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Sorry, do your own googling. And study a little history*. Pick a period, any period. It doesn't matter. Over and over again the same things happen, damn near play by play, word for word.

You mean like this

Which is why he called the mid-term elections a "shellacking" and also why Congress' approval rating is at the lowest it has ever been.

People have to separate the channel as a whole from the actual news shows. Their actual news is fairly decent and objective. The rest of the shows on that channel are pure columnist style speculation and opinion however.

Bullshit. The "News" shows are just as bad as the "editorials." It is all propaganda.

FOX also makes sure to point out any 'controversy' in science stories.

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/12/fox_news_bureau_chief_told_staff_to_cast_doubt_on_climate_change.php?ref=fpb

This is just the result of their policies. They probably designed it this way to make people want to watch/read more FOX news. If you are unsure about something going on today you try to learn more, and you learn what's going on in the world by watching the news, right?

That's ironic.
1) There's good evidence the CIA *are* behind it.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article27005.htm

2) Elected officials (Joe Liberman) took credit for it
http://techcrunch.com/2010/12/01/amazon/
http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/12/how_lieberman_got_amazon_to_drop_wikileaks.php

here is your citation.

http://sociology.ucsc.edu/whorulesamerica/power/wealth.html

80% of america is poor. they are even poorer due to last 5 years.

http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/07/03/the_new_gilded_age_and_class_w/

but, you are the idiot shoving 'citation needed' request up, despie not showing anything or any logic for your 'they are buying their stuff legally'.

noone can legally buy anything, if they dont have any money.

Your class-baiting, "the pie can never grow, so the only way for anyone to enter the middle class is to take money from somebody else" clap-trap is embarassingly juvenile.

The pie is growing, but the wealthy are taking the vast majority of the increase:

In recent years, the statistics regarding income disparity in America have been startling. After-tax annual income for the bottom fifth of American households inched up just 6 percent form 1979 to 2005, according to the Congressional Budget Office. During that time, income for the middle fifth of households grew by a modest 21 percent, with much of that gain caused by women in many households working more hours. Over that same period, income for the top fifth of households jumped by an impressive 80 percent, while income for the top 1 percent more than tripled, soaring by 228 percent.

The wealth disparity itself is a problem, but worse is the corrosive effect this wealth has on our political structure: those with money and influence are increasingly able to purchase government policies that further increase their share of the pie even at the expense of the total size of the pie. It's a positive feedback loop: more wealth leads to more power, and more power leads to greater wealth. This feedback is why I'm so dour about our prospects: the cycle seems impossible to break.

The little things we agitate about today: censorship, abuse of copyright, overzealous airport security, our foreign wars, the loss of our manufacturing jobs, are all caused by the increasing ability of the wealthy to pervert government to work in their favor. When power is concentrated in a few hands, the result is inevitably selfish exercise of that power and poor outcomes.

I'm not sure Rich Whitey is a racist comment. There is a candidate in the Chicago area running with the name Rich Whitey (who's actual name is Rich Whitney with an N).

Whatever their angle, Fox News misleads their viewers in support of it.

Citation?

MSNBC anchor Dylan Ratigan apologized this morning for using fake photos of Sarah Palin last Friday in a segment about the former Alaska governor, and for not acknowledging their inauthenticity.

CNN then misrepresented the same photos

MSNBC defends fraudulent Rand Paul transcript as "technically correct", makes no apologies

Lets not forget when CBS tried like hell not to admit to this, spawning the "Fake but Accurate" meme

Thats just a small sampling of demonstrable misinformation events. It looks to me like there is ample evidence (CITATIONS) for these networks here to use fake stories to further specific political agendas, often around election time.

I'm not saying that Fox doesnt have its share of FUD, but come on.. look at this shit. These are blatant attempts to influence elections in extremely fraudulent ways.

