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Fired Social Media Editor Gets Another Social Media Editor Fired

Matthew Keys might be having a meltdown. The former deputy social media editor at Reuters, once a budding Twitter celeb in the news business, was indicted on hacking charges in March and fired from his job last week. Today he decided to get one of his peers fired, too.

Jared Keller was let go as director of social media for the notoriously strict Bloomberg Businessweek this afternoon, hours after Keys tweeted two-month-old private messages from Keller in which he disparaged his employer and said, "I fucking hate it here." Keys posted the DMs in apparent retaliation for Keller leaking a conversation to Gizmodo in March, when news of Keys's indictment first broke. This afternoon, following Keys's little public tantrum, Keller tweeted, "Today was my last day at Bloomberg. It was a great run at a great company." He declined to comment further when reached by phone. Bloomberg also declined to comment.

Keys has waged a scorched-earth campaign against his former employer since being fired, taking issue with his termination in several posts on his blog. He has gone after critics of his error-ridden coverage of the Boston bombings, when he freely reported information heard over police scanners, and has sent Facebook messages to several journalists who have unfollowed him on Twitter, including Keller himself. Other recipients have described them as "threatening" and "crazy." Numerous New York journalists and social media professionals have privately expressed their reluctance to confront Keys or speak publicly about his erratic behavior for fear of his reaction. As one prominent Twitter personality said in an e-mail this afternoon, "He set Jared's career on fire just to watch it burn."

In an e-mail to Daily Intelligencer this evening, Keys said, "If he was fired, was it because of something I said today, or because of something he did back in March?"

What a fucking asshole.

Kansas is doing a lot better in terms of education than, say, California.

Kansas is in a state of total collapse, including their education system. The entire state is in a freefall into the shitter, and it's been entirely run by conservative Republicans.

http://nymag.com/daily/intelli...

https://www.salon.com/2015/06/...

http://www.politicususa.com/20...

http://www.rollingstone.com/po...

OK, lets assume that Trump is in it purely for his own benefit. What agenda do you think he is going to push that is going to benefit him? He doesn't need money - he could pull out of the race right now and pay the bills with the change he lost in his couch. So what exactly do you think he's trying to do to benefit himself that he isn't already capable of acquiring on his own?

"Trump Is a Near-Perfect Example of Needy Narcissism" http://nymag.com/scienceofus/2...
"Donald Trump’s Epic Neediness" http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03...
"Needy Trump Melts Into Putin’s Warm Embrace" http://bluenationreview.com/ne...

I always use Tide when I launder my money. http://nymag.com/news/features...
Leaves it with a nice fresh scent too!

Well if it all goes to pot we can still use tide.
http://nymag.com/news/features...

Wired is a site that actually pays their writers. The internet has become a place where everybody wants stuff for free, and expects writers to be unpaid; the internet has been flailing around trying to find a model where writers can actually get paid for their work-- but having trouble finding one.

So, give them a little credit-- if you are neither willing to look at ads nor willing to pay-- basically, you want stuff for free--well, ok, don't go there: you can get plenty of free content elsewhere on the internet. It's a race for the bottom. But they are at least trying to find a way to survive and keep paying their writers.

(Hufflepuff Post is probably about the worst of the lot-- their business model is "we get millions of dollars, people who write for us get nothing.")
  http://blogpaws.com/executive-...
  http://www.mayhillfowler.com/p...
  http://inthesetimes.com/workin...
  http://nymag.com/daily/intelli...
http://www.theguardian.com/com...

Executions have never been "cruel and unusual".

Wrong.

http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.or...

Funny thing, poll taxes were a Democrat invention. Trying to claim that requiring an ID to vote is the same is lying, sophistry at best.

Which were outlawed in 1964, and brought back by the GOP starting in 2010.

http://nymag.com/daily/intelli...

Seriously? When have Republicans EVER attempted to prevent someone older than 18 from voting because of their age?

Started in 2008, and accelerated in 2012.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12...

You could have easily checked these things for yourself before posting.

Oh, the tide is already shifting to a new underground currency, and this one is much more liquid and widely available.

Yea. Facebook. Passport.

Mmmkay. Whatever.

Further, some background about why this case is in the 3rd Circuit (which covers NJ) and not the 2nd (which covers NY): "the Associated Press reported that the New York Police Department sent plainclothes officers to Newark (NJ) businesses owned or frequented by Muslim people, took photographs of 16 mosques and mapped them."

