Slashdot Mirror

http://fdlaction.firedoglake.com/2010/08/24/facebook-banned-marijuana-leaf-of-libertarian-party-too/

"That either is bullshit or a /. myth or a new comming internet myth."

Okay... let me amend my statement to one that is more accurate:

"The spent fuel was kept in local storage units that were obviously not properly designed for it, rather than in a properly-designed storage facility."

Does that make you happier? Only one word was changed from the meaning of what I originally wrote.

"The more important thing is: the stored fuel was not involved in the main disaster."

That's part BS, and part irrelevant. The spent rods WERE involved in the "main disaster", as it was particularly the fuel rods that they had trouble keeping cool to prevent fires and/or meltdowns.

But even more to the point: in the long run, the spent rods are the main disaster: giving off more radiation and otherwise causing more problems than the reactor cores themselves. That link is only an example: you can find references from reputable sources to how bad the spent fuel rod problem has been, all over the internet. A few minutes with Google should suffice to show you that you are wrong about that.

Further, we do know what to do with spent fuel; government just hasn't been willing to spend the money.

Do you gargle with Glen Beck's bath water, too?

> For this administration to build it,
Hey! Funding an agency belongs to the legislative branch. It was even on Schoolhouse Rock.

> it will need to be called something like "Global Warming Explorer",
> "Rich People Killer", or "Bush's Fault"

Do you even investigate your opinions? You sound "tased and confused". Obama has funnelled more public funds into RICH, private pockets than Bush could have ever achieved.

Just one REGULATORY - not statutory - example:

The largest transfer of wealth from the public to private sector is about to begin. The federal government will be bulk-selling the massive portfolio of foreclosed homes now owned by HUD, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to private investors -- vulture funds.

These homes, which are now the property of the U.S. government, the U.S. taxpayer, U.S. citizens collectively, are going to be sold to private investor conglomerates at extraordinarily large discounts to real value.

http://www.thestreet.com/story/11224917/1/a-huge-housing-bargain--but-not-for-you.html

So, while Bushie turned these INTO US Government assets, via TARP and other 2008 bailouts, Bamie will now sacrifice those already dubious "investments," to make more geld for Goldmann.

I have to say. If you liked Bush, then it follows that Obama ought to be making you fill your trousers with white, gooey geysers.

Richard Nixonâ(TM)s White House Counsel John Dean, while Bush was president, predicted that Bushâ(TM)s successor would be one of two things, either the best or the worst president in history. He, or she, would either undo the damage and prosecute the crimes, or protect the criminals and continue the abuses. Obama has protected the criminals, continued many of the abuses, more firmly established the power to commit those abuses, and expanded abusive powers beyond what Bush ever attempted. Iâ(TM)m not trying to quantify and determine whether Obama has grabbed âoemoreâ new abusive powers than Bush did. Iâ(TM)m simply pointing out that, as with previous presidents, Obama has retained the powers bequeathed him and added some.

http://my.firedoglake.com/davidswanson/2011/03/15/is-obama-even-worse-than-bush/

Although policies being implemented under Obama's leadership exhibit the continuation of Bush's tyrannical agenda, his stunning betrayal of populist and Constitutional principles in support of these actions makes him the ultimate hypocrite. Additionally, because Obama is a much more influential orator than Bush, his service to the puppet masters is far more dangerous to the American people he's supposed to serve.

http://www.activistpost.com/2011/04/10-reasons-obama-is-just-as-bad-or.html

Next yearâ(TM)s presidential campaign is predicted to cost a billion dollars, which Obama has already started raising from the financial industry and other interest groups. He faces no progressive or moderate opposition at all, with the only question to be resolved that of exactly how extreme his Republican opponent will be.

http://www.math.columbia.edu/~woit/wordpress/?p=3538

It's all the Tea party's fault? Come on, you've got the wrong narrative here. The "flash mobs" are African-Americans, and this new enforcement is just racism. Philadelphia is a highly liberal area. Of course, the idea that liberals are using the thug police to oppress African-Americans is bound to cause some cognitive dissonance, but it's nothing that reading some Marx won't cure.

The last time I checked, the US was still a democracy. Currently, 47% of the country (including me) would prefer to not raise the debt ceiling, while 42% (presumably including you) are all in a panic that not raising it would be a catastrophe. I am tired of the government borrowing money on my behalf, while you would like your debt to be even more than the $46,137.29 it is now. When do you plan on paying this debt back? Ours are therefore opposite and irreconcilable positions, perfectly reflecting the opposite and irreconcilable positions held by the two parties in Congress. What you are proposing that your view must be imposed on everybody in the country, ignoring the views of the other 47% of americans. That's not how democracy works. That's how a dictatorship works. If you like that system, try moving to China or something. In America we try to not allow a minority dictate the majority what to do (even though, unfortunately, it does happen).

