Stephen Colbert Tricks Money-Loving Whores of South Carolina GOP

Stephen Colbert Tricks Money-Loving Whores of South Carolina GOP

via Wonkette by Kirsten Boyd Johnson on 12/7/11

Wasn’t this whole “conservatives don’t get that Stephen Colbert is a teevee satirist” sort of a 2009 thing? OH WAIT, we are talking about South Carolina, so maybe we have to factor in some kind of years-long time delay? The state’s Republican party is hard up for cash to hold their primary, so they agreed to allow Colbert’s Super PAC to add a humorous question to the GOP presidential primary ballot asking voters to decide whether “corporations are people” or “people are people” in exchange for a giant dump truck full of cash. Someone eventually got the memo, but not before the question made it onto the sample ballots and the state Supreme Court was forced to tell the cheap floozies in the Republican party to leave the ballot alone. NOPHAIR!

The other possibility, of course, is that they are just that desperate that they will take even the funny munnies. But no, because who has ever even heard of some politicians selling their souls for a couple bucks?

From the Columbia Free-Times:

The Comedy Central satirist — and South Carolina native — approached state Republican Party officials a few months ago about making a significant contribution to the party through his Americans for a Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow super PAC.

In return, Colbert requested the party place a ballot question on the state’s first-in-the-South GOP presidential primary set for Jan. 21, that dealt with corporate personhood. The party agreed and on Nov. 11 asked state election officials to add a ballot referendum that asked voters to decide whether “corporations are people” or “only people are people.”

Colbert also wanted to sponsor a debate, but the state Republican Party eventually decided that a partnership with the Comedy Central star’s super PAC wasn’t going to work.

BOO.

The corporate personhood question, however, still ended up being printed on sample primary ballots, according to State Elections Commission spokesman Chris Whitmire. But it will not end up in front of voters on Jan. 21, he says, because a recent state Supreme Court ruling struck all questions from being allowed on the ballot.

Since when was America so serious about letting millionaire personalities screw around with elections? [Columbia Free-Times]

Stephen Colbert Tricks Money-Loving Whores of South Carolina GOP

Stephen Colbert Tricks Money-Loving Whores of South Carolina GOP

via Wonkette by Kirsten Boyd Johnson on 12/7/11

Wasn’t this whole “conservatives don’t get that Stephen Colbert is a teevee satirist” sort of a 2009 thing? OH WAIT, we are talking about South Carolina, so maybe we have to factor in some kind of years-long time delay? The state’s Republican party is hard up for cash to hold their primary, so they agreed to allow Colbert’s Super PAC to add a humorous question to the GOP presidential primary ballot asking voters to decide whether “corporations are people” or “people are people” in exchange for a giant dump truck full of cash. Someone eventually got the memo, but not before the question made it onto the sample ballots and the state Supreme Court was forced to tell the cheap floozies in the Republican party to leave the ballot alone. NOPHAIR!

The other possibility, of course, is that they are just that desperate that they will take even the funny munnies. But no, because who has ever even heard of some politicians selling their souls for a couple bucks?

From the Columbia Free-Times:

The Comedy Central satirist — and South Carolina native — approached state Republican Party officials a few months ago about making a significant contribution to the party through his Americans for a Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow super PAC.

In return, Colbert requested the party place a ballot question on the state’s first-in-the-South GOP presidential primary set for Jan. 21, that dealt with corporate personhood. The party agreed and on Nov. 11 asked state election officials to add a ballot referendum that asked voters to decide whether “corporations are people” or “only people are people.”

Colbert also wanted to sponsor a debate, but the state Republican Party eventually decided that a partnership with the Comedy Central star’s super PAC wasn’t going to work.

BOO.

The corporate personhood question, however, still ended up being printed on sample primary ballots, according to State Elections Commission spokesman Chris Whitmire. But it will not end up in front of voters on Jan. 21, he says, because a recent state Supreme Court ruling struck all questions from being allowed on the ballot.

Since when was America so serious about letting millionaire personalities screw around with elections? [Columbia Free-Times]

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Online Diagram Software and Flowchart Software - Gliffy

Online Diagram Software and Flowchart Software - Gliffy:

'via Blog this'

Disturbing new trend in the black hole of job hunting #99ers

I've discovered a new problem for job seekers. About 2 weeks ago I applied for a job with a company in FL via an online application, during the process I was informed that I would have to pass a backqround check, a drug screening and a credit check. OK, I've been applying for jobs now for 3 years that's not unusual at all. Pretty standard actually these days. BUT, this particular company required that I pay for each pre-qual check myself. Just to be considered for employment. The cost for these checks was $45.00 each. Now that's $135.00 for one job application. This wasn't for a 6 figure job, on the contrary it was for a $12-14/hr position as a telephone support customer service agent. I found this to be a bit out of line and I told them so in the comments section at the end of the application withdrawal process. This has now happened in the past 2 weeks on job applications for two more companies in different regions of the country and entirely different occupational fields. The costs varied from the $45 to $30 per screening check..

