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Actually Common Core was an initiative started by States, not the Federal Government. http://www.usnews.com/news/spe....

But absolutely agree with the rest of your post.

Because ordinary people have so much say today in elections, don't we?

Here is the reality: 196 people contributed 80% of super PAC contributions in the 2012 election cycle. Your grass-roots efforts are pretty meaningless when they can only raise a quarter of the financial influence of 196 people. The goal of campaign finance reform is to level that playing field, so that the opinions of ordinary people are weighted more against the opinions of the super wealthy. Sheldon Adelson does not deserve to have a larger say in who gets elected than I do, it doesn't matter how much money he has.

"I'm against very wealthy people attempting to or influencing elections... But as long as it's doable I'm going to do it."

http://www.usnews.com/news/art...

14yrs in prison. Most people in prison for HOMICIDE serve half that.

This is the definition of unfair sentencing .

this is why a guns should be able to prevent unathorized people from using them. yes, i know its a liberal site but the facts kind of speak for themselves. and why not let the people who want smart guns buy them? why send death threats to gun shops for daring to sell them?

They were in a rush to get them up, a popular story was the critical job of building the dome to one of them, 24 hour round the clock overtime to gold plate that puppy. A friend of mine was studying to operate the reactors when in class they were told to grab their stuff as they no longer had a job and don't let the door swing into you on the way out. The dome was later cut up and sold as salvage, as was the rest of the equipment used.

"Energy Northwest (formerly Washington Public Power Supply System) is a United States public power joint operating agency formed by State law in 1957 to produce at-cost power for Northwest utilities. Headquartered in Richland, Washington, the WPPSS became commonly known as "Whoops" due to over-commitment to nuclear power in the 1970s which brought about financial collapse and the second largest municipal bond default in U.S. history."

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

A lot of people got hurt over that one.

"$2.25 billion. Washington State. Bonds issued to finance a nuclear power plant defaulted. Bondholders recovered about 40 percent of their principal and interestnearly 10 years later."

http://money.usnews.com/money/...

You're kidding right?

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

http://www.activistpost.com/20...

Android is the tool that Google is using to enable these things in the mobile space. Hooking you in with Google Apps is how the linkage to all these other data collection realms. Do you think it stops with your mobile device how about tracking you in your home now? It's not so much about the government collecting all of this, it's about commercial data collectors mining you for information, your preferences, your contacts, your phone calls etc. to develop a profile of you and your social network. While most would argue that it is "anonymous" in most cases or that it's for "marketing", it's not because these kinds of things erode your privacy and I chose not to be mined in my day to day activities or interactions with others.

average incomes:
welder - 32K
plumber - 26k
electrician - 39K
software - 71k
software engineer - 90k
electrical engineer - 83k
civil engineer - 78k
social scientist - 86k

I think some of those numbers are too low. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics says 2012 median pay is:
welder - 36K
plumber - 49K
electrician - 50K

I know median isn't the same as average, but this article says plumbers average $51,500, and this one says $52,950. Also, I think a small part of this is due to work location. Obviously not all of it, but every podunk town in the country has welders, plumbers, and electricians, but engineers and social scientists are much more concentrated in cities with higher costs of living. If you look at San Jose, CA, the median plumber salary ($79K) is 60% higher than the national median (see USNews link above), but the mean electrical engineer salary ($121K) is only 30% higher than the national mean.

I'm an engineer, but some of the most rewarding work I've done was at a research lab where I did all kinds of trade-like stuff, like cutting and hanging electrical conduit and pressurized gas lines, a bit of simple PVC water plumbing (replacing a leaky valve here and there), and a bit of carpentry, building test stands and partition walls with metal studs and drywall. We had all manual pipe cutters, threaders, and reamers/deburring tools, too, which are more physically demanding but way more satisfying to use than the automatic stuff. There were the also simple painting or cleaning tasks, too, but that more fun stuff is what I remember most clearly.

The dirty little secret that neither Haycock nor Sotommayor (sic) want to acknowledge is that "racially sensitive admissions policies" only get the student through the door -- they do nothing to address the significant gap in minority student retention and graduation

You misread the quote...Haycock is agreeing with you.

