According to the NPP, Taxpayers in Florida will pay $565.9 million for proposed ballistic missile defense in FY2010.

For that same money, Florida could have provided:

9,040 Music and Arts Teachers for One Year
OR 129,412 Scholarships for University Students for One Year
OR 101,968 Students receiving Pell Grants of $5550
OR 4,174 Affordable Housing Units
OR 312,781 Children with Health Care for One Year
OR 77,217 Head Start Places for Children for One Year
OR 9,649 Elementary School Teachers for One Year
OR 397,999 Homes with Renewable Electricity for One Year
OR 199,677 People with Health Care for One Year
OR 13,036 Public Safety Officers for One year

Now, Imagine if only 10% were retained by Florida for it’s citizens:
Florida would keep $56.59 million in FY2010.
For that same money, Florida could provide:
904 Music and Arts Teachers for One Year

OR 12,941 Scholarships for University Students for One Year

OR 10,197 Students receiving Pell Grants of $5550

OR 417 Affordable Housing Units

OR 31,278 Children with Health Care for One Year

OR 7,721 Head Start Places for Children for One Year

OR 965 Elementary School Teachers for One Year

OR 39,800 Homes with Renewable Electricity for One Year

OR 19,968 People with Health Care for One Year

OR 1,304 Public Safety Officers for One year

THAT IS A LOT OF NEW JOBS!

Find out about your State, Congressional District, or Community.  When you look at our tax money at use in this way, it sure does seem that a 10% cut in just one area could made a world of difference for ALL our communities!

Yesterday I posted my opinion on where the Comcast decision would take consumers on the Internet – based on my past experience,  watching the FCC’s decisions over the last year,  and knowing (thanks to past experience) that the “stars were aligning” for the Big Telecoms to gain a monopolistic edge over the consumer’s use of the Internet.  Ultimately, this would reverse the “affordability” of its use at a time when Americans can least likely afford the additional costs.

Today, the Washington Post adds to my concerns of yesterday about how the ruling might affect the Internet: http://bit.ly/ComcastRulingSpeculation and consumers in the near term.  One thing I disagree with in this article is their correction remark where they say that ISPs cannot choose to throttle or block based on “type” of service.  To a degree that is correct, but to a larger degree what the ISP is able to do is block ports that types of traffic specifically use. For instance, VoIP uses specific ports to transmit it’s traffic.  If those ports are blocked and filtered, it is true that an ISP could exclude Skype, Vonage and other VoIP provider’s service, while at the same time, permitting the ISP’s choice of providers (who are paying their way) or simply allow only their own offering.

My post on Facebook yesterday was a warning, a ‘shot over the bow’ from a former “last mile provider”, or “Local LEC” as they called us small competitive ISPs who resold major carrier lines using our own routers and created unique special services.  Those days were great – we were the R&D for the ‘big boys’ in the ISP world.  If we succeeded, they copied.  Eventally they shut us out by lobbying the FCC hard and long to overturn the original ruling that allowed us to co-op their lines at wholesale rates.  This Comcast lawsuit, and the Appeals Court ruling, are just another “nail in the coffin” for that kind of growth and ingenuity.  It also does not bode well for the Consumer who will soon find themselves being nickled and dimed for eveything they want to do online…or worse simply being told “sorry, we don’t support that”.

This is not a “property rights” ruling, it’s a ruling that creates a future monopoly of the Internet by large ISPs, (think MaBell and the phone industry before it was broken up and prices were regulated), as they slowly and almost silently slink through the night, negating any gains that the consumer achieved in the “early days” of the Internet prior to 2006.  I sincerely hope that the FCC works fast to try to stem this tide.

So, I downloaded an Apple update a couple days ago.  Not sue WHAT it was, but now my Apple is acting more like a PC than itself.

Extremely slow loading, funky weirdness – like clicking to go to a website and it just sits there & does nothing  until I click the URL + Enter to load again.  I guess I will download Snow Leopard OS today and see if that corrects it.  No, it’s not related to IT Sec – I have all the protect Fort Knox needs.

I hope Apple, Inc. isn’t too busy creating new iPad apps to keep their existing devices and software up – after all, that is what led to the near-extinction of the dinosaur, and they are fighting to get back to the top every day!

Me, personally – I will never own a PC again, and in the 17 years I have been using technology, I never in my life thought I would say that!  My clients HAVE asked me why, and I tell them all…simply because (at least up until this moment) there is ZERO tech support needed.  It just works…period.

Even with this issue at hand, I stand by that 110%

UPDATE:   I installed Snow Leopard over my OS 10x today – whatever the problem was it’s gone and WOW what an improvement in a LOT of ways with this new OS update.  Little stuff that means a LOT, as well as big stuff that counts.  Great job Apple!!

After being accused of being a “Liberal” more times than I care to be…

I finally took their (the “Conservatives”) quiz to see if I would blow up the server it was housed on.

I guess they don’t know one of their own when they see me!   SO THERE!!

My Conservative Identity:

You are a Flag-Waving Everyman, also known as a Patriot.

You believe in freedom, apple pie, rooting for America at all times,

and that God gave us a two-day weekend so we could enjoy football and NASCAR.

Take the quiz at www.FightLiberals.com