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Too many errors in your post, I think it's bullshit.

The F-117 is being retired as of 2008 (instead of 2011).
The F-22 replaces some of the F-15's (air superiority role). The F-22 can also perform some ground attack roles with the inception of the 250lb Small Diameter Bomb(SDB).
The F-35 replaces some of the F-16/Harrier ground attack missions. The USAF/Reserve/Air Guard will still have a bunch of F-15 and F-16 to go along with the F-22's, and the Navy/Marines will still have a bunch of Harriers to go along with the F-35's.

. 80% of all votes in America are counted by only two companies: Diebold and ES&S.

http://www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/042804Landes/ 042804landes.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diebold

2. There is no federal agency with regulatory authority or oversight of the U.S. voting machine industry.

http://www.commondreams.org/views02/0916-04.htm
http://www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/042804Landes/ 042804landes.html

3. The vice-president of Diebold and the president of ES&S are brothers.

http://www.americanfreepress.net/html/private_comp any.html
http://www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/042804Landes/ 042804landes.html

4. The chairman and CEO of Diebold is a major Bush campaign organizer and donor who wrote in 2003 that he was "committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president next year."

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/07/28/sunday/m ain632436.shtml
http://www.wishtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=1647886

5. Republican Senator Chuck Hagel used to be chairman of ES&S. He became Senator based on votes counted by ES&S machines.

http://www.motherjones.com/commentary/columns/2004 /03/03_200.html
http://www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/031004Fitraki s/031004fitrakis.html

6. Republican Senator Chuck Hagel, long-connected with the Bush family, was recently caught lying about his ownership of ES&S by the Senate Ethics Committee.

http://www.blackboxvoting.com/modules.php?name=New s&file=article&sid=26
http://www.hillnews.com/news/012903/hagel.aspx
http://www.onlisareinsradar.com/archives/000896.ph p

7. Senator Chuck Hagel was on a short list of George W. Bush's vice-presidential candidates.

http://www.businessweek.com/2000/00_28/b3689130.ht m
http://theindependent.com/stories/052700/new_hagel 27.html

8. ES&S is the largest voting machine manufacturer in the U.S. and counts almost 60% of all U.S. votes.

http://www.essvote.com/HTML/about/about.html
http://www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/042804Landes/ 042804landes.html

9. Diebold's new touch screen voting machines have no paper trail of any votes. In other words, there is no way to verify that the data coming out of the machine is the same as what was legitimately put in by voters.

http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0225-05.htm
http://www.itworld.com/Tech/2987/041020evotestates /pfindex.html

10. Diebol

For a (slight) glimpse at the stakes of a game like this, consider the recent Robin Williams film "Man of the Year". The movie was okay, but the truly frightening thing was how likely a scandal like a rigged election, purposefully or otherwise, might take place. However, before I go into some facts I found through surfing about Diebold and electronic voting, I wanted to point out that even if it was demonstrated beyond a shadow of a doubt that Bush was elected through vote fraud of some kind (not that many of us need any further convincing), it doesn't mean Kerry automatically gets to take the White House and Bush is out. What would most likely happen, along with a series of investigations and lawsuits, is the Supreme Court court would invalidate the election results and declare a new election, at a reasonable time period. Dennis Hastert would assume the throne until the new election results were confirmed but nothing Bush has done would be invalidated, at least, not right away. Even if he was fraudulently elected, he was still the de-facto sitting President and so his actions would be legal (in a manner of speaking). Congress could take some action to reverse some of his doings, but that assumes they want to in the first place. Now, on to Diebold. Found via a Google of "Diebold facts": 1. 80% of all votes in America are counted by only two companies: Diebold and ES&S. http://www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/042804Landes/ 042804landes.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diebold 2. There is no federal agency with regulatory authority or oversight of the U.S. voting machine industry. http://www.commondreams.org/views02/0916-04.htm http://www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/042804Landes/ 042804landes.html 3. The vice-president of Diebold and the president of ES&S are brothers. http://www.americanfreepress.net/html/private_comp any.html http://www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/042804Landes/ 042804landes.html 4. The chairman and CEO of Diebold is a major Bush campaign organizer and donor who wrote in 2003 that he was "committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president next year." http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/07/28/sunday/m ain632436.shtml http://www.wishtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=1647886 5. Republican Senator Chuck Hagel used to be chairman of ES&S. He became Senator based on votes counted by ES&S machines. http://www.motherjones.com/commentary/columns/2004 /03/03_200.html http://www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/031004Fitraki s/031004fitrakis.html 6. Republican Senator Chuck Hagel, long-connected with the Bush family, was recently caught lying about his ownership of ES&S by the Senate Ethics Committee. http://www.blackboxvoting.com/modules.php?name=New s&file=article&sid=26 http://www.hillnews.com/news/012903/hagel.aspx http://www.onlisareinsradar.com/archives/000896.ph p 7. Senator Chuck Hagel was on a short list of George W. Bush's vice-presidential candid

