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OK. Corporations are not human beings. Yes, of course, the law states they are people, blah, blah, but ultimately they are NOT human beings.
A psychological analysis of a Corporation as revealed in the book by same name states they are pathological liars, cheats and worse criminals who have no sense of honor, truthfulness, and honesty.
I don't blame them for it. Its their nature.
Why else would AIG want the money it donated to charity back to pay bonuses to its management?
Why else would Monsanto try to override local laws that prevent GMO foods from being grown locally?
Why does Exxon STILL fight paying compensation for the Valdez disaster and get it overturned even after all these years?
Why do you think Time-Warner and others want to overturn municipalities from providing broadband to their cities and towns where Corporates have refused to set up shop?
Am not paranoid or crazy, and am not part of the left-wing alliance stating ALL corporations are evil, etc.
Am just saying this is their nature: Selfish, Loathsome, cheat, liar and a thief if they can get away with it.

Here

I mean, scientologists are a bunch of loons, but take a look at the first set of Google search entries when you look up "catholic priests"

Whoah... you're right. The first two results are sad, but the third is just crazy.

I do understand addiction. I'm just not a fan of the disease concept.

So let's take your first claim that an addict is completely out of control over his or her use, that a person is powerless over a substance in front of them. Consider this experiment, where heroin addicts are given heroin and also given aid in getting their lives back on track. Similar to results in Vancouver and the UK, the "addicts" quit of their own accord. Similar results have been found with alcohol (see section on loss of control). Why I don't like the concept? It provides the excuse for forced treatment or incarceration for victimless crimes under AA's cancerous idea that a person is powerless, that addiction is progressive and always fatal. All dogma spewed out of Bill Wilson's drunk cultic ass. So called "god inspired" horseshit that has somehow supplanted science in the addiction industry. Anybody who dares speak against the disease concept is persecuted against as a heretic (see last section).

I don't have "fears" of AA. I understand it perfectly well. Probably better than you ever will, and it disgusts the hell out of me. It's government sponsored dogma masquerading as science.

And if we want to get into personal anecdote, i've had three friends who have been serious addicts. Two were heroin addicts who up and quit (and are still "sober", though they still drink somethings which is an NA heresy). The third was a meth addict who first caused me to look closer at AA. At the time I thought it to be somehow science... I knew little about it. Anyway. He quit on his own and is still sober after several years. Perhaps you want to spit on his recovery like so many other AA members and imply he was never really an addict. Well. Unlike AA members, he didn't need some flying spaghetti monster to quit.

And yes, I fully admit i'm bitter towards the 12 steppers, but not without good reason. As for the rest of your assumptions about addiction, I suggest you read a book like Stanton Peele's "Diseasing of America", Charles Bufe's "AA, cult or cure"... there are many on the subject.

Well, he did INVENT the Internet after all. I say we give the guy a break.

No

(first post, btw)

And no. You failed twice. Try again?

I'll pick a few here:

Teh GAYS are coming to steal yer marriages!!!!11

Never heard this from a Republican

You are a liar. Bush's "re-election" (his first actual election) was won primarily because they snuck so many anti-equality laws on the ballots. The bigoted wingnuts came out of the woodwork and voted for Bush while they were there.

We're the party of fiscal responsibility!

I would have agreed with this last year. But since the current party has tripled the deficit, it turns out that it's true!

Yes, I am absolutely certain that Obama, in 100 days, managed to triple the deficit, compared to 8 years of Bush spending like a drunken frat boy.

I totally believe that, because, apparently, I am an idiot.

They're not prisoners of war, so the Geneva Convention doesn't apply!

Were any of these guys wearing a uniform? No? then the Geneva Convention does not apply. Why is this so hard to understand?

Because I have a soul, and the idea of shoving flashlights up little kid's asses in front of the kid's mother is abhorrent to me.

Oh, and here's a POW being waterboarded:
http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2009-05-13/cheneys-role-deepens/

Iraq had something, anything to do with 9/11!

I have never heard a Republican say this, yet it keeps getting repeated over and over as if it's true. And what do you know, many of the exceedingly ignorant and borderline retarded believe it.