The lawsuit, by New Jersey citizens over actions conducted in NJ by the NYPD, was filed in the 3rd Circuit District Court, and then appealed to the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals.

Some further background on the NYPD Intelligence Bureau and its extra-jurisdictional activities:

- http://www.ap.org/media-center...
- http://nymag.com/nymetro/news/...

Firstly, I think you're an overly-emotional sentimental pussy. Let's just get that out of the way.

There are negative consequences to this, like people having unrealistic expectations.

Such as what?

A lot of young men aren't getting married and are disappointed in sex because of porn. Possible effect (these things ARE happening, but correlation != causation): fewer young men are having to get divorced due to not getting married (i.e. taken to the cleaners then raped in family courts), the birth rate is declining, an epic amount of weed is being smoked and more Playstation being played. Sports cars are being purchased; multi-thousand dollar/pound/euro engagement rings not so much. Sexbots would kick this up a notch.

In western society we don't even have enough fulfilling jobs for the people who are currently looking, let alone natural resources over the long haul. Why breed more?

I'll tell you why this hack of a 'researcher' *thinks* this is an issue (I'll match her lack of research with my own empiricism of the many venues I've lived): the pussy is losing power over men. That's it. It's sexual economics. The Porn Myth alludes to this.

I was married *once* and was not stupid enough to repeat the mistake. When dating (I'm a graduate degreed engineer who dates other professionals), I'm seeing a constant flow of 'women who wanted to have it all'.. and waited until they're 35-45 to start looking for a husband. It's not my problem, and not my gender's problem. Female entitlement in western society has become legendary. Men's issues such as suicide and combat related PTSD are swept aside and minimized for shit like the author above brings up.. for something that *might* happen. I work with co-op grad students, and sometimes the males that ask me for advice off the clock. Over a few beers I ruin them for the opposite sex because I show them the truth in that they are going to be used and manipulated, and the best way around it is not to play the game. You can be hetero and still not want a woman. The sexbot is the way forward.

Thankfully RISUG/Vasagel is on the way. No more entrapment. No more strings. *If* sex occurs, it will be on even footing. The power of the pussy and the womb diminish further.

If I want to get off with a hottie sexbotthus avoiding a woman's emotional bullshit, that's *my* prerogative, motherfucker... and quite simply, in my country with the walls falling on stuff like marijuana, this ban will never get off the ground. Most people just don't give a shit what you do in your own bedroom any more, and if it disenfranchises women in the sexual market place (where they've had a decisive advantage for CENTURIES) more power to the 'bot.

I definitely agree that the ability to make commentary anonymously is, and should be protected. I do not agree that intentionally dishonest commentary should be protected, whether it is anonymous or not.

The problem, from the point of view of the accuser, is that he does not trust the court system to judge his intentions. Even though he is honest, he fears that the powerful person he has accused will hire a skilled lawyer like Paul Bergen to persuade the court that he is lying.

Non-black people are attacked by police every day.

Really? You see any riot police in paramilitary gear in the below pictures? Any white "thugs" getting shot in the back while running away? Hell, if you're white, you don't even have to run away. White guys have walked into movie theaters armed like Rambo and murdered a bunch of people in cold blood and the police take them alive and make sure they don't bump their head on the cruiser door when placing them in the back seat.

http://nymag.com/daily/intelli...

https://www.google.com/search?...

You can not possibly believe that interactions between police and white people are anything like interactions between police and black people or hispanic people. Let me ask you this: You hear about any white people who have been shot and killed in police custody with their hands handcuffed behind their back?

http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_new...

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/in...

http://www.mediaite.com/tv/vid...

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

German intelligence has been interested in a closer alliance with the "Five Eyes" group of US-led intelligence agencies, which originally consisted of the main anglophone countries (US, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand). When it was expanded in 2009 to "nine eyes" with the addition of Denmark, France, Netherlands, and Norway, there was supposedly some grumbling from Germany about being left out.

Or maybe they just decided that enough money has already been wasted on this junk science, and see it for what it really is.....

You mean the same guys who banned AP History classes because they, "make America look bad"?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/...

