Fred Thompson Generates Excitement in Iowa

Exciting New From Fred 08 website:

"Last evening we were in Mason City, Iowa, the birthplace of Meredith Wilson who wrote “The Music Man.” Next to Wilson’s boyhood home, the city has constructed an homage to the musical by building a replica of River City Main Street as an enclosed mall complete with storefronts, meeting spaces, and a music conservatory."

iPod Touch Hacked Within Hours of Release

Rochester, NJ (UPSI) - Rochester Institute of technology freshman George Hotz, who last month successfully hacked Apple's iPhone, today announced that he had successfully hacked and produced a dial tone on Apple's newly announced iPod Touch. Utilizing a combination of a SIM chip and software, Hotz claims that he has been able to access phone services through all major US wireless carriers.

Apple chief executive Steve Jobs had earlier unveiled the new device in San Francisco, announcing that there would be an 8 GB version for $299 as well as a 16 GB version for $399. The music player is reportedly the first of its kind to allow web browsing and music download access through WiFi.

"I call it the iPod Touchtone. I just modified the device and included the SIM chip to show people that it could be done," stated Hotz from his dorm room in Rochester. "This is just for people who still like playing by the rules... in actuality, with this hack, the SIM chip is excess baggage. With WiFi access, and a Skype account, it's all free and you don't need a wireless provider at all."

Apple had earlier announced that it was going to be discontinuing its 4 GB version of the iPhone due to lackluster sales, and had marked the phones down to $199 nationwide. By the end of the day, supplies of the model had disappeared from shelves into the hands of consumers hoping to convert them to iPod Touchtones.

Earlier interview with "Socialist" hacker George Hotz:

Spirit of Ayn Rand Guided Founding Fathers

The following is a quote from the Rightwing Fruitcake blog
ontheborderline.nut:

Flash:

"I completely reject, with all due respect, the premise of Mr. Thompson's campaign - sacrifice.

Fred Thompson is, as has been crudely uttered out here before, an example of "same whore, different dress." This is nothing but a return to the future of George W. Bush.

Sorry, but he left me completely cold because his philosophy is inconsistent with real meaning of the founding philosophical concepts of America. Had he taken five more minutes, I suspect he would have argued that America is a Christian nation premised upon the concept of living as a sacrificial animal for the benefit of others. Sacrifice is not the great virtue of the American idea, the pursuit of ones own happiness is and Mr. Thompson has it all ass backwards."

"There is no such thing as the "greater good," there are only individuals pursuing their own happiness and the government must get out of the way."

Sorry Flash aka Dr. Bill aka Grover, YOU are the one who has it ass backwards!!!!!

Helmsley Leaves $12 Million to Dog "Trouble"

NEW YORK (AP) -- "Leona Helmsley's dog will continue to live an opulent life, and then be buried alongside her in a mausoleum. But two of Helmsley's grandchildren got nothing from the late luxury hotelier and real estate billionaire's estate.
Helmsley left her beloved white Maltese, named Trouble, a $12 million trust fund, according to her will, which was made public Tuesday in surrogate court.

I direct that when my dog, Trouble, dies, her remains shall be buried next to my remains in the Helmsley mausoleum," Helmsley wrote in her will.

The mausoleum, she ordered, must be "washed or steam-cleaned at least once a year." She left behind $3 million for the upkeep of her final resting place in Westchester County, where she is buried with her husband, Harry Helmsley.

She also left her chauffeur, Nicholas Celea, $100,000.

She ordered that cash from sales of the Helmsley's residences and belongings, reported to be worth
billions, be sold and that the money be given to the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust."

Fred Throws His Walker Into The Race!!!

Fred Thompson on Jay Leno

Fred Thompson Announces...

Trust Fund Kids for Norm

Minnesotans face many challenges: outsourcing, public safety, and protecting the absolute wealthiest Americans from unnecessary taxation.

Trust Fund Kids For Norm, a coalition of future heirs and heiresses, have banded together to protect the billions in untaxed inheritance that is our due. The full splendor of our future is currently threatened by the federal Estate Tax, an un-American abomination that discriminates against us, the pampered, prep school elite.

Sen. Norm Coleman, a tireless crusader on our behalf, has consistently voted for Estate Tax repeal. While some have suggested it is unseemly to give tax-cuts to multimillionaires during a time of war, Norm understands how much it means to us that we get that third yacht when daddy passes on.

To learn more about Norm's support for the 20-year lobbying effort to repeal the Estate Tax:
Here:

Desperately Seeking Ronnie

With the cast of Republican presidential candidates inducing a fever pitched nostalgia for the "good ol' days", GOP faithfuls are desperately seeking the likes of another Ronald Reagan. My only question to them would be,
WHY?

Only Conservatives Could Get Excited Over This Guy

Q: What Is The Fastest Growing Wisconsin County?

A: St. Croix County

Jobs in the Twin Cities have made a west central Wisconsin county remain as the fastest growing.

