Diving In

All I can say is, maybe I am getting a little bit too old to try to learn new tricks.

I can fool around with the blog here, do little things like change the CSS and play with the widgets, mostly copy-and-paste type stuff. I can even do a bit with php and html in an editor. But I’ve never actually ‘learned’ how to code.

I remember back in the mid 80s I read a few books on ‘programming’. I was rather interested in Forth for awhile, but an accident kinda sidelined me for a few years and the time just passed me by. I dove backwards into a pool of water about 2 feet deep. I just forgot about it after that.

So here I am, curiously enough, about the amount of years since the accident as I was old when the accident occurred. I’ve always felt like I was starting over somehow, from scratch, and it’s been interesting how in some ways this life parallels that one. It makes me wonder sometimes what I would be doing now if all that had been avoided…

Regardless, here I sit taking a break from my meticulous study of javascript. I’ve decided that the best way to do what I want to do is from within the browser, so I’ll be developing a Firefox extension.

Hopefully, soon.

I am Jon. I want to change your world. (insert bwah ha ha here)

Original @ Wordout

Past The Prime Hippie Tackles Javascript

Look Mommy, There’s An Airplane

By now, this is old news, but I like this little display tool so much that I want to show it to you. It’s iPaper from Scribd.com, and it’s a fantastic way to publish and share documents online. It’s free for anyone to use. All you have to do is fly on over to their site and get started.

Personally, I love it. It’s like a plane - one look and you know exactly what it is and how to use it. It does what’s expected, having all the needed controls and nothing more, no fluff. This is the simplicity of intentional, elegant design.

And the price tag can’t be beat. Go ahead, try it out below!

Up In The Sky

Oh yeah, the subject of the iPaper… seems Congress finally realized that they needed to be serving video from somewhere other than their own servers, so it’s just a memo describing some things they want to keep in mind as they move video to the cloud. Just the usual stuff, like making sure it’s respectably presented. So I guess we can look forward to the Youtube Congress Channel, coming soon to a monitor in front of you!

Or not. Who watches Congressional video anyway?

I am Jon, and yeah, I confess… I watch’em.

Original @ Wordout

Scribd iPaper - Free Publishing In The Cloud

The Power of Nightmares

In comment #24 of a post over at ThinkProgress, Pete gives a couple of links to info on a BBC series, The Power of Nightmares. That link is to the Wikipedia article, and below are the 7 Youtube videos which together present one of the shows, ‘Baby It’s Cold Outside‘, uploaded by the user ouroboros712. He describes the series this way:

I’m not a serious heavyweight in my understanding of ‘how we got here’, but neither am I a total slouch. So I was very pleased to find that this series includes several interesting pieces of information I did not have already, or had not understood within a larger context. If you have an insatiable curiosity, or there’s just nothing on the boobtube tonight, take an hour and watch these. You’ll be glad you did. If you only have about 10 minutes, I suggest watching at least the last 2 parts. Enjoy…

I’m Jon, and I just gotta ask: How does it make you feel , watching these guys on camera, seeing how they’ve manipulated the choices in your life?

Original @ Wordout

Baby, It’s Cold Outside

That Was Then

I read lots of blogs. One of my favorite bloggers is Howard Lindzon, hedge fund manager, investor and founder of a cool site called Wallstrip. From their “About” page:

That said, they recently did a show on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Julie, their world class reporter, presents an amusing but eerily sober assessment. She gives us a worst case scenario (which of course didn’t happen) to explain why the government would most likely step in and prop up the two companies. It’s a quick couple of minutes. Check it out…(blame CBS for the ironic choice of commercial)

This Is Now

As we know, the government did take steps to keep Freddie and Fannie afloat. In a scene played out in the weekend hours, reminiscent of a Bear Stearns bailout, the government implemented measures that would postpone the looming disaster.

And if you were paying attention to Julie, you should understand why they had to do it. Half of all our mortgages are backed by those two companies. More than 5 Trillion dollars of debt, spread around the world, attached in one way or another to mostly worthless CDOs. Even though Freddie and Fannie were both private companies, it was always expected they were somehow backed by the US government.

And when push came to shove, that perception became a sort of self-fulfilling prophecy. Our economy is dependent on foreign investments. Many of those countries are heavily invested in these worthless CDOs, and if our government allows a major player like Freddie or Fannie to go under, all hell will break loose.

And not just in the USA, either. The global economy right now is strung together like so many electric poles along the side of the road. Each individual piece is tied firmly to the others and if one falls, it will pull the others down with it.

I’m Jon, watching the lines sway with the wind.

