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Ted Stevens and Sean O'Keefe In Plane Crash
necro81 writes "The NY Times is reporting that former Senator Ted Stevens was aboard a small plane with eight others that crashed in remote southwest Alaska Monday night. Some news outlets are reporting that he died, along with at least four others. Meanwhile, the North American CEO of aerospace firm EADS and former NASA administrator Sean O'Keefe was was also reported in the crash. Rescue crews from the Alaska Air National Guard reached the site about ten hours after the initial crash."
...since the internet is a series of tubes. Its not like a truck. It can get clogged.
was there a second crash?
RIP
Senator Stevens did perish in the crash. The fates of the other 8 on board have not yet been released to the public or media as of 11:10am AST.
Support FSF: Stop thinking with your wallet, and think with your imagination. (cc/non-commercial)
Update: Stevens was killed, fate of other passengers unknown.
Airplane Photos, Airline News, Planespotting Guides
Turns out the bridge goes nowhere...
.. to make friends and memories. Its a shame he and the other unlucky ones aboard that plane didn't have a chance to say a few words to their loved ones before their end. May their souls rest in peace. Condolences to their families.
We can only hope you have found the tube meant for you.
One that hath name thou can not otter
Don't you think it's a bit early for jokes?
Slashdot has really gone down the tubes these days.
Just remember, you're an asshole and will probably always be an asshole. Maybe someday you will also be old, and there will be things that are new to you, and hopefully the new generation will heap the same kinds of derision on you.
According to http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewnews.html?id=1419, Sean O'Keefe (and his son) both survived the crash, though they are "...banged up". This, per a family source.
Never underestimate the potential of Human stupidity. -Heinlein
Sean and his son Jonathon are reported banged up but okay.
http://nasawatch.com/archives/2010/08/sean-okeefe-and.html
Please don't capitalize words like 'plane crash' unless you're talking about a movie or something.
- These characters were randomly selected.
Shortly after being elected to his second full term in 1978, he was aboard a private jet that went down at Anchorage International Airport, killing his first wife, Ann.
Big Ted
Big Ted
Every morning at the senate, you could see him arrive.
He stood 5 foot 6, weighed 145.
Kind of broad at the hips and narrow of mind.
And everybody knew you had to pay to play with Big Ted.
Big Ted
Big Ted
Big Bad Ted
Sen. Tubes: 1 packets transmitted, 0 received, 100% packet loss
%
My heartfelt sympathy goes out to those of us still living who held the perished ones dear.
Please correct me if I got my facts wrong.
Just remember, you're an asshole and will probably always be an asshole. Maybe someday you will also be old, and there will be things that are new to you, and hopefully the new generation will heap the same kinds of derision on you.
We can only hope that the next generation will not allow us to hold office so long we become totally detached from the people we represent.. That is, if we can get the last generation out of office by then.
Fuck the "world".
Because you don't know any Alaska history.
Ted was pretty influential in getting the Eisenhower Administration to go along with Alaska Statehood, oh and Ted astroturfed Ike's press conferences with questions about Alaska's statehood too.
Seriously. This guy has pulled some lame shit, like threatening to stall important bills, and people actually seem upset over his death.
Unfortunately, since his staff didn't mail his soul until Monday, it's not going to get to where it's going until Thursday. Until then he's still technically alive.
Sendou Wave Kick!!
If only he had traveled by tube!
But really, as much as I dislike the guy, and as poor at his job as he was, if he's really dead then these comments are going to be in poor taste and my heart goes out to his family. Hopefully everyone is ok.
the guy's dead, show some sensitivity
hating his politics should not be about forgetting your humanity. then perhaps you are worse than whatever you ridicule about ted stevens
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
... or inspire a debate on the true meaning of "ironic" but having the head of a leading aerospace firm and the former head of NASA die on an airplane seems kind of, well, ironic.
A NYC lawyer blogs. http://www.chuangblog.com/
Because when the USA farts, the rest of the world happily gets in line for a sniff.
He did add a colourful, if vacuous, terminology to describe the internet. The general expression is now something like:
(inner|inter|\')(net|tube)s?
I'm quite fond of innertubes, because it sounds a lot more fun than the stuff on computers.
The plane, and the lodge it was flying to, are owned by GCI.
GCI is a large (the largest?) local cable/wireless/internet provider in Alaska.
Most likely, Ted "Series of Tubes" Stevens was prepping/being prepped for a new telecom lobbying gig; his two-year senate-lobbying exclusion window would have closed at the end of the year.
I don't want to disparage the man, not today; but I thought /. would like to know.
Those who fail to understand communication protocols, are doomed to repeat them over port 80.
why the hell is this news in the slashdot?? how is this WORLD (not USA) news worthy?
Apparently you didn't RTFM. From the linked FAQ:
Slashdot is U.S.-centric. We readily admit this, and really don't see it as a problem. Slashdot is run by Americans, after all, and the vast majority of our readership is in the U.S.
"Frequently wrong, never in doubt."
"AK Senator Ted Stevens dies in a plane crash; Internet goes back to being made up of routers and fiber."
For whatever reason, it is an American custom to eulogize dead politicians essentially without regard for quality. I'm not sure why.
Farewell sir, may your journey onward be clogless in a big truck.
life is a tragedy to those who feel, and a comedy to those who think
I'm not sad because these particular guys died. I'm sad because my first thought when I heard that some former lawmakers and corporate executives died is, "Good, probably served them right."
I guess this says a lot about me, but I'm afraid it says even more about the overall state of our country.
...to slam his ass on the door on his way out.
Way to go. Stay classy!
Or you could stop worrying about your karma on a news site.
So it goes. Cover 'em over before he stinks, boys...
Just kidding. Let 'em rip.
If someone says he and his monkey have nothing to hide, they almost certainly do.
why the hell is this news in the slashdot?? how is this WORLD (not USA) news worthy?
For one thing, the FAQ answers this. For another, he was famous for his correct yet widely panned analogy between data links and pneumatic tube transports.
CNN is reporting that the tail number of the plane was N455A (N45A having been assigned elsewhere in 2002). The geek in me got a smile out of that. I'm glad to hear that O'Keefe is apparently alive.
Thanks to the War on Drugs, it's easier to buy meth than it is to buy cold medicine!
My prediction is that on Coast to Coast AM, "science advisor" Richard C. Hoa(x | g)land will be on the air and commenting that since this was a NASA administrator, they were all getting together to discuss a disclosure about ET's or artifacts on The Mars or Moon. They were done away with by the secret people, and we should all demand answers, so forth, so on, etc...
Wow I am super-cynical today.
I had a sucky sig.
People in office don't get to play the old card.
Perhaps because, though he was a dipshit, he was a) human and b) may not have actively revelled in his own evil. So it seems kind of odd to be all happy that he's dead. Personally, I won't miss the guy, but I'm also not really going to say 'Good riddance.' Something about the latter is a little cold blooded for my tastes.
words, words, words, lemur, words, words words
Has anyone noticed that stories on Slashdot are showing up well after everyone has heard them from every other source? Why bother reporting it if you're going to report it the day after everyone has heard it.
"Funny" doesn't count for positive karma.
Plus, seeing as how you want someone dead who you simply dislike a bit, you are an asshole. It's called "Karma" for a reason, the choices you made are reflecting on your karma. Hence the name.
Would you find it as hilarious if Maxine Waters died and someone posted "GOOD RIDDANCE?" Even a political thief like Stevens or Waters doesn't deserve to die.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
It's called a fuselage, not a tube. Or did you mean approach patterns? Either way, makes no sense. Seriously though, thank god one less politician.
I guess this says a lot about me, but I'm afraid it says even more about the overall state of our country.
Not really. Business owners are the same as they have always been, there are a few bad ones but a lot of decent executives simply trying to make the company work better.