Department of Administration figures show St. Croix County has grown by about 25 percent since 2000.

The population of St. Croix County now tops 79,000 and about 25,000 of them commute to jobs in the Twin Cities.

The department's population estimates are used to determine how much state money to distribute, how many district attorneys are needed and to calculate voter turnout, among other things.

The community of Hudson, the St. Croix County seat, has grown by 43 percent since 2000.

Of course, a couple of bloggers from www.ontheborderline.net moved out of Hudson and left the county, but people still keep coming...

Read more @Minneapolis StarTribune.

Bush On Global Warming

Gap between the Wealthy and the Absurdly Wealthy Widens

In The Know: Are America's Rich Falling Behind The Super-Rich?

Could Uncle Milty Be Wrong?

Click here to read about "Chinese capitalism."



Underlying most arguments against the free market is a lack of belief in freedom itself.

Milton Friedman
---
For the first time, the Chinese government has admitted selling the organs of executed prisoners for profit, a gruesome business it had denied for years.


The most important single central fact about a free market is that no exchange takes place unless both parties benefit.

Milton Friedman
---
Unless of course you happen to be a slave laborer in China...


History suggests that capitalism is a necessary condition for political freedom.

Milton Friedman
---
Obviously, political freedom isn't required to have capitalism...at least in China.

Historic Marker

2007 the Year of the Pig

2007: The Year of Republican Hypocrisy

January 23, 2007: Republican radio personality Scott Eller Cortelyou of
Denver arrested on suspicion of using the Internet to lure a child into a
sexual relationship

January 29, 2007: Republican former Jefferson County, Colorado, Treasurer
Mark Paschall indicted on two felony charges "in connection with an
allegation that Paschall solicited a kickback from a bonus he awarded one of his employees"

January 31, 2007: Republican Congressman Gary Miller is named by
Republicans as ranking member of oversight subcommittee of House Financial Services Committee despite the FBI's investigation into his land deals

February 14, 2007: Major Republican fundraiser Brent Wilkes and former CIA
executive director Kyle "Dusty" Foggo are indicted by a grandy jury for corrupting CIA contracts

February 16, 2007: Major Republican donor Abdul Tawala Ibn Ali Alishtari,
aka Michael Mixon, is indicted in federal court on charges of providing material support to terrorists

But wait, there's more...

Wisconsin workers try to keep up as economy stagnates

by Mike Ivey

Feeling a little less wealthy this Labor Day than last?

You're not alone.

A combination of stagnant wages, soaring health care costs, the housing slump and a gyrating stock market have many Americans fretting over their pocketbooks amid the backyard barbecues and union hall picnics.

And the usual flurry of reports pegged to today's celebration of the nation's working people paints a rather dreary picture across most of the economic spectrum.

In the six years since the 2000 recession, middle-class workers have seen their inflation-adjusted wages rise just 3 percent. Much of that growth has come via catch-up wages for women, as wages for men-only have increased just 1 percent, according to figures compiled by the Economic Policy Institute in Washington, D.C.

The rich have done better, however, with the top 5 percent of Americans enjoying a 9 percent wage increase since 2000.

Read more @ The Capital Times.

Labor Day: What's In Your Wallet?

1880s:

"Land of opportunity, you say! You know damn well my children will be where I am -- that is, if I can keep them out of the gutter."

Chicago worker



"For most industrial workers of the Eighties, real wages were rising with aggravating slowness, and each year extremes of wealth jutted out more irritatingly. A titan like Marshall Field made $500 to $700 an hour; his non-executive employees were paid $12 a week or less for 59 hour weeks. Quickly made fortunes were lavished with infuriating conspicuousness -- on a mansion in red, yellow and black bricks, the purchase of a titled husband for the daughter, banquets where the cigarettes were wrapped in $100 bills, or a poodle was draped with a $1,500 collar. Just around the corner, slums were sprawling out, filthy, heatless, so dark their corners could not be photographed until flashlight photography was invented in 1887."

Eric F. Goldman
Rendezvous with Destiny (1955)



Today

US fund managers earn 22,255 times average wage

WASHINGTON: Top private-equity and hedge fund managers made more in 10 minutes than average-paid US workers earned all of last year, according to a new study from two research groups.

The 20 highest-paid fund managers made an average of $657.5 million, or 22,255 times the US average annual salary of $29,500, said the study, released on Wednesday by Institute for Policy Studies and United for a Fair Economy. The study cited data from the US Labor Department and Forbes magazine.

“The fact that these pay levels for fund managers are so out-of-sight is going to drive up pay at publicly traded companies,” said Sarah Anderson, director of the global economy program at the Washington-based Institute for Policy Studies and a co-author of the study. “There are people out there with a straight face claiming that public company executives are underpaid.”

The private equity boom in the past year has pushed the pay ceiling for fund managers “further into the economic stratosphere,”...

Read more...