Should we "respect" the dictator killing his people and crushing dissent, or the people of that country? Anyways, France and Germany suck up to all the tyrants and terrorists and they're still big terror targets.
One thing I do know is that this will allow my government to build a case against me with no warrant, probable cause or charges filed and documented against me. There could be a dossier (digital or hard copy) somewhere in the government's system with my name on it even though I haven't done anything wrong. Worse, the same could be said about every single American.
It has done this before. See any number of accused drug dealers, Branch Davidians, tax cheaters, etc. The difference between the Republicans and the Democrats is that the former wants to use these tactics against terrorists and the later wants to use them against lawful businessmen and political opponents. How many confidential FBI files did the Clintons hand to reporters? I don't like a big and nosey government, but if we are going to have one it should be just as curious about terror suspects as it is about everyone else.
That 'economist' did not graduate at the head of his class. If the Valdez disaster didn't happen that money could have been spent on other things. That money would have become profit or payroll for Exxon which would have been spent sustaining or creating jobs more enduring than oil clean up.
Do you think that the Democrats, if given power, would be any less eager to snoop? You obviously don't remember the clipper chip. It was an invasion of privacy so great that even John Ashcroft (golly!) fought against it. Tell the Branch Davidians about how the Democrats will protect our rights. The only choice you have is the Libertarians and I bet you won't support them because they would also protect the rights and liberties that you Lefties want taken away.
"And the FCC licenses the use of the public airways for the purpose of disceminating (sic) the TRUTH for the public good. It is therefore only right that it revoke that license from those who would abuse the public trust and attempt to grossly distort the truth."
Yes, as long as the government decides what the TRUTH is everything will be fine.
There should not be ANY federal education grants because they're unconstitutional. They take money from the states and give back some small percentage so they can look like heroes when they're really just squeezing the pocket books that really pay for education. Let the states fund it. You can't use federal dollars to teach someone that their religion is wrong, even if it is.
On a side note, I wish that all the people who flip out about schools not teaching evolution would show at least a LITTLE concern when the schools don't teach math, English, economics, history, physics, etc. I don't believe in Creationism at all, but I do know that there are certain people that just want to use this issue to brow beat Christians, because it's the cool Left-wing thing to do.
We have a linux based firewall that's held up amazingly. Before I had every single incoming port closed, the attempted logins and port scans were in the hundreds or thousands per day. The Windows computers access the 'net through the Linux machine with NAT but they still get spyware and trojans through e-mail and http.
I'll check out Xubuntu, I've always liked XFCE.
Yes, Ford is all about MicroSoft. The head of IT at Ford is either a saboteur or a complete idiot. It's 2006 and we're STILL using a (GM-Hughes) satellite for communications. Seriously, we're cavemen banging rocks together here.
Is it legal to run IE under Wine? Does that work smoothly with Acrobat? There's a lot of pdf and flash content. Opera does a pretty good job, I need to try it with the ID set to IE and see if that will do everything. Ford servers check and re-check to make sure you're on IE.
I could probably get the telnet thing worked out under linux or Wine. It's plain telnet so the only challenge would be function keys and printing. (There has to be a big fat 'print' button.)
I've got a laptop with just Linux on it, so testing wouldn't be an issue.
We run Windows98 on our old computers. I would love to switch them to Linux, but we have to use Internet Explorer and use a Windows only telnet program. As for upgrading to Windows XP, I just don't think a Celeron computer is up to it.
"The elections has been deemed fair by the international observers time and time again."
Who besides Jimmy Carter and Hugo Chavez endorsed the election? The EU wouldn't for lack of transparency. Even the written endorsement from Jimmy Carter amounted to "Hugo's a great guy and I just trust him." Many voted for him because they would lose their government benefits if they didn't. Not that the programs would go away, but that specifically the people that didn't support him would be cut off. Even if you think socialism is the greatest thing in the world, Hugo is still a criminally minded thug. I'm firmly in the capitalist camp but I don't think every capitalist is a saint worthy for dictatorship. The Venezuela media are afraid to critcize Chavez. People are starting to disappear. In the next 'election' you will see Hugo get all of the vote and that is not possible with a fair national election.