Basically you have been brainwashed into thinking any executive is evil, even though you never heard the name of a single company. You have started to wake up, think long and hard about why your first thought was that it was good any given company executive should perish. You can change your preconceptions.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Thing is, Stevens was probably as in-tune to the people of Alaska as he needed to be. Even with a heap of scandals, he lost only by slim margins. The Bridge to Nowhere would have been a boon to the local contractors, and that's just one in a list of pork projects Stevens funneled in (usually with more success).
Senators supposedly represent just one state, not the whole country.
Not a typewriter
Why were Ted Stevens and Sean O'Keffe, now head of EADS North America doing on the same airplane in Alaska?
If Ted Stevens was engaged in lobbying, I'm glad he's dead, and hope there are more lobbyist fatalities in the future?
Slashdot is a very strange place. I don't know how half of the shit here works, either.
Just because the U.S. is a republic does not mean it is not a democracy. Democracy/republic are not mutually exclusive.
I stopped worrying after getting modded down so low to bad that I could only post once a day... it's not like my posts are actually read anyways since by the time I get a chance to post, the article has over a gillion comments...
Civility has long since gone down the tubes, as so many comments here demonstrate. A guy makes an analogy that isn't entirely congruent with the more popular analogy. Somebody with a job that encompasses interacting with people from every walk of life is criticised for failing to be an expert in our particular walk of life. His opinions were, I assume, not in line with the majority of Slashdotters regarding some issue pertaining to the Internet. Do we even know what his opinions are, or do we just know that he was a stupid poo-poo head becasue all the other kindergardners called him that?
I feel ashamed to have anything to do with this site on a day like today.
RIP Sen. Stevens, and GWS to those who survived.
For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
My heart goes out to those who were waiting for an ACK.
This is his payback for all the bad karma stemming from The Bridge to Nowhere
Gone to that great series of tubes in the sky.
For whatever reason, it is an American custom to eulogize dead politicians essentially without regard for quality. I'm not sure why.
It is American custom to regret needless death, even if you don't agree with, or like, the victims.
"The 1957 DeHavilland DHC-3 Otter aircraft went down..." What the hell? That can't be right, can it? And I thought commercial aircraft were old. Source: http://nycaviation.com/2010/08/10/plane-possibly-carrying-former-u-s-senator-ted-stevens-crashes-in-alaska/
fak3r.com
http://seriesoftubesmovie.ytmnd.com/
Don't worry about it, this rule applies outside of the USA as well, and (in case (which I doubt) it is not the case in the USA too) it also applies to pretty much anything dying after having done or been known for anything even remotely popular except maybe scientists :)
It is American custom to regret needless death, even if you don't agree with, or like, the victims.
... as long as they're famous and/or rich. Otherwise, whatever.
Switch back to Slashdot's D1 system.
I mean for one, the "series of tubes" thing just sounds funny. It was not an eloquent way of putting it. Second, it is a rather large oversimplification. Ok I'm fine with it for children since you are trying to really simplify it, but it is a bad way to describe it overall. The relationship between my plumbing (an actual series of tubes) and my net connection is tenuous at best despite the Internet connection begin called a "pipe" in some contexts.
However the biggest reason was because from the entire explanation, it is clear he has no idea what the fuck he is talking about. What he said was:
"Ten movies streaming across that, that Internet, and what happens to your own personal Internet? I just the other day got...an Internet was sent by my staff at 10 o'clock in the morning on Friday. I got it yesterday [Tuesday]. Why? Because it got tangled up with all these things going on the Internet commercially.
[...] They want to deliver vast amounts of information over the Internet. And again, the Internet is not something that you just dump something on. It's not a big truck. It's a series of tubes. And if you don't understand, those tubes can be filled and if they are filled, when you put your message in, it gets in line and it's going to be delayed by anyone that puts into that tube enormous amounts of material, enormous amounts of material."
It is clear the man understands nothing about the net. More or less he's bitching that has staffer sent him an e-mail which he calls "an Internet", and it was delayed for some reason. That he blames on people watching movies online. The amount of shit incorrect about that is just legendary.
Had it been said as part of a competent explanation, it probably wouldn't have been picked up on. However his halting, improper explanation made it seem that he probably really did think of the Internet as being just like a sewer system, which is not at all correct.
We all die, so __only__ the loss by death of the good is cause for mourning.
GOOD FUCKING RIDDANCE.
"This post is an artistic work of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact."
b) may not have actively revelled in his own evil.
I hope you don't mean the "evil" that he was completely exonerated of.
He was railroaded for political gain, and that's it.
Security is mostly a superstition... Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. - Helen Keller
I can't remember... was it her, or Diane Watson who had the gall to stand up after the Northridge quake and ask why all the money was going to the SF Valley instead of South Central?
General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
Great. Too bad that doesn't offset all the other bullshit he's pulled. Just because he accidentally chose the right horse in the race once doesn't exonerate him from his wrongdoing.
My blog. Good stuff (when I remember to update it). Read it.
Ted Stevens was aboard a small plane with eight others that crashed in remote southwest Alaska Monday night.
So, the eight others that traveled with Ted Stevens did crash. Since there are reports that he died, it seems likely that he crashed too, bringing the total up to nine.
Two things:
1) Most people have no positive connection to this guy, at all. They don't know him and don't care about him. Don't pretend like you care about every person who dies, if you did you'd be in a continual state of massive grief. To the extent he touched their lives it was to try and restrict Internet access and through criminally misappropriating tax dollars. Why the hell should they feel bad about his passing? Yes, he was a person and I'm sure had redeeming qualities and people who cared about him. Nobody here knew him in that context.
2) Humour is a great way of coping with disaster. If you can't see that, it is because you are too damn uptight. Joking about things is a way of integrating bad things in to life and moving on.
So knock it the fuck off. I hate the veneration of the dead, where suddenly because someone has died nobody can make fun of them anymore, nobody can talk about them as a real human anymore. They have to be sainted, remembered in an idealized fashion. I hope when I die, if there's anyone around that gives a shit, they talk about me as I really was, remember my flaws, have some laughs at my expense. I hope they don't turn me in to some saint I'm not and refuse to say anything about me that isn't praise. It isn't that way when I'm alive, when I actually care what is being said about me, why should it change when I die?
This seems appropriate... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WwyCcGse8WE /not the stupid commercial before it...
Flamebait
Serious inquiries only.
Aside from a few universally hated people like Hitler, we have a tendency to focus on the good in people when they die. I think there are a couple of reasons why we do this:
a.) Except in the case of the universally reviled, we tend to think of people when they die as more...human, and not so much as whatever caricature of them we've built up in our minds over the years. Death is the ultimate equalizer. When someone dies, it's easier to think of them as having been just like us, with all of our foibles and vulnerabilities, and it becomes easier to forget, or at least minimize, their bad qualities.
b.) In most cases, people leave behind mourners when they die, and it's seen as in poor taste to be overtly negative about the dead and risk causing further grief to people who are already grieving. This is probably related to the whole idea of the sins of the father not being visited upon the sons.
c.) In the immediate aftermath of a person's death, criticism of them really serves no purpose. After all, they're dead, and are therefore presumably not actively doing anything to harm anyone anymore. After the initial shock wears off, and we begin to think of that person's place in history, we tend to start criticizing again. However, even then the criticism tends to be more tempered than it likely was when they were alive.
Having said all that, I think people do tend to get unnecessarily sensitive about these things after the death of a public figure. It's to be expected after a death of this type that people are going to make jokes and snide remarks, especially while cloaked in the pseudo (or sometimes total) anonymity of the Internet. Criticizing that or seeking to stop it in any way is pointless.
Think of it this way: 1) they are dead, so they can no longer continue their idiotic policies. Therefore, there is no use continuing to sling vitriol. Bury your animosity with the dead. 2) because like them or not, they are people, and therefore they have family members that (presumably) love them despite their flaws. Out of respect for their survivors, put on a kind face.
