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Obama Wants the Internet Treated as a Utility, Presidential Campaign Season Is Now Underway, New York City Makes Marijuana a Ticketable Offense: P.M. Links

J.D. Tuccille | 11.10.2014 4:30 PM

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  • White House

    Alienated from congressional Democrats, President Obama is looking to achieve results through deals with Republicans and through executive orders—which just might be mutually incompatible tactics.

  • Oh yeah. Obama wants Internet service to be classified and heavily regulated as a utility. What could go wrong?
  • Welcome to the next presidential campaign cycle. Republican and Democratic front-runners Rand Paul and Hillary Clinton are both hitting the trail in search of rubber chicken. And support.
  • Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) also points out that the war against ISIS lacks congressional authorization and is illegal
  • Known for harsh enforcement of drug laws, New York City is poised to turn marijuana possession into a ticketable offense. The cops will find some other reason to lay a beating on you.
  • With western sanctions hindering sale of Russian gold abroad, the country's central bank stepped in to bridge the gap.
  • You may not have heard much about Ebola recently, but it's still a big concern in Sierra Leone, where religious services are just about the only public gatherings still taking place.
  • Convicted cop-killer Mumia Abu-Jamal is suing on First Amendment grounds to overturn a Pennsylvania law specifically targeted at muzzling him. Way to make the guy a martyr, geniuses.

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NEXT: Marijuana Arrests Continue to Fall As Decriminalization and Legalization Spread

J.D. Tuccille is a contributing editor at Reason.

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  1. Fist of Etiquette   11 years ago

    Obama wants Internet service to be classified and heavily regulated as a utility.

    I would say this is fixing something that isn’t broken, but it’s actually breaking it.

    1. Injun, as in from India   11 years ago

      If it moves, tax it.
      If it keeps moving, regulate it.
      If it stops moving, subsidize it.

      1. JW   11 years ago

        If it stops moving, subsidize it.

        And be sure to take credit for saving it.

        1. Pro Libertate   11 years ago

          Ma Hells Bells.

        2. CE   11 years ago

          If it still doesn’t move, you’re not subsidizing it enough.

    2. Anonymous Coward   11 years ago

      The internet is a public good because DARPA!

      1. Mike M.   11 years ago

        What does Al Gore have to say about this?

        1. Hyperion   11 years ago

          That regulating the intertoobz will help cut down on global warming.

      2. JW   11 years ago

        I eagerly await the resurgence of BBS.

        1. gaijin   11 years ago

          /DERPA

          1. The DerpRider   11 years ago

            Hello!

      3. Injun, as in from India   11 years ago

        More like DERPA.

        1. gaijin   11 years ago

          Your comment is most excellent…and most timely too!

          1. Injun, as in from India   11 years ago

            Great minds think alike. Need I say more?

      4. Fist of Etiquette   11 years ago

        I’d call it DERPA!

    3. Rufus J. Firefly   11 years ago

      Hello.

      There oughta be a law keeping Obama from the people.

      1. Fist of Etiquette   11 years ago

        It doesn’t kick in for another two years.

        1. Brian D   11 years ago

          Well, until some future dipshit president appoints him to the Supreme Court.

          1. Andrew S.   11 years ago

            Well, he was a Constitutional Law professor. He has the knowledge!

            1. RussianPrimeMinister   11 years ago

              *facepalm*

              I wish this wasn’t true.

              1. Suthenboy   11 years ago

                It isn’t.

                1. Andrew S.   11 years ago

                  Of course it isn’t, but you just know that some on the left would love for this to happen, and that would be the exact reasoning they’d use.

                  1. RussianPrimeMinister   11 years ago

                    I don’t know, guys. I could easily see another retirement from the supreme court, and fucking Obama getting placed.

                    Kinda makes me want to die inside.

                2. HeteroPatriarch   11 years ago

                  Well, he was a Constitutional Law professor.

                  This part is. It’s when people conflate that with “Constitutional Scholar” that it becomes untrue.

