I dunno a pretty big downside is having these guys hound you. I've got a pretty common name, I get calls all the time from debt collectors using automated systems to confirm I am who they think I am. An answering machine answering the phone is usually enough to confirm their questions because it goes something like "If you are not First M. Lastname, please hang up now." So.....stupid answering machine and voicemail don't hang up....and now you are First M. Lastname to them. And they call relentlessly until you talk to them. And they want information about you to prove you are not this person, because at this point your word is not good enough.

I've heard them using automated callers are against the law, but their callbacks numbers are bogus most times and they leave no information as to what company is calling when the automated caller dials.

So presumably this company could have determined I was First M. Lastname, sent a fake sheriff to my house and summoned me to fake court...and not even be harassing the right person.

Which is why the laws exist and in my opinion should be more stringent. Because Im tired of the MFers calling me every few months again to confirm I am First M. Lastname. If I knew how to get some money from them for the annoyance without it costing me more to run them down I'd probably do it.

Meanwhile debtor has probably declared bankruptcy and is clear of the debt....I still get the phone calls. Awesome setup.

I hate tipping, Sure I'll tip if it's called for.
Tipping is a great way of rewarding those who go above and beyond.

But I think the US system is broken and needs fixing of some kind.
When the system is built so that the waiter/waitress gets paid the lowest wage possible by the employer and the customer is forced to tip whether they deserve it or not to offset the lack of wages, there is a major problem. That's called a surcharge, not a tip.

I don't know what this guy is proposing, there is no information in this video. It's all subjective on the peoples reactions not what they are reacting to because he never mentions wage reduction in the clip.

Maybe instead of sowing decent, someone needs to sit down and talk to this guy, maybe he has some real ideas. And maybe he doesn't, because like I said, we don't really get a chance to listen to him.

I'd agree with this, if BP were making it possible. They were withholding the numbers, giving lowball estimates of how much oil was pumping out of the break. They began dumping chemicals into the oil to disperse it to the bottom of the ocean, but that just made the problem worse. When they were told to stop, they continued, and as far as I know they are still dumping chemicals into the water today. These are the same chemicals used in the Exxon spill where workers got sick, and there has never been much looking into it because back them Exxon withheld the information on the chemicals used in making these concoctions. So, now BP is using the same or similar mix of chemicals with no idea how if they were the very thing that caused all those workers to get "the crud" and all the cancers that came about from exposure 10 years down the line.

As said before BP is withholding respirators from clean up workers, even though by accounts they have enough to outfit nearly everyone provided by aid agencies (but controlled by BP). They are letting people go out into these environments where the EPA is saying the level of chemicals in the air alone is dangerous, and people are already beginning to show signs of health impact from being out on the water running boats and ships without the proper gear that BP holds distribution control over.

The crops in the area are beginning to develop spots and wilt from the chemicals raining down on them. There is no official statement on this yet from BP or the government. I have seen no information on how you could even volunteer to help down there, or how you could apply to be compensated for expenses to bring machinery or operators down to run machinery to help in the clean up. It's been 2 months, there are hundreds if not thousands of miles of beach that need to be cleaned up. There miles and miles of ocean to clean up. There is just no possible way they have the man power, machinery needed, and organization needed to make any of this happen without an open exchange of information.

I think the general thinking here is that once they cap the well, or at least stop the spillage via relief well...that the trouble will be over. At least in the eyes of government and BP. But that will just be the beginning of the shit storm they have unleashed and because they delayed information and didn't prepare for something like this to happen or for it to continue happening....we can not reasonably clean it up now. The oil itself will be coming back to haunt us for decades, and the chemicals they dumped into it? Who knows, the scientists who could possibly look into it are employed by BP because BP won't release the information to others. And BP has demonstrated a complete lack of being able to deal with this situation, if this is the best they have to offer. A situation where volunteers are ALREADY becoming sick, crops are sick, and the clean up technologies are not installed, maintained, or monitored properly.

I wish I could remember the video off the top of my head but there was a Rachel Maddows video where she said the oil companies said they could deal with a spill 2 or 3 times as big as this one easily. If this is "dealing with it"......I am not sure why BP is left in charge. Them paying 20 billion dollars and a few million a day for clean up is something they have to bear, and in any reasonable world they should have to bear all costs that the oil spill has caused. If it puts them out of business? Cautionary tale to the rest of the oil industry who make hundreds of billions in profits each year. Invest into research and bettering technology, don't operate in unsafe conditions, be prepared for problems, if you can't handle certain problems...don't tell the government you can just so you can drill.

