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When was this?

Gilded Age. Google it. I'm also curious to see how you would think a total laziezze faire market would have improved the S&L crisis or the credit swap market implosion.

Crack open history books and read about my red herring

The only thing a lack of government does is make corporations less accountable. No inspections, no regulations, no prosecutions, no anti-trust enforcement...

True but they don't get business from me or others either.

And when you can't trust any food you buy in a store?

There are still some of us who know how to hunt and fish if we want meat.

Good luck finding out if the fish are from uncontaminated water and finding game with disappearing habitat.

Government (who's sole motive isn't greed for money, but rather fear of being elected out of office)

BS!

You BS. The top official in the U.S. government gets paid $400,000 a year. Contrast that to the top five security companies paying losing $26 billion dollars last year - while paying out $23 billion in bonuses. You can have incompetent bureaucrats as well as incompetent executives, but at least the bureaucrat isn't getting paid millions a year to waste your money.

Name one tyme a free market failed.

Oh, pretty much every time it's been tried in any industrialized area. Low taxes & regulations can have high costs.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/5/21/734169/-A-Deeply-Unfair-Cast-of-Mind

Thu May 21, 2009 at 08:22:20 PM PDT

May 21, 2009

At Abu Ghraib, a few sadistic prison guards abused inmates in violation of American law, military regulation, and simple decency. For the harm they did to Iraqi prisoners and to America's cause, they deserved and received Army justice.

And it takes a deeply unfair cast of mind to equate the disgraces of Abu Ghraib with the lawful, skillful, and entirely honorable work of CIA personnel trained to deal with a few malevolent men.

Dick Cheney

• Garrett's diary :: ::

Setting the Conditions

August 31 to September 9, 2003

Major General Geoffrey Miller, commander of the prison at Guantanamo Bay, leads a survey team to plan intelligence, interrogation, and detention operations in Iraq.

September 5, 2003

A JPRA (SERE) training team arrives in Iraq. Their visit includes Abu Ghraib.

September 6, 2003

Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld tours Abu Ghraib.

September 9, 2003

General Miller delivers his recommendations. Guantanamo Bay should be used as a baseline. Interrogation in Iraq should be consolidated in one place. MPs should work to set the conditions for interrogation.

Dedicate and train a detention guard force subordinate to the JIDC Commander that sets the conditions for the successful interrogation and exploitation of internees/detainees. This action is now in progress.

General Geoffrey Miller

I had conversations with MG Miller on a couple of occasions.... Specifically, I recall he discussed the implementation of dedicated MP support to MI.

Captain Carolyn Wood

They [MPs] would be the bad guys and MI would be the good guy to gather information.

Colonel Jerry Phillabaum

Training

October 1, 2003

The 372nd MP Company, a reserve unit, moves to Abu Ghraib. It gets two weeks on-the-job training. Nudity, sexual humiliation, stress positions, sleep deprivation, and sensory deprivation are all standard procedures when the 372nd arrives.

This is also the deadline date for centralizing and consolidating interrogation and detention at Abu Ghraib. Most other locations in Iraq are now intended as 72-hour holding sites.

October 3 or 4, 2003

3:00 or 4:00 p.m.

Military police transport a prisoner to the hard site.

One of them whispered in my ear, "today I am going to fuck you", and he said this in Arabic. Whoever was with me experienced the same thing. That's what the American soldiers did.... When they took me to the cell, the translator Abu Hamid came with an American soldier and his rank was sergeant (I believe). And he called told me "faggot" because I was wearing the woman's underwear, and my answer was "no". Then he told me "why are you wearing this underwear", then I told them "because you make me wear it."

Kasim Hilas (#151108)

October 5

Three Guantanamo Tiger Teams arri

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/5/21/734169/-A-Deeply-Unfair-Cast-of-Mind

Thu May 21, 2009 at 08:22:20 PM PDT

May 21, 2009

At Abu Ghraib, a few sadistic prison guards abused inmates in violation of American law, military regulation, and simple decency. For the harm they did to Iraqi prisoners and to America's cause, they deserved and received Army justice.

And it takes a deeply unfair cast of mind to equate the disgraces of Abu Ghraib with the lawful, skillful, and entirely honorable work of CIA personnel trained to deal with a few malevolent men.

Dick Cheney

• Garrett's diary :: ::

Setting the Conditions

August 31 to September 9, 2003

Major General Geoffrey Miller, commander of the prison at Guantanamo Bay, leads a survey team to plan intelligence, interrogation, and detention operations in Iraq.

September 5, 2003

A JPRA (SERE) training team arrives in Iraq. Their visit includes Abu Ghraib.

September 6, 2003

Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld tours Abu Ghraib.

September 9, 2003

General Miller delivers his recommendations. Guantanamo Bay should be used as a baseline. Interrogation in Iraq should be consolidated in one place. MPs should work to set the conditions for interrogation.

Dedicate and train a detention guard force subordinate to the JIDC Commander that sets the conditions for the successful interrogation and exploitation of internees/detainees. This action is now in progress.

General Geoffrey Miller

I had conversations with MG Miller on a couple of occasions.... Specifically, I recall he discussed the implementation of dedicated MP support to MI.

Captain Carolyn Wood

They [MPs] would be the bad guys and MI would be the good guy to gather information.

Colonel Jerry Phillabaum

Training

October 1, 2003

The 372nd MP Company, a reserve unit, moves to Abu Ghraib. It gets two weeks on-the-job training. Nudity, sexual humiliation, stress positions, sleep deprivation, and sensory deprivation are all standard procedures when the 372nd arrives.

This is also the deadline date for centralizing and consolidating interrogation and detention at Abu Ghraib. Most other locations in Iraq are now intended as 72-hour holding sites.

October 3 or 4, 2003

3:00 or 4:00 p.m.

Military police transport a prisoner to the hard site.

One of them whispered in my ear, "today I am going to fuck you", and he said this in Arabic. Whoever was with me experienced the same thing. That's what the American soldiers did.... When they took me to the cell, the translator Abu Hamid came with an American soldier and his rank was sergeant (I believe). And he called told me "faggot" because I was wearing the woman's underwear, and my answer was "no". Then he told me "why are you wearing this underwear", then I told them "because you make me wear it."

