The Murder of Wi-Fi?

Interesting piece on cellular phone companies' perceived threat to their business from Wi-Fi. The solution? Perpetrate Wi-Fi's demise. Kinda like when GM engineered a similar hit on various California transit systems.

They're at it again

The Homeland Stupidity we site reports on the recent disabling of automatic garage doors near military bases as far back as 2005. This week more garage doors in Virginia were disabled ( Marine signal knocks out garage door openers ). Isn't it obvious what's going on here? The US Government now has the capability to lock civilians in (or out?) of their homes, for indefinite periods of time. Of course, some technically competent folks will unhitch the electric motor and be able to open their garage door, but I suspect many people will be at a loss of how to proceed. And these doors are still pretty heavy, even if you disconnect the automatic openers.

Local Girls

Well, it looks like Britney Spears of Kentwood, LA has (more or less) replaced the those two Houston bad girls, Anna Nicole Smith and the Crazy Astronaut Lady in the press.

More on Rebuilding Funding Crisis

This is only audio from the PBS Newshour, but the details still show a shocking incompetence (or some sort of scam -- it's hard to tell). I didn't know this, but the process of getting money to New Orleanians after Katrina was farmed out to a private company. With over 100,000 applicants, less than 1% of the applications have been processed. The process will take over a century at this rate.

New Orleans Road Home: report on problems with a program designed to bring residents back to New Orleans.

Here is some text from a Bay Area paper: Failures in New Orleans carry lessons for all The contractor is ICF from Fairfax, VA. They are administering the $7.8B "Road Home" plan to give grants to New Orleanians who are rebuilding.

Coincidence?

Both in the news today:

Prince Harry will serve in Iraq

and

Blair announces Iraq troops cut

Elevation Catch-22 hits homeowners

Dr. Patrick Fitzpatrick, hurricane expert (and friend from the old 'hood) rebuilds his home in Slidell. And he does it the way any hurricane expert would, but gets no support from the insurance companies:

Elevation Catch-22 hits homeowners

Bush’s Best Democratic Buddy

From a web article from Newsweek. Looks like a deal has been made to keep potentially embarassing documents about Katrina locked up.

No Oversight on Katrina?
Bush’s Best Democratic Buddy
Joe Lieberman gives the president a pass on Katrina.

You Don't Have to Turn On Your Red Light (Camera)

Interesting little use of anti-Constitutionality being attempted by a Georgia State rep to outlaw those cameras at redlights that catch scofflaw drivers rolling through stops or whatever else scofflaw drivers do.

I say if a camera catches you in the act, send the court a picture of the check to pay the ticket.

Dems aren’t getting it done

Apparently the Democrats in Washington aren’t any better at getting relief money to the Gulf Coast than the Republicans were.

Dump State Farm!

My family has been buying insurance from State Farm as long as I can remember, mostly (I confess) out of habit. But things have changed. I've decided to register what little small protest I can over their decisions for coverage of Katrina, as well as their ongoing gouging of the Texas market. I will be dumping them, as vocally as I can. I encourage you to look into the facts, make your own decision, and help make the free market do its thing. This is tough when government and business work together against the consumer, but these are the things you ought to fight the hardest. Again, our neighbor at Bay Area Houston seems to have lots of good data on this, as well as other Texas insurance dysfunctionality.

Lowering Standards

The US military has nearly doubled the number of waivers for recruits with criminal backgrounds: U.S. Army granting more waivers for criminal backgrounds

State Farm: No new policies in Mississippi

State Farm has announced that it will stop writing new insurance policies for the entire state of Mississippi. One wonders why they will stop doing business in places like Jackson, unless this is supposed to bring some sort of political pressure to bear. Hopefully our free market will sort these guys out (I don't think that was a joke, but I'm not sure):

State Farm: No new policies in Mississippi

I'll also point out that this is the same State Farm that illegally overcharged Texans by hundreds of millions (the number fluctuates depending on the source) . A bit technical, but:

Is the Free Market Working for the Texas Homeowners Insurance Market?

I'll also note that Texas pays on average twice what other US homeowners pay for insurance in a market dominated by State Farm. Even our de-regulating, free-market Republican governor has said it's gone too far:

Gov. Rick Perry Calls for Total Rate Oversight of Homeowners Insurance Industry

A Houston blog covers this with much more gusto than I can summon: http://bayareahouston.blogspot.com/2006/07/tdi-nails-state-farm.html

Chris Rose Essay on PBS

The PBS Newshour ended with an essay by Chris Rose of the Times-Picayune. The video was very well done, but only the MP3 audio is available on-line: Milestones. Still worth a listen.

Ben Stein on Money

Ben explains, in this NYT article, why it's good to be rich.

PBS The American Experience

The PBS Series The American Experience has a two hour show on New Orleans this week. Should be a good one. Check your local listing for the time in your city. It also appears that the show will be available on-line at the web site after the TV broadcast.