20 Amazing Facts About Voting In The USA
by Angry Girl of Nightweed.com

Did you know....

1. 80% of all votes in America are counted by only two companies: Diebold and ES&S. http://www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/042804Landes/ 042804landes.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diebold

2. There is no federal agency with regulatory authority or oversight of the U.S. voting machine industry. http://www.commondreams.org/views02/0916-04.htm http://www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/042804Landes/ 042804landes.html

3. The vice-president of Diebold and the president of ES&S are brothers. http://www.americanfreepress.net/html/private_comp any.html http://www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/042804Landes/ 042804landes.html

4. The chairman and CEO of Diebold is a major Bush campaign organizer and donor who wrote in 2003 that he was "committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president next year." http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/07/28/sunday/m ain632436.shtml http://www.wishtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=1647886

5. Republican Senator Chuck Hagel used to be chairman of ES&S. He became Senator based on votes counted by ES&S machines. http://www.motherjones.com/commentary/columns/2004 /03/03_200.html http://www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/031004Fitraki s/031004fitrakis.html

6. Republican Senator Chuck Hagel, long-connected with the Bush family, was recently caught lying about his ownership of ES&S by the Senate Ethics Committee. http://www.blackboxvoting.com/modules.php?name=New s&file=article&sid=26 http://www.hillnews.com/news/012903/hagel.aspx http://www.onlisareinsradar.com/archives/000896.ph p

7. Senator Chuck Hagel was on a short list of George W. Bush's vice-presidential candidates. http://www.businessweek.com/2000/00_28/b3689130.ht m http://theindependent.com/stories/052700/new_hagel 27.html

8. ES&S is the largest voting machine manufacturer in the U.S. and counts almost 60% of all U.S. votes. http://www.essvote.com/HTML/about/about.html http://www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/042804Landes/ 042804landes.html

9. Diebold's new touch screen voting machines have no paper trail of any votes. In other words, there is no way to verify that the data coming out of the machine is the same as what was legitimately put in by voters. http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0225-05.htm http://www.itworld.com/Tech/2987/041020evotestates /pfindex

The way electronic voting is now set up there is really no way to audit or check the results of what's recorded against what the voter actually entered. because no independent record is kept of what the voter entered. So, no one can say one way or the other conclusively whether or not the votes were recorded accurately. I had a personal encounter with a fellow from one of the auditing companies who claimed to have set up a vote audit procedure for one of the states. He said, they did a black box audit, by setting up dummy voting machines, running votes through them, and seeing if the count was accurate. Of course, it was. His position was that this conclusively showed the machines were accurate. I very strongly disagree. Without any audit at all of the real-time voting process, not even spot-checking, there is no way anyone can validate these systems in operation. The problems found by the Princeton team (see other comments) are only examples. One simply cannot trust any system to be accurate without auditing it in my view. Computer systems have all kinds of design and input-output issues that require monitoring, testing, and controls. Would you put your money in a bank that was never audited (well, I hope not much!) You're putting your votes in a system that's not audited, so don't expect the counts to be accurate. This is especially disturbing when the CEO of the machine that makes the most voting machines (Wally Odell, CEO of Diebold) stated during the last election, "I am committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president." It has widely been reported that Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel has an interest in another voting machine company. (Hagel did not disclose this until it was reported by others. See http://www.hillnews.com/news/012903/hagel.aspx) In this context, reliable auditing of the systems seems all the more important to me. I do not understand why there is not a strong consensus behind a program for at least doing an audit that would confirm the accuracy of these systems in real time.

