Liar. At one point Kos thought the grassroots should form a third party, but decided it was better to reform the existing party of the Democrats instead.
imagine the state of the world today had the vote tally been slightly different back in 2000
It would have been, if Florida had completed a full statewide recount. Gore not only won the popular vote, he should have won the electoral vote as well.
That's kind of funny,.... that is how the Republicans gained the majority in Congress and the White House from the Democrats.
I suppose you could see it that way, if you have no sense of perspective. Name me one Democratic screw up or shenanigan that comes close to Iraq, NSA wiretapping, waterboarding, secret prisons, Katrina, putting blueprints for nuclear weapons on the web, trillions in new national debt, and so on and so on.
In 2000, the Democrats said that the Republicans stole the election because of the confusing butterfly ballots and that we needed a new and modern way of voting.
No, that we needed an accurate way of voting. Problem is, Diebold machines are less reliable than the infamous paper punch ballots used in Florida.
Is it really that unbelievable that there are actually people out here who don't vote the same way that you do? Is it really that unbelievable to you that roughly 50% of the American electorate feels differently about the issues than you do?
And this is why the right wing needs to die: constantly refusing to take any responsibility for their own mess while making a mountain out of a molehill of irrelevant issues in a pathetic attempt at distraction. You know, like hyperventilating over a dumb, botched joke from John Kerry while rationalizing the unrationalizable posting of nuclear bomb designs on the web.
This is definitely a year for the lesser-of-two evils: all we've got is a choice between evil and incompetent, so if you ask me incompetence is the best pick.
But of course you get both with the Republican party. Hey, let's spend a trillion dollars invading a country, leading to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people, to stop terrorists from getting WMD's. Then let's post Saddam's blueprints for nuclear weapons online! Brilliant!
Permanent storage + facial regonition software + lip reading software = a privacy nightmare. We already have the former, and the latter two will improve, especially with better and better cameras. I'm not too knowledgeable on corrupt UK politicians, but imagine J. Edgar Hoover or Joe McCarthy being able to pull up the last ten years of conversations and movements of any citizen recorded by those cameras.
Not to mention the fact that Administration officials ran around in the immediate aftermath of the disaster, claiming that their only role was in offering support to state and local officials. If that's the case, why didn't they follow Blanco's request instead of wanting control? Anyway you shake it, the Administration was lying through it's teeth.
This is a power that was previously explicitly denied to the government via the Posse Comitatus Act.
That's a lie. There are exemptions for disaster responce, and even for "domestic violence" a la the L.A. riots in the early 90's. And besides, those are restrictions for law enforcment operations, not disaster responce operations, which was what was needed after Katrina.
The economy is flush with jobs, but with shitty, low paying Wal-Mart jobs. For the middle class, the decline of unions, the rise of offshoring, stagnant wages, and the exploding cost of fuel, health care, and real estate means the economy is certainally "chugging along"...in the wrong direction.
Libya (largely due to what happened to Iraq) has backed down and become more reasonable, making amends for past transgressions.
Libya's moderation doesn't have anything to do with Iraq. They just got tired of being an international parriah, and the process was started long before Bush II came to office.
Afghanistan is no longer run by Islamic fascists
The GOP should really stop using that term, because right-wing Republicans are just as facist as the people they are lambasting. Fanatical support of the military? Check. Fanatical support of the party in power? Check. Our-way-or-the-highway, you're-with-us-or-you're-with-the-terrorists attitude on any issue? Check. Torture, detention with no trial, ignoring civil rights...check, check and check.
and it is no longer hiding/accomodating/sponsering terrorists.
Only if you flip-flop on your definition of "terrorist". The Taliban are on the rise, and Pakistan has opened their borders and is allowing militants to cross at will.
The US led the relief effort after the tsunami.
Led? American's have donated a good amount of money, but they were quite late to the party as far as immediate responce goes.
The list of good things that have occurred during Bush's 2 terms is fairly long
Not really. And the list of positive things that he is responsible is virtually entry-free. As opposed to the list of his debacles.
It is impossible to judge it whilst we are in the middle of it.
Nonsense. Even if, for example, Iraq becomes a peaceful democracy in the next decade, that doesn't change the fact that the rational for the invasion, the invasion itself, and the following occupation were all miserable failures.
