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Comment Re:No precednet for what he suggests (Score 1) 336

I don't understand your PBS link. The article mentions that MoveOn advocated for public funding of Public Broadcasting, not PBS advocating for MoveOn. Some how you take an organizations(MoveOn) advocacy for a third party(PBS) and use that as evidence that the third party(PBS) is advocating for the other group(MoveOn.)

If this logic holds up does that mean that Palin supports neo-Nazi's as many of those groups supported her and McCain in the last election cycle?

Comment Re:that didnt stop his staff from leaking (Score 1) 518

I know most people are looking for snuff porn and other want conformation (really???) and if those were the only reason for not releasing the photos I would totally understand; but, they are not the only reason.

Like it or not the US is supposed to be a country governed by law not by fiat. Over the past decade we have been compelled to listen to tortured rhetoric that [The "war" on terror is justified because they don't respect out freedom(s).] To use that logic, to say that the US is the greatest country ever, to say we have a constitution that protects people from the government and that is "why they hate us" requires us to live up to our ideals. This means:
you CANNOT wiretap everyone(4th amendment)
you CANNOT torture(5th and 8th amendments)
you CANNOT order the assassination of a US Citizen(and possibly not really anyone) because they said something mean(1st; 5th; 6th; 8th amendments)
you CANNOT convict someone in a secret trial where they are unable to defend themselves(5th and 6th amendments.)

Why I would like a few groups like Amnesty, UNOHCHR, maybe ACLU to examine the photos, and more importantly the videos, is to verify that despite the "misstatements" by the US government and witness at the compound, bin Laden was NOT captured and executed.

I know that many of you don't care and that any trial would have only been for show and achieved the same outcome. But if we are going to pretend to be a nation governed by laws, and if we are going to be forced to listen to our tea party (republican) friends go on and on about the supremacy of the constitution, and we continue to spout "they hate us for our freedoms", then shouldn't we at least pay lip service to that founding document?

tl;dr: Release the video to have reputable NGOs verify that bin laden was killed while in a frantic shootout; err using a human shield; I mean lunging for a weapon(but that doesn't make too much sense since the combatants shot one of his wives in the calf while she was lunging at them(I guess UBL hasn't been running much and has small calves?))how about: doing anything other than look confused while and armed force descended on his house.

Comment Re:Mission Accomplished (Score 1) 1855

Do you think that just by killing bin laden Al Queda will just magically vanish?

And do you really think that the reason people are willing to be martyrs for their cause is because of bin laden? More importantly do you really think the threat of "terrorism" will ever go away? Every drone strike, every "hunting party", every time a coalition (read: US) soldier kills another person you create more people willing to pick up the standard of anti-western imperialism. The US has done far more to foment the anti-Western cause than bin laden ever could. But don't take my word for it, General McChrystal has spoken numerous times on the subject.

Declare mission accomplished and an end to combat operations, make up some BS about a duty to the region, etc. To appease the militant masses in the US you can leave a bunch of "security advisers" who will stay there forever (see Korea, Germany, Japan, Cuba, Philippines or Iraq for examples.) The death of bin laden is the golden opportunity to get out of the Afghan quagmire and stop wasting money and lives for the sake of looking tough.

Comment Re:The fine line (Score 2) 642

Seriously? Promote the general Welfare is right after after provide for the common defence in the preamble to the constitution. You could also probably catagorize public health care in to insuring domestic Tranquility(prevent epidemics) and establishing Justice(break your back doing manual labor, organization you got hurt working for has to pick up the tab.)

Also,I am not sure how publicly invading three other countries, and having "secret" bombing campaigns in several others, counts as defense.

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

Comment Re:Was Microsoft Riight? (Score 5, Insightful) 716

The summary draws the conclusion: that despite the Xoom being a good product, what moves tablets isn't the product but the marketing and hype. And despite how long tablets have been around the average person on a sales floor can't really tell you what their good for, where as at the apple store they know their talking points about the device and are able to make a more convincing sale.

The jump I made when I read the article is that:
a) the average person can't articulate what a tablet is good for and what it can do for you, unlike a phone, pc, tv, microwave, etc. Since the average store clerk can't vocalize the benefit of a tablet people don't buy the Xoom, but because Apple will tell you why a tablet is so awesome people buy the iPad. If this long after a product launch, the average person can't tell you anything benefit to the device other than you hipster friends will think you are cool, it could be an indicator of a fad.

b) People aren't buying tablets from Apple because they have a need for a tablet, or because it fits a niche that their otehr computing platforms lack, they are buying because its Apple and a new thing. If that is true than it's even more of an indicator that its a fad, and much like furby there is not a large market for them past one or two generations.

What would have made the article much better would be trending numbers for sales of both Xoom and the iPad. What rate are they currently selling at? What is the conversion rate between the two? Did iPad and Xoom have similar sales before the launch of iPad2? How do sales of iPad2 compare with the original? Really any hard information would have been better than Apple stores look cool.

