Diggapedia

Gun laws: Arizona is on the verge of becoming the second state in the nation to require universities and communities to allow guns on campus and one of 10 that permit guns inside public government buildings such as the state Capitol.   According to the Arizona Republic, the new omnibus gun law includes the following provisions: ·         Allow people to carry firearms into all government-run facilities and many public events. The only places or events that could ban firearms would be those that post the correct sign, provide firearm lockers and have armed security and a metal detector. The law would apply to university classrooms, city buses and community festivals that get government permits. It would not apply to K-12 schools. ·         Change the wording of last year's concealed-weapons law to require an individual to answer "truthfully" when a law-enforcement officer asks whether the person is carrying a conc...

Plans for a Tiger Woods signature golf estate, with hotel and sheik-style palaces, have been shelved because of Dubai's financial downturn.     You know it’s bad for the world’s number three golfer when even Dubai pulls the plug on a deal.   No truth to the rumor that Tiger is building a putting green at the Chicken Ranch outside of Las Vegas. Not even one week after The President said during his State of the Union address "We need to teach our kids that it's not just the winner of the Super Bowl who deserves to be celebrated, but the winner of the science fair. " Allen, Texas builds a $ 60million football stadium for its high school team.   In related news the Allen High School chemistry department just got a new periodic table. Later this week, the January job numbers will come out.   The expected job gain is between 125,000 – 175,000, a range well below where we need to be to put a dent in the 9.4% unemployment rate.   To make matters worse, the High-wa...

Inflation with economic contraction = stagflation.   That is exactly where Britain finds itself as it attempts to tackle its high levels of public debt.   The massive austerity plan in Britain includes extensive spending cuts, increased taxes, and reductions in public services.   In America, our government has chosen a different approach of spending our way to economic growth, hopefully leading to increased government revenues and reduction in the deficit.   The question is how much pain you want to suffer because pain will hurt your electability.   And that is the rub.   At the end of the day, spending will be cut, government reduced, taxes increased, steady but unspectacular growth, and enough inflation to cut the size of the debt much to the chagrin of our debt holders.   With all due respect to President Obama, innovation is not the problem in the U.S.   Our Universities, scientists, entrepreneurs, and the rest of the technical community still...

Check out the attached article and results from the Kaiser Family Foundation survey on repeal, replace, don't touch the Affordable Care Act of 2010.  Surprise Surpise, Americans like what the law offers, but hate the individual mandate.  So can we replace the mandate with a tax credit for those that get insurance?  or are we now looking at a public option?  I warned the GOP not to overplay its hand and that's exactly what they did when voting to repeal the law with nothing to offer in its place. The Economist analyzes Healthcare Repeal

How will the Arab League and its 22 nations deal with the growing populist outrage against dictators, tyrants, and hegemonies that have dominated the Arab since the beginning of time?     What role will Islamic fundamentalists play in these transformations?   How will the U.S. balance the often conflicting goals between promoting democracy while protecting its interest?     Can a people who have never experienced life in a democracy create a democratic society when opposition parties are banned, imprisoned, uncoordinated, and equally corrupt?   In Tunisia, the jasmine revolution has been both swift and unique in that it is has been a secular affair.   The impetus was the self-immolation of a college educated youth named Muhammad Bouazizi when he was harassed by security forces while trying to sell fruits and vegetables.   Mr. Bouazizi represented an entire nation’s educated middle class mired in 20%+ unemployment as a result of a corrupt governmen...

-         Swiss banker Rudolph Elmer, former chief of the office of the Julius Baer Bank in the Cayman Islands, is facing charges for disclosing confidential offshore client information.   Elmer also provided two discs containing information on 2,000 clients to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who said he will spend a few weeks reviewing the information before deciding to whether to release the confidential information.   Funny, I don’t hear the same outcry from commentators about this possible disclosure compared to his previous release of US cables.   Illegal is illegal, though I guess fat cat tax avoiding multimillionaires shouldn’t expect much sympathy. -         Holy Morgan Spurlock.   I think Taco Bell’s decision to pull its advertising from MTV’s Skins won’t have much of an impact on the company’s real PR problem.   Last week a class action suit was filed claiming the fast food compan...

