TEA Day In California

Yesterday, California voters overwhelmingly defeated massive tax increases as a way to fix the state's bugget problems.

The only measure that passed? One that bars increases in the salaries of public officials when the state's budget is in deficit.

More:

Schwarzenegger has called for cuts that would hit every corner of the state. He announced plans to lay off 5,000 of the state's 235,000 workers and has proposed slashing education by up to $5 billion, selling state properties, borrowing $2 billion from local governments and potentially reducing eligibility for healthcare programs.

Worst-case scenarios also call for the release from state prisons of up to 19,000 illegal immigrants, who would face deportation, and the transfer of up to 23,000 other prisoners to county jails.

Good. Maybe a good start on the healthcare front would be limiting access to US citizens.

Mounting An ISO Image

From the command line:
# su -
# mount -t iso9660 -o loop disk1.iso /mnt/disk

Automatically at boot, in /etc/fstab:
/path/to/disk1.iso /mnt/disk iso9660 user,loop 0 0

The directory /mnt/disk needs to already exist for both methods.

Barack And The Pirate

From the Obama flickr stream:

I really wish GWB had had the opportunity to do something like this: Meet with a fake, funny pirate just after meeting a man held hostage by real, killer pirates.

I really doubt we'd be seeing comments like "Best. President. Ever." Or "Beautiful shot !!"

Maybe he can have Biden dress up as Khalid Sheikh Mohammed next!

"LOL"

Biden Reveals Location Of Formerly Secret VP Bunker

Could this man be any stupider?

Vice President Joe Biden, well-known for his verbal gaffes, may have finally outdone himself, divulging potentially classified information meant to save the life of a sitting vice president.

According to a report, while recently attending the Gridiron Club dinner in Washington, an annual event where powerful politicians and media elite get a chance to cozy up to one another, Biden told his dinnermates about the existence of a secret bunker under the old U.S. Naval Observatory, which is now the home of the vice president.

The bunker is believed to be the secure, undisclosed location former Vice President Dick Cheney remained under protection in secret after the 9/11 attacks.

A few corrections are now required up above:

• Biden told his dinnermates about the existence of a formerly secret bunker
  
• The bunker is believed to once have been the secure, undisclosed location

More:

In December 2002, neighbors complained of loud construction work being done at the Naval Observatory, which has been used as a residence by vice presidents since 1974.

The upset neighbors were sent a letter by the observatory's superintendent, calling the work "sensitive in nature" and "classified" and that it was urgent it be completed "on a highly accelerated schedule."

Residents said they believed workers were digging deep into the ground, which would support Biden's report of a secret bunker, but officials never confirmed the purpose of the work performed.

Oops.

Nothing is classified or sensitive once Biden knows about it. It wouldn't surprise me to see him accidentally leak the "torture" pictures in the near future.

Thanks, Joe.

Now Obama Terrorizes Citizens of LA

A magnitude-4.7 earthquake rattled the Los Angeles area Sunday night, marking the strongest quake to hit LA since July. Experts also called this the largest natural disaster caused by a politican since George W. Bush caused Hurricane Katrina to slam into New Orleans in August of 2005.

Stop Wasting CDs When Installing Linux

Since, I've run out of blank CDs, I needed to find a way to install Linux some other way. I can't even count how many CDs I've thrown away because each one becomes worthless 6-9 months later when a new version is released.

Fortunately, if your BIOS supports it (and most newer ones do), you can also boot from a USB thumb drive. Then install Linux from a second thumb drive containing an installation ISO image. The ISO image can also reside on the local hard drive, but since you might end up formatting the entire drive, it's easier to just put it on a second flash drive.

Before you begin, make sure that the thumb drive is formatted ext2 or ext3. vfat (the default for USB keys) may work, but an NTFS formatted key definately causes problems. Just reformat it as ext2 or ext3 to be safe.

For Mandriva, you need to get the boot image for the release that you're going to install. Go to a Mandriva FTP site, and browse to /i586/install/images or /x86_64/install/images depending on your CPU architecture. The USB boot image is called all.img. Save this file somewhere on your hard drive.

