The US has engaged in far too many military adventures around the planet for the last 60 years, but for all of its negative qualities, we have also come to the aid of the defenseless more than anyone else too.
That's like praising Jeffry Dahmer for being nice to kittens -- it really doesn't make up for the cannibalism.
There is a downside to this "non-lethal" weaponry, and that is that it mutes public outcry over the suppression of speech. There is video from the 60s of bloodied protesters during and after police brutality which helped win sympathizers to the causes and was in part responsible for necessary social changes. With the modern forms of police brutality, those images don't exist and the protesters have lost a valuable form of leverage. Images of kids crying because of pepper spray, are much less powerful than images of kids bleeding from the head, even if the actual physical harm was roughly equal.
I don't know how it would work, but what we truly need is a DNS system that is hosted by NO country. One that is beyond the control of countries all together. It would plainly need to be distributed and unreliant on a central master list -- maybe a P2P type system. The really hard part though, would be maintaining integrity of the results so spam/spoof sites don't take over while having no central authority to ensure that doesn't happen.
It's worse than that -- the last revision of the eMac was in May of 2005, with the 1.42 ghz G4. I believe that the machines would choke running a modern browser hitting a script heavy site. Plus, I think Apple stopped providing security updates to non-intel macs a long time ago.
You're trapped in the past man. Obama's cabinet and CIA are stuffed with neocons.
People keep thinking there is some difference between the GOP and the Democrats anymore -- there isn't. Decades of lesser evil voting has pushed the Democrats so far to the right, they're no longer a lesser evil, or if they are, it's like the difference between brain cancer and ebola -- The Democrats, as the lesser evil, are like the cancer and let you live a short time in great misery, while the GOP kills you off right away. So while the Democrats may still be a lesser evil than the GOP, it is no longer a meaningful "lesser".
But how is that a reason to vote for Obama? If Obama and Romney are fungible from a policy perspective -- it doesn't matter who wins. America loses either way.
"Of course the people don't want war. But after all, it's the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it's always a simple matter to drag the people along whether it's a democracy, a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism, and exposing the country to greater danger."
Good luck waiting. The Obama administration, like that of Bush before, sees no need to present indictments or use public fair trials prior to detention, and Obama has extended that policy to execution.
I would call helping to end the phase of the Iraq war with the US Military being officially there, a bit more than a yawn:
That cable was released by WikiLeaks in May, 2011, and, as McClatchy put it at the time, "provides evidence that U.S. troops executed at least 10 Iraqi civilians, including a woman in her 70s and a 5-month-old infant, then called in an airstrike to destroy the evidence, during a controversial 2006 incident in the central Iraqi town of Ishaqi." The U.S. then lied and claimed the civilians were killed by the airstrike. Although this incident had been previously documented by the U.N. special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, the high-profile release of the cable by WikiLeaks generated substantial attention (and disgust) in Iraq, which made it politically unpalatable for the Iraqi government to grant the legal immunity the Obama administration was seeking. Indeed, it was widely reported at the time the cable was released that it made it much more difficult for Iraq to allow U.S. troops to remain beyond the deadline under any conditions.
In other words, whoever leaked that cable cast light on a heinous American war crime and, by doing so, likely played some significant role in thwarting an agreement between the Obama and Maliki governments to keep U.S. troops in Iraq and thus helped end this stage of the Iraq war.
Oh, even Stalin had a health plan for the people (ours happens to be the "No Insurer Left Behind Act"), that didn't make him a nice guy. The real things Obama has accomplished however are much darker:
- Rendered the War Powers Act moot, so future presidents can decide on their own without any congressional interference when and where to go to war.
- Instituted a policy of due process free execution. This is death squad territory.
- Made the once radical policies of GWB, such as due process free detention, the NEW NORMAL.
- Attempted to undermine the treaty against cluster bombs even though we are not a signatory.
- Has applied the Espionage Act against whistleblowers of gov't malfeasance six times in three years. Before Obama, it had been applied three times in the entire history of the US.
