Obama can't invoke the 14th Amendment of the US Constitution to legitimately prevent default on the US debt, because his corporate puppet-masters are pulling his strings in another direction entirely. :argh: Instead, Obama will do exactly what TPTB demand: facilitate the final and absolute theft of the $2.5 Trillion Social Security surplus while dismantling the rest of the New Deal, and otherwise dragging the US down toward mediocre third-world plutocratic kleptocracy. Sure am glad I campaign...

I sure was thrilled that we had the 'majority' and the Presidency from January 2009 through January 2011. Because that's when we passed single-payer health care & marriage equality, cut back the military industrial complex, strengthened unions via the Employee Free Choice Act, ended the ridiculous War on Drugs, passed a major mass-transit and sustainable-energy oriented jobs bill, repealed the Patriot Act, and otherwise restored the Bill of Rights to its place as the Supreme Law of the Land. O...

The Bill of Rights was written to provide a solid baseline of protections against state intrusions into citizens' lives. Unfortunately, hair-splitting lawyers and state-power rationalizers have been carving away at those protections ever since. And you are just the latest, dude. A keyboard commando applauding the jack-booted thugs. Makes you feel all warm and tingly inside, eh? Pathetic. Let's review: The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against...

You're attempting to legitimize a horrendous Supreme Court decision by saying that three of the horrible 'Justices' supporting it are 'reliably liberal?' FAIL. The War on (some) Drugs is a reactionary and unconstitutional wedge issue, pushed by statist power-grabbers wishing to expand their control over Americans' daily lives in ever-expanded venues and manners. A 'reliable liberal' would not be supporting any aspect of police kicking down doors without a warrant or imminent danger, just becau...

January 16, 2011 Dear Secretary Vilsack: A team of senior plant and animal scientists have recently brought to my attention the discovery of an electron microscopic pathogen that appears to significantly impact the health of plants, animals, and probably human beings. Based on a review of the data, it is widespread, very serious, and is in much higher concentrations in Roundup Ready (RR) soybeans and corn—suggesting a link with the RR gene or more likely the presence of Roundup. This organism...

Ten seconds of Googling reveals this: (Link) which states that: "Golden rice was developed as a fortified food to be used in areas where there is a shortage of dietary vitamin A. In 2005 a new variety called Golden Rice 2 was announced which produces up to 23 times more beta-carotene than the original variety of golden rice. Neither variety is currently available for human consumption." (emphasis mine) So Golden Rice has not yet saved one life or prevented a single case of Vitamin-A-deficie...

For info about White Phosphorus weapons, see: (Link) But you can't live without the nutrient phosphorus. Think back to basic biology: your cells are encased in a phospho-lipid cell membrane, and they function using (and making) Adenosine tri-phosphate. I could go on, but you get the idea. Plants have similar needs, so no phosphorus in the soil = no crops = no us. k&r -app

I have read stories from Mexico (such as: (Link) ) that have described situations where a good person might face 30 or more opponents with bad intent. Preparing for such a contingency may indeed be a reason for a citizen to possess 30-round magazines. Or how about the herdsman whose sheep (or goats or calves) are vulnerable to attack by feral dogs and wild coyotes? Such attacks are woefully common where I live. More herdsmen with AK's & AR's = fewer problems with livestock mortalities. Alter...

Recalling my last reading of the Constitution, I don't remember "overarmed psychotic" anywhere in there. Look, with freedom comes danger. The First Amendment protects the hateful speech that perhaps helped to incite Loughner to violence. But we keep it (basically) intact, because the net good of an open and free exchange of ideas outweighs the bad done by a few nutcases yammering about blahblahblah. The Second Amendment is similar (if yet more regulated: remember that projectiles >.50, st...

I myself am enough of an anti-authoritarian to empathize with the urge to snap up something that may soon be banned. There are many excellent firearms out there (FAL, HK-91, & AK families in rifle calibers; plus Springfield XD, Glock, Browning HP, and CZ pistols for example) whose elegance and technological innovation hinge at least partially on their ability to hold standard-capacity magazines with round counts in the double-digits. No matter how noble the intent to reduce murder & crime (and i...

