Stop Online Piracy Act

I actually just became legitimately abreast of SOPA about thirty minutes ago and I just wanted to pass the word along. I'm doing my modest efforts to spread awareness and action where i have the means to. Essentially there's a law the government is attempting to pass to cut down on copyright infringement. They would then be allowed to shut down domain names and paypal accounts and the like all for different forms of "Copyright Infringement", which at it's most blatant form is me using someones work [TV show, music] on my website...at it's simplest it could be a comment from a user that contains a link to a website with something they deem to be infringement. Thus shutting down my site. Here is a link that has better summation skills than I do.

Congress concerned about Public Surveillance

I was reading the New York Times (like i usually do) and i found this quite unsettling. Congress has recently been looking into the practices of the N.S.A., National Security Agency, due to improper and unethical use of email and telephone surveillance. The N.S.A. exists as security to the American people, warding off possible terrorists threats and other critical nuisances to the lives of the American people.

Several congressional committees are looking to reign in and reduce what the N.S.A. calls inadvertent overcollection. A lot of emails, domestic and foreign, pass through U.S. servers and often times it is difficult to ascertain their orgin or destination; this is why the Bush administration asked for more leeway when collecting. The N.S.A. attains court orders from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to collect emails based upon reasonable assumptions of terrorist communication and activity, but in 8 of 10 court orders reviewed, the N.S.A. is believed to have crossed legal boundaries designed to protect Americans. Rush Holt, a senator from New Jersey stated, "Some actions are so flagrant they can't be accidental." If one wants to know how it works an official offered a rudimentary explanation: "Say you get an order to monitor a block of 1,000 e-mail addresses at a big corporation, and instead of just monitoring those, the N.S.A. also monitors another block of 1,000 e-mail addresses at that corporation...that is one kind of problem they had."

One of the problems Congress is having is that the legislative bodies do not understand the nuances of the software and programs enough as to where they can produce laws corralling the N.S.A., therefore very few can challenge the statements of the N.S.A. According to the NY Times article, this is part of the concerns the Obama administration inherited from Bush, along with torturing at Guantanamo Bay and others. The N.S.A. insists they are taking measures to rectify and improve software and practices, but that too may be a myth as one former N.S.A. analyst recalls in what is described as "a series of interviews", that he was trained for a program in 2005 that repeatedly examined a large volume of Americans emails messages without court warrants. Two officials confirmed that program is still in operation.

I hope that they can work this out before it gets exponentially louder in the public sector. Perhaps now that the coals are hot and the fire is going the N.S.A. will operate as intended. I think that it is extremely important that they monitor and protect the U.S. citizens but i think protecting Americans privacy is paramount.

How Much Out the Door?

The money pool is looking a bit turbid; but we all want to go swimming , right? I was reading a quick synopsis on AOL (I stole this picture from them too) about potential taxes that could be instituted to generate revenue for government bodies. The list was relatively peculiar and certainly questionable. Before we reach full disclosure here, I'll mention the considerations vary by state and generally only apply to a specific location.

One category was dubbed the "sin" taxes, which apply to items such as cigarettes and alcohol, raising the price of America's favorite past times--smoke breaks and happy hour. New York (who else) is looking at an 18% tax on non-diet soda. The governor of WI. is talking an additional 75 cent on each pack of cigarettes, luckily smoking isn't my vice. In the "non-sin" taxes category we have MA. saddling the folks with a 19 cent gas tax just to make it feel like old times again. Additionally those who like to panic at the disco, keep their love locked down, or die hard are looking at a tax for all entertainment downloaded (movies, music, games). More than a dozen states have already embraced this tax and they speculate that more are on the way. There are many more but i will spare you the trepidation until they become a reality.

Are the citizens not buying enough of the taxed items that have always been sufficient? There is an outside chance that i may need to reform my logic, so banish me back to my place if so, however as I understand it most states were previously operating at a deficit with no chance of reaching a surplus anyhow therefore i do not understand what is so different now. Is it because all of the money that was used to run cities and states was borrowed and now the borrowing tree has withered away? The taxes that i mentioned are not necessity items and i thank them for logic on that, but the concept of one more economic punch to the gut for man-kind just rubs me tummy the wrong way. So don't panic quite yet, I just wanted you to know, and "knowing is half the battle"-GI JOE.

One for W. and the Gang

The woman LinkedIn with al-Qaeda on the FBI's most wanted list was caught just a few days ago, although not without a major blunder. AAfia Siddiqui was apparently spotted outside of a government compound in Afghanistan. After being questioned, the officials ensued to search her bag. To their surprise they found numerous documents describing the creation of explosives along with various descriptions of landmarks in the United States including one of New York city, she was also in possession of substances contained in glass bottles and jars. Why she was carrying all this around with her i do not know, but i am glad she was on this particular day.

