20081204
Big Three Automakers Continue to Prove What Crooks and Liars They Are
Last month, GM, Chrystler, and Ford executives showed up in private jets, asking for money they do not deserve like a con artist at a bank. When they did this on November 19, they showed up in Washington in private jets hoping that the Government would buy into there bullsh*t. (Yeah, there is no other word to describe such liars they are.)Fortunately, lawmakers saw through their prepared performance, and sent them home with NOTHING. They also told them, if they really wanted this bailout money (which in reality is the auto industry looking for a kickback that they can skim off the top of the misfortune of the subprime interest rate loan crisis), to come back a few weeks later with a legitmate reason for why they really need it.
The Auto Industry does NOT need this money. The excutives just want to take money that they don't deserve. A crocodile tear televangelists could pull this same scam and the government would still say no.
As a blogger in the St. Louis area, we have seen first hand, on more than one occasion, how much GM, Ford, and Chrystler really care about the hard working American: THEY DON'T GIVE A CARE!
When Ford announced that the Ford Assembly Plant in Hazelwood would be closing, Missouri Governor Matt Blunt, St. Louis County Executive Charlie Dooley, and Hazelwood Mayor T.R. Carr went to Detroit to ask them to reconsider. Even after giving Ford a large amount of money, they still said no. The plant closed in 2006, and was demolished this year.
Then the St. Louis Area experienced deja vu this year when Chrystler announced that they would close the Chrystler Assembly Plant in Fenton. Only these jobs weren't being terminated, they were being exported to Canada.
For some reason, the executives at the Big Three automobile companies have this strange defintion of what an American is. It should be no contest that if you are from the United States of America that you are American, but if you are from one of the three major countries from the contenent of North America, you are North American. So why do these executives think that we are dumb enough to believe that the definition of American is the same as the definition of North American? They seem to use this definition profusely when they talk, especially when they are lying.
So it should be no surprise that 12 years after they created an electric car, then dumped it in favor of the gas guzzling Hummer, that we are playing this game again, having learned nothing from bad behavoir, bad decision making, and zero empathy for the American worker, they have come back to Washington with no game plan, just the bastardly behavior of a bunch of white collar criminals.
Thus, it is also no surprise that when GM CEO Rick Wagoner drives a Chevy Volt from Detroit tow Washington, there will be 395 miles listed on the odometer, right? WRONG!. Contining to believe that most of the United States sniffs glue and are inbred offspring, Mr. Wagoner HAS LEARNED NOTHING, AGAIN!. Of course, this won't mean that he won't manipulate the odometer and make himself look like a big hero for the American auto industry. He won't be a hero.
So let the Big Three crash. There will be a New Automobile Industry to replace them when it is over. Don't worry, union buffs, they won't be Japanese, but they won't be lying creaps either.
The world will get to know Tesla Motors, Fisker Automotive. And more than likely, the guys at Tesla and Fisker will need some United Auto Workers to work with some electric vehicle advocates, especially Open Source electric vehicle advocates.
It is time for the Big Three to die.
Labels: business, Cars, crime, economy, linux, politics, stupidity
posted by Bushido Hacks 12/04/2008 03:32:00 PM (0) comments top
20081027
The coming tsunami of Change
With just nine days to go until the election, the forces of status quo are in panic mode. They are trying to find some way to enact martial law so that the election on November 4th does not happen.A couple of months ago, it was the crisis in the former Soviet repbublic of Georgia. The past couple of month, it has been the crashing economy. (Burn baby burn!) And this afternoon, the provoking of Syria.
It appears that whatever is going on in Washington right now seems to be about as logical as using a baseball bat to smack a hornet's nest in an attempt to not go to work it seems.
What I am waiting for at this point is for Miss Alaska to do something really stupid and support an organization that she probably should not support. Apparently, someone went to Plaza Frontenac recently and splurged $150,000 at Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus on a wardrobe and a spa treatment. (I went down to Plaza Frontenac to check out the Neiman Marcus. They wanted $100 for a tie! Expensive!) For someone who claims to be a hockey mom rooting for the Walmart crowd, Sarah Palin definitely did NOT shop at Walmart for her attire.
Reguarless of what this poser is doing, the fact is there are alot of scared white people out there right now. I am not one of them. And it is of no shame that BushidoHacks.com endorses Barack Obama as the next president of the United States. However, I would like to remind the many minority supporters that Barack Obama is not Jesus Christ reincarnated. While he does have a great and positive influence, this "he's a cadidate for 'our' (black) people" is slightly off the mark and not to metion adds to the hostility that many white people have against him as president.