I often apply for 5 or more jobs everyday, all over the country. If this continues I will have to be making $40,000/yr to afford a job search. I guess with 16,000,000+ people unemployed in this country the screening agencies are looking at a huge profit potential. I didn't keep the names of these 3 companies at the time but I will in the future and I will begin compiling a list of these practices and posting it on all the various media forums available until I can catch the attention of someone with a bigger voice than I to work on bringing a stop to this practice.

thanks for listening to my little rant,

Scott

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EA bans customers from playing own games

EA bans customers from playing own games

via Boing Boing by Rob Beschizza on 12/5/11

Rock Paper Shotgun's John Walker is investigating EA's habit of banning customers from playing their own games. All it seems to take is a naughty word on their official forums. The bans prevent even single-player use of games, and EA does not give refunds.

Despite repeated attempts to receive a statement on EA’s current position on their banning procedure, we have only been met with silence for the last fortnight. ... I’m building up quite the portfolio of affected gamers, who find after a forum violation they’re unable to access their Origin games. And within this is a more disturbing trend – those who are finding that their forum bans are, without explanation, becoming permanent bans. Permanent bans from accessing their Origin accounts, their Battlelog accounts, and therefore downloading purchased games, and playing online. Something which obviously raises serious questions about consumer rights, which is of course another angle we’re currently investigating.

Walker points out that even if someone posts "invective-speckled" rants, that should only earn a forum ban, not the complete swiping of entire game catalogs.

For years, DRM advocates scoffed at the idea that it would be used for bullshit like this -- the refrain was always that it was about preventing piracy. But managing rights is what DRM was built to do, so that is what it's used for.

The problem is not that EA has an intentional policy of punitively screwing its customers. It will fix this specific problem, now that enough people have noticed it. The problem is that the machinery of DRM creates perverse incentives for everyone from top executives to forum moderators, and the corporate veil creates moral hazard to go with it. So you never know where the next shit ganache in the chocolate box will be.

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LinkedIn Boot Camp [INFOGRAPHIC]

LinkedIn Boot Camp [INFOGRAPHIC]

via Mashable! by Lauren Hockenson on 12/3/11

Even after 9 years in the social media stratosphere, LinkedIn is still an elusive platform to master. While there’s still only a fraction of LinkedIn users compared to Facebook, the platform boasts a highly targeted and engaged audience that is there for one purpose: business networking.

Still, there’s a lot of moving parts to tend to before your LinkedIn-powered personal branding machine is ready for operation. Check out the infographic below to get the skinny on how to whip your LinkedIn into shape, and take a look at other career information in our weekly Job Search Series.

Infographic courtesy MindFlash

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Social Media Job Listings

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Every week we post a list of social media and web job opportunities. While we publish a huge range of job listings, we’ve selected some of the top social media job opportunities from the past two weeks to get you started. Happy hunting!

• Sr. Web Designer: Nickelodeon Digital at MTV Networks in New York
• Digital Strategist at Ketchum Midwest in Chicago, IL
• Community Manager at Zooom Productions in Los Angeles

More About: jobs, linkedin

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• Follow Mashable Social Media on Twitter
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• Subscribe to the Social Media channel
• Download our free apps for Android, Mac, iPhone and iPad

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Sprint loaded spyware on its Android phones

Sprint loaded spyware on its Android phones

via Boing Boing by Cory Doctorow on 11/30/11

Alan sez, "TechCrunch and others are reporting that a program called "Carrier IQ" that comes pre-installed on Sprint phones has some pretty amazing spyware capabilities, right down to keylogging everything you do on the phone."

Note the careful use of the words “record,” “provide,” “inspect,” and “report.” It’s obvious from this video that the application has access to the information in question, and whether it records, provides, inspects, or reports it is simply a setting they can choose. The purposes for which CIQ says their software is installed — identifying trending problems in the fleet, for instance — don’t seem to me to require the level of access the software has granted itself. Add this to the fact that users are not informed at any step of the fact that their information is passing through “quality assurance” layer (sometimes before the user layer itself is aware of it), and their indignant denial begins to ring hollow.

Furthermore, as many developers have pointed out, the mere presence of the software is detrimental. Removing the software has reportedly improved performance and battery life. Furthermore, secure handshake information over wifi is passed through the software unencrypted, something that has little to do with carrier quality assurance. And if that information is cached even temporarily, that’s a security risk.

CarrierIQ, makers of the rootkit/spyware, threatened legal action against Trevor Eckhart, the researcher who reported on this, and backed down after EFF took up his case.

Carrier IQ Video Shows Alarming Capabilities Of Mobile Tracking Software (Thanks, Alan!)

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