Friday, October 19, 2012

Is protecting your personal data a lost cause?

Scott McNealy, former CEO of Sun Microsystems, said in 1999, "You have zero privacy anyway. Get over it."  Privacy advocates around the U.S. fought off the notion as an off-the-wall statement that couldn’t be backed up.  Well, I am here to tell you that McNealy was right and the situation has gotten only worse over the years.  I was a junk mail data broker that sold your name and personal information to companies who used it to target you in their mailings.

Not that I agreed that McNealy’s premise should be accepted, although he was right at the time, rather that the heisting of this private data was wrong and should be regulated in an out-of-control industry.  I got religion.  Sellers of lists have basically no concern over how much of your personal information they sell.  Why should they?  It is a $4 billion+ business that repeats itself every year adding any new secrets about you that you make freely available to them.

If you are wondering now if there is any way you can protect your privacy, the answer is yes, but it isn’t without some effort.  I’ll tell you all about this later.

What brought this all up was a recent report that citizens data is still being improperly collected about innocent Americans and shared throughout government agencies, a multi-billion dollar information sharing program that started after 9/11 to help fight terrorism.  The Associated Press report is more concerned with misspent dollars on the terror watch program than the public’s privacy, quoting as follows:

The Dept. of Homeland Security “set up so-called fusion centers in every state. Government estimates range from less than $300 million to $1.4 billion in federal money, plus much more invested by state and local governments.”  The authors say that much of this money was spent for “local crimefighting.”

Aside from the fact that taxpayer dollars are being wasted, it just means that tons more of your private data is being disbursed around the country, most likely around the world, that could easily fall in the wrong hands.  “A Senate Homeland Security subcommittee reviewed 600 unclassified reports over a one-year period and concluded that most had nothing to do with terrorism.”  No terrorist threats were uncovered by these local fusion centers.  Imagine that.

Well, you do have an option.  You can subscribe to Grant Hall’s privacy method that will make you literally invisible when it comes to your personal data.  I know Grant, and never have I seen a more sincere person in what he believes and writes about.  Right now, today, this man is John Doe, Citizen A, protected by layers of privacy that guarantee that his complete confidentiality is secure.  Whether or not you complete the course, his two books are fascinating reading.

Here’s a quote from one of Grant’s recent promotions:

“Advantages of anonymous living include freedom from unexpected visits and calls from aggressive salespeople, troublesome private investigators, dangerous stalkers, and others who may want to case your home, rob you of property, or make life miserable for you and your family. Keeping the debt on your home a secret is impossible when a traditional home mortgage is used as all who pay a nominal fee may be able to tap into your credit report, discover your home address and easily make their way to your door. “

His latest book is Privacy Crisis Banking and his flagship book is Privacy Crisis, each of which addresses different approaches to fully protecting your privacy using methods proven by the author himself.  By the way, I consider myself a friend of Grant Hall and I have no idea where he lives nor do I have a telephone number.  When we talk, he either emails or calls me and that’s fine with me.

In closing, Stephen Manes in his Full Disclosure column commented on Scott McNealy’s statement, “He's right on the facts, wrong on the attitude. ... Instead of 'getting over it', citizens need to demand clear rules on privacy, security, and confidentiality."  I agree and I am sure Grant Hall would also agree.

Thursday, October 18, 2012

It’s the Electoral College Vote, stupid

Some of us are enamored by polls, but many either don’t get the real significance of them or simply don’t believe they are accurate.  Actually most are at least close to right, but only at the moment they are taken.  How they hold up is based almost entirely on the political events of the day, particularly those of the candidates.  Example: Romney’s surge can be attributed to his performance in the first presidential debate.  Obama had a small jump after the second debate.

But the real numbers are found in political analysts’ stance on where candidates stand on electoral votes by state, and predictions over where the “Leaning” and “Tossup” votes will land, again by states.  There are a total of 538 electoral votes and 270 are needed to win.  As an example, Ohio, the “must-win state,” has 18 electoral votes and serves as the “how Ohio goes, so goes the country” state.  Iowa with only 6 votes but a lot of attention shows just how close this race is.

But, and this rankles some on either side of the political spectrum, you can win the popular vote and lose the election. Al Gore lost in 2000 running against George W. Bush.  The Electoral College is an indirect election meaning the people of each state elect a select group of people who pledge their vote to make that choice.  It was designed to preserve Federalism.  The popular vote is to instruct the electors from your state to cast their votes for the same candidate.

