Friday, March 23, 2012

MegaVote: GA 13th, 3/19/2012

Comments in italic blue.....

Congress.org (congress.org) presents: MEGAVOTE for March 19, 2012

In this MegaVote for Georgia's 13th Congressional District:

Recent Congressional Votes -
* Senate: Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century (MAP-21) Act


Upcoming Congressional Bills -
* Senate: Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act
* House: Help Efficient, Accessible, Low-cost, Timely Healthcare (HEALTH) Act of 2011

The House was not in session last week.

Recent Senate Votes:

Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century (MAP-21) Act
http://capwiz.com/congressorg/issues/votes/?votenum=48&chamber=S&congress=1122
Vote Passed (74-22, 4 Not Voting)
The Senate passed this $109 billion bill that would fund transportation programs and projects for the next two years. It is unclear at this time whether the House will pass a two or five year bill.
Sen. Saxby Chambliss voted YES
Sen. Johnny Isakson voted YES
Pork, pork, pork, pork, pork, pork, pork, pork, pork, pork, pork, pork, pork.
On the other hand the kid is about to graduate with a Civil Engineering degree and more money is more jobs. 
Go Jackets
THWG!

Upcoming Votes:

Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act - H.R.3606
The Senate is scheduled to take up this House-passed bill that is intended to make it easier for small and mid-sized companies to go public.
Said it before, this seems like seems like putting a hole in the armor.
Help Efficient, Accessible, Low-cost, Timely Healthcare (HEALTH) Act of 2011 - H.R.5
This House bill would place caps on damages in certain medical malpractice lawsuits.



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Copyright (c) 2012.

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Thursday, March 22, 2012

Cat survives 19-story plunge

There are some people I know that hate cats so much, that the reaction to the animal surviving would be....
CRAP!
Me, I don't hate cats so much as I do not understand their purpose.
Why would anybody want a pet that will not even bother to acknowledge their caretaker's presence?

Cat survives 19-story plunge from Boston high rise  | accessAtlanta

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

MegaVote: GA 13th 3/13/2012

Comments in italic blue......

Congress.org (congress.org) presents: MEGAVOTE
March 13, 2012

In this MegaVote for Georgia's 13th Congressional District:

Recent Congressional Votes -
* Senate: Keystone XL Pipeline
* House: Bureau of Reclamation Small Conduit Hydropower Development and Rural Jobs Act of 2011
* House: Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act

Upcoming Congressional Bills -
* Senate: Surface transportation authorization

Recent Senate Votes:

Keystone XL Pipeline
Vote Rejected (56-42, 2 Not Voting)
During the debate over the transportation bill, the Senate rejected this amendment that would have allowed construction of the Keystone XL pipeline to proceed without presidential approval. Sixty votes were needed to adopt the amendment.
Sen. Saxby Chambliss voted YES
Sen. Johnny Isakson voted YES
How the Senate Democrats run the upcoming campaign should be interesting, they have twice slammed this thing and worse yet, are offering no path to solution or compromise.  The choices they are making run contrary to simple logic.

Recent House Votes:

Bureau of Reclamation Small Conduit Hydropower Development and Rural Jobs Act of 2011
Vote Passed (265-154, 13 Not Voting)
The House passed this bill that would encourage the development of small-scale hydropower facilities on federal lands. The bill's future in the Senate is unclear.
Rep. David Scott voted NO
The dumb little bastard already has TVA and Georgia Power hydroelectric facilities all over his state.  Current law structure makes new installations and efficiency upgrades next to impossible.  You can almost picture him with a big mustache, saying "Electricity, we don't need no stinking electricity!". 

Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act
Vote Passed (390-23, 19 Not Voting)
This House bill would ease reporting and regulatory requirements for small businesses trying to raise capital in order to take the company public. The White House supports the bill, but its path in the Senate is unclear.
Rep. David Scott voted YES
I guess the President (aka Goliath) told  Davey he could vote for this one.  The two faced politicians probably have it already set up to be tabled in the Senate.

Upcoming Votes:
Surface transportation authorization - S.1813
The Senate is scheduled to continue work on their two-year, $109 billion bill to fund transportation projects.
Roads, we don't need no stinking roads! 

