Dvorak News Blog

Texas Candidate for Guv Promises to Move into a Double-Wide Trailer if Elected

By McCullough Thursday October 21, 2010

Future Governor’s Mansion

TYLER, Texas — Most political candidates promise to start a new program or policy on their first day in office, but Bill White has different plans if elected Texas governor. The Democrat says his first bold move would be into a mobile home.

In another jab at Republican Gov. Rick Perry, who is costing taxpayers $10,000 a month by renting a mansion outside Austin, White vowed during a swing through East Texas on Wednesday to move into a trailer home if elected. The millionaire businessman and former Houston mayor currently lives in a 4,122-square-foot home appraised at $2.1 million, but said he would be the portrait of frugality the moment he took office.

“It will start when I move, on the first day that I’m sworn into office, out of that fancy rental mansion into a double-wide trailer,” White said. “Where I come from, fiscal conservatism means you don’t waste money on yourself.” Perry is living in a 6,386-square-foot mansion in a gated community in the hills outside Austin — costing the state $600,000 in the last two years, according to records obtained by The Associated Press — while the white columned, two-story governor’s mansion in Austin undergoes repairs.

Uh-huh.

The Ironic Firing of Juan Williams From NPR

By Uncle Dave Thursday October 21, 2010

70 Comments

That leftward NPR fired him for a politically incorrect comment isn’t surprising. So why ironic? Because our government has done everything it can to make us afraid of those of the Muslim faith. Yes, it’s couched in terms of Islamic terrorists, Iran, etc. But ultimately, excluding the handful of homegrown, right wing terrorists like Tim McVey and converted American radicals, they’re primarily Mid Eastern Muslims who we need to watch out for. Or so they imply in veiled words so as not to overtly racially profile. So when someone actually states the fear tactics have worked on him, it’s political irony at its best to be publicly shocked that it worked.

As National Public Radio weathered a storm of criticism Thursday for its decision to fire news analyst Juan Williams for his comments about Muslims, Fox News moved aggressively to turn the controversy to its advantage by signing Williams to an expanded role at the cable news network.
[…]
“Juan has been a staunch defender of liberal viewpoints since his tenure began at Fox News in 1997,” [Fox’s Roger] Ailes said in a statement, adding a jab at NPR: “He’s an honest man whose freedom of speech is protected by Fox News on a daily basis.”

Meanwhile, conservative leaders lambasted NPR for firing Williams and called for cutting public funding for the media organization. By midafternoon Thursday, more than 4,900 comments had been posted on NPR.org, including many from people who said the media organization was bowing to political correctness and unfairly punishing Williams for expressing his personal opinions.

“In one arrogant move the NPR exposed itself for the leftist thought police they really are,” read one typical post. “After this November elections I hope one of the first things the new Congress does is to defund this poor excuse for public radio.”

Here’s what Williams said on Bill O’Reilly’s show last night:

“I mean, look, Bill, I’m not a bigot….But when I get on a plane, I got to tell you, if I see people who are in Muslim garb and I think, you know, they’re identifying themselves first and foremost as Muslims, I get worried. I get nervous,” Williams said.

Google Takes Advantage of Sketchy Tax Loopholes, Taxed at a miserly 2.4%

By McCullough Thursday October 21, 2010

38 Comments

Google Inc. cut its taxes by $3.1 billion in the last three years using a technique that moves most of its foreign profits through Ireland and the Netherlands to Bermuda.

Google’s income shifting — involving strategies known to lawyers as the “Double Irish” and the “Dutch Sandwich” — helped reduce its overseas tax rate to 2.4 percent, the lowest of the top five U.S. technology companies by market capitalization, according to regulatory filings in six countries.

“It’s remarkable that Google’s effective rate is that low,” said Martin A. Sullivan, a tax economist who formerly worked for the U.S. Treasury Department. “We know this company operates throughout the world mostly in high-tax countries where the average corporate rate is well over 20 percent.”

