You've supported a government that's run up the national debt without a care in the world. At least Clinton stopped the bleeding.
You've been living high off of national credit card debt. We can't even make the monthly minimums anymore. We have to borrow money to pay for money we already borrowed.
That high-tech world's largest army that's bigger and better than most of the world combined? It costs a lot of money. The war in Iraq? Rebuilding Afghanistan? It all costs money.
Don't try to claim the current regime doesn't have support. Bush got re-elected and Americans have sent more and more Republicans to Congress. Obviously they like their free-spending ways.
We've got 5-6 trillion dollars of debt because baby-boomers never learned to how to stick with a budget. Guess what? It's time to either pay the piper or prepare for a financial meltdown. We can't borrow money forever.
What's the drastic solution? 1. Repeal Bush's tax cuts. (income, inheritance, etc) 2. Eliminate corporate subsidies and loopholes. 3. Remove the income cap on SSI taxes. 4. Jack up taxes in the upper bracket. 5. Get out of Iraq.
That should at least stop us from hemmoraging money and maybe get us somewhere near starting to pay off the debt.
Don't do anything and the dollar will continue to free fall, the Euro will become the new reserve currency and countries will stop lending us money. Life's going to be great when the government defaults on its loans.
I'm sure you're an advocate of "personal responsibility". Time to take some.
We responded (against the objections of many who saw it as a totally "black hat" move) by flat-out conquering two entire nations (so far) which were friendly to Bin Ladin's cause.
Iraq wasn't friendly to Bin Laden's cause. Saddam was a secularist that Bin Laden wanted to see removed. Saddam cracked down hard on fundamentalists. They were the people he gassed.
Because of the attack on 9/11, our influence in the Middle East has expanded, rather than declined. It had the exact opposite effect of what was intended. It was a fatal miscalculation.
You're joking right? America/Bush has acted exactly how OBL wanted us to. America is hated by the entire Muslim world now. Half our army is bogged down in Iraq. Afghanistan is ruled by druglords. Iraq will be controlled by Islamic fundamentalists in a couple years. And Bin Laden himself still roams freely.
When I worked at AT&T Wireless, someone posted a bunch of fliers promoting new "cost-saving policies" that were going to be instituted. Mostly they mocked real existing ones(AWS doubled the price of cans of soda in break rooms) and the fact that money-sink MMS and the Executive divisions never seemed to be on the receiving end of these sorts of decisions.
A lot of people assumed I wrote the flier for some reason.
In any case, apparently, a scan of flier got included in a presentation to the SVP of Human Resources as an example of how bad morale was at the company.
That's the right attitude to take: take the criticism into consideration instead of shooting the messenger.
it exists in a state of relative dirtiness *and* a state of relative cleanliness. It isn't until you observe the program running that one state is determined.
There's a lot of printed sci-fi crud out there too that panders to the lowest common demoninator. They're two different mediums with different strengths and quality matters in both.
If you want to cherry pick Philip K Dick as being representative of sci-fi books, you have to let me cherry pick Firefly as representative of sci-fi television. And frankly, I'll take Firefly anytime.
I think political ads leave the viewer less informed than before they say the ad.
The primary aim of campaign ads is to increase name recognition. The sad fact of the matter is that people tend to vote the name they know, irregardless of whether they actually agree with that person.
That's why incumbents win so often. Everyone in their district has at least heard of the incumbent but they've never heard of the opponent. Unless you're a party-line voter, people vote for the person they've heard of.
You only see negative ads when two candidates are at name recognition parity and you need to give people reasons *not* to support your opponent.
It should be used to expose who contributed money that went towards the ad
Go to the FEC homepage or Tray.com. You can peruse each candidate's FEC filings and find out who gave them money, how much and who those people work for.
And Opensecrets.org does a good job aggregating this information.
The problem isn't contributions; it's that it costs so damn much to run a serious campaign and candidates have to spend 12 hours a day raising money instead of being out campaigning. Why does it cost so much? TV ads!
We need to reduce the cost of political ads on *our* public airwaves.
Let's not forget where he was assigned - to an out-of-date Battlestar that was being commissioned. He was never supposed to be a great commander or even a good one. If he were, he wouldn't have been where he was.