When you run for president, you don't run for one particular race or party. Barack Obama sees that. But if both Black voter and White voters, and Democractic supporters and Republican supporters see him in polar opposite points of view, that also doesn't help.
Remember, vice president is just a heart beat away from being president. So if you don't like McCain or Obama, you have to keep in mind that you are actually voting for Palin or Biden.
Palin want to continue funding the failing IDEA program which is very partial and does not work but she wants Congress to stop funding an effective research project that has helped identify many autism spectrum disorders using fruit flies. If this was a program to help resolve Colony Collapse Disorder and it had democratic support, she would probably support killing that project too.
As a person with disabilities, Palin does not have the best interset of the disabled at heart. If anything, her support is emotionally and politically driven. She is basically tossing her own newborn son with Downs Syndrome under the Straight Talk Express bus.
Palin seems to think that there is a one-size-fits-all approch to people with disabilites when the truth is that people with High Functioning Autism (HFA) and people with Downs Sydrome are NOT at all alike. While these are disabilites, many people with HFA (espeically people with a form of HFA called Aspergers' Syndrome) can function and support themselves in life, where as many people with Downs Syndrome need constant care and monitoring. By putting the constrains of a program like Down Syndrome on people with HFA, the HFA individuals feel constrained as they have to prove to employeers that their disability shouldn't really have too much of an effect on their work aside from probably needing an extension on some deadlines.
But programs like the ones Palin supports assume that the person with HFA should work as a Walmart greeter. As a person who has spent six years at a private university to aquire a computer science degree, I sure as hell am not working at Walmart, not even as a manager!
So why is there all this hate agains Barack Obama? Recently, a guy name Sirkowski (kind of NSFW) pointed out that racial hatred continues to be pumped into this campaign. (Protip: Puting a Barack Obama sticker on a Curious George doll and calling it "Barack Obama" DOES make you a racist.)
It is my personal belief that racists, much like the current adminstration, are in panic mode. Right now, I see them as the people who go out onto a beach just before a massive tsunami is about to strike. The momentum of the Obama campaign has become so large that the breakers can not stop it at this point. And on November 4th, the massive wave will crash into the shore, changing the lives of the people living near the coast. Some will fight in vain to stop the wave and in their defense may try to drown themselves. Others will be on the high ground, watching in horror the people who will kill themselves because of the fear.
But on November 5, 2008, the world will be a much different place, and the countdown to January 20, 2009 will begin. The fight to stop a lame duck president and his corporate constituants from unravalling a 232 year old instition that during the past eight years has been abused and taken advantage of by the people who lulled us into believing that what they were doing was right.
Now comes the age of democracy restored.
Labels: disabilities, government, honeybees, politics, science
posted by Bushido Hacks 10/27/2008 12:19:00 AM (0) comments top
20080826
Dems leave Linux users in the dark
As much as I support Barack Obama for President, the Democratic National Convention Comittee screwed the pooch by choosing to use Microsoft Silverlight instead of Adobe Flash for their video needs. The decision is in conflict of an article the DNCC called The 2008 Democratic National Convention: The Most Technologically-Savvy Event Of Its Kind.Silverlight does not allow Linux or UNIX users to view online video like Flash, Windows Media, Quicktime, or Real can.
So why only support Windows or MacOS? No other software is bias against the users' operating system software preference. If the Obama website supports Flash video, why doesn't the DNCC?
This is why I refuse to do any programming on Microsoft IIS, ASP.Net, or SQLServer. (That and I don't know jack about ASP.Net in the first place. I mean, come on? $300 for software or free? Which would you pick if you were a poor starving college kid?) If that is going to affect my job search, then good! I'd rather do programming the right way (Apache + PHP + MySQL), rather than the easy way.
At least the DNCC got one thing right: Using an open source CMS called Silver Stripe
In short, Silverlight = BAD, SliverStripe = GOOD.
In terms of Joe Biden as VP, while I do not agree with his stance for supporting RIAA or MPAA, at least he is not Carly Fiorina who nearly destroyed Hewlett-Packard a few years ago with her ability to micromanage. If McCain has 7 houses from marrying his trophy wife, and Fiorina has 5 private jets (two she had to give back) that she bought by showing 5000 HP workers pink slips, what are the chance that McCain will NOT become the next president of the United States? Nearing 100%. Ask anyone working in the Tech industry, especially in Silicon Valley (San Jose,CA), who Carly Firornia is and they'll likely say she makes Hillary Clinton look like a saint.