You can't negotiate with that sort of hatred.... If Obama get's re-elected, maybe the Republicans can finally set aside their hate and work with the guy.

As this video repeatedly references - the "extreme" Republican right have been publicly heaping praise on Obama's policies for some time now. Hardly "hate", and hardly a sign that they do not wish to work with Obama. You Sir are so far off the mark it is not funny - or a political shill - which is it? Follow the references given everything is on the public record. Convince yourself on un-debatable fact that hardline Republicans have indeed been praising Obama's continuation (and escalation!) of Bush/Cheney's assault on civil liberties ... and get back to us (unless your a shill, of course).

You're full of it. Manning didn't get the data out because it was being shared. He got the data out to wikileaks because of the staggering incompetence of the military to secure their systems.

http://firedoglake.com/merged-manning-lamo-chat-logs/

---
(01:52:30 PM) Manning: funny thing is⦠we transffered so much data on unmarked CDsâ¦
(01:52:42 PM) Manning: everyone did⦠videos⦠movies⦠music
(01:53:05 PM) Manning: all out in the open
(01:53:53 PM) Manning: bringing CDs too and from the networks was/is a common phenomeon
(01:54:14 PM) Lamo: is that how you got the cables out?
(01:54:28 PM) Manning: perhaps
(01:54:42 PM) Manning: i would come in with music on a CD-RW
(01:55:21 PM) Manning: labelled with something like âoeLady Gagaâ⦠erase the music⦠then write a compressed split file
(01:55:46 PM) Manning: no-one suspected a thing
(01:55:48 PM) Manning: =L kind of sad
(01:56:04 PM) Lamo: and odds are, they never will
(01:56:07 PM) Manning: i didnt even have to hide anything
(01:56:36 PM) Lamo: from a professional perspective, iâ(TM)m curious how the server they were on was insecure
(01:57:19 PM) Manning: you had people working 14 hours a day⦠every single day⦠no weekends⦠no recreationâ¦
(01:57:27 PM) Manning: people stopped caring after 3 weeks
(01:57:44 PM) Lamo: i mean, technically speaking
(01:57:51 PM) Lamo: or was it physical
(01:57:52 PM) Manning: >nod(02:03:22 PM) Manning: i even asked the NSA guy if he could find any suspicious activity coming out of local networks⦠he shrugged and said⦠âoeits not a priorityâ
(02:03:53 PM) Manning: went back to watching âoeEagleâ(TM)s Eyeâ
______________________________

(02:12:23 PM) Manning: so⦠it was a massive data spillage⦠facilitated by numerous factors⦠both physically, technically, and culturally
(02:13:02 PM) Manning:: perfect example of how not to do INFOSEC
(02:14:21 PM) Manning: listened and lip-synced to Lady Gagaâ(TM)s Telephone while exfiltratrating possibly the largest data spillage in american history
(02:15:03 PM) Manning: pretty simple, and unglamorous
(02:16:37 PM) Manning: *exfiltrating
(02:17:56 PM) Manning: weak servers, weak logging, weak physical security, weak counter-intelligence, inattentive signal analysis⦠a perfect storm
(02:19:03 PM) Manning: >sigh
(02:19:19 PM) Manning: sounds pretty bad huh?
(02:20:06 PM) Lamo: kinda :x
(02:20:25 PM) Manning: :L
(02:20:52 PM) Lamo: i mean, for the .mil
(02:21:08 PM) Manning: well, it SHOULD be better
(02:21:32 PM) Manning: its sad
(02:22:47 PM) Manning: i mean what if i were someone more malicious
(02:23:25 PM) Manning: i couldâ(TM)ve sold to russia or china, and made bank?

what the fuck are they thinking by claiming that Glenn [Greenwald] weighs “professional preservation” against “cause”? Could they be more wrong, painting Glenn as a squeamish careerist whose loud support for WikiLeaks (which dates back far longer than these security firms seem to understand) is secondary to “professional preservation”?

http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2011/02/09/security-firms-pitching-bank-of-america-proposed-targeting-glenn-greenwald/

If you've read anything that blogger Greenwald has written, you'd know how true this.

One of the key complaints by Greenwald is that Wired redacted parts that did not contain "sensitive personal information". The Washington Post and BoingBoing have either full or partial copies of the logs and have published sections that Wired did not include. And guess what... they extra parts they published aren't sensitive personal information.

Firedog Lake put together a merged transcript of what has been published so far and you can decide for yourself whether Wired should have redacted it. I believe most of the relevant part is from May 22.

http://firedoglake.com/merged-manning-lamo-chat-logs/

I believe Greenwald is also asserting that Lamo has been making claims that are not substantiated by the logs that have been released. One key claim has to do with whether or not Assange provided assistance to Manning in obtaining the classified documents. Greenwald's article states Lamo said:

"Manning explicitly told him in these chats that he had help from Assange and from WikiLeaks 'intermediaries' in Boston."

