bitbol

Round-up:

• Google is being sued for their use of sponsored links. From what I can tell, it is a suit that should not even exist. Perhaps I am missing details, but there are two ways that the "problem" occurred. The first is that a company googlebombed the competition to get their name first. The other is that people are too stupid to know what the "sponsored links" box is. I bet on the latter. As far as I can tell, Google isn't even involved in the conflict (other than the search result).
• What Google is involved in is a matter of comedy. Google wrote a bad check. An Adsense publisher found that the check bounced when trying to cash it- not what you would expect from a billion dollar company. The publisher also reached phone hell in Google's computer handling of calls.
• Police brutality on video. While I don't approve of what the fans did in this video, I don't blame them. Police these days seems to believe that they can do anything. If they officers had simply carried the man off the field, everything would have been avoided, but they repeatedly hit the man with the nightstaffs (of all things). There was no reason for what they did.
• The republicans are not big fans of civil rights.
• Edwards: Bush's remarks border delusional.
• Optimum copyright period, as determined by economics: 14 years.

I have a feeling that I am going to be busy this summer.

Labels: America, Bush, Copyright, Edwards, Google, Iraq, Legal, News, Politics, Video

I really don't have time to do full posts at the moment. For the next couple weeks, I will do "collections" where I will do short commentary on some of the stories that I was reading that day. Here is today's:

• VP Cheney is still trying to keep his office sealed. Cheney is the puppet master behind the war, and he is still to be held accountable. His handling of affairs is despicable.
• Congress has an approval rating lower than Bush (!). An analysis of congress has revealed some of the biggest pricks in congress. Dick Cheney shares a position on this list with a KKK member.
• PCWorld has done a survey to find that best and worst ISPs. On the list, Charter, my ISP, places dead last. I wholeheartedly agree with that rating. The only reason they get our money is because there is no other high-speed option.
• Congress has voted to raise the fuel economy standard to 35 MPG. Automakers are given until 2020 to meet the standard. My estimate is that they will go until 2018 before anything is really done about it.
• Presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani didn't do much for the Iraq Study Group. Giuliani would rather make money doing motivational speeches. I find it disgusting that this man raked in $200,000 doing these speeches. He was supposed to be serving the people, and here he was serving his pocketbook.
• Bush's approval rating is now down to 26 percent.
• Bush vetoed the most recent stem-cell research bill, without even reading it. The newest bill allowed embryos that would otherwise be destroyed to be used for research. Bush's speech made it apparent that he did not read the full text. I don't even understand what this man could possibly be thinking. How much could you advance science if he would step aside from his precious religion and look at reality.

Tomorrow, I am going to be in NYC. I have no idea how much access I will have to the internet.

Labels: America, Bush, Cheney, Collections, Giuliani, Iraq, News, Politics

It couldn't be said any more directly than this: Bush has no intention of leaving Iraq. Bush wants to model Iraq after South Korea, with the long-term occupation that keeps the peace. There's only one major difference between the two: Korea has stopped fighting, where Iraq has not.

Furthermore, North and South Korea have improving relations, whereas Iraq is getting progressively worse with time. In Korea, we sided with South Korea, while in Iraq we have no allies. Bush's plan simply will not work, and is still not what people want to see.

Labels: America, Bush, Iraq, News

The Bush administration has wasted $456 billion on the Iraq War. No Americans will ever see any of that. Boston.com has a slideshow on what the money could have done, which is slightly different from a previous post with the same idea. Granted that this is from Boston, some are geared toward Boston. On the list:

1. 2,949 Newton North High Schools - the most expensive in Mass.
2. 30 Big Digs - the expansive tunnel system under Boston.
3. Free gas for 1.2 years - instead of fighting over it, just buy it.
4. Convert to ethanol - using only 15% of the money.
5. 14.5 million years of Harvard education - "No child left behind."
6. 1 year of Medicare benefits
7. Baseball contract for 52,615 years at $52 million
8. Feed & educate the poor for 5.5 years

Why don't we end this damn war and spend our money on things that matter. Or, instead of fighting, let's just burn it; it would be the same as the war, just without the lives lost.

Labels: America, Iraq, Money, Politics