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RINOs of a feather flocking together in the Florida Senate race
File this under “Birds of a Feather:” George LeMieux finally got an endorsement, and he sure is proud of it.
Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour announced his support for LeMaestro’s candidacy this week, and Team LeMieux wasted no time putting together some cute little graphics for his website and GoogleAds, touting the endorsement:
Helpful hint: "servedthe" isn't a word. I think y'all missed a space.
Wow. “George is a solid conservative.” That sounds great…except for the fact that Governor Barbour seems to have left the reservation in recent years, and simply isn’t an accurate judge of what a real conservative looks like.
Case in point: check out this article from The Hill just two weeks ago:
The Hill’s Blog Briefing Room | Haley Barbour criticizes DeMint for not supporting Boehner
Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour (R) criticized the Tea Party wing of the GOP on Tuesday for failing to get behind Republican leadership on a deficit plan.
“Our people have to understand that we can’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good,” Barbour said.
Barbour said House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) had shown “courage” in the deficit debate by agreeing to compromise in order to raise the debt ceiling.
“In politics, purity is a dead-dog loser,” he said. “We cannot go out with the idea that we’re going to be pure, or we’re going to do nothing.”
Speaking on conservative Laura Ingraham’s radio show, Barbour warned that only compromise would produce a “good” deficit deal…
Barbour said Tea Party Republicans such as Sen. Jim DeMint (S.C.) needed to get behind Boehner’s effort, rather than clinging to the “cut, cap and balance” Act that passed the House but “isn’t going anywhere in the Senate.”
Basically, Barbour attacked DeMint and everyone who supported Cut, Cap, and Balance as being too extreme – for being “purists” – and argued for “compromise.” Compromise is really just another word for “moderation,” isn’t it?
A quick side note: hindsight is 20/20, but considering S&P’s downgrade of our credit rating, maybe the debt ceiling was an issue where compromise – especially compromising in a way that failed to fully address the problem – wasn’t the best path to follow? For what it’s worth, Senator DeMint was quoted in The Hill last Friday regarding the credit downgrade, blasting the bipartisan deal that was passed, saying it was “not a serious attempt to solve our spending and debt problem,” and calling for Secretary Geithner’s resignation.
Barbour’s attacks on DeMint and other conservatives all sounds incredibly similar to the mushy-moderate message we’ve heard from John McCain over the years, not to mention the constant drum beat that Crist and LeMieux were beating during Governor Oompa-Loompa‘s term.
www.CharlieCristRepublican.com
It’s all part of a theme. We’re seeing a list of the “RINO Who’s Who” line up behind LeMieux.
LeMieux has gone from working side-by-side with Charlie Crist to try and steer RPOF to the center to fundraisers hosted by members of the Gang of Six to getting endorsed by another mushy moderate who attacked members of Congress for having the audacity to fight for a plan that would actually make a dent in Washington’s spending addiction.
So, if you’re a conservative, if you’re a Republican-in-more-than-just-name, who do you support?
Do you support George LeMieux, the self-proclaimed Charlie Crist Republican, who talks a good game but has spent his entire political career allying himself with unprincipled moderates who lack the willpower to actually fight the battles that our country desperately need someone to fight?
Or do you support Adam Hasner, who was Marco Rubio’s teammate in the Florida House, pushing back against Crist and LeMieux’s efforts to increase government and moderate the Republican party, who was the first candidate in the country to sign the Cut, Cap, Balance pledge, and has a string of endorsements from actual conservatives with a proven track record of being on the right side of the issues?
Whose opinion do you trust more? Haley Barbour, who attacked the “tea party wing” of the GOP for not compromising enough, or the collective voices of Erick Erickson, Mark Levin, Monica Crowley, Ken Blackwell, Hugh Hewitt, and FreedomWorks?
For me, it’s not a complicated question. Adam Hasner has been walking the conservative walk for years. He’s not ever going to get an endorsement from Charlie Crist or John McCain or Lisa Murkowski. And I’m just fine with that.
To learn more about Adam Hasner:
Adam Hasner campaign website
Adam Hasner on Facebook
Twitter: @AdamHasner
[Cross-posted at Sunshine State Sarah]
Fed to Hold Rates Low Until 2013, Sees Increased Risks to Economy
Stock markets remained volatile Tuesday after the Federal Reserve held back on decisive action to revive the stalled U.S. economy.
Instead, in unusually clear language, members of the Federal Open Market Committee said the Fed would maintain its policy of exceptionally low interest rates through at least mid-2013.