Liar.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3119676.stm

http://thinkprogress.org/2006/08/21/bush-on-911/
http://crooksandliars.com/jon-perr/bush-team-peddles-911-iraq-link-torture
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/chris-durang/lieberman-peddles-the-old_b_77198.html
http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/0314/p02s01-woiq.html
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10164478
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0511/S00247.htm
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0321-02.htm

Not only that, it turns out we were torturing people to death and shoving flashlights up children's bums specifically to try and GET a fake link between Iraq and 9/11. Whoops!

His book lernin' is pretty selective, he's managed to ignore the downside to Che completely.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/johann-hari/this-endless-myth-making_b_151217.html

I thought we covered this in March. I searched like hell for proof, and only when i entered DOODLING did either slashdot or google return pages to calm me down. Searching on "daydreaming" brought back and irritatingly high FUCKLOAD of returns for today, but next to NOTHING valuable about past stories. Even in NPR, their search brought back only their program "Daydreaming". It's annoying as hell to have these "tinfoil" moments when searching in vain is due to poor searching, but in which quick, poor searching on my part would lead me to thing i am losing my mind.

Anyway, what today is newer than in March on this topic?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/susan-smalley/doodling-and-the-wanderin_b_166440.html

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=101727048

I knew i'd heard the NPR story, as i was on my way to work. IIRC, Morning Edition ran it multiple times, causing me to remember it, but i failed to recall "doodling".

I mean its like they think you are borrowing their computers?

Even when you aren't, I know, crazy!

There is a phone ban on airplanes now, which seems to apply to the calling itself rather than the device used (i.e. skype is out.) http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/07/31/congress-upholds-cell-pho_n_116187.html This article mentions it in relation to the new wi-fi service. http://www.zdnetasia.com/news/communications/0,39044192,39365108,00.htm

America's a wacky place. Spending less than 100 billion saving people who were dumb with mortgages is cause for Panic! Hyperbole about Socialism! Quick, throw a tea party! Fox News anchors weeping on air for their fallen values system!

Oh, come on. You know a mere $100 billion isn't the cause of anyone panicking or any hyperbole about socialism. Where do you even get such a paltry number from? $12.2 trillion is the cause for panic and "hyperbole" about Socialism. That is of course is just the bailout commitments, the stimulus is another $789 billion, which is "too small" and will require a larger sequel. All of this is only the projections right now, like the wars which were initially projected to cost far less than they ended up costing the real costs will be higher than current optimistic government projections.

Of course it's not only the money spent but the fact that the government now either directly owns or is seeking to own several very large businesses and is effectively running quite a few more that it doesn't (yet) own outright: making personnel and compensation decisions. Deciding which (politically connected) creditors will get paid back and which (politically unpopular) creditors won't. You may be right that this doesn't amount to socialism, the correct term is probably corporatism, which you may not have a problem with but a lot of people find very troubling.

We've already spent more ($2.5 trillion according to the NY Times linked above) "saving people who were dumb with mortgages" in less than a year than the total spent in over five years of the Iraq war.

I'll agree with you though that America is a wacky place.

That depends what you mean by "reporters". What about Guido Fawkes? HuffPo? Crooks and Liars? None of these are newspapers and yet they all contain hard hitting journalism and telling the truth to power. They link to newspapers, yes, but this is only a small portion of their source content.

For the sake of argument, what are their non-newspaper sources?

That depends what you mean by "reporters". What about Guido Fawkes? HuffPo? Crooks and Liars? None of these are newspapers and yet they all contain hard hitting journalism and telling the truth to power. They link to newspapers, yes, but this is only a small portion of their source content.

insightful, timely, and funny.

re:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/27/colbert-study-conservativ_n_191899.html

You can read even more about Nemertes here:

http://www.broadbandreports.com/shownews/The-Exaflood-Myth-Just-Wont-Die-102202

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/timothy-karr/suckered-by-astroturf_b_73483.html

Gross.

