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So this is a mostly unilateral war, and you could see the monitoring that could do some other countries mostly as self-defense.

The point is that people from all the world should care about what the US is doing (because affects everyone) while French (and a small fraction of other countries) people should care also about what they government do. Also, I don't see France putting in jail or doing a massive international manhunt for the people working for Le Monde, violating every international treaty and convention doing so, as US is doing (and forcing their allies to do) with Assange and Snowden, we are just past the point of absolute corruption, and seeing the first hints of what is coming in the next years.

By now US is at war against the world, by their own definition, the ones that act as allies in things like this are targets too, even if they keep covering they ears and eyes to not see the evidence. Even if international law and rights used to have some meaning, is not anymore.

Ok, maybe they have to act like this even if they don't want to. The biggest benefit of massive, worldwide snooping on everything digital is not stopping terrorist, is just have a really big database for blackmailing, to force anyone to do what they want, from the top governors to the last shoeshiner.

People who vote for either of the two main parties are incredibly idiotic, so this isn't much of a surprise.

I agree, and I want to add that among those voters, the worst (in my opinion) are those who're able to abandon their own principles on a critical non-partisan issue based upon whether there's a Demoblican or a Republocrat in office. I can't wrap my head around it, but I find it appalling — they've got zero fucking integrity* and have no business in a voting booth.

* Just like the D/R candidates.

For those interested, here are the full results from Pew Research's domestic surveillance poll, showing additional demographic breakdowns.

You know, until that happened, you'd just be a tin-foil hat wearer, without a shred of credibility to you. Actually, you still are. But thanks to the colossal mistake of a couple of people in the IRS and Obama's total and complete inability to deal with a scandal, that singular act has managed to make the tinfoil hat crowd look more credible than the government.

Well, you know what, okay. Out of the thousands of times Obama and the "rabid liberals" have gotten it right, after six years of constant, sustained, unending attempts by the Republicans to find something, anything, to sink Obama even if it means repeatedly punching themselves in the face (Comeon guys, with all the major issues out there, your party platform for the previous four years has been trying to ensure Obama didn't get re-elected. Petty much?)... I suppose yes, with that much scrutiny eventually something had to pan out.

So take this one, singular victory. Have it, it's yours. You can feel righteous for a bit now -- you have a right to be upset

Well, that's mighty white of you. You are indeed a generous spirit.

True Scandal - A tea-party group ... gets attention from the IRS—and the FBI, OSHA, and the ATF.
The IRS Fiasco Is Only The Tip Of The Iceberg
A Frequent Visitor to the White House

...Douglas Shulman, Commissioner from 2008 to 2012, during the Obama administration, visited the White House 118 times just in 2010 and 2011. His successor, Steven Miller, also visited “numerous” times.

Lawmakers say IRS targeted dozens more conservative groups than initially believed

The IRS targeting of conservative groups is far broader than first reported, with nearly 500 organizations singled out for additional scrutiny, according to two lawmakers briefed by the agency

IRS Admits Targeting “Tea Party” Groups
The New Nixon This time, the press cheered as the IRS investigated the president's opponents.
Tea party groups call IRS process 'nightmare'
IRS approved liberal groups while Tea Party in limbo
Curious IRS Timing - Did the tax agency also target groups that support Israel?
Obamacare + IRS = gangster government
7 Questions That The IRS Inappropriately Asked Of Tea Party Groups
The IRS’s Tea-Party Targeting - An apology, but no explanation
Did The IRS Try To Swing Election To Obama?

Jon Stewart and Steven Colbert

And if you pray, the contents of your prayers.

Nah. Neither Al Quaeda nor the Muslim Brotherhood is so coherent an organization that it could pull off deceit on this scale.

They have already done it in Bosnia, Kosovo, and Libya. They were so successful that it can hurt the careers of college professors, politicians, and government analysts to question the Muslim Brotherhood's party line. "Progressive" websites routinely delete comments for merely mentioning that the Muslim Brotherhood exists; The Guardian's Comment Is Free is notorious for this, and Democratic websites in the US consider knowledge of the Muslim Brotherhood to be a sign of Republican Party membership and therefore "trollish behaviour".

They not only could do it. They have done it. They are still doing it. Have you noticed who the "rebels" in Syria are? And they control the levers of power to such a degree that anybody who questions their doctrine is ostracised by society.

Although the new technology may have an impact, it appears unlikely there will be significantly more restrictive gun control laws passed at the Federal level in the US. The public and the facts are against it overall. In various states, such as New York, Colorado, and California, there have been a number of new, highly restrictive laws passed, that at least in some cases are unpopular, are opposed by the police, and are unlikely to survive challenges in court. The brilliant governor in New York managed to get a law passed that outlawed even police weapons - New York is in the best of hands although California is a contender as well.

The idea that ordinary citizens can't protect themselves with guns is ridiculous.

Tough Targets - When Criminals Face Armed Resistance from Citizens
Stories That Happened In MI

What about the murder rate?

Murder by Numbers

Gun control's general effect on crime?

