George W. Bush, in a speech shortly after 9-11-2001, stated "If you are not with us, then you are with the terrorists". Someone apparently took that statement to heart, becaus ethe anthrax letters that were mailed in October 2001 went to the NYC offices of the liberal press, as well as to the most outspoken Democratic leadership of the US Senate.
The Bush administration's Department of Justice, under the leadership of John Ashcroft, linked copyright violation and violation of the DMCA as acts of terrorism". I am certain that the American people are much relieved that any attempt to circumvent the revenue stream from exploitation of senior citizen Mickey Mouse to the Disney Corporation is considered "terrorism".
"I, for one, do not fear any new outsourced overlords, nor believe that they are coming."
Wrong! Wrong! Wrong!
The original ideas behind NAFTA and globalization were idealistic fatasies, based upon the proverbial "level playing field." When each country in competition for the "globalized economy" has universal health care, superior primary and secondary level education, equal access to collegiate education, uniform standards for the workplace and working hours, and a pension system that will actually take care of retired workers, let me know so I can unfurl my umbrella -- because pigs can fly.
It is really a moot point whether "Johnny can to program (or not)". The real questions are whether the job he takes will pay a living wage sufficient to pay off his student loan debt, if he will not be offshore (or worse, onshore) outsourced by cheaper labor before he can successfully switch careers, or whether his employer will screw around with his health/pension/retirement plan in a way that jeopardises his future.
401K plans routinely become subordinated by the company's "wider interestes", and have been used to fund those offshore outsource job replacements (been there, done that). Pension plans have been raided by companies merely to continue to post improved earnings, as well as to prop up a corporate financial "plan" that is both morally and financially bankrupt. Employee stock purchase plans have been used to steal from employees just prior to bankruptcy. Health plans are switched between providers for the lowest possible cost, regardless of the financial stability of those providers. Proportedly non-profit HMO's succeed in providing their corporate officers with fat salaries and bonuses and golden parachutes, all while denying needed medical services to their "customers/patients".
Company loyalty up the ranks is expected, along with long hours and abysmal working conditions, while there is absolutely no company loyalty down the ranks to the wage-serfs, who can be fired or replaced with cheaper (even illegal) labor whenever those quarterly profit numbers need to be goosed. The modern trend toward pure corporate capitalism does not do justice to the serf-overlord relationship of the Middle Ages. And it will burn out in a brilliant flash which will leave economies in ruins, if only because it is based upon "eating next year's seed stock".
George W. Bush is a conservative in the same way that Osama bin Laden, Adolf Hitler, and Joseph Stalin could be considered "conservative".
(1) religious "fundamentalist" == YES (2) consolidation of power ======= YES (3) neutralized the opposition === YES (4) employed massive propaganda == YES (5) military force for hegenomy == YES
However, the RealID Act was tacked onto the military spending bill by conservative GOP members of the House of Representatives in revolt against the wishes (and goals) of President Bush. George W. Bush favors aiding and abetting illegal immigration because of (a) personal reasons (like blackmail), (b) cheaper wage-slaves for his corporate interests, and (c) larger block of GOP voters (legal or not). When fully enacted, this law will put the cabosh on his amnesty plans, including his plan to further bankrupt SS by furnishing SS pensions to illegal aliens.
Most everyone on slashdot has been "pissing and moaning" about identity theft, slack enforcement, and minimal sentencing (compared to the impact on victims). The RealID Act goes a long way toward "patching the cracks" that makes identity theft so easy. One cannot help but wonder just how many "ardent" opponents of this legislation are actually in the USA illegally.
The number of illegal aliens in the USA has been estimated at up to about 28 million, although the "politically correct" (and government approved) number is more like 12 million. The government has little clue as to how many are here illegally, let alone just who, exactly, they might really be. George W. Bush's idea of "sealing the borders" is to spend big money on sophisticated hardware instead of "boots on the ground". Counting illegal aliens crossing the borders is not, in any way shape or fashion, the same as interdicting them. And the woefully inadequate funding for US Border Patrol agents is only matched by the woefully inadequate funding for detention facilities. The INS has adopted a technique first used by eco-friendly sport fishermen, called "catch and release". Those illegal aliens caught simply disappear into the woodwork, never intending to show up for their immigration court hearings. The way these illegal aliens blend into American society is with the use of false documents, including SSNs and DLs.
The RealID Act might seem a bit draconian, until the context of a 28 million illegal alien invasion is factored into the post-9-11-2001 reality. What the government "should" be doing is rounding up all those illegal aliens, and deporting them (, instead of planning to grant a blanket amnesty).
Illegal aliens have already broken the law by entering this country illegally, and the use of fraudulent documentation breaks additional laws. Just how many laws should the US government allow to be broken before deciding that these people are criminals, should be punished, and then deported?
"If that sort of argument can win an election, it sounds like the people got the quality of representation they deserve."
Thanks a lot. You are, of course, presuming that the 2004 national election was any less "rigged" than the 2000 national election.
The 2000 national election was stolen by the GOP by disenfranchising voters in Florida based upon fraudulent lists of felons unqualified to vote, a quirky (and illegal) Florida election law that prohibited a state-wide ballot recount, and a Supreme Court packed by the Reagan/Bush_41 regimes.
The 2004 national election was stolen by the GOP by disenfranchising voters in Florida (again), as well as Ohio and other states, and the widespread use of fraudulent electronic voting machines that could be easily tampered with, and had no paper trail, voting machines built by GOP supporters for winning GOP "majorities".
Both the House of Representatives and the Senate long ago stopped paying much attention to the average "Joe Sixpack" constituent, in favor of the vested corporate interests that pay for their reelection campaigns. Every attempt to clean up campaign finances has been torpedoed by clauses and exemptions added in that corporations can drive a proverbial "tractor tailer full of cash" through. And, of course, funding for oversight, regulation, and enforcement of election laws have been simultaneously slashed.
