Wisdom From Across The Pond

Today the Brits are putting up a motion to curb their end of the spying racket…  The proponent putting up the piece that should get wide spread support, is of course… a liberal democrat….

The bill –  would make sure Britain’s spy agencies could never intercept calls or data without a specific warrant . Furthermore, is sets up a demand that the parliamentary regulatory body which oversees intelligence gathering, be made up not of secret appointees, but be chosen by an open election on the floor of the House of Commons.

“We’re very conscious of the need not to prevent the security services doing their work, but there are certainly gaps in the law. That much is clear.” says the pusher of that bill,  Mr.David Health.

Quotes from the Floor…

“But any surveillance and any clandestine operation in a democracy raises questions, he says. These can’t be answered by the agencies or the executive – but only by the legislature. Such as: where are the boundaries between privacy and legitimate intelligence gathering? What controls are in place to prevent abuse? Where are the limits of secrecy? How does our legislation and capability measure up to the latest technology? How comprehensive is the scrutiny and legal framework?”

“He has received assurances from ministers that the security services are not acting outside the law – but the law cannot keep up with their capabilities,”

“We need to deal not only with direct interception of communications but also collection of communications metadata. That is “an area where the law is silent.  We need to deal with the UK collection and that of allies,”

“The security services cannot police themselves”, he says.  “Their focus is on doing the best possible job – the job of parliament is to set the proper boundaries for their work”, he says.

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In summary the ideas are sound… One cannot be unbiased when monitoring ones self.  That we ever thought so is madness.  It is therefore paramount that we follow some of the Brits’ ideas over here and make those who are in charge of our intelligence also be voted from the floor of Congress in a public debate as is any law or appointment,  and not be appointed in private by the head of  the legislative body with no accountability…

Furthermore,  having a true court hearing and not a rubber stamp session each time when approving the wiretapping or Constitutionality of data collection, would impact greatly on the credibility of any legitimate act of data extraction performed in the future….

So, Who Is The Second Most Televised Reality Show Family?

Everyone know’s the Kardashians are the first.  They are everywhere.  But who is second?

The Palin Family, of course…

The Palin family has become second perhaps only to the Kardashians in terms of reality-show performances on TV. Mrs. Palin herself had a show on TLC, “Sarah Palin’s Alaska.” Her daughter Bristol made a splash on “Dancing With the Stars” and currently has a show on Lifetime that also features her sister Willow and son Tripp. Now Mr. Palin has entered the arena.…

Birds of a feather, flock together…… 

Breaking: Tea Bagger Killed By Squirrels In Wisconsin!!!!

Photo Courtesy of Soggy Log

They thought he was nuts.

The Rape Team.

Boys and Girls.    In today’s world, we get so much piled on we can’t remember any details…  Sometimes we are like the bloke on the bottom of a Rugby pile as press report after press report piles on.  This last instance of “rape being touted as God’s will”, and then the outrage by every person without a penis over the rapist culture that IS deeply embedded inside the Republican Party (read their party platform),  I realized that I couldn’t remember all the slips that Republican former rapists let slip out in public… Akin I remember because he’s the first.  Mourdock I remember because he’s the last… But who were the other ones in between?   A blank.  (which could be caused by Tequila)  So, … I turned  to our expert historian extrodinaire, and lifted this off Steven Colbert’s show last night… He used the newest generations wording, and called this group Team Rape, no doubt inspired by the Twilight series……   I prefer the older inversion,   The Rape Team….   (And I agree with Steven Colbert, that the name is not very nice, but c’mon, they were kinda’ asking for it…)

First Colbert….

“….And folks, Mourdock is not the first member of the GOP to drop the R-word this campaign season. First we had Missouri Senate candidate Todd Akin, who said “legitimate rape” victims couldn’t get pregnant because “the female body has ways” of shutting “that whole thing down”. Then there was Iowa Representative and angry dinner roll Steve King, who said he’d never heard of a girl getting pregnant from statutory rape. Pennsylvania Senate candidate Tom Smith equated rape with out-of-wedlock pregnancy. And Wisconsin state representative Roger Rivard offered the sage advice that “some girls, they rape so easy“.

This is the GOP  Rape Team… Does it stand for all Republicans?  Very surprisingly….. YES…. Because their head of the party and his Vice President successor,  have not distanced themselves from these remarks….   ”  ha, ha, ha, he’s just being silly”  was all they said.    This is the GOP:  now known as the Rape Team…   I put together this theme song for them….

Who You A’ Gonna Call; The Rape Team?

(The Rape Team!)
If there’s somethin’ progressive in your neighborhood
Who ya gonna call?
(The Rape Team!)

If you’r polls are down, an’ it don’t look good
Who ya gonna call?
(The Rape Team!)

I ain’t afraid o’ no wo’man
I ain’t afraid o’ no wo’man

If you’re seein’ sperm runnin’ through your head
Who can you call?
(The Rape Team!)