That's important because the government is trying to build a conspiracy case against Assange. The logs would help to clarify what Lamo is saying since Lamo previously said Manning never explicity said he had support.

this is more than 25% am I missing something here

http://firedoglake.com/merged-manning-lamo-chat-logs/

This chart was compiled by FDL and readers. Covers the whole timeline of what happened when and by who.

List fails without the therac 25

Fatal radiation dosage mistakes like those involving the Therac-25 make you wonder how well and how often airport body scanners will be calibrated as they remain in service for years. Whose responsibility is this, if anyone's?

Here's a more recent example proving accidents continue to happen:

In October, 2009, news broke that CT scanners in several hospitals had been calibrated incorrectly and operated in the wrong mode for a year and a half, exposing hundreds of patients to 6 – 13 times the intended dose of radiation, putting many at risk for developing new cancer on top of their pre-existing conditions. These CT scanners were located in top-flight hospitals such as Cedars Sinai in Los Angeles and operated by the best-trained technicians following the manufacturer’s guidelines and yet nobody – in eighteen months – spotted this gross error. The lawsuits resulting from this egregious cock-up continue to wend their way through court.

"Ultimately, it was a patient who alerted Cedars-Sinai to the problem. In August, a stroke victim informed the hospital that he had suffered patchy hair loss after a scan."

Kirk James Murphy says SHE was playing with CIA-funded terror-tactics groups not so long ago: http://my.firedoglake.com/kirkmurphy/2010/12/04/assanges-chief-accuser-has-her-own-history-with-us-funded-anti-castro-groups-one-of-which-has-cia-ties/

The same groups publicly supported the coup in Honduras. The one which Wikileaks revealed US government lying not knowing about and being unable to intervene because of that.

More on how CIA is hunting Assange through Sweden (emphasis added):

The Swedes have a practical reason behind their deceptively slapstick police-work. The WikiLeaks founder, pursued by malevolent forces around the world, sought momentary relief beneath Sweden's reputation as a bastion of free speech. But the moment Julian sought the protection of Swedish media law, the CIA immediately threatened to discontinue intelligence sharing with SEPO, the Swedish Secret Service.

The suspicion of whether the rape farce is an orchestrated campaign, might be illuminated by these facts: (1) Sweden sent troops to Afghanistan, (2) Assange's WikiLeaks published the Afghan War Diary... --- ...new secret materials by WikiLeaks might just influence the general elections on September 19. Perhaps that explains the sudden police raid on a WikiLeaks server.

http://my.firedoglake.com/kirkmurphy/2010/12/04/assanges-chief-accuser-has-her-own-history-with-us-funded-anti-castro-groups-one-of-which-has-cia-ties/

Nothing "solid", but there's a lot more validity to it than the birther idiocy: http://my.firedoglake.com/kirkmurphy/2010/12/04/assanges-chief-accuser-has-her-own-history-with-us-funded-anti-castro-groups-one-of-which-has-cia-ties/

The birther crap ignored the facts because it didn't fit the agenda. Given what facts are out there that we know about, the US/CIA tie to Assange's accuser isn't ruled out. That's the difference.

Julian Assange’s chief accuser in Sweden has a significant history of work with anti-Castro groups, at least one of which is US funded and openly supported by a former CIA agent convicted in the mass murder of seventy three Cubans on an airliner he was involved in blowing up.

http://my.firedoglake.com/kirkmurphy/2010/12/04/assanges-chief-accuser-has-her-own-history-with-us-funded-anti-castro-groups-one-of-which-has-cia-ties/

and (b) Julian Assange quite possibly committed sexual assault? Is this some sort of cult of personality thing where, because you like WikiLeaks, therefore Assange can do no wrong?

I can't speak for everyone, but there need not be any cult-worship to try and spin this as not-a-rape, i havent met a single person who doesnt laugh their ass off at the stupidity of the charges, and the stupidity of the Swedish authorities obviously doing the bidding of the Empire. I mean, come on, they are pulling every dirty trick they can to punish him for exposing their corruption and incompetence. Check it out, the 'victim' just happens to have worked with the notorious CIA terrorist Corriles, this honeytrap is as blatant as it gets. Discrediting the messenger works quite well, that is all this is. If they can get Sweden to extradite him to the US, then bonus points. Assange is cancer to the powers-that-be. and i wouldnt assume that others would be willing to go down this road along with him, this operation could very well be suppressed.
Corriles story: http://my.firedoglake.com/kirkmurphy/2010/12/04/assanges-chief-accuser-has-her-own-history-with-us-funded-anti-castro-groups-one-of-which-has-cia-ties/