Here are 3, including one which specifically cites a 27% estimate for the overall population. Thanks for playing.

http://www.politico.com/blogs/glennthrush/0709/58_of_GOP_not_suredont_beleive_Obama_born_in_US.html

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/right-now/2010/05/poll_31_percent_of_republicans.html

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/08/poll-27-of-americans-are-birthers----including-41-of-republicans.php

You cite Lincoln, who was easily the least conservative Republican, well, ever. I'm thinking more like Regan, myself

I suppose I don't think I have to remind you that Reagan proved the deficits "don't matter," and that the deficit ballooned from $74 billion to over $2 trillion during his presidency. And that when his successor tried to raise taxes to lower the deficit, he was thrown out of office by the "conservative" Newt Gingrich and his Contract with America grift, and that GHW Bush's 'liberal" successor brought the federal budget into surplus. Reagan's legacy at least as a fiscal conservative is a fraud.

Likewise, none of the current sentiment includes drenching anyone in pigs blood. However, bankrupting the United States in favor of endless Arab war is also not a position you're likely to see anywhere outside of the old Republican guard.

If you can find me a tea partier in a general election that actually speaks against war with Iran, or for immediate cessation of hostilities in Afghanistan, you can put the links here. But these people don't exist: you want them to, and you read your aspirations into others, just as Obama supporters read their aspirations into Obama. Just today, a Republican and frontrunnner in the West Virginia senate general tells us we should spend $20 billion on a space-based "thousand laser" missile defense system. Truly a small government proposal if ever there was one, though Raese was careful to include a "git r done!" in his speech, to let people know that, as much money as he may spend, he's coming from the right sort of people to do the spending.

Won't anybody stop this insanity and think of the adults who crave link-shortened pictures of "a scantily clad lady with some bottle in her hand"?

I wouldn't even call her 'scantily clad' but you can judge for yourself here.

Well, not really, but it is as close as she is going to get on any subject.

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/09/odonnell-in-2007-scientists-have-created-mice-with-human-brains.php

I never thought I'd see the day when a tech law would get better, more accurate coverage in the political press than the technical press, but COICA seems to have managed just that. See here. Short story: this legislation replaces the existing federal authority granted in the 1934 Communications Act with a much narrower and better controlled authority. As such, it would pretty dramatically restrict the government's ability to shut down websites, not expand it. But hey...that's no reason to refrain from bashing the administration for being fascists, right?

the eff thinks otherwise.

http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2009/04/jewel-v-nsa-roundup-media-obamas-position

Salon blogger Glenn Greenwald and others in the left blogosphere were on the story early, just as they were throughout the fight over telecom immunity last year. Greenwald declared the Obama position to be worse than Bush:

It is hard to overstate how extremist is the "sovereign immunity" argument which the Obama DOJ invented here in order to get rid of this lawsuit. I confirmed with both ACLU and EFF lawyers involved in numerous prior surveillance cases with the Bush administration that the Bush DOJ had never previously argued in any context that the Patriot Act bars all causes of action for any illegal surveillance in the absence of "willful disclosure." This is a brand new, extraordinarily broad claim of government immunity made for the first time ever by the Obama DOJ -- all in service of blocking EFF's lawsuit against Bush officials for illegal spying.

The Raw Story weighed in on the case, and TPM Muckraker checked in with constitutional scholars Ken Gude, Amanda Frost and Lewis Fisher to see if they agreed with Greenwald's analysis:

Is it a sweeping power grab by the executive branch, that sets set a broad and dangerous precedent for future cases by asserting that the government has the right to get lawsuits dismissed merely by claiming that state secrets are at stake, without giving judges any discretion whatsoever?

        In a word, yes.

http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2009/04/06/obama/index.html
http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/04/expert_consensus_obama_aping_bush_on_state_secrets.php?ref=fp1

tpm says it's the same, but there are new claims made by the Obama DoJ which Bush never had the audacity (pun intended) to make. to me, that's enough to make Obama worse in an objective sense. but moreover, he's subjectively worse in that he's poisonous and harmful because he both says the right thing (excessive secrecy is bad) while simultaneously cementing the bipartisan consensus and legitimizing Bush's radical and harmful policies. This is simply a grievous blow to the rule of law in America.

got the race litigating early on when she tried to sue Harry Reid's campaign for re-posting her old website after she had changed it substantially. The situation of the purchase of articles followed by litigation is certainly some dirty business, but I just can't help but think that perhaps this is a little comeuppance??