Some invisible vagina, sleepin’ in your bed
Oh who ya gonna call?
(The Rape Team!)

I ain’t afraid o’ no wo’man
I ain’t afraid o’ no wo’man

Who ya gonna call?
(The Rape Team!)

If you’re all alone, pick up the phone
And call
(The Rape Team!)

I ain’t afraid o’ no wo’man
I hear they likes it.
I ain’t afraid o’ no wo’man
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

Who you gonna call?
(The Rape Team)

Mmm, if you’ve had a dose
Of those little blue pills…
You better call
(The Rape Team!)

Let me tell you somethin’
Bustin’ makes u feel good
I ain’t afraid o’ no wo’man
I ain’t afraid o’ no wo’man

Don’t get caught alone, oh no
(By the Rape Team!)

When he comes through your midnight door
Sayin’ no, will make him want it more.
I think you better call
(The Rape Team!)

Oh, who you gonna call?
(The Rape Team!)
Who you gonna call?
(The Rape Team!)

Ah, think you better call
(The Rape Team!)
Who you gonna call?
(The Rape Team!)

I can’t hear you
Is that a hand over yo’ mouth?
(The Rape Team!)
Like it, bitch….
(The Rape Team!)

(song originally written as Ghostbusters, and sung by Ray Parker, Jr.) All parties involved with this song, are against rape.

Free Speech and The Internet

Case A: She was a single mom, working days as a medical assistant, and picking up shifts at a local restaurant… One night, after coming home almost empty-handed, she ranted on her Facebook page. Someone copied and alerted her employer. She lost her job.

Case B: Another local company, issued employee warnings to it’s entire labor force; “Don’t let a few moments on social media, cost you your job.”

Case C: Melissa Kellerman, after getting knocked over in yesterday’s game, had her twitter account pulled after commenting on it.

Photo courtesy of Yahoo Sports

The Cowboys Organization, called her in, and ordered her to delete her account…. Here are the tweets she deleted….

Here are a list of comments that one sees in public media whenever this topic is broached….

Only a fool believes Facebook is private.

Don’t put anything on the internet you don’t want everyone to see.

Social Media is just that. Social. Don’t be shocked when your private life goes “social”….

And all those statements are true. When using the Internet, you need to be guarded lest your employer sees what you are saying…..

Now here’s an interesting question: WHY?

WHY DO EMPLOYERS HAVE THE RIGHT TO DICTATE INTERNET PROTOCOL?

The initial response is that they get to protect their image.
When someone says something on the Internet, it is publicly damaging if negative.

But why not people? Why can’t they be entitled to use their right to freedom of speech on the Internet?

If someone is complaining to another about being harassed by their superior, and it get forwarded and she gets fired, is that right?

If someone is complaining to another about improper mine safety and the deliberate non compliance of safety issues being forced upon them by management, and it gets forwarded and she gets fired, is that right?

If someone is complaining about being treated unfairly by their management team, and it gets forwarded and she gets fired, is that right?

Probably not.

The Internet is not private. but there can be reasonable assurances that some things on the Internet are private. Discussing topics on the Internet should be as safe as walking through the park, discussing items there… Sure, there could be someone behind the tree, listening to everything you say, but the fact that they had to hide behind a tree to hear it, means they weren’t legally entitled to the knowledge. Likewise someone could steal letters out of a mailbox. Someone could tap a phone. Someone would listen to your cell phone with a scanner… All of which are illegal.

But, reading someones private inbox message because it is on the Internet, is not…

It needs to be.

The law needs to catch up to technology. People are allowed to say what ever they want. That is guaranteed.

It is time that same right is canonized into America’s legal code. So that if a corporation acts aggressively upon someone’s free speech, that company stands to lose a year’s profit in damages and legal fees. That is the level of penalty required to protect the privacy of every American, when it comes to their using the Internet.

Of Course Mother Nature Hates Republicans!

Many of the areas hit by the storm had also been hit by Irene. In New Jersey’s Hamilton Township, Tom Jacobsen also recalled heavy spring flooding and a particularly heavy winter before that.

“I’m starting to think we really ticked off Mother Nature somehow, because we’ve been getting spanked by her for about a year now,” he said while grabbing some coffee at a convenience store…..

OF COURSE YOU DID, DUMMY. YOU VOTED FOR REPUBLICANS!

Religion Grows In Sussex County; It’s Just Not the Religion Our Backwood’s Preachers Envisioned

The story goes that Warren Buffet, rather worried about his investments early 2008, wanted to talk to God… God told him to use his phone and he’d send him the bill… He got and paid the $333 million dollar charge. His investments flourished, too… That would be the end of the story, except he was down in Sussex County recently, following up first hand on a corporate case being processed out of Georgetown… once again, he asked God for the right to call, and agreed to accept the charges… When he got his bill, he was fuming… He was only charged 25 cents… “God”, he said, “you ripped me off on that first call, big time!”… God said, “Warren, don’t you get it? In Sussex County, that’s a local call…”

Local call or not, Sussex County is weighing in on whether to say a prayer before County meetings or to not… Here are a few takes on that policy: one, two, three, four……

As someone who grew up where prayers were always said before football games and county meetings, it isn’t a big deal…… That is, as long as everyone agrees it isn’t a big deal. You don’t see prayers before meetings conducted in New York.