I submitted a story here on Slashdot yesterday, but it appears the editors chose to post stories about Vuvuzelas instead. Here's a few bits and pieces from the linked article:

"Anna Ardin (the official complainant) is often described by the media as a “leftist”. She has ties to the US-financed anti-Castro and anti-communist groups [...] at least one of which is US funded and openly supported by a former CIA agent convicted in the mass murder of seventy three Cubans on an airliner he was involved in blowing up [...] In Cuba she interacted with the feminist anti-Castro group Las damas de blanco (the Ladies in White). This group receives US government funds and the convicted anti-communist terrorist Luis Posada Carriles is a friend and supporter. [...] The president of the Argentine Madres de Plaza de Mayo (was quoted) as saying that 'the so-called Ladies in White defend the terrorism of the United States'."

And the source: http://my.firedoglake.com/kirkmurphy/2010/12/04/assanges-chief-accuser-has-her-own-history-with-us-funded-anti-castro-groups-one-of-which-has-cia-ties/

If all this is true (and it probably is), this woman is no upstanding citizen and I would think twice before trusting her about her motives! To any teabaggers who don't want to believe the US gov could have terrorists working for it: grow up!

Murkowski is no longer the Republican running for Alaska's Senate seat, but she woud caucus with them if reelected as that's how she'll have seniority on committees. Since she has joined every Republican filibuster - on any kind of legislation, so long as it obstructed Democrats - there's no reason to believe she won't go along with them, especially since she'll have to make deals with the party to keep her seniority. She might not lead witch hunts, but she will eliminate Social Security and Medicare to give its money to Wall Street, which is the Republican platform as it always has been. The witch hunts of course are just distraction so that real story isn't reported to the people, and to weaken Democrats who would try to stop the heist.

Joe Miller is the Republican. He says Social Security is unconstitutional, clearly his pretext for handing it over to Wall Street. He wants to take away Americans' voting for our senators directly, and says the minimum wage is unconstitutional, despite longstanding Supreme Court decisions supporting them, so his idea of what the Constitution is and is worth is an open question.

McAdams' ad wearing Stevens' tie is obviously a message about bringing Alaska Federal pork just like Stevens was beloved to do, and without which handouts Alaska would shrivel and die. He's not going to witch hunt anyone, because those handouts have been protected by Democrats as well as Republicans.

So yes, your mileage may vary. There are many roads to an Alaskan Bridge to Nowhere. But both Miller and Murkowski are active climate change deniers, even as climate change hits Alaska harder than any other state, as the Arctic is the most sensitive to the changes. Which is why either of them in the Senate will be voting for exactly the kind of witch hunt this story in Virginia is about. The witch hunts where they help impeach the Democratic president for some imaginary nonsense are just the price of admission to the modern Republican caucus they're spending all their time and money fighting to be counted among.

Due to "National Security" reasons, I need about 12 President-VICE Richard B. Cheney lookalikes.

Can these lookalikes be cloned from my skin?

Please forward your answers to :

Richard B. Cheney, President-VICE
Number One Naval Observatory Circle
Washington, D.C., 20007

Criminally As Always,
President-VICE Richard B. Cheney

Well, we were both somewhat inaccurate. It was NewsCorp (who owns Fox) which is STILL the same as GE (who owns CNBC). Again, I may have err'd in saying Rupert (Murdoch) rather than NewsCorp. It is the parent corporations of Fox and CNBC that are giving to both parties. Any statement that omits these facts is likely to be from the ignorant or the immoral. Yes, lying is immoral.

http://news.firedoglake.com/2010/08/17/news-corp-fox-parent-company-donates-1m-to-republican-governors-association/

Unlike Spun, I have not attempted to deceive.

The claim that Wikileaks redacted identifying information is not mentioned in US mainstream media. I checked the recent NPR stories. I emailed them about this. A google search brings up various conflicting bits of information. See for example:
http://attackerman.firedoglake.com/2010/08/03/wikileaks-redacted/

I really would appreciate reliable coverage of this aspect.

I think Wikileaks should send the files to the Pentagon before publishing, let them do the redaction. I am sure that they will not "overdo" it, but if they do, Wikileaks can call them out on that...

It is funny, Amazon did actually propose this as a way to cut spending and now they are against it.

It's the entire dichotomy of the brains:
Q. American people, do you want to reduce the deficit?
A. Sure, we want to reduce the deficit, do it!
Q. American people, should we cut spending to do that?
A. Sure, cut spending, do it!
Q. American people, what should we cut out of the spending?
A. NOOOOTHING!!!!!

It's funny if it weren't so tragic. Deficit needs to be cut and debts needs to be reduced and repaid. But it will not be done, instead the country will be bankrupted and the USD will be destroyed via hyper-inflation. Same thing can happen to Euro, we'll see.