                  1. Gray Ghost   11 years ago

                    Lecturer, not Professor, despite the bullshit statement from UChicago. Professors actually have to publish once in awhile.

                    I can’t see Obama wanting a SCOTUS job. He knows he’d actually have to work a bit if he took it, right? Even with the three clerks he’d get? Though he might be the first Justice to teleconference from the golf course. Still much more work than giving speeches at hundreds of thousands of dollars a pop.

                  2. CE   11 years ago

                    Michael Badnarik is a Constitutional scholar. I’d rather have him on the Supreme Court any day.

          2. Hyperion   11 years ago

            He’ll wind up at the UN or in China dressed up as gay Mao.

            1. Lady Bertrum   11 years ago

              Yeah. What the fa-shizzle was up with that gay Mao suit he was photo’ed in today?

              1. Lady Bertrum   11 years ago

                Dude has less fashion sense than Kennedy.

                1. Anonymous Coward   11 years ago

                  The purple dress-robe was still more masculine than Obama lifting weights.

                  1. Lady Bertrum   11 years ago

                    Damn. I can push press more weight than the president of the USA.

                    1. Hyperion   11 years ago

                      I’m pretty sure that Obama is one of my ex-girlfriends, I just can’t remember which one…

                    2. Harvard   11 years ago

                      The lousy fuck?

                2. All-Seeing Monocle   11 years ago

                  Zing.

              2. fish   11 years ago

                Reggie Love is back in town!

    4. Stormy Dragon   11 years ago

      Broadband providers made this bed when they lobbied for franchise monopolies under the argument of being public infrastructure. Now let them lie in it.

      1. PRX   11 years ago

        yeah, no. that’s terrible reasoning.

        1. Stormy Dragon   11 years ago

          And yet I still don’t care about poor Comcast, Verizon, etc.

          1. Carl ?s the level   11 years ago

            And? Not everything is about feelz.

          2. Hyperion   11 years ago

            I still haven’t decided which is more evil, Kim Jung Un or Comcast.

            1. RussianPrimeMinister   11 years ago

              Yes.

          3. Plopper   11 years ago

            Comcast you say?

            Also, isn’t current FCC chairman a lobbyist?

      2. Gluesponge   11 years ago

        If they want to keep the internet going forward…

        Introduce competition. Break all the municipal monopolies…

        Competition breeds innovation and innovation makes neutrality moot.

      3. Mark22   11 years ago

        Yes, let’s screw the public twice! Who cares about them misogynistic Interwebs anyway! State TV and Pravda for everybody!

    5. RussianPrimeMinister   11 years ago

      Hello.

      Breaking is too generous a word. Ruining? Destroying? Passing on and lighting on fire?

      Yeah, that one.

      1. RussianPrimeMinister   11 years ago

        *pissing

    6. Raven Nation   11 years ago

      They’re clearly embarking on this b/c of the incisive critiques of government coming from the HnR commnetariat.

  2. Fist of Etiquette   11 years ago

    The cops will find some other reason to lay a beating on you.

    Officer safety.

    1. jesse.in.mb   11 years ago

      DAMN YOU AND YOUR SIMILAR BUT NOT IDENTICAL INTERPRETATION

      1. Fist of Etiquette   11 years ago

        And my quicker fingers.

        1. Riven   11 years ago

          … ladies

  3. jesse.in.mb   11 years ago

    The cops will find some other reason to lay a beating on you.

    Maintaining officer morale.

    1. Injun, as in from India   11 years ago

      The beatings shall continue until morale improves?

      1. RussianPrimeMinister   11 years ago

        And after, to maintain morale.

  4. Fist of Etiquette   11 years ago

    …where religious services are just about the only public gatherings still taking place.

    You know who else bled out of certain parts of his body?

    1. jesse.in.mb   11 years ago

      Hitler?

    2. Rufus J. Firefly   11 years ago

      Jesus of Nazareth?

    3. Anonymous Coward   11 years ago

      A guy with a ruptured kidney?

      1. jesse.in.mb   11 years ago

        LEAVE FIST ALONE!