Original @ Wordout

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac on Wallstrip

Monty HallImage by Getty Images via Daylife
Let’s Make A Deal

Carefully thinking your way through complex problems, one step at a time, reveals an easy method to increase your odds of success from the outset. Sometimes, the obvious answer is not quite right.

Take, for instance, the Monty Hall problem. Here, you’re offered the chance to pick a wonderful prize hidden behind one of three doors. After you make your choice, one of the other doors is opened, revealing one of the gag prizes, and you are given the chance to change your choice. What should you do, change or stay with your first choice?

The answer might surprise you…

I am Jon, and I’ll take what’s hidden behind door number 4.

Original @ Wordout

The Monty Hall Problem

Image via WikipediaThe Name

I love this guy’s name. With a name like that you could be anything from a movie star to a clown, from a country singer to a gifted composer. This guy chose to be a billionaire oilman/corporate raider. And that should tell you something about his ‘energy plan’.

Implementing his plan would make T. Boone Pickens tons of money. You see, Mr. Pickens owns plenty of land that has a little bit of oil and LOTS of natural gas. It’s the gas he wants to sell, not the wind power. Wind powered electricity generation is just the leverage he wants to use to sell all that natural gas. If he’s successful, he’ll not only help get us off oil. He’ll turn the US oil market on its side.

We’re Not Addicted To Oil

I’d admit that his plan would help us get off our oil addiction, if that was something worth agreeing with. Only problem with that is, we’re not addicted to oil. We’re addicted to non-renewables (like natural gas). This plan is like substituting crystal meth for LSD: neither one is good for you. Plus, it would take 10 years to implement his plan, and we simply don’t have 10 years.

Besides, we need to do something drastic about emissions from all these cars. Even if natural gas emissions are 30% lower than conventional gasoline, that’s still putting too much into the atmosphere. Whether anybody wants to admit it or not, we need to reduce those emissions to ZERO. And again, we simply do not have 10 years to work on it.

So, with that said, watch the one minute video below for Mr. Pickens’ point of view. Final comments after the vid….

Pickens Plan

We are in a crisis.

Largest Transfer Of Wealth

I hesitate to include this thought, because it is the subject of a series of posts I’m working on, but I just want to drop a bug in your ear about that statement, made by T. Boone Pickens in the video above. All I’m saying here and now is this: There is a connection between the recent mortgage crisis, the current financial crisis, the energy (prices) crisis and other world events. You can wait for me to finish the series, or you can start looking around yourself. The information is spread all around the internet, and you can find it if you look hard enough.

Back To T. Boone Pickens’ Plan

Since the plan is a half-assed attempt to profit from natural gas using wind as the leverage, I’m throwing myself 100% behind the lever. I want those wind generators online as soon as possible. As for the rest of it, the part about making Mr. Pickens a hefty profit on his natural gas holdings, I could care less. While I’m not against his profit, I can see many ways he could profit in other areas. Wind generation is one. And, since he’s already on the dirt with the windmills, how about a hefty mix of solar collectors as well?

There is a place for natural gas to be used in our world. There is a place for oil and a place for coal. But none of those things should be producing energy for our private vehicles, or our homes, or our offices or our factories. Whether we want to or not, we simply have to change that mindset.

I am Jon. Thanks for stopping by.

More info at
Climate Progress

Interesting quick research from Mike, commenting over at The Energy Blog:

Looking at the IEA data for 2007 for OECD countries that provide ‘leadership’ for wind there is some interesting results:

The winner is Denmark where 83% of electricity is produced by burning fossil fuels. Very very green. The Netherlands in next at 79% fossil. Portugal – 69%, Germany 68%. Spain is not doing too bad at 62% but that may have more to do with 18% nuclear generation than wind and solar.

Excuse me but I will ignore these folks when they pitch their ‘good’ ideas for reducing ghg.

Next I took a different approach. I looked to see who was burning the least fossil fuel to make electricity. The winner is the Swiss at 3% fossil, 40% nuke, and the rest hydroelectric. Cheaters.

Sweden is not far behind at 9 % fossil, 40% nuke. France at 12% fossil, 85% nuke. Slovak Republic 27 % fossil, 51% nuke.

Original @ Wordout

T. Boone Pickens - A Bit Of Green, Alot Of Profit

Read This, Please

And seriously think about it. I know it’s a bit long.

So take a deep breath. Relax a moment. You owe that to yourself.

Now read this… you owe that to yourself, too.

Al Gore: A Generational Challenge to Repower America

Ladies and gentlemen:

There are times in the history of our nation when our very way of life depends upon dispelling illusions and awakening to the challenge of a present danger. In such moments, we are called upon to move quickly and boldly to shake off complacency, throw aside old habits and rise, clear-eyed and alert, to the necessity of big changes. Those who, for whatever reason, refuse to do their part must either be persuaded to join the effort or asked to step aside. This is such a moment. The survival of the United States of America as we know it is at risk. And even more - if more should be required - the future of human civilization is at stake.