The U.S. corporate income-tax rate is 35 percent. In the U.K., Google’s second-biggest market by revenue, it’s 28 percent.

Google, the owner of the world’s most popular search engine, uses a strategy that has gained favor among such companies as Facebook Inc. and Microsoft Corp. The method takes advantage of Irish tax law to legally shuttle profits into and out of subsidiaries there, largely escaping the country’s 12.5 percent income tax.

TSA security officer also in charge of stealing passengers’ money

By Eideard Thursday October 21, 2010

15 Comments

Michael Arato…is charged with one count of accepting bribes, one count of conspiring to commit theft and three counts of theft by a government employee…

Arato was the supervisory transportation security officer for the Transportation Security Administration at Terminal B of the airport, and worked with the colleague to steal from passengers, according to the complaint. He and the colleague — who has been cooperating with authorities — frequently worked together at “the B-3 checkpoint.” The checkpoint is typically the security checkpoint for international airlines including AirIndia, the complaint said.

Beginning in August 2009, TSA and the Port Authority Police Department of New York and New Jersey “received numerous complaints from passengers scheduled to depart the airport on the 6:20 p.m. AirIndia flight that money and other valuables in passengers’ carry-on baggage were missing after their baggage was hand searched by TSA employees at the B-3 checkpoint,” the complaint said.

The complaining passengers were predominantly non-English-speaking women of Indian descent and nationality who were returning to India after visiting the United States, according to the complaint. Authorities launched an investigation, including video surveillance of the checkpoint.

Arato’s colleague, identified in the complaint as the “co-schemer,” began cooperating with authorities in September 2010 and told police he has been stealing from passengers at the checkpoint since about October 2009. The colleague said that he and Arato had agreed that when he stole from passengers, he would “kick up” half the money to Arato. Arato also regularly stole from passengers himself, sometimes giving his colleague some of that money, according to the complaint.

What part of the definition of Homeland Security includes theft?

Video – Fluid Sculpture

By Gasparrini Wednesday October 20, 2010

6 Comments

This is one of the winning videos from the Vimeo Awards 2010. More winning videos can be found here.

Kid Snatched by CPS After Ratting Out Parents

By McCullough Wednesday October 20, 2010

54 Comments

MATTHEWS, NC (WBTV) – Two parents are facing drug charges after their child took their drugs to school and told a school officer his parents were breaking the law.

WBTV is not releasing the names of the parents or the name of the school to protect the child’s identity. The 11-year-old student is in 5th grade at a an elementary school in Matthews. Police say he brought his parents’ marijuana cigarettes to school when he reported them.

Matthews Police say he reported his parents after a lesson about marijuana was delivered by a police officer who is part of the D.A.R.E. program, which teaches kids about the dangers of drugs, alcohol, and tobacco. “Even if it’s happening in their own home with their own parents, they understand that’s a dangerous situation because of what we’re teaching them,” said Matthews Officer Stason Tyrrell. That’s what they’re told to do, to make us aware.”

Tyrrell says the town’s D.A.R.E. officer spends time at each of the three elementary schools in Matthews teaching kids to make the right choice when it comes to drugs. Police arrested the child’s 40-year-old father and 38-year-old mother on Thursday. Both were charged with two misdemeanor counts each of marijuana possession and possession of drug paraphernalia. They were not jailed and were released on a written promise to appear in court.

“I don’t give drugs to my kids,” the father told us when we went to his house. When we asked him how his kid got a hold of his drugs, he replied, “That’s no one’s business.”

Police say both the 11-year old and a sibling have been removed from the parents’ house by social services. Police say they are staying with relatives.

For now. This is the kind of crap people should be seriously pissed off about. You evil alcohol and tobacco users are next, and you know who you are. I hope they stick him in a foster home so he isn’t endangered by his parents dangerous activity, maybe he’ll be happier there….give me an effen break.

How Did Smart Phones Become a National Obsession?

