveling along the highways, and have an unplanned meeting with the forces of law and order? Several organizations concerned with protecting and expanding individual rights have created resources useful in just such situations.

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Buy USA Program puts US Workers Out of Work

"You need to tell me how inhibiting business between two companies located one mile apart is going to save American jobs," said Bob Miller, Duferco Farrell's executive vice president. "I've got 600 United Steel Workers out there who are going to lose their jobs because of this. And you tell me this is good for America?"

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California Election Measures Fail to Address State's Problem

Californians already pay some of the highest taxes in the nation. Imposing ever more taxes--like the $16 billion in additional taxes that Proposition 1A would authorize--to support the state's spending binge won't solve the structural deficit, and will only erode California's already poor business climate...

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The Barack Obama Book Club

Mary Anastasia O'Grady, editor of The Wall Street Journal's weekly column "Americas," provides a useful corrective for Uruguayan Marxist Eduardo Galeano's "Open Veins of Latin America." In her recent article "The Idiot's Bible" she introduces us to "The Manual of the Perfect Latin American Idiot," written by three Latin American journalists — Plinio Apuleyo Mendoza, Carlos Alberto Montaner and Alvaro Vargas Llosa. Many baseline media sources have misrepresented "Open Veins" as the sole repository of Latin American political thought, due entirely to President Hugo Chávez's gift of the book to President Obama at the recent Summit of the Americas.
I'm hoping we can find enough copies to give the gift of political literacy to President Obama's speech writing corps and supply them with a more balanced view.

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Pimping the Pandemic

Image by Fugue via Flickr

There are a LOT of Spin-Doctors on both (all?) sides of the fence working the "Flying Pig Flu Pandemic" angle to get their pork barrel (ha-ha) projects through congress. Special interests and Big Government and going to be spliced together in strange ways to take advantage of this. Just like the rumors that this outbreak is some "Crypto-fascist Military-Industrial plot."
So, wash your hands and keep your powder dry.

National RFID Tags

Michigan Rep. Paul Opsommer, District 93, makes some pertinent observations in his post SNAKE OIL & DRIVER’S LICENSES regarding the Department of Homeland Security's "Enhanced Drivers License" (EDL) program and the federal Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative (WHTI). The EDL is a license with an RFID chip, readable from up to 30 feet away. Chris Paget has posted his experiment in RFID tag security:

Chris' gear cost less than $250. How much money have the drug cartels already spent on identity theft? Useful identities are just a commodity, easily purchased by terrorists. Adding RFID tags to drivers' licenses and passports is meaningless gesture of pacification. It provides only a new avenue of attack for well-funded drug lords and political extremists to exploit.

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The California Legislature Is Being Misled

The California Assembly Committee on Revenue and Taxation is holding hearings today on bill AB 279, the “Great Schools Tax Credit Act.” This bill is much like the scholarship donation tax credit program in Florida, which is a bi-partisan success that saves the state $1.49 for every $1 it reduces state revenue.

But you wouldn’t know that if you read the Committee’s remarkably flawed official Bill Analysis.

Full article here

XKCD - Can't Sleep

Welcome to my life...

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Free World Outlaws Free Speech

Depressing overview of the criminalization of free speech. http://ping.fm/4BR7w

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50 FOOT ROBOT STUDIOS

50footrobot.com — Publishers and creators of comic books, crossing many genres both online and soon in print. Also a graphic design house whose artists have over 10 years of experience in corporate design, web design, and the comic book creation process. Check out the dark, edgy science fiction world of "Skip Tracers" and the virtual reality murder mystery "Vent."

The 5 Most Popular Safety Laws (That Don't Work)

cracked.com —Is it ever possible to be too safe? Yes. Especially when the rule or law intended to protect us is so poorly thought-out that it either does nothing or creates a ripple effect of unintended side effects.

more...

Stop Spending Our Future!

Our economy is in crisis, and our government says that bold action is required. So we're diving in head first to get things back on track. But... what are we diving into exactly? Take a closer look at the government response to our current economic crisis with narrator Nick Gillespie of ReasonTV. And please visit http://stopspendingourfuture.org.

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The Afpak muddle (part 2): How serious is the threat?

"In America, the danger of drowning in a bathtub is greater than the risk of dying in a terrorist attack. And that would be true even if the United State were to suffer one 9/11-scale attack every ten years. Given these numbers, does it really make sense to double down in Central Asia?"

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The Serve America Act

Last week, the House passed the Serve America Act (SAA), which will triple the number of federally funded "volunteer" positions, create a "Clean Energy Corps" to weatherize homes, and make September 11th a “National Day of Service.”

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The Human Cost of Foreign Aid

Thought provoking look at the failure of foreign aid from the inside. Throwing money at severe problems my soothe the conscience of those doing the throwing, but what about the people who still have to live with the problem? Additional insights at Reason.com http://www.reason.com/blog/show/132720.html

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Personal Foul: Poor Sportsmanship as Federal Crime

How the federal government is manufacturing high-profile court cases to expand executive power beyond all reasonable bounds and 'win the war on drugs.'

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The Top 10 People Who Almost Destroyed Fun

We take a lot of things for granted. We turned the internet into a free utopia of naked boobs, girl-on-girl pornography, funny drunken retards, and grown men, beating the living juices out of each other for our amusement. But there was a time when these moments of euphoria were in danger of becoming nothing more than a distant memory.

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The Credit Bubble Explained

Please take a moment for this brilliant video:

The Crisis of Credit Visualized from Jonathan Jarvis on Vimeo.
A clear, straightforward look at wtf happened without the political "blamemanship" or Procrustean cant of the Demopublican/Republicrat Party.
Except for the portrayal of the "credit risk" family. I think that was a little elitist. :)