Most of the satellite imagery is years out of date.



Bulletin from a friend. Who�s on the Republican ticket?

RE: i�m kinda sorta confused...who�s on the Republican ticket?

---------------- Bulletin Message -----------------
From: xxxxxx
Date: Sep 4, 2008 7:36 PM

Maybe I had it wrong but I thought it was McCain...I guess Palin is running for President and he's going for V.P. or something. I thought I was following this whole thing pretty closely. ahhh, maybe one day they'll figure and sort that all out too.

I'm a strong minded woman so I know who I'm still voting for regardless ; ) but, ummm, hopefully all of this media frenzy won't detract from what's really going on. It's a shame Biden's speech didn't get this much attention...

Editor Coment: Palin is the Republican vice presidential nominee
McCain is the presidential nominee of the Republican Party.

The real question should be:

Do Palin and McCain actually plan on doing anything useful with the Oval Office or are they really going to continue the last 8 years of Republican FAIL??

I don't hate Palin, but I don't want her in a position of power like the one she is up for.

There's a lot to dislike about Palin, this is a woman who campaigns on "family values" and wants to tell other families what they can and cant do but cant control her own.

She's supposed to be all about good, clean family values, meanwhile her daughter's getting plowed like an Iowa corn field.

Palin hasn't talked about her political decisions much. She's kept the emphasis squarely on her personal life and her kids, and then on attacking the only candidate in this race to offer solutions to the economy and to restoring America's place as a leader in the world. The only policy position she put forward last night was on drilling anywhere, anytime, any place, which is a position that benefits... Alaska.

How much more detached can you get from things than Alaska or Hawaii?

Sarah Palin claims that her platform (the Iraq War, Alaska drilling, Abstinence-only education, abortion bans, Intelligent Design, etc.) is "what God would want"...

Did anyone watch that video of her at her church? She says that God wants us to build a natural gas pipeline. So apparently she presumes to speak for God.

Palin is a hard right wing, theocratic, evolution denying, book banning, money grubbing, power hungry Republican.

I think her private life is relevant because it relates to her stance on issues. She is for abstinence-only education, draconian abortion bans, etc etc. So the fact that these things didn't work in her own family should bring into question the strength of her political stances. Also, it's politically relevant if she's shown to be a liar. AND the private life stuff is relevant because it shows how poorly John McCain vetted her, and thus reflects poorly on his decision-making process.

It's not anyone's fault except Sarah Palin's that her family got dragged into this mess. It's certainly not the Obama campaign's fault, as he strongly condemned that. It is she that is to blame for putting them in the spotlight. If she had left them in Alaska instead of trotting them out as political set pieces, I doubt it would have blown up the way it did. But if you're going to sell yourself as an exemplar of great family values, expect people to question you aggressively when it turns out your family values weren't so great by your own standards.

When political viewpoints such as her backwards views on sex education are directly challenged by events in her personal life, those items in her private life that directly relate to said views become public, and it is entirely fair and legitimate.

In any event, Sarah Palin has a tonne of political negatives that opponents can raise against her. As well, The National Enquirer is going to keep on the trail of the pregnancy/affair angles.

I don't get why the McCain campaign is so bad at public message management. The best thing to with each one of these personal accusations is to confront them head on. Kill the message before it grows too overbearing. It doesn't matter how ridiculous a story is, it has to be addressed before it gets any traction. It should be fairly easy to accomplish:

1) Baby rumors - Produce birth certificates and medical records w/ DNA
2) Affair rumors - Put the business partner in front of a camera and air it all out

Full disclosure is the best remedy for rumors like these, and unless the McCain campaign wants to hear this shit all the way through November 4th, the campaign really needs to take action. Now

We aren't arguing that Sarah Palin should not be VP because her daughter got pregnant. We're arguing that she shouldn't be VP if she lied about it and carried out a bizarre coverup.

Folks had no problem demanding Obama's birth certificate.

What's her problem?

I'm loving this whole thing, from a clusterfuck standpoint.



It�s really time to stop this tipping nonsense

The Waffle House motto "Good food fast and friendly."

That motto is also the most direct route to decent tips.

But getting good tips is more difficult in tight times when the price at the pump also might determine how much somebody spends.

Dr. Michael Lynn, a professor of consumer behavior at Cornell University, has published more than 35 academic papers on tipping. But he says he is unaware of any study that has expressly examined the effects of the economy on tipping.

