White House Pulls Down TSA Petition

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White House Pulls Down TSA Petition

Posted by timothy on Sunday August 12, 2012 @03:38AM from the change-your-hope dept.

Jeremiah Cornelius writes with a note that on Thursday of this week "The Electronic Privacy Information Center posted a brief and detailed notice about the removal of a petition regarding security screenings by the TSA at US airports and other locations. 'At approximately 11:30 am EDT, the White House removed a petition about the TSA airport screening procedures from the White House 'We the People' website. About 22,500 of the 25,000 signatures necessary for a response from the Administration were obtained when the White House unexpectedly cut short the time period for the petition. The site also went down for 'maintenance' following an article in Wired that sought support for the campaign."

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Two can play at this game by ColdWetDog · 2012-08-12 03:41 · Score: 4, Insightful

We need a petition for the petition!

--
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
1. Re:Two can play at this game by Anonymous Coward · 2012-08-12 03:50 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  We need a petition for the petition!
  That petition will get pulled early too. Look it's doesn't matter how many petitions you stand up. Basically the folks that have the authority and power to control the people, will. Common folk are only here to support the rich and powerful by way of their taxes. Nothing else matters. You're either part of the good-old-boy network, or you're nobody. It's always been this way; for every country; for every regime; for every global power, since time began.
2. Re:Two can play at this game by Anonymous Coward · 2012-08-12 04:00 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  We need a petition for the petition!
  That petition will get pulled early too. Look it's doesn't matter how many petitions you stand up. Basically the folks that have the authority and power to control the people, will. Common folk are only here to support the rich and powerful by way of their taxes. Nothing else matters. You're either part of the good-old-boy network, or you're nobody. It's always been this way; for every country; for every regime; for every global power, since time began.
  Yes and every once in a while a revolution comes along that burns the old ways and chops heads or worse.
3. Re:Two can play at this game by Animats · 2012-08-12 04:07 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  Look it's doesn't matter how many petitions you stand up. Basically the folks that have the authority and power to control the people, will. Common folk are only here to support the rich and powerful by way of their taxes. Nothing else matters. You're either part of the good-old-boy network, or you're nobody. It's always been this way; for every country; for every regime; for every global power, since time began.
  That wasn't true of the US from WWII to about 1960. Truman and Eisenhower were modest people. Truman ran a hat store. Eisenhower was a night supervisor at a creamery before he got into West Point. That period was probably the most successful in American history.
4. Re:Two can play at this game by Dunbal · 2012-08-12 04:09 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  Yes and every once in a while a revolution comes along that burns the old ways and chops heads or worse.
  But somehow fails to effect any change at all.
  
  --
  Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
5. Re:Two can play at this game by artor3 · 2012-08-12 04:18 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  Incidentally, the top tax bracket in that period was 80-90%. The rich could still live like kings, but they didn't have billions (or the contemporary equivalent) to buy politicians.
  Income disparity is a self-reinforcing problem. If you let the rich have too much of the pie, that gives them the power to take even more.
6. Re:Two can play at this game by Jeremiah+Cornelius · 2012-08-12 04:23 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  The politician steals no wealth from the rich. He is the lickspittle and lackey of the socioeconomic elite - and lives or dies at their bidding. What passes for his riches? These are but crumbs, from the feasting tables of his masters.
  The main job of the politician is to distract the mass of people into believing their plight can be resolved through matters of governance and ideology. He's like a WWF entertainer - should he lose or prevail, the winner is always the man in the back office.
  
  --
  "Flyin' in just a sweet place,
  Never been known to fail..."
7. Re:Two can play at this game by Dunbal · 2012-08-12 04:24 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  It would certainly effect change for Obama. For the country as a whole? Not so much. In fact, none at all. The track that the US - and much of the Western world - is currently on, will continue. There is so much momentum because of a mind-set. The mind-set of the corporate world. The mind set of the children brought up in a land of plenty, who have never experienced real war, or real hardship, or real famine. The mind set of corruption and lobbying. The mind-set of being fascinated with destruction and war machines and technology. You can vote out every single politician and nothing will change at all, because the politicans are merely a reflection of the society as a whole. They are the symptom, not the disease.
  
  --
  Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
8. Re:Two can play at this game by Jeremiah+Cornelius · 2012-08-12 04:38 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  Artificial view of "Money" and "Power".
  "Money" is a power token, and a force to exert that power. Politicians have NO POWER in the modern, western republics. They are INSTRUMENTS of the power of others. This is where you have been deceived.
  
  --
  "Flyin' in just a sweet place,
  Never been known to fail..."
9. Re:Two can play at this game by shentino · 2012-08-12 04:43 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  People are inherently evil, and behind their altruistic motives is the instinct to backstab if they can get away with it.
  Put someone in a position of trust where they have a chance to fuck everyone over and get away with it, they will do so.
  The few who wouldn't, never seek such a position to begin with.
  It's human nature, and will never change.
  The best we can do is put in checks and balances so that we turn this nature against itself and keep it deadlocked in a stalemate.
10. Re:Two can play at this game by smpoole7 · 2012-08-12 04:46 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  > Yes and every once in a while a revolution comes along that burns the old ways and chops heads or worse.
  And within a generation or two (if that long), the revolutionaries are just as corrupt as the original regime.
  Also, it's a rare revolutionary who just wants things to be FAIR. Most of them want to get EVEN. (A very fine distinction.) History is also filled with examples of revolutionaries who, once having taken power, simply use that power to oppress those who originally oppressed them.
  
