I’ve been thinking about 9/11 quite a bit as of late.

A few weeks back I watched American Zeitgeist (watch it free here) which I found to be quite interesting, although I would like to see a Michael Moore style “fact check” done on several sections of it. One of the sections of American Zeitgeist focuses on 9/11 and a conspiracy theory that revolves around the US governments’ involvement as a means of ultimately creating a one world government. (A bit out there, I know.)

I then came across a bootleg of the 9/11/01 installment of Howard Stern’s show. Being both a news junkie and a radio nerd I snagged it and gave it a listen. Howard’s 9/11 broadcast really was quite remarkable and thinking back to the news coverage I read/watched/listened to that day Howard did a better job of getting the news out. One of the most striking things about that broadcast, to me, is the calls for immediate action, including action that may kill a large numbers of civilians. This started before either tower collapsed. I found this especially interesting given many of the 9/11, Iraq War, and Neocon related comments that are made on Stern’s show these days…

As an aside, as I write this, a “specialty program” just came onto Howard Stern’s Howard-101 channel on Sirius featuring a number of conspiracy theorists discussing their theories on 9/11. I had no idea that this was going to be one, but I didn’t change the channel after Bubba’s show…

Lastly, out of curiosity, I started reading some of the 9/11 conspiracy theory web sites. Especially those related to the theory that it was not the airplanes that crashed into the World Trade Center buildings that ultimately brought them to the ground. I must admit that some of their theories and criticisms do seem to be well thought out and are interesting. Most, if not all, revolve around the belief that 9/11 was an inside job. Presumably, as a means of starting a war.

I am willing to believe that the US Government had a hand in 9/11. I am able to believe this quite easily actually. I’m also willing to believe that this may have been done as a means of starting a “war on terror” (among other things). However, there is one thing that I can not make sense of when buying into these theories: if 9/11 was staged why did the buildings have to be brought down? Wouldn’t a simple set of crashes into the buildings have been sufficient? Why did a plane have to be crashed near Pittsburgh and another into the Pentagon? That seems like a hell of a lot of excessive collateral damage to start a war.

So, conspiracy theorists, please tell me, what am I missing?

I had to call WE Energies customer service line the other week to transfer my service from one address to another. Before being prompted to select an option I was presented with a message proudly proclaiming that WE Energies prices were 7% lower than the national average.

Given that rates are going up tomorrow I wonder if WE Energies will be eliminating this message or amending it to some lower percentage…

The price increase authorized last week for We Energies customers will take effect with bills processed Tuesday, the utility said today in a filing with state regulators.

The state’s largest utility on Thursday received permission to pass along the higher cost of natural gas used in some of its power plants as well as the higher shipping costs imposed on the utility by railroads shipping coal to Wisconsin from Wyoming mines.

The utility estimates that customers’ bills are rising 5.1% on average because of this fuel surcharge and another that went into effect in April. These surcharges will be felt most by large manufacturers, who face a 6.9% price increase on average. Business customers can expect a 5.1% hike and residential customers’ bills will rise by 4.1%.

Wahoo!

Eddie Vedder will embark on a month-long solo tour beginning August 1st in Boston and ending August 22nd in Chicago with select dates in Canada.

DATE	CITY	VENUE
Aug-01	Boston, MA	Opera House
Aug-02	Boston, MA	Opera House
Aug-04	New York, NY	United Palace Theatre
Aug-05	New York, NY	United Palace Theatre
Aug-07	Newark, NJ	NJ Performing Arts Ctr
Aug-09	Montreal, QC	Salle Wilfrid Place
Aug-10	Montreal, QC	Salle Wilfrid Place
Aug-12	Toronto, ON	Massey Hall
Aug-13	Toronto, ON	Massey Hall
Aug-16	Washington, DC	Warner Theatre
Aug-17	Washington, DC	Warner Theatre
*** Aug-19	Milwaukee, WI	Riverside Theatre ***
Aug-21	Chicago, IL	Auditorium Theatre
Aug-22	Chicago, IL	Auditorium Theatre

Between this and the Harley Festival (Foo Fighters, Springsteen, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club) August is shaping up to be shockingly more interesting month of music in Milwaukee than Summerfest this year.

Harry Reid, you really are a f’ing moron.

It disturbs me to no end to realize that these people will have even more power in the new year…

Alderman “Thug” Michael McGee: Guilty on all 9 charges!

TUESDAY, June 24, 2008, 9:26 p.m.
By Jesse Garza
UPDATE: McGee guilty on all 9 counts

A federal jury has convicted former Milwaukee alderman Michael McGee was found guilty on all nine counts.

McGee, 38, was found guilty of five counts of bribery, two counts of extortions as well as attempted extortion and failing to file forms with a $15,000 transaction.

He faces up to 30 years at his sentencing Oct. 24.

The feds had him dead to rights. Good work boys.

…Obama opens the floodgates; George Soros rushes to his checkbook…

WASHINGTON - Barack Obama is abandoning public financing for his presidential campaign, reversing his earlier stance in bold certainty he can raise millions more on his own as the first major-party candidate to bypass the tax-checkoff system that was hurried into place after the Watergate scandal.

…ABC News predicts he will spend more than $500 million:

With the possibility of spending perhaps $500 million just in the final two months of the campaign, Obama will be the first major-party candidate to enjoy a spending edge in the general election in more than 30 years.

…meanwhile, I wonder about all those 527’s. Didn’t they provide a spending edge?

