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and nothing to wipe their asses with

Don't get sick, fuckers.

This has got to be the thousandth time I've read an analysis of debt from a Progressive that fails to account for the fact that government is only a redistributor of income. Any decrease in spending is an increase in the amount that taxpayers can keep for themselves.

I just want to point out that not only does (at least some, e.g. NASA) government spending result in a net increase in GDP larger than the amount spent, but some government expenditures lead directly to profits.

If they do have so many good people in their ranks, why is there only one that stood up and exposed the other dirtbags?

About that, ...

http://abcnews.go.com/Business/debit-credit-facts-fraud-liability/story?id=16090439

You have a maximum liability of $50 for fraudulant credit card purchases - no liability if the phsyical card wasn't used to make the purchase (.ie online purchases). That's hardly losing "100% of [your] stuff" if someone rips off your card number.

NOTE: Identity theft is WAY different than somoene using your CC#.

Just wait until it starts working and healthy working people realize how much they're going to have to spend to subsidize all the lower-income and non-workers.

Uh, realize this first - before this they were ALREADY subsidized. Just in stupidly inefficient and terrible ways.

They go to ER and wait till they are sick enough for ER to treat them. Guess who pays[1] for that? Not them, they don't have money. Guess how expensive that is compared to treating them earlier at a GP or not at ER stage at least?

Or they commit a crime to go to prison and get healthcare treatment or just to get food and shelter. Yes people actually do that. Go google it.
http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2013/02/on-purposely-getting-arrested-to-get-life-saving-surgery/273282/
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Wellness/nc-man-allegedly-robs-bank-health-care-jail/story?id=13887040
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/27/timothy-alsip-robs-bank-healthcare_n_3825492.html
Think about how expensive that is - getting the bank, cops, courts, prisons, hospitals and who knows who else involved.

Whether you like it or not if you pay taxes or insurance premiums you have already been paying for it. It's just been done in a very very inefficient and stupid way. Unless you wish to do mass euthanizations you are going to have to pay for it one way or another.

This "Frankenstein Monster" of Obamacare is not that efficient either but you can thank stupid selfish citizens like you and equally self-serving politicians for that who give voters like you what they want (which given rather polarized and conflicting wants creates mutated monsters like ObamaCare).

Careful - maybe one day 3rd world people like me who are smarter and cheaper than you will take YOUR jobs. Then you may realize you might need those subsidies after all. Or maybe you're one of the rich elites who don't have to worry about such "small problems".

The sad thing is the corrupt greedy politicians in my 3rd world country are trying to make our healthcare crappier- they've siphoned out billions of money so have to make up by cutting out stuff elsewhere.

[1] if you ever need ER treatment you also pay in ERs being less efficient, or even being closed down because of $$$. Google for: ERs closed down.

Mabe not ban it, but at least accurately report the amount in the food on the label. e.g. http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Diet/trans-fat-information-food-labels-deceptive-researcher/story?id=12515022

A wide variety of individuals and groups can influence policy, such as unions, the ACLU, the NRA, American states, foreign governments, and many others.

Any politician that doesn't suit the voters is subject to losing his or her job. Just one example:

Colorado Recall Elections Chill Push for New Gun Laws

The system we use says that the "free" in "free market" means anyone can participate in that market, what's not so clear is whether anyone is free NOT to participate.

Until a few weeks ago, Americans were free not to participate in the market for health insurance. Now, not participating is illegal. (Or, if you're Chief Justice Roberts, you can consider it to be a legal but taxable activity -- just long enough to establish the constitutionality of the scheme -- and then we can all go back to saying "I absolutely reject the notion" that Obamacare is a tax.)

Obamacare supporters justify all this by saying that the free market wasn't working, because people who could afford to buy health insurance, but didn't, were getting free healthcare anyway; hence the need for an insurance mandate.

Here's the flaw in that argument. Let group B be the cancer patients who faithfully paid insurance premiums prior to their diagnosis, and group A be the cancer patients who had the means to insure their health, but chose not to.

