That's What He Said

Everyone wave goodbye to the dumbass. Buh-bye, dumbass!

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 21:28:58 -0800

Everyone wave goodbye to the dumbass. Buh-bye, dumbass!

Perfect likeness.

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 18:37:06 -0800

Perfect likeness.

"Before life pushes you over the edge, work on your ability to bounce."

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 18:16:41 -0800

“Before life pushes you over the edge, work on your ability to bounce.”

- Brooks Bayne

Looks like Newt and the NRCC threw the 3rd dart.

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 23:48:45 -0800

Looks like Newt and the NRCC threw the 3rd dart.

"Some try to reach the summit, but keep sliding back down to commiserate with the others who..."

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 23:09:47 -0800

“Some try to reach the summit, but keep sliding back down to commiserate with the others who can’t quite make it either.”

- Brooks Bayne

Bacon Jam: Spreadable Bacon

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 04:20:19 -0700

It just doesn’t get any better than spreadable bacon. Unless, of course, you’re talking about spreadable bacon…in bed.

This is what happens when you take a large bunch of excellent bacon, render it down, add a lot of spices, onions, etc., let it all simmer for about 6 hours, give it a quick puree, and blast chill it. Now you have bacon jam!

Put bacon jam on burgers, pie, girls, or anything else that needs to be slathered in meat.

Pick this stuff up here.

Lemme know your thoughts about bacon jam in the comments section.

Phile This Under Polanski

Wed, 07 Oct 2009 16:53:59 -0700

The White House announced no official position on the Roman Polanski case, but offered this response instead:

No More Fishy Emails For The White House

Mon, 17 Aug 2009 03:03:00 -0700

I sent my daily email to flag@whitehouse.gov and today I got the following response stating that the email address is “no longer in service”. Aw, they finally realized they were violating the Privacy Act, how cute! Now, according to the error response, the White House is accepting feedback at: http://www.whitehouse.gov/realitycheck

This is an automatically generated Delivery Status Notification

Delivery to the following recipient failed permanently:

flag@whitehouse.gov

Technical details of permanent failure:
Google tried to deliver your message, but it was rejected by the recipient domain. We recommend contacting the other email provider for further information about the cause of this error. The error that the other server returned was: 550 550 5.2.1 <flag@whitehouse.gov>… The email address you just sent a message to is no longer in service.We are now accepting your feedback about health insurance reform via:http://www.whitehouse.gov/realitycheck (state 14).

——- Original message ——-

MIME-Version: 1.0
Received: by 10.150.243.21 with SMTP id q21mr5949135ybh.215.1250527747812;
Mon, 17 Aug 2009 09:49:07 -0700 (PDT)
Date: Mon, 17 Aug 2009 09:49:07 -0700
Message-ID: <bb97f5810908170949j68dbda28pa14d946643726304@mail.gmail.com>
Subject: fishy
From: Brooks
To: flag@whitehouse.gov
Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary=000e0cd2569230af330471592e1e
—000e0cd2569230af330471592e1e
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

barbara boxer and nancy pelosi smell fishy. look into that would ya?

—000e0cd2569230af330471592e1e
Content-Type: text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

——- Message truncated ——-

Complete Information about ObamaCare

Fri, 07 Aug 2009 05:19:40 -0700

You will find a complete copy of the 1,018 page Bill by clicking here.

A line by line summary of the key points of the Bill can be found here.

Another line by line summary pointing out how the Bill extends the intrusive role of government into many non-medical areas (as if the government in medical areas isn’t bad enough) can be found here.

Obamacare’s effect on seniors (Heritage Foundation) is here.

For a list of statements Obama has made about his healthcare plan, and the factual refutation of each statement, go here.

Article by John Stossel explaining in detail that Obama’s statements that his healthcare plan will cut costs and increase patient choice is impossible can be found here.

The Acorn plan for thwarting healthcare plan protesters is here.

Information that the healthcare plan has substantial provisions for a payoff to Acorn is here. Example:

PG 65 Sec 164 is a payoff subsidized plan for retirees and their families in Unions & community orgs (ACORN).

Pg 95 Lines 8-18 The Govt will hire groups such as ACORN & Americorps to sign up individuals for the HC plan.

Information on racial preference set-asides in the healthcare bill can be found here.

Example:
“In awarding grants and contracts … the Secretary shall give preference to entities that have a demonstrated record of training … individuals who are from underrepresented minority groups or disadvantaged backgrounds … .”

Article in Bloomberg News: Ruin Your Health With the Obama Healthcare Plan can be found here.

