Cantor WAS the exception, proving EXCEPTIONS are possible. And, if you've paid any attention the last six years or so, you'll have seen a number of incumbent (R) lose primaries. I can't recall a (D) losing a primary... if ever.
Again, the problem isn't the money, it is stupid voters who click based on name recognition and characterizations by opponents. It is easy to paint me as a bumbling fool, but only to people who don't really know me.
You, the one who wants to restrict free speech because you don't like the results, how would you feel if a right winger tried this only towards the kind of speech liberals like? Liberals didn't complain when it was only Soros' money, but when the Libertarian/Conservative Koch brothers adopt the same exact donation category, all of a sudden you hate it.
Take your slavery and shove it. People like you are the problem, not Koch and Soros.
This would be taken seriously if Cantor hadn't just lost after outspending the other guy 5,000,000 to 200,000. Liberals think Money is the problem, always the problem, rather than the people. The problem is the people who are too stupid and fall for the same hate filled rhetoric. This is especially true in (D) districts where people vote primarily on (D) after the name, and then "name recognition" after that, and rarely (if ever) on actual issues.
The fix is to research and vote with your conscience. Which is why I haven't voted (D) or (R) in years.
Actually no. They can keep the fifth. Due Process is a CRIMINAL activity. She wasn't being investigated criminally at that point. Taking the fifth there, in front of congress, should be cause for immediate dismissal. Period.
Actually, that is my definition of incompetence. I understand the requirements. The requirement that the user maintain the documentation they deem "important' on their own hard drive, without adequate backups is... incompetent. I'm in IT, in a little school district, and this is something we don't allow. And yes, all directors have unlimited size email boxes, and we also provide backups for all important data, and have a disaster recovery center that is on a separate campus from our data center. Because unlike other places, to not have these things in place is incompetence.
Beyond that, the lack of keeping records of your activities as a public sector employee secured with backups is criminally negligent. And if it isn't, it should be. "My dog ate my homework" wasn't a good excuse in 4th grade, why is it allowed in Public Sector?
It isn't infinite. It is definitive and growing, but not infinite. There is a difference. And yes, I am. Either that or we need to fire people for incompetence rather than let them retire just after pleading the fifth.
It is hardly unrealistic. Google manages to archive much of the internet every day. The NSA manages to archive much of the world's internet traffic. Keeping it forever, is much much easier if you know what you're doing.
But if you want "realistic" limits, Email and other official correspondence. All documentation referencing anything/anyone outside your office/Department. All meeting notes and documentation, Audio recordings of meetings as well.
It is unrealistic to believe that email from six people at the center of controversy all disappeared in a series of "hard drive crashes", and no backups were ever made. THAT is unrealistic.
Or should we all just assume that everything is kept forever AND recoverable?
Yes. Especially in government. Nefarious activity is hidden as incompetence otherwise. Did Lois Learner's Office target Tea Party and Patriot groups, that is beyond a doubt now. The question is, how high up did that order come from. And now, we'll never know. THE only obvious way to handle this now is a full on independent investigation, and special prosecutor, and the arrest of Lois Learner, being charged with willful negligence and dereliction of duty, with additional charges pended the investigation.
AND taking the fifth as a government official should automatically trigger investigation, and sealing of all documentations and immediate lockout from the job, and suspension of pay. Additionally, "retirement" and benefits will be suspended until the outcome is established. Taking the fifth as a civil servant is a right, but not one that should be without conditions. IF you want to take the fifth, by all means do so, but realize that it starts a process which you might not like.
If your excuse for what happened is this, that it is pure incompetence, that alone should cause a high level concern regarding a very powerful arm of government (IRS) being run in an incompetent way. The problem is we treat incompetence better than nefariousness, when they should be treated exactly the same way. Because if you cannot tell the difference in the results, they are the same.
And actually, if you ask me, incompetence is worse, because it allows the Nefarious to use it as an excuse to get away with high crimes and misdemeanors.
Gross incompetence should be crime, akin to willful negligence, just to stop it from being used as an excuse for nefarious acts.
