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Obama and Ethanol

Submitted by Jon Henke on Mon, 06/23/2008 - 07:43
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 "I'm not in this race to continue the special interest-driven politics of the last eight years. I'm in this race to end it." - Barack Obama

It turns out, Barack Obama is tied at the hip to the specialest special interest of all - one that Rolling Stone called "The Ethanol Scam: One of America's Biggest Political Boondoggles" - the ethanol industry. 

We are all shocked - shocked, I tell you - that Obama is not, in fact, immune to the destructive influence of "special interests".

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The CEO and Employee Bundling

Submitted by Flap on Mon, 06/23/2008 - 09:04.

And, who is doing the research into all of the corporate bundling and multi-Democrat committee transfers?

The Democrats and Obama are the masters of "Hide The Ball."

 

see, here's the problem, you miss the professionals

Submitted by RisingTide on Mon, 12/01/2008 - 16:52.

and you miss the dataminers.

finding out how much palin spend was child's play.

so was that Tulza thing.

if you can win the hacker vote, the tinkerer vote, you might have a chance.

All the dataminers...

Submitted by LnGrrrR on Mon, 12/01/2008 - 17:52.

...are busy trying to find needles of info in the giant haystack of useless noise, thanks to the Patriot Act.

the gov't dataminers are busy on that

Submitted by RisingTide on Tue, 12/02/2008 - 09:47.

other people have realized that just tossing gazilliions of useless images along with a few with hidden data in them is a very effective way of bypassing Carnivore and other things like it.

It's a pity that American Citizens feel the need to hide from their gov't.

Yay steganography!

Submitted by LnGrrrR on Tue, 12/02/2008 - 12:02.

It's because there's way too much of a noise/signal ration in datamining. It's great for corporations, who are looking for good ways to market a product, or sports teams trying to find the best way to pitch to a hitter. Not so great when you're trying to find specific info, because you get too many useless qualifiers that chase you down dead ends. The human mind has a tendency to see patterns (which is why so many visual gimmicks work), so we end up creating links where there are none.

I've talked with a few security professionals, and not many had positive things to say about the idea of datamining for terrorist threats.

AMEX has a priceless "smart shopper" list

Submitted by RisingTide on Tue, 12/02/2008 - 12:13.

are you on it?

I know I am, courtesy of my espresso machine.

But they still can't tell that I don't own a car. (dealers are way secretive about that sort of thing).

 

I know someone who used to fight terrorists "before it was fashionable." I think that finding even the smart terrorists is possible -- it's just that our gov't doesn't understand how to recruit competent hackers. Also, it takes a really expensive network of contacts -- and when you have all the spies in Pakistan getting the hell out, well, is it any wonder we can't get intel?

 

 

Agreed there

Submitted by LnGrrrR on Tue, 12/02/2008 - 14:28.

We need more police work and less military work to root out terrorists.

As far as knowing about security, I'm an active duty network technician (who just passed his Security+ exam, woohoo.)

American Express? They still exist? :D

amex ain't dead yet

Submitted by RisingTide on Tue, 12/02/2008 - 14:31.

I got three banks and a visa and mastercard too, so I'm fully functional on all networks in case of structural failure. Diversifying risk is Fun!

Pfft who needs to diversify risk?

Submitted by LnGrrrR on Tue, 12/02/2008 - 17:15.

I just get credit default swaps and make all my risk magically disappear! Whoopee!!

i am NOT a bank holding company

Submitted by RisingTide on Wed, 12/03/2008 - 13:13.

don't know about you and your lemonade stand...

Pshaw. You should have known I was joking!

Submitted by LnGrrrR on Wed, 12/03/2008 - 15:45.

Besides, I'm part of the military-industrial-complex. Sadly, I am only a very tiny cog. :D

;-) i was joking too.

Submitted by RisingTide on Wed, 12/03/2008 - 16:08.

referencing someone who really did apply to be a bank holding company (he owns a lemonade stand). took ten minutes, has a 1 in 10,000 shot of it being approved. good odds.

Ah, my apologies!

Submitted by LnGrrrR on Wed, 12/03/2008 - 17:34.

Although I don't see why he wasn't approved. Huge financial institutions and auto manufacturers demand money while having no idea of how they'll spend it (other than expensive resorts, of course.) I see no reason why I shouldn't be held to those same standards.

I was thinking of opening up a coffee, alcohol and comic book/novelty store....I think I'll stop by the bank today and ask them for a few million.

that sounds like Elmo's!

Submitted by RisingTide on Wed, 12/03/2008 - 17:50.

guns, computers, coffeeshop -- what could go wrong?

They also rent dvds.

(they're in brownsville pa if you get a chance to swing by -- in an 100 yr old synagogue)

Sounds like a fun place!

Submitted by LnGrrrR on Thu, 12/04/2008 - 10:34.

Though since I'm stationed in Biloxi, MS, that'd be one heck of a swing! (And my home town is split between Lynn, Mass and Alton, NH... still a bit far.)

But you never know where the military might send you...

It's enough to drive someone to consume this form of ethanol

Submitted by Ironman on Mon, 06/23/2008 - 19:37.

Go to fullsize image

Thanks in advance for any

Submitted by nolano on Mon, 12/01/2008 - 06:46.

Thanks in advance for any feedback. Nolano. hidden object games

You were following this election, right?

Submitted by LnGrrrR on Mon, 12/01/2008 - 16:49.

It was pretty obvious why Iowa was backing Obama so hard. Ethanol doesn't seem to be the way to take our energy policy, but the ethanol guys had a hand in electing Obama so he will pay them back.

Why don't you talk like this is a national security issue?

Submitted by RisingTide on Mon, 12/01/2008 - 16:55.

geez, strategic implications people!

Net energy , what a concept

Submitted by Ironman on Tue, 12/02/2008 - 06:18.

Yep, import oil from the Middle East, use it to grow grain in the Middle West, try and distill some hydrocarbons out of it....folks, if this was generating significant net energy when the inputs are accounted for, it wouldn;t need a subsidy