National elections in the USA will not be kosher again until we switch back to the old fashioned, hand counted paper ballot. (Presuming, of course, that the USA actually ever holds national elections again -- I have my doubts.)
"Congressional democrat opposition has been, since then, dead."
Wrong^H^H^H^H^H!
The anthrax letters that were mailed out specifially to the NY liberal press and the US Senate's "loyal opposition" in October 2001 sent the intended message to the intended audience. And they did "get the message" at that time.
The DNA of the mailed anthrax was identical to the Ames variety stored at the US Army's biological warfare facility at Ft. Dettrick, MD. It has been very nearly four full years later, and George W. Bush's Justice Department is no closer to solving this case of domestic bioterrorism.
Since that time, other really nasty "bugs" have been shipped out across the world from USA facilities, as well as the announcement of successful Federal research into super-lethal mouse pox. Nothing quite like waving a "big stick" to keep the attention of that "donkey".
The problem with pure-hydrogen cars is that the hydrogen can only be generated efficiently by either nuclear power plant electolysis of H2O, or by stripping hydrogen from petroleum. In the first instance, neither government nor industry has calculated the true long term costs associated with nuclear waste disposal -- they cannot because no one can reliably calculate cost projections 100,000 years into the future. The second source still ploaces undue reliance upon a non-renewable resource largely found in the most politically unstable region of the world.
Pure-electric cars require either a very long extension cord, or else some form of battery pack to store the electricity locally (, unless you are proposing the use of a light-rail type power distribution system.) Battery packs do "wear" out, and then require replacement (and recycling costs), not unlike the situation with hybrid autos today.
Personally, I would prefer to see the advent of fixed RPM bio-diesel/electric hybrid autos. The problem of increased NO emmissions due to the higher compression ratio of diesel can be partially mitigated by the use of bio-diesel fuel, as well as use of a computer controlled emmissions system tuned to the narrow power band of diesel (such as 1800 RPM for syncronous 3 phase 60 Hertz AC generator). Automobiles were designed for autonomy -- which an auto based upon renewable energy and hybrid diesel/electric operation would continue to provide. At least until such time as autos based upon cold fusion, bio-mass converters, and flux capacitors become the norm (eg. the "Back To The Future"
DiLorean).
I have been looking for evidence of any auto
manufacturers that are (or will be) building diesel/electric hybrid vehicles, without luck.
Yet it would seem to me that such technology might provide the solution to the SUV/LT problem. I know I would happily settle for an SUV or LT (4 wheel drive) that I could run on anything from ExxonMobil Diesel to bio-diesel (B100?) to plugging into a photovoltaic array (for short hauls).
This is a better solution (bio-diesel) for air quality, for energy independence from OPEC, and spur new business for American farmers than the "hydrogen" economy that will still rely upon either petroleum or nuclear power as its source.
Diesel engines generally have a somewhat narrower power band than gasoline engines, requiring either more gears or more displacement to compete. This gives diesel an advantage when tuned for a specific narrow RPM range, such as for driving a generator. 1800 (or 3600 RPM) is the "sweet spot" for a multi- phase 60 Hertz AC generator. Four wheel electric drive (with dynamic braking) coupled to a diesel powerplant has the potential for very good fuel economy. Such a design might also provide "household" electric power when out in the field (like construction sites or when camping).
So, the question is "Where do the major auto
manufacturers stand on diesel/electric hybrids?"
But the Real ID Act does not target only illegal aliens (which is IMHO justification enough for this bill to pass). Forcing a common standard across the USA for what is considered to be a primary form of identification (DL), this act also offers some relief from the explosion of identity theft that has occurred in this country.
Only a "politically correct" anarchist cannot find some correlation between the increase in identity theft and the increase in the number of illegal aliens that have entered this country. Nor the relationship between increased street gang activity (like MS-13) and the invasion of illegal aliens.
The mantra of "more cheaper labor" had been justification for slavery in the South 150 years ago, and today it is being used for "global competition". Historically, the jobs of migrant workers on farms and ranches was used as the rationale for using immigrant labor. Today's illegal alien may still be working on those farms, but they are also working as TSA screeners, hospital workers, construction workers, school teachers, and more. They are among the contract workers on US military installations (San Diego Naval Base, for one) and our nuclear power plants.
Employers that hire illegal aliens are getting a free ride from the rest of the USA's taxpayers. The public school systems, hospitals and medical centers, fire and police services, and the "social safety net" of government are all being strained by the influx of illegal aliens, most of whom either do not pay taxes, or their taxes are "misappropriated" by those same employers. These employers are breaking the law themselves, but there seems to be very little political "will" to enforce prosecution.
I am all for a regulated flow of legal migration into the USA, but the invasion of illegal aliens has to be stopped. I call it an invasion because there is no way that the government can know just how many of the illegal aliens that cross our borders are (1) agents of a foreign military power, (2) terrorists, (3) violent criminals, or (4) carrying communicable diseases. Meanwhile, legal immigrants may wait for many years for the opportunity to become USA citizens. They are being penalized for the invasion of illegal aliens that has not been discouraged (and even encouraged) by our politicians -- that goes all the way up to the President of the USA. Dubya has a plan for the "crisis" in Social Security reform that includes SS pensions for illegal aliens -- it's called the "Realization Plan". It's real (Google for it), and it will bankrupt the USA's "social safety net". Just like the unfunded mandate of "No Child Left Behind", and the GOP-imposed "Medicare Prescription Plan" (which I like to call the "Drug Company Welfare Act".)
The Real ID Act, by imposing a uniform standard for drivers licenses, will help to expose just how serious the illegal alien situation is in the USA. The first step in fixing a problem is knowing just how bad that problem is. A side benefit will be that it will be just that much more difficult for the criminal acts of identity theft.