IMHO, this is a good thing, and brings out the best in people. I really don't see the reason why people have to continue to hate so much on someone simply because they disagreed with their political stance while they were alive.*
*Yes, I live in Alaska, and no, I did not vote for Stevens since...I don't remember how long, but it's been well over a decade. I felt he was corrupt and needed to be thrown out, but (too) many of my peers disagreed with me until the last election.
MCSE? No, sir...I don't do Windows. Yes, I am an idealist. What's your point?
why the hell is this news in the slashdot?? how is this WORLD (not USA) news worthy?
This is NOT a WORLD news website. This is an American website. RTFM: http://slashdot.org/faq/editorial.shtml#ed850
Just because the U.S. is a republic does not mean it is not a democracy. Democracy/republic are not mutually exclusive.
You know, cockroach like Teddy don't go away THAT easily.
b) may not have actively revelled in his own evil.
I hope you don't mean the "evil" that he was completely exonerated of.
He was railroaded for political gain, and that's it.
"Evil" was straight up hyperbole. I was never a fan of his politics. But the dude was human and I'm just not the sort of person who can jump up and down and say "Yippee is dead!"
words, words, words, lemur, words, words words
Ironically, he was being "lobbied" (aka bribed) even as he died. The flight was chartered and paid for by GCI, the biggest telcom in the state. Guess they figured that he could still help them get some favorable treatment from his old buddies in Congress. Or maybe it was payback for all the stuff he did for them when he was there, like his vehement opposition to net neutrality. It would seem that he was finally done in by one of his bribes after all.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
you pay the recently departed some due respect, no matter what they did in life, or you've lost your essential humanity and betrayed whatever nobility you think you stand for but obviously don't, you asshole. the guy was not adolf hitler, no matter how much his politics makes your blood boil. get the fuck over yourself
if you can't do that, then perhaps you are just as self-serving and stupid in your craven motivations as you accuse ted stevens of being
the politics in this country has become too mean spirited: more blood sport self-destruction than frank and intellectually honest discussion. and there are plenty of you, from the right and the left, who are more interested in your own petty tit-for-tat blind partisan team sports, than the essential search for progress for this country. what's the matter? policy discussions too boring? want to call each other socialists and fascists? that excites you? go ahead, ruin this country with your loud boorish simpleminded pettiness you assholes
too many of you are too willing, from the right and the left, to step all over the dignity of your fellow human beings (and your own dignity, not that you realize that) in the pursuit of scoring public relations spin points. so many blogging assholes and so many trolling astroturfing scumbags regurgitating their obvious typical mindless lowest common denominator political opinions on every message board, from THE RIGHT AND THE LEFT. you all think you are the goddamn diety-appointed spokesperson for your ill-thought out dimwitted cause. when the truth is all you fucking armchair political philosophers are worth shit and the content of your thoughts are utterly useless. from THE RIGHT AND THE LEFT. 99% of you do the greatest service to the cause you care about by SHUTTING THE FUCK UP
the politics in the united states has lost all dignity, all intelligence, and all meaning and is now nothing more than a petty high school football game for simpletons
and most of you have completely forgotten about what is at stake. and it is obvious when you forget decency, respect, and simple human decorum, that you don't actually care about you fellow americans anymore, you just care about being the loudest most intelligence-defying piece of shit in the room, be damned the consequences to your country, and be damned the consequences to your character
so listen up, asshole: you respect the recently departed
YOU. RESPECT. THE. RECENTLY. DEPARTED.
do you hear me you fuck?
show some DECENCY. show some CHARACTER. show something of what is missing from the shallow dimwitted politics in this country, you small stupid little man
now fuck off, and try, for once in your pathetic propaganda-addled life, to be a decent human being, you smarmy little piece of shit
ALL OF YOU
i HATE what politics in this country has become: a boatload of loud ignorant trolls
THE GUY JUST DIED. AND YOU'RE DANCING ON HIS CORPSE. THE PROBLEM WITH THIS COUNTRY IS YOU
FUCK
ALL
OF
YOU /rant over, moving on
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
Trauma people talk about 3 crashes.
1) Vehicle hits hard immovable object (like the earth).
2) Occupant hits inside of vehicle.
3) Occupant's brain hits inside of skull (and similar events with other organs)
Dont you mean...
It is American custom to regret needless American death, even if you don't agree with, or like, the victims.
scence? can't you linux assfucks learn to spell? Or is linux so poorly written that you fucking cunts don't have a spell check?
Sarah Palin: "I can see Ted Steven's plane from my house."
Wollt ihr den totalen Krieg?
Heh really? You don't understand why? Because once they are dead, they can do nothing. All the people who supported the guy are now on 'your side', even if just for a moment, and the dead guy himself can't stand in your way. Just like how all the Republicans honor Reagan while pushing an agenda that doesn't look anything like what Reagan would have done. You can say anything you want, and he can't object. It's the perfect opportunity for demagoguery.
Plus it's poor style to kick a man when he's down. You don't get much downer than dead.
Qxe4
Remember Mary Schiavo voicing concerns for ValueJet safety, and Stevens tell her to STFU and stop disparaging a corporation ?
Politics aside, if the Internet was being compared with pneumatic tubes in the pre-email era, then it actually seems like a fairly sound analogy to me. Could someone please explain what I'm missing here?
Looks like NASA wins!
Sarah Palin wouldn't kill off Stevens, She would kill off the NASA guy first because she thinks the world is 6,000 years old and the NASA guy would be able to disprove her backwards world view.
NASA guy still alive, ergo, Sarah Palin didn't kill off Stevens.
Tsukasa: All I really want, is to be left alone...
Senator McCarthy: Mr. Chairman, may I say that Mr. Welch talks about this being cruel and reckless. He was just baiting. He has been baiting Mr. Cohn here for hours, requesting that Mr. Cohn before sundown get out of any department of the government anyone who is serving the Communist cause. Now, I just give this man's record and I want to say, Mr. Welch, that it had been labeled long before he became a member, as early as 1944 --
Mr. Welch: Senator, may we not drop this? We know he belonged to the Lawyers' Guild.
Senator McCarthy: Let me finish....
Mr. Welch: And Mr. Cohn nods his head at me. I did you, I think, no personal injury, Mr. Cohn?
Mr. Cohn: No, sir.
Mr. Welch: I meant to do you no personal injury.
Mr. Cohn: No, sir.
Mr. Welch: And if I did, I beg your pardon. Let us not assassinate this lad further, Senator.
Senator McCarthy: Let's, let's --
Mr. Welch: You've done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?
Senator McCarthy: I know this hurts you, Mr. Welch.
Mr. Welch: I'll say it hurts!
Senator McCarthy: Mr. Chairman, as point of personal privilege, I'd like to finish this.
Mr. Welch: Senator, I think it hurts you, too, sir.
Senator McCarthy: I'd like to finish this. I know Mr. Cohn would rather not have me go into this. I intend to, however, and Mr. Welch talks about any "sense of decency." I have heard you and everyone else talk so much about laying the truth upon the table. But when I heard the completely phony Mr. Welch, I've been listening now for a long time, he's saying, now "before sundown" you must get these people "out of government." So I just want you to have it very clear, very clear that you were not so serious about that when you tried to recommend this man for this Committee.
Mr. Welch: Mr. McCarthy, I will not discuss this further with you. You have sat within six feet of me and could ask -- could have asked me about Fred Fisher. You have seen fit to bring it out, and if there is a God in heaven, it will do neither you nor your cause any good. I will not discuss it further. I will not ask, Mr. Cohn, any more witnesses. You, Mr. Chairman, may, if you will, call the next witness.
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
Just like how all the Republicans honor Reagan while pushing an agenda that doesn't look anything like what Reagan would have done.
