July 2011
1 post
April 2011
1 post
New State Department Rules To Get A Passport Are... →
negevrockcity:
Check this out. The State Department’s new proposed Biographical Questionnaire that some passport applicants will have to fill out will include all addresses since birth; lifetime employment history including employers’ and supervisors names, addresses, and telephone numbers; personal details of all siblings; mother’s address one year prior to your birth; any “religious ceremony”...
February 2011
1 post
cheatsheet:
Detroit has been ordered to close half the city’s public schools and consolidate students as part of an emergency plan that would eliminate the district’s $327 million deficit by 2014. The plan also means that class sizes in Detroit will jump to 60 students per class.
November 2010
2 posts
October 2010
1 post
AP Poll: Americans support community colleges →
infoneer-pulse:
The vast majority of Americans feel it is better for some students to go to community college instead of a four-year school, according to a new poll by The Associated Press and Stanford University released Tuesday.
Respondents rated community colleges as excellent or good at nearly the same rate as four-year schools, showing Americans are generally pleased with two-year...
September 2010
1 post
August 2010
3 posts
“If a blog takes money for advertising, or sells photographs or other goods, it’s...”
– Bloggers crying foul over Philly business tax (via transparentcommunity)
Tax mongers
“The price of apathy towards public affairs is to be ruled by evil men.”
– Plato (via redcloud)
County's highest property taxes are in its... →
July 2010
4 posts
“In the same way that medical records are available only to people with a...”
– Privacy and Your Credit Score | Mother Jones (via shorterexcerpts) (via ericmortensen)
Truth.
“The central insight was that you wanted people who couldn’t quite stay ahead of...”
– Ezra Klein, on one of the under-reported aspects of the financial meltdown. For a fantastic account of this whole ugly business, see Daniel Brook’s really nice “Usury Country” in Harpers. (via newsweek)
One council member, Lorenzo Velez, said he was "in... →
wow.
LA Times article about inflated saleries uncovered
WSJ- The End of Community Banking →
(via sds:hilker:jessarmentrout)
“Creditworthy borrowers will be denied loans as small banks devote more and more energy to regulatory compliance.”
That should help the economy. (srcsm)
June 2010
1 post
Banks Paying Colleges For Students Who Rack Up... →
infoneer-pulse:
Some of the nation’s largest and most elite universities stand to gain millions of dollars from selling the names and addresses of students and alumni to credit card companies while granting the companies special access to school events, the Huffington Post Investigative Fund has found.
The schools and their alumni associations are entitled to receive payments that multiply as...
May 2010
1 post
“Last month, a panel from Stanford University concluded that California’s...”
– 4th Bubble: Ugly truth about state pensions begins to emerge
How will this effect local economies and spending?
March 2010
3 posts
1 tag
The second thing that has to happen is authorities have to actively seek and prosecute fraud and crime on the small scale as well as the macro scale.
1 tag
Highway Robbers
In my opinion if this nation wants to come out of debt, we must remove every tarrif or “hidden tax” on spending. This includes ATM fees, Pay Pal, bank fees, etc.
Our dollar has lost value, because we don’t know how much it is worth when we spend it.
1 tag
October 2009
1 post
“A need for new technology is not the bottleneck at this point, leadership is the...”
– SIG411 (via smartercities) (via infoneernet)
wurdup
September 2009
1 post
“This is the message that the Maroochydore High...
August 2009
3 posts
“A consumer who overdraws an account by $20, repays the bank in two weeks and...”
– Alexis Leondis, Overdraft Debit Fees Treat Customers to $300 Fast-Food Charge (via soupsoup)
Bandits don’t wait by the roadside these days, they sit behind desks.
Banks make $38 billion this year from overdraft... →
(via transparentcommunity)
And if that amount was in savings remember the interest that would accumulate. State laws should intervene on the consumer’s behalf.
July 2009
5 posts
“Society is produced by our wants, and government by wickedness; the former...”
– - Thomas Paine
via crazyfishor (via davereed)
“According to the latest data, the number of vacant U.S. homes touched...”
– Vacant U.S. Homes Stats: The U.S. Has Room for U.K. (via roomthily)
“Socrates said that manual laborers make bad friends and bad citizens because...”
– From the very long winded article: The Abolition of Work. It was a job to read it, but this bit did give me jolt because it’s pretty much dead on. Now what can we do about it? (via guy)
This is why freemarket capitalism works. And when the government overtaxes us, we become slave laborers to them...
Why Walgreens is Building Its Own Universal... →
(via hilker)
Walgreens who’s standard price for prescription medication is at least 100% the actual cost. I get my meds at Costco for a 10th of the cost.
