FCC Officially Protect Net Neutrality (Again)

The FCC has officially voted to protect Net Neutrality once again. Neutrality was over turned by the Supreme Court. The new rules exist to try to re-enforce Net Neutrality in such a way that maybe the Supreme Court will leave it alone by reclassifying broadband as a telecommunications service that the FCC is in charge of. The key of the new rules are this:

1) Broadband providers may not block access to legal content, applications, services, or non-harmful devices.
2) They may not impair or degrade lawful internet traffic on the basis of content, application, services, or any classes thereof.
3) They may not favor some internet traffic over other internet traffic in exchange for consideration of any kind — no paid prioritization or fast lanes.

While the press and others try to make it complicated, the definition of Net Neutrality is very simple - "All data is treated equally". It doesn't matter if the data is a video, a picture, text, it gets treated the same. It does not matter the source, the destination or the subject matter - it gets treated the same. The subject could be the Constitution, a cat or a blank page - it gets treated the same. Fox News and others take a "sky is falling" belief on this but really Net Neutrality has been the default rule of the internet since its very beginning.

The main reason they want to reverse Net Neutrality is of course money. Treating all data equals means the ISPs can't charge to not treat it equally. Say by creating the internet version of an airline with first class service (called fast lanes), business class, and so forth. So if Netflix didn't want to suddenly find their videos playing slowly for not reason...they would have to pay a fee. Or if you are Comcast maybe those TV related websites they own load fast but those ABC websites they don't own kind of chug and skip. Perhaps a new music service with big bucks enters the market and gets that first class for their service but that new start up that does it even better just can't afford it so they fade to obscurity because the ISP's throttled their speed for not paying up. You can see how easy it would be to abuse things (and charge for it) if not forced to treat all data equally.

Now some says "this would never happen!". The thing is there is proof that the abuse had already started. Comcast, AT&T, and Time Warner (three of the biggest ISPs in the US) have already been caught throttling Netflix, YouTube, World of Warcraft, Bittorrent and more. Netflix had to pay up to get the video streaming service speed restored. They have all started to introduce tier pricing where you pay more to use more data (which with video on demand can add up real quick). Not because it costs more to deliver more data but simply because they can. Whether you use 1gb a month or 1000gb a month, the cost for them is identical...but with tiered pricing they can just make more money for doing nothing. Sadly the rules do nothing about tier pricing but my point is they already happily abuse the lack of rules to create a reason to make more money while providing no actual additional benefit to the customers. The question isn't if they would abuse the lack of Net Neutrality rules, just when and how much it would cost us when they did.

So what does this mean for the average American? Nothing. Net Neutrality has been in place since the beginning and all this does it make sure it remains in place. While Verizon, AT&T, etc are doing the woe is me game the reality is they should have already been following the rules of Net Neutrality and so nothing has changed for them too. The only reason to complain about rules that tell you "don't run with scissors" is if you planned on doing just that.

Ultimately though even if you don't understand what its all about just think of it this way. Do you trust AT&T, Verizon, Comcast, Time Warner, etc to treat their customers well and with fair pricing? If the answer is no, then you should be for Net Neutrality.

Supreme Court: Corporate Religious Rights Trump All

It continues to amaze me that in this day and age that birth control remains an issue. Not abortion (that will never go away), but the use of various medical means to avoid even needing to have an abortion. You would think encouraging people to not get pregnant and therefore not potentially want an abortion would be a good thing. So while abortion is bad, so is preventing the means that might lead to that decision. A contradiction and yet one that the Republican party is happy to live with. Why? Because the religious right thinks any form of birth control is bad. Not because of the bible (because that isn't in there) but because of religious tradition.

A tradition founded at a time when populations could easily be decimated by war and disease. Usually war. So it was to the best advantage of those in charge to encourage as much baby making as possible to not only keep the religious ranks (and thus Church coffers) full but also allow those in charge to go off and conquer as needed. Wars are expensive and costly in manpower and the only way to keep numbers up was more children. This constant need to have replenished populace was why the average age of marriage was 10 to 12, the average age of birth was around 13 to 14 and the average age of death was late 20s. This "tradition" is what is fueling the religious arguments of today.