Wisest quote I saw from the pundit class:

âoeI just keep wishing that the people who spend so much time trying to end racial preferences in higher ed would work to end the racial differences in the education we provide K-12â

            --Kati Haycock, Education Trust

I just keep wishing the people who spend so much time trying to implement and preserve racial preferences in admissions would work to end the racial differences in K-12 education instead of taking the easy route of 'fixing' disparate K-12 education after-the-fact by artificially boosting qualifications and/or lowering admission thresholds in the name of 'diversity.'

The sentiment in Haycock's wish works both ways, you see. The dirty little secret that neither Haycock nor Sotommayor want to acknowledge is that "racially sensitive admissions policies" only get the student through the door -- they do nothing to address the significant gap in minority student retention and graduation. Pulling in more minority students so that 60% can drop out with significant student loan debt but no degree is not doing anyone a favor.

The problem with your theory is that there are more members of the NRA that are private citizens than those that are gun manufacturers.

So your theory is that unlike every other religious organization, the NRA does what its members want rather than the members doing what the NRA wants. Nice theory. Every religious zealot believes that their religion is different; every non-zealot sees that they are largely identical.

Though the gun manufacturers are part of it, a much larger part is that the NRA only exists as long as they can whip people up into a frenzy to donate money. So even though gun control laws have been completely gutted in the USA, the NRA has to keep on whipping up the masses or else the organization will fade away. See also: Greenpeace.

Black culture has nothing to do with broken families, bastard kids, crime, etc. The things you describe are all related to being poor. Poor black and white people are more likely to be in a broken family, have bastard kids or commit crimes. http://www.usnews.com/news/newsgram/articles/2013/05/06/census-bureau-links-poverty-with-out-of-wedlock-births

Minorities with many different ethnic backgrounds and mixtures of skin colors have a higher occurrence of poverty than America's mostly white population. http://www.nclej.org/poverty-in-the-us.php. It is my opinion that stereotyping of minorities, like you are doing, is part of the problem that continues this cycle of poverty with minorities.

For the record, I am a bastard white male raised in a broken family by a single white mother who was quite poor.

Here's another article I read today
http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2014/03/27/obamas-nsa-reform-package-may-hamstring-privacy-lawsuits

Conservative legal activist Larry Klayman, unlike other challengers, seeks damages from Verizon and U.S. officials â" which may keep his two cases alive, experts say. Cases brought by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the American Civil Liberties Union and Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., do not seek damages.

The request for past damages means that his lawsuit can't be mooted by legislative changes.
All the other lawsuits are only asking for injuctions, and Congress can make them go away.

But Silicon Valley claims the talent crisis is now

See this from 2012. As you can see, SV area isn't on the list for best paying cities for programmers and yet, it's the most expensive.

SV companies are averaging $110,000/year (Source: PayScale) for software engineers. Why should a talented person go there when they can make just as much (or even more) and have less than half of the living expenses?

SV companies pay shit for their area and if you consider the ridiculous hours they expect you to work, you're better off somewhere else.

http://www.usnews.com/usnews/d...

I'm not going to be able to find the national geographic link, because I don't store them. The article was about a year ago or less.

But what I referenced above is probably related.

However, those two years have brought on voter registration laws designed to disenfranchise, laws so blatantly racist that it's pants-on-heads insane that anybody let them get away with it.

Voter turnout in Texas nearly doubles under new ID law
Minority turnout increased dramatically after Georgia voter-ID law
New Analysis Shows Voter Identification Laws Do Not Reduce Turnout

Voting fraud is an important question since so many elections are now decided by margins of victory less than the margin of fraud.

Al Franken May Have Won His Senate Seat Through Voter Fraud

Poor and minority votes seem especially vulnerable.

Poor and Disadvantaged are Most Likely to Have Their Vote Stolen
Officials Plead Guilty in New York Voter Fraud Case

Mississippi NAACP leader sent to prison for 10 counts of voter fraud
New York Investigators Obtain Fraudulent Ballots 97 Percent of Time
The “snowbird vote” takes wing

http://money.usnews.com/money/blogs/alpha-consumer/2009/08/18/fraud-protection-debit-versus-credit-cards

That seems to be the going consensus at different sources. I've used both and prefer to use the debit card. However, I have only had one instance I could consider fraud and that turned out to be a battle in and of itself because the merchant that charged my card attempted to validate the purchase even though it was shipped to an address for a house that had been destroyed in a fire in another city altogether 4 or 5 years before the purchase.