  --
  Cogito, igitur comedam pizza.
11. Re:Two can play at this game by artor3 · 2012-08-12 04:56 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  That's utter bullshit. The government enforces the will of the people. Part of that means collecting taxes and providing for those who didn't get lucky in life. Get rid of the safety nets, the the people will find another way to provide from themselves -- by killing the rich and taking their things. The poor will not lay down in the gutter and starve to death, no matter how much the robber barons may wish it.
  Taxes are the price you pay to live in a civilized society.
12. Re:Two can play at this game by berashith · 2012-08-12 05:07 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  So I have a choice of allowing someone to fuck me over and try their best to enslave me while pretending to let me have a say in the matter, or creating an environment where they leave, take their money and jobs, but leave behind the capital and resources that the remaining citizens can attempt to use to actually achieve success? I say let them go. There are piles of people with skill and drive that can still succeed and bring up many with them that currently have to wade through a stacked deck.
  I dont think that the jobs are only here because the rich that are skimming the economy into ruin are just being polite as long as we let them get away with anything they feel like doing.
13. Re:Two can play at this game by number11 · 2012-08-12 05:12 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  If the Obidiot were to be thrown out of office come the November election, it would effect some change.
  True, but if he was replaced by Rmoney, it would be change for the worse.
  
  If all 435 sitting idiots in the House of representatives were thrown out come the November election, it would effect some change. If all 33 idiot senators in the Senate up for reelection were thrown out come the November election, it would effect some change.
  True, but if they were replaced by others from the usual crowd of suspects, it would not be significant change. And part of the problem is that while a lot of people (including me) think that Congress is idiots, those same people (including me) often think their own particular Rep is an exception.
  
  Repeat until the elected idiots finally realize that their employ is to serve the interests of the people (those who vote them into office) rather than the corporate elites.
  This will only work if we can keep the corporate elites' money out of politics. Limiting who can put money in (e.g. only persons qualified to vote) would help, as would limiting the amount they can put in (e.g. a max of $5000 per person per election for all aggregated electoral/issues advertising contributions), but there are those "corporations have rights" and "money is speech" things to overcome.
14. Re:Two can play at this game by ToastedRhino · 2012-08-12 05:14 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  Funny that historically that absolutely did not happen, and in fact the US was at its most prosperous during those times. Greed will always exist, and some people will indeed move because of it. I say good riddance, go be a douchebag somewhere else.
15. Re:Two can play at this game by Lumpy · 2012-08-12 05:19 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  "If you take too much from the rich, they will leave, and they'll take their jobs with them."
  Then good riddance. They can frisking leave. Hope they enjoy paying for a private army in south america or where ever they move to. Because if what you say is true they wont be going to Europe where the rich are taxed heavily.
  and honestly we don't need their jobs. Eliminate the rich and their "jobs" and the economy will recover faster. because small business men will jump in to fill the void. treating the employees better, creating a far superior product, and overall doing a far better job at it.
  
  --
  Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
16. Re:Two can play at this game by Jeremiah+Cornelius · 2012-08-12 05:22 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  "In Italy, for 30 years under the Borgias, they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance.
  In Switzerland they had brotherly love, they had 500 years of democracy and peace - and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock."
  -- Harry Lime
  
  --
  "Flyin' in just a sweet place,
  Never been known to fail..."
17. Re:Two can play at this game by amiga3D · 2012-08-12 05:47 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  The EPA hasn't helped much either. The fact that companies can outsource production to an area where it's okay to dump toxic waste in the fields outback of the plant makes it hard for companies in the US that must spend tens of millions to properly dispose of waste to compete. I agree that dumping poison is bad for the environment but why do we let them do it overseas and then import their products?
18. Re:Two can play at this game by Anonymous Coward · 2012-08-12 05:52 · Score: 3, Interesting
  
  The best lies contain some element of truth. And sure, the US people are weak and lazy. And the politicians reflect this.
  But this is not nearly the whole truth.
  In reality, the politicians work for corporate/banking/old money interests. The US people could be stronger, better, more educated, etc., and it would not matter. In fact, in times past, the people have been such and it hasn't made a difference. The world is still in endless war against whomever "the powers that be" say is the enemy.
  Until there is change on who owns and runs the world, things will stay the same. The people have no way of changing this other than via revolution. And that is not likely as long as they continue to believe in the illusions of home ownership and voting.
19. Re:Two can play at this game by Anonymous Coward · 2012-08-12 06:21 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  ... and what did that produce?
  500 years of democracy and peace.
20. Re:Two can play at this game by Anonymous Coward · 2012-08-12 06:54 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  I see that some people agree with your unsupported assertions - why else would your comment be modded up?
  
  First: nobody paid those taxes. People paid less taxes than they are paying today.
  You seem to be confused about the concept of marginal tax rates. Nobody is claiming that people paid 90% of their total income in taxes. There were more deductions at that time, however, people certainly didn't pay less taxes then than they do today. In 1960, the top marginal rate was 91%, and the rich did indeed pay a higher percentage of their income in taxes
  Income inequality was also much less at that time.
  
