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MOD PARENT UP. There is no other profession (other than priests maybe) that protect their own from real accountability when they screw up.

Buying electoral college votes puts the fraud right out in the open, it's basically a big "fuck you!" to the American people.

Well, given that most people wouldn't mind having their vote bought, it's not so insulting to most people as you might imagine.

The article at the link suggests that a majority of NYU students would give up their right to vote for $1 million. Supposing you could scale that up to the size of the population, for 1/2 * (population of USA) * $1,000,000 = $151 trillion, you could obtain a slate of candidates in each state legislature who would agree to any constitutional amendment you wished to propose.

Given that the GDP of the USA is $13 trillion, that's a reasonably attractive leveraged buyout -- you would earn back your investment in 12 years or so.

If I were president, the first thing I would do is declare a sort of marshal law because there are major problems with the environment, and with current system of political BS in washington with lobbyist and the old boy network of politics nothing really get done...

By executive order, I'd term limit all elected officials that way there would be no entrenced political BS, for example

the president (1) six year term - that way he does not have to worry about re-election and can concentrate on the job at hand
a state senator would have (1) six year term - that way he does not have to worry about re-election and can concentrate on the job at hand
a state representative in the house would have (1) three year term - ditto

this would get rid of political lifers, and I'd try and lead by example.

To make sure the transition of power goes somewhat smooth, I would mandate all elected officials to serve a 1 year internship with the official they were going to replace, that way they have some kind of institutional insight what the job will require and learn what works and what does not work. Since there are two state senitors, I'd have there terms overlap (so a senator would be a jr the first three years, then a sr senator the last three)

During an elected officials internship, since I think there has not been enough scientific knowledge and too much legal BS in government, so I would require all elected officials to take basic math, physics, chemistry, biology and world history exams (say basic freshman college level exams), and post the score for the public to see that officials have some basic knowledge and understand (a side benefit would be since people are competive who knows they might even be driven to learn, and show how smart they are).

For my own personal term in office, I would be dedicaed to one topic, investing in the environment!

As it stands the global demand for basic resources like oil and water is far out pacing limited global suppies. For example in the southeast united states, the is just a little bit of a demend imbalance with water supplies, as it stands I give the atlanta region just about a year before the shit hits the fan, because water demand is pretty quickly depleating water supplies.

so far elected officials don't have the balls to take a stand or make a plan to deal with a worst case scenario, even FOX news has a report "No Backup Water Plan in Place for Drought-Stricken Atlanta"

Water is not a sexy subject and most people don't realize that 97 percent of all water is in the oceans. ONLY three percent of all Earth's water that is freshwater. The majority of the freshwater, about 69 percent, is locked up in glaciers and icecaps, mainly in Greenland and Antarctica. You might be surprised that of the remaining freshwater, almost all of it is below your feet, as ground water. No matter where on Earth you are standing, chances are that, at some depth, the ground below you is saturated with water. Of all the freshwater on Earth, only about 0.3 percent is contained in rivers and lakes.

To put this into perspective, if 100 liters represented all the water in the world, then only about a shot glass full would be all the fresh water available for our use!

There is a similar problem with oil, BTW did you know it takes about 98 tons of biological matter in 1 gal of oil. As it stands the IEA is reporting that at current depleation rates oil production, peak oil might have occured or will occur within a short time frame, best case estimate is 40 years from now, but I'm not buying that...

now that ya have an idea about the concerns I have as president, I will try and direct the economy and society toward solutions...

as everyone knows, there are lots of bible thu

WTF? If supply for something is less than the demand, of course prices will go up.

Unfortunately, in the IT world, a shortage of talent does not drive salaries higher.

Currently in the US there is a dramatic shortage of IT workers. This shortage is soo great that Bill Gates even lobbied Congress to get the ability to import more workers using H1-B visas.

http://www.foxnews.com/wires/2007Mar07/0,4670,CongressBillGates,00.html/

One might think that Microsoft would simply raise salaries until it manages to get the number of IT workers its needs. But there are not enough graduating from US schools, and as the Secretary of Labor Chou has said, they have hygiene problems - http://www.parade.com/articles/editions/2007/edition_07-01-2007/Intelligence_Report/

So until American college students learn how to bath properly, the laws of supply and demand will be transcended.

And even some banks (Bank of America) have stopped asking for SS#.

SS in of itself is NOT a national ID. Even where it's required, you must also present a photo ID. Passports are not a true National ID as they are not required unless you travel out of the country. But unless you're living under a bridge you HAVE to have some sort of photo ID in the form of a driver's license or recognized photo ID to do pretty much anything.

