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What are the poison pills you are reffering to?

Democrats want direct funding for plan parenthood in the bill to help deal with Zika. Republicans don't want this, but would allow for states to allocate money as needed (including plan parenthood).

Democrats want this bill considered to be emergency funding, but Republicans have paid for part of the 1.1 billion dollar bill with 750 million from ~100 million of unused funds from Ebola and ~540 million from unused funds from the affordable health care act. The funds for the affordable health care act were unused because in some US territories it was not feasible to setup exchanges and they opted for additional medicare funding and so did not need the money to setup the exchanges.

So nothing really poisonous going on, just disagreement.

NNope. Republicans banned Planned Parenthood funding in Puerto Rico. But they've lost the image on it just like they did for the shutdowns, and no, nobody believes the crap about the Confederate flag belongs either.

Republicans tried to make a political grand-standing, and failed, they weren't doing anything but with lives.

Why do you expect the rest of us to fall for it? Why do you have so little regard for anyone else?

My earlier comment mentioned our star legislators Jenn Coffey, Elizabeth Edwards, and Amanda Bouldin (one R and two Democrats, respectively). I forgot about Jody Underwood, who has singlehandedly brought town-level school choice to NH. Here's one of my op-eds about it (I've been in NH since 2008): http://www.concordmonitor.com/...

Since when is a link to a youtube video and a tiny url redirect to this is a pop-up hell?

You need to check your computer.

Wouldn't you rather have a person as POTUS who saw all of the current problems coming ten and more years away?

One, whose potential win scares the shit out of establishment, so they are fighting it with everything they deem necessary?

One who does not in fact change his opinion to compromise over decades on the important issues, but who admitted that there was a case where opinion needed to be changed?

What are the alternatives?

If you RTFA, it doesn't claim anywhere that "Free Staters" are behind this initiative. Nor does it even mention the Free State Project.

Even within New Hampshire, you hardly ever hear about the Free State project. They were completely inconsequential in the recent election, even though the statehouse ended up packed with small-government Republicans. About the only thing anyone's heard from them lately were some ornery demonstrations to legalize marijuana.

That's not enough, there are cases where the guy IDs the girl and the ID looks good, if it's a fake, you're still a criminal for life. It's very very risky being male.

http://www.concordmonitor.com/article/wife-my-husband-isnt-sex-offender

I've seen a few other cases as well.

Companies have no way of knowing if someone is a nutjob. Believe it or not, I don't want to have nutjobs working under me, so when it comes time to hire a new tech, you can bet I won't be hiring any nutjobs. You're acting like the company "wants" to hire nutjobs, or has some policy saying the must hire nutjobs.

I never said they wanted to hire nutjobs, but their screening is lacking. I hate to break this to you, but nobody that goes off like this his a complaint free record. They do have a way; proper screening, and monitoring the employee after they are hired.

"He should have been fired." Ever hear of "innocent until proven guilty?" How would you like it if some jerk decided to claim you did something you didn't in order to get you fired? One of our collection people where I work was talking to a customer one day, and I heard the customer raising a **** fit. Later that day, when the same customer came in, he claimed that the collection fellow had been cursing him out -- little did he know I was there the whole time listening in.

That only applies to criminal cases. VZ can fire him for any reason, or no reason. And its really fucking clear in this case, being the employee was CAUGHT BY AN OFF DUTY COP WHILE CHASING THE CUSTOMER.

If the man is guilty, then sue the employee. Once the employee is now branded a criminal, then sue Verizon if they don't fire said criminal. In this system though, it's not fair to fire people over accusations -- which is all this guy has. Now, if you can show me where this guy was convicted (not charged, charged does not mean guilty) then you have a point.

Nope. VZ failed in their duty to make sure their employees can handle stress, THEY ARE LIABLE. Oh, and the employee would only be a "criminal" if criminal charges are filed.. but for some reason the procescutor is refusing to do so.

In this system though, it's not fair to fire people over accusations -- which is all this guy has. Now, if you can show me where this guy was convicted (not charged, charged does not mean guilty) then you have a point.

