So, today the big focus is on how you can make fake donations to the Obama site that still take money from your account.  As in:

So I went to the Obama website this afternoon and clicked on the "Donate" button.
 
I used my real MasterCard number (but was not asked for the 3 digit security code).

Used the following information and it was accepted...
 
First name: Fake
Last Name: Donor
Address: 1 Dollar To Prove A Point
City: Fraudulent
State: AL
Zip / Post: 33333
Email Address: allmyinfoismadeup@mediabias.com
Phone Number: 2125551212
Employer: Mainstream Media
Occupation: Being in the Tank
 
And incredibly, my $5 donation was ACCEPTED!!!
 
I then went to the McCain site and used the exact same information (and WAS asked for the 3 digit security code for my MasterCard).  There, my contribution was rejected with the following message: "Your transaction was not approved for the following reason(s): Invalid data", and then: "We have found errors in the information that you have submitted.  Please review the information below and try again."

Well, my reaction is that Obama is from Chicago...why are we surprised?  The man has built up his political career by relying on the efforts of crooked politicians and leaders.  He is at his best a dissembling shit, and at his worst a deceitful political thug.  I know such talk offends, but John McCain and his supporters have endured a worse sort of casual contempt from followers of Obama.  One side of the political debate seems to always be guardedly assessing the other's stupidity.  Guardedly, I say, for when they see the first sign of an intelligent critique of Obama the guardians of PC drop in to accuse the critic of abject racism or bigotry.

Then there is this:

Turning the Page from Campaign Finance Fraud . . .   [Andy McCarthy]

What is the deal with Obama's birth certificate and citizenship status?

Pamela Gellers at Atlas Shrugs raises some apparent shenanigans with the birth certificate the Obama campaign previously produced. Meanwhile, Philip J. Berg, a former Deputy AG of Pennsylvania and a professed Hillary supporter, filed a lawsuit claiming Obama is not constitutionally eligible to be president; instead of simply clearing up any questions — which you would think would take about five minutes — Obama's lawyers moved to dismiss the suit and failed to file a timely answer, meaning that, under the applicable rules (according to Berg), Obama is legally deemed to have admitted Berg's allegations that he is constitutionally ineligible to be president.

Admittedly, I've ignored this issue up until now on the theory that if there was anything here worth looking at, surely the Hillary and McCain campaigns would have raised it. But this all seems very strange. It's not just a matter of whether Obama was born in Hawaii — Berg claims he wasn't, but most others seem to agree he was (though the publicly available proof seems shaky at this point). There is also the question whether he was also a citizen of one or more other countries (Kenya? Indonesia?) and whether that means, as a matter of law, that he could not be a "natural born" citizen as required by the Constitution.

Has anyone around here looked into this? Is it a serious issue, and why does Obama seem to be so squirmy about it?

I'm not sure if this smells of desperation or if this issue really has legs.  I actually hope it does.  Our Constitution is pretty clear that you must be a natural born citizen to be President.  If Obama is in fact not eligible for the Presidency, expect a whole lot of talk about how the Constitution is a living document and it evolves over time...apparently enough to mean the opposite of what it says.  Well, now's definitely not the time to be polite.  The best opportunity to bring up this question happened to be 2 years ago.  But there's no time like the present.

"No person except a natural born Citizen(Obama's status now in doubt), or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution(these people are all dead), shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty-five Years(Sign of the times, huh?  Barely out of college these days), and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States(again, these are all dead)."

Just in case anyone was worried about my lack of output over the past few days, I wish to inform you that I am on something resembling a vacation.

However, I have spent the first half of it in the mechanic's after my car broke down right before heading on a trip to see a good friend.  Very disappointing.  Yesterday was the mechanics, today was transmission, tomorrow I complete the rounds by going to the Honda dealership to diagnose and perhaps treat my computer problem. 

Let's put it this way:  Problem 1 is the transmission and the attached computer malfunction.  This could potentially run into the many hundreds of dollars, and if I'm unlucky we could break the thousand barrier.  Problem 2, assuming we get that far, is that my distributor also needs to be replaced.  So what this means is that on an Americorps salary (an Americorps which owes me mucho dinero, by the way) I can only afford to fix the distributor...I can't do the transmission.  Simply cannot.  So there's no point to fixing anything, really.