Once again, the Feds are playing 'let's just do it and say we didn't.' They simply pass on their (unfunded) madates to the states and then wash their hands and say, "What National ID?"

* They will mandate that all states check SS# when you renew your DL. Thus the possibility of connecting your SS# with your state DL.

* They will not have chips, but our state and I'm sure others aleady have a magnetic strip that they can just run through a credit card type reader. No telling what information is or will be stored.

* You will have to have this ID in order to travel by plane in the US.

* They will take the photograph at the beginning so if someone is rejected, they will have it on file. Does anyone think for a momment this information will *not* eventually end up in federal hands. Reasoning will be, "After all, the *terrorist* could just go to another state and try so we really need to centralize this information." They will also have to centralize the information in order to make sure people aren't getting multilple IDs from several states. So the fed will have their hands on it.

And this won't do anything about illegal immigration even though it's part of the check. Neither party has shown any interest in stopping that flow and are even doing some things that will make it easier for people to illegally sneak into the country.

Neither will it stop experienced criminals or terrorists who always seem to find a way to make or get bogus IDs.

Link to article at the FoxNews web site:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,321567,00.html

I found the comments from the Greens very enlightening. Notice the lack of joy for the poor who will now be able to drive.

Their comments fall in the "let them eat cake" category.

If you are into colloidal silver self-treatment you can look forward to this.

"It's critical that we retain the right to record, videotape or photograph the police while they're on duty. Not only for symbolic reasons (when agents of the state can confiscate evidence of their own wrongdoing, you're treading on seriously perilous ground), but as an important check on police excesses."http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,284075,00.html

If you think the situation of a third party posting videos and the (unintentional) subject of that video becoming targeted in one way or another is hypothetical, you've been living under a rock.

Especially in schools, kids are taking videos of eachother and uploading those to tons of places; and most of the people in those videos aren't too keen on it hitting the web. Not a "zomg the children!" thing - it just happens to be the most common form.

Here you go - December 31st, 2007:
http://www.registerguard.com/csp/cms/sites/dt.cms.support.viewStory.cls?cid=42116&sid=1&fid=1
That's from a teacher who took it in good spirit - as did the parents and the staff.

November 14, 2007:
http://www.foxnews.com/wires/2007Nov14/0,4670,ODDCheerleadingTeacher,00.html
That teacher didn't fare so well. After criticism from parents, staff put her on administrative leave. She eventually handed in her resignation.

Actually, signing a treaty with someone, and then breaking part of or withdrawing from one when it's to your own benefit, is fairly common among nation-states. There are many examples in history of similar things. There are drawbacks to creative reading of treaties, some of which have involved fatal anger management therapy. I'm not saying that it's a good thing, just that it happens.

Recently, the Lakota Indians did just that. Whether this will be successful in creating a nation recognized by the US is still an open question.

Not sure how Bush will do that, reducing the nuclear stockpile and all. Still, is consistent with running down the Army and Marines, making it difficult to defend the U.S. But it is all about nation building and foreign adventures. Reduced military preparedness, fiscal irresponsibility, foreign interventions; all sound conservative values!

For example, when psychologist Angela Neal-Barnett in 1999 asked some focus-group students to identify acting-white behavior, they listed actions that ranged from speaking standard English and enrolling in an Advanced Placement or honors class to wearing clothes from the Gap or Abercrombie & Fitch (instead of Tommy Hilfiger or FUBU) and wearing shorts in winter!

Great points. For those interested here are some links dealing with the many issues surrounding "global warming". http://links.veronicachapman.com/OriginsOfOil.htm http://www.iceagenow.com/Growing_Glaciers.htm http://epw.senate.gov/public/index.c...9-68c808e8809e http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4520665474899458831 http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/...n2871211.shtml http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/New...s/Aerosols.pdf http://nasadaacs.eos.nasa.gov/articl...6_highlow.html http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17997788/site/newsweek/?ic http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,269886,00.html http://www.21stcenturysciencetech.com/Articles%202007/20_1-2_CO2_Scandal.pdf http://www.thunderbolts.info/forum/phpBB/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=438 http://www.thunderbolts.info/tpod/2007/arch07/070507martianwarming.htm http://www.holoscience.com/news.php?article=8gfbewe7&keywords=global%20warming#dest http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/12/071211101623.htm

Looks like the pics are dead. Enjoy: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,316592,00.html

Funny joke, but wrong country.