Again, did you miss the part where the employee wa CAUGHT BY AN OFF DUTY COP WHILE CHASING THE CUSTOMER?? Christ man, get a fucking grip on reality. You really want me to believe the customer beat his own face just to get some random VZ employee fired? WTF dude, you're not even in the same reality anymore.

As is, we have someone who was charged, but not convicted. It's tricky ground, but if anyone needs to be held accountable it should be the justice system that dismissed the case. The employer takes a risk if they fire someone over accusations.

No they don't; employers can fire anyone for any reason, or for no reason. They can fire you for not liking the color of your shirt today.

Doctors Insurance:
http://www.concordmonitor.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080313/OPINION/803130304

Oh... a poor doctor crying he has to pay more for insurance. Whaaa, my $450,000 / yr salary isn't enough, wahhh!! Yup, no conflict of interest there. No sir. After all, why SHOULDN'T he be able to leave a scaple inside a patient, and his only penelty should be "oh, sorry about that!"

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25120613/

Not to mention, we get huge lawsuits like this all over the place. Sure, it can be spread out, but cases like this hurt all of us. If you think this is honestly a case of a company not caring about risking customer's lives, then there should be a criminal suit. Why money? Why isn't he trying to get people jailed? That's not what he wants, he wants (b$_$)b vacation plans.

Because you can't put a company in jail? Because he has MEDICAL BILLS which will need to be paid? Why should HIS health insurance pay because of the actions of VZ's employee? Because the victim CAN'T FILE A CRIMINAL SUIT? God damn, d

Companies have no way of knowing if someone is a nutjob. Believe it or not, I don't want to have nutjobs working under me, so when it comes time to hire a new tech, you can bet I won't be hiring any nutjobs. You're acting like the company "wants" to hire nutjobs, or has some policy saying the must hire nutjobs.

"He should have been fired." Ever hear of "innocent until proven guilty?" How would you like it if some jerk decided to claim you did something you didn't in order to get you fired? One of our collection people where I work was talking to a customer one day, and I heard the customer raising a **** fit. Later that day, when the same customer came in, he claimed that the collection fellow had been cursing him out -- little did he know I was there the whole time listening in.

If the man is guilty, then sue the employee. Once the employee is now branded a criminal, then sue Verizon if they don't fire said criminal. In this system though, it's not fair to fire people over accusations -- which is all this guy has. Now, if you can show me where this guy was convicted (not charged, charged does not mean guilty) then you have a point.

As is, we have someone who was charged, but not convicted. It's tricky ground, but if anyone needs to be held accountable it should be the justice system that dismissed the case. The employer takes a risk if they fire someone over accusations.

Doctors Insurance:
http://www.concordmonitor.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080313/OPINION/803130304

Not to mention, we get huge lawsuits like this all over the place. Sure, it can be spread out, but cases like this hurt all of us. If you think this is honestly a case of a company not caring about risking customer's lives, then there should be a criminal suit. Why money? Why isn't he trying to get people jailed? That's not what he wants, he wants (b$_$)b vacation plans.

Need something for that cough perhaps?

"Despite a backdrop of meager funding and career-killing derision from mainstream scientists and engineers, cold fusion is anything but a dead field of research. Presenters at the MIT event estimated that 3,000 published studies from scientists around the world have contributed to the growing canon of evidence suggesting that small but promising amounts of energy can be generated using the infamous tabletop apparatus."

