[Winona Ghost Ryder]

Christ.

[parker]

80 dead to one gunman, what was he some kind of super soldier? I guess he was on an island full of unarmed kids but still, he must have been a great shot and or have been hauling around a ton of ammunition.
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[sawtooth]

[Takashi]

[Mr. Mechanical]

COIN SEIGNIORAGE: A LEGAL ALTERNATIVE TO THE DEBT CEILING

[Dark Age Iron Savior]

a huge document, apparently written by Anders (the man who surrendered who is currently believed to be the only attacker in the bomb/shooting spree), was apparently sent off to a lot of people who he thought might share his interests. It seems to be equal parts rambling manifesto and intimate diary, and the usual highlights are about to catch media attention

[ionustron]

isn't it always......

[Dracko]

[Dark Age Iron Savior]

some of the document (well, the excerpts other people are posting, I'm not going in there) is actually kind of fascinating. The whole plan and how he developed it (and what it was meant to achieve) is in there, along with all his reservations and attempts to psyche himself up. There's a bunch of right-wing writing and propaganda from other sources thrown in, as well as this whole idea he has for a new Knights Templar group and how it would work (people aren't sure yet whether certain things he wrote about fellow participants in such a group are evidence of collaborators or just wishful thinking). He's extreme right-wing and proclaims himself Christian, but Christianity isn't really part of his craziness (well, explicitly) - rather, it's how he was raised and he sees it as one of the most powerful tools to resist multiculturalism and insure stability in Europe (and he's down on the biggest churches for their attempts to promote inter-faith tolerance). There's ideas about making WMDs, seizing nuclear power plants, all kinds of crap.

Two things I saw pointed out that especially caught my attention:

1. Although he is a crazy racist and mostly down on Muslims, he was apparently worried about how the Roma ("gypsies") are being treated and especially how they might accidentally suffer if the revived right-wing had to resort to outright genocide of the undesirable types. So he basically wanted to make an Israel for them:

[allensmithee]

that's fucked and not only that but he's got a 3d head.

it really doesn't look like a real head. I think he hid his face.
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[CubaLibre]

Figures this pathetic coward would be into tac porn.

[Mr. Mechanical]

WASHINGTON -- Debt ceiling negotiators think they've hit on a solution to address the debt ceiling impasse and the public's unwillingness to let go of benefits such as Medicare and Social Security that have been earned over a lifetime of work: Create a new Congress.

This "Super Congress," composed of members of both chambers and both parties, isn't mentioned anywhere in the Constitution, but would be granted extraordinary new powers. Under a plan put forth by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and his counterpart Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), legislation to lift the debt ceiling would be accompanied by the creation of a 12-member panel made up of 12 lawmakers -- six from each chamber and six from each party.

Legislation approved by the Super Congress -- which some on Capitol Hill are calling the "super committee" -- would then be fast-tracked through both chambers, where it couldn't be amended by simple, regular lawmakers, who'd have the ability only to cast an up or down vote. With the weight of both leaderships behind it, a product originated by the Super Congress would have a strong chance of moving through the little Congress and quickly becoming law. A Super Congress would be less accountable than the system that exists today, and would find it easier to strip the public of popular benefits. Negotiators are currently considering cutting the mortgage deduction and tax credits for retirement savings, for instance, extremely popular policies that would be difficult to slice up using the traditional legislative process.

I don't really know how serious this whole debt ceiling thing actually is but the leadership of both parties in the government sure do seem to be using it as the pretext to consolidate more power into less-accountable formats.
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[psiga]

For a peek at the machinations behind the bluster, this might help a little: http://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?singlepost=2634033

In short, we won't default as long as interest on our debts gets paid, which we can absolutely do; however, our obligations such as socialized medicine/retirement/education/unemployment/warmongering are still more than we can afford, so we either need to raise the debt ceiling (to put more on the credit card), or cut services (which is what we need Super Congress for).

[ionustron]

as if Congress needed to mean any less...

[Mr. Mechanical]

How a clueless "terrorism expert" set media suspicion on Muslims after Oslo horror
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[psiga]

Oh boy. Copyright infringer facing possible extradition to the U.S. of A.: http://yro.slashdot.org/story/11/07/22/1417214/Share-Links-Become-Extradited-To-the-US

For what it's worth, he was running a site that capitalized on copyright infringement, rather than it just being a "sharing" situation. Still, it's a sad bucking and flailing from the industry, and at worst may open the door to some disappointing new precedents in case-law. Hopefully won't go that far.

Meanwhile, a guy does $36,000,000+ in damage and only has to serve ten years: http://it.slashdot.org/story/11/07/24/2136240/675k-Stolen-Credit-Cards--Ten-Years-In-Jail
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[Loki Laufeyson]

a bunch of edl members phone numbers have been released to the internet http://pastie.org/2260765
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http://lunaticobscurity.blogspot.com/ - newest post: Snezhaja Koroleva (Arcade)
http://lunargarbagehell.blogspot.com/ - newest post: Batman: Digital Justice

[P1d40n3]

this whole debt ceiling thing is making me so obscenely sick.

I never understood how people could turn to drinking, but now I understand.

