Economics, Politics

There Is Still No Such Thing As Socialsecuritymedicareandmedicaid – NYTimes.com

There Is Still No Such Thing As Socialsecuritymedicareandmedicaid – NYTimes.com.

Krugman reiterates to need to keep Social Security budget discussions separate from Medicare, Medicaid and the other ‘entitlements’. They are  very different flavors of programs.

What I see is the biggest problem with the healthcare programs is that we aren’t funding them with enough payroll tax. Why don’t we just bump up the Medicare payroll tax up to 10%-15% and  make all Americans part of Medicare? from pre-birth to post-death?

Alternatively, we can just eliminate all government health-care programs – with a corresponding cut in the DoD budget. That should get our deficit down to 0 and maybe even start paying off the debt.   Then we will have millions of elderly dying in the streets much sooner that expected and this will save Social Security as well.

Economics, Politics

Other Mandatory Spending

I have been wondering what the “Other Mandatory Programs” are. It shows up in the  federal budget under the “Mandatory Programs” section – its value somewhere between Social Security and Medicare. The 2012 budget allocates $598B for the other mandatory programs. But I googled for a while and found:

Other categories of mandatory spending:

Individually, each of these programs don’t amount to much, but combined they are very big (as this CBO presentation shows).

Politics, Preparing for the worst

Open Letter to my nieces and nephews

Eat the Future – NYTimes.com.

Please pay attention to what Congress is doing. Because most of what they are going to do is going to be bad for you.  And the main reason for that is that you don’t speak out loudly enough for Congress to care. Don’t let the baby-boomers (that’s us) continue to suck out the good stuff of America. We will leave you the dried-out husk.

You have got to make Congress aware that you want a coherent policy that addresses the concerns 50 years down the road as well as the short-term issues. These guys are as bad or worse than a corporate board of directors. Short-term profits are paramount.  If it doesn’t get them re-elected next time around it isn’t a concern. You have to make it a concern. You have got to use your voice now; reaffirm the basic principles of our country:

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

otherwise you, my Posterity, will be in Tahrir Square demanding Justice, Tranquility and the Blessings of Liberty, but that will be after I am gone.

You get to decide if you will live in the Blade Runner world, or the world of Brazil. You have to speak up early, often, and never stop, or you will get the dregs we leave you.

On a more positive note, we may be out of Afghanistan by then.

Politics

A message from Senator Michael Bennet

Dear Jack:
Thank you for contacting me.  I appreciate hearing from you about this important issue.
As you may know, U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke and White House Cybersecurity Coordinator Howard A. Schmidt recently announced plans to establish a National Program Office within the Department of Commerce to coordinate federal activities needed to implement the National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace (NSTIC).  The NSTIC is an initiative to find new and effective ways to protect the identities of Internet users and to enhance privacy protections for common online activities and transactions.
The National Program Office would operate as the federal coordinator with other agencies, such as the Department of Homeland Security and the General Services Administration to implement the NSTIC.  Online service providers that opt in to the system would follow a set of guidelines to establish the security and privacy infrastructure.
A number of Coloradans have raised concerns about the uses of this system once it has been established.  The advent of the Internet has led to countless cultural and economic benefits. However, the Internet has also led to a loss of privacy unprecedented in our history. This change has been unsettling for millions of Americans, and millions more have found themselves to be the victims of identity theft.  At this point, the Department of Commerce and the White House have only provided general details about the implementation of the program.  The federal efforts will be led by the Department of Commerce, but actual implementation will be led by the private sector, specifically those service providers that choose to opt in to the program.
I certainly understand the concerns you have about this program.  I believe privacy is, and should always remain, a protected individual right in this country.  Rest assured that I will closely monitor the progress of this program as the Department of Commerce moves forward.
I value the input of fellow Coloradans in considering the wide variety of important issues and legislative initiatives that come before the Senate.  I hope you will continue to inform me of your thoughts and concerns.
For more information about my priorities as a U.S. Senator, I invite you to visit my website at http://bennet.senate.gov/.  Again, thank you for contacting me.
Sincerely,
Michael Bennet
United States Senator

My Response:

Dear Senator Bennet,

Thank you for your response to my earlier inquiry. While the NSTIC initiative may be important to protect our online privacy, it does not address the question I was bringing to your attention.

