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Here we go again... more gobbildygook! Goddam computers...
Mauiman says "you can't use anything that comes up on 'Faux' news or PMS-NBC. They both lie and misrepresent the truth. You don't see me quoting 'Faux' news ever, do you? Sean Hannity and Rachael Maddow both lie..." This statement exemplifies the reason I can't take your comments very seriously, Mauiman. First of all, anyone who would put Rachael Maddow in the same "liar" category as Sean Hannity is simply out-of-touch. Rachel Maddow happens to be a Rhodes scholar, extremely well educated, and (unlike Hannity) one who bothers to learn the facts before editorializing on an issue. Secondly, to characterize Maddow's station as "PMS-NBC" is patently sexist, condescending and, quite frankly, reflects on you way more than the one you are dissing.
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I second that! Voting machines are just another devices the fascists use to squelch democracy.
chuckle8 ~ Wow! Debra Bowen for President!
Chuckle8 writes: IG -- I just heard about some recent history that identifies the repugs in congress are the ones who should be put out of business. Kathleen Sebillius was begging the repug controlled congress for more funding for the ACA software so it would be tolerably operable software. The repugs refused and now are rejoicing over the failures of software.
On a related matter, Media Matters today points out all the phony guests that Faux News, especially Hannity, has on about the more expensive less quality insurance the have to buy with Obamacare. It turns out the guests have not even tried the exchanges. 24 hours later each of Hannity guests discover that they can buy better insurance cheaper.
Reply: Sorry I don't believe point one, If Ms. Sebillius was really in that position, she would have been sounding that alarm all September, warning the the website roll out would be a disaster and put the blame on the "repugs". I certainly heard no such comments, and I have not heard the comments you talk about here either. In any event, bringing that out in November is too late, if that was really true we should have heard about it sooner.
Point two, you can't use anything that comes up on "Faux" news or PMS-NBC. They both lie and mis represent the truth. You don't see me quoting "Faux" news ever, do you? Sean Hannity and Rachael Maddow both lie, so what's your point?
I don't remember windows being so awful, but I do remember that all they were doing was trying to catch up to the Mac. Bill GAtes obviously did more things right than he did wrong, and he certainly had competition every step of the way.
All I can say is that if you can defend the first 6 weeks of the Obamacare website, then you and I will never agree on anything. And I think it is safe to say that 99% of the electorate in this country will agree with me to say that the website roll out was an abismal failure, and we have every right to expect better service from our eleted officials (that we pay with our tax dollars) in a situation like this.
The electorate will vote on Obamacare in about a year. If that election were tomorrow, there would be a whole bunch House and Senate Democrats that would be in real trouble. Can Obama limit the damage enough for the Dems to keep control of the Senate? The only thing we know for sure is that time will tell the story on that one.
I'da rather had peace, land and bread. Things mighta worked out better if we'da left the new U.S.S.R alone insteada attacking them on 26 fronts in the 1920's. Stalin might notta risen and it wouldna mattered if we knew who Lenin was.
At the risk of getting off topic, please allow me to get off topic...
To all my good friends in Washington State. Just in case I-522 GMO labelling somehow is defeated, you might want to bookmark this site:
http://www.nongmoshoppingguide.com/
The term "Intelligence Service" is a non sequitur. It should be called what it really is... a information gathering service. How that information is used is what determines how "Intelligent" the "Service" really is. From what I have seen our "Intelligence Service" is anything but intelligent and has shown profound indifference to using it's services for the public good; or, any other "Intelligent" reason. Case in point, the Boston Marathon Bombing. Here our "Intelligence Service" had been given a complete dossier and urgent written warnings full of life saving information by the Soviet Intelligence Service. What did they do? Ignore it and allow a preventable disaster to happen right under their nose. Case in point, 9/11. A document called, "Osama Bin Laden Determined To Strike In The United States" sits on the desks of President Bush, Vice President Cheney, and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. What did they do? They went way out of their way to pretend they didn't see it and 3000 Americans lost their lives in another preventable tragedy. Case in point, Julia Davis and the DHS. (Department of Homeland Security) Ms. Davis was an Agent of the DHS assigned to security on the Mexican Border on July 4th 2004 during a "high alert" for potentially dangerous terrorist activities. 22 high profile immigrants were passing through from suspect countries which was much more than a typical day and she did her best to report that information to the authorities. What did they do? For her troubles she was targeted, harassed, and her career destroyed. More importantly, we never learned what was done about the threat she reported. For all we know Julia Davis, an American Hero, is living a tormented life while 22 potential killers are running free in our streets.
Any "Intelligence Service" is only as "Intelligent" as the people who run it. The information it collects is useless if the agency's are run by a bunch of self-absorbed, corrupt, bumbling imbeciles. Our Democracy, freedom, and liberty are forsaken if the general guiding principles of the Constitution are lost. Any Domestic Service whose existence is at odds with The Constitution Of The United States is the number one threat to the security of our Nation. There is no other potential threat that is greater.
This is a tricky question. That is...there's no reason Out Of State supporters of GMO Labeling Laws, or gay-rights laws, or Union Rights laws, or etc., be not be able to send money to another state to support those causes.
The issue has to be about PEOPLE providing the money, vs. Non-Human Corporate entities sending the money. Democracy is about the "demos", the people...not about abstract corporate entities which are, after all, in existence only as We The People allow them to exist.
But, to prevent a CEO or other actual person from passing the corporate money FOR that abstract entity, there must be limits on the contributions...and assurances that the money is JUST from an individual...not just laundering the money for his or her corporate associate.