-         Archer is back and as funny as ever.   -         Speaking of being back, Social Distortion’s new release “Hard Times and Nursery Rhymes” is a great album as Mike Ness and the boys are back with their first new music in six years.   -         The downside of comebacks, Boy George and Culture Club are reuniting. -         Shocking development from the federal investigation looking into the financial crisis.   The Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission concluded “… that this crisis was avoidable. It found widespread failures in financial regulation; dramatic breakdowns in corporate governance; excessive borrowing and risk-taking by households and Wall Street; policy makers who were ill prepared for the crisis; and systemic breaches in accountability and ethics at all levels.” Sorry Gecko greed isn’t good, it’s dangerous.   Si...

2 In its ordinal form, second, amendment of the constitution giving citizens the right to bear arms 6 People killed by gunfire on January 8 th at the Safeway in Tucson 9 The ages of Arizonans Christina-Taylor Green and Brisenia Flores, both killed by gunfire in Arizona 13 people killed at Columbine High School on April 20, 1999 14 People wounded by gunfire on January 8 th at the Safeway in Tucson 18 Years from 1979 to 1997 when more Americans were killed by gunfire than died in all of America’s foreign wars 18 Rate of gun deaths per 100,000 people in Arizona (5 th highest) which has a 60.6% gun ownership rate. 20 People arrested in Arizona for trying to illegally buy 700 weapons for the Sinaola Mexican drug cartel 31 Rounds Jared Lee Loughner’s magazine held when he shot Gabriella Giffords in Tucson 32 People killed at Virginia Tech on April 16, 2007. 59 Federal, state, and local law enforcement officers killed by gunfire in 2010 1994 The year when assault weapons were ba...

-         Big Twitter battle between Glee creator Ryan Murphy and the Kings of Leon.   Apparently Murphy was upset when KOL front man Caleb Followill rejected Murphy’s request to license their song ‘Use Somebody’.   Murphy tweated "F--- you, Kings of Leon, They're self-centered a--holes and they missed the big picture."    KOL drummer Nathan Followill then chimed in with "Dear Ryan Murphy, let it go, see a therapist, get a manicure, buy a new bra. Zip your lip and focus on educating 7 yr olds how to say f--k."    Cooler heads will prevail, but Mr. Murphy needs to understand his show is NOT the center of the universe Golden Globe or not.   -         Ed Schultz, is a liberal blowhard who needs to go away (sorry mom).    He is simply the leftist version of Rush Limbaugh.   Schultz cannot see the connection between high corporate tax rates and job outsourcing.   He n...

President Obama’s State of the Union address was a balanced speech that may have lacked inspiration but did cover many of the Diggapedia recommended talking points from Monday.   Of equal importance, the speech did not offer any glaring opportunities for the Republicans and others on the right to aggressively attack the President.   While I prefer the aggressive Social Distortion type of address, the President’s Jimmy Eat World version set the appropriate tone. So the plusses: 1)       Reminded us of the benefits of the Affordable Care Act.   Already polling indicates the public does not want repeal. 2)       Acknowledged DADT repeal.   An American achievement, not just a gay and lesbian achievement 3)       Fired the first salvo in the deficit reduction battle with his announced spending freeze on top of SecDef Gates’ $78Billion defense cuts. 4)       Highlighted succ...

Jersey Shore or State of the Union Address?   One features an orangy looking emotional train wreck who smokes and drinks too much, and the other one has Snookie. Going to watch the SOTU in 3D:   Deficits, Debt, and D-bags. Too bad the Republicans control the house for tonight’s new approach to the mix and match seating plan at the SOTU.   Why?   Imagine Anthony Weiner, John Boehner, and John Kyl sitting together: A weiner, a boner, and a dick. There will be two responses to the President’s speech tonight.   The Republican response by Congressman Paul Ryan (R-WI) which will no doubt focus on fiscal matters and the Tea Party response   by Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann (R-MN) which will no doubt focus on crop circles, alien abductions, and Kenyan sleeper cells out to control the oval office. Just got done watching Fox News.   Hannity, O’Reilley, and Beck have all said the President’s address was awful…two hrs before he gave it.   In a related story...