Investors, apparently disappointed that the Fed declined to offer new stimulus programs, began selling stocks minutes after the Fed announcement at 2:15 p.m. After briefly falling into negative territory, markets headed higher again. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up more than 150 points late in the session.
The Fed also used stronger language to describe the economic slowdown that has kept U.S. unemployment stubbornly high and led to a massive stock market selloff in recent weeks.
Fed language, often vague under previous chairmen, sought to clarify the decision to maintain the current loose fiscal policy. So instead of using the open-ended “extended period” phrase for when the Fed might shift course, Fed policy makers offered a far more specific timetable for when they might start tightening monetary policy by raising interest rates and shedding some of its massive portfolio.
Three members of the 10-person committee — Richard Fisher of the Dallas Fed, Narayana Kocherlakota of Minneapolis and Charles Plosser of Philadelphia — dissented with the decision, an unusually large number.
Survey Finds Smartphone Apps Store Too Much Personal Data
An uncomfortably large percentage of mobile applications are storing sensitive user account information unencrypted on owners’ smartphones, according to a new survey of 100 consumer smartphone apps.
Some 76 percent of the apps tested stored cleartext usernames on the devices, and 10 percent of the tested applications, including popular apps LinkedIn and Netflix, were found storing passwords on the phone in cleartext.
Conducted by digital security firm ViaForensics, the testing occurred over a period of over eight months and spanned multiple categories, ranging from social networking applications to mobile banking software. The firm tested apps only for iOS and Android, the market’s leading mobile platforms.
“If I get my hands on someone’s lost phone, it could take me ten minutes to find an account username and password,” said Ted Eull, techology services vice president at ViaForensics, in an interview.
ViaForensics sells mobile security tools and services to corporations, attorneys and government agencies.
User names ranked highest on the list of discoverable data. App data — the term ViaForensics uses for private information exchanged using the applications — came in second place, with such data recovered from 69 percent of tested apps.
Mint.com’s iPhone and Android apps — which are used for maintaining financial account information — were found to store user transaction history and balance information on the phone. The Android version of the Mint app stores the user’s PIN on the phone unencrypted, ViaForensics found.
“We’re already working on ways to make this experience better,” said Jason Yiin, lead mobile engineer at Mint.com, in an interview. “At the moment, if users are highly concerned, they can log in and out of the application each time they access it on their phones.” Yiin also points out that if an intruder accesses your PIN, they won’t be able to manipulate any account information or move assets between accounts. The intruder will, however, be able to see account balance and transaction history information.
In June, based on ViaForensics’ early findings, Netflix promised a security update at a yet to be specified date. But LinkedIn says it is satisfied with the security of its app. “We’re using the standard Android programming practices for storing and managing data,” LinkedIn spokeswoman Krista Canfield told Wired.com. More
Six Ways to Make Sure Your Car Gets Stolen
A car is stolen somewhere in the United States every 40 seconds, according to the FBI, but yours doesn’t have to be among the hundreds of thousands that go missing each year.
Most vehicles are taken because the owners are careless or much too trusting. If you want to avoid losing your set of wheels, start “thinking like a bad guy,” advises crime-prevention consultant Art Adkins.
Thinking like a thief means looking for crimes of opportunity, explains Adkins, a police lieutenant in Gainesville, Fla. Before you walk away from your parked car, ask yourself:
*Is your car an attractive theft target where it’s parked?
*How easy have you made it for someone to break in?
*Have you bothered to use an anti-theft device?
Law enforcement agencies and car insurance companies try to educate consumers about the best ways to keep their vehicles safe.
“The crime triangle works on three things,” says Adkins. “One point is the suspect, one is the victim and one is opportunity. Opportunity is what we have to eliminate.”
No one method is foolproof, but the more layers of security you create, the greater the chance that a car thief simply will move on to an easier target, says Michelle Staton, executive director of the Pennsylvania Auto Theft Prevention Authority. If you prefer to live dangerously, here are six things guaranteed to put your car at high risk of being stolen.
1. Leave your car doors unlocked
This may sound like a no-brainer, but many auto thefts happen when people forget to lock their doors. A locked door is the first line of defense.
“About 50% of cars stolen are left unlocked and sometimes have the keys in the ignition,” says Staton.
Most car thieves won’t bother breaking into a locked car when there are so many unlocked autos to choose from, says Frank Scafidi, spokesperson for the National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB).
2. Park your car in dark, deserted areas
When it comes to choosing a safe place to park, trust your instincts, Adkins says. Most of us know that dark, isolated spots are more likely to attract car thieves. However, when you’re late for a movie and all the best parking places are taken, it’s easy to ignore the voice within. Adkins urges you to go with your gut reaction.
