The doctor did an MRI scan on Baltar. There was no foreign objects.
Can't you tell that Baltar IS a Cylon???? Baltar is a sleeper. And I think we will find out that the "commander" model of the Cylon is the Baltar model.
Yes Diebold is being vigourously challened... in CALIFORNIA.
The problem is that they are being primarily deployed in red states where the powers that be have defined the law to support Diebold machines.
With the Diebold machines in place, what are the odds that the laws are going to change anytime soon???
BTW, the statistics are showing that the electronic voting machines are the ones that differ significantly from exit polling. Traditional vote counting methodology seems to agree. Hmmmmm......
Like Uncle Joe Stalin used to say, it's not who does the voting, it's who does the counting!!!!
Bush did everything he could to blind the US to any terrorist attack prior to 9/11. He even managed to disable the air force's capability to intercept a slow moving plane (jumbo jets).
Shit, the Air Force intercepted the jet of a GOLFER when it went off course. Somehow air traffic controllers managed to communicate with NORAD that day. But apparantely all those capabilities failed when GW Bush took office.
And of course, the Air Force was conveniently running a drill that simulated EXACTLY what was happening on 9/11. So the people at NORAD were "confused" that frantic calls were part of the drill. Of course this is incredibly stupid to assert that the Air Force cannot drill without a capability to tell the difference between the simulation and a REAL ATTACK. Geez, if this was the case the Soviet Union could have annhialated the United States just by knowing when NORAD would be running a missle drill. The Air Force isn't this stupid. But seamingly, rank and file conservatives ARE!!!
Why don't you read those things instead of relying on Drudge Report interpretations?
Those are references to the FISA act. The "warrantless searches" are in reference to a provision in the FISA LAW that allows for retro-active warrant application to the FISA court up to 72 hours after an "emergency wire tap".
The executive orders effectively state that employees of the executive branch are instructed to issue warrants according to the FISA law when appropriate. Yes, this is a necessary step since the president is the boss and you cannot act without the President delegating things to you.
What GW Bush did is to COMPLETELY bypass the FISA court. This is a violation of statutory law and an infringement of the 4th amendment. It is an impeachable offense for the president to unilaterally "redefine" the law. CONGRESS makes the laws. The president has to follow them.
My personal belief is that Al Gore would have taken terrorism seriously. How seriously?? Well, probably somewhere above pornography and prostitution. Or to be specific, Al Gore's Attorney General wouldn't have done what John Ashcroft had done.
The prioritization that Ashcroft put on anti-terrorism made approving the appropriate investigations difficult. Worse yet, GW Bush demoted Richard Clarke (servent of 4 administrations and anti-terrorism czar under Clinton) from a cabinet level position to a subordinate of Condeleeza Rice. Clarke's crusade to get GW Bush to take Osama Bin Laden seriously read like a Dilbert cartoon. Meetings and meetings for the administration to create a "grand strategy" before they could take ANY action. Worse yet, the anti-terrorism czar was no longer a "czar" and no effective power to do anything without going through other cabinet secretaries.
There was PLENTY of intelligence pointing to the 9/11 attacks. Foreign governments were warning the US that something was going to happen and somehow the staff of Odigo got "reliable evidence" to evacuate their entire crew before the attack.
Additionally, the Bush administration also killed the investigation into the Cole bombing. That was a "Clinton thing" and they weren't interested.
The Bush administration was either criminally negligent or willfully evil. Had Al Gore been president, 9/11 would never had happened. Just like Project Bojinka and the Millenium Bomb Plot never happened because the Clinton administration made anti-terrorism a priority.
You need to read this more carefully. These reference FISA authority and require government officials to request warrants OR retro-actively apply for those warrants within 72 hours as required by F.I.S.A.
