Netflix becomes a loser

MoonHowler

Netflix is quickly becoming a loser.  First it drove Hollywood and Blockbuster out of business.  they failed to respond to the new business/movie paradigm fast enough.  Now they have announced their new plan–all streaming for $7.99 unlimited.  If you want to get dvds, that will cost extra, lots extra.  Here is the plan, announced in email:

We are separating unlimited DVDs by mail and unlimited streaming into two separate plans to better reflect the costs of each. Now our members have a choice: a streaming only plan, a DVD only plan, or both.

Your current $19.99 a month membership for unlimited streaming and unlimited DVDs will be split into 2 distinct plans:

   Plan 1: Unlimited Streaming (no DVDs) for $7.99 a month
   Plan 2: Unlimited DVDs, 3 out at-a-time (no streaming) for $15.99 a month

Your price for getting both of these plans will be $23.98 a month ($7.99 + $15.99). You don’t need to do anything to continue your memberships for both unlimited streaming and unlimited DVDs.

These prices will start for charges on or after September 1, 2011.

You can easily change or cancel your unlimited streaming plan, unlimited DVD plan, or both, by going to the Plan Change page in Your Account.

We realize you have many choices for home entertainment, and we thank you for your business. As always, if you have questions, please feel free to call us at 1-888-357-1516.

–The Netflix Team

That’s really too bad.  It would be one thing if Netflix has all of its dvds on streaming video.  Such is not the case.  I won’t keep the three movie at a time plan.  In fact, there is a lot that isn’t on streaming video.  I guess I will go back to streaming and 1 dvd.  Their loss. What will other netflix subscribers do?  I understand they are catching Hell on Twitter and Facebook.  The worst part is that they talk to you in the email like they are doing you a favor. 

Further reading:  Washington Post

Virginia Retirement System back on track…or is it?

MoonHowler

The VRS had a great year.  It had an 18.5% return as of June 30 for last year.  It has nearly returned to its all-time high water mark in 2007, before the crash of 2008.  The trust fund now has approximately $55 Billion dollars.  However, the VRS  board of directors warn that its still not big enough to keep promises made to teachers and local and state workers. 

After the crash, the fund dipped to $38.9 billion dollars in March 2009.  According to Roanoke.com:

But with more government workers and teachers retiring, the investment gains don’t erase the need for lawmakers to increase contribution rates, pension administrators told the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission. Pension obligations represent just one of the pressures facing Gov. Bob McDonnell and lawmakers who must shape a new two-year budget next year.

“The fund is aging and will increasingly face the prospect of negative cash flows in years ahead as benefit payments exceed payments from payroll contributions,” said Diana Cantor, the chairwoman of Virginia’s retirement board.

The retirement system has nearly 340,000 active members, including state and local workers, teachers, judges and law enforcement officers. It pays out benefits to more than 156,000 retirees, a number that is increasing. Cantor noted that 5,368 teachers retired in July 2010, a 48 percent increase over the number reported the previous year.

“Recent investment gains notwithstanding, we continue to believe that contribution rates will have to rise to meet our pension obligations over the long term,” she said.

The retirement board will recommend new contribution rates after meeting with an actuary this fall. The state has underfunded the plan, routinely paying rates less than those recommended by the Virginia Retirement System’s governing board over the past two decades.

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Iowa “Family Leader Pledge” draws some serious fire

MoonHowler

The much discussed Iowa Marriage Vow Pledge also known as the “Family Leader Pledge”  has the signatures of two presidential hopefuls– Michele Bachmann and Rick Santorum.   Both candidates are now back-pedaling like crazy because of some controversial language contained in the pledge that appears to sanction slavery. 

According to the Des Moines Register:

The leader of an Iowa conservative organization Monday defended a statement about black children and slavery that it distributed in asking presidential candidates to vow their allegiance to one man/one woman marriage.

At least one presidential candidate, U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann, condemned the suggestion in the vow’s preamble that black children were better off during slave times. Also Monday, the think tank cited as the basis for the slavery statement denied saying anything like that.

The fact that two candidates, Bachmann and Rick Santorum, quickly signed the 14-point “candidate vow,” then later said they hadn’t read the entire four-page pledge document, highlights the pressure on candidates to prove their social conservative credentials to Iowa voters, politics watchers said.

The Iowa Marriage Vow Pledge can be downloaded here.

Both candidates  claim to have not read the verbiage.  Bachmann  further denounced slavery and argued that the statement was not part of the pledge, only background material. 

“I did not see that language. That was not a part of the vow,” Bachmann told reporters during a campaign stop Monday in Indianola.

Traditional marriage is the bedrock of society, Bachmann said. “Children need a mom and a dad in their life, and that’s why I signed it,” she said.