Although I disliked Al Gore more than I disliked GW (at least at the time- with 6 years of hindsight now, I don't think I would have voted for either of them)
Yeah, lots of people were dumb in 2000. A voter wondering in 2006 if he should have voted for Gore over Bush is like Miramax wondering if passing up Lord of the Rings was a bad idea after Peter Jackson made New Line a couple billion dollars.
wished he would win just so that the Democrats couldn't blame the impending recession on the Republicans
The bursting of the dot com bubble was inevitable. The screwing over of the rest of the economy was not.
... and if Iraq stabilizes and becomes a democracy and that democracy spreads throughout the rest of the Arab world, and terrorism becomes much less of a force in the world, is it still a failure?
Of course it's still a failure. Far, far more Iraqi's have died in the aftermath of our invasion than if we'd just left Saddam in power. It's almost impossible to find a family that hasn't lost a member to violence. Some women haven't taken off their mourning robes in three years, because before the end of the mourning period another family member is lost. Even if Bush "wins" in Iraq it's going to be a phyrric victory.
Lowered taxes. This has done more to strengthen the economy than anything since Reagan's presidency.
Completely false. The vast majority of Bush's tax cuts have benefited the wealthy, which does nothing to stimulate the economy. The whopping $300 that the average American got from Bush's cuts was made insignifigant by rising health care and fuel costs, and stagnant wages.
even though the responsibility for disaster planning and mobilizing the national guard rested solely with the local and state governments
Lie number one. State and local authorities are completely incapable of handling a Katrina-sized disaster all on their own, not to mention the fact that they are going to need some federal authorization and assitance in using federal resources. I doubt that Republicans who (claim to) want small government and low taxes really want to raise taxes high enough so that every state and city can handle any disaster likely to fall on them, on their own, rather than have mobile, federal resources that can be used in multiple states.
Well, this bill fixes that - the next time there is a disaster the the feds don't act fast enough, it really *will* be their fault, because this gives the the authority to do something, which they did *not* have during Katrina.
Lie number two. There arerestrictions on the President using the military for domestic law enforcement operations, but Katrina required a disaster responce, not a law enforcment responce. Those acts specifically exempt natural disasters and "domestic violence" from the restrictions, like the L.A. riots in 1992.
If the Republicans were really concerned about there not being a repeat of their Katrina debacle, they would restore FEMA to being the well-run agency it was during the Clinton Administration, or coordinate with state and local autorities for planning mass evacuations in the event of large scale disasters. They have done neither.
This isn't about being prepared, this is just another power grab. Just like their "we need warrantless wiretapping to listen in on terrorists" was a complete lie, because they could already spy on supsected terrorists to their hearts content with FISA warrants. Shame on them, shame on you for peddling their nonsense, and shame on the Democrats for once again failing to have the backbone to stand up to right wing facism.
...because you refuse to hold Republican politicians to any standard, and because you keep defending the indefensible with ludicrous arguments and cries of "Bush bashing". Like your excuse for "My Pet Goat": "Bush didn't want to scare the kids in the classroom", as if he were unable to stand up and say "I'm sorry kids, something important has come up and I need to leave. I promise I'll come back and finish the story." Or, without even leaving his chair, he could have told his staff to
Call Dick Cheney, his VP and a former Secretary of Defense.
Call Donald Rumsfield, a two time Secretary of Defense.
Call NORAD.
The fact that he didn't do any of things things is completely and utterly indefnsible. There is no excuse for the Commander in Chief sitting on his ass for 20 minutes while the nation is under attack. None. And yet right-wing Republicans went ahead and defended him anyway with their "didn't want to scare the kids" excuse.
Your argument is equally lame. Yes, those acts you mention restrict the use of the military for law enforcement operations in the United States. However, responding to a hurricane is not a law enforcement operation, it is a disaster responce operation. But even if there was rioting, the Posse Comitatus Act specifically makes exemptions for quelling "domistic violence", as during the L.A. riots of 1992. The Posse Comitatus Act also allows the President to use troops under the guidelines of the Insurrection Act, which has specific exemptions for natural disasters.
So, to quote one of the few journalists who have the guts to call the right wing on their bs: your words are lies, sir.
