While I, like many other tech workers, have a natural affinity for libertarian thinking and a concomitant disdain for the political system, the reality of this throat cutting behavior by our selfish and short-sighted politicians needs to be countered within the defective framework of the political system if we are to have a fighting chance of protecting ourselves and other STEM workers from these greedy bottom-line, pin-striped pinheads that are calling for the gutting of our field.
As disgusting as it might be, we need our own Political Action Committee. Unless we can engage these baboons in Washington in an organized manner, they won't listen to us. They need to see PAC representatives from the STEM sector every day, demanding the lowering of the H1B cap and protection of the domestic tech workers.
That's the first thing out of my mouth when I heard this story on TV this morning. I can't imagine Bush and Darth Cheney not shouting it from the rooftops if it had been found as they say. Even if they had to cover up Western involvement, those CW shells would have been trotted out before a full court press so the Bush admin could have their "I told you so!" moment.
Now, I'm not a lawyer, but I could see that backfiring on them in a big way. If the MA SWAT teams are actually private agencies, then that could be used by a clever lawyer to damage their qualified immunity. If they're actually some sort of private contractors, then suing them would get a whole lot easier, since qualified immunity probably only applies to state and federal employees.
I think the comparison of the IRS with the Schutzstaffel is a little overblown. The Schutzstaffel would kill Hitler's political enemies. The IRS would just audit the president's enemies so bad they wish they were dead.:D
That's nothing.
Back in 2004, I was working for a school district in Michigan and almost all of the K-12 buildings were on token ring. We were always just one lightning strike away from having a building offline for the rest of the school year. We used to surf ebay looking for old replacement parts to buy and keep, just in case.
Of course, now I'm sure they've probably upgraded to 10 megabit ethernet hubs.:)
You mean, ways to find workers like Monster.com or Dice.com?
These companies aren't hiring anyone that they would have to train unless they're just looking for an H1B worker. I work for a large multinational company in the U.S. and I have seen the job postings they put out. They're so full of precise specifics that the worker absolutely must have that an American engineer won't be able to fit the bill. Then they hire the H1B from the overseas office that they had in mind in the first place (and who fit the onerous job requirements exactly, strangely enough) and pay him less. It's a scam. What we need is a nice, well-funded PAC for IT workers and engineers that can lean on the lawmakers and tell Oracle and Micro$oft to get bent. The only way to get the lawmakers to listen to us is to bribe them with campaign contributions. It sucks, but that's the system we have in this country.
Oh, and this Project for a New American Economy reminds me a lot of the Project for a New American Century, which brought us the Iraq war.
I just find it interesting that the movie they mentioned as the steganographic carrier, Kick Ass, is referred to as pornography. Granted, the female super hero in the movie, Hit Girl, is a 12-year old, so the movie had a pedophile (technically ephebophile) vibe to it, but I didn't see anyone getting f*cked in the movie. Shot, stabbed, and beaten up, but no sex.
They are trying to provoke the people to fight back. Look at the totality of what has happened since 9/11 and you see the dramatic escalation of the machinery of a police state that is just waiting for the right incident to throw the machine in to full action.
Then google Rex 84 and you will see that this is a process that has been in place for most of our adult lives. There are people installed at the intelligence and military communities who don't like our form of government and would like to change it to a dictatorship.
Keeping that in mind, when we hear about people like Mr. Abdulmutallab, who tried to bomb an airliner heading to Detroit in 2009 and whose failed bomb plot was the instigator of the installation of these dangerous x-ray scanners, and how passenger Kurt Haskell, a Detroit attorney, testified that Mr. Abdulmutallab was escorted on the plane by well-dressed government types who flashed badges at airline and customs officials in order to get him past security.
So, yes, the TSA is trying to provoke us. The terrorists with pepper spray that unleashed on UC Davis student protesters are trying to provoke us. The TSA VIPR program is trying to provoke us. They want this fight.
They're not blaming autism on the vaccines, because they'd get slapped with lawsuits for threatening pharmaceutical company profits, although that's probably what's causing the epidemic.
I worked for a school district as a computer programmer, and I had to write a program to determine whether or not a child had the right mix of vaccines based on State of Michigan data. I was stunned that children had to receive so many vaccines at such a young age.
And then they tase you for disorderly conduct and resisting arrest, and then beat you and drag you off to jail.
Sure, it's illegal for them to do all that, but the constitution is just a "goddamned piece of paper," in the words of our former president, G.W.
Getting a bomb on a plane isn't a problem even with the cancer scanners. I highly doubt that the burger flippers at the airport McDonald's outlet has to go through the same security restrictions that we do, because their hair would start falling out before their first year was up from all the x-ray zapping.
