Slashdot Mirror

He's absolutely right. We've spent trillions of dollars destroying and then rebuilding infrastructure for the Taliban and other terrorist organizations while allowing our own to rot.

Half right, half absolutely wrong.

The US government has spent at least $3 trillion since 2001 destroying infrastructure in Asia and Africa.

But it hasn't rebuilt a single thing. Even in Raqqa, which it bombed relentlessly for months, there are still tens of thousands of corpses rotting under the ruins.

See much rebuilding here?

http://a.abcnews.com/images/In...

The bridge was still being constructed.

Yes. A post-tensioner on member 11 snapped while being either tightened or loosened (no one is sure yet which, but the design called for loosening it after the bridge was put in place). There's a good dashcam video where you can see small explosions along with a projectile out the top of member 11 (where about 4 people were working) about 3 frames before the bridge starts to buckle. Here's a picture of the hydraulic ram which ejected from member 11: https://s.abcnews.com/images/U...

You realize the Americans you're calling Nazis aren't actually Nazis, right?

http://a.abcnews.com/images/Po...

https://clarionproject.org/wp-...

https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws...

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/0-ldnkx...

https://www.rawstory.com/wp-co...

Hey c'mon! Terrorism is like any other business. When domestic sources can't meet demand, you gotta import.

I'm also guessing they won't explain why the anti-pedo sub /r/pizzagate got moved to /v/pizzagate [voat.co], but why they're happy to keep subs like /r/pedochat /r/pedofriends, etc.

/u/spez

Need I say more (again)?

People don't realize that this is pretty much the gigantic fuckup we have in parts of Canada now. While we use FPTP, in Ontario for example. The political parties only need to run for the Greater Toronto Area(GTA), and if you win that and say London or Ottawa, you've won the province. Getting rid of the electoral college will basically make sure that things get worse.

We'll first off don't use FPTP. It is crap. Use some form of ranked voting. Second, isn't the phrase something like no taxation without representation? Well if you have a system that effectively means your voice is negated down to zero every time, that is taxation without representation. It is the exact same thing they do with gerrymandering. They go out of their way to draw the map such that there is as few democratic districts as possible, and the democrats there win elections by very high margins, while there is as many republican districts as possible.

Basically the republicans have become experts at gaming the system to **** over the average american voter. Giving everyone an equal vote for the presidency would be a small redress to that. Also, it is not as if people have to visit everywhere to be seen everywhere. TV is everywhere. The internet is also increasingly common.

Frankly I'm only seeing two arguments for the electoral collect. First is the idea that people in less densely populated areas, you know the whiter sections of the country, have the right to a greater say in how things are run that the people in the more diverse and more densely populated areas. I believe I've heard this argument before, and it was crap then, as it is crap now.

Second, and this is arguable, since it is never been done, and electors are more and more locked down, but, in theory, the electors could be the final check in the system to prevent say someone who lied his way into office from leading us into ruin.

We are about to see if the second is at all useful. My guess is no. These are party loyalists and aren't going to change, regardless of what is best for the country. So, in short, we have one bogus argument and one real argument than in practice is useless. Yah, I'm just not getting the worth of the EC. Twice it has prove inferior to the popular vote in picking a president. Both time you would have had competent, if perhaps uninspiring leadership. In the first, it might have, just possibly, been enough to prevent 9/11. link. In the second, well at minimum it would have prevented the kind of supreme court that could cause untold damage to our country and our values, and would have held the line in some other areas as well.

I'll make you a deal: You can be pissy about misleading news coverage on Facebook after you call out the rest of the media for not pointing out that "if you like your insurance/doctor, you can keep your insurance/doctor" were obvious lies.

I'll make you a counter-deal -- if I can find an example of the media pointing out problems with "if you like your insurance/doctor, you can keep your insurance/doctor", you'll admit that there might be a problem with misleading news on Facebook, yes? Here we go:

Even back in 2009, ABC News, and FactCheck.org were asking tough questions about the Obama administrations' statements on health care reform. In 2013, Politifact awarded the claim, "If you like your health care plan, you can keep it" as its 'Lie of the Year', and had been rating the claims that people would be able to keep their plans as 'half true' since at least August of 2009.