This is Obama's America, not Stalin's Russia.

Not Stalin's USSR yet, but Obama definitely represents a continued worsening of the neo-con BS Bush II took to heights once thought unsurpassable.

You may think that the reason you're dissatisfied with theObama administration is because of substantive objections to their policies: ... 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.

Source: http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/08/10/gibbs/index.html

Somebody in Washington is actually STOPPING the maniacally evil corporations for once? I must be missing something. Either that or I'm going to fall over dead from a shock induced heart attack in 3, 2, 1.......

But do not fear! The Tea Party is riding to the rescue! The glories of corporate control over every aspect of our lives, the right to be monetized and "revenue optimized" to the grave will be preserved by these courageous patriots!

The researchers at the SLAC need to recheck their results, because Andy Schlafly, Conservapedia founder and a Eagle Forum "University" instructor has noted that E=mc^2 is a liberal plot.

Yet more experimental evidence that reality has a "liberal" bias.

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.

And those military hardware companies are run by such fine, upstanding CEOs!

Um... there's plenty of evidence that "Adrian Lamo" is nothing more than a high-end con artist:

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/09/american_police_force_hardin_montana.php?ref=fpb
http://www.kulr8.com/home/related/62994352.html
http://www.infowars.com/exposed-american-police-force-is-a-blackwater-front-group/
http://helenair.com/news/local/state-and-regional/article_aac61630-ae5a-11de-a782-001cc4c002e0.html

I know giant STOP signs in their native language with army men pointing guns at you are far too ambiguous.

They are when 26% of the population can't read or write...

"We have shot an amazing number of people, but to my knowledge, none has ever proven to be a threat... We really ask a lot of our young service people out on the checkpoints because there's danger, they're asked to make very rapid decisions in often very unclear situations. However, to my knowledge, in the nine-plus months I've been here, not a single case where we have engaged in an escalation of force incident and hurt someone has it turned out that the vehicle had a suicide bomb or weapons in it and, in many cases, had families in it." - General McChrystal (transcript)

Sorry, but I really must disagree. I'm 28 years old and graduated with a dual major in Computer Science and International Affairs. One's very math-centric (obviously), and the other's very liberal-artsy (political science, economics, languages, and history). Being able to "cross-pollinate" like this is a huge advantage that the American system has over the European system, and its one that I really learned to appreciate after backpacking across Europe. Time and time again, I met Europeans who were shocked that I was allowed to study multiple subjects and not forced to pick a single emphasis. They were also very jealous that in university I had easy access to different areas of schooling -- they almost universally agreed that it was a major failing of European education.

What part of Europe was this exactly?

There you go, interrupting his conservative rant with things like "facts". He probably heard it on the same bus as George Emmer heard all about the waiters making $100k/yr on tips. You dirty Swedish socialist! :)

I'm disappointed in the rant, though - it manages to hit most of the favorites ("librals are ruining our kids!", "America #1!!!!one!!!") but leaves out "they won't let us smack the little fuckers" and "things would be better if everyone had to praaaaayse Jeebus before class".

It is amusing, though, to see someone claim being a "renaissance man" as being a "uniquely American" thing; "the librals" must have erased the part where the Renaissance happened in the US from my schoolbooks...

BP didn't make the workers sign anything it was Transocean the owner of the Rig. http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/05/oil_spill_company_to_workers_sign_on_the_dotted_li.php BP only had few employees on the rig and the vast majority where Transocean employees. Additionally BP also hasn't actually released any numbers on spillage since right at the beginning. BP's position is that we don't know how much oil was leaking. It was the Coast Guard who as been changing estimates based upon the Government's flow rate committee.

