FBIs Billion Dollar Big Brother

post from Crooks and Liars on 09 February 2008 02:00:08 PM. © Crooks and Liars

Does this sound like a good thing or a bad thing, Winston? Download | Play Download | PlayNext month, the FBI intends to award a 10-year contract that would significantly expand the amount and kinds of biometric information it receives. And in the coming years, law enforcement authorities around the world will be able to rely on [...]

Read The Full Article:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/02/09/fbis-billion-dollar-big-brother/

Add to del.icio.us

Digg this

Post to Furl

Add to reddit

Add to myYahoo!

HEALTH CARE AND PROFITS.

post from Ezra Klein on 09 February 2008 01:59:00 PM. © Ezra Klein

My editor Bob Kuttner has a terrific commentary in the most recent New England Journal of Medicine on how the profit motive foils cost control in health care. Think of it this way: It's perfectly normal for a profit-maximizing business to try and[...]

Read The Full Article:
http://www.prospect.org/csnc/blogs/ezraklein_archive?month=02&year=2008&base_name
=health_care_and_profits

Digg this

SHUSTER GETS SUSPENDED.

post from Ezra Klein on 09 February 2008 01:52:00 PM. © Ezra Klein

Though it sends a good message for MSNBC to suspend David Shuster for saying that Hillary Clinton was "pimping out" her daughter, I'm always a little frustrated to see gaffes punished while systemic biases go unnoticed. The casual lens of cynicism that[...]

Read The Full Article:
http://www.prospect.org/csnc/blogs/ezraklein_archive?month=02&year=2008&base_name
=shuster_gets_suspended

Digg this

“Clintons pimpin’ Chelsea”
Remark Revives Topic Of Disdain For Free Speech By Both Sir Hillary Rodham Clinton And Sheriff John McCain

post from The Gun Toting Liberal? on 09 February 2008 01:41:00 PM. © The Gun Toting Liberal?

Read The Full Article:
http://guntotingliberal.com/?p=2332

Digg this

“Clintons pimpin’ Chelsea”
Remark Revives Disdain For Free Speech By Both Sir Hillary Rodham Clinton And Sheriff John McCain

post from The Gun Toting Liberal? on 09 February 2008 01:41:00 PM. © The Gun Toting Liberal?

Read The Full Article:
http://guntotingliberal.com/?p=2332

Digg this

Kansas, Nebraska, Washington, and Hillary's GE
Wild Card

post from Taylor Marsh on 09 February 2008 01:34:49 PM. © Taylor Marsh

Kansas, Nebraska, Washington, and Hillary’s GE Wild CardPoor baby. David Shuster has managed to make himself the symbol of all things sexist in this primary season. He’s now the vessel into which all outrage can be poured. Clinton[...]

Read The Full Article:
http://www.taylormarsh.com/archives_view.php?id=26981

Digg this

today's political cartoon...

post from uncomfortably numb on 09 February 2008 01:31:00 PM. © uncomfortably numb

From Ann Telnaes at GoComics.com;FeaturedBookHumor's Edgeby Ann TelnaesAnn Telnaes, comics, editorial cartoons, email comics, political cartoons Technorati tags: Ann Telnaes, editorial cartoons, political cartoons, GoComics

[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

Read The Full Article:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/uncomfortablyNumb/~3/232373244/today-political-car
toon.html

Digg this

Bush misleads military families.

post from Think Progress on 09 February 2008 01:30:00 PM. © Think Progress

The Washington Post reports:

President Bush drew great applause during his State of the Union address last month when he called on Congress to allow U.S. troops to transfer their unused education benefits to family members. “Our military families serve our nation, they inspire our nation, and tonight our nation honors them,” he said.
A week later, however, when Bush submitted his $3.1 trillion federal budget to Congress, he included no funding for such an initiative, which government analysts calculate could cost $1 billion to $2 billion annually.

Steve Benen and Nicole Belle have more.

Read The Full Article:
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/02/09/bush-misleads-military-families/

Digg this

WGA Has a Tentative Deal

Striking members of the WGA will learn about and discuss the details of a deal with the AMPTP at meetings later today, and should vote on whether to accept the terms, ending the strike, within a few days.

The presidents of the WGA write:

Less than six months ago, the AMPTP wanted to enact profit-based residuals, defer all Internet compensation in favor of a study, forever eliminate "distributor's gross" valuations, and enforce 39 pages of rollbacks to compensation, pension and health benefits, reacquisition, and separated rights. Today, thanks to three months of physical resolve, determination, and perseverance, we have a contract that includes WGA jurisdiction and separated rights in new media, residuals for Internet reuse, enforcement and auditing tools, expansion of fair market value and distributor's gross language, improvements to other traditional elements of the MBA, and no rollbacks.

