The Kindle “Creep Factor”
As I’ve noted before, it is my theory that Amazon does not actual sell e-books on it’s Kindle device, it leases the book to the reader.
Another point of evidence to support that theory has just come out. According to this New York Times story, Amazon can delete e-books off your Kindle, that you have “purchased” from them, without your knowledge or consent.
One of the books removed, George Orwell’s “1984”
Update: Keep in mind that Amazon was the first company to grab a noticable portion of Apple’s iTunes digital formated music business by offering MP3 files without copy protection. Amazon is using it’s dominate position in the online bookselling business to force an ugly “DRM” scheme on its customers that assumes that they are thieves.
Amazon, and publishing companies, need to recognize that they make most of their money off avid readers who are willing to spend money to support their favorite authors. Their fear driven reaction to the fear mongering of the RIAA is pushing them toward a business model that is hostile toward their best customers. They would better serve their customers, and their stockholders, by working with the customer instead of treating them like criminals.
We the People Stimulus Package
Friday B-Movie Pick: The Running Man
An Arnold Schwarzenegger classic from 1997. California in 2017 has become a police state in the wake of the world’s economy’s total collapse. The hero is wrong accused and tossed in a brutal prison along with Yaphet Kotto’s character, who is there for teaching kids about the Constitution of the United States of America. Ya, I know, it sounds like where America is heading under the reign of our Dear Leader. Besides that, it’s a fun film with added bonuses like Jesse Ventura, Professor Toru Tanaka, Mick Fleetwood, and great performance by Richard Dawson. It was directed by Paul Michael Glaser, From the Starsky and Hutch TV show, and choreography by Paula Abdul.
Obama’s Dismal Failure
The democrat’s “stimulus” bill has been proven to be what it was labeled when it was rammed through congress and down the throats of the American people, a “porkulus” bill. It was supposed to boost the economy, but has had the predictable, opposite effect.
“The report we got from the Department of Transportation is dated July 3rd,” said Mica at the Capitol Hill press conference. “It indicates how much money of the $48 billion [allocated to the Transportation Department] they have control over has gone out — that’s $523 million – 1 percent, approximately 1 percent. And the top 10 states of unemployment, our leading states, including the District of Columbia, only $83 million has gone out to those states.”
“This stimulus package was sold to the country as being an infrastructure bill,” said Rep. John ‘Jimmy’ Duncan (R-Tenn.), “and yet only somewhere between 7 and 8 percent of it was aimed at or provided for infrastructure in the first place.”
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“Remember, the stimulus promised 3.5 million jobs was being created, and yet 2 million jobs – additional lost jobs – have been lost. Dismal failure.”“The stimulus promised,” said Diaz-Balart, “and we were told that in the budget committee and we were told that publicly by the administration, that unemployment would not go above 8 percent if that stimulus passed. Look at the numbers now.”
Of course the democrat’s porkulus bill isn’t helping the economy. That isn’t what it was intended to do. The goal of the Obama administration is not to fix the economy, but to fundamentally change the role of government in the United States of America.
Morning Round Up.
Filed under: Culture of Corruption, Our Dear Leader, Politics
NYC Mayor Bloomberg is pissed at both Hillary Rodham Clinton and our Dear Leader. While breaking his campaign promise and jacking the taxes of Americans through the roof, HRC, likely acting on orders from BHO, exempted foreign diplomats from paying property taxes that have been in place since 1873. This will cost NYC, which is having budget problems like most Americans & American businesses, $260 million. This is on top of the $66 million the State Department owes NYC for providing police security for United Nations missions. I’d feel bad over this, but NYC voted overwhelmingly for both HRC as a carpetbagging Senator and for our Dear Leader. The residents of NYC are getting what they asked for, good and hard.
It also appears that our Dear Leader is getting tired of having to answer pesky questions from the American people, like “Why did you screw the pooch on the economy?” He canceled a “Town Hall” style meeting, that would have included questions from the American people and replaced it with a teleprompter driven speech with no questions. No pesky citizens either, since the venue for the speech is closed to the public. No Sunshine here.