Here is the perplexing plot. Siddiqui was detained in a government building in what is described as a meeting room behind a curtain. FBI special agents, U.S. Warrant officer, and an Army Captain would all later enter the room together unaware that the highly coveted fugitive was behind the curtain. The army captain laid his U.S. issued M-4 assault rifle on the floor, you guessed it near the curtain. The following scene has Siddiqui holding the rifle pointed at the captain and yelling something negative. Army Captain lunges forward to knock away the rifle shots were fired, nobody was hit. The warrant officer revealed his 9mm handgun and blessed Siddiqui with a couple of rounds although reports indicate she was only hit once. Although she was hit she still wasn't going out without a fight, she fought and kicked as the officials tried to subdue her, eventually detained and lost consciousness Siddiqui was taken to receive medical treatment.

She is now SECURELY detained and faces multiple charges. Right now though, still innocent until proven guilty. 1 for W and the team, well that depends on how you feel about the government. But I have to ask this before i grab my coat and hat, why didn't they tell them that she was behind that curtain and extremely available to use weaponry, with both hands.

Whole Foods is now serving the Broke

I've just been informed that Whole Foods takes bridge cards or EBT or whatever you call them. This is huge, no i don't think you realize how huge this is. Ya'll better take advantage of this before they realized that they messed up, royaly. Whole Foods is expensive! Whole Foods carries organic food and generally a high quality product. They better not let this get out because everybody is going to get on the EBT program because i know i thought about it.

The government is paying for people to eat of the good china. These folks can potentially be eating better than most Americans. So this is how it goes, if you work too hard for a living you can't get the government to buy your food, so you can't afford to throw away an arm and a leg in Whole Foods. But if you don't make enough, then you get to live the good life (as far as food is concerned). I know everybody has to eat and i think its phenomenal that the government is not just supplying the bottom of the barrel. But im just a little jealous as you can tell. Im good though because i know somebody that has an EBT card and im about to give them a ring. Call me if you want the good stuff.

Land of the FREE, Home of the BRAVE

Welcome to the lovely land we call America. Where the leadership feels extremely free and brave. Eliot Spitzer's attraction to lechery is another straw to add to the camel's back. Here is the recent breakdown, the soon to be former governor of New York was and still could be for all i know involved in a prostitution ring. This was not just any escort/prostitution ring, a nice website was utilized along with a rating system for the women that you could select from. You could select meeting times, certain clients had what would be the equivelent of VIP priveliges. Its like going to the supermarket and picking over the grapes to find the best vine, or package in this case.

Here is a peculiar note to add; I was reading about the happenings and they detailed what happened along with going in deep about how some of these type of sites are set up. Basically shedding light on some of the inner workings. But i couldn't focus because i was bothered that they had links to all these escort/prostitution sites. There were five i believe, and i thought to myself, "ok maybe you guys are trying to show us the real deal, but do we need FIVE links"? That bothered me and maybe im on the spaceship, but i thought that was kind of unsettling.

Back to Spitzer,this is clearly an insult to the public intelligence. Stupid is getting thrown in here somewhere, either he thought the public was, or either he is. Its a little late to inform him now but, sir you were the governor of a state. Im going to let that sink in. Not only did he participate, he was a regular. How could you muster up that much gumption to engage in such activity over and over again. What is wrong with our leaders (although i do not live in New York). I understand that these people are human and everyone has their vice that they struggle with but what has gotten into the politicians lately?

Now Detroit just finished mulling over the actions of their mayor Kwame Kilpatrick. Don't defend him either because if nothing else its hogwash that he had Detroit pay his legal fees of about $10 million for his court cases surrounding this scandal. Just over about a half year ago we had Senator Larry Craig (Idaho) engaged in lewd public behavior at least that's what he was charged for. He had the audacity to clown in the public restroom in a Minneapolis airport. Before him was probably the creepiest of them all, Mark Foley who was instant messaging a minor some very inappropriate comments (im not repeating any of them on my blog, i don't want to corrupt my readership). Don't mind me im just going to throw this wood on the bonfire, that minor was a young man! What is he thinking?

If they run a background check on the guy trying to get a job at Target then we need to start getting cotton swabs from any potential politicians. We have to do a better job of picking officials. I understand that some of these things occur in office but i have a hard time believing these folks did a 180 and lost their mind when they got in office, these folks were already soiling the sheets when they got there. I think we have to avoid the campaigns and facades, we just need the facts. From now on if we cant find ten people you went to high school with to get opinions, then you can no longer be considered. How about we scrap the whole system and pick every office all over again and we can do it like a pick up basketball game.

America don't fail me now...

Here's another hit, BARRY BONDS

Where did the government go?

WHY IS THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT TRYIN TO PUT BARRY BONDS IN JAIL! The Federal Government people! Do you know the reason? Because they say he lied about taking steroids. The Federal Government people! He plays baseball! Do you know how many baseball players said they haven't taken steroids. A whole heap of them. The Federal Government people! Don't they have anything remotely better to do. Aren't they supposed to be running a country? This is the federal government, nuff said! The ills of society, boy i tell you....