Still, from his own studies and others, Lynn can make a pretty logical leap: "The more concerned people are about cost, the less they tip. This suggests that in bad economic times they tend to be more price-sensitive."

Editor Coment: ...and how this is the customers problem?

Goddamn, you waiters sound like Union workers....Even if I do a shitty job, I expect to get paid more than I'm worth. If you don't believe you're getting paid for your performance then go find another job.

If servers aren't being paid enough that is a problem between the server and their employer.

How is it my problem that you made a bad career choice? Why should I have to subsidize your wages?

Tipping in most places is not mandatory. Customers have no obligation to tip.

The current percentage of the bill based tipping is a ridiculous practice.

Tips should be used as an incentive for providing excellent service. If I get excellent service I am not above tipping, but I don't feel obligated to tip, especially for rude or sloppy service.

Maybe I just always get service that fails to meet my expectations of something that's gratuity worthy. If you just take my order and bring me my food, what have you done that's outside of your job specification that deserves my gratitude? Go above and beyond and I'll gladly tip.

I start at 15% and go up or down depending on the service. Competent service gets 15%.

Seem rude or inattentive... then it goes down... if I get exceptionally bad service, you aren't getting a SMALLER tip. You are getting nothing.

We should be allowed to reverse tip when service is bad. If they expect a gratuity when service is good, I expect one when service is bad.

Next time I get bad service I think I'm going to only leave 80% of the bill and let the server make up the rest.

Where was I going with this?

The real question is: Why would you tip at the Waffle House.

There's just nothing worthy of a tip. You order, the food comes, you eat and leave. You want a refill you go up to them with your cup and ask for it. You pay at their register, nobody comes to your table. It's the same concept as Burger King or McDonald's and yet they don't ask for tips...

The only cheap ass in the whole tipping argument is the owner not paying his staff a decent wage and expecting the customer to subsidize his staff's wages...



Palin�s hacked email account

The news buzz last night was all about Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin's hacked email account.

Palin's personal Yahoo account was apparently plundered late Tuesday evening and the contents of the account � personal emails, email addresses of her parents, children and friends, private family photos, and phone numbers � were published all over the Internet Wednesday.

News of the break-in received a harsh response from the McCain campaign.

Editor Coment: How very Bush administration of her. running an off the grid communications network to avoid oversight. claiming executive privilege on tertimony and emails,ignoring subpoenas,using the AK AG and a slew of lawyers to try to cover up or obstruct something that at first she said was nothing at all and she would gladly cooperate with the investigation. Then she hides from the media. and pulls all this shit.

guilty or not she sure acts like it.

Private e-mail to conduct official business is sort of a problem if you are an elected official and there is any expectation of transparency in government. Trying to do business "off the books" is the question. That, and showing that if this is how she and the campaign expect to do business, then that is a troubling question.

The NYT already addressed this - she told her staffers, to avoid gov't accounts, since information transmitted through them could be obtained through FOIA, warrents, and court orders, as they are public information.

Of course, if she wasn't doing anything illegal or unethical, she wouldn't be worried.

I don't have time to nerd it up a lot.

What she did is a violation of Hatch Act.

It's not only unethical but illegal?

Actually, under Alaskan law, anywhere she does official business becomes public record and the deletion of said records, or failing to turn them over for archiving, is criminal.

Dick Cheney and the gang use the GOP email servers instead of the White House servers for their official business. Is it "illegal?" Yes. Did they get in trouble for it? No.

So...breaking the "law," knowing full well you're not going to get in trouble for doing so...well...it kinda makes it a moot point, now doesn't it?

On the plus side, it shows that Palin understands how the executive office works.

She's EXTREMELY lucky that things went the way they did.

If the mailbox had been hacked by someone a bit more malicious, they could have spied on her for months and done some real damage.

The hackers did the country a great service, by highlighting not just Palin's stupidity, but reminding us all that our public servants rarely act in the public interest.

kudos to Anonymous. Someone has to do oversight when the govt wont.

What "sensitive government business on an unsecured private account" was Governor Palin conducting? Everything shown has been purely personal emails, family email addresses of her parents, children and friends, private family photos, and phone numbers.

You mean ones like this?