By John C Dvorak Wednesday October 20, 2010

9 Comments

Apple rolls out new Air laptops along with other goodies. Jobs still in the news for slamming RIM. Chillingo sells out to EA. Privacy issues once again plague Facebook. CNN highlights Smartphones. How do you do drag and drop with a browser app? MSFT gets NYC. 2 billion Internet users cannot be wrong. My take on hot marketing. LTE works like a champ. IBM moves from Dublin to China. Intel Sandy Bridge being low-balled? Cisco to buy RIM?

click to listen:

Right click here and select ‘Save Link As…’ to download the mp3 file.

Republican message to Hispanics: Don’t Vote!

By Eideard Wednesday October 20, 2010

46 Comments

An activist group in Nevada – “Latinos for Reform”- is running an ad on television, radio and the Internet telling Nevada’s Hispanic population not to vote on election day so as to teach Democrats a lesson for failing on the promise to deliver on immigration reform.

But this is not some liberal PAC fed up with the lack of progress on a hot button issue for the state’s Hispanic population.

‘Latinos for Reform’ is headed by Robert De Posada, a conservative political analyst who makes occasional appearances on the spanish-speaking television network, Univision. The treasurer for the group is a high-powered Republican lobbyist named Juan Carlos Benitez who was named a special counsel for immigration related unfair employment practices in the Bush Administration…

The television ad imploring Hispanics not to vote should be taken down immediately. No voter should have their right to vote suppressed or denied.”

It has been taken down by some. Univision – at least – is refusing to carry the advert.

It’s not the first time we’ve heard from the group. In an effort to exploit distrust between the Latino and African American communities during the 2008 presidential campaign, ‘Latinos For Reform’ ran ads accusing Barack Obama of putting the interest of African Americans before Latinos and the interest of the African continent ahead of nations of Latin America.

DH Unplugged #86
Apple versus the World

By John C Dvorak Tuesday October 19, 2010

2 Comments

Here is the latest conversation I had with money manager Andrew Horowitz…. new insights for anyone who invests in anything. The stock picks are beginning to perform well.
Click here for non-Flash version.

click ► to listen:

Right click here and select ‘Save Link As…’ to download the mp3 file.

Contribute to the future of the show here.

Respected Physicist & Prof. Emeritus Resigns From Top Group Over “Global Warming Scam”

By Uncle Dave Tuesday October 19, 2010

96 Comments

The following is a letter to the American Physical Society released to the public by Professor Emiritus of physics Hal Lewis of the University of California at Santa Barbara.

Sent: Friday, 08 October 2010 17:19 Hal Lewis

From: Hal Lewis, University of California, Santa Barbara
To: Curtis G. Callan, Jr., Princeton University, President of the American Physical Society
[…]
For reasons that will soon become clear my former pride at being an APS Fellow all these years has been turned into shame, and I am forced, with no pleasure at all, to offer you my resignation from the Society.

It is of course, the global warming scam, with the (literally) trillions of dollars driving it, that has corrupted so many scientists, and has carried APS before it like a rogue wave. It is the greatest and most successful pseudoscientific fraud I have seen in my long life as a physicist. Anyone who has the faintest doubt that this is so should force himself to read the ClimateGate documents, which lay it bare. (Montford’s book organizes the facts very well.) I don’t believe that any real physicist, nay scientist, can read that stuff without revulsion. I would almost make that revulsion a definition of the word scientist.

Read the rest for his reasons. And then there’s this reply of sorts. On the other hand.

DU Poll: Campaign Mail Flood Is Causing Me A Campain

By Uncle Dave Tuesday October 19, 2010

17 Comments

I don’t know how it is in the rest of the country, but here in the Las Vegas area, if you were to return from a week out of town you’d open your mailbox and find it so densely packed with junk mail from those running from office that scientists would worry a black hole was about to form. Are they trying to single handedly solve the Post Office’s deficit with all the mailings? Ecology is definitely not a concern come election time. I could see the need to double the size of landfills to take it all.