You obviously didn't pay much attention to what Reagan did.
Slashdot is a news site?
I hope when I die I don't get my own Slashdot article full of hundreds of lame, rude comments and snickering by basement dwelling nerds. I hope none of you do either. Can we have a little compassion for another human being, even if we don't personally know them and like them?
REST IN PEACE, TED STEVENS.
Goodbye Mr. Tubes. Information of your death will no doubt be clogged once it gets on the internets because things will get clogged like a truck stuck in mud. Its kinda like Goodbye Mr. Chips, except that Mr. Chips had clarity of mind and understood ....stuff... and Mr. Tubes ...not so much.
I'm pretty sure that if someone you knew died you'd be upset about it.
I probably wouldn't know them, so I wouldn't be particularly upset, as I probably wouldn't even know they were dead.
Famous people are people that a lot of people know. Lot's of people find out that they are dead and feel sorry for the loss of life.
Unless of course you're just an uncaring bastard.
Is 1563649 a prime number?
Fuck the "world".
There, that's the USA we all know and love(?).
... or inspire a debate on the true meaning of "ironic" but having the head of a leading aerospace firm and the former head of NASA die on an airplane seems kind of, well, ironic.
It would seem that you are not aware that Sean O'Keefe survived the crash.
His many levels of experience in Aviation gave him the ability to take less damage from plane crashes. Alternatively, it may just be that I've played too many RPGs.
I hope it's not clogged, he deserves a good rest.
What is it with American senators and airplanes? Do they regularly upset flight mechanics or what?
Not to mention the hugely beneficial for Alaska's economy oil pipeline for which Ted lobbied extensively.
Woah there Ballmer if you don't watch your temper you're be down one more chair.
Seriously, can we just get through one day of respect for the dead. Use him as an example of what not to do in the future, but can we please let the man rest in peace.
Is 1563649 a prime number?
Or white and female, can't forget them.
Which things? A little bribery and or gifts? Convictions that were overturned because the prosecution was lying as much as they charged Stevens with.
So some corruption is way worse than backing the rights of Alaska Natives and American Indians?
depends on what they did in their life. this guy was a politician, a senator, and his votes and his decisions impacted a lot of people. he voted to go to war in iraq, and if someone wants to excoriate him after his untimely death for that, i aint gonna argue. maybe it's a bit uncouth to us, but if i were an iraqi civilian who lost half my family in that war i'd be ready to spit on his grave.
i don't understand when people get all wacky when a celebrity dies tho. i mean, maybe they made some dumb songs or movies, but that hardly made peoples' lives measurably worse, at least enough to dance on their grave.
---
Is this the MPAA? Is this the RIAA? Is this the DMCA? I thought it was the USA!
The guy was a corrupt moron who never cared about anyone else. Why should we care then about him?
Stop your bleeding heart for a moment and be glad an evil man is dead. Or perhaps not evil. Just one with no morals whatsoever.
When a good man dies, I will show sensitivity. Ted Stevens? Joke time!
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
Right, that is why nobody cared when John Lennon died for example. He wasn't a US citizen so nobody in America cared, and nobody in the rest of the world cared because that's just an American thing. Poor guy.
"linux is just DOS with a UNIX like syntax" -- Galactic Dominator (944134)
Agreed.
I host a small web site and, from my experience, 90% of the cost is bandwidth.
The guy died in a plane paid for by Alaska's largest telcom, who he had helped to defeat a net neutrality amendment when he was a Senator (this was his famous "series of tubes" speech, whose nasty purpose people tend to forget because of its general silliness). And, had he have lived, he would have *continued* to help them fight net neutrality. So it's not like his evil crap was done with.
One way or another, he would have been doing bad shit until the day he died (and he was). So with someone like that, I don't think it's mean-spirited to wish that day comes sooner rather than later.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
Good luck explaining Iraq and Afghanistan with that one.
Ballmer? Go fuck yourself. I can afford a real computer. I'm not posting this from a shitty third rate netbook.
It is American custom to regret needless death, even if you don't agree with, or like, the victims.
... as long as they're famous and/or rich. Otherwise, whatever.
That's not true. Non-famous rich people don't get that treatment.
Furthermore, the famous people being overly honored is a function more of how many people have heard of famous people than celebrity worship. If a non-famous co-worker dies, we eulogize them. It's not national news for obvious reasons.
Not to defend American culture on slashdot or anything that would risk making me stand out from the cool kids, but I think this also goes on pretty much everywhere. People's natural tenancy is to honor the dead and remember them fondly. Famous people are by definition people that a lot of people know about, so when they die, of course there's more people doing that.
Like those civilians in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Even ALL CAPS can't make that vile criminal worthy of any more dignity in death than he was in life.
We have never had the mythical world of respect that you allude to, and we never will. For reference, read the newspapers of 50 years ago. Or 100. Or 150. Or 200. The "uncivil" argument is a canard sometimes thrown around by hypocrites to fool idiots.
I'll take an honest man over a polite one any day of the week, and twice on Sunday.
In comparison with you, good sir, who actually tried to paint a critical slashdot poster as a bigger "problem for the country" than one of America's most notoriously corrupt senators.
This is such a breathtaking demonstration of lack of clarity in public discourse that I can actually make a case that it is, in fact, YOU
THAT
ARE
THE
PROBLEM
WITH
THIS
COUNTRY.
(CAPS for demonstration purposes, so the poster can see how silly the textual shouting thing is, and how utterly irrelevant it is to the point being made.)
Tired of Political Trolls? Opt Out!
I hesitate to believe that the dead really care what people on the internet think.
For large sets, this will be our guide even unto death, for the LORD will work for each type of data it is applied to...
Maybe he'll clog up the tubes and some of the fellow passengers will get bounced.
Or does TTL work the other way around in these situations?
Because once they are dead, they can do nothing.
You might want to check their will.
For justice, we must go to Don Corleone
I thought the reason paparazzi's can intercept celebrities so well right before plane flights was because all plane boarding lists are public or at least thinly veiled to anyone but The Press (TM.) "Civil [aka public] servants" such as Ted Stevens likely do not bother to use aliases for an otherwise routine flight. Especially since congress or the US senate has so many holidays in which plane trips can be booked [quick research didn't yield a citation but bills pass slowly in part thanks to lots of days when they do not meet.]
That the press is much more experienced at digging up clues and yet is having a hard time seems doubtful. Maybe private flights or small planes don't need to publicize passenger lists to the FCC.
(?)
It doesnt matter if they follow what Reagan would have wanted, he's the republican's Jesus, and we all know how they consider what he would have wanted.
Aside from a few universally hated people like Hitler, we have a tendency to focus on the good in people when they die. ...
Actually one of the biggest eye-opening shocks of my life was in the 70's when I was an American student in Germany living with a German family. They were quite adamant that Hitler had done Germany a lot of good throughout much of of his tenure as their leader.
Remember these were people who had lived through the economic nightmare there after WW-I, then the 30's and 40's. They said Hitler had brought them out of the economic mess, put food on their table, made jobs available etc. etc. And all that is true for the most part.
We tend to focus on the seriously bad things he did... like I said it was a massive shock to me at that time, having been taught only a subset of the entire set of historical events.
Do NOT view this as me agreeing with their viewpoint, merely pointing out that it existed, and in some sad forms still exists.
Stupidity... has a habit of getting its way.
Generalizations are always false.
See what I did there?
You can't say "Americans do this" or "We do that" because you're speaking for 300 million people of various backgrounds and thoughts. Even if a large portion of Americans do anything in concert that doesn't mean that is what Americans do in that situation.
Sorry for the nitpicking but I absolutely detest broad generalizations. They only serve those ignorant enough to buy into them.
You're nothing; like me.