This is the same ES&S who's chairman got into trouble with the Senate Ethics Committee because he failed to disclose his involvement with the company when he, as virtual an unknown in his first bid for public office, ran for and won a Senate seat against two well known and popular opponents in what was widely called "a surprise upset" -- in an election which was counted exclusively on machines manufactured by ES&S. Subsequently, the law in his state was changed to prohibit election workers from looking at the ballots, and outlaw hand recounts. The only recounts permitted by law are on machines manufactured by ES&S.

In case that helps put this in perspective.

--MarkusQ

I find it foolish to commence financial operations using a system with the possibility of semi-legal cheating.

The Republicans have already spyed on the Democrats once and NOTHING HAPPENED! Information from domestic spying is clearly being used by Republicans to defeat Democrats. Gathered information is being reviewed for use by the Rebublican party and then it's sanitized and passed on to the RNC.

This also happened during Whitewater and when Clinton was impeached. Ken Starr's office leaked like a sieve! A lot of deliberate lies were planted through Starr just to smear Clinton in the press. (Remember when it was reported the Clinton was involved in drug running and murder?) Contrast this with the Fiztgerald investigation of Rove. Not one leak. Fitzgerald is honest, not a politcal hit man. Also, During Whitewater, the public prosecutors conspired with the right wing funded civil suits, in clear violation of the law.

Now, is there the slightest doubt that the current, even more extreme adminstration is using terroism as an excuse to undermine their political opponents? You bet that they are wiretapping elected Democratic offficals to help win the next election. I wonder when they'll start planing fake evidence to make fron running Democrats look bad. The next step is poison, like the Russians used in the Ukrain. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/artic le/2006/04/11/AR2006041101114.html Don't think it can't happen here.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology, the National Technical Information Service and the Office of Technology Policy all fall under the oversight of the Technology Administration

So there's one big no vote on making any free file formats or programs standard issue for government offices. That's a big deal.

People from the BSA have no place in government service in any case. The BSA is an organization that sued public schools systems for copying a text editor. People who do things like that should be shunned.

Ugh, he even looks like a bit character from the Sopranos.

I don't think there are a lot of people that still consider Jimmy Carter representative of a concensus in the Democratic party, but I could be wrong. Whatever the reason, the idea that democrats are weak on national security is pervasive, and I don't think concentrating on distancing themselves from Carter's rantings is going to make much headway in changing that perception.

Here's some further reading for you to consider:

• Terror war stance hurting democrats
• Our National Security Challenge
• Democrat's security dilemma

"None of your civil liberties matter much after you're dead," said Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), a former judge and close ally of the president who sits on the Judiciary Committee.

Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.), who has led a bipartisan filibuster against a reauthorization of the Patriot Act, quoted Patrick Henry, an icon of the American Revolution, in response: "Give me liberty or give me death."

Did you know....

1. 80% of all votes in America are counted by only two companies: Diebold and ES&S.

http://www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/042804Landes/ 042804landes.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diebold

2. There is no federal agency with regulatory authority or oversight of the U.S. voting machine industry.

http://www.commondreams.org/views02/0916-04.htm
http://www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/042804Landes/ 042804landes.html

3. The vice-president of Diebold and the president of ES&S are brothers.

http://www.americanfreepress.net/html/private_comp any.html
http://www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/042804Landes/ 042804landes.html

4. The chairman and CEO of Diebold is a major Bush campaign organizer and donor who wrote in 2003 that he was "committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president next year."

