AT&T works in more places...

Billboard Liberation Front made a nice little improvement to an AT&T billboard.

Selling fear to buy control

I said it earlier this week, the Republican's fear mongering is not about security, it's about control. They are peddling fear in exchange for more control over the people they govern. Today's Downsize DC Dispatch is titled "The Fear Merchants" and it includes excerpts from a letter that Texas Representative Silvestre Reyes, the Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee wrote to President Bush about the FISA Act.

If you want to know the facts on this issue, read the letter. I could rant about this extensively, but Reyes states the facts very effectively. There's also an Op Ed piece that was written by Senators and Representatives Jay Rockefeller, Patrick Leahy, Silvestre Reyes and John Conyers who are chairmen of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, the Senate Judiciary Committee, the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and the House Judiciary Committee respectively.

Of note, the Op Ed says that the FISA court has approved nearly 23,000 warrant applications and rejected only five. Does this seem like a system that is broken?

Don't believe the Republican fear mongering. They are using this to try and gain control; control of the House, the Senate and the American people.

Monday commute calls

After walking my kids to school this morning, I called Senators Brownback and Roberts and Representative Moore to let them know I opposed retroactive immunity for telcos. I let Brownback and Roberts know that I wanted them to encourage their colleagues who should be conferencing with the House on this issue that they should strike immunity from the bill and move on and I said I thought it was shameful that they would put the interests of the telcos above upholding the Constitution.

As for my call to Moore's office, I let them know I was thankful and proud that he stood up to the President and the Senate and didn't give in on the issue of immunity for the law breaking telcos. I asked that he continue to fight for this important issue.

If you care at all about the Bill of Rights and the rule of law, please take a moment to sign one of the petitions and let your representatives know where you stand. You really can make a difference.

StopTheSpying.org

A catchy little video from StopTheSpying.org:


Don't forget to call or write (or both) your Reps when Congress reconvenes. Let them know you do not support retroactive immunity for law breaking telcos. When a government official tells you to break the law, your obligation is to the law.

Great story on atheists

While I am not one for the same reasons that I'm not a believer (it's not logical), there's a nice article in the Kansas City Star here (http://www.kansascity.com/273/story/501516.html) on atheists.

Pummer

I mentioned a few days ago that I tried to assemble a pummer (Solarbotic's Hex Pummer if you must know) on a breadboard. I've never breadboarded anything before and taking this on for a first attempt was too much. In the end, the circuit wasn't working.

I figured I'd try it again this morning, but I'm a beginner when it comes to reading circuit diagrams and translating that to components on a breadboard. I was concentrating on the circuit diagram with one eye and holding the printed circuit board up to the light and staring at it with the other trying to sort out the paths between the components.

Then I figured I'd just break out the soldering iron and start putting the thing together. A couple hours later I was finished, plugged in the batteries, covered the solar cell and noticed a faint flashing. Sweet. No dry sockets or anything.

Sure it's basic and the circuit is not my own design and it's not free formed as I'd wanted it to be, but it works and it's a beginning. Baby steps. I was going to take a picture and a video of it, but that seems like overkill. Here's a picture of what someone else's looks like:


I hope to be making them more like those found here, http://grant.solarbotics.net/Pummers.htm, but Grant is a professional.

And here's a You Tube video of one on a breadboard that actually works:


Pummers are a special type of BEAM bot. They are inspired by biology and plant life, collecting the sun's rays during the day charging batteries and then when the sun goes down, the collected energy is expended through an LED or in the case of the hex pummer, four LEDs that pulsate.

Nader's running again?

Wtf? It's for real. The spoiler is at it again. Damn, I live in one of those states where my vote doesn't matter. It's really tempting to vote for Ralph. He has done some incredible things and if you listen to the man, he has some killer ideas.

And then there's this:

Follow the money

OpenSecrets.org allows a person to lookup who is giving money to politicians. According to the site Pat Roberts, one of my Republican Senate representatives has received $45K from the telco industry.

Sam Brownback, another of my Republican Senators has received $83K from the telcos.

Dennis Moore, my Democratic Representative in the House doesn't have an entry in the top 20 contributors from the telecommunications industry. Sprint/Nextel is one of his largest individual contributors, however.

How have these men voted on immunity for telcos?

Roberts voted to let the law breaking telcos off the hook.

Brownback voted for immunity for the law breaking telcos.

Moore voted against letting the law breaking telcos off the hook.

I'm sure Senators Roberts and Brownback think they are men of principle, believers in small government, in the rights of individuals over those of corporations, but their voting record shows otherwise.

More on the Protect America Act

Here's a great video that puts the correct spin on the Protect America Act:


I love the quote from Mr. Bush, "Freedom and fear are at war."

Why is he fighting on fear's side?

Lying and Spying Republicans

Bush and his yes men are trying to sell the idea that we're no longer safe because the House refused (rightly so) to go along with the Senate's version of the Protect America Act. The main difference in the bills was that the Senate's version gave telcos who cooperated in Bush's warrantless wiretapping program immunity from prosecution.

Yes, our Republican friends who are always touting the "rule of law" are now pouting because they can't get a bill passed that will let the law breaking telcos off the hook for spying on millions of Americans.

Here's what Nancy Pelosi had to say on the floor of the House shortly before the pouting Republicans shamefully walked out of the House refusing to even debate the issue:



In case you've been living under a rock (at least they can't listen to your phone calls that way), here's what we're talking about:



Don't want to watch the video? The executive summary is that Mark Klein, a 22 year veteran of AT&T says that the NSA installed equipment in an AT&T facility that allowed the NSA to tap all of AT&T's traffic -- phone, email, web browsing, etc. and not just for a few people, or a few dozen, or a few hundred, but for all domestic and international traffic.