MegaVote is powered by the CQ-Roll Call Group  http://corporate.cqrollcall.com 
Copyright (c) 2012.
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Fandango

Had been interested in watching this early Kevin Costner film for a while.
Fandango was released in 1985, this comedy was written and directed by Kevin Williams, who 10 years later directed Costner again in Waterworld.
A story of of 5 fraternity brothers who have all just finished, most graduated, from college at the University of Texas.  Because the year is 1971, all are eligible for the draft and most have already been given notice to report for boot camp.
On a spur of the moment lark, or "Fandango", takes form as a road trip to dig up somebody named Dom near the Mexico border.  The young men go through a number of adventures including riding the top of the Cadillac like the car was a elephant, endlessly drinking beer, running out of gas in the middle of nowhere, skydiving in the Pecos, having the front of the car torn off by a train. After they reach the resting place of Dom, the one of the men has remorse about breaking up with his fiance the night before, because he was being drafted.  Thus begins the climatic adventure of getting the bride to the wedding.  In the end,  all go their separate ways to manhood.
The cast...
  • Kevin Costner plays Gardner Barnes, the wildest brother of the "Groovers".
  • Judd Nelson as Phil Hicks, early work for the then young man, plays the tight assed one of the group, a proud ROTC man anxious to go to Vietnam.
  • Sam Robards as Kenneth Waggener, this actor is the son of Jason Robards and the ex-husband of cast mate Suzy Amis. In this movie the enigmatic graduate who cancelled his engagement, leading to the road trip.
  • Chuck Bush as Dorman, the quiet big dude, amusing.
  • Brian Cesak as Lester Griffin, the genius of the group, already hired by Arthur Anderson, dodging Vietnam.
  • Marvin J. McIntyre as Truman Sparks, the stoner pilot, a great part.
  • Suzy Amis as The Girl, a good looking one at that.
On the whole, I liked the movie, if you are a Costner fan, a strong recommend.  Who Dom is, is for you to find out.
  

Thursday, March 15, 2012

56% Oppose Justice Department’s Blocking of Texas Voter ID Law - Rasmussen Reports™

Holder's boys are at it again.
56% are against the DOJ policy.
44% either agree or are unsure.
What 7 of 10 potential voters think is voter identification is reasonable.
That would suggest that 3 of 10 voters aren't able to cash a check.

56% Oppose Justice Department’s Blocking of Texas Voter ID Law - Rasmussen Reports™

Thursday, March 8, 2012

I need your responce

Junk mail for the illiterate....
This must have taken a long time to compose.


From: L H [mailto:lihuan@gmail.com]
Sent: Thursday, March 08, 2012 4:38 PM
To: info@info.net
Subject: [SPAM]I need your responce
There is some funds i need you to claim for me. Reply for details

Tuesday, March 6, 2012

2 Cadillacs = Class Warfare

From time to time I hop over to MoveOn.org to see what the liberals are thinking.  Normally I keep to myself because folks who post ugly comments designed to irritate the main clientele are trolls.
Last week I ran across a post that I could not resist adding a comment to.
Here is a screen shot from the site.  Descibing the cartoon as "Hilarious" is a stretch if I might say so.

I love SnagIt.
A transparent gig at Republican candidate Mitt Romney.  To which I take exception and added a nice comment suggesting that the Democrats have been led in the last century by many extremely wealthy beneficiaries of capitalism.
These include...
  1. Franklin Roosevelt
  2. John Kennedy
  3. Robert Kennedy
  4. Ted Kennedy
  5. Al Gore
  6. John Edwards
  7. John Kerry
As compared to the
  1. Herbert Hoover, an engineer
  2. Dwight Eisenhower, career military
  3. Richard Nixon, lawyer
  4. Ronald Reagan, B movie actor
Now the Bushes and Romney come from money, no doubt, but neither has the money to approach even half of what the Kennedy's or Kerry has.  Democratic leaders are hypocritical for suggesting that they are in tune lower income society.  They give shit away to buy votes.  The people who take it become dependent, hateful constituents of class warfare.
In the end the cartoon rally isn't all that bad, it is in reasonable taste, it is humorous, simply a continuance of an urban myth.

MegaVote: GA 13th, 3/5/2012

Comments in italic bluuue....