Two Cautionary Tales of Gun Control
Crime soared with Mass. gun law
England has worse crime rate than the US, says Civitas study

Self-Defense: An Endangered Right

The withdrawal of a basic right of Englishmen is having dire consequences in Great Britain, and should serve as an object lesson for Americans. Today, in the name of public safety, the British government has practically eliminated the citizens’ right to self-defense. That did not happen all at once. The people were weaned from their fundamental right to protect themselves through a series of policies implemented over some 80 years. Those include the strictest gun regulations of any democracy, legislation that makes it illegal for individuals to carry any article that could be used for personal protection, and restrictive limits on the use of force in self-defense. . . .

Political support for more restrictive nation gun control measures in the US has fallen.

USA Today: Support for gun control bill falls below 50%
During a manhunt, 69 percent of voters want a gun
NRA Has 54% Favorable Image in U.S
Dems push gun control agenda in DC, but not in battleground states

Regulation to big corporations is like the briar patch to Brer Rabbit.

"Oh no Mr Government! Don't pass any more regulations!"

http://washingtonexaminer.com/timothy-p.-carney-mattel-exempted-from-toy-safety-law-it-helped-write/article/36618

Oh look, one of the biggest players exempted from toy safety laws that they wanted implemented. Of course, small companies need to spend a fortune to comply.

The NRA (~ 4,200,000 members) dwarfs the size of the ACLU (~ 550,000 members) making it one of Americas largest, important civil rights organizations. You might find this interesting: NRA: Membership Has Grown by 250,000 in One Month

Do you think you will be referring to the ACLU as the 0.15% vocal minority?

NRA Has 54% Favorable Image in U.S.
USA Today: Support for gun control bill falls below 50%

linky

Just get out of China.

But keep sending your food.

And keep sending us your industry.

Oh, your tech too. Keep sending that.

Otherwise, just stay the hell out, round-eye.

Unraveling the myth that the Postal Service must fund retiree health benefits 75 years into the future

Unraveling the myth that the Postal Service must fund retiree health benefits 75 years into the future

Unraveling the myth that the Postal Service must fund retiree health benefits 75 years into the future

Unraveling the myth that the Postal Service must fund retiree health benefits 75 years into the future

...that other states keep driving business out with higher taxes, more bureaucratic red tape, burdensome regulations, and corrupt closed shop union cronyism.

This is why California keeps driving businesses to Texas.

Also, Texas now ranks higher than California in standardized test scores, both in aggregate, and in each demographic ethnic group.

For a more in-depth discussion of these points (with numerous statistics to back it up), see Chuck DeVore's The Texas Model: Prosperity in the Lone Star State and Lessons for America.

It's a fake debate using FUD to take the eyes off the fact that the republicans have lied and moved the goal post on the economy and budget issues.

Would that be the part about Obama's administration not tabling any budgets for the past oh what is it now? 5 or 6 years, or the fact that they're trying to claim that a 2% cut is the end of the world.

It is possible, I suppose, to imagine an extraordinary circumstance in which it would be necessary and appropriate under the Constitution and applicable laws of the United States for the President to authorize the military to use lethal force within the territory of the United States, "Holder replied in a letter yesterday to Paul's question about whether Obama "has the power to authorize lethal force, such as a drone strike, against a U.S. citizen on U.S. soil, and without trial."

That doesn't get much clearer does it.

Holder says drone strikes on US soil are legal. But then again I've been told by former president Carter that I'm a bigot so you shouldn't listen to me.

There's political opposition too, namely from Alaska where they don't want their fishing industry challenged by the new guy. Huzzah for crony capitalism.

I wonder how large this database was compared to Romney's Orca. http://washingtonexaminer.com/stunned-romney-supporters-struggle-to-explain-defeat/article/2512861#.UJqIxRh8zOU The article said the system crashed. I'm pretty sure that's the system Karl Rove was looking at when he was on Fox News trying to rebut their analysts' projection of an Obama victory in Ohio. http://www.mediaite.com/tv/karl-rove-causes-fox-news-chaos-by-challenging-obama-victory-projection/

Planning on going to the polls after work today. The boss is letting us leave early to vote after I suggested he do so, so yay for me. Then Minecraft time!
Here's just a few of the stories about shenanigans today.
Philly GOP: Poll inspectors being ousted for Dems
Election Judge Wears Obama Cap While Checking in Voters in Obama's Chicago Ward
GOP - Poll watcher in Detroit threatened with gun, 911 call rejected
Former DNC Chair Howard Dean: The Only Way We Lose Is Through Fraud
Obama Poster Hanging in Florida Polling Station
GOP officials booted, Black Panthers return -- and Obama at polling site?

An airline going down the tubes is not the same thing as a major industrial manufacturing giant representing a significant fraction of the US's industrial capacity being allowed to collapse. And maybe any other Administration would have done the same, so at the very least Obama didn't bugger it up.

Debatable. Obama allowed them to go through a Chapter 11 the exact same they would have even if the government hadn't intervened. However, the government's intervention did have one substantial effect, namely a gigantic handout of taxpayer money to the UAW: http://washingtonexaminer.com/the-myth-of-auto-bailout-jobs/article/2512555

Much like the bank bailouts, this president believes in rewarding failure.