The government is always running as a huge pyramid scheme, the people who came in early, they paid the least into social security in absolute terms and in proportion to their salaries, and those people got to enjoy really hugely from the rest paying for them. People who came in late are facing much greater payments into the system in both, absolute and relative terms and will probably get very very little back out of the system and they will be forced to wait longer.

After all, people are living longer and the government didn't imagine that could happen. -that's senator Alan Simpson saying exactly that.

So you see, government runs pyramid schemes EVEN if the money that is paid actually can be turned around to make profit, then the government just takes it out of that pot and uses it for whatever and then later says: tough shit.

This is of-course ludicrous, and a very good reason to privatize the Social Security so that the government couldn't do this to that pot, turn it into INSURANCE instead, but something that is not allowed to gamble with money. Something that can make money and not be used for anything other than its original purpose.

--

Now, it seems that my post is of-topic, but it isn't, sometimes it is necessary to provide a backdrop for a comment, something of a context.

Amazon wants something for nothing, it built a business based on Government Subsidies! Think about it for a moment. Government subsidizes the US post office, the Government makes it illegal for private companies to compete with the post office in certain ways, for example it is illegal for anybody to compete with the USPS in delivering the First Class Mail. So government created a monopoly, gives it subsidies and then some businesses figure out how to use these monopolies to their advantage. Then the businesses (Amazon in this case), decide that they don't want to carry some of the tax burden in certain states and they propose cuts in subsidies to the monopoly that helped them to become the business that it is. Then, when these cuts are proposed, Amazon all of a sudden is completely against them, because those cuts would eat into Amazon's profits just as well!

This entire situation is possible because Government got into economy, set up monopolies and then helped certain parasitic businesses that take advantage of the system to succeed. Then, because the government is still failing in economy (obviously), it ends up cutting the services and ends up hurting the bottom line of the business that rely on those monopolies to do what they do.

And the funny (from the outside) thing is how this business behaves itself, just like the rest of the American people:

Q. Amazon, can you pay some taxes here?
A. No way, we don't want to operate this way.
Q. Amazon, what should be we do about the spending problem and the deficit?
A. Cut your services.
Q. Amazon, we are going to cut the services, happy?
A. NOOOOOO!

--

The entire problem is that people and businesses want something for nothing. The governments figured this out and they run things accordingly and it helps them with elections/reelections/basically with their positions

makes warmongers (a.k.a. industrial-military-pharmaceutical complex) rich

Yours In Osh,
Kilgore Trout

British Petroleum (a.k.a. BP) destroys the Gulf of Mexico.

The Hobbit can wait another 100 years. Hopefully by then Apple will be bankrupt from their iMeditate app so iPad fanboyz won't be able to watch it.

Yours In Smolensk,
K. T.

If Kagan is confirmed to the Supreme Court, then her replacement will likely be a former RIAA litigator. I don't actually hold that against him, though, only his work on state secrets.

Personally, I am not overly concerned about Kagan's fair-use views, whatever they may be (ultimately I think that problem will and should have a legislative solution), but I think there is a snowball's chance in hell that she will be as or more liberal than Stevens on executive power. Until being appointed Solicitor General, she had no qualification to sit on the Supreme Court, so one might almost wonder if Obama appointed her to the position so he could nominate her to the Court. But why would he go to all that trouble to pick someone who will toss out all of his own national security policies? The arguments Kagan advances in court aren't necessarily her own, but if taking a harder line than Bush on state secrets and executive power really bothered her, she could have resigned.

Those issues aside, it is ridiculous that everyone is reading the tea leaves and slaughtering chickens in an attempt to determine Kagan's actual positions (on Fair Use or anything else), and making cases that it is impossible to prove beyond a reasonable doubt (or perhaps with a preponderance of evidence?) that she is not actually liberal, etc. There is a presumption of innocence, but arguing for a presumption of liberalism strains credibility. Instead of arguing that Kagan might be (is probably) liberal (or in favor of personal freedom, civil liberties, checks on executive power, etc.), people should be asking why the nominee is not someone about whom there is no doubt. The only reason is that this is how Obama wants it to be. If not people in general, then at least Slashdotters should take this position, since (aside from all of the drug-warriors who have crawled out of the woodwork for this thread) I think the bulk of Slashdot readership believes in personal freedom, not in, say, executive assassination of American citizens, warrantless wiretapping, indefinite detention of American persons without judicial review, or an unlimited state secrets privilege and effective government immunity from any legal challenge. Compared to those issues, fair use is irrelevant. Congress could overthrow the Supreme Court's rulings in that area with more legislation anyway.