Costner's water/oil centrifuge machine? He couldn't get oil companies or governments regulating oil companies to even take them for free on a trial basis when they had minor spills. And now that a major spill has happened, when they could have implemented them from the beginning if they had researched and tested them prior...they had to test them DURING the crisis and order more (which I doubt they ordered enough).

Relief well waiting in the wings? Other areas of the world require oil companies to do this. Perhaps they should have insisted on having relief wells to the government, perhaps the government should have made them do it. Either way, paying off your regulation body and running fast and loose with your company for high profits does not absolve you when something goes wrong.

Imagine if another well on any other coast line in the US or neighboring nations were to catastrophically fail right now, or even in 2 years. With this one fresh in the public's mind...do you think they would tolerate misinformation, delays, and mysterious chemicals being dumped into the water again? They shouldn't have to tolerate it in the first place because doing so creates a problem no one but BP can attempt to solve because no one but BP has the numbers. And no one but BP can visit the site without BPs permission, which they are not going to allow because they are intentionally withholding the information..............to keep their stock prices up.


>> ^Mcboinkens:

I am as pissed about this as anyone else, but can we stop and think for a minute? The Deep Water Horizon spill was largely caused by mechanical failure. Sure, a few people gave orders to pick up the pace. But what were they supposed to say? Slow down, everybody! We don't like being productive! Everyone's company is like that, time is money. Some of the people(even here on the Sift) want to take down BP as a whole. That would result in hundreds of thousands of job losses, all because of a few people at the company. Imagine you are at work, and someone from your same company that you don't even know screwed up something. Now your company goes under and you lose your job. You had nothing to do with it, but now you are unemployed. That would be the case for almost all of the workers at BP. Even the people directly involved could not really have done anything different, since it was such a freak accident. They set aside $20,000,000,000 for recovery and lawsuits, plus the millions of dollars each day for the actual clean-up. They screwed up, big. But now the nation has its top scientists and engineers trying to clean it up, and I hope for all of us that they find a way to clean it up.

/\ Well, no one did that. Its lies and propaganda. He was thrown onto the lower deck according to the full video (and papers like the LA Times http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-israel-clash-20100601,0,5498294,full.story ).

"At least one soldier was thrown from the top deck of the boat to the lower deck by activists, according the commando and video released by the military. Some soldiers jumped into the water to escape, the commando said."

Keep in mind this is released by Israeli authorities to bolster their PR positions while they hold all the confiscated footage and the hundreds of members of the flotilla. Kidnapping. Where is the film of them killing civillians? They jammed all communications to prevent an alternative narrative getting out, and again from theb LA Times:

"After the raid, Israel's navy escorted the six vessels in the flotilla to the Israeli port of Ashdod, where the government had set up tents to accommodate the activists. Protesters were offered the choice of flying home immediately or facing arrest and imprisonment. By Monday evening, most were opting to be arrested, officials said, with as many as 600 activists from 40 nations still being held.

The Israeli military did not permit any of the detained passengers to speak to reporters or communicate with family members. The passengers include members of the European Parliament, journalists and artists.

No information had been released about the identities of those killed. Several dozen activists were being treated in Israeli hospitals."

Have to say I'm glad to see pirates/kidnappers getting the same treatment they've inflicted on others.

Edit: I regret upvoting this

was the officer justified?
uh....no.
even when you take in all the factors.
what could possibly be the deciding one?
1.the man was riding a harley so therefore must be in a biker gang.possibly the "outlaws"?
2.the man was physically imposing and he wore a threatening and scary bandana.
3.before i pulled the young man over he had gone really really fast and his motorbike made loud noises which frightened me.
i mean really..WHAT was going through this cops mind at that time.

so as we watch this officer attempt to evade any responsibility let us be frank..and clear.
my opinion may be based on little or no information and just by what i have seen here..
let me add my two cents anyways.
this cop over-reacted.
he did the same thing i am doing here...assumed much on little or no evidence and he reacted..poorly.
what i find most offensive is the weaseling.
weasel out of accepting the fact you made a poor snap judgment and a young mans life is transformed forever.
weasel out of accepting responsibility for your snap judgment which will most likely manifest in the form of denigrating the young man.a common tactic to discredit the victim in order to avoid any responsibility.
this..in my opinion is the weakest and lowest of all human behavior.
stand up and be a man.admit to the family that you made a mistake and you are sorry and will do whatever is in your ability to make it right.
accept the responsibility you fucking snivel nosed coward.

I feel I must inform you that, "Oh yeah - well - uh - you suck HA" is not a valid argument. You ask. I supply. You may not like the facts, but you have as yet supplied no information to dispute them. Wait - let me guess... These results are invalid, but the Media Matters poll talking about "What Republicans Believe" is OK, right?