Why is the Department of Homeland Security seizing domain names without due process? It seems to me that these seizures are not only unconstitutional but anti-constitutional. I would appreciate your review of these activities.

Thank you,

Jack Heneghan

Politics

Senator: domain name seizures “alarmingly unprecedented”

1 Comment

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) has 10 tough questions for the department of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), all of which can be more easily summed up in a single, blunter question: what the hell are you guys doing over there?

via Senator: domain name seizures “alarmingly unprecedented”.

What the hell is immigration and customs doing seizing domain names in the first place? The Department of Homeland Security should have much higher priorities to focus on. And does anyone have a constitutional justification for this entire operation?

I did send a short note to my Representative and Senators asking about this:

Dear Congressman,
I was just reading an article on ICE seizing domain names of sites that linked to potential pirate sites, evidently without any due process.
Can you explain the legality and constitutionality of their actions.
Thank you,

Dear xxx,
I was just reading an article on ICE seizing domain names of sites that linked to potential pirate sites, evidently without any due process.
Can you explain the legality and constitutionality of their actions.
Thank you,

Geek Stuff, Politics, Preparing for the worst

Internet ‘kill switch’ bill reintroduced as Egypt remains dark

Sen. Collins said the bill would not allow the President to deactivate the Internet in whole or in part during times of political unrest or protest – just during a “cyber emergency,” according to Wired.com.

“My legislation would provide a mechanism for the government to work with the private sector in the event of a true cyber emergency,” Collins said in an e-mailed response to Wired.com last week. “It would give our nation the best tools available to swiftly respond to a significant threat.”

via Internet ‘kill switch’ bill reintroduced as Egypt remains dark.

Any bets that a time of political unrest or protest won’t be labeled “cyber emergency”?

I think it would be more appropriate to up a domain where the folks afraid of cyber-terrorists can hide and if the cyber emergency happens then they can be unplugged, leaving the rest of us bereft of their presence.

Geek Stuff, General

4G, or not 4G – that is the question

Someone asked me this weekend about 4G Wireless; Wikipedia has a good basic description. (Plus I also watched Kenneth Branagh’s Hamlet this weekend (OK, it is Shakespeare’s Hamlet – as interpreted by Branagh) Excellent DVD)

ITU Requirements

This article uses 4G to refer to IMT-Advanced (International Mobile Telecommunications Advanced), as defined by ITU-R. An IMT-Advanced cellular system must fulfill the following requirements:

  • All-IP communications.
  • Peak data rates of up to approximately 100 Mbit/s for high mobility such as mobile access and up to approximately 1 Gbit/s for low mobility such as nomadic/local wireless access, according to the ITU requirements.
  • Scalable channel bandwidth, between 5 and 20 MHz, optionally up to 40 MHz.[6][6][7]
  • Peak link spectral efficiency of 15 bit/s/Hz in the downlink, and 6.75 bit/s/Hz in the uplink (meaning that 1 Gbit/s in the downlink should be possible over less than 67 MHz bandwidth)
  • System spectral efficiency of up to 3 bit/s/Hz/cell in the downlink and 2.25 bit/s/Hz/cell for indoor usage[6]

Confusion has often been caused by some mobile carriers who have launched products advertised as 4G but which are actually current so-called 3.9G technologies, and therefore do not follow the ITU-R defined principles for 4G standards.

Economics, General

Who’s foreclosing in your neighborhood?

I saw this interesting link in the NY Times

http://bucks.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/12/30/how-to-find-foreclosures/?nl=your-money&emc=your-moneyema4

On my browser you have to click on “show search options” to get the drop-down menu. I wasn’t interested in finding a particular foreclosure property, just in getting an idea of the economic health of my neighborhood. We look good, but the surrounding communities have got some problems. It would be interesting to try looking a through a set of quarterly snapshots to see how the maps change over time.

The Thoughts and Luminations of Jack Heneghan