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You act like race riots and political riots don't happen. Or that domestic terrorism doesn't exist.

As far as immigration goes, Miami has a larger percentage of immigrants than San Jose and note that Los Angeles is not very far behind San Jose. And the violent crime rates of Miami and Los Angeles dwarf that of San Jose. San Jose kind of bucks the trends - I think having billions and billions of dollars in "sillycon valley" makes that happen?

Or perhaps it's not the fact they're immigrant, but whether or not those immigrants are here legally? After all, illegal immigrants are about 3.4% of the population but they overwhelmingly commit most of the violent and drug crime in the US.

Or perhaps it has to do with the race of those immigrants? You do realize that 61.4% of all immigrants in San Jose are from Asia, and Asians have some of the lowest crime rates. So maybe the fact your immigrant neighbors are here legally, making big money, and from ethnic backgrounds that for whatever reason have a much lower crime rate, you're in a unique spot and cannot being to extrapolate your experience to nationwide - because it is so different than most of the rest of the US?

Some of the skeptics have. Forrest Mims III http://www.mysanantonio.com/li...

From 2011-2012 he was an Expert Reviewer for First and Second Order Drafts of Assessment Report 5 (2013) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

In fact, here in Texas we do this tax abatements and subsidies all the time at the state, county and city levels of government and have successfully attracted some pretty big employers to the area with tens of thousands of jobs. Take a look at Texas' unemployment numbers of you doubt this works, also look at the state's budget surplus if you doubt it is good for the economy.

The problem is, you eventually run out of other people's money to give to corporations.

I live in Texas, too. That budget surplus, though. It has its downside:

http://www.mysanantonio.com/ne...

I don't think you have to worry. Nobody would carjack you when you're wearing your clown costume.

You'd like to THINK so, wouldn't you!

http://www.mysanantonio.com/ne...

Another report about Justice Scalia: Cibolo Creek Ranch owner recalls Scaliaâ(TM)s last hours in Texas.

In Texas they already are. All new highways in Texas will be toll roads. TXDOT is making sweetheart public private partnerships (read fascist) with construction companies like cintra with half century long long land leases and government bailouts for guaranteed profit! People in my area are going to freak out when they receive their flex rate toll bills for all of the new roads they are building.

This is not good, not good at all. This portends ominous things - jetliners disappearing with no reason, countries invading neighboring countries, and the end of times.

This. When the ground temps hover around 40F, the snow melts quite easily. Then the air temps get in the 20's and water refreezes on the road. The ice is much more dangerous than the snow. That's why we close schools, businesses, etc.

And it's not the dusting that we get annually. We can handle that. It's when we get 2-3 inches of precipitation that forms ice on our roads that makes it dangerous. We don't drive with bags of kitty litter in our trunks, or just whip out our chains when it gets dangerous. So we shut down. If its orchestrated well, it's a fun holiday we can all laugh about afterwards (See "The Snow" from San Antonio, 1985. If it's not orchestrated well, well...

We can all complain how people in other regions can't handle unconventional weather - Hurricanes in New York (don't build where it floods), 100F+ temps in the Midwest (install air conditioners), Snow in the deep south (buy more snowplows, chains, salt, sand, etc.) Yes, there are solutions that make the situations tenable. No, the capital investment for an event that happens every xx years isn't worth the financial losses from shutting down the city for the time it takes to deal with the situation.

I must say...it is a perversion of justice, puns not intended.

I may need to write to one of my local reps, Zoe Lofgren who's working to change the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act to make it "less vague" and have her add some other reforms.
Sure, "hacking" for vigilantism is wrong and two wrongs don't make it right, but neither does three: throwing the book at Deric Lostutter.

heck, that guy in texas who killed that escort got less

A very short trip (3 miles) is bad for efficiency because of the warm-up time. If you noticed, the engine has to run continuously for first three minutes or so to bring itself up to the temperature. (There is a thermos bottle for the coolant, and that helps, but still ICE operation is required to warm up the catalytic converter.) These 3 minutes yield usually not more than 25 mpg. Your mileage was improved by longer weekend trips.

In this aspect, an EV is superior if you only need to go a few miles. But this has other issues. If you live that close to work, you probably are renting an apartment. Parking at such places has no chargers, and you get one car per apartment. If your weekly commute is short, you aren't burning much gas in the first place, so your savings on fuel are tiny.

