Kentucky State Representative Tim Couch (R) filed a bill this week to outlaw anonymous posting online. The bill would require anyone who contributes to a website to register their real name, address and e-mail address with that site. Their full name would be used anytime a comment is posted. If the bill becomes law, the website operator would be fined five-hundred dollars for a first offense and one-thousand dollars for each offense after that. Representative Couch says he filed the bill in hopes of cutting down on online bullying. He says that has especially been a problem in his Eastern Kentucky district. I don't know how he thinks the State of Kentucky can police the internet, but best of luck. Thank God we have these 'small government' Republicans to protect us.
There is stiff competition for the permanent home of the Air Force Cyber Command. The provisional command is located at Barksdale AFB in Bossier Parish. Fifty-Six bases in eighteen states are lobbying for the plum assignment. The Air Force Times reported today that the field is limited to the following states: Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas, Alabama, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Iowa, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, Nebraska, New Jersey, New Mexico, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Utah and Virginia.
Meanwhile, the state and the parish have each put $50,000,000 into the pot to attract the permanent command, which is expected to create thousands of collateral jobs in the area.
The governor was back in Bossier City on Thursday and said that Cyber Command is "the single most important economic development project for our entire state." Jindal also pledged an additional $7,000,000 to improve Interstate 220 access to the Cyber Innovation Center near Bossier Parish Community College and to ease entry onto the east side of Barksdale Air Force Base.
The Natchitoches Chamber of Commerce is holding a seminar Tuesday to bring together senior military personnel from 8th Air Force headquarters at Barksdale and the Cyber Innovation Center in Bossier City with leading panelists from industry and academic institutions.
Shreveport Mayor Cedric Glover has pledged support for LSUS in developing support for the command.
The Air Force is already using Cyber Command as a recruiting tool:
Some of the competitors to Barksdale are:
Hanscom Air Force Base, 15 miles northwest of Boston, is convenient to Route 128 high-tech firms, Harvard and MIT. It provides worldwide support for the Air Force's Electronic Systems Center.
Hampton, Virginia, is only 200 miles from the Pentagon and the nerve centers of U.S. government. It is home to the Air Combat Center and the Air Force Global Cyberspace Integration Center.
Pennsylvania would like to host Cyber Command, but no specific location has yet been proposed. Pennsylvania has several Air National Guard installations, but no remaining Air Force bases.
Michigan would like to host Cyber Command, but no specific location has yet been proposed. Michigan has several Air National Guard installations, but its Air Force bases closed in the 1990s.
Little Rock Air Force Base in Arkansas is the home of Combat Airlift.
Located in southern Illinois near St. Louis, Scott Air Force Base is home to the Air Mobility Command and the Air Force Communications Agency. It's crawling with geeks.
Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, Alabama, is the home of Air University, the Air Force's center for professional military education.
Keesler Air Force Base of Biloxi, Mississippi, has a strong tradition of electronics and radar operations. It's a major meteorology center, too: The next storm it tracks could be a network one.
Megan Lucas, president of the Bellevue Chamber of Commerce in Nebraska, told Wired.com three reasons to pick her city: "We have the infrastructure, dual power grids and dark fiber."
U.S. Rep. (D-Texas) Ciro Rodriguez explains the high-tech acumen of his community: "The robust cyber-security research community ... has transformed the Alamo City into a national leader on the subject."
Albuquerque, New Mexico, is home to one of the U.S. Air Force's largest bases. Centrally located and close to high-tech research facilities, it's well-equipped to host Cyber Command.
Colorado's Cheyenne Mountain, constructed 600 meters underground, is the former home of NORAD. Currently on warm standby, it could be the perfect place for the Air Force Cyber Command headquarters.
Hill Air Force Base is an Air Force Materiel Command base located near Ogden, Utah, about 30 miles from Salt Lake City.
Yuba City, California, is 170 miles from Silicon Valley, America's technological heartland.
Mandeville Mayor Eddie Price has given $2,300 back to the police charity that bought him Wal-Mart gift cards and other presents with money donated by local residents to help needy people. Price wrote the check to the Mandeville Police Citizen Service Fund on Wednesday after a Times-Picayune article disclosing the gifts prompted angry reactions from people who have given to the fund, which runs a well-publicized Christmas toy drive. Police Chief Tom Buell, who is in charge of the fund, said Thursday he would consider resigning as police chief if he believed it would help quell the controversy that has followed the disclosures. Price, who makes more than $96,000 a year, has said he accepted $1,300 in Wal-Mart cards, a hunting bow and a gun cabinet because he thought they were Christmas and birthday gifts from city employees.
