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Are there still people here who believe in this "long tailpipe" nonsense?

Start reading. Or, if you just want a cheat sheet for the US: here and here.

Here's where the US grid has been heading. Here's where it's going. So note that using, say, 2012 data above actually downplays the improvements of EVs vs. ICEs. Same story with the energy used in battery manufacture (which has been falling in almost direct correspondence to battery prices)

If I was wrong in my assumption that you're an American (most people who ask this question turn out to be), let me know where you're from and I'll give you data appropriate to your location. For example, major EU countries.

Let's take this tripe one by one.

it had nothing to do with his policies

This one is true. Obama told everyone what he wanted to accomplish which then allowed Republicans to state unequivocally their top priority, make him a one-term president. And thus they became the party of No, obstructing everything, even if the people wanted it.

how he enacted those polices

Not sure what you mean by this one. Oh wait. You mean those executive orders and signing statements, don't you? The same ones George Bush and every single president has done since George Washington. Yeah, I can see how that would be an issue. After all, if you do the exact same thing as your predecessor, only you are in the wrong. Not the guy who came after you and does the exact same thing.

his attitude toward the opposition

You mean like reaching out and trying to find common ground? How horrible!

his repeated mishaps (Fast and Furious as example)

You claim multiple mishaps yet cite only one. I'm guessing those 3,000 dead that happened when George Bush ignored months of daily warnings of an impending attack doesn't come close this one issue, right? Nor the financial collapse which was the worst in 80 years. Nor the invasion of Iraq which cost us over 4,000 soldiers and over $4 trillion in costs. How about handing over $700 billion of taxpayer money to Wall Street and banks so they could pay out their bonuses? Forcing phone companies to install illegal wiretaps? Does any of this ring a bell?

his moneyed ties to Wallstreet

You mean unlike the current administration who as as his Treasury chief a person who came from Goldman Sachs, right? Or that he had, until recently, Carl Icahn who is lousy with connections to Wall Street. Here's a list of the Goldman Sachs employees the con artist has in his administration. This is only Goldman Sachs employees. This doesn't include all the other firms people have come from.

This article talks about how the con artist doesn't want to enforce rules against Wall Street and the banks. Instead, he wants them to "self report" whenever they commit a crime. This of course is in no way a sign the con artist has moneyed ties to Wall Street or is doing their bidding. None whatsoever.

his repeated power grabs at various government agencies

Like signing statements above, the same as previous administrations. Were you whining when Bush did this? How about Reagan?

his cozy relationship with MSM

Non sequitor. MSM is a nonsense name, a fake name if you will, made up by those trying to claim the high ground because they have nothing to offer. If you think Breitbart and the Fox tabloid are somehow better news sources than the New York Times, BBC or CNN, it's quite clear facts don't enter into your daily life.

his continuation of Bush policy

Isn't this a good thing? Everyone knows how great things were under Bush what with the financial markets collapsing, the worst recession in 80 years, 14 million people losing their jobs, millions losing their homes. This doesn't even take into account the worst terrorist attack in U.S. history which occurred on Bush's watch. Make up your mind. You criticize Obama for doing his own thing, and you criticize him for doing the exact same thing Bush did. You can't have it both ways.

his lackluster foreign policy

This is the only legitimate issue and is a continuation of your first comment. Obama was lackluster when it came

If correlation = causation, there may be something else we need to take a look at: http://politicsthatwork.com/gr...

The rest of these point out that you're statement of "easy access to firearms actually protects people" is most likely bullshit.

http://www.factcheck.org/2015/...

http://www.nationaljournal.com...

http://www.nydailynews.com/new...

http://www.inquisitr.com/18064...

http://www.deseretnews.com/top...

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/50...

You do understand as Solicitor General of the state of Texas he had *ZERO* choice on the positions he argued in support of, right? His positions were staked out by others, then he was forced to argue them. Also, I think he argued *nine* cases before SCOTUS, not one: http://www.nationaljournal.com...

You'd think she'd learn from her own recent history how such measures can be abused.
http://www.nationaljournal.com...

http://america.aljazeera.com/a...

It was also ruled legal. So, what now?

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07...
http://www.nationaljournal.com...
http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB...

The Supreme court will now have to rule, so we will see.

WP's are largely a means by which 'health consultants' make money off corporations.
And now FitBit is simply trying to get in on that action.

Now there's a difference between actually caring about your employee's health, and just trying to save money.
But let's be realistic: most companies are trying to save money by doing this.

Multiple independent research studies (have shown that Wellness Programs don't work, and don't save companies any money, nor make them any additional revenue, and actually harm health instead of improving it. Which rather contradicts the (rather self-serving) studies coming out of the wellness industry itself. (And some companies are simply using them to penalize their poorer and/or unhealthier (two conditions that tend to go hand in hand in a vicious cycle) workers.)