This is actually another EV dilemma. If you drive only around the town, with 5-10 miles round trip, you won't save much fuel this way. To realize savings you need to drive a lot. But EVs are not ideal for long distance driving, and that would wear their batteries faster (I guess.) So an EV is not cost-effective if you live in an apartment in the city. The same EV is not time-efficient if you are a farmer who drives 30 miles to the grocery store. EVs have to target suburban families who can own a charger, who can have more than one car, and who have to drive a certain and well predictable distance every day. For Leaf, that distance cannot be more than 30 miles (Leaf's range drops down to 50 miles after a year of use. Even new cars are not that great, per reports of owners.) For Tesla S it could be 100-150 miles. Driving less than that just pushes the break even date into farther future. If the battery dies from old age (10+ years?) then you never break even.

The problem is there is already a monkeywrench in it. Pretty much nothing has gotten done since 2010. They can't even agree on frigging lower court justices. Another four years like this and our entire federal Judicial system is liable to break down. And that's just one example.

If that's really what you want, then the sensible thing to do is vote for Obama and otherwise straight Republican. As long as they have at least 40 senate seats, and/or between 50 and 66% of the House (majority, but not enough to override vetoes) you'll be happy.

Gridlock 2012!

Tell a meth head they're only getting 50 cents for meth instead of 50 bucks for meth a couple times, they'll figure out that using a magnet might be a good idea.

Any activity that consumes significant time, yet doesn't pay enough money to support a drug habit, is tantamount to "rehab".

I've never heard in 20 years of an outage being caused by buried cable being dug up by thieves.

http://www.nbcchicago.com/traffic/transit/Copper-Wire-Thefts-Interupt-South-Shore-Commuter-Rail-Line-106797133.html

http://www.thenational.ae/news/uae-news/cables-stolen-from-dubai-electricity-authority-court-hears

http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local_news/article/Copper-theft-suspects-free-on-bond-627116.php

This isn't rocket science. It is offered, I don't like it, I don't watch it. It's not like it's the ONLY thing on. Not even the most prominent.

The ratings at the moment are a bit screwy because of the holidays, but...
http://www.nielsen.com/us/en/insights/top10s/television.html
Top 10 broadcast shows:
Football, football, 60 minutes, football, NCIS, Criminal Minds, New Year's Rockin Eve, Big Bang Theory, CSI, NCIS.

Sports, news, and scripted shows. Been that way for decades.

Here's a random list from a couple weeks earlier. Very little in the way of reality shows.

Like anything else, the noisy stuff gets attention. Shows like Jersey Shore get a lot of press but no one realizes that the majority of people are quietly watching sitcoms and dramas.

It's not that hard to find a balance between security and usability. At least try. When I read about:

    * un-encrypted data on portable devices getting lost[1]
    * tapes being swiped in people's cars[2]
    * servers with egregiously unsecured login portals[3]

I'm not sure why people aren't just allowing google to index their entire infrastructure. Really. It would be cheap backup and really easy to find your stuff. Sure, 0-days happen, mistakes are made, admins are not infallible but I can't blame the Chinese (or whoever) for picking the low-hanging fruit when it's been places so close to the ground.

[1] - http://www.phiprivacy.net/?p=6572
[2] - http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/military/article/Tricare-patient-data-lost-in-car-burglary-2195822.php
[3] - www.dataprotectioncenter.com/antivirus/sophos/second-dutch-security-firm-hacked-unsecured-phpmyadmin-implicated/

That hasn't been true for over a year.

Yes, things really are that bad there. I'm surprised how many Americans (to whom it should be a matter of much more immediate concern than, say, Iraq or Afghanistan) don't know better.

You are either with us or against us

Correct me if I'm wrong but I think he was talking about terrorist as "terrorist" is commonly defined. I.e.: not U.S. citizens in some conspiratorial manner defined by enemies of the U.S..

Maybe he was talking about Iran who 'smuggled arms' to Hezbollah on ambulances so they can randomly attack civilians in Palestine (no? Ask any remaining Fatah) and Israel. You know the nice guys who "made numerous statements calling for the destruction of Israel". . A real partner in peace. More likely than not he was talking about these types of guys, not people pissing off the RIAA as is the commonly held belief.

