New Location

Follow my blogs at a new site.

The new website is

snsil.isa-geek.net

I promise to keep it up to date like I did here. So please keep checking it out!

NY Post Cartoon

You know, I think they actually get it right most of the time. Here's the latest Opinion Cartoon from The NY Post.

The 2% Illusion

Obama and the main stream media just don't understand anything they say or report anymore. Did they ever? The Wall Street Journal researched just how much Obama's proposed budget spending is going to cost and how would have to be paid off. The top 2% couldn't come close, even if they were taxed at their fullest legal amount. Neither could the top 5%. Read this article from the WSJ which breaks down the irresposibility and poor planning in the Obama Administration. You will be shocked. But don't expect to see this on CNN or MSNBC. The main stream media doesn't want to report anything that could make "Dear Leader" look bad.

The 2% Illusion

"The bottom line is that Mr. Obama is selling the country on a 2% illusion. Unwinding the U.S. commitment in Iraq and allowing the Bush tax cuts to expire can't possibly pay for his agenda. Taxes on the not-so-rich will need to rise as well."

"Mr. Obama is very good at portraying his agenda as nothing more than center-left pragmatism. But pragmatists don't ignore the data. And the reality is that the only way to pay for Mr. Obama's ambitions is to reach ever deeper into the pockets of the American middle class."

Minneapolis City Pages Blog

I know I shouldn't have done this, but I ran across a blog on the City Pages website that was talking about Jindal's amazing speech yesterday. Suffice it to say, they disagree with me. But the problem I had with this blog was that the writer made no comment about what Jindal said, but how he said. Nobody in the media cares about what people say anymore. Just how they say. This is probably the number one reason why Obama got elected. Well, when I commented on this blog, I got one response that was nothing but hateful. They know we're right, they just don't like smart people in charge. I'm still waiting to hear back from the writer on this.

Here's the blog.
http://blogs.citypages.com/blotter/2009/02/is_pawlenty_hel.php

Hugh Topian

We need to listen to Hugh Topian more often. He makes so much sense. For all you out there that are a huge upholder of Political Correctness, you may not like Hugh. But for all of you that are getting sick of it, check this out.

http://www.ktlkfm.com/pages/hughtopian.html

Brick

OK. So I ran the Firmware update on my Hard Drive. No luck. Same symptoms. So I decided it's worth the 43 minute hold time to talk to a live tech support at Seagate. She assured me that it was not a firmware issue. My hard drive is now a brick. On the brighter side, I plan on loading Windows Vista Ultimate 64 on it! Time to move on and hope this doesn't happen again...

FOX Breaks down the SOTU address.

Obama bit off a lot more than he coud chew during the State of the Union address. FOX examined a few parts of the address and presented a fact check on them. Here's what they said:

OBAMA: "We have launched a housing plan that will help responsible families facing the threat of foreclosure lower their monthly payments and refinance their mortgages. It's a plan that won't help speculators or that neighbor down the street who bought a house he could never hope to afford, but it will help millions of Americans who are struggling with declining home values."

THE FACTS: If the administration has come up with a way to ensure money only goes to those who got in honest trouble, it hasn't said so.

Defending the program Tuesday at a Senate hearing, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said it's important to save those who made bad calls, for the greater good. He likened it to calling the fire department to put out a blaze caused by someone smoking in bed.

"I think the smart way to deal with a situation like that is to put out the fire, save him from his own consequences of his own action but then, going forward, enact penalties and set tougher rules about smoking in bed."

Similarly, the head of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. suggested this month it's not likely aid will be denied to all homeowners who overstated their income or assets to get a mortgage they couldn't afford.

"I think it's just simply impractical to try to do a forensic analysis of each and every one of these delinquent loans," Sheila Bair told National Public Radio.

------

OBAMA: "And I believe the nation that invented the automobile cannot walk away from it."

THE FACTS: Depends what your definition of automobiles, is. According to the Library of Congress, the inventor of the first true automobile was probably Germany's Karl Benz, who created the first auto powered by an internal combustion gasoline engine, in 1885 or 1886. In the U.S., Charles Duryea tested what library researchers called the first successful gas-powered car in 1893. Nobody disputes that Henry Ford created the first assembly line that made cars affordable.

------

OBAMA: "We have known for decades that our survival depends on finding new sources of energy. Yet we import more oil today than ever before."