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/07/28/sunday/m ain632436.shtml
http://www.wishtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=1647886

5. Republican Senator Chuck Hagel used to be chairman of ES&S. He became Senator based on votes counted by ES&S machines.

http://www.motherjones.com/commentary/columns/2004 /03/03_200.html
http://www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/031004Fitraki s/031004fitrakis.html

6. Republican Senator Chuck Hagel, long-connected with the Bush family, was recently caught lying about his ownership of ES&S by the Senate Ethics Committee.

http://www.blackboxvoting.com/modules.php?name=New s&file=article&sid=26
http://www.hillnews.com/news/012903/hagel.aspx
http://www.onlisareinsradar.com/archives/000896.ph p

7. Senator Chuck Hagel was on a short list of George W. Bush's vice-presidential candidates.

http://www.businessweek.com/2000/00_28/b3689130.ht m
http://theindependent.com/stories/052700/new_hagel 27.html

8. ES&S is the largest voting machine manufacturer in the U.S. and counts almost 60% of all U.S. votes.

http://www.essvote.com/HTML/about/about.html
http://www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/042804Landes/ 042804landes.html

9. Diebold's new touch screen voting machines have no paper trail of any votes. In other words, there is no way to verify that the data coming out of the machine is the same as what was legitimately put in by voters.

http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0225-05.htm
http://www.itworld.com/Tech/2987/041020evotestates /pfindex.html

The guy's just lucky his wife isn't a CIA agent.

or he isn't an Enron snitch:

http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/baxterautopsy.ht ml

or he isn't actively investigating the powers that be:

http://www.hillnews.com/thehill/export/TheHill/New s/Frontpage/110805/news1.html

Instead, he just got Swift Boated.

I couldn't find a good color picture, but here's a perfect B&W one that shows off the slack, deflated-innertube-like neck flab that also seems to be a prerequisite for the position!

Wait! Found a pretty good color photo too!

I feel the same way, but after reading this article by Bill Clinton's ex-advisor I think maybe we will be all right thanks to India:
http://www.hillnews.com/thehill/export/TheHill/Com ment/DickMorris/072005.html
This is the first time I've seen a political pundit mention robotics replacing manual laborers, though I've heard it's what the Japanese are banking on to help them stay competetive with China. After all, how much will it cost China to make cars in a few years?

Sounds like Uncle Bill is taking a page from Nature Boy's playbook. Filter those who have access to you so you never have to hear an opposing opinion.

good link, but read it a little closer. The line item veto was ruled unconstitutional, so W. can't use it (if he wanted to). Last year there was an effort to revive the veto for certain types of spending only -- not sure where that went, but I don't think it would apply to this policy bill.

Would this be the same Richard Clarke who was head of US counterterrorism for eight years under Bill Clinton, when Bil Laden built his organization and pulled off such attacks as Khobar Towers, African Embassy bombings, and the USS Cole attack?

Or would this be the same Richard Clarke who permitted Bin Laden family members to leave the US after 9/11?

Or the same Richard Clarke who blamed Bill Clinton for not destroying terrorist training camps after the USS Cole bombing?

If Clarke is right about anything, it's only because he's like a stopped clock - right twice a day only because of coincidence.

I would vote her.

Why, oh why, can't I be her sex slave?

Hagel didn't resign, Victor Baird, the Chief Counsel and Director of the Senate Ethics Committee for nearly 16 years, resigned. He resigned suddenly, just after discussing with Hagel's office Hagel's continuing non-disclosure of his relationship to and beneficial ownership of ES&S, the privately-held company that counts almost all the votes in Hagel's state of Nebraska.

Hagel was Chairman and/or CEO of ES&S until the year before his election to the Senate in 1996. Hagel's victory was described as one of the biggest upsets in the 1996 election. (Nebraska, where non-machine, and hence non-ES&S, recounts of ballots are now prohibited by law, had not elected a Republican to the Senate in 24 years.)

It is not known if Baird resigned as an act of protest or to protect himself from further investigation into how Hagel was allowed to violate FEC regulations for nearly 7 years.

Not surprisingly, the new Director of the Ethics Committee quickly announced a change that relaxed the disclosure rules.