Sometimes it doesn’t always come out that way, as in 2000.  In some cases the elector changes his or her vote at the last minute.  If you are thinking that surge put Romney over the top to beat Obama in November, think again.  The challenger really has a long way to go.  Here’s the lineup of where the Electoral College Vote stands today:


Obama 201             Romney 191            Undecided 146

This site also has a probability rating of the candidates reaching 270

Obama 71%            Romney 28%           Tie 1%



Obama 237             Romney 191            Undecided 110

This site has a lineup by state of particulars on voters.



Obama 201             Romney 191            Undecided 146

There is also a rundown on this site by candidate in key states.



Obama 196             Romney191             Undecided 153



Obama 237             Romney 191            Undecided 110



Obama 236             Romney 236            Undecided 66

This site’s prediction:

Obama 280             Romney 258



Obama 277             Romney 239            Undecided 22



Obama 271             Romney 191            Undecided 76



Obama 277             Romney 206            Undecided 55

If you want to draw comparisons between the 2008 and 2012 elections, go here.

I urge you to visit all the sites for a wealth of information that will tell you what the political pulse of the country is.  You can even do your own projections on some of the sites and set up specific scenarios.  This isn’t a “Who should you vote for?” but rather several measures of where the Presidential race stands today where it matters.  There will be changes, one likely based on the Romney remark in the second debate re. his “whole binders full of women” comment.

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Presidential debate host Candy Crowley corrects Mitt Romney inaccuracy on the air

Candy Crowley
This time the he said, she said was between Mitt Romney and the debate host Candy Crowley.  Romney said Obama took two weeks to change the incident at the Benghazi, Libyan embassy from a demonstration to a terror attack.  Obama spoke up but Crowley spoke for him telling Romney he was wrong.  As Obama claimed, Crowley confirmed the President did it the next day in the Rose Garden.  Libyan Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three of his staff were killed.

There have been misstatements on both sides but Romney holds the record with some major distortions.  Dr. Billy Kidd, a senior researcher and writing on OpposingViews.com compiled the real facts:

Re. taxes and social programs, “The presidential race is a clear cut battle between whether the rich will get $1 trillion in free entitlements from the government or whether the middle class and the poor will keep their entitlements, like Medicare, Social Security, and Medicaid, as well as jobless benefits.”

“The Republican candidate, Mitt Romney, promises to downsize Medicare, so that older folks will have to pay thousands of dollars more a year for their healthcare.”

“Mitt Romney, has only one major plan to promote new jobs, which is to lower taxes; yet taxes already are the lowest they have been in 60 years and the plan is simply a handout to wealthy Americans.”

“One billionaire gave the Republican campaign $40 million dollars with the specific request that the next president bomb Iran and force the revaluation of the Chinese dollar, the renminbi, upwards.”

“Ninety percent of Americans are not even aware that a vote for the Republican candidate, Mitt Romney, means going to war against Iran, the ramifications of which could cause the price of gasoline to hit $10-a-gallon.”

There are more gems like this from Kidd and you can see them on the OpposingViews.com site here.

Kidd makes a frightening statement that should make any true American thinker wonder where this world is going.  He said: “Americans are mostly not interested in the facts concerning elections”

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

How I am even MORE SURE now that Barack Obama has the lead for November

I did a post about this premise on October 2, based on the switch in preference from Mitt Romney to Barack Obama by a family member and friend.  I realize this isn’t scientific but their conversion did represent two individuals who were and still are hard-core conservatives.  I figure if the President has convinced two hard-liners like these two, then the undecideds will certainly be at least up for grabs.  But my new hypothesis is stronger and more methodical based on facts.

Arizona has been controlled by Republicans at least as long as I have lived here which is over 22 years.  Even when Democrat Janet Napolitano was Governor, she had to fight constantly with a GOP legislature that has grown steadily more conservative thanks to a strong Arizona Tea Party.  Today the state is under the complete control of 2 factions: The Tea Party and the National Rifle Assn. (NRA). 

Somehow, since Napolitano left, the legislature has turned into a bunch of fanatical conservative lunatics, and the state is stuck with a governor who doesn’t have the slightest clue about what she is doing.  The evidence of this is the ridicule Arizona takes from the national media on a regular basis.