I don’t remember a time in our country when so many things seemed to be going so wrong simultaneously. Our economy is in terrible shape and getting worse, gasoline prices are increasing dramatically, and so are electricity rates. Jobs are being outsourced. Home mortgages are in trouble. Banks, automobile companies and other institutions we depend upon are under growing pressure. Distinguished senior business leaders are telling us that this is just the beginning unless we find the courage to make some major changes quickly.

The climate crisis, in particular, is getting a lot worse - much more quickly than predicted. Scientists with access to data from Navy submarines traversing underneath the North polar ice cap have warned that there is now a 75 percent chance that within five years the entire ice cap will completely disappear during the summer months. This will further increase the melting pressure on Greenland. According to experts, the Jakobshavn glacier, one of Greenland’s largest, is moving at a faster rate than ever before, losing 20 million tons of ice every day, equivalent to the amount of water used every year by the residents of New York City.

Two major studies from military intelligence experts have warned our leaders about the dangerous national security implications of the climate crisis, including the possibility of hundreds of millions of climate refugees destabilizing nations around the world.

Just two days ago, 27 senior statesmen and retired military leaders warned of the national security threat from an “energy tsunami” that would be triggered by a loss of our access to foreign oil. Meanwhile, the war in Iraq continues, and now the war in Afghanistan appears to be getting worse.

And by the way, our weather sure is getting strange, isn’t it? There seem to be more tornadoes than in living memory, longer droughts, bigger downpours and record floods. Unprecedented fires are burning in California and elsewhere in the American West. Higher temperatures lead to drier vegetation that makes kindling for mega-fires of the kind that have been raging in Canada, Greece, Russia, China, South America, Australia and Africa. Scientists in the Department of Geophysics and Planetary Science at Tel Aviv University tell us that for every one degree increase in temperature, lightning strikes will go up another 10 percent. And it is lightning, after all, that is principally responsible for igniting the conflagration in California today.

Like a lot of people, it seems to me that all these problems are bigger than any of the solutions that have thus far been proposed for them, and that’s been worrying me.

I’m convinced that one reason we’ve seemed paralyzed in the face of these crises is our tendency to offer old solutions to each crisis separately - without taking the others into account. And these outdated proposals have not only been ineffective - they almost always make the other crises even worse.

Yet when we look at all three of these seemingly intractable challenges at the same time, we can see the common thread running through them, deeply ironic in its simplicity: our dangerous over-reliance on carbon-based fuels is at the core of all three of these challenges - the economic, environmental and national security crises.

We’re borrowing money from China to buy oil from the Persian Gulf to burn it in ways that destroy the planet. Every bit of that’s got to change.

But if we grab hold of that common thread and pull it hard, all of these complex problems begin to unravel and we will find that we’re holding the answer to all of them right in our hand.
The answer is to end our reliance on carbon-based fuels.

In my search for genuinely effective answers to the climate crisis, I have held a series of “solutions summits” with engineers, scientists, and CEOs. In those discussions, one thing has become abundantly clear: when you connect the dots, it turns out that the real solutions to the climate crisis are the very same measures needed to renew our economy and escape the trap of ever-rising energy prices. Moreover, they are also the very same solutions we need to guarantee our national security without having to go to war in the Persian Gulf.

What if we could use fuels that are not expensive, don’t cause pollution and are abundantly available right here at home?

We have such fuels. Scientists have confirmed that enough solar energy falls on the surface of the earth every 40 minutes to meet 100 percent of the entire world’s energy needs for a full year. Tapping just a small portion of this solar energy could provide all of the electricity America uses.

And enough wind power blows through the Midwest corridor every day to also meet 100 percent of US electricity demand. Geothermal energy, similarly, is capable of providing enormous supplies of electricity for America.

The quickest, cheapest and best way to start using all this renewable energy is in the production of electricity. In fact, we can start right now using solar power, wind power and geothermal power to make electricity for our homes and businesses.

But to make this exciting potential a reality, and truly solve our nation’s problems, we need a new start.

That’s why I’m proposing today a strategic initiative designed to free us from the crises that are holding us down and to regain control of our own destiny. It’s not the only thing we need to do. But this strategic challenge is the lynchpin of a bold new strategy needed to re-power America.

Today I challenge our nation to commit to producing 100 percent of our electricity from renewable energy and truly clean carbon-free sources within 10 years.