I ended up getting lucky because the UPS driver refused to leave the package in an empty field and instead left a "you can pick it up" thing and the person who took my number actually did. It was a friend of a friend's kid who came over during a holiday party and we moved a TV and gaming system into the basement so they could pass the time doing kids things with the adults upstairs doing more adult things (drinking). Evidently, I left an old card with the same numbers out or something because he wrote down what was needed to order some crap online. (well, that or he broke in later and took the information, he waited for about 5 months before trying to use the numbers, but he told the police it was at the party that he found them). Either way, the bank wasn't going to treat it as fraud because the merchant shows it was delivered and it ended up being UPS that proved who received it making it fraud again. Took about 4 months to get cleared up.

[N/A] Keep your existing health plan?

When Obama said: "If you like your plan you can keep it," — he meant to say: "If I like your plan, you can keep it." The millions, whose plans aren't, in Obama's omniscient and benevolent opinion, good enough — because they don't cover, say, obesity counseling, or contraception, or gender-changes — are out of luck...

There is no corresponding correction to "death panels" because those are imaginary.

No, they aren't. There always are patients, who could be kept alive at high costs but without much, if any, prospect of recovering. When and whether to "pull the plug" on them is currently up to the patients and/or their families. Once the government becomes the single payer — which is what Obama and you dream about — the decision will be the government's. It is unlikely, that it will be a single shirley sharrod deciding — more like a panel of them. "Death panel" is a perfectly apt term describing the outfit...

If the IRS is already used today to suppress opposition, why wouldn't the next charismatic demagogue in the White House use these panels to an even graver effect? No, not even against the opposition figures themselves — too obvious...

"Hey, if you'd like your mother to be approved for surgery, rather than referred to End of Life Counseling, do not talk about this and that in your next public appearance. Do we understand each other?"

The problem is, no one has a clue what the NSA is doing. Even if they are the kind of people who would normally support spying for defense purposes, it's not even clear what defensive purposes the NSA is serving.

When Obama defends the NSA spying programs, he says, "If we're gonna do a good job preventing a terrorist attack in this country, a weapon of mass destruction getting on the New York subway system, et cetera, we do want to keep eyes on some bad actors."

OK, but that's not very convincing, especially when a few months ago Obama was saying the war on terror is over.

Unless maybe we stop subsidizing fossil fuels?

Another poster mentions that the subsidies were for exploration and drilling. I'll add that these subsidies were put into effect when oil prices were very low and it just wasn't profitable to explore for more oil, and the government wanted to increase production in the Gulf of Mexico. So at the time the subsidies made sense. The problem is that the subsidies had no sunset provision, for example phasing out as oil prices rise and exploration becomes profitable once more.

So other interesting info:
"Between 2007 and 2012, the oil and gas industry paid an effective tax rate of almost 45 percent ... Oil and natural gas companies posted a 7.3 percent profit margin ... Those figures translate to relatively unexceptional earnings overall according to experts, especially given the size of the industry as a whole and the high cost associated with energy exploration and production. Over the past five years, average net income in the oil and gas industry has averaged about 8 cents for every dollar of sales"
http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2013/04/24/is-the-oil-industry-really-getting-a-sweet-deal-on-taxes

Actually, the Police did jam a camera up someone's ass in New Mexico recently - without proper cause. Details here: http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2013/11/05/man-seeks-millions-after-nm-police-force-colonoscopy-in-drug-search

They may get their funding from members and donations, but their policy and leadership is set by the minority that side with gun manufacturers. Example: most NRA members (75%) support sensible gun control whereas the lobbying arm will score against legislators that propose and vote for them (http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2013/01/28/strong-majority-of-americans-nra-members-back-gun-control)

You mean sensible measures like banning guns based on cosmetic features, it about as sensible as noting hookers wear black dresses so we ban black dresses to stop prostitution.