Anyone involved in matrix math (circuit design, mechanical engineering, fluid dynamics, etcetera) would love to be able to do this on their desktop instead of shared time on an HPC. Or combine the computational power of an office full of these machines at night or over weekends for the really big jobs. What's not to like?
Any scientific organization that has been holding off on capital expeditures while waiting for a clear winner to emerge ((AMD vs. Intel) vs. (PPC vs. SPARC)) will have come that much closer to making a decision.
Intel's IA64 gambit has not panned out -- their marketing hype has brought down some of their competition (PA-RISC and MIPS), but it has not proven to be the market leader Intel would have hoped. But like a wildfire in the woods, Intel's IA64 has opened up competition for diversity and some new leadership.
Well, what makes you think that you Brits take the prize for citizen apathy, anyway?
I'm an American, and I take umbrage with your obviously false presumption that Brits make more apathetic citizens. We switched from a dope- smoking "centerist" Democratic president that perpetrated the Waco, TX massacre of men, women, and children, traded away American jobs for Mexican government stability (NAFTA), and got caught with his zipper down, to a former coke- toting born again "compassionate conservative" Nazi trying to turn the USA into an old-Europe- style feudal society, who stole two elections by hook-or-crook, and parleyed an ignored terrorist threat into his own worldwide reign of oil war terror.
Actually, you might feel reassured to find out
that Washington, DC (USA) already uses remote
microphones in order to triangulate on loud
noises such as gunfire.
Of course, guns are completely illegal in the USA's capitol city unless you are a member of the police, a Federal law enforcement agency, or the iconic minority father of a law-breaking FBI agent son.
The muggers, car-jackers, and violent street gangs of Washington, DC don't pay any attention to those
particular laws anyway, so they don't count.
It may be straight out of the pages of "1984", but so is the plethora of video cameras monitoring the comings and goings of the people. Still doesn't seem to have made much impact on street crime, but I guess it's really good for monitoring which politician is doing whatever to whomever. Just like London, you say?
This doesn't directly address the original topic of the "Real ID" amendment that was tacked onto the military funding bill. The real questions that this issue exposes are "Does the Federal government have the right to set the standard for what documentation is required for a driver's license?" Along with "Does the Federal government have an obligation to safeguard our national boundaries?" And "Does the Federal government have the right to determine (through legislation) quotas and restrictions on the number of immigrants that enter the USA?"
Insofar as the various states use their driver's licenses as a form of identification that (they would hope) is honored by the other states, the Federal government does have the right to establish a common standard for the issuance of that license. Without such a standard, the only alternative would be the requirement for a separate National ID card. Such a policy would portent the possibility that one state's driver's license might not be accepted in another state for driving there, which opens a big can of worms regarding interstate commerce. The FAA certainly has the right to know, through appropriate documentation, exactly who is getting onto commercial aircraft that they are responsible for.
Every national government, the USA included, has not only the right to control its borders, but also an obligation and responsibility to do so. A basic tenent of any organized government is the definition and delineation of its borders, if it is to continue to exist. There is also, albeit largely unwritten, a basic contract between a government and its people to provide for their safety (if not their welfare). A government, therefore, has the duty to screen visitors entering their domain, with the explicit right to exclude those that it deems unsuitable (foreign military, criminals, terrorists, or even persons with dangerous communicable diseases).
The Federal government long ago established procedures, quotas, and standards (including health) for persons immigrating to this country. It has been codified into law. From time to time that law has been changed in order to reflect changing conditions (health issues, housing, and jobs( that effect the general welfare of its citizens. This is as much a right of the Federal government as its right (and obligation) to control the borders.
The current situation (IMHO) is completely out of control. Not only does the Federal government not take full responsibility for the control of our borders, but also burdens the states with unfunded/underfunded mandates as to how the local governments are obliged to take care of illegal immigrants. All of the border states have seen a drastic increase in communicable diseases, as well as their public health systems being driven into bankruptcy. Our public school systems are under Federal pressure (through education funding, including "No Child Left Behind") to provide an education to illegal immigrants whose numbers are largely unknown. Illegal immigrants caught in criminal acts, then tried, convicted, punished, and deported keep slipping across our borders for further mischief, sometimes with the help of their governments. (They don't want them there, either.) Our politicians have ressurrected that old saw from the pre-Civil War South that our economy needs more cheaper labor to keep the economy going. Then it was slavery -- today it's "undocumented immigrant labor". Today's employers that make use of such labor are being subsidized by the rest of the country's taxpayers.
If the current regime in power is either unwilling or unable to find the funding to secure our borders, place some controls on immigration, and actually enforce current laws against employers hiring illegal aliens, they certainly have no business engaging in "optional" preemptive military actions halfway around the globe. There is no good reason for this government to institute draconian measures against their own citizens while granting a "free pass" to everyon
Just like the FDA is an independent agency. The last time I checked, it was the Executive Branch that selected appointees to the management positions. And considering the current "rubber stamp" state of the Congress, the only truly "independent" division of government is the Judicial Branch, and that is quickly eroding into yet another "political plum" for the current regime in power.
At the current rate of Executive Branch dominance over all branches of the US government, by the time 2008 rolls around, national elections could get cancelled (like the FEC's "trial balloon" in 2004), and the USA will have King George I, and a very British looking (albeit more subserviant) Parliment to contend with.
The term is either "Reverse Evolution" or "Devolution", of which I prefer the latter. Considering the "devolving" state of American democracy these days, we will have apples that fall up. Reversed word meanings have already gotten out of hand. We currently have "compassionate conservative" (also an oxymoron), "neo-conservative" (not new or conservative), "imminent danger" from Iraqi WMD, "fiscal responsibility" ('nuff said), and a SS "crisis" (only in the sense that neo-cons abhor it). Next, no doubt, the Department of Defense will be renamed to the Department of Peace.