Our new president does not allow for your litigious mind to try and infer hidden meanings in his words.. He makes clear who his enemies are so there can be no “redefining” of the words. The man did say he would bring transparency to government.

“We're gonna punish our enemies[Conservatives] and we're gonna reward our friends[Progressives] who stand with us on the issues that are important to us.” -Obama

I added the square brackets so lazy people would not need to read the context of the link.

If this goes through, whatever you do, please don't preach to the rest of the world about freedom.

What exactly does freedom have to do with releasing state secrets? It's never good to reveal the content of diplomatic communications, especially without any specific reason for doing so. Releasing the private communications means less diplomacy, and without making you think too hard, please tell me what happens when diplomacy fails!

So great job, we've now discovered though the release of these documents... well nothing really that we didn't already assume. We spy on our enemies at the U.N.? Well I should hope so! China is pissed at DPRK? Big surprise! Iran is fucking evil, who knew! And the cost? We have soured diplomacy as we know it and can use it less to prevent bloodshed! I don't care how much less we can use it, the fact stands that diplomacy as an enterprise to prevent bloodshed has been damaged and for what? So wiki leaks can have their name in the paper? Where is the crime that was being exposed by leaking these documents?

So all you Monday morning quarterbacks who are trumpeting the release of these documents, don't forget that now we will move to war that much faster because diplomacy has been dealt a blow by your so-called "right to see state secrets".

Stories like this warm my heart and give me confidence that there is still justice in the universe:

http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/state/Man_electrocuted_in_copper_wire_theft.html

http://www.kens5.com/news/Man-loses-arms-and-legs-in-copper-theft-83398667.html

Even if a copper wire thief isn't killed, if they are caught this should be their punishment anyway. Strip the insulation off of a 100ft extension cord, wrap them in it from head to toe, remove the magnetic breaker and shove some bus wire in its place, plug the cord in, and watch that fucker light up like some Christmas lights from hell.

Citation

http://www.mysanantonio.com/business/local/kci_working_to_contain_employee_data_breach_102106769.html

In another comment, natehoy pointed out another article that finds this has nothing to do with the nutritional policy:

http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/education/Candy_is_dandy__but_not_at_school_3rd-grader_learns.html

A week in detention is a really harsh punishment for a single offense, but it has nothing to do with the nutrition law. The ban on hard candies and gum is due to the expense of cleaning it up from the carpets and furniture, which makes sense. Kids are messy and it is a royal pain in the ass to clean up hard candy and gum from furniture and carpet. Although, why don't they have easier to clean floors and tables in the freaking cafeteria for a grade school?

The small school district... bans gum and candy because, [superintendent] Ellis said, “It creates a mess. It's all over your furniture and your floors.”

Later he said,

If we had a kid whose mom slipped a couple of candy kisses in their lunch, we don't mess with that. It's basically the hard candy and gum that we don't want. Hard candy, when dropped, it's the messiest to clean up.

The girl was punished for having candy that was known to cause damage to the school's property. A week in detention (no recess all day) for accepting a piece of candy as a gift from a friend. She didn't eat it or drop it. Sad.

The small school district, which has three campuses in Orchard and Wallis, bans gum and candy because, [Superintendent] Ellis said, “It creates a mess. It's all over your furniture and your floors.”

from http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/education/Candy_is_dandy__but_not_at_school_3rd-grader_learns.html

To Jack Ellis, superintendent of Brazos Independent School District, the story is simple: The district prohibits students from having candy and gum on campus, and the third-graders broke the rules. Ellis defended Principal Jeanne Young's decision to give the girls five days of detention, which they served during recess and lunch.

from http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/education/Candy_is_dandy__but_not_at_school_3rd-grader_learns.html

Much more enlightening than the coverage provided was a story in a local newspaper. They (gasp!) actually took the time to talk to the school officials involved and determine why such a ban exists, and why the punishment was so harsh. Heavens! It's almost like they engaged in, dare I say it, journalism! What's really telling is that it was on about page 7 of the Google search results list, well after all the blogs and screaming and angst over this injustice.

http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/education/Candy_is_dandy__but_not_at_school_3rd-grader_learns.html

Candy was not banned at the school because of a "nutritional" requirement, certain types of candy were banned because the kids were making a mess with them, and it was getting expensive to have to keep cleaning it up. Personally, I'd make any kid caught making a mess with candy give up a week or two of recess and spend time helping to clean the school. Or send their parents the janitor's bill for a day and let them enforce the problem with their little darlings. But a ban is probably an easier, if less fair, way to deal with the minority who were making a mess.