See? Easy. There are obviously other examples than the four I've linked above, but I assume I've made my point.

For you to say that the media wasn't covering the story about the Obama administration's statements on healthcare is simply not true, and it's a good example of exactly why many people, including myself, are concerned about misleading news on Facebook. Bandying about half truths and lies as if they were facts isn't going to help anyone, and if you really believe we should only listen to the biggest and most successful liars out there, than I have a couple of bridges and some fine, very nice land in Florida I'd like to sell you.

The bad news is Trump won, but I have been getting a lot of schadenfreude from the leftists' meltdown.

Here's to schadenfreude, by far my favorite picture. You can simultaneously see that she didn't consider even once that she could lose, that she was beat by a deplorable, and will never get to try again. The race was hers to lose, and she nailed it.

I hadn't seen a picture from overhead yet, but I wondered how did the plane end up at the *side* of the runway if EMAS stopped the plane? It appears it slid THROUGH the EMAS somewhat diagonally and came to a rest at the side of the runway's end. http://a.abcnews.com/images/US...

Or this guy...

Yeah.... to bad Obama himself help block Bush's nominee in 2007 so its is rather douchbag move by B.O. http://blogs.abcnews.com/polit... More to the point, Congress should not 'respect' the President when it comes to them doing their job. Their job is to be the gate keeper to what is easily one of the most important positions of power in the country. FYI the longest time without a 9th member was 27 months. Since they went to 9 peeps it is 391 days - when the democrats didn't respect the President and blocked Nixons appointments. There is already a policy and procedure in place to handle this. If the SCOTUS is tied 4-4 the lower courts last judgement stands... so the world keeps on turning.

Do you take your Kool Aid straight or on the rocks?

His discipline problems are on the record. He DID NOT identify it until he was in the Principal's office.

Did you see a fucking picture of it?

I tend to just pronounce them. Boys and life jackets are still missing, seven exclamation marks.

Don't forget synchronised swimming http://a.abcnews.com/images/US...

And I didn't see any tanks, unless you were watching something I wasn't. What the hell good would they be? You gonna shoot a guy with a tank cannon?

Well, maybe 'tanks' is a bit strong of a word for some, but just because they didn't have cannons doesn't mean there wasn't a lot of armor on hand.

Julie Larson-Green would be kind of cute if she didn't look like some weird Cabbage Patch Kid with Botox injections.

Rumor has it John Broder is about to release a story that claims Dragon won't make it all the way to the space station. The capsule SpaceX lent him died somewhere in Connecticut and had to be towed back to Cape Canaveral. Alleged leaked picture here. No word on whether Musk will issue a rebuttal.

It's not a great picture, but

I found a better picture.

khipu put plenty of facts forward, and 2 minutes on google would confirm everything he says.

Here you go, some facts with references:

Cut a secret deal to kill the public option, while campaigning on its behalf
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/miles-mogulescu/ny-times-reporter-confirm_b_500999.html

Granted waivers for 30 companies, including McDonald's, exempting them from health care reform
http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/health/2010-10-07-healthlaw07_ST_N.htm?loc=interstitialskip

Continued renditions of alleged terrorists to countries where they could be tortured
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/25/us/politics/25rendition.html

Blocked the release of photos documenting the torture and abuse of detainees by the US military
http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2009/05/president-oba-5.html

Continued the practice of indefinite detentions for alleged terrorists
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/21/AR2009052104045.html

Extended the Patriot Act without making any reforms
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/2010/0301/Obama-signs-Patriot-Act-extension-without-reforms

Pushed for mandatory DNA testing of those arrested for crimes, regardless of whether they have been convicted
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0310/34097.html

Dramatically increased government secrecy, blocking more FOIA requests in 2009 than Bush did in 2008
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/16/obamas-broken-promise-fed_n_500526.html

Cut a deal to exempt abortion services from health care reform
http://www.politicsdaily.com/2010/03/21/deal-struck-on-abortion-clears-path-for-health-care-passage/

Announced a $60 billion sale of arms to the Saudi Arabian dictatorship, the largest arms deal in history
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503543_162-20016181-503543.html

About 6 minute's worth

Oil Guy: Do you find it ironic that we denounce global warming, but use higher temps and lower ice mass to get more oil for more Carbon emissions?

