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The conservatives seem to want to turtle and ban all travel from those nations ... which would, of course, be a death knell for any aide workers traveling there to help out. They seem to think that will prevent it from spreading when, in fact, that's just increasing the odds that ebola spreads more rapidly inside Africa and ensures that it becomes a global catastrophe. But that's pretty typical of conservative ideals. I'm still waiting on those 'trickle down' economics to get to me. Some of the conservatives in the South are real dirtbags. It's really quite ridiculous.

The conservatives seem to want to turtle and ban all travel from those nations ... which would, of course, be a death knell for any aide workers traveling there to help out. They seem to think that will prevent it from spreading when, in fact, that's just increasing the odds that ebola spreads more rapidly inside Africa and ensures that it becomes a global catastrophe. But that's pretty typical of conservative ideals. I'm still waiting on those 'trickle down' economics to get to me.

Some of the conservatives in the South are real dirtbags. It's really quite ridiculous.

All pigs is equal, but some pigs is more equal than others.

Ain't that the rub though, isn't it? The people telling me that I need to change my ways, sacrifice, are the same people that seem to get the privilege to act differently.

How about this? Lets take 80% of all money spent on political campaigns in the United States and divert it instead to investment in renewable energy. In the latest presidential election year, that number would be 80% of 7 billion dollars (politico), meaning we'd be able to pump 5.6 billion into the fight to end global warming every major election year at least. Would that be a better cause, no matter what you think of renewables, then all the TV spots we're forced to watch over and over again?

However this is just you lying. 4mbps is not "enough" for the modern Internet.

You are quite right to put "enough" in quotes. What I don't understand is, how you can seriously accuse anyone of lying (without quotes) on a matter as subjective as this.

The minimum needs to keep rising.

Sure. And it will — when multiple providers begin competing with each other for each home. Until then, attempting to force incumbent monopolies to improve service will remain a losing proposition — they talk directly to the powers that be and, being a monopoly, aren't afraid to lose many customers.

Meanwhile, the popular anger is directed against the Koch brothers — the favorite target of fans of government's regulations.

The US media is now in full ass-clown mode.

Russia has invaded nothing. Sat photos? I thought so:

Apparently all those T-90 tanks only fly in by night and their cloaking devices prevent any picture of them appearing anywhere.

http://www.moonofalabama.org/2014/09/ukraine-war-for-now-over-and-nato-still-in-decline.html

The nuke bullshit comes from a collapsing Oligarch, who's hold on "NATO intervention" as a tactic becomes weaker by the minute, and thus his desperate squawking. Poor little Joe Biden's son will have to make his next millions by backing another corrupt scheme, elsewhere on the globe.

Get this straight: Russia has not provided any lethal support for breakaway regions in the Ukraine civil war.

Ukraine is not a historical entity prior to Imperial manoeuvrings in the late 19th century between Austria, Prussia and Russia. Now it is being used as the same, 150 years later, to hobble Russian gas export and contain the European pivot away from the dollar and American hegemony.
 

If there is evidence that a legislator is guilty of insider trading, or any other crime, they should be tried by their peers in congress, not by the justice dept.

The problem here is that doesn't work in practice. For evidence supporting this statement, I give you every internal police investigation into officer wrong-doing ever. If you haven't found it yourself before, how about this article written by an Air Force colonel whose son was shot in the head by police while hand-cuffed in custody. The officers were cleared of wrong-doing by an internal investigation. I don't expect an unbiased viewpoint from this man, but the stats he found don't make "tried by their peers" sound like anything resembling a workable solution.

People and groups put in charge of writing laws, with a history of making laws that benefit themselves and hold themselves to a lower standard than the rest of the population, need more oversight, not less.

Try again.

Here, the last-mile providers are acting like Marxists.

They certainly are — thanks to the monopoly-power once given to them by the government.

The solution to this, however, is not creating more rules for them to follow (with more boards and commissions to — ineffectively — ensure compliance) — these only make it harder for a would-be newcomers to appear — but to make this market properly competitive.

So screw the Koch Brothers and their idiot shilling.

