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Late Start
Author: BobR    Date: 08/09/2013 13:13:12

It's a very late start this morning at Casa de BRaine, so please forgive us as we try to mainline a little coffee and get the blood flowing...

 

51 comments (Latest Comment: 08/09/2013 19:50:10 by Mondobubba)
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Comment by wickedpam on 08/09/2013 13:28:16
Morning


Hey did you guys lose power last night? Got into the office this morning and everything had to be re-started.

Comment by Raine on 08/09/2013 13:52:37
:coffee: Good morning. Bobber was going to write a blog this morning, but he is under the weather with a bit of a wicked head ache. I will take my normal friday Helm and deliver some scintillating analysis...

good friday Morning!

We did not lose power last night. Energy perhaps, power no.

Comment by Mondobubba on 08/09/2013 14:11:37
Grunt.

Happy birthday to JaviSEC the youngling is 12.

Comment by wickedpam on 08/09/2013 14:15:20
Quote by Mondobubba:
Grunt.

Happy birthday to JaviSEC the youngling is 12.


Wow 12!

Happy Javi B-Day!

Comment by TriSec on 08/09/2013 14:18:22
As we were making rather merry at the TriSec compound last night, and seeing the lateness of blog, this seems appropriate:

It was a year ago, September
a day I well remember
I was walking up and down
in drunken pride
when my knees began to flutter
and I fell down in the gutter
and a pig came by and lay down by my side

As I lay there in the gutter
thinking thoughts I could not utter
I thought I heard a passing lady say,
"You can tell a man who boozes
by the company he chooses..."
And with that, the pig got up and walked away


Comment by TriSec on 08/09/2013 14:22:30
Not that I fasted this Ramadan, but may you all have a Blessed Eid!

http://www.islamicity.com/global/images/photo/IC-Articles/Eid-Al-Fitr__500x375.JPG


Comment by Scoopster on 08/09/2013 14:51:37
Mornin' all & Happy Fridee!

I'm still in a bit of a fog from yesterday's meeting & after work craziness.. completely forgot to do something!

Happy Birthday Tri & Javi!


Comment by Raine on 08/09/2013 15:15:02
So what does everyone think about lavabit suddenly shutting down? I am thinking about writing of it, but I;m not sure. there are a lot of very unhappy people that subscribed and lost there archives.

Comment by wickedpam on 08/09/2013 15:17:33
Quote by Raine:
So what does everyone think about lavabit suddenly shutting down? I am thinking about writing of it, but I;m not sure. there are a lot of very unhappy people that subscribed and lost there archives.



what is or was a lavabit?

Comment by Scoopster on 08/09/2013 15:23:01
Quote by wickedpam:
Quote by Raine:
So what does everyone think about lavabit suddenly shutting down? I am thinking about writing of it, but I;m not sure. there are a lot of very unhappy people that subscribed and lost there archives.


what is or was a lavabit?

A free secure email host where Snowden had an account. They shut down completely rather than submit to a NSA letter to provide them access to anything.

Comment by wickedpam on 08/09/2013 15:28:37
Quote by Scoopster:
Quote by wickedpam:
Quote by Raine:
So what does everyone think about lavabit suddenly shutting down? I am thinking about writing of it, but I;m not sure. there are a lot of very unhappy people that subscribed and lost there archives.


what is or was a lavabit?

A free secure email host where Snowden had an account. They shut down completely rather than submit to a NSA letter to provide them access to anything.



oh lord

Comment by Raine on 08/09/2013 15:30:30
Quote by Scoopster:
Quote by wickedpam:
Quote by Raine:
So what does everyone think about lavabit suddenly shutting down? I am thinking about writing of it, but I;m not sure. there are a lot of very unhappy people that subscribed and lost there archives.


what is or was a lavabit?

A free secure email host where Snowden had an account. They shut down completely rather than submit to a NSA letter to provide them access to anything.
That hasn't been confirmed, to be honest, although I belief it a good assumption -- Slient Circle also shut down, pre-emptiveley.
“It goes deeper than that. There are some very high profile people on Silent Circle- and I mean very targeted people- as well as heads of state, human rights groups, reporters, special operations units from many countries. We wanted to be proactive because we knew USG would come after us due to the sheer amount of people who use us- let alone the “highly targeted high profile people”. They are completely secure and clean on Silent Phone, Silent Text and Silent Eyes, but email is broken because govt can force us to turn over what we have. So to protect everyone and to drive them to use the other three peer to peer products- we made the decision to do this before men on [SIC] suits show up. Now- they are completely shut down- nothing they can get from us or try and force from us- we literally have nothing anywhere.”