I believe that Obama naively did not expect the Republicans to dedicate themselves to stopping him from getting reelected.

Yes, I'm sure that was his first and enduring thought on the matter.

Also, I don't think anyone expected the Republicans to declare war on reality.

That should be, "war on reality, as reported." That is the key, as reported. The BBC leadership admits it as a bias problem, but there can't be a problem in the United States?

As Margaret Thatcher noted, "The facts of life are conservative."
It is the reporting that is liberal.

Pew: Public Perception of Media Bias Hits Historic High

In Pew's biennial news survey, out today, the public revealed an alarming opinion that the media just can't be trusted to tell a story straight. . . . Said Pew, "The overall ratings for the performance of the news media are quite negative: Fully 66% say news stories often are inaccurate, 77 % think that news organizations tend to favor one side, and 80% say news organizations are often influenced by powerful people and organizations. The percentage saying that news stories are often inaccurate has risen 13 points since 2007, with much of the increase coming among Democrats and independents."

Media bias worse than money in politics

Rasmussen Reports Tuesday revealed poll results that 47 percent of likely voters feel that "media bias is a bigger problem in politics today than big campaign contributions." Fewer, 42 percent, say money is more evil.

Worse for the media, 51 percent believe that "most reporters will try to help the president," while just 9 percent will go to bat for Republican Mitt Romney. The polling is just the latest to slam media bias, with most still viewing the TV, internet and print reporters on the left's payroll.

The following has been known for some time now, from more than one study.

Journalists dole out cash to politicians (quietly)

Msnbc.com identified 143 journalists who made political contributions from 2004 through the start of the 2008 campaign, according to the public records of the Federal Election Commission. Most of the newsroom checkbooks leaned to the left: 125 journalists gave to Democrats and liberal causes. Only 16 gave to Republicans. Two gave to both parties.

The Vast Left-Wing Media Conspiracy

When I'm talking to people from outside Washington, one question inevitably comes up: Why is the media so liberal? The question often reflects a suspicion that members of the press get together and decide on a story line that favors liberals and Democrats and denigrates conservatives and Republicans.

My response has usually been to say, yes, there's liberal bias in the media, but there's no conspiracy. The liberal tilt is an accident of nature. The media disproportionately attracts people from a liberal arts background who tend, quite innocently, to be politically liberal. If they came from West Point or engineering school, this wouldn't be the case.

Now, after learning I'd been targeted for a smear attack by a member of an online clique of liberal journalists, I'm inclined to amend my response. Not to say there's a media conspiracy, but at least to note that hundreds of journalists have

Obama wants the top tax bracket to go up 3%. That's it. It was higher under Reagan.

Actually, President Obama wants the top rate to go from 35% to 39.6% (4.6%). There is also likely a double hit there as many states index their taxes to Federal taxes, so an increase in Federal taxes results in an increase in state taxes. He also wants to increase the capital gains tax by 33%, from 15% to 20%. And this isn't all,:

Factbox: Stark differences in Ryan, Romney, Obama tax plans

- Personal income taxes: Obama would keep tax rates the same for families making less than $250,000 annually. For families earning more than that, he would raise the top two tax brackets to 36 percent and 39.6 percent. The highest tax rates have been 33 percent and 35 percent for the last 11 years.

Obama in February offered a long list of corporate tax breaks he wants to end, ranging from accelerated depreciation and inventory accounting to interest on overseas profits and various tax provisions benefiting oil and gas companies. . . .

- Investment income: Obama wants to raise the tax rate on dividends to match the ordinary income tax rate for the two highest income brackets. He would boost capital gains taxes from 15 percent to 20 percent for that group.

Private equity and other financiers would see a portion of their compensation, known as "carried interest," taxed as ordinary income, a change from the 15 percent rate they pay now.

- Alternative minimum tax: Obama has endorsed the "Buffett rule," named for billionaire investor Warren Buffett. It would require households making more than $1 million a year to pay at least 30 percent of their income in taxes.

- Estate tax: Obama backs restoring the 45 percent estate tax level after a $3.5 million exemption imposed on assets passed to heirs. The current estate tax level is a 35 percent tax after the first $5 million.

- Corporate tax rates: The president would lower the top corporate rate to 28 percent from 35 percent. A corporation's foreign profits would be subject to an unspecified minimum tax rate. Businesses would get a 20-percent income tax credit to move operations into the United States while tax deductions for shifting operations abroad would be dropped.

There would be other consequences in a newly reelected President Obama as well.

There is no such protection in online voting. A church could put the computer, oh, right in front of the altar and have the congregation line up.

There is no need to conjure a theoretical example when the real example of unions and "card check" exists, and is being repeatedly litigated.

The National Labor Relations Board’s attack on the secret ballot

. . . The National Labor Relations Act established the secret ballot election as the preferred method for determining employee free choice. Although the act has been interpreted to permit voluntary recognition by card check . . .