This goal is achievable, affordable and transformative. It represents a challenge to all Americans - in every walk of life: to our political leaders, entrepreneurs, innovators, engineers, and to every citizen.

A few years ago, it would not have been possible to issue such a challenge. But here’s what’s changed: the sharp cost reductions now beginning to take place in solar, wind, and geothermal power - coupled with the recent dramatic price increases for oil and coal - have radically changed the economics of energy.

When I first went to Congress 32 years ago, I listened to experts testify that if oil ever got to $35 a barrel, then renewable sources of energy would become competitive. Well, today, the price of oil is over $135 per barrel. And sure enough, billions of dollars of new investment are flowing into the development of concentrated solar thermal, photovoltaics, windmills, geothermal plants, and a variety of ingenious new ways to improve our efficiency and conserve presently wasted energy.

And as the demand for renewable energy grows, the costs will continue to fall. Let me give you one revealing example: the price of the specialized silicon used to make solar cells was recently as high as $300 per kilogram. But the newest contracts have prices as low as $50 a kilogram.

You know, the same thing happened with computer chips - also made out of silicon. The price paid for the same performance came down by 50 percent every 18 months - year after year, and that’s what’s happened for 40 years in a row.

3

To those who argue that we do not yet have the technology to accomplish these results with renewable energy: I ask them to come with me to meet the entrepreneurs who will drive this revolution. I’ve seen what they are doing and I have no doubt that we can meet this challenge.

To those who say the costs are still too high: I ask them to consider whether the costs of oil and coal will ever stop increasing if we keep relying on quickly depleting energy sources to feed a rapidly growing demand all around the world. When demand for oil and coal increases, their price goes up. When demand for solar cells increases, the price often comes down.

When we send money to foreign countries to buy nearly 70 percent of the oil we use every day, they build new skyscrapers and we lose jobs. When we spend that money building solar arrays and windmills, we build competitive industries and gain jobs here at home.

Of course there are those who will tell us this can’t be done. Some of the voices we hear are the defenders of the status quo - the ones with a vested interest in perpetuating the current system, no matter how high a price the rest of us will have to pay. But even those who reap the profits of the carbon age have to recognize the inevitability of its demise. As one OPEC oil minister observed, “The Stone Age didn’t end because of a shortage of stones.”

To those who say 10 years is not enough time, I respectfully ask them to consider what the world’s scientists are telling us about the risks we face if we don’t act in 10 years. The leading experts predict that we have less than 10 years to make dramatic changes in our global warming pollution lest we lose our ability to ever recover from this environmental crisis. When the use of oil and coal goes up, pollution goes up. When the use of solar, wind and geothermal increases, pollution comes down.

To those who say the challenge is not politically viable: I suggest they go before the American people and try to defend the status quo. Then bear witness to the people’s appetite for change.
I for one do not believe our country can withstand 10 more years of the status quo. Our families cannot stand 10 more years of gas price increases. Our workers cannot stand 10 more years of job losses and outsourcing of factories. Our economy cannot stand 10 more years of sending $2 billion every 24 hours to foreign countries for oil. And our soldiers and their families cannot take another 10 years of repeated troop deployments to dangerous regions that just happen to have large oil supplies.

What could we do instead for the next 10 years? What should we do during the next 10 years? Some of our greatest accomplishments as a nation have resulted from commitments to reach a goal that fell well beyond the next election: the Marshall Plan, Social Security, the interstate highway system. But a political promise to do something

40 years from now is universally ignored because everyone knows that it’s meaningless. Ten years is about the maximum time that we as a nation can hold a steady aim and hit our target.
When President John F. Kennedy challenged our nation to land a man on the moon and bring him back safely in 10 years, many people doubted we could accomplish that goal. But 8 years and 2 months later, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on the surface of the moon.

To be sure, reaching the goal of 100 percent renewable and truly clean electricity within 10 years will require us to overcome many obstacles. At present, for example, we do not have a unified national grid that is sufficiently advanced to link the areas where the sun shines and the wind blows to the cities in the East and the West that need the electricity. Our national electric grid is critical infrastructure, as vital to the health and security of our economy as our highways and telecommunication networks. Today, our grids are antiquated, fragile, and vulnerable to cascading failure. Power outages and defects in the current grid system cost US businesses more than $120 billion dollars a year. It has to be upgraded anyway.

We could further increase the value and efficiency of a Unified National Grid by helping our struggling auto giants switch to the manufacture of plug-in electric cars. An electric vehicle fleet would sharply reduce the cost of driving a car, reduce pollution, and increase the flexibility of our electricity grid.

At the same time, of course, we need to greatly improve our commitment to efficiency and conservation. That’s the best investment we can make.