House democrats are seeking a $540 Billion Tax increase in order to pay for what idiots on the left are calling “free health care.” The policies of congressional democrats and our Dear Leader have driven a bad economy even worse, and now they want to put a crippling tax on the American people. Hardly surprising, this latest bit of idiotic behavior is being driven by tax cheat Charles Rangel.
While the government is under the control of democrats, the federal deficit has reached a new record, $1 Trillion dollars. Given that most of our Dear Leader‘s staff doesn’t pay taxes, it’s up to you to foot that bill. Oh, and expect that to go much higher. They are out to radically change the American government, and they really don’t care what it costs.
I’ve been writing about the President’s war on Inspector Generals, the people who’s job is to find corruption and waste in the federal government. That story isn’t going away as fast as our Dear Leader and the MSM would like it too.
Monday Book Pick: A Hymn Before Battle
Filed under: Baen Books, Monday Book Pick, Science Fiction
A Hymn Before Battle by John Ringo
John Ringo’s first novel, and the first in his Posleen War Series, also know as the Legacy of Aldenata series. A ripping good yarn. It has back stabbing alien “allies”, really bad bad aliens, and ends with a massive battle on an alien planet.
Ya, I know it’s Tuesday. I’m late.
Evaluating the Stimulus effect
Filed under: Culture of Corruption, economy, Our Dear Leader, Politics
Our Dear Leader and his democrat cronies are backpedaling and trying to lower expectations on their massive porkulus program funded by skyrocketing massive federal debt.
The fact that the pork ladened democrat driven stimulus bill is not stimulating the economy or creating jobs shouldn’t be a surprised.
Harvard economics professor Greg Mankiw pointed out back in January that almost two thirds of the stimulus money is not scheduled to be spent until after 2010. For Americans suffering under the Obama Economy, that is not good news. It is clearly designed to delay economic benefit until the beginning of the 2012 election cycle.
It isn’t helping the economy now, because only 8% of the one trillion dollar porkulus program is scheduled to be spent in 2009! We are now learning that the money is being spent much more slowly than planned, and appears to be directly funded to areas and organizations that were strong supporters of our Dear Leader. Yup, hardly surprising that there is more than whiff of corruption associated with the democrats porkulus program.
It’s interesting to look back at what the Congressional Budget Office had to say about the economy back in February. They projected an unemployment peak of 9.2% hitting in early 2010. That was if the federal government kept its mitts off the economy. Given the liberal democrat meddling, we hit 9.5% at least six months early. The CBO predicted that the economy would be on the mend by late 2009. So it is clear that our Dear Leader‘s meddling has made things worse for the American people.
The important thing to remember is that Obama’s goal is not to fix the economy, but to fundamentally change the role of government in the United States of America.
Update: Keith Hennessey has an excellent fisking of our Dear Leader’s statement on the economy.
Death of Transparency at the Obama White House
Filed under: Culture of Corruption, Our Dear Leader, Politics
Remember how our Dear Leader promised more “transparency” and “sunlight” to government? Well, that was just smoke and mirrors (a polite term for Bullshit) to get the rubes to vote for him.
Here is the reality of the Obama regime. “A few weeks ago, the Obama Administration officially abandoned the President’s “Sunlight before Signing” campaign pledge that the White House would post all legislation passed by Congress for at least five days before the President would sign it.”
Jim Harper, of the Cato Institute points out, nine new pieces of legislation have been signed into law by the President and yet, as of Friday July 10, 2009, not one had been posted on the White House web site.
Yup, the stench of hypocrisy in the Obama White House is getting pretty thick.
Gov. Palin to fundraise for Conservatives, democrat & Republican
The Washington Times has the scoop on this one.
Brushing aside the criticisms of pundits and politicos, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin said she plans to jump immediately back into the national political fray — stumping for conservative issues and even Democrats
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The former Republican vice-presidential nominee and heroine to much of the GOP’s base said in an interview she views the electorate as embattled and fatigued by nonstop partisanship, and she is eager to campaign for Republicans, independents and even Democrats who share her values on limited government, strong defense and “energy independence.”
