Monthly Archives: February 2012


Guess who made this statement: 1

Dogmatic ideological parties tend to splinter the political and social fabric of a nation, lead to governmental crises and deadlocks and stymie the compromises so often necessary to preserve the freedom and achieve progress.

Remarkably it describes the position our politics are in today to a T, thanks in large part to the continuing shift to the right of the Republican party over the past two decades. The quote can be found in a new biography of Mitt Romney http://amzn.to/wWO1Ux but it wasn't uttered by the man currently running for the GOP nomination.

In fact, those are the words of his father George Romney when in 1964 as governor of Michigan, he declined to endorse or campaign for his party's nominee Barry Goldwater. George Romney clearly a man who would not find a place in the 2012 GOP.

#politics

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Amazon.com: The Real Romney (9780062123275): Michael Kranish, Scott Helman: Books
Amazon.com: The Real Romney (9780062123275): Michael Kranish, Scott Helman: Books

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We just watched this week's episode of +Portlandia and one of the sketches features…

We just watched this week's episode of +Portlandia and one of the sketches features Fred Armison's character riding on a three-wheeled Can-Am Spyder http://www.can-am.brp.com/ while his partner Carrie Brownstien is on a single-wheeled contraption.

I did a little searching around for motorized unicycles and discovered Ryno Motors. Like many of the people and places featured in the show, Ryno is based in Portland. The company is currently trying to line up a manufacturing partner to launch production of this self-balancing unicycle. Contrary to the sound-effects in the sketch, Ryno has actually developed its cycle as an electric vehicle with a top speed of about 25 mph and a 30 mile range.

Ryno is taking orders for a limited run of 50 pre-production units at $25,000 a pop which seems pretty steep for what this is. If the company can find a manufacturing partner the regular versions are expected to cost about $4,200 which while not cheap is a lot more realistic.

#rynomotors #ryno #portlandia #ev

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RYNO Motors | One Wheel Micro-Cycle
Move through the world in a completely different way: Slice through your neighborhood; Interact, engage and inspire; Maneuver easily through crowded streets; Keep your life in balance. Posted in I. Th…

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Nobel laureate Paul Krugman on the dichotomy between how Americans vote for Republicans… 2

Nobel laureate Paul Krugman on the dichotomy between how Americans vote for Republicans that rail against the same government benefits they are collecting.

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Moochers Against Welfare
There is a strange redness to America’s safety net. Why do the regions that need the helping hand elect politicians who want to tear it down?

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I just came to a fascinating and frightening realization about the connection between…

I just came to a fascinating and frightening realization about the connection between Republican voter suppression efforts and the war on drugs while watching +Up with Chris Hayes this morning.

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The war on drugs as a voter suppression effort « Sam's Thoughts
I just came to a fascinating and frightening realization about the connection between Republican voter suppression efforts and the war on drugs while watching Up with Chris Hayes this morning. For dec…

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The war on drugs as a voter suppression effort

I just came to a fascinating and frightening realization about the connection between Republican voter suppression efforts and the war on drugs while watching Up with Chris Hayes this morning.

For decades Republicans have been working to find ways to stem the influence of the growing minority population in elections. The latest efforts at limiting voter “fraud” by making it tougher to register and requiring photo ID to cast a ballot are the most visible.

However, over the past several decades there has been a hidden and much more insidious scheme going on through the war on drugs by shifting populations to prisons. During the course of this decades-long domestic war, there has been almost no impact on actual drug use while at the same time the number of people incarcerated in the prison-industrial complex for non-violent drug offenses has ballooned by a factor of seven!

Most of those inmates are black males from urban areas. Blacks comprise 12.3% of the US population, about 14% of drug users and 37% of drug arrests! People living in densely populated urban areas are generally more likely to vote Democratic while it seems many of those in rural areas veer toward the right.

The drug war has a couple of different effects on voting patterns. First, just as prohibition triggered violent crime in the 1920s, drugs are doing the same in inner cities now. The result is creating an atmosphere of fear among more affluent urban dwellers even if it’s mostly unwarranted. Republicans prey on this fear with a law and order attitude toward drugs. That can tend to cause voters to shift to the right.

However, the more dangerous aspect of all this is the population of the prisons. Prisons are typically located in rural areas with smaller populations. When the census is done every ten years, the population of a prison is counted toward the population of the region where it’s located even though it’s inhabitants come from somewhere else. However, those inmates are not allowed to actually vote. As a result, when the electoral districts are defined, these rural areas can end up with a disproportionate representation while fewer members of the population get to cast ballots.

So the war on drugs shifts potential voters out of their homes, takes away their votes and gives more representation to those that are likely to vote Republican!

#politics #warondrugs

 


This terrifies me.

Reshared post from +Brian Brushwood

This terrifies me.

"I'm sorry for US sites and users. Your government is hell-bent on turning the internet into a read-only device like TV, easily regulated and controlled."

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120216/17154217785/congrats-us-government-youre-scaring-web-businesses-into-moving-out-us.shtml?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

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Congrats, US Government: You're Scaring Web Businesses Into Moving Out Of The US | Techdirt
The federal government has been paying lip service to the idea that it wants to encourage new businesses and startups in the US. And this is truly important to the economy, as studies have shown that…

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Good to hear that my wife's DInc2 has been confirmed for an ICS upgrade

Now about that Droid 3 sitting beside me?
#android #motorola

Reshared post from +Android Central

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HTC adds more North American phones to Ice Cream Sandwich update list | Android Central
HTC sends word via its official Facebook page that in addition to the handful of phones already announced, Verizon's Rhyme, Droid Incredible 2 and Thunderbolt will be getting the latest version of And…

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I would have loved to have seen this during its heyday

#ford

Reshared post from +Ford Motor Company

The Ford Rotunda – a view from our archives

From 1936 to 1962, the gear-shaped Ford Rotunda attracted visitors from around the world. It was the fifth most popular tourist destination in the United States in the 1950s.

+Ford Motor Company originally built the Rotunda, designed by Albert Kahn, for the 1933 Chicago World’s Fair, known as the Century of Progress Exposition, which opened in May of 1933 and attracted more than 40 million visitors over its two-year run. One of the major attractions at the fair was Ford's Rotunda, which was disassembled after the fair and brought back to Dearborn, where it was reconstructed using more permanent materials. Designed to be the showcase of the auto industry, the Ford Rotunda was opened to the public on May 14, 1936.

In 1960, the Rotunda ranked behind only Niagara Falls, the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, the Smithsonian Institution and the Lincoln Memorial as a national tourist destination. It was more popular than Yellowstone, Mount Vernon, the Washington Monument and the Statue of Liberty.
You can learn more about the Rotunda at http://automotivemileposts.com/autobrevity/fordrotunda.html

Ford Rotunda Building. 1956.

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