You don't get positive karma from Funny upmods. So if you get 3 Funny mods and one Offtopic, the net effect on your karma is -1. There's a section in the FAQ about it.
A "funny" first post is a sure way to lose karma.
Says who? I can't find anything of the sort in the Constitution.
Instead, the Congress is specified in the Constitution as "a Congress of the United States". Seems to me that if one were to literally interpret the Constitution, then Senators are to represent the whole country, not their individual states.
"Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
Which is respectful and commendable, when the death is needless.
I submit that a corrupt politicians death is not needless. It removes rot that is harming everyone across the country, thus making the death not needless. Such corruption, as is alleged against Stevens, is viewable as treason, which is punishable by death.
We need not behave disrespectfully, but neither should we eulogize someone simply because they died. Death makes saints (or even respectable people) of no one. We should respond to his death (or anyone's) as their actions in life accord them.
You mean the judge with entrenched republican roots that got the prosecutors tossed out on baseless rumor and then set aside the verdict?
Please, he was guilty.
"Motion of The United States To Set Aside The Verdict And Dismiss The Indictment With Prejudice"
is not the same as exonerated.
Contrary to what he claims, we was found guilty.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
"Y'know, I think he passed through a series of tubes, avionics, hydraulics, fuselage, etc."
He had a lot to say.
He had a lot of nothing to say.
We'll miss him.
We'll miss him.
He had a lot to say.
He had a lot of nothing to say.
We'll miss him.
We're gonna miss him
We're gonna miss him
So long.
We wish you well.
You told us how you weren't afraid to die.
Well then, so long.
Don't cry.
Or feel too down.
Not all martyrs see divinity.
But at least you tried.
Standing above the crowd,
He had a voice that was strong and loud.
We'll miss him.
We'll miss him.
Ranting and pointing his finger
At everything but his heart.
We'll miss him.
We'll miss him.
We're gonna miss him.
We're gonna miss him.
Well. I'll agree that 'tubes' may be too simplified an explanation of the internet, even for children...
But you have to remember, this man was used to talking to Senators
I'm a dreamer, the world is my playpen. But hey, I'm a serious person, I can't dream all the time.
We also like it if they're killed in an especially twisted way, the news and the people eat that stuff up.
I was just at the gym, watching CNN, while on the elliptical machine working out. It is a tragedy when someone dies in a plane crash, but Senator Stevens is being painted like a saint when only last year he was in court for extreme corruption. Yes, he is THAT Senator Stevens.
Even though I think Senator Stevens was as corrupt as they come, I'm sorry to see anyone die in a horrific way. (Although I will admit that the death of Osama bin Laden in any manner will not bring a tear to my eye.)
As for the jokes on here about Stevens calling the internet "tubes", I'm laughing. Not at Stevens, but the ones of you making the jokes. Because the pipe analogy is actually a very good one, is easy for the layman to understand, and is, in a manner of speaking, technically correct. Your jokes are only showing your own lack of intelligence, and that's why I laugh. I'm not laughing with you, I'm laughing at you.
I want a new quote. One that won't spill. One that don't cost too much. Or come in a pill.
Ummm...John Lennon received his "green card" in 1976 after much legal fighting because of his anti-war stance. In fact, Nixon tried to get him deported. that was overturned.
This is a sig. This is only a sig. Had this been an actual sig you would have been informed where to tune for more sigs.
Courts do not make findings of evil. They make findings of guilt based on legal evidence. He was provided gifts well outside the legal mechanisms for doing so. His defense was "I was too stupid to know they were spending massive amounts on the renovation of my chalet." They were illegal gifts for political purposes. That his conviction was overturned is unrelated to whether the gifts were or were not illegal, just whether he could be held responsible for receiving them.
He was not exonerated, he was convicted and there is no one, not even his own legal team, that asserts that there were no illegal gifts. I didn't follow it that closely, but I think even those who gave them confessed. He got off on the technicality that he's stupid. It's the Reagan defense, and it's better than even the Chewbacca defense.
Learn to love Alaska
I meant "we" as in "humans", not "Americans". I also didn't mean to imply that all people are like this, which is why I used phrases like "tend to" and "in most cases". I think your post applies to the one I was replying to more than it does to mine.
...if he had been wearing that Incredible Hulk tie the media loved so much.
Geeks like to think that they can ignore politics, you can leave politics alone, but politics won't leave you alone.-rms
de Havilland Otters and Beavers are probably the most respected aircraft in Alaska bush flight. They were designed and built specifically for backcountry flying by de Havilland Canada. To this day they are used for dangerous mountain flying, including glacier landings and flying into Denali basecamp (through "One Shot Pass"). When I visited a friend in Alaska we took a flight-seeing tour over Denali National Park and the flight was in a single-engine Otter.
They rarely go up for sale and when they do, they are very expensive because they are so highly sought-after.
Build a man a fire, he's warm for one night. Set him on fire, and he's warm for the rest of his life.
I don't know what "needless" means; the man was 86 years old, a ripe old age thanks to public health care.
I do know that if he had retired 20 years ago, like he should have, instead of continuing to corrupt our government and flying around with important people on junkets, the US would be billions of dollars richer and he wouldn't be dead.
YOU. RESPECT. THE. RECENTLY. DEPARTED.
RESPECT. MUST. BE. EARNED.
It is not given freely to anyone, I don't care how or when they depart this world.
Everyone and everything dies. All that's left is their legacy of their actions. Judge a person on those actions, nothing else, and expect to be judged on yours.
no. if the dead don't like it, they can say so.
He's dead, he is resting at peace no matter what we say.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Probably because we (or most of us, anyway) value life without regard to political affiliation and those who reserve their tears (or good wishes, at least) for those who parallel their own political leaning are sub-human scum? Or shall we do a belated dance to the death of Teddy Kennedy too?
Python: 'And then suddenly you have a language which says "we're all stuck with whatever the whiniest coder wants".'
"green card" != "citizenship". Lennon would have been eligible for citizenship in '81.
"linux is just DOS with a UNIX like syntax" -- Galactic Dominator (944134)
"Geekoid", Nice try at repeating a lie and then spinning it. But you're lying flat out.
Try the truth per the Washington Post:
Judge Orders Probe of Attorneys in Stevens Case; Prosecutor Misconduct Alleged In Former Senator's Trial
Pretty much he was railroaded by an overzealous and lying Bush Administration US Justice Department (and corrected by the Obama Administration, nice irony). Righty or Lefty, everyone deserves a fair trial. Get that into your overly-partisan thick head. You on the left are as bad as the rightist when it comes to hating your political enemies so much you'd screw up our justice system to punish them whether they deserved it or not -- and lying and smearing people in public without regard to the truth. Liars like you, left and right, are so damnably stupid they think they can get away with it. There was serious prosecutor misconduct, not "baseless rumor" - nice try but you lied and are busted. See the part in italics in the quote above? It was the federal prosecutors (under Holder/Obama) that asked the conviction to be overturned (RTFA linked), not the judge. Care to retract your post as the lie that it is?
Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo! http://goo.gl/J9bkO
Or just don't care about it from the start, and it'll be fine...
One that hath name thou can not otter
Look, the guy was 85 when he died. He's lived a good long life. My mom is 87 suffering from painful, agonizing terminal cancer and thanks to idiots like Stevens blabbing about death panels and such, there is no funded end of life counseling and no states allow you to end your life when it's time to do so. While perhaps he suffered for a few minutes before dying, I'm certain my mom would gladly trade that for the years of incredible pain and discomfort leading to her slow and lingering death. Meanwhile, this guy hijacked funds for all sorts of absurd, wasteful programs and did very little good. He fought for our country in WWII (as did most every male his age at that time, including my dad) and supported equality for women in sports, so good for him. But over all, he was not good for the country, and he is not someone to respect. I was very happy he finally left the senate, though there are still too many clueless boneheads there. So cut out all the empty BS because while all deaths are tragedies of a sort, some are far more than others. This rates very low on the scale. I lost my father to cancer at 69, and I would have been ecstatic for him to make it to 85. And it will be a relief to my mother to finally be at peace. Senator Stevens does not deserve my respect. And his family will be sad, but they don't have to rail at the injustice of it all, because he had a good run -- better than most.
