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You'll understand if you're Jewish.
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-great-american-bubble-machine-20100405?print=true

tsarkon reports..

We have to TOLERATE the militant homosexuals everywhere, but we do not have to LIKE THIS or ACCEPT THIS AS RIGHT, and WE have EVERY RIGHT to speak out against this perverse disease ridden abnormal unnatural offense to god and species. I hate the militant homosexual agenda and not only tolerate it but bear the brunt of watching the militant homosexuals at what, 2% of the population, work homosexuality into every sentence spoken. It is an assault on family and god by the communists and homosexuals. We see how twisted the homosexual mind can be, as National SOCIALISTS like Hitler and Ernst Rohm were homosexuals but they hypocritically persecuted them. Not only did they hate god and family, they hated themselves. This militant homosexuality and its agenda is an attempt by self hating self loathing sex pigs to try and main stream their mental disorder so as not to feel bad about the disgusting things they do.
Well I donÃ(TM)t want self-hating abnormal venereal diseased unnatural sex-pigs warping the minds of my children. And I will do everything in my power to wall off these sex-pigs and diseased militant homosexuals from my kids.
Genes are really nothing - its how the genes are expressed and epigenetics (tertiary strange conformation and expressibility of the gene site). There is no easy way to predict what the organism will be like based on base sequences alone.

And even if they try and map abnormal sexual behavior to a gene, then the "disease" of homosexuality is a genetic defect/genetic disorder.

But in reality, these AIDS ridden hepatitis ridden self hating homosexual pigs are choosing to be hedonistic and against nature, and they are desperately looking for both validation and an excuse for their mental disorder.

THE ONLY HATE here is for what the sex-pigs label "hetero-normative"

Normal is getting relabeled.

And Ernst Rohm was a homosexual, documented. There are quite a number of books documenting Nazi homosexuality in the upper echelons with impressive citations and bibliography, but you were brainwashed in an America hating god hating progressive school. Partially educated. Poorly. You think you know history, but you know only your PROGRAMMING. It is you that hates, you that hates normal, you that hates family.

And when all the progressives FAIL in debate, they ALWAYS pull the race/hate card. It is so pathetic. And predictable. Race/hate = failure in debate. Its a form of Ad hominem and its totally transparent, lame and shows total weakness and lack of any real conviction.

If I was this father of a "gay" I would provide a bare minimum standard of living and release the pig into the wild at 18.

The militant homosexuals and the progressive left are creating this divisive issue to employ the two-side-of-the-street manipulation, they already have civil unions and simply want to change history and change the meaning of words to NEWSPEAK, the militant homosexuals and progressives have run the state of California into bankruptcy, into confiscatory taxes of 50% for most dual income families, and the militant homosexuals are trying to break down the institutions of GOD AND FAMILY and replace these institutions with THE STATE. The are also responsible for the total subversion of the enumerated Second Amendment. The militant homosexuals cant possibly love because they are self hating people. They are sad pathetic self hating people with a behavior disorder and are disparately seeking approval for their sick and perverted ways. They even try to relabel normal as heteronormative, yet they participate and highly abnormal sexual practices, hedonism, have an increased rate of improper sexual contact with minors and spread diseases like HIV and Hepatitis. The militant homosexuals hate themselves so much that they participate in BUG CHASING, see here in the liberal-progressive-communist magazine, RS ( They have taken down the article that was here http://www.rollingst

tsarkon reports ...

We have to TOLERATE the militant homosexuals everywhere, but we do not have to LIKE THIS or ACCEPT THIS AS RIGHT, and WE have EVERY RIGHT to speak out against this perverse disease ridden abnormal unnatural offense to god and species. I hate the militant homosexual agenda and not only tolerate it but bear the brunt of watching the militant homosexuals at what, 2% of the population, work homosexuality into every sentence spoken. It is an assault on family and god by the communists and homosexuals. We see how twisted the homosexual mind can be, as National SOCIALISTS like Hitler and Ernst Rohm were homosexuals but they hypocritically persecuted them. Not only did they hate god and family, they hated themselves. This militant homosexuality and its agenda is an attempt by self hating self loathing sex pigs to try and main stream their mental disorder so as not to feel bad about the disgusting things they do.
Well I donâ(TM)t want self-hating abnormal venereal diseased unnatural sex-pigs warping the minds of my children. And I will do everything in my power to wall off these sex-pigs and diseased militant homosexuals from my kids.
Genes are really nothing - its how the genes are expressed and epigenetics (tertiary strange conformation and expressibility of the gene site). There is no easy way to predict what the organism will be like based on base sequences alone.

And even if they try and map abnormal sexual behavior to a gene, then the "disease" of homosexuality is a genetic defect/genetic disorder.

But in reality, these AIDS ridden hepatitis ridden self hating homosexual pigs are choosing to be hedonistic and against nature, and they are desperately looking for both validation and an excuse for their mental disorder.

THE ONLY HATE here is for what the sex-pigs label "hetero-normative"

Normal is getting relabeled.

And Ernst Rohm was a homosexual, documented. There are quite a number of books documenting Nazi homosexuality in the upper echelons with impressive citations and bibliography, but you were brainwashed in an America hating god hating progressive school. Partially educated. Poorly. You think you know history, but you know only your PROGRAMMING. It is you that hates, you that hates normal, you that hates family.

And when all the progressives FAIL in debate, they ALWAYS pull the race/hate card. It is so pathetic. And predictable. Race/hate = failure in debate. Its a form of Ad hominem and its totally transparent, lame and shows total weakness and lack of any real conviction.

If I was this father of a "gay" I would provide a bare minimum standard of living and release the pig into the wild at 18.