  Second: what kind of logic is that, marginal tax rates were high and so this is why the economy was better or whatever the point is? That's a huge logical fail, none of that follows.
  You appear to have a reading comprehension fail. The claim was that the lower incomes of the rich led to their having less influence over politics because they had less to spend on it.
  
  Thirdly: the real time when USA was actually a real economic power, when people truly had individual liberties was not any time past WWII, it was the time from the 1870 to 1913.
  Ah, yes, the Gilded Age. A time of robber barons, union busting, company stores, and political corruption. There was certainly high growth during this period due to industrialization, but a period of personal liberty? What are you smoking? Assuming you weren't black, a woman, or a native American, and assuming you approved of child labor and sweat shops, you basically had the "liberty" to exploit your fellow man during this period - if you had the money, resources, or political power to do so. It was certainly closer to the libertarian paradise in that the government did little to protect the common man from exploitation, but these liberties tend to be quite one sided, and to the benefit of those with power.
21. Re:Two can play at this game by dryeo · 2012-08-12 07:01 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  Using Gates as an example, he had a million dollar trust fund, sent to a very good school that had access to computers and a mother who associated with one of the head honchos at IBM. If this what you call not being born with a silver spoon in your mouth...
  
  --
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverted_totalitarianism
22. Re:Two can play at this game by DesScorp · 2012-08-12 07:20 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  You've got it all wrong. People are actually inherently good, and their altruistic motives are mostly hardwired.
  And just what proof of this do you present? Because I present, for my case of man being inherently flawed and evil unless taught not to be and enforced with laws and social codes, the entire history of the human race. You're essentially using Rousseau's "noble savage" argument, that man, until corrupted by civilization, is inherently good. But it fell out of favor because common sense triumphed, and we re-discovered that, shockingly, savages tend to be... savage.
  
  --
  Life is hard, and the world is cruel
23. Re:Two can play at this game by AK+Marc · 2012-08-12 07:24 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  The worst of what he did was try to gracefully end Bush's policies, rather than doing so more abruptly. That, and sellout to the insurance lobby by abandoning single payer insurance the moment he won the election. The only reason he seems bad now is that you are too close to it. 50 years from now, he may be a forgettable president, but won't even make it on a list of "bad" presidents any more than Carter does, who was bad, and quite hated at the time, but now largely just ignored.
  
  --
  Learn to love Alaska
24. Re:Two can play at this game by shentino · 2012-08-12 07:28 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  I kinda like the scheme set up by israel's knesset.
  Direct election of representatives, who elect a prime minister. They can waive their own immunity.
  Add to this the ability to recall a representative at will and you'd almost have a perfect system.
  The biggest problem we have with the electoral college is that we can't fire our reps if they screw up or screw us in the arse.
  Which means they have no incentive to be truthful during campaign season, just avoid pissing off the congress critters feeding from the same corporate trough they are.
  More finishing touches would be to make election fraud (vote tampering, disenfranchisement, etc) a class A felony of sorts punishable by 20 years in prison.
25. Re:Two can play at this game by slashrio · 2012-08-12 07:29 · Score: 5, Interesting
  
  I'm afraid I just found out that the whole point of the people's power, which allegedly started with the French Revolution, was to fool us, the people, in thinking that finally we would be in control.
  While on the other hand it was just a puppet revolution setup by the banks to get rid of their bad-debt risks with lending huge sums of warfare money to kings and queens where the inheritor of the same would deny responsibility for paying back those debts. With governments you don't have this problem because then it's the whole country which is liable for the debt, and countries don't change that often.
  So the whole french revolution was nothing more than a good PR, suckering 'the people' in taking over responsibility of their countries' loans.
  While keeping those in control who already were...
  (I think the current 'debt crisis' proves my point.)
  
  --
  "Trump!!", the new Godwin.
26. Re:Two can play at this game by shentino · 2012-08-12 07:30 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  What we need most is a way to fire our delegates.
  Local politicians subject to recall tend to behave better while in office.
  If we're really their bosses, why shouldn't we be able to hand them a pink slip?
27. Re:Two can play at this game by AK+Marc · 2012-08-12 07:36 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  We gave the rich billions, and they didn't create a single new job for it. When Exxon or Mobile take in 10 billion in profit in a quarter, do they add new jobs? No. They still try to keep costs as low as possible to repeat the performance next quarter.
  
