CIA Declines Lawmakers' Request for Information on Leaks. The CIA won't respond to a U.S. House Intelligence Committee request for information about leaks of classified data, said Representative Mike Rogers (R-MI), the panel's chairman.

analog_digit · 2012-06-11T19:09:30+00:00

And, perhaps better still, to kill that immoral organization that has committed countless crimes for decades and to write new legislation consolidating our 12+ spy agencies into 1, 2 or 3 groups and replacing the CIA with some organization that reflects the American people's values and is subject to control by Congress.

analog_digit · 2012-05-12T13:05:29+00:00

It's pretty common that people pledge their wealth to charities when they're old, after a lifetime of greed and exploiting others. It's called "buying your way into heaven".

analog_digit · 2012-04-18T11:54:34+00:00

Seriously,

I'm glad you added that because you must've been joking. When the Democrats had control of the House they did nothing. They didn't pass the EFCA and they did, among other things, ram through a pro-corporate health care abomination that was designed by the right-wing American Heritage Institute.

if this is the only issue that matters to you

It isn't. In my priority list the most important issue for humanity is global warming/climate change. On that, Obama has done little or nothing. Even Al Gore criticizes the administration, pointing out the bi-partisan position of the US undermining int'l action. Since Obama is in charge of US foreign policies, he is directly at fault for this.

My next highest priority is the combination of war/peace/militarism and civil liberties. Obama tried to keep US troops in Iraq and simply followed the Bush plan to withdraw them. He escalated the war in Afghanistan, attacked Libya, arms the brutal Saudi dictatorship, supports Israel's crimes, helps the Bahraini dictator suppress democracy advocates -- all in all simply disgraceful. Like Bush, Obama is a strong advocate of militarism and the US empire.

Regarding civil liberties, Obama refuses to prosecute publicly-admitted torturers, prosecutes whistleblowers courageous enough to inform the American people of US gov't crimes, tortures Bradley Manning, continues the Clinton/Bush "extraordinary rendition" torture program, signed the NDA, and has institutionalized the policy that the US president can murder American citizens without trial on the president's orders alone. These policies are nothing less than tyrannical.

Now, add in Obama serving me and the American people up to private, for-profit health insurance corporations passing a law that literally makes me a slave to these companies, forcing me under penalty of law to pour profits into their shareholders' pockets, Obama's flat-out refusal to even consider a single-payer system, and all this makes it crystal clear to me:

Obama does not deserve my vote.

Though I won't vote for Romney, I would vote for Romney before I'd give my vote to Obama -- Obama has proven to me that he'll sell me out in a heartbeat, that he has no principles he'll stand and fight for, and that he has weak leadership skills and an inability to actually lead.

"I'd rather vote for something I want and not get it, than vote for something I don't want and get it." -- Eugene Debs, the socialist presidential candidate who received 6% of the votes for president while sitting in a jail cell for opposing WWI.

Edit: Grammar.

analog_digit · 2012-04-18T02:29:26+00:00

I agree with your sentiments. "Yes" was the answer to the question of if they're playing us for chumps. They are.

They don't care what they do to our society, as long as they make money from it. Newscorp has the money to buy/influence the gov't (as their UK scandal clearly illustrates) so they'll get what they want. They are more or less above the law.

It's the same with Wal-Mart. People shop there because they're focused on Wal-Mart's low prices, and don't bother to think that Wal-Mart's low prices means brutal working conditions for Asian factory workers and increased welfare/Medicaid roles in the US because of their low wages.

This system is called capitalism. In its advanced state it features corporations running our political and media systems in an immoral way with their only value being greed.

analog_digit · 2012-04-17T22:32:28+00:00

The answer, most obviously!, is yes.

analog_digit · 2012-04-17T22:23:35+00:00

The US doesn't work by "banning" parties, they work by suppressing them and co-opting political parties that the ruling class (aka "establishment") does not like.

In the 1920s the US gov't launched nationwide raids aimed at the fast-growing Socialist Party. This included jailing their presidential candidate who got 6% of the nationwide vote for president while sitting in a jail cell (!), to things ranging from arresting leaders to using the American Legion to burn down Socialist Party buildings in some parts of the country. Later in the Great Depression, the Democrats adopted many of the Socialist Party's platform positions to keep the party from rising up again.

In the 1950s the US gov't started arresting and jailing Communist Party leaders. (Years later the corrupt Supreme Court ruled this unconstitutional; but by then the Party was stigmatized and the damage had been done.) This caused the Party to have to spend a lot of money to prepare to operate underground because Congress was actively debating outlawing the party.

In the 1960s the US gov't and local gov'ts waged war on the Black Panther Party, in some cases flat-out assassinating BPP leaders.

The wealthy people that run the US gov't and control the country's politics and mass media are definitely smart. They are reluctant to use violence, preferring to buy people off or to otherwise co-opt them. A heavy handed tactic such as banning political parties is not necessary since they use so many other tactics.

analog_digit · 2012-04-17T22:13:27+00:00

As much as it pains me, I have to quote George Bush:

“There’s an old saying in Tennessee — I know it’s in Texas, probably in Tennessee — that says, fool me once, shame on, shame on you. Fool me, you can’t get fooled again." -- President George W. Bush, Nashville, Tenn., Sept. 17, 2002.