Since when did a gross generalization of the wrong country become insightful? Funny, maybe, but definitely not insightful.

There you go...an example of so called Christians (and a minister no less) murdering those who do not agree with their views.

"When you are in public, you are in public." should not equal "When you are public, you are presumed to have criminal intent." This is yet another symptom of the growing perceptual gap between the police and the community they are supposed to "protect and serve". There are new stories every day about the effects of the increased militarization of the civilian police forces. Some of the stories are about SWAT teams kicking in the wrong door and terrorizing and/or shooting innocent people in their own homes. http://archives.cnn.com/2000/US/10/06/tennessee.shooting.02.ap/index.html http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,188934,00.html http://www.wjla.com/news/stories/1107/474003.html
Some of the stories are about police view everyone they don't like as a "badguy" and then using that to justify violence. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tOVkT2YESU&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6e2-qi0Rc3w&feature=related
And some of the stories are about police purposefully criminalizing citizens when they want to protest peacefully (another right fading away) http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/07/28/SURVEILLANCE.TMP http://www.notinourname.net/restrictions/infiltration-19feb04.htm http://www.nettime.org/Lists-Archives/nettime-l-0101/msg00193.html http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/22/nyregion/22police.html

Why do we want to add power to an already out of control aspect of our government? When did the police stop serving the people of the community and start serving political masters?

I've never seen any terrorist propaganda in the web

Never been to www.foxnews.com, then?

Yes. I don't think we live in the same Boston as this responder. Investing 3 hours of time for an apology?

I've been witness to incessant abuse in Boston given my position (attorney). This is the same PD that killed a girl after the Red Sox won.

http://www.boston.com/sports/baseball/redsox/articles/2004/10/22/postgame_police_projectile_kills_an_emerson_student/

They are aggressive and inflammatory. A great deal of interactions I have had with them go like this, even though I am being professional. (This link is a recent case in Utah.)

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=fae_1195587967&p=1

Even during the recent celebration, 37 arrests (sorry for the fox news link.)

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,305690,00.html

Of course not all cops are bad, but the culture of the PD in Boston is terrible. I keep far, far away and avoid all interactions with those jerks.

There have been statistics published all across the news and magazines, for example
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,304456,00.html
If apple/at&t wasn't tracking the iPhones through their IMEIs how could they have published these numbers?

As had been mentioned here many times, NASA has an important and worthwhile job yet lacks funding for many things. Is this how they spend their funds instead of spending it to do what they are mandated for?

For that matter, what the heck are they doing giving their employees health care and retirement benefits? And decent office furnature? Is this how they spend their funds instead of spending it on what they are mandated for? And don't get me started on the fact that their employees get a salary...

Sorry to use an undeserved amount of sarcasm, but I wanted to emphasize the point that there are costs to keeping your employees happy and motivated. Celebrating major milestones like the successful launch of a $500 million dollar project (plus payload value) is one very common way, although it seems NASA probably goes a little overboard on these parties. I know if I were one of the invitees, I'd feel more appreciated with a small, informal party and a bonus.

By the way, the Postal Service isn't really a good comparison. First of all because their budget does not come from Congress, but from their operating incomes. Second, because the Postal Service itself also frequently engages in "frivolous" practices like sponsoring cycling teams and printing commemmorative stamps. Nor are these two organizations alone. Heck, we spent $17.3 million just on security for the last presidential inauguration. And I haven't seen anything recently on how much some of Bush's vacations have cost, but I remember some fuss about Clinton taking a $4 million safari on the taxpayer's dime. Granted, he mixed in time to "improve relations" with African nations, etc. but the same can be said of this party with NASA and its contractors.

Don't forget cookies!

Dennis Kucinich once saw a UFO.
HELLO! UFO = Technology!

Are you implying that there is a lot of crap spewing out of major media outlets that doesn't or shouldn't qualify as 'news'? ;)

Are you implying that there is a lot of crap spewing out of major media outlets that doesn't or shouldn't qualify as 'news'? ;)

First, if you are claiming the US government controls the US media the way the Russian government controls the Russian government just because there are other things going on other than a bunch of people walking around with signs and thinking they are making a difference in the world, you are an idiot.

Second, Fox News currently (as of 5:32 PM, EST) has this as their top story. So unless you want to concede that Fox is the most independent news outlet while CNN is a Bush lapdog, I'd rethink your argument...