/
This Company only went into business in October 2012.
The company is targeting people who already know their conversations must remain private and secure—such as doctors, bankers, and military personnel.




Comment by Raine on 08/09/2013 15:35:08
So Silent Circle pre-emptivly shuts down even this?
Silent Circle is based out of National Harbour, Maryland and according to new reports about the success of the firm, their revenue has grown by more than 400% per month, since word of the NSA snooping scandal was released.


That is just wierd. Something is just very very strange here.

Comment by Raine on 08/09/2013 15:37:34
Quote by Raine:
So Silent Circle pre-emptivly shuts down even this?
Silent Circle is based out of National Harbour, Maryland and according to new reports about the success of the firm, their revenue has grown by more than 400% per month, since word of the NSA snooping scandal was released.


That is just wierd. Something is just very very strange here.
Forgot the link. Also the same article
In a recent interview about Silent Circle, Janke revealed that he developed the application in an attempt to solve a problem and maybe start a small business, estimating anywhere between 50-75,000 customers. Today, Silent Circle has more than exceeded these application, as by the end of 2013 the company is projected to have anywhere between 2-3 million subscribers. This not only includes corporate clients but individuals and different government agencies and military members from all over the globe.



Comment by Raine on 08/09/2013 15:58:32
Did I kill the blog?

I'm sorry.

Comment by Mondobubba on 08/09/2013 16:09:05
Quote by Raine:
Did I kill the blog?

I'm sorry.



Nah, it's just resting.

Comment by Scoopster on 08/09/2013 16:15:52
Quote by Raine:
Did I kill the blog?

I'm sorry.

I'm still here, just working my ass off.

It's kinda funny how something as simple as a 5% profit share motivates you!

Comment by Mondobubba on 08/09/2013 16:17:43
Raine, how were the goats? Did you and Linda see 'em?

Comment by Will in Chicago on 08/09/2013 16:18:54
Good morning! I hope that everyone is well.

Mike Rogers is in for Ed Schultz.

On a personal note, I am keeping optimistic about the job search. No word, but there is still time. (If nothing happens on the teaching front by early September, it is likely time to call an end to the teaching career and put all my efforts elsewhere.)

Here is a long article for the blog, which looks at one of the problems of our nation's capitol -- the interconnectedness of the powerful. From Frank Rich in New Yorker Magazine, However, the problem is more than just an insanely recalcitrant GOP -- there are problems inside the Democratic party as well in large part due to the rise of lobbyists, Rich argues:


The Stench of the Potomac
Washington may be a dysfunctional place to govern, but it’s working better than ever as a marketplace for cashing in. And that’s thanks, more than anything, to the Democratic Establishment.


By Frank Rich
Published Aug 4, 2013

You’d think that the market for Washington-bashing would be saturated by now. Not counting the nightly Comedy Central duo, four anti-Washington television shows were showered with Emmy nominations last month. Apocalyptic anti-Washington books with titles like It’s Even Worse Than It Looks and Throw Them All Out have become our daily bread in the Obama years—although none of them matches Jack Lait and Lee Mortimer’s Truman-era Washington Confidential, an enormous best seller in 1951 and forever to be cherished for describing the town (my hometown, I must disclose) as “the nation’s Forest Lawn, where is sunk its priceless heritage, killed by countless generations of getters and gimme-ers.”

Such bile never goes out of fashion. This is proving the summer of This Town, Mark Leibovich’s jaundiced take on “America’s gilded capital,” which leapt up the best-seller list the week of its publication, where it’s poised to end Sheryl Sandberg’s lock on No. 1. As if to ratify its relevance, its release was greeted by a new NBC News–Wall Street Journal poll in which Congress’s approval rating fell to an all-time low (12 percent) in that survey’s history, raising the prospect that it could flatline to zero if the government shuts down come fall. Though President Obama’s rating (45 percent) wasn’t stellar either, do pity John Boehner, who would have been the most unpopular man in America had the field not included Edward Snowden and George Zimmerman, the only names that polled worse.

