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oh for god's sake, please don't tell me MCA died last week.... :'(

shit.... just looked it up.

What part of Adam dying at 47 while Cheney is still kicking at 71 is in any way sensible or moral. wtf universe?!?!

@renatojj

Politicians don't have their hands all over businesses, it's the opposite. Businesses have their hands in the strings that direct the politicians. Which means politicians are not serving society, but serving businesses. There are many examples of things happening that you know are wrong and can see are wrong, but nothing ever happens...why? Because businesses are either making money on them or mitigating money loss by it happening.

Look at nuclear power regulations, they have been loosened and the inspectors are actually limited in what they can inspect so much so that they don't actually see more than 5 or 10% of the workings of a nuclear plant. How can they say something is safe if they see less than 10% of it and those 10% don't even allow them to do tests they used to do?

Oil company regulation, why did the BP oil spill happen? It was because they are not held to standards damn near every other country on the planet holds them to. And when you see more into it, many times the oil inspection agents were going to work for the oil company when they retired. And yet they rarely busted their balls on questionable things and got caught with their pants down many times with not catching violations.....so they probably weren't hired for their inside knowledge on how to best keep the existing equipment up to standards....since they aren't being held to them.


And as for the last post you made...you can't just drop regulation on all of these things. There's countless reasons for it but I'll try to list a few.

1) They basically hold a monopoly in many industries or a small number of very large companies that end up basically being a monopoly, so there would be no counter balance of a free market because the market has never been free to begin with. If it were truly free there'd be 100/1000/10000/100k/1mil businesses in these industries all competing on either features or price because they should all be about as reliable as one another...since we always have to picture the "perfect" free market. I'll bet you can name a couple people who have shit internet service pretty easy or pay a lot for very little.

2) You are putting the policing of industries in the industry hands if you dial back regulation. They already can not regulate themselves. How many companies supported SOPA and now how many more support CISPA? They do what's best for them and they do it cooperatively not independently. That's why you have groups formed of these companies putting bills forward that are basically passed nearly word for word if edited at all by congress critters.

3) We hear all the time about businesses only responsibility is to make money. We don't even hold a person to that standard, an individual has more responsibilities than that...earning a living is probably in the top ten but it's not your sole major responsibility as a member of society. Number 1 could arguably be "obey the law" or "don't be a dick". Business number 1 should probably be don't negatively impact people as your business model....this could be not polluting, keeping a safe work environment, not overworking people, making underhanded deals in the name of profit, making deals you know you will back out of or have no intention to honor, etc. Yes shit happens, but you shouldn't make your business model based on making shit happen to profit. Banks and financial institutes arguably did this with bad mortgages and false rating of these mortgages when selling them.

@messenger

It's not just bribing politicians, but businesses openly courting people for employment after their term of service or the people regulating them. It makes it more profitable to be lenient and not enforce regulations or laws on companies when you'll be making 3x your salary when you go to work for them after kissing their ass for a decade or two. Both the bribes and the business tie ins with Haliburton made the early days of the current war seem pretty shady when you look specifically at Dick Cheney. But it happens with advisors to people in office as well, it's something that really should be stopped because government should be about public service and not service with the intention of landing a sweet gig at some company you helped make a few billion dollars for awhile a public servant.

You can't stop it entirely, but there should definitely be some lawful punishments put in place to make it have to cost the companies exorbitant amounts to court people to court them with the severe punishments placed on people who stray too far from the path. Like prison terms or fines to the tune of percentages of their life savings and 25% of a company's value if they are caught. Unfortunately, the people who would put forth these laws are the same people who would be directly affected by them....because they are all business owners anymore...it costs too much money to get into office and rich people are the only people who tend to have the wealth/power to pull it off.

So......regulations on companies it the best you can hope for, make it so politicians can't offer them anything worth the huge donations they make to these people because regulations would make the attempts worthless, unless of course it was deregulation. Which they've already done and continue to do, to the detriment of all. Profits are up for all the big companies sometimes higher than pre-crash, and yet they employ less people than they did 5 years ago. How are they pulling THAT off....they are cutting corners or doing something shady somewhere to keep earning like that despite being less capable of producing like they did prior when a lot more people had disposable income.