They may get their funding from members and donations, but their policy and leadership is set by the minority that side with gun manufacturers. Example: most NRA members (75%) support sensible gun control whereas the lobbying arm will score against legislators that propose and vote for them (http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2013/01/28/strong-majority-of-americans-nra-members-back-gun-control)

The freedom loving republican who sponsored it on the second attempt in the heat of crisis or the "open guv" democrat who drafted months before a crisis and failed the 1st time around?

For example: Not one word about the anti-NSA protests in US media. Still.

Your news gathering skills are....poor to say the least.

USA Today: Anti-NSA rally attracts thousands to march in Washington http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/10/26/nsa-dc-rally/3241417/

Huffington Post: NSA 'Stop Watching Us' Protest Draws Thousands In Washington http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/26/nsa-stop-watching-us_n_4166640.html

US News and Word Report: Edward Snowden Endorses D.C. Protest Against NSA in Rare Public Statement http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2013/10/24/edward-snowden-endorses-dc-protest-against-nsa-in-rare-public-statement

Christian Science Monitor: NSA Washington: March against surveillance and a call from Edward Snowden http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2013/1026/NSA-Washington-March-against-surveillance-and-a-call-from-Edward-Snowden-photos

CNN: Anti-NSA rally targets Washington http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2013/10/26/anti-nsa-rally-targets-washington/

Fox News: Hundreds rally in DC to protest NSA http://video.foxnews.com/v/2772548586001/hundreds-rally-in-dc-to-protest-nsa/

NBC News: Hundreds march at anti-NSA rally in DC http://www.nbcnews.com/video/nightly-news/53383405

CBS News: Protesters March For Investigation Into Mass NSA Spying http://baltimore.cbslocal.com/2013/10/26/protesters-march-for-investigation-into-mass-nsa-spying/

ABC News: NSA Spying Threatens to Hamper US Foreign Policy http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/nsa-spying-threatens-hamper-us-foreign-policy-20689770

Washington Post: Techies concerned over NSA surveillance will march in D.C., proclaiming ‘Stop Watching Us’ http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/techies-concerned-over-nsa-surveillance-will-march-in-dc-proclaiming-stop-watching-us/2013/10/25/5bedb546-3da7-11e3-b7ba-503fb5822c3e_story.html

This is where I get tired of pasting, but I assure you the list goes on and on.

The only way the reforms work is because of the mandate so people can't just opt in only when they get ill.

Oh, and while complaining about "stupid evasions, stupid excuses, and absurd morally abhorrent counter arguments" you use a nonsense comparison like "mass genocide" (because normal genocide isn't bad enough?) and hyperbole like "forced into it by literal gun point".

That gun you're so worried about is a fine that's a whole 2.5% of income in 2016.

And that horrible mandate was endorsed by the Heritage foundation, Newt Gingrich, Mitt Romney, and Jim DeMint (current president of the Heritage foundation) as recently as 2008.

So can you step off you high horse of supposed intellectual integrity and actually show some? You've been confronted with a false conspiracy you endorsed, and I still don't know if you acknowledge you were wrong or if you'll pop out the IRS "scandal" again in the future even though you should know it's BS. You've also been confronted with the fact that the horrible individual mandate used to be a Republican favourite. Considering that you're almost certainly a fan of many of the people and organizations who formerly endorsed the mandate that's fact you really need to acknowledge.

In your first reply to me you simply changed the subject and claimed victory, I showed how your reply about the ACA growing more unpopular was false, and so you changed the subject and claimed victory again. Why are you even typing this? Anyone who happens to read the thread will notice your avoidances and evasions. And you're certainly not convincing me by ignoring inconvenient facts. If you think you have a good argument then stop evading and make it.

bullshit.

I'm not up on all the most current regional slang. In your area does "bullshit" also mean, "I don't know and can't bother to find out"?

Saving money on surgery and more, negotiating medical costs
How to Negotiate Hospital Bills and Avoid Medical Bankruptcy
30 Ways to Cut Health Care Costs

"Teachers, while not earning rock-star salaries, are in the top half of all earners in every state in the Union. More education for teachers wouldn't solve the problem. Having a teacher with a masters degree is like having a McDonald's employee with 8 years of culinary school training. The extra training doesn't bring anything to the table. A person only needs to be about two levels ahead in a subject to be able to effectively teach the subject."