When healthcare providers or governments, out of misplaced compassion, make the financial outcome for group A not so different from the financial outcome for group B, the incentive to buy insurance in the first place is indeed greatly eroded. Trouble is, it's not a free market that was malfunctioning and providing that perverse disincentive; it's a non-free market. A free market would rigorously enforce that the catastrophe group B insured itself against really happens to the group that chose not to insure itself against catastrophe. Those who choose not to insure their health would understand that they'd be subjecting themselves to seizure and forfeiture of their assets, no kidding, to whatever extent necessary to compensate their healthcare provider. Cautionary tales of people who gambled that they wouldn't need health insurance, and lost that gamble, would provide powerful free-market incentives to buy health insurance.

Sound harsh? It's not as harsh as the alternative Americans just acquiesced to: government coercion to buy health insurance.

oh, none of us who are aware of thre reality would weep any tears if the tsa, nsa and even cia went away tomorrow.

I'm curious, does the "reality" you inhabit have foreign nations simultaneously revealing their nuclear submarine force along with state media published maps of nuclear strikes against the US?

Does your "reality" include another foreign nations probing the defenses of the US and its allies with nuclear bombers?

Russian bombers buzz U.S. territory — again
Russian Bombers Perform Simulated "Strikes" on Sweden, U.S.
US scrambles jet fighters after Russian nuclear bombers circle American airspace over Guam
Pictured: The moment RAF jets intercepted Russian bombers flying in British airspace

Do US allies in your "reality" worry about invasion or blackmail by rearming adversaries?

NATO stages exercise as rearming Russia worries some allies

Did the TSA in your "reality" keep 1,549 firearms off planes, not to mention other weapons?

TSA Finds Guns on Hundreds of Passengers Each Year

all those opaque cant-see-thru orgs have no reason to exist other than TO exist and keep themselves in power. blech! the american public (and world public) has had enough of this BS!

The TSA, CIA, NSA aren't "in power." They answer to the government in power, just like the FBI, Interior Department, Coast Guard, Social Security administration, and a host of other government agencies.

He continues, 'I am confident that with the support of the international community, the government of the United States will abandon this harmful behavior."

Has he even read the stuff he leaked?

Check with the Russian help desk for an interview.

Taxes may very well be the price of civilization, but what those taxes are spent on may be efficient and valuable, or destructive and wasteful. They can build bridges that are needed, and in a useful place, or expensive bridges to nowhere. The ACA is proving to be badly thought out, badly implemented, justified by lies, and seems to be headed towards being a train wreck for the American people, the economy, the healthcare industry, and even the Democratic party. It is already driving many jobs out of the medical devices industry. There are other ways this 15% shortfall could have been addressed, but the party with the power decided they wanted to build another "bridge to nowhere" and now are forcing the American people over the bridge.

The article isn't full of "contradictory statements," if it was I'm sure you could quote some. The insurance companies aren't changing coverage because they want to, but because the law is forcing them to. If anyone is contradicting themselves, it is you. On one hand you want to claim that large numbers of people won't be able to stay uninsured, but your last paragraph reflects the minor penalty for noncompliance which means it will be far cheaper to stay out of insurance than sign up. The kicker is that the only way for the IRS to force you to pay the penalty tax is if they owe you a refund. Noncompliance is likely to be a huge issue since the people needed to make the numbers work are the young and healthy that often don't have insurance now - by choice. Given the low and barely enforceable penalty they are unlikely to sign up in the numbers that are needed to make the Obamacare redistribution scheme work. Planned failure?

The Spanish site has never worked, and I doubt anyone knows when it will work. Spanish speaking people in the US are one of the key underinsured groups. What can you say when a major ethnic group is essentially left out of a major government plan that is supposedly critical, that can't be delayed to make it actually work? If the administration in power was Republican, I have little doubt the epithet "racist" would get quite a workout.

It is hard to believe that just a few short weeks ago the Democrats were fighting tooth and nail to prevent any additional waivers or delays for Obamacare despite the fact that it was well known by those involved that the key IT systems weren't ready. Now they are in a panic to get delays or extensions in place to try get it working in some fashion.

As it is now, probably millions more people have been informed that their insurance policies are being canceled than have been able to sign up for Obamacare. That problem is only going to get worse as the article shows. Much, much worse in fact. Many people that were advocates of it are getting hit with sticker shock when they do sign up. This won't be pretty.