Tobacco Guy: no, not at all.

It's funny you should mention tobacco... every time I hear about the push to drill in the (newly ice-free) Arctic, this image (of the cancer victim who has figured out that his newly installed throat-hole makes a fine nicotine delivery mechanism) is what comes to mind.

It would look something like this

Nope, that would be on Kepler-16b

It would look something like this

It won't match the spirit of the novel until they put devices in our cars that can report on our position in real time while simultaneously transmitting audio and video as well.

Like, you know, they way your smartphone can be remotely activated to do, even when turned off.

http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2006/12/can_you_hear_me.html

Not sure I would agree with the term "in bed with", but anyway, up to the mid 80's the south was solidly controlled by Democrats. The south is also where you find local economies and jobs being driven by the oil industry. So, now that the Republicans solidly control the south, they are speaking up for the companies that provide jobs in their districts.

Take a look at statements recently made by Democrat Senator from Louisiana Mary Landrieu in regards to the ban on drilling in the gulf. Not saying all southern Democrats are for drilling, but you will certainly find more in the south than anywhere else.

It is a "jobs for my constituents" thing, not a "in bed with" thing.

Full disclosure, I'm from Houston, TX and have (in the past) worked in the oil industry.'

As for the flip flopping of labels over the last "many" years, I agree that they have flipped but not with your description of their current definitions. I would summarize it as:
Conservatives today believe in limited government and states rights, at the base of the movement, not all "Republicans" are conservative, of course.
Liberals, or Progressives, believe in a strong federal government to such a point that leaders such as Nancy Pelosi make statements that Food Stamps have more "bang for the buck" than creating actual jobs.

You can probably tell by my summary where I stand :)

The real question is, does he gave the guts to do it in person, or does he in fact use an autoknife?

I mean, in addition to Random Task and Muntadhar al-Zaiydi, now we have this guy launching shoes and eggs.

Yep.. As endorsed by Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton.. You can't beat that..

He's also apparently scheduled to have dinner with Obama. It is unlikely that the meeting would be scheduled if he was that close to death.

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2011/02/steve-jobs-and-eric-schmidt-to-meet-with-president-obama-thursday-in-san-francisco.html

One possibility is that Wikileaks and Assange are losing public support.

They are.

WikiLeaks: A Document Dump Too Far

WikiLeaks Comes Under Fire from Rights Groups

Reports that Wikileaks released the names of Afghan informants hasn't helped

Sad, but true. Hopefully none are killed. We need as many informants against the Taliban as we can, both to protect the Afghans, and to protect the US from more terrorist attacks.

WikiLeaks Reportedly Outs 100s of Afghan Informants

profiles of Assange (such as the one in the New York Times) don't paint him in a very flattering light.

They aren't the only ones.

10 days in Sweden: the full allegations against Julian Assange

The wildly promiscuous lifestyle of WikiLeaks boss Julian Assange: Look away now Jemima as our report reveals the sordid truth

Exposed: The 'creepy, lovesick' emails WikiLeaks boss Julian Assange sent to 19-year-old girl student

No one gains from this 'rape-rape' defence of Julian Assange

My understanding from the Times article is that even within Wikileaks, there is a lot of controversy about how Assange has acted.

Is WikiLeaks Reneging on its Financial Promise to Bradley Manning?

Former WikiLeaks Activists to Launch New Whistleblowing Site

‘Chaos’ at WikiLeaks Follows Assange Arrest

Although not internal to Wikileaks, thought provoking.

Wikileaks Fails “Due Diligence” Review

I'm not seeing what the issue is. NASA's main goal is now to "...engage much more with dominantly Muslim nations to help them feel good about their historic contribution to science and engineering -- science, math and engineering." according to NASA administrator Charles Bolden

A few days ago, in Cairo, Bolden told Al Jazeera that when he became the NASA administrator, President Obama charged him with three things: "One, he wanted me to help re-inspire children to want to get into science and math; he wanted me to expand our international relationships; and third, and perhaps foremost, he wanted me to find a way to reach out to the Muslim world and engage much more with dominantly Muslim nations to help them feel good about their historic contribution to science and engineering -- science, math and engineering."