Welcome to "1984", which is only 20 years late because RM Nixon lost the 1960 Presidential election, and Goldwater didn't "make the cut" in 1964.
I used to wonder about what would drive people to built a ferro-cement boat, considering the surface area/bouyancy required for the weight of it's construction. This advancement in materials science makes a smaller (less ark-like) concrete boat a viable alternative.
I no longer have any excuse for not building a concrete catamaran, in spite of being nearly 1000 feet above sea-level. No need to wait for that Canary Islands tsunami for it's launch.
Correction: "The USA is turning into a technological backwater because the regime in power would rather focus on their monopolist corporate contributors' profits instead of leveling the high tech "playing field" through uniform improvements to infrastructure and access."
The biggest problem with commercial video card manufacturers is their reluctance to (1) either provide full programming details, or (2) open source their drivers. By hiding details behind NDA agreements and/or restrictive licensing of their SDKs, they hope to conceal how they have "gamed" the benchmark suites, as well as to limit their competition. Problems arise when commecial vendors release a binary driver intended for a specific OS version, and are slow to adapt drivers in a fast moving software environment. Providing stellar support for only one OS (eg. Windows) will limit their product's acceptance in the marketplace. This trend will only accelerate as F/OSS adoption increases world-wide. Market pressures would be inclinded to dictate whether a commercial hardware vendor finally adopts the open source paradgm, but that progress is far too slow.
A digital divide is about to be crossed, with the advent of an increasing number of either (1) open source hardware, or (2) open source drivers for commercial hardware. Projects such as this must exist in order to help level the playing field between closed commercial OSes and F/OSS OSes like linux or bsd. Personally, I like the idea of having hardware that I can customize (if needed), rather than the other extreme of DRM-enabled (MSFT "Palladium") hardware that restricts my rights as a hardware (and software) owner.
The NYT can charge whatever they like for their news, either in print or digitally. That's what free markets are all about. If enough customers raise a stink about the subscription price, they will go elsewhere.
But, if the NYT wants to use digital news (and news archives) as a revenue stream, they will need to (eventually) digitalize their entire news archives, not just for the previous year. At that point, even I would consider subscribing (and I am a tight-wad.)
Old saying: "Keep you're friends close, and you're enemies closer". (Sorry, origin unknown.) The best way MSFT has to "poison the well" of any new document standard that might encroach upon their monopolistic business plan is from the inside. How better to nudge the standards one way or another in a manner that guarantees ither non-adoption or adopting "the MSFT way"? (Remember how MSFT dealt with OpenGL, Java, and Kerberos?)
MSFT has "embraced" XML as a standard, and then wrapped it in an encrypted binary encapsulation. The "extended" standard is then protected by DMCA and IP, with "open" licensing encumbered with NDA and SDK/source distribution limitations. "Their" XML format may be "opened" by other programs, but not "saved" by those other programs. This helps to preserve their monopoly status, as well as providing any/all proof needed (by the EU) that MSFT will not play fair, and must be punished.
Toshiba has basically held up three fingers, and told NSA/DoD/DHS to "read between the lines".
The USA's Dept. of Commerce is going to have a much tougher time helping US-based companies to compete in the world market if this techology becomes mainstream.
Shortly after 9-11-2001, Dubya was quoted as saying "If you aren't with us, you are with the terrorists." This world view has been applied to the liberal press and opposition politicians (anthrax letters), as well as the American people (USA Patriot Act(I)). The Bush administration equates violations of the DMCA as "acts of terrorism" as well.
Between trade conflicts over soft wood products and beef cattle imports, Canada is on the "short list" to join the "axis of evil". Or to quote a more liberal Republican president with an accidentally "live" microphone, "Bombing starts in 15 minutes."
I sincerely hope our neighbors to the north have "dug in", because I suspect things are going to get dicey there this summer. (Canada DOES have oil, after all.)
Okay, since this data, too, "wants" to be free, how about posting links to the CVS / rsync / snapshot.bz2 / BitTorrent / ftp site for downloading the database? "I'm okay to go..."
MSFT, Fannie-Mae, and many other public corporations are now (finally) under the onus of section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. They can no longer "smooth out" the squiggles on their profit line charts that reflect the true nature of business -- now the corporate officers must certify both the internal financial accounting process AND the quarterly results posted with the SEC.
Juggling the numbers to keep the shareholders numbly ignorant is now a criminal act that the corporate officers are responsible for. Accounting mechanisms for pushing/pulling income spikes and sags into another quarterly report are no longer tolerated.
Any company with large corporate and government customers is bound to have variations in their accounts receivables, some of which will break the rising tide of their profit line charts. There (usually) isn't anything really wrong with these corporations. It's just that the accounting equivalent of cosmetic botox injections are no longer allowed. If this drives shareholders into the mentality of a longer term financial view, like 1, 3, and 5 year outlooks, it would not be a bad thing for the economy as a whole. It will, however, suck rotten eggs for all the corporate officers whose bonuses and incentives are tied to their quarterly results. I will weep giant crocodile tears for them -- NOT!
I've been running 64-bit dual CPU systems since 1999 (UltraSPARC & MIPS), and these boxen were dredged up and rescued/repaired from the rubbish tip. Perhaps MSFT was reluctant to be seen installing their gold plated crud on SUN hardware. Sure seems like a huge step backwards to remove Solaris 10 to install Windoze.
Slashdot Mirror
George W. Bush, in a speech shortly after 9-11-2001, stated "If you are not with us, then you are with the terrorists". Someone apparently took that statement to heart, becaus ethe anthrax letters that were mailed in October 2001 went to the NYC offices of the liberal press, as well as to the most outspoken Democratic leadership of the US Senate.