Galactica is the Siberia that the cruft of the military were assigned to. Thus the alcoholic XO, their best pilot can't respect authority, crew members sleeping with subourdinates, etc.
Add on to the fact that the technology is BARELY removed from todays capabilities, asidefrom the hyperdrive element. Fighters with reactionary manuuvering systems? The aircraft carrier in space? I mean hell, it's like a real life aricraft carrier (and i've worked on one).
Galactica was intentionally built to be low-tech. They explained why in the mini-series.
Galactica was built to defend against an enemy that could override computer systems and disrupt electrical systems. That's the reason it survived the initial Cylon assault and nearly every other human ship did not. All the modern ships (like the Vipers in the mini-series) had their systems taken over and shutdown.
"How to Build a Nuclear Bomb (and other weapons of mass destruction)" is a very good, quick read that isn't hysterical about the threat.
Lays out what a nation would have to do and procure in order to build a WMD, what the effects of one going off would be and how difficult it is to construct them.
It uses North Korea and Iraq as case studies and while it doesn't state any conclusions, you can only realize that Iraq was in no position to build WMDs. Programs like that would simply be too difficult to hide given the level of scrutiny they were under.
Since you're clearly uninterested in one of the basic tenets of the American judicial system. You have a right to an attorney who will look out for YOUR interests, not the state's, not the public's, not the victim's. YOUR interests.
Would *you* want a defense attorney who was only looking out for the state's interests? But, hey, *you*'ll be innocent, right? I guess tough titties if your defense attorney decides you're not and tanks your defense out of respect for society.
The kind of attorneys you want are found in dictatorships and similarly oppressive regimes. Why not move to one?
You'll frequently see ammendements to bills that were defeated in the House and/or Senate become part of the final legislation anyways because the conference committee added it in.
Then in the final vote, you have to either vote to support the final bill and the hundreds of billions of dollars of pork or risk being branded as being "against our troops, our country and our freedom".
Something analogous to this is happening in the EU at the moment. The Commission can't enact the law on its own but it does control what will be voted upon.
I do agree that Baltar and the Cylon testing has been just silly.
Why exactly? He's been jelously guarding the test from anyone so that he'll alone know the *real* results. (Case in point: Boomer)
There's also a timeframe issue. Colonial Day starts on Day 47. It's probable he wasn't elected until a day or two after the start of the episode. So he's VP day 48 or 49. The raptor he's on crashlands on Day 50. Not a lot of time to hand-off everything to an assistant.
I think they didn't have a grand plan when they did the mini-series but once they got the go ahead for a regular series, they put one together. The Cylons have multiple objectives. The hybrid is one. Earth is another. And the *humans* finding earth is another part. BSG has a role in God's plan.
and after 13 episodes, we don't even know half of what it is. And given that it's actually God's plan, the Cylons may not know half of it either.
I think it's related to the cycle of death and rebirth. The Cylons need the humans to find Earth and it's only through the near total annihiliation of their civilization that they would even go look for it.
That being said, you needed some serious spoiler warnings. Maybe someone could mod down the parent as a courtesy to Americans.
He *did* save Star Trek from Gene Roddenberry after all.
Initially, he and Braga were the fresh voices that reinvigorated Star Trek. Unfortunately, they've long since become the stale old guard that needs to be tossed out.
Slashdot Mirror
You've supported a government that's run up the national debt without a care in the world. At least Clinton stopped the bleeding.
You've been living high off of national credit card debt. We can't even make the monthly minimums anymore. We have to borrow money to pay for money we already borrowed.
That high-tech world's largest army that's bigger and better than most of the world combined? It costs a lot of money. The war in Iraq? Rebuilding Afghanistan? It all costs money.
Don't try to claim the current regime doesn't have support. Bush got re-elected and Americans have sent more and more Republicans to Congress. Obviously they like their free-spending ways.
We've got 5-6 trillion dollars of debt because baby-boomers never learned to how to stick with a budget. Guess what? It's time to either pay the piper or prepare for a financial meltdown. We can't borrow money forever.
