Afghanistan Poll

Thanks for taking the time;

Bill

Brazil Power

Over 20% of the power for a whole country (click here) comes from one source. How many other countries are in a similar situation? It gives me a cause for some concern.

Good Question

This was in today's SunHerald:

We pay more than $8,000 a year for health insurance (a policy that covers a family of three). Our deductible is $750 each. If our rates go up another dime, we’ll have to cancel our coverage. We make too much money to qualify for medicaid, and we’re too young to receive Medicare benefits. My question is, who’s going to bail us out?

Pretty good question.

Sheriff Joe

Just in case you missed this one.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/07/us/07arizona.html

I deliberately chose the NYT article because of the NYT’s left slant.

I have a problem understanding something. If you become a sheriff part of the oath of office is to say “I will uphold the laws of the United States, the State of Mississippi", etc.

But here is my problem — Sheriff Joe is being told that he must violate his oath of office. Would that not make him a sitting target for impeachment?

Racially Motivated

In Alabama Ozelle Hulbert was defeated in his run for State House of Representatives by Elaine Beech.

Hulbert feels that primary voters were intimidated, denied the right to vote and community leaders were offered bribes to support Beech.

"I feel that such actions are racially motivated," Hubert said in a letter sent to everyone from a local probate judge to the President of the United States. He claims he was discriminated against "in fear that upon my being elected, I would call for a state and federal investigation into unlawful actions by lawyers, judges and other public officials in this district."

Oh, did I forget to mention that both Hulbert and Beech are black? So where does the racially motivated come from if both were black? I have a hard time understanding politics.

Full article here.

Food stamps and fraud

It is not like this is the only one. I'll bet that I could find a dozen places that would do this in a single day. And here in the South it is pretty easy to find alternate sources of food so that your Food Stamp card can be used for many things other than food.

At one time there was a lively underground dealing with buying and selling food stamps. Even if you did not need the stamps you would file to get them. Once you were receiving them you could then barter them on the blackmarket for cash. The going rate was 50 to 80 cents on the dollar.

Click Here to view story

Free Fall

No American President in recent history has fallen so far so fast in the eyes of Americans. Jimmy Carter started with a 70 percent approval rating and it took 18 months for him to fall under the 50 percent mark. Even George W. Bush, the man who many consider the most unpopular President in modern times, stayed popular with a majority of Americans for three years before dropping into the nether land.

Obama's job approval dropped 20 points in eight months: a record free fall.

Police Action

The following is just idle speculation but I believe it has more than a kernel of truth in it. And it illustrates "thinking beyond stage one."

Police increase their presence in a neighborhood. They also start a program of stopping suspicious people and running names thru the police computers. After three months of this program the rate of muggings, petty larceny and simple assult are up.

How could scaring off the pushers, felons and the like cause an increase in crime?

Eight point three million people now tracked?

Hey, it sounds like a good idea. And I never thought for a minute that it could/would not be done. Now NYC is using it and using it to solve crimes.

It appears that they are compiling a database of cell phone ID's and where those cell phones were used. I might add that if they wished they could also track the phones even when they were not being used -- just on.

Now here is one example of how the system has been used to solve a crime.

"In one case involving a 911 call, detectives solved a burglary pattern after the suspect left a slip of paper with his cell number on it at a crime scene, Deputy Commissioner Paul Browne said.
The phone was disposable so no owner information was available, but police were able to track it to the suspect because he had used it to make a 911 call after he was assaulted."

And I love the irony of this example -- he gets mugged and calls 911 and he is a burglar! God must have a great sense of humor.

But the real issue is do we want our police to be able to track our every movement? Here is just one way in which it could be used. Let's say we have a "no-fly" list. Now we merge that list with a list of telephone locations for the last month. And then we find that a cluster of 10 of no-fly persons were at the same location on Nov. 10th. Coincidence. Not likely. This technology might have been able to avert 9/11.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2009/10/08/2009-10-08_number_please_nypd_tracking_cell_phone_owners_but_foes_arent_sure_practice_is_le.html

Or

http://tinyurl.com/y9lh6wq

So are you in favor of the widespread deployment of such a system?