Creating the USB Boot Device
To create the boot device, you must copy the boot image to your usb drive, using the dd command, not the copy command. To do this, plug in the drive, but do not mount it. To check where the drive is attached you can do one of two things. The first option is to open up /var/log/messages and look at the output generated when you plugged in the key. This will tell you where the drive is attached. The other, easier way is to open up Mandrake Control Center->Local disks->Manage disk partitions and look at the tabs at the top of the page. The thumb drive will (usually) be the only unmounted drive, and will often be the only other drive listed on most desktop systems. In my case the drive device node is /dev/sdb.

Next, open a konsole as root, and change directories to the location you saved the all.img file. Enter this command: dd if=all.img of=/dev/sdb In some cases, you may need to include the partition number as well: dd if=all.img of=/dev/sdb1 Adjust as necessary for your particular situation.

If creating the boot drive from within MSWindows, you will need WinImage.

Once that is done, you can reboot with the flash drive installed. During the boot process, it is usually a good idea to go into the BIOS and make sure Boot From USB Device is enabled, and that the flash drive containing the boot image is selected as the first boot device. Setting this up varies by motherboard. Older systems can not boot from a USB device, and a BIOS upgrade may or may not be able to remedy this situation. My ASUS A8V did provide a BIOS upgrade that added this functionality. Your mileage may vary.

Once the install screen comes up, plug in your second flash drive, and select Install From Hard Disk. From there enter the location of the ISO file, and away you go!

I recommend installing the Mandriva Free dual arch ISO. Once that is done, log in as root, and run urpmi task-kde4. From there login to KDE, and then using Mandrake Control Center, install all the other programs that you need. This results in a very small, quick system, with a full KDE4 install, with a minimum of running services.

It's also a good idea to visit easy urpmi to get all your software sources setup correctly. Just follow the easy directions and you're set.

The next experiment will be to do this with a Ubuntu based distribution: eBox Platform. Hopefully I can use the same boot device.

A final note: Be sure that there is no information on the thumb drive that you want to save, as the dd command will destroy some existing data on the drive. You have been warned.

Democrats Obstructing Obama's Programs

Out of curiosity, will the 50 Democrats who voted against Obama's Afghanistan War funding bill be labeled as "obstructionists"?

I highly doubt it.

Waterboarding Is OK For US Troops, But Not For KSM

Here's a video of Liz Cheney and Eugene Robinson debating waterboarding as torture. Ms. Cheney naturally refutes all his points. Found at Hot Air.

Robinson keeps referring to waterboarding as torture, saying it is illegal and compares it to robbing a bank. However, according to Robinson, it is perfectly acceptable for US military personnel to be waterboarded as part of their training, because they know that they are not going to actually drown.

So, following Robinson's logic, waterboarding itself is not torture; not being told that you won't actually drown is.

Look for it at 10:30 into the video.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Jokes You'll Never Hear At A White House Correspondents' Association Dinner

At least not for four years.

"Sorry I'm late … Louis Caldera was my cabbie and he thought it would be a good idea to drive me by the Statue of Liberty for a photo-op."

"Incidentally, Caldera was also going to be the person who ordered the Navy SEALS to rescue Captain Phillips from the Somali pirates if that had turned out badly."

"In an effort to ensure that any terror suspects killed under orders of the administration is completely legal in the eyes of the president, 'killed terrorists' will now be referred to as 'really late-term abortions.'"

"The White House says that the president had no prior knowledge of that 747 buzzing of Manhattan. Is it really a good idea to entrust our national security to somebody who can't even install The Club on his own jet?"

"This isn't the first time Barack Obama has denied any knowledge of a New York City buzz – the first being the time he smoked a joint with William Ayers at '21.'"

"And I don't know about you, but I sleep better at night knowing that a White House aide can scramble F-16s without anybody else knowing about it. This way, if a war breaks out while Obama's teleprompter is unplugged, somebody can still order planes to bomb New York to appease an enemy like at the end of Fail-Safe."

"If you're wondering why the president is in a good mood, it's because he's glad to be finished with his annual physical
. During his colonoscopy doctors removed two benign polyps and the White House Press Corps."

"Last evening I took a walk through the cemetery – or as ACORN calls it, a 'recruiting trip.'"

"Things are getting weirder and weirder. Barack Obama is now running an auto company, and this morning I read that Lee Iacocca is taking over control of the Black Panthers."

"President Obama said he's going to take care of all Americans just like he takes care of his own family. It's comforting to know that the worst that can happen to us now is ending up homeless in Kenya."