Republicans Successfully Shut Down US Government

After threatening it for every law, every month, for years, the GOP has finally successfully shutdown the US government. The last time they did this was 17 years under the leadership of Newt Gingrich. This time they are doing it under the pseudo-leadership of Tea Party favorite Ted Cruz. The cause, of course, is Obamacare. Basically this is a hail mary pass to try and end the law that Republicans have been running against for the last four years while offering absolutely nothing as an alternative. Literally. It has been asked on their solutions, their answer on how they would improve health insurance is to improve health insurance. I wish I was exaggerating. That answer isn't a plan. It isn't even a good sound byte. So due to their lack of a concrete plan they have failed to get the support they needed to repeal Obamacare. Now they are hoping to use a shutdown to get the same result. Its kind of the political equivalent of throwing a temper tantrum.

Now to be fair, for once the GOP isn't marching into lockstep over a cliff. It turns out that the "suicide caucus" of 80 House Republicans, representing only 18% of the US population, are leading this charge. Sadly this isn't a situation the framers of the Constitution were prepared for. Who would think that the minority party would devolve into a bunch of children? Can you imagine the outrage the GOP and their followers would have had if the Democrats had even suggested such actions under George Bush? Yet because their team is doing it, suddenly its ok. The Daily Show kind of summarizes my disgust and view on this whole thing.


Sadly those making these decisions are mostly removed from the consequences of it. After all, the average income of Ted Cruz and his ilk is measured in millions. Just a quick reminder, all members of Congress are part of the 1%. The government shutdown impacts the other 99%. For them its no biggie if millions of Americans are suddenly not getting paid, if basic functions that serve people, kids, families and businesses are not getting done. As long as they get what they want, screw the rest of us. Republicans believe in survival of the richest, I just wish the rest of America would wake up (and be less stupid) and realize this belief isn't how you lead a country. I wish they would then vote accordingly and wipe the actual danger that is the GOP out of public office, or at the very least get rid of the 20% far right crazy that is currently driving the series of bad decisions that is harming all of us.

Supreme Court Upholds Gay Marriage

Today the Supreme Court of the United States did something surprising. In a 5-4 decision, they ruled that the 1996's The Defense of Marriage Act was unconstitutional. The law prevented the federal government from recognizing same-sex marriages even when legalized in states. While most anti-gay focus on the "married" part, the law has repercussions that extend into taxes, death benefits, health care coverage and host of other legal issues that other marriages simply did not have to worry about. In essence the ruling is saying the federal government is not allowed to discriminate based on sexual preference. The case regarding gay marriage is ultimately about a founding and constant principle of this country - equality for all.

The ruling occurred because of an unexpected jumping of sides from Justice Anthony Kennedy, who while Republican, tends to go back and forth across the political dividing line, wrote the majority decision. In other words he behaves like a Justice should and makes me wish the other 8 were just as unpredictable as he tends to be.

Newtown: "These tragedies must end."

I am not a parent so I can't grasp what these parents and the community of Newtown, Connecticut are going through. As a human being I am just sad and my heart aches for the pain that has been caused. Twenty-six dead. Twenty of them first graders, children who had not lived long enough to deserve anything but our patience and love. All wiped out because Adam Lanza took several assault weapons from his mom, killed her, and then preceded to walk to Sandy Hook Elementary and began his assault on innocence. We probably will never really know why. I have no words for what happened. I wish I did.

What I do have is anger. This just happens to often and in almost every case it seems to involve weapons of war. Not defense, not even hunting but weapons specifically designed for soldiers at war and thanks to the efforts of the NRA and the Republicans, have someone become classified as needed for home use. Weapons of war do not belong in any home. I know, Fox News and the Republicans will say "Now is not the time." Which is bullshit. They have no problem throwing random darts at the board and blaming movies, TV, video games and anything else they can make up on the fly. We have no idea what interests Lanza had to even hazard a guess on his motivations. If they have time to spew their theories, if many of them can hop on Fox News and decide the solution is to turn teachers into armed guards, then now is most definitely the time to talk about getting these weapons of war out of the hands of civilians and only in the hands of those trained to use them only at times specified by our nation's interest.