You can read more about it here and here.

Thom Hartmann, host of a nationally syndicated progressive daily radio talk show, claims that evidence is mounting that the 2004 U.S. election results were hacked. 'When I spoke with Jeff Fisher this morning (Saturday, November 06, 2004), the Democratic candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives from Florida's 16th District said he was waiting for the FBI to show up. Fisher has evidence, he says, not only that the Florida election was hacked, but of who hacked it and how.' Hartmann offers more details in this article, saying '...I agree with Fox's Dick Morris on this one, at least in large part. Wrapping up his story for The Hill, Morris wrote in his final paragraph, "This was no mere mistake. Exit polls cannot be as wrong across the board as they were on election night. I suspect foul play.'

Well, if Kerry can't be trusted (Jun 2003) to promote renewable energy, how can we trust him to promote anything nuclear? No, wait a second, this year (Apr 2004) he's conditionally going to wait it out on the results of an environmental report... on a windfarm ... no pollutants, no fuel burning, possible bird hazard...

Honestly, how can we predict how he's going to act? If he wants to wait it out on a windfarm of all things, the odds are he's not promoting anything nuclear based...

This is the bill Philip Corwin, Kazaa's lobbyist, wanted.

You say the documents don't count because they are forged, and they are forged because they contradict your position.

which is given the lie by the very fact that Bush jumped the queue to get into the guard

5 years. That covered not just Alabama, it also covered a year or two of Yale. It was not 5 years if you feel like it, or 5 years of getting dental exams. It was 5 years of flight duty. He skipped the last two.

Word documents that somehow get misaligned enough to look like they are typewritten

...well, it's been fun talking to you. One doesn't often come across someone so willfully blind.

Everyone knows by now that the Emperor is actually... ZELL MILLER! - one of those *old*-school Southern "democrats." You'll remember him from his meltdown at the Republican National Convention and from one of the interviews afterward...

Here's a little history for you: the Bush administration has already decided North Korea is a nuclear power. What we are doing is #4, not #3. The Axis of Evil crap pissed off those countries and severely limited our diplomacy options (especially with Iran), while our Iraq adventure has limited our military options. Bush is not the foreign policy expert his "War on Terra" would lead you to believe.

I could keep going all day with this crap, but it won't matter one slice of cheese to you. If there is one thing I have learned, it's that conservatives have abrogated all pretense of morality seeking the truth, and instead just seek myriad ways to twist the truth to their advantage.

I think that those are words to reflect upon on Friday, when you are broiling your lunch of crow and humility (if you can find any). I find that crow tastes best when it is fresh, and with a bit of salt. A little peper and basil don't hurt either. Putting off eating it just means it will be cold, and will taste worse than it has to. Wait too long and you might even get sick.

Cheers.... or should I say, bon appetit?

Over the years, Kerry endured jokes that his initials stood for "Just For Kerry."

Some current and former members of the Massachusetts congressional delegation, privately, have viewed Kerry as a ruthlessly ambitious pol light on personal conviction - a bit of a phony, in other words.

Kerry has always been an elusive figure, a complex man who rarely opens up to anyone outside a small circle of close advisers, family and friends.

One senior adviser once told me he loved working for Kerry because he would do anything - whatever it took - to win.

Is that the same MEK as the neoconservatives-in-the-US-Congress-supported group of Marxist terrorists? Any thorough War on Terror needs to support terrorists sooner or later. You need terrorists to fight terror, you see.

Here is a little knowledge for you. It's not exactly the same, but it's the same idea.

Though, it is no more right than when republicans do it.

You mean the newspaper owned by the Rev. Sun Myung Moon, the man who was recently coronated on Capitol Hill [entertaining account] in the presence of a number of Congressmen?

But do you know who authorized that? It wasn't Bush. It was Richard Clarke, the same man who Moore has praised for his comments about Bush's handling of 9/11 and Iraq. Clarke has publicly taken sole responsibility for the flight.

However, in the film, Moore tried to portray Bush as being responsible for it.

