Just found a new PC Security blog, running through some of the latest articles.  It’s called Schneier on Security, and whomever this is has dug up some interesting new information.  It seems that a new facial scanning technology is set to make it’s debut in bars, assuming that the ACLU doesn’t find out about it first.  The implications of this new technology are frightening, even if they are used exactly as the linked article says they’re supposed to.

Prepare to be astonished.  The headline says it all.  First Rush Limbaugh, now this. .  How do we go on?

This new post from Daily Kos shows that Americans are a trifle peeved at President Bush.  Lovingly entitled “Thiry frickin’ four,” it shows some stunningly low numbers for Bush across the board for his handling of. .  well, just about everything.  The good news for the Administration?  Everyone’s sick of the Dead-Eye Dick story.  That might actually be good news for all of us.

Uh-oh. This doesn’t look like Louise Slaughter is really going for the CMCE thing. Her opinion, at least from the article, seems to be that people hold politicians in such low esteem that they would never support public financing of elections.

Of course, she’s a representative, and a good one. Perhaps if the right people have her ear, she’ll prick up. At the moment, her opinion seems a bit jaded, especially since many states are currently switching to the CMCE model and doing quite well from the initial reports. More thoughts on this over at Kevin Drum’s blog.

Let’s hope for the best from Congresswoman Louise Slaughter. It looks as though I might be playing some role in MJ’s interview with said Congresswoman, and hopefully will have something to bring back to the site.

I’m reading through Louise Slaughter’s report (PDF) on the record-setting period of corruption we find ourselves in, specifically through the Medicare portion at the moment, and running through the list of denied amendments to the bill. If ever there was a damning case for corruption, this list should suffice:

1. An amendment by Rep Brown of Ohio requiring the Medicare subcontractors to abide by the same regulations as every other government subcontractor.
2. A revision of the reimportation clauses that would require the Secretary (presumably of HHS?) to provide specific reasons for each denial in writing.
3. A mandated report on the effects of foreign markets on our own drug costs
4. A provision to allow seniors to pay a monthly copay option in exchange for free generic drugs, assuming they suffer one or more of five major ailments that commonly affect seniors. NOTE: this would have created *the only* generic drug option in the plan.

The list continues, but you get my point. Not only did Big Phara write this bill, but they did so in a way that would ensure the highest possible profit for them, right down to striking the generic drugs market right out of the loop. Don’t miss the big picture, here: by forcing the generic market out of the seniors rackett, they effectively strangle the generic drugs industry, thus paving the way for increased profit margins in perpetuity.

I’m barely 20 pages into Congresswoman Slaughter’s “America For Sale“(PDF) report, and if I thought I knew what sleazy business went on during the passing of the Medicare bill, I was sorely mistaken. I’m making a quick pass through to check what there is to offer in the report, but for now I would recommend anyone with any interest in salvaging democracy in the US take a gander.

So is Congresswoman Louise Slaughter in favour of Clean Money, Clean Elections? No word yet, but the folks over at MetroJustice.org are looking into it, and perhaps DFE will get a taste. We shall see. . .

About three months ago or so, I was exploring my options for a future stay-at-home career that might facilitate both my employment and that of future wife when it comes time for us to have children. In doing so, I posted a discusssion column at TPMCafe.com looking for others with experience. I got more than a few interesting responses and a few pointless ones, but all in all, I was glad I posted.

Since then, I’ve kept the Stay At Home Dad (or SAHD, as it is so often abbreviated) thing in the back of my mind whilst I busied myself picking up certifications and such, but I was surprised just recently to learn that RebelDad.com linked to that same article. This is a blogger putting the whole concept of SAHD’s “under the microscope,” and it’s an awesome site. In this recent post, he takes Darla Shine of DarlaShine.com to task for “balkanization” of the traditional roles.

There is no question that this site carries with it an unmistakably traditional gyno-centric theme, right down to selecting your favourite color as part of the registration process. In fact, it’s not even traditional, it’s just a cynically low-balled concept of women, where the color you pick could mean that you are a “wild thing,” a “flirt,” or “good with animals.” Oh, boy.

But then, who am I to criticize? Cosmo has been selling off the stands for many more years than I have been alive, so there must be women who respond to this. Some people need to wrap themselves in exclusivity in order to feel comfortable, I supose. In the end, I suspect that most of the advice and counciling women recieve from this DarlaShine.com site is just silly in the first place, and to the extent that she does not help erase the lines of traditional roles, she probably doesn’t really move the goal posts in the other direction either.

More talk today about the Dubai Du-bate on Face the Nation and other Sunday news programs.  Bob Cesca got one in early at HuffPo about Fran Townsend on the Faux News Network that is certainly worth a read.

But the debate happening on FTN was interesting in that there was almost no disagreement between the Dem and the Republican present, and the only one who seemed OK with the Dubai situation was Tom Friedman.  Friedman’s work in The Earth is Flat is good stuff by and large, but I think he might be a bit nuts on this one.  For some reason, the man is genuinely stuck on the Administration’s absurd notion that racial bias can be the only explaination for resistance to the Dubai Ports World takeover of port logistics in the United States.  As I have pointed out earlier, most of the leadership of DP World is American in the first place.

Chuck Schumer pointed out, quite correctly, that Airport security has long-since been the legal perview of American-owned businesses.  That at least points out the disparity between our Administration’s supposed priority of Homeland Security and thier actions.

I know I keep coming back to this argument, but it seems to me that the conversation is about “foreign” ownership of these duties, not where it should be, which is on “private” ownership.  Yes, there are perfectly legitimate concerns about a Dubai-based company doing our security, but in this global age, it’s not really that much more dangerous than any other company.  What is truly of concern is the very idea that our government chooses to farm out our security whilst crowing about it’s ability to keep us safe.

And indeed, at every opportunity, the Bush Administration keeps telling us that either our military or Corporations can do a better job than the government does.  That’s reassuring on so many levels.  Hmm. .  the military controls security and corporations handle the economy; that sounds familiar. . .

How depressing can you get?  In an attempt to bail himself out of what must be hundreds of thousands of dollars-worth of Fast Ferry crappola, the owner of Horseshoe Hospitality, who ran the gift shop and catering on the Fast Ferry, is trying to sell the stuff at auction.  Oyie.

Now, best of luck to the man: he’s one more person that got sold on this project that Mayor Duffy decided to bail out of.  This is a great indication of what happens when projects like this get summarily dumped.  Being a catering company, they do have a number of big-ticket items to get rid of that aren’t “memorabilia,” such as stoves and friers that will doubtless be snapped up by eager small businesses in the community

But calling the hats, tee-shirts and key-chains that bear the name of the Fast Ferry “memorabilia” is just sad, because in less than a decade, most people won’t even remember the Fast Ferry unless they’re swearing about it.

So against my better judgement, I spent some of my Sunday morning watching the news programs.  Some Senator dude from New York State rolled out an interesting variation on the Iraqi Democracy canard: that it was Saddam Hussein whom created the greatest stability problem in the Middle East. 

That is a very different thing than what the Administration has said up until now.  The Administration’s position has always been that an Iraqi democracy would help stabilize the region, which is a much different thing than saying that Saddam *contributed* do the instability already present.

I’m just writing a quick post to point out that this is assinine.  If you wanted to stabilize the region, the best bet would have been ~ and it still continues to be a good choice, not that anyone in the Administration appears to be interested ~ solving the Isreali-Palastinian problem.