  --
  Learn to love Alaska
28. Re:Two can play at this game by manaway · 2012-08-12 07:36 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  "In Italy, for 30 years under the Borgias, they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love, they had 500 years of democracy and peace - and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock." -- Harry Lime
  Well let's see now Mr. Lime (while ignoring that *whoosh* over my head), Switzerland also produced or was a sometime inspiration for: CERN, Jacob Bernoulli, Carl Jung, Voltaire, Rosseau, Freddie Mercury, and Nietzsche. And a few international banks which are far less reliable than cuckoo clocks. So perhaps people develop science, literature, art, and whatever economics is, independently of foreign relations.
  Swiss politics involves town meetings with lots of talking, and thus real representations of local concerns instead of representatives in popularity contests (cool to have a beer with, has my family values? yeah I'll for for him/her). Switzerland's not perfect, not just banking but paying non-Swiss cheap wages for jobs the locals don't want to do; but other countries and especially the US with its take-down petitions could learn a few techniques. If, that is, the motivation was to improve democracy, which it's not.
29. Re:Two can play at this game by BasilBrush · 2012-08-12 07:39 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  Anyone can become wealthy. Look at Zuckerberg, Gates, Bezos, Ellison, Page, and Brin for a few examples. None of these folks were born with a silver spoon in their mouths
  Zuckerberg - Son of a dentist and a psychiatrist. Wealthy enough to send him to Harvard.
  Gates - Son of a Lawyer and a company director. Wealthy enough to send him to Harvard.
  Bezos - Family owned a 39 square mile ranch. Wealthy enough to go to Princeton.
  Ellison - OK, a modest background.
  Page - Son of 2 computer science professors.
  Brin - Son of a mathematics professor and a research scientist.
  With the exception of Ellison, these aren't examples of "Anyone" becoming wealthy. They were indeed born with silver spoons in their mouths.
  They are also an unusual selection in that they are all tech company founders. Most businesses and businessmen are not that, and are not creating whole new categories of business from exceptional intelligence and education.
  Most businesses are set up in existing categories. And require more capital and less intellect than tech start-ups.
30. Re:Two can play at this game by AK+Marc · 2012-08-12 07:48 · Score: 3, Interesting
  
  You see, capital investment comes from savings, not from the printing press, that's why the current Western societies are all on the brink of the complete economic collapse, they are indebted so much, that they can NEVER pay the debt back, but they won't admit it, they will most likely try to print their way out, and if they do, they'll print their way into abject poverty.
  Japan is the exception. They are trying to grow their way out of a recession, and having quite a time of it. Sadly, I think that default would be better for the US than inflation. Why? Because default will push much of the ill effect to other countries who hold the debt, spreading the problem more evenly. Inflating out of it will ensure the collapse of the USA and only the USA (possibly Canada or Mexico too, but that depends more on oil and resources). No, China wouldn't be that hard hit if the US never placed another order for goods. The US is about 20% of Chinese exports and imports. The drop of exports orders would be countered by the drop in cost of the imports, and they'd just focus on other markets. The US isn't as integral to the world market as the US thinks.
  
  The US was capable of paying off the debt at the end of Bush. I had a nice plan to do so. It even included universal health care, as medicare, covering old people, spends more money per citizen than most countries do to cover everyone, and they only cover a few. So it wasn't all about cut-cut-cut, but cut and spend intelligently (for one, until the debt is paid off, abolish the standing military except where abolishing it is more expensive than not, like nukes and such) But increase funding to national guard and coast guard. There are plenty of large programs that can go. Department of Defense, Education, Energy, and everything related to the war on drugs. Then, of course, tax intelligently. Our rates are at historical lows, when our costs are at historical highs. We need tax rates at emergency levels, like they've been before. 80% to 90%.
  
  Do all that, and 20 years from now, we'll have no debt. But it's hard. We'd rather dig ourselves a larger hole. It's easier.
  
  --
  Learn to love Alaska
31. Re:Two can play at this game by CohibaVancouver · 2012-08-12 08:25 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  500 years of democracy and peace.
  All right, all right - But apart from better sanitation and medicine and education and irrigation and public health and roads and a freshwater system and baths and public order... what have the Romans done for us?!
  
  Brought peace!
  
  Oh SHUT UP!
32. Re:Two can play at this game by cayenne8 · 2012-08-12 09:01 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  ...but won't even make it on a list of "bad" presidents any more than Carter does, who was bad, and quite hated at the time, but now largely just ignored.
  I dunno...Carter is still held in most dialogs, as being a bad president.
  As for health care fiasco...I think he screwed the pooch on the insurance companies as you said...but, I wouldn't have wanted a single payer system either.
  There's got to be a much better way than either of those two paths...something that does NOT put the federal or state govt in between me and my doctor with regard to my medical care. But, that's another argument.
  The abomination that is the current "affordable health care act" has just made a bad situation worse....and we're not going to see the full effect of its badness for years to come, sadly....until well after Obama is out.
  As for any of Bush's policies he tried to gracefully end....exactly which one was that? Recalling the Patriot Act? Repealing immunity for the Telcos after illegal wiretaps? Closing Guitmo?
  Hmm....I've not seen him really repeal anything much to tell the truth....and yet, some people still can support him?
  