For those of us in IT, the excuses as to the failure to secure documentation, in the midst of a controversy is key. The fact that they are just NOW trotting this out as an excuse, rather than when the request was made, is highly suspicious. "Computer Crash" happens, but as we say in IT, if it doesn't exist in three places, it doesn't exist.
THAT being said, if they are claiming, again, that it was incompetence and not nefariousness, all I can say is, this is exactly WHY government cannot run anything competently. Further, because we cannot expect reasonable competency in government, the role of government needs to be severely limited.
And yet, we have people who think that government run healthcare is going to be a godsend. I wonder how many people dying from Government "ooops we made a mistake" people will take. Oh wait, that just happened with the VA.
Any sufficient level of incompetence is indistinguishable from malice. The problem is, they should be treated the same, but aren't.
Of course you can yell "FIRE" in a theater. What you can't do is yell "FIRE" in an attempt to cause panic and harm others in the process. Hell, if you did try to yell "FIRE" in a theater, to cause panic, and harm others, and it didn't work, I doubt that anything would actually happen.
Actually, the term "Red skin" was coined by Native Americans, to distinguish between "white skin" and "black skin" people who they met. Of course, scholoarship means nothing when drumming up Faux Outrage in support of some "oppressed people", while ignoring the real oppression (still ongoing) they experience on their "reservations"
But yeah, keep promulgating the misinformation because the low information voters LOVE IT!
I didn't say that it DID take away black votes, I said it disenfranchised African Americans. And then I explained what I meant. You must be a liberal because your reading comprehension is clouded by your liberal goggles. "Hispanic" is just as protected class as African Americans are. They are "non-white" and thus offered opportunities and rights not given to people who are not in a protected class.
And I didn't forget something, I was explaining how UNFETTERED border crossings does. Yes, there are people here already doing those things. There are more coming everyday. And if you're watching the real news, you know that there is a flood of immigrants coming under the notion fueled by comments made by the President and Members of Congress (both sides) about immigration reform. Central American Media is reporting that if you get here, you can stay. And that is pretty much what Obama has said outright. And then you have all the liberals and many conservatives saying "we can't deport them all", and talking about "pathway to citizenship" and "end of the line" (there is no line, if they are here) and all the other "finely nuanced" language that gets parsed out by my bullshit filters.
But wage suppression is a key result in the flood of illegal immigration, both at the Engineering (H1B) and farmworkers (Hispanic). And guess what, this is NOT a party or left/right issue. This is something that we ALL are affected by.
"Hate to break it to you, but the illegals are not legally able to vote yet"
FTFY
Not yet. The goal of Democrats is to give them "amnesty" and get them to "citizenship status". The whole "back of the line" is a load of crap designed to make it seem "reasonable", because there is no actual line. My proposal would create a "line" by making the first 25 years of legal residency ineligible for citizenship. In addition, I would put harsh penalties and requirements to even get that far. Not unreasonable, just harsh.
Here is my comprehensive Illegal Immigration Reform, for people that are here.
1) All illegal aliens must register immediately or face deportation. Failure to comply results in permanent ban on citizenship opportunities. 2) Registering grants you LEGAL residency status (Red Card) providing you do not get any felony arrests. 3) You can remain a resident for 25 years from the point of registration, before you START the process of becoming citizen, to be able to vote. 4) To become a Citizen, you must be fluent in English, written and spoken, BEFORE you start the process to become a citizen. You have 25 years to learn, better start now. 5) Failure to comply with any immigration rule, regulation, or otherwise, results in the immediate forfeiture of the "pathway to citizenship". You may remain, but cannot ever become citizen. You broke the law to come here, better not break any more. 6) You will pay a fine (TBD), and a higher income tax rate (TBD) until you become a citizen. 7) You will perform (preferably in Community Service in the Desert Southwest), one week (40 hrs) per year for until you are a citizen (picking up trash and restoring habitat destroyed by illegal immigrants). Failure results in not being able to become a citizen. 8) If you don't like these rules, you can go home. We will help you leave, but if you show back up, you're a felon and will be jailed accordingly.
These are sensible rules that will cause many to self deport. We can't deport the Millions we have, but we can make it much more difficult for those that think coming here gets them a free ride.