You just have Muhammad go through security without the bomb, pick up a C-4 Big Mac, and get his 72 virgins that way, and the TSA would be none the wiser.
You can talk all you want about the the Supremacy Clause and other nuances, but the primary objection against the TSA has been about violations of the 4th amendment, forceably requiring what amounts to, in any other context, as sexual assault as a condition to board an airplane, or forcing people to go through a scanner that uses radiative energy that has been scientifically proven to increase cancer risk.
The TSA is no more entitled to feel up airline passengers than they are to shoot every 200th passenger in the head. The Feds cannot mandate that the TSA break the laws of the states.
Ultimately, this will be a PR battle. Any sheriff would be fully within his right to arrest TSA agents for what they do daily as a condition of their job. If the states wanted to force a change in TSA policy, all they would have to do is have the governor whisper into a sheriff's ear and, after a few TSA agents are arrested at the airport, let the TSA try to bail them out of jail and justify their policy in the court of public opinion. The state would win the PR war and the Feds would look like goons that they are
If that happened, I'd reckon the integrity of the Republic to have been preserved. But I'm not naive, and I know that that will never happen.
As such, the only answer is for American citizens to bring the government and its backers to justice by force. As a man of peace and a father, I don't relish that at all. But neither do I want my kids to grow up as slaves.
It's sobering indeed to contemplate another 20 years loving and nurturing my family in an increasingly totalitarian country vs. a personal life-ending confrontation with tyranny in the name and cause of freedom. But in my heart I can't see any other way.
...
It is foolish to directly confront tyrants, since they are very prepared for such a confrontation. Their media mouthpieces will convict you, alive or dead, and color all those who think like you as subversives. If you do survive, you would face a show trial, sure to be convered by the braying jackasses like Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity, Ed Schultz and others, who would declare an entire movement to be unindicted co-conspirators.
Everything I needed to know I learned from the video game, Thief: Slip out of the shadows, backstab your enemy, than slip back into the shadows before his body hits the floor.
Ronald Reagan was allowed to conveniently "forget" how he betrayed our country by telling Iran to hold US citizens hostage until after he was in office, and how he then sold arms to Iran to fund a secret and illegal war against the Contras, which employed US soldiers, and about which Congress was never notified. That seems a whole lot more worth jail time than what this chick did.
Well, Ronald Reagan was the president, whereas the defendant, in this instance, is a nobody. Some people ARE above the law.
"Suspicious communications using VOIP or communicating through a PC game"
Seriously!? Communicating through a videogame? By that definition every single child who plays online computer games that allow them to talk to others is a potential threat. I wonder what that means for all those who play Modern Warfare and the like? Maybe they're TRAINING to be terrorists!
The US lawmakers sicken me.
Well, of course, they're terrorists. Listen in to the conversations of any Team Fortress 2 game and you'll hear people plotting to shoot people with snipers, spies backstabbing people, and pushing a bomb to a checkpoint. Lock those little jihadi bastards up! The FBI and DHS would wet their panties on hearing that stuff.
If the ISPs had any balls, they'd tell the HI government that, if they pass this law, the ISPs would simply cease to provide internet service to HI residents. And if they do pass the bill, make good on the promise. It's either that or be forced by the HI government to buy terabytes of disk space and thousands of dollars of computers to track everything the HI internet user does.
Politicians should not make laws about technology that they don't understand.
So, now ISPs all have to buy terabytes of hard disk space to store all of those log files just in case some nosy prosecutor comes a callin'?
ISPs might be better off threatening to just shut down operations and leave their customers disconnected to get the point across to the lawyers in congress that they need to consult with the people they're trying to regulate before throwing impractical solutions at them.
Well, I'd be more likely to trust a Texas redneck than an FBI thug. I'd rather that the people be armed so that their government fears the people rather than the other way around.
In Michigan, the government is required to let you have a permit unless they can find a reason that you shouldn't, like a history of mental illness or a criminal record. The people applying for the CCW permit have to take a class on the proper and legal use of a firearm. If they fail that requirement, they can't get a permit.
I consider Michigan's law to be reasonable. It permits self-defense without creating an excessive burden for the citizen who wishes to carry.
It's illegal in New York City for practically anyone except the politically connected to carry. NYC also has a high rate of firearm crimes. Big surprise: criminals break laws. They don't care that it's illegal to carry firearms. But if you want to defend yourself from the criminals (who know that you are unable to defend yourself from their predations), you risk being chewed up and spit out by the legal system.
Can anyone think of a good reason why Dick Cheney and his minions should be able to monopolize firearm onwership? Neither can I.
Slashdot Mirror
All this shows is that the average young person doesn't know the difference between NASA and NSA.