Kasim Hilas (#151108)

October 5

Three Guantanamo Tiger Teams arri

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/5/21/734169/-A-Deeply-Unfair-Cast-of-Mind

Thu May 21, 2009 at 08:22:20 PM PDT

May 21, 2009

At Abu Ghraib, a few sadistic prison guards abused inmates in violation of American law, military regulation, and simple decency. For the harm they did to Iraqi prisoners and to America's cause, they deserved and received Army justice.

And it takes a deeply unfair cast of mind to equate the disgraces of Abu Ghraib with the lawful, skillful, and entirely honorable work of CIA personnel trained to deal with a few malevolent men.

Dick Cheney

• Garrett's diary :: ::

Setting the Conditions

August 31 to September 9, 2003

Major General Geoffrey Miller, commander of the prison at Guantanamo Bay, leads a survey team to plan intelligence, interrogation, and detention operations in Iraq.

September 5, 2003

A JPRA (SERE) training team arrives in Iraq. Their visit includes Abu Ghraib.

September 6, 2003

Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld tours Abu Ghraib.

September 9, 2003

General Miller delivers his recommendations. Guantanamo Bay should be used as a baseline. Interrogation in Iraq should be consolidated in one place. MPs should work to set the conditions for interrogation.

Dedicate and train a detention guard force subordinate to the JIDC Commander that sets the conditions for the successful interrogation and exploitation of internees/detainees. This action is now in progress.

General Geoffrey Miller

I had conversations with MG Miller on a couple of occasions.... Specifically, I recall he discussed the implementation of dedicated MP support to MI.

Captain Carolyn Wood

They [MPs] would be the bad guys and MI would be the good guy to gather information.

Colonel Jerry Phillabaum

Training

October 1, 2003

The 372nd MP Company, a reserve unit, moves to Abu Ghraib. It gets two weeks on-the-job training. Nudity, sexual humiliation, stress positions, sleep deprivation, and sensory deprivation are all standard procedures when the 372nd arrives.

This is also the deadline date for centralizing and consolidating interrogation and detention at Abu Ghraib. Most other locations in Iraq are now intended as 72-hour holding sites.

October 3 or 4, 2003

3:00 or 4:00 p.m.

Military police transport a prisoner to the hard site.

One of them whispered in my ear, "today I am going to fuck you", and he said this in Arabic. Whoever was with me experienced the same thing. That's what the American soldiers did.... When they took me to the cell, the translator Abu Hamid came with an American soldier and his rank was sergeant (I believe). And he called told me "faggot" because I was wearing the woman's underwear, and my answer was "no". Then he told me "why are you wearing this underwear", then I told them "because you make me wear it."

Kasim Hilas (#151108)

October 5

Three Guantanamo Tiger Teams arri

May 21, 2009

At Abu Ghraib, a few sadistic prison guards abused inmates in violation of American law, military regulation, and simple decency. For the harm they did to Iraqi prisoners and to America's cause, they deserved and received Army justice.

And it takes a deeply unfair cast of mind to equate the disgraces of Abu Ghraib with the lawful, skillful, and entirely honorable work of CIA personnel trained to deal with a few malevolent men.
Dick Cheney

• Garrett's diary :: ::

Setting the Conditions
August 31 to September 9, 2003
Major General Geoffrey Miller, commander of the prison at Guantanamo Bay, leads a survey team to plan intelligence, interrogation, and detention operations in Iraq.

September 5, 2003
A JPRA (SERE) training team arrives in Iraq. Their visit includes Abu Ghraib.

September 6, 2003
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld tours Abu Ghraib.

September 9, 2003
General Miller delivers his recommendations. Guantanamo Bay should be used as a baseline. Interrogation in Iraq should be consolidated in one place. MPs should work to set the conditions for interrogation.

Dedicate and train a detention guard force subordinate to the JIDC Commander that sets the conditions for the successful interrogation and exploitation of internees/detainees. This action is now in progress.
General Geoffrey Miller

I had conversations with MG Miller on a couple of occasions.... Specifically, I recall he discussed the implementation of dedicated MP support to MI.
Captain Carolyn Wood

They [MPs] would be the bad guys and MI would be the good guy to gather information.
Colonel Jerry Phillabaum

Training

October 1, 2003
The 372nd MP Company, a reserve unit, moves to Abu Ghraib. It gets two weeks on-the-job training. Nudity, sexual humiliation, stress positions, sleep deprivation, and sensory deprivation are all standard procedures when the 372nd arrives.

This is also the deadline date for centralizing and consolidating interrogation and detention at Abu Ghraib. Most other locations in Iraq are now intended as 72-hour holding sites.

October 3 or 4, 2003
3:00 or 4:00 p.m.
Military police transport a prisoner to the hard site.

One of them whispered in my ear, "today I am going to fuck you", and he said this in Arabic. Whoever was with me experienced the same thing. That's what the American soldiers did.... When they took me to the cell, the translator Abu Hamid came with an American soldier and his rank was sergeant (I believe). And he called told me "faggot" because I was wearing the woman's underwear, and my answer was "no". Then he told me "why are you wearing this underwear", then I told them "because you make me wear it."
Kasim Hilas (#151108)

October 5
Three Guantanamo Tiger Teams arrive for duty at Abu Ghraib. Their task is to help set up and develop

May 21, 2009

At Abu Ghraib, a few sadistic prison guards abused inmates in violation of American law, military regulation, and simple decency. For the harm they did to Iraqi prisoners and to America's cause, they deserved and received Army justice.

And it takes a deeply unfair cast of mind to equate the disgraces of Abu Ghraib with the lawful, skillful, and entirely honorable work of CIA personnel trained to deal with a few malevolent men.
Dick Cheney

• Garrett's diary :: ::

Setting the Conditions
August 31 to September 9, 2003
Major General Geoffrey Miller, commander of the prison at Guantanamo Bay, leads a survey team to plan intelligence, interrogation, and detention operations in Iraq.