The militant homosexuals and the progressive left are creating this divisive issue to employ the two-side-of-the-street manipulation, they already have civil unions and simply want to change history and change the meaning of words to NEWSPEAK, the militant homosexuals and progressives have run the state of California into bankruptcy, into confiscatory taxes of 50% for most dual income families, and the militant homosexuals are trying to break down the institutions of GOD AND FAMILY and replace these institutions with THE STATE. The are also responsible for the total subversion of the enumerated Second Amendment. The militant homosexuals cant possibly love because they are self hating people. They are sad pathetic self hating people with a behavior disorder and are disparately seeking approval for their sick and perverted ways. They even try to relabel normal as heteronormative, yet they participate and highly abnormal sexual practices, hedonism, have an increased rate of improper sexual contact with minors and spread diseases like HIV and Hepatitis. The militant homosexuals hate themselves so much that they participate in BUG CHASING, see here in the liberal-progressive-communist magazine, RS ( They have taken down the article that was here http://

Great idea! I hear that Ubisoft are doing something just like that too.

Your comment about "this period of history" draws attention away from the fact that the U.S. government is EXTREMELY corrupt. Few in government are on the side of the people. Most of the really powerful in the U.S. government are helping the corrupters.

For example, see the Rolling Stone article about Goldman Sachs, The Great American Bubble Machine

The documentary movie Inside Job was nominated for an Oscar. It's an excellent movie about the extreme corruption. NOTHING has been done.

if PFC Manning didn't like the situation he was in personally he could have dealt with it through appropriate channels, eventually even getting some meathead senator on his side.

Wrong. Whistleblowers who follow the official channels tend to have their complaints stuffed, be retaliated against, or both. Recent case in point: the use of psy-ops officers on senators and international leaders. Lt. Col. Holmes resisted his orders using appropriate channels, but received a politically-motivated formal reprimand and he ultimately failed to stop himself and his unit from being used for illegal purposes.

As if we needed fancy mathematics to tell us that the formulas used by Wall Street traders don't work. Let me offer you Exhibit A.

Was it 'Cigna' who did it, i.e. the board of directors decided this as a company or stockholders voted on it as as a company? Or was this committed by 1 or 2 key people who was trying to stonewall investigations into this area.

You remove the corporate shield and these shenanigans will stop. Put the people responsible for those decisions behind bars in a standard state pen with other convicted thieves and felons for 6-12 months. Do it a few times and no one will be willing to do it anymore.

Currently, no person has to pay a personal penalty for virtually any crime committed for the 'Corporation'. But you can't send a 'Corporation' to jail.

Corporations have been given the rights of human beings, but are not able to be held physically responsible for a crime like a human being can. The only thing you can do is 'slap their hands', OR do the company serious financial harm -- which hurts stockholders and employees who likely knew nothing about the wrongdoings.

The only sane recourse is to go after the culpable individuals and not allow the corporate shield to take the blame or punishment for what was probably the decision of one or a few individuals.

Right now, if you are a corporate exec or power-broker with large company , .

How about this?

Look closely at the picture of McCain and Caldwell that accompanies the Rolling Stone article. Is that a bad photoshop job or what?

How long has it been since government paid more than lip service to all the things they aren't allowed to do?

Matt Taibbi has a piece in Rolling Stone this month that shows how the SEC is pretty much totally in bed with the companies they're supposed to be regulating. It's well worth reading, if you can put up with the profanity. Why isn't Wall Street in Jail?

.

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/why-isnt-wall-street-in-jail-20110216

It just goes to show, those who make the rules benefit the most by them and every administration is in the pocket of Wall Street.

you are naive if you think the Republican party hasn't tried to subvert and misdirect the tea party grassroots. which is why i made the distinction i made. there is much good in the citizen involvement the tea party represents, but don't expect the establishment to sit idly by and allow it to happen.

read some taibbi.
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/matt-taibbi-the-crying-shame-of-john-boehner-20110105
and particularly his contrast on the 5th page of Bohner against a leader of an Ohio Tea Party:
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/matt-taibbi-the-crying-shame-of-john-boehner-20110105?page=5

Boehner's irrepressible hackosity is a serious problem for the Republican establishment, which desperately needs a more convincing con man to stave off voter anger on the right. In this regard, the contrast between Boehner and Littleton, the Tea Party leader in Boehner's home state, is interesting. The two men live in the same place, the small township of West Chester near Cincinnati, so Littleton is very familiar with Boehner. But Littleton's opinion of the Republican establishment couldn't be lower: It was precisely programs like the Medicare drug benefit bill and No Child Left Behind, programs he considers unacceptably wasteful and intrusive, that moved him to get into politics. "These were all Republican programs," Littleton says. "If you look at Republican congressmen from Ohio, they all voted for this stuff."

What's interesting is that the survival of the hack political class that Boehner represents now depends almost entirely on their ability to neutralize grass-roots leaders like Littleton — and the word "leader" here is used in the real sense of the word. While Boehner often negotiates for a Republican delegation that winds up rejecting the compromises he reaches, Littleton, when I speak with him, strikes me in exactly the opposite way — I feel very aware that I am talking to someone with a lot of political power, who represents quite a lot of actual human beings.

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/taibblog/mailbag-mainstream-punditry-the-financial-crisis-and-the-tea-party-20110117

I have to admit to being a little confused about the whole Tea Party phenomenon. In the year-plus I've been covering Tea Partiers, 99% of them are completely disingenuous goons -- Rush/Hannity fans and Bush Republicans who've crudely reinvented themselves as "constitutionalists" and appropriated Ron Paul's small-government rhetoric in order to disguise their basically unchanging political belief system, which almost exclusively involves hating liberals and leftists and Democrats, and immigrants and nonwhite "water drinkers," no matter what they do. I see the Tea Party mainly as a vehicle for the Republican Party to corral public anger and turn it against Democrats, and also to aid the campaign contributors of both parties in continuing to deregulate the economy and keep certain subsidies in place, and most Tea Partiers are I think willing participants in this scheme.

