EckerNet.Com

Well we have good news and bad news.

The good news is that the federal government is allocating $23 million to build a border fence, using technology that will prevent it from being damaged and also detect attempts to tunnel under it. They are even deploying teams from the American Army Corps of Engineers to assist in the process.

The bad news???

The border fence is located in Egypt.

Where exactly are our priorities???

Anyone that has paid any amount of attention would probably not be surprised if the needs of Mexico took priority over the needs of US citizens, but now we don’t even rank above Egypt??? They built the fucking pyramids! They can build their own damn fence.

How about we expand our fence building resources on our own border fence? You remember that? The one that is years behind schedule. The one on which hundreds of millions has been squandered with nothing to show for it but a few stray strands of barbed wire that are barely capable of herding cattle.

And our politicians wonder why we don’t trust them to build the fence. Can we file this as Exhibit #8750785790320975????

And I’ll bet anyone a Chipotle burrito that this Egyptian fence gets built before ours does. Takers?

[H/T : Conservative Belle]

Historically, one of the first steps of any new tyrant has been to disarm the public, which makes this very disturbing indeed :

A crackdown on guns is meeting some resistance in the District.

Police are asking residents to submit to voluntary searches in exchange for amnesty under the District’s gun ban. They passed out fliers requesting cooperation on Monday.

The program will begin in a couple of weeks in the Washington Highlands neighborhood of southeast Washington and will later expand to other neighborhoods. Officers will go door to door asking residents for permission to search their homes.

Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier said the “safe homes initiative” is aimed at residents who want to cooperate with police. She gave the example of parents or grandparents who know or suspect their children have guns in the home.

Voluntary searches I’m sure. And anyone refusing such a requested search I’m sure won’t end up on an unofficial “suspected” list. And in this age where virtually everything is a technical violation of some archaic law, I’m sure that won’t be used against anyone. Anyone that believes that, I know of some great oceanfront property in Oklahoma.

Simply amazes me that in a city well known for it’s high level of crime, the police department is expending valuable resources verifying that each house is definitively disarmed and vulnerable to any violent criminal that chooses to make them a victim.

In the very city, which was source of Warren v. District of Columbia, 444 A.2d 1 (D.C. Ct. of Ap., 1981), which stated that the police don’t actually have a duty to protect you. So now, when seconds matter, and the police are only minutes away, the DC police department will verify the populace will not even have the ability to defend themselves.

Unbelievable. How any police officer in the District of Columbia can put on their uniform with any level of pride any more is beyond me.

Congratulations to all World of Warcraft users, your alternative reality finally has a useful purpose:

Scientists have already noted World of Warcraft’s usefulness in studying how diseases spread. The game’s network of 10 million players — each capable of making decisions, either logical or illogical, rational or irrational — gives scientists a ready-made virtual world to scrutinize that’s not based on computer models or artificial intelligence. The game could be an invaluable tool not only for counterterrorists and epidemiologists but also sociologists and economists.

Charles Blair, deputy director of the Center for Terrorism and Intelligence Studies, said he thinks the game could provide a powerful new way to study how terrorist cells form and operate. His organization already uses computer models to study terrorists’ tactical decision-making, but World of Warcraft’s army of players adds a realistic dimension that might prove more enlightening than even the best baked-in artificial intelligence.

I’m not sure I’m entirely happy that our understanding of terrorists could potentially be based upon the actions of a 12 year old kid who is trying to get in some uber pwnage (or whatever) before his mom finds out about his D in History and grounds him.

On the other hand, that same kid may have the same maturity and decision making ability of your average terrorist.

On yet another hand, the hordes of Ron Paul crazies in the game have gotta skew the results a bit.

The House Republican Caucus has put together a huge interactive list of pork items proposed by the MN DFL totaling over $454 Million in spending. My own legislator, Shelley Madore, is responsible for about $35 million of it, more then her fair share to be sure.

