Daily Topics - Wednesday - May 19th 2010

Quote: "A politician thinks of the next election. A statesman, of the next generation."
-- James Freeman Clarke
Hour One - Election 2010 – bloodbath in November?!
Hour Two - Does Facebook kiss & tell? Dan Gainor www.businessandmedia.org
Plus... "Everything You Know is Wrong" - Shannon Donnelly www.chatroulette.com Chatroulette - Naked on-line chatting with complete strangers...Is there a movement?!
Hour Three - What Wall Street Banksters got caught is skinny dipping? We have the photos.
Comments

The Author’s Signature Statement
The United States of Hell is wasting away to ruin. As a nation we are just one big brothel – a land for pimps and prostitutes. What a country!
From gerald – a Jesus liberal, a pacifist, and a progressive
Here are two side notes. I do not care much for primary results. It's the general election that matters. If you compared our country with Somalia, of course, we look great. But, if you compared us with hell, we are a comparable place.
Re: Rand Paul
I would vote for Rand Paul!
The Republicans are taking any position that they can to spin that their winning. Denial ain't just a river in Egypt.
N

The Chris Drew eavesdropping case in Chicago will proceed on June 18. Drew will call for a jury trial. The judge "invited" him back after rejecting motions to dismiss. I keep hacking on this because of the importance of the people's right to monitor the government.

And you believe we are safe! Not!
@Drichards : are you counting on any gov't aid when you get old?
The Democratic party is being sent a message, the same one they've been getting since before Obama. I wonder if their ready to listen yet.
N
@Maxrot re :4: Denial is the river where neo-cons are baptized.
Re: Libertarians
I don't agree with all of the libertarian platform (such as their position regarding Social Security), but at least they are not bought and paid for as the Democrats & Republicans are.
@Drichards: if rand paul get elected, do you think he will stay true to his platform, knowing he'll only serve 1 term? Gandhi would sell-out too, to get re-elected. the only way to change this is to change our electoral system of legalized bribery.

I am more prone to vote for an Independent, a Green, or a Socialist Party candidate.
It seems to me that the libertarians may be the lessor of the evils.
Libertarians talk a good game 'til you get down to specifics. Do we let poor people die in the street? Do we let our houses burn down? "No"? Well, how do we address those issues? "Well, we need SOME government". Exactly!

We won't have a government of, by, or for the people until the imbalance in power is addressed. Taking corporations out of the influence game is important. Since corporations use money taken from labor, we are already paying for elections. It's just that corporations get to take our money and ignore our interests. I advocate public financing of elections, stripping campaigns to one month duration, eliminating black box voting, and holding elections for three or more days.
It seems to me the Libertarians are the crazier party. I'm glad their competing for Republican votes, "a house divided against itself cannot stand" -A Lincoln
N

H'al-Aberton: terror group or just greedy?

One more thing: the media must accept all election advertising, and publish it as a requirement for their use of the public airwaves and mail.
So how does Kentucky feel about their potential democratic candidate?
N
I live in Johnstown PA and the Republican TV ads have been insane! The "Attack of the 50 foot Pelosi" was particularly ridiculous.
Re: Low Republican turn out
I have been told that In Virginia the republicans turn out for the democrats in order to try and elect the weaker democratic candidate to run in the fall. I wonder if the same applies to Kentucky?
The scary thing about the Citizens United case, is that the corporations will probably sandbag until about a month before the election, and then produce ads with salacious lies that the opposing candidate won't have time to refute in the public forum. How can honorable candidates effectively fight that?
N

Dodd is possibly following in the footsteps of other "revolvers" in DC. Dennis Hastert is the most egregious of the recent megalomaniacs because he quit to get his Turkish lobbying position before the law changed. He takes about $35,000 a month for his lobjob. The people of the 14th District in Illinois got screwed even more: they had to pay real money for the special election to replace him.

A good source for information security is Bruce Schneir. http://www.schneier.com/

It was nice to see Dan and Thom agree on the problem, but note Dan's solution was that Facebook was responding due to market pressure.
I'm not sure he really "gets it"
@RandyWinn-
However, look what they are both agreeing on, that we should cave to the fear of saying what it is we have to say. Thom may not have recognized this is his own, hopefully temporary position within the context I speak.
We are all Sparticus.