But I have met a few, like this Chris Littleton fellow in Ohio, who seemed deadly focused on the spending issue, and on some legitimate concerns about expanded government power even when it's the result of Republican legislation (i.e. No Child Left Behind depriving local public schools of autonomy with regard to curricula), and they seemed sincere in that at least. I did not have the same experience with Tea Party leaders in Kentucky, in Nevada, in New York, or other states, where I mostly heard a lot of preposterous Beck-fueled hysteria about how Obama is converting America into a Sov

you are naive if you think the Republican party hasn't tried to subvert and misdirect the tea party grassroots. which is why i made the distinction i made. there is much good in the citizen involvement the tea party represents, but don't expect the establishment to sit idly by and allow it to happen.

read some taibbi.
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/matt-taibbi-the-crying-shame-of-john-boehner-20110105
and particularly his contrast on the 5th page of Bohner against a leader of an Ohio Tea Party:
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/matt-taibbi-the-crying-shame-of-john-boehner-20110105?page=5

Boehner's irrepressible hackosity is a serious problem for the Republican establishment, which desperately needs a more convincing con man to stave off voter anger on the right. In this regard, the contrast between Boehner and Littleton, the Tea Party leader in Boehner's home state, is interesting. The two men live in the same place, the small township of West Chester near Cincinnati, so Littleton is very familiar with Boehner. But Littleton's opinion of the Republican establishment couldn't be lower: It was precisely programs like the Medicare drug benefit bill and No Child Left Behind, programs he considers unacceptably wasteful and intrusive, that moved him to get into politics. "These were all Republican programs," Littleton says. "If you look at Republican congressmen from Ohio, they all voted for this stuff."

What's interesting is that the survival of the hack political class that Boehner represents now depends almost entirely on their ability to neutralize grass-roots leaders like Littleton — and the word "leader" here is used in the real sense of the word. While Boehner often negotiates for a Republican delegation that winds up rejecting the compromises he reaches, Littleton, when I speak with him, strikes me in exactly the opposite way — I feel very aware that I am talking to someone with a lot of political power, who represents quite a lot of actual human beings.

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/taibblog/mailbag-mainstream-punditry-the-financial-crisis-and-the-tea-party-20110117

I have to admit to being a little confused about the whole Tea Party phenomenon. In the year-plus I've been covering Tea Partiers, 99% of them are completely disingenuous goons -- Rush/Hannity fans and Bush Republicans who've crudely reinvented themselves as "constitutionalists" and appropriated Ron Paul's small-government rhetoric in order to disguise their basically unchanging political belief system, which almost exclusively involves hating liberals and leftists and Democrats, and immigrants and nonwhite "water drinkers," no matter what they do. I see the Tea Party mainly as a vehicle for the Republican Party to corral public anger and turn it against Democrats, and also to aid the campaign contributors of both parties in continuing to deregulate the economy and keep certain subsidies in place, and most Tea Partiers are I think willing participants in this scheme.

But I have met a few, like this Chris Littleton fellow in Ohio, who seemed deadly focused on the spending issue, and on some legitimate concerns about expanded government power even when it's the result of Republican legislation (i.e. No Child Left Behind depriving local public schools of autonomy with regard to curricula), and they seemed sincere in that at least. I did not have the same experience with Tea Party leaders in Kentucky, in Nevada, in New York, or other states, where I mostly heard a lot of preposterous Beck-fueled hysteria about how Obama is converting America into a Sov

you are naive if you think the Republican party hasn't tried to subvert and misdirect the tea party grassroots. which is why i made the distinction i made. there is much good in the citizen involvement the tea party represents, but don't expect the establishment to sit idly by and allow it to happen.

read some taibbi.
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/matt-taibbi-the-crying-shame-of-john-boehner-20110105
and particularly his contrast on the 5th page of Bohner against a leader of an Ohio Tea Party:
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/matt-taibbi-the-crying-shame-of-john-boehner-20110105?page=5

Boehner's irrepressible hackosity is a serious problem for the Republican establishment, which desperately needs a more convincing con man to stave off voter anger on the right. In this regard, the contrast between Boehner and Littleton, the Tea Party leader in Boehner's home state, is interesting. The two men live in the same place, the small township of West Chester near Cincinnati, so Littleton is very familiar with Boehner. But Littleton's opinion of the Republican establishment couldn't be lower: It was precisely programs like the Medicare drug benefit bill and No Child Left Behind, programs he considers unacceptably wasteful and intrusive, that moved him to get into politics. "These were all Republican programs," Littleton says. "If you look at Republican congressmen from Ohio, they all voted for this stuff."

What's interesting is that the survival of the hack political class that Boehner represents now depends almost entirely on their ability to neutralize grass-roots leaders like Littleton — and the word "leader" here is used in the real sense of the word. While Boehner often negotiates for a Republican delegation that winds up rejecting the compromises he reaches, Littleton, when I speak with him, strikes me in exactly the opposite way — I feel very aware that I am talking to someone with a lot of political power, who represents quite a lot of actual human beings.

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/taibblog/mailbag-mainstream-punditry-the-financial-crisis-and-the-tea-party-20110117

I have to admit to being a little confused about the whole Tea Party phenomenon. In the year-plus I've been covering Tea Partiers, 99% of them are completely disingenuous goons -- Rush/Hannity fans and Bush Republicans who've crudely reinvented themselves as "constitutionalists" and appropriated Ron Paul's small-government rhetoric in order to disguise their basically unchanging political belief system, which almost exclusively involves hating liberals and leftists and Democrats, and immigrants and nonwhite "water drinkers," no matter what they do. I see the Tea Party mainly as a vehicle for the Republican Party to corral public anger and turn it against Democrats, and also to aid the campaign contributors of both parties in continuing to deregulate the economy and keep certain subsidies in place, and most Tea Partiers are I think willing participants in this scheme.

But I have met a few, like this Chris Littleton fellow in Ohio, who seemed deadly focused on the spending issue, and on some legitimate concerns about expanded government power even when it's the result of Republican legislation (i.e. No Child Left Behind depriving local public schools of autonomy with regard to curricula), and they seemed sincere in that at least. I did not have the same experience with Tea Party leaders in Kentucky, in Nevada, in New York, or other states, where I mostly heard a lot of preposterous Beck-fueled hysteria about how Obama is converting America into a Sov

They should also feature this guy http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/news/the-most-dangerous-man-in-cyberspace-20100818 in it; otherwise without the tech, it's only half the story.

If you ever read one article this year, this should be it. (Apologies to /.)