Overall what their finding is that there is very little return on investment, basically about breaking even.
The broader wellness programs, with the most preventive measures/incentives (ie the most overbearing) do the least, and actually decrease worker health.

At the same time more narrow, targeted programs, such as specific disease treatment programs (such as asthma, diabetes, etc) do the most, mostly likely because these are conditions people already have, and having a program at work that supports them and helps them manage their conditions does alleviate some burden, compared to the more traditional approach where the company doesn't care and leaves you to worry about it on your own, and/or raises your insurance costs or even dismisses you over it.

http://theincidentaleconomist....
http://www.nationaljournal.com...
https://hbr.org/2010/12/whats-...
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/...
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09...

You still haven't said what anti trust violations Apple is guilty of.

Well, these are just some of the ones they've been found guilty of, which you can read about in the judge's opinion when he found them guilty (you could have googled it yourself, you know):

http://assets.nationaljournal....

Bullet points here:

http://www.theatlantic.com/tec...

You are quite wrong. Rove started the American Crossroads [americancrossroads.org] PAC specifically to oust the liberty and evangelicals from party leadership, right down to the local committee level. I've seen it in action.

AFAICT AC hasn't fought particularly against any Republican. A good chunk of their money goes to hurting Democrats.

As I said, I've seen it in action. I'll just leave this right here. A lot of their money is not tracked, because it doesn't go to candidates in partisan elections at all - it goes to candidates for leadership offices within the Republican party.

Oh, and before you ask for a citation that Graham and Rubio are trying to ban online gaming specifically for Sheldon Adelson (who looks like Dr Evil's unwell uncle by the way), here is some more information:

http://www.nationaljournal.com...

Everyone deserves equal opportunity

Not until the misdeeds of the parochial and bigoted past are properly atoned for. Which, of course, means "never".

The only way to argue against the obvious sexism here in the current political climate of the USA is by saying it is ineffective — appeals to fairness will not get you past the establishment raised by the educators like Bernardine Dohrn and Bill Ayers.

It has been observed, that "marrying down" costs a woman as much as $25K per year so, instead of saying it is unfair to men, try arguing that the women will be better served by there being more educated men for them to marry...

And hurry, because — with the ancient definition of "marriage" rapidly evolving nationwide — even that argument may become obsolete within a generation.

But given that the USA's largest employer is using the government subsidized process

Instead of trying to alleviate this travesty with a new one — minimum wage — why not undo such subsidies? If somebody does not pay "enough" for your goods or services (including labor), people look for another buyer. And if they don't, then the pay is enough — by definition.

The government inserting itself between private parties willingly engaging in a lawful transaction is an abomination. That it is done under the pretext of fixing, what it broke in the first place, makes it worse.

This is a destruction of liberty and path to totalitarianism:

• We must help the poor!
• We must force everyone to be helping the poor.
• Now that we are helping the poor, we must control their lives to prevent them from doing "stupid" things. Depending on the kind of Statist in power, these may include:
  • no working for "too small" a wage
  • no drugs, tobacco, or alcohol
  • no sex out of wedlock
  • forced sterilizations and abortions
  • no usage of encryption to prevent monitoring your life
  • no driving "too fast"
  • forced medical treatments

All under the excuse, that we — the Collective — pay you, so you must do as we say. And, no, you can not opt-out either — our compassionate bleeding hearts would not allow you to make that stupid thing either.

As the definition of "poor" expands, the government's control of us all solidifies. Mandatory minimum wage is no different from NSA-spying and other manifestations of Collective (Glorious) trampling the rights of the Individual (cantankerous and unreasonable) — both are imposed on us "for our own good" by the people, who consider themselves our betters.

Governments worldwide that are marching to fascism want encryption banned.

Encryption is but a tiny side-show in the global march towards Collectivism — the coin, of which Fascism and Socialism are indistinguishable sides. As predicted long ago:

The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield, and government to gain ground.

— Thomas Jefferson to Edward Carrington, Paris, May 27, 1788

It starts with concern for the poor, that inevitably causes the government to undertake support of the downtrodden with various "War on Poverty" initiatives.

A few decades and trillion-dollars into it, there are not only millions of recipients of the dole, there are also tens of thousands of government officials involved in distributing it. The combination makes it impossible to stop the foolish undertaking — it may be reformed and rearranged, but it can not be ended.

And then comes the idea, that, if we must support the unsuccessful among us, we should try to prevent them from doing (what we consider to be) stupid things: take drugs, drive too fast, eat fat (no, not fat, sugar!). Right here on Slashdot, the idea that our self-imposed responsibility for others allows us to control their actions, is alive and well.

