Little does anyone remember, but back in the early 1990′s, there was an outcry from internet users across the country over a perceived notion that the  telephone companies were doing everything in their power to disrupt the use of dial-up modems on their networks.  Historically, internet regulation were non-existent or by the seat of the regulators pants. Today, evidence suggests that the Internet was not even recognized as a phenomenon or concern by most regulators until the mid 1990s, when it became obvious it would have a giant impact on the most basic business models. As a result, the rules or actions that can be identified with fair use do not seem to have been framed with the Internet in mind, and the time is ripe for change.

Here at The Lounge, we have been ranting for years that the Money Grubbing  Internet Service Providers be required to provide non discriminatory internet access, guaranteed speed and data access, and to be free from anti-competitive abuses and practices. As online gamers, streamers, and website owners, Lisa and I have experienced a plethora of disruptive practices from our ISP’s including attempts to cap our unlimited data plan, disruption of our online peer-to-peer gaming, and disconnects from our video streaming due to subjective issues such as ‘network congestion’ or ‘provider disruption’ All of this while we paid in excess of $50 a month for unlimited speed and data plans from ISP’s who in the end, gave us limited data and bandwidth while vilifying us as bandwidth hogs. A little history tells the story of why we must insist that ISP’s in some way shape or form take on the look of a ‘common carrier’ of old, and provide  non-discriminatory access to the world wide web.

In 1980,  the FCC ruled that firms that use basic telecommunications services to provide an enhanced service, such as information delivery, are not engaged in the provision of a basic common carrier telecommunications service, or local telephone service. Rather, they are providing an “enhanced” service and, accordingly, are not subject to the direct jurisdiction of the FCC. At the time, a telecommunications common carrier was the term used to describe a provider of telecommunications transmission service that offers its service to the public for a fee and, in contrast to a television station owner or a cable television operator, does not control the content of the information transmitted by its facilities or services. Rather, the carrier’s customer controls the content and the destination of the transmission.

Local and long distance telephone companies operated as common carriers, which historically have had close regulatory scrutiny by both federal and state agencies. The history of common carriage is fundamental to the discussion today. There was a series of FCC decisions that gave customers the right to attach approved devices directly to the network, which has allowed both ISPs and users to attach modems to their phone lines, a necessary precondition for dial-up access. Some observers also point to common carriage regulation as an important internet enabler. Entry by ISPs has been facilitated by common carrier rules which mandate nondiscriminatory access and reasonable rates apply to both the dial-up lines used by individual customers and the telephone network dedicated lines used by many ISPs to connect points of presence to the Internet. In 1997 the FCC affirmed an earlier ruling that the transmission between an end user’s premises and an enhanced service provider’s location in the same calling area would be treated as a local call, rather than as an interstate call, regardless of whether that transmission carries data, an e-mail message, or even  a voice call over the Internet. For the final years of the 20th century, the internet was truly open and free.

Today, this has all changed. The old model service providers like AOL and CompuServe who were among hundreds of providers who sold  services in a competitive market based on a ‘local call’ to a ‘common carrier’. Every day were were bombarded with offers from ISP’s who were willing to provide us with the deal of a lifetime, including free access if we were willing to dial their number. The FCC regulations of unfettered access to the network is what fostered this competition. With the advent of broadband technology, high-speed internet access has become ubiquitous. Today, a typical consumer has little or no choice in his local community in respect to a high-speed or broadband provider. A large majority of consumers are located in area’s where the only provider is the Cable TV company who in turn is the content provider for competing services. This leads to a corporate media dominance not seen since the early days of  Radio and it is quite obvious we need pro-consumer regulation at the provider level.

The simple fact is the  Service Providers have had no incentive to provide pro-consumer services and no need to create equal and unfettered access to data on their broadband networks. This, along with the consolidation of the providers makes regulation even more imperative. The real scary part is that over the last decade, has been a large contraction of  pipes, with only 4 or 5 dominate broadband providers available in the country, and the habit of these providers is to continue to use anti-consumer and disruptive practices to enhance their bottom line. Either way, as long as were are dominated by just a few providers and those providers continue to disrupt the flow of information on their networks, we must force the F.C.C. to regulate these providers for the good of the people.

