"Bank of America Would Also be Prohibited From Riding the Gravy Train of Pinstripe Patronage"

Here's yet another problem with the government 'bailouts' of the Banks...and it don't bode well for the future.

Bank of America was one of the TARP recipients.

Over the last few weeks, they decided to turn off a line of credit for a Chicago manufacturing plant which was then forced to close its doors.

Its workers, scared they would not get their due vacation and severance pay, have staged a sit-in, which has gotten the attention of lots of attention seekers, like Rep. Louis Gutierrez, who are now stepping in and trying to dictate just how BOA should do business.

I'm not smart or informed enough to know exactly how much BOA is directly responsible for the decision to close the company's doors or how much control it has over money paid out to the employees here, but it seems to me that if this tactic works in the Windy City for employees, we could be in for a very bumpy ride going forward, with lots more ad hoc government intervention in how banks do business.

Buckle up.

Your Government Is Your Friend

Well, this is a nice way to start your weekend...with a feel-good article about the good ole' government going after The Archive.

I've linked and mentioned them before here both for their amazing Grateful Dead live music collection as well as the fascinating Way Back Machine.

Archive's mission, as you can gather, is to archive pretty much everything it can electronically, including the way web pages looked Way Back when.

Well, the FBI was curious about someone who'd registered there and sent them some kind of subpoena which forbade them to discuss it with anyone.

That's pretty nifty, eh?

Well, they got the ACLU and the EFF involved and fought back...and won. The pigs backed off...at least for now.

I heard about this story first on Buzz Out Loud, CNET's Podcast of Indeterminate Length.

Ohio Tax Dollars At Work...The Old Glory of Bipartisanship

Just a random, silly news item from the Buckeye State...

This week, a mixed bag of Ohio state legislators started the ball rolling on making it a 3d degree misdemeanor for a retailer to sell a flag that's not made in the United States.

It's almost not worth the effort for me to bitch about this one.

It's easy to go after retailers. If you find it that offensive for one to engage in the practice of flying foreign flags, then why not make it illegal to buy or fly one of these?

Further, we really need to be careful about defining exactly what a flag is. Does a picture of a flag on a newspaper constitute a "flag?" What about a piece of cloth with the colors that look like a flag, but it might be one stripe short or one star too many? Is that a flag?

It really is silly season.

Incompetence Trumps Malevolence at State

So I'm listening to the talking heads this afternoon, dissecting the passportgate shenanigans at State.

What baffles me is why I have not heard anyone speculate on what seems so obvious to me.

Last night, it got out that someone working in a Republican-controlled State Dept. had looked into the files of a leading Democrat.

That sucks because it reflects broadly-bad security around these files and also opens the door for claims of political monkeyshines.

So what better way to close up the politically-motivated conspiracy theory by broadening the problem and saying, "Heck, we found that all three of the Prez candidates have had their files snooped on! I reckon we got us a bunch of shitheads working down there!"

(This would hardly be a first in the 43-administration.)

Now, in an organization as large as this, it's not the least bit surprising to me that there would be some chance stupidity going on and some random employee would overstep their need-to-know by peeking at files.

It can't have been hard for them to find the other instances of foolishness going on to release them and blunt any conspiracy claims.

I'll have to wait with the rest of you to find out what really happened here, but my money's on the story above and I'll wait for people who get paid for their opinions to catch on.