I'm happy for you that you claim to have worked your way up from poverty, that you benefited from the various safety nets, and that you have elder members of your family. But none of that is a guide to knowing if any particular plan by the government is sound and will have the intended effect. There has been more than one government program in US history that had unfortunate consequences. The ACA, aka Obamacare, seems to be heading in that direction. Will you support it regardless of how bad a train wreck it becomes when there are alternatives?

Frankly I wouldn't be surprised if you do support it regardless of it becoming a massive train wreck. The one bright spot is this is for once someone in Washington clearly owns the disaster, and might see some consequences for it.

Poll Finds Vast Gaps in Basic Views

When did they ban perfume? Last time I flew was about 2 years ago, and I remember one woman who seemed to have spent the night before marinading in the same nasty ostensibly sunflower-scented old lady perfume that my grandmother wore.

I really, really hate flying...

I don't think there is an official ban on perfume, but one time I was on a flight an the flight attendent made someone change their seat because they wreaked of perfume and the passenger seated next to them complained.

Of course in more extreme situations, you might get kicked off a flight... Lest you think that's apocryphal, it actually happened in 2006 and 2010. Apparently most airline's conditions of carriage allows them to refuse passage to individuals with extreme body odors.

The people we are waterboarding, on the other hand, have demonstrated both the desire and the ability to do us harm

Except for the innocent.

A cursory search reveals:
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/04/former-state-department-official-team-bush-knew-many-at-gitmo-were-innocent/275327/
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/08/opinion/sunday/notes-from-a-guantanamo-survivor.html
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/wikileaks/8471907/WikiLeaks-Guantanamo-Bay-terrorist-secrets-revealed.html
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/03/19/ex-bush-official-guantanamo-bay-innocent/
http://abcnews.go.com/International/story?id=1997083
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/apr/25/guantanamo-files-wrong-place-time
http://www.democracynow.org/2011/4/25/wikileaks_documents_reveal_us_knowingly_imprisoned
And many more.

You've never experienced the fanatical hatred these "people" have for those who don't share their ideology.

I lived in Israel from 1973 to 2000, 7 of those years I spent in the IDF (mandatory + standing army) and then did reserve service (as Captain) before emigrating.
I have experienced the hatred of people that would bomb a school-bus just to make headlines and I still find your attitude toward torture despicable.

Funny, I just read this article last night. http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2013/10/the-myth-of-im-bad-at-math/280914/ It says there probably are some "math geniuses" out there, so doesn't totally contradict the Rotherberg/Tegmark research. But the thesis indicates we have plenty of computers for the genius level math, and that most of the problem (weakness in general population) derives directly from the myth that innate/genetic "math ability" exists at all.

And if the math ability is God-given, there are computer programs now to discover even that (computer proves God article in Der Spiegel). http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/computer-scientists-prove-god-exists/story?id=20678984

Sadly, those exceptions don't apply because the display is not *solely* a mapping display or a global positioning display. Only dedicated devices meet those definitions. Your smart phone, even with a mapping or GPG program active doesn't count either. It's already settled law.

Correct -- police have issued tickets to people using their phone as a GPS:

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/technology/2013/04/calif-court-upholds-ticket-for-phone-gps-use-while-driving/

For example: Not one word about the anti-NSA protests in US media. Still.

Your news gathering skills are....poor to say the least.

USA Today: Anti-NSA rally attracts thousands to march in Washington http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/10/26/nsa-dc-rally/3241417/

Huffington Post: NSA 'Stop Watching Us' Protest Draws Thousands In Washington http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/26/nsa-stop-watching-us_n_4166640.html

US News and Word Report: Edward Snowden Endorses D.C. Protest Against NSA in Rare Public Statement http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2013/10/24/edward-snowden-endorses-dc-protest-against-nsa-in-rare-public-statement

Christian Science Monitor: NSA Washington: March against surveillance and a call from Edward Snowden http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2013/1026/NSA-Washington-March-against-surveillance-and-a-call-from-Edward-Snowden-photos

CNN: Anti-NSA rally targets Washington http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2013/10/26/anti-nsa-rally-targets-washington/

Fox News: Hundreds rally in DC to protest NSA http://video.foxnews.com/v/2772548586001/hundreds-rally-in-dc-to-protest-nsa/

NBC News: Hundreds march at anti-NSA rally in DC http://www.nbcnews.com/video/nightly-news/53383405