  --
  Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
33. Re:Two can play at this game by cayenne8 · 2012-08-12 10:11 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  I'm not sure which world you live in, but you can either have non-govt provided healthcare (so you pay $$$ or pay insurance $$$) or you can have govt provided healthcare (in which case, you pay with taxes).
  What other choices are there, other than fairy dust and unicorn horns?
  I think an integration of both sides.
  We already have medicare for the elderly, and medicaid for the poor....
  For the rest of us, do a few things I think:
  1. Allow insurance to be sold across state lines, like auto insuracne....open it up to more competition and that should help lower prices a good bit.
  2. Especially for the young...and I'm not young and I'd prefer this...rather than tighten down things like HSA (not FSA which is use it or lose it) allow people to sock away a good bit of money pre-tax into Health Savings Accounts....for their routine care. Why should people not save for routine care just like they save for groceries, utilities...etc. If you combine this with a higher deductible insurance policy, ONLY to be used for catastrophic needs (this used to be called Major Medical)....and that way your covered for something catastrophic....but routine care is paid for by you...allowing you to shop around for doctors, etc....opening up competition there a bit too.
  Way back before HMO's and all came about....prices weren't running away...its when you put bean counters in as middle men along with insurance, where things got out of hand.
  3. Take employers out of the chain.....why should medical insurance be tied to employment...that ties people down to jobs....
  I think something along those lines would help. It keeps the govt out of the decision making...but allows for people to save on their own, and encourages it through tax breaks...I supposed if the govt were to be involved more...maybe a minimum HSA deduction would be mandated by employment...but the person would be in charge of it, and it would stay with them no matter who they work for.
  
  --
  Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
34. Re:Two can play at this game by Anonymous Coward · 2012-08-12 10:17 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  Well, he certainly couldn't do any worse than the current administration on virtually any front you wished to discuss.
  Sure he could. Look at the changes in consumer credit. In gay rights. In healthcare. Look at the huge rebate he forced the insurance companies to come up with this month. In the type of warfare he prosecutes -- drones mean fewer deaths of our service people. Now look at Romney's pandering to the 1%.
  Are you not paying attention, or are you just mouth-breather-stupid?
35. Re:Two can play at this game by TapeCutter · 2012-08-12 10:36 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  I can't see anywhere to go but UP from where we are now.
  You have a distinct lack of imagination, the US population is still well fed, watered, and sheltered.
  
  --
  And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
36. Re:Two can play at this game by TapeCutter · 2012-08-12 11:18 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  The US health system is fucked because there is a maze of overlapping schemes and policy fine print, each one with its own army of accounts who are paid to work out how NOT to pay your claim. The US spends as much tax on health as Australia does (on a per capita basis). The difference is that in Australia you are fully covered with that tax money no questions asked, whereas in the US the same level of funding doesn't even buy basic cover for everyone. A good system will only come about when affordable universal health care is a bipartisan issue, which is unlikely to happen any day soon in the US.
  
  --
  And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
37. Re:Two can play at this game by khallow · 2012-08-12 16:34 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  Those laws and social codes, especially the latter arise on their own.
  Nonsense. Everything has a cause. Sometimes it's a crazy vision or some weird quirk that enough people aped, sometimes it's genuine harming of humans by other humans.
  
  All the evil you are referencing is usually sociopaths grabbing for power.
  
  And what distinguishes a sociopath from a normal human? The primary characteristic seems to be opportunity.
38. Re:Two can play at this game by StormyWeather · 2012-08-13 00:56 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  Taxes are the price you pay to live in a civilized society.
  Nobody argues this, what people do argue about is the amount of taxes, and what those taxes are used for. The problem is that we start with spening, then create a budget, then go after revenues.
  We should determine what a fair amount of revenues or life to eat up of the populace, then determine a budget, then allocate the revenue to the budget.
  Can you imagine at your house if you went on a spending spree for every little thing your heart wanted, then you came up with your budget, then went to your boss to demand to be paid what your budget was? It's just fucking stupid!
39. Re:Two can play at this game by pev · 2012-08-13 01:34 · Score: 4, Interesting
  
  In the type of warfare he prosecutes -- drones mean fewer deaths of our service people.
  You know I think it's also bad that police officers put themselves in danger to protect the public. How about you use the same drones to attack suspected violent offenders on home ground too and help avoid the danger they present to the police?
  What's that you say? You're not happy? You think it wasn't fair to blow up the dude who might have been a murderer as while he wasn't a nice person, you weren't sure if he actually killed anyone or not? And you're angry the missile killed some his friends, family and children that were at the bowling alley at the same time? Oh I understand - you think that they should have been afforded due process and rights because they were your people not someone that doesn't share your language?
  Let's get something straight : drone attacks may keep some military personnel safe in the very near term but they're constantly indescriminately killing people. In the past years in pakistan they've killed somewhere between 400 and 800 people, of which around 160 were children. How would you be feeling if another country had flown drones into your country and been killing those numbers of people?
  Don't you think that if those peoples surviving family, friends and neighbors didn't previously think that western powers deserved a good kicking, the wanton and unashamed murders by drones will have changed their minds? If one of the angry relatives pulled off something even half as awful as the WTC attacks, would you still say the drones saved "your people" successfully?
  Are you not paying attention, or are you just plain stupid?
Tyranny by pubwvj · 2012-08-12 03:42 · Score: 5, Insightful

So much for open government and responsiveness. Yes, but only if we ask for what they want to give us.
1. Re:Tyranny by Intrepid+imaginaut · 2012-08-12 03:51 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  Its getting more and more obvious though. When a government is no longer working for the people, the people will change it one way or the other, this is the lesson of history. I sometimes wonder how these guys got into power in the first place with such a poor understanding of cause and effect in politics.
somewhat surprising by Trepidity · 2012-08-12 03:44 · Score: 5, Insightful

Given that online petitions are notoriously ineffective, I wonder why they'd bother. Let the thing get to 25,000, and issue a generic, mostly content-free response about balancing safety and the War on Terror with civil liberties and whatever. I doubt it'd be particularly politically damaging either way, since this is one issue where the Obama administration is more or less in line with the GOP opposition, which created the TSA in the first place, and whose law-and-order branch still strongly supports it.