And this, ladies and gentlemen, is why the US is so fucked up right now. Because of idiots like the one above.

"the starting pay for the teachers is $41k a year. I'm not going to complain about the teacher's pay, but starting a career at $41k isn't poverty."
http://www.bls.gov/ooh/education-training-and-library/high-school-teachers.htm - the median pay was 53k in 2010.
http://money.usnews.com/careers/best-jobs/high-school-teacher/salary - the median pay was 54k in 2011.
"in the top half of all earners in every state in the Union" my ass.

So, what crime, exactly, is the NSA committing by "hacking you"?

Not really. International "crime" is basically restricted to punishing war crimes for the side who lost the war. As a legal positivist, I concede this point for now.

Or are you seriously suggesting that the NSA is bound by your laws?

No, I'm not that arrogant. But maybe your laws? http://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2013/03/19/cyberwar-manual-lays-down-rules-for-online-attacks

Now, you want to stop the NSA from spying on you? Go for it! I believe the technical phrase is "national technical means" (which means "if you can do it, go right ahead. It's not like we can stop you").

I agree. Basically you're asking whether I'm prepared to face the might of the US military (or at least call my country to do so). No thanks, I'm a coward. So that's why I'm just bitching on the Internet instead of trying to do anything about it.

I wouldn't want to take a bullet to the head like Malala just to have privacy. That's why I don't get nominated for human rights awards.

One analysis shows that family of 4 will have an increas of $7500 a year, Obama promised a cut of $2500 a year

I've never seen such a study but I would be interested in viewing it if it does indeed exist.

You think the mandate sucks but think universal is good? What is the difference? Let me answer. Mandate = corporations run it, universal = government runs it. You are required to buy it either way, one through premiums with a choice, the other through taxes with no choice.

Incorrect. A mandate has nothing to do with who actually implements health care. All it means is that the action is on you whereas universal means action is not required. Now we can quibble whether a tax is considered "buying something" but the fact remains that health care would far cheaper since there would be no shareholders or profit margins in the equation.

As for the GOP input, give me a SPECIFIC example of what they put in it.

This took me all but two seconds to find. Like I said, I watched all the proceedings:

"Republican Sen. John Ensign scored a victory in his pursuit of healthy lifestyle rewards with passage of his amendment to health care reform legislation that would offer deep discounts to those who quit smoking, lose weight or otherwise meet healthy milestones." -- source: http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2009/oct/01/john-ensign-scores-win-health-care-amendment/

There is ONE section and Obama has decided he will ignore that, and that was the part where Congress was required to be on exchanges and pay for it themselves

From my understanding, this is a popular conservative talking point. I haven't felt the need to research it.

Because the majority of cell phone users in USA are on contracts.

This is technically true, but prepay is making a run in the US. The math has shifted, and it now saves money to buy prepaid. My wife has an old feature phone, so needs very little data. She pays $30/month for 1800 minutes. I have a smartphone, and I get 5GB of data and 100 minutes of talk for $30/month. Yes, I go over on minutes - typically by $10-15 - but it still saves me roughly $40/month compared to what we paid before. We can buy my wife a brand new feature phone every month for that, or a new Android every 4-5 months for me.

I realize you're probably trolling, but on the off chance you're simply ignorant, here are some articles that you might find interesting/informative.

This article shows the point of view of a westerner living in Japan and debunks some of the most common misconceptions people have.

This article details some of the cultural issues that continue to hinder their society.

These are some examples of the 'civilized' behaviours they've demonstrated in the past, and this is the attitude that they have towards said behaviours and those who committed them.

If you're going to idolize a country, at least do some research. It's like someone praising Josef Mengele for advancing medical science without looking at the bigger picture. Oh well, at least the Japanese weren't Mengele-level bad, right? Oh wait.

Terrorist groups raise funds by many illegal means. Few people realize that the terrorist groups such Hezbollah and Hamas actually have at least hundreds, possibly thousands, of people operating in the US, many of them raising funds. This goes back to at least 1995 if not earlier. If it's stupid, but it works, then it's not stupid.