September 5, 2003
A JPRA (SERE) training team arrives in Iraq. Their visit includes Abu Ghraib.

September 6, 2003
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld tours Abu Ghraib.

September 9, 2003
General Miller delivers his recommendations. Guantanamo Bay should be used as a baseline. Interrogation in Iraq should be consolidated in one place. MPs should work to set the conditions for interrogation.

Dedicate and train a detention guard force subordinate to the JIDC Commander that sets the conditions for the successful interrogation and exploitation of internees/detainees. This action is now in progress.
General Geoffrey Miller

I had conversations with MG Miller on a couple of occasions.... Specifically, I recall he discussed the implementation of dedicated MP support to MI.
Captain Carolyn Wood

They [MPs] would be the bad guys and MI would be the good guy to gather information.
Colonel Jerry Phillabaum

Training

October 1, 2003
The 372nd MP Company, a reserve unit, moves to Abu Ghraib. It gets two weeks on-the-job training. Nudity, sexual humiliation, stress positions, sleep deprivation, and sensory deprivation are all standard procedures when the 372nd arrives.

This is also the deadline date for centralizing and consolidating interrogation and detention at Abu Ghraib. Most other locations in Iraq are now intended as 72-hour holding sites.

October 3 or 4, 2003
3:00 or 4:00 p.m.
Military police transport a prisoner to the hard site.

One of them whispered in my ear, "today I am going to fuck you", and he said this in Arabic. Whoever was with me experienced the same thing. That's what the American soldiers did.... When they took me to the cell, the translator Abu Hamid came with an American soldier and his rank was sergeant (I believe). And he called told me "faggot" because I was wearing the woman's underwear, and my answer was "no". Then he told me "why are you wearing this underwear", then I told them "because you make me wear it."
Kasim Hilas (#151108)

October 5
Three Guantanamo Tiger Teams arrive for duty at Abu Ghraib. Their task is to help set up and develop

May 21, 2009

At Abu Ghraib, a few sadistic prison guards abused inmates in violation of American law, military regulation, and simple decency. For the harm they did to Iraqi prisoners and to America's cause, they deserved and received Army justice.

And it takes a deeply unfair cast of mind to equate the disgraces of Abu Ghraib with the lawful, skillful, and entirely honorable work of CIA personnel trained to deal with a few malevolent men.
Dick Cheney

• Garrett's diary :: ::

Setting the Conditions
August 31 to September 9, 2003
Major General Geoffrey Miller, commander of the prison at Guantanamo Bay, leads a survey team to plan intelligence, interrogation, and detention operations in Iraq.

September 5, 2003
A JPRA (SERE) training team arrives in Iraq. Their visit includes Abu Ghraib.

September 6, 2003
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld tours Abu Ghraib.

September 9, 2003
General Miller delivers his recommendations. Guantanamo Bay should be used as a baseline. Interrogation in Iraq should be consolidated in one place. MPs should work to set the conditions for interrogation.

Dedicate and train a detention guard force subordinate to the JIDC Commander that sets the conditions for the successful interrogation and exploitation of internees/detainees. This action is now in progress.
General Geoffrey Miller

I had conversations with MG Miller on a couple of occasions.... Specifically, I recall he discussed the implementation of dedicated MP support to MI.
Captain Carolyn Wood

They [MPs] would be the bad guys and MI would be the good guy to gather information.
Colonel Jerry Phillabaum

Training

October 1, 2003
The 372nd MP Company, a reserve unit, moves to Abu Ghraib. It gets two weeks on-the-job training. Nudity, sexual humiliation, stress positions, sleep deprivation, and sensory deprivation are all standard procedures when the 372nd arrives.

This is also the deadline date for centralizing and consolidating interrogation and detention at Abu Ghraib. Most other locations in Iraq are now intended as 72-hour holding sites.

October 3 or 4, 2003
3:00 or 4:00 p.m.
Military police transport a prisoner to the hard site.

One of them whispered in my ear, "today I am going to fuck you", and he said this in Arabic. Whoever was with me experienced the same thing. That's what the American soldiers did.... When they took me to the cell, the translator Abu Hamid came with an American soldier and his rank was sergeant (I believe). And he called told me "faggot" because I was wearing the woman's underwear, and my answer was "no". Then he told me "why are you wearing this underwear", then I told them "because you make me wear it."
Kasim Hilas (#151108)

October 5
Three Guantanamo Tiger Teams arrive for duty at Abu Ghraib. Their task is to help set up and develop

The latter is something that an agent or a marketing company or a PR firm can do. Really, this is what a record company will eventually evolve to.

I agree, your post is spot-on.

The first thing that has to happen though is to get the record companies to not be so damn dangerous. Pull their fangs.

They killed internet radio because of ideas like this, you know. They still have enough power to get insane laws like this one passed (you actually have to pay the RIAA to broadcast your own unlicensed non-RIAA member music if you can imagine that!) And they'll do anything they can to remain relevant.

Free money and piles of it - who wouldn't fight for that?

So good job Amazon (never thought I'd say that) and keep chipping away at these jerks. Eventually they'll go the way of the dodo.

Unfortunately there are too many lawyers in Washington, in fact, if I remember correctly, there was an ammendment to the constitution that was meant to cover this (prevent lawyers from holding office). It was ratified by 12 states, the paperwork from the 13th state(Virginia) was lost in a battle, so it got swept under the rug. I believe thats why they started numbering the ammendments. Its been awhile since I read about this, so I may be unintentionally ommiting something.

Here is a link on it:
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/7/10/155241/107

Having your life belong to the group (community, tribe, race), is the hallmark of collectivism

And how does your life belong to the group, in any way shape or form, a part of socialism?

which is the basis for Socialism, Fascism, and Communism.

Do you frequently confuse complete polar opposites?

On the other hand, owning your own life, being free to exercise your judgment freely and self-responsibly (respecting others equal rights) is the hallmark of Capitalism, and was an end-product of the Enlightenment.

Here's some nice antidote to that Laissez faire kool aid you've been drinking. Regulation and government services weren't started up for shits & giggles, but because the lack of regulation & services were getting people killed and wasting money.