Nermetes Research is nothing more than an ISP funded thinktank. So the results they've come up with took no study. So let's follow the cash trail Nermetes Research http://internetinnovation.org/community/members http://www.huffingtonpost.com/timothy-karr/suckered-by-astroturf_b_73483.html

Collect your $50 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/timothy-karr/suckered-by-astroturf_b_73483.html

I can't seem to find it on DHS (probably because it's marked for official use only) but both Michele Malkin and Huffington Post have the document online. I highly doubt those two agreed to jointly release a faked version. Incidentally, here's a gem from some dude on Redstate in response to the bit about rejecting Federal authority in favor of state or local control:

Liberals, please note: that includes people who argue that individual states have the right to decriminalize marijuana, permit the sale of raw milk, allow assisted suicide, or recognize same-sex marriages. If you're one of those people, welcome to the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy: here's your accordion.

I'll repeat again: All electronic communications is intercepted by your so-called democratic government.

Read about it here

Yours In Communism,
Kilgore Trout

I found this story on huffington post.

According to the article it was a glitch that "Caused Site To Strip Sales Rankings From Gay/Lesbian Books".

Should be interesting to see how fast they back pedal on this one.

I suspect that many Slashdotters are unaware of the numerous deep ties between Goldman Sachs and the Obama Administration. A few for instances:

• Obama has put his trust in the advice of menâ"Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, Chief Economic Advisor Larry Summers, and, informally, former Clinton Treasurer Robert Rubin, all linked to the investment bank Goldman Sachs."
• "Despite President Barack Obama's pledge to limit the influence of lobbyists in his administration, a recent lobbyist for investment banking giant Goldman Sachs is in line to serve as chief of staff to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner. Mark Patterson was a registered lobbyist for Goldman until April 11, 2008, according to public filings."
• "If AIG had managed to not collapse and not require $180 billion in taxpayer money, Goldman Sachs would be sitting today with some very very shaky investments. But since AIG collapsed, the folks at Goldman cleaned up. Goldman Sachs employees gave just shy of a million dollars to the Obama campaign, ranking second in contributions. Citigroup and JPMorgan ranked sixth and seventh. Goldman Sachs gave Obama four times more than they gave McCain."
• Obama nominated "Gary Gensler to head the Commodity Futures Trading Commission...Gensler is a reassuring figure to the moguls of finance; he was a partner at Goldman Sachs before being brought by Goldman honcho Robert Rubin to the Clinton Treasury Department."
• "When it came time to name a vice presidential running mate, Mr. Obama turned to Goldman Sachs Board Member James Johnson. Mr. Johnson was forced to vacate the post under controversy."

This above list is by no means exhaustive. Nor are the sources cited above (The Huffington Post, The Nation, etc.) exactly known for their fierce and unstinting criticism of Obama.

Here at the Fusion Center we try our best to exploit the most out-of-sort individuals. We'll make your average tin-foil-hat-wearing Ron Paul supporter look like Timothy McVeigh. It should be noted that McVeigh was a Gulf War Veteran. So i guess we can add everyone who went to Iraq and Afghanistan to our list of potential threats.

Goth kids are about as frightening to us as a modestly hot Italian American woman wearing a scarf! Those spooky kids who sit in the corner reading their bad poetry. What's up with them? I'll tell you what! TERRORISM! Wearing black like a S.W.A.T. team! Possibly to imitate the lobby scene from The Matrix.

Don't forget the computer nerds with some mental illness. The fact that they have an mental illness make him an automatic head case. ADHD? ADD? High Functioning Autism? Aspbergers? They all start with the letter "A". You know what else starts with the letter "A"? ANARCHISTS! Their voodoo computer hacking witchcraft could destroy us all!

Lets not forget Asians, Arabs, and Africans! Be sure to tell all your white friends!

But We're not here to steretype individuals with racist anecdotes. Because God loves everyone, especially if they are white, Christian, live in an upper class suburb, are on the football team or the chearleading squad, and have rich parents who can bail them out of jail at 3 AM. The less you know the better! Just be sure to procreate as many children as possible so that we can have more soliders to make into social outcasts someday! Because without God fearing neoconservative whitebread Americas, we won't have anyone to persecute for being different!