And then government types begin to deliberately rearrange things to be able to attach their own strings to various incentives you can not refuse. The first example of this was, probably, the imposition of federal speed-limit by mandating, that States receiving federal Federal highway funds implement them.

The most recent example here is the federal take-over of education loans, which allows the Administration to better control, what the colleges teach and what students do. Because it raises the tuition costs so much, fewer and fewer students will be able to forgo such federal aid and will be forced to accept it — with all of the strings attached to them and the colleges they attend.

Compared to these aspects of the Collective increasingly controlling the Individual's life, use of encryption is of little to no consequence. Maybe, a new Republic in Antarctica, on the Moon or Mars will take the lessons of our errors to heart — the way our Founding Fathers studied those of the Romans...

No they aren't. Amtrak outlined a plan for a new Northeast Corridor that could support what everyone else in the world would term "high speed rail".

It amounts to a formal plan to have on hand, just in case monkeys flew out all our collective butts, causing the money to actually do this to miraculously materialize out of hot air.

In reality, at best Amtrak is more concerned with wrangling the funding to replace it's Acela trainsets before they completely wear out, and assuming they pull that off, finding funding to replace all the close-to 40-year-old passenger cars and the not-much-younger diesel locomotives that they've been running the wheels off of just to keep their network running.

Relevant link: Why America Can't Have Great Trains

---PCJ

See the code words here... "weather" and "earth" in the same paragraph. This is going to tick off Ted Cruz and the extreme conservative republican base.

http://www.nationaljournal.com...

http://www.deathandtaxesmag.co...

http://www.nationaljournal.com...

Price gouging, especially during an emergency situation, is illegal in many places. So basically what Uber is doing here is making themselves legally liable to return every red cent they collect over the normal rate during the snowstorm, not to mention inviting punitive damages.

This is a direct reaction to what they did in Sydney during the Martin Place Hostage Crisis. Uber was caught charging $100 for a ride that only cost $30 in a normal, licensed and insured taxi. Their response was "free market, so fuck you Australia". Whilst the world ignores this happening in Australia, they wont ignore it happening in NY.

http://www.deathandtaxesmag.co...

http://www.nationaljournal.com...

Price gouging, especially during an emergency situation, is illegal in many places. So basically what Uber is doing here is making themselves legally liable to return every red cent they collect over the normal rate during the snowstorm, not to mention inviting punitive damages.

How about a non-Islam run country? The United States doesn't exactly have clean hands in this regard.

Only if some kind of hacker steals it from Sony and makes publicly available. Oh, wait...

Seriously, a free release of the movie is what Mitt Romney just called on Sony to do.

Did it ever occur to you that most blacks *DO* vote on racial lines?

Why, yes, that did occur to me because almost everyone on the entire planet votes on racial lines when they get a chance to.
The thing is, most people on planet Earth don't even get a chance to vote along racial lines because minorities don't even get to run. It's pretty much only in the USA where people regularly get to pick candidates by color.

Did it ever occur to you that most blacks *DO* vote on racial lines?

We've been doing unintentional geoengineering for hundreds of years now, why would some intentional geoengineering be so bad?

Because it might allow us to continue with global trade, industrial capitalism and rising prosperity.

Show me any practical, proven technology whose wide-spread deployment would significantly reduce GHG emissions and I will show you a green activist group vehemently opposed to it.

Wind: http://www.energyenvironmental...

Solar: http://www.kcet.org/news/redef...

Hydro: http://www.theglobeandmail.com...

And of course Nuclear: http://www.nationaljournal.com...

Some people will claim that green activists aren't opposed to all these (and other) technologies per se but rather to these specific projects... and yet there is in fact opposition to every single specific project of sufficient scale or scope to make a difference, so that is clearly false. It is simply not plausible that every single project regardless of technology just happens to be so bad for the Earth it is worthy of vigorous opposition, unless you're against industrial capitalism, global trade and rising prosperity regardless, in which case you should just be honest and say so, and stop with all the irrelevant distractions about the climate.

Green activists are like anti-contraception activists: they believe their target activity (industrial capitalism/sex) is bad in and of itself, and cannot ever be made good, but they disingenuously and dishonestly claim that they are opposed to it because of its potential negative consequences... and then do everything they can to prevent anyone from ameliorating those consequences.

GA: "Global warming is bad! We must shut down industrial capitalism!"

Technologist: "Hey, I can fix things so industrial capitalism wouldn't cause global warming."

GA: "We must not do that!:

Tech: "Why not?"

GA: "Because industrial capitalism is bad!"