Cop: "I want to know who's running these things."

Rougy: "Then check out their licenses and talk to them."

Cop: "No gun? No boom boom?"

Rougy: "Nope. This is legal now so investigate it as you would any business."

Cop: "No wiretaps? No informants? No tazers?"

Rougy: "Nope."

Cop: "Awwww! That's no fun!"

>> ^enoch:

nice friends she has there.
"hey..here is a good idea.sally is starting to loop into a bad trip.let's put her in a confined area with crappy music and leave her alone".
great work retards.
here is what i think based on almost no information,but i'll take a swipe anyways.
something happened while this girl was starting to peak.maybe it was intentional by some douchebag or her mind perceived something in the wrong context and it kicked her mind into a loop.(think a scratched cd skipping).
the worst and LAST thing you ever want to do with a friend in that situation is to leave them ALONE with their own mind.
you get that person,as gently and calmly,to another location with different scenery and different sounds.
talk that person down..
no..you are not having a heart attack it is in your head.
no..your face is the same as it was an hour ago and is not peeling off.look in the mirror? see?
mirrors are $$$ btw in this situation but only after you have calmed the person down.they will just trip out on themselves for hours.
a calm voice and sincere compassion can go a long ways in helping someone steer clear,or out of,a bad trip.
there are also times when you are too late and the person is in a full blown psychotic break.
in that case all you can do is stay close,keep watch and many times just hold them and tell them it will be ok,even if they dont recognize you.
my sons are grown and since they are MY sons i hold no illusions that they will not(and already have in some instances) experiment with hallucinagens.my advice has always been the same:
KNOW WHAT THE FUCK YOU ARE PUTTING IN YOUR BODY.
because by what i have seen evidenced here is that these retards couldn't find there way out of a paper bag with a flame thrower.
they have done their friend a huge disservice by their ignorance.
not the first time i have seen it though.
i kinda feel sorry for that poor girl.
eight hours of the same thing playing over and over and over.
whatever mind-altering perception she could have experienced is toast due to friends being retarded.
fucking ass-wipes,may they lick the balls of a syphillis infected rhinocerous.


My sentiments as well, avoid the loops through proper psycho-navigation-some folks do this naturally, others need the coach-once your are in familiar territory, things are fine.....sometimes! Whoa, ok, not always that predictable....when in doubt, curl up in dark ball....mmmmmmmmmmmmm dark ball!

nice friends she has there.
"hey..here is a good idea.sally is starting to loop into a bad trip.let's put her in a confined area with crappy music and leave her alone".
great work retards.

here is what i think based on almost no information,but i'll take a swipe anyways.
something happened while this girl was starting to peak.maybe it was intentional by some douchebag or her mind perceived something in the wrong context and it kicked her mind into a loop.(think a scratched cd skipping).
the worst and LAST thing you ever want to do with a friend in that situation is to leave them ALONE with their own mind.
you get that person,as gently and calmly,to another location with different scenery and different sounds.
talk that person down..
no..you are not having a heart attack it is in your head.
no..your face is the same as it was an hour ago and is not peeling off.look in the mirror? see?
mirrors are $$$ btw in this situation but only after you have calmed the person down.they will just trip out on themselves for hours.
a calm voice and sincere compassion can go a long ways in helping someone steer clear,or out of,a bad trip.
there are also times when you are too late and the person is in a full blown psychotic break.
in that case all you can do is stay close,keep watch and many times just hold them and tell them it will be ok,even if they dont recognize you.

my sons are grown and since they are MY sons i hold no illusions that they will not(and already have in some instances) experiment with hallucinagens.my advice has always been the same:
KNOW WHAT THE FUCK YOU ARE PUTTING IN YOUR BODY.
because by what i have seen evidenced here is that these retards couldn't find there way out of a paper bag with a flame thrower.
they have done their friend a huge disservice by their ignorance.
not the first time i have seen it though.
i kinda feel sorry for that poor girl.
eight hours of the same thing playing over and over and over.
whatever mind-altering perception she could have experienced is toast due to friends being retarded.
fucking ass-wipes,may they lick the balls of a syphillis infected rhinocerous.

@Porksandwich

and upon what grounds do you base your accusation?

There's a saying, "Innocent until proven guilty."

We know he got in the tub, that he's guilty of.
Everything else, we have little to no information about. You can't just fill in the blanks with your own ideas, if you could that would be the most corrupt system of law imaginable. Yes, he's an ass for being in the tub with her, we've established that.