Not All Babies Are Cute, Nor Are All Brides Beautiful

Wed, 05 Aug 2009 07:31:00 -0700

I know many of you mean well, but c’mon!

Exhibit A (baby - not cute):

Exhibit B (bride - not beautiful):

I’m glad to put an end to this Urban Legend once and for all. Thank you, drive thru!

The End Is Nigh! The Twitpocalypse Is Fast Approaching.

Fri, 31 Jul 2009 08:20:20 -0700

A couple months ago the Twitpocalypse was all the buzz for a couple weeks.

The Twitpocalypse is similar to the Y2K bug. The unique identifier associated to each tweet has now exceeded 2,147,483,647¹

For some of your favorite third-party Twitter services not designed to handle such a case, the sequence will suddenly turn into negative numbers. At this point, they are very likely to malfunction or crash.

Twitter is reminding everyone that the problem is almost upon us. Here’s an email that Twitter’s Marcel Molina sent to the Twitter application developer mail list a little while ago:

Twitter status ids are fast approaching the maximum 32-bit *unsigned*
integer value (4,294,967,295).

The current estimate is that this will occur in approximately 60 days,
at the end of September. The 60 day window is a best-guess
approximation based on projections. It could conceivably happen
sooner.

Developers are encouraged to not only update their applications to use
a 64-bit integer (BIGINT/long long), but also verify that all
libraries they use are also prepared to handle 64-bit integers.

Twitter’s best guess is the end of September! I’m sure most of your favorite Twitter applications and services will have the problem resolved by then. It’s a fairly easy change for developers to implement. Muad’Dib says, “The tweets must flow”.

Bacon is never out of style!

Thu, 30 Jul 2009 17:23:30 -0700

Bacon is never out of style!

"The Mayans predicted that Rick Astley would accidentally “Rick-roll” himself in 2012."

Thu, 30 Jul 2009 09:44:15 -0700

“The Mayans predicted that Rick Astley would accidentally “Rick-roll” himself in 2012.”

- Brooks Bayne

Bacon Floss

Fri, 24 Jul 2009 04:08:00 -0700

Bacon floss is now back at Urban Outfitters! Dunno why they stopped selling it. Anyway, it’s now $4.99 instead of $6.00. Get some.

Syringe Chandelier - Brooks Bayne

Sun, 19 Jul 2009 03:17:28 -0700

Syringe Chandelier - Brooks Bayne

Obamacare Yay Or Nay! The Truth About Silly Canada!

Mon, 13 Jul 2009 08:17:39 -0700

Unions + Acorn = Unicorns

Mon, 06 Jul 2009 04:55:49 -0700

Brooks Bayne - My PC Laptop Environment This is my current...

Sat, 04 Jul 2009 03:20:00 -0700

Brooks Bayne - My PC Laptop Environment

This is my current laptop environment as of 07/04/2009. I’m combining elements of Linux, Mac, and Windows OSes. You can’t tell from the screenshot, but I’m also using virtual desktops. Yes, this is Vista you’re looking at.

Kill Filters In Twitter - The Time Has Come!

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 19:02:00 -0700

If you use Twitter for #hashtag conversations, you will inevitably have trolls or spammers start to use your #hashtag. The most annoying thing, in this case, is that there’s no way to keep them out of search columns in the current versions of Twitter clients such as Seesmic Desktop or Tweetdeck (Tweetdeck has the per-column filter, but they only give you one filter per column and dozens of filters would take up too much space if you needed to filter dozens of spammers/trolls). Fortunately, for me, I’m handy with software and I can filter out these things on my own, and I don’t see tweets from undesirables, ever, but many people aren’t this tech savvy. Mixero, a new Twitter client in private beta, looks like it will include some filtering.

Other than #hashtag discussions, is the case where a user may want to filter profanity or other strings of text, like “Perez H.” (and who wouldn’t filter that nonsense?), for example.

There are a couple options for developers of Twitter clients that would satisfy their users.

1. When your software pulls the tweets from the public timeline containing the #hashtag, check to see if that user has been blocked by the logged in user, and if so, your Twitter client would filter the tweets from that person so we wouldn’t see those tweets. I could foresee the case where someone wouldn’t want this implementation, but it would be quick and easy.

Or, the more desirable, but more complex…

2. Allow users to create multiple Kill Filters

What is a Kill Filter? A Kill Filter filters out/away all messages that comply with certain rules. You could, for instance, get rid of all messages written by someone named “@dork”, eliminate all posts from any poster including a web address like “http://dork.net”, or even more advanced filters using regular expressions. To the right is a screenshot of an NNTP client’s Kill Filter editor.