Tech: "How come?"

GA: "Because it causes global warming!"

Tech: "But I just showed you how we can avoid that."

GA: "We can't! You're lying! It's a trap! Industrial capitalism can't be made good because it's bad!"

Tech: "Fuck you. I'm going to go ahead anyway."

GA: goes away muttering, waving copy of Malthus...

Try keeping politics out of places it doesn't belong.

Try realizing that politics has a profound impact on business. Also: lose the imperative tone, your argument will be better received.

The NSA does not need money.
Federal money comes with oversight.
Like so: http://www.nationaljournal.com...

They patent the tools they've designed, and then resell them to businesses. Claiming the profits for themselves to fund their activities outside of federal oversight:
http://www.dailydot.com/politi...

What they can do is basically limitless. They believe they can lie to congress, the whitehouse and the courts and likely don't even need federal funding at this point. I suspect their primary target is the whitehouse as the president is the only person that could really do anything about them at all.

I see you're using "special" terminology in which "fraud" more or less has the meaning of payments for care to the elderly. In that case it has been a "marvelous success" which in ordinary language is commonly known as a minor disaster. But chin up, worse is yet to come.

After One Year, Obamacare’s Biggest Achievement: Hiding Its Cost

And a minor clarification is needed, Obamacare was written by Progressive lobbyists and Democrats, not think tanks on the right. Even if there are some similarities there are also substantial and important differences.

But now I'm curious, are you truly so uncurious that it never crossed your mind to investigate why think tanks on the right abandoned those policies, why they decided they were in fact bad ideas?

Also, you can thank the Democratic party in general, and Ted Kennedy in particular, for blocking one or more generally similar schemes in the past. The Democrats did the right thing for the wrong reason then. Now they did the wrong thing for the wrong reasons and we'll all be paying.

Just sell the power

In which jurisdiction can you "just sell power"? I dare you, try generate and sell electricity and see how long it takes before you're locked in a cell or buried under it.

I used to live in a little Missouri town that generated its own municipal electricity, economically and without any fuss, since the end of WWII. The energy companies spent the equivalent of 25 years worth of the revenue they would receive from taking over that franchise to get town officers elected who would eventually shut down the facility and contract with them. Eventually, when enough of these captive town officials had been elected, there was a controversial vote to stop self-generating. There was good evidence that the mayor and several town council members had been directly paid by energy PACs. Within 8 months, electricity costs in this town doubled. This was 7 years ago, and it's gone up and up since then. The new electric company uses the same generating facility that the town used to use. Every single town official who had voted to stop self-generating was eventually thrown out of office, but now there are contractual arrangements which prevent them from self-generating again for half a century.

Energy is one of those things that you are not allowed to produce. Look at the money the Kochs are spending to try to get localities to put taxes and surcharges on the sun, in order to kill solar energy initiatives by individuals. I'm convinced that energy is a major method of controlling people lives. It's economic control, and it's political control, and it's environmental control and it's control over how you live. And by the way,

http://www.nationaljournal.com...

and

http://www.nbcnews.com/busines...

Whether he lied or not, some accounts say that he believed the woman he aided had malaria, not Ebola. And the woman's family themselves may have lied to the people aiding them.

Ultimately, the biggest breakdown occured with the hospital, which was told twice that he had just traveled from Liberia on the first visit, and has since admitted this information was available to all providers. This has caused the tilt to the other extreme, with even the most innocuous cases of fever, adominal distress, and similar, with no travel or other history that would point to Ebola, being handled as such "out of an abundance of caution".

Keep in mind that viral hemorrhagic fevers (VHFs) are nothing new in the US. what happens in the United States with other fatal VHFs, that, like Ebola, are only spread via direct contact with bodily fluids and can be easily addressed in first world nations:

Hanta: http://www.cdc.gov/hantavirus/...

Marburg: http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/previe...

Lassa: http://www.cdc.gov/media/relea...

Hanta is especially on point, as the US typically has dozens of cases -- and dozens of deaths -- each year, all of which are rapidly contained. The cases of "imported" VHFs, like has occurred with Marburg and Lassa, result in identification, isolation, and either the recovery or death of that person -- and that's the end of it.

Also, Ebola is NOT airborne. Ebola researchers will AT MOST say things like:

Peters, whose CDC team studied cases from 27 households that emerged during a 1995 Ebola outbreak in Democratic Republic of Congo, said that while most could be attributed to contact with infected late-stage patients or their bodily fluids, "some" infections may have occurred via "aerosol transmission."

"Those monkeys were dying in a pattern that was certainly suggestive of coughing and sneezing â" some sort of aerosol movement."

"May". "Suggestive". "Some sort".