. . . An employer does not have to acquiesce to a union’s demand (or its employees’ request) for recognition based on a card check; the employer can demand a secret ballot election. Similarly, if an employer voluntarily recognizes a union based on a showing of majority support by cards, its employees are given 45 days to demand a secret ballot election challenging the union’s majority claim.

Unions prefer card check, however, for two main reasons. First, card check is less costly. Second, unions are more successful at securing an employee’s signature on a card than they are in earning the employee’s vote when it is cast in secret. The reasons are not hard to find. A card check subjects an employee’s vote to the scrutiny of third parties, peer pressure from fellow employees, and even coercion. Unions collect cards over time, often in secret and without the knowledge of the employer, and open workplace debate on the issue of unionization. A secret ballot election takes place after a campaign participated in by the union, the employees and the employer; it reflects employee sentiment, educated by the campaign’s debate, at one point in time.

Umm.. that appears to be missing some information. I was trying to verify it because it seems that only the conservative sites picked it up, but evidently a federal judge seems to think Obama political appointees were directly involved in the actions.

http://washingtonexaminer.com/federal-court-finds-obama-appointees-interfered-with-new-black-panther-prosecution/article/2503500

Stop repeating that lie. Between the GOP delaying Franken's entry to the Senate through frivolous court challenges,

The court challenges were frivolous, but they did produce a Franken win - I'm surprised you aren't more enthusiastic. Maybe it was the tainted nature of the win?

York: When 1,099 felons vote in race won by 312 ballots

In the '08 campaign, Republican Sen. Norm Coleman was running for re-election against Democrat Al Franken. It was impossibly close; on the morning after the election, after 2.9 million people had voted, Coleman led Franken by 725 votes.

Franken and his Democratic allies dispatched an army of lawyers to challenge the results. After the first canvass, Coleman's lead was down to 206 votes. That was followed by months of wrangling and litigation. In the end, Franken was declared the winner by 312 votes. He was sworn into office in July 2009, eight months after the election.

During the controversy a conservative group called Minnesota Majority began to look into claims of voter fraud. Comparing criminal records with voting rolls, the group identified 1,099 felons -- all ineligible to vote -- who had voted in the Franken-Coleman race.

Minnesota Majority took the information to prosecutors across the state, many of whom showed no interest in pursuing it. But Minnesota law requires authorities to investigate such leads. And so far, Fund and von Spakovsky report, 177 people have been convicted -- not just accused, but convicted -- of voting fraudulently in the Senate race. Another 66 are awaiting trial. "The numbers aren't greater," the authors say, "because the standard for convicting someone of voter fraud in Minnesota is that they must have been both ineligible, and 'knowingly' voted unlawfully." The accused can get off by claiming not to have known they did anything wrong.

Still, that's a total of 243 people either convicted of voter fraud or awaiting trial in an election that was decided by 312 votes. With 1,099 examples identified by Minnesota Majority, and with evidence suggesting that felons, when they do vote, strongly favor Democrats, it doesn't require a leap to suggest there might one day be proof that Al Franken was elected on the strength of voter fraud.

And that's just the question of voting by felons. Minnesota Majority also found all sorts of other irregularities that cast further doubt on the Senate results.

The election was particularly important because Franken's victory gave Senate Democrats a 60th vote in favor of President Obama's national health care proposal -- the deciding vote to overcome a Republican filibuster. If Coleman had kept his seat, there would have been no 60th vote, and no Obamacare. . . More . . .

Stop repeating that lie. Between the GOP delaying Franken's entry to the Senate through frivolous court challenges,

The court challenges were frivolous, but they did produce a Franken win - I'm surprised you aren't more enthusiastic. Maybe it was the tainted nature of the win?

York: When 1,099 felons vote in race won by 312 ballots

In the '08 campaign, Republican Sen. Norm Coleman was running for re-election against Democrat Al Franken. It was impossibly close; on the morning after the election, after 2.9 million people had voted, Coleman led Franken by 725 votes.

Franken and his Democratic allies dispatched an army of lawyers to challenge the results. After the first canvass, Coleman's lead was down to 206 votes. That was followed by months of wrangling and litigation. In the end, Franken was declared the winner by 312 votes. He was sworn into office in July 2009, eight months after the election.

During the controversy a conservative group called Minnesota Majority began to look into claims of voter fraud. Comparing criminal records with voting rolls, the group identified 1,099 felons -- all ineligible to vote -- who had voted in the Franken-Coleman race.

Minnesota Majority took the information to prosecutors across the state, many of whom showed no interest in pursuing it. But Minnesota law requires authorities to investigate such leads. And so far, Fund and von Spakovsky report, 177 people have been convicted -- not just accused, but convicted -- of voting fraudulently in the Senate race. Another 66 are awaiting trial. "The numbers aren't greater," the authors say, "because the standard for convicting someone of voter fraud in Minnesota is that they must have been both ineligible, and 'knowingly' voted unlawfully." The accused can get off by claiming not to have known they did anything wrong.