Looking through the list varies from the incredibly absurd to the borderline useful. But the question should not be how worthwhile are these projects. Instead, tax payers should ask themselves two things:

1. Are these items that the Minnesota taxpayer should have to pay for??? Especially considering many are for private entities?
2. In a year where we can’t even find money in the budget to pay for critical priority items such as transportation without raising taxes, should we really be funding very non-critical items like renovating a zoological garden??

So next time you fill up on gas remember, you’re not only paying for transportation, but you’re also helping our legislature divert funds to pay for a Polar Bear Exhibit in Duluth.

Now a DFL defender may rightly point out that most of these items are being paid for with bonding. However, when the GOP offered to pay for transportation with bonding, the DFL said it wasn’t fair to make our children pay for our spending. If our children shouldn’t help pay for long term critical infrastructure like roads, how is it that it is fair for them to pay for things like a $800,000 fish tank for the State Fair???

The MN DFL needs to be honest with the Minnesotan taxpayer, which is more important….roads or a canoe portage??

[Crossposted at True North]

It’s time to clean up Kevin’s List of Interesting-Topics-Not-Quite-Interesting-Or-Deep-Enough-To-Write-About. So here’s another of my infamous lists….

Curious how much your MN DFL House legislator is spending on per-diem?? Find out here. Interested how much in non-essential spending they’ve racked up? Check here.

Hillary Clinton has released her daily schedule from her first two terms as President. Commence the hunt! Be the first kid on your block to track down an embarrassing appointment.

Remember how the Democrats keep telling us that things aren’t really improving in Iraq. That despite the dropping violence, death toll and attacks on soldiers, things are still horrible over there. They say this by claiming that political progress just isn’t happening and that’s what is really important. Well, despite what they’re saying, that political progress is happening.

Of course, some will still talk of the horrific death toll of the Iraq war, and while those deaths are tragic, when viewed in historical context, they are nothing short of amazing.

Despite what we keep being told, compact fluorescent lightbulbs aren’t real good for the environment….in fact, we be may starting a whole new ecological disaster with their use. Another reminder that change for the sake of change, isn’t always a good thing.

FYI, Vista still sucks.

If you’re testing a new shark repellent device, it’s probably a bad sign if a shark eats the device.

The sales people at Best Buy apparently will now haggle to close a sale in order to compete with the internet age where finding deals is easy.

The Rankings Are As Follows:

• Triple “I Whine Like A Child” A : 5
• NightWriter : 4
• Dan S : 4
• Mall Diva : 3
• jroosh : 2
• Harvey : 2
• Bogus Doug : 2
• Aelfheld : 2
• Sola-Man : 2
• Bobby_B : 2
• Drunkguy : 2
• Lloyd :2
• kingdavid : 1
• tommy g : 1
• spurringirl : 1

For this contest you get to make up your own answers!! That’s right…just pretend you’re a real life journalist and just make shit up. Post answers in the comments. They will be judged on creativity, plausibility and humor.

Question : What are they chanting?

Previous contests

Boo-friggin-hoo….Ron Paul is upset that the Republican party isn’t beating down his door to plead for his support and those of his supporters. Excuse me if I say so what??

Ok first of all let me say I’m glad he has such energetic supporters, if they want to join the Republican party they are welcome, but there is absolutely no reason that the Republican party should come crawling to them when they clearly represent a fringer of the electorate. An energetic fringe to be sure, but clearly a fringe. Why destroy our ability to appeal to most of the country to appeal to a few select few spam bots??

Because honestly, let’s look at what Ron Paul brings to the table….

Conspiracy Theories : Come on the guy is a 9/11 truther….

Bigotry or Complete Incompetence : Yeah, nothing like being racist to appeal to the masses. Yeah, I know I’ve heard all the excuses, but ultimately it comes down to this. Either he knew about it and didn’t object, in which case he’s a closet racist and unfit for office. Or he didn’t know and therefore allowed people he barely knew to publish articles under his name for decades, in which case he’s just f-ing stupid to be in office.

Gold Standard : Seriously, Ron you bore everyone to tears and you come of sounding like a complete kook. Yeah yeah yeah, your utopian vision sounds possibly appealing but it’s not realistic. But the fact that you think it’s plausible makes us question your sanity.