US Federal Communications Commission commissioner Robert McDowell has raised an eyebrow at Google’s request to serve as an administrator of a national database detailing the use of “white-space” spectrum. Google was among a coalition of tech outfits that first floated the idea of allowing unlicensed WiFi  devices into the white spaces, which are portions of the licensed television spectrum that go unused by terrestrial TV channels. Google, no doubt already the gorilla in the White Space china shop, has had to defend itself against heavy opposition from those already in the spectrum, including television broadcasters and wireless mic users.

We here at The Lounge feel strongly about The White Space, and intend to do everything in our power to keep these frequencies out of the hands of the Media giants and firmly in the hands of local communities. Google, who at this point has monetized most everything they have touched, seems quite willing to develop the  database of available frequencies needed to make this plan work and they are willing to donate it to the public, in return for administrating that database. I for one don’t necessarily have a problem with this, simply because the database doesn’t exist and Google’s willing to develop it. I do feel strongly that the FCC should take a real good look, make sure the White Space will be freely available to Cities, States, and local business’  so they in turn can deploy their own wireless local networks, without paying those no good money grubbing media shysters to carry OUR FREE signal.

Below is an excerpt from The White Space. Click to read more.

]]> http://BartGordon.net/2010/01/24/google_whitespace/feed/ 0 http://BartGordon.net/2010/01/02/a-muhammed-cartoon-for-you/ http://BartGordon.net/2010/01/02/a-muhammed-cartoon-for-you/#comments Sat, 02 Jan 2010 22:44:58 +0000 Bart http://BartGordon.net/2008/03/20/a-muhammed-cartoon-for-you/ The simple fact that there are still people willing to commit murder and mayhem on unsuspecting civilians because of a preconceived lack of respect towards their god  is reason enough to show these cartoons. Here at The Lounge, were getting a little tired of that dog and camel show.

For a little Jihadist humor, visit the Red Jihad.

And for those who just like a couple of cartoons, we have several with the graven image. Thanks to Mark Pirro for the laughs.

The Underpants Bomber

Barack Hussein Obama

Fully one year after gaining election, the Commander and Chief of the United States Armed Forces will address the nation on his new strategy for the war in Afghanistan Tuesday night from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.

After running a campaign whose central theme was a reduction of military presence worldwide, a very large block of anti-war liberals are finding that Obama plans on doing just the opposite. The president claims the American people will support his strategy once they understand the perils of losing the war. Meanwhile, polls show support for the war has dropped significantly since Obama took office, with a majority now saying both that they oppose the war and that it is not worth fighting. Needless to say, the anti-war stance he ran on last year was so much bullshit. I just can’t imagine all the left-wing liberals who live in the Hudson Valley will just sit around and accept the fact that Barry simply had no plans on pulling out of the Middle East. Then again, I haven’t heard of any big anti-war protests being planned for Tuesday, and I live ten miles away. I guess since the One has decided we must fight, all the left-wing bastards have to respect his decision or risk getting thrown off the island. It would seem that some people are willing to sell their soul for free health care.

In my mind, West Point  is  the only base that Barry can make the speech without creating some kind of YouTube moment from the grunts who are getting killed on the ground, both here and overseas. It’s obvious that the professional soldiers in this country have a problem with the Commander and Chief.

It’s mind boggling to think Obama is going up to The Point for anything at this juncture. Not after what he has done to this country over the last 11 months. Not after bashing all of those hard-working, blue-blooded Americans. Not after bowing to the Emperor of Japan, who’s family has the blood of 15,500,000 souls on its collective head, and to whom countless West Point alumni had lost their lives. This is not a President for whom many show respect, and by going to The Point, he is simply buying a photo op.