By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, including sections 302 and 303 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 ("Act") (50 U.S.C. 1801, et seq.), as amended by Public Law 103- 359, and in order to provide for the authorization of physical searches for foreign intelligence purposes as set forth in the Act, it is hereby ordered as follows:
Section 1. Pursuant to section 302(a)(1) of the Act, the Attorney General is authorized to approve physical searches, without a court order, to acquire foreign intelligence information for periods of up to one year, [b]if the Attorney General makes the certifications required by that section.[/b]
Sec. 2. Pursuant to section 302(b) of the Act, the Attorney General is authorized to approve applications to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court under section 303 of the Act to obtain orders for physical searches for the purpose of collecting foreign intelligence information.... snip...
WILLIAM J. CLINTON
THE WHITE HOUSE,
February 9, 1995. [/i]
[i]
EXERCISE OF CERTAIN AUTHORITY RESPECTING ELECTRONIC SURVEILLANCE EO 12139 23 May 1979
By the authority vested in me as President by Sections 102 and
104 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 (50 U.S.C.
1802 and 1804), in order to provide as set forth in that Act (this
chapter) for the authorization of electronic surveillance for
foreign intelligence purposes, it is hereby ordered as follows:
1-101. [b]Pursuant to Section 102(a)(1) of the Foreign Intelligence
Surveillance Act of 1978 (50 U.S.C. 1802(a))[/b], the Attorney General
is authorized to approve electronic surveillance to acquire foreign
intelligence information without a court order, [b]but only if the
Attorney General makes the certifications required by that Section[/b].
1-102. [b]Pursuant to Section 102(b) of the Foreign Intelligence Act
of 1978 (50 U.S.C. 1802(b))[/b], the Attorney General is authorized to
approve applications to the court having jurisdiction under Section
103 of that Act (50 U.S.C. 1803) to obtain orders for electronic
surveillance for the purpose of obtaining foreign intelligence
information.
[/i]
These executive orders are instructions to from the President to the staff to execute the laws as outlined by the Foreign Intelligence Services Act.
The Bush administration has not even bothered to do retro-active applications for FISA warrants. And the most idiotic thing is that Bush came out today and said that he always requests warrants when doing wire-taps. So after "coming clean", he is now lying about it again.
Well if they hate us because we are free and have liberties from a totalitarian government, than taking away freedoms for the sake of FIGHTING terrorists affectively accomplishes there goal.
Well, that's GW Bush's world. Which tells you he doesn't think very long about keeping a consistent line of values and reasoning.
Don't kid yourself. The terrorists hate us because we're up in their business. They want us out of the Middle East. Increasing our presense in the Middle East only increases the amount of radicalism. Hence more terrorism.
That's why "fighting the there so we don't have to fight them here" is so stupid. Fighting them there only makes more of them.
This is probably too complicated for the average Republican to understand. I will translate to something you might be able to relate too. Remember Fantasia where Mickey makes the magic broom (Mujahadeen). Well Mickey is so pleased with himself that he falls asleep when he thinks the job is done (abandoning Afghanistan after the Russians withdraw). Well Mickey wakes up and finds the broom has overfilled the water (WTC, 9/11). Then Mickey tries to kill them by hitting them with an axe (Iraq). Well, Mickey didn't think it through because every time he kills a broom, 6 more rise to take it's place (Iraqi Insurgency). Eventually, Mickie realizes that the mindless use of force is not the answer and must turn to someone more learned in magic (diplomacy (UN)).
Tomorrow we'll make the same analogy, we'll just use drug dealers instead of terrorists.
According to Ben Franklin "Those who would trade liberty for security deserve neither."
The choice you pose is a false one. There is a secret FISA court whose explicit purpose is to approve of national security wire-taps. They ALMOST NEVER deny a warrant.
So yes, you can have both. And aren't you just a little stupid for allowing GW Bush to BECOME Saddam Hussein for the saking of getting rid of him.
Throwing blood on minks is NOT a "terrorist" activity.
Burning down an empty house is not a "terrorist" activity.