Because, you know, I have to pay for the rest of my honeymoon next week.  I happen to have planned my budget around this very large expense, and in light of continued unresponsiveness from the people who have given me a wonderful opportunity to engage in national service I find myself with a shortfall.  Unforeseen expenses will get you everytime.

So the upshot is I think I'm going to sell my car.  I think I might sell it for scrap or see what the dealer will give me for it.  I live close to work, so that's no problem.  But then how do I get home this week for a tuxedo fitting/sitdown with the priest/actually see my friend who I was supposed to go visit/see my fiancee for the first time in a month/have steak which I have been promised/maybe look for a job in Norfolk?

It's just funny that in my last month here the whole operation is shaking apart.  Don't suppose any Voxers have suggestions?  I'll take sympathy too, if that's all you have.

Stuck in head:

Baby breakdown
Go ahead and give it to me
Breakdown honey take me through the night
Breakdown now I'm standin' here can't you see
Breakdown it's all right
It's all right
It's all right

Get Rich Slowly

How to Improve Your Fuel Economy: 23 Top Tips for Better Gas Mileage

Posted: 30 May 2007 07:00 AM CDT

Fuel prices have been hovering at record levels around the United States for the past few weeks. Now is a good time to review of the best ways to improve your gas mileage and save money at the tank. I scoured dozens of web sites and read hundreds of tips — these are the best of the bunch.

>> Save Money With Your Vehicle <<

Purchase a fuel-efficient car
The best way to save money on gas is to drive a fuel-efficient car. It’s probably impractical to replace your current car for something that costs less to run, but if you’re in the market for a new vehicle, keep fuel economy in mind. Consumer Reports has several lists of fuel-efficient vehicles:

• A list of the most fuel-efficient cars they’ve tested (CR loves the Toyota Prius)
• A list of fuel-efficient SUVs
• A list of cars that combine fuel efficiency and performance

This calculator from fueleconomy.gov allows you to compare the cost difference between two vehicles based on their MPG.

Keep your vehicle well maintained
A car in poor running condition will use more gas than one that has been tuned up. According to this checklist at Advance Auto Parts, a dirty air filter can reduce gas mileage up to 20%. They also note that spark plugs in poor condition can reduce gas mileage up to 12%.

Be wary of gas-saving products
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission warns that most gas-saving products are bogus: “Be wary of any gas-saving claims for automotive devices or oil and gas additives. Even for the few gas-saving products that have been found to work, the savings have been small.” Consumer Reports says, “Don’t waste your money.”

Keep tires properly inflated
Underinflated tires aren’t just dangerous — they devour fuel economy by as much as 25%! (I know this from experience — whenever I notice a drop in MPG, my tires are usually low.) Overinflated tires aren’t efficient, either. Also keep your tires balanced and in alignment.

>> Save Money by Thinking Ahead <<

Find the best prices
Use the web to research the lowest prices in your neighborhood. For example, GasBuddy.com is “a network of more than 179+ gas price information web sites that helps you find low gasoline prices.”

Buy gas from a wholesale club
Some Costco or Sam’s Club stores offer their members discounts of up to ten cents per gallon on fuel. Our local Safeway store gives us a three-cent discount on gas after we spend a certain amount on groceries. (Though we’d have to drive 25 miles to find a place to use it!)

Alter your commute time
If possible, schedule your trips and errands for times when traffic is lighter. In an insanely detailed article, Omninerd found that commute times varied widely depending on the time the author left the house. If your company allows it, try coming in earlier or later in order to avoid rush hour.

Optimize your travel
Consolidate trips: If you know you have to buy groceries, take your clothes to the dry cleaner at the same time, and then drop little Johnny at soccer practice. Combine multiple trips into one.

Lighten your load
Carry only the bare neccessities — don’t haul things in your trunk. “For every extra 250 pounds your engine hauls, the car loses about one mile per gallon in fuel economy.” [via Bankrate]

Reduce drag
About half of your vehicle’s energy is expended overcoming air resistance. (The other half is expended in acceleration.) Reduce your car’s workload — remove anything that might cause drag: luggage racks, bike racks, ski racks, etc,

>> Save Money at the Pump <<

Buy gas on Wednesdays
“Gas prices are statistically the cheapest on Wednesdays, but this is only true over a large number of days. It won’t be true every week.” Gas prices often jump before holidays, too. [via WikiHow]

Don’t go out of your way to save a few pennies on gas
If it’s convenient to shop at a cheaper place, do so. If not, don’t. On a ten-gallon fill-up, saving five cents a gallon only nets you fifty cents. My car costs about 36 cents per mile to operate. It doesn’t make sense for me to go a mile out of my way to find cheaper gas.