To say that the reminants of the previous adminstration have disappeared with the previous president is foolish. There is still more trash to take out. Fusion Centers are just one of things that we still need to get rid of.

BTW, to you Fusion Center nuts, if you are so afraid of people who are different from you, you are part of the problem.

"If you dislike people so much why don't you join the Klan like your parents. Otherwise, what are you rebelling against?" --Jello Biafra

Fully GNU GPL complaint !!

Start hacking today today for fun and credit card access:

The download is here

Yours In Communism,
Kilgore Trout

This country needs healthy dissent to thrive, but the right wing seems to be overflowing with dissent that is downright deranged. Hold Obama's feet to the fire when he fouls up on things like warrantless wiretapping or bank bailouts, stay away from this stupid bullshit.

You mean like this?

Oh... wait.

"I would pay...", you say? Well, have I got good news for you!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arianna-huffington/announcing-the-launch-of-_b_180543.html

I'm hoping that this venture will actually work out, and produce viable material. I would gladly join you with paying for news that was actually well made, and not the crap/fluff that passes for news, these days.

at 1-800-ALQ-AEDA and demand an end to warrentless wiretapping.

Thank you for your help in spreading freedom and democracy worldwide.

Yours In Communism,
Kilgore Trout

And because of this insignificant little incident that killed nobody, and had little to no effect on the health of people near it,

A couple of days ago on NPR (I think it was), I heard of someone speaking of this book People Died at Three Mile Island.

Consumer electronics and media gifts like iPods and DVD's are what you give when your out of ideas. They do not show a good level of understanding of the person you are giving the gift to

I agree that electronic/media items are common when you're out of ideas. It especially shows in this case since it wasn't an original idea from the Obama family. It's what the Queen herself asked for!

You can find other sources by searching for "queen elizabeth wanted ipod"

So the gift was not thoughtless at all.

The pseudonym of the blogger in question is actually AKMuckraker, who is the author of The Mudflats blog.

I mean, come on... it's only on the second paragraph of the HuffPo link you posted:

"Mudflats blogger "Alaska Muckraker" (AKM) rose to blogger fame almost instantaneously..."

*sigh*

I don't see why this is flamebait. At all.

Look at pretty much any "bias" ranking thing, even skewz.com.

Or, just visit the site for yourself. Let's see. Headlines show bias pretty quickly...

"Obamas Are Personally Paying For White House Renovations"
Just what I needed to read about. One of those very important things. Up there with the White House garden.

"WATCH Weekend Late Night Round-Up: Sarah Palin, Obama's Rabid Questioner, And Octomom"
They are STILL talking about Palin. And apparently, Obama's questioner has problems.

"WATCH: Steele Discusses Hard-Partying Past, Getting Kicked Out Of College"
Definitely one of those big news items. I wonder what would happen if Fox News started reporting on Biden's college years? Incidentally, I'm conservative and I don't even really like Steele... but something is fishy. I don't see any democratic leader stories on here...

"Lawyer Peddling Alleged Biden Daughter Cocaine Tape Withdraws"
It's a good thing he withdrew, I suppose? If he has a real tape, what's the problem with him "selling" it and if it's not a real tape, then it's obviously not going to be Ashley Biden, so what's the big deal? Seems it'd be better to just get the tape and see if it's real or not? Oh, but family members should be off limits. Like Huffington Post left Palin's daughter alone. (they even covered the daughter/boyfriend breakup.)

"Obama Calls For Global Unity In FT Interview"
Well good for him. He does a lot of calling. It'd be nice to see HP criticize Obama at least ONCE somewhere. I don't think anyone but the most deluded think that Obama has actually made no mistakes and has acted perfectly since he's been in office, do they?

They even call out a Republican and only a republican on some stupid remark during a Senate debate. Strangely enough, a search for a flat out mistake (or something) by Pelosi, the house speaker, of saying "500 million" American jobs were lost every month yielded no results on HP except in user comments.

Yeah, sounds "reality biased" to me...