It  is obvious this visit forces the students to show respect. Not that there would be any question; there is no way a Cow would fail to applaud, would boo, or would otherwise show disrespect while in the presence of POTUS. These kids are hardwired for respect and the best way to screw that up is to be on the Drudge Report. The administration knows this and has no problem manipulating our future leaders for their own political ends. Shameful to say the least.

I for one can’t wait to see him speak on Tuesday. I just can’t figure out how he will repackage the ‘Bush Doctrine’. Maybe the spin doctors can help?

The idea behind net neutrality is that the owner of the plumbing should not care what the plumbing is used for or who uses it. This means that just because you are the local cable company, you cannot discriminate in how your Internet service is priced or prioritized on your network to benefit your other businesses.

It was only a matter of time before really innovative companies like Google, Hulu, or Skype were able to use the data you already pay for to provide the same services the the ISP’s provide. For the phone company to charge $10 a month for caller id when it costs $.05 to provide in a non-competitive market is wrong. And to restrict the consumer from utilizing these services simply because they compete with you is just bad for the consumer.

Net Neutrality is all about fostering competition. The new and innovative use of bits and bytes across the broadband network has made cable and phone company as content providers irrelevant, whether they know it yet or not. That leaves them with one purpose: running a network.

Net Neutrality insures that the network they manage is open to competing services and does not discriminate or favor one application over another. To say that an application like Google Voice somehow violates these principals is bunk. Network neutrality has always been about phone and cable companies trying to maintain power in the face of the Internet Revolution. Nothing more.

There has been a ton of conversation lately about AT&T and Apple banning the Google Voice application in the IPhone store. The service has the potential to be a real windfall for the average consumer. Google Voice, which is already available on BlackBerrys, provides users with free domestic calls, inexpensive international calls, free text messaging, call routing and other services. It also makes it trivial to switch to a new phone service, because with GV, everyone calls the same number for all of your phones.  The simple fact that this system competes with the the Phone Company for services is just good for the consumer. Companies tend to be more pro-consumer when there is actually competition, and ATT isn’t keen on sharing the revenue from all those calls to Europe.

Google Voice is actually the old Grand Central, a system that let you forward all your calls to a new ‘local’ number. The Gordons are Grand Central users since 2006, and its an excellent service. You can set Google to ring your cell phone if someone calls your home phone, for example. You can have your work phone number ring every phone you have if your out on a long lunch. The kids can text to the GV number, and spam the whole damn family. Not a bad idea nowadays, and  if anything it keeps people connected for emergencies and group efforts. A family of 4 in Disney for a week with 1 contact number?

Google Voice closed Grand Central for renovations last year, and it wasn’t until recently that it began accepting new users, and there has still been some hassle associated with actually using the service. IPhone type apps like GV Mobile remove many of those hassles, which is why AT&T is keen to keep them off the iPhone.

The mobile app for Google Voice uses the regular PSTN connection to place a call to Google Voice, which then places a call out to the person you need to reach. Since these calls and text messages originate from your Google Voice, they display your Google Voice number for the recipients. The wireless number you buy from the cell phone company just became irrelevant. The Google Voice app essentially reduces the cell phone carrier to a dumb pipe, and that where the debate centers. As a matter of fact, this is ground zero for the Consumer Vs. the Money Grubbing Telco Shysters. If the average consumer dosen’t make a stink here, your liable to pay twice for every call you make in the future with your cell phone. The point is that your paying for data on the phone, but the phone company won’t let you use it for speaking. Even though its all just data, they won’t let you use your data that way.

Motive? The vast majority of executives at AT&T despise Google because the search giant represents their deepest fear: a future where companies like AT&T are just dumb pipes, over which content companies like Google deliver services that soak up advertising revenue which old school phone executives really do believe belongs to them. The baby bells hate Google so much, they pay obscene $amounts to besmirch  the search giant. Both Apple and AT&T conspired just this week to prohibit competition and limit the open Internet in order to protect revenues. While brand loyalists will proclaim such anti-competitive foolishness is just good business, methinks the AT&T and Apple decision to block the Google Voice application is a rare, clear example of a network neutrality violation and should be reviewed at the highest level of Government.