And how would Republicans know junk science, anyway? As they are fond of saying when asked about climate change or evolution or vaccinations or whether the Earth revolves around the Sun, "Well, I'm not a scientist". I mean, they're not generals either, but they all sure got an opinion on whether or not we should bomb Iran, ain't they? They're not God, but they sure as shit think they know what "God wants".

http://www.politicususa.com/20...

http://www.rawstory.com/2015/0...

http://www.politicususa.com/20...

http://nymag.com/daily/intelli...

Those are the fucking people you trust to know good science from bad science? Jeez louise, I wouldn't trust them to know a graduated cylinder from their fuzzy pink asses.

This strategy may lead to WWIII, as we've done barely anything to stop Boko haram or ISIS until now. These two groups are now allying and merging operations. Let this continue with a "fuck it" and alas, WWIII. Otherwise I would not care either.
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2014/11/isis-now-has-military-allies-in-11-countries.html

As to examples, your ignorance of common knowledge is not my problem. Look at his wikipedia page.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

http://nymag.com/daily/intelli...

http://www.esquire.com/news-po...

http://www.poynter.org/news/me...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/...

http://www.thedailybeast.com/a...

There you go. Links. Suck it long. Suck it hard.

So the one hand it's inconceivable that Western powers can't tell an iridium signal from anywhere on earth. But on the other hand you admit Malaysia couldn't track widebody airliner flying across the country.

While I wouldn't equivocate the professionalism of american and Malaysian militaries, I think it shouldn't be surprising that neither is well equipped to succesfully deal with random, unpredictable scenarios that they've never encountered before.

It doesn't seem that unreasonable to me, If the transponder is off (somehow) air traffic control can't see the airplane. Military radar can, but until an emergency is declared or until the plane does something really weird any military is unlikely to do anything (re: Pearl Harbor, 9/11, Mathias Rust, &c). By the time they figured out the plane was missing the plane was long gone.

Having said that, this whole thing stinks.

A 100-ton airplane doesn't crash, even in the ocean, without leaving a lot of debris. A lot of stuff in a plane floats and by now some of that debris would have washed up somewhere. No debris has washed up.

A lot of the information about the aircraft's course and altitude changes after it ceased most communications turned out to be incorrect. Whether someone is lying or just clueless is unclear.

How and why the satellite data unit was shut down and later restarted is also unclear. Given that the unanimous consensus is that you cannot even do that from the cockpit (you have to get into the electronics bay, accessed by a hatch from the galley in front of business class) either there was a major malfunction or something really bizarre happened.

I haven't yet heard a good theory that explains what happened, but the least bad theory is that the plane was somehow diverted and probably ended up near the Baikonur Cosmodrome. Why and exactly how that happened is at best poorly explained, but the lack of debris indicates that the plane did not crash.

ref: http://nymag.com/daily/intelli...

Grow up Florida.

Grow up Florida.

It's not really a Florida thing, but a Republican thing. From TFA:

This unwritten policy went into effect after Gov. Rick Scott took office in 2011 and appointed Herschel Vinyard Jr. as the DEP’s director, according to former DEP employees.

Be prepared for this sort of thing from other Republican states because apparently, according to their ostrich-like logic, not talking about something means it isn't happening and can't/won't happen. (Though, in Florida, sticking your head in the sand might mean you might drown from the increasingly rising tides.)

Of course, Rick Scott and many other Republicans have otherwise simply side-stepped these kind of issues by declaring: I am not a scientist.

Here's a clue in return: Making things up to attack people with is called a straw man. The definition of "SJW" hasn't changed at all, you're just pulling that excuse out of your ass to try and deflect from the fact that doxing and subsequent public auto-de-fes are such routine conduct that it's becoming a topic of discussion even for mainstream newsmedia.

SJW has always and still refers to those that use social justice as an excuse to be increasingly unhinged and violent toxic bigots.

Scrubbed
        By Graeme Wood
        Published Jun 16, 2013

I watched online as a college classmate went from disgrace to redemption in months. That’s when I found myself deep in the world of black-ops reputation management.
...

captcha: investor

"You can’t control what idiots will weaponize."
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2014/10/jon-stewart-rosewater-in-conversation.html

That said, there was a time I was likely similar, to some degree, but I at least grew out of it, if I wanted to see a women naked, or better, be in an actual relationship!

Well, men (boys) in their late teens all the way up to in some cases their early 30s are into pot, porn, and Playstation.

The onus for sex now is on girls; I've seen girls pursuing my nephew like nothing I'd ever seen as a young man. Read Naomi Wolf's article on the subject.