Well, guess what?  A new Rocky Mountain poll shows that the Presidential race in Arizona is close: Barack Obama leading Mitt Romney 44% to 42%.  Now I am no political analyst but my gut tells me, based on the outlandish antics of the state’s Republican government, and a population that put them in office and up to this point seemed oblivious to what was going on in Arizona, the progressives have great momentum going in Arizona as well as nationwide.  There’s more.

Top Republicans like Gov. Jan Brewer and Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio have basically alienated every voting Hispanic in the state.  There are 400,000 Latinos registered to vote and another 405,000 eligible but unregistered.  Democrats are hoping to get 300,000 of this number registered before November.  The Rocky Mountain poll reveals that 77% of these Hispanics are for Obama, 10% for Romney. 

It is estimated that 21.5 million Latinos will be eligible to vote nationwide in November, and if the 77% figure hold up, the President can almost be assured of 16.5 million potential votes.  But the question is, will Hispanics come out to vote?

And there’s even more.  Democrat Richard Carmona is running against Republican Rep. Jeff Flake for the Senate seat vacated by Jon Kyl.  Flake has been in Congress for six terms and was considered a shoo-in coming into the race but the poll found Carmona leading Flake by 4 points, 44% to 40%.  Carmona is Latino and the former Surgeon General under George W. Bush who, with large support from the President, doesn’t agree 100% with Obamacare.

But if the left can swing Arizona, which has formerly fought off all progressive candidates and issues, what does that mean on the national level?  It is generally accepted that to win the Presidential election, you must win Ohio.  According to Public Policy Polling, as of today Obama leads Romney by 5 points in Ohio, 51% to 46%.  There’s a new presidential debate coming up and Obama has promised to come out aggressive.  Right now, the stakes couldn’t be higher for Arizona.

Monday, October 15, 2012

Gov. Jan Brewer, the mouth of Arizona conservative propaganda – From Fast and furious to Border Agent Nick Ivie

It’s all about guns in the state of Arizona, no matter which side you are on.  In the case of the blunderingly elected and sorely unqualified Gov. Jan Brewer, no matter what the particular issue is, if it has anything to do with President Barack Obama, she is against it.  It’s because Brewer could see in the finger wagging incident photograph that Obama was thinking to himself, ‘Why am I wasting time on this moron.’  My words but don’t you agree it’s possible?


AZ Border Agent Brian Terry
Now Fast and furious was a botched event with the death of Border Agent Brian Terry that is still getting some attention, especially since the recent killing of Border Agent Nicholas Ivie.  Re. Fast and Furious, the GOV said, "With today's release of the Inspector General's investigation, it is clear that ‘failure' is the word that best describes the ill-conceived gun-walking probe known as Operation Fast & Furious.” 

This is basically true but hardly credible coming from someone who runs a state with the loosest gun laws in the country and one that supplies most of the arms for the Mexican cartels, assault rifles with which they carry out their slaughterhouse south of the border.


AZ Border Agent Nick Ivie
And then there was the sometime mentally challenged Brewer’s outburst over the death of Nick Ivie, a false claim that the whole incident was Barack Obama’s fault for not securing our border with Mexico.  She did it in haste and with the same arrogant disdain she uses in any criticism of the President.  She was wrong, of course, even criticized by Arizona Sen. John McCain, because later it was determined that Ivie was killed by friendly fire.  Brewer had no comment.

You can see her whole statement on Fast and furious here.

In the Phoenix East Valley Tribune, Mike McClellan calls ArizonaMexico’s firearm superstore” as well as “Mexico’s Walmart of guns.”  He also quotes Jan Brewer and mentions Iowa Sen. Charles Grassley’s claim that “maybe the Fast and Furious scandal had something to do with Agent Ivie’s death.”  The Iowa Senator has been a loose cannon on F&F, along with another unreliable Republican, Rep. Darrell Issa from California.  Brewer at least in good company.

McClellan reminds us of the New York Times article that pointed out the fact that Mexico has only one gun store, and residents are restricted to owning no more than a .38 caliber with gun permits taking months.  Then there was the Fortune piece estimating that according to the Mexican government there are 2,000 weapons a day that come into their country from the U.S.  I wrote about both of these issues earlier in this blog in pointing out Arizona’s loose firearms laws.