Sure. For the first point:
1. Reuters: $246k per job
2. International Business Times: $118k-179k per job, but they include the nebulous figure of "saved" jobs, which is nearly impossible to truly quantify.
3. ABC News: $160k-248k per job- the latter number is using the official number of jobs created, the former also adds the White House's estimate of "jobs saved."

For the second:
1. Seasonal workers rejecting landscaping jobs, prefer to stay on unemployment.
The story links back to the Detroit News, which has since placed the article behind a paywall.
2. Workers not applying for new jobs until unemployment runs out
3. I have also personally run across several construction workers who stated they were staying on unemployment rather than working as "they'd lose their benefits" if they started to work again. It's an anecdote, but it tells me that behavior is going on in my area as well.

Call me a foil hat wearing lunatic but I say at this point we've seen more than enough evidence of close cooperation between the American government and America's large industries to call it a budding facism.

Consider: Pluralism has been steadily weakening as congress and the presidents sign law after law giving and allowing the president to take unprecedented power. The courts already lack any real ability to stop this trend.

New laws have made everyone a criminal. Those against whom the government chooses to enforce these laws are being imprisoned and harassed. It's no longer possible to be a law abiding citizen in America -- only on the ruling powers' good side or not. Police all over the US have an "us against them" mindset that has led to countless abuses to the extent that a police uniform is no longer a comforting site even for those who obey the law. It's now illegal in several states to even record these abuses and Americans everywhere are shutting up and keeping their heads down.

If these dangerous trends are not stopped the US will be a fascist police state very soon.

Freedom of speech means that you can burn an American flag. You can form groups based on hatred like the KKK. Americans think that examples like these mean that free speech is alive and well.

But there are significant exceptions:

• you can't write mean emails to the president
• you can't burn a Koran (Many people assume that it would be protected speech, but not according to Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer.)

I wonder what it'll take to rally the docile United States citizens to fight back.

Oh, that's simple... Just preempt their favorite TV show

Before posting something like this, this genius should make sure he is out of the country and is never going back. They'll kill him or send him to jail for "encouraging indecency" -- or maybe a stoning?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/04/dubai-kissing-couple-jail_n_524736.html

These whack jobs in Dubai and other Tyrant controlled governments have SLAVE labor. Like they are going to respect "freedom of the press".

http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2006/11/dark_side_of_du.html

And I can sometimes tell something about people just by looking into their eyes. James Lee doesn't look like the kind of person who would hold a particular grudge against Asians. I am afraid that YHBT. HAND.

Wait a minute, are trying to tell me that Bush, the man who brought the following words into the US lexicon:

-extraordinary rendition
-the Patriot Act
-warrantless wiretaps and NSAs
-regime change
-"post 9/11 world"
-Title 1 "regulation" of ISPs
-Abu Graib and Guantanimo Bay

That is small stuff compared to what Obama is doing:

1. The assassination of American citizens at the request of the President with no due process.
2. Forcing American citizens to buy a product just to live here.
3. The ability of an SEC bureaucrat to take over an American business with no due process and not have to answer any questions about it. No FOIA requests will be honored, and the business is restricted from saying anything to anyone about the situation.
4. The suspension of due process for American citizens with nothing more
than an allegation of terrorism by the White House.
5. The FBI can now monitor all your financial records without a warrant or even requesting one.

Obam's big spending bill was the stimulus? LOL. That doesn't even come close to what Obama care is going to cost. The CBO released a statement on May 20 saying it was going to cost an additional $143 billion, and even Obama admits his bill is going to raise health care costs for everyone. This after he promised Obama care was going to lower everyone costs. Just wait till this bill is fully functional. Every entitlement ever created has never come close to coming in at or under under budget. They've all cost substantially more than estimated, and with Obama's record of deceit and doubletalk you can bet this is going to do the same thing.