While the public anger is (somewhat clumsily, but still effectively) once again redirected against the Koch Brothers, "Big Cable" donates to the ruling party en masse, CEOs play golf with the President and otherwise do the ruling party's bidding. Is it likely, that further monopolization will be blocked?

>> Actually, the 'congress-critters' are quite happy with the current deadlock
>
> So are many voters, actually.

Less and less every day.

Well, take it from the founder of GOproud:

“I just came to the realization that the Republican Party doesn’t represent my principles and values,” LaSalvia told POLITICO. “I’m a small government conservative and they’re for big government. They’re happy to have big government as long as they’re in charge, More importantly, I don’t tolerate bigotry of any kind, whether it’s anti-gay bigotry, anti-Muslim bigotry. And they do and that’s just not OK with me.”

http://www.politico.com/story/...

I was wondering why the Washington Post was spamming me! How did the Washington Post get my email address? Now I know. Jeff Bezos is allowing his "personal purchase" to have the email address I gave to Amazon.

Bezos apparently bought the Washington Post so that he can use it to try to force legislators to give him attention. The U.S. is becoming even more a rich-get-richer country.

The subjects of the spam messages:

{SPECIAL PREVIEW} Summer Sale: JUST $19 -- SAVE UP TO 81% OFF -- for One Year of Unlimited Digital Access!

{24 HOURS ONLY} Summer Sale: JUST $19 -- SAVE UP TO 81% OFF -- for One Year of Unlimited Digital Access!

{EXTENDED} Summer Sale: JUST $19 -- SAVE UP TO 81% OFF -- for One Year of Unlimited Digital Access!

I think it is a very effective advertising campaign. The effect will be that people will try to avoid buying things from Amazon. Also, after the "Summer Sale", digital access to the Washington Post will cost $100 per year!

Really? I'm sorry, but when was the last time any IRS official pulled a gun on someone and told them to hand over their money.

If you don't pay, IRS will put a lien on your house. If you still don't pay, the house will be sold — and police (with guns) will arrive to kick you out from it.

Don't be stupid disputing the obvious — all governments world-wide collect revenues at gun-point. It is normal and the only way possible. It just means, the monies thus collected should only be used in situations, where weapons would take place: enforcing laws and fighting foreign enemies.

You mean like Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, AIG [....]

Corporations don't have the means of coercing people to buy their services, don't even bring them up here.

After all, the benevolence of the private sector is so well known we sing their praises every day because they never, EVER take advantage of people or stick it to us in their quest for profits

Again, corporations are not (normally) in a position to coerce anybody to buy their services — only the government is in such a position and its role in our lives must be minimized, not perpetually expanded.

Your link is to a description of some outrage committed by Comcast — which is funny, because the company is a book-case example of crony capitalism: it (and other cable giants) grew out of government's idiocy of giving them monopoly, and their CEO today plays golf with the President.

Corporations are not any nicer, than they have to be — in order to compete. But monopolies — like Comcast — don't have anyone to compete with. And the government is the biggest and harshest monopoly of all. One can cancel their Comcast bill — even if it can be infuriatingly ridiculous. Now try opting out of Social Security...

While you were sleeping, Rip Van Winkle, exclusive local franchise agreements (the crux of that paper) were made illegal by the Telecommunications Act of 1996.

Too little, too late, youngster. The existing monopolies have had too much of a head-start — an action like that taken against AT&T once would now be required. And that's unlikely, when the CEO is playing golf with the President.

Agree completely that people don't comprehend the ramifications of the enormous deductibles and out-of-pocket maximums in these so-called "low cost" plans. Add to that the tendency toward ultra-narrow provider networks and the resultant increase in risk of balance billing by out-of-network providers.

It's astounding to me how far people are willing to stick their heads in the sand to pretend that the current system is, in aggregate, "better" than the one that we already had.

It had nothing to do with the invention of self-service pumps.

Uh-huh.

Economic data is historical data. It can produce correlations, never, ever Cause and Effect. Someone please design for me a control system based on correlational data.

In other words, "I can't produce any data showing where job growth slowed or people lost jobs because of a higher minimum wage, thus all data is garbage".