This still might be an overly harsh punishment for an action that doesn't even deserve punishment, but the real reason is far more interesting than the knee-jerk sells-newspapers coverage I've seen everywhere else.

Is it really an extra expense to have Bob the janitor clean up gum and ju-ju-bees in addition to scrubbing the toilets and cleaning up vomit? I wouldn't think they'd need to hire contract cleaners for gum and taffy.Sensational journalism or not, it sounds like the staff is blaming everything but themselves when they got called out on a stupid maneuver. They should be ashamed of themselves for making a little girl cry because she had a friggin jolly rancher. She's ten years old for Jebus' sake.

Amber Brazda, the mother of 10-year-old Leighann Adair, said her daughter came home from Brazos Elementary School in tears Monday after getting punished for having a Jolly Rancher at lunch. The friend who gave her the hard candy also got in trouble.

To Jack Ellis, superintendent of Brazos Independent School District, the story is simple: The district prohibits students from having candy and gum on campus, and the third-graders broke the rules. Ellis defended Principal Jeanne Young's decision to give the girls five days of detention, which they served during recess and lunch.

from http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/education/Candy_is_dandy__but_not_at_school_3rd-grader_learns.html

Your rant is misplaced.

When did the Jolly Ranchers become illegal and subject to be excluded from school?

Ever since they had the potential to be a god damned mess in school.

It has nothing to do with nutrition, it has to do with the fact that a wet jolly rancher is a bitch to clean up. Same with gum.

This is what's seriously wrong with our society today, no one wants to deal with nuance or a deeper story.

Parents like you are why highly experienced well trained teachers leave the profession and public schools struggle to find decent replacements.

Parents threatening financial and personal ruin on teachers do not encourage 21 year olds to take up this profession, and drive existing teachers out of schools fearing for their own safety. Let's face it, you don't go into teaching to make millions and retire early. You do it because you believe its a great thing to do, you do it for the love of it. Parents threatening violence and abuse will turn such people away from this career and then what are you, the parent, left with?

Now a parent who comes in to have a sensible debate with the principal, and argue that the punishment being set out is too high in a measured voice, open to listening to the principal's point of view and constructively discussing how the school could improve its policies, well those are the kind of parents teachers love to meet. These are the parents schools are desperate to encourage on to their boards of governors. Doesn't sound like you're one of them though.

The only liars are the newspapers for not telling the whole story.

http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/education/Candy_is_dandy__but_not_at_school_3rd-grader_learns.html

Candy was not banned at the school because of a "nutritional" requirement, certain types of candy (gum, hard candy, etc) were banned because the kids were continually making a mess with them.

http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/education/Candy_is_dandy__but_not_at_school_3rd-grader_learns.html

Candy was not banned at the school because of a "nutritional" requirement, certain types of candy were banned because the kids were making a mess with them. Oh, and by the way, the friend was also punished with the same detention.

No, the newspaper that was chosen for the summary misrepresented the issue, probably to sell more ad space. The candy was not banned at all due to a state guideline. Certain types of candy (gum and Jolly Ranchers among them) were banned because the kids were making a mess with them. It was probably that or go to the taxpayers for overtime for the janitors. And we all know how well asking for money goes over in the current economic environment.

http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/education/Candy_is_dandy__but_not_at_school_3rd-grader_learns.html

The actual news story is far less interesting than making this out to be a nazi plot against our chilluns so more people will indignantly read the story and view ads, I know, but when you have to go 6 pages on a Google search to get to the first local coverage of the event (you know, people who have reporters who can go and talk to people)...

The real story will never catch up with the lie that sells more papers.