Read Matt Taibbi's blog post over at Rolling Stone. They are using what's called a "Special Purpose Vehicle." Basically, the SPV invests in Facebook, and Goldman's hand-picked clients invest in the SPV. You don't have to disclose financials if you have less than 500 investors, and the SPV only counts as one.

All that aside. I too, would rather support a single-payer system. We already have two in the US: Medicare for those 65+ and Tricare for those in the military. Medicare has the lowest overhead expense rate of all insurers - 2%. Even doubling that would be much lower than for private insurers. Heck, even all the old-folks in the Tea Party want to keep their Medicare. See this: Matt Taibbi on the Tea Party (How corporate interests and Republican insiders built the Tea Party monster.)

Medicare also bones the healthcare providers that choose to service Medicare patients. Many doctors find it a far more attractive option to be gainfully employed by Kaiser Permanente than to have a private practice with the prospect of treating Medicare patients (and billing Uncle Sam).

I wouldn't have a problem dedicating a portion of my taxes to pay for this, as long as everyone else pays for it as well, regardless of whether they themselves have health insurance. I agree that the cost for this shouldn't be born by only those who have purchased insurance, but the solution is not to force others into the insurance system, it's to provide base single-payer insurance for everyone.

Your statements contradict each other. So you'd be OK with requiring everyone to pay taxes to support health care, but not requiring everyone to purchase insurance? Think of the premiums as the tax. Problem solved.

All that aside. I too, would rather support a single-payer system. We already have two in the US: Medicare for those 65+ and Tricare for those in the military. Medicare has the lowest overhead expense rate of all insurers - 2%. Even doubling that would be much lower than for private insurers. Heck, even all the old-folks in the Tea Party want to keep their Medicare. See this: Matt Taibbi on the Tea Party (How corporate interests and Republican insiders built the Tea Party monster.)

Yet another 'journalist who thinks he's the new Tom Wolfe :)

Biggest Cybercrime of All Time

"Albert Gonzalez remained focused on business — checking his laptop constantly, keeping tabs on the rogue operators he employed in Turkey and Latvia and China, pushing, haranguing, issuing orders into his cellphone in a steady voice. "Let's see if this Russian asshole has what I need," he'd say calmly. Then he would help himself to glass plates of powder, each thoughtfully cut into letters for easy identification: "E" for Ecstasy, "C" for coke" link

"Dude," he wailed, "I can't fucking read!"

Dude, you can't write :)

I know - reading American responses to this kind of thing is really baffling, isn't it? They call it socialism, I call it basic human compassion.

There was an excellent article that delved into this mindset recently in Rolling Stone. I think it's especially enlightening when read from a European perspective, particularly in terms of how the working class perspectives on these issues differ so much (non-sensically, in fact) in the US.

"Wouldn't a bunch of crazy incompetents do a better job than the current batch of well connected thieves?"

The "crazy incompetents" are FUNDED BY the well-connected thieves who have decisively demonstrated their intelligence dwarfs that of their pawns! (Sourcewatch makes for entertaining reading.) The "crazy incompetents" will get affirmation. Their backers will get power, which is different.

It doesn't matter what you, personally, are "not", for you are a soldier for something else. That "something else" has destroyed most campaign finance accountability and dumps millions of dollars into TP candidates. Altruism it ain't! They aren't trying to buy more influence for the public good:

LOVE the background painting!:

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/08/30/100830fa_fact_mayer

The Koch brothers and the like will get what they want, TP partisans have no choice but to give it to them, and TP adherents will never be interested in changing that relationship because their binary choice is Republican/Teapublican or Democrat. The game was over before it started. Sucks, too bad, so sad.

That's the beauty (and it IS beautiful, a work of political art) of the strategy. The UNWITTING participation of the well-intentioned in a movement that affirms them (and caters to _some_ of their genuine, reasonable concerns!) makes them an effective political weapon. The Christian Dominionists so grossly outnumber the secularists that it makes the secular Libertarians an ornamental joke.

I live in the heart of Tea Party country, and this is dead accurate:

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/17390/210904

for all the issues i care about he's as bad or worse than Bush. Guantanamo. Civil liberties. Rule of law. Economic policy. Government spending. He even did the opposite of what he claimed on both healthcare and financial regulation. For the former, he blamed the insurance companies, then signed legislation that gives them a giant gift of perpetually increased funding from all of us. How do you fix something you claim is the problem by incentivizing it? For the latter, Goldman Sachs, one of the key culprits in the mess, is unworried about any impact from the financial regulation bill that's supposed to prevent the next crisis. It has no teeth. It certainly doesn't bring back Glass Stegal, which would have actually helped.

http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2010/0830/outfront-goldman-sachs-volcker-obama-catch-me-if-can.html
http://www.campaignforliberty.com/blog.php?view=34842
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/17390/188551
yes the same taibbi who wrote
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/12697/64796

http://www.portfolio.com/news-markets/national-news/portfolio/2008/11/11/The-End-of-Wall-Streets-Boom/

for all the issues i care about he's as bad or worse than Bush. Guantanamo. Civil liberties. Rule of law. Economic policy. Government spending. He even did the opposite of what he claimed on both healthcare and financial regulation. For the former, he blamed the insurance companies, then signed legislation that gives them a giant gift of perpetually increased funding from all of us. How do you fix something you claim is the problem by incentivizing it? For the latter, Goldman Sachs, one of the key culprits in the mess, is unworried about any impact from the financial regulation bill that's supposed to prevent the next crisis. It has no teeth. It certainly doesn't bring back Glass Stegal, which would have actually helped.

http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2010/0830/outfront-goldman-sachs-volcker-obama-catch-me-if-can.html
http://www.campaignforliberty.com/blog.php?view=34842
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/17390/188551
yes the same taibbi who wrote
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/12697/64796

http://www.portfolio.com/news-markets/national-news/portfolio/2008/11/11/The-End-of-Wall-Streets-Boom/

Didn't he just replace the general who said we'll never win in Afghanistan, simply for saying as much?

No, he didn't. Obama replaced general McChrystal for remarks made by McChrystal and his staff about the administration, not about the war itself.

Since you didn't know that, and therefore the premise of the rest of your post is invalid, here's the Rolling Stone article where those comments came to light, for your reading pleasure.