“If you think it is in a bad location, more than likely it is,” he says.
Gold hits $1,778 in biggest 3-day rally since 2008
LONDON (Reuters) – Gold hit a record high on Tuesday in its biggest three-day rally since the depths of the financial crisis in 2008, as investor fears over the threat to the global economy from the European and U.S. debt crises hit assets seen as higher risk.
Though spot prices retreated from highs as stock markets opened higher in the United States, they remained up 1.4 percent on the day at $1,739.60 an ounce at 9:42 a.m. EDT, having earlier peaked at $1,778.29.
“The short run uptrend is intact,” said VTB Capital analyst Andrey Kryuchenkov. “Panic dominates for now and even though we have rebounded a bit on the broader market, people will still fear liquidating substantial gold longs.”
Gold has risen by about 7 percent this month, driven by flows of cash out of equities, bonds and currencies, after the United States lost its top-notch credit rating.
Investors have lost confidence in the ability of European leaders to stem the spread of the debt crisis that has now engulfed the euro zone’s third- and fourth-largest economies, Italy and Spain.
European stocks lost over 5 percent in early trade, higher-yielding currencies slid, German government bonds and the Swiss franc rallied as investors ditched anything perceived to be risky.
Reflecting the rush into gold, holdings of metal in exchange-traded funds rose for a twelfth day to an all-time high near 70 million ounces, equivalent about half of total supply in 2010, based on World Gold Council data.
Malware Secretly Attaches Stolen Data to Photos
Malware often gets delivered via fake emails or links, but now there’s a new way to steal data through your Facebook photos.
Called Stegobot, the malware was developed by researchers at the University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana and the Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology in New Delhi.
Stegobot steals data — passwords for example — and then insert the information into a photo. The technique is called steganography, and it’s not new to covert computer operations. Programs based on this technique work by secretly replacing bits of unused data in computer memory with digital bits of information desired by the theif. About 50 kilobytes of information can be hidden in a photo this way without altering its appearance or alerting the owner of the computer to any suspicious activity. More can be inserted if you don’t mind a stray pixel here and there.
The malware first gets on your computer the way any other malware does: one clicks on a fake link or opens up an email. The clever part of Stegobot is the use of social networks to send the data to the botmaster. When one of your friends looks at your profile, Stegobot takes whatever information it stole and adds it to a photo. Since Facebook downloads files in the background — no clicking on them required — the user won’t see it happening. The stolen data can then be retransmitted via the social network until it eventually reaches the botmaster. More
Best Tech for Back to School – For Under $500
AiAiAi TMA1 Professional DJ Monitoring Headphones
With an even helping of tight bass, level mids, and sharp high tones, the TMA-1s compliment all music genres, so we won’t limit our recommendation to DJs alone. Their tough construction and efficient sound isolation means students, mixing engineers, commuters, and office jockeys will all enjoy stand-out performance.
out of 1 user reviews See all user reviews
The bottom line: The sleek TMA-1 headphones by Aiaiai are ideal for traveling DJs who need tough headphones with an up-front, bass-slamming sound profile.
See all the Back to School tech
Samsung Nexus S 4G
Android comes in many flavors, but there’s something to be said for the straight Android experience that doesn’t come with any carrier bloatware or features that you don’t need. The Nexus S 4G is such a handset for Sprint and we like the bright display, agreeable performance, and loaded feature set that includes support for the carrier’s 4G network.
out of 45 user reviews See all user reviews
The bottom line: The Samsung Nexus S 4G offers a great combination of design, features, and performance. The 4G connection could be more reliable, but the Gingerbread OS, stock Android UI, and admirable call quality make for a satisfying smartphone.
Contour+
If you know a student who thrills at the idea of strapping a camcorder to her head while partaking in a dangerous or just speedy extracurricular activity, the Contour+ makes a great gift that won’t get left in the dorm.
out of 4 user reviews See all user reviews
The bottom line: The Contour+ sports camera is simple to use, with pro-level flexibility and quality; however, Contour’s lower-priced options may be more appropriate for casual users.
See all the Back to School tech
Jabra Freeway
Not only is the Jabra Freeway a great way to increase driver safety by enabling calls to be made hands free, its sound quality is good enough for the unit to double as a speaker for impromptu dorm room jam sessions.
out of 1 user reviews See all user reviews
The bottom line: If you find yourself straining to hear calls on your current hands-free setup or just want the best sound possible for calls or podcasts, the Jabra Freeway is the Bluetooth speakerphone for you.
It Happened On Obama’s Watch
Cross-Posted: TobyToons.com (Conservative Political Cartoons)
