Random News Observations

[SilentSnow 1]

The fact that he and his advisers decided they could legally assassinate two American citizens without due process is insane. Ok, these two were in another country and pretty high on the ladder of a known terrorist organization but it's not a stretch that this precedence will be used domestically, without due process and without overwhelming evidence.

 

This is DOJ memo is HUGE deal.

 

I wrote about us no longer having a constitution years ago. Apparently there aren't many people that care.

[BigDMcGee 3,352]

I wish people could get beyond the Coke Vs Pepsi shell game of partisan politics, and look at how dangerous the bi-partisan expansion of executive power is. Each administration in my life time (and probably since LBJ at least) has progressively expanded the power and authority of the executive branch, and no one seems to give a ****. Democrats only care when it's a republican doing it, and vice versa, and meanwhile the executive just gets more and more non-constitutionally granted power. One of these years we are going to elect someone truly dangerous in the executive, and we're going to wish we hadn't given the office Imperium.

[brvheart 1,751]

I wish people could get beyond the Coke Vs Pepsi shell game of partisan politics, and look at how dangerous the bi-partisan expansion of executive power is. Each administration in my life time (and probably since LBJ at least) has progressively expanded the power and authority of the executive branch, and no one seems to give a ****. Democrats only care when it's a republican doing it, and vice versa, and meanwhile the executive just gets more and more non-constitutionally granted power. One of these years we are going to elect someone truly dangerous in the executive, and we're going to wish we hadn't given the office Imperium.

 

This was basically the entire premise of my Poli Sci 356 class at ISU. My teacher ****ing hated the expansion of executive powers, and would spend a solid 10 minutes a day telling us another example of how terrible it was.

[mrdannyg 274]

I like to think I have an outsider's perspective on a lot of this stuff (which isn't a compliment to myself at all). I very rarely agree with anyone who has posted in the last page or so. I don't think there's a post I have not agreed with in the last page or so. Glad to see so many people from so many different affiliations can have such agreeing views on this issue. Now I guess we'll see if the people in charge can actually slow down their power grab long enough to actually do their jobs and act upon the wishes of the electorate.

[FCP Bob 1,311]

Meteor strike in Russia

 

http://www.russianma...in-chelyabinsk/

 

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/02/15/us-russia-meteorite-idUSBRE91E05Z20130215?feedType=RSS&feedName=scienceNews&utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter&dlvrit=309301

 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ZxXYscmgRg&feature=youtu.be

[FCP Bob 1,311]

[colonel Feathers 5]

Meteor strike in Russia

 

http://www.russianma...in-chelyabinsk/

 

http://www.reuters.c...r&dlvrit=309301

 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ZxXYscmgRg&feature=youtu.be

Is it just my imagination, or does russia seem to catch mor than its share of rocks from above.

[FCP Bob 1,311]

Jesse Jackson JR is pretty dumb. Why not just wait and become a lobbyist and make millions, no need to steal campaign funds.

 

A Republican would never make this mistake.

 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ryan-j-reilly/jesse-jackson-jr-charged_b_2697246.html?ncid=edlinkusaolp00000003

[FCP Bob 1,311]

So who wants to cut government spending ?

 

IT'S OFFICIAL: Cutting Government Spending Is Hurting Our Economy

 

Read more: http://www.businessi...2#ixzz2M6SUu1kD

 

 

 

 

One inconvenient truth facing those who still favor the "austerity" approach to our current economic predicament (slow growth, high unemployment) is that the austerity approach makes the problem worse.

 

When we cut government spending, we reduce economic growth and we put more people out of work.

 

When we reduce economic growth and put more people out of work, we reduce consumer spending, which, in turn, further reduces economic growth.

 

When we reduce economic growth and put more people out of work, we also reduce tax revenue, which increases our budget deficit.

 

So, then, to do what we were trying to do by enacting "austerity" in the first place--reduce the budget deficit--we have to cut even more government spending.

 

And so on.

 

This is what's happening in Greece, where the economy has shrunk 18% over the last several years, and the budget deficit is miles from being closed.

 

(The Greek economy has shrunk 18%. Imagine that. Peak to trough, in 2008 and 2009, the worst recession since the Great Depression, the U.S. economy shrank about 7%. And it felt like our civilization was about to collapse.)

 

It's also what's happening in the UK, where economic growth has been even worse than ours and they may be headed for a triple-dip recession.

 

It's what's happening across the Eurozone.

 

And it's what's happening here, where we have shrunk government spending, and, in so doing, slowed our rate of economic growth and kept more people out of work.

 

 

Change in government consumption and investment

 

http://www.nytimes.c...tightening.html

 

 

Government jobs, which have generally increased during and after recessions, have declined 2.3 percent since the most recent one began in late 2007.

Government jobs added or lost

 

 

[Balloon guy 158]

So unless the government spends money, the economy will not survive?

 

Sounds like our economy has cancer and will die unless we fix it's dependence on government spending.

 

 

It is ironic though that the same people saying we need to spend more ( democrats ) are usually the ones that want to slash the military budget....which is the government spending more.

[colonel Feathers 5]

There has to be an optimal middle ground to the govt spending paradigm, if thats the right word. More spending by govt, means more taxes for the producers, leading to less spending by everyone else. You cannot tax the populace into prosperity.