Even if we change all of these statements to absolute certainty, it still does not translate to, "Ebola is airborne," in the meaning of "airborne" in the context of disease transmission.

Airborne transmission occurs when a droplet nuclei containing a virus (or bacteria) is small enough (10 μm) occurs when droplets of saliva or mucous (or even blood) containing the virus are projected during a sneeze or cough and and projected directly onto someone's eyes, mouth, or mucous membranes. This kind of transmission is usually within 3', and is NOT considered "airborne" transmission.

"Droplet" transmission can certainly occur with Ebola -- or any disease that spreads via bodily fluids and is present in saliva or mucous. VHFs are not airborne diseases, and a study of one strain where monkeys in adjacent cages sneezed on each other and passed the disease does not make it "airborne".

Being able to get something from having someone sneeze or cough droplets onto you and airborne transmission are very different things.

The quickest way to have a threat of possible airborne transmission of Ebola via mutation would be to not aid Africa in this fight, and let Africa fend for itself, creating an environment where the cases could skyrocket into the millions (due to Africa's infrastructure and inability to deal with the onslaught), thereby increasing the statistical likelihood of the feared airborne mutation -- which, if a foothold were to be gotten in the West as an airborne disease, would truly be a catastrophe worthy of fear and panic.

In reading much of the news coverage, online commentary, and this thread, this article struck me as very relevant:

http://www.nationaljournal

The virus evolves (http://theconversation.com/genetic-evolution-how-the-ebola-virus-changes-and-adapts-31525), it's shown to evolve quickly which means its communicability could go up.

Right now it's death-rate is 50%: http://www.nationaljournal.com...

This is a very big deal. Shouldn't we err on the side of caution at the very least?

Texas is currently the largest producer of wind power in the US (reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... ) and likely to remain a leader because it has lots of wind and lots of wide open spaces. The state lags in solar power, despite also being an excellent location for it (southern latitude and lack of cloud cover), because the high capital cost of solar plants is hard to justify in a state where fossil fuels are cheap, and because investors have mostly preferred to fund wind projects. Small-scale solar (home installations) also lags in Texas because there is no statewide program of net metering, resulting in it being unavailable to most residents of the state. (Reference: http://www.nationaljournal.com... )

Renewable power generation is growing rapidly everywhere in the US. Although it will never reach 100% of electricity production unless we also build very large scale energy storage facilities (necessary because of the unsteady output of wind and solar installations), it can certainly become a major source of electric power. And Tesla's batteries can make it possible for renewables to be a larger part of our electric grid.

AIPAC strikes again!

http://www.nationaljournal.com...

"Overall, Israel was the most popular destination, accounting for $2 million in travelâ"more than one-third of the total travel expenses to all destinations."

The House Ethics Committee has quietly done away with the requirement that lawmakers disclose their all-expense-paid trips on annual financial forms, National Journal reported on Monday.

Two things:

1. They were still disclosing these trips on other forms that had to be filed sooner.

2. They've rescinded the change: http://www.nationaljournal.com...

Both points are visible in the page for the National Journal article: http://www.nationaljournal.com...

The House Ethics Committee has quietly done away with the requirement that lawmakers disclose their all-expense-paid trips on annual financial forms, National Journal reported on Monday.

Two things:

1. They were still disclosing these trips on other forms that had to be filed sooner.

2. They've rescinded the change: http://www.nationaljournal.com...

Both points are visible in the page for the National Journal article: http://www.nationaljournal.com...

If burglary and child abduction are as common as rape, we would be having a MUCH DIFFERENT conversation.

But it's not.

Rape is really common.

And it happens to people who have taken all the precautions in the world. Telling someone to mitigate the risks while looking at all possible ways for things to go wrong and then saying, "You didn't mitigate risks enough!" is ridiculous.

Stop teaching boys it's ok to harass, rape or feel entitled to women's (and men's) bodies. No, persistence isn't going to pay off. It's just creepy.

Funnily enough, ABC was exactly the network I had in mind as I wrote my previous comments. We get the ABC nightly news bulletin shown on our own BBC News channel, and sometimes the degree of dumbing down, "patriotic" chest-thumping, and overtly biased commentary literally makes my cringe. It's awful. Maybe that's just the main bulletin and some of its other content is better?

ABC has a few good shows. For example: http://abcnews.go.com/ThisWeek... is considered one of the cornerstone shows for official pronouncements of policy. Very official, but more in depth similar to the more bland shows on the BBC. Martha Raddatz who is the Senior Foreign Affairs Correspondent for ABCNews was considered so good that people joked she won the Vice Presidential debate in 2012 (she was the moderator and did a fantastic job cutting through the BS with two very seasoned politicians). But no, what you see is pretty reflective of the ABCNews.

