As a California native and a small business owner, I’m a big fan of the California High Speed Rail project. Investing in transportation infrastructure will be vital not only for California, but to show the rest of the country how awesome it can be to have an excellent transportation infrastructure. High-speed rail will have short-term [...]
Entries Tagged as 'Politics'
Both California Senators Support SOPA/PIPA
January 16th, 2012 · No Comments · Politics, Web/Tech
I was pretty much done with Dianne Feinstein after she sat on the sidelines during the 2010 healthcare debate, but I was pretty alarmed to hear that both she and our other senator, Barbara Boxer, are co-sponsors of PIPA (the senate version of SOPA that would give big businesses the right to shut down web [...]
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Apocalypse Then
March 7th, 2011 · No Comments · News, Politics
Of most concern to the president himself, one high-level aide said, is the perception that the United States would once again be meddling in the Middle East, where it has overturned many a leader, including Saddam Hussein. Some critics of the United States in the region — as well as some leaders — have already claimed [...]
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Call It The Dead Billionaire’s Tax
June 9th, 2010 · 1 Comment · News, Politics
From the NY Times comes this tale of a recently-deceased billionaire, Dan L. Duncan, whose estate will be the first ever billion-dollar estate in the U.S. to pass to his heirs 100% tax-free.
This situation is the bastard child of the Bush-era tax “reform” in which the estate tax was characterized as a “death tax” and [...]
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Unfortunate and Telling Quotes from Today’s Debate on Repealing ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’
May 27th, 2010 · 1 Comment · Politics
Representative Mike Pence of Indiana, the No. 3 Republican in the House, accused Democrats of trying to use the military “to advance a liberal social agenda” and demanded that Congress “put its priorities in order.”
Shutting down a policy that has eliminated more than 10,000 uniformed solidiers should be a pretty high priority, but maybe the [...]
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“Amazingly”, Anyone Can Run For California Governor and Get Votes
March 13th, 2010 · No Comments · Politics, The NY Times Spins Another Cliche About The West
Link: Same Race, Same Opponents, Three Decades Later
“Mr. Darling, you see, is running for governor, going head to graying head in the Democratic primary with Mr. Brown, a man he last challenged in 1978, when Mr. Brown was governor and Mr. Darling was trying to stitch up the San Andreas fault [...]
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Well That Didn’t Take Long, Usurious Banks
February 22nd, 2010 · No Comments · Business, Politics
Now that the most predatory practices of credit card issuers and banks are being zapped by regulation, banks are working overtime to figure out new, even scummier ways to drain the money from your account:
Given the billions at stake, consultants are urging banks and credit unions to hire them to help. “Your fee income will [...]
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New Credit Card Regulations Go Into Effect Today
February 22nd, 2010 · No Comments · Business, Politics
A mere five and a half years since I started posting about the usurious business practices of consumer credit-card lenders, the new federal regulations on credit card lending go into effect today. Thanks to our most excellent congresswoman Jackie Speier for this link to a summary of the new regulations.
There are still a few loopholes [...]
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Private Companies Like SpaceX Look to Take Over From NASA
February 16th, 2010 · No Comments · Politics
I guess I was confused; I thought that Republican legislators believed that free enterprise was the panacea for all of society’s problems. That must only be the case when the free enterprise happens to be in the congressman’s home district.
Aerospace giants like Boeing and Lockheed Martin will almost certainly also submit bids for the new [...]
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Forces Pushing Obama on ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’
February 1st, 2010 · 1 Comment · Politics
“In the middle of two wars and in the middle of this giant security threat,” Representative John A. Boehner of Ohio, the Republican leader, said Sunday on “Meet the Press” on NBC, “why would we want to get into this debate?”
It’s telling that Boehner believes that simply debating the status of gays in the military [...]
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