        1. Fist of Etiquette   11 years ago

          Was that about me? Do people know my medical history? WHAT ABOUT HIPAA???

          1. Hyperion   11 years ago

            All your data is belong to us.

            /NSA

            1. Hyperion   11 years ago

              And your kidneys.

              1. RussianPrimeMinister   11 years ago

                But I need those to pee!

                1. Hyperion   11 years ago

                  All your pee is belong to us

                  /NSA

          2. jesse.in.mb   11 years ago

            H&R isn’t a medical provider…

            1. RussianPrimeMinister   11 years ago

              Could you look at this thing on my penis and tell me if it’s cancer?

              1. jesse.in.mb   11 years ago

                Someone didn’t get his HPV jabs…

              2. Los Doyers   11 years ago

                Throat cancer is gnarly, bro.

    4. Brian D   11 years ago

      TRAYVON??!!

    5. mauricegirodias   11 years ago

      Abner Louima?

    6. Warrren   11 years ago

      E.B.Ola?

    7. Atanarjuat   11 years ago

      You said “his” just so I couldn’t make a menstruation joke, didn’t you.

      1. Warrren   11 years ago

        ‘e’s a bleedin’ pussy ‘e is!

    8. Restoras   11 years ago

      Your mom?

    9. Apatheist ?_??   11 years ago

      People infected with the Sky Haussmann Cult virus?

      1. Gray Ghost   11 years ago

        I wonder if Reynolds is going to write anymore stories in that universe?

    10. HeteroPatriarch   11 years ago

      L Ron Hubbard?

  5. JW   11 years ago

    Oh yeah. Obama wants Internet service to be classified and heavily regulated as a utility. What could go wrong?

    Will porn sites take collects calls?

    1. jesse.in.mb   11 years ago

      Asking an operator to connect you with your obscure fetish should be delightful.

      I’m gonna need at least 37 seconds of women in power rangers outfits with strapons spit-roasting a white nerdy guy with horn-rimmed glasses. He cannot be blond, and at least one of the women has to be 5’11” and have green eyes.

      Thank you, I’ll wait.

      1. Zombie Jimbo   11 years ago

        Do you have a link?

        1. jesse.in.mb   11 years ago

          Sadly, no. But if we put it out into the universe, Rule 34 will bring it to us eventually.

        2. Sevo   11 years ago

          He has a newsletter.

      2. Hyperion   11 years ago

        a white nerdy guy with horn-rimmed glasses

        Hey wait, that wouldn’t be pajama boy…

        1. Andrew S.   11 years ago

          I’m never going to get that out of my head now. Suicide is probably my only option. Thanks a lot.

      3. trshmnster the terrible   11 years ago

        “I’m sorry, all we have is 28 seconds of the yellow Ranger 69ing sailor moon before sharing a 34 Japanese man bukkake and punching spiderman in the nuts for 15 seconds. Spiderman has green eyes and is 3 feet tall.”

        1. Kool   11 years ago

          [sigh]

          Fine!

  6. Fist of Etiquette   11 years ago

    Republican and Democratic front-runners Rand Paul and Hillary Clinton are both hitting the trail in search of rubber chicken.

    What about Jeb? Why won’t anyone talk about Jeb?

    1. Anonymous Coward   11 years ago

      Screw Jeb! Let’s talk about the only man who can lead TEAM Red to victory: Chris Christie! He looks Presidential!

      1. Fist of Etiquette   11 years ago

        I REFUSE TO EVEN JOKE ABOUT THAT.

      2. Warrren   11 years ago

        He’ll close the bridge to the 21st century!

      3. HeteroPatriarch   11 years ago

        Well, Union-Presidential, anyway.

    2. CE   11 years ago

      They (Paul staffers) expect the campaign will be a “go” by mid-April, with an announcement as quickly after that as his staff can put together a fly-around to the early states.

      In time for an April 15th money bomb I hope.

    3. cavalier973   11 years ago

      What about Joe Biden? Well?

      WELL????

  7. Fist of Etiquette   11 years ago

    Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) also points out that the war against ISIS lacks congressional authorization and is illegal

    Do something about it.