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2010/05/cbo-health-care-bill-will-cost-115-billion-more-than-previously-assessed.html

Anyone who thinks the left, and specifically Obama, is for personal freedom, is sadly mistaken. He is going to do more to increase the power of the federal government and restrict liberty than all previous presidents combined, including Wilson and FDR who created the internment camps for Japanese citizens during WWII. Funny how it's the progressives who always take away our liberties.

That's video shot by a national news outlet, of a US Coast Guard officer, threatening the news crew with arrest if they don't comply with a BP policy. Color of law, anyone?

Indeed.

That was in May. It doesn't appear to have been official policy though -- more likely the "grown boys with too much power" phenomenon at play -- and in June, Admiral Thad Allen was a lot clearer on what the Coast Guard does and did not allow:

TAPPER: Lastly, I saw firsthand when I was down in Louisiana over
the weekend, all the workers there, whether they work for the governor
or for BP or for private contractors who work for BP, they've all been
told not to talk to the press, not to talk to the public about their
work. Shouldn't they be allowed to share with the public the work that
they're doing?

        ALLEN: I put out a written directive and I can provide it for the
record that says the media will have uninhibited access anywhere we're
doing operations, except for two things, if it's a security or safety
problem. That is my policy. I'm the national incident commander.

        TAPPER: Well, I can tell you firsthand people are not -- people are
not following that.

        ALLEN: You take (ph) the information and you tell me where it's at,
and we'll get the word to them.

        TAPPER: All right, Admiral Allen, thanks so much for joining us.

Conservative propaganda? Facts are facts. Unfortunately the Lame-stream media will never touch something that may tarnish this administration. You have to dig deeper no matter how unpleasant it may be.
Sherlock.
All entities are clueless.
oh.
more.
Jones Act a non-factor.
If the want of a strong decisive administration, instead of a group of clueless community organizers, makes me a conservative, then so be it. It makes it easier to make fun of the bed-wetters. Eventually it will be exposed how this was all an elaborate plan to sabotage the oil industry to gain backing for the Cap and Trade bill to further the government take over of industry. Kind of a head scratcher as to why less than a month before the explosion and leak, the administration opens up previously restricted offshore areas to oil and gas exploration and drilling. Flies in the face of the environmental platform. Now we know why. More Government control.

It's called Medicare. It's a large percentage of federal spending right now, and it's projected to exceed 100% of all federal spending by about 2020, baring any changes.

If you don't know this, it's simply because you aren't informed at all. Experts have been sounding the alarm bells for at least a decade, loudly and repeatedly. It seemed to be the top topic just a handful of years ago, when ballooning medical costs were the largest problem facing the general public, just a while before the economy started to fail completely, and more immediate concerns became paramount.

Obama, Clinton, and McCain talked about it all through their presidential primaries and campaigns, in no uncertain terms. It was a major issues discussed endlessly in the house and senate for about a year as Obama tried to push health care reform through. I have no idea how you could be ignorant of this fact, if you pay attention to national/world events at all.

http://blogs.abcnews.com/theworldnewser/2009/12/president-obama-federal-government-will-go-bankrupt-if-health-care-costs-are-not-reigned-in.html

During and after Katrina everyone attacked Bush, often very personal attacks for the Federal and even state responses to that event.

Yet here we are nearly two months after this started and there has been very little vitriolic attacking on the current President.

Why is that I wonder? The Obama administration was in charge of the offices at the Interior that oversaw this and no changes were made. The Justice Department could have been turned on to BP and people could be in jail right now, but nothing was done.

I'll field this one.