I'm now single after 18 years of marriage and in my 40s... slightly different dynamic, but 'hooking up' is easier that I'd ever imagined.

There are strip clubs that accept amex?

Of course. Like this guy who charged $241,000 to his amex at Scores (a strip club in New York):

http://usatoday30.usatoday.com...

Or this guy who charged $135k to his amex:

http://nypost.com/2014/04/22/i...

Or this guy who spent $129,626:

http://nymag.com/nymetro/news/...

So we shouldn't expect more than mediocre competence just so women feel less bad about themselves? Are they saying women are less capable of brilliance now? I can't believe that was intended, but sometimes I wonder if feminists get so wrapped up in their crusades, they miss (or purposely ignore) the logical missteps along the way.

"gender balanced" score

what is that?

Given the prevailing societal view that fewer women than men have special intellectual abilities..

“The argument is about the culture of the field,” Cimpian says. “In our current cultural climate, where women are stereotypically seen as less likely to possess these special intellectual gifts, emphasizing that those gifts are required for success is going to have a differential effect on men and women."

It's always a war against culture with these people. In reality, this is a fact, not a 'societal view'. Both genius and retardation are overrepresented in men.

The authors of this 'study' are likely biased and likely cherrypicking evidence to suit their position. Janet Hyde is not just a psychologist, she's a radical feminist.
A quick google search..
http://www.womenstudies.wisc.e...
http://nymag.com/thecut/2014/0...
http://psych.wisc.edu/faculty-...

The article argues we should downplay competence and merit, and uprate effort and motivation. While the latter two are important, they cannot be the apex criteria when judging someone's output. Doing so undermines individual accomplishment and motivation. It also reenforces the relatively recent cultural intolerance for truth contradicting political correctness. Societies cannot function like this long term. If women want equal treatment and respect in a given field, they have to earn it in a meritocracy just like men. Attempts at bypassing it socially or legislatively just undermine the earning process from the get go. If the authors' argument is that women stay away because they can't emotionally handle the possibility of others (esp specific men) having innate superior ability, then the implication is they are not equally capable. The logic doesn't add up.

Truman did say "If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen", but the sign on his desk was "The buck stops here" which might or might not be appropriate for these cases. It would be interesting to know what Truman would have said about this - he didn't mince his words, for example: "I fired him [General MacArthur] because he wouldn't respect the authority of the President. I didn't fire him because he was a dumb son of a bitch, although he was, but that's not against the law for generals. If it was, half to three-quarters of them would be in jail."

Nah You'll be fine.. At least in NYC you almost certainly won't be given a traffic ticket, let alone be charged with a crime.

http://gothamist.com/2012/02/15/heres_why_drivers_get_away_with_mur.php

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2012/05/michael-mckean-hit-by-car-nyc-no-criminality-suspected.html

http://www.citylab.com/commute/2012/04/invention-jaywalking/1837/

As a postscript, a journalist who did something similar to what I did, writes here about his experience. Again, if you (as seems increasingly unlikely) really are concerned about corruption in journalism, you should probably stop telling people who ask for examples to go off and do their own research.

Cool iPhone 6 Plus Feature Lets You Bend Phone Just by Sitting http://nymag.com/daily/intelli...

You are very wrong. Additionally, being told you are smart leads to under-performance in children.

It was a Friday evening. The President had left for Camp David earlier, and his main protective detail went with him. Most staffers had gone home. The guy got just inside the outer doors, where there is a security checkpoint, before he was tackled.

The Secret Service made the right choice not shooting the intruder dead on the lawn. They certainly had the capability to kill him. They would have been heavily criticized, with pictures of the dead body on national TV.

On September 12, a man wearing a Pokemon hat and carrying a stuffed animal jumped the White House fence. He was tackled and arrested. Should he have been killed?

...with that trillion that Mr. Burns gave them?

My point there is that democracy, while important, isn't a cure-all. It's inherently adversarial, a conflict which has notably ground today's national legislature to a standstill.

I'm going to disagree with your point. The founders of the USA designed gridlock into the system, so that if there isn't agreement on what to do, nothing will get done.

Are you worried about theocrat conservatives? Don't worry; they will never get any of their goals accomplished.

Are you worried about liberals completely turning the country into a socialist country? Don't worry; there is a point past which they will never be able to go.

There is plenty to worry about. My biggest worry is that the government is debasing the currency while running up huge debt. In the past, that has been a recipe for disaster but I guess our leaders believe that this time is different.