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10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
1. Re:somewhat surprising by Trepidity · 2012-08-12 04:05 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  That's simply not correct. The biggest legislative proponent of the TSA bill that eventually passed was Don Young (R-AK), and Bush strongly supported it throughout; he didn't "cave in" at the end. Its expansion into ever-more-intrusive measures was strongly supported and overseen by first Tom Ridge (Republican, former Governor of Pennsylvania) as head of DHS, and then by Michael Chertoff (Bush's 2nd DHS head). Chertoff, post-Bush-administration, is now closely connected with Rapiscan Systems, the backscatter X-Ray company.
  Some in the GOP have slowly started waking up to the fact that they passed a bunch of stupid things in the post-9/11 era (Patriot Act, DHS, etc.), but at the time they were the ones pushing it, and very few (except maybe Ron Paul) opposed it.
  
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  10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
Well... by Oxford_Comma_Lover · 2012-08-12 03:45 · Score: 5, Insightful

They were going to give a non-answer answer anyway. This is just an attempt to avoid any coverage of the issue.

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-- IANAL, this isn't legal advice, and definitely isn't legal advice for you. Also, Squee!
1. Re:Well... by C0R1D4N · 2012-08-12 03:49 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  They should meet Barbara Streisand. I am betting taking it down and killing what little credibility the petition system had will only increase coverage.
no big conspiracy...just normal maintenance by Anonymous Coward · 2012-08-12 03:47 · Score: 5, Informative

The reddit crowd already went over this one in detail... it wasn't pulled down...the petitions have a limited amount of time, and there was a standard maintenance window near the time this particular petition ended. So no big conspiracy...just normal network maintenance...
1. Re:no big conspiracy...just normal maintenance by Meshach · 2012-08-12 03:56 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  The reddit crowd already went over this one in detail... it wasn't pulled down...the petitions have a limited amount of time, and there was a standard maintenance window near the time this particular petition ended. So no big conspiracy...just normal network maintenance...
  Here is the reddit thread.
  
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  "Maybe this world is another planet's hell"
  Aldous Huxley
2. Re:no big conspiracy...just normal maintenance by CastrTroy · 2012-08-12 04:06 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  Convenient time to schedule maintenance. Right at the end of the petition deadline. Also, who's running this server. This isn't 1970. There's no need to bring a server down for maintenance. At least not for a prolonged period of time. At most it should be down for the amount of time it takes to reboot the server. A proper web site should have 2 or 3 load balanced machines anyway, so the site never has to be completely down.
  
  --
  
  Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
3. Re:no big conspiracy...just normal maintenance by guttentag · 2012-08-12 04:15 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  Here is the reddit thread.
  Are you allowed to do that here?
  Absolutely not. All content posted on Slashdot must be entirely the original work of the poster, unless the linked content is unimportant, not insightful, related to business intelligence or involves videos of remote-control flying taxidermied cats. I would link to the relevant regulations, but then I'd be in violation.
4. Re:no big conspiracy...just normal maintenance by Nerdfest · 2012-08-12 04:44 · Score: 4, Interesting
  
  Perhaps people should take a page from from the copyright cartel playbook and keep putting the petitions up until they get the number of signatures they need.
How much time? by AliasMarlowe · 2012-08-12 03:49 · Score: 5, Insightful

TFS and TFA state that the "White House unexpectedly cut short the time period for the petition", and indeed, the petition's page now says "The petition you are trying to access has expired, because it failed to meet the signature threshold."
It would be nice if EPIC provided information on (i) how long a petition normally gets before it expires, and (ii) how old this petition was when it was abruptly terminated. We know that it had garnered 22500 out of the 25000 signatures required, but how much time was taken away by the early termination of the petition?

--
Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. - Voltaire
1. Re:How much time? by Jah-Wren+Ryel · 2012-08-12 05:18 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  but how much time was taken away by the early termination of the petition?
  
  I'm too lazy to dig up wherever I read it, maybe it was a comment on hacker news, but it sounded like it had about another week to go before expiration.
  FWIW, I'm inclined to write this off as a glitch. There is nothing to be gained by nefariously disappearing the petition other than to draw attention to the petition. If history is any evidence, petitions that do get enough signatures don't provoke any action anyways, just a condescening pat on the head.
  
