From a portion of OpinionJournal.com’s Political Diary (no link available) that was just e-mailed to me, this is a follow-up to this previous BizzyBlog post (third item at that post):

All in the Family

Actor and movie producer Rob Reiner, best known as Meathead on the 1970s TV hit “All in the Family,” is in love with taxes. He’s already sponsored two successful ballot initiatives in California: a 50-cent cigarette tax to pay for education and an income tax surcharge on the super-wealthy to pay for mental health.

Now Mr. Reiner is at it again. This year, he’s seeking a 1.7 percentage-point increase in the top state income tax rate — again on the wealthy — to pay for universal preschool. Apparently the problem with the lousy schools in California is the education blob doesn’t get a hold of the kids at an early enough age. The Reiner initiative called “First 5,” aka Proposition 82, will be on the ballot this November.

Here’s where the story gets interesting. In the past, Mr. Reiner has bankrolled these initiatives with money from his legions of leftwing Hollywood friends. But now Mr. Reiner is dipping into taxpayer funds raised from his first initiative (the cigarette tax) to help finance this latest campaign. That’s right, he’s taking taxpayer funds to lobby for… well, more taxpayer funds. Shawn Steel, the former Republican Party finance chairman, tells us: “Reiner is prohibited under state law from using taxpayer funds for campaign and lobbying purposes. This may be illegal.” But so far, $23 million of tobacco tax money has bought TV ads extolling the virtues of early childhood education.

The story gets sleazier. As the Los Angeles Times reported, “First 5 paid $206,000 to three political consultants who did not bid for the work. All three have moved on to — surprise! — the Proposition 82 campaign” of which Mr. Reiner is the leader. Mr. Reiner has also served as the chairman of the California Children and Families Commission — the agency that disburses the $700 million a year the tax collects.

Over the past several years, more than $200 million of tobacco tax money that is supposed to go to early childhood education has been siphoned off by public relations and advertising firms. Republicans in the legislature we talked to say they are outraged at this misappropriation of funds and are considering an investigation. Here we have an example of real life imitating TV. In the ’70s, the Meathead spouted every liberal cause under the sun while showing himself to be the ultimate unemployed free-loader, forever raiding Archie Bunker’s refrigerator. Now he raids the California taxpayers’ refrigerator to finance his pet causes.

A lot of bureaucrats, activists and consultants are doing very well in California under Rob Reiner’s taxing initiatives. Too bad so few of them are “the kids” he claims to care so much about.

Hmm. Using taxpayer money that was collected as a result of one voter initiative to fund advertising and PR for another initiative that, if passed, will take even more money from taxpayers.

Call the Patent Office. The Meathead has perfected the long-sought perpetual motion machine.

More seriously, the corruption Mr. Reiner is engaged in seems so obviously illegal (the heck with the “may be” stuff) that his choices should be to resign from any and all of his state commissions AND the Prop 82 campaign, or go to jail.
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UPDATE, Feb. 25: Saturday’s LA Times (HT Hugh Hewitt) reports that Reiner is “taking leave” from his panel until the day after the Prop 82 election. Not, good, enough.

George Will (also at WaPo) reacts to a Pew Research survey (HT Return of the Conservatives):

While 34 percent of all Americans call themselves “very happy,” only 28 percent of liberal Democrats (and 31 percent of moderate or conservative Democrats) do, compared to 47 percent of conservative Republicans. This finding is niftily self-reinforcing: It depresses liberals.

Not that it ever really went away, but Brian Krebs Security Fix Blog at The Washington Post has read the latest report from The Anti-Phishing Working Group (APWG). It confirms what my junk mailbox, and occasionally my real inbox, have been telling me — attacks are on the increase:

The number of unique phishing sites jumped from 4,630 in November to 7,197 in December, a 55 percent increase. Online scam artists also targeted a wider range of companies in their phishing sites. One scam found at the end of 2005 targeted customers who shop at Wal-Mart’s Web site, telling their their accounts had been compromised.

….. That growth was spurred in large part by the discovery of two critical security flaws in Microsoft’s Internet Explorer browser — MS05-054 and MS06-001 — that allowed malicious Web sites to install software on the visitor’s computer. The APWG report said its members spotted hundreds of sites using exploits for those vulnerabilities to install keystroke-logging software.

In case you have no idea what phishing is, here’s the APWG’s definition on its home page:

Phishing attacks use both social engineering and technical subterfuge to steal consumers’ personal identity data and financial account credentials. Social-engineering schemes use ’spoofed’ e-mails to lead consumers to counterfeit websites designed to trick recipients into divulging financial data such as credit card numbers, account usernames, passwords and social security numbers. Hijacking brand names of banks, e-retailers and credit card companies, phishers often convince recipients to respond. Technical subterfuge schemes plant crimeware onto PCs to steal credentials directly, often using Trojan keylogger spyware. Pharming crimeware misdirects users to fraudulent sites or proxy servers, typically through DNS hijacking or poisoning.