While I, like many other tech workers, have a natural affinity for libertarian thinking and a concomitant disdain for the political system, the reality of this throat cutting behavior by our selfish and short-sighted politicians needs to be countered within the defective framework of the political system if we are to have a fighting chance of protecting ourselves and other STEM workers from these greedy bottom-line, pin-striped pinheads that are calling for the gutting of our field.
As disgusting as it might be, we need our own Political Action Committee. Unless we can engage these baboons in Washington in an organized manner, they won't listen to us. They need to see PAC representatives from the STEM sector every day, demanding the lowering of the H1B cap and protection of the domestic tech workers.
That's the first thing out of my mouth when I heard this story on TV this morning. I can't imagine Bush and Darth Cheney not shouting it from the rooftops if it had been found as they say. Even if they had to cover up Western involvement, those CW shells would have been trotted out before a full court press so the Bush admin could have their "I told you so!" moment.
Now, I'm not a lawyer, but I could see that backfiring on them in a big way. If the MA SWAT teams are actually private agencies, then that could be used by a clever lawyer to damage their qualified immunity. If they're actually some sort of private contractors, then suing them would get a whole lot easier, since qualified immunity probably only applies to state and federal employees.
I think the comparison of the IRS with the Schutzstaffel is a little overblown. The Schutzstaffel would kill Hitler's political enemies. The IRS would just audit the president's enemies so bad they wish they were dead. :D
That's nothing. Back in 2004, I was working for a school district in Michigan and almost all of the K-12 buildings were on token ring. We were always just one lightning strike away from having a building offline for the rest of the school year. We used to surf ebay looking for old replacement parts to buy and keep, just in case. Of course, now I'm sure they've probably upgraded to 10 megabit ethernet hubs. :)
A prosthetic limb? That seems appropriate considering that their products cost an arm and a leg.
You mean, ways to find workers like Monster.com or Dice.com?
These companies aren't hiring anyone that they would have to train unless they're just looking for an H1B worker. I work for a large multinational company in the U.S. and I have seen the job postings they put out. They're so full of precise specifics that the worker absolutely must have that an American engineer won't be able to fit the bill. Then they hire the H1B from the overseas office that they had in mind in the first place (and who fit the onerous job requirements exactly, strangely enough) and pay him less. It's a scam. What we need is a nice, well-funded PAC for IT workers and engineers that can lean on the lawmakers and tell Oracle and Micro$oft to get bent. The only way to get the lawmakers to listen to us is to bribe them with campaign contributions. It sucks, but that's the system we have in this country.
Oh, and this Project for a New American Economy reminds me a lot of the Project for a New American Century, which brought us the Iraq war.
I just find it interesting that the movie they mentioned as the steganographic carrier, Kick Ass, is referred to as pornography. Granted, the female super hero in the movie, Hit Girl, is a 12-year old, so the movie had a pedophile (technically ephebophile) vibe to it, but I didn't see anyone getting f*cked in the movie. Shot, stabbed, and beaten up, but no sex.
They are trying to provoke the people to fight back. Look at the totality of what has happened since 9/11 and you see the dramatic escalation of the machinery of a police state that is just waiting for the right incident to throw the machine in to full action.
Then google Rex 84 and you will see that this is a process that has been in place for most of our adult lives. There are people installed at the intelligence and military communities who don't like our form of government and would like to change it to a dictatorship.
Keeping that in mind, when we hear about people like Mr. Abdulmutallab, who tried to bomb an airliner heading to Detroit in 2009 and whose failed bomb plot was the instigator of the installation of these dangerous x-ray scanners, and how passenger Kurt Haskell, a Detroit attorney, testified that Mr. Abdulmutallab was escorted on the plane by well-dressed government types who flashed badges at airline and customs officials in order to get him past security.
So, yes, the TSA is trying to provoke us. The terrorists with pepper spray that unleashed on UC Davis student protesters are trying to provoke us. The TSA VIPR program is trying to provoke us. They want this fight.
They're not blaming autism on the vaccines, because they'd get slapped with lawsuits for threatening pharmaceutical company profits, although that's probably what's causing the epidemic. I worked for a school district as a computer programmer, and I had to write a program to determine whether or not a child had the right mix of vaccines based on State of Michigan data. I was stunned that children had to receive so many vaccines at such a young age.
And then they tase you for disorderly conduct and resisting arrest, and then beat you and drag you off to jail. Sure, it's illegal for them to do all that, but the constitution is just a "goddamned piece of paper," in the words of our former president, G.W.
When they are escorted by U.S. Marshals, presumably with a valid search warrant.
