insignificant thoughts

California will run out of cash by early March if the state does not take swift action to find $3.3 billion through payment delays and borrowing, according to a letter state Controller John Chiang sent to state lawmakers today.

The announcement is surprising since lawmakers previously believed the state had enough cash to last through the fiscal year that ends in June.

But Chiang said additional cash management solutions are needed because state tax revenues are $2.6 billion less than what Gov. Jerry Brown and state lawmakers assumed in their optimistic budget last year. Meanwhile, Chiang said, the state is spending $2.6 billion more than state leaders planned on.

So wait a minute… They knew the budget wasn’t going to be great, and they’re still overspending?

And then the remedies for this are delaying payments and borrowing more?

How about they stop spending more than they take in?

You have to love when these idiots that run gubmints figure out they’re running out of money. Their first reaction is never to stop increasing that spending, it’s to find more money however they can. California, unsurprisingly, is no different. Faced with not overspending, they’re looking for ways to keep the spending spigot open.

Kind of the way a drug addict won’t stop using drug when they’re broke; they’ll do whatever they can to find money so they can keep using.

Spending is a drug, and every level of government in this country is addicted to it.

The New Jersey Star-Ledger editorial board reported O’Keefe “committed a felony by fraudulently obtaining a ballot in the name of another person; [broke] New Hampshire law by recording another person.” Additionally the Star-Ledger Editorial board wrote January 22^nd, O’Keefe is “still on probation for trying to tap the phone of Sen. Mary Landrieu.  The Star-Ledger had previously printed a retraction for this claim on November 3^rd, 2010.

Project Veritas’ president, James O’Keefe commented, “Media outlets obviously intent on protecting a system that fosters voter fraud, have defamed me by claiming I and PV committed voter fraud. The Star-Ledger even went so far as to print a ‘trying to tap phones lie’ after retracting that lie over a year ago, when presented with court documents that proved the contrary.”
  
“It is my experience that demanding retractions from dishonorable people only leads to dishonorable retractions.  Therefore, today I started a campaign to combat media organizations that state or repeat malicious lies about my work.”

The problem they’re going to have is that they did formally retract that accusation one time, probably because it wasn’t true. It ought to make things interesting when they have to argue that the accusation is true and someone says “well, if it is true, why did you retract it once already?”

This ought to be good.

800 plants, some as tall as seven feet, with a street value of $5,000 per pound.

Jesus H. Christ.

In a glowing review of the rising prevalence of high-tech big brother surveillance gadgets in police force use, the Associated Press reports that East Orange, New Jersey plans to cut crime by highlighting suspects with a red-beamed spotlight– before any crime is committed– a “pre-crime” deterrent to be mounted on nearby street lights or other fixtures.

Alternative Video Link.

According to the report, police officers monitor hundreds of video feeds from across the city and opt to brand would-be criminals with a red glow if they believe they are about to engage in a crime, such as a street corner mugging.

If you look like you’re about to be guilty of something, you’ll be basking in the red glow.

All we need now is some precogs in baths in a basement at the precinct and we have great movie potential.

The U.S. Supreme Court has unanimously decided today to uphold citizens’ Fourth Amendement rights in the GPS tracking case which would have allowed the U.S. government to track a suspects’ cars without a warrant. The court states that the Fourth Amendement’s protection of “persons, houses, papers and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures,” extends to vehicles.

According to the ruling (PDF version here), a warrant is required “[w]here, as here, the government obtains information by physically intruding on a constitutionally protected area,” including a car.

Hallelujah.

You know it’s a bad idea when the Supreme Court unanimously objects to it.

Well, it’s all kicking off between Curebit and 37 Signals. As originally reported by VentureBeat, Curebit — a self-described “Social Referral Platform” — was caught using chunks of code (and some images) sourced from 37 Signals’ HighRise product.