This doesn't seem even close to principled.

http://tpmlivewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/07/busted-the-economist-photoshops-obama-to-make-him-look-more-depressed-and-alone.php

Actually no. They carried the very signs that started all of this:

http://washingtonindependent.com/69660/correcting-jay-nordlinger

In January of 09, they had a Facebook page that had some back and forth discussion about the 'alternate' meaning of teabag with some surprised disdain when they were informed as to what the term meant. They were apparently unaware at that point.

This is from the rally in DC on April 15th of 2009:
http://washingtonindependent.com/31868/scenes-from-the-new-american-tea-party

One final little tidbit...the debate by conservatives as to whether or not to wear the title with pride ;)

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/12/to-teabag-or-not-thats-still-the-question-for-conservatives.php

Have you been asleep for the past 6 months?

By a narrow 48 - 45 percent margin, voters disapprove of the job Sen. Joseph Lieberman is doing and give him a negative 43 - 49 percent favorability. Republicans approve 75 - 20 percent. Democrats disapprove 70 - 21 percent and independent voters split 48 - 46 percent.

By contrast, State Attorney General Richard Blumenthal gets a 79 - 12 percent approval rating and 71 - 13 percent favorability rating. Republicans approve of the Democrat 66 - 25 percent. Democrats approve 85 - 6 percent and independent voters approve 81 - 10 percent.

If Sen. Lieberman faces Blumenthal in 2012, the Democratic challenger has an early 58 - 30 percent lead. Republicans go with Lieberman 67 - 23 percent while Blumenthal leads 83 - 9 percent among Democrats and 55 - 29 percent among independent voters

He will be crushed in the next election.

Latest poll

Poll: Lieberman Hated By Everyone In Connecticut After Health Care Debates

Poll: Lieberman Would Lose 2012 Re-Election In Landslide

Have you been asleep for the past 6 months?

By a narrow 48 - 45 percent margin, voters disapprove of the job Sen. Joseph Lieberman is doing and give him a negative 43 - 49 percent favorability. Republicans approve 75 - 20 percent. Democrats disapprove 70 - 21 percent and independent voters split 48 - 46 percent.

By contrast, State Attorney General Richard Blumenthal gets a 79 - 12 percent approval rating and 71 - 13 percent favorability rating. Republicans approve of the Democrat 66 - 25 percent. Democrats approve 85 - 6 percent and independent voters approve 81 - 10 percent.

If Sen. Lieberman faces Blumenthal in 2012, the Democratic challenger has an early 58 - 30 percent lead. Republicans go with Lieberman 67 - 23 percent while Blumenthal leads 83 - 9 percent among Democrats and 55 - 29 percent among independent voters

He will be crushed in the next election.

Latest poll

Poll: Lieberman Hated By Everyone In Connecticut After Health Care Debates

Poll: Lieberman Would Lose 2012 Re-Election In Landslide

Have you been asleep for the past 6 months?

By a narrow 48 - 45 percent margin, voters disapprove of the job Sen. Joseph Lieberman is doing and give him a negative 43 - 49 percent favorability. Republicans approve 75 - 20 percent. Democrats disapprove 70 - 21 percent and independent voters split 48 - 46 percent.

By contrast, State Attorney General Richard Blumenthal gets a 79 - 12 percent approval rating and 71 - 13 percent favorability rating. Republicans approve of the Democrat 66 - 25 percent. Democrats approve 85 - 6 percent and independent voters approve 81 - 10 percent.

If Sen. Lieberman faces Blumenthal in 2012, the Democratic challenger has an early 58 - 30 percent lead. Republicans go with Lieberman 67 - 23 percent while Blumenthal leads 83 - 9 percent among Democrats and 55 - 29 percent among independent voters

He will be crushed in the next election.

Latest poll

Poll: Lieberman Hated By Everyone In Connecticut After Health Care Debates

Poll: Lieberman Would Lose 2012 Re-Election In Landslide

Let me illustrate why this isnt a point. Our Sun is eventually going to kill all life on earth, therefore nuclear war will just speed up the inevitable.