No, I'm pretty sure taking money from segregated accounts is, in fact, extremely illegal.
Getting a bomb on a plane isn't a problem even with the cancer scanners. I highly doubt that the burger flippers at the airport McDonald's outlet has to go through the same security restrictions that we do, because their hair would start falling out before their first year was up from all the x-ray zapping. You just have Muhammad go through security without the bomb, pick up a C-4 Big Mac, and get his 72 virgins that way, and the TSA would be none the wiser.
The TSA is no more entitled to feel up airline passengers than they are to shoot every 200th passenger in the head. The Feds cannot mandate that the TSA break the laws of the states.
Ultimately, this will be a PR battle. Any sheriff would be fully within his right to arrest TSA agents for what they do daily as a condition of their job. If the states wanted to force a change in TSA policy, all they would have to do is have the governor whisper into a sheriff's ear and, after a few TSA agents are arrested at the airport, let the TSA try to bail them out of jail and justify their policy in the court of public opinion. The state would win the PR war and the Feds would look like goons that they are
I find your fondling my gonads disturbing.
Next time, be sure you lock the door to your parent's basement.
...
If that happened, I'd reckon the integrity of the Republic to have been preserved. But I'm not naive, and I know that that will never happen.
As such, the only answer is for American citizens to bring the government and its backers to justice by force. As a man of peace and a father, I don't relish that at all. But neither do I want my kids to grow up as slaves.
It's sobering indeed to contemplate another 20 years loving and nurturing my family in an increasingly totalitarian country vs. a personal life-ending confrontation with tyranny in the name and cause of freedom. But in my heart I can't see any other way.
...
It is foolish to directly confront tyrants, since they are very prepared for such a confrontation. Their media mouthpieces will convict you, alive or dead, and color all those who think like you as subversives. If you do survive, you would face a show trial, sure to be convered by the braying jackasses like Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity, Ed Schultz and others, who would declare an entire movement to be unindicted co-conspirators.
Everything I needed to know I learned from the video game, Thief: Slip out of the shadows, backstab your enemy, than slip back into the shadows before his body hits the floor.
Ronald Reagan was allowed to conveniently "forget" how he betrayed our country by telling Iran to hold US citizens hostage until after he was in office, and how he then sold arms to Iran to fund a secret and illegal war against the Contras, which employed US soldiers, and about which Congress was never notified. That seems a whole lot more worth jail time than what this chick did.
Well, Ronald Reagan was the president, whereas the defendant, in this instance, is a nobody. Some people ARE above the law.
"Suspicious communications using VOIP or communicating through a PC game" Seriously!? Communicating through a videogame? By that definition every single child who plays online computer games that allow them to talk to others is a potential threat. I wonder what that means for all those who play Modern Warfare and the like? Maybe they're TRAINING to be terrorists! The US lawmakers sicken me.
Well, of course, they're terrorists. Listen in to the conversations of any Team Fortress 2 game and you'll hear people plotting to shoot people with snipers, spies backstabbing people, and pushing a bomb to a checkpoint. Lock those little jihadi bastards up! The FBI and DHS would wet their panties on hearing that stuff.
If the ISPs had any balls, they'd tell the HI government that, if they pass this law, the ISPs would simply cease to provide internet service to HI residents. And if they do pass the bill, make good on the promise. It's either that or be forced by the HI government to buy terabytes of disk space and thousands of dollars of computers to track everything the HI internet user does. Politicians should not make laws about technology that they don't understand.
So, now ISPs all have to buy terabytes of hard disk space to store all of those log files just in case some nosy prosecutor comes a callin'? ISPs might be better off threatening to just shut down operations and leave their customers disconnected to get the point across to the lawyers in congress that they need to consult with the people they're trying to regulate before throwing impractical solutions at them.
Well, I'd be more likely to trust a Texas redneck than an FBI thug. I'd rather that the people be armed so that their government fears the people rather than the other way around.
In Michigan, the government is required to let you have a permit unless they can find a reason that you shouldn't, like a history of mental illness or a criminal record. The people applying for the CCW permit have to take a class on the proper and legal use of a firearm. If they fail that requirement, they can't get a permit.
I consider Michigan's law to be reasonable. It permits self-defense without creating an excessive burden for the citizen who wishes to carry.
It's illegal in New York City for practically anyone except the politically connected to carry. NYC also has a high rate of firearm crimes. Big surprise: criminals break laws. They don't care that it's illegal to carry firearms. But if you want to defend yourself from the criminals (who know that you are unable to defend yourself from their predations), you risk being chewed up and spit out by the legal system.
Can anyone think of a good reason why Dick Cheney and his minions should be able to monopolize firearm onwership? Neither can I.