The Bush administration's Department of Justice, under the leadership of John Ashcroft, linked copyright violation and violation of the DMCA as acts of terrorism". I am certain that the American people are much relieved that any attempt to circumvent the revenue stream from exploitation of senior citizen Mickey Mouse to the Disney Corporation is considered "terrorism".
"I, for one, do not fear any new outsourced overlords, nor believe that they are coming."
Wrong! Wrong! Wrong!
The original ideas behind NAFTA and globalization were idealistic fatasies, based upon the proverbial "level playing field." When each country in competition for the "globalized economy" has universal health care, superior primary and secondary level education, equal access to collegiate education, uniform standards for the workplace and working hours, and a pension system that will actually take care of retired workers, let me know so I can unfurl my umbrella -- because pigs can fly.
It is really a moot point whether "Johnny can to program (or not)". The real questions are whether the job he takes will pay a living wage sufficient to pay off his student loan debt, if he will not be offshore (or worse, onshore) outsourced by cheaper labor before he can successfully switch careers, or whether his employer will screw around with his health/pension/retirement plan in a way that jeopardises his future.
401K plans routinely become subordinated by the company's "wider interestes", and have been used to fund those offshore outsource job replacements (been there, done that). Pension plans have been raided by companies merely to continue to post improved earnings, as well as to prop up a corporate financial "plan" that is both morally and financially bankrupt. Employee stock purchase plans have been used to steal from employees just prior to bankruptcy. Health plans are switched between providers for the lowest possible cost, regardless of the financial stability of those providers. Proportedly non-profit HMO's succeed in providing their corporate officers with fat salaries and bonuses and golden parachutes, all while denying needed medical services to their "customers/patients".
Company loyalty up the ranks is expected, along with long hours and abysmal working conditions, while there is absolutely no company loyalty down the ranks to the wage-serfs, who can be fired or replaced with cheaper (even illegal) labor whenever those quarterly profit numbers need to be goosed. The modern trend toward pure corporate capitalism does not do justice to the serf-overlord relationship of the Middle Ages.
And it will burn out in a brilliant flash which will leave economies in ruins, if only because it is based upon "eating next year's seed stock".
George W. Bush is a conservative in the same way that Osama bin Laden, Adolf Hitler, and Joseph Stalin could be considered "conservative".
(1) religious "fundamentalist" == YES
(2) consolidation of power ======= YES
(3) neutralized the opposition === YES
(4) employed massive propaganda == YES
(5) military force for hegenomy == YES
However, the RealID Act was tacked onto the military spending bill by conservative GOP members of the House of Representatives in revolt against the wishes (and goals) of President Bush. George W. Bush favors aiding and abetting illegal immigration because of (a) personal reasons (like blackmail), (b) cheaper wage-slaves for his corporate interests, and (c) larger block of GOP voters (legal or not). When fully enacted, this law will put the cabosh on his amnesty plans, including his plan to further bankrupt SS by furnishing SS pensions to illegal aliens.
Most everyone on slashdot has been "pissing and moaning" about identity theft, slack enforcement, and minimal sentencing (compared to the impact on victims). The RealID Act goes a long way toward "patching the cracks" that makes identity theft so easy. One cannot help but wonder just how many "ardent" opponents of this legislation are actually in the USA illegally.
The number of illegal aliens in the USA has been estimated at up to about 28 million, although the "politically correct" (and government approved) number is more like 12 million. The government has little clue as to how many are here illegally, let alone just who, exactly, they might really be.
George W. Bush's idea of "sealing the borders" is to spend big money on sophisticated hardware instead of "boots on the ground". Counting illegal aliens crossing the borders is not, in any way shape or fashion, the same as interdicting them. And the woefully inadequate funding for US Border Patrol agents is only matched by the woefully inadequate funding for detention facilities. The INS has adopted a technique first used by eco-friendly sport fishermen, called "catch and release". Those illegal aliens caught simply disappear into the woodwork, never intending to show up for their immigration court hearings. The way these illegal aliens blend into American society is with the use of false documents, including SSNs and DLs.
The RealID Act might seem a bit draconian, until the context of a 28 million illegal alien invasion is factored into the post-9-11-2001 reality. What the government "should" be doing is rounding up all those illegal aliens, and deporting them (, instead of planning to grant a blanket amnesty).
Illegal aliens have already broken the law by entering this country illegally, and the use of fraudulent documentation breaks additional laws. Just how many laws should the US government allow to be broken before deciding that these people are criminals, should be punished, and then deported?
"If that sort of argument can win an election, it sounds like the people got the quality of representation they deserve."
Thanks a lot. You are, of course, presuming that the 2004 national election was any less "rigged" than the 2000 national election.
The 2000 national election was stolen by the GOP by disenfranchising voters in Florida based upon fraudulent lists of felons unqualified to vote, a quirky (and illegal) Florida election law that prohibited a state-wide ballot recount, and a Supreme Court packed by the Reagan/Bush_41 regimes.
The 2004 national election was stolen by the GOP by disenfranchising voters in Florida (again), as well as Ohio and other states, and the widespread use of fraudulent electronic voting machines that could be easily tampered with, and had no paper trail, voting machines built by GOP supporters for winning GOP "majorities".
Both the House of Representatives and the Senate long ago stopped paying much attention to the average "Joe Sixpack" constituent, in favor of the vested corporate interests that pay for their reelection campaigns. Every attempt to clean up campaign finances has been torpedoed by clauses and exemptions added in that corporations can drive a proverbial "tractor tailer full of cash" through. And, of course, funding for oversight, regulation, and enforcement of election laws have been simultaneously slashed.
National elections in the USA will not be kosher again until we switch back to the old fashioned, hand counted paper ballot. (Presuming, of course, that the USA actually ever holds national elections again -- I have my doubts.)
"Congressional democrat opposition has been, since then, dead."