You may think that the reason you're dissatisfied with theObama administration is because of substantive objections to their policies:that they've done so little about crisis-level unemployment, foreclosures and widespread economic misery. Or because of the White House's apparently endless devotion to Wall Street. Or because thePresident has escalated a miserable, pointless and unwinnable war that is entering its ninth year. Or because he has claimed the power to imprison people for life with no charges and to assassinate American citizens without due process, intensified the secrecy weapons and immunity instruments abused by his predecessor, and found all new ways of denying habeas corpus. Or because he granted full-scale legal immunity to those who committed serious crimes in the last administration. Or because he's failed to fulfill -- or affirmatively broken -- promises ranging from transparency to gay rights.

Remember, a vote for a Democrat or a Republican is a vote for the status quo, no matter what BS they vomit during the campaign.

what is deemed 'controversial opinion' is not explained.

- I'll tell you what it is.

It is ANYTHING at all that somehow differs from the official party (government+big business including military industrial complex) line.

Any of you are following the outcomes of Michael Hastings story about Afghanistan, the story name is The Runaway General and it features opinions of people like Gen. Stanley McChrystal? You know, just the biggest Afghanistan story in US in the past 10 years? The story that questions everything, all of the assumptions the public holds in US and other places about what is happening in Afghanistan? Even a bigger story on the role of military in US politics and who really is in charge?

THAT is a 'controversial opinion', though it is not really an opinion, it is a story based on a bunch of facts. A story, which is written by a rare breed of journalist in USA of today - a real journalist, not a bullshit stenographer. Do you understand why the good general provided all of that information to a reporter? It's NOT because he is not media-savvy, after all in 2003 McChrystal was was selected to deliver nationally televised Pentagon briefings about military operations in Iraq, he IS media savvy.

One thing he learned about media is that when the military says: JUMP, the media JUMPS.

He was totally caught off-guard by an actual reporter, a journalist, who is really doing his job - watching the fuckers and reporting to the public - THAT is their job, not the propaganda bullshit that is fed to the public through the media by politicians, huge businesses and military day to day.

Almost all reporting outlets criticized Haysting for doing what they should have been doing - their fucking job.

So now we see this, TSA is blocking 'controversial opinions'. The President will have his bill and law and methods that will allow him to cut off pieces of the Internet. I fully expect /. to be blocked by TSA there, not that they would read this site anyway.

Land of the FREE, didn't you know? Now Freer than ever.

"And here's the thing: when you get down to it, the shareholders invested in a company that was behaving unethically. It's the shareholder's investment that allows BP to function this way. When CEOs act unethically, they do it in the name of serving the shareholders. Don't the shareholders bear some responsibility? Isn't part of the problem that the "owners" of the company failed to ensure that their company was "doing the right thing?" I'm not sure that we should be seeking to punish shareholders, but I also don't see why they should take a pass. " I don't think it's clear that they behaved unethically. Our culture talks a lot about risk assessment and risk analysis, but we're actually not very good at exercising it. See this NY Times article: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/06/magazine/06fob-wwln-t.html?ref=magazine . In short, somehow the message of the "on the ground" engineers who may have been warning about issues probably got sufficiently murky by the time they reached the decision-makers that the decision they made probably seemed like a reasonable risk to take. See the second paragraph of this week's Rolling Stone article on McChrystal (2nd para on http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/17390/119236?RS_show_page=4)? , and think through it in reverse. We're crappy communicators, too. I agree, however, with your assessment that there's a systemic problem. Part of that problem is that the stock market is a "next quarter forecast" beast, and we -- yes, we -- demand "performance" from our investments. Then there's our petroleum-sucking culture, in which the true cost of oil (figure in the cost of wars, the costs of political oppression, the costs of environmental damage) are allowed to be passed to future generations.

I remember reading an article about Goldman Sachs in Rolling Stone last year by Matt Taiibi. Ah yes, this is the one:

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/12697/64796

He describes them as "a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money." That quote really stuck with me since then, and I've often thought about these huge trading businesses on Wall Street that somehow are so valuable they provide their workers with luxury working conditions in highrises in downtown Manhattan and millions of dollars a year in salary and bonuses. But I can't quite figure out what value they actually provide anyone. Last quarter they reported they made money every single trading day. Uncanny that they can ri^H^Hpredict the market so accurately. Is there a purpose for letting people suck money out of the stock market the way they do? Or are they really a giant vampire squid as Taiibi describes them to be? Seems like all this could be doing is hurting the people who actually do provide goods and services and actual value to the economy, but what do I know, I'm certainly no Wall Street master of the universe.

"The Administration dismissed oil industry claims that the moratorium would cause irreparable harm. That position was based on the Administration's correct belief that the oil business would ultimately resume drilling operations after the moratorium is lifted."

If that's the case, then what about this assertion?

"Most troubling of all, the government has allowed BP to continue deep-sea production at its Atlantis rig - one of the world's largest oil platforms. Capable of drawing 200,000 barrels a day from the seafloor, Atlantis is located only 150 miles off the coast of Louisiana, in waters nearly 2,000 feet deeper than BP drilled at Deepwater Horizon. According to congressional documents, the platform lacks required engineering certification for as much as 90 percent of its subsea components - a flaw that internal BP documents reveal could lead to 'catastrophic' errors. In a May 19th letter to Salazar, 26 congressmen called for the rig to be shut down immediately. 'We are very concerned,' they wrote, 'that the tragedy at Deepwater Horizon could foreshadow an accident at BP Atlantis.'" RS 1107

Say what you will about Rolling Stone, but I've always found their investigative reporting to be spot on, and if a 10th of what that article has to say is true we need to not only have a moratorium, but institute random inspections with agencies having the authority to shut down any operation failing any regulated safety criteria.