Slavery was a dark time in American history, and “certainly it would be absurd for anyone to think that a child would be better off raised in slavery than not,” Bachmann said. “That’s a terrible thing to say. I’m pleased that this has been taken care of.”

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12 Trillion bucks????

MoonHowler

Nah, its actually over $14 Trillion now.  Just how much is that?  Stay tuned:

From zfacts.com :

 

Reagan Told Us How to Track the Debt

October 30, 2010. From Reagan’s first speech as President: “A trillion dollars would be a stack of thousand-dollar bills 67 miles high. The interest on the public debt this year we know will be over $90 billion, and unless we change the proposed spending for the fiscal year beginning October 1st, …”

Well he changed it all right, and when he left office the stack of $1000 bills was 191 miles high.

So what did Reagan tell us about calculating his debt? (1) Start on October 1, 1981, and (2) Don’t forget the interest costs of the debt.Read More

Primary August 23

MoonHowler

There will be a Republican primary August 23.  There will be no Democratic primary.  All registered voters can vote in a primary regardless of party affiliation.  All the different positions will be in the primary, from State senate, state delegate and local supervisor. 

Here is who is running for State Senate:

 

13th District:
John Stirrup (R)
Robert FitzSimmonds (R)
Richard Black (R) 

28th District: 
Incumbent: Richard Stuart (R)

29th District:
Incumbent: Charles Colgan (D)

36th District:
Incumbent: Linda “Toddy” Puller (D)  
Jeffrey Frederick (R)
Tito Munoz (R)

39th District:
Incumbent: George Barker (D)
Miller Baker (D)
Scott Martin (R) 

I am not sure about the 39.  There appears to be an extra democrat in the mix. 

 

Maybe free speech isn’t all it’s cracked up to be

MoonHowler

New York Times:

LONDON — In 2004, Clare Short, a Labour member of Parliament, learned what could happen to British politicians who criticized the country’s unforgiving tabloids. At a lunch in Westminster, Ms. Short mentioned in passing that she did not care for the photographs of saucy, topless women that appear every day on Page 3 of the populist tabloid The Sun, owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation. “I’d like to take the pornography out of our press,” she said.

Big mistake.

“ ‘Fat, Jealous’ Clare Brands Page 3 Porn” was The Sun’s headline in response. Its editor, Rebekah Wade (now Rebekah Brooks and the chief executive of News International, Mr. Murdoch’s British subsidiary), sent a busload of semi-dressed models to jeer at Ms. Short at her house in Birmingham. The paper stuck a photograph of Ms. Short’s head over the body of a topless woman and found a number of people to declare that, in fact, they thoroughly enjoyed the sexy photos.

“Even Clare has boobs, but obviously she’s not proud of them like we are of ours,” it quoted a 22-year-old named Nicola McLean as saying.

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Buffett: GOP Threatening To ‘Blow Your Brains Out’ Over Debt Ceiling

MoonHowler

 

From the Huffington Post:

Republicans are playing a dangerous game by refusing to raise the debt ceiling, according to Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett.

“We raised the debt ceiling seven times during the Bush Administration,” Buffett told CNBC on Thursday. Now, the Republican-controlled Congress is “trying to use the incentive now that we’re going to blow your brains out, America, in terms of your debt worthiness over time.”

If Congress fails to raise the borrowing limit of the federal government by August 2, the date when the U.S. will reach the limit of its borrowing abilities, it will likely begin defaulting on its loans.

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Sheriff Joe must settle $200,000 claim

MoonHowler

Huffingtonpost.com :

PHOENIX (AP) — The office of an Arizona sheriff known for his efforts against undocumented immigrants has settled a claim with two men and will pay $200,000 in a racial profiling case.

The claim arose from one of Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s (ar-PY’-oh) worksite enforcement raids.

Deputies raided a landscaping company in search of identity-theft and fraud suspects Feb. 11, 2009. They stopped Julian and Julio Mora’s pickup truck outside the business.

A federal judge later determined the deputies had no reason to stop the men or detain them for nearly three hours

More and more cases like this are going to be handed down when law enforcement relies on probable cause.  Prince William County is in much better shape than many jurisdictions.  Supervisors determined that probable cause left our county too vulnerable to lawsuits.  Dash cameras that would help protect officers were expensive.  Some of  our more courageous supervisors  set the plans in motion to avoid this kind of lawsuit by resolving to check all persons arrested.   When everyone is checked, no racial profiling has taken place.  Go Prince William! 

The people of Maricopa County will have to absorb this cost.  When will they put a stop to this guy’s antics?  I guess when they get tired of paying.

Where does the buck stop, Murdoch?

MoonHowler
Murdoch's desk?

As the tale of the  tabloid, the News of the World implodes over scandal, law-breaking, dead girls, hacking, and other disreputable acts not worthy of the name journalism, it will take a long time to sort it all out.  NOTW will go to press for the last time on Sunday.  Robert Murdoch, owner, has pulled the plug.  Murdoch has even more influence in the UK than he does in the United States.  He has refused to comment. 