Calvin Trillin on New Orleans

I took a liking to Calvin Trillin a few years ago after reading his short bit on he tours he takes his friends on through Chinatown in New York. His visit to the arcade with a chicken that plays tic tac toe was one of the funniest things I have read in a long time. He sounds like such a hard-core New Yorker, I was surprised to find out that he spent a good bit of time in New Orleans and has written about the place quite a bit. This morning he was on CBS Sunday Morning and read a part of his book "About Alice" about meeting his wife at the New Orleans airport with a Jazz Band. I tried to find it on-line, but to no avail. I'll try again later and post it if I find it.
But in the process of searching I found this Time Magazine article he wrote on New Orleans in 1988. I found it extremely observant and hilarious. I'm not exactly sure why, but the article is titled The Republicans.

Houston Gals

A couple of wacky Houston gals in the news today. Anna Nicole Smith, famous for, well ... let's not go there. But she passed away suddenly at age '39' in somewhat mysterious circumstances. Then there was then NASA astronaut, Lisa Nowak, charged with attempted murder in one of the crazier schemes this side of MacGuyver.
So what is it about Houston? Most recently home to Enron, Exxon and Haliburton, George W. Bush and Andrea Yates. Is it something in the water? Perhaps Hunter S. Thompson had Houton's number back in his 2004 Rolling Stone article Fear and Loathing, Campaign 2004:

Things haven't changed all that much where George W. Bush comes from. Houston is a cruel and crazy town on a filthy river in East Texas with no zoning laws and a culture of sex, money and violence. It's a shabby sprawling metropolis ruled by brazen women, crooked cops and super-rich pansexual cowboys who live by the code of the West -- which can mean just about anything you need it to mean, in a pinch.

Iraqi Oil

I've been wondering is any oil is coming out of Iraq these days. Seems 1.85 million barrels per day, which is about $30 billion a year's worth (at $40 a barrel). No telling where that money going, though this article says it is funding the insurgents. It also seems a deal is being completed to let large western oil companies in to drill. Looks like the French, Russians and Chinese are cut out or the deal. From the Washington Post:

Iraq Struggles to Finish Oil Law

All in the Family

Ran across this guy who is currently top lawyer at the US Department of Homeland Security. His name is Philip J. Perry and he has held a handful of interesting positions recently, including acting Attorney General and member of the Senate's Special Investigation of Campaign Finance Abuses. What his bio doesn't mention is that he's Dick Cheney's son-in-law. It seems he recently spent time (between appointments?) at a D.C. law firm lobbying DHS for corporate clients, just before joining the department. Even growing up in Louisiana did not prepare me for this sort of Banana Republic stuff.

U.S. House panel questions monitoring of cash shipped to Iraq

There was a bit of this on the news today, with some interesting pictures. Over 300 tons (yes, tons) of US $100 bills shipped into Iraq. Of course, the claim is that this all went to the new Iraqi government, but I heard rumblings about this a long time ago. Contractors were being paid with sacks (big sacks) of cash. Which is odd, bucause most of them are US corporations that could easily get normal (non-cash) payment from the US government.

U.S. House panel questions monitoring of cash shipped to Iraq

Ah, here's an article on (of all things) CNN Money from summer 2004 about big bags of cash in Iraq. And it was all handed to US citizens, not Iraqis. But I bet they pin this one on the Iraqis anyway. Which is even more absurd. How do you haul away 300 tons of anything, 'stolen' from guys with lots of guns, and then where do you put it?

Fortunes of War A mercenary's dream at the outset of the war, Iraq is turning into a difficult market for security firms. Most of their problems would be familiar to any startup.

Artifact on eBay

Get you piece of history here.

Sex change alternative

Forget about expensive surgical procedures. Now if you’re a man you can shampoo your way into a set of boobs.

Q. Is it safe to visit New Orleans?

The American Institute of Steel Construction will be holding its annual conference in N.O. this year. The following answer to the question above is given in the email flyer promoting the convention.

A. I can well understand your concern—I've read a lot of the sensational news reports too. And while I'm certainly not an expert, I can tell you what I've observed first-hand and what the New Orleans' authorities are reporting. From my visits, it appears that the tourist areas (French Quarter and Garden District) are about as safe as they were pre-Katrina. However, the surrounding areas—the areas that we've all seen in the news—are a different story. Some of these look like Katrina only happened yesterday and few residents have returned. As a result, crime in these areas is high and it is highly advisable to avoid them during evening hours. However, there have been a large number of conferences in New Orleans since June—and I haven't heard of any reported safety issues with planned activities. What the authorities have reported is that they have turned patrol of the devastated outlying neighborhoods (and remember, these are areas that tourists rarely ventured into pre-Katrina) over to the National Guard while they have concentrated their police efforts into the tourist-intensive areas (the French Quarter, the area around the convention center, and the Garden District). Despite National Guard activity, drug and gang violence is strong in these outlying areas (it's reminiscent of the old Cabrini Green area in Chicago before gentrification). My recommendation is to follow the same general safety procedures you would when visiting any big city.