This does not sit well with me. Giving government the capability to control a public, open and free network is where I draw the line. I do like the idea of having a federally-recognized cybersecurity certification program, as this will establish one standard for knowledge on the subject and clear a lot of hurdles for aspiring network security analysts. Everything else is bull. This is the first time I’ve seen the EFF call out something introduced by a non-Bushie. I took issue with the NSA in the Bush years because the same thing happened: government took too much liberty with the public internet, and spied on its own citizens in the process. If a threat emerges, let the government deal with their own networks. Any sysadmin who has completed the proposed federally-sponsored cybersecurity certification program would predictably be able to take care of those under their control.

If you haven’t noticed already, I’ll go ahead and say that my problems with this are solely practical rather than political, as the internet is a big part of my life and work, so naturally these are the issues I care most about. (I’m working on an essay-type thing detailing my positions, in which I proclaim that Republicans are evil and Democrats just don’t care anymore.) I’ve seen a lot of people online throwing harsh words at the president for this, which is stupid because he has nothing to do with it. These people are crossing the line. They’re probably overzealous Glenn Beck fans. Anyway, case in point:

This has nothing to do with “protecting” the internet.

It has everything to do with the power drunk, dicatorial 0bama engaging in an unprecedendted, unconstitutional power grab, orchestrated by his psychotic. lunatic fringe “czars” like Van Jones.

After siezing the auto companies, siezing the banks, setting up a snitch line at flag@whitewhite.gov for Americans to report anyone who doesn’t agree with 0bama’s evil health care bill, , ahile ammasing a fedrel deficits of a staggering $1.6 trillion, and sending “stimulus” money to murderers in US jails, this communist wants to grab control of the internet too does he?

Really? Really? I suppose the fact that Jay Rockefeller is coming up with this thing rather than the White House does nothing for you. You probably think President Obama has exercised some sort of mind control on this poor fellow to perpetrate this communist, Kenyan, Bill Ayers-esque, Orwellian, Illuminati, unconsitutional, and overall, evil, evil, evil power grab that will turn everyone gay, make the divorce rate skyrocket, take away all your guns and direct the government to demolish all churches.

To this I say: Really? What are you smoking?

1. Use this stimulus money to buy all stock in an insolvent bank/automaker/whatever. All of it. Everything. Leave none untouched.
2. Fire every single board member and executive. All of them, everyone, you know the rest.
3. Put in people who KNOW WHAT THEY’RE DOING.
4. Turn the bank/automaker/whatever around.
5. Sell the shares for a profit.

This would be a better plan than just handing money to executives. That or as my grandfather tells me they could give every person who lives in the U.S. $2.4 million. I could definitely pay off my debt with that and then put the money somewhere I deem worthy to receive it. Who’s with one of these suggestions?

Not only will I show you a picture, but I want you to say aloud what this guy is.  Like, as in race. Difficulty: don’t offend anyone.

If you said “African-American”, I want you to immediately run to the nearest cliff with jagged rocks at its base and jump off. This is a black man. And he’s not even from America, which makes the name “African-American” doubly wrong. This is Paul Ince, who was until recently manager of he Blackburn Rovers football club in England, where he was BORN. If you really think about it, not even black people born in America can truly be called African-American.

Everyone’s talking about this impending age of “post-partisanship”, so why can’t we usher in an age of “post-political-correctness”? This is insane. It’s why our kids can’t go outside without a helmet on anymore. Somewhere along the way, the liberals spearheaded a movement that would aim to make our society so watered down that all the bad things were gone. Why is it impossible to tell the truth and say it like it is anymore? If you know me you know I like to criticize my own side just as much as anyone else. What the hell have we started here on the left? We have to put a stop to this sh*t.

That’s also why militant feminists bother me so much. Case in point: When I go to a restaurant, if the person that brings my food to the table is a female, I refer to her as my waitress. Why, you may ask? Because that’s what she is. I work in the IT industry, and the word server has an entirely different meaning to me. I don’t go to restaurants to have high-powered computers rolling around, bringing me my food AND possibly even dishing out web sites to the entire Internet at the same time. The point is, truth is not sexism. It never will be.

I have been sidetracked so I will leave this in all its unintelligible, rambling glory.

1. I don’t know what kind of fantasy world these people have been living in, but I’m pretty sure abortion has been legal for at least 30 years with the Roe v. Wade decision. At least, there’s been a legal standard for it. That pretty much renders this thing useless.
2. The methodology is just stupid. I may be an atheist and a card-carrying Dem and all but that doesn’t mean I like, support abortion or anything. I disagree with at-will abortion yet will not question a Supreme Court decision… but the way to eliminate the problem is NOT to force your religion/morals/what have you on others without regard to situations where an abortion may be needed, like those standard cases of rape or incest or when the pregnancy presents a danger to the mother’s health or life. The way to eliminate abortion is to advocate policies that make the environment better so that mothers will not consider abortion once they are pregnant. Of course I have left out that “have more sensible sex education to reduce unwanted pregnancies in the first place” thing, because I don’t want to be sitting here all night writing. If a woman would rather not or later find they can’t raise a child, do the right thing and let a family who can raise the child adopt him or her. This is related to the whole “pro-life” (the buzzword) vs. “pro-life” (pro-ALL LIFE) argument.