37 Signals’ David Heinemeier Hansson didn’t hold back in calling out Curebit for the misappropriation, tweeting that they were “fucking scumbags”. In response, Curebit’s Allan Grant insisted that the stolen code was only used for some “quick and dirty” A/B testing. Which, of course, would make everything fine.

What’s interesting, though, isn’t that some developers plagiarized some stuff from some other developers. What’s interesting is the overwhelmingly hostile response to the theft from the wider tech community.

Do a quick search on Twitter for Curebit and behold at the self-righteous rage at the original crime and the extremely grudging acceptance of the inevitable apology. The last time we saw this kind of outpouring of rage amongst tech people was when — uh — the government tried to clamp down on copyright theft.

Interesting juxtaposition if you ask me.

You would think that by now, companies would learn not to trust their brand to the open internet and a hashtag marketing effort.

How many times do these have to backfire before companies learn?

The link to Serious Eats has the story behind the hashtag debacle.

CreativeAmerica, the astroturfing group that pretends it’s a “grassroots” operation — but which is funded by the major Hollywood studios and run by former studio/MPAA execs — is amazingly inept at communicating with the public, especially considering these guys are supposed to be communications experts. Remember, this is the same group who, while fighting for stronger laws against copying, flat out copied the email of anti-SOPA activists, and changed a few words to push their own pro-SOPA message.

Their latest move is even more bizarre. The group is touting its latest slickly produced propaganda film, insisting that SOPA/PIPA are needed for a variety of reasons — almost none of which are true. It throws out the bogus claim of jobs being at risk, even though the evidence shows otherwise. But where it gets totally ridiculous is that the video focuses mostly on Megaupload and Kim Dotcom/Schmitz. The point of focusing on Megaupload? To claim that it can’t be reached under existing law. Seriously. It talks about Megaupload for a while (claiming that it brings in $300 million per year — which turns out to be 10x the actual number, by the way) and then says:

US law enforcement is only permitted to shut down US-based IP addresses. Overseas sites, like Megaupload and Megavideo, and the Swedish-based Pirate Bay, are out of reach.

Yes. And they’re releasing this video five whole days after the US government showed that existing laws actually do allow them to reach Megaupload and shut it down. So, um, why do we need these new laws again?

This is the eternal question these folks need to answer.

If Megaupload could be shut down without SOPA, why do we need SOPA?

A satisfactory answer would be nice. What would be even nicer is if the lazy sods in the mainstream media would get off their anchor chairs and ask one of the folks pining away for the wonderful SOPA (even though it’s now dead) why they need a law to do what they just did without it.

One of my favorite things in the world. If you toss a bit of sugar and some balsamic vinegar into them while you’re cooking them, they come out even better!

When I was little, I asked my parents once (as I assume most kids do) why the veins in my wrist look blue when the blood inside them is clearly red. I was told, quite straight-facedly, that veins return deoxygenated blood back to the heart and lungs, and deoxygenated blood is actually blue, and not red. This blew my little mind. I asked why I’d never seen blue, deoxygenated blood emerging from any of my various cuts and scrapes, and was told that contact with the air immediately turned blue blood red again. Blue blood was coursing through my body at all times, but I could never see it. I just had to believe in it. It was the circulatory equivalent of the existence of God.

Great explanation. I knew internal blood was not blue (clearly) but I didn’t know why veins appear blue. Now I know.

no one knows how big it was. Law enforcement agencies no longer estimate crowd size, nor does The Post. One side or the other will accuse you of being biased if they perceive the estimates as too large or too small.

Still, you can find images of the large crowd taken by amateurs on Flickr or Facebook, and I imagine the AP took some, too. Probably Post photographers did as well.

But these shots didn’t find their way into the main Web photo gallery on the march. And I think this is where The Post fell down in its coverage of the march this year. And that’s mostly what antiabortion readers wrote to me about.

The online photo gallery contains 10 photos: seven tight shots of antiabortion demonstrators, two of protesters from the small abortion-rights counter-demonstration on the steps of the Supreme Court and one that showed both sides confronting each other there. In fact, eight of the 10 shots were taken at the high court.