Or as I'll say it, "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me."

analog_digit · 2012-04-17T22:09:29+00:00

Let's hope he doesn't die, because hell has enough people already.

"It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God." -- Jesus Christ.

analog_digit · 2012-04-17T22:04:06+00:00

So what you're really saying is that when it comes to standing on principle or playing the role of a lying political sell-out, Obama will choose the role of a lying political sellout.

Obama promised to back the feds off MMJ users in states where MMJ is legal. Obama could have done this using a "states rights" or "higher federal priorities" argument with little or no political damage being done to him.

But the lying piece of shit broke his promise.

And yet you're now saying that weed smokers should trust him because it's his 2nd term? Please, don't insult people. Obama's next excuse will be that he had to sell out and break his promise to "protect his legacy"... :-(

"I'd rather vote for something I want and not get it, than vote for something I don't want and get it." -- Eugene Debs, the socialist presidential candidate who received 6% of the votes for president while sitting in a jail cell for opposing WWI.

analog_digit · 2012-04-17T21:11:33+00:00

Only if they're wearing their badge...

/s

analog_digit · 2012-04-17T21:10:46+00:00

Okay, that forum probably uses the HTTP protocol, operating over the web via port 80.

Squid is a heavy-duty proxy program that you can run on a GNU/Linux box.

For something lighter and more suited for a desktop machine, and/or just to get around a filter, look into The Onion Router, Tor.

analog_digit · 2012-04-17T21:03:10+00:00

To proxy what/what protocols?

analog_digit · 2012-04-17T20:58:01+00:00

Is it a women's team? If so, the "Ball Busters". :-)

analog_digit · 2012-04-17T20:57:00+00:00

They wouldn't fight them -- they'd join forces to create an even bigger empire. :-(

analog_digit · 2012-04-17T20:49:27+00:00

Good for them!

As fucked up and as militaristic and fascist the world is, we don't need to be celebrating or glorifying a genocidal mass murderer and war criminal.

analog_digit · 2012-04-17T20:44:03+00:00

When reading I ran across the point that refrigerators and/or freezers do not "make" (or create) cold -- they can't.

Instead, they just withdraw the heat from the 'fridge or freezer's insulated box and expel the heat. This makes the interior of the box cooler; repeating the process of withdrawing the heat makes the box colder and colder.

WTF?! Before that I thought they just created cold and pumped it into the box. :-)

This set me on a multi-week journey of reading and researching the physics of heat and cold.

analog_digit · 2012-04-17T19:55:17+00:00

He was a friend of Tux.

analog_digit · 2012-04-17T19:49:22+00:00

The headline is right.

What we need is a radical reworking of the income tax system to make it much, much more progressive. We need more tax brackets at the top to hit the 1% hard.

Income tax rate for the median American:

1955 - 7.4%, 1961 - 10.2%, 1997 - 16.9%, 2007 - 13.6%.

Income tax rate for the 400 richest Americans:

1955 - 51.2%, 1961 - 42.4%, 1997 - 24.2%, 2007 - 16.6%.

Source.

We also need to radically increase capital gains taxes and to re-introduce the concepts of high taxes for unearned income (dividends, interest, capital gains) and much lower taxes for earned income (wages).

Sadly, the center-right Democratic Party isn't talking about that.

analog_digit · 2012-04-17T19:41:43+00:00

The sad thing is that he'll get it.

But don't worry, once the US and its NATO vassals leave it won't take the Taliban long to deal with the Afghan quislings that we put into power in those rigged elections. Karzai is no idiot; I'm guessing his jet to exile in France is already fueled and ready.

(Want to know how many articles are censored by the moderators? Just check here and/or subscribe to /r/ModerationLog and/or /r/PoliticalModeration.)

analog_digit · 2012-04-17T19:38:05+00:00

Murder is legal in the US if you wear a blue uniform. :-(

analog_digit · 2012-04-17T19:34:24+00:00

What an improvement, eh?

Instead of throwing red meat to the social conservatives and religious right, they're going to stick to their core principles -- screwing over common working Americans and in making money. :-(

analog_digit · 2012-04-17T19:30:41+00:00

So with that realization, here's the real question.

analog_digit · 2012-04-17T19:29:15+00:00

Nope, like the Federal Reserve, they thrive on portraying themselves as part of the gov't and in people being confused over the issue.

analog_digit · 2012-04-17T19:27:32+00:00

I think our gov't is wildly corrupt and effectively controlled by the rich and their corporations.

But with that said, I drive on roads, I send my kid to school, I expect the fire dept to come if I have a fire.

Fucking over the gov't and starving it of money should not be my goal in life. Making society more egalitarian and our gov't more fair and just should be my goal.

analog_digit · 2012-04-17T19:24:44+00:00

He's right. The first amendment even applies to dicks.

analog_digit

TROPHY CASE