I saw no facts. One's opinions are not facts. Facts are backed up by research or demonstrations. Most of the GOP people I know don't give a shit about religion, race, or sexual orientation, if it isn't being shoved in their face by GOVERNMENT. And as for gays, either you want government out of the bedroom or you don't; you can't choose to simultaneously say "I like to fuck ___________" and say "My fucking ______ doesn't concern you". If you tell me who you fuck, then it concerns me, straight, gay, bi, or confused.
Google Plus is great, but it isn't Facebook. Facebook sucks, but it isn't Google Plus.
Google Plus = Interesting things I care about with people I don't really care about (not in the familial way) Facebook = People I care about, telling me about stuff I often don't care about.
I actually spend MORE time on Google Plus, because I get MORE out of it.
IKEA Hackers should be bought by IKEA and made into an official sub-site. If I were IKEA CEO, the idea of selling 3 things instead of none, is my idea of brilliant. These people are building unexpected things, build enough of them, and then repackaging parts into a new kit seems obvious.
This is not a problem, but opportunity in disguise.
It isn't that. It is that STEM careers pays so much less than Basketball, Football, and Baseball. That, and talent is well paid for in sports in general, but you can't get well paid unless you invent something and get it to market before someone steals the idea and clones it.
It is about Illegals, in the guise of H1B Expansion. It is a bait and switch con game, and unless you've paid attention to the last couple "immigration reform" acts, you'll actually miss the point. DNC wants new voters, RNC wants suppressed wages, and they are getting together to divide the spoils while the rest of America rots.
Your Average Democrat Voter sees more Democrat votes coming across the border, so they love the illegal immigrants. Crying "hate" is so much easier to gain votes than actually doing something. Don't get me wrong, both the DNC and the RNC love illegal immigrants, but for different reasons.
However, the disenfranchising of African Americans by creating another protected political class is going to hurt the DNC in the long run. The new influx of workers that will compete for low paying jobs is really going to hurt the African American community pretty hard. If I were African American, I'd be pissed off at the wage suppression and the extraordinary unemployment in my community and the complete and utter failure of either of the two big parties to address this and other related issues.
We have had several rounds of "Comprehensive Immigration reform" in the past, it hasn't solved anything, and the people keep coming, often under the impression (thanks Obama) that if they can get here, they can stay! Here's an idea, lets solve problems for AMERICAN citizens before we try to fix those that are breaking the law to come here.
And why the Liberal World savers allow the unmitigated pollution of the Deserts in the southwest, without protest, is mind numbing. The amount of garbage collecting in environmentally sensitive areas due to Illegal Immigration is atrocious. Yet the liberal world savers would rather protest Keystone Pipeline.
Personally, I don't know why ANYONE, liberal or conservative, (D) or (R) would support "immigration reform", as it is nothing but a scam to help the big businesses suppress wages, and create a new DNC voting block.
I would suggest that the Perot event has morphed into the grassroots Tea Party , which has now spanned several election cycles and is still having effects on national politics. Just ask Eric Cantor, who just lost his job to a new comer without the help of a single national tea-party group, but was still a "grassroots tea party" candidate.
As mentioned in a post above, the National Tea Party groups have morphed into self serving groups, that bear little resemblance to the grassroots juggernaut in reality. The National Tea Party groups are great at sounding all "tea partyish" but fail when it counts. And the left is scared to death of the Tea Party, not because of the ideals, but rather because the Tea Party, in spite of all the hate rhetoric toss about, is about restoring liberty from over intrusive government.
And as African Americans start to realize that their racial stranglehold on the DNC is starting to wane in favor of Latino votes, you'll start to see more of them move to the center-right. The screeching from Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi can't be helping.
Here's a novel Idea. Lets us the SSN as a unique identifier AFTER you have verified that that person is actually who they say they are. Do not use it for Authentication or Identification for authentication purposes, nor for any other purpose other than taxes.
But that is exactly what was promised when the SS system was first proposed, but we all know how that worked out. Government lies.
Slashdot Mirror
Cantor WAS the exception, proving EXCEPTIONS are possible. And, if you've paid any attention the last six years or so, you'll have seen a number of incumbent (R) lose primaries. I can't recall a (D) losing a primary ... if ever.