CBS News: Protesters March For Investigation Into Mass NSA Spying http://baltimore.cbslocal.com/2013/10/26/protesters-march-for-investigation-into-mass-nsa-spying/

ABC News: NSA Spying Threatens to Hamper US Foreign Policy http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/nsa-spying-threatens-hamper-us-foreign-policy-20689770

Washington Post: Techies concerned over NSA surveillance will march in D.C., proclaiming ‘Stop Watching Us’ http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/techies-concerned-over-nsa-surveillance-will-march-in-dc-proclaiming-stop-watching-us/2013/10/25/5bedb546-3da7-11e3-b7ba-503fb5822c3e_story.html

This is where I get tired of pasting, but I assure you the list goes on and on.

" Over the past decade Texas has convicted 51 people of voter fraud, according the state's Attorney General Greg Abbott. Only four of those cases were for voter impersonation, the only type of voter fraud that voter ID laws prevent.
Nationwide that rate of voter impersonation is even lower.
Out of the 197 million votes cast for federal candidates between 2002 and 2005, only 40 voters were indicted for voter fraud, according to a Department of Justice study outlined during a 2006 Congressional hearing. Only 26 of those cases, or about .00000013 percent of the votes cast, resulted in convictions or guilty pleas. "
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/OTUS/voter-fraud-real-rare/story?id=17213376

And yet I'm sure you think having to wait 3 days to purchase a lethal weapon is a burdensome and onerous infringement on your 2nd amendment rights.

pity their hate-on bush didn't identify the financial black hole he was creating for his amusement of invading iraq etc

Oh, it did:

Example One
Example Two ...took all of 45 seconds on Google to find it.

Were? You think things are better? Our government is executing Americans overseas without a trial(even an unfair one) now.

Do you think that's new? Many people forget that the US Federal government has killed Americans inside the US(!) that were in the exact same legal status of men like Anwar al-Awlaki , famous for his broadcasts. And it should be noted that the Federal government did it without arrest, charge, trial, conviction, sentence, or appeal. One of those incidents, in which the US government shot dead American citizens without trial in the same way they did al-Awlaki, and for much the same reason, is commerated here.

Maybe he was playing with a toy gun.

The injustice is bombs on planes.

Which has what to do with anything? Oh, you thought that moron who had a small amount of explosives in his shoes could somehow bring down a plane? Maybe he should have asked the folks on Hawiian Air flight 243 what happens when almost the entire roof of a plane comes off or the Southwest flight 281 which had part of its roof come off.

Yeah, some moron with explosives in his shoes will be able to bring a plane down. It's not like he and others couldn't use their pens to attack people and cause havoc.

That's one of my biggest pet peeves - I can maintain a stopped trackstand for only a few seconds before i've got to unclip and put my feet down - when a car has the right of way at a stop sign, I wish they would just take it because then I can get through the intersection faster. Encouraging cyclists to take the right of way when they don't have right of way just further encourages them to not respect right of way laws

I understand your frustration here, but I hope you understand that if a cyclist goes out of turn and a car hits them, the driver is at fault and will be fined, published (not a misspelling) and possibly end up in jail. Sorry if it's inconvenient for you to have to wait your turn, but it's most certainly better to err on the side of caution and not do anything until you're sure what the other person is doing. If I pull up to a stop sign at the same time as another car pulls up to one I don't go until I'm sure they other guy isn't going, doing the same with a cyclist is only prudent.

Where do you live that the car is always at fault? Around here, the motorist rarely gets any punishment even if they run over and kill a cyclist. In fact, the local police department will do a shoddy investigation and deliberately antagonize cyclists claiming that the cyclist is at fault even if it ultimate it's the driver that's at fault.

http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?id=9238300
http://sf.streetsblog.org/category/issues-campaigns/bicycle-safety/

I'm sure that when he got into office after promising to repeal or reform the patriot act, the NSA and other people sat him down and told him the way it is, and that was that.

Never attribute to a conspiracy that which can adequately be explained by a lying politician.

During Obama's campaign, I was happy to see him campaigning against the violations of our civil rights that the patriot act represented. Then he voted to give retroactive telecom immunity to the warrantless wiretapping debacle. I then realized he was just saying what he needed to say to get the anti-Bush votes, but if he won, it would be more of the same.