The government is watching you, without a warrant. Recall the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution:

"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."

The Bill of Rights is one of the things that makes this country great. Don't let the Republicans get away with diminishing these rights. Please call or write or email your Congressional and Senatorial Representatives and let them know that you do not support immunity for the telcos.

The House has offered up a bill that still allows the Feds to get wiretaps as needed through the traditional FISA channels. They are not saying the government can't spy on you, only that they must get a warrant and that the telcos who participated in warrantless spying broke the law and should be held accountable.

You can find out how to contact your reps at this web site, http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/.

"Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety." -- Benjamin Franklin (allegedly)

I've said it many times and it is worth repeating. If Republicans are so gung-ho for smaller government, then why are they so keen on Soviet style, big brother spy tactics?

It's not about security, it's about control.

BEAM bots & breadboards

I've been wanting to get into electronics for awhile. I recently purchased a Hex Pummer Kit from the fine folks at Solarbotics.

I thought I'd start with this kit but skip the printed circuit board (PCB) and freeform my own design so it would be more aesthetically pleasing.

Before I soldered it all together only to find it wasn't working, I decided I'd breadboard the circuit first. I spent a couple hours doing that this evening. The result? No joy, but it was still a fun process. I'll troubleshoot the circuit and see what went wrong.

The Hex Pummer has four LEDs. Simple pummers have only one. I may be aiming too high for a first attempt.

Weekend Update

I've been sick since Tuesday. I noticed on my walk home from lunch that my throat was hurting. By the end of Wednesday, I was aching all over. I stayed home Thursday with the worst sinus headache I've had in years and a nasty chest congestion/cough thing. Awesome. Stayed home Friday. Took lots of drugs. Saturday I took nothing, ran a low grade fever all day. If fever is the body's attempt to kill infection, why are we so quick to down fever suppressing medications?

Today, I feel better -- maybe 65%. Sixty-five percent is so much better than under 50%.

Yesterday was my middle child's sixth birthday party. We had a few dozen people here including parents and kids. It was mostly family and neighbors. We didn't do anything organized. No piñata, no pin-the-tail. Just cupcakes, ice cream, juice boxes and presents. And lots of screaming kids running around the house.

On Wednesday I went out to lunch with a couple of guys who own a successful small business. I've interviewed for jobs with them a couple times over the years, but for one reason or another things never worked out. In the last few years they have experienced explosive growth and are now considering adding an information management person to help them out with some integration and other things they haven't even thought of.

It's a very interesting proposition. They explained to me that they hired an HR person to do HR because they didn't know how to do it. They aren't looking to hire someone to come in and do things that they think need to be done. They aren't sure what needs to be done. They need someone who can come in and make those decisions based on his or her own experience.

I've recently updated the theme of the blog. I hope to get the crap on the right put back before the end of the week. I had recently updated my reading list to reflect books that I'm actually reading currently.

Changing themes wiped all that out. But I would like to mention a great book that I'm reading. 33 Strategies of War is a book like none I've ever read before. It's part history, part self-help and all good. Check it out from your local library or at least thumb through it at the bookstore.

Time Knows

I've been saying it for a while now and thinking it much longer. Hillary Clinton can't pull moderate Republicans and independents. She is too polarizing. She's unlikely to beat any Republican and certainly doesn't stand much chance against a moderate Republican like John McCain.

So Time Magazine has a poll now that shows the same thing. If the election were today, McCain and Clinton would tie. Obama would beat McCain by a narrow margin.

It's time for the Democratic Party to sit up and face facts. Clinton will not win the general election. If they are serious about winning back the Presidency, then they should be putting pressure on Hillary to get out of the race, now.

I've been wondering lately what a good strategy would be for beating McCain. I still haven't arrived at a good solution to that problem. He has to be attacked on different points depending on the audience.

Some are making a big deal of McCain's "make it a hundred" statement when asked what he thought about US troops being in Iraq for the next 50 years. According to recent reports from the military, we do not have the level of readiness in our armed forces necessary for responding to a natural disaster or enemy attack. What's McCain's solution to this problem? Does he really think we can stay in Iraq and increase our level of readiness simultaneously?

McCain's mouth may be his own worst enemy going into the general election. It's not what goes into a man's mouth that makes him unclean, but what comes out of it.

Kansas for Obama

I went to my first caucus ever tonight. Kansas' 33rd Congressional District is also the largest district in Kansas with 11 delegates. My wife and I and a neighbor piled into the car and drove to the Douglas County 4-H Fair Grounds. It was a muddy mess and packed with people, more than 2200 people showed up with more than 3/4 of them in the Obama camp. So many people said they were going to attend that they had to change venues at a relatively late date.

It was a long night and not the most organized event I've ever attended, but I'm glad I stood around for three hours to participate in the process. Hearing the impassioned speech by the Kucinich representative was one of the highlights.

There were loads of people taking pictures and I expected to see a bunch of them on flickr, but only found a few from the other caucus locations in town. One of the smaller locations was apparently so full the fire marshall required them to break up and go to other locations.

Here's one of the shots from the other location:It was an interesting event. The diversity of the people there was amazing. We were standing in line with a group of elderly retired people in front of us and we got to hear about their first caucus experiences at tiny little churches.

Biggest change for me today and something I never thought I'd say as a lifelong independent, I am now a registered Democrat. Wow.

I just checked flickr again, someone has put up some photos of our location here.

insipid.com endorses Barack Obama

Enough said.