Linkfest - America Votes

Hopefully this will be the last political heavy post for a while but who knows for sure. Other then the election there is links to an awesome Lego Legend of Zelda Hylian Shield, Iron Man 3 teaser trailer and cool time lapse of a space shuttle on the streets of LA.

Lego Legend of Zelda Hylian Shield
Hit the link for 7 images of this beautiful and detailed shield built by Remi. Makes you wish that Lego would get the license and release a version of their own. (via Brothers Brick)

Obama Re-Elected
Tuesday Barack Obama was re-elected as President of the United States. He won by a comfortable margin taking 5 out of 6 battleground states (Florida too close to call). He also won the popular vote by a fairly typical margin of around 51% to 49%. Basically it was a repeat of 2008. Despite what the pundits may say, really the DC status quo has been maintained. As a result the gridlock and difficulty in getting anything done will continue. The GOP retained the House and the Democrats still have the Senate by about the same margin so sadly the filibuster will continue to be used to death requiring 60 votes to get anything done.

Linkfest - GOP's Legitimate Rape

It has been an interesting week for the GOP. They are coming off of the unexpected press blowup over the term "legitimate rape". A concept the party has quietly supported for decades and often spoken of by the GOP even if not quite such stark terms. Then you have the GOP convention that had the VP candidate get called out for a speech of lies by every news organization including Fox News and a speech from Romney that was remarkable for how unremarkable it was. Other topics include the Samsung vs Apple lawsuit and the end of Nintendo Power.

Legitimate Rape
It is weird how all it takes is a poor phrase to get people to wake up to a truth that has been around for a very long time. GOP's Rep. Todd Akin made the mistake of saying exactly what he thought of the idea of there being exceptions to abortion for rape or incest by saying in an interview "...from what I understand from doctors [pregnancy from rape] is really rare. If it's a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down." He later said he "misspoke" for the phrase he used but never apologized for what he meant which is if a woman got pregnant, she wanted the sex and therefore could not have been raped. The idea that pregnancy is proof of no rape has been around for literally centuries. At one time the victim by law would be forced to marry her rapist if she had got pregnant. That thinking is also shared by almost the entirety of the GOP who have made the concept of no exceptions central the the RNC platform for Romney's election and was part of a bill that his VP candidate Paul Ryan write and tried to push through Congress. Below are a few videos that illustrate just how stupid the whole concept is.

Obamacare Lives and Why It Matters

I said for over a year now that the Supreme Court would overturn the individual mandate of Obamacare. I figured it was automatic with the charge being led by Chief Justice John Roberts. I could not have been more wrong. Not only did the court uphold the law 5-4, but Roberts was the swing vote. Even more amazing, it was upheld by the legal reasoning that the government has a right to tax and the penalty of not getting health insurance is the equivalent of a tax. The ruling was so unexpected both CNN and Fox News initially got the ruling wrong, declaring it overturned. This is good news for Americans even if 50% don't know it. Oddly it seems most that are against are the ones that most likely will need it at some future date. However, always keep in mind that the Republicans have years to come up with their own solutions and as always, the best they could come up with is "tax cuts". That is their Band-Aid for everything.

Fox News and the GOP have spent a tremendous amount of time and (tax payer) money fighting Obamacare but rarely do they explain why it’s bad and what the alternatives are. It comes down to "its socialism" and wrong. Ask anyone for specifics on why it’s wrong and can guarantee that maybe 1 out of a 100 can provide an informed response beyond the basic talking points of it simply being wrong just because the talking heads say it is. Did you know that thanks to Obamacare, you cannot be denied insurance because of a pre-existing condition? Did you know your kids can't be either (yea before they could be)? What about knowing if your child wants to get a graduate degree or just hurting from this down economy, they can stay on their parents insurance until 26 years old? Again Obamacare. I am aware of a ton of die-hard Republicans taking advantage of that. What about free mammograms or a ton of other maintenance tests that use to cost a lot and soon no longer will. Free tests means people will detect problems before they become a whole lot more expensive and possibly a burden on the tax payer (more below on that). When people ask about these kinds of individual aspects of the law, Americans are overwhelming for them (in 80% range). Add they are part of Obamacare and suddenly that numbers dives to around 50% range. That makes no sense except you have to remember that Fox News folks rarely are giving any actual information to form an informed opinion.

