August 11, 2013

Someone tell me this about teabaggers

In this wonderful thread:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023444714

(it's about a teabagger distributing the names of people who both vote and receive disability payments)

we find the oft-quoted, incorrectly-attributed-to-Ben-Franklin quote about democracies surviving until The People learn they can vote themselves money from the public treasury.

Assuming that this is true, and assuming that asking the government for money is a bad thing, howcum teabaggers invariably vote for the candidate who promises the biggest tax cuts?

August 9, 2013

Here's what I don't get, regarding Snowden and Manning...

Why do computers in secure areas have accessible USB ports anyway?

During the Cold War they didn't allow 3.5" floppy drives in systems that processed classified traffic unless the system only came with them (such as a Mac, and those were exceptionally rare in high security environments), and then that system had to be in a place that always had at least two people in it. Because you could put a 3.5" disk in your pocket, there was too great a danger of people walking classified information out of the secure area. If you had a pocket large enough to hold a 5-1/4" disk, you'd have never gotten out of the SCIF with it because it would have been too obvious.

Now all these machines have USB ports and you can just waltz out of the SCIF (sensitive compartmented information facility) with anything you want...which makes me wonder how many OTHER people have been doing this shit.

The government buys the computers it uses for processing classified traffic from special vendors and that equipment has to meet very high standards to keep the secrets inside; why in FUCK are they putting computers in SCIFs that have this big a security hole in them?

And come on: one drum of epoxy and a drum of filler would have solved all this.

August 6, 2013

A Republican Congressman's Weekly Agenda

Monday: Open and answer mail from constituents. Answer all with the same form letter: all America's problems will self-correct if we cut taxes and repeal Obamacare. We have an autoresponder on our email server for all the people who send us letters electronically.

Tuesday: Write, debate and pass Obamacare repeal bill. Look on in dismay as Senator Franken lights a cigar with it as soon as it gets to the Senate floor.

Wednesday: Write, debate and pass ACORN defunding bill. File motion of protest after Senator Warren intercepts the bill before it reaches the Senate chamber and disappears into the ladies' room with it. When she leaves the bathroom, the bill is not in her possession.

Thursday: Write and debate tax cut bill. Also attempt to pass bill prohibiting the use of Republican-authored legislation for the lighting of cigars or wiping of asses.

Friday: Fly back to district and tell constituents it's those damn Democrats' fault that we're not getting anything done in here.

August 2, 2013

Let's Bring Back ACORN!

If the Republicans keep on insisting on defunding the Association of Community Organizers for Reform Now, shouldn't there actually be one?

August 1, 2013

If the Republicans successfully bury Obamacare, what will they ask for next?

If they can get the president to surrender his signature achievement, they'll keep going. What will be their next demand?

My guess: they'll want their whole agenda, but the first thing to come up will be the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. It won't be an abortion ban because they still need an issue for 2014. Nh

July 28, 2013

How you know Seattle has too fucking many Starbucks

This is Starbucks Center, corporate headquarters for the global coffee leviathan. Starbucks Center used to be Sears' west coast catalog fulfillment warehouse; at 2.1 million square feet it is the biggest building in the state of Washington that isn't owned by Boeing. (It's right next to the Seattle railhead; the plan was for Sears to receive boxcars full of mailed orders then ship merchandise to customers via Parcel Post on other boxcars. Until Sears got out of the catalog-sales business, the plan worked just fine.) It is at the corner of Utah Ave. South and Walker Street. And as one would guess, there is a Starbucks store in this building.

If you go east on Walker Street exactly one block to 1st Avenue, there's another Starbucks.

Interestingly enough, the Fred Meyer chain of general stores, which serves Starbucks in its stores everywhere else, doesn't serve Starbucks in Seattle; there they serve Tully's, another Seattle-based coffee company that runs its operations out of - this is no shit - an abandoned brewery.

July 27, 2013

Twinkies: worst product launch in the history of ever

Except for pictures in newspapers and news footage, has anyone here seen a box of Twinkies since they came back?

July 26, 2013

If privatization is the cure for all ills, explain TSA

On the day George W. Bush was inaugurated, airport security was in the hands of the private sector. And until 9/11 they did a pretty good job.

After 9/11 they were replaced by a huge federal agency.

The question is, if we had to deprivatize airport security, why should we privatize anything again?

July 23, 2013

Is Seattle dumping roids in the Sound or something?

The seagulls are far larger than they once were.

July 22, 2013

Eating every scrap of food in the house is no mean feat

Tomorrow starts my week of vacation. I will be 300 miles from my refrigerator, and to ward off the possibility that we could lose power and I'd come back to a steel box with rotten food in it, I decided to eat all the perishable food I owned.

If I never see a piece of chicken again in my life it will be too soon.