"When none of the PC manufacturers jumped onto USB, Apple did."
Put down the crack pipe and try quoting something I actually said.
...which they had already done thanks to those PC manufacturers and Intel.
Hardly. They were staying with parallel in droves.
Apple contributed NOTHING to USB.
Other than A CAPTIVE MARKET THAT WOULD HAVE TO BUY USB DEVICES.
It's not made up. Firewire was an interconnect Apple developed but didn't bring to market. It only lived on because Sony needed something and USB didn't exist yet. Sony shipped firewire in 1995. When did Apple?
Because with the exeption of the iPod, Apple isn't into electronics, you dumbass. And the iPod wasn't even released at the time, and eventually it went to USB only to save costs. Hmm...manufacturer sticking to one commonly available interface to save costs...can you guess how that fits into the conversation?
Sony needed a digital interface for DV and would have developed their own had Apple not had nuts and bolts available.
Maybe you've heard of this little thing called composite video?
I know is satisfying to the ego to believe that Apple invents everything.
Straw man. What's curious is that your ego seems to be threatened by the possibility that Apple should get credit for anything.
Were you involved in development of these peripherals at this time? I was, and I watched these USB devices get tested every day for more than a year before the iMac even existed. One of my best friends was dedicated to it. There were interoperability plugfests occurring regularly. Just exactly what do you think was being tested if none of these peripheral makers weren't bothering? How did the iMac even boot if there weren't USB devices available for Apple to use well prior to announcement?
Yawn. Notice you say "tested" and not "shipped". If you had another best friend who was in marketing at the time, why don't you call him up and see if he still has some Powerpoint presentations on the market penetration of the number of machines with USB vs the number with parallel and serial ports, and the projected migration rate from Windows 3.1 and 95 to Windows 98. Then ask him just how cutthroat the perphreals industry is, and how interested they were in cutting costs. And how many manufacturers waited and went with USB 2.0 instead of the superior Firewire because of the 25 cents per device licensing fee.
No one has claimed that Apple invented USB, or that there weren't any USB devices around before the release of the iMac. But without it, migration to USB would have proceeded at the same glacial pace as before, as the percentage of computers with USB ports went up and the percentage of people still using Windows 95 went down, since manufacturers could count on the vast majority of PC's having parallel and serial ports.
Are you that great a fool?
I suppose it could seem that way, to a complete fucking idiot. Apple didn't invent USB, but they certianally got the ball rolling by creating a captive market that would need new USB devices. Deal with it.
I suppose it would seem that way, to a complete fucking idiot. Since you want to treat all threats equally, call us when you start wearing a helmet and a flame retardant suit whenever you get in the car. Until you can buy one, I suggest shoving your head back up your ass, where it will be nicely protected by all that fat.
I won't call you anti smoking nazis, a little too harsh. However, I think that banning smoking in all resturants and particularly bars is too much government control. It's like this.. If you want a non smoking place to drink, then some enterprising person will start such a place.
You wouldn't like it if a restaurant slipped a little arsenic into your water glass, would you? How about if the cooks didn't wash their hands after taking a nice, big, messy dump in the bathroom? Of course you wouldn't, because we have basic regulations on health hazards. So why should someone subjecting you to toxic, cancer causing drugs be any different? That's why public smoking should be illegal - because smokers force everyone around them to smoke as well.
I think this is entirely reasonable. Only bloody idiots drive to bars / pubs anyway. If someone knows they are going to engage in an activity which will make them a bad driver yet still driver their car then they ought to be pay more.
Seriously, fuck off. What if you took the subway? A taxi? Had a designated driver? Had two drinks and then spent three hours playing pool, after which the alcohol would be completely digested? Not to mention that fact that when I legally go to the bar and legally have a drink it is None Of Their Fucking Business. When you happily hand your rights over while grabbing your anckles for state inspections, you are helping them do the same to the rest of us as well.
Statistically insignificant. Hmm. When 3,000 people dead on one day at the hands of just 19 people is statistically insignificant....
Yes, it is statistically insignifigant. You are more likely to kill yourself than die from a terrorist attack. So please FOAD before rushing to hand over freedoms we fought a war to win.