Which is why the economic growth rate is, over the last 100 years, inversely correlated with the power of economists and our government.

You think it's economists who are behind the movements to raise the minimum wage? You think government wants this and working people are against it? Maybe you should look at this:

http://www.politico.com/story/...

"On minimum wage, voters support raising the federally mandated minimum, 72 percent to 27 percent, including a majority of Republicans, who support it 52 percent to 45 percent"

And surprisingly, even 61% of small business owners support raising the minimum wage. Now why would that be?

http://www.usnews.com/opinion/...

Your argument that a raise in the minimum wage is something thought up by economists and government is just provably wrong.

Which is why the economic growth rate is, over the last 100 years, inversely correlated with the power of economists and our government.

You complain about "correlations not being causation" and then come up with THAT argument, which is based on a spurious correlation? Every rise in the minimum wage has been not the result of eggheads in government, but because of a groundswell of demand from the people who are, you know, actually doing the work.

There's not a single person in national elected office, House, Senate, or White House who has a PhD in Economics. Not one. There are people with other kinds of PhDs and professional doctorates, but not one single economist. But, you argue, economists control everything. Here's a correlation for you, "People who espouse neoliberal economic theories are highly likely to throw any kind of argument at the wall, based on no data or even any kind of provable theory." If anything, if you want spurious arguments and assertions based on nothing but feelings and doctrine, go to an Austrian School economist or someone who believes that crap.

Here's a news article on a blog by someone who worked there, which pretty much verifies what you're saying.

Soros gives $1 million to Media Matters

Left-wing foundations lavish millions on Media Matters

The list of Media Matters’ foundation funders, 120 in all, reads like a Who’s Who of the American progressive movement, including the far-left Tides Foundation ($4,384,702), George Soros’ Open Society Institutes ($1,075,000), the Ford Foundation ($966,466), the Sandler Foundation ($400,000) — endowed by subprime mortgage lenders Herb and Marion Sandler, who once bankrolled the embattled ACORN organization — and the Schumann Fund for Media and Democracy ($600,000), managed by longtime PBS host Bill Moyers and his son.

They also include the anti-George W. Bush organization MoveOn.org ($50,000), the Barbra Streisand Foundation ($85,000), the kids’ shoes-powered Stride Rite Charitable Foundation ($25,000), the Lear Family Foundation ($55,000) — endowed by the TV producer and People for the American Way founder Norman Lear — and the Joyce Foundation ($400,000), whose board of directors included Barack Obama from 1994 to 2002.

See, anyone can skew, just like you!

I seem to have had to keep repeating this endlessly on Slashdot, but a Federal NTSB judge has already ruled that the FAA does not have lawful authority to regulate low-altitude models or drones, regardless of whether they are being used commercially.

The FAA has appealed the decision, and so far seems hell-bent on regulating as much as it can before it gets slapped down in higher court. Which it surely will... Congress simply hasn't given them legal authority to regulate such things. They're acting like the EPA has been recently, seemingly trying to greedily grab up all the usurped authority they can before the November elections.

The entire fucking anti-affirmative action movement is basically white guys upset

Damn white guys.

Electronic information is directly analogous to paper. Information is information regardless of how its stored.

Nope.

SCOTUS ruled police need a warrant to search your cell phone. If you had the exact same data on paper in a briefcase with you at the time of your arrest, they could search your briefcase (for personal safety reasons or for contraband), see the papers, and use them as evidence.
http://www.politico.com/story/...

Just a couple of months ago, in March, a Federal National Transportation Safety Board Administrative Judge ruled that the FAA does not have legal authority to regulate small low-altitude commercial drones.

FAA seems to be trying to act like Obama, going ahead with policy it already knows to be illegal.

...then sift through it to file tax evasion charges, but somehow keeping email backups for top IRS employees is beyond them because the hard drive crashed and they had to recycle the backup tapes.

Right.

Federal Marshals ARE the DoJ. It's the DoJ itself asking local police to lie. Why would they hand out penalties to themselves? That's like asking Holder to arrest himself for being in contempt of Congress. Not gonna happen.