Wrong^H^H^H^H^H!
The anthrax letters that were mailed out specifially to the NY liberal press and the US Senate's "loyal opposition" in October 2001 sent the intended message to the intended audience. And they did "get the message" at that time.
The DNA of the mailed anthrax was identical to the Ames variety stored at the US Army's biological warfare facility at Ft. Dettrick, MD. It has been very nearly four full years later, and George W. Bush's Justice Department is no closer to solving this case of domestic bioterrorism.
Since that time, other really nasty "bugs" have been shipped out across the world from USA facilities, as well as the announcement of successful Federal research into super-lethal mouse pox. Nothing quite like waving a "big
stick" to keep the attention of that "donkey".
The problem with pure-hydrogen cars is that the
hydrogen can only be generated efficiently by
either nuclear power plant electolysis of H2O, or
by stripping hydrogen from petroleum. In the
first instance, neither government nor industry
has calculated the true long term costs associated
with nuclear waste disposal -- they cannot because
no one can reliably calculate cost projections
100,000 years into the future. The second source
still ploaces undue reliance upon a non-renewable
resource largely found in the most politically
unstable region of the world.
Pure-electric cars require either a very long
extension cord, or else some form of battery pack
to store the electricity locally (, unless you
are proposing the use of a light-rail type power
distribution system.) Battery packs do "wear" out,
and then require replacement (and recycling costs),
not unlike the situation with hybrid autos today.
Personally, I would prefer to see the advent of
fixed RPM bio-diesel/electric hybrid autos. The
problem of increased NO emmissions due to the
higher compression ratio of diesel can be partially
mitigated by the use of bio-diesel fuel, as well
as use of a computer controlled emmissions system
tuned to the narrow power band of diesel (such as
1800 RPM for syncronous 3 phase 60 Hertz AC generator).
Automobiles were designed for autonomy -- which
an auto based upon renewable energy and hybrid
diesel/electric operation would continue to provide.
At least until such time as autos based upon
cold fusion, bio-mass converters, and flux capacitors
become the norm (eg. the "Back To The Future"
DiLorean).
Amen!
I have been looking for evidence of any auto
manufacturers that are (or will be) building
diesel/electric hybrid vehicles, without luck.
Yet it would seem to me that such technology
might provide the solution to the SUV/LT problem.
I know I would happily settle for an SUV or LT
(4 wheel drive) that I could run on anything from
ExxonMobil Diesel to bio-diesel (B100?) to plugging
into a photovoltaic array (for short hauls).
This is a better solution (bio-diesel) for air
quality, for energy independence from OPEC, and
spur new business for American farmers than the
"hydrogen" economy that will still rely upon
either petroleum or nuclear power as its source.
Diesel engines generally have a somewhat narrower
power band than gasoline engines, requiring either
more gears or more displacement to compete. This
gives diesel an advantage when tuned for a specific
narrow RPM range, such as for driving a generator.
1800 (or 3600 RPM) is the "sweet spot" for a multi-
phase 60 Hertz AC generator. Four wheel
electric drive (with dynamic braking) coupled to
a diesel powerplant has the potential for very
good fuel economy. Such a design might also provide
"household" electric power when out in the field
(like construction sites or when camping).
So, the question is "Where do the major auto
manufacturers stand on diesel/electric hybrids?"
Exactly so.
But the Real ID Act does not target only illegal aliens (which is IMHO justification enough for this bill to pass). Forcing a common standard across the USA for what is considered to be a primary form of identification (DL), this act also offers some relief from the explosion of identity theft that has occurred in this country.
Only a "politically correct" anarchist cannot find some correlation between the increase in identity theft and the increase in the number of illegal aliens that have entered this country. Nor the relationship between increased street gang activity (like MS-13) and the invasion of illegal aliens.
The mantra of "more cheaper labor" had been justification for slavery in the South 150 years ago, and today it is being used for "global competition". Historically, the jobs of migrant workers on farms and ranches was used as the rationale for using immigrant labor. Today's illegal alien may still be working on those farms, but they are also working as TSA screeners, hospital workers, construction workers, school teachers, and more. They are among the contract workers on US military installations (San Diego Naval Base, for one) and our nuclear power plants.
Employers that hire illegal aliens are getting a free ride from the rest of the USA's taxpayers. The public school systems, hospitals and medical centers, fire and police services, and the "social safety net" of government are all being strained by the influx of illegal aliens, most of whom either do not pay taxes, or their taxes are "misappropriated" by those same employers. These employers are breaking the law themselves, but there seems to be very little political "will" to enforce prosecution.
I am all for a regulated flow of legal migration into the USA, but the invasion of illegal aliens has to be stopped. I call it an invasion because there is no way that the government can know just how many of the illegal aliens that cross our borders are (1) agents of a foreign military power, (2) terrorists, (3) violent criminals, or (4) carrying communicable diseases. Meanwhile, legal immigrants may wait for many years for the opportunity to become USA citizens. They are being penalized for the invasion of illegal aliens that has not been discouraged (and even encouraged) by our politicians -- that goes all the way up to the President of the USA. Dubya has a plan for the "crisis" in Social Security reform that includes SS pensions for illegal aliens -- it's called the "Realization Plan". It's real (Google for it), and it will bankrupt the USA's "social safety net". Just like the unfunded mandate of "No Child Left Behind", and the GOP-imposed "Medicare Prescription Plan" (which I like to call the "Drug Company Welfare Act".)
The Real ID Act, by imposing a uniform standard for drivers licenses, will help to expose just how serious the illegal alien situation is in the USA. The first step in fixing a problem is knowing just how bad that problem is. A side benefit will be that it will be just that much more difficult for the criminal acts of identity theft.
Scientific workstations?