THE FACTS: Oil imports peaked in 2005 at just over 5 billion barrels, and have been declining slightly since. The figure in 2007 was 4.9 billion barrels, or about 58 percent of total consumption. The nation is on pace this year to import 4.7 billion barrels, and government projections are for imports to hold steady or decrease a bit over the next two decades.

------

OBAMA: "We have already identified $2 trillion in savings over the next decade."

THE FACTS: Although 10-year projections are common in government, they don't mean much. And at times, they are a way for a president to pass on the most painful steps to his successor, by putting off big tax increases or spending cuts until someone else is in the White House.

Obama only has a real say on spending during the four years of his term. He may not be president after that and he certainly won't be 10 years from now.

------

OBAMA: "Regulations were gutted for the sake of a quick profit at the expense of a healthy
market. People bought homes they knew they couldn't afford from banks and lenders who pushed those bad loans anyway. And all the while, critical debates and difficult decisions were put off for some other time on some other day."

THE FACTS: This may be so, but it isn't only Republicans who pushed for deregulation of the financial industries. The Clinton administration championed an easing of banking regulations, including legislation that ended the barrier between regular banks and Wall Street banks. That led to a deregulation that kept regular banks under tight federal regulation but extended lax regulation of Wall Street banks. Clinton Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, later an economic adviser to candidate Obama, was in the forefront in pushing for this deregulation.

------

OBAMA: "In this budget, we will end education programs that don't work and end direct payments to large agribusinesses that don't need them. We'll eliminate the no-bid contracts that have wasted billions in Iraq, and reform our defense budget so that we're not paying for Cold War-era weapons systems we don't use. We will root out the waste, fraud and abuse in our Medicare program that doesn't make our seniors any healthier, and we will restore a sense of fairness and balance to our tax code by finally ending the tax breaks for corporations that ship our jobs overseas."

THE FACTS: First, his budget does not accomplish any of that. It only proposes those steps. That's all a president can do, because control over spending rests with Congress. Obama's proposals here are a wish list and some items, including corporate tax increases and cuts in agricultural aid, will be a tough sale in Congress.

Second, waste, fraud and abuse are routinely targeted by presidents who later find that the savings realized seldom amount to significant sums. Programs that a president might consider wasteful have staunch defenders in Congress who have fought off similar efforts in the past.

------

OBAMA: "Thanks to our recovery plan, we will double this nation's supply of renewable energy in the next three years."

THE FACTS: While the president's stimulus package includes billions in aid for renewable energy and conservation, his goal is unlikely to be achieved through the recovery plan alone.

In 2007, the U.S. produced 8.4 percent of its electricity from renewable sources, including hydroelectric dams, solar panels and windmills. Under the status quo, the Energy Department says, it will take more than two decades to boost that figure to 12.5 percent.

If Obama is to achieve his much more ambitious goal, Congress would need to mandate it. That is the thrust of an energy bill that is expected to be introduced in coming weeks.

------

OBAMA: "Over the next two years, this plan will save or create 3.5 million jobs."

THE FACTS: This is a recurrent Obama formulation. But job creation projections are uncertain even in stable times, and some of the economists relied on by Obama in making his forecast acknowledge a great deal of uncertainty in their numbers.

The president's own economists, in a report prepared last month, stated, "It should be understood that all of the estimates presented in this memo are subject to significant margins of error."

Beyond that, it's unlikely the nation will ever know how many jobs are saved as a result of the stimulus. While it's clear when jobs are abolished, there's no economic gauge that tracks job preservation. The estimates are based on economic assumptions of how many jobs would be lost without the stimulus.

For another good description of the Address, see this blog.

Dogbert Rocks

Hard Drive has Hope

Can we fix?

Yes we can!

I have been problems with the hard drive in my poor pc. But I got an email from Seagate on Saturday. Check it out:

Dear David Rosener

Thank you for sending your Seagate E-mail inquiry.

I apologize for the late reply. If Seatools recognizes the drive along with your BIOS then you should be able to apply the firmware update. To determine if your drive requires a firmware update, I would use the following web link. You can use the serial number of each drive to determine eligibility.

http://seagate.custkb.com/seagate/crm/selfservice/search.jsp?DocId=207931

If your drive qualifies, the serial number checker will check to see if an update can be done and then will allow you to click on a web link for the appropriate update for your drive. Please follow the instructions on how to perform the update listed there. If you have any additional questions, please let me know.

Thank you for choosing Seagate.