If the people in the picture are younger than the age at which they can legally consent to having that picture taken, then that picture is illegal. If it's a picture of sex or nudity, then it's child pornography.

It's an easy question if the law protects the subject of the picture. Protects them from the original event, where they're having sex or being naked in a way that exploits them. And protects them from the damage to their reputation and self image that distribution of the picture does. Easy question, simply the age and pose of the subject.

If you're making a law that punishes sinners for lusting after a child, then it's a hard question. You've got to make the law prohibit depictions of children who don't exist, like in comic books. You've got to prohibit pictures of adults (un)dressed like children. And probably all kinds of other things, chasing the perversion in the minds of perverts, notoriously non-uniform in what's in their minds to prohibit.

That kind of question should be hard, because it's a waste of time. The government's business isn't policing sin, but protecting children. That legit business is mercifully much easier, while still hard enough that it needs to be done by professionals when parents fail.

The United States of America is becoming more fascist with its bailout of the financial institution elites.

Call this 1-800-FUC-KGOPvoice your concern and stop the rampant SOCIALISM that is eroding the presence of NASCAR, Rush Limbaugh, and the NRA.

Yours In Capitalism,
Kilgore Trout

Actually Obama said that.
Specifically he said:
"But I think the most important thing that we can do is make sure that we put in a bunch of financial regulatory mechanisms to prevent companies like an AIG holding the rest of us hostage. Because that's -- that's the real problem."

That's from the tonight show transcript:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/03/20/obama-on-tonight-show-wit_n_177206.html

For anyone who hasn't seen this yet:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/11/07/get-your-war-on-new-world_n_142085.html

If Bush were still in office people would be talking about how Bush is just giving hand-outs to his rich buddies that head giant corporations.

I find it very curious that people aren't yet making these claims about Obama, even though he's continuing Bush policies on an even greater scale. Last night on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Leno asked Obama where the stimulus money was and Obama said, paraphrasing, "the banks are holding on to it" ! Here's the exact transcript of that part:

"Q Well, when will the money -- this money was given out to the banks. I would have thought by this time it would have sort of trickled down to Main Street, to people wanting to get loans -- I mean, it all went out there months and months ago. Where is it?

THE PRESIDENT: Well, what's happening is a lot of these banks are keeping it in the bank because their balance sheets had gotten so bad that they decided, you know what, for us to stay solvent we need to maintain certain capital ratios; we've got to have a certain amount of capital in the bank -- and they haven't started lending it yet."

In other words the Banks are using tax payer money to pay off their debts. Lovely.

I'm not a conspiracy theorist but all of this is highly suspicious. While unemployment is rising rapidly in the US the only area to increase the number of jobs is the US government itself. And the people receiving the stimulus money are the giant investment banks ... who have members of their elite group inside of Obama's staff directing him on economic policy (talking about Tim Geithner here). The American people should be very angry right now.

This money was wasted, this money was not wasted, we have no idea what happened to this money but we no longer have it and I could have sworn we had it.

Now we are talking — and moderating — like we have (very) fallible humans in the White House, not a Deity (who, for example, has solved the Global Warming problem before even taking office).

Why, perhaps, those impartial newspapers (whatever is left of them) may some day begin writing, what they surely would've written by now about John McCain, had he won the Presidency last year...

Of course we would never do anything like that in the US like maybe a pop song titled "If You Seek Amy".

Hmm, actually there isn't much wrong with Ford and GM - if anything. The trouble is that many states encouraged eastern car makers to set up factories in the US offering them huge (hundreds of millions and very low tax rates) subsidies and now everyone is wondering why there is over capacity.

The lack of demand was finally brought on by the banking system collapsing due to a real-estate bubble. People who wanted to buy cars, simply could not get finance. You certainly can't blame that on the car makers and everyone is suffering from that - Japannese production is off by 40% too.

Here is a good run down of the many years of pork offered to Japannese and Korean car makers, at the expense of the incumbents:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/steve-parker/transplant-automakers-get_b_150804.html

and here is an old one from 2006:
http://www.greencarcongress.com/2006/11/hyundai_request.html

Nine percent of voters in the last election listed terrorism as their TOP CONCERN. Extrapolate that out to the entire population and we can estimate that not only are 27 million people in this country scared of terrorism, but it's their top concern.

