speaking of which....

Here's an article about the lower half ot the 1% having trouble buying influence in the next election, thanks to the Citizen's United and McCutcheon cases:

"The bottom half of the top 1 percent is getting a sense of what it is like to be a political spectator in the country’s exclusionary wealth primary."

The world may be more complicated, but Pakistan is not the example you are looking for.

The Islamic Republic of Pakistan had a semi-presidential system, using both a PM and a President, and in which the President can basically fire the PM at will.

She was elected by the Parliament (that's how they did it at the time) first in 1988. she served for about 18 months, before the President dismissed her for "corruption".

She was elected again (by parliament) in 1993, and served about 3 years, before again being dismissed in 1996 by the President, this time by a President that she herself had just installed in the Presidency, such was his return treatment of her.

Both times the dismissals were for "corruption". While the charges were likely false, it forced her to go into exile in Dubai, and not return to Pakistan until 2007 when she was granted "amnesty" and the charges dropped.

The day she returned to Pakistan, 18 October 2007, an assassination attempt was made. It was the 2007 Karachi bombing, with 136 dead and 450 wounded(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_Karachi_bombing), though it missed her and she wasn't injured.

In November 2007 she was then placed under house arrest for speaking out against the "state of emergency" that had been declared in the country.

Then on December 27 2007, and second assassination attempt was made, and it succeeded. She was killed only two weeks before the 2008 election, an election in which she was the leading opposition candidate.

F'ing A Right "pay more".

Wife is a teacher.
Has her Masters.
10 years experience.

Between the grading and planning, not to mention the extra curricular programs she's responsible for, she regularly puts in 10 hour days, or else spends time on the weekends. Regularly about 60 hours a week.

For all this hard work, she makes only 36k/year, and no overtime.

That's only $15.15/hour (or $13/hr at a job that actually pays overtime).

Damn right they need paid more.

same old same old.

they've been able to keep wages, and the minimum wage, depressed so long that the labor force is shrinking not through a lack of potential workers, but through a lack of willingness for people to work for unlivable wages. if wages kept pace with productivity, as they had for the longest time, the median wage would about 140k/yr, and the minimum wage would be ~20/hr.

this has the effect of preserving the elite's status without requiring them to provide for a strong middle class to buy their products.
instead they preserve their relative status by keeping everyone else's financial status depressed.

you'd almost think it's intentional.

Except of course for the paid shills.

oh shut up.

the point of his actions were to reveal the NSAs actions to the public, so that the public knew about the shady/illegal snennigans the NSA and government were engaging in.

unlike Petraeus who's motivation in leaking was apparently to get into his biographer's pants.

and my lil joke was simply pointing out which one the government believes to be the bigger sin
(and since you're a little dense apparently, that would be "telling the public")

ah but Snowden isnt connected.
Petraeus is, from having been director of the CIA.

Also, he told secrets to the public, instead of his mistress.

I get told all the time by fellow vets and Marines, who theoretically swore the same oath I did, that torture and indefinite detainment are absolutely ok and not violations of the Constitution. I get called a bleeding heart liberal for thinking those things matter.

The only upside to this thoroughly depressing situation, is I then get to say "oh, so wanting to hold to my oath, and actually follow the Constitution is what makes me a liberal? then what defines conservatism?"

the apoplectic fits that follow are always entertaining.

1) Yes it does, that's how herd immunity works.
2) You're an idiot who doesn't understand risk, or what double blind is even useful for. Probably why you keep trotting it out as your goto science "proof" or lack thereof in areas where it's not applicable.
3) Guardicil is not deadly, sorry to burst your myth bubble.
4) Enough stupid in one run on sentence to stock the GOP for years.

No, you are not informed, and no, you don't the risks. If you did or if you were you wouldn't say the stupid things you say.

So...lets see. Things Archangel claims to know about but doesn't:
-Vaccines
-How to get or not get cancer
-global warming
-basic science

Then you're one of the idiots responsible for the bad images of Marines that a lot folks have.
You don't get to threaten someone with death cause you used to be a Marine.
You make us all look bad with your stupid bravado about being above the law.

Oh shut up.

It's not illegal to wear clothing articles normally associated with the military. If appropriate marking (chiefly service tapes if talking about combat utlities) are removed, it is completely legal to wear. And it's not stolen valor to get a few bucks on the side of the road by wearing a utility blouse you picked up in a surplus store.

Probably half the people in the building I work in, which is on a military base, will periodically wear either the bottoms or the tops of utility uniforms on a regular basis, including the newer digital MARPATs. Heck, at a lot of surplus stores I've been to they have the fabric material available on rollers, to buy as much as you need/want. I can't tell you if it's got the little "hidden" EGA's on it like the official MARPAT uniform items, I never looked that close. But one older gent around wears a pair of trousers he made himself from that fabric (cause I don't recall seeing any with a 50inch waist when I was in). Whatever. Big deal.

Unless a dude is walking around with a MOH, or other medals/ribbons he didn't earn, bragging about being shot or a hero he never was, or running for office claiming something he wasn't, you aren't going to convince someone stole any valor by panhandling on the road.

(And your Kerry comments only prove how out of touch with reality you are. )

Personally I hate those videos.
And I am a Marine.

Some may be legit, catching a guy getting preferential status fraudulently.
But far too many are just overzealous-I'm-special-types chasing homeless people.

its one thing for a guy to commit actual fraud, such as the guy Rep. Duckworth chewed out in front of a congressional committee for claiming "disabled veteran" status to get preferential bidding on government contracts, when he had never served a day in life.

it's completely another to harass homeless folks (and even not so homeless folks) panhandling on the side of the road in clothes they got from a surplus store or clothing charity.