    1. RussianPrimeMinister   11 years ago

      In all seriousness, at this point if we just walked into the congress and citizens arrested every single person, it would be BEYOND legal.

      The beatings we incur after wouldn’t be, though.

    2. Pro Libertate   11 years ago

      Instead of impeachment, we now have imspeechment.

  8. Winston   11 years ago

    Can Rand be truly considered the front runner or is that wishful thinking from the people here? What do the polls say?

    1. Injun, as in from India   11 years ago

      Even if he is the front runner, the warmongers will drag him down.

    2. RBS   11 years ago

      What do the polls say?

      You mean millennials?

    3. Rhywun   11 years ago

      What do the polls say?

      Now you’ve done it.

    4. gaijin   11 years ago

      What do the polls say?

      More importantly, what do millenials think

      1. gaijin   11 years ago

        alright, two comments on pm links and they are duplicating comments with time stamps ahead of mine. sorry. Back to read-only status.

    5. JEP   11 years ago

      What do the polls say?

      You mean proles?

    6. Fist of Etiquette   11 years ago

      Millennials!

    7. Hyperion   11 years ago

      He’s the only Republican that can win. And yes, he is a front runner, and I think going into the primaries he will be THE front runner. And then the GOP establishment will shamelessly attack him and even side with Hillary over him. And they will use the media, aka Fox News to help with this.

      1. Kool   11 years ago

        Because (we decided) he can’t win.

    8. CE   11 years ago

      Rand Paul is the clear front-runner. The problem will be trying to win the nomination with 30-35 percent of the vote. If enough big government types stay in the race to split the rest of the vote, Paul has a chance.

  9. Heroic Mulatto   11 years ago

    Laundry detergent pods are ‘real risk’ to children

    Last year a Florida mother of a 7-month-old came back to her room to find that her baby had accidentally eaten one of those bright colored laundry detergent pods.

    He had been sleeping in a laundry basket with the pod when it happened. They rushed him to the hospital, but it was too late. He died, of poisoning from the detergent, according to the Kissimmee, Florida, police department. …

    The colorful packets can easily be mistaken for candy. Doctors argue there must be more of an effort to prevent children from getting a hold of them. The study authors conclude that a new national safety standard is needed to improve product packaging and labeling. They call the pods a “real risk” to children.

    Or instead of spending millions of dollars to inconvience millions of people we could just, I don’t know, not put our kids to sleep in fucking laundry baskets.

    In 2012, New York Sen. Chuck Schumer called on the Consumer Product Safety Commission to make manufacturers put these pods in child proof packaging. He also wanted better labeling about the product’s potential danger to children.

    OH, FOR FUCK’S SAKE!

    1. Rufus J. Firefly   11 years ago

      All for one retarded kid.

      1. Andrew S.   11 years ago

        Obligatory: http://www.theonion.com/articl…..-kids,290/

    2. RBS   11 years ago

      If I have learned anything during my (so far) 2 years of parenting, it’s that there is no shortage of morons attempting to raise children.

      1. CE   11 years ago

        We used to play with lawn darts. And shoot arrows straight up. And jump off roof types. And see how steep of a hill we could ride our bikes down. Without helmets.

        1. Mark22   11 years ago

          The only way your presence can be explained is that the zombie apocalypse is already upon us.

        2. Cyto   11 years ago

          You jest, but it true. I did all of those things. And the bike part was an iron beast by Huffy with a banana seat and huge ape-hanger handlebars, no suspension. We’d try to jump anything. We used to ride through the woods down a very steep hill and off of a cliff at a cut-out. The key was to kick the bike away from you in mid air and then roll out as you landed on the sandy soil that created a landing ramp at the bottom of the cliff. A good 20+ foot drop. The other big key was to get out of the way before the next kid (or his bike) landed on you.

          That was elementary school. By high school we had graduated to blowing up makeshift dams with homemade black powder bombs.

          It really is a wonder we lived to breed.