You should also worry about the growing trend of using the courts to hammer people just for their politics. Indicting Rick Perry for using his veto? It's like a banana republic.

My other big worry is how the mainstream news has stopped even pretending to cover the news fairly, and spins every story in favor of the issues and politicians they like, while spinning every story against the issues and politicians they don't like. My most hopeful thought is that, in the long run, people are just going to stop putting any faith in what the mainstream media claims.

> I'm actually impressed by people who can, in this age, create even questionable fabrications this elaborate.

It just takes money. He surely did it as an investment to pitch the show.
Here's a story about the opposite - how to bury a questionable history.

Anyone who thinks this law is terrible should read this article about how rich people are already able to bury bad press about themselves.

Scrubbed
I watched online as a college classmate went from disgrace to redemption in months. That’s when I found myself deep in the world of black-ops reputation management.

Just going to put this up here.

http://nymag.com/daily/intelli...
http://www.newrepublic.com/art...

Not taking sides, just thought these are informative.

Of course they get measured. For example, article about Stephen Elop says that his time as CEO resulted in "Nokia profits fell 92% from 2.4 Billion Euros per year to 188 Million Euros per year." Nokia's "stock value dropped by 85% since Elop's takeover". So there, proof that it's tracked with hard numbers.

This man was famous for writing a particularly damaging "burning platform" memo that hurt Nokia tremendously. Nokia shed 11,000 jobs under his tenure.

This man is currently the Executive Vice President of Microsoft's Devices & Services.

The shocking results, which were absolutely impossible to predict that something like this might happen: Microsoft Just Laid Off Thousands of Employees With a Hilariously Bad Memo.

So, yeah, the stuff gets measured. Major disasters that are reported on internationally may not be CEMs (career-ending moves), as this case proves, but you may sleep peacefully tonight knowing that yes, this stuff does get measured.

They need to ask permission because the FAA specifically banned such behavior last month.

Gone are the days, when pursuit of happiness was understood as a natural right granted to each human being not by their government, but by the Creator.

Today one must get a permission to drive a car, carry a weapon, perform in costume, or, indeed, to fly a drone.

And this prohibition does not even come from Congress directly — having usurped so much control over our lives over the last century, they are simply unable to deal with the minutiae and are forced to delegate more and more of the rule-making to the Executive-run agencies — such as the FAA.

I am sure drivers are perfectly law abiding and safe without any background checks and drug testing.

The ratings-and-feedback systems maintained by Uber and others is more efficient at flagging bad drivers, than any government-run certification authority can be.

It is completely impossible to have part time and internet enabled taxi drivers who are still checked out and issued a license.

What's with this obsession with licensing? Why must engaging in more and more activities be turned from a right (which only the Judiciary can suspend after a trial) into a privilege (which the Executive may or may not grant on a whim)?

Serving alcohol? Must have license (100 years after the "Dry Law" was abolished). Serving "hard liquor"? Need another license. Performing in costume? Need a license for that... Wish to keep and bear a weapon — something explicitly enumerated in the Constitution as a right — need a license... Where do you, Illiberals, get off?

I really hate this kind of crap. If it's alright for one group of people to use a term, but not another it's racist. Either the term is offensive, or it isn't. There's no modifier because of the color of your skin, your ethnicity, religion, or sexual orientation. And what ever happened to "sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me"? We've turned into a society of whiny little bitches. Oh damn, someone is going to accuse me of being discriminatory toward female canines and claim that I kill puppies.(/sarcasm)

Until I hit this paragraph I actually thought you were actually going in a completely different direction.

The thing you're missing is words have context.

If I call a good friend moron it's a term of endearment, we both understand I'm not actually calling him dumb, if I call a stranger moron I'm potentially starting a fight.

Alec Baldwin calling someone a cocksucking fag as an insult is homophobic. Buddy Cole using fag is not homophobic. We call fag homophobic because it's most commonly used in a homophobic context, but that's not always true.

The context of the Redskins is the term was denigrating when it was chosen as the name, the team was notably against black integration, Native American discrimination is still rampant, and the name and logo conjure a stereotype of a native warrior. Not everyone will find it racist but some obviously will. Would the Washington Poles be racist? Probably not. Would the Washington Jews? Maybe. Would the Washington Bankers with a Jewish mascot? Definitely.