"MIT's Peter Hagelstein, on the other hand, said "cold fusion" reactions have yielded surplus energy from as far back as the initial experiments in 1989. Verification of these controversial results is not the problem -- many labs around the world have reproduced parts of the results many times. "

http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2007/08/cold_fusion?currentPage=all#

Navy Discovers Cold Fusion (again):
http://www.zpenergy.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=2292

"Last March, scientists at the annual conference of the august American Physical Society heard presentations on cold fusion. Next month, the Second International Conference on Future Energy will be held in Washington, D.C. The vast majority of physicists remains skeptical, but at the Office of Naval Research, six of the nine experiments performed produced an unexplainable amount of excess heat."

http://www.concordmonitor.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060808/REPOSITORY/608080316&SearchID=73253345954312

"Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have developed a tabletop accelerator that produces nuclear fusion at room temperature, providing confirmation of an earlier experiment conducted at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), while offering substantial improvements over the original design."

http://www.scienceblog.com/cms/ny_team_confirms_ucla_tabletop_fusion_10017.html

Science in Neglect
Nobel Laureate Speaks Out For Cold Fusion:

http://newenergytimes.com/news/2005/2005Lietz-ScienceInNeglectJosephson.htm

"The foreword by Dr. Frank Gordon in a [extern] summary report of February 2002 is so far the strongest statement of the Navy about their research:

We do not know if Cold Fusion will be the answer to future energy needs, but we do know the existence of Cold Fusion phenomenon through repeated observations by scientists throughout the world. It is time that this phenomenon be investigated so that we can reap whatever benefits accrue from additional scientific understanding. It is time for government funding organizations to invest in this research. "

http://www.heise.de/tp/r4/artikel/18/18580/1.html

"First, a dozen techniques have been found to produce anomalous energy and benign nuclear products in certain solids. These are listed in the table (p. 76). Most of these methods have been duplicated at independent laboratories, and several can be made to work by anyone who would take the time to learn how. "

http://www.21stcenturysciencetech.com/articles/summ01/cold_fusion/cold_fusion.html

Edmund Storms* discusses the methods used to generate low energy nuclear reactions (LENR).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltZhii3g2HY

* Retired from the Los Alamos National Laboratory after thirty-four years of service. His work there involved basic research i

By 1991, 92 groups of researchers from 10 different countries had reported excess heat, tritium, neutrons or other nuclear effects.[73] Over 3,000 cold fusion papers have been published including about 1,000 in peer-reviewed journals (see indices in further reading, below). In March 1995, Dr. Edmund Storms compiled a list of 21 published papers reporting excess heat and articles have been published in peer reviewed journals such as Naturwissenschaften, European Physical Journal A, European Physical Journal C, Journal of Solid State Phenomena, Physical Review A, Journal of Electroanalytical Chemistry, Japanese Journal of Applied Physics, and Journal of Fusion Energy (see indices in further reading, below).

The generation of excess heat has been reported by (among others):

* Michael McKubre, director of the Energy Research Center at SRI International,
* Giuliano Preparata (ENEA (Italy))
* Richard A. Oriani (University of Minnesota, in December 1990),
* Robert A. Huggins (at Stanford University in March 1990),
* Yoshiaki Arata (Osaka University, Japan),
* T. Mizuno (Hokkaido University, Japan),
* T. Ohmori (Japan),

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_fusion#Experimental_reports [wikipedia.org]

"Despite a backdrop of meager funding and career-killing derision from mainstream scientists and engineers, cold fusion is anything but a dead field of research. Presenters at the MIT event estimated that 3,000 published studies from scientists around the world have contributed to the growing canon of evidence suggesting that small but promising amounts of energy can be generated using the infamous tabletop apparatus."

"MIT's Peter Hagelstein, on the other hand, said "cold fusion" reactions have yielded surplus energy from as far back as the initial experiments in 1989. Verification of these controversial results is not the problem -- many labs around the world have reproduced parts of the results many times. "

http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2007/08/cold_fusion?currentPage=all# [wired.com]

U.S. Navy Report Supports Cold Fusion:
http://www.infinite-energy.com/iemagazine/issue44/navy.html [infinite-energy.com]

""Last March, scientists at the annual conference of the august American Physical Society heard presentations on cold fusion. Next month, the Second International Conference on Future Energy will be held in Washington, D.C. The vast majority of physicists remains skeptical, but at the Office of Naval Research, six of the nine experiments performed produced an unexplainable amount of excess heat.""

http://www.concordmonitor.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060808/REPOSITORY/608080316&SearchID=73253345954312 [concordmonitor.com]

"Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have developed a tabletop accelerator that produces nuclear fusion at room temperature, providing confirmation of

you still shouldn't out the others working on similar things:

-------------

By 1991, 92 groups of researchers from 10 different countries had reported excess heat, tritium, neutrons or other nuclear effects.[73] Over 3,000 cold fusion papers have been published including about 1,000 in peer-reviewed journals (see indices in further reading, below). In March 1995, Dr. Edmund Storms compiled a list of 21 published papers reporting excess heat and articles have been published in peer reviewed journals such as Naturwissenschaften, European Physical Journal A, European Physical Journal C, Journal of Solid State Phenomena, Physical Review A, Journal of Electroanalytical Chemistry, Japanese Journal of Applied Physics, and Journal of Fusion Energy (see indices in further reading, below).

The generation of excess heat has been reported by (among others):

* Michael McKubre, director of the Energy Research Center at SRI International,
* Giuliano Preparata (ENEA (Italy))
* Richard A. Oriani (University of Minnesota, in December 1990),
* Robert A. Huggins (at Stanford University in March 1990),
* Yoshiaki Arata (Osaka University, Japan),
* T. Mizuno (Hokkaido University, Japan),
* T. Ohmori (Japan),

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_fusion#Experimental_reports

"Despite a backdrop of meager funding and career-killing derision from mainstream scientists and engineers, cold fusion is anything but a dead field of research. Presenters at the MIT event estimated that 3,000 published studies from scientists around the world have contributed to the growing canon of evidence suggesting that small but promising amounts of energy can be generated using the infamous tabletop apparatus."

"MIT's Peter Hagelstein, on the other hand, said "cold fusion" reactions have yielded surplus energy from as far back as the initial experiments in 1989. Verification of these controversial results is not the problem -- many labs around the world have reproduced parts of the results many times. "

http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2007/08/cold_fusion?currentPage=all#

U.S. Navy Report Supports Cold Fusion:
http://www.infinite-energy.com/iemagazine/issue44/navy.html

""Last March, scientists at the annual conference of the august American Physical Society heard presentations on cold fusion. Next month, the Second International Conference on Future Energy will be held in Washington, D.C. The vast majority of physicists remains skeptical, but at the Office of Naval Research, six of the nine experiments performed produced an unexplainable amount of excess heat.""

http://www.concordmonitor.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060808/REPOSITORY/608080316&SearchID=73253345954312

"Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have developed a tabletop accelerator that produces nuclear fusion at room temperature, providing confirmation of an earlier experiment conducted at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), while offering substantial improvements over the original design."

http://www.scienceblog.com/cms/ny_team_confirms_ucla_tabletop_fusion_10017.html

Science in Neglect - Nobel Laureate S

"I was bullied as a child, but only ever once by each bully - they soon learned the lesson once I broke noses and fingers."

Taken one step further, you're basically saying 'an eye for an eye'. Personally I'm seeing that as we raise yet another generation of "unique snowflakes" we're straying farther from where we need to be. Personal esteem is a great thing, however I don't understand this concept of stepping on one to raise another. Little Johnny scraped his knee at school because of the bad wood chips on the playground, so mommy sues on her little angel's behalf and now we have nerf playgrounds.(Be thankful kid, I had cement and pea gravel!) Some people don't like it when people smoke around them, so they just ban smoking. Law-makers now actually cater to special interests so they can pick up the donations from those groups. People have strayed so far from personal responsibility now it's almost unreal. We've got corporations that are making billions of dollars in profit while at the same time demanding relief in the form of additional millions of tax abatements. Patent law is quickly becoming a joke, and extremist views are becoming the norm.

Personally, if you can't take responsibility for your own actions, and the consequences of those actions, I don't think you should be able to hold society responsible and force them to change to suit your own individual (or small group for that matter.) tastes. Laws are there to keep others from immediate danger or harm, or, to keep business fair (at least that's what they tell me ;-) ). If businesses are screwing their customers, then we need to take action (such as the anti-trust laws) to make sure it stops occurring. If individuals or small groups are causing undue harm or duress, then steps need to be taken to alleviate that. Sadly, even that line of thinking is prone to extremism... and I just don't have a solution to that part yet.