What's the drastic solution?
1. Repeal Bush's tax cuts. (income, inheritance, etc)
2. Eliminate corporate subsidies and loopholes.
3. Remove the income cap on SSI taxes.
4. Jack up taxes in the upper bracket.
5. Get out of Iraq.
That should at least stop us from hemmoraging money and maybe get us somewhere near starting to pay off the debt.
Don't do anything and the dollar will continue to free fall, the Euro will become the new reserve currency and countries will stop lending us money. Life's going to be great when the government defaults on its loans.
I'm sure you're an advocate of "personal responsibility". Time to take some.
We responded (against the objections of many who saw it as a totally "black hat" move) by flat-out conquering two entire nations (so far) which were friendly to Bin Ladin's cause.
Iraq wasn't friendly to Bin Laden's cause. Saddam was a secularist that Bin Laden wanted to see removed. Saddam cracked down hard on fundamentalists. They were the people he gassed.
Because of the attack on 9/11, our influence in the Middle East has expanded, rather than declined. It had the exact opposite effect of what was intended. It was a fatal miscalculation.
You're joking right? America/Bush has acted exactly how OBL wanted us to. America is hated by the entire Muslim world now. Half our army is bogged down in Iraq. Afghanistan is ruled by druglords. Iraq will be controlled by Islamic fundamentalists in a couple years. And Bin Laden himself still roams freely.
Explain the "fatal miscalculation".
They also get training and their ammunition is *closely* monitored. If even a single round is missing, they'll get in trouble.
Still want to pretend this is less restrictive than the US?
When I worked at AT&T Wireless, someone posted a bunch of fliers promoting new "cost-saving policies" that were going to be instituted. Mostly they mocked real existing ones(AWS doubled the price of cans of soda in break rooms) and the fact that money-sink MMS and the Executive divisions never seemed to be on the receiving end of these sorts of decisions.
A lot of people assumed I wrote the flier for some reason.
In any case, apparently, a scan of flier got included in a presentation to the SVP of Human Resources as an example of how bad morale was at the company.
That's the right attitude to take: take the criticism into consideration instead of shooting the messenger.
That doesn't make sense....at all.
The WB had a 5 year deal with Fox for the show. When it came time to renew the deal, UPN offered more money than the WB. Fox made the deal with UPN.
It wasn't a case of the WB cancelling the show and UPN "saving" it, which the article was implying.
it exists in a state of relative dirtiness *and* a state of relative cleanliness. It isn't until you observe the program running that one state is determined.
UPN's adoption of Buffy The Vampire Slayer
The WB didn't cancel Buffy! The broadcast rights were up for bid and UPN offered a lot more money to air the show. The WB *wanted* to keep the show.
There's a lot of printed sci-fi crud out there too that panders to the lowest common demoninator. They're two different mediums with different strengths and quality matters in both.
If you want to cherry pick Philip K Dick as being representative of sci-fi books, you have to let me cherry pick Firefly as representative of sci-fi television. And frankly, I'll take Firefly anytime.
I think political ads leave the viewer less informed than before they say the ad.
The primary aim of campaign ads is to increase name recognition. The sad fact of the matter is that people tend to vote the name they know, irregardless of whether they actually agree with that person.
That's why incumbents win so often. Everyone in their district has at least heard of the incumbent but they've never heard of the opponent. Unless you're a party-line voter, people vote for the person they've heard of.
You only see negative ads when two candidates are at name recognition parity and you need to give people reasons *not* to support your opponent.
It should be used to expose who contributed money that went towards the ad
Go to the FEC homepage or Tray.com. You can peruse each candidate's FEC filings and find out who gave them money, how much and who those people work for.
And Opensecrets.org does a good job aggregating this information.
They're already illegal.
The problem isn't contributions; it's that it costs so damn much to run a serious campaign and candidates have to spend 12 hours a day raising money instead of being out campaigning. Why does it cost so much? TV ads!
We need to reduce the cost of political ads on *our* public airwaves.
Let's not forget where he was assigned - to an out-of-date Battlestar that was being commissioned. He was never supposed to be a great commander or even a good one. If he were, he wouldn't have been where he was.
