Politics

Conserving energy. Driving less. Turning off your computer. What are you doing to help slow global warming?

Here are the official results. Of 25 districts, with #2,#3 unreported and #13 too close to call its: 18 Republicans 4 Democrats 3 Unknown Does this strike anyone else as funny in a state that was a swing state in 2000 and 2004, with the rest of the country going Democratic?

http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/United_States_Democrats_win_House_majority It seems that the Democrats have taken the House of Representatives, and maybe the Senate. In my district the incumbent won, Democrat Jim Matheson. I voted for him, my parents voted against him . Yes, a democrat in Utah; crazy but true. Anyway, it will be interesting to see what changes.

One of the first promises that Democrats are making after winning control of the US legislature is lower interest rates on student loans. This is actually one of those rare areas where everyone in politics *should* agree that the current system (as more-or-less instigated by the Clinton administration) has been working very well, and is ripe for a rejuvenation following spiking interest rates and deliberate inattention from the Bush administration. While this is generally good news, there is some cause for concern that Democrats might upset the apple cart if they're not careful. If they bend over backwards they may upset the delicate balance between profit motive an…

Can be anything you like! Just be aware that what you list as extremism may say more about you than it does about the extremists you're trying to out! --------- Here are a few to start us off: You may be an extremist if... - You think everything Bush does is wrong - You think everything Bush does is right - You think everything liberals do is wrong - You think everything conservatives do is wrong - You think Michael Moore accurately reports the truth - You think Rush Limbaugh accurately reports the truth - You think Cindy Sheehan's rants about America make a lot of sense - You don't think Cindy Sheehan should be allowed to protest at all - You …

As usual, Bush waited until the Hurricane came and went before doing anything. Democracy in action I guess.

I didn't hear any of this on the radio but I read about it online. Apparently Rush Limbaugh went on some sort of diatribe about Michael J. Fox on Monday, basically alleging that he was faking his Parkinsons for political reasons. Article in the Washington Post At first I found this abhorrent, but then I read that apparently Fox has admitted that he has deliberately refrained taking his Parkinsons medication before making political appearances. He says he does that in order to show what the symptoms look like. I can see how Fox might have a legitimate reason to do that when it comes to, for example, testifying before Congress about stem cell research, so …

Have they finally turned outright partisan? Or do you buy the justification here:

im intruigued: given that it's unique and odd, and in the middle of forming/growing, why we dont get more discussion on the eu in here? i'd have thought it'd be an interesting conversational piece. so... the eu, discuss, i guess. btw, to get the ball rolling, and another reason i find the lack of interest odd: if all the member states of the eu are combined (as may possibly be the case in the future) and compared to the us, the eu has a better economy and greater spending power, better relations with the rest of the world, and, i suspect, a more powerful army and better R&D base. so, if the eu becomes a fully-fledged supernation, would it not displace the us …

No, I haven't seen it. Yes, I know there's already a (completely speculative) topic about it. But I just saw a short review of it that I thought was interesting, by Scott Tobias, that maybe answers some of the questions we had back then.

Oh noooooos! t3h crazy vegan has started a thread on how great it is to be craaaaaazy! I dont usually start theads like this, but I thought it was in the interest of all the pet owners on this forum: Iams breeds dogs and cats for testing their petfood, and their tests consists of forcefeeding dogs to the point of sickness and death, the animals are treated without any respect from the animal handlers, dogs are trapped in cages and neglected to the point that they display stereotypical behavior for hours on end. The cages in particular are small and have nothing to stimulate the animals, the cage bottoms are lined bars spaced too far apart for the animals to stand …

http://www.nature.com/news/2006/061023/full/061023-10.html Does rule by non-scientific thinkers lead to the persecution of scientists on the basis of specious reasoning?

New Jersey's highest court today approved marriage benefits to same-sex couples, leaving it up to the state to decide whether to call it "marriage" or something else along the lines of "civil union". What's interesting about this to me at the moment is the timing. One of the reasons why Republicans are so concerned at the moment is the perception that social conservatives are feeling ignored by a President and congress they had pinned high hopes on. Many political observers have been saying that these folks will stay home (or actually vote Democrat, especially in light of the Mark Foley scandal). This sort of thing may well re-energize the right wing right w…

