You mean not as many hippies and reprobates as in California? I was talking about the state and local government, not the people.

1) They bulldoze down most of the ruins. There are huge tracts of land already available with streets and utilities at hand. Think of it as a blank canvas.
2) Detroit had millions of people in it, they can handle a few hundred or a few thousand. They have access to transportation infrastructure: Air, Rail, Sea and Michigan has a huge workforce development program. I think if you were going to do small scale manufacturing the labor costs and economic incentives would be hard to resist.

Life is full of compromises.

I say there's more fertile ground for change in Detroit where they could really use the boost.

1) Housing is cheap, dirt cheap.
2) The government would welcome anything at this point to bring in new sources of industry and technology. Flight out of Greater Detroit has left a vacuum of fresh ideas and people.
3) There's a willing labor force who would jump at any opportunity.

Oakland is fine but we also need to stop concentrating on areas that are already prosperous and assist other areas that can use our help.

I think you're referring to "The Art of War" by Sun Tzu.

Well if Social Engineering works so well, why are these chodes still in office then? Oh wait, they've learned to game the system and decades of two party politics have given us gerrymandering and an election processes that is the lengthiest, most drawn out bunch of bullshit on the planet all in an attempt to make sure the best funded and most liked politician gets elected; not the best leader nor one with the best ideas or vision for our country, the best connected politician.

Think about it. Voter apathy has more to do with the lack of choice and credibility with the electoral process than anything else and that's how the Republicans and Democrats want it. Think of how many states no longer have write-in ballots and huge processes that force candidates to get enough signatures just to make it onto a primary ballot where if they don't get enough votes there, they're not eligible for the general election. All of this is by design and while people rail against voter id laws because they think it targets the poor and minorities, they're really getting disenfranchised by the lack of choice. It's all meant to be a distraction to keep you under control and focused away from the core issue: Our political processes are gamed to let Democrats or Republicans win but nobody else.

To effect change the people have need to assert their right to vote and stop taking the political rhetoric of their party affiliations as gospel. Social Engineering is for people who don't want to be bothered by getting their hands dirty. They'd rather twit about it or post something on Facetard and think that they've actually made a difference. "Oh lookie I did something." Naw, you didn't do anything you just sat at your keyboard and typed. When you get up, protest and put your neck out there or stand in front of authority then you're doing something. If that doesn't work, you resist, you influence you do anything you can to try and change peoples' minds. You vote and you take the issues seriously, don't vote a straight party ticket. If somebody can do a better job give them your vote and if that doesn't work:

"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is it’s natural manure." - Thomas Jefferson

Well that's where I believe we have a constitutional crisis on our hands. Secret Courts where you can't see or view decisions and no path for the accused to get the constitutional right to face their accusers. It seems we have become truly totalitarian in the name of the War on Terror and I agree with a lot of folks, there needs to be jail time or a re-enforcement of our rights in the constitution. To every member of congress that has voted to allow this, they need to be voted out. To our President who still supports it, he needs to be impeached. Maybe if we give DC an enema and get rid of these career politicians maybe we can get back to the business of governing and defending our constitution, not subverting it with this horseshit FISA court and the NSA spying on all of us.

Okay, Kagen has had to recuse herself from quite a few cases early on in her tenure because she argued in front of the court for the government, so yes you "don't have to" but there is precedent here so for that I do respect the fact that she didn't vote for her own positions.

The problem with all judges is that they can be jerks and take their positions too seriously. When it's the Supreme Court I guess you can get the Supreme Jerks. Just think if old Bork! Bork! Bork! had been on the bench?

To be honest, I trust none of them but I have to depend on them to do the right thing for our constitution first and our country second. Unfortunately it seems that a lot of times that gets flipped around.

So write your representatives in DC, get on their asses and tell them that you'll hold them accountable in the next election as well!

I do, that's why I've already written my two Senators and my Congressman on paper, the old fashioned way using the USPS and I even paid for stamps but they have the authority to impeach and it's 3 years until the Presidential Election and one more year till the midterm elections. I wonder if anybody will really wake up and smell the cat litter in DC and start voting these do-nothing people who subvert our rights out of office! That goes for both parties!

They all are, Alito is the big douche but then you have Kagen who IMO should never have been put up for
the nomination. I worry about Judge Kennedy though, he keeps falling off his damn bike and he seems
to be the most reasonable of the whole bunch.

The President. He's the Executive in Chief and the NSA reports to him as does the FBI and the CIA.

So with a Republican majority in the House, a barely tenable majority in the Senate and members of his own party calling BS. How long before you hear impeachment?

I can't wait to see the Sunday morning pundit shows. Damn too bad I'm not working in DC this summer it would be great to hang out in the gallery and watch.

How exactly does it get out of the FISA court into the Supreme Court and would Roberts have to recuse himself because he appointed most of the FISA judges?

Time for more popcorn.

No that's only when you break User Space.

Because there's gold in them thar ships. If you look at the CBS report 80% of the steel used in Bangladesh comes from ship dismantling. The guy who owns the yard is doing well even though he has kids working in his yards. That was shot in 2007, I wonder how many of those kids are still alive today?

They'll have to dead head back to China with empty ships!

This story reminds me of the documentary "ShipBreakers" showing the plight of the Indian workers breaking down ships and dealing with the toxic and unsafe conditions. At one point a ship arrives that had been on a toxic list for a long time, had had it's name changed multiple times and was finally going to get scrapped in India because no other place on Earth would take it.

CBS 60 minutes did a story on it too but it was in Bangladesh and three years later than the documentary..