Joe's Random Ramblings

The Chronicle of Higher Education has done a very good investigation into shady diploma mills exploiting loopholes in the US student visa laws.
This stuff got some press recently due to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raid on a particularly brazen diploma mill, Tri-Valley University in Pleasanton, CA.
Some excerpt from the Chronicle article:

But a Chronicle investigation suggests that Tri-Valley is only the beginning. Other colleges?most of them unaccredited?exploit byzantine federal regulations, enrolling almost exclusively foreign students and charging them upward of $3,000 for a chance to work legally in the United States. They flourish in California and Virginia, where regulations are lax, and many of their practices?for instance, holding some classes on only three weekends per semester?are unconventional, to say the least. These colleges usher in thousands of foreign students and generate millions of dollars in profits because they have the power, bestowed by the U.S. government, to help students get visas.

As an aside, the legal filings in the Tri-Valley University case are available here and here.

That's what Pima County, AZ Sheriff Clarence Dupnik said after the shooting in Tuscon, AZ.

"When you look at unbalanced people, how they respond to the vitriol that comes out of certain mouths about tearing down the government. The anger, the hatred, the bigotry that goes on in this country is getting to be outrageous," said the sheriff. "And unfortunately, Arizona I think has become sort of the capital. We have become the mecca for prejudice and bigotry."

It is time to stop all the overt or implied appeals to violence in American politics.

Unfortunately, even this tragedy is unlikely to change things, because some parts of the US media, in particular talk radio, seem to have at least the implied appeal to violence as part of their business model.

A year and a half ago I got some political spam from Massachusetts Congresswoman Niki Tsongas. Since then, that source of spam had gone quiet.
Until today...
This brainless person from Massachusetts has again started to spam me who is living in California.
The turd in all its glory:

If you are having trouble viewing this E-newsletter, please visit
[http://tsongas.congressnewsletter.net/mail/util.cfm?[redacted]]
for the Web Version.
Congresswoman
Niki Tsongas, Serving the Fifth Congressional District of
Massachusetts

Dear Friends,

Over the next week, Congress will be
considering several issues that affect nearly everyone in this country. Before
we vote though, I would like to hear from you and get your perspective
on these important subjects in this brief survey below. Your
responses are kept strictly confidential. Also, please feel free to expand
on your responses in the large text boxes below, or to email me [link
1] your thoughts directly.

Best regards,

[image =
http://tsongas.congressnewsletter.net//images/user_images/Tsongas_Signature.gif]

Niki Tsongas

Survey/Question [survey]

Survey/Question [survey]

----------------------
footnotes
----------------------
[survey]
http://tsongas.congressnewsletter.net/mail/util.cfm?[redacted]
[link 1]
http://www.tsongas.house.gov/index.cfm?[redacted]

Website
Address:
http://tsongas.house.gov/

Office Location:
Washington DC Office
1607
Longworth House Office Building | Washington, DC 20515
Phone: (202)
225-3411 | Fax: (202) 226-0771

Acton Office
492 Main Street
Acton
MA
Phone: (978) 263-1951
Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday
9:00 AM - 2:00
PM

Lowell MA Office
11 Kearney Square, 3rd Floor
Lowell, MA
01852
Phone: (978) 459-0101
Fax: (978) 459-1907

Lawrence MA
Office
305 Essex Street, 4th Floor
Lawrence, MA 01840
Phone: (978)
681-6200
Fax: (978) 682-6070

Haverhill Office
Haverhill Citizens
Center
10 Welcome Street
Tuesdays & Thursdays
9:00 AM- 11:00
AM

Privacy
Policy:
http://www.house.gov/house/privacy.shtml

Some politicians are just too dumb and clueless to learn anything. I've had this kind of spam from id*ots from both big parties.

A leading Israeli airport security expert says that full-body scanners such as the scanners installed by TSA in the US and by CATSA, their Canadian equivalent, are a waste of money
A nice quote:

"I don't know why everybody is running to buy these expensive and useless machines. I can overcome the body scanners with enough explosives to bring down a Boeing 747," Rafi Sela told parliamentarians probing the state of aviation safety in Canada.

They now pat down even 3-year-old children.
I consider that child molestation.