I watched Keith, Rachel, and then Lawrence straight through. Practically all three of their shows were one long, uninterrupted screed for (anything but) 'sensible' gun control. Plastic guns? Bullet microstamping? Magazine bans? Give me a break! Given the homogeneity and rife errors through the three shows, I'd say that there is some powerful group think going on at MSNBC. My sadness at this tragedy in Arizona will not shake my belief that we citizens will progress best when heeding and protect...

The problem is the 'crazy,' not the Constitution. I'm beginning to worry that in our condemnation of right-wing vitriol and the craziness that it has engendered (both of which need condemnation for sure), some may be tempted to toss-out more of our foundation national document. This would be a mistake. The Constitution does not belong to the right wing; it belongs to all of America. The system of government it designed has worked tolerably well for more than two centuries (with admitted seriou...

Well, we're getting closer to agreement here, though your accusations of disingenuousness are still almost as arrogant as your earlier comments ("Bullshit," plus ragging on people for wearing camo...) I said, "Guns were designed to direct a projectile downrange. What they are aimed at is the user's responsibility. The target could be a piece of paper, a jug of water, or potential food (my region is grossly overpopulated with deer, so many gun-owners actually do much good with their rifles here)...

According to OSHA, an average of 113 youth die in farm accidents per year: (Link) So naturally, I'm sure you have plenty of posts in your journal where you attack this phenomenon and wring your hands over "Farm Culture." And I'm sure that you're against John Deere ball caps and belt buckles for children, right? :sarcasm: But of course those numbers pale in comparison to auto injuries and fatalities. According to the CDC, "In the United States during 2005, 1,335 children ages 14 years and you...

Much as you and other anti's in this thread would like to make this about guns, this senseless death of a child is due to negligence and stupidity of adults at an event. Handing an uzi to an 8 year old boy is no different than inviting him to climb into a running Nascar vehicle and take off on his own down the track: Too much power + Too little training and physical strength = Fail. Real "gun culture," as you like to phrase it, would have started the boy with an air rifle or single-shot .22. An...

Ah yes, the 'private' sphere, where all Constitutional liberties suddenly evaporate. And it's OK, y'know, because being oppressed by corporations is so much better than being oppressed by the gub-mint. :sarcasm: Except that all the airlines are chartered by states, who are equally bound to uphold the Constitution. And just about every airline has been bailed out by tax dollars since 2001. And just about every airport has received public monies for construction, and road access, and much more...

Who charters Google? A state, that's who. And that state is bound by the 4th Amendment, via the incorporation principle of the 14th Amendment. Yet here you are smugly saying that Google can reserve for itself a power not even granted to the state that charters it, and you are double-plus smugly saying that this is NOT ORWELLIAN. Oh no good Hosnon, not Orwellian at all. There's no way that this line of 'reasoning' could possibly end badly, right? We are free. But of course. :sarcasm: -app

Miners continue to be exploited by greedy plutocrats. Massey is among the worst. I have a hard time deciding which I hate more: the surface mines (i.e. - Mountain Top Removal) or the sub-surface mines like Upper Big Branch (these can be somewhat environmentally friendlier, but the risks to workers are so much greater...) Any way you slice it, 'clean coal' is a myth. The citizens of Appalachia deserve better. All DU'ers should support the UMWA, and all unions for that matter. -app

The top 25 teachers in the nation are entrusted with educating the best and brightest minds of America's next generation. Yet, I would be surprised if their collective salaries topped $2 million. The 'top' hedge fund managers do not take home the salaries the do because of some natural law or order of things. They take home such exorbitant amounts of cash because the past 50 years of American economics have privileged the FIRE/fake-economy (Finance, Insurance, and Real Estate) over any producti...