2005: "Screw Literacy!" Bush eliminates popular 'Even Start' program.

2009: Glorious Leader Obama cuts $17 billion in wasteful government spending (including 'Even Start' program).

Which is precisely what the Tea Parties are about... and why the left feels the need to belittle them. They're afraid that the real GOP (not the imposters that have taken over for the last decade) will rise up again.

Afraid? In your dreams. The tea baggers are belittled because they are frikkin morons. Obama and the Democrats just gave them the biggest federal tax cut of their lives, and they're out protesting him? And where were their concerns about federal spending when Reagan was inventing the multi-trillion dollar national debt and Bush was pushing it to $10 trillion?

It's the long forgotten about base standing up demanding to be heard.

Somehow I doubt the Democrats are quaking in their boots.

That might work if the RIAA hadn't already anticipated it and set up SoundExchange to collect royalties regardless of who it is created by. More info at the following: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/4/24/141326/870

Here are some examples to support your point.

Here is Kevin Bankston, EFF on Olbermann last night. MSNBC is not the mouthpiece of the right wing. Olbermann was about as enthusiastic for Obama as anyone I saw during the campaign.

Here and here are some current left wing blogs being very critical of this policy stand as they were when it was Bush's stand. Meanwhile the right wing media like Fox are spreading FUD and holding up Michelle Bachmann as an exemplar. I do understand that Fox has no credibility criticizing this since they were so nakedly in favor of Bush.

The Obama administration has roughly the same goals as the Bush administration, so it's no surprise that they're continuing to pursue them.

  The change, and it is a change, is that they are pursuing them in a smarter way.
1) By making this extreme argument, they give judges wiggle-room to reject it and then accept the state secrets argument, while still allowing the judge to make token gestures in favor of the rule of law, even write a long, pious opinion dismissing the second argument while accepting the first. I can see that it would be very easy for any judge to delude himself into believing he was making a Solomonic compromise. Very smart on their part.

2) If the second argument *does* somehow fly, they have carte blanche to do what they want. I suspect that the Bush administration would've argued for the same thing, except that they weren't smart enough to come up with a line of argument that would've passed the laugh test (IANAL, maybe this one doesn't either.)

  Begin broken record mode: The only way to get real improvement from Obama (or from Bush, for that matter,) is to mobilize the public to control the government. No elected leader is going to do this for us as a gift, we have to maintain the pressure constantly.

  Personally, I'm much more disappointed with his ongoing embrace of "public-private partnerships" in education (crooked self-dealing and cronyism do not focus group so well, so they rebranded them as "public-private partnerships" in which the government partners with a private entity to give it money with minimal oversight and much righteous rhetoric.) My saintly mother blogs about it: http://chemtchr.dailykos.com/

  And I'm sure Obama has not delivered from progressives on a dozen other fronts. Only way he will is *if we make him*. In the case of progressive causes that are popular with the public, this should be relatively easy, and ought to benefit the election prospects of the Democratic party anyway, so let's get going.

Why do you keep harping about Bush's time?
Its been 5 months since Obama was elected.
Can't his AG prove ANYTHING against Ted "Tube" Stevens?
Pardon me, but i don't think Obama is the True Messiah that you jokers claim him to be..
After all, he has immunity from wiretapping, while claiming during campaigning that he was against it
Am sure a deal was struck between the administration and Stevens, after all Mr.Tube has immense connections and Obama needs to deflect Palin from running against him in 2012...
Of course you Obama supporters will crown me with a tin hat foil, but prove me wrong if Ted Stevens becomes cooler against Palin while warming up against Obama...

"It could also have a side like X-Files, with conspiracies about UFOs etc, which are later resolved."

Good luck with that. There's plenty of documented evidence for UFOs which will blow your mind - but we still don't know what they are.

http://www.dailykos.com/user/two%20roads

The reality is FAR more fascinating than the X-Files fiction.

On the contrary, the facts of reality back it up perfectly.

Only if you're rooming on Endorphin with Chewbaca.

Is this your "evidence" - a bunch of free-floating notions, with no connection to actual events?

You mean connections like a whistleblower trying to warn the FTC for ten years but was completely ignored? Or Allen Stanford, the hedge fund manager that fled authorities for one day, turned in identical tax returns two years in a row without investigation?

The problem began with the Fed's move to artificially lower interest rates in the name of "affordable housing". Combine that with the implicit government backing of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, which turned toxic assets into pure "gold" that could be traded as "securities", again in the name of "affordable housing". Combine that with community reinvestment plans from local/state and federal governments, which forced banks to accept loans from high risk individuals, again in the name of "affordable housing". These all came together to create a bubble that burst once interest rates went back up.

Typical wingnut misdirection. Our mess was caused by greed, by Fannie Maye, not by Freddie Mac, nor by minorities:

Federal Reserve Board data show that:

        * More than 84 percent of the subprime mortgages in 2006 were issued by private lending institutions.

        * Private firms made nearly 83 percent of the subprime loans to low- and moderate-income borrowers that year.

        * Only one of the top 25 subprime lenders in 2006 was directly subject to the housing law that's being lambasted by conservative critics.

And, once again since you ignored it the first time, maybe you'd like to explain how a 30 year old law turned a few hundred billion in mortgages blew up to over $60 trillion dollars in swap markets - more than the planet's entire GDP.

Please explain how forcing banks to make bad loans in the name of "social justice" proves that regulation keeps capitalism from destroying itself.

Fortunately we don't have to explain any such thing, as you're repeating a well debunked bald faced lie:

Federal Reserve Board data show that:

        * More than 84 percent of the subprime mortgages in 2006 were issued by private lending institutions.
        * Private firms made nearly 83 percent of the subprime loans to low- and moderate-income borrowers that year.
        * Only one of the top 25 subprime lenders in 2006 was directly subject to the housing law that's being lambasted by conservative critics.

It was greed and deregulation, not a 30 year old law that prevents banks from denying loans on race, that blew a few hundred billion in mortgages into a credit default swap market larger than the GDP for the entire planet.