"Given how rich Venezuela is, it's a bloody outrage they have so many poor people."
It's getting worse...The money they take in from petroleum is going to arms, not social programs.
1. Dude, Chavez is Castro Jr. Don't defend him. Even the Left is backing away from this guy. Do you really think that there will be any fair elections in Venezuela in the future? Do you think that someone who tried to violently overthrow the government before he got to power will suddenly see the virtue of democracy (without threats and intimidation)? The reason he wants to be able to run in consecutive elections is pretty transparent, just like when he packed the Supreme Court with his men.
2. I didn't say property rights are absolute in the USA, but you can't seriously suggest that the US is more corrupt than Venezuela. At least the editor of USA Today didn't have to worry about 'having an accident' after publishing the Kelo story.
Well nothing will help property values like having a nationwide reputation for government that doesn't respect property rights. You got Pfizer, you'll lose all else. Would you put a business there, knowing that someone with better connections could take your land once you get on your feet?
"And it's hard to underestimate the stupidity of some lenders."
Lenders can be very aggressive in the sub-prime (bad credit) market. There's little profit margin on the 800 beacon types. They know they have good credit and they shop for the best rate. The credit criminals are just happy to get a loan and don't care if they get a 20% rate. If the lenders get 30% charge-offs, they still made more on sub-prime.
As the retail loan rates go higher, they get closer the the various states' usury limits. The reduced spread will dry up the lenders for those with the worst credit. Hopefully this peer to peer model can bypass some of the "consumer protections" that keep high risk customer from finding loans.
You don't understand. Foolproof security means protection AGAINST fools, not protection FOR fools. Genius proof security is way expensive and most criminals are dumb anyway.
We HAD an ballot system that could be audited and trusted. A couple of major newspapers (NY Times and Miami Herald, I think) went back and audited the punch card votes for the 2000 election in Florida. The problem was that the vote was within the margin of error for ANY ballot system. Punch cards were abandoned for partisan reasons and now we will have to live with black box, unauditable vote machines. We have optical scan ballots here, which are the best because they offer a clear paper trail and little doubt about the voter's intentions. The real problem is that there is more to securing an election than just having a good ballot system, because it's pretty easy for election workers to pad the vote counts.
There are problems with every election on both sides. The Democrats had their share of fraud in the last election. Remember the Seattle fiasco? The same people who are bitching about electronic touch screen voting are the same ones that told us we had to get rid of paper and punchcard ballots.
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Well, 35% is close.
Uhh, isn't using ni-cad batteries worse for the environment? I thought they were toxic.
Should we "respect" the dictator killing his people and crushing dissent, or the people of that country? Anyways, France and Germany suck up to all the tyrants and terrorists and they're still big terror targets.
It has done this before. See any number of accused drug dealers, Branch Davidians, tax cheaters, etc. The difference between the Republicans and the Democrats is that the former wants to use these tactics against terrorists and the later wants to use them against lawful businessmen and political opponents. How many confidential FBI files did the Clintons hand to reporters? I don't like a big and nosey government, but if we are going to have one it should be just as curious about terror suspects as it is about everyone else.
Economics is about dealing with unlimited demand for limited resources. The Exxon spill destroyed resources. That made it bad economically.
That 'economist' did not graduate at the head of his class. If the Valdez disaster didn't happen that money could have been spent on other things. That money would have become profit or payroll for Exxon which would have been spent sustaining or creating jobs more enduring than oil clean up.
Ummm, which economist said that the Exxon-Valdez disaster was a huge economic success?
Do you think that the Democrats, if given power, would be any less eager to snoop? You obviously don't remember the clipper chip. It was an invasion of privacy so great that even John Ashcroft (golly!) fought against it. Tell the Branch Davidians about how the Democrats will protect our rights. The only choice you have is the Libertarians and I bet you won't support them because they would also protect the rights and liberties that you Lefties want taken away.
Yes, as long as the government decides what the TRUTH is everything will be fine.