This summary (and article) is retarded, anyway, because as the writer admits, "Not a whole lot is known about Kagan's judicial philosophy." This alleged "nervousness" is based on Kagan's hiring of Lawrence Lessig, her close personal friend, while Dean of Harvard Law School. She also famously presided over the hiring of many conservative/Republican professors and admires Justice Scalia, so to claim that hiring Lessig reveals her stance on copyright is a dubious argument at best. Everyone has as much right as Hollywood to be nervous about her Fair Use views, since there is no way to tell what they actually are. How about her judicial philosophy? The precedent there is her work as Solicitor General, which would not hearten anyone except authoritarians (but really does not definitely reveal anything).

Finally, let us examine the theory that Kagan is (secretly) sympathetic to fourteenth amendment "equal protection" arguments for same-sex marriage. The primary argument in favor of this is that she might be a deeply closeted lesbian. Wow. The Whitehouse categorically denied that she is a lesbian (!), but what if she were? We know that all the recent examples of outed, formerly deeply closeted gay politicians (Republicans) have made their names as great defenders of gay rights (Defense of Marriage Act, etc.). The only real evidence one way or the other is her confirmati

"First off, the Army gets to be pretty picky about who it lets in."

WHAT!? They are letting in convicted felons, non U.S. citizens, gang bangers, all kinds of malcontents these days just to get BODIES to go fight in Afganistan and Iraq. I know - I have friends and family SERVING in the Army right now (no none of them are in the above list - they know people who are though). We have PYCHOS's in the Army killing kids FOR FUN, killing dogs FOR FUN, killing reporters and kids FOR FUN! Read the news watch the videos WIkileaks released!

Here is just a few for you:

Wikileaks reveals video showing US air crew shooting down Iraqi civilians
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/apr/05/wikileaks-us-army-iraq-attack
"Footage of July 2007 attack made public as Pentagon identifies website as threat to national security"

Wikileak'd video shows U.S. troops firing on Reuters reporters and Iraqi children
http://www.infowars.com/wikileakd-video-shows-eager-to-kill-troops-firing-on-reuters-reporters-and-children/

http://www.collateralmurder.com/

Neo-Cons Defend Massacre Of Iraqi Journalists, Children
http://www.infowars.com/neo-cons-defend-massacre-of-iraqi-journalists-children/

Wikileaks leaked video of Civilians killed in Baghdad -- Full video
http://www.infowars.com/wikileaks-leaked-video-of-civilians-killed-in-baghdad-full-video/

Wikileaks Video Exposes Apache Murders of Journalists, Children In Iraq
http://www.prisonplanet.com/wikileaks-video-exposes-apache-murders-of-journalists-children-in-iraq.html

Alex Jones Covers the WikiLeaks Pentagon Snuff Video
http://www.infowars.com/alex-jones-covers-the-wikileaks-pentagon-snuff-video/

WikiLeaks VIDEO Exposes 2007 'Collateral Murder' In Iraq
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/05/wikileaks-exposes-video-o_n_525569.html

Mainstream media ignores Wikileaks video and pays more attention to Tiger Woods
http://snardfarker.ning.com/group/MainstreamMediaAndMindControl/forum/topics/rt-video-mainstream-media?commentId=2649739%3AComment%3A167787&xg_source=activity&groupId=2649739%3AGroup%3A134445

Wikileaks Iraq Video Authenticated By Senior Military Officer
http://news.firedoglake.com/2010/04/06/wikileaks-iraq-video-authenticated-by-senior-military-officer/

Leaked U.S. video shows deaths of Reuters' Iraqi staffers
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6344FW20100406?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews

36 Still Images - WikiLeaks Iraq Video (Dial-Up Warning and UPDATE from Wikileaks
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x8095770

Violence in Video Games and the Baghdad Massacre

I'm sorry you feel that 30 million fellow citizens and counting without health insurance suddenly being able to get insurance is such a burden for you when you probably already have health insurance and so the only way it will affect you is by lowering your premiums, oh the corruption!

This is simply not true. It will lower premiums for some people, but the projected difference is $100 less per year. Some groups of people will have their premiums raised by $300 or even a few thousand per year. And 30 million people who are uninsured will now be forced to buy private health insurance--sure, some will be assisted with subsidies, but certainly not all or even most.

Look at this analysis of the bill by FireDogLake, a well-known progressive website. They list 18 myths about the bill, two of which you just repeated, along with the unfortunate truth of the matter. I said it before: it's a turd of a bill, and it remains so no matter what your spot on the political spectrum is.