Comment Re:Obama nominee, of course (Score 2) 333

, I'm sure that during your pre-election research you decided not to vote for him

Seriously, what is wrong with people like you? Yes, many progressives that voted for Obama are pissed at him and don't have any problem painting him with the same brush as the previous war mongering corporate shill. But he isn't McCain. Let me repeat that he is not McCain! On the one you have a guy who at least appears to be anti-kill poor people in third world countries, pro-civil liberties, pro-rule of law and he is even a constitution scholar. On the other you have someone who talks about staying in Iraq for another 100 years and during the campaign appear to run to embrace the policies of the last 8 years(plus don't forget the running mate, if that doesn't show poor judgment I don't know what does.)

Well it turns out we may be stuck in Iraq for a 100 years, the erosion of privacy, indefinite detention, preemptive war(without congress approval this time,) a large healthcare bill that, while helping to cover more Americans, effectively requires you to hand over money to private corporations and if you can't afford to the government will step in and help you pay money to private corporations. And the list goes on.

So yes, progressives are pissed, but had it to do over again I still probably would have voted for him. I would rather play Russian Roulette with a six shooter and five rounds than play with a semi-automatic. The result may be the same but at least there is hope.

Comment Re:Paywalls only work when you have something of v (Score 1) 256

I never really understood the conservative echo chambers view of the NYT, or NPR for that matter. Why do you people hate it so much?

My perception of both organizations is that they occasionally do an interesting piece but are more than willing to bury a news stories like: CIA black sites, warrantless wiretapping of US citizens, etc. and their editorial boards seem to take their lead from whoever is in Washington regardless of party. Although they can both be lazy to when it comes to fact checking the errors usually seem to benefit the neo-con view of the world(examples from the last decade NYT:Judith Miller NPR:anything related to O'Keeffe.) I would think the echo chamber would be in full support of these factual inaccuracies, not against them.

Maybe the issue is that these outlets occasionally deviate from their SOP of protecting those in power and report a different view of the world? Deviate from the script of: its the browns/Muslims/foreigners that are making you poor, when talking to the "right", or its the teabaggers/"stupids" in middle America, when talking to the "left", and start talking about how its those with power/resources who are making you life worse, paying you lower wages for longer hours, sending your children to die in conflicts whose point or reason has been forgotten or eroding your right to basic human rights and dignity and you are made to pay. Stop framing the discussion in terms of it’s the other average person that is you enemy not those in power and you are derided by those who control the echo chamber as having "liberal" bias or a conservative "bias".

Comment Re:now is bad timing for any important news really (Score 1) 225

... and does not handle release of classified information the way the NY Times does.

You mean going to the US government and asking what it is OK for them to print?
NYT: We have evidence of massive illegal wiretaps from the federal government
US Gov:Ummm, could you not print that we are kind running for reelection right now and the general populous, although kinda stupid and they tend to let us do what ever we want if we just say there are scary terrorists(read:non-whites/non-christians) out there who are going to eat your babies, they may vote us out of power.
NYT: Okey-doke, just let us know when it's ok to tell the country of your crimes.

Seriously though, the NYT goes around bragging about getting the administrations permission before publishing anything bad.

In fact, once the government pointed that out following its original releases, Wikileaks changed its methods and now submits the information to the NY Times for redaction, so as to avoid further charges.

In fact Wikileaks doesn't trust the NYT and so now cuts them out of their releases. The last batch the NYT had to get from another newspaper.

Comment Re:Why not DRM? (Score 1) 620

I still don't see how its any different than playing pirated games on a computer. Many pirated games require items that modify the OS to break SecureROM, reroute packets to prevent calling home, etc. There is also the risk of the downloaded game carring a payload that messes with the OS. How is that any different than breaking out of CHROOT jail and running an unapproved app?

Where I agree with you is that either pirating apps on the PC or mobile is very different than playing a pirated MP3, but only because a pirated MP3 has the same barrier to use on both platforms. If all you are interested in is pirated music you don't need to jailbreak your phone.

Comment Re:Why not DRM? (Score 1) 620

Those same 8-year olds can probably find how to jail break their phone then.

Have things changed that much in the last few years? Forums where you find pirated PC software used to be littered with comments along the lines of "The isn't the game its only a .rar file which must be a virus!!11!" or "What does mounting mean." or "Whats YASU?". Even if there is no DRM there is still the barrier of SecureROM, mounting tools, proper burner settings, etc. The initial setup to get some pirated games to play requires a decent amount of knowledge and system tools that the average computer user(not Slashdot reader, but computer user) doesn't know or have.

If you know what you are doing is it really all that difficult to play pirated games, no. But its also not all that hard to jailbreak your phone once someone posts instructions.

Comment Re:Why not DRM? (Score 1) 620

Jailbreaking is hardly the standard. The vast majority of users don't want to mess with their phones in that way.

And knowing how to find pirated games, their cracks, software for mounting the imgs, how to install the cracks is standard?

If you want to play the DRM free games on your phone you can find a way to jailbreak it.

Comment Re:$200 fine (Score 0) 586

No problem, happy to help. I bet you miss the days of W. in office. The mispronunciation of nuclear probably had you stumped for the better part of a month. "Saddam is developing new clear weapons? Did he get the idea from Wonder Woman's jet? Maybe they just bend light and aren't really clear."

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