Not because New Yorkers are heathens, but because in New York, you have a multiplicity of religions, so praying a prayer from one of them, is a slap in the face for all others…

Why it’s even an issue in Sussex County is because the Positive Growth Alliance, has been building condo’s like ants, and lots of people who did not grow up in Sussex County, now live there. Many have different ideas of religion than those who’ve always been there all their lives…

If everyone believe in the same version of God as does David Anderson, then of course, duh, why are we even arguing about it… Of course we’re going to pray to God to guide us through this meeting.. That’s what He’s for!

Suddenly, thanks to Rich Collins and the Positive Growth Alliance, we have tons of people who do object to having David Anderson’s version of God, one who dislikes Homosexuals, and one who casts pox on Democrats, one who believes married people should have sex only when they have children, one who believes sex between animals is immoral, one who believes taxes are caused by the devil, one who believes that nature was made to bulldoze and pave with a combination of petroleum and gravel. … one who believes that oil companies have the divine right to pollute oceans, one who believes that animals were made for us to kill. … one who believes a national religious holiday should fall on the first day of deer season.. one who believes pick up trucks and baseball caps are proof that homosexuality is a sin,… on who believes killing someone with a gun is not a sin, but taking that gun away for the safety of others is…

(yes, I’m having fun and talking tongue in cheek)…

The point I’m making is that Sussex County is changing; and it is changing mostly thanks to Rich Collins and the Positive Growth Alliance.

Can you make new citizens join the current religion? If so, then by all means, just like the days of old, they will see no qualms in having a tiny prayer before the meeting.

But if they don’t want to join that religion, then, to force one group of religious people to impose their prayers on others, is not American…In fact, it’s kinda creepy…

If in an effort to show fairness, the Sussex County decided they would do prayers from all religions in alphabetical order, when they came to “B” and hit Buddahism, giving an Buddahist prayer before the session, most of those in the audience would be saying WTF! This is our nation, why do we have to listen to such crap…

Which is… exactly what those Buddahists think, who have opened a business in Millsboro, and have come before the county to ask for a variance on something or other that is in their antiqued code….

So… If it is unnatural for a Baptist to suffer a Buddahist prayer, it is equally unnatural for a Buddahist to sit through a Baptist prayer…

It’s not about one religion being right and the other wrong. It’s about who the citizens are that make up Sussex County. If you want to blame anyone over this controversy, the blame solely lies with those who built up Sussex County and brought in all these new people to begin with… Now that they are here, we have to make Sussex County as fair to them as New York, is fair to us, when we take our business up there……

Positive Growth, huh? Depends on your version of positive I guess………….

Wikileaks: Update

You won’t find this on any domestic news services.

Wiki leaks was booted out from Amazon servers at pressure from the US.

Twitters touting Amazon said:

“It is one thing to be cowardly. Another to lie about it.”

“Wikileaks servers at Amazon ousted. Free speech the land of the free — fine our $ are now spent to employ people in Europe,”

“If Amazon are so uncomfortable with the first amendment, they should get out of the business of selling books.”

Wikileaks was briefly hosted by a California-based internet hosting provider called Everydns, and became briefly accessible through a DNS address. But Everydns dumped it saying it could not afford its other 500,000 customers being affected by the intense cyber attacks targeted at Wikileaks.

WikiLeaks later re-emerged on Friday with a Swiss domain, WikiLeaks.ch.

Anyone and everyone is building mirrors. No one is concerned with the content. Everyone is concerned with the freedom of the internet.

Like Robin Hood, the more Uncle Sam chases its founder Julian Assange, the more legendary he becomes…..

Face it: the damage is done. Whatever was in those documents is already out there. A smart leader would acknowledge the carelessness of his subordinates, and work to turn this negative event, somehow into a positive one.

It sure shows Dick Cheney for what he was. That is something positive ….

Bristol Palin Eats Salad

Bristol Palin and a friend go for lunch at McDonald’s where she eats a salad on Wednesday (September 29) in Los Angeles.

The 19-year old was recently at an Anchorage bar where her Dancing with the Stars partner Mark Ballas performed. However, the Palin family attorney says that Bristol was with two people over 21, ate food and did not consume any alcohol.

(Point is: I give up ) If no one else wants to talk about the issues, especially when it comes to Christine O’Donnell, then why should I bother. Apparently our children’s future will be decided by what our candidates eat. not by what they say, do, or to whom they owe money…

Has anyone talked about O’Donnell’s platform? No?

We vote in 31 days.