Over these three difficult months, we shut down production of nearly all scripted content in TV and film and had a serious impact on the business of our employers in ways they did not expect and were hard pressed to deflect. Nevertheless, an ongoing struggle against seven, multinational media conglomerates, no matter how successful, is exhausting, taking an enormous personal toll on our members and countless others. As such, we believe that continuing to strike now will not bring sufficient gains to outweigh the potential risks and that the time has come to accept this contract and settle the strike.

Much has been achieved, and while this agreement is neither perfect nor perhaps all that we deserve for the countless hours of hard work and sacrifice, our strike has been a success. We activated, engaged, and involved the membership of our Guilds with a solidarity that has never before occurred. We developed a captains system and a communications structure that used the Internet to build bonds within our membership and beyond. We earned the backing of other unions and their members worldwide, the respect of elected leaders and politicians throughout the nation, and the overwhelming support of fans and the general public. Our thanks to all of them, and to the staffs at both Guilds who have worked so long and patiently to help us all.

There is much yet to be done and we intend to use all the techniques and relationships we've developed in this strike to make it happen. We must support our brothers and sisters in SAG who, as their contract expires in less than five months, will be facing many of the same challenges we have just endured. We must further pursue new relationships we have established in Washington and in state and local governments so that we can maintain leverage against the consolidated multinational conglomerates with whom we bargain. We must be vigilant in monitoring the deals that are made in new media so that in the years ahead we can enforce and expand our contract. We must fight to get decent working conditions and benefits for writers of reality TV, animation, and any other genre in which writers do not have a WGA contract.

Most important, however, is to continue to use the new collective power we have generated for our collective benefit. More than ever, now and beyond, we are all in this together.

In the coming days we'll know better what this means, and we'll get shows we love back. But that last paragraph is the important thing: Collective action works. We are in this together. This time it was writers, but all workers should know and believe this.

Read The Full Article:
http://feeds.dailykos.com/~r/dailykos/index/~3/232280482/6401

Digg this

Why doesn't it pay to recycle in Cabarrus County

There was a lot to do recently about a pretty big hike in the fee for garbage pick up as Allied Waste Services added curbside recycling services for County residents that live outside the Concord and Kannapolis city limits.

Allied Waste added the recycling service for the unincorporated portions of the county at the specific request of the Cabarrus County Commission.
I'm one of the customers who now has to pay 43% more for my garbage pick up. While I love finally being able to recycle, I think something is not quite right.

My family of 3 members puts out a full recycling bin once a week, next to a big 95 gallon rolling cart with exactly one garbage bag in it. One of my neighbors down the street, who lives alone, doesn't recycle at all and puts her big rolling cart overflowing with garbage bags (usually the lid can't be closed) on the same curb.
The problem I have is that we both pay the exact same amount for our garbage collection.

Apparently nobody on the County Commission has ever heard of the internationally well known and accepted "the polluter pays principle".
Besides the "good feeling" you get from doing something positive for the environment, why should anyone recycle when it takes a lot more time and effort and your neighbor, who just pollutes away, only has to pay the same amount you do?

In a letter I received from Allied Waste Services, which was sent out after they received numerous complaints from customers about the raise in fees, they say that one of the main reasons they added the curbside recycling was that

"Cabarrus County wishes to encourage more residents to recycle in order to better protect our environment".

Can someone explain to me how you are encouraging residents to recycle by having them pay more and ask them to invest more time and effort at the same time? Basically you're asking people to work harder for something they have to pay more for.

What's even worse is that people who say they can't afford to pay 43% more for their garbage pick up will now start dumping their trash everywhere or just burning it in their yard. Why not tell people they won't have to pay more if they participate in the recycling program? Let the people, who are too lazy to get of their butts and just want to dump all their trash in one pile, pick up the slack for everyone who does care about the environment.

Also, I don't see anyone talking about the fact that all that recycled material is worth money. I'm sure companies pay Allied Waste Services for their cans, paper and glass, because all that stuff is raw material for an industrial process.
So I'm pretty sure that Allied Waste is getting extra money from 2 ends now. We pay more for their services while at the same time providing them with more material they can sell to other companies.
Why not include the proceeds from the collected recyclable material in to consideration when Allied Waste Services rates are determined? One good example for this I found in the State of Washington where they require this.

Once again logic seems missing in Cabarrus County government.

Read The Full Article:
http://www.lefton49.com/2008/02/why-doesnt-it-pay-to-recycle-in.html

Digg this