Homegrown terrorists - How a Hezbollah cell made millions in sleepy Charlotte, N.C. - Posted 3/2/03

Moonlighting from his job as a deputy sheriff, Sgt. Bob Fromme was working security one day at JR Discount, a tobacco wholesaler in Statesville, N.C., when he saw three Arabic-speaking men buying a huge stash of cigarettes--300 cartons apiece. But what really caught Fromme's eye was how the men paid. They reached into shopping bags and pulled out wads of cash, bound in rubber bands. The men soon became regular customers at JR, shoving pallets of Marlboros and Winstons into waiting vans.

That was back in 1995. Over the next four years, Fromme worked with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms in tracking the men. His suspicions would ultimately prove dead-on. The investigation revealed a multimillion-dollar tobacco smuggling ring. Copying an old Mafia scam, the men ran truckloads of North Carolina smokes--taxed at only 50 cents a carton--to Michigan, where the tax was $7.50 a carton, and illegally pocketed the difference....

Cigarette Smuggling Linked to Terrorism - 2004;

Terrorists may get money from regional, cheap cigarette smuggling ring: Ray Kelly

Some of those arrested in the bust have links to Omar Abdel-Rahman, the blind sheik, and Rashid Baz, who opened fire on a van of Yeshiva students on the Brooklyn Bridge, killing Ari Halberstam. ‘We're concerned because similar schemes have been used in the past to help fund terrorist organizations like Hamas and Hezbollah,’ says Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly.

To excerpt from a post at http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=4113917&cid=44632619 I suggest it serves these people:

Child prostitution -SOMEONE at Dyncorp and the US government for employing them to do so.
Blackmail -SOMEONE at Pfizer.
Smuggling -SOMEONE at Chevron.
Espionage Hilary Clinton and the State department.
Perjury - James Clapper. Illegal warrantless espionage against US citizens on US soil. And no, FISA is not looking over their shoulder.

More generally? The kind who think, "Screw the world, got mine, getting more." http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/21/business/a-shuffle-of-aluminum-but-to-banks-pure-gold.html

The article you cite says his disclosures did not lead to any deaths of any military sources. Many believe Manning's leaks precipitated the Arab Spring which could have a death toll over 30,000. And it certainly crippled foreign relations (with the revelations in the e-mails) and may have made the US military and diplomatic processes somewhat less effective in areas where lives were and are at stake.

Also, whistle-blower laws are not automatic, (and I don't know if they should be). The fallout of the Snowden and Manning handling of secrets emphasizes my point. You have to report the crimes up the proper chain -- merely publicizing things you think may be whistle-blower protected is the wrong way to go about it. There are explicit paths required to report something covered by the MILITARY whistle-blower protection act complaints. Releasing classified information directly to the press or anyone public is simply not protected whistle-blower activity, particularly in military circles.

Lastly, it's not clear there were any war crimes. The Apache attacks, the most-cited "war crime" of many in the Manning list, while terrible in retrospect, are difficult to prosecute, and wide latitude is given to military personnel who believe their actions are legitimate. There WERE armed combatants on the ground, and the cameramen were easily perceived from the air as carrying RPGs rather than cameras. There is extensive coverage of this all around the web, including Wikipedia of course. This certainly could have been a war crime, but Manning could not have been certain.

Manning should have known all of this. He could have followed proper whistle-blower protocol. He chose not to. I'd have much more sympathy if he had originally tried the proper channels and was rebuffed, but that's not what happened (unless I missed something -- I'd love to be corrected here). I've seen no useful analysis of the Whistle-blower mechanisms because people don't seem to actually try them -- they circumvent the laws designed explicitly to give them protection then complain or seem surprised when they don't get that protection.

"No one has been tried for the crimes uncovered by Manning."

what crimes?

Child prostitution -SOMEONE at Dyncorp and the US government for employing them to do so.
Blackmail -SOMEONE at Pfizer.
Smuggling -SOMEONE at Chevron.
Espionage Hilary Clinton and the State department.
It goes on and on. It's almost as if there's a systematic flaw that's so pervasive it's hard to see the trees for the forest. Seriously, haven't you looked at any of this?

"No one has been tried for the crimes uncovered by Snowden."

it's on going, and he uncovered very few crimes.