Questions we have no idea about:
Who was in the tub first?
Were they talking before getting into the tub?
Did they both agree to get in at the same time?
Were they alone, or at some party?
Had they been alone, how'd he get her there in the first place?
If they were at a party, who let a 15 year old girl in?
If they were at a party, what were her intentions upon showing up?
Did they start off naked in the tub?
If yes OR no, whose idea was it to be naked?
Who got out of the tub first?

Again, you're saying things like "So either they got interrupted or the girl cut it short" but you don't know that. For all we know his concience got the better of him and he got out first.

I think this man is a total ass for doing anything with the girl in the first place.. but for all we know, the entire thing could have been her doing, and I don't think everybody should be taking sides. Both parties could be to blame.

[edit] and one last thing, because you edited your original comment and added two paragraphs as I was typing mine. You say that if he hadn't attained his wealth and power, that he wouldn't be able to 'Get away' with what's going on, so to speak. You seem to be forgetting the part about her only approaching him for money when he started to run for congress. The only time she ever wanted to see him again for ANYTHING was when she would be able to get something out of it.

So, on the flip side, if he had never run for congress, she may never even have come forth, and the situation would still but long forgotten. Does that make it right? No, but he would still have 'Got away' with it, even if he wasn't a congressman.

Context via Neatorama!

The man singing is Edward Hill, also known as Eduard Khil’, or, better yet, [Cyrillic redacted -- ed.]. According to his Russian Wikipedia page, Hill was born in Smolensk in 1934, and finished his studies at the Leningrad Conservatory in 1960. By 1974 he had been named a People’s Artist of the USSR, and in 1981 he was awarded the Order of the Friendship of Peoples. He is best known for his interpretations of the songs of the Soviet composer, Arkadii Ostrovskii. As for the peculiar name, I could find no information, but imagine that he is descended from the English elite that had established itself in western Russian cities by the 17th century. He is not a defector of the Lee Harvey Oswald generation. He is entirely Russian.

The song he is interpreting, “I Am So Happy to Finally Be Back Home,” is an Ostrovskii composition, and it is meant to be sung in the vokaliz style, that is to say sung, but without words. I have seen a number of comments online, ever since a flurry of interest in Hill began just a few days ago, to the effect that this routine must have been meant as a critique of Soviet censorship, but in fact vokaliz was a well established genre, one that seems close in certain respects to pantomime.

Context via Neatorama!

The man singing is Edward Hill, also known as Eduard Khil’, or, better yet, [Cyrillic redacted -- ed.]. According to his Russian Wikipedia page, Hill was born in Smolensk in 1934, and finished his studies at the Leningrad Conservatory in 1960. By 1974 he had been named a People’s Artist of the USSR, and in 1981 he was awarded the Order of the Friendship of Peoples. He is best known for his interpretations of the songs of the Soviet composer, Arkadii Ostrovskii. As for the peculiar name, I could find no information, but imagine that he is descended from the English elite that had established itself in western Russian cities by the 17th century. He is not a defector of the Lee Harvey Oswald generation. He is entirely Russian.

The song he is interpreting, “I Am So Happy to Finally Be Back Home,” is an Ostrovskii composition, and it is meant to be sung in the vokaliz style, that is to say sung, but without words. I have seen a number of comments online, ever since a flurry of interest in Hill began just a few days ago, to the effect that this routine must have been meant as a critique of Soviet censorship, but in fact vokaliz was a well established genre, one that seems close in certain respects to pantomime.

>> ^MaxWilder:
I don't want to come down on the side of the tea baggers... IMHO, they are brainwashed racists, and they deserve no respect. But on the other hand, I can find no information describing how 95% of Americans got tax cuts. If anybody has a link for that please let me know.


IMHO, they are brainwashed racists, and they deserve no respect.

Yawn... business as usual. IMHO, all signs are that progressives will lose congress and the presidency by 2016... being successful leaders means leading all of society.

Maher didn't say that 95% of Americans got tax cuts.
Note that he said specifically, "For 95% of working families, taxes have gone down."
Obama also used the "working families" qualifier in his January 27th State of the Union speech, when he said, "We cut taxes. We cut taxes for 95 percent of working families."

So while a bit of a rhetorical sleight of hand, apparently it is more or less a correct statement.

www.politifact.com/truth-o-
meter/statements/2010/jan/28/barack-obama/tax-cut-95-percent-stimulus-made-it-so>> ^MaxWilder:
I don't want to come down on the side of the tea baggers... IMHO, they are brainwashed racists, and they deserve no respect. But on the other hand, I can find no information describing how 95% of Americans got tax cuts. If anybody has a link for that please let me know.

I don't want to come down on the side of the tea baggers... IMHO, they are brainwashed racists, and they deserve no respect. But on the other hand, I can find no information describing how 95% of Americans got tax cuts. If anybody has a link for that please let me know.