Mike McClellan

Everyone knows, and Mike McClellan confirms, that the National Rifle Assn. (NRA), makes the laws on gun ownership and use today in many states around the country.  Not inept governors like Arizona’s Jan Brewer and her incompetent Republican legislature.  The NRA has strong support from the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), an organization that has steadily lost members (41) since it was exposed by the Center for Media Democracy.

Let me leave you with an interesting comment to McClellan’s article:

As an X-NRA member, I agree with you 100%. All the NRA ever wanted from me was money. Unfortunately, our politicians are for sale to the highest bidders and that never includes the people who voted for them.  We can't even keep laws on the books that would limit concealed carry, because the whackos want to be able to pack heat, even on the capitol floor.  NObody would ever need to buy more than one gun at a time, unless they intended to re-sell them.
I'd be OK with a mandatory 5 day waiting period and a one-gun-per-transaction limit, too. Let's just keep dreaming together.

Well said, and maybe we aren't just dreaming anymore.

Friday, October 12, 2012

HATE comes to Arizona…again

My wife received an email from a friend recently that had been forwarded to her and God only knows how many other people.  It was the latest in the Obama hate campaign which probably originated in Arizona and has since prospered.  It is completely wrong, of course, and that is what I told the person who sent it.  It may have pissed this woman off since I have had no reply so far, but friend or not, these people have to be stopped from this reckless forwarding of emails.    

Further, I said to her: “it is the unrestricted spewing out of this kind of crap that has given Arizona the title of the most racist state in the country.  And having lived in many parts of the South, this is saying something.”  What is most disturbing about this vicious email is the self-effacing approach used by the propagandist in an attempt to convince readers the President has somehow mistreated his Mother.  Here’s the way it starts”

“The character of any man is defined by how he treats his mother as the years pass...Need I say more about this person below other than there is no character, no integrity...But there is a ton of attitude and arrogance that defines his shallow past and hollow future...I rest my case.”

To imply that Barack Obama had anything but the greatest love and highest admiration for his Mother can only come from one who is mentally challenged and at the same time a certified bigot.  The fanatic goes on to quote from two of Obama’s books, The Audacity of Hope and Dreams From my Father.  FactCheck.org “found that two of the quotes are false, and others have been manipulated or taken out of context.”

Racism from another viewpoint: The Tea Party:

More from FactCheck.org:

Misleading e-mail: From Dreams of My Father: "I found a solace in nursing a pervasive sense of grievance and animosity against my mother’s race." 
Actual quote from "Dreams from My Father": Nothing like this quote appears in Obama’s books.

Doctored email: Misleading e-mail: From Dreams of My Father: "I never emulate white men and brown men whose fates didn’t speak to my own. It was into my father’s image, the black man, son of Africa, that I’d packed all the attributes I sought in myself, the attributes of Martin and Malcolm, Dubois and Mandela."
Actual quote from "Dreams from My Father" [pg. 220]: Yes, I’d seen weakness in other men – Gramps and his disappointments, Lolo and his compromise. But these men had become object lessons for me, men I might love but never emulate, white men and brown men whose fates didn’t speak to my own. It was into my father’s image, the black man, son of Africa, that I’d packed all the attributes I sought in myself, the attributes of Martin and Malcolm, DuBois and Mandela. And if later I saw that the black men I knew – Frank or Ray or Will or Rafiq – fell short of such lofty standards; if I had learned to respect these men for the struggles they went through, recognizing them as my own – my father’s voice had nevertheless remained untainted, inspiring, rebuking, granting or withholding approval.  You do not work hard enough, Barry. You must help in your people’s struggle. Wake up, black man!

“And finally………and most scary,” as defined by the missionary of hate, Obama’s supposed quote, "I will stand with the Muslims should the political winds shift in an ugly direction."  Following is FactCheck’s version:

Misleading e-mail: From Audacity of Hope: "I will stand with the Muslims should the political winds shift in an ugly direction." 
Actual quote from "The Audacity of Hope" [pg. 261]: Of course, not all my conversations in immigrant communities follow this easy pattern. In the wake of 9/11, my meetings with Arab and Pakistani Americans, for example, have a more urgent quality, for the stories of detentions and FBI questioning and hard stares from neighbors have shaken their sense of security and belonging. They have been reminded that the history of immigration in this country has a dark underbelly; they need specific assurances that their citizenship really means something, that America has learned the right lessons from the Japanese internments during World War II, and that I will stand with them should the political winds shift in an ugly direction.