Perjury - James Clapper.
Illegal warrantless espionage against US citizens on US soil. And no, FISA is not looking over their shoulder.

As a culture we haven't even decided if information sent though multiple servers around the globe IS private.

Yet as a legal body we HAVE decided that email is private for the first 180 days. At least by US law. And we're pretty damn sure even as an amorphous cultural body of billions of people that encrypted communications is private, so suck it.

You can try to refute all that citation (and hey, some of it might even be off), but you'd best bring a big-ass list of citeable sources and have a DAMN good argument for why I shouldn't believe what appears to be really bloody obvious to me.

Hahaha, how cute. Most US citizens want Snowden arrested and strung up as a terrorist like they want with Assange.

That might be true if you define "most" as less than 55%.

Sorry, bloggers and authors peddling their own books? Sorry, not convinced.

I tried to select sources that referenced actual numbers. Feel free to cite numbers of your own, but this is such a well-known phenomenon at this point that denying it strikes me as highly unusual.

And how convenient, that the most recent disaster is blamed on Bush...

I don't think it's very fair to blame former President Bush for the financial crisis. Though his 2003 tax cuts included a provision eliminating capital gains tax on certain home sales, which created structures that allowed the real estate and financial markets to become corrupted and eventually collapse, assigning blame to him is like blaming the owner of a gun shop when someone commits a crime using a gun purchased at that shop.

Democrats of the late 1990ies are to blame...

The core cause of the financial crisis was the over-leveraging of securities backed by subprime loans. Given that these loans were overwhelmingly not backed by Fannie Mae and/or Freddie Mac, I'm struggling to determine how the author of that article is making the connection between rules regarding affordable housing access for the poor and minorities and the financial crisis (I do like his books, though). After some cursory Googling, I located this, which, while interesting, isn't especially relevant.

...workforce participation...

This is why.

Until there is a Libertarian candidate, who is remotely viable, picking Republicans is what Libertarians ought to be doing. Because Republicans are far less wrong on economy. And economic freedom is required for prosperity...

The opposite is literally true. I don't personally vote economic issues (there's nothing wrong with doing so), but if I were to, voting Republican would not be an optimal choice.

On contrast, if an ultra-Conservative "RethugliKKKan" wins elections and, horrors, manages to outlaw abortions... Guess what? I'll still be able to afford my daughter's trip to Canada, should she ever want the procedure.

You seem to primarily vote your wallet, and you also have a liberal position on at least one social issue, or, at least, you're not crazy about the Republican platform position on that issue (please correct me if I read you wrong). Again, nothing wrong with that, but holding a Republican preference with what you've shared of your political views seems... decidedly strange. I'd honestly be interested in how you arrived at the preference you have.

...the deterioration of our economy...

What deterioration? Now, I'll be the first to admit that we're not exactly seeing Clinton-era growth, but we are seeing steady, albeit slow, improvement. Again, literally the opposite of deterioration.

The average wage of a programmer is only $45,000 a year and yet these guys expect to make $60k a year!!

I can see where they get their numbers from:

http://money.usnews.com/careers/best-jobs/computer-programmer/salary

Now where did you get yours?

So states the linked response by Taren Stinebrickner-Kauffman. Lately there has also been a lot of sympathy expressed for people who committed suicide after being bullied, gay-bashed, or slut-shamed. This could have bad effects. I think we should heap shame on those who did wrong (the bullies/bashers/shamers), rather than pity on those who killed themselves, since doing so makes suicide a very real and potentially attractive lever of power for young people. Suicide is contagious.

Guests wear pins that automatically adjust temperature, music, and lighting based on guest's preferences upon entering a room.

http://money.usnews.com/money/business-economy/articles/1997/11/23/xanadu-20 (from 1997)

The technology is at times subtle, but always present. As you move about the house, your choice of art appears on high-definition television monitors. Music, lighting, and climate settings all tag along, too. A small pin you wear lets the system know who and where you are. You can go to a computer terminal to pick out a movie or television program. It will follow you to the nearest screen. Only the phone nearest you will ring, assuming you've told the computer you're taking calls at all.