Bingo! It’s fiscal conservative values that will save this country! Better a Blue Dog democrat who is a strong fiscal conservative and supports RKBA than a leftist, anti-Civil Rights, big government Republican.
Honesty from the Press, after the deed was done
Via Newsbusters, White House reporter Carl Cannon, admits that the majority of the MSM was hostile toward Gov. Sarah Palin and “seriously failed to scrutinize Joe Biden, especially his fact-mangling and odd statements in the vice presidential debate.”
In the 2008 election, we took sides, straight and simple, particularly with regard to the vice presidential race. I don’t know that we played a decisive role in that campaign, and I’m not saying the better side lost. What I am saying is that we simply didn’t hold Joe Biden to the same standard as Sarah Palin, and for me, the real loser in this sordid tale is my chosen profession.
First off, thanks for admitting the glaringly obvious. Secondly, it’s pretty cowardly of Cannon to come out with this nine months after the election. Saying this publicly back in October 2008 would have show real guts and journalistic integrity. Cannon goes on to point out just how much of a free ride the press give Joey Biden, the Gaffe Master.
Sen. Biden, however, was in a place by himself when it came to bogus claims, absurd contentions, and flights of rhetorical fancy. He threw out several assertions that were so preposterous that – had Palin made them – they would have prompted immediate calls for McCain to dump her from the ticket.
The good senator from Delaware warmed up slowly, erroneously claiming that McCain voted with Obama on a budget resolution, and asserting wrongly that Obama wanted to return to the Reagan-era marginal income tax rates. He also embarked on an appallingly wrongheaded monologue about the constitutional history of the vice presidency. But when the talk turned to national security, presumably Biden’s purported area of expertise, he went completely off the grid.
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To me Biden’s most discordant claims concerned his Animal House-like history lecture about the office of the vice president. It came while Biden was dressing down Dick Cheney, who was not present, for supposedly being unfamiliar with the Constitution. “The idea (that) he doesn’t realize that Article I of the Constitution defines the role of the vice president of the United States – that’s the executive branch – he works in the executive branch,” Biden said. “He should understand that. Everyone should understand that. And the primary role of the vice president of the United States is to support the president of the United States of America, give that president his or her best judgment when sought, and, as vice president, to preside over the Senate, only in a time when in fact there’s a tie vote. The Constitution is explicit….He has no authority relative to the Congress. The idea he’s part of the legislative branch is a bizarre notion invented by Cheney to aggrandize the power of a unitary executive, and look where it has gotten us.”Lord, would Tina Fey have had fun with this jumble of misinformation – if only Palin had said it! Article I defines the legislative, not executive, branch. The vice president is, indeed, mentioned there. What Biden finds “explicit,” hasn’t been so to previous vice presidents or to most constitutional scholars. Prior to the 20th century, vice presidents didn’t even have offices at the White House compound – they were housed in the Capitol. The notion that a veep’s constitutional authority is to provide advice to a president springs from Biden’s brow; it certainly isn’t mentioned, or even contemplated, in the Constitution, which doesn’t even say whether the vice president should receive a salary.
Should Joe Biden have known this stuff? Since he chaired the Senate Judiciary Committee, you’d hope so. But even if he didn’t, you’d think it would be news when he unleashed a veritable fount of misinformation to impugn Palin’s knowledge of the federal system while attacking a sitting vice president. It barely rated a mention in the collective mainstream media.
This isn’t “news” to anybody paying attention, but it is interesting to see a member of the DNC/MSM out his profession for blatant unprofessionalism. Of course, he is doing nine months after the election, and well before the next election cycle. Either way, I don’t think readers of the New York Times will ever know of Cannon’s confession.
Here is an impression of Gov. Palin from “Saturday Night Live” senior producer Marci Klein, that is more accurate than any mocking satire from Tina Fey, “This is the most confident person I’ve ever met.”