I somehow doubt most corporations would like the idea of being forced to replace their entire infrastructure every two years. That would get very expensive very fast.

This actually sounds more like Keynesian theory of breaking windows to build economies (a direct violation of the classic "broken window fallacy".) For a modern example of what you just espoused, look at the Cash for Clunkers program. The environmentalists didn't care for it because it didn't further their goals, and used cars around this time (the market that primarily serves the poor) went way up in price because the supply of used cars was forcibly reduced during this period.

The so called "capitalists" were actually opposed to the program entirely. Democrats seemed to like it though, and apparently so did NADA (the group trying to force Tesla to sell only through dealers.)

http://www.politico.com/story/...

Politico actually makes it sound like a grand conspiracy: http://www.politico.com/story/...

Don't forget that the year prior to the misconduct, the president "joked" about using the IRS to attack rivals.

I see. The IRS Commissioner's sworn testimony is biased and twisted. How about President Obama's words on the issue where he states "I’ve reviewed the Treasury Department watchdog’s report, and the misconduct that it uncovered is inexcusable"? It's not twisted, it's not biased - this is straight from the group you're trying to defend. It is a real scandal - and those accused even agree about it.

The President disagrees with you.

Look, the IRS ITSELF (via the Commissioner) and the Inspector General BOTH are on-record as claiming these actions happened, they should not of happened, and they are, at the very least, the result of gross incompetence. Your trying to spin it as "nothing was wrong" simply goes against the statements of all the actual players in the game. Even President Obama states that "the misconduct ... is inexcusable".

But I'm glad to know you are much more knowledgeable about the IRS Scandal than the commissioner, the Senators, the Inspector General, the President, and all the other Government and political participants who have come out and plainly stated what happened was wrong.

I found it on politico, which I find to be somewhat left leaning albeit inside the beltway: http://www.politico.com/story/...

Or it could be FAKE NEWS and the others refuse to report on made up bullshit? A Lot of news outlets are prone to make shit up. CNN did that over and over, Fox news has, etc...

Until I see at least three separate reported stories on different sources of it with complete information, I treat everything reported on Fox news or ANY other news outlet and 100% bullshit.

Our fucking news sources are 90% entertainment and 10% professional today.

How about directly from the lips of Orrin Hatch?

“We’ve been informed that the hard drive has been thrown away,” Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah, the top Republican on the Finance Committee, said in a brief hallway interview.

http://www.politico.com/story/...

Obama could get IMPEACHED over this. This is turning into a Watergate level scandal.

For that to happen, Obama would have to be involved. So far EVERY single detail of this so called "scandal" has uncovered that the President knew about it. Most likely because the actions of every single bureaucrat doesn't involve the President. Basically it's the GOP trying anything they can to oppose the President. Fake scandals like this one are just another tactic. And guess what, you're the sucker the GOP/Fox News is targeting.

It could all be coincidental, but seriously? The IRS doesn't archive email? REALLY?

Well if you read another source other than Fox, you would have known that the IRS keeps 6 months of emails. The GOP is asking for emails that go back 3 years.

Because Fox News paints it like this was some sort of sudden nefarious act by the IRS and fails to give relevant facts. Politico gives a much more detailed explanation that makes it less like a grand conspiracy. Lerner's HD crashed in 2011. It was replaced. IT threw away the old drive because it wasn't functioning. When facts are presented, it doesn't seem like it's that big a conspiracy.

Unfortunately there are no details of this recycled drive on Fox News, that's not surprising that they spin it like the IRS suddenly destroyed a HD. Politico has much more detail.

As part of the investigation, the GOP has asked for all media that Lerner may had used like old hard drives, thumb drives, etc. This is fairly normal. The hard drive in question was in Lerner's computer until summer 2011. It had crashed and IT staff replaced it. The GOP wanted the hard drive so that tech experts could try to recover the data. But IT has long recycled that drive as it was no longer functioning. Personally I don't know of many IT staff that keep broken hard drives for 3 years.

I'm not a paid shill.

