Category Archives: corporations

Government Should Serve Citizens

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Houston has been promoting the draconian measure of red light cameras in the city “to increase safety”.

While many of us may be annoyed at that last person squeezing through a red light at 20 miles per hour during rush hour, there have not been any rashes of deadly accidents caused by red light runners.

There are lots of accidents in the city every day. But in a world where we allow people to take a test once at 15 years of age, and to drive with cell phones, hamburgers, make-up, and video displays (not to mentioned unmuzzled children) we are to expect some distracted and incapable drivers.

There was a recent study showing a slight rise in accidents due to red-light running, with a shift from side-on to rear-end.

Also, extending the yellow light duration has a much greater safety effect.

Now, the National Motorist Association (via sivacracy.net) shows that in 6 cities (two in Texas), the yellow light duration was shorter than the minimum suggested by state traffic safety organizations. Not really surprising. The only goal of red-light cameras is revenue generation.

Municipalities are given a hard sell by the companies who make them (and administer, for a cut of the profit) shaming or forcing our pliable “leaders” to decide to buy them “for the safety of the people”. Houston has even talked about expanding it to people “rolling the red light to turn right”. This is not a major problem!

Traffic lights, signals, and signs have 2 goals: to facilitate traffic flow, and to do so safely. They are not there to punish us, they are not installed to provide revenue. Any camera to surveil the populace is one too many!

CNN Politics Podcast – Fix It!

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I’ve been watching the daily politics podcast from CNN for a while. I loved CNN in the 80’s but their worthiness has been drifting for over a decade. I tend to vary my sources of news just to know what they’re all saying.

But something about this podcast, which is easily solvable has been annoying me for quite some time. So, I chased the links till I found a page to send feedback. I’m not sure if it will get to those it needs to, but I sure hope so. An easy fix to an annoying situation.

(Wolf Blitzer’s annoying, but they’re not going to solve that.)

CNN,

The only podcast I watch regularly is the CNN Politics podcast, a video daily release.

You really, really, really really need to mention WHAT DAY it is at the beginning of each podcast. On either the audio portion or displayed on the video, preferably both!

Otherwise enjoying it, thanks.

-bill shirley, houston

The trick is, these things download daily to my iPod/iTunes and if I haven’t watched them in a while, there’s a bunch of them. There is NO way to tell if it’s the most recent one when you’re watching. And, of course, the introductions are all identical.

Note: I should have said, it’s the only video podcast I watch regularly from CNN.

AT&T Fuckers

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Yes, you should not let those with sensitive ears read this blog.

ratedr.pngOnce again my phone is not working. The DSL’s been sucking for hours – about 5pm on Saturday evening. I finally tried the phone and it’s dead. So, I go outside and unplug the house, and plug an analog phone into the line. It still doesn’t work. The line is totally dead. That the DSL will load a web page in 10-20 minutes is a technological miracle.

Of course, I call them, press a hundred buttons answering a hundred automated questions, before the test the line, leave out the information that “yes our line is fucked up”, and say, i kid you not, “your line will be fixed on Monday, between 8am and 7pm”.

My favorite combo:
“If the reason you’re calling is that you have no dial tone, press 1.”
1
“Are you currently calling from the effected number? If yes, press 1, if no press 2.”
2
“Is this effecting all of your hand sets? If yes, press 1,…”
1

Thank you for assuming I’m a dumb ass AT&T, because I certainly assumed the same of you.

So, no paying my bills this weekend. No doing my taxes this weekend. At least I got in most of the blog updating I was doing today.

This is the third time my phone and/or DSL has gone down in the last two months. Once out four days BECAUSE THEY DISCONNECTED IT!

Homicide is in my heart.

Paul and Kucinich

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If neither Dennis Kucinich nor Ron Paul is your first choice in this year’s civic decision that you should be making, I suggest that one of them should be.

There is no doubt that democracy has been diminished for their exclusion from multiple debates. The reasoned arguments from the edges are what sometimes steers a ship of state in the right direction.

BillMoyers.jpgIf you won’t support either of them, you owe your country at least to listen to them. You don’t have to agree with them. Ron Paul and Dennis Kucinich are voices we need.

And maybe when you listen, you’ll remember how media is supposed to work. An airing of ideas, not a lashing of tongues. It’s hard not to interpret the exclusion of candidates by large corporate “sponsors” of debates to be anything but silencing of voices of dissent.

This country was built on dissent.

I’ve put Bill Moyer’s Journal in my RSS aggregator, and the audio podcast in my iTunes. If you still prefer the cathode ray, they do allow him on the air waves, but only on a station funded by the public.

There are several other ways to expose yourself to real discourse,… if you choose civic responsibility.