Leibovich’s survey of the swamp on the Potomac during the Obama years would be worth reading just to see him torture David Gregory of NBC News, whose naked ambition has so riled the locals you wonder if Marion Barry might be held in higher regard. But the humor of This Town is spiked with mortality. It opens in June 2008 with the invitation-only Kennedy Center memorial for Tim Russert, the departed unofficial mayor of what Leibovich calls the Club—the “spinning cabal of ‘people in politics and media’ ” that rules Beltway society. The book closes late last year, with a Christmas fête convened by the town’s unofficial king and queen, Ben Bradlee and Sally Quinn, at their Georgetown manse. In Leibovich’s telling, this A-list holiday gathering was more funereal than the Russert funeral.


Comment by Mondobubba on 08/09/2013 16:19:56
Quote by Scoopster:
Quote by Raine:
Did I kill the blog?

I'm sorry.

I'm still here, just working my ass off.

It's kinda funny how something as simple as a 5% profit share motivates you!


Damn, Scoop listen to you talking all 1% and shit.


Comment by Mondobubba on 08/09/2013 16:20:48
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Save the bacon seeds! So they can grow up and be delicious!

Comment by wickedpam on 08/09/2013 16:21:10
Quote by Mondobubba:
Quote by Raine:
Did I kill the blog?

I'm sorry.



Nah, it's just resting.



in mode trying to clear up some stuff that keeps getting shoved to the bottom of my to-do list thanks for certain managers

Comment by TriSec on 08/09/2013 16:21:25
Comment by Will in Chicago on 08/09/2013 16:24:27
Hello, bloggers!!

I hope that everyone is well.

Raine, I fear that I have killed the blog so many times that the ghost of Attila the Hun would get nervous around me.

As for myself, I am busy job hunting. However, if nothing happens with teaching soon, I may have to call it a career.

Here is an article from the New Yorker that a friend referred me to yesterday on the problem of lobbyists and influence in our nation's capitol. It is a bipartisan problem, and is perhaps one of the best arguments for campaign finance reform. (It costs so much to run for office now that even the best elected representatives have to spend a lot of time raising funds -- and the lobbyists are always looking for allies.)

The Stench of the Potomac
Washington may be a dysfunctional place to govern, but it’s working better than ever as a marketplace for cashing in. And that’s thanks, more than anything, to the Democratic Establishment.

By Frank Rich
Published Aug 4, 2013

ou’d think that the market for Washington-bashing would be saturated by now. Not counting the nightly Comedy Central duo, four anti-Washington television shows were showered with Emmy nominations last month. Apocalyptic anti-Washington books with titles like It’s Even Worse Than It Looks and Throw Them All Out have become our daily bread in the Obama years—although none of them matches Jack Lait and Lee Mortimer’s Truman-era Washington Confidential, an enormous best seller in 1951 and forever to be cherished for describing the town (my hometown, I must disclose) as “the nation’s Forest Lawn, where is sunk its priceless heritage, killed by countless generations of getters and gimme-ers.”

Such bile never goes out of fashion. This is proving the summer of This Town, Mark Leibovich’s jaundiced take on “America’s gilded capital,” which leapt up the best-seller list the week of its publication, where it’s poised to end Sheryl Sandberg’s lock on No. 1. As if to ratify its relevance, its release was greeted by a new NBC News–Wall Street Journal poll in which Congress’s approval rating fell to an all-time low (12 percent) in that survey’s history, raising the prospect that it could flatline to zero if the government shuts down come fall. Though President Obama’s rating (45 percent) wasn’t stellar either, do pity John Boehner, who would have been the most unpopular man in America had the field not included Edward Snowden and George Zimmerman, the only names that polled worse.

Leibovich’s survey of the swamp on the Potomac during the Obama years would be worth reading just to see him torture David Gregory of NBC News, whose naked ambition has so riled the locals you wonder if Marion Barry might be held in higher regard. But the humor of This Town is spiked with mortality. It opens in June 2008 with the invitation-only Kennedy Center memorial for Tim Russert, the departed unofficial mayor of what Leibovich calls the Club—the “spinning cabal of ‘people in politics and media’ ” that rules Beltway society. The book closes late last year, with a Christmas fête convened by the town’s unofficial king and queen, Ben Bradlee and Sally Quinn, at their Georgetown manse. In Leibovich’s telling, this A-list holiday gathering was more funereal than the Russert funeral.


Comment by Raine on 08/09/2013 16:27:25
Quote by Mondobubba:
Raine, how were the goats? Did you and Linda see 'em?
Couldn't get her to go with me. We went to the grocery store yesterday, and that was a good step. She went to her friends house for the weekend.