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/061026/economy.html?.v=10 Housing prices saw the largest decline in 35 years, back in the midst of the Watergate scandal. What was the cause? I'm going to go ahead and pin it on resetting Adjustable Rate Mortgages: http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory?id=2093736 Lenders have really screwed themselves with them. I'm hoping they start to see the error of their ways. Meanwhile many Americans are now losing equity in their homes, saddled with mortgages for much more than the value of their homes. Those foolish enough to opt for a sub-prime ARM are now feeling the burn of it resetting to a substantially higher interest rate, and…

I am just curious how the US armed forces rank right now strength wise, against where we were before afghanistan and iraq. You are only as strong as the forces you have at your disposal to commit, and from what it looks like we are overtaxed with our current deployments. Sure, if WWIII broke out, we'd pull out of Iraq in a hurry and redeploy, but when smaller conflicts arise and hostile leaders view our current strength, it will be with the question of whether we'd be willing to give up on Iraq to engage at full strength, or engage with whatever we have left over. If we needed to deploy armed forces tomorrow to a new conflict - how well could we do it?

Assuming the war is lost, did the failure occur at inception or was it the execution? If we had gone in with sufficient troops, not disbanded the Iraqi military, etc., could this have turned out differently?

Chevron's Deep Oil Field strike yesterday was big news. It's the biggest find since Prudhoe Bay, and it could increase domestic reserves by as much as 50-65 percent, to as many as 38 billion barrels. Still a far cry from those of Saudi Arabia (260+) or Iran (133?), of course. http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/business/15449975.htm http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory?id=2397397 As the price of oil increases, more expensive sources can be tapped economically, and I think we'll see a lot more of this. I don't think the end is a century away, I think the end is *centuries* away. This drill, while 30 thousand feet long (10k' water, 20k' land), only…

I was wondering what the majority of you folks think about the "increased" relationship with PM Harper and President Bush? Do Americans really care at all? Is it a big thing or just...Oh gee Canada! Lovely!...

The Scienctologists call it being 'clear', psychiatists call it being 'sociopathic', some primative theists might call it being 'souless', but no matter what you might call it, it seems to be a condition that can be physically tested for. These people have a high propensity to be opportunistic at best. Why not ask all our pols. to take "The Test", before we see fit to give them positions of leadership and power? aguy2

I was randomly surfing around the net and i found this thing called a "Plasma Window" http://www.bnl.gov/bnlweb/pubaf/pr/2001/bnlpr121101b.htm apparently it is a device that uses plasma to form a barrier against any matter but let energy through. apparently if you use argon for the plasma it looks like the force fields in startrek cargo bays. its being used in the welding industry to hold back the atmosphere from an electron beam in electron beam welding. but its about 80kW per inch which is abit high for stuff just now. there is more about it in wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plasma_window

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/asiapcf/10/08/korea.nuclear.test.ap/index.html How does this alter the world landscape?

Former Secretary of State (under the first President Bush) James Baker was on "This Week" on ABC this morning, and he had some comments that I thought were interesting. This first one is more of an interesting observation rather than something that speaks to any potential solutions, but I think it speaks volumes about the situation. Many Americans wondered back in 1991 why we didn't take out Saddam Hussein then. Oh there were plenty of good reasons, but I myself was never really comfortable with it. I think the problem (just speaking for myself here) was that I just couldn't really fathom the kind of ideological divides that we were told Saddam was keeping in check…

Hello Want humor, read the news. Yes it will provide you more chuckels and laughs than you thought possible. This is in regards to the fun time America is having with former Florida Rep. Mark Foley. Caught sending 'salacious' email to an underaged male page, a fact known by House leaders of his own party and ignored by them till the need to cover their own posteriors arose from the revelation. What's funny, I find this is. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061004/ap_on_go_co/congressman_e_mails;_ylt=AvtQ_dXj2isciRbvNPMc0hCs0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA3OXIzMDMzBHNlYwM3MDM- Now remember folks, as your leaders (and criminal defense attorneys) are quite adept at…

Ok, I'll be the first to acknolwedge that the Rolling Stone isn't exactly a bastion of respectable journalism. However, this article, while very long, makes some quite convincing points about serious voting and election irregularities in the 2004 US elections. http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/10432334/was_the_2004_election_stolen/1 So, thoughts? Flaws, merits, etc? I'm particularly curious about the reliability of election polls, something dealt with at great length in the article, not to mention that some of the other alleged misdeeds are no longer alleged, but matters of public record. A second, and more important point: What can be done in the futu…

"Amendment V No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the militia, when in actual service in time of war or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation."Constitution of the United States What does this mean? "except in ca…