In terms of technology, I believe that any politician who plans on making any technology decisions and has a bias against hackers needs to read "The Conscience of a Hacker", at least one technical book (i.e. HTML for Dummies), and needs to under stand the workings of email, cell phones, and the Internet. We don't need anymore Ted Stevens-like senators who don't know jack about technology but are put in charge of a Senate Committee responsible for Comererce, Science, and Transportations just so they can be spoon fed what the NTCA tells them and prays to God that no one finds your emails (cough!MattBlunt!cough!)
Labels: linux, microsoft, politics, shovelware, software
posted by Bushido Hacks 8/26/2008 09:52:00 PM (0) comments top
20080610
It is time for citizens to commandeer oil prices! - Click!
Senator Claire McCaskill (D-MO) worked valiantly today to send a message to the oil industry that we have had it with the oil companies high prices with no merit. But when the bill that she proposed that would charge the oil companies a windfall sales tax failed, then another bill that gave tax breaks to alternative energy died, both at the hands of the Establishment, it has become clear that no amount of legislative action, or judicial action, and certainly not any executive action, would stop the oil companies from overcharging Americans.The oil industry makes enough money, that they are above the law. They could commit murder (which they have) and simply write a check for bail if they were in a trial. The oil industry has no respect for the laws of man or the natural rights of humans. Their crimes have hindered the wellbeing of citizens, as police and fire departments must cut back on their crime and safety training for gasoline. The oil industry has obstructed the school year of children that school years must be truncated, shortening the educations of some students, and rerouting buses to standing room only for mass-transit systems.
Today, the estabishment stated that they are in full support of the oil industries crippling America, its infrastructure, and its government.
We are now at war with The Estabishment. The Estabishment that declared war but sent its troops into battle without armour. The Establishment that promised "Gas Tax Holidays" to bribe people into gaining their consent and compliance to continue to raise the price of fuel and lower environmental standards. The Establishment that has damaged the environment to the point that their are no bees to polinate crops, which in turn endangers our food supply. The Establishment that bailed out mortgage lenders and savings and loan groups just as they did nearly 20 years ago. The Establishment that put energy companies in charge of environmental and energy standards which made the air we breathe unhealthy and the people who could not afford heating or air conditioning freeze or swelter. The Establishment that mistreated hospitalized war veterans, exported jobs overseas, and held back students who proved that they could succeed.
The Establishment is afraid of change. It is afraid to lose the power it has been inebriated itself with the freedom of its citizens. It has taken this country and the world for a ride and it was incahoots with alot of bad people who also fear change. Many of these changes were maid possible online, reguardless of the attempts of disinformation which tried to drown out or lie about what is going on. Television and radio only tell us what the Establishment wants us to see and hear. The Internet has changed the playing field. Not like in 2000 or 2004, but for real this time in 2008.
We frighten the Establishment, and that is a good thing. We aren't sending them terriorist threats or manufactured lies to keep people in control. We are spreading the honest truth that life stinks right now, but at they same time we are telling people that we are not going to take it lying down.
We are ready to take on the changes that the Establishment will fight us tooth an nail over. We are not going to let them continue to keep the status quo because we know what has happened--that IS HAPPENING--because we gave up freedom for quiet conscent.
It is time we commandeer the gas stations and put the price of oil back under $2 per gallon. The oil industry makes more than enough money that they deserve to be victums of their own crimes.
But by no means does not paying for gas mean that we can drive around in the big gas-guzzling vehicles.
The automobile industry is still an accessory to the crimes of the oil industry. They broke the laws too, raking in profits while their workers took a pay cut so that the guys upstairs got a pay raise.
It is time that the citizens of the United States of America took control of this situation, as the Establishment, the oil industry, and the automobile industry won't.
Labels: diy, energy, environment, freedom, fud, government, news, politics
posted by Bushido Hacks 6/10/2008 09:39:00 PM (0) comments top
20080315
Get to know your Elected Officials - Click!
You don't need to go to Washington, DC or your state capital to get to know your elected officials. What you should know is who your elected representatives are.I recently took a trip to my state capital of Jefferson City, Missouri, to support a group that helps people with head injuries as well as physical and mental disabilities.
The trip rekindled my interest in being involved with state and local politics, as it is at that level individuals have the best opporitunity to have a voice in government. It is also at this level where elected officials understand the issues that are important in your community, not just the issues that are important to a small group of men in a smoke filled room.