There's a good reason not even Net Neutrality, the one piece of cable company fuckery we staved off, didn't last very long after Citizens United.

It's because it "takes a lot of money" to win elections, and government representatives know where their bread is buttered in that regard. If you don't play ball, the money will go to your opponent.

Then when you do get elected, partisan bickery is so bad that both parties (and especially Republicans http://nymag.com/daily/intelli...) demand full loyalty to the party, which consolidates votes around the money winners even more.

Then when you are done as an elected official, you are free to get an even higher paying job as a lobbyist, and you know who they like? That's right, the ones who play ball.

This sounds like a mad conspiracy, but it happens over, and over, and over again.

So no, there will be no voting in representatives who oppose this until we reign in campaign finance and the opportunity to get double your pay later as a lobbyist.

So you're saying a justice system shouldn't try to be any better than criminals?

Agree. This is the slippery slope that leads to barbaric systems like Sharia, with stoning for adultery, death for professing belief in other religions, and so on.

Or beating people up because they are different Five Hasidic Jews Arrested for Williamsburg Attack on Gay Man

Or because they don't follow your rules Ultra-Orthodox Israeli couple sparks riot after telling woman to move to the back of a public bus

If they had laws saying that people had to stay at the back of the bus or that they had to be beaten up then you'd have a point

Or beating people up because they are different Five Hasidic Jews Arrested for Williamsburg Attack on Gay Man

Or because they don't follow your rules Ultra-Orthodox Israeli couple sparks riot after telling woman to move to the back of a public bus

Forget about Russian troops on the border. There were Russian troops at the polling stations: http://nymag.com/daily/intelli....

Tell that to Nate Silver.

Nate Silver is already out of the running. He picked Ohio State and has them going to the Sweet 16.

http://www.foxnews.com/politic...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new...

http://nymag.com/daily/intelli...

Think Terrance Yeakey, Michael Hastings, Ken Saro Wiwa...

http://www.okcbombing.net/News...

http://nymag.com/news/features...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

I could put a MUCH longer list here, but if ppl REALLY cared something
would have been done years ago...

We like to whine, but that is about it.

In the meantime Orwell's nightmare is on schedule.

"I’d heard whisperings about the existence of Kappa Beta Phi .. It was a secret fraternity, founded at the beginning of the Great Depression, that functioned as a sort of one-percenter’s Friars Club. Each year, the group’s dinner features comedy skits, musical acts in drag, and off-color jokes, and its group’s privacy mantra is “What happens at the St. Regis stays at the St. Regis.” For eight decades, it worked. No outsider in living memory had witnessed the entire proceedings firsthand ..."

Could rename that the Michael Hastings plugin, some words can get you killed.

http://nymag.com/news/features...

The Ghosts of Jamie Whitten and John Stennis live on in Mississippi. Bringing federal dollars to pork barrel projects.

Jamie Whitten was the ranking member of the House Ways and Means Committee and any appropriations bill that passed by had to have something for Mississippi. Stennis was the same way in the Senate and together they always got something for Mississippi it seems in every appropriations bill.
That was true when the Advanced Solid Rocket Motor was mandated by Congress after the Challenger incident. NASA didn't want it but if they wanted to fund the shuttle and other programs, they had to take the ASRM too. Things like having to deliver the ASRM rockets on barges were put into bid contracts to prevent Thiokol (the supplier of RSRM engines for the shuttle) from bidding on the contract. Oh, they just happened to have the site at Iuka MS, which among being the site of a defunct Nuclear Reactor project by the TVA and was also a former weapons depot.

You see that's the problem with the seniority system in Congress, you can get politicians re-elected by people and they just move up the ladder on all these committees and it's the committees where all the power is in Congress. You can't just put legislation on the floor of either the House or Senate, it has to go through Committee first and if you have ranking congressmen and senators blocking projects until they get what they want, then important legislation can be held up indefinitely. It's been that way since our Federal Government was formed and handcuffs well meaning legislation with bad things that garner support from fringe members of Congress to get the votes necessary to pass the whole package.

Even though everybody thinks that Earmarks are supposedly a thing of the past, they're still around. The testing facility in MS shows again that port barrel spending is alive and well and a lot of things still get through, for example with the recent budget deal. Did you also know we have a STARBASE program as well? Well in 2012 it received $5m in funding and while most won't consider it a lot, it's really a glorified recruiting program.