First, if you are claiming the US government controls the US media the way the Russian government controls the Russian government just because there are other things going on other than a bunch of people walking around with signs and thinking they are making a difference in the world, you are an idiot.

Second, Fox News currently (as of 5:32 PM, EST) has this as their top story. So unless you want to concede that Fox is the most independent news outlet while CNN is a Bush lapdog, I'd rethink your argument...

Well, 92% of americans believe in God, so, boy I wonder if there is something wrong with those polls or if America REALLY is in so bad intellectual shape (to express myself nice)...

Foux News sez (and note they are perhaps the most sensational "news" outlet there is) 17,011 deaths from the superbug. Wrong diagnosis dot com says 15,245 Americans died of AIDS in 2000.

Meanwhile, in 1997, 41,967 people died on the American highways. So you SHOULD fear the terrorists; the blonde ones in their SUVs.

Note that I'm tired of googling so find your own link, half a million die from cancer and another half million die from heart disease. The two biggest terrorists aren't germs, Muslims or SUVs, but R. J. Reynolds and Ronald McDonald.

-mcgrew

Worked well for Brad Delp: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,259154,00.html

Compare to this incident: Oklahoma Police Kill 5-Year Old Boy While Shooting at Snake

A judge in the UK calls it political
British schools ordered to provide balance when showing the movie.
But the Nobel Peace price isn't political....

A judge in the UK calls it political
British schools ordered to provide balance when showing the movie.
But the Nobel Peace price isn't political....

A judge in the UK calls it political
British schools ordered to provide balance when showing the movie.
But the Nobel Peace price isn't political....

A friend emailed me about this just this morning. Here is what he wrote and my reply:

> I'm going to chalk this up (tentatively) to the increasing popularity of
> Linux, which means that a subset of users will be those who don't actually
> know what they're doing, and how to protect a box-- something long the norm
> in the Windows world:
>
> http://computerworld.co.nz/news.nsf/scrt/CD0B9D97EE6FE411CC25736A000E4723
>
> While there, he noticed an unusual trend when taking down phishing sites.
>> "The vast majority of the threats we saw were rootkitted Linux boxes,
>> which was rather startling. We expected Microsoft boxes," he said.

I am not surprised in the least that this was their conclusion. I don't chalk it up to the increasing popularity of Linux at all. I have never (not once) run across a Linux box operating in a botnet. Nor can anyone name a botnet software that infects Linux boxes. In the last 5 years I have found only one Linux box that had a security issue and that was because of PHP (*spit*) which had an XML-RPC exploit a while back and allowed someone to make the box host a fishing website that looked like some bank website. It seems very rare that a Linux desktop (not a webserver) would fall victim to this. I have never seen a security incident such as a botnet on a Linux desktop. I have seen that phishing page on the Linux server that hosted the bogus PHP install. That's it.

And I suspect that they are using terminology incorrectly. A Linux box hosting a fishing site is not part of a botnet. I can understand how Linux boxes would be more popular for fishing websites. PHP is popular and is a pox on Linux as PHP released a bunch of absolute garbage which only happens to run on Linux. It can run on Windows also but that is the expensive and less reliable way to do it so few people do. If people make a conscious decision to install software on Linux that lets just about anyone use the box for whatever they want such as PHP often does I don't think counts against Linux security.

Glancing over the article I immediately spotted this:

"eBay recently did an in-depth analysis of its threat situation, and while the company is not releasing the results of this analysis, it did uncover a huge number of hacked, botnet computers, said Dave Cullinane, eBay's chief information and security officer, speaking at a Microsoft-sponsored security symposium at Santa Clara University."

I challenge anyone to find a single MS sponsored paper or symposium which DOESN'T come to a conclusion favorable to MS and unfavorable to Linux. Just one. And they won't release the raw data. How much is a large botnet? 10? 100? Among millions of infected MS machines. I would also like to know what this alleged Linux botnet software is called.

I am positive that Linux will not be nearly so adversely affected by users who do not know what they are doing. Linux is very different from Windows and is architected for performance, security, and utility instead of being architected to make someone a boatload of money and maintaining monopoly lock-in. (See the fine the EU just imposed on MS.)

Some technical features which help ensure that even if Linux becomes popular on the desktop it won't suffer the same fate as Windows:

* Linux users don't run as admin/root.

* Email programs do not automatically execute attachments.

* Does not depend on filename extensions for anything.

* Does not auto-run anything from inserted media (Worth a laugh: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,299155,00.html )

* System of mandatory access controls (SE Linux) which really locks things down (some people still turn that off but it is improving rapidly, I use it on my desktop).