…say’s Ron Paul as he bows out of the race for the Presidency and launches the Ron Paul Campaign for Liberty.

“The last line of defense in support of freedom and the Constitution consists of the people themselves. If the people want to be free, if they want to lift themselves out from underneath a state apparatus that threatens their liberties, squanders their resources on needless wars, destroys the value of their dollar, and spews forth endless propaganda about how indispensable it is and how lost we would all be without it, there is no force that can stop them.”
- Ron Paul, The Revolution: A Manifesto

The battle was lost, but not the war.

From the Washington Post:

After a year and a half directly in the spotlight, where has Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton gone?

“They’re currently taking some time off as a family,” said one spokesperson.

“Sorry Charlie, she’s enjoying some well-deserved R & R,” said another adviser, Philippe Reines.

Clues suggest Clinton has been at home in Washington and Chappaqua, speaking by phone to superdelegates — but not yet going back to her office in the Senate. There is nothing on her official calendar of appearances

It must be nice to have a job that you can abandon for the better part of a year and half, and then continue to ignore following a disappointing outcome.

Granted, I don’t mind Hillary not being in her office working to pass more legislation. I just have an issue with politicians like Hillary telling the general public that they “understand” or “empathize” with the struggles of the average American. With a cushy job like that they haven’t got a clue.

After seeing Apple’s announcement about the new iPhone and pricing structure during a break at work this evening I was excited. After watching the Worldwide Developer Conference keynote this evening I am blown away.

I have wanted a smart phone for some time but simply could not pull the trigger. I could not justify the price for an application that did not allow me to truly interact with the web where most of my information is stored. The iPhone was clearly the answer to this, but I had a hard time justifying $400 or $600 for a phone. At the new price points of $200 to $300 it is a much easier sell, especially when compared to other smart phones such as the BlackBerry I was considering.

The keynote also provided a first look at some of the software third parties are developing for the iPhone 2.0 platform using the new SDK. I was amazed. Free applications for services like loopt that will allow you to locate (and text/call) your associates who are in the area, Major League Baseball providing real time access to game casts (with video), and a service from the Associated Press that pushes local news to the device based on your current location…heaven for a news junkie like myself.

During this part of the presentation I couldn’t help but think that some of these services are really finally practical implementations of push technology that were the basis of some of the high profile .com failures like PointCast. The skeptic will say that services like PointCast were little more than RSS feeds and that RSS feeds are everywhere these days, but some of these services like those offered by loopt and the Associated Press are not only pushing information the user is interested to them, they are adjusting the feed to the users current location. That is the kind of technology that changes everything. This is the kind of technology that starts making all of the information floating around on the web really useful.

The mobileme service also looks like something I would really enjoy. A big part of my interest in having a smart phone is the ability to interact with the five email addresses that I interact with on a daily basis for my personal life and entrepreneurial endeavors. Having all of this information synch up to the three computers I interact with each day would be fantastic and eliminate the headache of having to touch messages more than once – one of my biggest concerns related to moving to a smart phone.

If I can use this with my employers exchange server as well we really have a killer app in the making. Sure, I carry a laptop with me from meeting to meeting and can jump on the wireless network to check for meeting updates, but that requires opening the laptop, logging onto the network, processing the change(s) and then reacting in the few minutes between meetings. Having this information automatically pushed to my mobile device with a persistent connection is powerful stuff. It’s something I can glance at on the way to the stairwell or elevator. It’s something that doesn’t require awkwardly balancing papers and laptop on one arm or on the edge of someone’s cubical.

There are other phones that basically offer the same functionality, sure. There are those that don’t like Apple products, I was one of them for quite some time. But quite frankly, every interaction I have had with an Apple product over the last few years has been an absolute pleasure. It really does “just work” and with some minor tweaks to my workflows I can be just as productive on their platform. I want to be on the platform that has the critical mass and I believe that the iPhone will be that platform in the mobile world.

I will, without a doubt, be an early adapter of the new iPhone, probably about four weeks after its launch (July 11) due to some conflicts (vacation, moving, a friends wedding) that will make switching on release day a bit inconvenient and I can’t wait. Frankly, this is the first computer related product that I have been excited about in a long time. I might even pick up a used Mac Mini and see if it wouldn’t be worth it to “make the switch.”

Overheard while reading the paper during lunch today while sitting next to two HR reps lamenting the difficulties faced in filling IT openings in the current environment:

“We don’t use the job boards like Monster anymore, the experienced people aren’t using them and generation Y likes Facebook.

[…]

We’re revamping our strategy to use Facebook and LinkedIn.”

The merging of social networking sites and job recruitment can not possibly be good. It’s bad enough that I am essentially forced to use both Facebook and LinkedIn to maintain ongoing relationships with several colleagues, but now I have to mine them for jobs as well?

I actually don’t mind LinkedIn that much, I spent a fairly decent chunk of time building out my professional network and resume there while preparing to chase down a lead that didn’t pan out, but it isn’t the kind of site I want to spend extended periods of time on every week. Facebook, on the other hand, is something of a “necessary evil” for those of a certain age group but there is so much noise there and it is not something I want to be forced to use more as a means of advancing my career.

I never had a lot of luck with the likes of Monster or Dice. In my experience the sites are overrun by headhunters trying to build up their client bases, and after wasting several hours working with one and trying to get another to stop calling me I stopped spending a lot of time on those sites. However, I would much prefer using one of those sites, or better yet, a headhunter free version of one of those sites to LinkedIn or Facebook for heads down job searches that did not involve leveraging my professional network.