Congress.org (congress.org) presents: MEGAVOTE March 5, 2012
In this MegaVote for Georgia's 13th Congressional District:

Recent Congressional Votes -
* Senate: Motion to Table Blunt Amendment
* House: Protecting Academic Freedom in Higher Education Act
* House: Sacramento-San Joaquin Valley Water Reliability Act

Upcoming Congressional Bills -
* Senate: Surface transportation authorization
* House: Tariffs on non-market economies
* House: Hydropower development
* House: Cost of going public for businesses

Recent Senate Votes:

Motion to Table Blunt Amendmenthttp://capwiz.com/congressorg/issues/votes/?votenum=24&chamber=S&congress=1122
Vote Agreed to (51-48, 1 Not Voting)
The Senate rejected an amendment to the surface transportation bill that would have allowed employers to exclude certain health services from its insurance plans based on religious grounds.
Sen. Saxby Chambliss voted NO
Sen. Johnny Isakson voted NO
I don't care for when hot topic issues get addressed in manner that suggests a poison pill. The results are intentionally confusing votes that play to the constituencies of both parties while effectively dodging the subject. Here the Republicans are pushing to throw a difficult problem conceptually, onto a bill that is no doubt a brushed up package of pork. The Senate Republicans apparently have no support from the other side of the aisle to stand up to an errant President.

Recent House Votes:

Protecting Academic Freedom in Higher Education Acthttp://capwiz.com/congressorg/issues/votes/?votenum=79&chamber=H&congress=1122
Vote Passed (303-114, 16 Not Voting)
The House passed this bill that would overturn an Education Department regulation defining credit hours and rules education institutions must adhere to in order to operate in a state. The bill is intended to ease regulations on the for-profit education industry.
Rep. David Scott voted NO
Many Democrats are beholden to the NEA and other public unions. It does not matter if statistics show that private schools are more effective and more cost efficient, the Democrats are going to fight every instance that threatens the flaccid expansion of the Department of Education and its redistribution machine.

Sacramento-San Joaquin Valley Water Reliability Acthttp://capwiz.com/congressorg/issues/votes/?votenum=91&chamber=H&congress=1122
Vote Passed (246-175, 1 Present, 11 Not Voting)
This House bill is intended to increase access to water for agricultural and municipal uses in the San Joaquin Valley in California. The Senate is unlikely to take up the measure.
Rep. David Scott voted NO
I smell some Sierra Club crap in here, more California anti-growth dogma. No matter to me, spend the intended money in areas that have potential to grow, or better yet, don't spend it at all.

Upcoming Votes:
Surface transportation authorization - S.1813
The Senate is scheduled to continue work on their two-year, $109 billion bill to fund transportation projects.
Do you smell bacon?

Tariffs on non-market economies - H.R.4105
This House bill would impose higher tariffs on goods imported from state-controlled economies.
I have conflicting thoughts on this subject. The free flow of good and services between nations is the purist form of capitalism, therefore the most efficient (read Hayek). The problem with that belief is that none of the participating countries, including the United States, are free of assisting some industries attempting to export products. I guess in the end, that I would like to see reciprocal agreements between countries, like NAFTA and the EU, and fight the rest out where there aren't agreements. In the end productivity and labor rates win out in the manufacturing sector. China has been messing with the dollar, that is because they are currently more liquid, a benefit of a rapidly growing economy. Liquidity breaks down most barriers any politician can create.

Hydropower development - H.R.2842
The House is scheduled to take up this bill to speed up the approval process of hydropower projects.
Will be interested to see how little David Scott votes on this one. His state has a great deal of hydro-electric power stations, many of which could be improved. This I know from working in the industry.

Cost of going public for businesses - H.R.3606
This bipartisan House bill is intended to make it easier for small and mid-sized companies to go public.
I fine idea, can just imagine SEC Lite. If they bend the rules for little companies, it will be fertile ground for fraud.

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Copyright (c) 2012.

Monday, March 5, 2012

It's So Sad

I picked up on this at The Blaze. Commentator Mike Malloy, one of the Sirius XM hosts, suggests that southern storm victims are simply the victim of god's wrath.

Malloy is expressing what I have long experienced, as a northern transplant to who loves south, the regional bigotry that Yankees express toward southerners. Malloy attempting to be humorous at the expense what he considers to be an inferior group.  Tasteless as it is, it does bring to mind a lack of logic in the asshole's comments. 
He clearly stands on the opinion that weather is an expression of events that are scientifically monitored and explained.  He suggests that these people he looks down his nose at, who believe in god, a god he does not believe in, are victims of gods wrath.  Illogical in the sense that worship in no form causes the wrath of the one being worshiped, whether it be god or man.  So, for his personal enjoyment, he satirizes.
Today on the way to work, I noticed one of my co-workers having to go home at the start of the day.  He was having to go home because the wind  storms had torn off the roof of his house, trees were down all over his yard and house and the rain was leaking through the roof causing his ceilings to collapse.  The two houses across the street from him are gone.  I do not know if he goes to church or believes in god, but I know he loves his family and went home to keep his family safe. Such mawking would draw a physical response from the person I know is suffering.
Malloy should be ashamed.  I don't give a rat's ass if he ever apologizes.  I do plan to complain to Sirius XM of which I have been a long time customer.