The Sun example is different, in that things that will happen in a billion years are indistinguishable from things that will never happen, as far as our society is concerned. Running low/out of oil and having to transition to something else, OTOH, is something we can reasonably expect to happen within our lifetimes. Given that, the point is that we'll definitely be making the transition away from oil soon enough in any case -- the only question is whether it's better to do it sooner, or later.

These things happen naturally as well. There is a 100% chance that it will happen again without drilling.

Is there really an example of a Deepwater Horizon-scale leak occurring naturally? From what I read, the natural oil emissions are in the form of 'seepage' which is not environmentally harmful because the oil is released very slowly.

hmm.. I thought you were going to give a pros vs cons list. feh

If you don't like my list, feel free to write up your own; I won't mind.

In the 1800s there were 400+ medical schools in the united states. By the early twentieth century there were less than eighty.

You're referring to the big medical education reforms that occurred in the early part of the 20th century. Most of those pre-reform "medical schools" did little more than help their students cram for state medical exams. What put them out of business was not some arbitrary AMA quota, but the fact that getting actual clinical experience became a mandatory part of medical education.

In any case, the "shortage" your conspiracy theory posits (sounds like something Glen Beck would talk about) would have been well in place by 1950. And in 1950, medical care was still relatively cheap. It's only since then that prices have gone through the roof.

Finally, you're assuming that greedy doctors account for most of medical costs. Wrong. It's mostly drug costs, device costs, hospital costs (and I think you'll find that few hospital employees make a lot of money), etc.

I can't get insurance, and I need a hearing aid. I needed to get examined by an MD, who also dealt with the wax buildup in my ears. Cost: $200. Next I have to see an audiologist and get a hearing test, which will cost another $100-200. Finally the hearing aid itself will cost at least $1500. Sorry, no greed here, just an excess of expensive technology.

She's got a lot of tough questions ahead of her.

Maybe. As we all learned a few years ago, when a reporter asks a politician what newspapers or magazines they read, it's a vicious partisan attack. Angle and that unaccredited quack Rand Paul, after some initial missteps, are never going to appear on a news program again, and will simply use the internet and the odd Fox News interview to do their public relations.

While the RIAA is busy going after all the filesharers and college students, that really don't have the money to pay their extortions anyways, the biggest copyright infringements are right in Washington! They should go after the GOP! They'd probably get a bigger settlement, too!

Certainly. I'll try my best.

Info on two plugs instead of three, damage to BOP seal, pushing for work to be completed sooner, and partial control loss of BOP: http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=6490348n&tag=related;photovideo
Key findings from that are here: http://www.hillmanfoundation.org/blog/fcp-embeds

Dead battery and other problems with BOP: http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/talk/blogs/j/d/jdf15/2010/05/oil-spill-stunner-bop-had-dead.php

Skipping test of cement linings: http://www.nola.com/news/gulf-oil-spill/index.ssf/2010/05/costly_time-consuming_test_of.html

MMS letting BP fill out inspection reports: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/05/25/eveningnews/main6518694.shtml

Did I miss anything?

I really don't know where anyone would get the idea Texas is filled with racist dumbasses.

Can I blame those GOP Senators for pushing for funding to keep jobs in their state? Nope, sure can't.

You most certainly *can* call them lying hypocrites for pushing for this - they've both gone on record whining about how government spending doesn't create jobs, and both agree that extending unemployment benefits makes people not look for work.

Besides that, do we really want to place any of our science infrastructure in a state where the two Republican candidates for governor are vying to see who is MORE scientifically illiterate and MORE of a biblical literalist? Can't we just call a "do-over" on the end of the Civil War and let Alabamians get back to beating their wives and having make-up sex with their cousins?

"US Orders Blackout Over North Korean Torpedoing Of Gulf Of Mexico Oil Rig" By Sorcha Faal

To the reason for North Korea attacking the Deepwater Horizon, these reports say, was to present US President Obama with an “impossible dilemma” prior to the opening of the United Nations Review Conference of the Parties to the Treat on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) set to begin May 3rd in New York.