Then you are naive, at best. Even if he came back to the states today, there is no possible way for him to get a fair trial. It would be a huge miracle for such a trial to even be public, given our government.

Consider that it took one person eight years to get taken off the no-fly list after being put on for what is reportedly a government mistake. Part of the reason (if not the entire reason) for that was the continued insistence by the Justice Department that they couldn't reveal why she was on the list, even just to her own attorneys, because it was a state secret:

Holder and Clapper argue that U.S. national security could be seriously or significantly harmed if Ibrahim or her lawyers are provided with classified information about whether she was the subject of an intelligence or terrorism investigation or about the standards for inclusion in a database called the Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment (TIDE) could harm national security.

This is how our government reacts for a single individual who has been unable to use air travel because of the mistake of a lone public worker.

While he did technically break many laws, it was justifiable because of the sincere good it did in revealing just how unconstitutional our government acts, which is the first step necessary to making it stop. In order to prove that it was justified, he would have to present evidence of the wrong-doing of the government. Do you honestly believe he wouldn't be completely stonewalled and railroaded by the Justice Department, Congress, and whoever was the President? Even if the documents are now in the public eye, they can still be withheld from trial; nevermind the mountain he would have to claim to extricate extra documentation from the NSA proving how much shit they do.

The only way for Snowden to come back with any hint of safety is a Presidential Pardon; I'll know our nation has finally grown up and stopped being scared of the invisible monster under its bed once that happens, if it ever does.

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?

Well stated and spot on, jafac!

http://www.politico.com/story/...

Josh On (creator of theyrule.net and exxonsecrets.org, and a highly intelligent activist or hacktivist) stated the agenda behind the cloud, and i-pad, smart cellphones, etc., tech: to reduce the potential for user hacking and intellectual empowerment, and as you stated, wresting control.

... ....but the money can't hurt....even if it won't help it sure seems like it should. We're addicted to the fantasy that it buys everything.

It doesn't?

Go look at the results Tom Steyer is getting for political donations - the scale of which make anything the Koch's spend look like chump change.

Steyer founded Farallon Capital, which made billions investing in - get this - fossil fuels including coal:

During Steyer’s tenure, Farallon helped finance coal project acquisitions in Indonesia and Australia valued at more than US$2 billion and covering some of the region’s biggest mines, some of which swiftly ramped up production afterward, according to a close examination by Reuters of company disclosures and interviews with people involved in the deals.

And Farallon is a major (controlling?) stockholder in Kinder Morgan, a pipeline company. A pipeline company trying to expand one "TransMountain Pipeline". That expanded pipeline would compete with the Keystone pipeline - and would move more Canadian oil than the Keystone pipeline is supposed to. For sale to Asian markets.

Self-proclaimed "green" Tom Steyer paid for ads opposing the Keystone pipeline. But stands to make hundreds of millions if not billions of dollars off the TransMountain pipeline if the Keystone pipeline isn't built. By shipping the oil over the Pacific...

Who says spending money doesn't get political results?

>Do any of you realize you are biased against conservatives because you have been *trained* to be?

Does it occur to you that we're biased against conservatives because people who self-identify as conservative keep saying deeply stupid things in public. See just about any Republican politician, or check out the insane conservatives that use tags like #TGDN, #TCOT, and #REDNATIONRISING on Twitter. They just keep feeding each other fake quotes, and reinforcing a hatred of anyone who isn't as delusional as they are. They think that intelligent liberal people are their enemy, when really the enemy is the "conservative" media that filled their heads with nonsense.

Conservative didn't always mean crazy/stupid, but it sure does now.

>what is so bad about individual liberty, natural rights and limited government huh?

Nothing, it's the superstition, authoritarianism, racism, homophobia, and opposition to women's rights that's wrong with the ignorant conservatives.

OMFG, you're ignorant.

There are ignorant liberals, too, saying things like claiming they've been to 57 US states.

Were you aware that Tea Party members are better versed in science than liberals or the population as a whole? Of course, what did the professor who did that study have to say? This:

“I’ve got to confess, though, I found this result surprising. As I pushed the button to run the analysis on my computer, I fully expected I’d be shown a modest negative correlation between identifying with the Tea Party and science comprehension,” Kahan wrote.