America’s transition to renewable energy sources must also include adequate provisions to assist those Americans who would unfairly face hardship. For example, we must recognize those who have toiled in dangerous conditions to bring us our present energy supply. We should guarantee good jobs in the fresh air and sunshine for any coal miner displaced by impacts on the coal industry. Every single one of them.

Of course, we could and should speed up this transition by insisting that the price of carbon-based energy include the costs of the environmental damage it causes. I have long supported a sharp reduction in payroll taxes with the difference made up in CO2 taxes. We should tax what we burn, not what we earn. This is the single most important policy change we can make.

In order to foster international cooperation, it is also essential that the United States rejoin the global community and lead efforts to secure an international treaty at Copenhagen in December of next year that includes a cap on CO2 emissions and a global partnership that recognizes the necessity of addressing the threats of extreme poverty and disease as part of the world’s agenda for solving the climate crisis.

Of course the greatest obstacle to meeting the challenge of 100 percent renewable electricity in 10 years may be the deep dysfunction of our politics and our self-governing system as it exists today. In recent years, our politics has tended toward incremental proposals made up of small policies designed to avoid offending special interests, alternating with occasional baby steps in the right direction. Our democracy has become sclerotic at a time when these crises require boldness.

It is only a truly dysfunctional system that would buy into the perverse logic that the short-term answer to high gasoline prices is drilling for more oil ten years from now.

Am I the only one who finds it strange that our government so often adopts a so-called solution that has absolutely nothing to do with the problem it is supposed to address? When people rightly complain about higher gasoline prices, we propose to give more money to the oil companies and pretend that they’re going to bring gasoline prices down. It will do nothing of the sort, and everyone knows it. If we keep going back to the same policies that have never ever worked in the past and have served only to produce the highest gasoline prices in history alongside the greatest oil company profits in history, nobody should be surprised if we get the same result over and over again. But the Congress may be poised to move in that direction anyway because some of them are being stampeded by lobbyists for special interests that know how to make the system work for them instead of the American people.

If you want to know the truth about gasoline prices, here it is: the exploding demand for oil, especially in places like China, is overwhelming the rate of new discoveries by so much that oil prices are almost certain to continue upward over time no matter what the oil companies promise. And politicians cannot bring gasoline prices down in the short term.

However, there actually is one extremely effective way to bring the costs of driving a car way down within a few short years. The way to bring gas prices down is to end our dependence on oil and use the renewable sources that can give us the equivalent of $1 per gallon gasoline.

Many Americans have begun to wonder whether or not we’ve simply lost our appetite for bold policy solutions. And folks who claim to know how our system works these days have told us we might as well forget about our political system doing anything bold, especially if it is contrary to the wishes of special interests. And I’ve got to admit, that sure seems to be the way things have been going. But I’ve begun to hear different voices in this country from people who are not only tired of baby steps and special interest politics, but are hungry for a new, different and bold approach.

We are on the eve of a presidential election. We are in the midst of an international climate treaty process that will conclude its work before the end of the first year of the new president’s term. It is a great error to say that the United States must wait for others to join us in this matter. In fact, we must move first, because that is the key to getting others to follow; and because moving first is in our own national interest.

So I ask you to join with me to call on every candidate, at every level, to accept this challenge - for America to be running on 100 percent zero-carbon electricity in 10 years. It’s time for us to move beyond empty rhetoric. We need to act now.

This is a generational moment. A moment when we decide our own path and our collective fate. I’m asking you - each of you - to join me and build this future. Please join the WE campaign at wecansolveit.org.We need you. And we need you now. We’re committed to changing not just light bulbs, but laws. And laws will only change with leadership.

On July 16, 1969, the United States of America was finally ready to meet President Kennedy’s challenge of landing Americans on the moon. I will never forget standing beside my father a few miles from the launch site, waiting for the giant Saturn 5 rocket to lift Apollo 11 into the sky. I was a young man, 21 years old, who had graduated from college a month before and was enlisting in the United States Army three weeks later.

I will never forget the inspiration of those minutes. The power and the vibration of the giant rocket’s engines shook my entire body. As I watched the rocket rise, slowly at first and then with great speed, the sound was deafening. We craned our necks to follow its path until we were looking straight up into the air. And then four days later, I watched along with hundreds of millions of others around the world as Neil Armstrong took one small step to the surface of the moon and changed the history of the human race.

We must now lift our nation to reach another goal that will change history. Our entire civilization depends upon us now embarking on a new journey of exploration and discovery. Our success depends on our willingness as a people to undertake this journey and to complete it within 10 years. Once again, we have an opportunity to take a giant leap for humankind.