Again, the problem isn't the money, it is stupid voters who click based on name recognition and characterizations by opponents. It is easy to paint me as a bumbling fool, but only to people who don't really know me.
Extremism in the defense of Liberty is no vice.
You, the one who wants to restrict free speech because you don't like the results, how would you feel if a right winger tried this only towards the kind of speech liberals like? Liberals didn't complain when it was only Soros' money, but when the Libertarian/Conservative Koch brothers adopt the same exact donation category, all of a sudden you hate it.
Take your slavery and shove it. People like you are the problem, not Koch and Soros.
This would be taken seriously if Cantor hadn't just lost after outspending the other guy 5,000,000 to 200,000. Liberals think Money is the problem, always the problem, rather than the people. The problem is the people who are too stupid and fall for the same hate filled rhetoric. This is especially true in (D) districts where people vote primarily on (D) after the name, and then "name recognition" after that, and rarely (if ever) on actual issues.
The fix is to research and vote with your conscience. Which is why I haven't voted (D) or (R) in years.
Actually no. They can keep the fifth. Due Process is a CRIMINAL activity. She wasn't being investigated criminally at that point. Taking the fifth there, in front of congress, should be cause for immediate dismissal. Period.
"I posit the incompetence lies not with the IRS's IT department, but with the ones determining their budget."
Yeah, likely some/most/all of the same people at the heart of the scandal.
Actually, that is my definition of incompetence. I understand the requirements. The requirement that the user maintain the documentation they deem "important' on their own hard drive, without adequate backups is ... incompetent. I'm in IT, in a little school district, and this is something we don't allow. And yes, all directors have unlimited size email boxes, and we also provide backups for all important data, and have a disaster recovery center that is on a separate campus from our data center. Because unlike other places, to not have these things in place is incompetence.
Beyond that, the lack of keeping records of your activities as a public sector employee secured with backups is criminally negligent. And if it isn't, it should be. "My dog ate my homework" wasn't a good excuse in 4th grade, why is it allowed in Public Sector?
It isn't infinite. It is definitive and growing, but not infinite. There is a difference. And yes, I am. Either that or we need to fire people for incompetence rather than let them retire just after pleading the fifth.
It is hardly unrealistic. Google manages to archive much of the internet every day. The NSA manages to archive much of the world's internet traffic. Keeping it forever, is much much easier if you know what you're doing.
But if you want "realistic" limits, Email and other official correspondence. All documentation referencing anything/anyone outside your office/Department. All meeting notes and documentation, Audio recordings of meetings as well.
It is unrealistic to believe that email from six people at the center of controversy all disappeared in a series of "hard drive crashes", and no backups were ever made. THAT is unrealistic.
Or should we all just assume that everything is kept forever AND recoverable?
Yes. Especially in government. Nefarious activity is hidden as incompetence otherwise. Did Lois Learner's Office target Tea Party and Patriot groups, that is beyond a doubt now. The question is, how high up did that order come from. And now, we'll never know. THE only obvious way to handle this now is a full on independent investigation, and special prosecutor, and the arrest of Lois Learner, being charged with willful negligence and dereliction of duty, with additional charges pended the investigation.
AND taking the fifth as a government official should automatically trigger investigation, and sealing of all documentations and immediate lockout from the job, and suspension of pay. Additionally, "retirement" and benefits will be suspended until the outcome is established. Taking the fifth as a civil servant is a right, but not one that should be without conditions. IF you want to take the fifth, by all means do so, but realize that it starts a process which you might not like.
If your excuse for what happened is this, that it is pure incompetence, that alone should cause a high level concern regarding a very powerful arm of government (IRS) being run in an incompetent way. The problem is we treat incompetence better than nefariousness, when they should be treated exactly the same way. Because if you cannot tell the difference in the results, they are the same.
And actually, if you ask me, incompetence is worse, because it allows the Nefarious to use it as an excuse to get away with high crimes and misdemeanors.
Gross incompetence should be crime, akin to willful negligence, just to stop it from being used as an excuse for nefarious acts.