Regulation is what CREATED this crisis.

Too bad your opinion isn't based on reality. It was the lack of regulation that let bankers run up a few hundred billion in mortgages into a bubble larger than the GDP of the entire planet. It was the lack of regulation that let Bernie Maddoff swindle billions of dollars from investors, despite the fact that a whistleblower was screaming at the SEC for years that the hedge fund was a Ponzi scheme. It was the Republican gutting of IRS investigations that let other Ponzi schemers turn in the same income tax returns multiple times without notice. It's the lack of regulations that executives take over 100% of a firm's profits in bonuses.

So give it up already, your freeper BS just aint gonna fly any more.

You read too much liberal propaganda

You lie too much.

The truth is that the banks were /regulated/ by the government to issue high-risk loans.

Liar:

Federal Reserve Board data show that:

        * More than 84 percent of the subprime mortgages in 2006 were issued by private lending institutions.
        * Private firms made nearly 83 percent of the subprime loans to low- and moderate-income borrowers that year.
        * Only one of the top 25 subprime lenders in 2006 was directly subject to the housing law that's being lambasted by conservative critics.

Reality has a well known anti-wingnut bias. Or maybe you'd like to try and explain how minorities and a 30 year old law are resonsible for ballooning a few hundred billion in mortgages into a bubble larger than the GDP of the entire planet.

Ahh yes, the "deregulation" that resulted in the existing financial market - the most highly regulated market in America.

Maybe in whatever alternate reality you come from, but here the facts don't meet your story line. At all. You had an SEC that was asleep at the wheel. You had Republican love for deregulation leading to the credit swap market being larger than the GDP entire planet.

Are you suggesting that the financial markets are/were totally unregulated?

It's the credit default swap markets that were totally unregulated, leading to our current financial mess.

Dear Pope^W^W Your Highness^W

Your Popity ( © Stephen Colbert ),

I like your style :-)

You might also want to hear this excellent rant by mayor Virg Bernero of Lansing, MI in defense of Labor Unions. I mean, European Socialism. Whatever.

Take a beer, grab a handful of popcorn, sit back and enjoy :-)

The President doesn't set the budget, congress does.

The Budget of the United States Government is a federal document that the President submits to the U.S. Congress. And like any other bill, it must be signed by the President.

And this Democrat congress is spending like it's going out of style.

First, if you cannot properly use the adjective "Democratic", you disqualify your opinions from serious consideration. Please, you and all the other right-wingers out there who think it's clever to use the less euphonious word - cut it the fsck out already, you sound like idiots. Thank you.

Second, let's not pretend that the Republican Congress of 2001-2007 didn't spend money hand over fist. Problem is they wasted a lot of it in Iraq.

Say that for eight years, instead of doing preventative maintenance on your house, you spend that money on booze and women. No, wait - let's pretend you wasted it, say you blew it at the track.

So the mice get into the walls and chew on the wiring, the basement gets flooded when the sump pump stops, termites get into the walls, and it's a race to see whether your house is going to fall over or burn up first.

You can't say, "well, after spending all that money on the ponies, I guess it's time to tighten the ol' belt!" Nope. You've got to spend the money on the house, even if you have to beg or borrow to come up with it.

I'm certainly willing to consider the proposition that the money is being spend unwisely. But a metric fuckload of money is going to be needed to repair the damage done to our nation by the ridiculous economic policies of the past quarter-century.

How about this, http://www.fdrlibrary.marist.edu/unempl71.html.

How bout this: your link doesn't back up your assertion.

My math may be off, but I believe that 1982 occurred between now and the 1930's. According to Bloomberg, that recession was worse than this recession.

Depends on how you look at the data. This recession is particularly bad on the number of jobs lost. And with our previous economic downturns, we didn't have to grapple with a recession AND a $10 trillion national debt that's 2/3's the size of our GDP.

Only drama-queen democrats are insisting that this is the worst recession we've had since the 30's.

Whatever you say, ostrich.

New york state is as red as a damn stop sign

This was more true before 2008. In 2008, Obama won 36 counties and McCain won 25. In the House races, Democrats won all but three districts in New York state.

Excellent tool for looking at electoral results: http://scoreboard.dailykos.com/map/

First, I'd like to apologize for crashing your machine. I simply ended up closing the browser after a while. Today I saved the pdf before opening it, works fine. Apparently Adobe's downloading system is messed up.

That's alright. I tried to quit the browser but it wouldn't. For opening PDFs I don't have Adobe's reader. I have a Mac and Apple includes a previewer that opens PDFs. I've had trouble opening them a couple of tymes before but quiting worked before. When I used Windows I did have occasional trouble with PDFs though using Adobe's reader. Perhaps like you can download the PDF then open it.

Do you have a counter for the Berkeley study, showing that wind needing 10 times the steel and 4 times the concrete per MW?

First, I don't see a link to the Berkeley study on the CITRIS page. There is a link to a ppt and while it downloads preview shows nothing. The details provided on the pathsoflight.us page does say wind requires about 4 tymes as much concrete though. I'll try to find something more... Ump, I found a company that does concrete for both nuclear and wind power. On that page it says that concrete pours in excess of 500 cubic meters per base are common for wind but does not say the size of the wind turbines or how much concrete is used for nuclear power. Look some more... A Daily Kos page, "Nuclear vs. Wind - Mining impact and Capital Cost" says wind uses more concrete and steel than nuclear though both are comparable in mining and beat coal. Look more... I found "How much steel and how much concrete for the fabrication of windmills and nuclear reactors ?[.doc warning]" which say wind uses a hell of a lot more concrete and steel than nuclear.

Apparently I may of been wrong about how much concrete and steel nuclear uses vs wind.

Back on topic - Have you ever seen how much concrete goes into putting footings in for a simple chain link fence? Now consider your 5MW turbine.

As a kid perhaps but I don't recall how much was used. I do know how much concrete is used generally for footers, and slabs and walls though, I used to work in construction for a concrete and masonry subcontractor. We poored a bunch of things, including pylons and pads at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station for rockets.