Galactica is the Siberia that the cruft of the military were assigned to. Thus the alcoholic XO, their best pilot can't respect authority, crew members sleeping with subourdinates, etc.
Add on to the fact that the technology is BARELY removed from todays capabilities, asidefrom the hyperdrive element. Fighters with reactionary manuuvering systems? The aircraft carrier in space? I mean hell, it's like a real life aricraft carrier (and i've worked on one).
Galactica was intentionally built to be low-tech. They explained why in the mini-series.
Galactica was built to defend against an enemy that could override computer systems and disrupt electrical systems. That's the reason it survived the initial Cylon assault and nearly every other human ship did not. All the modern ships (like the Vipers in the mini-series) had their systems taken over and shutdown.
This appears to be a bold move.
Columbian drug mule and panda killer?
is if someone looked up on Choicepoint, say, the CEO and other high-ranking executives and posted all their personal information here.
The karmic justice of these clowns having to spend substantial time and money trying to protect their credit history and whatnot would be priceless.
I'm not advocating that anyone should do this. I just think it would be justice because we're certainly not going to see any otherwise.
"How to Build a Nuclear Bomb (and other weapons of mass destruction)" is a very good, quick read that isn't hysterical about the threat.
Lays out what a nation would have to do and procure in order to build a WMD, what the effects of one going off would be and how difficult it is to construct them.
It uses North Korea and Iraq as case studies and while it doesn't state any conclusions, you can only realize that Iraq was in no position to build WMDs. Programs like that would simply be too difficult to hide given the level of scrutiny they were under.
Since you're clearly uninterested in one of the basic tenets of the American judicial system. You have a right to an attorney who will look out for YOUR interests, not the state's, not the public's, not the victim's. YOUR interests.
Would *you* want a defense attorney who was only looking out for the state's interests? But, hey, *you*'ll be innocent, right? I guess tough titties if your defense attorney decides you're not and tanks your defense out of respect for society.
The kind of attorneys you want are found in dictatorships and similarly oppressive regimes. Why not move to one?
That said, ever notice how all these crime and law shows on TV never have the main characters defending someone they know is guilty?
Never watched the Practice? Or Boston Legal?
Part of the reason you don't often see it is because shows are typically from the perspective of the prosecutor or take place in civil law.
You'll frequently see ammendements to bills that were defeated in the House and/or Senate become part of the final legislation anyways because the conference committee added it in.
Then in the final vote, you have to either vote to support the final bill and the hundreds of billions of dollars of pork or risk being branded as being "against our troops, our country and our freedom".
Something analogous to this is happening in the EU at the moment. The Commission can't enact the law on its own but it does control what will be voted upon.
I do agree that Baltar and the Cylon testing has been just silly.
Why exactly? He's been jelously guarding the test from anyone so that he'll alone know the *real* results. (Case in point: Boomer)
There's also a timeframe issue. Colonial Day starts on Day 47. It's probable he wasn't elected until a day or two after the start of the episode. So he's VP day 48 or 49. The raptor he's on crashlands on Day 50. Not a lot of time to hand-off everything to an assistant.
I think they didn't have a grand plan when they did the mini-series but once they got the go ahead for a regular series, they put one together. The Cylons have multiple objectives. The hybrid is one. Earth is another. And the *humans* finding earth is another part. BSG has a role in God's plan.
and after 13 episodes, we don't even know half of what it is. And given that it's actually God's plan, the Cylons may not know half of it either.
I think it's related to the cycle of death and rebirth. The Cylons need the humans to find Earth and it's only through the near total annihiliation of their civilization that they would even go look for it.
That being said, you needed some serious spoiler warnings. Maybe someone could mod down the parent as a courtesy to Americans.
He *did* save Star Trek from Gene Roddenberry after all.
Initially, he and Braga were the fresh voices that reinvigorated Star Trek. Unfortunately, they've long since become the stale old guard that needs to be tossed out.
And what exactly was wrong with his statement?
PDF
I've already encountered several emplyers asking for it in that format.
are the literal "canaries in the coal mine" of the environement. They're warning bells for more serious consequences.