I don't like PETA either and I don't approve of ELF. But property destruction is NOT murder. Terrorist KILL indiscriminately at civilian targets in order to produce a state of fear. As goofy as they are, none of these liberal radical groups do this.
By the way, it is quite ironic that while the FBI classifies PETA, Greenpeace and ELF as terrorists, they DO NOT classify white supremacist groups who practice para-military operations and gladly sport their copies of "The Anarchist Cookbook" and "The Turner Diaries".
I have NO DOUBT that the Bush administration is spying on liberal organization by labeling them "terrorists". And I also have no doubt that they are simply asserting another authority that they have not admitted to for domestic calls.
If you believe the Bush administrations definition of fast food as "manufacturing" jobs, you can start speculating what "international" and "terrorist" means.
For instance if you place a domestic long-distance phone call, it could go over a satellite link. Well, orbit is international territory. Therefore using Bush administration verbal gymnastics, this would be an international call. And what about cell phones??? Well, all those signals go into orbit, so that could be an "international":cough: call as well.
What about terrorists??? Well we already know that the Bush administration considers unions (the NEA in particular), peace activists and environmental activists as "terrorists". And many Democrats subscribe to ideas of unionism, peace and environmentalism. Indeed they believe anyone who opposes this war is aiding and ebetting terrorists. Ergo, Democrats are terrorists.
And what about any businesses that do businesses in country where there may be terrorists? Couldn't they be terrorists as well. Well I'm sure there is a lot of strategic business information that could be learned from "international" calls by "terrorists".
The fact that Bush refused to go through the FISA court leads you to believe that this court was unlikely to approve the wire taps they wanted. This court has a history of rubber stamping pretty much anything an adminstration wants.
The alternative thought is that Bush is asserting a new right of "presidential supremacy". This basically means that the President can do whatever he wants so long as he claims it is pursuit of his "commander in chief" duties. Frankly, this is the more disturbing option. This is the avenue that Hitler took.
If Congress does NOT oppose these actions, Bush will have successfully established a precedent of violating the law simply because "he feels like it". This would transform GW Bush into a dictator. GW Bush could decide to cancel the next election because of "terrorist threats".
If you are a Republican, please think long and hard about giving your approval to this. Now think whether you would approve this if it was Bill Clinton.
Finally, consider Bush's justification. There have been no terrorist attacks since Bush started the program. Well, consider that from the first WTC attacks in '92, Al Queda made no successfull strikes until 2001. A total of NINE YEARS passed between Al Queda attacks against US territory without a SINGLE illegal wire tap (at least during the Clinton administration).
I would submit that there was PLENTY of intelligence available to the Bush administration to stop attacks. Indeed, the Clinton administration managed to thwart multiple Al Queda attacks against the US without using illegal wire-taps (but no doubt using the legal (and secret) FISA court). John Ashcroft de-prioritized anti-terrorism to just under porn and prostitution.
Richard Clarke was screaming as loud as he could to get access to the President and take anti-terrorism seriously. He was ignored. The intelligence fore-shadowing 9/11 was forestalled. Somehow the Bush administration had managed to bring the US airforce to a state of unreadiness whereby it could not intercept a jumbo jet.
Please Republicans, take your party and your Constitution seriously. This man is dragging your party into ignominy. If you are a patriot you MUST support checks and balance. The President is NOT an elected king. The Presidents job is to respect and enforce the laws passed by Congress. The President cannot just "make up" laws.
If you don't support checking the president's power, you are a fascist. If you don't like that label, than you need to change your position. You will bring this country to a state of civil war against those of us who will NOT bear a President affecting the same transformation on the US as Hitler did to Germany.
Yet another impeachment count if the Democrats can find the spine to win the 2006 elections.
If you're not concerned about the president creating a US KGB, then you're a fascist and you don't deserve to be an American. You're an American hater because you hate the Constitution of the United States.
Flying flags does not represent patriotism. Nor does sporting yellow magnetic stickers made in China. Belief and upholding the CONSTITUTION makes you an American.