[akoff 0]

So who wants to cut government spending ?

 

IT'S OFFICIAL: Cutting Government Spending Is Hurting Our Economy

 

Read more: http://www.businessi...2#ixzz2M6SUu1kD

 

This about the same as saying Chemo is not good because it makes you sick... government spending is not the solution no matter how many times people say it.

 

And since you asked - who wants to cut government spending? all people that understand what our country was founded on do. all peole that understand you can't tax your way to good economic times and everyone that realize we as a people are being taken advantage of by a few.

 

2 months ago BHO got his tax hike...now it is time for the cuts. Just last week Howard Dean said middle class taxes are going to have to go up, or cuts are going to have to be made...Howard Dean!! - funny even he knows BHO is out of control.

[FCP Bob 1,311]

This could be huge.

 

Doctors report first cure of HIV in a child

 

 

 

 

For the first time, doctors are reporting that they have cured a child of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

 

The landmark finding will help scientists better understand the nature of HIV, doctors say, and could potentially help countless HIV-positive babies in developing countries.

 

"I'm sort of holding my breath that this child's virus doesn't come back in the future," says Hannah Gay, an associate professor of pediatrics at the University of Mississippi Medical Center, who treated the child, a 2½-year-old Mississippi girl. "I'm certainly very hopeful that it will produce studies that will show us a way to cure other babies in the future."

 

Experts note that the girl's story is also unique — involving a string of unusual events — and won't immediately lead to a cure for the 34 million people living with HIV worldwide.

 

The baby contracted HIV at birth, says study co-author Katherine Luzuriaga of the University of Massachusetts Medical School.

[colonel Feathers 5]

This could be huge.

 

Doctors report first cure of HIV in a child

YES, super huge. Then again this is mississippi. Ill wait and see if John Hopkins medical center concurs.

[BigDMcGee 3,352]

I just had the shortest jury duty of all time today. I knew as soon as the case was described, Marijuana possession with the intent to distribute, that there was zero chance I was making this jury.

 

The first question the Prosecutor asked us was "does anyone think that marijuana should be legalized". I was one of 4 out of 27 that raised their hand (LOLNEBRASKA). The other 3 said that they could put aside their feelings about the law, to judge the facts of the case independent of their feelings about the law. "The law is the law" was the common refrain. Then, when she asked me, I said I would have a great deal of difficulty sending someone to prison for what I felt was an immoral law. The prosecutor continued to press me, foolishly, so I dropped a bomb on her. I said I felt that according to the principals of jury nullification, that it was a juror's legal right to render a not guilty verdict in a law they thought was immoral, and I would likely do that in a marijuana possession/distribution case.

 

The Prosecutor didn't even need to use one of her 7 strikes, the judge struck me before the defense ever had a chance to ask questions. If you ever want to skip out on jury duty, be sure to bring up the phrase "jury nullification" during the selection process.. I hope the rest of the jurors went home and googled jury nullification.

[Whiskers 680]

You should've tried to get on the jury and convince the rest that he was not guilty.

[BigDMcGee 3,352]

You should've tried to get on the jury and convince the rest that he was not guilty.

 

My beard is at near Duck Dynasty levels, I doubt I would have been picked for this particular trial anyway, I have real "pot friendly look ( though I haven't smoked it in years now). This way maybe the term jury nullification will rattle around in some of their brains.

[Balloon guy 158]

Cool, good chance that guy went to jail then because the 'peers' that support him were too busy to help him.

 

 

I'm sure he is thrilled you got off jury duty.

 

And congrats on the DM beard.

[BigDMcGee 3,352]

I wasn't saying it to get out of jury duty, I actually kind of wanted to do jury duty. But I don't want to do jury duty so much that I'm going to lie under oath. Everything I said, I believe.

 

 

I hope my fellow jurors googled jury nullification not to get out of jury duty, but because it's an important legal right that we have, that we don't typically get informed of.

[Balloon guy 158]

I wasn't saying it to get out of jury duty, I actually kind of wanted to do jury duty. But I don't want to do jury duty so much that I'm going to lie under oath. Everything I said, I believe.

 

 

I hope my fellow jurors googled jury nullification not to get out of jury duty, but because it's an important legal right that we have, that we don't typically get informed of.

 

So you are fine breaking some laws, but others are too sacred to violate?

 

Sounds like a convenience based morality.

[BigDMcGee 3,352]

So you are fine breaking some laws, but others are too sacred to violate?

 

Sounds like a convenience based morality.

 

 

So you're advocating I should commit perjury to serve on a jury? Really?

[Balloon guy 158]

So you're advocating I should commit perjury to serve on a jury? Really?

 

We've already established that you are okay defying any law that doesn't fit your world view, how do you argue then that perjury is too sacred to violate?

[JubilantLankyLad 1,957]

We've already established that you are okay defying any law that doesn't fit your world view, how do you argue then that perjury is too sacred to violate?

 

As per your premise, obviously it fits within his world view...

[Whiskers 680]

It's his civic duty to perjure himself in order to strike down an immoral law.

 

Obviously.

[BigDMcGee 3,352]

We've already established that you are okay defying any law that doesn't fit your world view, how do you argue then that perjury is too sacred to violate?

 

 

I had no idea you were such a perjury advocate. Where were you when Bill Clinton needed you?