A lot has been said about how President Obama needs to move to the center by adopting a pro- business stance during Tuesday’s State of the Union (SOTU) address because that’s what he needs to do for reelection.   The conventional wisdom from many pundits and politicians on the right and left says this shift is necessary is because of the message sent by the voters in November during the shellacking.   Well, shockingly I will take a slightly different approach. For the 1 st quarter of his administration, the President enjoyed healthy majorities in the House and Senate that enabled him to pass the tough legislation including healthcare reform, financial regulation reform, DADT repeal, Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, Children’s Health Insurance Program Reauthorization, Stimulus 1, and Credit Card Protection Act to name just a few.   Knowing that he was going to lose seats in both chambers and potentially one or both of his majorities, President Obama had to push through his p...

H. Jon Benjamin is the funniest guy on TV you’ve never heard of.   Who is HJB?   He is the voice of both Sterling Archer from FX’s Archer and Bob Belcher from Fox’s Bob’s Burgers.   Now you’re saying what shows is he talking about? Speaking of FX, I believe I am attracted to their shows because the protagonists are flawed and morally ambiguous.   What’s that say about me?   Whether it is drunk fireman Tommy Gavin from Rescue Me, crooked cop Vic Mackey from The Shield, gypsy turned identify thief Wayne Malloy from The Riches, unscrupulous attorney Patty Hewes from Damages, gun running dope dealing biker Jax Teller from Sons of Anarchy, misogynistic   narcissistic plastic surgeon Christian Troy from Nip/Tuck, the anachronistic angry lawman Raylon Givens from Justified, and most recently punch drunk ex-champ turned thug Patrick Leary from Lights Out these characters have depth and complexity not seen on TV since Tony Soprano. Compare the above to USA Network’s...

Which brings me to the Republican Party’s perpetual prose about ‘job killing’ regulation.   So we don’t need financial reform?   Yes it may stunt some financial sector profits, but last time I checked the banks of Canada and Israel, to name a few, are profitable sans bailout; but have we already forgotten the 8.5 million jobs lost just a few years ago in the most recent recession?   I know most Americans have long forgotten about the two S&L disasters decades ago and the fall of Long Term Capital Management (LTCM) in the 1990’s.   But when financial company corporate boards need tutorials on Collateralized Debt Obligations (CDO), a $38million subprime mortgage bond ends up in over 30 debt pools and leads to $280million in losses, when banks are placing its depositors savings at risk as a result of uneducated bets, when financial institutions could pick what agency would regulate their businesses, when banks can create off-balance sheet Structured Investment Vehi...

Reading up a lot on risk management and the lack thereof on Wall Street and I had to go back and review one of my favorite quotes on the unforeseen risks our armed forces encountered when invading Iraq.   This classic comes from at-that-time Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld doing his best Green Eggs and Ham improvisation: “As we know, there are known knowns. There are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns. That is to say we know there are some things we do not now. But there are also unknown unknowns.   The ones we don't know we don't know.”   Dr. Seuss would be proud.

David Chaytor, the former Labor MP, faces up to seven years in jail after pleading guilty to three charges of fraud over his expenses as part of the 2009 UK Parliametary expenses scandal.   Meanwhile in the US, former Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee Charlie Rangel (D-NY) was found guilty on 11 of 13 House ethics charges.    His punishment: he got a public reprimand.   Gee, and Congress wonders why the American people hold it in such a low esteem.   How are Sarah Palin and Spiderman the Musical alike?   Both started with great potential, both showed a CBS interview could portend bad things, their every missteps and disasters are front page news, and both have joined NASCAR, cagefighting, and shark week in the pantheon of things people watch hoping for something bad to happen. Memo to Mark Harris of Entertainment Weekly: STFU.   Your criticism of Ricky Gervais’ performance as Golden Globes host only proved further that Hollywood feels it...

Who Am I two point ohhhh? ·         I wanted a world without nuclear weapons and called out the world’s other superpower to do the same. ·         I increased spending by 60% compared to my two predecessors. ·         I more than doubled Federal entitlements programs, farm subsidies, and the budgets of the departments of energy and education, and foreign aid. ·         My spending increased Gross federal debt threefold ·         I approved the nation’s biggest tax decrease in history only to follow up with tax increases that basically offset the previous cuts ·         I increased the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards promoting the production of smaller fuel efficient cars. ·         I created new federal agencies ·   ...