And all the steel used to make the turbine, tower, and pylons would be less too. Even your link to the environmental effects of wind power "suggested a payback time of 1.1 years". That charter only considers CO2 not other environmental considerations also.

Probably up against not particularly efficient coal plant; I've already posted links showing that it takes less CO2 to produce power via nuclear than wind/solar.

I said other environmental concerns because you did address CO2. From what I found and included above about mining nuclear and wind are about the same as far as mining. That only leaves three reasons I generally oppose nuclear, if they can be dealt with I may be able to support nuclear power. They are, not in any particular order, subsidies, nuclear waste, and what happens to a plant when it is decommissioned.

You and others have given me plenty to research and think about.

Falcon

I think I remember that; but I don't remember it being a coal mine

'

It was coal, "".

Well, roofing is one of the more dangerous jobs in the USA, if you go installing solar panels on all the roofs in the USA you're bound to get some accidents.

Solar panels don't need to be cited on all roofs, though I'd more roofs with them. SciAm's "A Solar Grand Plan" details how PVs can be cited in the deserts of the Southwest. There'd be few if any roofs to climb.

As for the semiconductors, the main use for a nuclear plant would be control computers - and a single roof's worth of solar panels would be far more silicon than is needed in a nuclear plant.

However neither solar nor wind genies need much concrete and steel whereas nuclear power plants require vast amounts of both. And they are high in embedded energy.

GenIII plant will be something like 1.2GW vs You need a lot of steel/concrete for 300 some odd 198 meter tall towers and 126 meter wide blades.

First off, maybe you typed the first link above wrong, I get "requested URL not found". As for the DailyKos link, I'd like to see where those numbers come from. Footings for wind turbines might take up more space than a nuclear power plant but they can be spread around. With big enough backyard, you can put one in your backyard, which I'd like to do, along with PVs on my roof.

Oh, there's one more thing I keep on forgetting. I read an article I think in SciAm that nuclear power plants need more water than any other type of power plant. Throughout the world aquifers are being depleted faster than they can be recharged. Where is the water need to run nuclear power plants going to come from? However it is, nuclear power would not be profitable and Wall Street would not pay for it if government did not subsidize it.

Falcon

Wasn't it a year or two ago that some miners were trapped in a cave-in in the west?

I think I remember that; but I don't remember it being a coal mine - I think it was for some other ore. Copper/Iron maybe?

What are those hazards that nuclear power does not have? Solar uses a lot of semiconductors, the same semiconductors needed for nuclear power control systems. Wind turbines need steel and concrete, however nuclear power plants need much more of both.

Well, roofing is one of the more dangerous jobs in the USA, if you go installing solar panels on all the roofs in the USA you're bound to get some accidents. As for the semiconductors, the main use for a nuclear plant would be control computers - and a single roof's worth of solar panels would be far more silicon than is needed in a nuclear plant.

As for the concrete/steel, sure, a nuclear plant uses more than a single turbine - but a GenIII plant will be something like 1.2GW vs You need a lot of steel/concrete for 300 some odd 198 meter tall towers and 126 meter wide blades. Other figures using smaller turbines and more pessimistic capacity factors are even worse - over a thousand towers in some cases.

You end up with the turbine footings taking up far more space than the entire nuclear plant.

I took a look at the filing referenced. The only thing that happened as far as Obama is concerned is that he was substituted for Bush as a party, under the applicable federal rule. Otherwise, this filing was made by the Bush DOJ. Let's all recall that Eric Holder hasn't even cleared the Judiciary Committee yet before we start saying that Obama is going to continue with the "unitary executive" theory.

This is much ado about nothing. Take my word for it. I play a lawyer in real life.

My take: let's wait this out. It's very important to keep in line, but keep in mind that the AG and new justice dept. aren't even appointed.

Does his appointment know who our base are belong to?

I love having a presidential nerd. ;)

so you propose the government is risking its newest, most expensive and top secret spy technology to spy on public gatherings?

No, just the last-gen stuff that's mass produced and ready to go into the field. The newest, cutting-edge stuff is 10 to 20 years from the light of day.

Of course they could just send some guys with a camcorder without raising any suspicion whatsoever, since every other attender at any gathering will be taking photos anyway. or they could simply get the photos from flicker later.

Or they may want to see how their new high-tech works in a real-life, low-stakes situation.

Any evidence for this claim?

Washington Post: Robotic Insects Spy on Protestors?

I think you've mistaken this site for another one where your whining would have received a more favorable audience. I quoted Jefferson and you responded with a completely unrelated rant about Jim Crow and the gay rights movement? WTF?

It's an outrage how our freedoms and liberties are being eroded by the liberals and the ACLU and George Soros and Michael Moore and Al Gore!

Where was the word 'liberal' used in my original post and why are you playing the victimization card? I don't limit my blame to the liberals when talking about the Government taking away my liberties. Conservatives are all too happy to erode my 4th and 5th amendment rights. Liberals are all too happy to erode my 2nd amendment rights.

As far as I'm concerned neither side can be trusted. Any illusions I had to the contrary evaporated when Obama reversed himself on FISA.

When Reverend Huckabee runs for president again in 2012, just remember then that you can't see how much of his Wikipedia entry was cooked by his staffers still buried in the Arkansas government he controlled up until he ran for 2008.

Consider how Reverend Huckabee destroyed evidence on many state computers to cover probable crimes (hard to prove when he's destroyed the evidence) when he left office in Arkansas to start campaigning for president.

Reverend Huckabee stands for faith based government. Why shouldn't he rely on a "mysterious hand" to improve his image?

And keep in mind just how much power he'd have with a covert government built on the foundation installed by Bush/Cheney.

When Reverend Huckabee runs for president again in 2012, just remember then that you can't see how much of his Wikipedia entry was cooked by his staffers still buried in the Arkansas government he controlled up until he ran for 2008.

Consider how Reverend Huckabee destroyed evidence on many state computers to cover probable crimes (hard to prove when he's destroyed the evidence) when he left office in Arkansas to start campaigning for president.

Reverend Huckabee stands for faith based government. Why shouldn't he rely on a "mysterious hand" to improve his image?