- Drone bombing at a rate 14x that of GWB.
- Continues the racist drug war (for reference, see: The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness)
That's just off the top of my head... oh yeah... Tried to convince Iraq to let our forces stay beyond 12/2012. Funny thing about, I hear so many people give him credit -- they say things like, "he's president right? and the war ended right?" --- do people not understand that when a person puts up a fight for X, but fails to win X, it makes no sense to congratulate him for the end of X?" I guess not.
Anyway, Obama is just awful. Unless you are a neo-con, and then he's your wet dream of a president.
This is a good idea, and the transaction could probably be quickly achieved as the state I live in is a donor state. If we kept the tax rates the same as is paid to the Feds, we'd suddenly have an extra 12% in the budget simply because we no longer export our tax dollars.
Yes, it can be blamed on the feds. The militarization of the police force is a result of the Drug War. There is no Drug War in the Cascadia of my dreams and as a result, demilitarization of the police force would be a real option, one we will never have while subservient to the evil eye in the other Washington, also known as Mordor.
The short answer is that the court decided that States cannot unilaterally secede. That leaves open the door to bilaterally authorized secession. Obviously, the Feds would never agree. As a result, the only way to overcome Texas v. White, is for an amendment to the constitution to make it clear that states may unilaterally secede.
When, therefore, Texas became one of the United States, she entered into an indissoluble relation. All the obligations of perpetual union, and all the guaranties of republican government in the Union, attached at once to the State. The act which consummated her admission into the Union was something more than a compact; it was the incorporation of a new member into the political body. And it was final. The union between Texas and the other States was as complete, as perpetual, and as indissoluble as the union between the original States. There was no place for reconsideration or revocation, except through revolution or through consent of the States.
Considered therefore as transactions under the Constitution, the ordinance of secession, adopted by the convention and ratified by a majority of the citizens of Texas, and all the acts of her legislature intended to give effect to that ordinance, were absolutely null.
No. Perhaps if read what I said, you'd realize I don't live in Cascadia, I just wish I did. Where I do live, is in an country with an odious foreign policy and a government that is looking more and more like a fascist state (in the classical sense, not the colloquial). Evidence:
1) Extreme nationalism and the notion we can do anything, anywhere, anytime and if anyone objects, they're a terrorist.
3) Government by and for the benefit of massive corporate interests.
4) Severe and accelerating erosion of privacy and liberty -- what can you say when even Democrats believe the president can kill or imprison any American without trial or even acknowledgement that such a thing happened.
The fact is, America is dead right now, and all that is left is a bit of the inertia of our former self. 20 or 30 years down the line, and we'll be like any other repressive regime you care to name.
The core concept will continue to live on as an application for Android devices and server-side software. See the section Android application below for more. * * * Thanks to a generous donation from Scott Robinson (@quadhome), development of an Android application is underway, for rooted Android devices. This will mimic some of the functionality of the grenade, with the TG program running 'invisibly' on their phone as a backgrounded application. A GUI will be provided for configuration. It will allow upload using a 2048 bit SSH tunnel over the user's own 4G connection, automatically determining the location via the device's own GPS system and using this to position the 'detonation' on the map interface. Naturally this is a little more practical than walking into a meeting with a grenade in your jacket pocket.
Due to legal concerns the author will not provide a server for using this application. However, all code will be published for study and so that others can set up their own service, should they find a worthy need for it.
So while it may be pricey to buy a one-off device, complete with silver fittings, it sounds like an open-source Android app is on the way. If this is marketing, it surely is guerilla marketing of the best kind for a program that will likely be low or no cost.