“But then again, I don’t know a single person who identifies with the tea party,” he continued. “All my impressions come from watching cable tv — & I don’t watch Fox News very often — and reading the ‘paper’ (New York Times daily, plus a variety of politics-focused Internet sites like Huffington Post and POLITICO). I’m a little embarrassed, but mainly, I’m just glad that I no longer hold this particular mistaken view.”

What a damning quote, isn't it? He had an impression - from the NY Times, POLITICO, cable TV other than Fox News - that was WRONG. Not only that, he admits he lives in an intellectual echo chamber.

At least he has the balls to admit it.

I'm getting a feeling that you're intentionally misunderstanding the issue.

At issue is the Russian government's requirement for bloggers to register with authorities and keep records in Russia (where FSB can get them).

An "insightful" comment equated that with NSA's activities — even though the NSA (nor any other American government entity) has never arrested or otherwise shut down a blogger.

Media is controlled through private ownership and editorial policy pushed by owners rather than government and legal framework.

Yes, and that's exactly, how things ought to be. The alternative is, to bring us back on topic, Russian model, where media is controlled by Putin (because only businessmen friendly with Kremlin are allowed to operate).

The separation of private and public tools of population control has often been fuzzy

Irrelevant.

aren't far behind

Thankfully, the opposite is true. We are very "far behind" Russia in this aspect. Michael Moore, for example, was ignored by the evil Bushitler regime — even the IRS never looked into the millions he made with his scathing anti-American lies. The Koch brothers today, though demonized by the ruling Party, are perfectly safe from criminal prosecution.

On contrast, this is, what happens to government critics in Putin's Russia...

You cannot possibly be that stupid. The whole manufactured "controversy" over Benghazi was essentially, "How come Pres. Obama didn't call it a terrorist attack BEFORE he knew for sure it was a terrorist attack?"

Always good to know that people who are actually stupid, are the ones who make the first call. I guess with everything being so busy, with well Obama's most recent uh golf game or whatever. You missed the FOIA emails, and other documents that basically made it a case of "yep the administration lied, and spun, and lied some more." On top of directly manufacturing the narrative. Damn that reality check.

While I agree with your comments I do have to point out that it's nice to set goals and to think out of the box when it comes to new ideas. Back in the 1960s we had this President that set a goal for the US in reaching the Moon, which we did. People need goals and objectives to strive for otherwise they become hopeless derelicts like Cliven Bundy.

Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Tom Steyer and Michael Bloomberg are all Jewish supporters of Obama who as C.S Lewis referred to as the classic do-gooders like we have come to expect from most left-wing liberals who want to rid the world of guns...upsized sodas and oil including the Keystone pipeline and a free internet. We also know that a very Jewish and post hippy Hollywood descriminated against Conservative Script writers for over 30 years. http://www.foxnews.com/opinion... What marks out the tyranny of the way these people operate is that which marks the left of politics and liberal donors. http://www.politico.com/story/... "Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience. C.S. Lewis" But essentialy these attacks on the freedom of the internet are about money and the operations of lobbyists, where....essentially Hollywood is behind the reforms to give away the last controls of the internet including the hire of the lobbyist Robert Holleyman. http://boingboing.net/2014/04/... After a public outcry this decision to give away the last controls of the internet looks to be on hold but now the FCC is stepping in and destroying a free internet after failing to take control of newsrooms. They now are talking about a censorship fast lane. http://act.boldprogressives.or... This after the FCC failed to put monitors and censors in every news room. http://foxnewsinsider.com/2014... Americans need to realise how militant the left is and how influential these Liberal donors are. If they supported the giving away of the internet so that they could attack piracy behind the scenes then they likewise support attacks on a free internet and create the tools to enliven political censorship with the Obama administration working behind the scenes to attack opponents. These FCC reforms are part of this...moving into this direction. We see how the Obama administration has used the federal beauracracy to attack opponents. Who is to say that this new FCC proposal for a fast lane will not use information supply with deals behind the scenes to do the same and attack political opponents. Obama is always meeting behind closed doors with the media or Silicon Valley giants. It will happen and it is a disgrace as Google has already proved itself to be left in politics. They are all do-gooder tyrants where we would be better off under robber barons. What is Google and Facebook getting out of this new FCC proposal? What we know for sure is that the left wing silicon valley giants cannot be trusted along with the FCC. They will use the do-gooder justifications to fight against piracy to take away a free internet and you can take that to the bank. Read the quote from C.S Lewis again. If Hollywood can have this much clout....discriminate against conservative scriptwriters for so long and work together with Obama to take away a free internet then all should be concerned. This is an activity of so called do-gooders that believe they have the authority to strip all of us of our internet freedoms. We all need to stand up to these secular liberals and secular Jewish do-gooders that have too much political clout in America.

