All this shows is that the average young person doesn't know the difference between NASA and NSA.

While I, like many other tech workers, have a natural affinity for libertarian thinking and a concomitant disdain for the political system, the reality of this throat cutting behavior by our selfish and short-sighted politicians needs to be countered within the defective framework of the political system if we are to have a fighting chance of protecting ourselves and other STEM workers from these greedy bottom-line, pin-striped pinheads that are calling for the gutting of our field.

As disgusting as it might be, we need our own Political Action Committee. Unless we can engage these baboons in Washington in an organized manner, they won't listen to us. They need to see PAC representatives from the STEM sector every day, demanding the lowering of the H1B cap and protection of the domestic tech workers.

That's the first thing out of my mouth when I heard this story on TV this morning. I can't imagine Bush and Darth Cheney not shouting it from the rooftops if it had been found as they say. Even if they had to cover up Western involvement, those CW shells would have been trotted out before a full court press so the Bush admin could have their "I told you so!" moment.

Now, I'm not a lawyer, but I could see that backfiring on them in a big way. If the MA SWAT teams are actually private agencies, then that could be used by a clever lawyer to damage their qualified immunity. If they're actually some sort of private contractors, then suing them would get a whole lot easier, since qualified immunity probably only applies to state and federal employees.

I think the comparison of the IRS with the Schutzstaffel is a little overblown. The Schutzstaffel would kill Hitler's political enemies. The IRS would just audit the president's enemies so bad they wish they were dead. :D

That's nothing. Back in 2004, I was working for a school district in Michigan and almost all of the K-12 buildings were on token ring. We were always just one lightning strike away from having a building offline for the rest of the school year. We used to surf ebay looking for old replacement parts to buy and keep, just in case. Of course, now I'm sure they've probably upgraded to 10 megabit ethernet hubs. :)

A prosthetic limb? That seems appropriate considering that their products cost an arm and a leg.

You mean, ways to find workers like Monster.com or Dice.com?

These companies aren't hiring anyone that they would have to train unless they're just looking for an H1B worker. I work for a large multinational company in the U.S. and I have seen the job postings they put out. They're so full of precise specifics that the worker absolutely must have that an American engineer won't be able to fit the bill. Then they hire the H1B from the overseas office that they had in mind in the first place (and who fit the onerous job requirements exactly, strangely enough) and pay him less. It's a scam. What we need is a nice, well-funded PAC for IT workers and engineers that can lean on the lawmakers and tell Oracle and Micro$oft to get bent. The only way to get the lawmakers to listen to us is to bribe them with campaign contributions. It sucks, but that's the system we have in this country.

Oh, and this Project for a New American Economy reminds me a lot of the Project for a New American Century, which brought us the Iraq war.

I just find it interesting that the movie they mentioned as the steganographic carrier, Kick Ass, is referred to as pornography. Granted, the female super hero in the movie, Hit Girl, is a 12-year old, so the movie had a pedophile (technically ephebophile) vibe to it, but I didn't see anyone getting f*cked in the movie. Shot, stabbed, and beaten up, but no sex.

They are trying to provoke the people to fight back. Look at the totality of what has happened since 9/11 and you see the dramatic escalation of the machinery of a police state that is just waiting for the right incident to throw the machine in to full action.
Then google Rex 84 and you will see that this is a process that has been in place for most of our adult lives. There are people installed at the intelligence and military communities who don't like our form of government and would like to change it to a dictatorship.
Keeping that in mind, when we hear about people like Mr. Abdulmutallab, who tried to bomb an airliner heading to Detroit in 2009 and whose failed bomb plot was the instigator of the installation of these dangerous x-ray scanners, and how passenger Kurt Haskell, a Detroit attorney, testified that Mr. Abdulmutallab was escorted on the plane by well-dressed government types who flashed badges at airline and customs officials in order to get him past security.
So, yes, the TSA is trying to provoke us. The terrorists with pepper spray that unleashed on UC Davis student protesters are trying to provoke us. The TSA VIPR program is trying to provoke us. They want this fight.

They're not blaming autism on the vaccines, because they'd get slapped with lawsuits for threatening pharmaceutical company profits, although that's probably what's causing the epidemic. I worked for a school district as a computer programmer, and I had to write a program to determine whether or not a child had the right mix of vaccines based on State of Michigan data. I was stunned that children had to receive so many vaccines at such a young age.

And then they tase you for disorderly conduct and resisting arrest, and then beat you and drag you off to jail. Sure, it's illegal for them to do all that, but the constitution is just a "goddamned piece of paper," in the words of our former president, G.W.