Much more enlightening than the coverage provided was a story in a local newspaper. They (gasp!) actually took the time to talk to the school officials involved and determine why such a ban exists, and why the punishment was so harsh. Heavens! It's almost like they engaged in, dare I say it, journalism! What's really telling is that it was on about page 7 of the Google search results list, well after all the blogs and screaming and angst over this injustice.

http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/education/Candy_is_dandy__but_not_at_school_3rd-grader_learns.html

Candy was not banned at the school because of a "nutritional" requirement, certain types of candy were banned because the kids were making a mess with them, and it was getting expensive to have to keep cleaning it up. Personally, I'd make any kid caught making a mess with candy give up a week or two of recess and spend time helping to clean the school. Or send their parents the janitor's bill for a day and let them enforce the problem with their little darlings. But a ban is probably an easier, if less fair, way to deal with the minority who were making a mess.

This still might be an overly harsh punishment for an action that doesn't even deserve punishment, but the real reason is far more interesting than the knee-jerk sells-newspapers coverage I've seen everywhere else.

After local newspapers wrote self-described wolf woman severed a lost dog's head, a US-based human flesh search engine posted IM logs, IRC logs, and phone calls with the suspects about the incident along with the suspects' personal information.

As a bicyclist (and driver. Remember that- most of us who ride our bikes ALSO DRIVE), I find it very difficult to sympathize with your viewpoint.

When is the last time you read, "motorist killed by bicyclist"? Bicyclists always lose in car-vs-bicyclist.

Now, look at the face of cyclist road deaths: Kylie Bruehler, orphaned when both her parents were struck by a truck. Go on, LOOK, Mr. Self Righteous. Look at the face of a 7 year old girl as she buries her parents. Look at her grandfather walk down the line of hundreds of cyclists who showed up to honor them.

Do you know what usually happens when a motorist kills a cyclist? Absolutely nothing- and this case is not the exception but the rule. Time and time again the cyclist community fumes when another person is struck simply because the driver wasn't paying attention to where they were going, the police call it a "terrible accident", and the driver walks off without so much as a manslaughter charge.

I'm glad you used sound reasoning and solid argumentation and did not resort to baser things like guilt-trips and emotional appeals. Well done, sir.

As a bicyclist (and driver. Remember that- most of us who ride our bikes ALSO DRIVE), I find it very difficult to sympathize with your viewpoint.

When is the last time you read, "motorist killed by bicyclist"? Bicyclists always lose in car-vs-bicyclist.

Now, look at the face of cyclist road deaths: Kylie Bruehler, orphaned when both her parents were struck by a truck. Go on, LOOK, Mr. Self Righteous. Look at the face of a 7 year old girl as she buries her parents. Look at her grandfather walk down the line of hundreds of cyclists who showed up to honor them.

Do you know what usually happens when a motorist kills a cyclist? Absolutely nothing- and this case is not the exception but the rule. Time and time again the cyclist community fumes when another person is struck simply because the driver wasn't paying attention to where they were going, the police call it a "terrible accident", and the driver walks off without so much as a manslaughter charge.

It appears the charges have already been dropped.

http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/64444412.html

The state's asset seizure law doesn't require that law enforcement agencies file criminal charges in civil forfeiture cases. It requires only a preponderance of evidence that the property was used in the commission of certain crimes, such as drug crimes, or bought with proceeds of those crimes.

That's a lesser burden than is required in a criminal case. And it allows police departments and prosecutors to divvy up what they get from such seizures - what critics say is a built-in incentive for unscrupulous, underfinanced law enforcement agencies to illegally strip motorists of their property.

I don't know if this is the best, but it certainly is scariest.

How about KCI?

We buy driflo from McKession and then turn around and sell it for $100 a box.

BTW, for all those on V.A.C. machines, after Dec 31, the US San Antonio plant is closing (along with 50 jobs) and now your canisters and dressings will come from Ireland.

Also, the HIPPA protected documents that your HHA and doctor's office send in will no longer go to San Antonio either. Your private health documents will now be transfered to India (along with another 150 jobs) to be veiwed and entered. (Think about what is on those forms ... SS, DOB, Address, wounds, infections, etc.. They now will be going to a different country that is not HIPPA protected - but I'm sure they'll shread the documents when done.)

And for an added bonus, that information, once entered, will be transfered back to the US.