its easier to simply do something and say you're sorry later than to ask for permission or follow the rules. We've locked up japanese americans during the second world war for nothing more than being japanese. We've tortured and detained without trial in secret military prisons the nationals of other countries in which we've declared a war upon something so ephemeral as 'terror.' We shackled and enslaved thousands of africans throughout our history in direct defiance of the charter that all men are created equal. We exterminated more native americans than hitler killed jews, an entire race of natives, just because we could. We branded countless celebrities communist, forever obliterating both their good name and their gainful employment.

in short, this administration as every one before it will invoke the same rhetoric to assert the privilege of spying on, and murdering, american citizens. that to think otherwise is unpatriotic, that to question it at all is tantamount to unamericanism. "Because fuck you, thats why."

No. This administration is WORSE.

They seem to actually believe their own rhetoric.

Reagan in Iran-Contra - where they were bending and breaking laws trying to free Americans held hostage in Lebanon? North and Poindexter fall on their swords, Reagan uttered a sheepish, "Mistakes were made." Never did I get the impression they actually believed the crap they were saying. Fast and Furious - where Obama was running guns to Mexican drug lords (WTF for??!? No one knows...), we wind up with Holder held in contempt of Congress and "the most transparent administration in history" totally stonewalling like nothing happened. And I get the impression that the derps working for Obama actually believe the tripe they spew.. Same with the IRS targeting Tea Party groups - we have emails linking senior IRS leadership to the actions, and again, total stonewalling by True Believers.

Hell, look at Bill Clinton - the damn reason Lewinsky didn't get him impeached for perjury is because everyone knew Clinton was a liar about cheating on Hillary and everyone knew Clinton knew he was a liar about it - and they voted him into office anyway.

But Obama? He seems to really think he's the best at everything he tries. Hell - he's SAID that. He's a better speechwriter than his speechwriters:

“I think that I’m a better speechwriter than my speechwriters. I know more about policies on any particular issue than my policy directors. And I’ll tell you right now that I’m gonna think I’m a better political director than my political director.”

Consider the history of Microsoft. In the past, Microsoft didn't expend any significant money or effort on lobbying in Washington, D.C. Then during President Clinton's time in office, Microsoft faced serious threats from the Federal government... the worst being that a Federal judge actually ordered that Microsoft be split up. This order was voided by a higher court, so it didn't happen... but you had better believe that Microsoft took it as a hard lesson.

Microsoft now spends a great deal of money and effort on lobbying in D.C. I don't blame them for self-defense via lobbying. (I do blame them for attacking other companies via lobbying, if they do. See below for allegations that they do.)

Google isn't waiting for D.C. to turn on them; they are lobbying to "manage their relationship" with the Federal government. So is Facebook.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0411/52483.html

Here's an article from 2008 about Google learning the importance of lobbying. It includes allegations that Microsoft was using its lobbying infrastructure to try to prevent a deal Google was trying to make with Yahoo.

http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2008/10/20/google-learns-lessons-in-the-ways-of-washington/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0

Now I'm picturing Google using its leverage to attack Microsoft, and Eric Schmidt saying "The circle is now complete. In 2008, Google was just a student... now I am the master."

