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Obama's Thieving Geek Guilty of Bad Taste
White House Forgives CIO's 'Youthful Indiscretion'
Obama Vetter's Wife Speaks Up About Her Missing Business Permit
Obama's Chief Vetter Has His Own Tax Problem

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Citizen Kang
03/19/09

In reply to Obama's Thieving Geek Guilty of Bad Taste
Geeks and webheads don't like to admit it, but it doesn't take a rocket scientist to be a computer programmer or work in technology. I've been a programmer for over a decade and have worked for several Fortune 500 financial institutions writing software for new startup divisions (all of which make billions in PROFIT; no chicanery or bailouts where I worked). All I have is a BA in History and Political Science. You can either get the knowledge in school or devote your every waking hour following the latest Asperger's-induced trend or do what I did: pick up a book and start programming. Granted it you take that last route you better pick up complex ideas like people change underwear and be very intellectually curious. It can be done and you can be doing some cutting edge stuff very fast. This is the dirty secret that geeks and nerds don't want to fess up to: it really isn't all that difficult to do their overpaid, pampered jobs if you just apply your average intellect to doing it right.
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BadUncle
03/19/09

@Citizen Kang: But what if you program at NASA? Doesn't that make you a rocket scientist?
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Citizen Kang
03/19/09

@BadUncle:

Tangentially it does. When I think Rocket Scientist (in first-letter caps) I think Werner von Braun or Goddard. The pioneers who did everything from theory to chemistry to get the things off the ground. These days everything is so specialized that it's hard to pinpoint who is the actual rocket scientist. Working at NASA does, however, make you the guy who works with the coolest gadgets in the known universe.
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BadUncle
03/19/09

@Citizen Kang: Dude, I know you people have flying cars. Just let us have them.
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AnnaZed
03/19/09

In reply to Obama's Thieving Geek Guilty of Bad Taste
I am ashamed to admit that I have no idea what a CIO at the Whitehouse even is.
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BadUncle
03/19/09

@AnnaZed: "Chief Information Officer." Sometimes called a CTO (Chief Technology Officer), in corporate America.
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BadUncle
03/19/09

In reply to Obama's Thieving Geek Guilty of Bad Taste
"Youthful Indiscretions" have evolved since my day. Back then, kids pulled bank heists, kidnapped Lindbergs, cheated at cards, and shived The Man. Now that was living.
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VoxPopuli
03/19/09

In reply to Obama's Thieving Geek Guilty of Bad Taste
Since this happened in the '90s, I'm hoping the shirts were the kind that had a different color for each panel of the shirt. God, those were ugly. I had at least one myself.
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karion
03/19/09

In reply to Obama's Thieving Geek Guilty of Bad Taste
Fuck, I give up, Owen. You are too Valleywag/tabloid for my interests.
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Owen Thomas
03/19/09

@karion: And yet you keep commenting! A conundrum.
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levari
03/19/09

In reply to Obama's Thieving Geek Guilty of Bad Taste
oh, shucks, there goes my chance at chief-assistant cigar-bearer to rahm emmanuel. i was busted in 94 for boosting a packet of bath salts. blush. bath salts. so cheap, i sold my political future. next time i'm going for major appliances.
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i'm a bottle
03/19/09

@levari: Nice.
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Oy Veh (Informality Reigns)
03/19/09

@levari: Fortunately, there is no record of any misdemeanors for me---I put out for the Mall Cops who tried to bust me! So I guess that I'm GOOD TO GO.
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Excusado
03/17/09

In reply to White House Forgives CIO's 'Youthful Indiscretion'
Wait. 20 years ago? The dude's in his 30s. This happened just over 10 years ago, unless there are some OTHER indiscretions the White House is referring to...
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macbeach
03/17/09

M@Excusado: Math is not one of the new White House's strong points.
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karion
03/03/09

In reply to Obama Vetter's Wife Speaks Up About Her Missing Business Permit
There is a reason Pareene didn't write this post, one about his usual beat.

Owen, I am trying to be cool, but this sucks out loud. This is vintage Valleywag - publish something that smells like horseshit and hope it gets picked up as a thing.

I don't slam the Gawker writers and am generally your biggest supporters, but this horseshit is bothersome.
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Master Billy
03/03/09

In reply to Obama Vetter's Wife Speaks Up About Her Missing Business Permit
Nowhere in this post did she speak up about anything. A more accurate headline might be, "Unrelated people speak up about confusing possible tax mistake maybe made by wife of Obama's vetter."
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Owen Thomas
03/03/09

@Master Billy: Stephen Cohen is a longtime friend of the Craigs, and claims to have spoken to Noyes. Up to you whether to believe him.
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Carol Gardens
03/03/09

In reply to Obama Vetter's Wife Speaks Up About Her Missing Business Permit
In your original post you wrote "By not registering Craig may have avoided local business taxes." You offer no proof at all of this and simply imply tax evasion.
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Carol Gardens
03/03/09

In reply to Obama Vetter's Wife Speaks Up About Her Missing Business Permit
Good gosh. Plenty of freelance graphic designers in New York City are sole proprietors and simply fill out a Schedule C. I don't know if it is different in DC but is this really a big deal? And is it not possible that a government bureaucracy just can't locate the occupancy permit?
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Grim Reaper of the Forest
03/03/09

In reply to Obama Vetter's Wife Speaks Up About Her Missing Business Permit
I don't normally give the benefit of the doubt, the D.C. harassed me for a year about unpaid taxes until I showed them a copy of my cashed tax check they were claiming they never got. I wouldn't put it past the government to have lost the records.
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BadUncle
03/03/09

In reply to Obama Vetter's Wife Speaks Up About Her Missing Business Permit
Freelancers need a license? wtf??
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HeathVerres
03/01/09

In reply to Obama's Chief Vetter Has His Own Tax Problem
colonelpanic, clearly you have never owned a business. I started one last year. If you google "starting a new business" you can't help but be aware from any of the 67 million page returns that filing for a business license in your city is one of the very first steps. Anyone in business for more than year would certainly discover this even if it was missed at first. Even if one is a total idiot, most businesses (in California at least) display their business license in a conspicuous place. If you ever walk into a restaurant or any small business, it's nearly impossible to not know that you need a business license from the city. As the fees are usually quite low, the main reason for not having one is because the city denied permission for your home based business (and coincidentally, “customers visiting your residence/business” is cited as the main reason for denying a home based business license.) I beg to differ regarding the ethics of the self employed. I know quite a few self employed people and a quick poll shows that ALL have their business licenses, even the ones working out of their home.
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Carol Gardens
03/03/09

@HeathVerres: Absolutely not true. There are plenty of graphic designers, illustrators, writers, and other professionals who are sole proprietors and do not have a business license. Most of the ones I know do not have customers come to them, however.
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Uncle_Billy_Slumming
02/28/09

In reply to Obama's Chief Vetter Has His Own Tax Problem
You guys duplicated a webofdeception.com error.

"Noyes Graphics operates out of the home she shares with her husband and invites walk-in traffic into the home."

They link, and you link to a site which displays an ad on the left, and the location mapped on the right. If they would have clicked on one of the other graphic designers, they would have seen the same merged boilerplate: "Stop by our location in charming Washington..."

She probably didn't even know the ad existed. Many companies aggregate business listing info and create these sorts of ads automatically to create a base for their directories, without requiring advertisers initially.

Noyes graphics does not "invite walk-in traffic into the home," only the ad does that.
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