"Obamites"? really?

the petitions help in that the Administration necessarily responds to any petition that reaches the the threshhold. that means that they are forced to go on the record with a response that alone is enough to stir action out of inaction. even if the current Administration does not agree with the goal of a petition, the American people will know that position rather than having it swept under a rug, and can vote accordingly.

Tom Wheeler and other cable lobbyists should not and must not be in charge of any agency that purports to be for the public good.

sign this petition to target that very problem: http://wh.gov/lwhr8

i've signed on to the one linked in the article, but that petition lacks specifics. for example, one of the biggest problems is having a former CTIA lobbyist as the chairman of the FCC. that has to end.

sign this petition if you agree: http://wh.gov/lwhr8

yes, the usefulness of these petitions are questionnable. but if enough *voters* make a fuss, people notice. cynicism and total inaction never changes anything.

http://wh.gov/lwhr8

as little as i think this will help, i've already got a new petition covered: http://wh.gov/lwhr8 please link and share widely!

not that this will change much, but at least it will let the Obama Administration and our supposed "representatives" in government that this isn't exactly without controversy: http://wh.gov/lwhr8

define "lifetime."

also, i'm pretty sure THIS was the worst falsehood from a U.S. presidential administration in our relative lifespans: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/st...

the very same argument has - and still IS - used to justify human slavery.

the market is flawed at best and destructive to humankind at worst.

this is incredibly short-sighted. exploration of Mars and our Solar System can and often does lead to advancements with practical scientific applications. better and more efficient energy sources. better ways to grow food. even the potential for colonizing planets like Mars in the future. these benefit humanity on an enormous scale. the only falsehood here is claiming that humans can't tackle both immediate geopolitical conflicts and longer-reaching scientific advancement. we should be doing both.

so instead of the government "screwing" with the internet, would you prefer monopolizing corporations to slice up the internet and favor certain protocols and services over others? there HAS to be a better solution than that. we can't trust the companies, we can't trust the government, but maybe we can trust a system where the government has to balance out against the megacorps.

did *you* read the report? most of the subsidies specifically target oil and gas recovery and processing.

however, the POINT is that the GOP constantly whines about picking winners and losers when that has been the standard practice for decades. government gives economic benefits to favored industries who have successfully lobbied for them. this has happened since the Constitution was ratified. the government picks winners and losers all the damn time. it's an empty argument that does nothing to address the problems of pollution, climate change, job creation, and economic growth.

oh i'm aware. sometimes i forget sarcasm doesn't translate well on the interwebs :P

in my estimation, we should be pushing for research and investment in alternative fuel and energy tech. the U.S. should be at the forefront, creating new industries and manufacturing jobs in the process. of course, the current status quo and current companies have a problem with losing their "privileged" status, and their political proxies foist it off as "picking winners and losers".

perhaps they could stop subsidizing fossil fuels and ethanol as well.

"Tort Reform" is a red herring foisted by insurance companies. reducing the ability for patients to protect themselves when medical practitioners screw up does nothing to reduce costs and does everything to undercut the little guy.

healthcare costs so much in the U.S. because primary and preventative care are lacking, and the "market" has emphasized high-cost hospital care and pharmaceuticals. in short, capitalistic greed is unchecked. sad, but unsurprising, really.

government is needed to step in and counter this trend. left to their own devices, the healthcare industry and pharmaceutical companies will just continue to jack up prices, while our population does little to increase overall health.

this is not just knowledge for knowledge's sake. this is part of efforts to observe planetoids and asteroids to determine if there's risk of collision with Earth, determining feasibility of mining asteroids for resources, or even plain and simple adding to data sets observing how planetoids and asteroids interact with space

a lot of basic science isn't about finding groundbreaking stuff all the time. in fact, if you're doing research only looking for the "groundbreaking stuff", you're doing science wrong. much of science is straight observation. and it is USEFUL.