Every state seems to have a small little clique of upper brass state officials. It is usually composed of people who are in the greatest position of power or part of a family has had a history of wealth or strong relationships with corporate leaders. At the federal level, it is pretty obvious. At state level not as much. The further down the ladder, at regional district, county, and municipal levels, the greater chance there is for individuals to contact and make friends with their elected officials. The highest level of communication should be at municipal ward or municipal district level. But then you have cities with about 50,000 people where all they do is meet up every other Tuesday and say "I" to whatever proposal the mayor thinks is a good idea making the meetings feel scripted or predetermined.
So the best idea would probably be to get to know who your elected officals are.
Labels: foia, government, missouri, politics
posted by Bushido Hacks 3/15/2008 12:22:00 PM (0) comments top
20070406
PUNDIT FIGHT! - Click!
In the Red Corner, Bill O'Rielly. In the Blue Corner, Geraldo Rivera.TWO MEN ENTER! ONE MAN LEAVES!
What? A happy ending?! This is so lame! I was hoping they'd both suffer strokes.
Labels: fud, politics, shovelware, thevirus, wtf
posted by Bushido Hacks 4/06/2007 11:53:00 PM (0) comments top
20070304
Y2K7
Thanks to your elected leaders, both current (i.e.: George W. Bush) and past (i.e. Al Gore), computer programmers have a new problem, seven years after Y2K and thirty years before Y2K37. (That's when the UNIX clock runs out. Better do something about that, Linus.)Ever since Bush took office in 2001, politicians on both sides of the asle, especially those with something to hide, have tried to manipulate contol of the technology than is suppost to catch criminals (especially the elected ones) and make elected representatives be more honest (espeically the dishonest ones).
Ever since the tape recorder logged Richard Nixon's involvemant in the Watergate scandal, dishonest politician and lobbyists have been pushing more legislation to make Big Brother watch citizens more that their leaders.
While it is reasonable in this day and age to put security cameras in some places like inside shops, busy intersections, buses, and other places where a large number of people congregate, we never see these things inside the offices of public officials. If they can wire tap our phones and log our public internet records, why can't we spy on them?
While these questions should be addressed, it seems more suitable to ask the EFF.
Looking back since 2001, the FBI New York field office was destroyed on September 11, 2001, containing the largest collection of confescated devices created by hackers going as far back as the 1960s.
In 2002, the PATRIOT Act allowed the government to warrentlessly spy on citizens. It doesn't say anywhere to my knowledge that citizens can't sequester the government's privaciy, although common sense would excuse the part of the government that is truely defending this country. What kind of fool would brag about war stragegies that help our troops who risk there own lives to protect this country and to help opressed people in countries that do really like us but are fortunate that we are there to help them and to let them know "I didn't come here to serve the leaders of my country but to serve the people that I love just as you've struggled to serve the people you love."
Which brings us to 2003. I don't think I need to explain a whole lot about what happened that year. War was declared. As much as our country though they were doing the right thing, we actually screwed up. On one hand, we took out Saddam. On the otherhand, we created more problems than we solved. On top of that, just about everyone who had a passion or interest in history worldwide was pisted. Of course our adminstration wasn't going to be lectured by a bunch of history professors, archiologists, scholars, museum curators, or any smart people. Never mind the fact that despite all the troops we sent into Iraq, the leaflets we dropped out of the sky, and the fact that there were even generals at CENTCOM who knew that there is much more in the Middle East that sand and oil. But would it have killed someone to protect the Iraq National Museum of Natural History? Like a special ops team? A phone call? A box of locks to secure the doors? Nope, our leaders were too busy watching Saddam's 23 gold palaces. Thanks to our leaders, nearily every artifact that could tell us about the Cradle of Civilization has been lost, damaged, stolen, or destroyed. Even the Mongolians knew to protect certain places back when they invaded Baghdad in the 16th century. This was also the year gas started costing over $2 per gallon. Who needs an honorary presidential pension when you can steal money from people who have to work for theirs? Let's also not forget the lost of one of the space shuttles due to an underfunded space agency that our country likes to brag about but never supports.
