Reporters didn't have access to classified documents in the Good Old Days either. And anyone caught leaking papers to the Soviet Union during the Cold War was in serious, serious trouble.
Which, presumably, is why the Obama Administration has brought charges against more journalists (6) than all other administrations combined (3)?
Would these be the same Senators and judges who are failing to do anything about all the other unconstitutional stuff the Federal government is doing? If so, surely you can see why Assange -- and the rest of the non-idiots in the US and the world -- would be skeptical of your argument.
Re: Senators. They may or may not do unconstitutional things (personally, I believe they do, but that may be just me). Since they CANNOT pass sentence on anyone, their opinion of what Assange deserves is just as valid as mine (or your's), and just as likely to have an impact in court.
Re: Judges. We have something called Federal sentencing Guidelines over here. Sentencing someone to a more extreme punishment than those guidelines allow pretty much guarantee a successful appeal of the sentence.
Since Assange CANNOT be convicted of treason (not a US Citizen, or even a resident), and he didn't murder any Federal officers (to include FBI/CIA/NSA/DEA/ATFE agents, he's pretty much covered on the death penalty side.
Note that if Assange murdered YOU in your own living room (assuming said living room were in the USA), and it were televised live on national TV, the Feds would have absolutely NOTHING they could charge Assange with, murder being a purely State matter (unless it involves a Federal Agent in pursuit of his duty - killing an FBI agent while breaking into his home looking for something you can sell to score some coke would probably be treated as a State crime, killing him because he was trying to arrest you would be Federal)
Also, Britain can't legally extradict to countries where the accused faces the Death Penalty and members of the US Senate had already publically claimed Assange should face the death penalty. Whether that was a legal possiblity I have no idea, but it certainly made the possibility of extradiction harder.
Senators don't get to sentence people in the USA. We have judges for that.
We also have a VERY short list of laws that are eligible for the death penalty. Assange, much as he would like to think he's the most important criminal in US history, didn't commit any of the crimes for which he could get the death penalty (if he even committed a crime under US law, which is debatable).
And no, he couldn't be convicted of treason, no matter what certain Senators think about the subject...
All of which means that Assange has little, if anything, to fear from extradition to the USA, in spite of what he has to say on the subject.
What happens when the majority of economic activity requires no workers at all? Then the owner gets a pile of profits, pays no workers at all, and only owners can afford anything because everyone else is unemployed and unemployable...
So, who is the Owner selling things to to make that "pile of profits", if there are no customers because they're "unemployed and unemployable"?
Capitalism is inherently flawed just like any other economic system.
Yep. Its flaw is that it assumes a limited amount of material goods to be had. As production costs approach zero (i.e. for music today) capitalism fails rather spectacularly, and communism actually begins to work.
About the only difference functionally between the two is how they're chosen (Sheriff always by election, CoP almost always appointed by Mayor/City Council).
Note that some places have both Sheriff and Chief of Police (usually when a City fills a County completely), in which case the Sheriff covers civil things (serving warrants, that sort of thing) and the CoP does the usual Police things.
Further note that some places have two sheriffs (one civil, as above, one criminal who runs the jails), plus the CoP who does the usual Police things.
In America I think you have elected police chiefs,
You think wrong, then.
Sheriffs are elected, police chiefs are almost never elected. I won't say never, though I can't think of anywhere that police chiefs are elected, but it's a big country.
This isn't another example of how precarious the situation at the Fukushima Daiichi plant is, but one of how massive the incompetence of TEPCO is that they keep having 'incident' after 'incident'.
No, this is an example of how you hear about this sort of trivia BECAUSE it's Fukushima.
Let's see. This particular incident reduces down to "minor operator error, safeguards worked as designed"....
In most other democracies, if the government can't pass a budget, then the legislature is dissolved and an election is called. New people are elected and they try again. Seems crazy to me that there's no framework of this in the USA - If the government is at loggerheads it's time to let the people decide via an election.
Most other democracies are designed to get things done. You do your elections, and the winners get to do whatever they damn well please till they lose a vote of confidence....
The US system is designed to limit the power of the Federal government. Yes, the Feds have gone way beyond those designed-in limits, mostly due to FDR and his threat to pack the Supreme Court (when the Supremes told him something he wanted to do was not Constitutional, he told them they could approve it anyway, or he'd appoint enough of his flunkies to the Court to guarantee a majority to vote his way on anything). Since then, the Feds have been pushing the boundaries of the Constitution whenever they had the chance.