Anyone involved in matrix math (circuit design, mechanical engineering, fluid dynamics, etcetera) would love to be able to do this on their desktop instead of shared time on an HPC. Or combine the computational power of an office full of these machines at night or over weekends for the really big jobs. What's not to like?
Any scientific organization that has been holding off on capital expeditures while waiting for a clear winner to emerge ((AMD vs. Intel) vs. (PPC vs. SPARC)) will have come that much closer to making a decision.
Intel's IA64 gambit has not panned out -- their marketing hype has brought down some of their competition (PA-RISC and MIPS), but it has not proven to be the market leader Intel would have hoped. But like a wildfire in the woods, Intel's IA64 has opened up competition for diversity and some new leadership.
Well, what makes you think that you Brits take
the prize for citizen apathy, anyway?
I'm an American, and I take umbrage with your
obviously false presumption that Brits make more
apathetic citizens. We switched from a dope-
smoking "centerist" Democratic president that
perpetrated the Waco, TX massacre of men, women,
and children, traded away American jobs for
Mexican government stability (NAFTA), and got
caught with his zipper down, to a former coke-
toting born again "compassionate conservative"
Nazi trying to turn the USA into an old-Europe-
style feudal society, who stole two elections by
hook-or-crook, and parleyed an ignored terrorist
threat into his own worldwide reign of oil war terror.
So, there!
Actually, you might feel reassured to find out
that Washington, DC (USA) already uses remote
microphones in order to triangulate on loud
noises such as gunfire.
Of course, guns are completely illegal in the USA's
capitol city unless you are a member of the police,
a Federal law enforcement agency, or the iconic minority
father of a law-breaking FBI agent son.
The muggers, car-jackers, and violent street gangs
of Washington, DC don't pay any attention to those
particular laws anyway, so they don't count.
It may be straight out of the pages of "1984", but
so is the plethora of video cameras monitoring the
comings and goings of the people. Still doesn't seem
to have made much impact on street crime, but I guess
it's really good for monitoring which politician is doing
whatever to whomever. Just like London, you say?
Wow! Well said.
This doesn't directly address the original topic of the "Real ID" amendment that was tacked onto the military funding bill. The real questions that this issue exposes are "Does the Federal government have the right to set the standard for what documentation is required for a driver's license?" Along with "Does the Federal government have an obligation to safeguard our national boundaries?" And "Does the Federal government have the right to determine (through legislation) quotas and restrictions on the number of immigrants that enter the USA?"
Insofar as the various states use their driver's licenses as a form of identification that (they would hope) is honored by the other states, the Federal government does have the right to establish a common standard for the issuance of that license. Without such a standard, the only alternative would be the requirement for a separate National ID card. Such a policy would portent the possibility that one state's driver's license might not be accepted in another state for driving there, which opens a big can of worms regarding interstate commerce. The FAA certainly has the right to know, through appropriate documentation, exactly who is getting onto commercial aircraft that they are responsible for.
Every national government, the USA included, has not only the right to control its borders, but also an obligation and responsibility to do so. A basic tenent of any organized government is the definition and delineation of its borders, if it is to continue to exist. There is also, albeit largely unwritten, a basic contract between a government and its people to provide for their safety (if not their welfare). A government, therefore, has the duty to screen visitors entering their domain, with the explicit right to exclude those that it deems unsuitable (foreign military, criminals, terrorists, or even persons with dangerous communicable diseases).
The Federal government long ago established procedures, quotas, and standards (including health) for persons immigrating to this country. It has been codified into law. From time to time that law has been changed in order to reflect changing conditions (health issues, housing, and jobs( that effect the general welfare of its citizens. This is as much a right of the Federal government as its right (and obligation) to control the borders.
The current situation (IMHO) is completely out of control. Not only does the Federal government not take full responsibility for the control of our borders, but also burdens the states with unfunded/underfunded mandates as to how the local governments are obliged to take care of illegal immigrants. All of the border states have seen a drastic increase in communicable diseases, as well as their public health systems being driven into bankruptcy. Our public school systems are under Federal pressure (through education funding, including "No Child Left Behind") to provide an education to illegal immigrants whose numbers are largely unknown. Illegal immigrants caught in criminal acts, then tried, convicted, punished, and deported keep slipping across our borders for further mischief, sometimes with the help of their governments. (They don't want them there, either.) Our politicians have ressurrected that old saw from the pre-Civil War South that our economy needs more cheaper labor to keep the economy going. Then it was slavery -- today it's "undocumented immigrant labor". Today's employers that make use of such labor are being subsidized by the rest of the country's taxpayers.
If the current regime in power is either unwilling or unable to find the funding to secure our borders, place some controls on immigration, and actually enforce current laws against employers hiring illegal aliens, they certainly have no business engaging in "optional" preemptive military actions halfway around the globe. There is no good reason for this government to institute draconian measures against their own citizens while granting a "free pass" to everyon
Oh, yeah. Right!
Just like the FDA is an independent agency. The last time I checked, it was the Executive Branch that selected appointees to the management positions. And considering the current "rubber stamp" state of the Congress, the only truly "independent" division of government is the Judicial Branch, and that is quickly eroding into yet another "political plum" for the current regime in power.
At the current rate of Executive Branch dominance over all branches of the US government, by the time 2008 rolls around, national elections could get cancelled (like the FEC's "trial balloon" in 2004), and the USA will have King George I, and a very British looking (albeit more subserviant) Parliment to contend with.
The term is either "Reverse Evolution" or "Devolution", of which I prefer the latter. Considering the "devolving" state of American democracy these days, we will have apples that fall up. Reversed word meanings have already gotten out of hand. We currently have "compassionate conservative" (also an oxymoron), "neo-conservative" (not new or conservative), "imminent danger" from Iraqi WMD, "fiscal responsibility" ('nuff said), and a SS "crisis" (only in the sense that neo-cons abhor it). Next, no doubt, the Department of Defense will be renamed to the Department of Peace.