Still, that's a total of 243 people either convicted of voter fraud or awaiting trial in an election that was decided by 312 votes. With 1,099 examples identified by Minnesota Majority, and with evidence suggesting that felons, when they do vote, strongly favor Democrats, it doesn't require a leap to suggest there might one day be proof that Al Franken was elected on the strength of voter fraud.

And that's just the question of voting by felons. Minnesota Majority also found all sorts of other irregularities that cast further doubt on the Senate results.

The election was particularly important because Franken's victory gave Senate Democrats a 60th vote in favor of President Obama's national health care proposal -- the deciding vote to overcome a Republican filibuster. If Coleman had kept his seat, there would have been no 60th vote, and no Obamacare. . . More . . .

Yes it is pathetic: the Republicans sponsored a bill that they called the president's budget when it of course was not, and it was unsurprisingly defeated 97-0. The 99-0 vote was a repeat of the same pathetic Republican political antics. You have to be stupid to believe that zero Democratic Senators would be willing to vote for an actual White House budget.

ROFLMAO. At you.

Yeah, right.

Harry Reid let that come to a vote, and no Republicans then voted for it?

What Earth do you live on? Does yours have a blue sky too?

Oh, yeah, get this:

Obama: If people read transcript, they’ll think I won last debate

Jeez, talk about a clueless "Hello, McFly!" moment.

Yeah, I want four more years of THAT.

Four more years of a President who has time to go on The View but doesn't have time to get intel briefs, doesn't know what's happening in Libya, Al Qaeda kills the US Ambassador, then Obumbles blames it on a tawdry video, then has to de facto admit to lying about it.

Yeah, I want four more years of THAT.

Tell me, how could a lobotomized Labrador do a worse job than THAT? You know that a lobotomized Labrador won't out-and-out LIE like that.

Wow. He spent some time playing golf. Big fucking deal.

Call me when he spends 3 years on vacation like bush.

http://politic365.com/2012/05/08/obamas-vacations-of-any-president-bush-racked-up-the-most/

Bush vacationed at his Ranch near Crawford Texas. He had an office at his ranch and worked from it. He hosted world leaders, had cabinet meetings, the whole nine yards. It actually saved the taxpayers money because his house is truly "green" and is much easier to secure than the White House.

Strange that I didn't see Obama meeting with any world leaders on any of his trips to Hawaii. I don't recall Merkel tagging along when they went to a Broadway show. I didn't see Netanyahu with Obama on The View or David Letterman.

And when Bush was on vacation, the unemployment rates was not over 6%. People can't find jobs while Michelle is whooping it up in Aspen on the backs of the taxpayer.

These guys put it another way:

According to presidential watcher Mark Knoller of CBS, George W. Bush, at this time of his presidency, had made 30 visits to his Texas ranch spanning all or part of 220 days. The Obama’s vacation day count is less than half of that.

But his have become more controversial because of the costs associated with moving the first family to a public vacation spot, unlike the Bushes to their remote ranch in Crawford, Texas. For example, the Hawaii Reporter said the first family’s 2011 Christmas vacation in Hawaii would exceed $1.5 million.

Yes, it is insane to pay those who are teaching the children well.

If you were to look at teacher salary by location and student performance by location, you would notice a few things.

First, you would notice that some states pay substantially more per student (implied, higher teacher salaries).

You would then notice that those places also have the worst student performance, and that the best student performance tends to come with moderate per-student spending.

For example, consider:
Cost per-student per state
Notice the top 4-- DC, New York, Wyoming, New Jersey. Guess which of those 3 are at the bottom of the barrel in student performance?
DC, New York, New Jersey.

For the record, the average teacher in Chicago makes ~$71,000. 30% over top of that is absurd; thats within the average salary range of a CCIE--of which there are only about 20,000 worldwide (salary range appears to be $95-120k).

You know, you're not doing your side any favors by invoking the "I can criticize you, but you can't criticize me for any reason" argument. Bush (shouldn't you be spelling that Bu$hitler?) didn't have people demanding to see his birth certificate because there was no doubt as to his citizenship. Obama claimed to be a foreign student at one point. But oh well, opposition to your side is racist. Just more of the "free speech for me, but not for thee" crap that liberals are so famous for.

http://washingtonexaminer.com/cbc-staff-opposition-to-obama-is-racist/article/1342346

He should have called himself Arnold Crimp.

Chuck Schumer is one of the biggest pro-government control-freak assholes in congress. He has no qualms bending logic, twisting and lying to spin whatever propoganda he needs to in order to advance his agenda. He has never met a law he didn't like, and works to restrict freedom with his every move.

This is only latest in a decades long series of moves by him.

See:
Chuck Schumer vs. Free Speech

Schumer Among Biggest Supporters of Anti-Piracy Laws (He was a co-sponsor of SOPA and PIPA)

Schumer's racket: Lobbyists and hedge funds

Schumer proposes new federal regulations on grill brushes

And since the above links are all pretty recent, here's some Schumer history:

On the eve of the first anniversary of the Oklahoma bombing in April, 1996, Congress passed the Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996. The Democrats were very disappointed, however, because the bill passed without proposed expansions of wiretapping authority. In May 1996, Reps. Charles Schumer (D-NY) and John Conyers (D-MI) introduced H.R. 3409 "to combat domestic terrorism."