This “impossible dilemma” facing Obama is indeed real as the decision he is faced with is either to allow the continuation of this massive oil leak catastrophe to continue for months, or immediately stop it by the only known and proven means possible, the detonation of a thermonuclear device.

Russian Navy atomic experts in these reports state that should Obama choose the “nuclear option” the most viable weapon at his disposal is the United States B83 (Mk-83) strategic thermonuclear bomb having a variable yield (Low Kiloton Range to 1,200 Kilotons) which with its 12 foot length and 18 inch diameter, and weighing just over 2,400 pounds, is readily able to be deployed and detonated by a remote controlled mini-sub.

Should Obama choose the “nuclear option” it appears that he would be supported by the International Court of Justice who on July 8, 1996 issued an advisory opinion on the use of nuclear weapons stating that they could not conclude definitively on these weapons use in “extreme circumstances” or “self defense”.

On the other hand, if Obama chooses the “nuclear option” it would leave the UN’s nuclear conference in shambles with every Nation in the World having oil rigs off their coasts demanding an equal right to atomic weapons to protect their environment from catastrophes too, including Iran.

To whatever decision Obama makes it remains a fact that with each passing hour this environmental catastrophe grows worse. And even though Obama has ordered military SWAT teams to protect other oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico from any further attack, and further ordered that all drilling in the Gulf of Mexico be immediately stopped, this massive oil spill has already reached the shores of America and with high waves and more bad weather forecast the likelihood of it being stopped from destroying thousands of miles of US coastland and wildlife appears unstoppable.

Someone should get her on Fox News with Michael Brown, Dana Perino, and Rush Limbaugh.

... which never have these problems:

Deepwater Horizon pics

Not that this means we should ignore wind turbine problems, but seriously - we ought to develop a sense of perspective. A wind turbine breaks, and you've broken a wind turbine (typically they're spaced away from everything, so collateral damage will be pretty minimal). An oil rig goes down, and, well... you can read the news and look at the pictures.

I think that your defense of the pilots' actions is fairly reasonable from a military perspective. And indeed, firing on that group of men also seems reasonable, from a military perspective, given that the Bradley patrol was a block away and ostensibly threatened.

But don't you think that you jumped to the defense "it's a war, in a war zone," a bit quickly? The "war" ended a long time ago, and now we are conducting an occupation. Only, we are not quite even conducting an occupation. We are theoretically assisting the Iraqi security forces, apparently in the application of martial law--a very harsh martial law, in which (Coalition) force protection is given paramount priority. Is effectively turning Bagdhad into a warzone for an indeterminate period really going to bring us "victory", or indeed accomplish anything but keep the fires of resentment and resistance aflame for as long as occupation continues? The "problem" could be that the military units are continually put into a position where they must make hard choices like this to ensure their own safety.

For another example of this, consider General McChrystal's remarks (originally reported in part by the NYT) about how basically everyone shot at checkpoints in Afghanistan turns out to be a civilian. It is all done in the name of force protection, but do you think that is going to make the Afghan civilian population any less resentful? Do you think that they will just understand that the soldiers had to kill their family members because they couldn't be sure they weren't suicide bombers? The irrationality and excitability of the American public on the subject of terrorism is axiomatic; in Afghanistan much of the public doesn't even have the benefit of a high school education.

After two presidents and a number of changes in policy, we still haven't found the magic formula that will make the natives welcome our "peacekeeping efforts," so there is ample reason to be cynical about the future efficacy of our occupations. A "surge" in Afghanistan will inevitably result in even more civilian casualties, whatever its effect on the forces of the "Taliban," so I think I can be justified in wondering if our continuing Iraq/Afghanistan policy is based on nothing more than a massive Concorde fallacy.

What is practical about creating an international health care system? What would make the EU or any larger organization qualified to run such a system?