Linkfest - Illusion of Safety

Supreme Court OKs Strip Searches for Any Reason
In yet another example that the definition of Conservative "small government", the Supreme Court ruled that strip searches are ok for any reason. When it comes to making people think that Conservatives are keeping them safe, it seems government can't get big enough or stomp on enough rights. In the latest ruling, the five Conservative judges once again voted as a block ruling that police can perform strip searches for any reason, including minor traffic offenses. In short, if the police are willing to arrest you and haul you into a jail cell, they can do whatever they want. This doesn't mean you are guilty or they even have evidence. They can simply arrest you, strip search you, decide it was a mistake and release you. Your dignity may not remain intact but hey at least your will feel "safe" from whatever new thing they want you to fear. The justification for the decision was based on Tim McVey (Oklahoma City bombing) being arrested for a minor traffic offense and not getting stripped search. Without explaining how, the Conservative ruling failed to explain how a strip search would have led to the discovering of his car bomb. I guess they figured he kept the car jammed up his rear? This is ironic considering the Five will overturn the Health Care act in June on claims it stomps rights to purchase what you want (never mind states requiring car insurance, home insurance, etc.). To sum it up, to the Conservative Court your body has no rights but you do have the right to not buy stuff you don't want but need. Once again Conservative hypocrisy in action.

Wiretapping for Profit
While they claim to the contrary, the telecoms probably make a pretty decent profit listening in on our calls at the government's request. T-Mobile charges law enforcement (aka tax papers) $500 per month per target. Sprint charges $400 per "market area" and "technology" with a $10 per day fee. No idea what those "per" mean. For AT&T its $325 activation fee, $5 per day for data and $10 for audio. Verizon charges $50 fee and $700 per month per target. The fees pile on after that depending on what others things law enforcement want for targets of wiretaps. Listening in is good for business.

Romney Donor Frequently Threatens Critics

Normally I save something like this for the "link fests" but something about a billionaire using Scientology like tactics to silence critics through abuse of the law just really annoys me. It is also those times that the internet can be its most powerful.

A Salon article entitled "Billionaire Romney donor uses threats to silence critics" spells out some of the details. The article is about Mitt Romney supporter and billionaire Frank VanderSloot. He lives in Idaho and is CEO of Melaleuca, Inc. A company has a Better Business Bureau logo on its front page. There might be reasons for that logo being there. A 2004 Forbes article that described the company as "a pyramid selling organization, built along the lines of Herbalife and Amway." The company this individuals has run for years has to agree to "not engage in the marketing and promotion of an illegal pyramid and accused by the Food and Drug Administration of "deceiving consumers about some of its supplements." Draw your own conclusions about the company and its leadership from that.

Linkfest - SOPA

All Companies That Support SOPA
Hit the link to see all the companies supporting SOPA which will likely pass Congress next year unless stopped. The claim is the law will stop piracy but in reality it gives corporations to power to block any website they claim has pirated content, no actual evidence required. It will cripple the Internet. They can choose at any time what site lives or dies in the US and to get it restored the site has to take the accuser to court which can take months or even years. On the surface that may sound fine but keep in mind the RIAA and MPAA have tried to sue and shut down sites just for playing a clip from a movie, for showing a home video of goofing dancing to "protected" music and even just for sites that are critical of them. Don't believe they will abuse this power, see next story. In short, any company that supports SOPA has essentially made a statement that they do not value free speech. An example is web host provider Go Daddy. Their support of the bill means that they will happily shut down any website they receive a notice from no questions asked. If you know anyone that uses them, it is advised they be ditched asap.

Linkfest - GOP At It Again

Lego Serenity
Hit the link to view the Lego creation of the ship Serenity from the movie and the Firefly series. Stuff like this makes you wish Lego would get more into the sci-fi business as this would be awesome to be able to build. (via BrothersBrick)

2004 Election May Have Been Hacked
Court investigations in Ohio's 2004 presidential election (a key swing state then) indicates that the Republican Party may have hacked the election. The story is a key reason why the GOP was so gung ho on moving to paperless voting as most of the companies granted the contracts to provide electronic voting are Republican supported companies. In this case the company is Tennessee based SmarTech that was owned by Michael Connell (who died in an unexplained plane crash) who was a major GOP supporter. The evidence indicates that a redundancy switch to SmarTech kicked in during election day and after the change suddenly Bush experienced a surge in voting support. I suspect like most voting stories, the press will mostly ignore this one and focus on the fake ones the GOP creates to support their laws to prevent people from voting legally.