Just as John McCain is catching flak from just about everyone over his praise of fundamentalist pastor John Hagee after Hagee endorsed him, our governor jumped in the line of fire today with his endorsement of McCain. Perhaps he (or Buddy Roemer) can persuade McCain to denounce Hagee. "I'm very honored by Pastor John Hagee's endorsement today," McCain said at a news conference. "He has been the staunchest leader of our Christian evangelical movement in many areas, but especially, most especially, his close ties and advocacy for the freedom and independence of the state of Israel." Hagee, standing beside McCain, said he admired the candidate's pro-Israel stance, commitment to nominate conservative judges and opposition to abortion. "Victory is within our grasp because John McCain knows it's never wrong to do the right thing," Hagee said. McCain attempted to backtrack a little today with this mild statement: "I don't have to agree with everyone who endorses my candidacy. They are supporting my candidacy. I am not endorsing some of their positions. . . . And I am very proud of Pastor John Hagee's spiritual leadership to thousands of people . . . If Barack Obama had said that about Louis Farrakhan, we would never hear the end of it. Hagee, you will recall, said that God punished New Orleans with Hurricane Katrina because there were gay events scheduled in the city that weekend. Hagee wants to bomb Iran now so we can hasten armageddon. He's ready for the end of the world, and the heck with God's schedule, he wants the USA to host the event. Oh, and then there's the great whore, the Roman Catholic Church. Glenn Greenwald has a great article on this and more at Solon.com.
Clarification on John Hagee's views: I was challenged by a friend to document the statement above about hastening Armageddon and that Hagee is ready for the end of the world, particularly that Hagee desires to hasten Armageddon. 1. Hagee did indeed address the end of the world, but emphasized that when he uses that term, it means the end of the world as we know it. He does agree with Senator Lieberman that we should launch a pre-emptive strike against Iran. Lieberman believes that this will forestall a nuclear attack from Iran. 2. Whether we do it through a 'preemptive' strike, or whether Iran acquires nuclear weapons and bombs Israel, as Hagee believes they intend to do, he believes that the anti-christ is alive today, and that within 20 years the Christian church will be raptured - taken physically into heaven. 3. At that time will come the tribulation - a period of 3½ years. 4. After the tribulation comes the great tribulation for a period of 3½ years. 5. At the end of the tribulation will be a war ending in the battle of Armageddon, which will result in the return of Christ. By his own words, Hagee believes that from today the tribulation is about 20 years away and the end of the great tribulation, and the beginning of war is 7 years from that time - so, sometime within the next 30 years we will approach Armageddon. I hope this has helped to clarify his views.
Here are Pastor Hagee's views on the Catholic Church.
A lege may have all the tickets to professional, semi-professional and collegiate sporting events, musical concerts and other entertainment venues as well as golfing, fishing or hunting outings that they can scrounge up - if a registered lobbyist is not paying.
If, however, you need tickets for a concert, say a Hannah Montana concert, no problem. Just don't get them from a registered lobbyist.
Now that the legislature has voted itself some ethics, it is time to look at the governor's proposed budget. Jindal is following the national Republican line: cut taxes and increase spending. I suppose his thinking is that it has worked so swimmingly well at the national level, we'd might as well give it a shot. Why act like a 'tax and spend' Democrat when you can follow the lead of the 'borrow and spend' Republicans? Spending levels will be maintained at most levels, with increases in several areas, particularly education & health care. At the same time, the governor will seek a $100,000,000 decrease in business taxes in an effort to attract new businesses to the state. One education initiative that is likely to come under close scrutiny is a $10,000,000 'scholarship' program to encourage school choice. Rep. Karen Carter Peterson, D-New Orleans, questioned the program. "That wouldn't be vouchers, would it?" Peterson said. Well Karen, yes it would. A rose called by any other name . . . State jobs will be cut in nearly every department. No one is scheduled to be laid off - the cuts will be effected by attrition. If it seems strange for a new governor who complained about 'out of control' spending during the campaign, just look to his mentor, Mike Foster. Doesn't take long to connect all the dots. Jindal seems to be off to a successful start: talk conservative, cut some taxes (preferably for business), have a window dressing special ethics session which basically accomplishes very little, increase spending, talk religion, and before you know it Rushbo is talking you up for vice-president. Successful start for Jindal, same old same old for the citizens of Louisiana.
Kentucky State Representative Tim Couch (R) filed a bill this week to outlaw anonymous posting online.