And keep in mind just how much power he'd have with a covert government built on the foundation installed by Bush/Cheney.

Why would he be so concerned about union growth that he would try and take steps to lower the bar on organizing groups of people who probably don't even want it?

Why the rotten politicians want unions is quite understandable — and Blagojevich is on tape explaining the top reason.

What's less obvious, is why did the techies, who are justifiably against joining unions themselves, have voted for the party, that's trying to make unions much harder to avoid for other workers. One of the top items on the Unions' wish-list is elimination of the secret-ballot voting, which an employer can currently demand, before a workplace is unionized. Called THE EMPLOYEE FREE CHOICE ACT (while promising the exact opposite of free choice) it has a high chance of passing, because Democrats owe unions quite a bit — and both need each other.

Having spent the better part of the last century trying in vain to make everyone equally rich, the two groups are now settling on making (almost) everyone equally poor — as long as large pools of money remain available for retiring politicians in exchange for favors such as Senate appointments.

So, why did techies, who, as a group, don't want unions, vote for people, who are trying to impose them?

Water vapor is a greenhouse gas, it does not cool the planet. Inorganic materials have been shown to absorb carbon dioxide. If employed on a large scale it would reduce the levels of atmospheric carbon, thus cooling the planet. It would probably not be cost-effective and is almost certainly not the right way to go about things, but that certainly dispels the notion that plants are the only thing that can cool the planet.

Dark things absorb solar radiation and re-radiate it as heat. Solar panels absorb solar radiation and store the energy; a 100% efficient solar panel would indeed work to cool the planet, but even non-ideal solar panels will likely re-radiate comparatively little energy.

The link is current as of April 2008. Your reference to the World Food Programme does not actually support your argument; I will explain further in a moment.

As far as infrastructure and energy density, those are beyond the point. Nuclear power is finite. It's great now, but ultimately unsustainable. Solar power will be available for somewhat longer than life on Earth will be possible. There will be a point where renewable energy sources will be the only ones available to us; why hasten that day? Nuclear power should be used only where other energy sources are infeasible. As a minor note, the cost per watt for solar power has recently become lower than nuclear or coal.

On the job side of things, a quick search seems to indicate that renewable energy sources would employ more people. The most concise link I could find on the subject is unfortunately a blog, but there seems to be much more information here, if you care to wade through it.

Now, there are a few details that you have clearly not considered. First, simply pouring water on a desert does not make it ideal for growing crops. Most often all that does is create an erosion problem. Soil that is suitable for growing crops is quite different from desert sand, and is the result of a completely different ecosystem than what is found in desert. It is theoretically possible to change one into the other, however this takes both time and far more money than would ever be realized from such a venture. I would hate to see the manufacturing process for obtaining the organic materials and fertilizers required; we have more than enough problems with that sort of mess as is. Further, where would the water come from? If you're proposing to build huge expensive nuclear desalinization plants and colossal water pipelines, at huge (presumeably taxpayer) expense, and then use all of that on plants? Something tells me not many people would be supportive of this idea.

We come back to the most important flaw in what you propose. Aside from the other glaring issues (I have not even mentioned nuclear waste), the problem of hunger stems not from inadequate production, but inadequate distribution. North America clearly has no problems feeding its inhabitants, nor does Europe. Neither do we have excessive problems with obtaining sufficient drinking water. What sense does it make to increase the food supply in North America when not only are we not having a problem here, but as you say, the cost of shipping food is becoming more costly all the time? Why irrigate US deserts when Africa is starving?

As to your last point, lack of clean water does not mean lack of water. Water is a necessity for human life; where it is not present, neither are we. Filtering and sterilizing water is less expensive than desalinization by several orders of magnitude. The solution is not to unnecessarily "produce" more water, but to clean what water is already present.

I'm sure you've heard the term 'word salad' to describe nonsensical sentences. I'd like to coin the term 'fact salad' to describe your arguments. I realize this may rankle, but I would take it as a spur to more carefully research your positions before claiming someone else is wrong.

Robert M. Wurzelbacher, son-in-law of Keating, was 37 years old in 1991 when federal charges were filed against Keating. It appears that he has addresses in Phoenix and Coronado, CA. The Robert M. Wurzelbacher of Milford, OH, a heavy donor to GOP candidates, is 83 years old and retired. They're not the same person. Digging to see if this guy is a plant or a hypocrite is a good idea. But I think it's equally important to know the link before idle speculation.

I know you normally don't let the truth get in the way when you are trying to destroy the credibility of someone who disagrees with you, but this one is patently false. I understand it is hard to find the retractions when the media is in full on frothing-at-the-mouth mode, but seek and ye shall find.

As far as McCain and Keating, Obama has far more nefarious connections with people of questionable backgrounds than that. I'm not sure that would be the best argument to make. Doesn't matter, he got elected by hook or by crook.

Then you had the whole "Fannie/Freddie" thing. The media never reported that John McCain cosponsored a bill [govtrack.us] that would have prevented it over two years ago. Here is a McCain quote from May 25, 2006 that the media did not report:

Not to nitpick, but Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae were not the root causes of this... (at least according to Alan Greenspan and company). Whether you like them or not, DailyKos did a decent job of debunking that as well.

Um, no he's not.

It would be pretty difficult for him to be a plant, considering Obama was doing a media shoot of "walking door-to-door" to ask people for their vote. Obama happened to walk up on Wurzelbacher's house when Sam/Joe was out playing football with his son in the front yard. Obama asked for his vote, Wurzelbacher asked his question, and the rest is history...

Feel free to believe that Charles Keating knew 30 years ahead of time where the 2008 Democratic nominee would be walking for a photo op and cleverly arranged for a distant relative (by marriage) to purchase a house there in order to help his old buddy McCain (who was only peripherally involved in the Keating Five scandal in the first place), but the rest of us will put the tinfoil down...

You'll be happy to know that ACORN's registration procedures are extremely rigorous and legal, despite the Republican government's attempt to frame it with lies to interfere with ACORN's work helping people vote who Republicans would rather not.