Loss of jobs and a risk of privacy because a 21 % rise in profits was not enough.

http://www.bizjournals.com/sanantonio/stories/2007/09/17/daily22.html?ana=from_rss --- Ireland
http://www.mysanantonio.com/business/stories/MYSA102307.KCI3Q.EN.19b4fea57.html --- Profits

Is anyone else a bit weirded out by the massive incentives the local governments have offered. I know this is nothing new, and the locals hope that these will spur further high-tech development in the area, but let's examine these cases:

San Antonio (Microsoft): No property taxes for 10 years. A $5.2 mil grant from the CPS Energy economic development fund to pay for the electrical infrastructure to build the site.

South Carolina (Google): No property taxes for 30 years (essentially, for the life of the site). The 150-acre site was granted to them, and the state government has granted about $5 mil, too. Google has been incentivized to the tune of about $100 million.

Some of the structural construction will undoubtedly be done by locals. The technical work of building the data center (installing servers, wiring everything together) is probably outside of a local construction company's expertise. The real bulk of all those hundreds of millions of dollars goes to purchasing the actual computer equipment, none of which is local. A handful of the most-well-educated locals could be employees, but most employees will be transplanted. In less than 10 years, both sites will probably be obsolete (or, worse, axed as excess capacity). As the article on Google's site notes, the obscene incentives equate to "a $500,000 sweetener for each of the 200 jobs Google will create."

For half a million dollars, I'm sure the local economy could get more bang for its buck than just one Google employee. What exactly are these local governments getting in return for their obsequiousness and prostration?

For people who have Morgellons, these boards can hurt, but they are an honest reflection of how people are. I've been reading the message boards for Morgellons for over a year, looking for answers that I could not get from an Infectious Disease doctor and Dermatologist, and found boards to be supportive and helpful. This board is interesting, and people do examine all sides of an issue.

For those who'd like some more information on Morgellons, I'd like to share this brief interview with Dr. Wymore, who is researching the fibers and "scabs" of Morgellons patients. He shares his findings to date, and some thoughts about the patients and their doctors.

http://www.morgellons.org/rwupdate.html

If you cannot listen to the interview, Ever Hopeful's website has photos and a history of Delusions of Parasitosis. It is the DOP concept that seems to be the brick wall in getting doctors to listen or do examinations:

http://www.dpref.com/index.html

From Alabama, an recent article and television clip - Leigh Ann and her family give an interview, please "click" the video if you have a fast connection. It is a behind-the-scenes look into what happens to Morgellons sufferers:

http://www.wkrg.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=WKR G/MGArticle/KRG_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=11378 36251643

From Los Angeles, California - In the news on May 19th, and May 20th, 2006 in the Archive - make sure you watch the clip in the archive and not the shorter "tease" clip. It should include interviews with people in the archived chip - will have to go back several pages to the 20t:

http://cbs2.com/video/?id=18783@kcbs.dayport.com

This story was followed up with Part Two on Monday, May 22nd, featuring an interview with a family who is suffering this disease, as well as a perfect example of the typical smugness experienced with Dermatologists convinced this is DOP, via an interview with a UCLA Dermatologist included in this news segment. In this story, the mother has tested positive for Lyme, and the children have not been tested for Lyme disease because the family could not afford it. Morgellons is very likely a systemic disease, involving the whole body. Not doing any tests and simply declaring this to be a delusion delays treatment.

From Portland, Oregon - May, 2006:

The written article:
http://www.kgw.com/news-local/stories/kgw_051806_n ews_sweeps_strange_sickness_morgellons.53b2569a.ht ml

There is a video clip of an Oregon doctor who caught Morgellons disease who is interviewed, however I only have a tiny url link for it and that is at:

http://lymebusters.proboards39.com/index.cgi?board =rash&action=display&thread=1147886482&page=2

From Texas - May, 2006

The article:
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.a...E_ID =50195

Again, a follow up story in Texas:
http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/metro/stories/MYS A052206.morgellonsfolo.KENS.12913d3a.html

Excerpt quoted: " . . . The story has received tens of thousands of page views on the MySanAntonio.com
The story was how Les Coble of Pleasanton found out he was not alone.

"God, I'm not crazy, there are other people with this,"

Well, Kinky is running as a joke

He's not. Did you not see him on 60 Minutes the other night? He's dead serious about it.

... he has outlined a bizarre plan to protect the border.
 
"You take five Mexican generals and give them a bank account of $1 million each," he said. "Then every time a Mexican national gets caught crossing illegally, you withdraw $5,000 from the general responsible for that sector."