Just to "Be mindful of our environment." as well as "Leav[ing] politics at the door."

this -> "The European Union has a population larger than the United States and yet it manages just fine."..past history man, I'm talking about going forward. I really suggest you take the blinders off and LOOK at some in depth economic analysis, get beyond the headlines and read some contrarian economists. Oh heck, here's one, the darlingest of your ultra far left rich dudes, soros, argue with him why doncha about the future status of your dream welfare union.. the EU is right behind the US with the debt bomb realities. http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-04-09/soros-says-greece-needs-cheaper-loans-to-avoid-death-circle-.html

More recent events and analysis

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/markets-rally-as-greek-debt-crisis-eases-1943155.html

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financetopics/financialcrisis/7583304/Euphoria-over-Greek-rescue-fades-as-first-cracks-appear.html

Here is a short overview of the US debt situation as it is today

Let this one sink in a bit...

http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article18393.html

These are the outright thieves "in charge" of our economic situation

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/32906678/looting_main_street/print

really, ^^^^ those dudes right there run things. In and out of government, the musical chairs with thieves and liars in government, in the Fed, back to their Wall Street gangster lairs, lather rinse repeat, and it hasn't mattered a whit which imperial leader or group of goofballs in our congress we have had, D or R next to their name, it's those same dudes always *really* in charge behind the scenes....

Now see why we aren't going to be having any welfare state here, or even a credible economy soon? The system is already broken, we've been "corporate raided" on a huge scale, and even the "change" government is just more of the same tired old BS.

Your central banker pigs are just as much thieves as ours have been, you'll see... just wait. Your welfare states are going to be crumbling because you don't understand simple basic math, plus time travel, you can't live in the past and expect that to be the future or..along those lines, ain't happening. What was then, was then, in the future.....? I am old enough to remember when the US had a very decent real economy, we were the largest creditor nation, not the biggest borrower, and healthcare was cheap, affordable for most people. Even the crappiest jobs had free or cheap coverage, or you could buy it on the side for cheap. But then the corporate looting really began, along with the ludicrous expansion of government based on lying promises of something for nothing...now 35 years later, poofed, gone, we are sunk without borrowing money all the time, and we have no credible plans to pay back what we have already borrowed.

You have to make money to spend it, FIRST, on welfare or whatever, and no, running printing presses is not making money. You can't keep pouring six gallons of stuff from a five gallon bucket, and accounting and bookkeeping tricks only work so long. You don't make money by exporting jobs, them other fellas make the money then. And you certainly don't make money by letting your central casino bankers run rampant and steal everything that ain't nailed down, and especially when you run those thieves in and out of official government positions where they get to *set policy*.

Now some of the nations there in the EU just might squeak by over the

Crap. And you are a cult member because you "believed" in their fairy tale threats and extortion and other lies, just like a good cult member "believes" in whatever his or her cult leaders tell them to believe. This is the sort of system we have

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/32906678/looting_main_street/

  THAT is what would have crashed, and it deserves it. The other system, the one where people are honest and just go to work and make useful things and similar, would have been just fine in short order after we had disposed of that rotten carcass. And I'll counter that phony cult belief system every time I see it on this board. "Believing" in their lies and repeating them is no different from being a flat earther or scamsciencetologist.

There are no rules, just looting by the casino banks, facilitated by their cult members and brainwashing. Yep, I would be for a "free market" if it existed. Those turkeys would be past history by now if it did. You can defend them or believe in their lies, I refuse, I don't support conmen. And I wouldn't have said jack shit to you if you hadn't insulted the guy you were replying to with your snarky "nice try" comment. "ohhh we avoided a collapse". No we didn't, we facilitated even more ripoffs! We got put on the hook for trillions to support that grifter's economy!

fuck..that...shit

"I am pretty sure, the answer is a resounding 'Yes'."

Only if you aren't concerned with democracy. Democracy requires that a government rule by the consent of the governed. We cannot consent to what we do not know.

We may elect government officials, but how meaningful is that really if their activities in office are secret from us? If we are choosing whether or not to re-elect an incumbent candidate, or selecting among candidates who have held previous government office, how can our approval or disapproval of their past performance be meaningful if we don't know what they have been doing?

You may say that the threats to our society from outside it are greater than the threats from government abuse of power. You may say that government officials' priorities are to protect us from those threats. You may say that government officials require secrecy to effectively protect us.

I think the greatest threats to my health and safety come from sources from which government officials have no interest in protecting me (see Toyota product safety, Wall Street sub-prime mortgage derivatives and credit default swaps, etc). How many people have died as a result of terrorism in the US in the past 20 years? How many from on-the-job injuries?

If the largest and most powerful military in the world cannot effectively occupy a devastated, impoverished country a fraction of it's size, how am I supposed to believe that any outside force of Islamic radicals could occupy the US with it's 300 million (often armed) citizens and impose sharia law? I think the greatest threats to my freedom come from the US Government (USA PATRIOT spying, sneak-and-peek break-ins, wiretapping, COINTELPRO disruption of peaceful movements for social change).

In the main, I don't think that the Government is keeping secrets from me to protect me. Rather I believe that the Government keeps secrets from me to protect those in office from being held accountable by me and my fellow citizens.

I want to live in an effective democracy. That desire is greater than my fear of outside threats, threats that I don't believe government secrecy helps to combat anyway

.

And that's not even mentioning the history of accusations against Zuckerberg for questionably ethical behavior:

http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/21129674/the_battle_for_facebook

My bottom line is, It got real old some years back to constantly be beat on by urban elitists who defend every single thing about megaurban life and just dump on the people and culture who really make it all possible in the rural and suburban areas. Just got tired of hearing I am not green because I don't ride some bus or subway. Gets real old reading that if you drive a truck you are some baby seal killer. On and on it never ends. If it was race based or gender based, it would be regarded as hate speech, but as long as it's regional based, well, you can just dump on those yokel teabaggers all day long. Just gets to me, can't stand that near racist crap. We don't have an "ist" name for it, but it is similar to racism. It just sucks. Gets me pretty fairly annoyed.

I've made it a strict point to research major macro economics and also small scale microeconomics, which I practice myself, as well as being in the personal sovereignty/practical preparedness/survivalist movement. I'm a veteran of the civil rights and anti war movements of the past. I've been into alternative energy as a practitioner and enthusiast since the late 60s. I've been a political activist and have seen first hand how both the R and D parties are corrupt as hell at the top and seek to keep the nation divided and conquered, and especially as how they have been compromised by those urban bankster gangsters, who are the biggest pack of liars and traitors this nation has ever had to endure.

