It seems California is so flush with money that they have extra cash to waste on this and the additional services the illegals will consume once they reach the state. Must be nice.

Faculty at University of California, San Diego are developing a GPS-enabled cell phone that tells dehydrated migrants where to find water and pipes in poetry from phone speakers, regaling them on their journey much like Emma Lazarus' words did a century ago to the "huddled masses yearning to breathe free" on Ellis Island.

...The Transborder Immigrant Tool is part technology endeavor, part art project. It introduces a high-tech twist to an old debate about how far activists can go to prevent migrants from dying on the border without breaking the law.

Immigration hardliners argue the activists are aiding illegal entry to the United States, a felony. Even migrants and their sympathizers question whether the device will make the treacherous journeys easier.

..."There are many, many areas in which every American would say I don't like the way my tax dollars are being spent. Our answer to that is an in-your-face, so what?" says UCSD lecturer Brett Stalbaum, 33, a self-described news junkie who likens his role to chief technology officer.

The phones will rely on satellite information so the fact they will be out of range of cell towers won't play into this. The criminal abettors activists will be handing out the phones to other activists in Mexico, their main concern is keeping them away from US authorities "anti-illegal immigration activists".

I don't want to see people die in the desert but aside from this little stunt might actually cause more deaths, you'd think there would be legal lines we aren't willing to cross but I guess not. We can add criminal conspiracy to tax evasion, identity theft and immigration laws that simply aren't enforced when illegal immigration is involved.

Posted by: DrewM at 11:31 AM | Comments (126)
Post contains 339 words, total size 2 kb.

You have got to be kidding me.

LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) - Internet postings purportedly written by a Nigerian charged with trying to bomb a U.S. airliner on Christmas Day suggest a fervently religious and lonely young man who fantasized about becoming a Muslim holy warrior.

Throughout more than 300 posts, a user named "Farouk1986" reflects on a growing alienation from his family, his shame over sexual urges and his hopes that a "great jihad" will take place across the world...

... Those posts, beginning in 2005, show a teenager looking for a new life outside his boarding school and wealthy Nigerian family.

Most of all, they paint a portrait of someone who seems lost and needs someone to hear him.

EVERY DAMN TEENAGER IN THE WORLD.

But guess what? A good number of them manage to avoid the temptation to wire bombs into their underwear in an attempt to kill hundreds of people. I don't really care about the guy's emotional state. Maybe instead of spending time reading the kid's sad, online mindthoughts, the Associated Press could use some of their crack reporters to examine...well...other factors that might have motivated his actions.

I'm sure with their multiple layers of fact checkers and stuff, they'll figure it out. Eventually.

Posted by: Slublog at 10:08 AM | Comments (191)
Post contains 230 words, total size 2 kb.

These are the ones that left a mark, from all the types of fiction I consume: television, film, books, and video games. The only rule was that the character had to originate in the past decade. That knocked out some excellent characters that may have been created earlier, but who really came into their own in the past ten years. Thems the breaks, right?

I canÂ’t really describe an ordering principle for these like I did the villains list (racism!). I knew immediately who my favorite character of the decade was. In fact, I knew who the top few would be. The others fall pretty arbitrarily after that. One other thing I did was limit myself to one character per source. The truth is that folks who create one good character probably have a hella shot at creating several. IÂ’ve chosen my absolute favorite from within each source.

I recognize that a list like this will be even more subjective than a Top Film Villains list. more...

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 10:04 AM | Comments (274)
Post contains 1340 words, total size 9 kb.

Cause, um, well, I got nothing else and it doesn't look like any of the other co-bloggers do either. Only his defense attorney and God know where Ace might be.

Talk amongst yourselves.

Posted by: DrewM at 09:38 AM | Comments (112)
Post contains 39 words, total size 1 kb.

Granted, it's a theoretical challenger and Nelson isn't up for re-election until 2012 but still...ouch.

If Governor Dave Heineman challenges Nelson for the Senate job, a new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey shows the Republican would get 61% of the vote while Nelson would get just 30%.

There is however some good news for Nelson in the poll. He can cut his poll deficit by more than half with one simple action.

When survey respondents were asked how they would vote if Nelson blocks health care reform, 47% still pick Heneman while 37% would vote to keep the incumbent in office. Twenty percent (20%) of those who initially said theyÂ’d vote for Heineman say theyÂ’d switch to supporting Nelson. Another six percent (6%) of Heineman supporters say theyÂ’re not sure what theyÂ’d do if Nelson stops the health care plan from becoming law.