I just now found the perfect explanation of what I was talking about with the public: The Death of the Public Option: After Parade of Lies, Democratic Leadership Now Stands Naked

On extending the patents from 5 to 12 years:

http://www.nytimes.com/1982/09/14/us/house-debates-bill-to-extend-drug-patent-term-by-7-years.html

http://www.milliman.com/expertise/healthcare/publications/newsletters/pa/pdfs/president-obama-pharmaceutical-industry-PA-03-31-09.pdf

The actual bill. It is hard to read, but go to the page 1869 and read it. You'll see it. But you can also read around it. Apparently all kinds patents are going to be extended, by half a year here, by seven years there, various interesting stuff.

Also look at Obama killing the bill, that would have allowed cheap drug imports from Canada or other countries.

Dorgan introduced the bill

You will find shadows of this information in the news:

how the White-house killed this bill.

Dorgan had 30 or more Senators supporting this on his side, it still ended up dead.

Obama is nobody to love.

"The worst change IMO is going to be journalism."

Journalism, newspapers and magazines are in for some lean years. Then we'll all realize that no, a million random bloggers on the Internet are not a replacement for a trained, professional journalist/writer.

I agree completely with your first statement. Journalism is undergoing a radical transformation. 'Interesting Times' (pun intended) in the worst sense of the Chinese curse.

Your conclusion, though, is too reductive. You're begging the question by implying that the only way to be a skilled journalist is to have training and to be a professional. History tells us otherwise. Many, if not most, of the stars of journalism never went near J-school and a substantial number of the ones who did the most to define journalism spent their careers working against the grain of Establishment attitudes. Billy Russell, Peter Arnett, Robert Capa and Don McCullen are just a few who fell sideways into print and photo journalism, but who were each revolutionary in their own small way.

If I were looking for the future of journalism, I'd be looking carefully at Marcy Wheeler and Nate Silver - people whose extraordinary skill at research and analysis has been enabled by their ability to start a blog and work on their own terms, spending time on subjects and approaches that most bean-counters would never allow.

Full disclosure: I'm biased in favour of such an outcome because I do my own writing and photography on those terms. I don't really care whether I earn money from it (though I do derive a modest income), because I long ago learned that it's just something I love to do.

Maybe my work will never be of more than regional interest. I don't care. The beauty of the format is just this: It doesn't have to be popular. It can just be good. I can focus on quality for its own sake; I can write and photograph what I consider to be in the public interest and allow people to make of it what they will.

Got any figures on how many people are killed by terrorists in the US? According to this the total was sixteen in 2009. Don't know about you, but I feel pretty safe from terrorism here in the U.S..

This is quite plainly a coup against democracies worldwide. Those attempting it should be jailed and prosecuted. If that action proves untenable, President Obama has a clear option for dealing with the US members of such conspiracies.

"The future of government run health care is the future of unelected bureaucrats deciding whether or not your treatment is "cost effective". Care that may have saved your life might not be covered if it doesn't meet the cost benefit analysis."

Aetna plans to drop six hundred thousand subscribers, because the stockholder profits are not high enough .

All Hail the mighty Invisible Hand of the Free Market. Aetna's cost benefit analysis is SUPERIOR to the evil socialist cost benefit analysis of Teh Evil Government! Aetna's unelected bureaucrats PWN the Civil Service unelected bureaucrats!

To reiterate, the stench of Randroid droppings is thick and heavy in the air today. Tinged with more than a hint of rancid teabaggery.

The TL;DR is that Holder is trying to persuade Walker that there are ongoing surveillance programs that are (may be) legal which would be compromised, so please don't make the Administration explain why it violated the 4th Amendment Rights of everyone that made a phone call or sent an email, your honor.

LBJ knew it was the Poppy-Bush crew that whacked JFK. He just didn't know if they'd stop there - or go all-the-way to the overt coup.

That's what made him fall apart, and gives us the creeps.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=5456280

http://www.tomflocco.com/fs/FbiMemoPhotoLinkBushJfk.htm

http://seminal.firedoglake.com/diary/8127

Yeah. They got a quasi-race war in the press, to distract the base from stuff like this:
http://harpers.org/archive/2009/09/hbc-90005704

and this:
http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/09/15/bagram/index.html

Hey! Stay classy America! Your Edward R. Murrow is a comedian for chris'sake!
http://crooksandliars.com/dday/colbert-goes-there-only-media-figure-america

Meanwhile - back in the states:
http://seminal.firedoglake.com/diary/8133
http://www.examiner.com/x-10317-San-Diego-County-Political-Buzz-Examiner~y2009m9d11-San-Diego-Sheriff-deployed-military-crowd-control-device-at-Congressional-town-halls

Gosh. Glenn Beck didn't FREAK OUT about that, did he?

former President-VICE Richard B. Cheney.

I hope this helps the legal effort for prosecution at The Hague.

Yours In Justice,
Kilgore Trout

He spent the only money that mattered. Pickens funded the Swift Boating of Kerry and got a 4 more years of an oil-industry friendly administration. That's money well spent, from his perspective at least.

