Joe's Random Ramblings

It is not just some Democrat from Massachusetts who sends spam to a California resident, Texas Republicans can do that as well...
For months, I have received political spam from Texas Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison and her supporters.
Now I have received another turd from Newt Gingrich, plugging for somebody who wants to run for Hutchison's Senate seat (paid for by Michael Williams, the idiot in question.)
Even if I would live in Texas (hint to these idiots: I am not), I would never vote for anybody who spams me.
Spammers belong in jail, not in Congress.

Here is the turd in all it's glory (link identifiers etc. redacted):

<http://link.ixs1.net/s/om?[redacted]>
To view this in your browser, click here <http://link.ixs1.net/s/ve?[redacted]>

Email header<http://member.ixs1.net/site/5621/images/mlw_email_header.gif>
Newt: "We need leaders like Michael Williams"

Dear Friend,

<http://link.ixs1.net/s/lt?[redacted]>

Having been a part of the last effort to retake the congressional majority, I am convinced we don't have to wait 40 years this time to regain power. Democrats in Congress offer the same old, tired recipe of Democrats past -- big government hand-outs, bloated bureaucracy and big-time deficit spending.

The kind of change they offer is simply a return to the discarded practices of the pre-Reagan era.

Our problem is not that Americans are newly attracted to Democrat ideas, but that Republicans simply failed to live up to their own ideas.

Let me illustrate my point this way: while conservatives continue to embrace the conservative label, liberals have been re-marketing themselves as progressives. You can call a used car pre-owned all you want, but I will be just as worried about the engine going out.

We do not need to change our ideas, we need to live up to them. And when I talk about modernizing the Republican brand, I mean using tried and true Republicans principles in new ways to solve new problems.

The key to building a new Republican Majority is not simply branding Democrat policies as the destructive and discredited ideas of the past?but offering real alternatives that meet Americans where they are. And offering new leaders not bogged down by the old fights of the last decade.

We need conservatives willing to engage the Democrats on the field of ideas?willing to speak of a 21st Century conservatism?willing to stand and fight on principle. We need leaders like Michael Williams.

Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison has already announced she will not run for the U.S. Senate again, and may resign her seat in just a few months to concentrate on her campaign for governor. As you can imagine, an open senate seat is a rare commodity, and people of both parties are kicking the proverbial tires to decide if they want to run.

But no candidate brings the energy, the proven conservative ideals, and the ability to take the liberals to task while rallying the grassroots of our party like Commissioner Michael Williams. Will you help send Michael Williams to the U.S. Senate with a contribution of $4,800, $2,400 or $1,000, $500, $250, $100 or $50 right now? <http://link.ixs1.net/s/lt?[redacted]>

As someone who has been elected statewide in Texas three times, Michael caught my eye by advocating the right energy policies for America's future. Unlike the liberals who want to bring fossil fuel exploration to a grinding halt and worsen the economic crisis, Michael wants to expand domestic exploration of both traditional fossil fuels as well as clean, renewable sources.

With regulatory authority over the oil and gas industry as Railroad Commissioner, Michael has strong credentials when it comes to both energy and the environment.

For too long, our party has ceded issues like the environment to the liberals. We are reaping the consequences of our own disengagement on the environment, education, urban renewal, and a whole host of issues liberals call their own.

Michael Williams would be a true game-changer in Washington. Not only is he an expert on carbon policy, he is an articulate spokesman for reforming education policy.

A former Assistant Secretary of Education under President G.H.W. Bush, Michael not only knows the importance of investing in technical subject areas like math and science, but he stood on the firing line as the lead official who opposed racial preferences in college admissions. Friends, for an African-American to stand up to the liberal advocacy groups on a combustible issue like racial preferences at the age of 37 shows rare courage.

But it doesn't stop there. As a member of the U.S. Department of Justice, Michael had a protective detail assigned to him after receiving a death threat for his prosecution of white supremacists in the South.

<http://link.ixs1.net/s/lt?[redacted]>

Rare courage has come to define Michael Williams. And such courage warrants our support.

I write to you today to ask for your contribution to Michael's Senate campaign. He is not exploring this race, he is in without reservation. Will you contribute $4,800, $2,400 or $1,000, $500, $250, $100 or $50 to the Michael Williams Campaign for U.S. Senate today? <http://link.ixs1.net/s/lt?[redacted]>

Imagine the frustration of liberals in Congress debating energy policy with an energy expert, environmental policy with a knowledgeable conservationist, education policy with an education expert, and criminal justice with a courageous former prosecutor at the federal and local level.

They won't know what to do with someone who knows more about those issues than them, and who makes a conservative case for real reform.