Even if you want to argue semantics and proclaim it’s not technically a neutrality violation because the filtering isn’t happening at a base network level, good for you. It’s still  anti-competitive behavior, we just haven’t invented the word for it yet, and we should be collectively wise enough to expect no different from the Money Grubbing Telecos. As we’ve said for many years here @ The Lounge, now is the time for Consumers to stand up for whats right, and make the Networks Neutral.

There is a very big discussion concerning your right to privacy in the Electronic Age, and the average American has no clue they are even being watched.  Here are a couple of issues at hand.

Representatives from NBC, Microsoft, several digital filtering companies and telecom giant AT&T said the time was right to start filtering for copyrighted content at the network level.

and

E-Mail Surveillance Renews Concerns in Congress.

Filtering content?

Well for starters, every time you send an e-mail, attach a file, or request a page or content on the internet, you do it through your ISP. ISP’s like Cablevision or Verizon provide you with access to the net. You pay to use the servers.  Filtering searches for bits of code. Like a ‘copyright’. Or in the case of the NSA, an algorithm is used to find the unusual. It reads and interprets them. Copyright holders will pay big bucks to let ISP’s look for their content. The Feds will subpoena for it, and in the end, every e-mail, attachment or file will be read.

What could that possible mean to me?

Its exactly like the post office opening each and every letter looking for a copyrighted picture or a tape, or a note to Kendall Myers.  If the ISP’s ’find’ a problem, they may refuse to send it. Or they may invoke a TOS case. Or they may rat you out unless you get sanitized.

Some people feel filtering is a conspiracy; a way for ISP’s to monetize their monopoly position via a racket. Ooops, our filters caught too much Twitter traffic today, and since Twitter is not our partner, were going to slow down or deny page loads. Oops, you didn’t pay a premium, you can’t embed pictures in your e-mail. You can do these things on the fly if you monitor every packet.

Someone checking each and every file on the internet in hopes of finding someone who MAY be trading a copyrighted file or is involved in a terrorist act would be invasive, to say the least. We better make it the law that at the minimum, filtering of data must be an approved act, subject to the same principals as snail mail, and we better do it soon.

E-Mail Surveillance Renews Concerns in Congress.

Under the surveillance program, before the N.S.A. can target and monitor the e-mail messages or telephone calls of Americans suspected of having links to international terrorism, it must get permission from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. Supporters of the agency say that in using computers to sweep up millions of electronic messages, it is unavoidable that some innocent discussions of Americans will be examined. Intelligence operators are supposed to filter those out, but critics say the agency is not rigorous enough in doing so.

The rising concern among some members of Congress about the N.S.A.’s recent operation are raising fresh questions about the spy agency. All we can do is implore our local Representatives to control who can open and read our e-mail. Laws need to be written to protect our privacy, and they need to be written now.

Here at the Lounge, we have been talking for years about how broadband providers have manipulated our bandwidth to increase profits on their content side. How ISP’s are proposing Deep Packet Inspection for network management and  e-mail, and how that’s like the post office charging for a ghetto stamp. We have talked quite often about the need for more competition in the broadband market and how in competitive markets, ISPs act much more pro-consumer. We talked about how in markets that do lack competition, the cable industry has flooded State and Local government with FUD and untold $$millions while lobbying for regulations that stifle competition and innovation.

The one thing we haven’t talked about is Net Neutrality. What is it, how it can help us diversify our media choices and how it just might stimulate a whole new world of media distribution, like the Television did 50 years ago. Hulu, Ruku, XBox, Tivo and Boxee are popular alternatives to the traditional cable distribution model, and those Money Grubbing Cable TV shysters are doing everything to make them fail. It’s time we helped, and Net Neutrality might just be the law we all need.