The FAA has been overturned by a a federal judge on this, and non-commercial and commercial drone flying are now legal.
" NTSB Administrative Law Judge Patrick Geraghty ruled Thursday that the policy notices the FAA issued as a basis for the ban weren’t enforceable because they hadn’t been written as part of a formal rulemaking process. "

http://www.politico.com/story/...

Decision 3-6-14:
http://www.kramerlevin.com/fil...

the government will never give you more than what was agreed on

Contractors routinely soak the federal government for billions in overruns. You happen work for a peon outfit that lacks the leverage to get away with it. France et al. have a little more pull.

Batista was a U.S. puppet, and his cronies (who are now a significant voting block in FL) lost a lot of money and power when Castro came in. They want it back, and they want it back BAD. The U.S. will murder, commit terrorism, or do anything else to accomplish this goal.

The most shameful incident (IMHO) came in 1976, when a CIA agent blew up a civilian Cuban airliner, killing 78 innocent people. And said CIA agent is still living free (and protected) in the U.S. to this day. The U.S., my country, openly committing terrorism for petty economic ends. Fucking pathetic.

Castro was a Soviet puppet, and his cronies (who are now a significant power block in Cuba) gained a lot of money and power when Castro came in. They want to keep it, and they want to keep it BAD. The Cuban communists will murder, commit terrorism, jail the opposition, or do anything else to accomplish this goal.

It is hard to pick the most shameful incident, but surely Che's bloodbaths must be considered.

The Truth About Che Guevara

Cuba is a police state and Che was its co-founder. Cubans “love” him the same way Romanians “loved” Nicolae Ceausescu and East Germans “loved” Berlin Wall architect Erich Honecker

You know what happens to Cubans who display open hatred of Che?

They get arrested.

When he was still alive, they were executed or herded into slave-labor camps.

So yeah, everyone “loves” him. It’s required by law. Woe to those who disobey State Security.

The human spirit is a powerful force, though, and some Cubans can’t take it. A million and a half fled to the United States to escape the instruments of Che Guevara’s repression, many across the Florida Straits where the odds of survival are no better than two out of three. Others resisted at home, especially during the 1960s, the decade of global rebellion.

CHE GUEVARA

In his book Che Guevara: A Biography, Daniel James writes that Che himself admitted to ordering "several thousand" executions during the first year of the Castro regime. Felix Rodriguez, the Cuban-American CIA operative who helped track him down in Bolivia and was the last person to question him, says that Che during his final talk, admitted to "a couple thousand" executions. But he shrugged them off as all being of "imperialist spies and CIA agents."

Vengeance, much less justice, had little to do with the Castro/Che directed bloodbath in the first months of 1959. Che's murderous agenda in La Cabana fortress in 1959 was exactly Stalin's murderous agenda in the Katyn Forest in 1940. Like Stalin's massacre of the Polish officer corps, like Stalin's Great Terror against his own officer corps a few years earlier, Che's firing squad marathons were a perfectly rational and cold blooded exercise that served their purpose ideally. His bloodbath decapitated literally and figuratively the first ranks of Cuba's anti-Castro rebels.

Oh, and here are more of the people that you label as Batista "cronies," which ordinary people would refer to as people fleeing violent oppression.

Castro launches Mariel boatlift, April 20, 1980

On this day in 1980, Cuban President Fidel Castro proclaimed in Havana that any Cuban who wished to immigrate to the United States could board a boat at the nearby port of Mariel. During the ensuing months, some 125,000 Cubans fled to Florida in about 1,700 packed boats, at times overwhelming the U.S. Coast Guard and immigration authorities.

I guess anyone that wan

Terrible! Which is why it's so frustrating that even when Congress has the lowest approval ratings ever, nothing much changes. Although technically, the system works: people have the government they repeatedly chose.

well, I'm not a fan of him but in this case he at least makes "pushes" to close it. most recent here:

http://www.politico.com/story/...

we can talk about dozen other campaign lies, but not this issue

Any missing footage should result in someone being fired.

Agreed.

There is one plus side to ubiquitous cameras operated by the police: It will be harder for the police to justify denying us the ability to record our interactions with them. Some police departments haven't gotten the memo yet...