Gates himself first fueled the fires of curiosity about his house. He wrote a chapter about it in his bestselling book, The Road Ahead. The book came with a CD-ROM featuring a "virtual tour" of the private house. Book and CD-ROM buyers were so interested in the building he bragged about that they want to know even more about it. That's why U.S. News studied house plans and pestered Gates's representatives to find out more than he revealed at the time the book went to press.

Bill Gates built the dream automated house alraedy in the 90's. What a great man. You should buy the book and read about it, it's a great glimpse at the idea of automated homes. And rest of the book is interesting read about the early ideas of the future of computing.

I know scientific research isn't very popular here, but here's an example of using drones in a non-malicious way. They can fly much longer and further than other aircraft, Additionally, according to my father (an atmospheric scientist) the get their data live, where as if instraments are flown on the ER-2 (U2 spyplane used for environmental research), they must wait until the aircraft returns to get the data.

http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2013/05/30/nasa-to-use-second-drone-to-monitor-hurricanes/

Oh ok...

http://www.usnews.com/news/newsgram/articles/2013/07/09/forensic-pathologist-says-trayvon-martin-was-on-top-of-zimmerman

Vincent Di Maio, a former chief medical examiner from Texas, told the jury that the evidence was consistent with Zimmerman's account. The powder burns found on Martin's shirt show that the shirt was two to four inches from his body, indicating he was leaning over Zimmerman when he was shot, Di Maio said.

"If you are lying on your back your clothing is going to be against your chest," Di Maio said, according to ABC News. "The clothing is consistent with someone leaning over the person doing the shooting."

I'm sorry, but I'm not buying the primary argument here — that this level of surveillance is necessary in order to catch terrorists. (Never mind that it took this scandal leaking for Obama to actually say "terrorists".)

Are terrorists actually stupid enough to communicate using public services like this? You'd think that, at the very least, they'd be using Tor, or their own private equivalents. More likely than not, they're not even communicating electronically; Bin Laden communicated with the outside world through a very non-electronic trusted courier.

It seems to me that their argument is a red herring — that their real purpose is surveilling us, for partisan/corrupt purposes. Witness the harassment of Tea Party groups by the IRS, journalists by the Attorney General, and the NYPD's abuse of that data.

http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/articles/950403/archive_010975.htm

I just discovered something that may or may not apply to you. Apparently if the cost of private insurance would be more than 8% of your taxable income you can be exempt from the individual mandate. I didn't know this.

Link: http://money.usnews.com/money/blogs/the-best-life/2012/07/13/how-the-health-insurance-mandate-penalty-will-work

If your insurance company is just raising premiums then they're lying through their teeth and I recommend reporting that to your states insurance regulator. If they're also increasing coverage to meet bronze plan standards they're still being a bit deceptive, but that's more understandable as giving a full explanation would probably be incomprehensible to most people, but I'd expect they'd include more information about your new coverage (or maybe not since they certainly don't want you actually using it).

Hadn't you heard? After a persistent astroturfing campaign, more Americans think Edward Snowden is a traitor than otherwise.

Depends on how you ask the question.

Well funded organizations - dealerships - are able to pad politicians pockets. Thus the politicians do what the organized contributors want.

If Tesla wants to do this, he needs to grease some politicians' palms. Not directly of course, but through the legalized channels - buying things for family members, contributing to shell entities which funnel money to politicians, that sort of thing. There are many ways to effect this.

Do that and Tesla's problems should go away.

Except that time and time again, game, app, and indie movie publishers are shown that piracy actually ends up helping their sales and the spread of their product.

http://www.digital-digest.com/news-63620-New-Study-Says-Music-Piracy-Does-Not-Hurt-Music-Sales-May-Even-Help.html
http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2012/05/29/report-album-piracy-may-help-musicians-sell
http://torrentfreak.com/piracy-may-boost-sales-111102/

Most of these groups were not promoting candidates - and the Tea Party certainly did not promote Orin Hatch. A quick Bing search shows that Orin Hatch is not a Tea Party favorite.

http://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/washington-whispers/2011/06/27/utah-tea-party-targets-orrin-hatch
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/palin-tells-tea-party-lay-off-orrin-hatch-165829376.html

Most Tea Party people are promoting a cause and not candidates; that is one of the reason they are not liked by the Republican Establishment.