The next time your representatives threaten to cut education spending, tell them to find the money somewhere else. For example, this is from the Associated Press.

Documents reveal governor’s housing costs. When renovation of the historic Texas Governor's Mansion began 2 1/2 years ago, Gov. Rick Perry waspleased to find some pretty fancy temporary digs: a five-bedroom, seven-bath house in a gatedcommunity. It fell to Austin newsman Jay Root to find out much that was costing taxpayers.Using the Texas Public Information Act, Root spent weeks pulling together invoices, ledgers and otherexpense records from three different state agencies. He found that the rent, utilities and upkeep alone arecosting the state $10,000 a month, twice as much as a downtown penthouse within walking distance ofthe Capitol.Root also revealed that state-paid expenses at the 6,386-square-foot rental house included $18,000 for“consumables” such as household supplies and cleaning products, $1,001.46 in window coverings fromupscale retailer Neiman Marcus and a $1,000 “emergency repair” of the governor's filtered ice machine.He also discovered that Perry had used $130,000 in campaign funds to throw parties, buy food and drinkand pay for cable TV and a host of other services since moving in.

The officials in charge of our budgets threaten to cut spending in places that hurt so that we'll be more likely to support bigger spending and higher taxes. Yet every year I hear about Judges doing $40,000 office remodels, military brass sitting in $10,000 desk chairs, and cities putting up $250,000 "Welcome to..." signs. Yes, schools and defense are the biggest budget line items and are thus are the place where the most money is available to cut, but I know we have a lot of other trivial crap to cut before we have to touch their bottom line by even 1/2 a percent.  

My take on the training material AZ Post released today is this. These things you're reading are not words. No matter how much I tell you that, you can still see that they are indeed words. The same goes for the rules placed for establishing reasonable suspicion. Just because they say over and over that it's not racial profiling, and that you can not use racial profiling does not change the fact that it is.

http://www.azpost.state.az.us/SB1070infocenter.htm

Lets take this scenario. A college student, his friends, and some friends of theirs go to a bar. They have 2 compact cars, 2 designated driver's and about 12 people. The student get's drunk to the point of sluring, and forgets his drivers licence at the bar. No matter he's not driving anyway. While walking to the car, he trips and falls in the grass tearing holes in the knees of his pants and getting grass stains. On the way home they are pulled over. When asked where he lives, he replies that he can't remember in a jumble of ill prepared sentences. The one mistake he makes is to not fasten his seatbelt, so he's now subject to questioning by the officer. According to the training material he's in violation of the following:

Lack of identification
Traveling in tandem
Inability to provide his residential address
Not knowing other's in the same vehicle
Providing inconsistent or illogical information
Dress
Significant difficulty communicating in English

So, if the person is white will he be suspected of being illegal? Fat chance. This training material recommends racial profiling no matter how many times they say that racial profiling is prohibited. 

Even outside of the frat night on the town scenario, any legal US citizen can find themselves fitting many of these criteria in a variety of circumstances. Heck, our former president G.W. Bush has significant difficulty communicating in English, and went to great lengths to dress in the same style as Mexican cattle ranchers. Unless you fit a particular stereotype you will not be targeted for questioning under this law.

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I'm not sure yet how I feel about this, but here it is, directly from Hi-Rez.

ATLANTA – June 25, 2010 – Hi-Rez Studios announced today that Global Agenda is now 100% subscription free.

Purchasers of Global Agenda can enjoy the game’s full current content, including all current Player-vs-Player combat, Player-vs-Environment solo and co-op content, and Agency-vs- Agency seasons, without a monthly subscription payment now or in the future.

Future content updates will be delivered via optional paid expansions. The first major expansion, Sandstorm, will be included for free to the entire Global Agenda community.

To celebrate this change, the game is being offered for 33% off on Steam from now through July 5, as part of Steam’s Summer Sale. To purchase, visit the Global Agenda Steam Page.

“Hi-Rez Studios is committed to delivering the best value in PC gaming”, said Todd Harris, Global Agenda Executive Producer. “In addition to including all of the game’s initial launch content for free inside the single-purchase price, we are bundling nearly 6 months worth of post-release content and features and including that within the single-purchase game. One purchase of Global Agenda lets you experience all of this content forever with no subscription.”

To: Spirit Airline Pilots

If you think you're underpaid because the competitor is paying their pilots better... GO WORK FOR THE COMPETITOR. Stop complaining that you don't make enough and do something about it. If you were going hungry, from not having enough hours or enough pay I'd maybe have a smidgen of sympathy for you but I'm aware of how much the industry standard is for your line of work. Frankly, I think you pilots and the unions that are pushing you to this course of action are just being greedy, and if you want your airline to be a healthy competing airline that's success will eventually bring you higher wages, maybe you should earn your raises the old fashioned way; through hard work and innovation. I'm not even a passenger stranded thousands of miles away from home as a result of this selfishness. Imagine for a minute how they must feel.

To: the citizens of Greece

I understand that you're angry. Your gov't has mis-led you along with the rest of the world, but how do you expect brining industry and services to a halt to help your situation? And where exactly do you think the money to maintain your public services are going to come from when your gov't is flat-broke? Elect these guys out of office and start rebuilding from the ground up. Fixing the situation is going to be hard and it's going to require working more hours for less money, but if you want your country back on it's feet that's exactly what you're going to have to do. The citizens of the US are going to have to realize the same thing sooner or later. We can't fix our shared broken world economy without a lot of sweat, tears and sacrifice.

Come back when you're being taken advantage of. When your companies and governments are swimming in surplus, but are still holding back benefits and raises you'll find a sympathetic ear.

To: The Chinese Factory Workers

I'm not talking about you. Keep fighting the real fight. You guys actually know what it's like to be underpaid and taken advantage of.