Also note his statement regarding supporting the bill: "It says that Obama will try to get the immunity provision removed, but failing that will vote for the overhauled wiretapping bill anyway." It's exactly like how he signed the NDAA, which allows for the military to indefinitely detain American citizens in the United States without charging them with a crime. He signed it "with reservations", but signed it anyway. He seems to like to enable unacceptable government policy while simultaneously disagreeing with it. He's pretty much just getting what he wants without completely losing the liberal base by claiming he doesn't really want it.

It's not really a democrat vs. republican issue. It's a politician issue. Unless the public starts paying attention to this crap and stops voting in people whose rhetoric does not match their voting record, and starts voting out people who have a record of voting for legislation which violates our civil rights, there's no solving it. People just vote for red vs blue, and it's going to eventually deteriorate to how the Drazi from Babylon 5 behave regarding green vs. purple. It's a system that rewards politicians for saying which color they associate themselves with, but what they actually do doesn't matter.

you refusing to give up your fifth amendment rights makes it hard to investigate as well, and I don't see anyone ACTIVELY trying to get rid of those.

You haven't been looking very far. http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/technology/2012/01/can-a-court-make-you-give-up-your-password/

http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?section=news/local&id=8740992

Why not? Money is printed, the manufacturers contractors are more than happy to get it and give something back to the legislators that approve those measures. If they could waste 77 billons in jets that never went to war, $88k is just pocket change. They don't need to go after every and each one, just set some precedents.

Don't be a nitwit.
Google is your friend. That page links here, and here's the damn "reputable peer reviewed Scientific Journal".
And just so you know, Contrary to what the mainstream media would have you believe, Men's Rights Advocacy isn't for hate-mongers, its memebers are frequently also Women's Rights Activists, and many vocal members are Women. It's actually the opposition that's hateful. The feminists have a majority voice in media and politics right now, so I don't blame you if you adopt their easy to believe lies without wondering why they're not based on any science, but untestable opinionated ideas instead...

Interestingly, ABC also brought us D is for Dad and Dumb" the weekend of this past Father's Day... Wha? But isn't that kind of... anti-men? You wouldn't have a segment like that on mother's day eh? Interesting that I made this comment on the 20/20 article page about the "manosphere", and provided a link to the source of some of their material that proves that they were purposefully factually wrong about A Voice for Men -- They cited "hate speech" that's an example of will get you banned...

Protected by the anonymity of the Internet, men feel free to post hateful and violent comments. Posts such as "I really wouldn't mind shooting a [expletive] dead in the face, they are evil, all of them," and "Women are the natural enemies of men" are commonplace on sites like "A Voice for Men," a Manosphere blog run by Paul Elam.

Search that quote, the page it appears on AVFM is here, where he says this about that comment:

No Redpill, fuck this kind of post. It has been sent to the trash where it belongs, and I am willing to do the same with your username if you ever post this kind of garbage to my website again.

As expected, all of the comments that demonstrate the ABC article as biased and factually wrong have been deleted from it.

Oh, but this is Slashdot, so of course you and the mods can think for your selves, eh? You don't need help "tracking" any information "origin to its roots".

+1 redundant please, and thank you.

An agreement *was* reached back in July. By his own admission, Boehner reneged on it (page 2 if you just want to read).

I invite you to get out into the countryside, and to learn about those local schools.

I'm a transplant to Arkansas. I attended a relatively wealthy school district in Pennsylvania. My wife grew up here. She attended a high school where the graduating class ranged from ten to thirty students over a one hundred year history. That little school excelled. I mean, it seriously excelled. Students routinely placed very high in all college tests, military tests, you name it.

Soon after our kids started school in that same school, governor Bill Clinton made it his business to start consolidating smaller schools with larger schools. Our kids attended k-6 in the old school building, but the high school kids were being bussed to another school, in another county. Today - the old small school system is completely gone - everyone is bussed somewhere.

And - all of the schools involved have attained a roughly equal level of mediocrity.

Excellence in education doesn't depend on large sums of money. Really, it doesn't. The fact is, schools that have a lot of money today, tend to spend that money on sports, rather than education.

http://espn.go.com/dallas/story/_/id/8323104/allen-texas-high-school-ready-unveils-60m-football-facility

Would be comfier at this rate.