The Door
Careful, not door.com ;)

I'd give it them an 8. Their local, but they cover a pretty decent chunk of Texas and New Mexico.
Upsides:
1. $50/mo gets me 5mbit up AND DOWN via 802.11a.
2. Decent reliability (only 1 significant outage I can remember and it was core router).
3. Pretty low latency (20-70ms to the internet at large).
4. Weather doesn't effect my connection (even the tornado filled storms we get).

Downsides:
1. Tech support. Decent hours, but not 24/7. Relatively useless as well.
2. Owner's a PITA.
3. Install fees were pretty steep when I signed my contract, but they aren't too bad now. Still shows 1mbt/$50 but I'm pretty sure it's 5mbt all around.

/.'s article here is the first I've heard of this Real ID plan...

Well, aside from the obvious fact that since the neo-con coup the network media hasn't covered anything except talking-dubya-points, the reason you haven't noticed this tidbit of legistlation (which apparently started back in Feburary) is because "liberal media" has painted it as an immagration issue - that is: the only people targeted by this legislation according to the to PTB and their media cheerleaders were illegal aliens - I heard it debated on Faux News as an immagration issue a least a month ago. I would have to say either a) you haven't been paying attention, or b) you are foolish enough to a ctually believe the that the motives these pseudo-news agencies put forward are the actual intent of the neo-con coup. Nothing could be further from the truth, of course...

Here is a list of articles about this legislation (trivially found using Google) from some touchy feely immagration rights outfit that no one will pay any attention to.

[ -- copied & pasted -- ]

The REAL ID Act in the Media

• "Jewish Groups Oppose US's Stricter Controls on Asylum," Jerusalem Post, March 9, 2005
• "Death Sentence?" Christianity Today, March 8, 2005
• "Republican Plan Would Tighten Laws for Asylum Cases," Hearst Newspapers, March 6, 2005
• "Keep the Doors Open," The Jewish Week editorial, February 25, 2005
• "Unwelcome Mat," The Boston Globe, February 25, 2005
• "Religious Asylum Assailed," Family News in Focus, February 22, 2005 (PDF - 51KB)
• "Proyecto de ley torpedea el derecho de asilo," El Nuevo Herald, February 22, 2005
• "Conservative camps split on tightening asylum," The Boston Globe, February 21, 2005
• "Not broke, don't fix," The Washington Times, February 20, 2005
• "National ID Party," The Wall Street Journal editorial, February 17, 2005 (subscription required)
• "On Guard, America," The New York Times editorial, February 15, 2005
• "Refugee Politics," The Baltimore Sun editorial, February 14, 2005
• "Real ID Act deserves defeat in the Senate," San Antonio Express-News editorial, February 18, 2005
• "Playing the terror card," Contra Costa Times, February 14, 2005
• "Ineffectual migrant policy," Milwaukee Journal Sentinel editorial

No, it does not. Scroll down to "Minot"

* Handing out laptops to everyone is not the answer -- most of those countries that beat US schools don't have access to current books, let alone laptops.

* The internet will not teach your children -- while it's true there is a fountain of knowledge at your fingertips, there's a ocean full of crap to sift though.

* Stop focussing so much money on organized sports when your school is graduating illiterates.

* Kids using Powerpoint is not the answer. Unless the question is -- How do we raise a nation of Marketing drones!

Here's a good article that describes the extensive security measures taken by the chinese during the retrofitting. For example...

- chinese experts swept the plane for bugs 3 times before the plane left san antonio for beijing
- a 6 foot chain link fence around the plain guarded 24 hours/day by 25 chinese troops
- close supervision of work (i.e. someone looking over your shoulder all the time)
- control of tools and equipment brought on to the plane.

The article ends up suggesting that maybe the chinese did it... after all, 21 chinese airforce people were arrested.

I quit quit my subscription to the local dead-tree print several years ago, when they went online. IMO their website sucks royally (layout is width constrained to 640, looks bad on my 1600SW) but the local news is still there. I might read 10% of the articles posted.

When it comes to national and international news I feel like once I've scanned the wire I've read all the news for the day that I'm likely to hear or read anywhere else in the non-specialized media. It really bothers me that the AP has so much control over the news .. maybe the "Justice" Dept. should go after them after they get done with M$.