Should we be surprised?  Faux News certainly has done things for years that are questionable in the ethnics department.  They seem to make up their own rules, all while pointing fingers at everyone else.  The buck has to stop with Robert Murdoch.  Maybe his world will come crumbling down.  Maybe he will decide there is more to journalism than making money.  The American press has always seemed like a gentle, well-mannered giant compared to the irreverent junk-yard dog habits of the British press.  Faux News continually pushes the envelope.  This would be a good time for American journalists to re-evaluate what the word professionalism means and perhaps do a little house cleaning of their own.  Meanwhile, Faux News needs to do a lot of damage control before I call them by their rightful name. 

The buck stops at Robert Murdoch’s desk. 

Panic! At the Border

MoonHowler

 Guest Post:  Michael Stafford

Entire post copied with permission from  Michael Stafford.

The following is the opinion of the poster and does not necessarily represent the views of moonhowlings.net administration.

M-H

Myths and facts about crime on America’s southern frontier

The rationale for Arizona’s SB 1070, the state immigration enforcement statute passed in 2010 that is now being copied by other states such as Alabama and Georgia and championed as a cause célèbre by many on the Right, was based on a simple premise, namely, that Arizona was experiencing a surge in violent crime fueled by unauthorized immigrants.

Daryl Cagle / msnbc.com (click to view more cartoons by Daryl Cagle)

 

The link between unauthorized immigrants and crime is one of the most persistent myths in the immigration debate. But the facts tell a very different story, even in Arizona and along the Mexican frontier.

Despite all the hype, in reality, crime rates in Arizona, including its border counties, have been falling for years. More broadly, two of our nation’s safest metropolitan areas- San Diego and El Paso, are border cities. Indeed, by any objective measure, the southern border is safer now than it has been in decades. There was no, and there is no, immigrant-fueled crime wave.

The Wild West?

Listening to some politicians and members of the conservative entertainment complex last year, one got the impression that our southern border was descending into a state of near anarchy and chaos. That we were being subjected to a waive of violent crime fueled by unauthorized immigrants. That we were under siege. That we were facing an “invasion.”

For example, conservative radio host Michael Savage informed his listeners that, “[w]e need to get our troops out of Iraq and put them on the streets of America to protect us from the scourge of illegal immigrants who are running rampant across America, killing our police for sport, raping, murdering like a scythe across America while the liberal psychos are telling us they come here to work.”

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Is the Republican Party a normal party?

MoonHowler

In his New York Times column  Tuesday, entitled The Mother of  All No Brainers,  David Brooks talks about the new breed of cat mentioned by Joe Biden, although he didn’t call them that.  He spoke of the new Republican since the last election.  Brooks contends that the Republicans have extracted trillions of dollars in concessions out of the Democrats:

In negotiations with Democrats on the debt ceiling, Brooks says that Republicans have already extracted large concessions: trillions of dollars in spending cuts, including cuts to Medicare and Medicaid, so long as Republicans agree to raise taxes for the wealthiest Americans and give fewer tax breaks to oil companies.

It’s the “the deal of the century,” Brooks writes, and “if the Republican Party were a normal party, it would take advantage of this amazing moment.”

There’s the catch.  Is the Republican Party normal now?  Brooks thinks not and continues to pontificate:

If the Republican Party were a normal party, it would take advantage of this amazing moment. It is being offered the deal of the century: trillions of dollars in spending cuts in exchange for a few hundred billion dollars of revenue increases.

A normal Republican Party would seize the opportunity to put a long-term limit on the growth of government. It would seize the opportunity to put the country on a sound fiscal footing. It would seize the opportunity to do these things without putting any real crimp in economic growth.

The party is not being asked to raise marginal tax rates in a way that might pervert incentives. On the contrary, Republicans are merely being asked to close loopholes and eliminate tax expenditures that are themselves distortionary.

This, as I say, is the mother of all no-brainers.

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After Casey Anthony–What next?

MoonHowler

By now, nearly everyone has heard that Casey Anthony was found not guilty of the murder of her little girl, Caylee Anthony. Not since the O.J.  Simpson trial has America been more united in a collective agreement of guilty. Yet the jury acquitted her of all charges except providing false information to law enforcement. The American public is furious.

Marcia Clark, one of the chief prosecutors in the O.J.  trial said, in a column in the Daily Beast on Wednesday, that the Anthony case is even worse than the O.J. trial because Anthony didn’t have the star power that OJ did. The public hadn’t been wowed with  the athletic prowess,   movies and star power  of O.J. before hand. There were no surprises and there were no racial overtones that people wanted to avoid. She simply was not found guilty despite all the unanswered questions. Read More