Regards,

Alan G
Technical Support Specialist for Seagate/Maxtor

I just got my Hard Drive back from my buddy who was trying some fixes that did not work. I am so pumped to get this thing working and get my PC back up and running. But I'm still gonna RAID that sucker.

I told you so!

That's right. I said it. Stimulus #2. I just underestimated how soon they could write this crap up. I just can't believe how much liberals have complained about all the spending Bush did for the war TO PROTECT THEIR ASSES! But now when their messiah gets in and drowns us in debt, they LOVE him! How do you rectify that? A few of my liberal friends (I do love them) were telling me the difference is that Bush had a fake economy. WTH??? How do you have a fake economy? The excuses that they come with are incredible. Maybe the dems all deserve a best actor award. Or maybe the best coverup. I don't know.

Here's more info on the up-coming Porkulus #2.

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=30788

Sean Penn is an Idiot

I make it a point to not watch the Academy Awards every year. So instead I was watching the Sprint Cup race at the Auto Club Speedway in CA. After a kind of disappointing finish (rain delay) last week, Matt Kenseth won after going into the delay in first place. Many thought that had the race continued, he would not have won. But this week, he put those concerns to rest. Kenseth became the first driver since Jeff Gordon in 1997 to win the first 2 races of the season. And he won in a dominant fashion. After not winning any races in 2008, both Jeff Gordon and Matt Kenseth were in a race of champions. Matt made no mistakes and finished on top. So the checkered flags flies, the drivers go across the line and take their places. But I wanted to see the burnout and victory lane before we change the station. Now it's 9:15pm and we start flipping through channels. And somehow we end up on the Oscars. So I guess I'll see who they chose as best actor. All of the nominees are actors I either don't know or don't care for. But when they chose Sean Penn, I was wondering, "Why did they choose this guy?" Then while I was listening to his speech, I found out why Hollywood put him on the podium. Just watch...




For him to use an opportunity where the entire world is watching to push his and all the other Hollynuts opinions on us is more shameful than his accusation of everyone who voted for the gay marriage ban in CA. The world does not revolve around Hollywood. These people want to see the destruction of humankind as it is just so they or their friends won't themselves feel ashamed to practice an immoral way of life. Give me a break.

I think it's time to start (if you haven't already) boycotting any movie featuring Sean Penn. Let him see the results of his pathetic actions.

Good Comics

Rick Santelli's Rant

http://freedomeden.blogspot.com/2009/02/rick-santelli-tea-party.html

Democratic Patronage System

"Chicago Bob", calling into a radio talk show, explains the need to rush on the Stimulus package before anyone gets a good chance to review its sordid details. The transcript:

"I really feel that what I'm gonna give you here is a smoking gun.

I'm a conservative Democrat and I'm from Chicago... and I, I feel that I was betrayed.

I was in a meeting after Obama got elected and I was told by the Democratic officials in that meeting that we were gonna give billions of dollars that was gonna come down the pike, our way, and what we were to do with it was we were supposed to do with it...

We are gonna build an army of Democratic patronage jobs.... gonna completely freeze up the Republicans forever and ever...

It's a job-capturing system, the same one they have in Chicago... everyone's asking 'why isn't that money being released until 2011 and 2012?'

Because it needs to be released at a time that's close to the election, so that they don't go blow the money and spend it. So they're gonna hold some back and that's where... the real bucks will be spent, right up close to the election.

...It's not a stimulus package, it's not pork! It's a job patronage system... there's gonna be more [people] working for the Democrats in a patronage system than the United States Army...

And the jobs are gonna be camouflaged in a million different ways, whether you're workin' for the city, or workin' for the state, but when the election comes around, you're gonna be obligated to go out and get that vote... ...like ACORN, except the jobs will be larger scale. I just wanted to say that, because I was really depressed when they told me, because I really thought they'd be different.

If I've done nothing else in my life, I've informed what that bill really is... it's a job patronage system."

Remarks by the President on the mortgage CRISIS

Read this speech from today. Obama has a theme. Can you guess what it is? Here's a hint: he mentions the word 26 times in this speech.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Remarks-by-the-President-on-the-mortgage-crisis/

The word of the day is CRISIS. The day after signing the Generational Theft Act (thanks McCain for the lovely description), Obama's biggest triumph since his inauguration, Obama wants you to believe that this country is in a state of crisis. He has even accepted that this great bill will probably NOT work they way he proposed it would last week. But don't worry, there will be another bill coming later this year so that the Government can buy out the businesses that this bill will sink. Thus expanding Government more. Can you believe that this bill alone has an 80% expansion of government into the private sector? 80%!!! Bush has worked these last 8 years to lower that annual percentage down from 25% to close to 0%. And this one bill expanded government more than all of Bush's term combined!