Slashdot Mirror
Liar. At one point Kos thought the grassroots should form a third party, but decided it was better to reform the existing party of the Democrats instead.
Wow, comeback of the year. Packed with facts and reasoned analysis too.
imagine the state of the world today had the vote tally been slightly different back in 2000
It would have been, if Florida had completed a full statewide recount. Gore not only won the popular vote, he should have won the electoral vote as well.
That's kind of funny,.... that is how the Republicans gained the majority in Congress and the White House from the Democrats.
I suppose you could see it that way, if you have no sense of perspective. Name me one Democratic screw up or shenanigan that comes close to Iraq, NSA wiretapping, waterboarding, secret prisons, Katrina, putting blueprints for nuclear weapons on the web, trillions in new national debt, and so on and so on.
In 2000, the Democrats said that the Republicans stole the election because of the confusing butterfly ballots and that we needed a new and modern way of voting.
No, that we needed an accurate way of voting. Problem is, Diebold machines are less reliable than the infamous paper punch ballots used in Florida.
Is it really that unbelievable that there are actually people out here who don't vote the same way that you do? Is it really that unbelievable to you that roughly 50% of the American electorate feels differently about the issues than you do?
And this is why the right wing needs to die: constantly refusing to take any responsibility for their own mess while making a mountain out of a molehill of irrelevant issues in a pathetic attempt at distraction. You know, like hyperventilating over a dumb, botched joke from John Kerry while rationalizing the unrationalizable posting of nuclear bomb designs on the web.
This is definitely a year for the lesser-of-two evils: all we've got is a choice between evil and incompetent, so if you ask me incompetence is the best pick.
But of course you get both with the Republican party. Hey, let's spend a trillion dollars invading a country, leading to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people, to stop terrorists from getting WMD's. Then let's post Saddam's blueprints for nuclear weapons online! Brilliant!
Permanent storage + facial regonition software + lip reading software = a privacy nightmare. We already have the former, and the latter two will improve, especially with better and better cameras. I'm not too knowledgeable on corrupt UK politicians, but imagine J. Edgar Hoover or Joe McCarthy being able to pull up the last ten years of conversations and movements of any citizen recorded by those cameras.
linky
Not to mention the fact that Administration officials ran around in the immediate aftermath of the disaster, claiming that their only role was in offering support to state and local officials. If that's the case, why didn't they follow Blanco's request instead of wanting control? Anyway you shake it, the Administration was lying through it's teeth.
This is a power that was previously explicitly denied to the government via the Posse Comitatus Act.
That's a lie. There are exemptions for disaster responce, and even for "domestic violence" a la the L.A. riots in the early 90's. And besides, those are restrictions for law enforcment operations, not disaster responce operations, which was what was needed after Katrina.
And the economy is chugging along nicely.
The economy is flush with jobs, but with shitty, low paying Wal-Mart jobs. For the middle class, the decline of unions, the rise of offshoring, stagnant wages, and the exploding cost of fuel, health care, and real estate means the economy is certainally "chugging along"...in the wrong direction.
Libya (largely due to what happened to Iraq) has backed down and become more reasonable, making amends for past transgressions.
Libya's moderation doesn't have anything to do with Iraq. They just got tired of being an international parriah, and the process was started long before Bush II came to office.
Afghanistan is no longer run by Islamic fascists
The GOP should really stop using that term, because right-wing Republicans are just as facist as the people they are lambasting. Fanatical support of the military? Check. Fanatical support of the party in power? Check. Our-way-or-the-highway, you're-with-us-or-you're-with-the-terrorists attitude on any issue? Check. Torture, detention with no trial, ignoring civil rights...check, check and check.
and it is no longer hiding/accomodating/sponsering terrorists.
Only if you flip-flop on your definition of "terrorist". The Taliban are on the rise, and Pakistan has opened their borders and is allowing militants to cross at will.
The US led the relief effort after the tsunami.
Led? American's have donated a good amount of money, but they were quite late to the party as far as immediate responce goes.
The list of good things that have occurred during Bush's 2 terms is fairly long
Not really. And the list of positive things that he is responsible is virtually entry-free. As opposed to the list of his debacles.
It is impossible to judge it whilst we are in the middle of it.