          Now you are an unfit parent if your children are unattended for 45 seconds. I think I’m going to bring some balance to the force tomorrow. I’m gonna take my son out to build and launch some rockets in celebration of Veteran’s Day.

    3. Stormy Dragon   11 years ago

      How would child proof packaging have stopped this? The kid didn’t get it out of the detergent container.

      1. Restoras   11 years ago

        It’s not about stopping/preventing, it’s about doing something.

        1. RBS   11 years ago

          This, there are these little seats called Bumbos, that sort of help babies learn how to sit. Well, a couple of years ago they issued a recall because some babies were getting seriously injured when they fell out of them…because parents were using them as high chair substitutes and other dumb shit like putting them on coffee tables and leaving the baby in the thing while they went off and did something else.

    4. PBR Streetgang   11 years ago

      The risk to the child’s safety is stupid parents letting them, effectively, play with detergent pods. Oh, and “its Florida”

      1. Stormy Dragon   11 years ago

        Obviously Florida needs to come in child-proof packaging.

        1. Entropy Void   11 years ago

          Florida needs to kick out the goddamn carpetbaggers.

          1. Cyto   11 years ago

            That would empty out Palm Beach, Broward, Miami-Dade and Orange counties.

            ….

            I could get behind that.

            1. Entropy Void   11 years ago

              Don’t forget Osceola County … or should I say: No te olvides del Condado de Osceola!

    5. Andrew S.   11 years ago

      More must be done? We keep ours on a shelf on top of the washing machine. Out of the kid’s reach.

      There, it’s fucking done.

    6. jesse.in.mb   11 years ago

      Maybe we should just shrinkwrap all children. It might be easier.

    7. Brian D   11 years ago

      In 2012, New York Sen. Chuck Schumer called on the Consumer Product Safety Commission to make manufacturers put these pods in child proof packaging. He also wanted better labeling about the product’s potential danger to children.

      Better labeling will make it easier for babies to read that they shouldn’t put detergent in their mouths, right?

      1. HeteroPatriarch   11 years ago

        Chucky Bitchtits never misses a chance to spew his wretched stupidity in front of a camera.

    8. RussianPrimeMinister   11 years ago

      Fuck, I killed my baby by being stupid! I’d better blame this on everybody but me, or I might have to suffer the consequences of my actions!

      Oh congressmannnn….

      1. Ted S.   11 years ago

        Except when babies get killed by airbags mandated by the state. Then it is your stupidity, and not anything else.

        1. jesse.in.mb   11 years ago

          Did you celebrate internet favorite Hedy Lamarr’s 100th birthday* this weekend?

          After an early film career in Germany, which culminated in her controversial nude scenes in the film Ecstasy (1933), Lamarr moved to Hollywood at the invitation of MGM head Louis B. Mayer, and soon became a star during the studio’s golden age.

          Lamarr’s most significant contribution to technology was her co-invention, with composer George Antheil, of an early technique for spread spectrum communications and frequency hopping, which paved the way for today’s wireless communications. The invention in 1941 was deemed so vital to national defense that government officials would not allow publication of its details.

          Nude scenes in the ’30s and co-invented a precursor to wifi.

          *Were she still alive, of course.

          1. Entropy Void   11 years ago

            Headley?

            1. d3x / dt3   11 years ago

              I wonder how many commenters here got that one. And how many _miilenials_!?

              1. Entropy Void   11 years ago

                All the Millennials posted by 5:30 and are in bed by now …

              2. C. Anacreon   11 years ago

                Don’t worry, it’s the 1870s. You’ll be able to sue her for taking your name.

    9. Zeb   11 years ago

      Doctors argue there must be more of an effort to prevent children from getting a hold of them.

      Maybe there should be. By parents.

    10. Entropy Void   11 years ago

      That’s one tough way to go for a Darwin Award …

  10. Rufus J. Firefly   11 years ago

    Comment from the article on net neutrality:

    “Obama is suddenly acting like a populist after finding being a half-republican bankster-lover didn’t work at all for his party.”

    It’s interesting that to some he’s a left-wing socialist to others a lap dog for ‘corporatists.’