Does anyone actually read any of this stuff? If you don’t have a DVR to skip the constant barrage of commercials on TV, then you’re probably already inured to the ‘message’ in this cardboard-based propaganda, so what’s the point? I have a DVR and only watch the ads occasionally to see who is attacking whom now (as if actual issues were ever discussed) in a new and clever (riiiiight!) way. Luckily I have a dumpster between my mailbox and apartment where it all goes, unread.

Do you read any of the campaign ads that come your way? Are you swayed by any of it to vote for that candidate? If so, can I interest you in providing me with your bank account number so I can deposit $10 million?

Wolves Attack Russian Traffic Cop

By McCullough Tuesday October 19, 2010

22 Comments

Hmmm..maybe “attack” is a bit strong.

UK Drug Addicts to be Paid by American Charity to Undergo Voluntary Sterilization

By McCullough Tuesday October 19, 2010

24 Comments

Historical marker in Raleigh to remember a dark chapter in NC history

Drug addicts are being paid cash to undergo sterilisation. Drug addicts across the UK are being offered money to be sterilised by an American charity.

Project Prevention is offering to pay £200 to any drug user in London, Glasgow, Bristol, Leicester and parts of Wales who agrees to be operated on. The first person in the UK to accept the cash is drug addict “John” from Leicester who says he “should never be a father”. The move has been criticised by some drug charities who work with addicts. Project Prevention founder Barbara Harris admitted her methods amounted to “bribery”, but said it was the only way to stop babies being physically and mentally damaged by drugs during pregnancy.

Drug treatment charity Addaction estimates one million children in the UK are living with parents who abuse drugs. Pregnant addicts can pass on the dependency to the unborn child, leading to organ and brain damage. Mrs Harris set up her charity in North Carolina after adopting the children of a crack addict. After paying 3,500 addicts across the United States not to have children, she is now visiting parts of the UK blighted by drugs to encourage users to undergo “long-term birth control” for cash.

John, a 38-year-old addict from Leicester, is the first person in the UK to accept money to have a vasectomy after being involved in drugs since he was 12. He said: “It was something that I’d been thinking about for a long time.

“I won’t be able to support a kid; I can just about manage to support myself.”

The question is..should people who cannot care for their children (financially or otherwise) be allowed to procreate? Maybe if it’s voluntary it’s OK, but how long will it remain that way? It seems we have been down this slope before.

USA Number 15 in World for Broadband

By John C Dvorak Monday October 18, 2010

15 Comments

Ray Ozzie to leave Microsoft. Microsoft steering OEM’s away from using Win Phone 7 on tablets. This is bucking the real trend. It won’t pay off for MSFT. Crazy. USA 15th in the world regarding broadband. Apple profits up and it looks like nearly 20 million iPads will be sold in 2010. What? Sprint to bring Wi-Max to NYC, LA and SFO. New MacBook Air coming. Disc free Netflix coming.

click to listen:

Right click here and select ‘Save Link As…’ to download the mp3 file.

Halloween Movie Review: Tucker and Dale vs. Evil

By McCullough Monday October 18, 2010

11 Comments

This weekend, the wife and I attended the 1st annual Telluride Horror Film Festival. This film was the festival’s big hit. An indie slasher film spoof about two scary looking hillbillies who are mistaken for “Deliverance” type rednecks, this one had the audience falling out of their seats laughing. The premise is familiar and way overused, college kids go camping in the woods, meet Tucker and Dale who have just spent their life savings on their new West Virginia “vacation home”. After an incident on the lake where the kids believe Tucker and Dale have kidnapped one of the students, they proceed to kill themselves in unique and hilarious ways trying to save her. This could have been a one trick pony that fell flat, but clever writing, comic timing, and a decent cast turned this into a fun ride. If you’re a fan of the Horror genre but don’t care for slice em’ dice em’ (unless it’s tongue in cheek), you’ll love it. This one has cult classic written all over it.

More here: Tucker and Dale vs. Evil