Nonsense. Even if, for example, Iraq becomes a peaceful democracy in the next decade, that doesn't change the fact that the rational for the invasion, the invasion itself, and the following occupation were all miserable failures.
Although I disliked Al Gore more than I disliked GW (at least at the time- with 6 years of hindsight now, I don't think I would have voted for either of them)
Yeah, lots of people were dumb in 2000. A voter wondering in 2006 if he should have voted for Gore over Bush is like Miramax wondering if passing up Lord of the Rings was a bad idea after Peter Jackson made New Line a couple billion dollars.
wished he would win just so that the Democrats couldn't blame the impending recession on the Republicans
The bursting of the dot com bubble was inevitable. The screwing over of the rest of the economy was not.
... and if Iraq stabilizes and becomes a democracy and that democracy spreads throughout the rest of the Arab world, and terrorism becomes much less of a force in the world, is it still a failure?
Of course it's still a failure. Far, far more Iraqi's have died in the aftermath of our invasion than if we'd just left Saddam in power. It's almost impossible to find a family that hasn't lost a member to violence. Some women haven't taken off their mourning robes in three years, because before the end of the mourning period another family member is lost. Even if Bush "wins" in Iraq it's going to be a phyrric victory.
Lowered taxes. This has done more to strengthen the economy than anything since Reagan's presidency.
Completely false. The vast majority of Bush's tax cuts have benefited the wealthy, which does nothing to stimulate the economy. The whopping $300 that the average American got from Bush's cuts was made insignifigant by rising health care and fuel costs, and stagnant wages.
even though the responsibility for disaster planning and mobilizing the national guard rested solely with the local and state governments
Lie number one. State and local authorities are completely incapable of handling a Katrina-sized disaster all on their own, not to mention the fact that they are going to need some federal authorization and assitance in using federal resources. I doubt that Republicans who (claim to) want small government and low taxes really want to raise taxes high enough so that every state and city can handle any disaster likely to fall on them, on their own, rather than have mobile, federal resources that can be used in multiple states.
Well, this bill fixes that - the next time there is a disaster the the feds don't act fast enough, it really *will* be their fault, because this gives the the authority to do something, which they did *not* have during Katrina.
Lie number two. There are restrictions on the President using the military for domestic law enforcement operations, but Katrina required a disaster responce, not a law enforcment responce. Those acts specifically exempt natural disasters and "domestic violence" from the restrictions, like the L.A. riots in 1992.
If the Republicans were really concerned about there not being a repeat of their Katrina debacle, they would restore FEMA to being the well-run agency it was during the Clinton Administration, or coordinate with state and local autorities for planning mass evacuations in the event of large scale disasters. They have done neither.
This isn't about being prepared, this is just another power grab. Just like their "we need warrantless wiretapping to listen in on terrorists" was a complete lie, because they could already spy on supsected terrorists to their hearts content with FISA warrants. Shame on them, shame on you for peddling their nonsense, and shame on the Democrats for once again failing to have the backbone to stand up to right wing facism.
The fact that he didn't do any of things things is completely and utterly indefnsible. There is no excuse for the Commander in Chief sitting on his ass for 20 minutes while the nation is under attack. None. And yet right-wing Republicans went ahead and defended him anyway with their "didn't want to scare the kids" excuse.
Your argument is equally lame. Yes, those acts you mention restrict the use of the military for law enforcement operations in the United States. However, responding to a hurricane is not a law enforcement operation, it is a disaster responce operation. But even if there was rioting, the Posse Comitatus Act specifically makes exemptions for quelling "domistic violence", as during the L.A. riots of 1992. The Posse Comitatus Act also allows the President to use troops under the guidelines of the Insurrection Act, which has specific exemptions for natural disasters.
So, to quote one of the few journalists who have the guts to call the right wing on their bs: your words are lies, sir.
I disagree that you or I should enforce our sensitibilities on other people.
The only ones doing that are Jack Thompson types.
Who am I to tell you what your kids can or cannot see?
See above.
In this case, it's simply a matter of making the information available on the box.
They did. Warns of violence and sexual content.
The games should be advertised properly.
Tbey did, see above.
This guy claims you can still work around it.