GW Bush is NOT an American. He is a demonic usurpur. He'd be far more comfortable living in Saudia Arabia.
Look, if Boing and Lockheed Martin could run these operations privately, wouldn't they have already done it by now???
NASA source's it's equipment to Aerospace. However, they keep overall mission management in house.
If Aerospace wants to cut out the government and service the private sector directly, I say all for it. Don't forget that these guys have to pay rental fees for NASA's launch and mission control facilities (unless they want to build and maintain their own).
BTW, the purpose of the space shuttle was to make NASA appear as if it had a full fledged re-usable vehicle more alike to something people had seen in science fiction movies. In reality, it was a space station that could be launched and recovered.
I support ISS. I don't support the Shuttle's role in either launching components or servicing ISS. But that's what we had to go with. Hopefully we can get back to launching "flying washing machines" soon that are disposable and ultimately a lot cheaper than the shuttle.
So you will kindly point out the private firm capable of doing this!!!
Those things that the private sector can do, they SHOULD do. That is, things that NATURALLY happen in the private sector without needing public sector help (financing) should be left to the private sector.
The problem with what is happening now is that they are trying to artificially create private sector companies do fill the role of public sector agencies. Think Halliburton and military services. The ONLY thing they are doing is creating a profit where there was no profit before. And along with it, a fair amount of kickbacks to political backers.
If there is ANY real business strategy here (beyond just pushing paper and scraping profits while all the books are unsettled), it's to capitalize on AOLs one true asset, ignorance.
There is an entire legions out there who believe AOL IS the internet. They aren't techno savvy but they've learned how to use AOL's bloated interface.
Like Mario or Halo, AOL's true value is as an "exclusive". Exclusive to who you say??? Exclusive to the big media conglomerate that will come along and BUY AOL after they have been spun off. Why not sell directly? Well that would only mean ONE commission for the money brokers.
It could be comcast, it could be verizon. Than again, maybe their best strategy is to license their interface like TIVO has done.
With wireless broadband marching steadily into the consumer space, it's pretty clear that AOL will soon be OUT of the "onramp" business. And AOLs value as a portal really isn't that great (this is a battle between Google, Yahoo and MSN).
The problem with current broadband subscription is that AOL is NOT the default. Some liberated service installer can show users how to reach websites WITHOUT AOL. That's BAD. They can even setup their mail using Outlook Express. That's EVEN WORSE!!!!
What AOL needs is for those installation techs to install AOL AS THE DEFAULT!!! What they need is AOCelL for wireless instant messaging.
The only way to keep people in the cave is to keep their eyes on the wall. When someone gets between AOL and their users, they can show them a whole new world. AOLs job is to figure out how to stop their users from becoming knowlegable!!!!
Breakups and mergers cause movements in stock prices. They also create a whirlwind of new options for newly created (or divided) companies.
Acquisitions are truly about expanding a large company into new areas (or buying out the competition). Mergers and break-ups are all about making the executives richer than they already are.
Who pays ???? All you saps who will go out and buy AOL-Time-Warner stock.
Slashdot Mirror
Deadwood got pretty intense this season. I eagerly await the 3rd.
The doctor did an MRI scan on Baltar. There was no foreign objects.
Can't you tell that Baltar IS a Cylon???? Baltar is a sleeper. And I think we will find out that the "commander" model of the Cylon is the Baltar model.
What is the excess of violence. Is that pandering???
Personally, I think we as a society would be much better off if their was less shooting and more screwing on TV.
I REALLY like the new BSG. It is WAAAAY better than the 70s version.
But Rome is just a step ahead of ANYTHING ELSE on television!!! The second season of Carnivale also gets an honorable mention.
It's probably Canada. That is, if you're an individual.
If you're a corporation, than China is probably free-est. But the US ranks up there in BOTH categories
Yes Diebold is being vigourously challened
The problem is that they are being primarily deployed in red states where the powers that be have defined the law to support Diebold machines.