Fifteen feet doesn't sound that big to me -- when I was in high school in the 80s, my dad sold and installed Satellite dishes -- some many might recall these ugly monstrosities that were 8, 10, even 12 feet across.... Indeed, you can still buy the same brand he preferred (paraclipse): http://www.orbitcommunications.com/Cyberstore/Cband/dishes.htm
The "This American Life" episode featuring comedian Joe Lipari linked in the article is well worth listening to. What happened was that he had a bad customer service experience at an Apple store, got home and was watching Fight Club, and made a joke on Facebook obviously derived from one of the most famous quotes in the movie. An hour later, SWAT is busting down his door and he faced terrorism charges that were only dismissed two years later -- the government wanted to prosecute even knowing it was a joke by a comedian. Probably would have if he couldn't have gotten positive media exposure, something that not all people can get.
Slashdot Mirror
In this case, it means "everyone else". Like when people think about their driving skill -- everyone else sucks.
That's like praising Jeffry Dahmer for being nice to kittens -- it really doesn't make up for the cannibalism.
There is a downside to this "non-lethal" weaponry, and that is that it mutes public outcry over the suppression of speech. There is video from the 60s of bloodied protesters during and after police brutality which helped win sympathizers to the causes and was in part responsible for necessary social changes. With the modern forms of police brutality, those images don't exist and the protesters have lost a valuable form of leverage. Images of kids crying because of pepper spray, are much less powerful than images of kids bleeding from the head, even if the actual physical harm was roughly equal.
Half there: http://www.ustream.tv/everywhere/android
Just need to add in encryption and keycode for application of the "stop" button.
.nrk
say it out loud "en-ar-kay"
Have a decentralized, p2p, ownerless system that runs beside DNS, perhaps by using distributed host files or something.
You're totally right, but it goes beyond corporatist v corporatist. It's also going to be neocon v neocon.
I don't know how it would work, but what we truly need is a DNS system that is hosted by NO country. One that is beyond the control of countries all together. It would plainly need to be distributed and unreliant on a central master list -- maybe a P2P type system. The really hard part though, would be maintaining integrity of the results so spam/spoof sites don't take over while having no central authority to ensure that doesn't happen.
It's worse than that -- the last revision of the eMac was in May of 2005, with the 1.42 ghz G4. I believe that the machines would choke running a modern browser hitting a script heavy site. Plus, I think Apple stopped providing security updates to non-intel macs a long time ago.
You're trapped in the past man. Obama's cabinet and CIA are stuffed with neocons.
People keep thinking there is some difference between the GOP and the Democrats anymore -- there isn't. Decades of lesser evil voting has pushed the Democrats so far to the right, they're no longer a lesser evil, or if they are, it's like the difference between brain cancer and ebola -- The Democrats, as the lesser evil, are like the cancer and let you live a short time in great misery, while the GOP kills you off right away. So while the Democrats may still be a lesser evil than the GOP, it is no longer a meaningful "lesser".
Of course not.
But how is that a reason to vote for Obama? If Obama and Romney are fungible from a policy perspective -- it doesn't matter who wins. America loses either way.
http://www.snopes.com/quotes/goering.asp
I know, godwin. Whatever.
I sure hope Obama doesn't get re-elected. I hated GWB's policies when Bush performed them, and I hate them just as much when Obama performs them.
Good luck waiting. The Obama administration, like that of Bush before, sees no need to present indictments or use public fair trials prior to detention, and Obama has extended that policy to execution.
I would call helping to end the phase of the Iraq war with the US Military being officially there, a bit more than a yawn:
http://www.salon.com/2011/10/23/wikileaks_cables_and_the_iraq_war/singleton/
Oh, even Stalin had a health plan for the people (ours happens to be the "No Insurer Left Behind Act"), that didn't make him a nice guy. The real things Obama has accomplished however are much darker:
- Rendered the War Powers Act moot, so future presidents can decide on their own without any congressional interference when and where to go to war.
- Instituted a policy of due process free execution. This is death squad territory.
- Made the once radical policies of GWB, such as due process free detention, the NEW NORMAL.
- Excused torturers.
- Excused AT&T's illegal domestic wiretapping program.
- Attempted to undermine the treaty against cluster bombs even though we are not a signatory.