Don’t give any more fuel to that fire...

but after Al Qaeda showed everyone how infiltration can really be done,

Except that isn't true.

Every one of the 9/11 terrorists fit a profile that should have sounded alarm bells at the border. Finding guys like that is easy if you are looking and it doesn't require reading every grandmothers email, or recording every phone call or feeling every crotch.

Russian operatives were far more successful, some escaping detection for multiple decades.

It's actually even worse than that. The CIA was tracking two of the hijackers before the attacks and just didn't tell anyone. Other hijackers were living with an FBI informant. When the 9/11 commission asked to speak with that informant, the FBI hid him away and did not let him appear. Further, 15 of the hijackers were granted visas in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia with help from the CIA.

Of course, little of this has made its way into the public consciousness. See my sig for more insight. At any rate, it seems clear that the government did not need more surveillance powers to be aware of the presence of the hijackers in the US.

Apparently Steve Jobs , HP and Microsoft didn't get the memo.

Pull the other one. It has a bell attached!

If you want to prevent heart disease, stop eating saturted fat and cholesterol and stick with a low-fat whole-plant-based diet.

That helps to reduce the risk, not prevent heart disease. That's something that makes me cringe - this idea that diet is a panacea for one's ills. ...

Genetics also have a lot to do with it, too.

Yes, eating more plants and less animals (even fish) is better for our health, our ecosystem, and our wallets, but let's not over state the benefits, please.

Not your wallet. Check out the prices in the produce aisle some time. Meat is often a cheaper source of your necessary nutrients than vegetables.

When we talk about vegetarian diets reducing your heart disease risk, it's frankly irresponsible to not provide information about how much it reduces the risk. There is an answer: 32%. http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/health/2013/02/04/vegetarians-have-lower-heart-disease-risk-study-finds/ That's significant enought to take into account, and not even close to enough to think you've done everything you can to reduce your risk if you are a vegetarian.

Also, there is little if any evidence that vegetarianism is any more healthy than eating meat a few times a week and mostly avoiding red meat. Researchers aren't sure whether meat is harming people or they are simply missing important plant nutrients.

Getting you in and out as quickly as possible is their goal.

Completely wrong. Lingering is the goal. Customers who linger buy more.

The main cost for these retailers isn't the food/coffee they serve it's the time and space you take up as you order it and then have to wait for all the inefficiencies with cash, cards, or checks.

Nope, it's health insurance. After that, it's definitely cost of goods sold. Operating expenses like "cash handling" aren't even a blip.

That is what Saudi Arab is, another dude 8 years for raping, torturing and killing his own 5 year old daughter.

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/saudi-cleric-years-prison-killing-child-20506973

Correction: It's dumb to make a proprietary mobile data transceiver for a car. Witness an entire generation of ONSTAR-equipped vehicles from just a few years ago that are now completely nonfunctional now that the analog cell network is decommissioned.

My next car will have a mobile data connection - I want the live traffic updates integrated with GPS without having to jury-rig a cellphone on the dash or have it lying loose in the car. Instead, I'll use the iDrive joystick to operate the GPS. The one thing I wish the car will have that none of them do is a standard mobile radio similar to the mini-PCIe interface in laptops, where if the wireless data standard is phased out, I could just upgrade the radio.

Contrary to what some are implying, mobile and embedded data and processor technology are showing NO signs of stabilizing - quite the opposite in fact, they are rapidly accelerating so it would be a tremendous breakthrough if automakers would standardize at least some components and software APIs.

On the software side, SAAB under Spyker was reputedly making huge strides in this arena, where they were going to roll out Android-equipped infotainment systems in the 9-3 and 9-5, and it would have had tremendous potential. Imagine not only being able to install Torque and create custom gauge themes, but going a step further and run something similar to the T8Suite, enabling you to create custom tune profiles, and then select between customized economy and aggressive tune profiles on the fly. A nice high PSI, high fuel rate and advanced ignition to take advantage of a turbocharger upgrade, then a very low boost profile (similar to their old LPT models) with a lean-burn mixture and retarded timing and adaptive shift points (or a shift light for us manual drivers) to maximize fuel economy without having to give up on-demand performance. Some might view the CAN/OBD integration as a security hole, but it's like having physical access to a Linux box - once you have physical access to the car (OBD port or software or otherwise) it's game over as far as security goes, so I'd consider it a feature. As far as direct control over the fuel, ignition, active suspension, ABS, etc. I don't think we'll ever be away from the individual embedded systems running those, with their being fed only values from lookup tables from the BCM (and a tune aside from engine component changes and hard hacks to an ECM and sensors really only modifies those lookup tables anyhow and if there is a fault the modules revert to an open-loop "limp mode" with default lookup values)

Besides, it's no less secure than electronic keys, which have been compromised on at least some makes.