Simply put, don't hold society responsible for your personal problems. As more people populate the planet, each individual gets less of the finite resources. That's simply the way it is. If you don't like it, research ZPG.

When I submitted this article, I knew that some folks would automatically assume that the election was fraudulent, and that any recount that didn't agree with what they "knew" must also be fraudulent. It's sad proof that facts can't drive out firmly held convictions. But just in another vain attempt, the issue with Ron Paul getting zero votes has already been clearly explained in this article that I posted a link to in the previous discussion of the NH election.

For anyone too lazy to click the link, here's the opening of the article:

"This is where I grew up," Sutton's town clerk said yesterday. "This is my hometown, this is where my family is, and all of sudden, my name is being splashed across the internet as this horrible person. And the frightening part is, I don't know these people and they don't know me." Call wants the nationwide army of boisterous Ron Paul supporters, believers in more conspiracy theories than Oliver Stone, to know that she's committed no crime. Not treason, as the dozens of phone callers screamed. Not fraud, as the dozens of e-mails charged. Nothing. Human error, by someone unknown, caused Call's office to claim Paul received zero votes from the town during Tuesday's first-in-the-nation primary. Paul actually got a whopping 31 votes. Out of 920 cast.

Yeah, I know no "true believer" will believe this article either, but I have to try to inject some information into the discussion.

Yeah, it was simple human error. This interview with the Sutton town clerk describes exactly what happened, and how the Ron Paul conspiracy lunatics harrassed her. As she says "Most of these people are not rational".

That's why he's pulling legislation like this out again. His state went primarily to the democrats last election (two house races, which was completely unexpected). So previously red new hampshire is now more indigo. Doesn't help that the state Republican party had a few problems in the 2004 election with the phone jamming scandal, which pissed the voters off a lot. So Sununu is currently the conventional wisdom's most vulnerable senator in the upcoming 2008 election. Both parties know this so I have a feeling his election is going to be not only closely watched but heavily contested. Anything he can do to put him in a good light with the voters will probably be done.

On a side note, the guy who was the mastermind behind the phone scandal, Terry Nelson, was also the mastermind behind the Harold Ford ad ("Call Me") which probably caused Ford to lose the election and is now the campaign manager for John McCain.

Yes and no. Most US states have heavy restrictions on the amount and types of firearms one can own. Add in the fact that the Bush administration queitly pushed through a bill right after 9/11 (under the guises of "protect the people from the evils of the Arab world") to fund the purchase of fully automatic weapons* and sniper gear for every local police department in the US most areas are seriously out gunned.

Full auto is simply something no police department in the US ever should have. Imagine if Chicago had easy access to them. Someone please tell me why the police in say Ottumwa, IA or Winnemucca, NV need M4 rifles?

In some states the locals are well stocked though. I once lived in Utah and saw a few very large collections (16s, Ks, Browning 50s, 1911s, 9s, 10s, lots of shotguns, a ton of ammo and "tactical" vehicles). Kinda like a real life "Ammu-Nation" =)

Add in the National Guard which I have ZERO doubt Bush would use to quell any "discourse" with the efficiency as Saddam.

With all that said I somewhat believe the US is two missed meals away from revolution.

* Having extensive experience with the M16A2 and played with a few other few auto weapons I can personally say that full auto is good for only one thing: spray and pray. Does anyone think arming local cops with M4s and P90s is, at any time, a good idea? Homie don't think so.

Nice long rambling explanation there, but I can find used cd's for half the price of new. Used cd stores have overhead. I commonly find cds at CDBaby for $5-8 a pop. Certainly those guys have overhead and salaries to pay too. Downloads could certainly be cheaper. Of the 99 cents Apple charges at the iTMS, about 30 goes to the credit card processor, 10 goes to apple 10 goes to the artist and the other 50 goes to the record company, who by the way, have done squat diddly other than authorize Apple to sell the tune. (In contrast, unsigned Indies keep the lion's share of the 99 cents for their tracks.)