Meanwhile from the news crawl:

"Dick Cheney released from hospital" (TRAILER HOMES DESTROYED!)
"Same-sex couples file suit against Defense of Marriage act" (RVs RIPPED APART!)
"Image of NYC terror threat prompts probe" (YOU CAN SEE THE ROTATION!)
"Most police track phones' locations without warrants" (NO TRACTORS ATTACHED TO THEM!)
"World Trade Centre nears landmark height, reaches 100 floors" (SMALLISH TORNADO!)
"Urban archeologist uncover history beneath streets" (JUST PICKED THOSE THINGS UP!)
"Police: California shooting suspect shows no remorse" (NOTHING TO GET IN THEIR WAY!)
"New York plans to ban words from standardized tests" (15,000 POUNDS EMPTY!)
"Critics: NYPD's 'stop, question and frisk' policy is racial profiling" (IMAGINE THE POTENTIAL!)
"Analysis of video, audio could support both sides of Martin case" (KNOCKING ON DOORS!)
"Body of missing barista believed found in Alaska" (LOOK AT THOSE CARS!)

So I click play and see all hell breaking loose....and notice the news ticker at the bottom "BREAKING NEWS: Dick Cheney Released From Hospital".

Coincidence?

Nope.

What the fuck is it with these republicans - Bush & Cheney get a swift pass on war-crimes like waterboarding untrialled detainees. & Clinton is impeached for a blowjob - And Obama's really a secret Muslim. WTF REPUBLICANS.

I really can't wait till the whole facts are out for this case. Because it me it seems like either the facts keep changing OR everyone is injecting their own spin into this. Unfortunately as this seems to be growing more and more convoluted and with more and more conflicting statements I bet this will never be resolved properly.

Was Zimmerman overzealous for stalking this kid? Yeah. He should have just called the cops and let it be.

Does that give Martin the right to start beating the crap out of Zimmerman? No.

If Martin was on top of him pounding the shit out of him and not stopping? Yeah I'd shoot too because I'd be afraid of blacking out and this guy murdering me while I'm unconscious.

It's funny in my day to day life everyone considers me a liberal or at least a left leaning moderate. But here on the sift I must seem like Dick Cheney's hunting parnter! (the ones that didn't get shot obviously)

Your video, Man Sues Secret Service (Arrested After Insulting Cheney), has made it into the Top 15 New Videos listing. Congratulations on your achievement. For your contribution you have been awarded 1 Power Point.

In reply to this comment by Boise_Lib:
Thanks. Is it springtime up north yet?
Flowers are coming out already down here.
In reply to this comment by deathcow:
*promote



It feels real Springy for sure. I've still got about 3 ft of snow to melt though before I can check for flowers!

Canada threatens Dick Cheney's personal safety? Sounds like paradise! Glad I'm moving there now

Let's give Tucker everything he wants- tanks, planes, submarines- whatever he thinks he needs, then send him, and him alone, into Iran to accomplish his goal.

Maybe the other cowardly chickenhawks like W, Cheney, Fromme, Quantummushroom and the like can go as well, but only the true believers. The rest of humanity gets to sit this one out.

He looks like the cool black sheep of the Cheney family.

>> ^Kalle:

>> ^Pprt:
Congratulations China on discovering that if you have lots of sex your population can triple in 50 years.
Thanks for providing the cheap uneducated labourers needed to keep our first-world economies rolling.
Don't worry. Once we decide we've used you up, we'll send you a thank you card stapled to some UN food packets. Yeah, but only after we pull our engineers and high-technology from your greasy fingers. While we're at it... we'll ship you back all those spies you've sent abroad free of charge.
Thanks for playing, enjoy those Big Macs while you can!

Thank you for this lesson Mr Cheney..


I think we just found the new republican front runner..