Note the two different types.

The response to the first (social-engineering) is easy: Don’t respond to the e-mails supposedly originating from your financial institution, Ebay, PayPal, or whomever.

The second (technical subterfuge) is more difficult to defend against, and requires (just for starters) a good firewall to prevent intrusions; never opening unknown attachments to e-mails; keeping operating system and browser software up-to-date; and, if you are a Windows user, using two different brands of good spyware-removal software (two because the best brands are currently only elminating about 80% of spyware found, so two different brands “should” achieve about 95% effectiveness in eliminating spyware); and keeping your computer disconnected from the Internet when you are not using it.

Just when I have an advertising placement firm evaluating me, I get this “brilliant” idea to pass this story onto South Park Conservative Ace, who may be the only blogger out there who doesn’t mind it when someone says “this is a story you of all people would want to use.” Then he uses it. Murphy’s Law.

The so-called “license problem” Internet Wall of Shame member Google is having with the Chinese goverment is actually the beginning of a good old-fashioned war of wills with totalitarians who, as long as money and access are the sole objects of the vendor, appear to hold all the cards (WaPo link is free for now):

A state-run newspaper reported Tuesday that Google Inc. is under investigation for operating without a proper license in China and quoted an unnamed government official as saying the Internet giant needs to cooperate further with the authorities in blocking “harmful information” from its search results.

The report, in the Beijing News, was published the same day that another state newspaper ran a harshly worded editorial about Google. The paper accused the firm of sneaking into China like an “uninvited guest” and then making a fuss about being required to follow Chinese law and cooperate in censoring search results such as pornography.

The government’s porn excuse is just a fig leaf, so to speak. The “do no evil” company is in the process of learning a lesson in the dangers of striking a deal with evil:

But it appears Chinese authorities are now pressuring Google to cut off access in China to its regular search engine, and to stop telling users of the new site every time a search is censored.

“Is it necessary for an enterprise that is operating within the borders of China to constantly tell your customers you are following domestic law?” said the editorial published Tuesday in the China Business Times, a financial daily.

So here’s the test. Will the government, which has now invested considerable political capital in its bullying, just let it go? Or will Google cave? If it’s the latter, the predictions of those who feared that the Chinese government would change their cooperating vendors more than it would change itself will begin to be realized.

RConversation also noticed this story this morning, and is a great source for the most current information on Chinese and other Internet censorship issues.

Free Links:

• Foreclosures up, minorities more harshly affected (really) — This is because credit score thesholds for loan approvals were lowered by quasi-governmental entities Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (Fan and Fred) that buy loans from lenders to keep the mortgage deal flow going. More risky loans were then made. The sad fact is that a disproportionate percentage of minority borrowers have low credit scores, and “benefitted” by getting these riskier loans. As you would expect, the foreclosure rate on risky loans is higher, so the “beneficiaries” who shouldn’t have been approved in the first place are seeing the punishing downside of lax credit standards. Here’s a stat: “In Cuyahoga County, which includes Cleveland ….. court filings by lenders seeking to foreclose on delinquent borrowers totaled more than 11,000 in 2005, more than triple the number in 1995.” In an ideal world, people would sit down and figure out whether they can afford to make the payments on a loan. In the real world, people assume they can afford it because the lender says they can. I’m not it’s saying right, but it is what it is, and responsible businesspeople on the lending side of the equation should take this into account. Fan and Fred should never have relaxed their standards as much as they did, and lenders should have been more prudent in their loan approvals. The economy may yet pay a heavy price for all of this opportunism. More discussion of the dangers Fan and Fred have allowed to seep into the economy is at this BizzyBlog post from October.
• Google has lost a round in a copyright case with potentially big ramifications — even though the case in question is about sexually explicit “thumbnails,” the implication appears to be that showing small versions of various pictures and graphics found around the web in a picture search may be illegal.
• Google has decided it won’t hand over data requested by Uncle Sam — interesting, in light of a post you will see here later this morning.
• Better question — Why is individual search information collected and stored in the first place, when most people oppose it? I think at a minimum you should be asked if you want to opt in to having information about your searches saved and stored. If you don’t specifically say yes, they can’t do it, period.
• If this kind of thinking had been dominant at the beginning of the 20th century, the automobile would never have made it to market.
• Paying to NOT have your info sold (HT Techdirt) — To play Fight Night 3 online, you agree to this language: “Thanks to ESPN, you can play this EA Sports product online as part of EA Nation at no charge! By accepting the ESPN sponsorship, I will allow ESPN to pay my $2.00 online subscription for this game and understand that ESPN may contact me with offers and promotions such as subscriptions to ESPN the Magazine and ESPN Insider.” You then have a choice to pay the $2 by credit card to avoid the harassment. Ridiculous.