As for the BBC I agreed with you above the BBC is better. We have something like the BBC, PBS NewsHour.

Out of genuine curiosity, what would you consider to be "good" and reasonably neutral news media in the US?

Those two tend to negatively correlate in the USA media. The better the source the more likely it is funded by an organization with an agenda or appeals to a narrow segment of the electorate. PBS NewsHour (TV), that I mentioned above or the Washington Post. The two newswires Reuters and AP are both good and neutral. http://www.nationaljournal.com... But mostly the better sources aren't neutral. The Wall Street Journal does some fantastic coverage but it represents the Republican establishment it isn't neutral. http://www.foreignaffairs.com/ represents the opinions of the State Department. Stratfor is terrific but tends to represent the CIA. On the left the Nation is very good but they only claim to represent the most progressive 10%...

but I can't imagine that anyone I know who takes an interests in these kinds of political issues wouldn't be aware that not everyone in the world uses a parliamentary system of government. I expect most who have had any significant discussions about the US at least understand the general separation of powers idea at the executive/legislature/judiciary level, even if they don't necessarily know the intricacies of your legislative structure and so on.

They don't. It is frankly amazing. Though the UK may be better than the rest of Europe. But for example I was discussing legal stuff with a UK guy who was quite knowledgeable who was shocked that Presidents regularly used their power to pardon. They also didn't understand state vs. federal law and how few and specific federal crimes are. That just about everybody in jail is in jail at the country and state level and this has nothing to do with Obama. Try and keep your ears open for this as you listen to critiques of the USA over the next year. You'll frequently hear people upset with Obama about issues that are state issues, or things that come from congress...

For example, it's taken until the Obama administration for anyone to even try implementing universal healthcare. That is something many (though of course not all) in Europe would consider a basic requirement for any civilised society in the 21st century.

That's not true. Harry Truman tried and failed, Lyndon Johnson tried and failed. Richard Nixon tried and failed. Bill Clinton tried and failed. And that's just presidents. In congress there were probably several dozen important attempts.

But who in mainstream US politics is arguing for, say, reform of working conditions?

The minority leader in the US House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi argues fo

Oddly enough, when American citizens are killed by the thousands as a response to direct actions of their freely elected democratic government, its called "terrorism"

"Terrorism" is a method — targeting (rather than accidentally hitting) enemy civilians has been frowned upon since shortly after the WW2.

What you're saying is that anyone that suffered directly from decisions made by the US governments has the legitimate right of shooting down *any* american

I am saying nothing of the kind. My point was not, that Gazans all "deserved to die" because of their vote — I was simply responding to mrspooni's claim, that "Palestinian people as a whole are not Hamas". They are Hamas or Hamas-sympathizers and do deserve the burdens of war. Any other country in the region would've summarily killed (Syria, Iraq) or expelled (Kuwait, Jordan, Saudi Arabia) such people — Israel's restraint is, if anything, inhumane.

And now we can go back to those "direct actions" of our freely elected government, which, in your opinion, justify killing Americans. Which actions are those? Bin Laden's major grief with the US, for example, was — America's desecration of the holy soil of Saudi Arabia, which we defiled with our infidel boots. Is that a good reason for you?

Its not the hater's portrayal when you have western media covering it [...] Are you really convinced that Hamas has a super-duper propaganda machine that is bigger and more efficient than Israel's/US machine

Hamas has inherent propaganda-advantages:

• they are the underdog, whom "low-information" spectators always prefer;
• their non-military policies (inasmuch as they are known at all) are Socialist, bringing every "low-information" bum with a Che Guevara T-shirt on their side;
• Western countries have a much bigger share of Arabs and Muslims now, than even 20 years ago — who all sympathize with their "brethren"

After starting — and loosing — several "real" wars in the 20th century, Arabs have given up on the "honest" battlefield success. They've switched all their efforts into terrorism on one hand and propaganda whining on the other. They are succeeding.

Shit happens when you bomb one of the most densely populated areas in the world, and they don't care.

Retaliation will hit any area in the world, from where thugs shoot at somebody. Israel's retaliation will try to hit the thugs only, but it is not, of course, guaranteed... That the area is "densely populated" should be the concern of the shooters, not of those, who defend themselves and their country.

Oh, so it's a separate nation that Israel recognizes?

No, they are not a nation — not in Israel's opinion, not in their own, not in that of the rest of the world. When the UN split the former British mandate into two parts, Jews proceeded to establishing their own state. The Arabs, instead of likewise establishing theirs, declared war... That was because — in their own opinions — they weren't separate nations (Jordanians, Iraqis, Syrians), but simply Arabs. They lost that war — and the subsequent ones. By the end of the 20th century, Arabs have given up attacking Israel openly and switched to terrorism on one hand and propaganda whining on the other.