KUDOS -- BE A CITIZEN WHIP!
Public Citizens' WHIP CHART --
http://www.citizen.org/Page.aspx?pid=3314
The Merkley-Levin Amendment #3931 to the Financial Reform Legislation --
This amendment would ensure that Wall Street banks like Goldman Sachs don’t get a government guarantee when they make huge, risky bets in the markets, and it would stop banks from engaging in Goldman-Sachs-style bets against their own clients. --
See if your Senators has decided to sponsor, support, lean to or from, oppose this amendment --
Report the response you got when calling them -- BE A CITIZEN WHIP!! --
thank-you for your consideration --
GRATEFULLY EVEYHTING CHANGES --
with so many options -- MM

RAND PAUL -- LIBERTARIAN ran as a REPUBLICAN to get elected --
ARLEN SPECTOR -- a ??? -- ran as a DEMOCRAT to get elected --
the top two ballot lines are not sacred --
too many sway -- use the their top two tiers just to get elected --

Hey Thom, the time traveling is messing with your senses.

Today, _I_ have a Full Monty alert!
http://www.worldnakedbikeride.org/
The internet is like a truck. It can be used for good purposes or for bad, just as money can- only now our currency is information. The battle of good and evil will always be with us. We should not close our mouths just because we are afraid.

This is where you post your best comment for today (about ANYTHING you want) to be our Member of the Day and win an autographed book or movie from Thom! Good Luck! :)
I think that people that think you can have private conversations over telecommunication lines, also believe in Santa Claus, Leprechauns and the Easter Bunny. There are all sorts of way's to get information from TCP/IP transmissions (which includes Peer-To-Peer networking). It isn't the server that's giving out information, its being able to tap into the transmitting lines that allow people to get information.
There's a lot more to it, but basically unless you're sending things in encrypted format, you're strutting around naked (so to speak).
N

When someone develops a device to read your mind; the ultimate polygraph; the ultimate god machine, who gets to use it?

You may not be aware of this, Tom, but google owns FaceBook. It already taylors the ads you see on FB to the information you used at signing up for FB to your zip code, age, etc. You can eliminate most privacy worries by limiting the information you use up to and including who sees your profile, who can participate with you in games, etc., etc. With family scattered from Hobart, Tasmania to Salzburg, Austria we use FB to keep in touch and share photos & videos. We do not put any really personal information online. I personally use a yahoo email address that dumps any and all emails that FB might generate into an account I never check.
By the way, your account certificate for this web site is out of date. This is something of which you should make your webmaster aware.
KPOJ RULES....LOL!!!
Start a beehive today! Latest reports is that in the past year, according to the Guardian, the US and the UK have lost at least 1/3 of their bee colonies. And though this might be a synergistic problem with various causes, the prime suspect, in my opinion is pesticides.
If you have 3 feet square in your yard, you can start a bee hive, and actually if you have a flat roof, you can put hives on the roof. Bees are easy to take care of, the most you really have to do is to feed them to start out, because they need time to establish comb and the queen needs to lay brood.
Bees are essential to our food supply, and we all benefit from their efforts. They are fascinating, and pretty smart as insects go (they can actually learn mazes). They are much gentler than people think, you only usually get stung if you mess with them, and having a beekeeping suit prevents that pretty well. And they provide a marvelous and nutritious product, honey but also propolis and bee pollen, both of which have wonderful health properties.
If you have a garden, make some room for a hive. There's something wonderful about the happy buzzing sound of a healthy hive. And your garden will thank you for it! And so will the Earth.
@Genesavory re; #34: I knew you were going to ask. I do. :)

THIS is my social networking site. I don't do myspace, linkedin, or twitter, and I've never posted a video on YouTube. I do have a Facebook page, but it exists only so my wife can use it to send herself "gifts" in her facebook games (I often refer to my facebook account as her "facebitch").
Unlike many born into the internet generation, and like Thom, I suppose, I DO value the apparently outmoded concept of "privacy". There's only ONE person in this entire world that I need to know where I am and what I'm doing at any given time, and I've been married to her for 35 years. Does this make me a Luddite? If so, then so be it - I'm PROUD to live in the land of Lud!
@Mstaggerlee: a true luddite would use his/her computer screen as a chalkboard.
@ladyliberty - OR you could support a local bee hive store, local pollan, especially in the spring is a bounty of natural medicine.
"a local bee-hive store", huh?
Are all of these more progressive amendments a result of the election result yesterday? I mean the message to me was we want MORE progressive Democrats, not more centrists.

@Harry Ashburn: OMG! Are you in my machine?
I nominate Freebird for blog-of-the-day for #38!!
@Gene: no, I'm a Mac

@mstaggerlee, I'm a self proclaimed computer addict, yet I don't have (and never have had) a Facebook, myspace page, or posted a u-tube vid either... I'm a real computer geek, not a wannbe social butterfly who has a bunch of virtual friends.
I'm with ya' this site is about the limit to my computer social interface.
N
re: #47: does this give ya the buzz on the topic?

@harry ashburn re #38: Was that printed with invisible photons? They might have been recycled, but in the BG color.



PBS to make amends for dropping Bill Moyers and NOW?
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2010/05/19/us/AP-US-Public-Media-Investigative-Journalism.html?_r=1&ref=news