Will he? My guess is not. Unless the Democrats in the House play hardball on abortion and the public option, he's too far down this road to walk away. He'd need something he could point to and say, 'too much!' While you generally won't go broke betting on the stupidity of Democrats, I think they'll stay focused enough to shove this through.

Still, there maybe some signs of hope.

Bob Herbert isn't generally considered the sharpest tool in the NY Times' Op-ed shed so when even he catches on to the fact that the much touted Senate bill is a disaster and does the exact opposite of what Obama claims to want to do, the jig may well be up.

The bill that passed the Senate with such fanfare on Christmas Eve would impose a confiscatory 40 percent excise tax on so-called Cadillac health plans, which are popularly viewed as over-the-top plans held only by the very wealthy. In fact, itÂ’s a tax that in a few years will hammer millions of middle-class policyholders, forcing them to scale back their access to medical care.

Which is exactly what the tax is designed to do.

...Within three years of its implementation, according to the Congressional Budget Office, the tax would apply to nearly 20 percent of all workers with employer-provided health coverage in the country, affecting some 31 million people. Within six years, according to CongressÂ’s Joint Committee on Taxation, the tax would reach a fifth of all households earning between $50,000 and $75,000 annually. Those families can hardly be considered very wealthy.

Proponents say the tax will raise nearly $150 billion over 10 years, but thereÂ’s a catch. ItÂ’s not expected to raise this money directly. The dirty little secret behind this onerous tax is that no one expects very many people to pay it. The idea is that rather than fork over 40 percent in taxes on the amount by which policies exceed the threshold, employers (and individuals who purchase health insurance on their own) will have little choice but to ratchet down the quality of their health plans.

...The tax on health benefits is being sold to the public dishonestly as something that will affect only the rich, and it makes a mockery of President ObamaÂ’s repeated pledge that if you like the health coverage you have now, you can keep it.

Right now there's simply no one left or right who actually likes this plan. There's simply a political desire, disconnected from any form of reality, 'to do something'. The fact that doing something is likely to screw up the country and kill many a political career doesn't seem to phase these idiots.

I still think it's very likely that Pelosi will muscle her caucus into accept enough of the Senate bill so Reid keeps his coalition together but once the holidays are over, it'll be time to crank the opposition back up.

Posted by: DrewM at 06:59 AM | Comments (179)
Post contains 658 words, total size 4 kb.

So a terrorist attacks a passenger plane on Christmas Day. Excuse me, he "allegedly" attacks a passenger plane on Christmas Day. The President then waits three days to give a statement in which he calls the terrorist an "isolated extremist." The actively engaged (but vacationing) President is apparently ignorant that the isolated extremist was an Al Qaeda operative and that a search is being conducted to find one and possibly two accomplices.

Just to clear things up: yes, he's phoning it in. Yes, he'd prefer if you'd just shut the hell up and let him finish his golf game.

Another Slublog Original.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 05:09 AM | Comments (252)
Post contains 110 words, total size 1 kb.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 04:04 AM | Comments (52)
Post contains 8 words, total size 1 kb.

Happy Monday all M&Ms.

Second Amendment viral video of the day - I Like Guns
The lyrics are simple but true. And what'snot to love about your collection of guns, machine guns,shotguns, and RPGs. All that's missing are crossbows, but that's another song and video I guess.

Posted by: Open Blog at 05:50 PM | Comments (581)
Post contains 174 words, total size 2 kb.

(A series of daily-ish roundups of the day's Climate news and commentary.)

This is by no means a comprehensive recap. The stories come from a variety of sources, and I highly recommend exploring the linked sites for more breaking news.

(after the break...) more...

Posted by: Open Blog at 04:46 PM | Comments (32)
Post contains 416 words, total size 3 kb.

Farewell to the Lake Champlain Bridge.

How much explosives does it take to knockdown a bridge? 800 pounds.

The 500 explosive charges sliced through the steel at 17,000 feet per second, bringing 80% of the bridge down into the water in under 10 seconds, according to the New York State Department of Transportation.

The sound it made was reportedly greater than 130 decibels.

The 2,184-foot-long bridge, also known as Crown Point Bridge, was 80 years old and had severe erosion to its concrete supports.

It was closed on Oct. 16 when engineers deemed it unsafe after noticing an exposed crack on one of its piers during repairs.

Posted by: DrewM at 04:43 PM | Comments (34)
Post contains 131 words, total size 2 kb.