International health care systems will probably slowly evolve from national health care systems. I hate how people throw the buzzword around, but in this case it really is something that could be forced by globalization. As borders are broken down, particularly in the EU, it makes a lot of sense for formal peering agreements to be implemented between the systems. Who pays when a German citizen is on vacation in Italy and has a heart attack? What about a German citizen who's working for six months in Spain for a large German corporation? Likewise for Turkish migrant workers in Germany. National health care systems tend to shoulder those costs, and it would make a lot of sense for them to agree upon better standards for preventive care... just as they already have with many economic policies as part of membership to EU.

What ammendments to the US constitution need to be added?

Depends on how you interpret the elastic clause and that whole "for the general welfare" thing... Personally I feel that medicare and social security were a) a good idea and b) required a constitutional amendment. Along the same lines, I feel a proper national health care system (single payer or nationalized) would require a constitutional amendment to be constitutional under all but the loosest interpretations. Federal regulation of insurance can easily fall under the interstate commerce clause, though.

Outside of abortion (I'm conservative, but am also pro-choice), which rights do the "conservatives" want to take away?

When I wrote that statement I was thinking about the flag burning amendment that conservatives have been pushing for ever since 9/11. Of the potential amendments that are being publicly discussed, that one seems to have the largest support and it's primarily from conservatives. Just a few weeks ago a Republican Governor (McConnell) signed an executive order changing equal opportunity laws in Virginia to remove protection for homosexuals. It's now legal for VA state to fire someone for being homosexual. Wouldn't you consider someone's sexuality a fundamental right?

When it comes to rights, though, conservatives have been opposed to pretty much everything for the last 100 years. Conservatives opposed the end of slavery, women's suffrage, desegregation, truly free elections, and alcohol use. In the last few decades, conservatives have been behind the vast majority of restrictions of "moral" freedoms: sex, prostitution, pornography, marijuana (medical or otherwise), and drugs, just to name a few... and that's not even getting into all the stuff that happened under Bush re: habeas corpus, advanced interrogation techniques, "enemy combatant" status, etc.

I think you are just spouting your liberal ideals hoping that the complex problems of the world can be solved by simply having everyone be equal, with peach, love and harmony.

Not at all. I'm also a supporter of gun rights, tort reform, and plenty of conservative ideals. Primarily, I'm trying to be pragmatic: I'll advocate progressive policies when they make sense, particularly when they've already been tested and proven effective elsewhere. By every metric the average American is getting screwed over by a broken health insurance system and it's seriously hampering large and small businesses alike.

The primary argument against a legislative approach to overhauling the healthcare system is that "the government can't do anything right so they're going to screw this up too!" The problem with that argument is that it a) ignores government successes elsewhere and b) does not provide any actual solution to the

Keep in mind that it's not just creationism that Texas educators are trying to get into their textbooks. There is a strong push to rewrite current history textbooks to paint conservatism in a sympathetic light as well as to downplay the importance of the civil rights movement. Read more about it here http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/01/conservative_vision_ascendant_in_latest_texas_hist.php

That was moderated as Funny, but some idiots are actually saying this. Not like ten years ago. Like this weekend.

Kid Rock is the symptom, but Republicans are the disease.

You're very close, but that's not quite the root of the problem. Nobody likes to talk about the root of the problem, though, because nobody in a position of power wants to look bad for directly taking them on. The issue is that we have a village idiot in this country, and it's called Fundamentalist Christianity.

People are loosing faith in googles 'Do No Evil' claim, especially since they are becoming so big. Go to Google news and type in "Google Monopoly" to see the effect:

Newspapers:
German Justice Minister Criticizes Google 'I See a Giant Monopoly Developing That's Reminiscent of Microsoft'
      http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,671426,00.html
Bloggers:
"I have come to the conclusion that Google has evolved into what economists call a "natural monopoly"."
http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/12/28/google_monopoly/
Even the FTC:
http://it-chuiko.com/internet/1887-googles-anti-monopoly-office-is-under-scrutiny.html

Google knows it is under scrutiny. Just look at google trends. http://www.google.com/trends?q=google+monopoly

Now you have the Nexus issue, and Google's name is being drug through the mud. Their name needs some work, and taking care of their biggest black eye will help if it is published widely enough.