If it wasn't my duty as an American citizen, this shit would turn me off politics forever.
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[CubaLibre]

Don't worry, it's just good cop/bad cop shenanigans designed to make people accept cuts to services and continue to enrich financiers.

http://exiledonline.com/get-ready-for-tarp-2-0/
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Let's Play, starring me.

[evnvnv]

but, which one is the good cop :(:(:(
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The text will not live forever. The cup are small

[Mr. Mechanical]

They take turns pretending but there actually aren't any good cops.
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[This Machine Kills Fascis]

Meh, the Republican party is throwing a hissy fit in an attempt to make Obama look bad in the wake of the upcoming election. The plan that Boehner brought to Obama earlier in the week would require two votes to raise the debt ceiling: an immediate vote and a secondary vote, during the election. Obama is forced to respond by playing himself off as Mr. Smith. Essentially, he's being forced to campaign early (though I guess he's been campaigning since, like, March anyway). I think the Republican strategists are banking on the idea that any controversy will reflect badly on the president, since as a leader he's supposed to be in control or something.

What's the word on the street? Do people generally feel that Boehner's speech was insulting, or does the reaction fall along party lines?
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"Godzilla could be anyone."

[spectralsound]

i have no interest in hearing or reading Boehner's speech, his views alone are enough for me to want him out of politics altogether. i know i shouldn't wish such ill on another person, but the past couple of years have had me testing the limits of that principle, esp. the entirety of the debt ceiling "debate"

earlier today i was discussing with a friend the logistics of ironically wearing a "Bachmann 2012" t-shirt

i really wish i had something interesting to add to this thread, i never feel like i know enough about current events

[spectralsound]

spectralsound
i really wish i had something interesting to add to this thread, i never feel like i know enough

[Adilegian]

[Broco]

The situation with the debt ceiling is that you've got a lot of newly elected Tea Party Republicans who genuinely believe that Obama is a tax-and-spend liberal who created the deficit problem. To the extent that they're aware the Bush administration also racked up debt, that makes them distrust establishment Republicans like Boehner and make them think they're in league with the Democrats to some extent. They trust no one and prefer the most radical solutions, and any bill with a hint of compromise in it makes them think that someone is trying to pull the wool over them.

Boehner is running around desperately trying to find a deal that will satisfy both the Democrats in the Senate and his most extreme party members in the House, which almost by definition is practically impossible. Even if such a compromise exists, the mere fact that it's a compromise and that Democrats find it acceptable itself makes it unacceptable to the Tea Party. So it will take a lot of last-minute crisis pressure to push it through.

[Mr. Mechanical]

Historian Bruce Bartlett, a former domestic policy adviser to President Ronald Reagan, sat down with MSNBC’s Chris Matthews on Wednesday to discuss the national debt.

Bartlett said it was a myth that tax cuts are the key to prosperity, noting that Reagan raised the capital gains rate. He was also skeptical that Congress would be able to solve the current budget crisis.

“I think at this point, there’s nothing that can pass the House of Representatives,” he said.

“I think a good chunk of the Republican caucus is either stupid, crazy, ignorant or craven cowards, who are desperately afraid of the tea party people, and rightly so.”
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[Mr. Mechanical]

Also I saw this political ad on tv earlier tonight.

Spin doctors at work making bank this year.
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[P1d40n3]

[parker]

Did Boehner really play a clip from The Town where the guy asks his buddy to come along on a home invasion and help hurt some people no questions asked to psyche congress up for passing legislation on this debt thing? I feel like I'm losing my grasp on reality here.
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[Shiren the Launderer]

[Dracko]

Anders Breivik, plagiarist.
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[Mr. Mechanical]

[sawtooth]

[evnvnv]

all of this china fear mongering is enough to make me want to stab a fool
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The text will not live forever. The cup are small

[Dark Age Iron Savior]

[evnvnv]

the political ads posted above. Definitely not referring to anything anyone said in a post here.

I just mean the way it is casually name dropped as the emblem of countries that we owe money to in order to make the entire concept of foreign debt look like a bad idea, building off of the assumption China is bad and scary. Or even worse "...places like China." What do they mean by "places like China"? Just ... foreign countries in general?

I know it is subtle in those ads (more so than in some situations, of course), but for me it isn't any easier to ignore, and is maybe even worse because of how subtly it reinforces the concept that the Chinese are somehow meddling with the American economy.
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The text will not live forever. The cup are small

[This Machine Kills Fascis]

[Mr. Mechanical]

I don't know that they have a position. I mean I guess they do and it could be summed up as "government is bad and spending money on things that don't benefit me is waste". Remember that for the Tea Party types the belief that government can't do anything right is fundamental.

Some good news regarding two high profile whistleblower cases that were being prosecuted by the DOJ, from Greenwald: http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2011/07/30/whistleblowers/index.html
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[Swimmy]

http://www.juliansanchez.com/2011/07/28/madman-theory-2-0/

[Mr. Mechanical]

Nixon's Grand Jury Watergate testimony might get released

Also, researchers expose cunning online tracking service that can't be dodged.

Hulu and Spotify are in cover-your-ass mode now.
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