I don't care how many fucking windmills that cunt build or doesn't build. I, and many others, will never forgive or forget.

Agents that tortured

Don't hear too many protests about that one. And of course, there's the famous outing of Air America, and its successor in Latin America. You have Dianne Feinstein confirming covert American operations in Pakistan, and so on.

Pretty much, Democrats don't really care about the secrecy of anything in the CIA, unless it suits them. 99% of the outrage over Valerie Plame's outing is obviously and utterly false.

I thought "wtf?" until I got to this comment - basically the Digg frame was interfering with the site getting proper credit for the ads it loads from off-site.

You jest and/or troll, but some people seriously suggest that. Oh noes people are stealing your users, except they still go to your site, still count as pagehits and some still click your ads/comment on your threads/subscribe to your mailinglist!

Content creators don't like it.

Well, for starters, autoworkers union != bank executives. The two situations aren't even similar. On one hand, you have a union that's doing nothing more than bleeding a corporation dry. On the other, you have a situation where the free market should really be determining things like salaries and bonuses*.

The auto workers negotiated in just as much a free market as those bank executives did. SO they are the same in that regard.

Truth be told, it would be better for the US Automakers if they went bankrupt. That would dissolve all union contracts, forcing them to restructure. While there are certainly other factors like demand and quality, the benefits alone received by members of the UAW make it almost impossible for American car companies to compete with non-union car manufacturers in the US.

While it may be better if US auto manufacturers did go bankrupt, you're either discounting, ignoring, or don't know something. Even foreign auto makers what Detroit bailed out, "Why Toyota wants GM to be saved". This is because of the reason mentioned above, they all depend on the same suppliers. If Chrysler goes bankrupt it's suppliers, who also supply Japanese makers in the US may go bankrupt as well. Secondly those foreign owned factories received a lot of government subsidies. State governments have given out billions in subsidies. "Alabama offered a stunning $253 million incentive package to Mercedes ." And one of Alabama's senators, Sen. Richard Shelby was one of those who opposed bailing out US auto companies.

Its great when a company can afford to treat their people well, but when they can't, something's gotta give. Unfortunately, the UAW doesn't see it that way.

Neither do company executives. Even Carl Icahn says executive pay needs to change.

Falcon

Not entirely sure why the above was moderated "Troll", but given the AC's response, if the issue is the second paragraph, then the false Slashdot story is here, and the debunking is here and here.

As for the war, your just showing your ignorance. The war was needed back when Clinton was president

Now you're showing your ignorance. War wasn't needed, Iraq had no WMDs when Bush invaded. When Saddam did have WMDs as presidents both Reagan and Bush Sr supported Saddam. Back then he could use WMDs against anyone and it was alright. Iran? Check. Kurds? Check. Marsh Arabs? Check. It was only after Saddam invaded Kuwait, a sheikdom not a democracy, when the support stopped.

Having said that many people don't know why Saddam invaded Kuwait. Why did Saddam order the invasion of Kuwait? Because Kuwait was slant drilling into Iraqi oil fields.

Falcon

This is the answer. See Emptywheel's analysis, here, which reaches the same conclusion.

She makes the point that the Bushies are probably stalling the Holder confirmation so that the statute of limitations can begin to run out on Bush's FISA wiretap crimes. There is a specific block of time in 2005 where the taps were illegal, between when James Comey refused to reauthorize the program and when Congress rolled over for Bushie and shafted the American people once again.

The SoL on the criminal portion of FISA is four years, and in about seven weeks we're going to hit that four-year anniversary. So if they can keep Holder out for another few months that's one less act of treason they have to worry about.

Actually, genius, no, I don't win. Apparently I have to continue sharing my nation with lots of people -- alleged academics, even -- who are either liars or so powerfully biased they're willing to toss logic out the window to serve a partisan end. That's pretty much a loss all around.

Of course, I should expect that. In America, even supposed "conservative intellectuals" George Will get paid to utter biased crap like this: George Will Explains the Colin Powell Endorsement. But hey, I'm partisan! Don't believe anything I say.

It can still miss the real terrorists

Wow, this isn't getting old at all. What real terrorists? Do you mean political activists? Because that's what it looks like.

Everyone knows Bush, his administration, DHS, cops like those in the link above, etc., are the real terrorists.

Whelan says his roommate, Erin Stalmaker, went out to talk to talk to the police. She asked the officers why they were there. The officers asked why people were running away from them. Erin reportedly told the officers that their drawn automatic weapons probably had something to do with it. She was detained after asking to see a warrant.

http://firedoglake.com/2008/08/30/inside-an-rnc-raid/

If this is true (being arrested after asking to see a warrant; no warrant being produced), this is insane. Heads must roll for this; our country absolutely depends on it.