In short, I call bullshit. Explain it with gross/net margin, shipping, returns, price protection or whatever. We all know better. The prices 'the industry' charges are too high and the extra is going to the RIAA's Adolescents Litigation fund, the 'lobby congress for infinite copyrights' fund, the 'lobby congress for higher blank media levies' fund, and of course, payola.

Yet you sit there and tell me they aren't over charging even in the face of rock solid evidence to the contrary. Either you are badly misinformed or deliberately spreading lies. They are the thieves. They steal from me with blank CD levies. They steal from their customers with price fixing. They steal from the public domain with copyright extensions. I will never willingly give them another dime of my money. EVER.

Free & Legal Music
Boycott the RIAA
The shit list. Do no business with these labels.

but Apple's research appears to indicate that there more consumers like me than you.

CUSTOMERS

SALES TO END USERS ONLY
The iTunes Music Store sells products to end user customers only.

You will not find the word "consumer" anywhere in that agreement. The word consumer implies that I will somehow deplete my supply of music after it is purchased and therefore be compelled to buy more. Customers on the other hand have the prerogative to buy something else entirely or buy nothing at all. If you do not provide value to your customers, they will go elsewhere. The RIAA is simply witnessing that.

Perhaps, but that doesn't mean the activities of humans aren't causing a greenhouse effect now. As much as many people would like to believe they are free to do what they want without worrying about the consequences, the facts show otherwise. Responsible people will face those facts and do what is necessary to deal with them, not hide their heads in the sand.

"The Judicial branch is mostly the only form of government that is not corrupted."

Try again.

It's time the US quit getting suckered into cleaning up world messes. We can spend the money and human capital better here at home. We have poverty here that needs to be dealt with.

I applaud this sentiment. Do yourself a favor and focus your energy at home.

The EU (mainly France and Germany) wants to be a world power so let it pick up the burdens of that same ungrateful world. It can start with the recent tsunami victims. It is unlikely to outspend, in monetary and material support, the US. If it does, then bravo. The EU can move on to the next world mess. It never ends.

The EU will easily outspend the US in immediate disaster relief if the $35M is all that your government will muster. Germany and France alone already pledged $47.5 M

The EU countries' contribution combined exceeds $165 M with Spain and Denmark (highest contribution per capita) being especially forthcoming. Germany and Italy are also calling to grant debt relief to the affected countries and Italy was quick to suggest an extraordinary G8 summit to put this into action quickly.

The leadership vacuum that the US leaves will be filled. America really doesn't have to try to clean up everything by itself.

Part of the current act is that public schools are mandated to turn over personal information about students to armed forces recruiting so that no child will miss out on the oportunity to die in bushes fucked up war for oil. Parents who dont want their childern contacted must opt-out in order to keep their childerns from being inundated with calls and glossy pamflets.

The effort to create this database may be in response to the recent judgement that universities can deny access to military recruiters because of discriminatory practices against gays. This overturned a 1994 a defense authorization bill that allowed the goverment to withhold funding from public institutions that denied access to recruiters.

The hopeless war in iraq is making it more difficult to recruit a new generation of jarheads. Retention is down so they were forced to make do with a back door draft in order to retain enough personel to maintain our insufficient forces in iraq & afganastan. If bush starts a third war against Iran(with large oil and natural gas reserves), launched from our spiffy new bases in Iraq, we will need to dramatically increase the number of military personel beyond what can be build using volenteers. This new database will come in handy when the National Freedom Expanders Act is passed to compel military service unless you happen to be in a rich an powerful family in which case reporting for Patriot Duty is optional.

Although I have bashed on the Republicans, the Democrats can be just as corrupt. They will undoubtedly have their own people at the polls to intimidate voters.

Soon, everyone will need a lawyer to exercise one's right to vote. Amen for American Democracy!