It's also true that House Republicans negotiated clean bill back in July with the Senate and reneged on it a few weeks ago because "OMG Obamacare!". It's a fact that there are enough votes right now in the House to pass a clean bill if only one was put up for vote.

While I have no love for either party, and I would love to do a clean sweep in all three branches of government, the blame for this crisis lies primarily in the lap of one group. The Republicans (and more specifically, the Tea Party) are throwing a tantrum because they couldn't successfully repeal ACA (despite 40+ votes), and they are holding the government hostage until their demands are met.

In another week, expect a default for the same reason.

Spare the rhetoric, it does not work on people that are educated.

Please. If all you can do is levy insults when someone disagrees with you then you have no interest in honest debate.

When you look at ACA, it's not an essential service. Welfare is not essential either, but at least we can state that it helps some people.

It's not essential that the NASA sends probes to Mars either. It's not essential that the SEC ensures individuals are not insider trading. You can make up any excuse for something not being "essential". The reality is that it is not essential TO YOU. It is essential to someone that their pre-existing condition does not disqualify them for insurance benefits for which they paid premiums.

If you were even slightly educated on our Government, you would know this information.

Surely you know that I have a PhD (or not). Surely you know I speak 5 languages and have lived in 6 different countries (or not). Fact of the matter is you don't know anything about me but are wiling to make assumptions because you can't accept that someone else has a different view. So they must be uneducated if they disagree with you. If you were less ignorant and arrogant, you would see there are people in this country that benefit from ACA and there are people in this world that don't share your view points. They are not less educated or more educated; they simply disagree with you.

You would also see how ACA over steps the bounds of Federal Government and puts more power in he hands of the Federal Government, thus making it both unconstitutional and against the spirit of a Democratic Republic.

This fight has been brought up again and again since Marbury v Madison. And is the job of the Supreme Court to settle it. And they have. The GOP lost this one.

If the courts are stacked with anti-Americans, they won't rule for the people. This is why SCOTUS is should have limited terms just like all political offices. To see them perform illegal actions and not admit corruption is idiotic. I never claimed to be a lawyer either, so save the straw man and appeal to intellect fallacies. One does not have to hold a law degree in order to understand Law, History, and Current events.

Anti-Americans? So when they rules for homosexual Americans, they didn't rule for the people? Again you ignore all the rulings that seem to contradict you. So you're an expert in Law, History, and current events? Or more likely you have an opinion about something and everyone who disagrees is wrong. Sound's like a denier to me.

Further, you don't need to be an economist to understand economics. That is poppycock rhetoric handed down as propaganda.

Everything else you claim is simply repeating propaganda from Obama.

Please. When it's a view point you disagree, it must be propaganda. These are simply inconvenient facts for you: This if from Boehner's own mouth that I found on the internet:

STEPHANOPOULOS: But Mr. Speaker, he [Harry Reid] says -- and he said it publicly on many occasions, that you came to him back in July and offered to pass a clean government funding resolution, no Obamacare amendments, that was $70 billion below what the Senate wanted. They accepted it. And now, you've reneged on that offer.

. . .

BOEHNER: But I and my members decided the threat of Obamacare and what was happening was so important that it was time for us to take a stand. And we took a stand.

These are facts. Boehner admitted that he and Reid had a deal that included Obamacare in July however his party feels that removing it is more important than saving the $70B. It's not about funding. It's not about economics. These are

In a crash, unstowed gear represent potential projectiles:

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=128062&page=1

Prety much every poll shows more than half of Americans don't want Obamacare. http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/current_events/healthcare/health_care_law http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2013/09/16/usa-today-pew-poll-health-care-law-opposition/2817169/ http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2013/09/three-years-later-obamacare-arrives-little-understood-and-not-well-liked/

All that needs to happen is for Boehner to bring the Senate bill to the floor of the House and BOOM the government will reopen because there are enough moderate Republicans + Democrats to pass it.