The bill, titled the "Effective Anti-Terrorism Tools for Law Enforcement Act of 1996," would expand the powers granted to the FBI to engage in multi- point (roving) wiretaps and emergency wiretaps without court orders, and to access an individual's hotel and vehicle and storage facility rental records. It also relaxed the requirements for obtaining pen register and trap and trace orders in foreign intelligence investigations.

Killing foreigners? Okay. Killing Americans? A violation of the president's oath to uphold Constituional Law: "No person shall... be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation." A kill list may exist, but a kill list that includes Americans citizens is tyrannical.

I don't know where the fuck you've been man, but they think that they're giving people due process!

As a libertarian-leaning Democrat (yes, we exist), Holder has been nothing but a walking, talking fuckup machine. First, the asshole seems to want to tell me who to spend my weekends with (4th paragraph), but then wants to brainwash people in his anti-Second Amendment campaign.

As a centrist Dem, I'm going to say right now to Obama: get rid of this shit stain or lose in November.. full stop. And don't get me wrong, Romney is going to be a disaster, but Holder is evil incarnate.

Issa would have let her testify if the Democrats had given the committee time to prepare questions to ask her, like they were supposed to.

I actually recommend reading the following to refresh your memory of what actually happened regarding those ethics violations:

http://campaign2012.washingtonexaminer.com/article/what-really-happened-gingrich-ethics-case/336051

Gingrich was cleared by the IRS.

The Washington Examiner has some higher-res images available (download the pic and zoom in)

I'm seeing:
Kenwood TKR-750/850
Kenwood TKR-720/820
Motorola XPR8300
Motorola CM200 pair (presumably using a RICK)
Also an Icom rack-mount something or other (sorry, I don't do Icom)

As far as RF conditioning, I'm seeing:
Simple fiberglass sticks with radials (such as a Comet GP-3)
A couple Stationmasters
UHF yagis
DB-408/420s

The subscribers they show include two Kenwood business-class radios, a Moto HT1250 and MTS2000, and the FRS crap. Antennas appear to be UHF.

However, the duplexers are all sized to be VHF. If they're UHF, they're designed for some seriously high power output.

I'm thinking simple analog repeaters (the XPR is an oddball, but maybe they're just using it in analog mode) and analog links, like many wide-area amateur repeater systems. These systems would be relatively easy to set up, and would provide what they'd want with a minimum of fuss. Delivering traffic to some radios while bypassing others could be accomplished using MDC, FleetSync, etc.

Considering the geographic area, I'd also not be surprised if we're looking at pieces from multiple systems. They may have basic UHF conventional stuff in places, MOTOTRBO in others.

As far as OpenSky - as powerful as they are, I don't think the Zetas have whats necessary to successfully deploy OpenSky (don't tase... err, slaughter my family... bro!) - that technology hasn't been invented yet!

Actually, YES. Military veterans who can't operate a car due to blinding or paralysis or leg amputation, for starters.

So, that would only prevent them from getting a driver's license. They can get no other form of ID?

Republicans have also been on the forefront of trying to get as many absentee military ballots thrown out as possible,

If it's a giant Republican conspiracy, then why did Congress pass a law supporting absentee military ballots that Obama has been slow to implement? http://washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/op-eds/2011/07/obamas-bumblers-damage-military-voting-rights

since the rank-and-file are paid shit wages thanks to the machinations of those same Republicans and tend, being poor and supporting families on wages that require public assistance (fully 40% of the US military families are so poor they qualify for food stamps!),

Not true: "A 2003 Department of Defense study, the most recent available, found that 2,100 active-duty members received food stamps in 2002...The fact that some enlisted members and even a few officers received (food stamps) was more a result of larger household sizes and living in government quarters than an indicator of inadequate military compensation." http://www.military.com/news/article/2011/food-stamp-use-at-military-commissaries-up-sharply.html

Oh, and let's not forget the machinations of Republicans trying to make it as difficult as possible for military spouses to vote in the state they live in when their spouse is shipped to another "home base" in another state. My aunt was disenfranchised by the lying Republican assholes for 5 years due to all that crap.

Yes, I'm sure there is a giant conspiracy to prevent your aunt from voting. I don't think it takes 5 years to establish state residency anywhere.

"Occupy Wall Street" is a fringe movement spouting tired, old, leftist dogma and hate. The only thing it has in common with the "Arab Spring" is that there are threads of anti-Semitism running through both.

Occupy Wall Street Goes Global

Sunday Reflection: Protestors should try occupying reality for real change

Right now, idealistic young Americans are gathered together to fight injustice and build a better world.
Sure, they're a little dirty, and maybe some of their language is a bit rough, but they've left behind family and friends, as well as the creature comforts the rest of us take for granted, to make a stand for what they believe in.

It's just too bad that today the mainstream media is focusing on the spoiled, incoherent clowns of Occupy Wall Street and ignoring our young fighting men and women.