Emotional shots make better photos, yes, but I would have chosen more from the broad expanse of the rally, and at least one photo showing a lot of cheerful, festive people, which is what I see at most demonstrations that I have covered over the years, regardless of the issue at hand.

Vernon Loeb, Post Local editor, said, “In retrospect I wish we had given readers a better sense of the overall magnitude of the march.?.?.it was far larger than 17,000.”

Unsurprisingly, the mishandled coverage makes the march look less significant. I’m impressed that the Washington Post even took that stance, considering the fact that the march, as large as it was, was barely covered at all.

Maybe they should’ve stormed into the Supreme Court building and torched a flag that was installed there. That seems to be the only way to get coverage. Either that, or protesting against gay marriage bans, etc.

While I credit Pexton for being honest and critical, I have to wonder; why is it that the ombudsmen for the both the Washington Post and the New York Times never have to stand up and say their arguments or coverage skewed too far to the right? It’s always “Yeah; we screwed up. We did something a little too impartially left.”

Conservative political analyst Bill Kristol unapologetically said Tuesday that the Republican Party would be better off if presidential contender Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) left the GOP.

“I think it would be better for the Republican Party if he left the Republican Party,” Kristol said on C-SPAN’s “Washington Journal” Tuesday.

Kristol, the founder and editor of The Weekly Standard, argued that Paul’s fellow candidates and others in the GOP are wasting time and energy trying to prevent Paul from running as a third-party candidate by placating his candidacy and giving his views credibility.

He compared Paul to former Republican presidential candidate Pat Buchanan, telling C-SPAN that Republicans unsuccessfully tried to keep him from leaving the party.

Buchanan ran as an insurgent conservative against more establishment candidates in 1992 and 1996. Although he pulled a huge upset in New Hampshire by besting Bob Dole, he failed to win the nomination, eventually leaving the party and running on the Reform Party ticket in 2000.

“A lot of people, and I was one of them, said goodbye and good riddance. You’re not in the mainstream of the Republican Party, go run as a Reform Party candidate, as an independent candidate,” Kristol said, referring to Buchanan.

Kristol claimed that Buchanan’s departure helped the Republican Party because his views differed so far from the mainstream.

“Ron Paul’s a little different from Pat Buchanan, but he’s no better, in my view, and I actually think the Republican Party will be benefited in the long run, but even in the short run,” he said.

Well, Mr. Kristol, I have no problem with Paul leaving the GOP. I left them years ago. I cut up my card and sent it back to them.

You can say what you want about Congressman Paul, but if you’re going to say the party is more hurt by him being a member than by someone like Progressive Newt Gingrich or Flip Flopper Mitt Romney being its leader, or by Rick Santorum turning it into St. GOP’s church, then you’re entitled. Frankly, I wouldn’t want to be a member of a party who thinks that someone whose advocacy for liberty or the constitution is a danger to that party.

And if you’re not that type of person, then you can have your damn party.

A ninth grader who snapped a picture of a snoozing substitute teacher with his cell phone camera and posted it on a social network is in hot water with his school district.

The unnamed student, who attends Mustang Mid-High School in Mustang, Okla., was suspended, according to ABC affiliate KOCO.

The picture shows a “close-eyed man reclining behind a desk”, The Oklahoman reported.

Mustang Public Schools denied ABCNews.com’s request for an interview but issued a statement acknowledging it had conducted an internal investigation into the actions of the student and the substitute teacher.

“Appropriate follow-up action has taken place,” Mustang Public Schools spokeswoman Mary Leaver wrote to ABCNews.com.

Leaver said it was against school policy for students to use their cell phones during the day.

One parent told ABC News’ affiliate he felt the school had overreacted.

Instead of commending the student for exposing the waste of tax dollars that is a sleeping teacher in front of him, they suspended him for phone use.

Nice job killing the messenger there, assholes.