With the Diebold machines in place, what are the odds that the laws are going to change anytime soon???
BTW, the statistics are showing that the electronic voting machines are the ones that differ significantly from exit polling. Traditional vote counting methodology seems to agree. Hmmmmm......
Like Uncle Joe Stalin used to say, it's not who does the voting, it's who does the counting!!!!
Not the government, the Bush Crime Family.
Bush did everything he could to blind the US to any terrorist attack prior to 9/11. He even managed to disable the air force's capability to intercept a slow moving plane (jumbo jets).
Shit, the Air Force intercepted the jet of a GOLFER when it went off course. Somehow air traffic controllers managed to communicate with NORAD that day. But apparantely all those capabilities failed when GW Bush took office.
And of course, the Air Force was conveniently running a drill that simulated EXACTLY what was happening on 9/11. So the people at NORAD were "confused" that frantic calls were part of the drill. Of course this is incredibly stupid to assert that the Air Force cannot drill without a capability to tell the difference between the simulation and a REAL ATTACK. Geez, if this was the case the Soviet Union could have annhialated the United States just by knowing when NORAD would be running a missle drill. The Air Force isn't this stupid. But seamingly, rank and file conservatives ARE!!!
Why don't you read those things instead of relying on Drudge Report interpretations?
Those are references to the FISA act. The "warrantless searches" are in reference to a provision in the FISA LAW that allows for retro-active warrant application to the FISA court up to 72 hours after an "emergency wire tap".
The executive orders effectively state that employees of the executive branch are instructed to issue warrants according to the FISA law when appropriate. Yes, this is a necessary step since the president is the boss and you cannot act without the President delegating things to you.
What GW Bush did is to COMPLETELY bypass the FISA court. This is a violation of statutory law and an infringement of the 4th amendment. It is an impeachable offense for the president to unilaterally "redefine" the law. CONGRESS makes the laws. The president has to follow them.
My personal belief is that Al Gore would have taken terrorism seriously. How seriously?? Well, probably somewhere above pornography and prostitution. Or to be specific, Al Gore's Attorney General wouldn't have done what John Ashcroft had done.
The prioritization that Ashcroft put on anti-terrorism made approving the appropriate investigations difficult. Worse yet, GW Bush demoted Richard Clarke (servent of 4 administrations and anti-terrorism czar under Clinton) from a cabinet level position to a subordinate of Condeleeza Rice. Clarke's crusade to get GW Bush to take Osama Bin Laden seriously read like a Dilbert cartoon. Meetings and meetings for the administration to create a "grand strategy" before they could take ANY action. Worse yet, the anti-terrorism czar was no longer a "czar" and no effective power to do anything without going through other cabinet secretaries.
There was PLENTY of intelligence pointing to the 9/11 attacks. Foreign governments were warning the US that something was going to happen and somehow the staff of Odigo got "reliable evidence" to evacuate their entire crew before the attack.
Additionally, the Bush administration also killed the investigation into the Cole bombing. That was a "Clinton thing" and they weren't interested.
The Bush administration was either criminally negligent or willfully evil. Had Al Gore been president, 9/11 would never had happened. Just like Project Bojinka and the Millenium Bomb Plot never happened because the Clinton administration made anti-terrorism a priority.
You need to read this more carefully. These reference FISA authority and require government officials to request warrants OR retro-actively apply for those warrants within 72 hours as required by F.I.S.A.
[i]
EXECUTIVE ORDER 12949
- - - - - - -
FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE PHYSICAL SEARCHES
By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution
and the laws of the United States, including sections 302 and 303 of the
Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 ("Act") (50 U.S.C. 1801,
et seq.), as amended by Public Law 103- 359, and in order to provide for
the authorization of physical searches for foreign intelligence purposes
as set forth in the Act, it is hereby ordered as follows:
Section 1. Pursuant to section 302(a)(1) of the Act, the
Attorney General is authorized to approve physical searches, without a
court order, to acquire foreign intelligence information for periods of
up to one year, [b]if the Attorney General makes the certifications
required by that section.[/b]
Sec. 2. Pursuant to section 302(b) of the Act, the Attorney
General is authorized to approve applications to the Foreign
Intelligence Surveillance Court under section 303 of the Act to obtain
orders for physical searches for the purpose of collecting foreign
intelligence information.