Please note that many of the "right-wingers" got elected by GERRYMANDERING THEIR DISTRICTS
That must've been pretty tough to accomplish, what with the Voting Rights Act requiring Justice Department approval of all redistricting in many of those States, and allowing appeals of redistricting even in States not being monitored by DoJ.
I also think the best way to reduce America's budget would be to stop spending so much damn money on the military, which I don't imagine the Republicans would be too fond of either.
Note that if we halved our military budget, we'd still have a deficit. This is the first year of Obama's Presidency that ZEROING the military budget would not leave us with a deficit.
And, yah, I think we should stop being the world's policeman too. It would be entertaining to see what would happen if, say, France decided to bomb someone, ran out of bombs, and couldn't bum some bombs from the USA...
Since it's the same government that paves our roads, funds our schools, cleans our water, forecasts the weather, explores space, prosecutes our criminals, and extinguishes our fires, yes. We may as well add "heals the injured" and "cures the sick" to that as well.
Note that most of "paves our roads", "cleans our water", "prosecutes our criminals", and "extinguishes our fires" is done by our State governments, NOT the Federal government.
She hit a Capitol Police car near the base of Capitol Hill, injuring an officer,...
I've seen other news stories that say the police officer "hit a barrier" with his own car.
As this tale is still evolving (the story is changing from minute to minute), I'll (tentatively) accept your "she ran into his car" as true (at least till tomorrow).
Note that running into a police car is not actually a good excuse for gunning down an unarmed woman.
CNN, NBC, CBS, ABC and the BBC all have big, front page pictures and caption for this story.
The lone holdout? The Fox tabloid with a small banner above their big story asking the question: Can We Do Without It with graphics for HUD, Ed. Dept, IRS and NASA.
And, with it looking more and more like the police got overexcited and gunned down an unarmed woman, it's looking more and more like Fox was right to not play this as a "big front page pictures and caption for this story"....
...for enshrining the "right" to bear arms in your constitution. "Gun control? Fuck no, we have the right to wear guns and shoot things, goddammit! Zomglol bless Murrica!"
It's looking more and more like all the shots fired were by the Police...
2) This started with her ramming her car into the White House gate. Then there was the car chase down in the general direction of the Capitol Building.
3) Shots were fired. Doesn't say whether she shot first or the police did. Given the ramming the gate of the White House and the car chase, could have gone either way.
4) She was shot, one police officer was "injured". Not sure whether that means he was shot or not.
You don't see four nuclear reactors leaking radioactive substances directly into the ocean as a threat to life on this planet?
No, I don't. Perhaps because I have an idea of how much natural radioactivity is already in the oceans of the world (hint: grind up the four reactors in question, and dump them into the oceans, and you won't even be able to measure the increase over backgound).
The numbers for Fukushima sound really big, But once you spread them through 1,250,000T tons of water, they don't look so significant....
Just noticed that the NSA had to furlough ~70% of its personnel (according to Clapper), so if you disapprove of the NSA spying on you, throw your support behind keeping that shutdown going!
This ignorance is the classic US-centric idiot worldview. When somebody in say Europe or Asia first heard about the leaks, do you think they'd be worried about those poor American citizens across the pond, or would they be more like "WTF the USA government is hacking us?!?!"
So, what crime, exactly, is the NSA committing by "hacking you"?
Or are you seriously suggesting that the NSA is bound by your laws? If so, I assume that YOUR espionage is bound by OUR laws, and that it should stop immediately!
Now, you want to stop the NSA from spying on you? Go for it! I believe the technical phrase is "national technical means" (which means "if you can do it, go right ahead. It's not like we can stop you").
Just opt out of getting sick or injured, I hear your fucked if you do in your country.
Last time I was sick and without insurance...I went to my doctor, got a prescription, and went home to do what the doctor told me to (which basically reduced to "stop staying up all night and take these meds").
Oddly enough, that's pretty much exactly what happened the last time I got sick WITH insurance.
Think of the regional cash expansion of long term 'holding' buildings and related services, the expert guards needed, interrogators, language experts, cleared psychologists, cleared psychiatrists, medical teams for force feeding, cleared maintenance staff, expanded fly in fly out support and quality local accommodation. Thats a lot of instant state contracting and generational federal funding.
Not that simple, alas.
They're not POW's - no declared war.