Links of the Week - Safe Travels Atlantis

Space Shuttle's Final Launch
Today was a true end of an era as Atlantis became the final space shuttle launch in history. The program is officially retired after 30 years in service. The first shuttle, Columbia, on April 1981 and today marks the 134th and final mission. This is the probable first phase of the eventually elimination of NASA as private corporations get paid more and more to take over their responsibilities. Considering knowledge for knowledge's sake has no value to corporations, this day will probably mark the beginning of many ends to come in regards to space travel and the quest of knowledge of the universe.


Lego Batcave
Another work of Lego art. This one is a horizontal, more or less three floor representation of the Batcave complete with Batmobile, aircraft, and more that was created by Alex Schranz. Hit link for the gallery. (via Brothers Brick)

Links of the Week - Union Busting

Wisconsin Senate Passes Anti-Union Law
For the last three weeks, the Wisconsin state Congress has more or less been grid locked. The reason was because of a requirement to have quorum (min. number of representatives) to pass bills involving the state budget. After a multitude of threats while constantly claiming the union busting was for fiscal reasons (despite common sense and evidence to the contrary), the Senate GOP decided to make an on the fly re-interpretation of the rules and removed all financial provisions of the bill leaving only the union busting portions and then passing it in the space of about 10 minutes. This bill has become the template of what GOP is attempting to do in almost two dozen states.

This sudden ability to pass the law despite what the law says proves what everyone already knows - the GOP is nothing but a group of liars that only care about the rich. They claims it was all about balancing the state budget (after giving $140 million to the rich in tax cuts) but out of nowhere they pass the bill as a non-budget bill. It can't be both. It either is about the budget or it is all about just busting unions while using the GOP caused state budget crisis as the excuse. The GOP has one goal and everything they do is in support of that goal, "Make the rich richer, to hell with the rest." That should have been obvious for years but Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker being tricked into revealing his desire to change history to someone pretending to be billionaire and huge GOP support David Koch.

What the GOP is doing is despicable but then again I have never heard or met a GOP supporter that didn't have wandering morals and are huge hypocrites. Need evidence? How about the Wisconsin Senate Majority Leader appearing on Faux News to crow about his victory unintentionally let slipping a little truth, "If we win this battle, and the money is not there under the auspices of the unions, certainly what you’re going to find is President Obama is going to have a much difficult, much more difficult time getting elected and winning the state of Wisconsin." Basically the GOP is trying to bust the unions so that the Democrats have less money to run on elections with and possibly lead to defeat of Barack Obama. If you live in any of those states, is your state representative making decisions based on how it affects national politics really something you want them focused about? What happened to "jobs, jobs, jobs"? It’s been three months and so far it seems the GOP is focused on everything but that. Again, further proof of their real agenda. Jobs falls under "to hell with the rest" as do unions. Irony is I am not even a fan of unions as consider them currently no longer necessary but as corporations continue to have more and more say on our daily lives thanks to the GOP, it seems that belief needs to be re-evaluated.

Links of the Day

New Zealand Struck by 6.3 EarthquakeAround 1pm yesterday downtown Christchurch, New Zealand was struck by a 6.3 earthquake that has devastated the city. Reports indicate that 75 have died with many more injured. Rescue operations continue to find people trapped in buildings. The earthquake "toppled buildings onto buses, buckled streets, forced the collapse of a cathedral spire and cut power for most of the city." The city also experienced 33 aftershocks with range of magnitudes of 4 to 6. Condolences to all those that lost family and friends.