All that needed to happen for it not to happen at all is for the Senate Democrats to jump the party line and approve the continuing resolution the House had already passed.

The idea that the Democrats are forcing the Government to close is ludicrous.

They're the ones who control the Senate and decided to force a conference committee which they knew wasn't going to accept their version. They're also the party of the current President, who is refusing to negotiate. From here::

But Democratic leaders Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., said the president reiterated that they would hold firm in their position.

So, no, the Democrats are not the innocent party here. They'd rather see a shutdown than a delay in funding ACA which doesn't prevent the exchanges from opening anyway.

it scares the crap out of me that I would have continued to defend the US as the savior and guardian of the open and free internet if it wasn't for a single guy leaking some stuff.

Well then you were INCREDIBLY uninformed and a DECADE behind, because the US government's mass surveillance has been made public several times in the previous years.

* In December 2005, U.S. District and FISA court judge James Robertson resigned in protest over warrant-less wiretapping on US citizens. -- http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id=1429647

* "News reports in December 2005 first revealed that the National Security Agency (NSA) has been intercepting Americansâ(TM) phone calls and Internet communications."

* "a USA Today story in May 2006 and the statements of several members of Congress, revealed that the NSA is also receiving wholesale copies of American's telephone and other communications records."

* "In early 2006, EFF obtained whistleblower evidence from former AT&T technician Mark Klein showing that AT&T [...] makes copies of all emails web browsing and other Internet traffic to and from AT&T customers and provides those copies to the NSA."
-- https://www.eff.org/nsa-spying

There were well-publicized lawsuits over this issue:
-- http://news.cnet.com/ATT-sued-over-NSA-spy-program/2100-1028_3-6033501.html

And even if you missed all of that:

* "In 2008, [the US] Congress granted telecoms immunity for cooperating with the government's intelligence-gathering activities." Obviously, you only need "immunity" from prosecution if you were complicit in committing criminal acts.
--http://www.cryptogon.com/?p=26717

Hell, what did you think Barak Obama's 2008 presidential campaign promises about surveillance and government secrecy reforms were all about? -- http://news.cnet.com/8301-10784_3-9845595-7.html

If you only found out about all of this recently, you'd have to been locked in a cave, or be a drooling moron.

I really didn't get the point of Snowden's leaks, or the public outcry after the fact, since this stuff has been public knowledge for many years now. I will say he had a decidedly positive impact, as the EFF's lawsuit (above) that was halted on national security grounds, was allowed to proceed after Snowden made enough of the program public knowledge that the state secrets excuse was laughable.

If in 2008 the NSA people had no problem sharing the conversations of soldiers with their girlfriends between them just imagine how they would be sharing now whatever digital you take with your girlfriend now. So just label it "national security" instead of revenge and should be ok. Or stop taking any digital media that is not meant for sharing with other people, no matter how good or bad are going your relations with your girlfriend, with no privacy that is the first thing that will be misused.

The other possibility is that I'm simply better informed in many respects than most people on some topics.

If you have data to show that this is wrong, please provide it. If you don't, then I'm not going to worry about your uninformed opinion.

Here is the report, A., do you have any more on it?

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2007/11/exclusive-only/

Al-Awlaki was quite open in his declarations. If you bothered to read the previously linked story it shows he was directly connected to multiple plots.

He placed himself in the same status as the American citizens represent here that were also shot dead en mass by the US federal government without arrest, charge, trial, conviction, or sentence. It wasn't needed in their case, it wasn't needed in his. He decided to make war on the US, the US made it back.

The only American citizens that the US has been targeting are those that have taken up arms against it such as al Qaida leader Anwar al-Awlaki .

And that was proven in which court of law?

Snowden was and continues to be at far higher risk of assassination than Malala. He's just been luckier.

So far.

Snowden is at no risk of assassination from the United States. He is at risk for arrest and prosecution for the crime of espionage. The most likely outcome of that would be a long sentence in prison. The only American citizens that the US has been targeting are those that have taken up arms against it such as al Qaida leader Anwar al-Awlaki .

If you want to claim otherwise, I think you need to provide some evidence.