WILLIAM J. CLINTON
THE WHITE HOUSE,
February 9, 1995.
[/i]
[i]
EXERCISE OF CERTAIN AUTHORITY RESPECTING ELECTRONIC SURVEILLANCE
EO 12139
23 May 1979
By the authority vested in me as President by Sections 102 and
104 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 (50 U.S.C.
1802 and 1804), in order to provide as set forth in that Act (this
chapter) for the authorization of electronic surveillance for
foreign intelligence purposes, it is hereby ordered as follows:
1-101. [b]Pursuant to Section 102(a)(1) of the Foreign Intelligence
Surveillance Act of 1978 (50 U.S.C. 1802(a))[/b], the Attorney General
is authorized to approve electronic surveillance to acquire foreign
intelligence information without a court order, [b]but only if the
Attorney General makes the certifications required by that Section[/b].
1-102. [b]Pursuant to Section 102(b) of the Foreign Intelligence Act
of 1978 (50 U.S.C. 1802(b))[/b], the Attorney General is authorized to
approve applications to the court having jurisdiction under Section
103 of that Act (50 U.S.C. 1803) to obtain orders for electronic
surveillance for the purpose of obtaining foreign intelligence
information.
[/i]
These executive orders are instructions to from the President to the staff to execute the laws as outlined by the Foreign Intelligence Services Act.
The Bush administration has not even bothered to do retro-active applications for FISA warrants. And the most idiotic thing is that Bush came out today and said that he always requests warrants when doing wire-taps. So after "coming clean", he is now lying about it again.
As usual Drudge is WAAAAY off the mark.
Osama is powerless to transform the United States into a totalitarian regime. GW Bush is well on his way.
"They hate us for our freedom" - GW Bush
Well if they hate us because we are free and have liberties from a totalitarian government, than taking away freedoms for the sake of FIGHTING terrorists affectively accomplishes there goal.
Well, that's GW Bush's world. Which tells you he doesn't think very long about keeping a consistent line of values and reasoning.
Don't kid yourself. The terrorists hate us because we're up in their business. They want us out of the Middle East. Increasing our presense in the Middle East only increases the amount of radicalism. Hence more terrorism.
That's why "fighting the there so we don't have to fight them here" is so stupid. Fighting them there only makes more of them.
This is probably too complicated for the average Republican to understand. I will translate to something you might be able to relate too. Remember Fantasia where Mickey makes the magic broom (Mujahadeen). Well Mickey is so pleased with himself that he falls asleep when he thinks the job is done (abandoning Afghanistan after the Russians withdraw). Well Mickey wakes up and finds the broom has overfilled the water (WTC, 9/11). Then Mickey tries to kill them by hitting them with an axe (Iraq). Well, Mickey didn't think it through because every time he kills a broom, 6 more rise to take it's place (Iraqi Insurgency). Eventually, Mickie realizes that the mindless use of force is not the answer and must turn to someone more learned in magic (diplomacy (UN)).
Tomorrow we'll make the same analogy, we'll just use drug dealers instead of terrorists.
According to Ben Franklin "Those who would trade liberty for security deserve neither."
The choice you pose is a false one. There is a secret FISA court whose explicit purpose is to approve of national security wire-taps. They ALMOST NEVER deny a warrant.
So yes, you can have both. And aren't you just a little stupid for allowing GW Bush to BECOME Saddam Hussein for the saking of getting rid of him.
Throwing blood on minks is NOT a "terrorist" activity.
Burning down an empty house is not a "terrorist" activity.