I think it is OK if people voluntarily wish to live in such large urban environments, I just want them to *know* that their lifestyle exists because of serious ongoing, chronic and criminal exploitation of "flyover" country, pure imperialism. Just to slap down some of the smugness. The..arrogance...it is just *sickening*. Like I said, I have lived extensively in all three general major living areas. but, on careful anaylsis, moved back rural. For a variety of reasons, the primary one is you can have a sustainable life here that isn't based on conmans lies. I understand the excitement and allure of the big city, been there, decade and a half, was into it..but...I couldn't stop thinking about larger matters and it made me LOOK and research..then I got alarmed and just moved. I saw way too many signs of coming economic collapse-which has started in earnest now and is snowballing- and the following social unrest. Social unrest-to put it politely-always follows major economic collapse. To one degree or another. I think the next stage is going to be pretty bad. That knob will go to 11.

You can't have a local-close geographical economy without wealth creation, and you can't service wealth *before it is created*. The big urban areas right now are existing on the bubbliest of all bubbles, it is *unsustainable* as it is. This goes beyond being green or not, this goes into raw existence. Your huge cities *are going to collapse* because of this big lie they sold. They have sold a bill of goods to the people there that this is possible by using the false promise of credit and debt, and getting people to equate debt with wealth, which it is not, and by outright stealing most of the wealth created in the interior and away from the megacities, and *that* is being negated because of the huge shift of manufacturing due to global fast capital wage arbitrage by those looters and pirates.

It's falling apart man, fair warning. I bailed from living metro 11 years ago because I saw it-it being economic collapse to be followed by "social unrest"- coming and warned people about it. And still am. Warning! Beep beep beep! Did you see what happened to Dubai some months back?? Megaopolis of the future! Crashed hard...didn't take too long either. Because it was built on lies and IOUs.

*Most* large urban areas are like that now, just a little behind, that's all.

Read my latest journal? It links to this: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/32255149/wall_streets_bailou

Wouldn't it have been easier just to make the money legitimately?

I'm still trying to figure out how what these guys did was wrong.

The real criminals are the monopolists at Live Nation and Ticketmaster, whose merger will create an entity that controls over eighty percent of the live concert promotions business, and who already demand a $12.50 "service" charge for the privilege of being able to buy a ticket online and another $2.50 just so you can print the ticket out on your own printer. (I guess that last fee is just a penalty they make you pay because you are saving them the cost of having to print and ship a ticket. No good deed goes unpunished, you know.)

The question now, is "just how high can ticket prices go?".

There used to be mom-and-pop music promoters in just about every town in America, putting on live music in bars, parks, gymnasiums and VFW halls. They've created musical venues that allow musicians of all types to ply their wares and make a living. That's going to end now that Live Nation/Ticketmaster are going to create a $4.4 billion behemoth that's going to put the small promoters out of business and control nearly every single live venue.

You know what? These scalpers aren't the problem here. When a system sucks this bad, why shouldn't scalpers game it? You want a "free market" system? Welcome to life.

Personally, I stopped going to the "big" concerts some years ago specifically because of the Ticketmasters and Live Nations (now one entity), and I go to see music in much smaller venues as often as I can, hoping to support the music and not put money in a monopoly. Now, that's going to be harder because at some level almost every dollar spent on live music will be going to these bastards. Maybe I'll just start putting all my entertainment dollars into the hats and guitar cases of the many excellent buskers that inhabit the streets of my city (at least once winter ends).

It is only plagiarism if he misrepresents the source of the work.

And, for instance, Rolling Stone doesn't seem to be real reluctant to 'call him on it':

http://www.rollingstone.com/reviews/album/16700035/review/16720051/rockandrolljesus

Not only are there fewer sales due to piracy but even more so there are fewer taxes paid.

Except the numbers don't seem to bear that out. They grew, even during a period of economic downturn in the US. Note that for movies, the total tickets sold increased, so it's not just a result of twiddling ticket prices.

2009
Total Box Office Gross: $10,800,428,340
Tickets sold: 1,440,057,129

Music: $1,545 million

2008
Total Box Office Gross: $9,945,355,274
Tickets sold: 1,385,146,979

Music: $1,513 million

Sources: The Numbers, Rolling Stone

Now a lot of things Steve says are pure marketing noise, but he was right on the money back in 2003 when he said:

The problem is, is that that has nothing to do with technology. And so when the Internet came along, and Napster came along, they didn't know what to make of it. A lot of these folks didn't use computers -- weren't on e-mail; didn't really know what Napster was for a few years. They were pretty doggone slow to react. Matter of fact, they still haven't really reacted, in many ways. And so they're fairly vulnerable to people telling them technical solutions will work, when they won't.

Because of their technological ignorance.
Because of their technological innocence, I would say. When we first went to talk to these record companies -- you know, it was a while ago. It took us 18 months. And at first we said: None of this technology that you're talking about's gonna work. We have Ph.D.'s here, that know the stuff cold, and we don't believe it's possible to protect digital content.

Of course, music theft is nothing new. Didn't you listen to bootleg Bob Dylan?
Of course. What's new is this amazingly efficient distribution system for stolen property called the Internet -- and no one's gonna shut down the Internet. And it only takes one stolen copy to be on the Internet. And the way we expressed it to them is: Pick one lock -- open every door. It only takes one person to pick a lock. Worst case: Somebody just takes the analog outputs of their CD player and rerecords it -- puts it on the Internet. You'll never stop that. So what you have to do is compete with it.

The ONLY thing that's making people think DRM will work for movies is that, just for the moment, movies are too big to throw around on the net like MP3s. But that's short term, and already eroding. It's like the first video games came out that needed CDs instead of floppies, you couldn't easily copy a CDROM, and CD images were too big to download over your dialup modem. That all changed, as media became bigger and bandwidth became cheaper, and downloading a CDs worth of data has been trivial for a long time. It's already happening to DVD, and it's going to happen to Blu-Ray as well.

oh yeah, people are just gobbling up the zune~

http://www.rollingstone.com/rockdaily/index.php/2009/01/27/zune-sales-down-54-percent-will-microsoft-fight-to-save-its-digital-music-player/

http://www.electronista.com/articles/09/07/30/zune.sales.crashing/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zune

MS has many failed hardware product. Remember the windows printer?...probably not.