  --
  When information is power, privacy is freedom.
2. Re:How much time? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-08-12 05:19 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  The petition was set to expired on August 9th and expired on August 9th but long before midnight, I was looking at the site when it happened but I don't remembver the time between 10 am and 2pm IIRC. Since we don't know at what time the petition was set up in July, it's difficult to say whether the White House cheated or not.
3. Re:How much time? by jcrb · 2012-08-12 07:14 · Score: 3, Interesting
  
  I'm too lazy to dig up wherever I read it, maybe it was a comment on hacker news, but it sounded like it had about another week to go before expiration.
  Actually you can't look it up. I was surprised when I did a search for the link that no hits from the actual site came up. So I tried forcing the link in googlecache and still got nothing so I checked the page source at petitions.whitehouse.gov and all the links have no-follow on them. Strange really, why would such an exercise in open government want to make sure there were no search engine results that brought people to the petitions or any record of what had appeared on the site.
  I'm thinking someone needs to set up a shadow copy of the site with links to all the pages created on petitions.whitehouse.gov so they get seeded into the search engines, since supposedly the no-follow only stops the initial indexing, if the page gets in from some other link it should stay in the search engine.
  
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  -jon
4. Re:How much time? by Ksevio · 2012-08-12 07:55 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  The petition was set to expire that day, so if you assume it expires at midnight, that's just a few hours short.
  They have a month to get enough signatures, so it looks like people were just bad at promoting it. I'd go with glitch as well since the last TSA petition just got a response from the head of the TSA saying how wonderful it was.
Par for the course... by Nova+Express · 2012-08-12 03:52 · Score: 4, Interesting

...for the least transparent administration in American history. Perhaps the Obama Administration will restore the petition shortly after they turn over the Fast and Furious documents Obama has claimed Executive Privilege over.
This is also par for the course for the Obama Administration's constant defense of the TSA. When Texas tried to pass a bill to ban TSA groping in the state, the Obama Administration threatened to impose a no fly zone on Texas over the right for TSA agents to grope people. Do you think think the Obama Administration will be any less protective now that they're unionized.
Texas Senate candidate Ted Cruz has called for the abolition of the TSA. Given the wasteful, intrusive, and ineffective security theater they stage, does anyone think the America public would object to to their abolition?

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Lawrence Person (lawrencepersonh@gmailh.com (remove all "h"s to mail)
http://www.lawrenceperson.com/
1. Re:Par for the course... by LourensV · 2012-08-12 04:37 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  ...for the least transparent administration in American history.
  I seriously doubt that. With modern media and the Internet all the parts of the government are more visible than they've ever been. Yes, there are things that governments today won't tell their citizens about, but those have always been there. It's just that the citizens now know about the existence of these things at all, whereas in earlier times the citizens did what they did in their homes and the politicians did what they did in their capitols and there was much less communication. And so, modern governments seem less transparent, while the citizens now actually know more about what their government does than ever before.
Petition expired August 9th. by Samuel+Dravis · 2012-08-12 03:52 · Score: 5, Informative

http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2012/08/court_orders_ts.html Nothing to see here.
Special Screening by CosmicRabbit · 2012-08-12 03:54 · Score: 3, Insightful

The petition was not removed, but randomly chosen for special screening in a side room, away from public eyes to protect its privacy. Hence you saw it "under maintenance".
Unfortunately it has been determined that the petition was carrying some dangerous baggage, and therefore it was denied boarding rights to the oval office. It is now blacklisted for future trips.
The real question.. by SuperCharlie · 2012-08-12 04:09 · Score: 5, Insightful

Has the "We The People" website had one iota of influence on ANY issue?

I suspect the whole purpose was to get some good touchy-feely-see-I-care press for launching the site, not to actually do anything substantive but pat people on the head and continue to do whatever the hell they want anyway.
1. Re:The real question.. by LourensV · 2012-08-12 06:04 · Score: 3, Informative
  
  I suspect the whole purpose was to get some good touchy-feely-see-I-care press for launching the site, not to actually do anything substantive but pat people on the head and continue to do whatever the hell they want anyway.
  From my foreign perspective, it seems that American politicians often can't actually do that much. Let me explain that.
  Here in The Netherlands, the most important elections are for our Lower House. The people vote for any of a range of political parties, and the seats get divided based on the vote share. Then, the largest party negotiates with other parties to form a coalition large enough to have a majority in the Lower House (and the Senate, although it's of less importance), and they together write a plan for the next four years and form an administration. The leader of the largest party becomes the Prime Minister, and the others contribute some ministers as well.
  As a result of this, the executive branch is always backed by a majority in the legislative branch, enough to decide anything except changes to the constitution. Of course, this is counterbalanced by the fact that the administration is a collaboration of parties that partially disagree with each other, so that the common plan is a compromise that balances the various concerns. Sometimes parties are not willing to compromise, and they end up in the opposition as a result, with little opportunity to further their cause. Thus, there is an incentive to cooperate.
  Looking at this chart of the various administrations and corresponding party representations reveals a general pattern of aligned legislative bodies and administrations especially in the early years, but more recently a lot of situations where it's not so clear-cut. For an administration to be really free to act, it needs the Presidency, a majority in the House of Representatives, and a majority in the Senate. Starting from the 63rd Congress on the page linked above (the last 100 years), I count 22 2-year periods in which there was no party agreement between the three, and 28 in which there was. It seems to me that it's actually pretty difficult to get anything done for an American administration.
  Of course, this can still work if the other party is willing to cooperate on things they don't fully agree with in exchange for favours on other things. Historically, that seems to have gone pretty well. But the American political environment has been getting more and more hostile and negative, and now parties seem to be happy to block things that are in the interest of the nation just to keep the other party from getting the credits for them. Broad strategic filibustering has upped the Senate requirements for getting anything done to a 3/5 majority (which hasn't occurred since the 1970's). As a result, we see things blocked for the political advantage of being able to attack the opposition over not achieving it, unless someone is willing to contribute enough campaign funds. Meanwhile, the nation is falling apart, but the politicians are too busy recording attack ads to do something about it.
  Final note: our system isn't perfect either. In the last elections we had five parties (Socialists, Social Democrats, Christian Democrats, Liberals, and Populists) all come out at about the same amount of seats. The resulting ChrDem-Lib-Pop coalition had difficulty agreeing on a plan, and broke up prematurely when the Populists backed out of the 2013 budget negotiations. So it's back to the polls in September, and meanwhile no important decisions will be taken unless there's a majority amongst the existing representatives. The 2013 budget was agreed on by such an ad-hoc majority, who recognised that something had to be done and acted in the best interest of the nation. It has left our government hamstrung though, and current polls have the leftmost and the rightmost of the large parties leading, so it doesn't look like the situation will improve soon...
The People Have a Voice! by ZosX · 2012-08-12 04:12 · Score: 4, Funny