Buy gas during the coolest times of the day
“During these times gasoline is densest. Keep in mind - gas pumps measure volumes of gasoline, not densities of fuel concentration. You are charged according to ‘volume of measurement’.” [via HowToAdvice.com]

photo by gbleakmore

Use the right octane level for your car
Using premium gasoline in an engine designed to run on regular doesn’t improve performance. Even some vehicles that call for higher octane fuels can run on regular unleaded, though with some loss of performance. (Check your owner’s manual.) You can save money by using the lowest octane rated gasoline that your car will tolerate.

Don’t top off your tank
Trust the auto-shutoff. Overfilling can lead to wasted gas.

Be sure your gas cap is tight
“Improperly seated gas caps allow 147 million gallons of fuel to vaporize every year in the U.S.” [via Advance Auto Parts]

Use a gas credit card
I don’t like credit cards, but a gas station credit card can be a good way to save a few cents per gallon. Just be sure to pay off your balance at the end of the month!

>> The Nut Behind the Wheel <<

Drive at a constant moderate speed
Edmunds.com found that the best way to improve fuel efficiency was to accelerate slowly and to brake over a longer distance. Aside from purchasing a new vehicle, this is the single most effective step you can take to reduce your costs. According to fueleconomy.gov: “As a rule of thumb, you can assume that each 5 mph you drive over 60 mph is like paying an additional $0.20 per gallon for gas.”

Use cruise control
If you’re like me, your driving speed tends to fluctuate. Cruise control takes the human element out of the equation, and keeps driving speeds steady. It’s the easy way to drive at a constant moderate pace.

Don’t idle
Turn off your engine if you’ll be idling for more than thirty seconds. Starting your vehicle does use a burst of fuel, but not as much as allowing the engine to idle too long.

Anticipate stop signs and lights
Plan ahead. The less you have to stop, the better your gas mileage. Make it a game to catch all of the green lights. Laugh at the other guy as he sprints from red to red.

Keep your cool
Most people claim that it makes more sense to use air conditioning on the highway, and to roll down the windows in city traffic. It’s commonly claimed that either method is going to reduce your fuel economy by about 10%. But according to research performed by found, there’s no real difference between driving with the windows down or using the air conditioner. Consumer Reports obtained similar results:

Air conditioning uses about 1 mpg, but safety (and comfort) increase with use. Opening windows made no significant difference in our gas mileage.

Do what works for you. (But please: don’t run your air conditioner with the windows open.)

Drive less!!!
Walk. Ride your bike. Take public transit. Carpool. Combine errands. It’s obvious, but easy to forget: the less you drive, the less you’ll spend on gas.

I giggle as I read the news that the early daylight savings time initiative has shown little to no appreciable savings when it comes to energy.  I know that on the mornings when I awoke to blackness and cold, I certainly flicked on a light and kept my heat on.
Somebody's "bright" idea has run its course, and we can hope that our Congress will not be so stupid next year.  It's this reactionary idiocy that makes climate change a ridiculous threat instead of a real one.  Is this the best we can do?  The whole intellect of our great nation produces early daylight savings time?  What a waste of good diplomas. 
Now when I start seeing homes designed to make better use of energy while still remaining affordable for regular folks, that's what I'll call progress.  When I see the price of an electric or hybrid car come down to levels below those of gasoline-powered cars, that'll be progress.  When I see us mining helium-3 from the moon and tapping its energy potential then I'll call that progress.  None of this silly nonsense. 

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Bank of America Corp. has begun offering credit cards to customers without Social Security numbers, typically illegal immigrants, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday.

In recent years, banks across the country have been offering checking accounts and even mortgages to the nation's fast-growing ranks of undocumented immigrants, most of whom are Hispanic, the paper said, adding these immigrants generally have not been able to get major credit cards.

The new Bank of America card is open to people who lack both a Social Security number and a credit history, as long as they have held a checking account with the bank for three months without an overdraft, the Journal said.

Bank of America tested the program last year at five branches in Los Angeles, and last week expanded it to 51 branches in Los Angeles County, home to the largest concentration of illegal immigrants in the U.S., the Journal said.