As you know, I was a foot soldier in the Reagan Revolution. Conservative, Reaganesque principles still work in the 21st Century. But our party would be wise to refrain from rhetoric that sounds like we are tied to the past, and advocate a fresh conservatism that, while building on proven conservative principles, provides new ideas and new solutions for America's problems.

The Pelosi Congress is already doing its part to break trust with the American People, turning a stimulus bill into a pork-laden spending free-for-all. The Democrats seem to think that past Republican spending abuses gives them free license to triple the deficit and mortgage our children's future to Chinese banks.

This is fiscal insanity. The honeymoon will be over soon, and then we will be stuck with an amazing legacy of debt and wasteful spending for which this generation should be completely ashamed.

The first shot we can fire in response to the Democrats' spending abuse is to send Michael Williams to the United States Senate.

Will you help fund the first canon shot into the Democrats' firewall? Their fortress may look like it is made of concrete, but just past the outer layer there are large pockets of hot air. If we fight back with principled candidates like Michael Williams, their ivory towers will come crumbling down quickly.

So, what's it worth to you to prevent billion dollar daily interest payments on the debt? To prevent tax hikes on the order of $1 trillion? To elect a conservative who will fight for our values and help us take back the rhetorical turf on the environment, energy, education and the economy?

Is it worth $4,800, $2,400 or $1,000, $500, $250, $100 or $50 to you? <http://link.ixs1.net/s/lt?[redacted]>

Interested, but not sure familiar enough with Michael Williams? Take just ten minutes, and watch a portion of his speech to the Republican State Convention in Texas <http://link.ixs1.net/s/lt?[redacted]> , which I also attended. You will be sold - that's all it took for me.

Let's get to work, and bring substantive change to Washington, not the sound bite version that is ringing so hollow today. Let's elect Michael Williams to the U.S. Senate.

Your friend,

<http://member.ixs1.net/site/5621/images/mlw_ng_sig.jpg>

Newt Gingrich

P.S. A conservative like Michael Williams comes along only so often. He has the rare courage of someone who has fought the tough fights at a young age. He can take back the Democrats' turf on issues like the environment, energy, education and the economy.

I support Michael Williams. Will you join me by contributing $4,800, $2,400 or $1,000, $500, $250, $100 or $50 to his campaign for U.S. Senate today? <http://link.ixs1.net/s/lt?[redacted]>

Paid for by Michael Williams for U.S. Senate Committee<http://member.ixs1.net/site/5621/images/disclaimer.gif>

Ikea, the Swedish furniture store known for its stylish furniture, apparently has lost its designer mind.
They changed the font used for their ads and catalogs from the stylish Futura to Verdana, which is a font for computer screens, designed by Microsoft.
That has resulted in a growing backlash, as Time Magazine reports.
There even is an online petition to get them to change back.

Yesterday, in the infamous SCO Group bankruptcy case, the bankruptcy court ordered the appointment of a trustee.
For people who didn't follow the sad, long SCO saga, the Inquirer has an article summing it up.
Groklaw and the Lamlaw website (where I got the nice subject line from) have all the details.
Using another apt analogy, from the movie Monty Python and the Holy Grail, the Black Knight is not dead yet, but has lost both arms and legs.
Oh, and the court decision is amusing to read at times, with a reference to Beckett's "Waiting for Godot"

As I mentioned in my previous post about my attempts to get IPv6 tunneling going through my AT&T DSL connection, I had been on the phone with level 2 support at AT&T.
The support guy mentioned trying a 2-Wire 2701 DSL modem, since that modem allows much better control over the various options. Originally, I was skeptical, since the 2-Wire has an internal wired and wireless router, which is functionality I don't want nor need, since I have all that installed already with other devices.
In particular, I was concerned that the router would only give out private IP addresses to the machines behind it, and not, like the Speedstream 4100 and the Motorola 2210 did, assign the public IP address to one of the machines.
Once I learned that the 2-Wire allows assigning the public IP address to one of the computers behind the router, I decided to go ahead and get one on eBay. Now that I've had it for over a week, I am pretty satisfied. It indeed does what I want it to do, and seems to be one of the least crippled DSL modems out there.

Ireland makes blasphemy illegal

This leaves me speechless.

* Atheists can be prosecuted for saying that God is imaginary. That causes outrage.
* Pagans can be prosecuted for saying they left Christianity because God is violent and bloodthirsty, promotes genocide, and permits slavery.
* Christians can be prosecuted for saying that Allah is a moon god, or for drawing a picture of Mohammed, or for saying that Islam is a violent religion which breeds terrorists.
* Jews can be prosecuted for saying Jesus isn?t the Messiah.