Welcome to "1984", which is only 20 years late because RM Nixon lost the 1960 Presidential election, and Goldwater didn't "make the cut" in 1964.
I used to wonder about what would drive people
to built a ferro-cement boat, considering the
surface area/bouyancy required for the weight of
it's construction. This advancement in materials
science makes a smaller (less ark-like) concrete
boat a viable alternative.
I no longer have any excuse for not building a
concrete catamaran, in spite of being nearly 1000
feet above sea-level. No need to wait for that
Canary Islands tsunami for it's launch.
Correction: "The USA is turning into a technological backwater because the regime in power would rather focus on their monopolist corporate contributors' profits instead of leveling the high tech "playing field" through uniform improvements to infrastructure and access."
The biggest problem with commercial video card manufacturers is their reluctance to (1) either provide full programming details, or (2) open source their drivers. By hiding details behind NDA agreements and/or restrictive licensing of their SDKs, they hope to conceal how they have "gamed" the benchmark suites, as well as to limit their competition. Problems arise when commecial vendors release a binary driver intended for a specific OS version, and are slow to adapt drivers in a fast moving software environment. Providing stellar support for only one OS (eg. Windows) will limit their product's acceptance in the marketplace. This trend will only accelerate as F/OSS adoption increases world-wide. Market pressures would be inclinded to dictate whether a commercial hardware vendor finally adopts the open source paradgm, but that progress is far too slow.
A digital divide is about to be crossed, with the advent of an increasing number of either (1) open source hardware, or (2) open source drivers for commercial hardware. Projects such as this must exist in order to help level the playing field between closed commercial OSes and F/OSS OSes like linux or bsd. Personally, I like the idea of having hardware that I can customize (if needed), rather than the other extreme of DRM-enabled (MSFT "Palladium") hardware that restricts my rights as a hardware (and software) owner.
The NYT can charge whatever they like for their news, either in print or digitally. That's what free markets are all about. If enough customers raise a stink about the subscription price, they will go elsewhere.
But, if the NYT wants to use digital news (and news archives) as a revenue stream, they will need to (eventually) digitalize their entire news archives, not just for the previous year. At that point, even I would consider subscribing (and I am a tight-wad.)
MSFT SOP: "embrace, extend, extinguish||patent".
Old saying: "Keep you're friends close, and you're enemies closer". (Sorry, origin unknown.) The best way MSFT has to "poison the well" of any new document standard that might encroach upon their monopolistic business plan is from the inside. How better to nudge the standards one way or another in a manner that guarantees ither non-adoption or adopting "the MSFT way"? (Remember how MSFT dealt with OpenGL, Java, and Kerberos?)
MSFT has "embraced" XML as a standard, and then wrapped it in an encrypted binary encapsulation.
The "extended" standard is then protected by DMCA and IP, with "open" licensing encumbered with NDA and SDK/source distribution limitations. "Their" XML format may be "opened" by other programs, but not "saved" by those other programs. This helps to preserve their monopoly status, as well as providing any/all proof needed (by the EU) that MSFT will not play fair, and must be punished.
Toshiba has basically held up three fingers, and
told NSA/DoD/DHS to "read between the lines".
The USA's Dept. of Commerce is going to have a much
tougher time helping US-based companies to compete
in the world market if this techology becomes mainstream.
Shortly after 9-11-2001, Dubya was quoted as saying
"If you aren't with us, you are with the terrorists."
This world view has been applied to the liberal
press and opposition politicians (anthrax letters), as well
as the American people (USA Patriot Act(I)).
The Bush administration equates violations of the
DMCA as "acts of terrorism" as well.
Between trade conflicts over soft wood products and
beef cattle imports, Canada is on the "short list"
to join the "axis of evil". Or to quote a more liberal
Republican president with an accidentally "live"
microphone, "Bombing starts in 15 minutes."
I sincerely hope our neighbors to the north have
"dug in", because I suspect things are going to get
dicey there this summer. (Canada DOES have oil,
after all.)
Okay, so Apple doesn't always get it right -- sometimes it's two steps forward, and one step backwards. This information just saved me $129.
I guess it's time to take another look at OpenBSD
for the Apple platform, or emulate Linus and put
Linux on it.
Okay, since this data, too, "wants" to be free, how about posting links to the CVS / rsync / snapshot.bz2 / BitTorrent / ftp site for downloading the database? "I'm okay to go..."
MSFT, Fannie-Mae, and many other public corporations are now (finally) under the onus of section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. They can no longer "smooth out" the squiggles on their profit line charts that reflect the true nature of business -- now the corporate officers must certify both the internal financial accounting process AND the quarterly results posted with the SEC.
Juggling the numbers to keep the shareholders numbly ignorant is now a criminal act that the corporate officers are responsible for. Accounting mechanisms for pushing/pulling income spikes and sags into another quarterly report are no longer tolerated.
Any company with large corporate and government customers is bound to have variations in their accounts receivables, some of which will break the rising tide of their profit line charts. There (usually) isn't anything really wrong with these corporations. It's just that the accounting equivalent of cosmetic botox injections are no longer allowed. If this drives shareholders into the mentality of a longer term financial view, like 1, 3, and 5 year outlooks, it would not be a bad thing for the economy as a whole. It will, however, suck rotten eggs for all the corporate officers whose bonuses and incentives are tied to their quarterly results. I will weep giant crocodile tears for them -- NOT!
Exactly so.
I've been running 64-bit dual CPU systems since 1999 (UltraSPARC & MIPS), and these boxen were dredged up and rescued/repaired from the rubbish tip. Perhaps MSFT was reluctant to be seen installing their gold plated crud on SUN hardware. Sure seems like a huge step backwards to remove Solaris 10 to install Windoze.