The mainstream media's cameras can't get enough of these pierced protesters, with their crudely written signs proclaiming their unfocused discontent and general anger at society's selfishness in failing to satisfy their every want and desire.

Of course, those cameras discreetly turn away when the placards demanding socialist revolution and blaming the Jews come out. The protesters' function is to demonstrate inchoate outrage simply by being there. When they start talking, they start alienating the normals.

These are Potemkin protesters, community organized by government worker unions to allow liberal Democrats a way to triangulate to the center next year. Only the rebel media outfits will actually stick a mic in the protesters' dirty faces and let them talk.

What comes out is a confused hash of gripes about their banks, complaints about their student loans, and whining about the quality of their jobs.

Tragically, graduates of Ivy League universities brandishing master's degrees in minority women's studies are not getting jobs that pay enough to service their $150,000 student loans. Who could have seen that coming?

PICKET: Occupy Wall Street protesters post manifesto of 'demands'

Nazis and Communists Throw Their Support Behind Occupy Wall Street Movements (Updated)

Occupy L.A. Speaker: Violence will be Necessary to Achieve Our Goals

Video: Occupy Portland Protesters Sing “F*ck the USA”

THOUSANDS Of Obama-Endorsed “Occupy Chicago” Protesters CHEER the Communists (Video)

Wall Street: Occupied by Anti-Semites?

Political party paying Occupy Wall Street protesters?

More Anti-Semitism at Occupy Los Angeles

Coast Guard member spit on near Occupy Boston tents

‘Occupy’ protesters branch out

Seems silly at this point. They will have access to your Medical Records under ObamaCare.

Unions make up 40% of those companies exempted from Obama Care (and rising).

http://washingtonexaminer.com/blogs/beltway-confidential/2011/01/unions-make-40-percent-employees-exempted-obamacare

Selective reasoning can easily make it seem one way or another.

Look, California is one of the largest economies in the world for a reason.

Yes, the policies we had decades ago. Be careful, you are looking backwards, and the GP is looking forwards.

If you don't want to give back to the state that you do business in, bye bye. You won't be missed.

Yes, but up to a point. Both you and the GP may be a little overdramatic but the GP does have a point. For example how much of the economic success you refer to is from the aerospace industry? Bad news on that front:
http://washingtonexaminer.com/blogs/examiner-opinion-zone/aerospace-exodus-california

And what of the emerging private space industry that has its roots in Mohave? More bad new:
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2011/apr/14/competitors-are-wooing-california-space-industry/

On a personal note I know some guys who used to shape surf boards. Very small scale shop but respected by locals and profitable for years. They had to give it up due to ever increasing regulations.

Have fun learning the hard way why nobody else is running a software company in South Carolina or whatever.

I don't think US customers know or care where a software company is located, except possibly that it is a US operation. And with the increasing popularity of the digital supply chain -- developer to online store to consumer, no packaged goods or distributors -- this is becoming even more so.


You have to admit the California legislature is out of control and making California a less friendly place to do business than a few decades ago.

Peacefully? In your dreams. Tea baggers are terrorists because they use scare tactics to get their way. Take health care town hall meetings of 2008. Retired tea baggers with drugged, crazy eyes yelling "Government hands off of my Medicare" and lunging at congressmen and opponents with their fists. Using these imbecile but scary tactics they managed to force many seniors to oppose health care reform even though most of those seniors already use government-provided Medicare.

It wasn't the Tea Party people that bit off someone's finger at a town hall. How about the SEIU beating up a black conservative in St Louis at a town hall meeting?

Do you have any actual examples of these "retired tea baggers with drugged, crazy eyes" commiting violence or are you just regurgitating rhetoric the way you happen to remember it?

Remember Alan Grayson talking about how the GOP plan is for everyone to die quickly? Or shots being fired at Eric Cantor's office?

Speaking of Medicare, the Democrats cut it by a half trillion dollars to fund ObamaCare, but when the Republicans came out with a reform package this summer, what did the Democrats do? ran an ad about how Republicans want to literally push grandma over a cliff."

So yeah, it's those Republicans pushing their scare tactics on their constituents, commiting acts of terror. Actual violence committed by Democrats? eh, that's not terror under the same definition because, well, they're on your side.

Want another one? Debt ceiling ÃoecrisisÃ, entirely manufactured by tea bagger faction. This was non-issue for decades, extended automatically. This year, tea baggers yelled hysterically for months about Ãoecountry going bankruptÃ, Ãoedollar becoming worthlessà and similar utter nonsense to scare many people into opposing raising the limit, which was tea bagger goal for ideological reasons.

Wasn't it Obama that said having to raise the debt ceiling was a "leadership failure" when he voted against it in 2006? Do you hold him to the same standards as you do Republicans, or is this another one of those my team good, your team bad things?

And the crisis WAS manufactured... by Obama. The US has enough revenue that it won't default on it's debts if the limit wasn't raised. We have enough revenue to fund all of the most critical portions of the federal government too. It was a scare tactic to get people to panic so Obama wouldn't have to think about fulfilling his campaign promise to actually cut back the waste in the federal government.

