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Snopes is wrong. Trading EBT cards for drugs is a consistent problem.

First, before anything, let me sincerely thank you for working in the military. I know you could likely get a better job that pays more in the civilian world. I am grateful to all the people who serve or have served in the armed forces.

Now, having said that: It's not the Republicans that are fucking you over. It's the Democrats. And I personally hold President Obama as the most responsible, as "The Buck Stops Here" refers to him right now.

This is the 18th government shutdown. None of the previous 17 have been as viciously handled. Never before has the World War II monument been closed... in the past, signs were put up saying "nobody is on duty here because of shutdown" but now the government erected temporary fences around an open-air area and is paying people to keep our veterans out. Never before have privately-funded historic sites on government land been commanded to close their doors. Never before has the Amber Alert federal website been shut down (while the First Lady's "Let's Move" website is still up). People have been forced out of their homes! And, oh yes, this weekend the President was able to play golf at a golf course on Federal land... that wasn't closed (I guess it is an "essential" golf course).

This administration is determined to make this shutdown as painful as possible for the common people, in hopes that common people will be so clueless that they will blame the Republicans for the pain.

The Republicans in the House are attempting to use the power of the purse, which the Constitution gives to them. The budget situation is FUBAR anyway because the Senate hasn't passed a budget in over four years, despite that being a clear Constitutional duty of the Senate. And the Republicans keep passing bills to fix the worst of the pain: bills to immediately pay soldiers, to let the National Institute of Health look after kids with cancer, etc. And the Republican Party has offered the money to pay for staff at the memorials. All of these offers are rejected by the Democrats... in other words, the Democrats have chosen to keep the pain as high as possible, and you are personally feeling that pain.

The previous shutdowns have pretty much ended in compromise. This time around, President Obama has publicly declared that he will not compromise at all ever, and he and the other top Democrats have used the most incendiary language possible. http://www.mediaite.com/tv/wallace-grills-jack-lew-your-history-is-wrong-obamas-refusal-to-negotiate-unprecedented/

So the Republicans are trying to get a one-year delay in implementing Obamacare. We have Obamacare websites that don't work, we have waivers granted to many large companies, we have a one-year delay in corporate obligations under Obamacare, This thing isn't ready to go. And yet President Obama and the other top Democrats are choosing to maximize the pain of the shutdown while at the same time proclaiming that they will not compromise at all ever.

If the Republicans back down at this point without getting anything, they are screwed several ways. As far as I can tell, this is exactly what President Obama wants. Therefore he wants the common people to feel pain, to blame the Republicans for the pain, and to demand that the Republicans cave. (You may feel that this is over the top. Ask yourself: when was the last time a President tried to talk the stock market DOWN? That's unprecedented but Mr. Obama did it.

I agree that sounds stupid. But we live in an era of stupidity, don't we?

Student suspended for shaping Pop-Tart into gun

And yet government keeps growing....

I hope your next flight goes better. Cheers.

Everyone arguing about whether the ethernet port can be removed from an Xbox 360 or not.

The real question is why even consider giving an Xbox 360 to a prisoner.

!@#$% NO!!!!!

I was surprised to learn Nevada of all places let their inmates have PlayStations until very recently: http://www.ktnv.com/news/local/127063508.html

Apparently in Colorado they could (can?) get a Sega Dreamcast or Gamegear: http://www.prisontalk.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-231851.html

Crazy world where the red states are more inmate-coddly than the deepest blue states...

with the passage of laws that prohibit send or reading text messages while driving in California, is this even legal? I can just see an ambulance chaser drooling at the liability possibilities (especially when good samaritans get sued as well as dead people).

either way...it's funny....how automakers are wondering why their business is in the tank....
well..here's a thought (among many reasons)....try not pissing off your customers!

You've provided a lot of links - tell me, are the dead tree news outlets saying the same?

Several of the links provided earlier were from newspapers. Here's the local paper's take on the matter (of course, since "local"=="Las Vegas", it follows that there'd be an article here):

http://www.lvrj.com/lvrj_home/2001/Jul-18-Wed-2001 /news/16563325.html

What about Television - where has the DMCA and the Sklyarov arrest been mentioned?

Can't say, as most TV news is slanted so far to the left I don't waste my time with it. Local TV news might've covered it, but I couldn't say one way or the other. (Actually, someone else posted a link to KTNV's website in one of the other Sklyarov threads here on /., so I guess the local TV news media have covered the matter.) The only TV news program I follow with any regularity is Fox News Sunday, and their website indicates they didn't cover this issue.