Eliminate our national intelligence agencies : Yeah wonderful. We’re in the middle of a global war on terror, let’s put on a blindfold and put in earplugs. I’m sure everyone will just leave us alone then. Ron, your view of the world was proven outdated on December 7th, 1941. Isolationism is no longer an option.

Iraq : Pull out troops now no matter what. Yeah, this should end well.

So yeah, once again if you want to join the Republican Party, by all means do so. We welcome you, we’re just not going to gut the party just to appeal to your kooky deranged view of the world. You want to chase UFOs that’s your business.

Well the first shots have been fired in defining the meaning of the Second Amendment. Oral arguments were heard today and in fact ran well over what was originally scheduled. Probably most surprising was the starting point of both sides. The lawyers representing the gun ban side, essentially conceded that the Second Amendment specifies an individual right early on. They made a few token attempts to argue against it, but it became fairly obvious that the court wasn’t open to that point of view.

Basically the final opinion is likely to come down to answering a few specific questions. First, given that the 2nd Amendment secures an individuals right to keep and bear arms, can the government regulate that and in what manner? And if they can regulate it, which level of judicial review should it have to pass??

What that basically means is that those that argue in favor of the Second Amendment aren’t likely to lose any ground any this case. Roberts, Scalia and Alito seemed firmly in the individual rights camp. Kennedy seemed to be leaning that direction and I’m assuming Thomas would be the same, although he seemed silent in the debate. Souter and Ginsburg were solidly in the “guns are the source of all evil” camp. Breyer was a little harder to figure out where he was leaning, although it appeared he was likely leaning towards the individual right side of the fence.

Overall it was absolutely fascinating to read through and listen to the arguments made. Many are ones I’ve heard in one form or another. Others were new points of view, at least to me, that were interesting to entertain even if I didn’t necessarily agree with them.

In the end it appears that the Second Amendment is likely to be held as an individual right, but subject to regulation by the government. This is not exactly without precedent (as I believe one of the Justices pointed out), as speech, assembly and press are all also subject to reasonable regulation, despite being individual rights. What defines “reasonable” appears likely to be the bulk of the discussion at this point. Although, from at least the impression I got from both arguments and the points the justices were making “reasonable” appears that it will probably fall far short of an outright ban such as the DC gun ban is.

[Crossposted at True North]

Ask most anyone that has paid close attention to this election cycle and they will tell it’s already been bizarre and full of unique scenarios and things that have “almost never happened”. It should be no surprise then that the political lexicon has been expanded to describe these unique situations.

Just so we’re all on the same page and can communicate effectively, please be aware of the following new terms and their meanings. If you have additional phrases that need to be added, please alert others in the comments

• Baraknaphobia: Fear of a seasoned political machine losing the Democratic nomination to an inexperienced candidate.
• Macnaphobia: Irrational fear of winning the White House despite running a popular, highly-qualified war hero (most commonly found in inside-the-beltway TV conservatives).
• The Seven Year Kucinich: It can’t possibly take her that long, can it?
• Rathered: Losing one’s job by letting political biases color supposedly objective journalism. (E.g. Someone at the NYT will be Rathered after publishing the unsubstantiated hit piece on Senator McCain).
• FLOTUS Promotus: Political qualification by marriage.
• First Obamendment: Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of the press to fall in lust with a candidate.
• Ickey-Sticky: An effective hit by the Clinton campaign.
• Vicki-Sticky: See Rathered.
• Sunshine Suicide (Sunshinicide): Sitting out the first four primaries to start a Presidential campaign in Florida.
• Blowmentum: Impact of $400 hair cuts on populist Presidential campaigns.
• Jerriatrics: Medicines believed to reduce the effects of aging (side effects may include drowsiness and the nagging urge to run for President)
• Premature eleculation - declaring yourself the nominee before a single vote is cast.
• Bloombust - a New York politician who flirts with running for president for years but ultimately does not. Syn: Cuono.