Sincerely,
The Government
On a side note, I wish that all the people who flip out about schools not teaching evolution would show at least a LITTLE concern when the schools don't teach math, English, economics, history, physics, etc. I don't believe in Creationism at all, but I do know that there are certain people that just want to use this issue to brow beat Christians, because it's the cool Left-wing thing to do.
Or you could use a gyro to turn.
I'll check out Xubuntu, I've always liked XFCE.
Yes, Ford is all about MicroSoft. The head of IT at Ford is either a saboteur or a complete idiot. It's 2006 and we're STILL using a (GM-Hughes) satellite for communications. Seriously, we're cavemen banging rocks together here.
I could probably get the telnet thing worked out under linux or Wine. It's plain telnet so the only challenge would be function keys and printing. (There has to be a big fat 'print' button.)
I've got a laptop with just Linux on it, so testing wouldn't be an issue.
We run Windows98 on our old computers. I would love to switch them to Linux, but we have to use Internet Explorer and use a Windows only telnet program. As for upgrading to Windows XP, I just don't think a Celeron computer is up to it.
Who besides Jimmy Carter and Hugo Chavez endorsed the election? The EU wouldn't for lack of transparency. Even the written endorsement from Jimmy Carter amounted to "Hugo's a great guy and I just trust him." Many voted for him because they would lose their government benefits if they didn't. Not that the programs would go away, but that specifically the people that didn't support him would be cut off. Even if you think socialism is the greatest thing in the world, Hugo is still a criminally minded thug. I'm firmly in the capitalist camp but I don't think every capitalist is a saint worthy for dictatorship. The Venezuela media are afraid to critcize Chavez. People are starting to disappear. In the next 'election' you will see Hugo get all of the vote and that is not possible with a fair national election.
"Given how rich Venezuela is, it's a bloody outrage they have so many poor people."
It's getting worse...The money they take in from petroleum is going to arms, not social programs.
2. I didn't say property rights are absolute in the USA, but you can't seriously suggest that the US is more corrupt than Venezuela. At least the editor of USA Today didn't have to worry about 'having an accident' after publishing the Kelo story.
I guess I should get as much wisdom from Hugo Chavez as I can right now. He might be kinda quiet from now until the next election in 2026.
Well nothing will help property values like having a nationwide reputation for government that doesn't respect property rights. You got Pfizer, you'll lose all else. Would you put a business there, knowing that someone with better connections could take your land once you get on your feet?
Lenders can be very aggressive in the sub-prime (bad credit) market. There's little profit margin on the 800 beacon types. They know they have good credit and they shop for the best rate. The credit criminals are just happy to get a loan and don't care if they get a 20% rate. If the lenders get 30% charge-offs, they still made more on sub-prime.
As the retail loan rates go higher, they get closer the the various states' usury limits. The reduced spread will dry up the lenders for those with the worst credit. Hopefully this peer to peer model can bypass some of the "consumer protections" that keep high risk customer from finding loans.
Using a credit rating system like the buyer/seller ratings on eBay could give the lenders as much leverage as collection agencies.
You don't understand. Foolproof security means protection AGAINST fools, not protection FOR fools. Genius proof security is way expensive and most criminals are dumb anyway.
When has Libertarianism failed in the real world?
No credible poll shows a lack of support for OIF by those who serve or have served in Iraq.
We HAD an ballot system that could be audited and trusted. A couple of major newspapers (NY Times and Miami Herald, I think) went back and audited the punch card votes for the 2000 election in Florida. The problem was that the vote was within the margin of error for ANY ballot system. Punch cards were abandoned for partisan reasons and now we will have to live with black box, unauditable vote machines. We have optical scan ballots here, which are the best because they offer a clear paper trail and little doubt about the voter's intentions. The real problem is that there is more to securing an election than just having a good ballot system, because it's pretty easy for election workers to pad the vote counts.
There are problems with every election on both sides. The Democrats had their share of fraud in the last election. Remember the Seattle fiasco? The same people who are bitching about electronic touch screen voting are the same ones that told us we had to get rid of paper and punchcard ballots.