While I in no way want to minimize the pain and suffering experienced by the victims of priest-pedophilia, I think that it's long past time to consider the whole Catholic approach to sexuality. It's ALL abusive. Catholicism continues to preach that sexuality is 'impure,' 'sinful,' and basically only tolerable within the confines of a marriage and for the express purpose of procreation. Developing a healthy approach to sexuality is very difficult, if not impossible, within this framework. Catholi...

I am sure that Bart Stupak would say that the life of the fetus trumps a woman's right to choose. Michael countered that notion with a (glib but effective) counter argument: "if you are against abortions, don't have one." But when it comes to the Second Amendment, he seems perfectly comfortable with the government throwing up arbitrary and capricious regulations that impede the legitimate exercise of a fundamental Constitutional right. If Moore chooses to sneer at the NRA, that's his choice. ...

Last night, when watching the 3/10 interview of Michael Moore on the Rachel Maddow Show, I got really bothered by his blatant hypocrisy regarding the 2nd Amendment. I thought about putting up an OP about it in GD, to get a discussion going about how we Democrats seem to be almost as bad as Republicans when it comes to selectively standing up for the Constitution. But instead, I found a GD discussion of the interview, and posted some thoughts there. I'm adding them here in the Gungeon as well, to...

I feel fortunate to be doing a little better than absolutely flat broke. In my case, I have to be careful what I spend, and still I might be two paychecks away from poverty and foreclosure at best. That's with no kids and few luxuries. Not a particularly comfortable situation for someone in his thirties, but is anyone other than the top elite really comfortable these days? Regardless of where we each are at financially, the point of my post above is that collective and policy-oriented action is...

I am not disputing the fact that personal choice maters, but instead I will argue with your assertion that, "if people hadn't been so interested in saving a nickel by going to Wal-Mart, they would not have urged their suppliers to move all the manufacturing jobs overseas and we wouldn't be facing 15% unemployment." The drive to outsource began long before Wal Mart, though the bastard Waltons certainly accelerated and worsened the situation considerably. But the roots of the problems we now face...

I supported the President during the campaign, based upon what he was telling us then. But oh-so-shortly-after-the-inauguration,Obama showed his true colors by picking Geithner, Summers, and for that matter, Rahmbo. Matter of fact, most of these folks were part of the Obama team even before the inauguration. But progressives were told to wait and be patient, or, like Van Jones, sent packing prematurely. The moves that the President and his team made early in his tenure and during the Stimulus ...

:argh: -app

I have tossed a few PLA plastics into my home compost pile just to see how they fare: I'll know more next year. But a low-water, low-energy formulation of bioplastic made from lignocellulose that will definitely degrade at ambient temperatures and conditions sounds even beter. Might be helpful in ameliorating our litter problems too. I hope for a day when all packaging and disposable products are either (1) 100% biodegradable OR (2) sold with enough of a deposit on them that they are returned t...

Sly brought so much joy to this world via his music. Managers should have conducted themselves more honorably. Funny how a musician is expected by some (not you Yurovsky, but a few on this thread) to be a vigilant lawyer-like manager of his own financial affairs above and beyond his creative energies. Imagine if we demanded that the bean-counters and hype-mongers in management compose a brilliant song before they could keep any of their earnings. F'n management vultures would starve to death...

Edwards was useless as a Senator ('Senator Gone,' author of the IWR and the PATRIOT Act, supporter of the drug war, two-faced-slick-&-greasy-smarm-monger), useless as a VP candidate (sulked through the campaign at having to play 2nd fiddle to Kerry, couldn't debate Cheney worth a darn, failed to call-out election fraud in Ohio despite his much-vaunted lawyerly 'skills') and useless as a presidential candidate (used New Orleans as a prop, talked a line about poverty but had done nothing to fight ...

Taking away reproductive freedoms from tax-paying, Insurance-exchange-(or whatever)-participating, American women must be struck from ANY Democratic-passed HCR legislation during the conference committee at the latest. The Stupak Amendment is inexcusable, and the Democratic Party platform is too clear on matters of choice to do any otherwise: "Reproductive Health Care We oppose the current Administration’s consistent attempts to undermine a woman’s ability to make her own life choices and obtai...