In 2004, there really was no election. John Kerry never intended to win. That would betray his fellow Skull and Bone brother, George W. Bush. Kerry is no hero. When you join the armed forces, you sign a commitment to serve your country, NO EXCUSES! Bush got his daddy to write him a note. Kerry shot himself in the foot, then scraped himself twice. Kerry and Bush are no Vietnam Veterans. I don't see them in black vests, riding motorcycles, working down at the VFW hall, or going to The Wall to rub a crayon on a piece of paper over somebody's name. This was a set up. Another four years of misery. This was also the year that thanks to the Hollywood Elite, the Christian conservative-run FCC cracked down on censorship after an intentional accident during the superbowl and some F-bomb by some old-as-dirt musicians. Thanks for the mamories, you stupid rich people!
In 2005, Hollywood and the media (now known on this website as "the virus") continued to show signs of foot-in-mouth syndrome espeically in the midst of a myriad of disasters. A tsunami in the Indian Ocean in late 2004. A destructive hurricane season that lasted well into the beginning of 2006. The piss-poor response by our government to provide help to a city that was destroyed. While fear-mongers shouted "global warming" and racism, the government once again turned a blind eye. Starting that year, many cities and states began to develop new programs for disaster response, especially greater support for people in low income areas. It was this year, that we learned that the adminstration would leave us to die if the unthinkable happened. We made a statement that if they wanted to preach about how life was sacred yet start wars and let people drown then we weren't going to go down without a fight.
In 2006, elections occured. Stem-cell research (SCR) was approved despite the kicking-and-screeming response of the uberconservative and the hypocritical federal government. When the results came in and SCR got the go ahead, opponents claimed that we didn't know what we were doing or that we were confused. It is bad enough they call the scientist who work on this stuff murderers, but to call the people who know that life begins when sperm meets egg not when boy meets girl stupid should anger anyone who is religious. I'd gladly go back to church if it wasn't for the people who forced their believes upon me or violated their own canon laws. When I go to church, I want don't want to look at some protestor waving their framed fetus-in-a-womb posters. Meanwhile in 2006, Al Gore's head continued expand rivial that of nimrod conservative talk show host Bill O'Rielly. While their egos continue to throw off the Earth's axis, the St. Louis area was hit with three separate storms that knocked out the power in most of the area for over a week. If you want to know what life is like in a post-apocalyptic world, try going without power for nearly a week while the mercury is over 100 degrees or below freezing. Gas topped $3 per gallon, but there were no pumps to fetch it. This was also the year we learned the Internet was not a big truck, but a series of tubes. The inbred intelegence of the telecom industry does not see technology in terms of zeros and ones but a check with a lot of zeros.
So far this year, the egos of the "global warming" campaign continued to get stuck under overpasses as Gore got an Oscar, gas continues to hover near $3, the PS3 and Microsoft Vista suck, and thanks to the federal government's inability to conserve energy, use Abrams tanks that get less than one mile per gallon, and because they've punished California for using more clean renewable energy, we now have to spring forward two weeks earily and fall back two weeks later.
"That doesn't sound like a big deal. You made me read all that to tell me about changing my clocks?"
Wrong! This has much more to do than just clocks. Computers now have to update their timekeeping software because of a bill passed by the federal government extending daylight savings time by four weeks.
That 400 point drop in the stock market last week wasn't because of Far East financial problems. It was stock investors covering their ass because they haven't downloaded any software patches to be Y2K7 compliant. There have been several upgrades to Linux and UNIX time zone data, but no announcements by Microsoft or Apple about their software. Not to metion, no major corporations who home brew their operating system have made any announcements. So what are banks going to be doing way earily on Sunday morning around 2AM? Probably not paying attention to the cyber-prowlers taking advantage of the earily shift in time. I suppose we will find out next week.
Labels: business, dogma, fud, imho, linux, politics, rage, stlouis, tech, thevirus, tubes, weather, windows
posted by Bushido Hacks 3/04/2007 10:57:00 AM (2) comments top
20070218
Hillary doesn't have a snowball's chance
If you still believe that Hillary is going to be our next president, you don't know Barack Obama.While Mrs. Clinton is rasing money from the Hollywood A-List this weekend, Obama is in the South.
I mean, why would anyone want to vote for a woman who has fought to promote legislation to ban videogames, used the news media in her state to start a moral panic against Obama's race and religion, write books about things she knows little about, and yet she wants to play "supermom" for this country.
I could care less about Obama's race, religion, or the length of time he has had in political office.
But the last thing this country needs is another W.A.S.P. in the oval office.
Obama '08!
Labels: games, imho, movies, music, obvious, politics
posted by Bushido Hacks 2/18/2007 04:15:00 PM (0) comments top