That tactics seems to be succeeding...

Not a territory they claim?

No, Israel has no territorial claim to Gaza strip. Are you not embarrassed over being wrong so often?

What if the contraception coverage in controversy didn't induce abortions?

http://www.nationaljournal.com...

The court seems to have ignored that point.

The OP was lying through his teeth. Of course, you and he are probably so sucked up into the wacko Fox News alternate universe that all of that goes right over your heads.

ORLY?

When are the statutory-mandated Obamacare mandates going into effect?

The President is also required by law to give 30 days notice before releasing someone from Gitmo. That Rush Limbaugh dittohead and right-wing whacko Dianne Feinstein says that didn't happen. (Hint for your addled brain: characterizing Feinstein as a "dittohead" and "whacko" is called "sarcasm".)

The IRS illegally sent private tax information on Tea Party non-profit groups to the FBI prior to the 2010 elections.

Obama is also refusing to enforce US laws on illegal immigrants. Yeah, the laws are wrong. But the President isn't supposed to select some laws to enforce and some laws to ignore.

And let's not even mention Obama's feckless and directionless foreign "policy". Red line, anyone? Foment revolution in Ukraine then walk away spouting hashtags? Fight tooth and nail to prevent Boko Haram from being listed as a terrorist group?

Al Franken is one of the most intelligent, ethical, fair, and progressive-minded people in the Senate.

Really? Then you'll be interested in the items below. I assume you'll agree with him since you describe him as " one of the most intelligent, ethical, fair, and progressive-minded people in the Senate."

The NSA Has at Least 1 Liberal Friend Left: Sen. Al Franken

It's pretty lonely to be the National Security Agency right now. The revelation of a massive data-collection program has left many progressive senators criticizing the agency, from Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M., to Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn. But one of the other most liberal senators in Congress is so far speaking out in NSA's support: Al Franken.

Franken, the Minnesota Democrat who is on the Senate Judiciary Committee, knew about the data-mining. Or at least that's what he told Minnesota's WCCO on Tuesday. "I can assure you, this is not about spying on the American people," Franken said. The senator also believes the data collection has saved American lives:

I have a high level of confidence that this is used to protect us, and I know that it has been successful in preventing terrorism. There are certain things that are appropriate for me to know that is not appropriate for the bad guys to know.

Franken defends NSA surveillance

The Minnesota lawmaker told the St. Paul CBS affiliate that he "was very well aware of" the classified government programs that gathered personal data on telephone and Internet users.

“I have a high level of confidence that this is used to protect us and I know that it has been successful in preventing terrorism,” Franken said, adding that "this is not about spying on the American people." Franken also defended the program as striking the right balance between national security and the right to privacy, echoing recent assurances from the White House.

“There are certain things that are appropriate for me to know that is not appropriate for the bad guys to know,” Franken said.

The senator also said it was appropriate for the Justice Department to investigate Edward Snowden, the 29-year-old defense contractor who has claimed responsibility for the leak.

Well, who can argue with Al Franken since he is "...one of the most intelligent, ethical, fair, and progressive-minded people in the Senate"?

Unfortunately Al Franken owes his election to vote fraud.

Felons for Franken - Illegal felon voters may have handed Democrats 60-vote majority.

Did illegal felon voters determine the outcome of the critical 2008 Minnesota Senate election? The day after the election, GOP Senator Norm Coleman had a 725 vote lead, but a series of recounts over the next six months reversed that result and gave Democrat Al Franken a 312 vote victory.

The outcome wound up having a significant impact, giving Democrats the critical 60th Senate vote they needed to block GOP filibusters. Mr. Franken's vote proved crucial in the passage of ObamaCare last December in the Senate. The next month Democrats lost their 60-vote Senate majority with the election of Scott Brown in Massachusetts.

Ever since Mr. Franken was declared the victor, the conservative watchdog group Minnesota Majority has combed through records comparing lists of those who voted with criminal rap sheets. It found that at least 341 convicted felons voted in Minneapolis's

Besides, we where talking about the false narrative that says the Republicans wanted to destroy NASA. I don't think that is true.

FALSE NARRATIVE? Good look at the budget for NASA over the last 4 years. Why do you think that we send to to Russia than to private space? Obama and the dems oppose it. The tea* CLAIMS that they oppose this, but vote right along with you fucking neo-cons.

ppl like Coffman, Shelby, wolf, Rogers, Hatch, etc have gutted private space for the last 4 years in an attempt to keep the SLS going with money to their districit. These assholes would much rather send DOUBLE the money to Russia, then to spend 1/2 of that on private space. Totally twisted.