Anyway, that’s my take on this whole … thing. I do apologize if it was a bit incoherent. Also all my best wishes to our new president and may he have a successful four (but hopefully eight) years serving our great nation.

Anyway, in all seriousness that was a total joke. I don’t know how it will post but there should be a screenshot attached. There really is a Wunder Radio app for six bucks in the App Store which probably isn’t worth the money. I also have no regrets for my vote.

Okay, so if you read my blog, you know I’m not a big fan of Tom Cole (guess the party-OK) and the NRCC for obvious reasons, see my post “Another political BS-fest” for details. But now Tom Cole is stumping for Brett Guthrie (also guess the party) in Kentucky and said that Barack Obama will not help David Boswell in the U.S. House race. Uh… what? So you’re saying that a guy from Boswell’s own party running for president at the top of the ticket won’t help him win? Something about the pot calling the kettle black, what? Anyway, he spews a lot of BS, about which I may go deeper on later. – NRCC Chair sees Obama weighing down Boswell

I’m not as partisan as you think, really. I have a lot of respect for a lot of prominent Republicans, for example the likes of Chuck Hagel and Gen. Colin Powell, who, unless you’ve been under a rock you know endorsed Barack Obama yesterday. I’m not so concerned about his endorsement of Senator Obama as much as I was his passionate and driving denouncement of Islamophobia in the United States. On NBC’s Meet the Press with Tom Brokaw on Sunday, Gen. Powell expressed disappointment at his party’s continued shift to the right, running the Bill Ayers thing into the ground and dropping hints lying about Sen. Obama’s religion. He told the story about a U.S. soldier who died in Iraq who was a Muslim. You really must see the video to get the full effect. – Powell rejects Islamophobia

Not only is this a testament to how good of a job I thought he could do (and I still think he is doing), but the fact he’s in office shows that a lot of Kentuckians thought he was an improvement over his predecessor.

I think Governor Beshear has done a lot of great things in office, some of which were shot down by opposition, but great things nonetheless. I agree with the man on the issue of legalized gambling in Kentucky–we need it to help alleviate our budget shortfalls.

I do believe, however, that he is making a big mistake when it comes to his administration’s endeavor to seize control of 141 domain names belonging to some of the most popular Internet gambling sites out there. Just because someone has something and you can’t get it doesn’t mean you get to steal it. Forbes has an article about Judge Thomas WIngate refusing to drop the case and I can’t help but be worried.

The Internet is a global medium. We pioneered it and got it started here in the United States but it has a worldwide reach. Ergo, I believe that the Internet is international jurisdiction and the Commonwealth of Kentucky has no business messing with it. Domain names and the seizure thereof are on ICANN’s turf since, you know, they control the DNS. I’m hoping ICANN steps in and doesn’t let this happen. If a state government can seize someone’s domain name because they don’t like the site that’s running on it, what’s next? Will the state government next seize my domain name and that of any other blogger, as I suspect there are many, who have written things critical of the Beshear administration because they saw the exact same thing I see coming? If a state government can seize a domain name, and that precedent is established, the federal government may follow suit and perhaps even the Bush administration will start taking domain names of bloggers and other web sites that have been critical of the president and his cohorts. If this case is allowed to continue I fear it will escalate into a matter of First Amendment rights.

If you haven’t noticed yet, I am horrible at ending these things.

I normally use pretty clean language in my blog posts, but WHAT THE HELL IS THIS?! From what I hear, the debate last night was nothing short of a circus, and the next day we’re seeing ads all over the internet about Joe the plumber? I know he’s just trying to make a point, but come on. This is being taken way too far. And just think, I was going to post something on my blog about how John McCain had class for correcting that lady who insisted Barack Obama was an Arab. I’m not even going to go into the Politico article, where Ben Smith talks about the CBS interview in which Joe Wurzelbacher (the plumber) expresses his doubt about Sen. Obama. Suspicions of him being a McCain operative aside, it’s sad to see people turned into political tools.

At work today, we received a fax from the National Republican Congressional Committee since the guy that runs the place is apparently a registered Rep. No problem with that, right? The NRCC is up to its usual tactics of extorting money out of small business owners by saying “oh, we love you, pay us some money and we’ll let you travel at your own expense to a dinner in Washington where you get to meet the missing link!”

Here’s a picture of one of the actual pages of the actual fax we received this afternoon:

If you look at the bottom of the page very carefully, you get this wonderful little message that reminds you of something you would have never known:

How nice of people who claim to be business savvy to remind thousands of people that they are not the government. It’s great that it wasn’t printed at government expense, but what about the fact it wasn’t printed at NRCC expense either? They’re riding on YOUR money. And this money isn’t even going to them. Do you know how much more printer ink costs than gasoline? Very few people are going to travel to this thing anyway, so why waste tons of paper and ink on trying to get people to go? Oh, right… the NRCC is getting a free ride. YOU pay for the tons of paper and ink.

I just figured I would point out this borderline injustice.