A tax-exempt savings account is just like a savings account at a bank, except that any money put into it isn't taxed, and the money can be spent only for specific, eligible expenses.

(It's ok to click the links. These are not affiliate links.)

Turbo Tax maker Intuit, again, is mired in political turmoil: Intuit was upset that John Chiang, our State Controller, had been making electronic tax filing software free to people. Intuit wanted the State to use a different system that worked with Intuit's commercial software.

We've already had two terms of an obstructionist governor and legislature that can't compromise. The race will probably come down to Meg Whitman and Jerry Brown.

Here's something funny from Facts for Working People, and I assume the unemployed as well.

The NYT, LAT, and Huffpost have made a big issue of Obama eating spam musubi.

@HuffPo

This is a shocking entry in Wikipedia, but it shows how far racists will go to ensure that they can continue to segregate.

This is a map of Cuba and Guantanamo Bay NAS.

Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin has recently been criticized for her pork-barrel spending. This web-calculator helps you figure out how extreme she is. (Calculator is on the full story.)

This is a fascinating set of videos that were take by Converse (the shoe company) of several Oakland area spraycan artists from the early 90s. The commercials were never used.

The "short" commercials are so different from the lengthier interview footage. It's like night and day, or, maybe, "child" and "young adult".

See: the videos

Nice Mullets!

See: http://crayone.com/ for more.

Additionally, this fascinating article about vernacular mathematics, and stylized graffiti as a form of community cryptography: Street Math in Wildstyle Graffiti Art.

Once again, a break from tech to do some politics.

Remember H. Ross Perot, founder of Perot Systems and EDS? When he ran for President, he played the American people like a fiddle. Said that NAFTA would send jobs away, which it turned out, it did, in a big way, and hurt a lot of workers.

Well, in 2006, his company set up shop in Mexico, to help American companies outsource tech support.

Giant Sucking Sound: Perot Systems Outsources To Mexico

I don't really do the political thing too much on this blog (intentionally), but this is a good video by Curtis Choy. It's living history. The next video is interesting - do college kids know about the internment camps.

The Political Compass is a popular "test" on the internet that supposedly reveals your true political "position". Instead of the traditional "left-right" scale, it has a two-dimensional grid that looks like this:

Unfortunately, hardly anyone points out that this improved model is also extremely limited. A third dimension, like "Militaristic/Pacifist" could be added. A fourth dimension, like "Nationalist/Globalist" could be added. You could even add "Free-Lover/Prude". Many more dimensions could be added, and, with each dimension, you could add a "scale" to indicate how important each issue is to you. You could also add non-linear scales -- for example, you can tolerate the neighborhood watch and the police, but you draw the line at the National Guard patrolling your city.

OC Organizer has an interview with Gilbert Gonzalez of UC Irvine about American investment causing huge immigration from Mexico. It covers the pattern of US domination of Mexico's economy, and proactive movement of labor northward.