Western media would have magnified it 10 times and portrayed the country as having a tyrannous dictatorship. Before modding this post, make yourself aware of the extent of success in ongoing propaganda and manipulation.

Good point. I find it fascinating that slashdot is quoting a web site called "iran video news" that is run out of Arizona. If this is the only source that is reporting Iran is "considering" the death penalty then why the fuck should we believe it? We already know that the United States runs an intense media propaganda network around the world, and used it domestically during the build up to the Iraq war. In terms of Iran's use of the death penalty, they are definitely more fascist than we are, and these executions should stop. At the same time, why don't we start looking at our OWN record? Wouldn't it be easier to end our own human rights transgressions before attacking those of other countries? We've imprisoned journalists, and we've executed people who were children when they committed their crimes, the mentally retarded, and have condemned to death many people who were probably innocent, so our high horse on capital punishment and the imprisonment of journalists is not particularly "high". We've also now started imprisoning without trial and even torture.

I am sad to see slashdot fall for this obvious propaganda. I thought you guys were good critical thinkers.

If that's your understanding, I'd highly advise that you look a little deeper into what their models did. It was nothing in anyway like what climate modeling is doing. The models they created were known to be bad, but nobody cared as long as were making money. It was greed, fraud, and a willingness to take risks with other people's money that caused the problems. The models were a very, very tiny part of the issue. They were built solely to convince people to give junk bonds a good rating. Climate models aren't built to convince people of climate change. They're built to try to understand the physical processes that control our climate. There's a big difference there.
 
If you really have such a limited understanding of what caused the financial meltdown, this article gives a pretty blunt look at the mess. It's not a bad place to start. It will put your comment about relying on models into proper context.

Disproving of content is a big thing for Apple, apparently. NIN app rejected due to profanity, even though song is available on iTunes unedited

My understanding, from talking with Intel employees, is that Paul Otellini is not a good CEO.

My understanding is that only one member of the Intel Board of Directors has any technical knowledge. How can people with no technical knowledge oversee an enormously high-tech company? They can't.

Intel board member John L. Thornton was president and CEO of Goldman Sachs Group, it says. Goldman Sachs helped engineer the present financial collapse. Since the collapse, Goldman Sachs has been very profitable. The U.S. government has done NOTHING to prevent further abuse.

This breakdown of the cost of a typical major-label release by the independent market-research firm Almighty Institute of Music Retail shows where the money goes for a new album with a list price of $15.99.

$0.17 Musicians' unions
$0.80 Packaging/manufacturing
$0.82 Publishing royalties
$0.80 Retail profit
$0.90 Distribution
$1.60 Artists' royalties
$1.70 Label profit
$2.40 Marketing/promotion
$2.91 Label overhead
$3.89 Retail overhead
http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/6558540/walmart_wants_10_cds

When the label _profits_ are greater than the artist royalties, and when online retailers want to charge me almost the same as if they were selling me a CD, the moral urge to buy music is weak.

The U.S. government is EXTREMELY corrupt. United States citizens hide from that fact. Evidence: Goldman Sachs.

Since the financial crash, Goldman Sachs has been very profitable, and the U.S. government has done NOTHING to prevent further abuse.

The U.S. government spends more on surveillance than any country, anywhere.

The U.S. government has a higher percentage of its citizens in prison than any country, anywhere, in the history of the world, over 6 times higher than countries in Europe.

The U.S. government has invaded or bombed 24 countries since the end of the 2nd world war, far more than any other country.

The U.S. government has the highest debt of any country in the history of the world.

The U.S. government spends more on developing weapons than any country in the history of the world.

That's just a very short list of the just some of the major areas of corruption.

The parent made a bunch of strong claims, without any data reference or argument to back them up. He contradicts the findings of EPOCA, BIOACID and the Royal Society in the UK, the NERC and various other organisations directly tasked with evaluating the situation. Moreover he claims these organisations essentially lie in order to get research money, without as much as a shred of evidence to back up his claims, and this is moderated insightful?

Sure, the appeal to authority is one route you can take; indeed people like you always do that when you want to close down any debate. I don't know if you're aware of Professor Wegman's criticism of the Peer Review process in Climate Science? If not, I think you should read it. Or perhaps you'd prefer an expert opinion on the predictive capabilities of Computer Models? I don't know about you, but I raised an eyebrow when I found out Briffa's "hockey stick" turned out to have been generated from a whole 12 tree cores, or that the recent UN report stating that 300,000 people have died already due to "Climate Change" was a complete load of bollocks? Perhaps the American Chemical Society recently in uproar over it's Chairman's uncritical endorsement of "Global Warming" doesn't make you think twice? Or what about the EPA in the US suppressing a report from one of its own scientists? Does that make you feel uneasy at all?

So, follow the money. Who's going to benefit from Cap and Trade? Who's already benefiting from Carbon Offsetting? Hmmmmmmm.

Call me a heretic, if you like. I'm in good company.

And why should any taxpayer doubt that what is good for Goldman Sachs is good for everyone?

Yes. The basic protocols were born in 1969 and are still the foundation.

I suppose you could see it that way, if you point to the first Pony Express line and say that was the moment the Interstate Highway System was created.

He said he CREATED the internet

As the AC said - no he didn't, you tool.

And appeals to authority don't work with me. He's a man just like any other man, and his opinions are still just opinion, and still colored by his political bias, just as the same as our views are colored by our biases.

Translation: when the facts don't meet your storyline, ignore them.

>>>Bush

Non-relevant.

If we were talking different elections, you'd have a point. But we aren't, so you don't. The "I invented the Internet" myth was part of a continued smear campaign against Gore. That you ignore the fact that Gore was held to an astronomical rhetorical standard while Bush got a free pass is laughable.