Al Gore

Gee, I wish Al Gore had been elected in 2000. (Well, I wish he had stayed elected.)

I am Jon. Thanks for reading. Now, think.

Original @ Wordout

Al Gore: A Generational Challenge to Repower America

Is This All We Care About?Image via WikipediaJello Brain

The seeds of the current state of our nation were sown nearly (or more than) a hundred years ago. Following the twists and turns of politics, wars and the global economy over a century can make you feel like your brain is made of jello, but with diligence it is possible to make some sense out of it.

The United States of America is at one of those critical moments in its history, when the definition of the nation is at stake. Throughout recorded history we find examples where leaders should naturally have known the terrible outcomes of their choices, but did not. We also find examples of a population too busy to bother with the affairs of their state until their way of life was gone. Much can be learned about the nature of a nation by looking at its choices.

Our once great nation seems to be intentionally tearing down the very structure that once made it great. The recent successful attack on our Constitutional rights by the Legislature and Executive of the United States, with the limited response it received from our media corps and the general population, provides evidence to the present world audience and all future historians that America has progressed dangerously close to, if not beyond, a capitalist-fascist-imperialist system.

Hypocrites

We have mistaken military might for the right to wield it. Our leaders prance like peacocks across the world theatre, making pitiful but threatening noises. They are like bullies on the playground. They ignore the agreements we have made with those who were once our allies, who look at us now and wonder who we are. Where once we held the highest moral ground, now we are listed with those countries known for human rights abuses.

While mortgage defaults reach as high as 50% in some places, our leaders are more concerned with bailing out the companies who got us into this mess. The local mortgage holder (homeowner) might have received 600 or 1200 bucks, in most cases not enough for one mortgage payment. By contrast, Bear Stearns received billions. FannieMae and FreddieMac will receive TRILLIONS in support, financed by yours truly, the American public.

Why are we not speaking out? Where is the patriotism I remember seeing as a young boy, when thousands would march in the streets against conditions less extreme than these? Is it true that those people were nothing more than the hypocrites they marched in the streets to protest?

We once impeached a president for wiretapping in a hotel in DC. Do we now pass a law to cover up this president’s wiretapping of all of America? Why do we not ask more questions? Why has our voice faded to a whispered sigh on the wind?

My Little Town

I talk to people, here in my little town of about 14,000 - Reidsville, my home. We have some pretty smart people living ’round these parts, but you know, they just don’t keep up with this stuff. In their lives, they don’t really have the time to keep up. That’s what we elect people to do, to take care of all that for us. Many people just don’t understand, and don’t want to understand, that those people they elected are the ones doing this to them.

It is plain that we cannot trust our leaders any longer. This is America, and we may still have the right to replace them with leaders who will respect the Constitution and the Rule of Law. Our votes may still count, and if that is true, then we need to replace every Representative and every Senator who voted to pass the FISA Amendment. If ever a single vote exposed the true allegiance of these legislators, it was that vote.

The vote was clearly a vote either For or Against the 4th Amendment. Those who voted For the bill were casting a vote against the Constitution, against our way of life. We need to Vote Them Out.

I am Jon, and I plan to VotemOut!

.

Original @ Wordout

In My Little Town

Image via WikipediaMyths and Facts

MYTH: The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) has not kept up with the technology revolution we have experienced over the past 30 years.
FACT: There is absolutely no new technology that evades the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). Besides, the FISA has been updated more than 50 times since being enacted in the ’70s; it was updated as recently as last year.

MYTH: Retroactive immunity for telecoms is essential because the intelligence community requires the willing cooperation of the private sector in order to conduct surveillance operations.
FACT: Lawful surveillance under FISA is accomplished through court orders that compel the cooperation of telecommunications companies. Telecommunications companies that comply with lawful orders or Attorney General certifications under FISA are protected against liability arising from that cooperation. Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell has testified that the telecom companies that cooperated with the NSA’s post-9/11 surveillance programs received certifications, which would mean they already have immunity – unless of course those certifications are clearly illegal. Telecom immunity would only protect companies that illegally assisted the government. Private sector companies should not be encouraged to cooperate with illegal government requests.

MYTH: Telecoms will not cooperate with future intelligence efforts if they don’t receive immunity.
FACT: FISA orders and Protect America Act (PAA) directives are compulsory. Telecoms must comply with lawful orders. Telecoms only had discretion when they decided to cooperate with illegal government requests. They should be held responsible for breaking the law. No one should be above the law.