They're not charged with any crime, and mostly can't be, since US law doesn't actually legally extend to foreigners living in foreign countries, and doing things in foreign countries.
If you can charge them with a crime under US law, you have to give them access to lawyers, with all the "we need to see the evidence against my client. It's secret?? Well, then we request this "evidence" not be admissable in court, since you can't give it to the defense. Move to have the case dismissed for lack of evidence, your Honour."
And we can't just ship them back where they came from, since the countries of origin don't want them in the first place. And if you tried to forcibly repatriate them, there's be Civil Rights lawyers screaming from the hilltops that they'd just be murdered if they were "forced" to return home....
someone revealing a world-wide illegal conspiracy affecting pretty much everyone in the civilized world.
Note that the NSA's mandate is FOREIGN signals intelligence gathering. If the NSA listens in on every phone call in the world not involving a US citizen, then its actions are no more a "world-wide illegal conspiracy" than me asking my wife what's for dinner.
Now, listening in on US citizens is clearly outside their mandate, and thus illegal. The lying to Congress might be sufficient grounds to make it a conspiracy.
Even then, it's only an illegal conspiracy affecting most American citizens (arguably American residents, legal or otherwise)....
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Which, presumably, is why the Obama Administration has brought charges against more journalists (6) than all other administrations combined (3)?
Re: Senators. They may or may not do unconstitutional things (personally, I believe they do, but that may be just me). Since they CANNOT pass sentence on anyone, their opinion of what Assange deserves is just as valid as mine (or your's), and just as likely to have an impact in court.
Re: Judges. We have something called Federal sentencing Guidelines over here. Sentencing someone to a more extreme punishment than those guidelines allow pretty much guarantee a successful appeal of the sentence.
Since Assange CANNOT be convicted of treason (not a US Citizen, or even a resident), and he didn't murder any Federal officers (to include FBI/CIA/NSA/DEA/ATFE agents, he's pretty much covered on the death penalty side.
Note that if Assange murdered YOU in your own living room (assuming said living room were in the USA), and it were televised live on national TV, the Feds would have absolutely NOTHING they could charge Assange with, murder being a purely State matter (unless it involves a Federal Agent in pursuit of his duty - killing an FBI agent while breaking into his home looking for something you can sell to score some coke would probably be treated as a State crime, killing him because he was trying to arrest you would be Federal)
Senators don't get to sentence people in the USA. We have judges for that.
We also have a VERY short list of laws that are eligible for the death penalty. Assange, much as he would like to think he's the most important criminal in US history, didn't commit any of the crimes for which he could get the death penalty (if he even committed a crime under US law, which is debatable).
And no, he couldn't be convicted of treason, no matter what certain Senators think about the subject...
All of which means that Assange has little, if anything, to fear from extradition to the USA, in spite of what he has to say on the subject.
So, who is the Owner selling things to to make that "pile of profits", if there are no customers because they're "unemployed and unemployable"?
Yep. Its flaw is that it assumes a limited amount of material goods to be had. As production costs approach zero (i.e. for music today) capitalism fails rather spectacularly, and communism actually begins to work.
Or, more likely, a synthesis of the two...
Sheriff = the top cop of a county
Chief of Police as the top cop of a city or town.
About the only difference functionally between the two is how they're chosen (Sheriff always by election, CoP almost always appointed by Mayor/City Council).
Note that some places have both Sheriff and Chief of Police (usually when a City fills a County completely), in which case the Sheriff covers civil things (serving warrants, that sort of thing) and the CoP does the usual Police things.
Further note that some places have two sheriffs (one civil, as above, one criminal who runs the jails), plus the CoP who does the usual Police things.
You think wrong, then.
Sheriffs are elected, police chiefs are almost never elected. I won't say never, though I can't think of anywhere that police chiefs are elected, but it's a big country.
No, this is an example of how you hear about this sort of trivia BECAUSE it's Fukushima.
Let's see. This particular incident reduces down to "minor operator error, safeguards worked as designed"....
Most other democracies are designed to get things done. You do your elections, and the winners get to do whatever they damn well please till they lose a vote of confidence....
The US system is designed to limit the power of the Federal government. Yes, the Feds have gone way beyond those designed-in limits, mostly due to FDR and his threat to pack the Supreme Court (when the Supremes told him something he wanted to do was not Constitutional, he told them they could approve it anyway, or he'd appoint enough of his flunkies to the Court to guarantee a majority to vote his way on anything). Since then, the Feds have been pushing the boundaries of the Constitution whenever they had the chance.