Why is the difference between Deepwater and Katrina? Well multiple reasons. First, Katrina was a natural disaster, and Deepwater was a man-made one, no matter how many times BP and anti-government apologists claim it was a "natural disaster" or an "Act of God". While not all the facts are in, it's looking increasingly likely criminal negligence and lack of proper enforcement of regulations due to long time corruption in the Mines and Minerals Service are to blame. The government has always had a role in the preparation and recovery after natural disasters. In fact, there's a whole agency dedicated just to that, the Federal Emergency Management Agency. States and even large cities have similar agencies. Man made disasters? Not so much. The government simply doesn't have the tools or expertise in repairing deepwater drills. It never did. Now we can argue whether or not the government should have the tools and the expertise in-house for future events, but it has never had this. Second, Katrina had warning. Days of warning for Katrina specifically, and years of warning about the possibility. Sadly, the devastation of Katrina pretty much played out exactly as predicted. The Bush Administration simply failed to prepare because he appointed political allies instead of the (albeit recent) tradition of professional emergency managers. Finally, and this is the biggest difference. The economic and human toll of the two disasters are simply incomparable. The death toll for Katrina is literally 100 times greater. The economic impact is equally disproportionate.

You talk about coverups, but the only coverup I'm aware of is BP's not the government's. Keep in mind, BP was repeatedly denying access to the site by outsiders and providing the absurdly low estimates. Not the Coast Guard, nor any other government agency.

Was it not Hillary Clinton who said that disagreement is a fundamental principal of a democracy?

You didn't get the latest memo, did you? Dissent is only patriotic when the other party is running things. Once your party seizes all the levers of power, that same dissent becomes un-american and grassroots opposition movements are nothing more than racist astroturfing operations.

So now DPRK propaganda makes it to slashdot?

I can live with that, but I really want to know where I can buy a pair of those glasses. It was only a month ago when they revealed that Kim Jong Il was setting fashion trends around the world, so I'd like to sport those glasses. The retro aviator style glasses are out, Kim Jong Il's glasses are IN.

Everyone (apart from the Chinese) is very hesitant to gratuitously blow stuff up in orbit, because the debris stays in orbit and makes space missions more dangerous and difficult.

And the counter-point to claims in previous from ABC.

It took me a few seconds to figure out which was the controller. A picture of the controller, and the model pistol the father owns Granted I'm from the UK and have never seen a gun like that up close, but the realism of that unit is scary.

The dad was an idiot, though. I don't see him recovering. As for it being accidental? I couldn't speculate, but to all of the people saying that a kid couldn't pull the trigger... Kids have two hands, remember?

Smith & Wesson handgun

a .380 caliber black Smith & Wesson

a semi-automatic pistol

They even show a picture of the gun (along with the lifelike Wii gun). http://a.abcnews.com/images/Technology/abc_pistol_100309_mn.jpg

You must have missed the news for the last few weeks, Rahm Emanuel, the president's chief of staff, just had to vow he would never use that word again. http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2010/02/rahm-takes-pledge-not-to-use-rword.html

Now I assume that is taken from United States International Organizations Immunities ACT, Public LAw 79-291, 29 December 1945, seems to not been much of a problem until now, and please note where I found a copy http://www.icann.org/en/psc/annex9.pdf. It would really be far more appropriate the list the actual current change rather than looking at stuff 60 years old. Also that it can be granted or withdrawn either by congress or executive order, executive order is of course much quicker. Finally "No person shall, by reason of the provisions of this chapter, be considered as receiving diplomatic status". Here is a nice article http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2009/12/just-what-did-president-obamas-executive-order-regarding-interpol-do.html.

> This is where I think Bruce misses the mark, he claims there are very few people willing to blow themselves up. Iraq/Afghanistan shows us plainly this is not true.

I agree with you, but note that Bruce is also suggesting a real change in relationships with middle east so that number eventually could be insignificant. But I suspect that will not be the case in the near time (even with the Obama's Nobel price:)

> Now this I think is unfair, the rules are put in place by committees of people that really are looking to make people safer but with little understanding or concern

Well, one of the politicians' jobs is to lead the people (including whatever committees.) By that way, the financial crisis would have been repelled by the government by printing and throwing a lot of money to every citizen...

> you stand on a platform for 10 seconds with your carryon in hand, and the device scans all of you along with your boarding pass.

I don't know about such technology, but I found that:

"Experts say the technology would almost certainly find a gun or knife but not necessarily something carried the way the Nigerian carried his explosives."

http://blogs.abcnews.com/theworldnewser/2009/12/whole-body-scan-vs-your-privacy-how-far-is-too-far.html