The Davis Cup is bestowed on assholes of renowned achievement.

Robots That Fly



This is some pretty cool stuff.  Feedback systems and interactivity remind me of my operations research studies in college.
..

Darby


For the one year old daughter of my bride's niece.

Friday, March 2, 2012

The Last Days of Disco

The third of Whit Stillman's directorial triumphs.  Also written by Mr. Stillman, this movie was released in 1998 and up 2011 was the bottom of the well.  This may be because this movie lost a lot of money.  I am happy to see he has another movie out call Damsels in Distress.
The Last Days of Disco is about a pair of young ladies who work in the publishing business during the day and enjoy the New York disco scene at night.  The women are recent college graduates and evolving from the party every night mode toward searching for permanent partners and career goals.  In the end disco has faltered, the White Sox stadium riot punctuated that.  The ladies with the men in their lives recognize that a stage has passed. Of course there is one who predicts the re-emergence of disco.
My favorite part is the argument about the Disney movie The Lady and the Tramp.
The major players in the cast were....
  • Chloë Sevigny as Alice, the heroine, a smart young lady, unafraid to express herself, yet unsure with men.
  • Kate Beckinsale as Charlotte, Kate is really young in this movie, plays a bitchy manipulative beauty.
  • Chris Eigeman as Des, Chris plays the same roguish character as he does in the previous two Stillman flicks. Best role in the movie.
  • Mackenzie Astin as Jimmy, as squeamish little jerk, Astin has a very familiar face but no major parts in is biography.
  • Matt Keeslar as Josh, Des's friend and hopeful beau of Alice.
  • Robert Sean Leonard as Tom, you would recognize Robert from his role in the series House M.D., was earlier in the movie The Dead Poets Society. 
  • Jennifer Beals as Nina, one of the girlfriends that Des runs off by claiming to have discovered his gayness.
  • Taylor Nichols as Charlie, as veteran like Eigeman, of both previous Stillman movies, plays a small part that dovetails with his leading role in Barcelona.

In typical Whitman style, the dialog is intelligent and if you are not the type that likes to pay attention by listening, don't bother.  I enjoyed the movie more on this reviewing than the first time about 10 years ago.

  

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Copper Wire

After having dug to a depth of 10 feet last year, New York scientists found traces of copper wire dating back 100 years and came to the conclusion that their ancestors already had a telephone network more than 100 years ago.
Not to be outdone by the New Yorkers, a California archaeologist dug to a depth of 20 feet and shortly after, a story in the LA Times read: "California archaeologists' discovery of 200 year old copper wire, have concluded that their ancestors already had an advanced high-tech communications network a hundred years earlier than the New Yorkers."
One week later. A local newspaper in Alabama reported the following:
"After digging as deep as 30 feet in his pasture near Smiths Station, AL, Bubba, a self-taught archaeologist, reported that he found absolutely nothing. Bubba has therefore concluded that 300 years ago, Alabama had already gone wireless."

Thursday, March 1, 2012

what causes arthritis?

A drunk man who smelled like beer sat down on a subway next to a priest. The man's tie was stained, his face was plastered with red lipstick, and a half-empty bottle of gin was sticking out of his torn coat pocket. He opened his newspaper and began reading. After a few minutes the man turned to the priest and asked, "Say Father, what causes arthritis?"
The priest replies, "My son, it's caused by loose living, being with cheap, wicked women, too much alcohol, contempt for your fellow man, sleeping around with prostitutes and lack of a bath."
The drunk muttered in response, "Well, I did not know." Then returned to his paper.
The priest, thinking about what he had said, nudged the man and apologized. "I'm very sorry. I didn't mean to come on so strong. How long have you had arthritis?"
The drunk answered, "I don't have it, Father. I was just reading here that the Pope does."
MORAL: Make sure you understand the question before offering the answer.