"Michelle Obama is also here tonight. The first lady just taped an episode of 'Sesame Street' but walked off the set after seeing a segment featuring the Count holding photos of Barack's cabinet members and saying, 'Two … two tax cheats. Ah Ah Ah. Three … three tax cheats. Ah Ah Ah …'"

"In closing, I'd like to say thank you to the man who is responsible for all this. I'd like to, but George Soros isn't here tonight. They don't let George and Barack in the same room anymore because the last time they did, Joe Biden got tangled up in the puppet strings."

US Soldiers Fragged; Liberals Celebrate

From the AP: US soldier guns down 5 fellow soldiers in Iraq

BAGHDAD (AP) - A U.S. soldier opened fire at a counseling center on a U.S. base Monday, killing five fellow soldiers before being taken into custody, the U.S. command and Pentagon officials said.

The shooting occurred at Camp Liberty, a sprawling U.S. base on the western edge of Baghdad near the city's international airport and adjacent to another facility where President Barack Obama visited last month.

Pics from some Iraq war protests:

Guns Save Lives

College student shoots and kills home invader:

A group of college students said they are lucky to be alive and they’re thanking the quick-thinking of one of their own. Police said a fellow student shot and killed one of two masked me who burst into an apartment.

“Apparently, his intent was to rape and murder us all,” said student Charles Bailey.

Bailey said he thought it was the end of his life and the lives of the 10 people inside his apartment for a birthday party after two masked men with guns burst in through a patio door.

“They just came in and separated the men from the women and said, ‘Give me your wallets and cell phones,’” said George Williams of the College Park Police Department.

Bailey said the gunmen started counting bullets. “The other guy asked how many (bullets) he had. He said he had enough,” said Bailey.

That’s when one student grabbed a gun out of a backpack and shot at the invader who was watching the men. The gunman ran out of the apartment.

The student then ran to the room where the second gunman, identified by police as 23-year-old Calvin Lavant, was holding the women.

“Apparently the guy was getting ready to rape his girlfriend. So he told the girls to get down and he started shooting. The guy jumped out of the window,” said Bailey.

A neighbor heard the shots and heard someone running nearby.

“And I heard someone say, ‘Someone help me. Call the police. Somebody call the police,’” said a neighbor.

The neighbor said she believes it was Lavant, who was found dead near his apartment, only one building away.
...
“I think all of us are really cognizant of the fact that we could have all been killed,” said Bailey.

Two comments:
1) I sure hope this quick thinking student was not in a Gun Free Zone(sic) when he shot this guy.

2) I like the way the almost-rapist-and-murderer started calling for help from the police.

What Ben & Jerry Should Have Picked For The Obama Ice-Cream Flavor

Raspberry Rezco
Post-Partisan Praline Crunch
Bipartisan Banana Swirl
Triple Chocolate Tax Cheat
Special Mortage Rate Surprise
Bubblegum Blago (ok, not directly Obama related....maybe)
Chocolate Vanilla Swirl
Porkapalooza! A Little Bit Of Every Flavor For Everyone!
Comrade Cherry

President Obama: Why?

With thanks to National Review and Powerline:

From Cooker To Stable

Mandriva 2009.1 Spring just became stable.

So, naturally, I need to stop using cooker updates, because I really don't want to start using the new cooker yet.

So I need to change all my update repositories. There is, fortunately, an easy way to do this. Open up MCC, go to Software Management, and click on "Configure media sources for install and update."

Delete everything there.

Then, browse to easyurpmi, select the current stable version and architecture (2009.1 & i586 in this case), then scroll to the bottom to the "Advanced" area. Click on "Refresh commands." Finally, open a konsole, "su -", and paste those two lines into it.

Done.

Easy.

Compare And Contrast

Angels And Demons: Bill Donahue, president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights in the US, says he has "never dealt with two more disengenous people [Ron Howard & Dan Brown]." He told The Daily Telegraph "They wouldn't dare treat any other religion like this."

Ron Howard responded by stating: "Let me be clear: neither I nor Angels & Demons are anti-Catholic."

Submission: Mohammed Bouyeri shot Theo Van Gogh eight times, slashed his throat, and stabbed him, leaving with two knives proturding from his chest.

Theo Van Gogh was unavailable for comment.