For those of us in IT, the excuses as to the failure to secure documentation, in the midst of a controversy is key. The fact that they are just NOW trotting this out as an excuse, rather than when the request was made, is highly suspicious. "Computer Crash" happens, but as we say in IT, if it doesn't exist in three places, it doesn't exist.
THAT being said, if they are claiming, again, that it was incompetence and not nefariousness, all I can say is, this is exactly WHY government cannot run anything competently. Further, because we cannot expect reasonable competency in government, the role of government needs to be severely limited.
And yet, we have people who think that government run healthcare is going to be a godsend. I wonder how many people dying from Government "ooops we made a mistake" people will take. Oh wait, that just happened with the VA.
Any sufficient level of incompetence is indistinguishable from malice. The problem is, they should be treated the same, but aren't.
"so shout "fire" in a crowded theater"
Firing squad scene ... "FIRE!!!"
Of course you can yell "FIRE" in a theater. What you can't do is yell "FIRE" in an attempt to cause panic and harm others in the process. Hell, if you did try to yell "FIRE" in a theater, to cause panic, and harm others, and it didn't work, I doubt that anything would actually happen.
The example is falsehood by over simplification.
Actually, the term "Red skin" was coined by Native Americans, to distinguish between "white skin" and "black skin" people who they met. Of course, scholoarship means nothing when drumming up Faux Outrage in support of some "oppressed people", while ignoring the real oppression (still ongoing) they experience on their "reservations"
But yeah, keep promulgating the misinformation because the low information voters LOVE IT!
I didn't say that it DID take away black votes, I said it disenfranchised African Americans. And then I explained what I meant. You must be a liberal because your reading comprehension is clouded by your liberal goggles. "Hispanic" is just as protected class as African Americans are. They are "non-white" and thus offered opportunities and rights not given to people who are not in a protected class.
And I didn't forget something, I was explaining how UNFETTERED border crossings does. Yes, there are people here already doing those things. There are more coming everyday. And if you're watching the real news, you know that there is a flood of immigrants coming under the notion fueled by comments made by the President and Members of Congress (both sides) about immigration reform. Central American Media is reporting that if you get here, you can stay. And that is pretty much what Obama has said outright. And then you have all the liberals and many conservatives saying "we can't deport them all", and talking about "pathway to citizenship" and "end of the line" (there is no line, if they are here) and all the other "finely nuanced" language that gets parsed out by my bullshit filters.
But wage suppression is a key result in the flood of illegal immigration, both at the Engineering (H1B) and farmworkers (Hispanic). And guess what, this is NOT a party or left/right issue. This is something that we ALL are affected by.
"Hate to break it to you, but the illegals are not legally able to vote yet"
FTFY
Not yet. The goal of Democrats is to give them "amnesty" and get them to "citizenship status". The whole "back of the line" is a load of crap designed to make it seem "reasonable", because there is no actual line. My proposal would create a "line" by making the first 25 years of legal residency ineligible for citizenship. In addition, I would put harsh penalties and requirements to even get that far. Not unreasonable, just harsh.
Here is my comprehensive Illegal Immigration Reform, for people that are here.
1) All illegal aliens must register immediately or face deportation. Failure to comply results in permanent ban on citizenship opportunities.
2) Registering grants you LEGAL residency status (Red Card) providing you do not get any felony arrests.
3) You can remain a resident for 25 years from the point of registration, before you START the process of becoming citizen, to be able to vote.
4) To become a Citizen, you must be fluent in English, written and spoken, BEFORE you start the process to become a citizen. You have 25 years to learn, better start now.
5) Failure to comply with any immigration rule, regulation, or otherwise, results in the immediate forfeiture of the "pathway to citizenship". You may remain, but cannot ever become citizen. You broke the law to come here, better not break any more.
6) You will pay a fine (TBD), and a higher income tax rate (TBD) until you become a citizen.
7) You will perform (preferably in Community Service in the Desert Southwest), one week (40 hrs) per year for until you are a citizen (picking up trash and restoring habitat destroyed by illegal immigrants). Failure results in not being able to become a citizen.
8) If you don't like these rules, you can go home. We will help you leave, but if you show back up, you're a felon and will be jailed accordingly.
These are sensible rules that will cause many to self deport. We can't deport the Millions we have, but we can make it much more difficult for those that think coming here gets them a free ride.