Requires Subscription:

• The Wall Street Journal reports that premiums employers pay for employee family health care coverage are about the same per month as a typical mortgage loan payment.

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UPDATE to Foreclosure item above: E-mailer JH tipped me off to this AP item in today’s NY Times, which says in part:

Revelations of alleged improprieties at Fannie Mae, the nation’s second-largest financial institution after Citigroup Inc., have continued to cascade.

The former director of OFHEO told Congress that Fannie Mae employees falsified signatures on accounting transactions that helped the company meet earnings targets for 1998, allowing $27 million in bonuses to be paid to top executives. The regulator, Armando Falcon, also said that Fannie Mae broke accounting rules by keeping the most desirable mortgage-based securities for itself and selling the less attractive ones to investors.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, its smaller rival in the $8 trillion home-mortgage market, buy and guarantee repayment of billions of dollars of home loans each year from banks and other lenders, then bundle them into securities that are resold to investors worldwide.

Two points: First, any officers who got bonuses as a result of the accounting games must pay the ill-gotten portions of their bonuses back, and should be sued if they don’t. Second, if it’s true that bondholders are getting the financially shaky leftovers as collateral, and if this wasn’t widely known before, the mortgage-backed securities market is in for a rough time.

From the Army News Service (HT S.O.B. member Camp Katrina), reconstruction proceeds, despite the obstacles:

4th BCT engineers rebuild Baghdad’s infrastructure
By Staff Sgt. Brent Williams
February 17, 2006

BAGHDAD (Army News Service, Feb. 17, 2006) – Responsible for the rebuilding of Baghdad’s infrastructure – restoration and improvement of electricity, water, sewer and transportation systems, members of the 4th Brigade Combat Team Infrastructure Coordination Element – known as ICE – have their work cut out for them.

It’s a daunting task that requires support from the Iraqi government, several U.S. governmental agencies and non-governmental organizations, reconstruction efforts are one of the many missions facing the 4th BCT, 4th Infantry Division.

“We bridge the gap by developing relationships not only with the Iraqis to gain their priorities – that is really where we are trying to focus – but also with the (Iraqi) state department (ministers) who are currently standing up,” said Maj. Ray Proske, executive officer, 4th Special Troops Battalion, 4th BCT,

The coordination cell works with local leaders within the communities and neighborhoods to identify and service their particular needs – working to coordinate the repair of Iraqi essential services within the brigade’s prescribed area of operations.

“Each of the different areas has its unique challenges,” Proske added. “One thing to keep in mind is that most of the infrastructure in this country was built more than 20 years ago and has been very poorly maintained.”

The problem is also complicated by numerous unauthorized taps on the city’s water and electrical systems, further draining an already depleted infrastructure, said Proske.

This will only be resolved once the city begins to regulate the services it provides to the people living in Baghdad, he added.

The biggest task before the four-man team, which is responsible for overseeing special reconstruction projects in central and south Baghdad, is working with the local Iraqi governance to ensure that the planning, upkeep and improvement of city systems happens as efficiently as possible.

“The engineers are trying to overcome this challenge by hiring local Iraqi engineers to maintain and supervise the many ongoing projects and to assist in quality assurance, thus ensuring the contractors are providing an adequate product,” Proske added. “Though the staff is small, local Iraqi engineers are vital to operations for the ICE.”

Currently, the program has one local consultant-engineer, an Iraqi man named Thamer, who wears many hats.

Thamer, a 46-year old electrical engineer, is responsible for identifying all scopes of work within the communities and coordinating the execution of each project through the different government agencies.

“After identification, we bid for those projects. We call contractors and give them the bids to submit at those prices,” Thamer said. “We analyze prices and compare that with the quantity to see if it is reasonable or not.”

Thamer, who earned his master’s in engineering from the University of Birmingham, United Kingdom, also manages several Iraqi site engineers who supervise the local contractors to ensure the quality of work and timeliness of project completion.

Once a project is finished, the ICE maintains contacts with two district advisory councils within the brigade’s battle space as well as the Iraqi government to ensure the completed work meets the population’s needs.

“Our goal is to give a very good project to serve the people,” Thamer said. “We are in constant contact with the departments and the employees within the district council in order to coordinate with the contractors.”

Capt. Robert Graetz who serves as the sewers project manager, Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 4th STB, said he hopes that the projects being completed now will eventually lay the groundwork for larger construction projects that will increase the capabilities of the current systems.

As the civil engineers work to improve living conditions for the communities they are also working to help the Iraqi people become self-sufficient.

“Instead of throwing a lot of money into project after project, our solution is to invest that money into the city government to prop up their operating budget so that they can do it themselves,” said Graetz.