We all need to do one thing: Don't count on the government's help. That means working enough to pay your bills, buys your groceries, pay your medical bills. Work for it. If we all do that, we won't need any help from the government. The economy will go back up. People will be happy and feel like they make a difference in their community. When we do less and expect more, that's when we beg the government to help us. So do more and expect less. Believe me, it works...

National Republicans Help out Norm Coleman.

Could anyone really imagine the idiot things that Franken would do in the Senate?

Does any Minnesotan remember when Jesse Ventura was Governor? It's like being forced to watch reruns of The Jerry Springer Show!

WI Governor's New Budget has an effect on UW Schools

Email from UW - Stout Chancellor:

TO: All Students, Faculty and Staff
FROM: Chancellor Charles W. Sorensen
DATE: February 18, 2009
SUBJECT: 2009-11 state budget

Now that Gov. Jim Doyle has given his 2009-11 state budget to the Legislature, we can begin the process of analyzing what his various proposals would mean for UW-Stout in terms of our operations and impacts on students, faculty and staff. We have begun that analysis and will keep all of you informed when we have solid numbers to report.

However, a few things are clear after listening to the governor and reading the documents that are available:

• The budget reduces the amount of state tax support for the UW System by $100 million over the next two years. The budget also calls for a 1 percent across-the-board cut for all non-federal funds for all state agencies, which could mean $49 million for the UW System. Finally, the budget transfers $25 million to financial aid from auxiliary accounts.
  
• Many students would be protected from tuition increases, even the modest ones the governor said he expected for 2009-11. The budget provides a $12 million increase to the UW System for need-based financial aid, along with $24 million in additional funds for the Higher Education Aids Board and the UW Wisconsin Higher Education Grant program. This is intended to offset tuition increases for students from families that earn up to the state median family incomes of $60,000 a year. This is in addition to the $500 increase in the maximum Pell Grant, contained in the federal stimulus package, which also included expanded work study funding and refundable tax credits for working families.
  
• Our employees will be called on to sacrifice to meet the challenges of the new state budget. The governor has said repeatedly, and reiterated last night, that state employees will have no pay raises for the next two fiscal years, although it does not appear the 2 percent increase scheduled for June will be affected. The governor did say that his budget would not impose furloughs or mass layoffs in the state workforce, either. In California, layoff notices were sent to 20,000 state workers Tuesday. At Arizona State University, the university eliminated up to 550 positions through attrition and layoffs, a number that could grow by an additional 1,000 jobs; and each of the university's 12,000 employees had to take up to 15 unpaid days off by June 30. Layoffs and furloughs have been reported in states across the country.
  
• The budget includes funding for faculty recruitment and retention of $5 million in the first year of the biennium and an additional $5 million in the second, the bulk of which goes to UW-Madison.
  
• The budget includes domestic partner benefits for same-sex and opposite-sex partners.
  
• The budget gives faculty and academic staff the right to bargain collectively.
  

Keep in mind that this is just the first step in a long state budget process. The document will be reviewed and amended by the Joint Finance Committee before it is sent to the state Senate and Assembly for amendments. Then the governor will act on the final proposal.

UW System President Kevin Reilly said in a statement that the budget will present serious challenges to the System, including fewer class sections, larger class sizes, reduced student services and other impacts.

We need to work hard over the coming months to minimize the affect these budget cuts will have on our top priority – maintaining a quality education for our students. We have a strong administrative team, dedicated faculty and staff and committed students who I know will come together to accomplish this task.

You be the judge...

Pope Rebukes Pelosi

Read this excellent blog post about the Pope rebuking Pelosi's stance on abortion...

http://gatewaypundit.blogspot.com/2009/02/pope-rebukes-pelosi-tells-her-catholic.html

Cool BeFunky Stuff

I like what you can do at Befunky.com. It's free. It's easy. And the effects are soooo cool. Check it out!

New Energy Producer!

New Shock Absorber Harvests Energy From Bumps In The Road, Increases Fuel Economy

Read this article about an MIT student's invention that uses bumps in the road to generate electricity!