According to my Alaskan friends, Alaska could really use a couple of bridges to nowhere, and certainly the people who lived on the island the "bridge to nowhere" was to link to would have greatly benefited from being more connected with the mainland. In Anchorage itself, there were plans to build a bridge across part of the bay (I believe... I'm not familiar with the environs of Anchorage) to a place that is currently nowhere, so that they could build houses and neighborhoods there. Obviously there's nothing there now as it takes 2 hours by car to drive around to that spot.
So it's a bit disingenuous of Palin to jump on the ridicule bandwagon during the election as she undoubtedly was in favor of it before. The real controversy was the Stevens earmarks of course. But bridges to nowhere are often not as bad as the pundits make them out to by.
The answer is even simpler than that. Death is the thing we all ultimately fear, our very psychology is built around it's denial. When someone else dies we are keenly aware of our own death, something that we normally go to great lengths to avoid. Much like the desire to believe in an afterlife, we all want to believe in a death that everyone mourns greatly. We want to me remembered and respected, It's a unspoken pact we all make with each other. I'll refrain from sticking my enemy with a dirty Sanchez, while he's laying in the casket, and I hope everyone else returns the favor for me. The few people who would step out of line on this issue, wont do it publicly because they know it would go over like a fart in church.
Karma can only be handed by the universe.
And Rob Malda.
So be careful what you say about Slashdot not having any power over Karma.
Or you just might find yourself getting a LOT more accidental razor nicks or your milk going sour early.
Just sayin'.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
I'm a Libertarian, you insensitive clod! They can both die!
Hey, I'm a libertarian too! But it seems like death is kind of extreme for theft, for either side.
Russia really had a good idea going with Siberia. The U.S. could use a place like that to send political thieves.
You might think Alaska but really it's way too nice.
Perhaps they could be forced to bring hot cocoa to the Ice Road Truckers film crew for a decade or so.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Lennon would have been eligible for citizenship in '81.
I smell a conspiracy here!
...and nothing of value was lost.
If you aren't angry, you aren't paying attention.
meh :/
though he was a dipshit, he was a) human and b) may not have actively revelled in his own evil
Are you talking about Ted Stevens or Ted Kennedy? I can't tell from your post.
Back in the day, the Constitution, as worded, basically framed the United States as "the several States," that is, separate entities. Senators were appointed by State legislatures and were the State's representatives to Congress. Each District in each State elected directly a Representative to the House to represent them. This is was all quite clear prior to Reconstruction.
Basically, its called 'Federalism' -- it's a compromise which recognizes that as a Virginian, while I have certain common interests with Californians re: infrastructure and defense, that I am separated from them by such a great distance, live in a completely geographically distinct area, and my social values and economic interests are not going to be the same as theirs. That's why we have states, and that's why the federal government was originally intended to do the bare minimum that would be seen to be in the common interest despite such differences. That attitude is also the only reason that I don't dump tonnes of money into races in other states and try and oust politicians in places I can't vote for, regardless of how I feel about them. I don't begrudge the people in other states their representatives, and as I would hope they would not begrudge me mine.
But, I'm also probably not the typical American voter, in that I voted for both my Democratic Senators and my Republican Representative because they were actually the more qualified than their opponent. I voted for Obama mostly as a strategic move to keep Sarah Palin's illiterate ass as far away from the White House, or the Naval Observatory, as possible. Never really liked McCain anyway.
O'Keefe is CEO of EADS North America who is in the third-time's-a-charm rebid of the next-generation US Air Force tanker being fiercely sought by Boeing and EADS. Northrop Grumman pulled out (but EADS filled in) to use Airbus jets. US Aerospace was also bidding, using Russian Antonov jets.
You could write a pretty good conspiracy thriller based on today's unfortunate development in this long air tanker saga.
Kriston
It is American custom to regret needless death, even if you don't agree with, or like, the victims.
Unless they're Iraqi or Afghani women, children, and other innocent victims in the way of glorious American imperialist liberators creating puppet regimes that support Amerika.
Seems to me that if one were to literally interpret the Constitution, then Senators are to represent the whole country, not their individual states.
The trouble with "literal" interpretations of anything is that nobody can quite agree on just how literal they should be.
In a republic, the people must have some kind of hold over the representative or else that rep will do whatever they please, which is more or less how the Roman Republic worked out. In America, representatives are ultimately accountable to voters. Even lobbyists can only go so far in controlling politicians; that money must somehow be turned into votes in order to be reelected.
Since Minnesotans don't vote for Alaska's Senator, Stevens never had any direct accountability to Minnesota or any other state that isn't Alaska.
Congress may represent the whole country, but that doesn't mean its individual components do.
Not a typewriter
No, everyone does it. Watch this.
Ok, Ok, I see that you want to but your good nature doesn't let you, I'll do it for you: good riddance, useless man that should have been taken away on an alien spaceship through a series of universe tracks 40 years ago.
You can't handle the truth.
Are these supposed to convince me that what he did was valuable? I've visited Alaska. It's a beautiful area. However, I really don't care whether or not it's part of the US. It could have been its own country, or part of Canada, or part of Russia for all I care. As a state, it consumes far more federal money than it provides. It's a huge blob of very under-developed land with almost no population and numerous little villages that can't be reached by land, where it's an open secret that the owner of the store beats his wife (but nobody cares). I'd visit again, but I have no desire to live there, and I *love* the outdoors. I'm just having a hard time understanding why Alaska being part of the USA is something I'm supposed to commend this guy for.
There's no place I could be, since I've found Serenity...
Just in...
Deceased:
- Ted Stevens
- Theron "Terry" Smith (pilot)
- William "Bill" Phillips, Sr.
- Dana Tindall (GCI's Senior Vice President, Legal, Regulatory and Governmental Affairs)
- Corey Tindall (Dana's 16 yro daughter)
Survivors:
- Sean O'Keefe (broken pelvis supposedly)
- O'Keefe's son (leg injury supposedly).
- William "Willy" Phillips, Jr. (13 yro)
- Jim Morhard
Compiled from recent press releases and Rick's List on CNN which showed the transcript.
Unless of course you're just an uncaring bastard.
Phew. Up until now I wasn't sure how I fit into all this.
Sure it is, but unlike CNN, Fox, the NYT, network news, etc, it also is a site for "Stuff that matters."
You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike.
Well, if we can eulogize good ol' Teddy Kennedy, we can certainly week for Teddy Stevens, who was only the Diet Pepsi of evil compared to Kennedy.
Teddy Stevens had his pipes, but Teddy Kennedy more or less murdered Mary Jo, gave us our modern immigration policies which we're paying for now, and made a number of amazingly stupid statements, including his famous opposition to Robert Bork: "Robert Bork's America is a land in which women would be forced into back-alley abortions, blacks would sit at segregated lunch counters, rogue police could break down citizens' doors in midnight raids, schoolchildren could not be taught about evolution, writers and artists could be censored at the whim of the Government, and the doors of the Federal courts would be shut on the fingers of millions of citizens."
Stevens was a saint compared with Kennedy.
http://quantumg.net/okeefealive.jpg
Too soon?
How we know is more important than what we know.
If those things were indeed new to Ted Stevens, then he had no business heading a subcommittee that dealt with those matters, and was therefore grossly negligent in his duties as a Senator, which means that he deserved every bit of derision he received. He willfully put himself in a position to make policy regarding things he was not competent to make policy on. "But he's old!" is not an excuse for that.
