Pollywogs!

So I got a US Savings Bond from my moms parents every xmas till I
graduated from high school.

Lost them one day. Thats another story…

Started the process of recovering them. So, contact the appropriate
department, get the forms, fill them out…oh, wait, you need the
numbers off the bonds? The bonds are lost!!!

So, fill out a diff form for a bond search. Comes back with maybe 1/4
of the bonds. Call them, say hey, you guys aren’t finding them all,
provide them with every last detail which would be on the bonds.

They come back with maybe 1/2 of the bonds.

Months go by…

I find a list which has the 1/2 of the bonds they can’t find (the most
recent half, believe it or not, so much for modernization). I provide
them with a COMPLETE LIST of my bonds. They come back, unable to deny
me any longer, with the complete list authenticated.

I submit my original form. Signed by two people with a third
independent to verify we are who we say we are…In front of a notary.

I get a letter today. Apparently, one of the bonds were filled out
wrong, with no ‘OR’ or ‘POD’ between the names listed on the bonds (my
mom is the other person, in case something happened to me). So, its an
illegal bond. I have a new form to fill out…actually, my grandparents
get to fill this one out.

OMFG.

Years later, at an unknowable cost to the taxpayers, in a galaxy far
away, I get my bonds back.

Not here, today.

For a while, I had a hard time understanding what the big deal was
concerning Judith Miller, Valerie Plame and Joe Wilson.
Recently, I found out that Judith Miller was an embedded reporter in the
White House, acting as a mouthpiece to funnel pro-WMD stories into the
New York Times, selling the case for the war on Iraq. Her reporting was
so biased and un-critical that the Times apologized for publishing four
of her ’stories’.
It now makes much more sense why some people are so worked up about
Judith Miller ’spilling the beans’ about Valerie Plame: she was acting
on behalf of the Bush Administration, acting as a hitman instead of her
usual role of spreading ’spin’ cloaked in the guise of journalistic
reporting, of being the ‘go-to’ reporter. Worse yet, she was acting as
a go-between because she knew “Mr. Libby did not want the White House to
be seen as attacking Mr. Wilson”, as she so succinctly put it.
Terrible, terrible, terrible that ‘journalists’ are acting in this
fashion, becoming so involved in politics that they spread lies instead
of exposing them…I guess this is becoming so common that most people
aren’t even offended any more.
Should these people be thrown in jail?

I strongly oppose your budget proposal. I am catagorically opposed to
cutting public services while giving tax cuts to the wealthy.
Tax those who can afford it most. Provide assistance to those who need
it most, so that one day they can pay taxes as well. Two years ago, I
was making barely $10,000 a year in my small business and I STILL HAD TO
PAY TAXES. Incredible, to think I was supposed to pay taxes when I
needed every penny to keep a roof over my head. Today, I am making
close to $30,000 a year, and I begrudge not a penny I pay in taxes
because I know that they go towards services which helped me when I was
down.
And yet, I am supposed to shoulder the lions share of this budgetary
bullshit while Congress bends over backwards handing out pork barrel
contracts, non-competition contracts, tax loopholes, tax cuts, and
‘assistance’ to billion dollar industries?
I am beginning to feel that I am not being represented in my government.
A lot of people are feeling that they have no representation.
Remember what happened last time we had taxation without representation?
Someone is going to get nailed to the wall if this keeps up!

—

Feel free to let Congress know how you feel about cutting public funding
while simultaneously cutting taxes for the wealthy:
http://www.political.moveon.org/budget

> I don’t know what crackerjack crony Bush appointed to the FDA which is
> blocking ‘Plan B’, or why I can’t seem to find where to submit
> comments about it even though Lester Crawford announced August 26 he
> was postponing a decision indefinitely and taking public comment for
> 60 days…seems like someone is trying to suppress that paticular item
> of new on the FDA website. I also don’t know why the FDA wouldn’t
> approve a drug that has gotten the clean bill of health by a very wide
> range of scientists…considering how the FDA has looked the other way
> regarding corporate funded studies which later turned out to be less
> than forthcoming (cough cough Vioxx cough cough).
>
> WHAT IS GOING ON AT THE FDA?
>
> This is becoming absurd. It is patently obvious that either (more
> likely both) political or religious forces are at work to suppress the
> release of this drug, which does no more than a simple condom would in
> the prevention of pregnancy.
>
> Absurd.
>
> What is going on? What is the truth? Why are experts resigning?
>
> Thank you very much for your time. I hope that you personally get
> paid well by the Bush adminstration to quietly stand by while special
> interests run rampant over our country.
>
> Garrett Socling

Went to see Pearl Jam in Philadelphia last night.

(I didn’t take these pics, I had shitty seats (hey well I guess I was in the building) thanks completely to Ticketmaster)

Pearl Jam was nothing less than the best, as usual. My fellow fans however, left something to be desired. Last two shows I got stuck next to an obnoxious drunk person, a frat boy the first time, some raging drunk guy this time. My wife is a little more outspoken than I am and told the guy off, and he and his poor girlfriend eventually left for greener pastures (where he could yell “Is this not fucking awesome” into someone elses face).

The pictures are from http://www.pearljam.com Apparently someone involved in the band’s businsess started a little company which lets them nearly instantly take the show and publish it online, where you can purchase the bootleg for $10. Comes with CD covers, lables if you are into that kind of thing, pics from the concert…not bad :) Personally I like it better than buying a hard copy, because I would just rip it anyway, this cuts out a step and costs less to boot (ahah, to boot hah…sigh…)

Java applet, should run on Microsoft, Apple, Linux, what-have-you…

The music downloads into a directory of the shows city and date, the files are 192kbps MP3s WITH NO DRM. Good for you Pearl Jam. And you know what? I bet for every person who downloads it free, another buys the boot from them. And you know what else? Pearl Jam doesn’t care if you download their concerts for free anyway (as long as you use common sense and not ‘pirate’ them while they are newly release on pearljam.com), they are ’sticking it to the man’ in reverse so to speak:

Official policy:
Q: Does the band approve of full live concerts or songs being traded online in MP3 files?
A: It’s ok.

Bless their warm little hearts. If you have $10 and want a good live show, go check it out. They are always better in person (ok, the Alive and Evenflow video’s were exceptions), but it is still a good record : Philadelphia, 10-03-2005