Having seen the film, the part that disgusted me the most what when Moore kept making a big deal about Bush's connections to the bin Laden family and making it seem as if that meant that Bush was connected to Osama. Osama was disowned by his family a long time ago.

I once dated the niece of Teb Bundy (the serial killer). Does that mean that I supported his actions? Not at all. Does it mean that she supported his actions, just because they were related? Again, not at all.

I consider a lie to be any statement made with the intent to decieve. That includes outright falsehoods, half-truths, or even the full truth told in a manner to make a personl believe otherwise. Moore's biggest form of lie is in what he ommits, not in what he explicitly says.

While what you are saying is a possibility, this still does not show a direct link from GWB to possible banning of Moore's films.

I never claimed there was a direct link. In fact my point was that the indirect link made it possible to acheive the same results without violating the First Amendment.

In fact, his latest film has a big hit at NYC, so I don't think that you should worry about people not being able to see it.

When I wrote my comment, it hadn't been released yet. All I said was that there was cause for concern, not that there was definitely something wrong happening.

There is also this.

In the spirit of "postmodern literary criticism" I choose the essay itself as my "text" and here are the exciting results.

The basic enterprise of contemporary literary criticism is actually quite simple. It is based on the observation that with a sufficient amount of clever handwaving and artful verbiage, you can interpret any piece of writing as a statement about anything at all.

Well, I tried to see if I could "see into" the essay as a satire and a wicked, though blunt, assessment of the current administration. I thought that the essay was a coded satire and similar to the work of Jonathan Swift, but without the humor and imagination. (Full Disclosure - I am an Engineer by training.) So here my application of the 5-Step methodology to "deconstructing" the essay.

"Deconstruction" is based on a specialization of the principle, in which a work is interpreted as a statement about itself, using a literary version of the same cheap trick that Kurt Gddel used to try to frighten mathematicians back in the thirties.

I really don't know what Godel wrote but I have read an interpretation of it via Douglas Hofstadter's - Godel, Escher, Bach. Here is where I do find the similarities in the prescription laid out by Hofstadter and in the essay.

Step 5 -- Derive another reading of the text, one in which it is interpreted as referring to itself.
Hofstadter calls it "Self-Reference."

Step 4 -- Convert your chosen distinction into a "hierarchical opposition"
Hofstadter calls it "Tangled Hierarchies."

Step 3 -- It is a convention of the genre to choose a duality,
Hofstadter calls this the "Figure/Ground" Duality.

Step 2 -- Decide what the text says.
Hofstader starts of with trying to see the meaning of "This sentence is false."

Step 1 -- It also allows the literary critic to extend his reach beyond mere literature.
Hofstadter extended his reach beyond Mere Godel into Bach's music and Escher's Art.

And here is where I can extend beyond mere literature into the nature of politics, govt, and the current administration.

However, the choice of text is actually one of the less important decisions you will need to make, since points are awarded on the basis of style and wit rather than substance, although more challenging works are valued for their greater potential for exercising cleverness.

True, it doesn't matter if I choose to focus on the current administration, or the mad-cow outbreak. The choice of the subject is actually one of the less important decisions that I have to make.

The broader movement that goes under the label "postmodernism" generalizes this principle from writing to all forms of human activity, though you have to be careful about applying this label, since a standard postmodernist tactic for ducking criticism is to try to stir up metaphysical confusion by questioning the very idea of labels and categories.

It is very interesting that such a standard postmodernist tactic for ducking criticism was used by Mr. Donald Rumsfeld who was awarded the prize of 'Foot in mouth' prize for for it, and actually came very close to being awarded the "Man of the Year" by Time Magazine ! (Rummy declined honor as 'Person of the Year) His award winning poem was trying to create a metaphysical confusion by the following :

The Unknown
As we know,
There are known knowns.
There are things we know we know.
We also know
There are known unknowns.
That is to say
We know there are some things
We d

You are correct, it is their fault. But remember, if a congressperson would have denounced the Patriot Act (the name alone worked for it, and "they" knew it...) it would have been bad politically. In fact, Russ Feingold was the lone Senator to vote against it.