R.I.P. Dwayne McDuffie
The name may not be familiar but if you enjoy cartoons or comics you are probably familiar with his work even if don't know it. He started in comics working for both Marvel and DC. He eventually created Milestone Media in an attempt to create a more diversified super hero world which included the hero Static. Later he moved onto animation where he wrote stories for acclaimed cartoon series Justice League, was story editor and producer of Justice League Unlimited. He also worked on Ben 10 and Static Shock cartoon series. He later returned to write comics but never stepped far from his animation with his most recent work, All-Star Superman just hitting DVD and Blu-ray shelves today. Thanks to his DC animated efforts and Ben 10; I have a feeling that many generations of children (and adults like me) will enjoy his legacy for years to come. (image from aalbc.com)

9/11 First Responder Bill Passes

After multiple filibusters and blocks from Republicans, the 9/11 First Responders bill (officially called The James Zadroga 9/11 Health Bill) has passed. The bill was intended to provide around $7 billion in care for responders by closing multiple corporate tax loopholes. This would have actually resulted in a bill that would have been deficit neutral. However, Senate Republicans balked at this because it went against their core belief that everything should be done to make the rich richer. Closing the tax loophole was removed but that wasn't enough. Despite adding nearly a $900 billion to the deficit by extending the bush tax cuts along with some extras for the rich, Republican Sens. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma and Mike Enzi of Wyoming balked at the $7 billion price tag. The final cost of the bill is $4.2 billion that might be paid for by foreign tourists and business visitors.

Once again, while this was debated for months, the Tea Party remained silent on this issue even though they happily invoke 9/11 frequently, are against anything that adds to the deficit and I would think would support the closing of tax loopholes. Yet again a reminder that the Tea Party is another name for Republican and neither group is nearly as patriotic or fiscally responsible as they claim to be. How people that are not rich (aka make under $250,000) continue to support such hypocrites is something I will never understand. The real shame is this was an easy bill to pass that should have been taken care of this summer without all the nonsense.

Links of the Week

Christine O'Donnell: Constitution Moron
There is something very amusing about watching a Tea Party candidate make such a clear fool of themselves (all of them are, with various degrees of ability to hide it). Like all Tea Partiers, her claim is to be one of the few that understand the Constitution (essentially treating it as the Bible) that must be given office to protect it. And like all Tea Partiers, it turns out their study and understanding of the Constitution apparently doesn't actually involve reading it, understanding it, or even being vaguely aware of its history beyond the random pop culture maybe facts that you collect over a lifetime. In a debate with her opponent, Chris Coons, while at a law school no less, O'Donnell was flabbergasted that the separation of Church and State was enshrined in the first amendment. She, of course, only new the random factoid that the phrase was not in the document, I guess it never occurred to her that there might be a different phrasing for the same concept. On top of that she didn't even know the 14th, 16th, and 17th amendments even though she is a member of a political class that has indicated they want them repealed. Now to be fair, I don't have the amendments memorized either. Then again I am not running for Congress on the platform of being the great protector and arbiter of the wishes of the founding fathers like she has been. As usual, hypocrite and a republican are one and the same.

Stewart Disagrees with Sanchez Firing
Once again showing that he is more on the ball than most of his peers, Jon Stewart told Larry King that he thought CNN should not have fired Rick Sanchez for his stupid comments about Stewart and those that run CNN. He had the same problem I did with it, which was penalizing their hired commentators for expressing an opinion that management doesn't necessarily like on their own time. Sanchez is just the latest is a now regular revolving door of CNN reporters who get fired for expressing any opinion that is corporate approved. Reporters have bias. It is hiding that bias, pretending it doesn't exist, or allowing it to dictate what does or does not get covered as news that is a problem. In other words don't behave like Fox News. Past that, the only thing firing people for expressing an opinion does is allow stupid arguments to be given "equal" attention whether they deserve it or not resulting in the mess that is now CNN.

Links of the Week

Actual Waistline and Real Waistline Sizes May Vary
Esquire decided to investigate the accuracy of waistline measurements and discovered something interesting. It turns out the most of the time the measurement is incorrect. For example, the worst offender was Old Navy with the 36'' pant size actually being 41''. I guess it’s useful as an ego boost as can pretend don't need wider pants then you really do but I personally like knowing when I am going up in pant sizes as provides that little extra motivation to skip dessert.