I don't like PETA either and I don't approve of ELF. But property destruction is NOT murder. Terrorist KILL indiscriminately at civilian targets in order to produce a state of fear. As goofy as they are, none of these liberal radical groups do this.
By the way, it is quite ironic that while the FBI classifies PETA, Greenpeace and ELF as terrorists, they DO NOT classify white supremacist groups who practice para-military operations and gladly sport their copies of "The Anarchist Cookbook" and "The Turner Diaries".
I have NO DOUBT that the Bush administration is spying on liberal organization by labeling them "terrorists". And I also have no doubt that they are simply asserting another authority that they have not admitted to for domestic calls.
I would argue that Gilliam drew heavily from "1984". I would argue that 1984 was based on Nazi Germany.
I would argue that the Bush administration is using the same techniques as Hitler to transform Democracy into totalitarianism.
GW is a greater threat to the US than Osama Bin Laden. There is NOTHING that OBL can do to remove our civil rights.
If you believe the Bush administrations definition of fast food as "manufacturing" jobs, you can start speculating what "international" and "terrorist" means.
For instance if you place a domestic long-distance phone call, it could go over a satellite link. Well, orbit is international territory. Therefore using Bush administration verbal gymnastics, this would be an international call. And what about cell phones??? Well, all those signals go into orbit, so that could be an "international"
What about terrorists??? Well we already know that the Bush administration considers unions (the NEA in particular), peace activists and environmental activists as "terrorists". And many Democrats subscribe to ideas of unionism, peace and environmentalism. Indeed they believe anyone who opposes this war is aiding and ebetting terrorists. Ergo, Democrats are terrorists.
And what about any businesses that do businesses in country where there may be terrorists? Couldn't they be terrorists as well. Well I'm sure there is a lot of strategic business information that could be learned from "international" calls by "terrorists".
The fact that Bush refused to go through the FISA court leads you to believe that this court was unlikely to approve the wire taps they wanted. This court has a history of rubber stamping pretty much anything an adminstration wants.
The alternative thought is that Bush is asserting a new right of "presidential supremacy". This basically means that the President can do whatever he wants so long as he claims it is pursuit of his "commander in chief" duties. Frankly, this is the more disturbing option. This is the avenue that Hitler took.
If Congress does NOT oppose these actions, Bush will have successfully established a precedent of violating the law simply because "he feels like it". This would transform GW Bush into a dictator. GW Bush could decide to cancel the next election because of "terrorist threats".
If you are a Republican, please think long and hard about giving your approval to this. Now think whether you would approve this if it was Bill Clinton.
Finally, consider Bush's justification. There have been no terrorist attacks since Bush started the program. Well, consider that from the first WTC attacks in '92, Al Queda made no successfull strikes until 2001. A total of NINE YEARS passed between Al Queda attacks against US territory without a SINGLE illegal wire tap (at least during the Clinton administration).
I would submit that there was PLENTY of intelligence available to the Bush administration to stop attacks. Indeed, the Clinton administration managed to thwart multiple Al Queda attacks against the US without using illegal wire-taps (but no doubt using the legal (and secret) FISA court). John Ashcroft de-prioritized anti-terrorism to just under porn and prostitution.
Richard Clarke was screaming as loud as he could to get access to the President and take anti-terrorism seriously. He was ignored. The intelligence fore-shadowing 9/11 was forestalled. Somehow the Bush administration had managed to bring the US airforce to a state of unreadiness whereby it could not intercept a jumbo jet.
Please Republicans, take your party and your Constitution seriously. This man is dragging your party into ignominy. If you are a patriot you MUST support checks and balance. The President is NOT an elected king. The Presidents job is to respect and enforce the laws passed by Congress. The President cannot just "make up" laws.
If you don't support checking the president's power, you are a fascist. If you don't like that label, than you need to change your position. You will bring this country to a state of civil war against those of us who will NOT bear a President affecting the same transformation on the US as Hitler did to Germany.
