Rag Hand

I found this must read article on the BBC:
Germany’s highest court has ruled that spying on personal computers violates privacy, but governments across Europe are under pressure to help their security services fight terrorism and organised crime.

This is an article on the video surveillance used in countries in Europe.

If you are an average American you are thinking that this only happens overseas… Wrong!

Here in Las Vegas they have blocked the feeds from the traffic and other cameras, so the general public can no longer view them.

The feeds were open long enough to see that these cameras cover a great deal more than just traffic.

In several large cities they have set up these surveillance systems with the courts giving the opinion that it’s perfectly legal.
It may be legal, but it’s just not right.

This article shows the path we’re heading down and it reminds me of the old tv show “The Prisoner.”

George Orwell was far too optimistic in his views.

Ashcroft to Testify in Congress on No-Bid Contract for His Firm

Mr. Ashcroft agreed to testify before the House Judiciary Committee in the face of the committee’s threat to issue a subpoena to compel his testimony. Congressional officials said the committee hoped to schedule the hearing for next month.
The 18-month monitoring contract, worth $28 million to $52 million, was directed to Mr. Ashcroft’s firm, the Ashcroft Group, by the United States attorney in New Jersey, Christopher J. Christie, without any bidding process.

This was the guy who quit as AG because $180k wasn’t enough of a paycheck to send his kids to the college he wanted and congress refused to give him a massive raise.

Under the Bush administration bribery in the medical field is ok. They never seem to send anything to the grand jury. Instead they spend even more money “monitoring” these companies.
——And the contract goes to the ever popular the friends and family plan.

An op-ed from the New York Times:

The Audacity of Hopelessness
By FRANK RICH
Published: February 24, 2008
The Clinton camp has been the slacker in this presidential race, and its candidate’s message, for all its purported high-mindedness, is self-immolating.

After promising a cakewalk to the nomination — “It will be me,” Mrs. Clinton told Katie Couric in November

The race would “be over by Feb. 5,” Mrs. Clinton assured George Stephanopoulos just before New Year’s.

The problem with Billary is arrogance. Neither she, nor the members of her campaign, have heard a single word that anyone else has said, that differs from their version of how the campaign should go.

Bill Clinton knocked states that hold caucuses instead of primaries because “they disproportionately favor upper-income voters” who “don’t really need a president but feel like they need a change.” After the Potomac primary wipeout, Mr. Penn declared that Mr. Obama hadn’t won in “any of the significant states” outside of his home state of Illinois. This might come as news to Virginia, Maryland, Washington and Iowa, among the other insignificant sites of Obama victories. The blogger Markos Moulitsas Zúniga has hilariously labeled this Penn spin the “insult 40 states” strategy.

I found this observation also in the Times:

¿Quién Es Less Macho?
By MAUREEN DOWD
Published: February 24, 2008
The first serious female candidate for president may be rejected by voters drawn to the more feminine management style of her male rival.

I told you she was el hombre mas macho in the race.

This was found in the Star-Telegraph.
An order for security to stand down was issued by the Secret Service.

Dallas Deputy Police Chief T.W. Lawrence, head of the Police Department’s homeland security and special operations divisions, said the order — apparently made by the U.S. Secret Service — was meant to speed up the long lines outside and fill the arena’s vacant seats before Obama came on.

“Sure,” said Lawrence, when asked if he was concerned by the great number of people who had gotten into the building without being checked. But, he added, the turnout of more than 17,000 people seemed to be a “friendly crowd.” —friendly crowd… I guess that means he couldn’t see any high powered rifles.

The Security was checking everyone coming in until about 11am at which point they were ordered to stand down.

Let’s revue. A black male running for president of the United States, in Dallas, Tx. The place where a president was assassinated, and the Secret Service ordered security to stand down…. WTF were they thinking.
—That scenario is a conspiracy buff’s wet dream.

There is a rebuttal and job justification that was issued by the Secret Service here.

Governor Gibbons actually said something that makes sense:
This is from the Governor’s speech as reported in the Lahontan Valley News.
He touched on water issues and said before the state allocates water, it needs to take inventory of its resource and identify its uses before releasing any surplus. Instead of pitting northern and southern Nevada against each other over water, Gibbons proposed scrapping the idea of a pipeline to move water down south. He suggested the state aid in building water desalinization plants in California and trade water credits on the Colorado River.

“Water in a desert state is the most precious resource we have,” Gibbons said.

How many millions/billions is this pipeline going to cost us? The state engineer says that his decision is about the science, not the politics…. Yeah, Right.
The pipeline is a done deal. So there will be no money for anything that doesn’t make the rich richer. Seems a shame.

As the smoke clears and the dust settles, I find myself agreeing with Governor Gibbons….

Proving that anyone, even our Governor, can be right once.