May 2009
1 post
Citizen Journalism: The Key Trend Shaping Online... →
shawnblog:
Citizen Journalism has put democracy back in people’s hands. An army of individuals with mobile phones, portable cameras, and blogs is rapidly replacing traditional media as a reliable and wide-ranging source of information. In this milestone report, Chris Willis and Shayne Bowman were among the first to try to explain what citizen journalism really is and why this bottom-up...
March 2009
1 post
January 2009
3 posts
FBI: Burgeoning gangs behind up to 80% of U.S.... →
craytonc:
Criminal gangs in the USA have swelled to an estimated 1 million members responsible for up to 80% of crimes in communities across the nation, according to a gang threat assessment compiled by federal officials.
(Bolding is mine) And yet everyone wants to disarm the law-abiding citizens, because we’re obviously such a threat to everyone.
H/T: David Codrea @ The War On Guns
He...
“There are two ways to conquer and enslave a nation. One is by the sword. The...”
– John Adams (1735-1826) via hunsonisgroovy : katelyns-otherleft : davereed : sds (via hilker) (via bellatoris)
Which is why recent bankruptcy laws, though a popular reaction to past over credit, is not a good thing.
“By some measures, the United States already has a milk deficit, not a surplus,...”
– Watertown Daily Times | Stimulus may bolster dairy industry
The EU does this whole price fixing thing, removing milk from the market to drive up prices.
Not really working that well for them, as they end up with huge amounts of product bought but never used, which is money right out of the...
December 2008
2 posts
“NYT says the Senate Antitrust Committee is “kind of” looking into...”
– NYT: Text Messages Are an Even Bigger Ripoff Than You Thought
Contact your state rep. about this.
“Detroit should start making buses. There’s a huge back order for buses — every...”
– Janette Sadik Khan, New York City commissioner of transportation
2009 Resolutions From Celebrities World-Wide - WSJ.com
(A vapid-sounding title for what is actually an interesting piece.)
(via didyouevernotice)
This is symptom of a problem yet to be learned by people, business, and government:...
November 2008
2 posts
Ideas in Local Government
pterodactyls:
Today is “Be Innovative” day at the City Council. All this week the internal website has implored all employees to wear red as a ”sign of innovation in Council culture.”
How does wearing red at the request of your employer show innovation? They can sponsor this initiative and hand out big red buttons to everyone (see also: the ‘do what you say you will’ and ‘push play!’ buttons...
Now that my local election is over, a few thoughts:
1) I noticed a tremendous amount of career politicians on the local docket. And by career I mean, these folks have been involved with, running, and/or elected for many years.
2) In most races it was career politician A verses career politician B. In some cases candidates ran uncontested. There was only one first timer. (In my district.)
3) The...
October 2008
5 posts
Return the House of Representatives to the People →
streue:
The framers of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights intended that the total population of Congressional districts never exceed 50 to 60 thousand. Currently, the average population size of the districts is nearly 700,000 and, consequently, the principle of proportionally equitable representation has been abandoned.
bellatoris:
I was talking with my father-in-law the other day about politics, and in the course of our conversation, an important fact became apparent; though we are both politically-minded people who keep up with the presidential race (I more so than he) neither one of us has a good grasp of our local politics, which aguably have greater import on daily life than federal politics.
This will be...
Local Senate Candidate Les Bock stopped by my house awhile back. It was really really hot so I invited him inside to cool off. He appeared a little heat stroked, but refused to accept water or refreshments. (I was slightly offended, but perhaps he’d been over beveridge’d on his trek.)
I mentioned Dennis Mansfield as an example of change, and he seemed to squirm at the idea. I asked...
September 2008
2 posts
Questioning Resource Management In Idaho →
joshuajames said:
Need a good deed for the day? Right here: http://www.tinyurl.com/EW-BuffaloGulch
un: Okay did it ‘man.
“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”
– Martin Luther King, Jr., in Letter from a Birmingham Jail
via pootling scrapbook
August 2008
5 posts
Cloud of the US Declaration of Independence →
guy:
A visualization of the words used in the Declaration of Independence. People, laws, government, states, and usurpations are among the key terms that get embiggened.
“Why do you think World pop music is so dominated by just two countries (the UK...”
– via an email discussion Anthony was having.
Most marketing dollars?…any other ideas?
(via gtmcknight)
un: Long term democracies. Freedom+resources= expression.
“A wise and frugal government which shall restrain men from injuring one another,...”
– Thomas Jefferson → onemoretimewithfeeling → sds Indeed. (via rodmitch) 100% (via hilker)