Yet another impeachment count if the Democrats can find the spine to win the 2006 elections.
If you're not concerned about the president creating a US KGB, then you're a fascist and you don't deserve to be an American. You're an American hater because you hate the Constitution of the United States.
Flying flags does not represent patriotism. Nor does sporting yellow magnetic stickers made in China. Belief and upholding the CONSTITUTION makes you an American.
GW Bush is NOT an American. He is a demonic usurpur. He'd be far more comfortable living in Saudia Arabia.
Stop trading with these pricks and strengthening their nation. Than they can lob all the packets they like at us and it won't matter.
Look, if Boing and Lockheed Martin could run these operations privately, wouldn't they have already done it by now???
NASA source's it's equipment to Aerospace. However, they keep overall mission management in house.
If Aerospace wants to cut out the government and service the private sector directly, I say all for it. Don't forget that these guys have to pay rental fees for NASA's launch and mission control facilities (unless they want to build and maintain their own).
BTW, the purpose of the space shuttle was to make NASA appear as if it had a full fledged re-usable vehicle more alike to something people had seen in science fiction movies. In reality, it was a space station that could be launched and recovered.
I support ISS. I don't support the Shuttle's role in either launching components or servicing ISS. But that's what we had to go with. Hopefully we can get back to launching "flying washing machines" soon that are disposable and ultimately a lot cheaper than the shuttle.
So you will kindly point out the private firm capable of doing this!!!
Those things that the private sector can do, they SHOULD do. That is, things that NATURALLY happen in the private sector without needing public sector help (financing) should be left to the private sector.
The problem with what is happening now is that they are trying to artificially create private sector companies do fill the role of public sector agencies. Think Halliburton and military services. The ONLY thing they are doing is creating a profit where there was no profit before. And along with it, a fair amount of kickbacks to political backers.
This is ALL about graft.
So you predict that Sony will sell off it's music and movie studios sometime soon?
If there is ANY real business strategy here (beyond just pushing paper and scraping profits while all the books are unsettled), it's to capitalize on AOLs one true asset, ignorance.
There is an entire legions out there who believe AOL IS the internet. They aren't techno savvy but they've learned how to use AOL's bloated interface.
Like Mario or Halo, AOL's true value is as an "exclusive". Exclusive to who you say??? Exclusive to the big media conglomerate that will come along and BUY AOL after they have been spun off. Why not sell directly? Well that would only mean ONE commission for the money brokers.
It could be comcast, it could be verizon. Than again, maybe their best strategy is to license their interface like TIVO has done.
With wireless broadband marching steadily into the consumer space, it's pretty clear that AOL will soon be OUT of the "onramp" business. And AOLs value as a portal really isn't that great (this is a battle between Google, Yahoo and MSN).
The problem with current broadband subscription is that AOL is NOT the default. Some liberated service installer can show users how to reach websites WITHOUT AOL. That's BAD. They can even setup their mail using Outlook Express. That's EVEN WORSE!!!!
What AOL needs is for those installation techs to install AOL AS THE DEFAULT!!! What they need is AOCelL for wireless instant messaging.
The only way to keep people in the cave is to keep their eyes on the wall. When someone gets between AOL and their users, they can show them a whole new world. AOLs job is to figure out how to stop their users from becoming knowlegable!!!!
Breakups and mergers cause movements in stock prices. They also create a whirlwind of new options for newly created (or divided) companies.
Acquisitions are truly about expanding a large company into new areas (or buying out the competition). Mergers and break-ups are all about making the executives richer than they already are.
Who pays ???? All you saps who will go out and buy AOL-Time-Warner stock.
"When I watched the Lone Gunman Pilot I thought
- Condaleeza Rice
Maybe they should contract 4-5 firms to do a rapid development prototype. Than award the contract to the team that makes the best progress.
Geez, isn't that how the military does things??? Except they typically pay $50-$1000 million for each prototype.
Rather than waste