Which leads us to where we are now....
That must've been pretty tough to accomplish, what with the Voting Rights Act requiring Justice Department approval of all redistricting in many of those States, and allowing appeals of redistricting even in States not being monitored by DoJ.
Note that if we halved our military budget, we'd still have a deficit. This is the first year of Obama's Presidency that ZEROING the military budget would not leave us with a deficit.
And, yah, I think we should stop being the world's policeman too. It would be entertaining to see what would happen if, say, France decided to bomb someone, ran out of bombs, and couldn't bum some bombs from the USA...
Note that most of "paves our roads", "cleans our water", "prosecutes our criminals", and "extinguishes our fires" is done by our State governments, NOT the Federal government.
I've seen other news stories that say the police officer "hit a barrier" with his own car.
As this tale is still evolving (the story is changing from minute to minute), I'll (tentatively) accept your "she ran into his car" as true (at least till tomorrow).
Note that running into a police car is not actually a good excuse for gunning down an unarmed woman.
Well, no.
Injured cop did NOT get hit by woman, he ran into something else while chasing woman.
And, with it looking more and more like the police got overexcited and gunned down an unarmed woman, it's looking more and more like Fox was right to not play this as a "big front page pictures and caption for this story"....
Latest word says the shooting was all done by the police, so 3) & 4) should read:
3) Shots were fired by the police. There is no evidence that she was even armed.
4) She was shot & killed, one police officer was injured in a traffic accident.
It's looking more and more like all the shots fired were by the Police...
1) It's a woman.
2) This started with her ramming her car into the White House gate. Then there was the car chase down in the general direction of the Capitol Building.
3) Shots were fired. Doesn't say whether she shot first or the police did. Given the ramming the gate of the White House and the car chase, could have gone either way.
4) She was shot, one police officer was "injured". Not sure whether that means he was shot or not.
Copyright belongs to the author, who may or may not be the subject.
No, I don't. Perhaps because I have an idea of how much natural radioactivity is already in the oceans of the world (hint: grind up the four reactors in question, and dump them into the oceans, and you won't even be able to measure the increase over backgound).
The numbers for Fukushima sound really big, But once you spread them through 1,250,000T tons of water, they don't look so significant....
Umm, just exactly what problem are you asking them to solve?
I thought the subject was Fukushima, which is NOT "a threat to all life on our planet".
Just noticed that the NSA had to furlough ~70% of its personnel (according to Clapper), so if you disapprove of the NSA spying on you, throw your support behind keeping that shutdown going!
So, what crime, exactly, is the NSA committing by "hacking you"?
Or are you seriously suggesting that the NSA is bound by your laws? If so, I assume that YOUR espionage is bound by OUR laws, and that it should stop immediately!
Now, you want to stop the NSA from spying on you? Go for it! I believe the technical phrase is "national technical means" (which means "if you can do it, go right ahead. It's not like we can stop you").
Last time I was sick and without insurance...I went to my doctor, got a prescription, and went home to do what the doctor told me to (which basically reduced to "stop staying up all night and take these meds").
Oddly enough, that's pretty much exactly what happened the last time I got sick WITH insurance.
Not that simple, alas.
They're not POW's - no declared war.
They're not charged with any crime, and mostly can't be, since US law doesn't actually legally extend to foreigners living in foreign countries, and doing things in foreign countries.
If you can charge them with a crime under US law, you have to give them access to lawyers, with all the "we need to see the evidence against my client. It's secret?? Well, then we request this "evidence" not be admissable in court, since you can't give it to the defense. Move to have the case dismissed for lack of evidence, your Honour."
And we can't just ship them back where they came from, since the countries of origin don't want them in the first place. And if you tried to forcibly repatriate them, there's be Civil Rights lawyers screaming from the hilltops that they'd just be murdered if they were "forced" to return home....
Note that the NSA's mandate is FOREIGN signals intelligence gathering. If the NSA listens in on every phone call in the world not involving a US citizen, then its actions are no more a "world-wide illegal conspiracy" than me asking my wife what's for dinner.
Now, listening in on US citizens is clearly outside their mandate, and thus illegal. The lying to Congress might be sufficient grounds to make it a conspiracy.
Even then, it's only an illegal conspiracy affecting most American citizens (arguably American residents, legal or otherwise)....