Here are some:
Here.
This is even more to the point on house neo-cons with pointing fingers (though also playing their excuses)
Here is more.


I have worked for NASA decades ago. I have been following this mess that the neo-cons have made with it. All they are interested in is wasting money on THEMSELVES. The neo-cons/tea* are destroying America. Total Fucks.

one party is working very hard to save money by cutting back on enforcement of regulations. One guess as to which one.

Most of us haven't been in a school library in years, unless we have kids who are of that age.

There are a *lot* of librarian mailing lists out there ... if you want the geek perspective, try code4lib. They won't suggest that you try to hack together your own loan system using smartphones & barcode readers. (they'll instead tell you about the one they made that you can have a copy of)

Most of the innovation in library spaces is happening in public & college libraries these days, adding makerspaces or going high-tech ... but that's not applicable to an elementary school. I wouldn't even suggest it for a high school (where you'd have seperate computer labs, shop classes, home ec., etc.)

I wouldn't even bother with educating them on the benefits of real, deep research vs. satisficing with the top hit from Google ... leave that for middle or high school. In elementary school, just focus on making reading accessible and fun.

The only thing that you I think is wrong with school libraries is that they're closed in summer, so the books are sitting going to waste. I'd love to see there be better coordination between our local school & library systems, but our current library system is so disfunctional that I don't see that changing without them getting rid of the director who thought it was a good idea to fire all of the branch managers.

They are all picked by one man - Supreme Court Chief Justice Roberts.
http://www.nationaljournal.com/nationalsecurity/chief-justice-john-roberts-appointed-every-judge-on-the-fisa-court-20130812

This was meant to be a body of jurists to check the validity of search warrants, but it developed its own body of case law. With no check on its power. None.

The NY Times notes "In making assignments to the court, Chief Justice Roberts, more than his predecessors, has chosen judges with conservative and executive branch backgrounds that critics say make the court more likely to defer to government arguments that domestic spying programs are necessary."
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/26/us/politics/robertss-picks-reshaping-secret-surveillance-court.html?ref=charliesavage&_r=0

So, yeah, I'd say the FISA judges don't want anyone looking over their shoulders.

Well, one guy did, and he's a U.S. District Court Judge.

"Judge Rules NSA Phone Surveillance Is Legal"
http://www.nationaljournal.com/technology/judge-rules-nsa-phone-surveillance-is-legal-is-a-supreme-court-intervention-inevitable-20131227 [nationaljournal.com]

We will have to say what the 9 supremes say.

well the other judge is saying it's not ok so your judge can stuff it

Well, since we had the "Dancing Itos" http://youtu.be/XQPVA2bGsB4

I guess now we'll get the "Goose-Stepping Pauleys".

Strat

cmon. nobody saying it's right what the NSA did...

Well, one guy did, and he's a U.S. District Court Judge.

"Judge Rules NSA Phone Surveillance Is Legal"
http://www.nationaljournal.com/technology/judge-rules-nsa-phone-surveillance-is-legal-is-a-supreme-court-intervention-inevitable-20131227

We will have to say what the 9 supremes say.

http://www.nationaljournal.com/magazine/the-return-of-the-welfare-queen-20131212

Might want to double-check a few of your stereotypes. I'm not against kicking off those who are just plain lazy (and I've known a few...)
HOWEVER
I have a problem with those who can't seem to understand that maybe there *aren't enough jobs*
and *some people are physically unable* (I have been there)

In other words, there are many times when people legitimately are screwed and need help - and this happens far more than the Right wants to admit. I'm saying this as a former registered Republican.

Speaking of welfare queens, what about all those corporate subsidies and tax write-offs?

The map on this page http://www.nationaljournal.com/energy/how-oil-made-north-dakota-rich-in-one-map-20131212 also makes clear that oil makes the difference for Dakota. The "increase/decrease of income" completes the heatmap.

How House Republicans changed House rules to prevent Democrats from working with 28 Republicans who would have signed a clean budget bill from bringing the bill to the floor. (aka House Resolution 368.)

For bonus reading:
19 Times Democrats Tried to Negotiate with Republicans to avert the shutdown by sending the Senate's proposed budget to a bicameral conference committee.

I wouldn't minimize blinding weapons at all; I think they could easily be faster, more effective, and more targeted than chemical weapons, for example. (And before you point out nobody has hardly bothered to use those in many decades, recall that finding at least a stash of them was supposed to earn Iraq the "WMD" label, thus justifying the invasion. And that was back when WMD still sort of meant something).

You should do some reading before you consider calling people "stupid", kid.