* Linux also takes advantage of NX (non-executable memory) which is a recent feature of x86 cpu's

I suppose that my point is that where bombs are concerned where do you put your security checks. All points will require amassing large groups of people so that the bomb goes off in a different location but is still effective. Look at Iraq and Afganistan this weeend. I think they have pretty good measures in place.Planes not mattering is my guess with trespect to the various groups seeking to instill fear. An airport terminal is probably just fine. They are not trying too kill you dumb ass, they are trying to fuck up your life. And listening to you they have succeeded.

Weird. How do you come to that conclusion?

Dunno where you live, so here's a somewhat local perspective form the SW of the US: not long after 9/11 a truck loaded with Cyanide went missing.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,52908,00.html
THAT is the only time after 9/11 that I worried. The notion was that terrorists could drop it into one of the few big rivers in the southwest and wreck ecological damage on a massive scale. Yeah, that had me worried. But the truck was just stolen, and eventually it was found abandoned - too hot.

I did not say do away with the checks, but remember the original plot that you are thinking of (planes/towers) had no bombs, and the use of other pointy objects (plastic could well have been employed).

No, you said:

You can not fight someone who is going to blow themselves up. I would think that airplanes probably no longer matter. If you get through fine, if not blow yourself up in a crowded terminal. Probably get more folks that was as well.Especially when so many virgins and good shit is at stake.

I think you can fight someone who is going to blow themselves up. I don't know that we're doing a particularly good job, but I think we could be doing worse.

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/just_26_favor_senate_immigration_plan

A quick search on Google provided me with the following links, most support or tend to support the claims I made.

http://www.illegalaliens.us/polls.htm

http://www.npg.org/immpoll.html

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=44154

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,155413,00.html

Latest polls show it is closer to 3/4 than 2/3. In the meantime, I suggest that you broaden your circle of friends.

Now, as for Illegal Immigrants, do you know how much of the prison population are "undocumented aliens"? How many of them are murderer's, and how many victims? Just because you don't like the terminology I use, doesn't mean it isn't factual. The problem is that when one ignores time (3200 in 3 hours vs more over years ..) doesn't make the facts any less factual. Funny thing about statistics is one can make any case one wants with them, if they have the right data.

http://archive.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2006/3/27/114208.shtml

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,297203,00.html The police aren't so sure thier behavior was right or they wouldn't be trying to scare him away with felony charges.

They are, in fact coming out with a GI Joe movie. The bad news, however, is it sounds like it is being screwed up even more than the normal Hollywood treatment. The whole "real American hero" thing is being removed in the name of political correctness, and "GIJOE" now stands for "Global Integrated Joint Operating Entity".

...but FOX News had the only other one I could find. =(

Still better than the crap in the submission.

foxnews has an article that gives its range as 5000 nautical miles on a full tank of 2000 gal of fuel

http://www.foxnews.com/wires/2007Sep06/0,4670,Stra ngeWatercraft,00.html

You may be right about the cold war part. Today from Fox News. I want to know if this will count as the same Cold War? Will it be Cold War II, with Cold War I ending at the fall of the Berlin Wall?

Here ya go: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,97063,00.html

Perhaps everyone you've ever met doesn't fall into this 70% of all Americans: http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2003-09-06 -poll-iraq_x.htm

If you believe things like "total capacity" you obviously don't understand that people on any website *green*.com have an agenda and will not look at the whole picture. Sure if you look at the entire grid, on average there's plenty of power for plug ins.

Now, lets look at the biggest weenie state on green issues California, this week they are being told to stop running Air Conditioning and don't use major appliances. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,295667,00.html

I'm sure they could really use plug in cars to help that out, so now I've got no power, and no transportation, brilliant.

The simple solutions, often, aren't...

I agree that they have a right to defend their copyright, but the punishment is not proportional with the "crime"

The have repeatedly asked students to quit school. Apparently the RIAA can't wait untill they get a job to pay them. The RIAA needs money so badly, that they think it's worth destroying kids hope of a real life.

They have also sued 12 year olds, and even dead grandmothers aren't safe...

absolutely no dollars.

Impeach Bush with a criminal indictment FP.

If Kim Jong iL did this, he would be accused of war-mongering. When Front Man For The Crime Syndicate Does It, it's called a warning.

Blow it out your ass, F.O.X.

F.O.X. : F(ear) O(ppression and) X(enophobia)

Regardz,
Kilgore Trout