>> ^cosmovitelli:

I read your stuff Yogi!
FWIW Involving the US in Iran, Iraq and Afghanistan is all about money and power. Oil, minerals, rate earth shit etc etc.
In Iran they got rid of a benevolent democratically elected progressive who tried to return the oil wealth of the country to its people and replaced him with a foreign sponsored greedy foolish puppet.
When it swung back the other way the clerics took over. Doh!
They used Afghanistan as a proxy war with the soviets, training the mujahideen / aka Taliban fighters in improvised explosives, insurgency warfare and basically how to fuck up a mechanised invading army. Then they invaded. Doh!
In Iraq they supported Saddam despite his demented paranoid savagery until the Iraqi oilfields became too tasty to ignore.
Duck Cheney said it couldn't be done:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BEsZMvrq-I&sns=em
But they upped his end via massive Haliburton projects and installed a puppet moron to keep blaming Iraq for the Saudi attacks on 9/11.
Then they invaded, killing thousands of civilians, and dismantled the police and social services while fucking up the food and water supply. Just for good measure they disbanded the army and sent 375,000 heavily armed young men off to find food for their own families. Doh!
Never mind about panama, chile, Vietnam, Cuba, Russia, Pakistan etc etc.


I'd pretty much agree with your facts. I'm a little less sure on your point.

America helped train and support the Islamic fighter in Afghanistan to chase out the Soviets. America supported Saddam while he was using chemical weapons against Iran and even Iraqi Kurds. America propped up a strong man of their choosing in Iran which backfired and led to the current theocracy.

You needn't look far or very hard to find examples where almost any and every nation has selfishly done very bad things, or things with terrible consequences. America, Russia and China being such large nations, the examples for them are much bigger and numerous. It makes for great propaganda, and all 3 continually make heavy use of it to tarnish each other. America is characterized by the genocide of native americans and Vietnam, Russia by Stalin and China by Mao. It's great propaganda, but it's not insightful or helpful analysis.

Pretend you get be President when Bush Jr. was president. America's narrow self interests are being threatened by terrorism. Bin Laden has extremely close ties with Islamists not only in Afghanistan, but throughout nuclear armed Pakistan. AQ Khan, the father of Pakistan's nuclear program, is going around selling nuclear secrets and equipment to the highest bidder. That's an uncomfortably short path from Pakistan's nuclear arsenal to the hands of a very credible terrorist network. Do you demand Pakistan break it's ties with the Taliban, or just let it slide? Do you demand the Afghan Taliban break ties with Al Qaeda, or just let it slide? I think selfish American interest DID dictate making those two demands, and being willing to launch a war if they were refused.

I think that is a strong argument that the Afghan war was indeed a good thing from the perspective of America's narrow self-interest.

What about the Afghan people though? Their self interest depends on what the end game is, and nobody can predict that. What we DO know is that the formerly ruling Taliban hated women's rights, and we fought against them. What we DO know is that the formerly ruling Taliban burnt off more of Afghanistan's vineyards than even the Russians had, because making wine was anathema to their cult. What we DO know is that the Taliban was one of the most brutal, backwards and hateful organizations around.

I can not say that the Afghan war ensured a better future for Afghanistan's people. What I CAN say is that leaving the Taliban in power in Afghanistan ensured a dark, bleak and miserable future for Afghanistan's people. I would modestly propose that a chance at something better was a good thing.

I read your stuff Yogi!

FWIW Involving the US in Iran, Iraq and Afghanistan is all about money and power. Oil, minerals, rate earth shit etc etc.

In Iran they got rid of a benevolent democratically elected progressive who tried to return the oil wealth of the country to its people and replaced him with a foreign sponsored greedy foolish puppet.
When it swung back the other way the clerics took over. Doh!

They used Afghanistan as a proxy war with the soviets, training the mujahideen / aka Taliban fighters in improvised explosives, insurgency warfare and basically how to fuck up a mechanised invading army. Then they invaded. Doh!

In Iraq they supported Saddam despite his demented paranoid savagery until the Iraqi oilfields became too tasty to ignore.

Duck Cheney said it couldn't be done:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BEsZMvrq-I&sns=em

But they upped his end via massive Haliburton projects and installed a puppet moron to keep blaming Iraq for the Saudi attacks on 9/11.
Then they invaded, killing thousands of civilians, and dismantled the police and social services while fucking up the food and water supply. Just for good measure they disbanded the army and sent 375,000 heavily armed young men off to find food for their own families. Doh!

Never mind about panama, chile, Vietnam, Cuba, Russia, Pakistan etc etc.