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/02/090212181904.htm

My Poor PC

So, on Monday morning, my hard drive failed. I woke up and went to computer and it had a boot error message on the screen stating there was no boot device, insert media and press a button or restart. I thought well this is just weird, there can't be anything wrong with my new 500 GB Hard drive. So I rebooted and got the same message. Then I powered down and booted back up. This time it worked! I got into windows. Logged in and waited for stuff to start running. Wait. Nothing is starting up. My mouse was still moving, but I couldn't open the start menu, task manager, or anything else. Hmmmm....Maybe I should reboot. I press the reset button on my PC and get the same boot error I got when I sat down! Over the next 2 days, I went on a research rampage trying to find out what is wrong. I searched forums and tech support sites. Rulling out viruses, Vista errors, memory errors, and BIOS errors. It all came down to one thing: the Hard Drive. My brand new, 4-month-old Hard Drive. Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 500GB Hard Drive. I walked through Seagate's step-by-step process of repairing hard drives that won't boot up. Then I got to step 17: return hard drive for replacement under warranty. Damn! I have a 5 year warranty on this hard drive, which means that's how long they guarantee this thing to work. Apparently not mine. My problem now is that I have files on there that I really don't want to lose. I am pretty sure that I have all my pictures that I have taken since I built this PC copied to another PC. But I have programs, website files I've written, and downloads that I would like to recover because I don't want to have to redo everything. I am going to try to install the hard drive in a friend's PC this weekend on the off chance that I can get some files off of it, but it's unlikely. The hard drive seems to stop working after 1-2 minutes of functionality. We'll see. But the fact of the matter is that I will probably lose everything and have to start over. I do have a good plan to move forward with. I will never go without setting RAID up on my main PC. It will cost me an extra hard drive, but that is so worth it. I can't count on parts not failing anymore. I need to have reduncancy, backups, plan B's.

Congressman reads the 1073 page porkulus conference report this morning at 9am

Is this for real???

In East Peoria today, Obama says:

"We've gotta spend some money now to pull us out of this recession. But as soon as we're out of this recession we've gotta get serious about living within our means instead of leaving debt for our children and grandchildren and our great-grandchildren. That's not the responsible way. That's not how folks here in Peoria operate in their own lives and they should expect the government is equally responsible."

Do you think he reads the teleprompter before he gets to the podium? This is not the liberal way. Plus, he saying that the government should not be doing what he is campaigning to do.

Does this sound contradictory to you?

Two separate quotes by Obama:

Jan 28: "In the end, the answer to our economic troubles rests less in my hands, or in the hands of our legislators, than it does with America's workers and the businesses that employ them. They are the ones whose efforts and ideas will determine our economic destiny, just as they always have. For in the end, it's businesses – large and small – that generate the jobs, provide the salaries, and serve as the foundation on which the American people's lives and dreams depend. All we can do, those of us in Washington, is help create a favorable climate in which workers can prosper, businesses can thrive, and our economy can grow. And that is exactly what the recovery plan I've proposed is intended to do." Obama on the Economy

Feb 9: "It is absolutely true that we cannot depend on government alone to create jobs or economic growth. That is and must be the role of the private sector. But at this particular moment, with the private sector so weakened by this recession, the federal government is the only entity left with the resources to jolt our economy back to life. It is only government that can break the vicious cycle where lost jobs lead to people spending less money which leads to even more layoffs. And breaking that cycle is exactly what the plan that’s moving through Congress is designed to do." Obama in Elkhart

Augustana at the Varsity Theater Jan.28

It's a damn shame I missed this...
This is an amazing band. I am very impressed with their style and lyrics. If you have a chance to listen to more of their music give them a chance. It's worth it!

Missy Higgins at Oake on the Ice. Feb. 5

See Missy at the First Ave in MPLS on March 15.

Sandwich

Fun Linux Commands

% cat "food in cans"
cat: can't open food in cans

% nice man woman
No manual entry for woman.

% "How would you rate Quayle's incompetence?
Unmatched ".

% Unmatched ".
Unmatched ".

% [Where is Jimmy Hoffa?
Missing ].

% ^How did the sex change operation go?^
Modifier failed.

% If I had a ( for every $ the Congress spent, what would I have?
Too many ('s.

% make love
Make:Don't know how to make love. Stop.

% sleep with me
bad character

% got a light?
No match.

% man: why did you get a divorce?
man:: Too many arguments.

% !:say, what is saccharine?
Bad substitute.

% %blow
%blow: No such job.

% \(-
(-: Command not found.

$ PATH=pretending! /usr/ucb/which sense
no sense in pretending!

$ drink matter
matter: cannot create

STAR TREK WIDGET