Meghan Stapleton
Attachments
FW: Motor Fuel Tax Suspension
Sat, 8/30/08 1169KB

Ruaro, Randall P (GOV)
Draft letter to Governor Schwarzenegger / Container Tax
Thu, 8/28/08 12KB

Nizich, Michael A (GOV)
RE: Using Royalty Oil to Lower the Cost of Fuel for Alaskans
Fri, 8/22/08 42KB

Ruaro, Randall P (GOV)
Court of Appeals / Executive Director Parole Board / Boards and Commissions
Thu, 8/21/08 10KB

Ruaro, Randall P (GOV)
FW: DPS Employee Draft
Wed, 8/20/08 15KB

McAllister, William D (GOV)
Re: DPS Personnel and Budget Issues
Wed, 8/20/08 12KB

Ruaro, Randall P (GOV)
FW: DPS Personnel and Budget Issues
Tue, 8/19/08 11KB

Ruaro, Randall P (GOV)
Court of Appeals Nominations
Sat, 8/16/08 11KB

Nizich, Michael A (GOV)
another records request
Fri, 8/15/08 5KB

All from GOV email address obviously talking about government business.

Meh. The public will see it as yet another example of the media beating up on Palin. She'll get sympathy votes.

The "media" has nothing to do with this. Palin was stupid and got nailed by bored teenagers.

Wait until she is VP and accidentially discloses nuclear codes.

Whoever did this would have to have been completely inept to actually do it from their house. In fact, unless he does something stupid, there should be no way that he will ever get caught. The way I'd do it?

1) Drive about an hour and 45 minutes in any direction.
2) Find open or easily exploitable wifi signal.
3) TOR to a net proxy.
4) Net proxy back through TOR to the same net proxy.
5) Profit

Then to upload the juicy data you find, do the same thing, except drive two and a half hours in the same direction (this part is important to throw off ip triangulation), and repeat.

Blah too much work. I'm sticking with connecting to the noisy neighbors wireless network. No proxies. Double entertainment since you've made a national headline for goofing around on yahoo, and getting to see your neighbors get a visit from men in black suits :)

This whole thing has been hilarious to watch, for a whole host of reasons.

Miss Alaska should fit in nicely with other clueless celebrities who've had their accounts hacked



The USPS isn't trustworthy

Every Tuesday, his day off, Ted Johnson sets out to recover $350 he sent the federal government in February, money that never reached its intended recipient.

At first, the 40-year-old man just wanted his money back. Then he decided he'd fight on out of principle.

Johnson's problems started, as many problems do, the day he fell in love.

On a February day, they entered the Ralston Post Office and mailed off a $350 money order to start Maria's immigration process.

Maria saved the receipt, just in case. On the back of that receipt, there's a guarantee: If your mail order is lost or stolen, it says, you get your money back.

A month later, a letter arrived from the U.S. Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services. The office had received Maria Johnson's application, it said, but the Johnsons had failed to send the $350 check.

Ted stalked back into the post office.

"The money order must've been stolen," he said. "I want my money back."

Can't do that, the postal employee said. You need to prove the money order was stolen.

And now it's an all-consuming quest whose players include the Department of Homeland Security, the U.S. Postal Service, the Federal Bureau of Investigation - pretty much everyone but the friendly folks down at the Internal Revenue Service.

Editor Coment: Sucks.. but I can't say I'm surprised. The USPS isn't trustworthy.

They're the post office, they don't give a damn about your problems.

The mail clearly arrived at its intended destination. A worker authorized to handle said mail at its intended destination stole it.

The clerk will get one week's paid suspension for breaking the big rule: never get caught.

My guess would be you're fucked.

But thats just a guess.

At some point, the $350 ain't worth it anymore. I think that point comes long, long before six months of horseshit every fucking Tuesday.

Get your money order from a bank.
Financial institutions have more regulations and oversight than the Federal Gov't.

FTFA:"Can't do that, he was told - the criminal would pay restitution after he was charged and found guilty. Then, and only then, would Ted see his $350.

Ted got desperate. He filed a case with the Omaha Police Department. It went nowhere. He filed a lawsuit seeking the only amount of money he could think of - $1,234.56. The suit was quickly dismissed."

Given that he has an account number, all he really needs to do is call the bank that accepted a Postal Money order for deposit from a person when the thing was (presumably) made to the order of a department of the Federal government, and ask for his money back, and threaten to call the banking commission if they won't give it.

It's shit like that that would make me argue against a guilt verdict if the death penalty was on the table if someone blew up a post office.

Has anyone blamed Bush for this yet?