Then, the mainstream PUBLIC airwaves must be made available to ANY Members of the public...not just those who can afford to BUY the most space. It's not about buying space...the space, still called Public Airwaves, is already paid for and owned by ALL taxpayers, and is owned by all the public, even those who are too poor to afford to pay taxes.
Ideally, the One Percent Corporatocracy ought have rightful access to One Percent of the public airwaves. Other percentages...like envionmentalists, single payer activists, organics supporters, consumer rights supporters, immigrant rights advocates, etc etc... (the 99 percent) ought simply have their fair share.
tulsadem ~ Am I correct in assuming that you are blaming the Communist Revolution in Russia on United States Constitutional protections and lack of a giant unconstitutional spy net?
Realistically, there are two viable parties, and both have the same agenda. Sort of like the old Soviet elections.
A question where one can vote either "yes" or "yes"?
If AT&T already has our private data, what difference does it make if the CIA gets it too? According to television and movie plots, CIA doesn't have to pay bribes when they could plant undercover agents in AT&T to do anything for government reasons.
How do we know the difference between a bribe and a paid invoice?
If CIA can use subpoenas, why pay? This could be a way to spin-off 10 million to CIA officials who are mingled in a big trust of AT&T stock.
Perhaps AT&T is part of the CIA-
campaign funding:
the monetary means by which America's fascist factions determine which will take its turn leading the other: retrograde Republicans, or depraved Democrats
campaign finance reform:
creatively devious liberal efforts to keep elections focused upon the fundraising abilities of candidates, rather than their ideas for solving problems
candidates (corporate party):
corporate money manufactured (R) and (D) sociopaths who are financial sector selected to represent competing corporate interests, while in completely concerted collaboration working together against the best interests of natural persons and Nature
permanent government:
Money deciding all matters, whether great or small
______________________________
The APT: American Political Terms
www.chenangogreens.org
Are you aware that in March, 1917, according to a comment made by Adolfe A Berle on an episode of Firing Line in the 1960's or 1970's, that Lenin visited the US Embasy in Switzerland and was refused access to the US ambassador since Berle had no idea who Lenin was? As Berle described it, this may have been the biggest diplocatic mistake in US history. According to Berle, no one at the embassy had any record of Lenin or his given name Ulyanov. To this day, aparently, no one knows what Lenin was doing in the US embassy the night before he was put on board the train across Germany to the Finland Sation in St Petersburg where he called for Peace Land and Bread.
The above US intelligence failure is the reason I support a vigorous intelligence service. We need to know with whom we are now and may in the future be dealing.
IG -- I just heard about some recent history that identifies the repugs in congress are the ones who should be put out of business. Kathleen Sebillius was begging the repug controlled congress for more funding for the ACA software so it would be tolerably operable software. The repugs refused and now are rejoicing over the failures of software.
On a related matter, Media Matters today points out all the phony guests that Faux News, especially Hannity, has on about the more expensive less quality insurance the have to buy with Obamacare. It turns out the guests have not even tried the exchanges. 24 hours later each of Hannity guests discover that they can buy better insurance cheaper.
Dan -- Another interesting addition to the Debra Bowen story. She was my representative until she termed out. She than ran for and won the Sec of State office. As Sec of State she had the power to deep six the voting machines even though it cost millions of dollars in equipment. Some of the equipment had never been used.
chuckle8 ~ I didn't know about Debra Bowen's work. Thanks for that tidbit. I haven't been to a poll in years thanks to absentee ballots. It's nice to know that one of our representatives is looking out for the voters. Who would have thought it would be a Democrat? (Pardon the sarcasm.) That explains all the recent desperate gerrymandering and voter suppression by the Reich Wing. Still, I think I'll stay away from the polls. Absentee ballots are so much more convenient and with the extra time I feel like I've done a better job at voting. Thanks again!
dan - You forgot to mention that Debra Bowen forced all those voting machines into deep storage. Hopefully next to nuclear waste.
dianedebaun ~ Thanks for that heads up. I'll keep a close eye on that one. I can't believe a state as progressive as Washington would drop the ball on such a no brainer. That would have me scratching my head for a week. For everyone else, here is the clickable link:
http://www.fooddemocracynow.org/
Another example, Windows was awful. IG are you saying Bill Gates is a failure?
IG -- I have a couple of points. Oracle is crap software and the founder owns an Island in Hawaii. Private sector's main weapon is PR. The government has a minimum budget for PR; lots of TV time but no PR experts.
I spent most of my 33 year career in software development for a private company supporting government contracts. A significant portion of software development cost is in the testing phase (40%). Having the public test the software for you is cost effective. The politics is awful but the cost is near optimal.
The failure of Amendment 66 here in Colorado is very disappointing. There was one great development in the campaigning, however. There was a court case, "Lobato v. State of Colorado", in which the plaintiff asserted that the lack of education funding was unconstitutional. After a lower court had decided in favor of Lobato, Gov. Hickenlooper's administration was set on fighting it, and eventually it was overturned by the state supreme court. But Hickenlooper advocated for Amdt. 66, implying that he has changed his attitude on this, and he'll be governor for at least another year, and is eligible to run for another term.
I wish I could spend more time on Maui, I have been there 4 times, but not in the last 4 years.
The software fiasco is typical because the government has no competition. If they screw up, what are your choices? If a private sector company screws up, they are out of business. Can you imangine a private sector company coming out with a website like Obomacare's? They would be toast in a week.
You can point the finger at the Canadians all you want, still the blame lies right at the feet of the person who hired them.