I guess I'm the only one who remmebers Ted on Coast to Coast AM years ago, when he said his dad had been murdered in a faked plane crash, and they had tried to kill him that way. He predicted that he would die the same way.
Nothing to see here...move along...move along...hey look at that!
Fuck Natalee Holloway.
http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2005/7/3/491/18474
Hail Eris, full of mischief...
E pluribus sanguinem
You'd have cared about Alaska not being Soviet if you'd paid attention to the Cold War.
Hail Eris, full of mischief...
E pluribus sanguinem
Being a state of the United States doesn't mean a state has to give more in taxes more than it receives in Federal dollars and it doesn't mean that a state which receives more than it pays in taxes should be kicked out of the Union.
Besides, "it consumes far more federal money than it provides" is from the Federal Government putting five major military bases in Alaska (Elmendorf, Eielson, Wainwright, Richardson, Greely), as well as the high number of Alaska natives and American Indians in the state receiving tons of dollars for the Federal Government.
The fact that you don't understand the strategic and economic benefits of Alaska to the United States is fine.
Let's just say that it was sufficient to me that he was *former* Senator Stevens. I think being reviled really should be in proportion to the damage that they were able to inflict. Stevens was a politician like any other politician who had been in office too long. There have been many worse than he ever was. We all make mistakes, he just had more scope to execute them in.
Representative Democracy in large countries with no term limits tends to create career politicians that have the peculiar vice of seeking pork for their own electorates and frequently failing to make decisions that benefit the whole. He could easily have tried to be a saint, but our system does not reward people like that. No one today would know who he was, because it's doubtful he'd get re-elected, if he even got elected in the first place. Anyone who is a US Senator has probably sold out in a number of different ways just to get on the ticket to begin with.
> You'd have cared about Alaska not being Soviet if you'd paid attention to the Cold War.
Um, there was no Soviet Union when we bought Alaska from Russia in 1867.
And don't forget the undisputed fact that he did receive unreported income from a political supporter. The only things disputed are whether the income influenced (or was given to influence) Ted Steven's votes and whether he was aware that there was a funneling of money to him, as he didn't report it correctly on disclosure forms or IRS forms and such. But there was nobody that I saw (aside from some entertainers who run talk shows or opinion pieces on TV who people confuse with news reporters) that actually claimed that he wasn't given funds improperly. Not his own people, and not those that gave it to him.
I think he was purposefully railroaded. I originally thought they were going to push it through for a quick acquittal before the election, then found out that they convicted him, so I thought he was being railroaded to get him out, then he got the verdict set aside the next time it went in front of a judge. It was improper on many levels, so why was it done that way, and what political pressure was laid to get that outcome? I don't know enough about the details to figure it out, and it completely disappeared from interest when one of the most powerful men in the country was ousted in a few short weeks from an improper court action. He'd never have been voted out if the verdict was set aside before the election or the conviction after, so there was some specific timing to the actions. But why and who wanted that is beyond me. But to claim that so much was done against one of the most powerful people in the country without any reason behind it at all seems a little silly.
Learn to love Alaska
NICE argument, man. Bravo.
I personally will get drunk and cheer when Cheney dies... what did he do for anyone that wasn't one of his cronies? It is possible to help your friends without hurting others.
But he is a master at profiting off the exploitation of others. Not just that, he seems to revel in it.
And don't forget the undisputed fact that he did receive unreported income from a political supporter. The only things disputed are whether the income influenced (or was given to influence) Ted Steven's votes and whether he was aware that there was a funneling of money to him, as he didn't report it correctly on disclosure forms or IRS forms and such... It was improper on many levels, so why was it done that way, and what political pressure was laid to get that outcome?
Agreed. Then again, the Alask old-boy network had been doing that for years. And therein is the puzzle! If one takes off the ideological blinders, like you have done, then you really wonder what sort of corruption was ongoing in the US Justice Department for them to force such a case. Either it was easily proven or else should not have been brought. The real puzzler to me is why they (Justice Dept/Bush) then allowed the prosecuting team in such a high profile case to engage in such a degree of prosecutorial misconduct. As you point out, its nearly impossible to come up with any plausible scenario that either a friend or foe would have envisioned working out quite the way things did -- the timing alone was so unusual and could have been easily altered by any number of elements to make the whole case moot in terms of the election; no way Begich's people would have dreamed that one up. It just doesn't make any sense. And the irony that the opposing political party's incoming Atty Gen (Holder) ended up cleaning up the mess and cutting the defendant free is icing on the weirdness cake. It really makes me wonder just how (morally) corrupt and power hungry the US Justice Dept has become.
Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo! http://goo.gl/J9bkO
Define "needless." The Christian religion says god moves in mysterious ways, was this one of those ways?
Someone's father is dead, and you rejoice?
And? You think the Soviets wouldn't have inherited it from the Tsarists, eh?
IGTT 1/10.
Hail Eris, full of mischief...
E pluribus sanguinem
"...The guy died in a plane paid for by Alaska's largest telcom..."
In addition, he was in the company of Jim Morhard, a "connections" man from Alexandria. This person openly sells his influence on Capitol Hill to all with money (enough money, I should say). His company website is a pretty interesting read.
http://www.morhard.us/about.asp
Pay close attention to the wording of the "Why choose Morhard & Associates to serve you?" section at the bottom. Scary shit when you think about it. This is a private entity claiming "We know how to analyze legislation and understand its impacts. We are expert drafters of legislation." Since when do private entities draft legislation?
This guy and Stevie were backroom-dealers if there ever was one, and GCI was footing the "expenses".
Just fucking lovely. Shame about the kids though.
Because once they are dead, they can do nothing.
They can still vote in some jurisdictions if your campaign manager knows some people.
It is American custom to regret needless death, even if you don't agree with, or like, the victims.
Damn. I guess being born in Portland, Oregon, I'm not an American.
I guess that also means there's no reason for me to celebrate several fewer gold-plated pensions being paid for out of our pockets regardless of how good or crappy they were.
There's no place like
Dont you mean...
It is American custom to regret needless American death, even if you don't agree with, or like, the victims.
Right. If Australia were nuked, no one who is a valid United States Citizen as per the 14th amendment would so much as sniffle or feel a pang of remorse.
We're actually required to not care by law. There's a hidden amendment to the constitution (Amendment XXVIII) that isn't printed in normal copies of the constitution or put on the internet. It's only in the secret copies we all carry around in our back pocket. It's called the "Don't be a whiny bitch amendment".
There's no place like
It is American custom to regret needless death, even if you don't agree with, or like, the victims.
Unless they're Iraqi or Afghani women, children, and other innocent victims in the way of glorious American imperialist liberators creating puppet regimes that support Amerika.
On the other hand, someone from Irkan or Turcey would totally curl up in a ball and sob if an Iraqi or Afghani woman or child died needlessly.
WTF is with spelling Amerika with a 'k'? I'm confused--on one hand you bash America, but on the other hand you spell like you are a byproduct of it's public school system...
There's no place like
It doesnt matter if they follow what Reagan would have wanted, he's the republican's Jesus, and we all know how they consider what he would have wanted.
Hot damn! We just got a liberal so riled up about Reagan he accidentally admitted Jesus was real.
There's no place like
Probably because we (or most of us, anyway) value life without regard to political affiliation and those who reserve their tears (or good wishes, at least) for those who parallel their own political leaning are sub-human scum? Or shall we do a belated dance to the death of Teddy Kennedy too?
My dance for Kennedy wasn't belated. It was right on schedule.
I wonder if he shed a tear for Marry Jo after he left her to die in that Oldsmobile?
There's no place like
The only thing I regret about this whole episode is that they forgot to invite Cheney to this fishing trip.
WTF is with spelling Amerika with a 'k'? I'm confused--on one hand you bash America, but on the other hand you spell like you are a byproduct of it's public school system...
