Comment Re:No one cares (Score 3, Interesting) 223
.gov is "non-national"? Since when?
.gov is "non-national"? Since when?
The US Gov't has NEVER launched a large scale IT initiative, on time and on budget. If they have, post it.
I've heard that this internet thingy they've been working on at DARPA might be big one day...
Which part of deficit spending don't you understand? You think your taxes have paid for all that lovely money showered on Halliburton et al over the past 8 years?
The people who are paying for this aren't born yet. I guess you think that's an argument against Roe v Wade too?
A vote on a bill takes 50+1 to pass. A vote to stop debate on a bill and bring the bill to the vote takes 60.
The Democrats should just call the Republicans bluff. Which part of "you lost" isn't obvious?
I am sure they would love to ignore the Republicans... Unlike the House rules, however, the senate requires 60 votes to get anything substantial done. Meaning, they have something called filibuster rules that allow individual senators to slow/stop bills in its tracks...
No, it means that if the Republicans want to filibuster, the Democrats should let them try.
Make them stand there and talk and read the phone book and carry on. Cloture requires 60 votes, otherwise debate continues until no one wants to speak anymore. The Democrats should just call the Republican's bluff.
America is no longer a capitalist nation.
That is so much Fox Noise bullshit talking points.
That era is now over, thanks to Congress.
No, that era is now over, thanks to a de-regulated market that used securitization to not only spread risk but to totally disconnect any responsibility for loan quality from the ultimate lenders.
Not to mention that the de-regulation of financial services allowed monolithic structures to be created that are "too big to fail" requiring the badly managed "bailout".
Now, tax cuts - in a normal economic environment - do stimulate the economy.
That's why it made so much sense to cut taxes at the same time as you're trying to fund two land wars.
And it was entirely ACORN's fault that complete de-regulation of the financial market led to fraud and inappropriate incentives for loan sellers to get bad loans and securitize them, taking a commission and absolving them of responsibility.
And it was the government's fault, not the so-called "rating agencies" that these bad loans were packaged and sold as triple A rated.
Face it, the last 8 years were a clusterfuck of enormous proportions. Republicans are convinced that government is a bad idea, and whenever they're in power, they do their best to prove it.
How come Cleveland has more spending on its public schools than most other G8 nations, but they are all shitholes. Maybe the students are stupid and unwilling to learn? Maybe they come from a culture that denegrates education before it even starts?
Maybe because parents don't want their precious snowflakes egos to be upset by having to work hard?
Democrats
This the NEA that Republicans always bitching about? The one that pays for art and orchestras and stuff? The one with the 144 *million* dollar budget? That's about 50 cents for each of you a year...
So maybe take some of that money you waste on spending in the military (more than the next 45 countries *combined*) and spend it on education or bi-lingual teaching materials.
Having the "legal" population learn Spanish wouldn't hurt them either. You could have ESL and SSL classes.
Did you ever consider the reason *why* those kids are in the country? Maybe some foreign aid would help? Oh, no, better to spend it on a pointless fence and yet more pseudo-military forces.
No, much easier to just bitch about it. There's no way that all those illegals are going anywhere, cheap labor is needed to do the stuff that you guys are too proud to do yourselves.
Socialist my ass.
"I like paying taxes. With them I buy civilization." - Oliver Wendell Holmes
No, Bush was spending like a *Republican*. Tax cuts and bigger government. Government grew under Reagan and under Bush I and under Bush II.
Economy has done better under Democrats back 100 years, middle class has done better under Democrats.
Middle class is being wiped out by the "trickle down" bullshit. If the middle class gets decimated, then the economy really is fucked. Who's going to buy stuff to keep the rich rich?
The king has pardoned almost anyone convicted of Leste Majesty in recent years, Thai and Farang alike.
He better pardon the poor bastard from Australia that wrote one sentence in a book that sold 7 copies that got sentenced to 3 years jail. The sentence in question referred to a non-existent, fictional junior prince.
"lese majesty" is a bullshit offence. The King of Thailand earned respect, he doesn't need a law.
Almost as stupid as blasphemy.
Actually, there is. There's 2 bodies that do censorship in Australia.
OFLC reviews media for compliance. It's an independent body that reports to Parliament.
ACMA is responsible for online/broadcast regulation. It answers to the Minister for Communications (ie Conroy). It refers things that it thinks need to be classified to the OFLC.
Actually, you're not required to vote. You're required to attend a voting place or submit an absentee ballot and get crossed off the electoral roll.
What you decide to record on your vote (including nothing at all) is up to you.
Australia doesn't have free speech anyway, except that hinted at in the Magna Carta and common law.
Not quite true... The Aussie High Court says that there is an "implied" right to free political speech in the Australian Constitution. It came out of a case where the government tried to ban political ads for a certain amount of time before an election.
For God's sake, stop researching for a while and begin to think!
