Internet companies and civil liberties groups were alarmed this spring when a
U.S. Senate bill proposed handing the White House the power to disconnect
private-sector computers from the Internet.
They’re not much happier about a revised version that aides to Sen. Jay Rockefeller, a
West Virginia Democrat, have spent months drafting behind closed doors. CNET
News has obtained a copy of the 55-page draft of S.773 (excerpt), which still appears
to permit the president to seize temporary control of private-sector networks during a
so-called cybersecurity emergency.

Read the whole thing here. That’s a command, not an offer. DO IT NOW!

I need a “WTF are they thinking!?” category, methinks.

Hat-tip to Melanie for this one and the last one. :)

http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2009/08/26/taking_liberties/entry5268079.shtml

Section 431(a) of the bill says that the IRS must divulge taxpayer identity information, including the filing status, the modified adjusted gross income, the number of dependents, and “other information as is prescribed by” regulation. That information will be provided to the new Health Choices Commissioner and state health programs and used to determine who qualifies for “affordability credits.”

Section 245(b)(2)(A) says the IRS must divulge tax return details — there’s no specified limit on what’s available or unavailable — to the Health Choices Commissioner. The purpose, again, is to verify “affordability credits.”

Section 1801(a) says that the Social Security Administration can obtain tax return data on anyone who may be eligible for a “low-income prescription drug subsidy” but has not applied for it.

Over at the Institute for Policy Innovation (a free-market think tank and presumably no fan of Obamacare), Tom Giovanetti argues that: “How many thousands of federal employees will have access to your records? The privacy of your health records will be only as good as the most nosy, most dishonest and most malcontented federal employee…. So say good-bye to privacy from the federal government. It was fun while it lasted for 233 years.”

Giovanetti and I are on the same page, and all, but… has he ever dealt with the fedgov? I’d be willing to bet he’s never purchased anything through a FFL…

…I’m going to predict something like this doesn’t get passed in Idaho. Let’s hope the Massachusetts House has more sense than their Senate, huh?

No, wait – these are the people who kept reelecting Kennedy. Nevermind. They deserve it.

Did your head explode?

Can somebody point me in the direction of Galt’s Gulch, already? It has to be out there somewhere…

Hat-tip George.

Well, Ted Kennedy is dead.

His body wasn’t even cold before my College Republican acquaintances started coming out in droves on Facebook, thanking him for his service to the country, calling him an icon, saying it wasn’t a partisan issue, etc.

They’re right. It’s not a partisan issue. It’s an issue of being a drunkard, a murderer, and a socialist.

I understand Kennedy had a family who loved him, warts and all, and that they are mourning now. I am sorry for them.

But I did not respect Kennedy in life, I do not appreciate his legacy, and I am glad he is no longer in the Senate helping to fuck up my country.

The saying goes: If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all… not pretend reprehensible people are worthy of our respect and praise now that they’re dead.

I’d like to think Ted Kennedy no longer being in the Senate is a political victory for the country, but then I consider all these folks in my generation who are supposed to be at least halfway on my side, blowing the guy because that’s what good little aspiring politicians do… and it makes me sick. It really does.

Hopeless. Fucking hopeless.

It’s making the rounds, but:

Note the careful cropping of the video to hide the fact the man with the AR-15… WAS BLACK. Right before the discussion about racial motivation and white people with guns strapped to their waists/legs.

…WTF?

I’d love to be able to give y’all a review of District 9, which I just saw. Kinda. But I can’t.

Well, I can review the first 30 minutes: Good. The next 10 minutes, the audio was good (I listened as I sat there with my eyes closed, willing my stomach to stop churning).

After that, I got nothin’, because I quite literally had to leave to throw up.

Shaky-camera induced motion sickness: I HAZ IT. In a big way.

It had a lot of potential. I’m hoping I’ll be able to tolerate it on the small screen. Consider yourself warned, though: If Blair Witch Project turned your tummy, or Call of Duty is only playable after a dose of Dramamine, you might want to rethink District 9. Le sigh.

EDIT: I just looked around the internet to see if anyone else had the motion sickness problem. The answer is yes, but it apparently gets better right about the time I left. Go figure. Oh well, my pukey ship had sailed by that point, so I don’t think toughing it out was in the cards.

Yo, Joe! We saw GI Joe earlier today. Surprisingly good. Like, see-it-in-a-theater good. It even got The Inconvenience’s stamp of approval, and that means a lot coming from the guy whose main contribution to our wedding plans was:

—

Yo, Joe (Huffman)! You might have the answer to this. I was musing earlier about Moscow’s city ordinance banning bare female breasts, and decided to do some Googling. It looks like at the time the whole debacle was going on (2002ish?) there wasn’t a state law banning bare female breasts. I can’t find anything referencing any Latah County ordinances against ‘em, either.

Does this mean I can run around topless in Latah County as long as I’m outside of the Moscow city limits, or have the state or county since passed anything?

(Don’t worry, I don’t mean to go horrify the prudish locals by going door-to-door with my hooters out. But I did find a nice little swimming hole, the other day, and…)

Both voted against Sotomayor.

And, with those numbers handily programmed into my cell phone, it was easy for me to call and say thanks! :)

Whelp, The Inconvenience has been An Inconvenient Husband for two whole years now. Yay, us!

We’re going out camping – the Girl Child’s first trip – to celebrate. I can see this turning into a tradition, since it’s what we did last year, too. (Tradition: A nice word for “we’re not very innovative.”)

I finally got around to buying my 2009 fishing/hunting license, and went ahead and got my whitetail tag while I was at it. We now own a chest freezer, so by Jehova, I WILL STOCK IT.

In other news, we’ve come into possession of a 1996 VW GTI named Oscar. A friend was moving to Seattle and no longer cared to own it, so we inherited it. I’ve never owned a car before (1971 Chevy C-10, 1991 Toyota 4Runner, 2001 Dodge Ram 2500, 1981 Chevy Silverado) but it’s… fun. It has a tendency to catch on fire sometimes and the motor mounts are loose, but hey – free car!

I’m either going to tag it “WOLVERINES” or stencil Robert’s iconic silhouette on the hood.

Also: Laurel, you are not The Stig. You will never be The Stig. Don’t. Try.

The Inconvenience, playing Civilization: “Democracy is BULLSHIT!”
Me: “Aside from the obvious, why?”
TI: “Because. If I play as a democracy, I have a ton of money and technical advantages and stuff, but I can’t wage war.”
Me: “So…Why not just wage defensive wars when need be?”
TI: “Because I had an easy target and I wanted to take it out and then commit to peace!”
Me: “…………………….”