In some #hashtag streams, the trolls and spammers are so bad it renders those tags almost unusable due to the volume of trash they create.

Kill Filters were used in NNTP clients and IRC clients to deal with the same problem - this isn’t a new problem. It’s time the masses, and not just us more technically advanced users, had this functionality in Twitter clients…ASAP! Loic Le Mur, are you listening?

Who's Hijacking The Republican Party of Los Angeles County?

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 06:49:50 -0700

Below is an email I received from the Republican Party of Los Angeles County. Seems like typical GOP power grab attempts. I’m always reminded that I’m glad that I’m not a Republican. However, I suppose this is newsworthy-ish, so if you have any information about this situation, please let me know, or simply leave it in a comment below.

An Attempt to Hijack the County Party

July 2, 2009

Dear Brooks,

It has come to my attention that a small group of disgruntled central committee members have been inappropriately emailing, blogging and mailing materials to RPLAC members, CRP members, Republican club members and a wide range of persons in our Party, falsely claiming that they are the new Executive Board. They are not.

Attempted Takeover

This annoying cabal is using our logo and our office address on their materials without our authorization. They have created a fraudulent web site domain name similar to ours in order to confuse our members. They have copied our web site in violation of copyright laws, and they are continuing in their bizarre attempt to hijack the County Party.

In order to set the record straight, I will be sending to you shortly a memorandum from Mike Osborn, who serves as the Chairman of the Ventura County Republican Party as well as the Chairman of the Rules Committee of the California Republican Party. Mike served as Temporary Chairman of RPLAC during the election process on May 14th.   His memo will clarify any misunderstandings.

The memo will make clear to you that I was properly elected by a majority vote of the County Central Committee in a fair election against two other central committee members who were also running for the seat.

In attendance were a large majority (over 100) of RPLAC members and Alternates as well as a group of around 30 guests.

This small group of rogue members attended the meeting, took part in the main meeting as well as in the second meeting called to order the same night for the purpose of the election. They actively participated in the election - even nominating their own candidates for each RPLAC office. They voted in the election for every office. Not once did they protest the election or the vote that night.

Rightfully elected that night to serve the Republican Party along with me are: Gary Aminoff, First Vice President; John Cozza, Second Vice President; Len Lanzi, Treasurer; Alex Burrola, Secretary; Gwen Patrick, Assistant Treasurer; and Davina Keiser, Assistant Secretary. I am proud to not only call these volunteers super board members but also my friends.

Our Plans and Accomplishments

The RPLAC Executive Board has been working day and night to organize the largest county in the United States - Los Angeles.   We held a regular meeting of the entire County Central Committee on June 12th where we had more than enough in attendance to conduct business. It was held at the Mike Curb Junior Achievement Center and the fee was donated by our current Treasurer, Len Lanzi. The immediate past Chairman, Glen Forsch attended as did the immediate past First Vice Chairman, Lydia Guiterrez.

We have planned a special fundraising event honoring Supervisor Mike Antonovich on July16th celebrating his 40 years of service to our party. We hope you will attend and help us honor Supervisor Antonovich. Other fundraising events are in the works.

I have appointed 5 Regional Chairs and Standing Committee Chairs to serve in all aspects of our party organization.   Our board members and I have spoken at over 30 Republican Clubs, numerous Assembly District meetings and I have met with several elected Republicans, all of whom support our duly elected Board.

To help members defend our principles and gain ammunition to defeat Democrats, I instituted a web column called, “Every Liberal Bit Hurts” which is a weekly series of factual articles about elected Democrats in Los Angeles County.

We formed the “Red Team” which is a group of experienced volunteers ready to do Get-Out-The-Vote strikes, Initiative and Petition gathering as well as become a resource for the Red Cross in emergency situations. Our first target is the special congressional election on July 14th.

We are coordinating with the California Republican Party on training our members in the art of winning campaigns. We have moved our offices into the CRP offices in Burbank - saving money each month and allowing us to utilize their well appointed facility.

I take this office very seriously. While I have much to do, I cannot and will not stand by and allow a tiny band of disruptive individuals cause disturbances all over the state in their illegal attempt to gain control of the Los Angeles County Party.

Please feel free to contact me if you have any other concerns. We have over one million registered Republicans in LA County. Join our leadership team for Victory in Los Angeles. Visit our website www.lagop.org and get involved!

Sincerely,

Jane Barnett

Jane Barnett
Chairman
The Republican Party of Los Angeles County
jane@lagop.org