The idea behind net neutrality is that the owner of the plumbing should not care what the plumbing is used for or who uses it. This means that just because you are the local cable company, you cannot discriminate in how your Internet service is priced to benefit your other businesses. Streaming a 3 gig movie should not, for example, be more expensive than streaming the same amount of data from a cable branded stream. Net Neutrality would address the DPI issue in that it would de-monetize the data, it would make it illegal to click-watch without opt-in, and make it illegal to ‘cap for crap’ unless the Exaflood really does happen. In a nutshell, it would make the Internet a dumb pipe, just what they invented 20 years ago.

The carriers very much want the FCC to stay as far away as possible from the network neutrality debate. And if their actions are any indication, they are trying very hard to push through as much change before the government steps in. In proposing what looked like Internet pricing intended to ward off competition to its cable TV business, Time Warner set off  a shit storm of criticism. This time around, it looks like Congress is starting to get involved, and where Congress goes the FCC soon follows. A Democrat-controlled FCC will probably not roll over for cable companies quite as easily as the Bush FCC did. After seeing this particular danger lurking, Time Warner bailed on the new pricing, at least for now. This was a direct result of the potential for increased oversight, not because the average customer would pay much higher prices. TW really doesn’t give a crap about you the customer, and that’s why I expect it to show up again in somewhat different form sometime in the next few months. Either way, everyone must understand that laws are needed now. Once these pricing plans go live, there will be very little we can do about it.

In closing, there is simply was no reasonable justification for the per-gigabyte pricing that Time Warning Cable was proposing. I cannot imagine a situation in which a gigabyte of Internet data should cost $1 from the cable company, when it costs them about 3 cents to produce in a non-competitive market. I strongly believe that Internet companies should provide either access or content, but not both. Verizon should not discriminate against Yahoo because it has a deal with Google. The Internet carrier should handle traffic for both companies equally. Time Warner was planning to charge those kind of rates to help kill the ‘On-Demand video market. That’s a fact. The way I look at it, Net Neutrality may be the only thing between me and all those streaming re-runs of Speed Racer.

Apple Corps announced that they will release a new music video game, The Beatles: Rock Band, in September 09.  Apple Corps, the venerable band’s marketing and licensing arm, has long envisioned  making money on the popularity of the Beatles. After a number of so-so attempts including  Apple Electronics, Apple Films, Apple Publishing, and Apple Boutique, little was heard from the core for over 25 years.

Late last year, we talked here about a possible release of the  Beatles Collection on ITunes, and we really hoped it would happen. Since the Gordon’s don’t torrent, Lisa and I were faced with using the Evil Apple to pay those poor artists their 3 cents for our listening pleasure, and any artist who resisted the ‘personne corrompue’ for all those years deserved our support. Anyhow, now that DRM is a thing of the past so goes those thieving rotten bastards and viola, Beatles Rock Band!

As avid gamers, there is always a certain pride when we see an obvious winner like Rock Band getting set up in peoples living rooms. It’s just too bad EA didn’t  steal Take Two last year, we could have seen a “Revolver”  theme in the next Grand Theft Auto!  Either way, you have to hand it to Jeff Jones . What a great job so far in bringing what is now a 40 year old brand into the new century, and almost getting all of these young kids rocking to the Beatles. Not just that, it will be a lot of fun to karaoke I Want To Hold Your Hand with a bunch of  50 something Paw-Paws. What a laugh it will be.

After 40 days of the Obama Administration, Americans have seen one of the most radical post election shifts in history. Over the course of the last month or so, Obama has managed to frustrate almost every facet of his new found following one way or the other, yet most of the media has yet to catch on. Some pundits do disagree, though.

Barry and his new left-wing socialist people’s party meanwhile  have slammed down all opposition, regardless of their importance to his very own Democratic Party . That can only be a major disaster in the making on a local political level. Time will certianly tell. Below are a couple speeches Barry has made recently. These speeches, combined with his actions so far, give us a true understanding of how far The One plans on pushing us closer and closer to a modern Mixed Economy . I don’t really know how much the average Joe can understand this shift to the left, but he only has to look at the markets to see they have lost over 15% of value in February alone, which can only be contributed to Barry’s actions thus far.