oh wait.....

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zosxavius photography
RTFA by lexsird · 2012-08-12 04:15 · Score: 4, Insightful

If anyone bothers to read this, (and this is an old story already, been done at Reddit) they will discover that it was due to be taken down in a half an hour. It was a half an hour early, BIG FUCKING DEAL. It's highly doubtful that they would have got the 2500 signatures in that time anyway. Besides these petitions are only for letting them know what people are on about, to get a public opinion. They don't set policy.
This is a none issue, only made an issue by hysterical paranoid loons.

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Take the Red Pill.
I tried to sign it, but couldn't by EmagGeek · 2012-08-12 04:34 · Score: 4, Interesting

I tried to sign this petition several times over the last couple of weeks, but the system would not let me create an account.
Re:Not much info by Hatta · 2012-08-12 04:49 · Score: 3, Funny

I know. Why can't we ever get people to flip the fuck out over the right shit? There's plenty of smart shit to flip the fuck out over.

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Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
Flying vs. Voting vs. TSA by wonkavader · 2012-08-12 05:02 · Score: 4, Interesting

We just recently saw a study which shows that the TSA isn't an issue -- Americans don't hate them that much.
But the study didn't control for whether you'd flown or not in the past few years.
Obviously, I'd like to see the study redone with whether you've flown. I suspect people who've flown HATE the TSA and people who haven't think they're grand.
But I'd also like another variable added. People who vote.
I suspect the people who don't hate the TSA are a complacent bunch who don't read, don't think, and don't vote. I further suspect people who don't fly don't vote. But it could go the other way. I want to see those numbers. The TSA may be a much, MUCH bigger issue than the administration thinks it is, or they may be completely right -- ignore it, because it's not something the real people who vote crare about.
Obligatory by cultiv8 · 2012-08-12 05:39 · Score: 5, Funny

A remote-control flying taxidermied cat

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sysadmins and parents of newborns get the same amount of sleep.
Petition or not...the TSA is never going away by erp_consultant · 2012-08-12 05:45 · Score: 3, Insightful

Might as well get used to it folks. The TSA is never going away. Already it has absorbed several other agencies along the way (coast guard, etc.). As Rham Emmanuel once famous said "never let a good crisis go to waste". The creation of TSA was a direct result of 9/11 and it's continued existence is playing upon people's fears of some vague "terrorist" threat somewhere in the distance. Remember in the airports they always used to announce that the threat alert was "orange"? Never yellow, never red. Always orange. If it was yellow people might question if we even need the TSA. It was never red because they never actually caught anyone doing anything that could justify setting it to that. So basically it was just a charade. Remember how the govt told us how they were going to replace those rent-a-cops that the airlines used to hire for security? Looks to me like the same drones that were there before. The only difference is that it costs more and the lines are longer. I don't feel one bit safer. Oh, and the screenings are more invasive and we have given up (or had taken away more accurately) more of our civil rights. If someone wanted to blow up a plane they could do it TODAY, with or without the TSA. I'm not suggesting that we don't need screening in airports I just don't want the government in charge of it.
Not the fault of the EPA... by Ellis+D.+Tripp · 2012-08-12 06:03 · Score: 4, Insightful

The EPA can only enforce environmental laws within the US. They have no ability to enforce US environmental standards overseas, and no ability to prevent the importation of foreign-manufactured goods unless the goods THEMSELVES pose an environmental threat (such as banned pesticides).
While I completely agree with you in regards to outsourcing in order to skirt environmental regulations, the laws needed to prevent this would need to come from agencies other than the EPA. Starting with the commerce dept.

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Remember "News for Nerds, Stuff that Matters"? Help make it a reality again! http://soylentnews.org
No time - it expired on schedule by Theaetetus · 2012-08-12 08:29 · Score: 4, Informative

but how much time was taken away by the early termination of the petition?
I'm too lazy to dig up wherever I read it, maybe it was a comment on hacker news, but it sounded like it had about another week to go before expiration.
It expired on the 9th. See, e.g. Bruce Schneier's post a week ago, or the Fark thread from the 8th saying 'it expires tomorrow'.