Baby steps as they say. I think that Bob and I will go goat viewing on Sunday.


Comment by wickedpam on 08/09/2013 16:29:12
Quote by Mondobubba:
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Save the bacon seeds! So they can grow up and be delicious!



maybe its me but I'm kind of over the whole bacon thing


Comment by Mondobubba on 08/09/2013 16:29:43
Quote by Raine:
Quote by Mondobubba:
Raine, how were the goats? Did you and Linda see 'em?
Couldn't get her to go with me. We went to the grocery store yesterday, and that was a good step. She went to her friends house for the weekend.

Baby steps as they say. I think that Bob and I will go goat viewing on Sunday.



Bummer. But, Linda will get to where she wants to be in her own time.

Comment by Mondobubba on 08/09/2013 16:32:29
Quote by wickedpam:
Quote by Mondobubba:
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Save the bacon seeds! So they can grow up and be delicious!



maybe its me but I'm kind of over the whole bacon thing



http://arachnoid.com/ChildrenOfNarcissus/images/sutherland_invasion_1978.jpg


Heresy!

Comment by TriSec on 08/09/2013 16:47:12
Quote by Will in Chicago:

As for myself, I am busy job hunting. However, if nothing happens with teaching soon, I may have to call it a career.




Will, there's some motion on that front locally.

Our acting superintendent, a Mr. Bob Cincotta, ripped the mayor a new one at a recent School Committee meeting and stormed out.

Not very long afterwards, some of my City Councilor friends called a joint meeting of the School Committee and City Council to "openly debate the issues".

I'm on the inside...some factors that might be affecting hiring new teachers include but are not limited to:

Lack of School Committee leadership. (Revolving door - we've had 3 Superintendents in 4 years.)

High school turnover - many teachers come and go, and at least 2 elementary schools have had 3 new principals each in as many years.

Declining MCAS scores - we were once among the top-tier in the state, but since the leadership crisis, the scores have fallen each and every year.

And of course, complacency and a laissez-faire attitude from the Mayor's office. She's served 3 terms and is not running for a fourth; I fear things may not truly improve until my friend Tom Stanley gets the corner office.

Don't give up Will. We'd still love to see you in Waltham, if our school committee can ever get its act together.



Comment by livingonli on 08/09/2013 16:57:24
Good day, folks. Once again, sleeping late takes my schedule. It's going to be fun having to get up early Tuesday morning to go to my bankruptcy hearing.

Comment by Raine on 08/09/2013 17:13:24
Mala are you listening to Mike Stark talk about Cucinelli and Console energy? I wasn't sure what the whole eminent dome issue was (last year?) REALLY all about until NOW.


Comment by Will in Chicago on 08/09/2013 17:17:21
Quote by TriSec:
Quote by Will in Chicago:

As for myself, I am busy job hunting. However, if nothing happens with teaching soon, I may have to call it a career.




Will, there's some motion on that front locally.

Our acting superintendent, a Mr. Bob Cincotta, ripped the mayor a new one at a recent School Committee meeting and stormed out.

Not very long afterwards, some of my City Councilor friends called a joint meeting of the School Committee and City Council to "openly debate the issues".

I'm on the inside...some factors that might be affecting hiring new teachers include but are not limited to:

Lack of School Committee leadership. (Revolving door - we've had 3 Superintendents in 4 years.)

High school turnover - many teachers come and go, and at least 2 elementary schools have had 3 new principals each in as many years.

Declining MCAS scores - we were once among the top-tier in the state, but since the leadership crisis, the scores have fallen each and every year.

And of course, complacency and a laissez-faire attitude from the Mayor's office. She's served 3 terms and is not running for a fourth; I fear things may not truly improve until my friend Tom Stanley gets the corner office.

Don't give up Will. We'd still love to see you in Waltham, if our school committee can ever get its act together.




Hi, TriSec.

I am checking things out still, but I am getting a LOT of pressure from my brother to find something soon. (He has suggested checking into being a day laborer. I checked that out in Phoenix and let's say sitting around Manpower Temporaries at 5 AM for a month in the hope of getting hired for a day was depressing.)

I am applying to Moses Maimonides School in Brookline and Saint Joseph College Preparatory High School in Boston,. Additionally, I am checking different district sites. However, without any calls for interviews, things are looking grim for my teaching career. (If I do move out to your area, I have been asked to set up a lobster-Chicago pizza swap with my sister's husband.)