Inaugural Address (January 20, 2009):

“Our nation is at war, against a far-reaching network of violence and hatred.”

Many people who voted for Barry are strictly anti-war. They voted for a man who from all indications planned to stop all aggression as soon as he got into office. Not only is an Iraq pull out going to be at least 1 1/2 years from now, he is building up Afganastan. To many, he is acting much like Johnson and Nixon did on Viet Nam. Not a good start for the doves in the party.

On Clinton, Importance Of Diplomacy (January 22, 2009):

“Part of what we want to do is to make sure that everybody understands that the State Department is going to be absolutely critical to our success in the years to come, and you individually are going to be critical to our success in the years to come.”

Speaking of Sec State Clinton, Barry actually made no sense whatsoever in this speech. I knew from this minute on, the Clinton’s were screwed. Another body slam to the Jews and Eastern Democrats who backed that shiksa bitch last year. Doesn’t the average American know it’s all about NUKES , and Israel is the target?

On Energy And Environment (January 26, 2009):

“These urgent dangers to our national and economic security are compounded by the long-term threat of climate change, which, if left unchecked, could result in violent conflict, terrible storms, shrinking coastlines, and irreversible catastrophe… These are the facts, and they are well-known to the American people. After all, there is nothing new about these warnings. Presidents have been sounding the alarm about energy dependence for decades.”

Obviously, Barry is still having trouble with environmental policy. He continues to confuse energy dependence and conservation, with the scientific realities of a carbon based earth atmosphere. He is continuing to shove this radical approach to the environment down our collective throats while the average American thinks global warming is a crock of shit. Not an auspicious start. A message to the scientific community and middle-class people that a radical approach to the environment will prevail, including sin-taxes for cars and homes that don’t meet green standards scares everyone.

On Exe cutive Compensation (February 4, 2009):

“But in order to restore our financial system, we’ve got to restore trust. And in order to restore trust, we’ve got to make certain that taxpayer funds are not subsidizing excessive compensation packages on Wall Street. We all need to take responsibility. And this includes executives at major financial firms who turned to the American people, hat in hand, when they were in trouble, even as they paid themselves their customary lavish bonuses. As I said last week, that’s the height of irresponsibility. That’s shameful.”

B Obama 2009

To establish a socialist system, there will be a period where the needs of the working-class, not of capital, will be the common deciding factor, and  must be created on a temporary basis to carry out the revolution.

A Liberal

On The Economy (January 28, 2009):

‘That’s why I called for a new era of responsibility in my Inaugural Address last week – an era where each of us chips in so that we can climb our way out of this crisis – executives and factory floor workers, educators and engineers, health care professionals and elected officials.”

B Obama 2009

“So we have come together on this day to prove symbolically that we are more than a collection of individuals striving one against another, that none of us is too proud, none of us too high, none is too rich, and none too poor, to stand together before the face of the world in this indissoluble, sworn community.”

A Conservative

Signs Stimulus Bill (February 17, 2009):

“Today does not mark the end of our economic troubles. Nor does it constitute all of what we must do to turn our economy around. But it does mark the beginning of the end – the beginning of what we need to do to create jobs for Americans scrambling in the wake of layoffs; to provide relief for families worried they won’t be able to pay next month’s bills; and to set our economy on a firmer foundation, paving the way to long-term growth and prosperity.”

B Obama 2009

Announces Housing Plan (February 18, 2009):

“In the end, all of us are paying a price for this home mortgage crisis. And all of us will pay an even steeper price if we allow this crisis to deepen – a crisis which is unraveling home ownership, the middle class, and the American Dream itself. But if we act boldly and swiftly to arrest this downward spiral, every American will benefit.”