The bank hopes to roll out the program nationally later this year, the paper said.

A Bank of America spokesman was not immediately available to comment.

Wow.  Now I realize that people who are stupid/desperate enough to work here illegally are also stupid/desperate enough to launch themselves into credit card debt. 

So, it's looking like I need a new bank account.  When the person I talk to asks me why I'm closing my accounts, I wonder what their reaction will be when I tell them I don't patronize businesses that pander to illegal immigrants.

I don't care if they are in need.  Nobody needs a credit card.

Does this man really expect me to believe that money influences the decisions people make on important matters?  Preposterous.

“The Weather Channel” Mess

January 18, 2007, 5:45 pm | James Spann | Op/Ed

Well, well. Some “climate expert” on “The Weather Channel” wants to take away AMS certification from those of us who believe the recent “global warming” is a natural process. So much for “tolerance”, huh?

I have been in operational meteorology since 1978, and I know dozens and dozens of broadcast meteorologists all over the country. Our big job: look at a large volume of raw data and come up with a public weather forecast for the next seven days. I do not know of a single TV meteorologist who buys into the man-made global warming hype. I know there must be a few out there, but I can’t find them. Here are the basic facts you need to know:

*Billions of dollars of grant money is flowing into the pockets of those on the man-made global warming bandwagon. No man-made global warming, the money dries up. This is big money, make no mistake about it. Always follow the money trail and it tells a story. Even the lady at “The Weather Channel” probably gets paid good money for a prime time show on climate change. No man-made global warming, no show, and no salary. Nothing wrong with making money at all, but when money becomes the motivation for a scientific conclusion, then we have a problem. For many, global warming is a big cash grab.

*The climate of this planet has been changing since God put the planet here. It will always change, and the warming in the last 10 years is not much difference than the warming we saw in the 1930s and other decades. And, lets not forget we are at the end of the ice age in which ice covered most of North America and Northern Europe.

If you don’t like to listen to me, find another meteorologist with no tie to grant money for research on the subject. I would not listen to anyone that is a politician, a journalist, or someone in science who is generating revenue from this issue.

In fact, I encourage you to listen to WeatherBrains episode number 12, featuring Alabama State Climatologist John Christy, and WeatherBrains episode number 17, featuring Dr. William Gray of Colorado State University, one of the most brilliant minds in our science.

WeatherBrains, by the way, is our weekly 30 minute netcast.

I have nothing against “The Weather Channel”, but they have crossed the line into a political and cultural region where I simply won’t go.

And so it has happened.  Despite irrational hopes that this day would never come, I am at last faced with a computer that is beyond simple repair.  Oh, it turns on now, with its new power source.  But it is not transmitting data to the monitor.  At this point, the money spent to fix it would be a waste.  I am at work now, with an older computer that didn't see the same hard years I put my own through. 

I remember fondly the days of Freshman year.  I spent it playing Empire Earth, Baldur's Gate, and downloading music illegally (I was seized by conscience in spring semester, and deleted them).  I remember the halcyon days of Sophomore year, Age of Empires II LAN parties, Star Trek: Armada II LAN parties...Oh the fun. 

And always, the brooding spectre of Medieval: Total War.  That game...How many hours did I play?  How many battles won...battles lost?  The great record of the Byzantine Empire that I myself chronicled in perhaps the longest sustained geek-out of my life...a full year to write down the events of every turn and major battle order.  My secret shame...to be so obsessed.

And Rome: Total War held much of my attention Junior year.  World of Warcraft and Nintendo emulators my Senior.  Oh, the fun I've had on that computer.

And the work I've done!  I have saved every single term paper I ever wrote, organized by class.  English, Poli Sci, Psych...my entire college career is on that hard drive.  True, I have hard copies which I am saving for posterity.  Yes, I am hopeful that people will want to read my writing from college.  But what if everything is ruined in a sudden flood or fire? 

I am depressed beyond measure.  For the second time in a year, I will have to cancel my WoW subscription.  I am still paying for the Internet, but I'll just tell myself the money is for cable instead.  Blogging will have to be done at work, as this one has been.

And I'll have to hit up my dad for computer money.  Or use my savings...not acceptable...perhaps inevitable.  That's what savings are for, I suppose.  My beautiful IRA...