Comment by wickedpam on 08/09/2013 17:20:25
Quote by Raine:
Mala are you listening to Mike Stark talk about Cucinelli and Console energy? I wasn't sure what the whole eminent dome issue was (last year?) REALLY all about until NOW.


Just heard it - now it makes sense, didn't realize it was about gas and oil thought it was more like "we're taking your land for a road" kind of thing. Cooch is such a crook.


Comment by Raine on 08/09/2013 17:24:10
Quote by wickedpam:
Quote by Raine:
Mala are you listening to Mike Stark talk about Cucinelli and Console energy? I wasn't sure what the whole eminent dome issue was (last year?) REALLY all about until NOW.


Just heard it - now it makes sense, didn't realize it was about gas and oil thought it was more like "we're taking your land for a road" kind of thing. Cooch is such a crook.
Just found this from a few weeks ago.

I was wondering why the Democratic PArty of Virginia was against it. I'm pretty pissed they didn't make a bigger deal out of that ballot initiative last year.





Comment by Will in Chicago on 08/09/2013 17:26:51
While Raine is working on the blog, here is another article to tide us over, courtesy of Salon:

Conservatives once ridiculed Ayn Rand

Ayn Rand reminds me of a quote from economist and diplomat John Kenneth Galbraith:

The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness.


Comment by wickedpam on 08/09/2013 17:55:21
Quote by Raine:
Quote by wickedpam:
Quote by Raine:
Mala are you listening to Mike Stark talk about Cucinelli and Console energy? I wasn't sure what the whole eminent dome issue was (last year?) REALLY all about until NOW.


Just heard it - now it makes sense, didn't realize it was about gas and oil thought it was more like "we're taking your land for a road" kind of thing. Cooch is such a crook.
Just found this from a few weeks ago.

I was wondering why the Democratic PArty of Virginia was against it. I'm pretty pissed they didn't make a bigger deal out of that ballot initiative last year.





I don't know that anyone realized what it was at our meetings cause some of them were ok with it.


Comment by TriSec on 08/09/2013 17:55:38
Will, if all else fails, healthcare is booming night now. Don't know if I have any pull with my contacts here, but you never know.



Comment by Will in Chicago on 08/09/2013 18:35:29
Quote by TriSec:
Will, if all else fails, healthcare is booming night now. Don't know if I have any pull with my contacts here, but you never know.




I'll keep it in mind. At this point, anything is acceptable. (I can always volunteer and teach that way.)

TriSec, if you want to send me your e-mail address on Facebook or have me send mine, let me know.

Comment by Raine on 08/09/2013 18:47:47
Quote by wickedpam:
Quote by Raine:
Quote by wickedpam:
Quote by Raine:
Mala are you listening to Mike Stark talk about Cucinelli and Console energy? I wasn't sure what the whole eminent dome issue was (last year?) REALLY all about until NOW.


Just heard it - now it makes sense, didn't realize it was about gas and oil thought it was more like "we're taking your land for a road" kind of thing. Cooch is such a crook.
Just found this from a few weeks ago.

I was wondering why the Democratic PArty of Virginia was against it. I'm pretty pissed they didn't make a bigger deal out of that ballot initiative last year.





I don't know that anyone realized what it was at our meetings cause some of them were ok with it.
The way it was presented, *I* was ok with it.


Comment by Raine on 08/09/2013 19:03:51
Anthony Wiener is becoming bad performance art.

Comment by TriSec on 08/09/2013 19:06:30
No verdict yet. Day four.



Comment by TriSec on 08/09/2013 19:07:28
Comment by Raine on 08/09/2013 19:16:33
BTW, POTUS is holding a Presser before he heads out on vacation.

Comment by Raine on 08/09/2013 19:17:07
I just tuned in -- not sure if we had a Chuck Todd as Cat toy moment.

Comment by Raine on 08/09/2013 19:21:20
Chuck Todd is up!

Chuck tries to get in a second question and O cuts him off.

Comment by Raine on 08/09/2013 19:22:49
and scolds him.


Comment by Mondobubba on 08/09/2013 19:48:55
Quote by Raine:
Anthony Wiener is becoming bad performance art.



Becoming?

Comment by Mondobubba on 08/09/2013 19:49:26
Quote by TriSec:
No verdict yet. Day four.




For Whitey?

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