The first "Superdrives" were Pioneers. The drive in my G5 tower registers as a Sony but is actually a rebadged Lite-On.
"When none of the PC manufacturers jumped onto USB, Apple did."
Put down the crack pipe and try quoting something I actually said.
Hardly. They were staying with parallel in droves.
Apple contributed NOTHING to USB.
Other than A CAPTIVE MARKET THAT WOULD HAVE TO BUY USB DEVICES.
It's not made up. Firewire was an interconnect Apple developed but didn't bring to market. It only lived on because Sony needed something and USB didn't exist yet. Sony shipped firewire in 1995. When did Apple?
Because with the exeption of the iPod, Apple isn't into electronics, you dumbass. And the iPod wasn't even released at the time, and eventually it went to USB only to save costs. Hmm...manufacturer sticking to one commonly available interface to save costs...can you guess how that fits into the conversation?
Sony needed a digital interface for DV and would have developed their own had Apple not had nuts and bolts available.
Maybe you've heard of this little thing called composite video?
I know is satisfying to the ego to believe that Apple invents everything.
Straw man. What's curious is that your ego seems to be threatened by the possibility that Apple should get credit for anything.
Were you involved in development of these peripherals at this time? I was, and I watched these USB devices get tested every day for more than a year before the iMac even existed. One of my best friends was dedicated to it. There were interoperability plugfests occurring regularly. Just exactly what do you think was being tested if none of these peripheral makers weren't bothering? How did the iMac even boot if there weren't USB devices available for Apple to use well prior to announcement?
Yawn. Notice you say "tested" and not "shipped". If you had another best friend who was in marketing at the time, why don't you call him up and see if he still has some Powerpoint presentations on the market penetration of the number of machines with USB vs the number with parallel and serial ports, and the projected migration rate from Windows 3.1 and 95 to Windows 98. Then ask him just how cutthroat the perphreals industry is, and how interested they were in cutting costs. And how many manufacturers waited and went with USB 2.0 instead of the superior Firewire because of the 25 cents per device licensing fee.
No one has claimed that Apple invented USB, or that there weren't any USB devices around before the release of the iMac. But without it, migration to USB would have proceeded at the same glacial pace as before, as the percentage of computers with USB ports went up and the percentage of people still using Windows 95 went down, since manufacturers could count on the vast majority of PC's having parallel and serial ports.
Are you that great a fool?
I suppose it could seem that way, to a complete fucking idiot. Apple didn't invent USB, but they certianally got the ball rolling by creating a captive market that would need new USB devices. Deal with it.
This is how insane and stupid your logic is.
I suppose it would seem that way, to a complete fucking idiot. Since you want to treat all threats equally, call us when you start wearing a helmet and a flame retardant suit whenever you get in the car. Until you can buy one, I suggest shoving your head back up your ass, where it will be nicely protected by all that fat.
I won't call you anti smoking nazis, a little too harsh. However, I think that banning smoking in all resturants and particularly bars is too much government control. It's like this.. If you want a non smoking place to drink, then some enterprising person will start such a place.
You wouldn't like it if a restaurant slipped a little arsenic into your water glass, would you? How about if the cooks didn't wash their hands after taking a nice, big, messy dump in the bathroom? Of course you wouldn't, because we have basic regulations on health hazards. So why should someone subjecting you to toxic, cancer causing drugs be any different? That's why public smoking should be illegal - because smokers force everyone around them to smoke as well.
I think this is entirely reasonable. Only bloody idiots drive to bars / pubs anyway. If someone knows they are going to engage in an activity which will make them a bad driver yet still driver their car then they ought to be pay more.
Seriously, fuck off. What if you took the subway? A taxi? Had a designated driver? Had two drinks and then spent three hours playing pool, after which the alcohol would be completely digested? Not to mention that fact that when I legally go to the bar and legally have a drink it is None Of Their Fucking Business. When you happily hand your rights over while grabbing your anckles for state inspections, you are helping them do the same to the rest of us as well.
Statistically insignificant. Hmm. When 3,000 people dead on one day at the hands of just 19 people is statistically insignificant....
Yes, it is statistically insignifigant. You are more likely to kill yourself than die from a terrorist attack. So please FOAD before rushing to hand over freedoms we fought a war to win.