I think my top concern now is how stupid my fellow Americans are.

Slashdot is not a newspaper. It links to newspapers and other outfits with paid journalists. The day "the newspaper" dies, what will all the slashdots, gizmodos, diggs, reddits, twitters and blogs link to? Who will do the reporting they all link to?

Some blogs do a lot of original reporting. Huffington Post and Talking Points Memo both immidiately come to mind.

Another adult stem cell success? What...no need to use fetal stem cells?

Who'd have thought such a thing???

http://images.huffingtonpost.com/2008-10-30-troll.jpg

And I'd rather be a troll...if that means BOTH disagreeing with the mass of sheep and being right!

I could understand citing the political blogosphere as a whole, but to specifically mention the Huffington Post is just creepy. It's neither revolutionary nor reputable.

It is, however, the source of the best news correction I've ever seen:
"UPDATE: The Huffington Post has learned that the below video has been doctored. We regret the error and apologize to Mr. Gibson. John Gibson never compared Eric Holder to a monkey with a bright blue scrotum." Source

do analyse a little bit before posting! The producers have setup a trust fund(huffington post, first hit in google for "the fate of slumdog millionaire kids") setup which will help them get out of the rut their family is in.... And by the looks of it, the distributors (fox searchlight) might make more money than the original producers (film 4 UK)

It shouldn't be about getting an ad campaign that is effective. The effectiveness is all up to the person running the campaign not the provider or media outlet. The only way I can see what your describing as being problematic is if Google charged disproportionately higher then similar services or refused to provide service or service at similar costs as your competitors.

The feeling or insinuation that someone needs to use a specific service or product to be effective isn't/shouldn't be in itself enough to show damage. Otherwise adobe and Microsoft should have been held accountable long ago for the government's reliance on PDFs and word DOCs. And yes, there are alternatives now, but that wasn't always the case. But this idea hasn't come to passing because ultimately, it's the users independent choice that put those formats into the positions they are/where in and as long as neither stopped competition when they did become the default standard, it shouldn't matter much.

As for the government going after Google, it won't happen. It's pure lip service and here is why. Google's Chief Executive Eric Schmidt actively supported Obama's election and actually pounded the campaign trail for him. Many other Google execs and employees have done the same. In fact, it has led people to speculate that Google will have a wide variety of payback options and for some reason, I don't think President Obama is going to let anyone take them out. I mean Obama has already given Google via it's YouTube site a no bid contract and control over public property with the government videos being hosted there and being locked by YouTube's terms of service instead of common law and the idea that government produced works are owned by the people and free to the people (let's hope that "lobbying" will get some of the public's rights back).

Yes, I don't expect anything to happen to Google at all. Lip service will be played but not much more then that. There won't be a trial (mainly because I don't believe there has been any harm) or anything of the sort because the administration owes Google too much. The change we can believe in is more or less not throwing their supporters under the bus like many other politicians do when it get's ugly surrounding them.

Are you talking about Canada? Because the united states effective tax rate is no where near that high. I'm not sure where you got that impression either. Here's a source for you. And another and here which actually states the corporate tax rate as 35% for the upper end. Sorry, that doesn't sound very socialist. It's definitely on the upper end of world wide tax rates but dictatorships, communist countries, and the rest all seem to do roughly the same.

Also I fail to see how even tax rates on revenue relate to ownership in the company. You mean to say that all the money the government put into public works like roads, power, and telecomm shouldn't be compensated by the people that use it the most?

See ya, don't let the door hit you on the way out.

Say hello to Stephen Baldwin for us when you get there!

Page 14 of the bill specifically prohibits the State of Illinois from spending any money as long as Rod R. Blagojevich is still governor. I do not like this. First, it's unnecessary as he's already been impeached. Second, Personally, this sounds awfully like a "bill of Attainder" where someone is convicted by act of Congress. Further, it might violate some other Constitutional provisions. This sets a bad precedent, because if you allow this sort of thing it can be prostituted into any number of things, e.g. if some particular person is not convicted the state is denied funding.