Here, here, and here.

Who knows. I doubt it but I sure hope they try...

Promising in some regards, but I just like many are far to cynical of politicians to hold much hope. You know my type, the kind that say the only trustworthy politician is an unemployed politician, and even then watch your wallet.
This article I read on HillNews.com seemed to make light of the 'favored' unspoken activity of politicians, but I think in all honesty that will be a stopper for any promise we could see. Of course this also dips into that fact, Tauzin is a politician, bound loosely to the Conservative views of his Political Affiliation, which in and of itself, would definatly slow progress in the technological direction, and speed it in the legal direction.
Of course this is assuming he is even made an offer. At the point of that article the MPAA had made a statement stating that no offer or even discussion had even started.

In our reality, the share of Congressional pork has swung wildly towards the Republican side:

Fiscal conservatives grab for pork projects behind scenes
Democrat pork gets the chop

In fact, a recent study showed that on average, Republican Senators command several times as much pork as their Democrat brethren. This is a reversal from the days of Democratic Congress, but it's not just a change of party, but an enormous change of degree. The amounts are starggering. How does this happen to such a viruous party? Because they control the House and Senate, of course. But that's not the only reason.

See, since even before our little tragedy in 2001, George Bush has not seen fit to keep his promise to avoid massive government deficits. September 11th, the bad economy, these are all excuses. Naturally, they haven't stopped him from spending on things near and dear to his heart, like Missile Defense or issuing massive tax cuts.

But what most people don't realize is that these programs have a price. Congresscritters, in this case, particularly Republican Congresscritters, who chafed under Clinton-- a Democrat who actually dared Congress into balancing the budget-- have found that they can now use that excuse to their heart's content. All of the taps are open, and without a pesky balanced budget to guilt them into fiscal responsibility, they can spend, spend, spend. On garbage.

Even better, with Bush periodically coming to Congress to ask some huge favor, like support for the war in Iraq, or his tax cuts, or Missile Defense, the Republicans can get a lot of quid pro quo fom the White House. It's a neat little deal. Essentially, Bush will talk tough about government spending, but he won't actually do anything to reign it in (at least not when it comes to his loyal Republican senators.)

So we all pay the price for this foolishness. And still, many people are so completely out of their minds that they still try to blame the Democrats as though this were 1985 and Madonna was in style. Get over it and be a goddamn patriot. Give a shit about your country.

In our reality, the share of Congressional pork has swung wildly towards the Republican side:

Fiscal conservatives grab for pork projects behind scenes
Democrat pork gets the chop

In fact, a recent study showed that on average, Republican Senators command several times as much pork as their Democrat brethren. This is a reversal from the days of Democratic Congress, but it's not just a change of party, but an enormous change of degree. The amounts are starggering. How does this happen to such a viruous party? Because they control the House and Senate, of course. But that's not the only reason.

See, since even before our little tragedy in 2001, George Bush has not seen fit to keep his promise to avoid massive government deficits. September 11th, the bad economy, these are all excuses. Naturally, they haven't stopped him from spending on things near and dear to his heart, like Missile Defense or issuing massive tax cuts.

But what most people don't realize is that these programs have a price. Congresscritters, in this case, particularly Republican Congresscritters, who chafed under Clinton-- a Democrat who actually dared Congress into balancing the budget-- have found that they can now use that excuse to their heart's content. All of the taps are open, and without a pesky balanced budget to guilt them into fiscal responsibility, they can spend, spend, spend. On garbage.

Even better, with Bush periodically coming to Congress to ask some huge favor, like support for the war in Iraq, or his tax cuts, or Missile Defense, the Republicans can get a lot of quid pro quo fom the White House. It's a neat little deal. Essentially, Bush will talk tough about government spending, but he won't actually do anything to reign it in (at least not when it comes to his loyal Republican senators.)

So we all pay the price for this foolishness. And still, many people are so completely out of their minds that they still try to blame the Democrats as though this were 1985 and Madonna was in style. Get over it and be a goddamn patriot. Give a shit about your country.

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