Please visit FactCheck.org for more of the outright lies of the email and several interesting comments on the scum responsible.  The public complains about the hate campaigns of politicians, started by Karl Rove in the George W. Bush administration and continued now by other conservative GOP candidates as well as Democrats.  It has become a way of life in the political world.  It has always been a way of life for some individuals, like those sending these emails.

Thursday, October 11, 2012

More persuasions for gun control

Neither Barack Obama nor Mitt Romney broached the subject of gun control in the October 3, presidential debate.  Gun control advocates across the country took notice and many let their disappointment be known.  One such person was Stephen Barton who was one of the victims in the Aurora, Colo. movie theatre massacre.  Barton, who is from Brooklyn, was hit with 25 shotgun pellets and is suffering nerve damage.  However, Barton says he won’t give up.


Columbine shooters Eric Harris
and Dylan Klebold
Barton remarked it seemed absurd to not mention gun control in the Denver debate considering the short proximity to the Aurora carnage as well as the Columbine school shootings in 1999.  12 were killed in Aurora, 58 wounded.  In Columbine, 13 killed, 21 injured.  Barton places part of the blame for ignoring the gun issue on the debate host, Jim Lehrer, but mostly on the candidates.  You’d think a total of 25 killed and 79 wounded would raise some candidates’ hackles.

It didn’t, and, at least, this could have added some zip to Obama’s hollow performance.  Sorry, Mr. President, it was sorely lacking and some are saying it could put Mitt Romney ahead to stay.  I think not!  Whatever went on in your head that night has thoroughly confused many progressives, but we all know it was not the true Barack Obama.  But the fact remains that both you and Romney refuse to address the enormity of the problems of firearms in the United States.

Aurora and Columbine, and Tucson and Virginia Tech and the host of other major incidents of mass shootings should be enough to put any politician’s stomach in turmoil with it happening in the country he governs or wants to govern.  But not a word from either of you and that is unacceptable.  Maybe not to the gun nuts and the NRA and its leader, wacky Wayne LaPierre, but for the average citizen who values his or her life and that of family and friends.

Excellent video by Thom Hartmann making case for gun control:

And of course there is more.  On the streets of America each day 84 people are killed by guns, 603 weekly and 2,612 monthly, numbers that should drive any civilized government to regulate the source of the problem.  Like Canada and Australia, where steps have been taken to control this kind of individual and mass bloodshed due to firearms.  Recently a Quebec court let stand a law requiring the registration of even long guns along with the current handgun law.

Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn has proposed strictly banning assault weapons and New York lawmakers want broad legislation to limit weapons purchases.  On the other hand Dem. Majority Leader Harry Reid says that body is to busy to debate gun control this year with no promises for next year.  It is simply astonishing to me that our Congress is too busy to do something about the death of 84 innocent victims a day from guns, many illegal.  I guess the question is what will it take?

Doctors have even weighed in on the issue, asking the question, “Is a gun like a virus, a car, tobacco or alcohol?”  They say YES and want to approach gun violence as a social disease.  “What we need, they say, is a public health approach to the problem, like the highway safety measures, product changes and driving laws that slashed deaths from car crashes decades ago, even as the number of vehicles on the road rose,” according to the Associated Press.

VA Tech shooter Seung-Hui Cho
Mass shootings don’t seem to be on the rise but the accounting of the number of dead and wounded by police agencies for these incidents aren’t always reported immediately, sometime not for a year.  Emergency medicine professor Dr. Garen Wintemute of the U. of Calif. Davis said, "The greater toll is not from these clusters but from endemic violence, the stuff that occurs every day and doesn't make the headlines.”  Like those 84 deaths reported by the CDC.

And finally, there’s Paul Ryan.  His Vice Presidential candidacy is enough to make any serious gun control advocate throw up.  Actually, any progressive for that matter.  Example: Re. guns, in 1999 he voted against more stringent background checks for people buying at gun shows.  And in 2011 he voted for the bill that, if you have a concealed carry permit in one state, you would be able to carry your weapon concealed in any state.

FLASH: Since the state of Arizona will issue concealed carry permits to just about anyone who wants one, and allow them to carry their weapons anywhere they want to in the state, you will have hundreds of people walking around the U.S. who are not even qualified to own a gun.  Come on…doesn’t common sense demand more sensible gun regulations in America?

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