B Obama 2009

All’s this did was start a monster Keynesianism debate that still make’s me very nervous. I just remember how very bad things were in the early 70′s for cities and towns alike.

And from American Magazine

Finally, I have a concern about the “public choice” aspects of the stimulus, meaning the political distortions that make it an ineffective stimulus. If the only goal of the bill were to stimulate the economy, then the focus would be on trying to get the largest possible improvement in employment for a given increase in the deficit. A traditional stimulus proposal, going back to the 1960s, is a temporary investment tax credit. With such a credit, the government in effect provides matching funds for firms that undertake investment while the tax credit is in effect (say, through March of 2010). This would lead to spending increases that are a multiple of what the government contributes.

Another proposal, which George Mason University’s Bryan Caplan has suggested, is a cut in the employer portion of the payroll tax. The extra kicker here is that it reduces the employer’s cost of labor, thereby stimulating hiring. I think an additional kicker is that this would restore profitability in the non financial sector, helping to boost investment.

Instead, the stimulus bill is directed largely at state and local governments. There is a lot of rhetoric about making sure that we do not lay off cops or teachers. But the fact is that millions of private sector workers are being laid off, while public sector layoffs so far have been fewer than one hundred thousand. The need for stimulus is in the private sector, but the political focus of the bill is on enlarging the public sector.

Many economists are willing to overlook the flaws in the legislation and to sanctify Pelosi’s bill as a stimulus bill. Other economists reject Keynesian economics altogether. The economists that you hear less about are those of us who oppose the bill because of our reading of Keynes.

READ MORE HERE

Unveils Budget (February 26, 2009):

“Just as a family has to make hard choices about where to spend and where to save, so do we, as a government. You know, there are times where you can afford to redecorate your house and there are times where you need to focus on rebuilding its foundation. Today, we have to focus on foundations.”

That’s Still Full of Pork

• $2.1 million for the Center for Grape Genetics in New York.

• $1.7 million for a honey bee factory in Weslaco, Tex.

• $1.7 million for pig odor research in Iowa.

• $1 million for Mormon cricket control in Utah.

• $819,000 for catfish genetics research in Alabama.

• $650,000 for beaver management in North Carolina and Mississippi.

• $951,500 for Sustainable Las Vegas.

• $2 million “for the promotion of astronomy” in Hawaii.

• $167,000 for the Autry National Center for the American West in Los Angeles.

• $238,000 for the Polynesian Voyaging Society in Hawaii.

• $200,000 for a tattoo removal violence outreach program to help gang members or others shed visible signs of their past.

• $209,000 to improve blueberry production and efficiency in Georgia.

PS I stole this list from Dowd . I wonder if she had Rahm proof read it first?

Either way, there are a lot of Rants and Raves around town, and Senator McConnel just can’t hold back.

‘Pushing back these efforts to basically Europeanize America will not be easy,’ Mitch McConnell, the top Republican in the Senate, told the Conservative Political Action Conference.

Obama on Thursday released the outline of his 2010 budget and priorities over the next 10 years. It includes a more than 600- billion-dollar downpayment on health care reform and 15 billion dollars per year for renewable energy investments.

Obama’s budget would increase the federal deficit in 2009 to 1.75 trillion dollars in 2009 – 12.6 per cent of gross domestic product – and 1.2 trillion dollars in 2010.

The administration believes it can trim the deficit back to 533 billion dollars by 2013, once the US economy pulls itself out of a deep recession. The 2010 budget faces a bruising battle over the coming months in Congress.

‘Americans have gotten a glimpse of the big government plans of Obama and the Democrats and millions are ready to stand up, speak out, and yes, even take to the streets to stop America’s slide into socialism,’ South Carolina Senator Jim DeMint told the gathering of conservative activists from around the country.

Socialism has long held negative connotations in the United States as a representation of leftist ideals that go against the US free- market tradition.

Senator Mitch McConnell 2009

So after the first 40, it looks like a vast Americans are about to be hoodwinked by this clever and popular President. I just wanted to be the first to let you know.