The author was on NPR a few days ago [transcript and audio], in case you won't visit PlayBoy or get distracted once you get there :-)

Here is also video of a Rachel Maddow interview with the author: http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/12/maddow_with_roston_on_the_incredible_magic_al_jaze.php

So let me get this straight: it's ok to bring an assault rifle to a political rally, it's ok to say you want the president of the united states dead, but it's NOT ok to say you'd like to stab some asshole who's really asking for it? Somebody is lacking perspective here.

The biggest problem we face is post-scarcity technologies of abundance wielded by scarcity-obsessed people, because things like biotech, robotech, infotech, nanotech, nucleartech, and so on make terrible, if ironic, weapons. It is ironic to use military robots to fight over economic issues the robots make obsolete. It is ironic to use nuclear missiles built with advanced materials to fight over oil supplies that nuclear power or solar energy make unimportant. It even takes more electricity to produce a gallon of gasoline than an electric car takes to go the same distance, if you really want some deep irony -- we'd use less electricity if we switched to electric cars. So, as an example of post-scarcity thinking, considering that and safety issues, our society would save money and have lower taxes if everyone got a free-to-the user safe luxury electric car.
http://groups.google.com/group/openmanufacturing/msg/09eb7f4c973349f2?hl=en

From Post-scarcity Princeton:
http://www.pdfernhout.net/post-scarcity-princeton.html
"""
* Some comments on the PU Economics department and related research directions from a post-scarcity perspective

The PU economics department, of course, should be abolished as part of this transition. :-)

OK, that will never happen, so it should be at least "strongly admonished" for past misbehavior. :-(

What misbehavior? Essentially, the PU Economics department has taken part in a global effort to build an economic "psychofrakulator". How does a psychofrakulator work? Consider a paraphrase of something Doc Heller says in the movie Mystery Men:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0132347/quotes

Dr. Heller: It's a psychofrakulator. They used to say it couldn't be built. The equations were so complex that most of the scientists that worked on it wound up in the insane asylum [in Chicago]. ... It creates a cloud of [dollar denomiated] radically-fluctuating free-deviant chaotrons which penetrate the synaptic relays [via television]. It's concatenated with a synchronous transport switch [of values from long term seven generation life-affirming love of caring to short-term immediate profit and immediate gratification suicidal death-affirming love of money] that creates a virtual tributary [back to large corporations]. It's focused onto a biobolic reflector [of the elite controlled mass media] and what happens is that [economic] hallucinations become reality and the [global] brain [and global ecosystem] is literally fried from within.

Or in other words:
"Screwed: What 30 Years of Conservative Economics Feels Like"
http://granby01033.blogspot.com/2008/04/screwed-what-30-years-of-conservative.html
Or:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post-autistic_economics
And:
"Obituary: Conservative Economic Policy"
http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/2007/10/19/obituary_conservative_economic/

Conservative economic policy is dead. It committed suicide. Its allegiance to market solutions, tax cuts and spending cuts, supply-side nonsense, manipulative and corrosive ties to industry and the rich, have left it wholly unable to cope with the challenges we face. Its terribly limited toolbox simply cannot address the economic insecurities and opportunities generated by today's global, interconnected, polluted, insecure, dyna

No -- commercial speech is regulated in ways that political speech is not. Here's an example from this week of a company getting dinged for posting crazy nonsense on their website:
http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/10/montana_ag_probing_american_police_force_deal.php?ref=fpb

The question is whether this is deceptive, within the bounds of the law, which may be at the state level.

Honestly, what's the justification for this nonsense? Are the local constabularies that bored? And what the hell was with the SWAT-like response? Do they seriously think Osama bin Laden is going to turn up and spin techno for three hours?

It would be interesting to see if there were any political connections--local officials in this country have been known to use almost almost identical "SWAT-like" tactics to break up an opponent's fund raiser, for example.

The "we thought it was a rave" BS would make a lot more sense as a cover for some stronger (but presently obscure) motive.

-- MarkusQ