Whether the guy did something wrong or not, allowing a statute to specifically require someone be in a disadvantaged position is a bad idea. Because first they'll use it on someone who supposedly is really bad because most people either won't care or will approve, then it gets used on other people as the skids have been greased to allow it.

And like the proverbial frog in boiling water, we won't even realize what has happened until maybe one of us gets targeted, e.g. Salman Rushdie being named in a death sentence Fatwa which while Iran has supposedly distanced itself, has done nothing to repudiate it and probably helped in the murders done under its order.

(beginning on page 664 and continuing to page 665 of the stimulus bill)

SEC. 6003. NATIONAL BROADBAND PLAN.

(a) REPORT REQUIRED.- Not later than 1 year after the date of enactment of this section, the Federal Communications Commission shall submit to the Committee on Energy and Commerce of the House of Representatives and the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation of the Senate, a report containing a national broadband plan.

b) CONTENTS OF PLAN.-The national broadband 23 plan required by this section shall seek to ensure that all 24 people of the United States have access to broadband capability and shall establish benchmarks for meeting that goal. The plan shall also include-

(1) an analysis of the most effective and efficient mechanisms for ensuring broadband access by all people of the United States;

(2) a detailed strategy for achieving affordability of such service and maximum utilization of broadband infrastructure and service by the public; and

(3) a plan for use of broadband infrastructure and services in advancing consumer welfare, civic participation, public safety and homeland security, community development, health care delivery, energy independence and efficiency, education, worker training, private sector investment, entrepreneurial activity, job creation and economic growth, and other national purposes.

-----

It seems to me that part (3) is broadly and vaguely worded, but given the terminology used it seems they are going to delay the attempt at killing network neutrality and possibly try to bring in through the backdoor by way of the NTIA and FCC.

Why bother with the public scrutiny of the legislative process when you can accomplish it by fiat via the bureaucracy?

The fuel tax is not high enough to pay for the roads.

Even if taxes per gallon of fuel haven't risen significantly, it doesn't mean the tax is particularly low, $0.05/gallon is no small amount,

It is too low if it does not pay for the roads. You use the road you pay for it.

The number of cars, and amount of gasoline consumed has dramatically increased over the years, so tax revenues would naturally rise.

First, though the number of vehicles has increased the number of miles driven has decreased. And even if fuel tax revenue has increased it hasn't increased as much as building and maintaining those roads go up faster.

There would be some needs for increased maintenance of federal roads, but such costs don't necessarily increase proportionally with the number of gallons of gas consumed.

There would be some needs for increased maintenance of federal roads, but such costs don't necessarily increase proportionally with the number of gallons of gas consumed.

But the costs go up with mileage. As I've said elsewhere when someone renews their license plate tags their odometer is read to see how many miles they drive and they are taxed on that.

Toll roads haven't been used in the past, and yet states and cities have still gotten the road work they need done somehow.

Toll roads have most certainly been used. I was on toll roads back in the 1970s. Here's an article from the "New York Times" dated 25 Aug 1918: " ABANDON OLD TOLL ROADS.; Lancaster Turnpike Purchase Frees Pennsylvania of Last Section."

Fuel taxes are not that low, and the tax revenue is enormous, so of course the tax payers are already paying for their road maintenance...

As I said above if they are not high enough to pay for the roads then they are too low. Even the free market institute Reason says "federal gas tax revenues are failing". They want to totally replace the fuel tax with a mileage charge, which I say above should be used.

Falcon

Arlen Specter said as much to the press, you can hear the audio here. A lot of Republicans wanted the stimulus to pass, but were afraid to have their "fingerprints" on the legislation. The Republicans are simply to cowardly to face down the Club for Growth and Dear Leader Comrade Rush.

The bill is the biggest single tax cut in history and the Republicans still wouldn't vote for it. This is a party run by people who mail tire gauges and silly putty and bricks to their enemies and getting good soundbites on the news when they should be writing good laws. A party completely obsessed with appearances and run by media celebrities.