Oh, you're sure to be pleased to know that McCain has also strongly endorsed ACORN by campaigning with it.

That should reassure you. Unless, of course, you're just another Republican more addicted to Rush Limbo's lies (and insHannity's, and the rest who get the Republican Party faxes) than to the truth about what makes America great. In which case you need to admit that Republicans are the vote fraudsters, as is well known from your party's stealing the 2000 and 2004 elections in Florida, Ohio and elsewhere. And the Gonzales US Attorney purges of any Federal prosecutor who didn't selectively prosecute Democrats to help Republicans win elections. The list is 8 years long.

But why should you care? You Republicans stole the election, then stole everything else in the country (tangible and otherwise), leaving us in ruin. You're the Party of Nixon: "You're Guilty Only If You Get Caught", and "When the President Does It, It's Not Illegal". America's better than that, so we're dumping you for democracy instead. Sure, that scares the crap out of Republicans like you whose whole world is partisan abuse of everything in sight. But hey, you're addicted to fear - it's your problem. And with your criminal gang out of power, it's not so much mine anymore.

Dazzled ? Afraid ?

Fear not they just want everything you are worth.

History on Goldsmiths

http://news.goldseek.com/GoldSeek/1219039500.php

Article pointing out where the goldsmiths have struck again.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/9/30/01617/5440/126/61517 7

Prepare to lose anything without inherent value. ie gold, food, water, bullets...

Solving a credit crisis by borrowing even more money from foreign interests, to keep people in overpriced houses that they can not afford by giving that money to those who lent irresponsibly in the first place is abhorrent to me.

No limits on executive compensation? No equity in exchange for the funds? No executive or congressional oversight? Off loading bad bets to the American tax payer? The plan as originally submitted is a bad bankers wet dream.

Fail.

Let the market punish the bad actors.



http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/9/25/115925/299/175/610043

http://bigpicture.typepad.com/comments/2008/09/ots-puts-washin.html

Some countries allow people who were not born in a country to become a citizen. Obama was born in Hawaii - in the US, making him a natual born US citizen. He then also became a citizen of Kenya automatically when it gained independance from the UK in 1963, due to his father being Kenyan and Obama being 2 years old.
Every person who, having been born outside Kenya. is on llth December, 1963 a citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonies or a British protected person shall. if his father becomes. or would but for his death have become, a citizen of Kenya by virtue of subsection (1). become a citizen of Kenya on 12th December. 1963.

Then he lost that citizenship of Kenya when he turned 21, as being a dual-citizen, he did not renounce his US citizenship and choose to become Kenyan.
A person who, upon the attainment of the age of twenty-one years, is a citizen of Kenya and also a citizen of some country other than Kenya shall, subject to subsection (7), cease to be a citizen of Kenya upon the specified date unless he has renounced his citizenship of that other country, taken the oath of allegiance and, in the case of a person who was born outside Kenya. made and registered such declaration of his intentions concerning residence as may be prescribed by or under an Act of Parliament.

He does not need to renounce his Kenyan citizenship as he doesn't have one. This meme is getting old and you do yourself no favours by repeating it. It's getting as bad as that horsehit about McCain not being a natual born citizen because he was born on an airbase in Panama, when the Canal Zone was a US territory at the time.

How about you guys elect someone based on his policies and whether they matter to you, rather than spreading bullshit falsehoods to try and win by dirty tricks and character assassination of the other guy? I'm looking at both sides here.

The Democrats were the ones leading the charge against her. DailyKos was the first to allege that Sarah Palin is NOT the Mother (although they have since removed this story, since it's both libelous and embarrassing to the DailyKos). The media followed suit, and lest you forget what the partisan breakdown of the media is, here's a reminder: bias. Obama rightly condemned it, but elections are lost not by your enemies but by your friends, and Obama's friends did a bang up job in the last couple of weeks.

I agree with you, however, that experience was the wrong thing to focus on, because it put Obama on defensive ground, since he is similarly inexperienced in raw numbers. You're right that the issues, policy vision, and judgment should have been the center of the attacks. They weren't, to the measurable detriment of the Democrats, as reflected in the polls.

I didn't vote for deregulations that allowed massive redistribution of wealth to corrupt speculators. Did you? What about arming Saddam Hussein? Did you vote to ignore all evidence except what would suggest that Saddam Hussein was developing nuclear weapons and working directly with al Qaida? The serious problems with the United States are not as general as "the undereducated." It is the most corrupt among the over-privileged, undereducated who are completely to blame for all the problems described in the stories I've linked. These policies were all implemented without the knowledge of the People, and in direct contradiction to the will of the people, which has been clear from the reaction to each. All of these American atrocities are not the fault of "democracy," it's the fault of fascist traitors, led by the Bush family.

From the initial story:

Even if you do own the copyright to your own recording of your own song, SoundExchange will collect Internet radio royalties for your song even if you don't want them to do so.

If you could please provide a citation where a contract overrides Soundexchange's legalized extortion? If it exists I'd like to see it.

While who is leading in the polls is one indicator of who might win, our system is somewhat more complicated than that - as proven by the fact that Gore lost, despite winning the popular vote.

The Daily Kos has an interesting analysis of the Electoral College votes, and the likely battleground states and challenges the contenders will face. From that perspective, Obama has a significant if not insurmountable lead.

Smarts aren't actually that fuel efficient -- 35mpg hwy/31mpg city if I remember correctly. It's not even a regular hybrid, let alone a *plug-in hybrid*, like this vehicle. Of course, for this vehicle, ignore the BS mileage figures; most EV and PHEV manufacturers come up with fake "mpg" figures that assume you drive X miles on electricity and Y miles on gasoline, where X is much greater than Y, and then ignore the electricity. Still, it's hugely beneficial. Even from our current grid, according to a DOE study, due to the greater efficiency of power plants, you get a third lower CO2 emissions by going electric.

For those who are interested in going electric, and aren't into novelty kit cars, here's a list of 33 upcoming EVs and PHEVs, excluding motorcycles and commercial vans/semis, not counting concept cars, and not counting cars from new companies that haven't shown compelling evidence of working toward production.