I saw no facts. One's opinions are not facts. Facts are backed up by research or demonstrations. Most of the GOP people I know don't give a shit about religion, race, or sexual orientation, if it isn't being shoved in their face by GOVERNMENT. And as for gays, either you want government out of the bedroom or you don't; you can't choose to simultaneously say "I like to fuck ___________" and say "My fucking ______ doesn't concern you". If you tell me who you fuck, then it concerns me, straight, gay, bi, or confused.
Google Plus is great, but it isn't Facebook. Facebook sucks, but it isn't Google Plus.
Google Plus = Interesting things I care about with people I don't really care about (not in the familial way)
Facebook = People I care about, telling me about stuff I often don't care about.
I actually spend MORE time on Google Plus, because I get MORE out of it.
IKEA Hackers should be bought by IKEA and made into an official sub-site. If I were IKEA CEO, the idea of selling 3 things instead of none, is my idea of brilliant. These people are building unexpected things, build enough of them, and then repackaging parts into a new kit seems obvious.
This is not a problem, but opportunity in disguise.
It isn't that. It is that STEM careers pays so much less than Basketball, Football, and Baseball. That, and talent is well paid for in sports in general, but you can't get well paid unless you invent something and get it to market before someone steals the idea and clones it.
It is about Illegals, in the guise of H1B Expansion. It is a bait and switch con game, and unless you've paid attention to the last couple "immigration reform" acts, you'll actually miss the point. DNC wants new voters, RNC wants suppressed wages, and they are getting together to divide the spoils while the rest of America rots.
ahhh, the good old strawman approach. It works well with the logic impaired and illiterate crowd.
Your Average Democrat Voter sees more Democrat votes coming across the border, so they love the illegal immigrants. Crying "hate" is so much easier to gain votes than actually doing something. Don't get me wrong, both the DNC and the RNC love illegal immigrants, but for different reasons.
However, the disenfranchising of African Americans by creating another protected political class is going to hurt the DNC in the long run. The new influx of workers that will compete for low paying jobs is really going to hurt the African American community pretty hard. If I were African American, I'd be pissed off at the wage suppression and the extraordinary unemployment in my community and the complete and utter failure of either of the two big parties to address this and other related issues.
We have had several rounds of "Comprehensive Immigration reform" in the past, it hasn't solved anything, and the people keep coming, often under the impression (thanks Obama) that if they can get here, they can stay! Here's an idea, lets solve problems for AMERICAN citizens before we try to fix those that are breaking the law to come here.
And why the Liberal World savers allow the unmitigated pollution of the Deserts in the southwest, without protest, is mind numbing. The amount of garbage collecting in environmentally sensitive areas due to Illegal Immigration is atrocious. Yet the liberal world savers would rather protest Keystone Pipeline.
Personally, I don't know why ANYONE, liberal or conservative, (D) or (R) would support "immigration reform", as it is nothing but a scam to help the big businesses suppress wages, and create a new DNC voting block.
Oh wait, it all makes perfect sense now!
I would suggest that the Perot event has morphed into the grassroots Tea Party , which has now spanned several election cycles and is still having effects on national politics. Just ask Eric Cantor, who just lost his job to a new comer without the help of a single national tea-party group, but was still a "grassroots tea party" candidate.
As mentioned in a post above, the National Tea Party groups have morphed into self serving groups, that bear little resemblance to the grassroots juggernaut in reality. The National Tea Party groups are great at sounding all "tea partyish" but fail when it counts. And the left is scared to death of the Tea Party, not because of the ideals, but rather because the Tea Party, in spite of all the hate rhetoric toss about, is about restoring liberty from over intrusive government.
And as African Americans start to realize that their racial stranglehold on the DNC is starting to wane in favor of Latino votes, you'll start to see more of them move to the center-right. The screeching from Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi can't be helping.
Here's a novel Idea. Lets us the SSN as a unique identifier AFTER you have verified that that person is actually who they say they are. Do not use it for Authentication or Identification for authentication purposes, nor for any other purpose other than taxes.
But that is exactly what was promised when the SS system was first proposed, but we all know how that worked out. Government lies.