Thus, tea baggers use scare tactics to reach their political goals. That, by definition, means they are terrorists.

Nice to know that everyone that you don't agree with politically is a terrorist while you ignore the actual violence and threats perpetrated by your team. You do realize that you just repeated GWB's "you're either with us or against us" rhetoric, right?

Don't make a straw man argument about infrastructure. I'm talking about the billions of dollars in useless federal and state regulation, taxes that are taxes upon taxes. The ponzi scheme that is social security, which just came under threat from the Obama administration of having its funds cut off even though only $.25 on the dollar go to pay current benefit recipients, meanwhile the federal government has been borrowing $.75 of every dollar paid into social security. And they have the audacity to tell us, sorry now we're going to borrow $1.00 of every dollar paid into the already empty fund! You can keep payin' us but we're going to be paying our federal workers and entitlement programs with that money. And what's Obama's solution to the problem? Raise taxes by 1 trillion!

"The feds" don't print money, "the fed" (federal reserve bank) prints money which in turn is borrowed by "the feds" (federal government). The federal reserve bank is no more the federal government than federal express. They are two different entities, one of which ("the fed") was quite unconstitutional. They borrow money from foreign governments and others in the form of t-bills that must be paid back with interest. That goes to 1. devalue the currency because more is in circulation and 2. borrowing on behalf of the public makes the public liable to pay back such funds, and was the unconstitutional bit, along with having a currency that is not backed by gold as it was intended by the framers. How now it is constutional when then is wasn't? The Living Constitution. Duh!

"General welfare" is perverted in numerous ways thanks to the liberal doctrine of the Living Constitution. Now that the flood gates are opened to the free interpretation of the meaning of the words in the constitution welfare can mean just about anything. As James Madison said: " What a metamorphosis would be produced in the code of law if all its ancient phraseology were to be taken in its modern sense." Indeed, that is the key reason why the government today is so alien to the principals of founders. If you can take "the right to bear arms shall not be infringed" to mean " we shall infringe upon the right to bear arms any time we damn well please." what can't you do?

That should serve as the first hint that ATMs are job creators, not job killers. But the even more obvious problem with Obama's statement is that it isn't even factually correct to say that ATM machines displaced bank tellers. The number of ATMs more than doubled between 1998 and 2008, from 187,000 to 401,500, according to the American Bankers Association. Yet data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics show that during the same period, the number of bank tellers rose from 560,000 to 600,500. BLS expects "favorable" job prospects for bank tellers over the next decade.

John Hall, a spokesman for the American Bankers Association, explained that when ATMs started being used more widely, there was a lot of talk about them eliminating human bank branches, but it turned out that customers wanted both. The number of bank branches in the United States has grown from 81,444 in 1992 to 99,109 by late 2010, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. During that time, the total number of bank workers rose from 1.8 million to more than 2 million.

But don't let things like facts get in the way of proliferating Obama's talking points.

Besides, should we still be employing the buggy whip makers since cars displaced them? At what point should a job be declared obsolete?

My understanding was that Texas dropped the measure after the US Government pressured them to drop it. I believe it also failed to pass for a second time, rather recently.

As, yes, I found it: http://washingtonexaminer.com/blogs/beltway-confidential/2011/07/anti-groping-bill-fails-pass-texas-second-time

The DoJ threatened to shutdown flights to Texas, if the bill passed, the first time. The second time, the votes could not be found in time. Texas should have told the US Government to go fuck itself to start its own airline authority.

They gave Bush these powers with Card Blanche, and he put us into two war fronts, one of which he should be prosecuted for. (Iraq) Obama uses it for legitimate purposes and they flip flop like a fish out of water.

Last I checked, Bush got approval for his little wars. He lied a lot to get it, but he still took the effort.

In the mean time, I hope Obama can hold the course. This a break for the free world and a chance for Democracy to break out in the Middle East.

Are you serious? You do understand that rebels are violently racist (look up all the stories about lynchings and expulsions of Black Libyans from regions controlled by the rebellion), and a good chunk of them are Islamist fundamentals. What more, al-Qaeda has already signed up to fight on their side, and some of the people now being supplied by weapons and provided air support by NATO in Libya are the same people who have shot at NATO soldiers in Afghanistan a few years ago.

I have no doubt that once rebels, with NATO air support, finally steamroll over the last loyalist strongholds, we'll hear a lot about how the new Libya will have become the shining beacon of democracy and human rights - just like it happened in Afghanistan. Of course, if you actually go and look it up, "liberated" Afghanistan is still a theocracy where "apostasy" is punished by death, other human rights are pretty bad even by the letter of the law, and where most of the society simply disregards the written law in favor of the customary one which is misogynistic and pedophilic in practice.

Why do you think "democracy" in Libya will be any better?

Obama (PBUH) is a constitutional scholar. He knows what's legal and isn't. Just ask Tony Rezko..........if you can find him.

http://washingtonexaminer.com/blogs/beltway-confidential/where-world-tony-rezko