- Has applied the Espionage Act against whistleblowers of gov't malfeasance six times in three years. Before Obama, it had been applied three times in the entire history of the US.
- Drone bombing at a rate 14x that of GWB.
- Continues the racist drug war (for reference, see: The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness)
That's just off the top of my head ... oh yeah ... Tried to convince Iraq to let our forces stay beyond 12/2012. Funny thing about, I hear so many people give him credit -- they say things like, "he's president right? and the war ended right?" --- do people not understand that when a person puts up a fight for X, but fails to win X, it makes no sense to congratulate him for the end of X?" I guess not.
Anyway, Obama is just awful. Unless you are a neo-con, and then he's your wet dream of a president.
http://nothingchanged.org/
This is a good idea, and the transaction could probably be quickly achieved as the state I live in is a donor state. If we kept the tax rates the same as is paid to the Feds, we'd suddenly have an extra 12% in the budget simply because we no longer export our tax dollars.
Yes, it can be blamed on the feds. The militarization of the police force is a result of the Drug War. There is no Drug War in the Cascadia of my dreams and as a result, demilitarization of the police force would be a real option, one we will never have while subservient to the evil eye in the other Washington, also known as Mordor.
You are correct. I apologize for being snarky.
I should have said, to better make my point, "I live in the Cascadia region"
The short answer is that the court decided that States cannot unilaterally secede. That leaves open the door to bilaterally authorized secession. Obviously, the Feds would never agree. As a result, the only way to overcome Texas v. White, is for an amendment to the constitution to make it clear that states may unilaterally secede.
Here's a link to te case: http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/historics/USSC_CR_0074_0700_ZO.html
No. Perhaps if read what I said, you'd realize I don't live in Cascadia, I just wish I did. Where I do live, is in an country with an odious foreign policy and a government that is looking more and more like a fascist state (in the classical sense, not the colloquial). Evidence:
1) Extreme nationalism and the notion we can do anything, anywhere, anytime and if anyone objects, they're a terrorist.
2) Racism, i.e., the Drug War. Check out the book, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_New_Jim_Crow
3) Government by and for the benefit of massive corporate interests.
4) Severe and accelerating erosion of privacy and liberty -- what can you say when even Democrats believe the president can kill or imprison any American without trial or even acknowledgement that such a thing happened.
The fact is, America is dead right now, and all that is left is a bit of the inertia of our former self. 20 or 30 years down the line, and we'll be like any other repressive regime you care to name.
America is done. It's all a downhill slide now.
Really, the best thing would be a movement to amend the Constitution to allow for the peaceful secession of states.
I live in Cascadia -- we'd be one awesome country if we could be. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cascadia_(independence_movement)
You can add to your retort this:
So while it may be pricey to buy a one-off device, complete with silver fittings, it sounds like an open-source Android app is on the way. If this is marketing, it surely is guerilla marketing of the best kind for a program that will likely be low or no cost.
Fifteen feet doesn't sound that big to me -- when I was in high school in the 80s, my dad sold and installed Satellite dishes -- some many might recall these ugly monstrosities that were 8, 10, even 12 feet across. ... Indeed, you can still buy the same brand he preferred (paraclipse): http://www.orbitcommunications.com/Cyberstore/Cband/dishes.htm
A 16' dish will cost you $5949.95
Here's another example to add to your list:
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100923/01464111127/more-stories-of-people-arrested-for-making-joke-threats-on-social-networks.shtml
The "This American Life" episode featuring comedian Joe Lipari linked in the article is well worth listening to. What happened was that he had a bad customer service experience at an Apple store, got home and was watching Fight Club, and made a joke on Facebook obviously derived from one of the most famous quotes in the movie. An hour later, SWAT is busting down his door and he faced terrorism charges that were only dismissed two years later -- the government wanted to prosecute even knowing it was a joke by a comedian. Probably would have if he couldn't have gotten positive media exposure, something that not all people can get.
oops, wrong -- the $70 plan is throttled after 5gb.