It's "its", not "it's".
No. "Stuff that matters" is a complementary statement to "News for nerds," NOT an independently different statement. You people are retarded.
"It is American custom to regret needless death"
Really? I guess Fox news must be a foreign network then, because I've seen them positively glow with "good riddance" when various people from the other side of the aisle have shuffled off this mortal coil.
Aside from a few universally hated people like Hitler...
speak for yourself. He was great in that musical! ~~Springtime for Hitler, and Germany! Deutchland is happy and gay!~~ la la la
What Hitler did was to basically tell the German people to stop feeling sorry for themselves and start working together instead of going at each others throats, the basic rhetoric of any third-rate motivational speaker. Unfortunately he did that by putting the blame for Germany's problems on the Jewish race and others they saw as impure. If I'd been there in your shoes I would have pointed out the fact that whilst having food on the table in those times may have been a good thing, it wouldn't have done much good if for some reason the Nazi regime arbitrarily decided that they themselves were impure or immoral and had to be summarily eliminated, say because they found out that somewhere in the distant past they had a Jewish ancestor.
Lets say those people somehow had survived being thrown into a death camp and were talking to you at that point - I think they'd have a slightly different viewpoint.
In summary, as much as they would have enjoyed their plentiful food and jobs, the overall outcome for humanity far outweighed any benefit the individual. Also keep in mind that Hitler was ultimately a destructive personality and in fact achieved his goal of revenge on his parents through the destruction of Germany itself.
Who is this delectable creature with an insatiable love of the dead?
No. It was lack of understanding (forgivable) combined with a seemingly passionate desire to regulate things his way. Ignorance plus arrogance.
If a senator doesn't understand the internet, that's ok, but then when the topic comes up in Congress, he should SHUT THE FUCK UP and maybe abstain from votes too. Don't make speeches "explaining" things you don't know anything about. Don't advocate; listen. Stevens was so ignorant of a subject which most laymen understand at least a little bit, that laymen could spot it, and know that he couldn't have any sort of sincere informed opinion on the matter. And if he didn't have an opinion, why was he talking? Corruption was the only possible answer. He outed himself to the public at large, rather than merely geeks/experts. That's what made Stevens' speech so mock-worthy, and he deserved it.
As copyright owner of this comment, I authorize everyone to defeat any technological measure which limits access to it.
Ok ok so the internet is not a series of tubes, but i think you are all missing the point. What if it WAS a series of Tubes? Think of it. Remember those old drive through banks where you got your money or made your deposit via a tube. Think of how many gigabytes, heck terabytes could be put inside a cylindrical hard drive shaped like one of those?. You could solve your bandwidth problem immediately, one terabyte would take a mere moment or two to receive (assuming your isp was within 30 feet or so of your computer). Ted was a genious.
Now, of course this system wouldn't work on a national level because those tubes would get too long, but if you were to combine it with my new projectile delivery service i think you might have something. want a youtube video? simple, put it on a flash drive, toss it in the morter set the trajectory and BAM there you are!
You can spread hate and venom if you want, but personally, I find there's enough of that around already without me adding to it. I'd rather call out the gold in people, buy hey, that's just me. If by some twisted exercise of logic that makes me "evil" to you, well, that's your opinion and you're welcome to it. But then I'd rather be a (perhaps) slightly naive, happy person than a bitter old man. But, whatever floats your boat.
MCSE? No, sir...I don't do Windows. Yes, I am an idealist. What's your point?
In summary, as much as they would have enjoyed their plentiful food and jobs, the overall outcome for humanity far outweighed any benefit the individual. Also keep in mind that Hitler was ultimately a destructive personality and in fact achieved his goal of revenge on his parents through the destruction of Germany itself.
Undoubtedly. But that doesn't change one simple fact: like him or not, Hitler, through leadership and rhetoric (however vile), lifted Germany from poverty to the verge of global dominance, and in the process, did a great deal for many Germans (as long as they weren't Jewish, Gypsies, mentally disabled, etc).
'course, none of that justifies murder and genocide, but it is nevertheless true, and is often overlooked when studying the rise of Hitler, which is a shame, as it goes a long long way to explaining how many Germans could have become enamored with a leader and an ideology that was so morally bankrupt at its core.
Being a state of the United States doesn't mean a state has to give more in taxes more than it receives in Federal dollars and it doesn't mean that a state which receives more than it pays in taxes should be kicked out of the Union.
It absolutely does mean that every single resident of said state is a welfare leech living off of the productivity of people in states which don't have a massive financial (and obviously ethical) imbalance though.
It does put very much into perspective the general trend of such people in such states being the number one complainers about taxes when they don't pay any at all and instead are on the receiving end of other people's unwilling charity at gunpoint. It also highlights the stunning ethical shortfall of such people that they always seem to vote in scum like Stevens who did nothing but seek to keep robbing the hard working decent people of this nation to feed the lazy greed of welfare leeches (while complaining about exactly what they are doing and blaming the victims of their sleazy theft for their actions). Also it perfectly illustrates the complete and utter hypocrisy Palin defines. She went from Governor of the queen of the welfare states and huge proponent of the bridge to nowhere to travelling around to all of the welfare states and rural welfare counties declaring the welfare leeches therein to be "real" Americans as opposed to those who actually pay their own bills and everyone else's.
This is exactly who and what the Republican party is and has been since at least Reagan who defined this very uniquely Republican ideal.
Just like how all the Republicans honor Reagan while pushing an agenda that doesn't look anything like what Reagan would have done.
Holy fucking shit. The entire Republican agenda since 1980 has been entirely based around what Reagan would have and much more importantly *did* do to fuck this country. He didn't do anything that helped us at all for t5he love of anything decent. How ignorant and fucking stupid are you to even want to believe something so utterly false. It is refuted by every relevant fact bar none. It is not supported by a single fact. It is that far outside even basic sanity. No wonder he had to win by dragging the lunatic fringe of religious nutters and lying constantly to them about America. Telling those scum to shove their vile ignorant shot into our government was one of Reagan's many direct, intentional acts of treason.
The current economic collapse is a direct result of Reagan's idiotic, economic policies which have remained essentially unchanged since Reagan implemented them.
Reagan was one of if not the worst presidents we've ever had.
From trickle down economics which is the direct cause of the massive wealth disparity hence the manifold decimation of the middle class and the current economic collapse to his avid support for terrorists in direct violation of congressional orders and hence the crack epidemic created by Reagan selling crack in the streets of America in order to fund terrorism around the world and hence the current state of worldwide terrorism.
That lying piece of shit Nazi traitor is *exactly* the template for everything the Republican party has done since. Bush II was an exact copy of Reagan with only one meaningful difference. Reagan was an actor, hence a professional liar. Bush was an idiotic liar to the point that anybody who thought it could possibly be ok to vote for him has declared themselves to be deserving on nothing but contempt.
Republicans honor Reagan because he destroyed everything that made America great and everything once great about America is exactly what Republicans despise most in the world as proven absolutely by even the most cursory glance at current events.
http://www.beliefnet.com/News/2003/09/The-Gospel-Of-Supply-Side-Jesus.aspx
WTF is with spelling Amerika with a 'k'? I'm confused--on one hand you bash America, but on the other hand you spell like you are a byproduct of it's public school system...
It's "its", not "it's".
Yes--and I am a byproduct of the American Government School System...
There's no place like
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+1 lol
If you can read this... 01110101 01110010 00100000 01100001 00100000 01100111 01100101 01100101 01101011
The reason I hate him is different: he stated that cable television and satellite radio need to be censored.
Plenty of good reasons not to like Stevens. I don't disagree with you at all on that. But not enough to screw up the justice system when going after him. It does make you wonder why the Bush administration wanted him politically pushed under the bus.
Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo! http://goo.gl/J9bkO
"would have"