MYTH: When the PAA expires vital foreign intelligence surveillance programs will cease, and the government will not be able to conduct surveillance against new threats.
FACT: Any surveillance programs authorized under the PAA are in effect for an entire year, regardless of whether the PAA itself expires. The emergence of “new” targets for surveillance will not be a problem because the PAA authorized entire programs of surveillance, which are not limited to individual targets. If the government wants to wiretap individuals that for some reason do not fit under an authorized PAA program they can either apply for an order from the FISA Court or conduct the surveillance outside the United States.

MYTH: FISA is not an effective tool for protecting the national security.
FACT: During the Cold War FISA protected America from the threat of a nuclear-armed Soviet Union. FISA is a robust and nimble tool that gives the government significant powers to wiretap suspected terrorists while protecting the rights of innocent Americans by requiring judicial oversight. In an emergency, FISA allows the government to start the surveillance before requesting court permission. While McConnell falsely credited the PAA, it was surveillance conducted under FISA that helped the German government interdict a terrorist plot in Germany last year.

MYTH: Congress knows all it needs to know about the government’s warrantless surveillance programs.
FACT: Administration officials have repeatedly hinted about “other” intelligence programs. The NSA warrantless surveillance program may only be the tip of the iceberg. Congress needs to know about all illegal government surveillance programs before it considers giving the government more surveillance powers. Only a few Members of Congress have seen the documents relating to the terrorist surveillance program and Congress should not legislate in the dark.

Copyright [2007] American Civil Liberties Union
Reprinted with permission of the
American Civil Liberties Union http://www.aclu.org

Original @ Wordout

Myths and Facts About FISA

An Article of Impeachment of George W Bush

Dennis Kucinich has begun another bid to have the House consider impeachment proceedings against Bush. This time, there is only one article listed. Watch the short video below.

The move is getting lip service in Washington, but my guess is nothing will come of it.

I am Jon, wryly smiling in the dark.

For more info on this check out TheRawStory and ThinkProgress .

Original @ Wordout

For What Purpose Does The Gentleman Rise?

Image by Wired.com via AFP
Governments Lie…

Iran recently tested some missiles. Perhaps you’ve heard about it. The photo was splashed everywhere, it seemed. Four Iranian missiles launching perfectly into the Persian sky.

Except the picture was a fake, altered to show a perfect launch. In fact, it appears that at least one of the missiles failed to launch. So the missile test wasn’t such a perfect success, after all. And the global PR campaign that the pictures supported was an abject failure.

But that didn’t stop the political posturing here in the US. Below is a quote from one of the most prominent figures in American politics. Can you guess who said this (highlights mine):

Obama Is Right, Just Not In The Correct Way

It might surprise some of you that Senator Obama said this. Even though our own National Intelligence Estimate(pdf) released in December said that Iran most likely hasn’t had a nuclear weapons program in over 5 years, Obama says ‘the threat from Iran’s nuclear program is real and it is grave.’

This just REEKS of Bullicus Shitticus. This guy sounds exactly like Bush did in the lead up to the invasion of Iraq. He is making plainly false statements, playing on baseless fears. I’m definitely not a McCain supporter, but I have to call a liar a liar and, Mr. Obama, you are a liar of the worst sort.

When you can make statements like this, employing outright lies focused on manipulating the emotions of the American people, with the obvious intent to stir us into anger so that once elected you, too, can wage an illegal war of aggression with our ‘informed’ support, then you are not just moving toward the right.

Mr Obama, You Are The Right’s Right Hand Man.

I am Jon, and I despise liars. I snicker in their general direction.

Original @ Wordout

Who Said This - Bush or Obama?

Vincent Bugliosi

When Vincent Bugliosi says he wants to prosecute GW Bush for murder, you just gotta figure he’s pretty sure he’ll win.

The name sounds familiar, huh? He’s the guy who prosecuted the Charles Manson murders back in the 70s. All in all, he’s got a pretty impressive record, especially with murder trials. Out of 106 murder trials, he’s won 105 of them. He’s also the same guy that wrote the bestseller “Helter Skelter“, and several others. His latest book has a very intriguing title.

Check out what he says about it….

As an American, I just gotta love this guy. I’ll write more about this later. I just wanted you to be aware of it now.

I am Jon, and I’m finding more to laugh about…

Original @ Wordout

The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder

King Saud With FDR in 1945Image via WikipediaAutostart Sunday

Folks that know me will be quick to recall that I absolutely despise embedded content that automatically starts as the page is loading. You find that all over MySpace, and that’s one of the reasons I don’t surf MySpace pages. So why am I doing it here?

I feel like breaking some rules, so it’s Autostart Sunday @ Wordout. The song you’re listening to is Fearless, from the Pink Floyd album, Meddle. For some of you, it’s a pleasant journey back to a simpler time. For the rest, you might be tempted to quickly click away, but I hope you’ll let it play while you read this. It relates, in a way, to what I want to say today.