Don't Ask, Don't Tell Unconstitutional
Not sure why it took over a decade but a federal court finally ruled on "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy regarding homosexuals serving in the military. "The act discriminates based on the content of the speech being regulated," [District Judge Virginia] Phillips wrote. "It distinguishes between speech regarding sexual orientation, and inevitably, family relationships and daily activities, by and about gay and lesbian service members, which is banned, and speech on those subjects by and about heterosexual service members, which is permitted." It is good news overall but I imagine it will be contest to the Supreme Court. Normally that would actually be a good thing because if the Supreme Court upholds the ruling this would prevent any future policies and laws that would prevent gays from serving openly. However, this is a Conservative Supreme Court where the five always vote in lockstep and have demonstrated frequently that conservatives’ ideals trump the Constitution and the law. They are highly likely to overturn the ruling and that would open the door to an outright ban or more. It is a calculated risk and one I hope Obama and the Department of Justice are considering carefully.

Links of the Week

GOP Only for Rich Tax Cuts
The GOP's current platform comes down to "we are not democrats". When asked for a specific plan on how to turn the economy around, the best they can come up with is "tax cuts", specifically make the Bush Tax Cuts permanent. The only problem with this plan is it clearly has worked in the previous 10 years and added around $2.5 trillion to the deficit. Considering the party's sudden love for deficit reduction, further tax cuts present a problem since there are no means to pay for them. Basically a tax cut = increased deficit. So you think when they actually put forth a tax cut plan they would device a means to pay for it right? Nope, as the lovely chart on the right illustrates, their plan isn't really any different than the Democrat, at least until you hit the $500k threshold. The Democratic plan pays for itself and may reduce the deficit because the rich don't benefit anymore than any other tax group. The Republican plan basically goes "you rich? Here have more money!". It’s that trickle down axiom of there that has never worked. After all, what happens to a tax cut that doesn't get spent? It doesn't trickle down. What happened to the previous 10 years of tax cuts? As the economy shows, they clearly didn't trickle down. Instead of listening to the Limbaughs of the world that have 99% opinion and 1% fact, look at the facts. Ignore my words, just look at the chart and noticed the huge difference and ask yourself "does this make any since?" and "Isn't this the opposite of fiscal responsibility the GOP claims to believe in?".

Links of the Week

Green Lantern Posters
Even though the movie is a year away, we have teaser posters that show off the main cast of the movie with Ryan Reynolds (Green Lantern, Hal Jordan), Blake Lively (Carol Ferris), Peter Sarsgard (Hector Hammond) and Mark Strong (Sinestro). Nothing remarkable yet, other than the observation that Lively is exceptionally hot as a brunette. Hit the link above for hi-res pics.



New DMCA Exemptions
Oops. Apple spent the last year or so trying to make it illegal for user to jailbreak their phone and here the Copyright Office instead makes it not only legal but specifically sites Apple in their change. While Apple continues to march down the 1984 path (really, can't even do what you want to your own purchase?), it’s nice to see at least some people get in the way. The other major exemption is the use of clips from an already owned purchase as long as used for documentaries, non-commercial videos and educational use. Basically, if using the clip and not making money from it. This isn't a move a GOP administration would ever allow since they see corporations as their masters.

DC Universe Online Trailer
If only DC would actually make a movie that looks this good and this dark. The trailer uses pre-rendered CGI to basically show the intro sequence for the upcoming MMORPG that establishes the skeleton of the story driving the game. It involves a despotic future where the heroes are just defeated by all the villains when Brainiac invades. Back to the present, the heroes must make sure that future doesn't happen.

Stargate Universe Season 2 Trailer
If don't mind spoiling the season 1 "everyone could die!?!" finale, hit the video below to check out the return of Stargate Universe on September 28th. I just hope the series picks up the pace as I have been a fan since Stargate-SG1 premiered on Showtime but this series is a drag. Uninteresting characters (but with potential), not particularly interesting situations and very slow moving plot. The foundation of a great series is here but in an effort to not be SG1 or Atlantis (which should not have been cancelled), they created something dull. On the plus, breaking up the DVD box sets stopped my buying habit of all things Stargate, so saved some money there.



YouTube Time Limit Increased
Speaking of YouTube, after years of staying at the same number, the average uploader can go to 15 minutes. While YouTube already makes exceptions for "partners", this is the first major change in the time standards since nearly the inception of the website. Hopefully this will decrease the amount of "Parts" you find for many videos.