More down below…

An Example

It’s an example of something we can do, that we normally wouldn’t do. It’s not illegal, it’s just… antagonistic to some people. People like me, in this case. It doesn’t hurt anybody at all, it just bothers them.

So what’s that got to do with the price of oil in Arkansas? Surprisingly, it’s got lots to do with it. Oil prices, gas prices, the ‘wars’ in Iraq and Afghanistan, the gutting of the 4th Amendment, retroactive immunity, the failure of the world’s financial system… all these things depend on everybody believing what they’re told, doing what’s expected.

Well, I don’t believe it.

For instance, if we believe what we’re told about 9/11, a group of Saudi terrorists attacked us. So we declared war on Afghanistan. Then we invaded Iraq. Now the government wants to attack Iran. Whatever happened to the fact that these terrorists were from Saudi Arabia?

It sounds like some sort of comedy plot from SNL or The Daily Show, but this is real life. How can we just sit and watch all this go down on our TVs? And again, the question: What to do about it?

Since the FISA bill was passed I’ve devoted much thinking to that question. I’ve decided that within myself there is something that will not accept the way things are, the direction our country is taking. I’ve decided that to simply live with myself, I have to do something about it.

Legally Antagonizing Federal Foolishness (LAFF)

I propose to use laughter as a means of voicing individual and collective dissatisfaction with our government in general, and our senators, congressmen and presidents specifically. When Barack Obama tells us that he now supports the FISA legislation, we shouldn’t be outraged. We should laugh at him, as if he expects us to believe anything else he says from now on. When Bush says the war is over, or there is no recession or (insert Bush words here), we should just laugh at him. That he bothers to tell us anything at all is hilarious. Nearly 9 out of every 10 Americans believe him to be a barefaced liar. His stupidly crafted lies are funny. The results of those lies: not so funny.

So what’s the point in laughing? If enough of us just start laughing at these fools, maybe we can antagonize them enough that they will get angry, and do something Really Stupid. Or maybe they will get tired of it and actually stop lying, or actually pass legislation that Helps America, instead of destroying it. In any case, it’s hard to get arrested or taken away in the night for just laughing. We can still laugh at our leaders.

Such a sad and funny thing, our leaders. They lie barefaced to the cameras with smiles on their faces, knowing they are untouchable. Our president literally lies to get us involved in an illegal war of aggression, by-passes existing laws to illegally collect every communication, every email, every phone call and text message in America, breaks other laws whenever he wants. Then our congress passes a law which says it must have been legal because the president said it was so, and to remove all doubt in the future, from now on whatever the president says is okay.

I am Jon, and I just gotta laugh at the fools.
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Fearless

You say the hill’s too steep to climb
Climb it.
You say you’d like to see me try
Climbing.

You pick the place and I’ll choose the time
And I’ll climb
That hill in my own way.
Just wait a while for the right day.
And as I rise above the tree lines and the clouds
I look down, hear the sound of the things you’ve said today.

Fearlessly the idiot faced the crowd
Smiling.
Merciless the magistrate turns ’round
Frowning.

And who’s the fool who wears the crown?
And go down,
in your own way
And every day is the right day
And as you rise above the fear-lines in his brow
You look down, hear the sound of the faces in the crowd.
(the crowd sings at a sports event)

Original @ Wordout

Fearless

No Recession Here - Move Along, Move Along

The 2nd largest bank failure in US history occured late Friday as Federal officials closed the doors on IndyMac. As reported by the LATimes, the government spent “most of Friday trying to knock down rumors of a government bailout”.

In other words, the federal government was busy doing what they do so well, Lying to the American People. Nevertheless, bank depositors were greeted by this notice on their website:

This is what it looks like when you can’t have your money.

The Running Results

Since June 27th, about 1.3 billion dollars have been withdrawn by depositors of the bank. The LATimes goes on to say:

Let me do my patriotic duty and state that again: This ‘does not signal a direction for the industry as a whole’.

Well, saying it doesn’t make me feel any better. I wonder how it made Reich feel? The truth is, that the only thing holding most banks together right now is our blind faith. Over the coming weeks I’ll be writing more in earnest about our current financial state.

We are in a bit of trouble, folks, and it seems our government thinks its job is to lie to us about it. This IndyMac failure is most definitely not the end of our non-existent recession.
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I am Jon, and I know what’s in my wallet.
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Read more about IndyMac Failure at ThinkProgress
(edited)

Original @ Wordout

IndyMac Failure - 2nd Largest In History

I am Jon, and I think today qualifies.

Original @ Wordout

HR6304 As Law - The Initial Wordout Response