    1. Winston   11 years ago

      It’s interesting that to some he’s a left-wing socialist to others a lap dog for ‘corporatists.’

      To some Republicans are anti-government extremists and to others they are big government statists.

    2. Injun, as in from India   11 years ago

      Does anyone know what the f&^* happened to Jon Corzine? President Hope-and-Change was supposed to prosecute those dirty crooked Wall Street bankers who used their clients’ money as their own.

    3. RussianPrimeMinister   11 years ago

      Obama is a cocksucker. He sucks any cock that comes near him, whether it’s attached to a CEO or a smelly socialist hippie.

      Pressuring the people gets you re-elected. Or gets Hillary elected.

      I eagerly await watching Hillary begin the process as well.

      1. Ska   11 years ago

        With the amount of blowjob videos that exist you eagerly want to see that one?

        1. RussianPrimeMinister   11 years ago

          “What I Would do Sexually to Hillary Clinton” – by Peter Griffin.

    4. Zeb   11 years ago

      What is most interesting is that people think it has to be one or the other.

      1. Apatheist ?_??   11 years ago

        Yes, he is clearly both a leftist and a corporatist.

        1. Hyperion   11 years ago

          It’s very difficult to separate the 2 these days. The commies gave up on the whole people own the means of production and everything is equal a long time ago. Now it’s all about the ruling class and their cronies plundering the hell out of a country and suppressing the plebes.

          1. Mark22   11 years ago

            No, sorry, the problem is just that you got your terminology mixed up.

            socialism, communism = “capitalism is bad and the state should on the means of production”

            progressivism, fascism = “capitalism is bad and the state should regulate private enterprise”

            Democrats are progressives, not socialists. (Communism and fascism are more extreme versions of socialism and progressivism.)

            1. C. Anacreon   11 years ago

              The Old Grouch defines a Democrat as “someone who’s not quite pink enough to punch.”

        2. Zeb   11 years ago

          IOW a Fascist. It’s too bad that word is so associated with Nazis. It’s really pretty accurately applied to American Progressives.

          1. Libertarian   11 years ago

            +1

            1. Entropy Void   11 years ago

              ^^^THIS

          2. Mark22   11 years ago

            That’s not an accident; historically, Nazis started out as progressives, and they were inspired by US progressivism.

    5. Hyperion   11 years ago

      It’s interesting that to some he’s a left-wing socialist to others a lap dog for ‘corporatists.’

      Shortly after Obama was elected the first time, I thought of him as just another bullshit run of the mill politician out for some fame and fortune.

      After 6 years, I am 100% convinced that he is both a hardcore leftist ideologue and a sociopathic narcissist.

      1. Winston   11 years ago

        You Know Who Else was underestimated as just “another bullshit run of the mill politician out for some fame and fortune”?

        1. trshmnster the terrible   11 years ago

          Teddy roosevelt?

        2. Libertarian   11 years ago

          All of them?

      2. Zeb   11 years ago

        I’m still not so convinced about the ideologue part. I see him as more of an unprepared idiot bumbling around. He’s full of leftist assumptions, but not really coherent enough to be an ideologue.

    6. HeteroPatriarch   11 years ago

      He was the great left hope until last week. Now he’s whatever they need him to be. He’s the scapegoat the progressive movement deserves, but not the one it’s convenient for them to worship right now.

  11. Injun, as in from India   11 years ago

    Infidels of the world, unite!

    1. Rufus J. Firefly   11 years ago

      India and Israel – two democracies – on one side and, well, you know the rest on the other side.

      1. Injun, as in from India   11 years ago

        Remember when the Challenger shuttle blew up? Some Imam a$$hole said that it was because the astronauts were from 3 dirty infidel countries – the US, India, and Israel.

        Over the years, I’ve read conspiratorial comments online from Islamic geniuses about such a secret infidel alliance, and I think maybe it’s not a bad idea after all.

        1. Injun, as in from India   11 years ago

          ^Columbia.

        2. Rufus J. Firefly   11 years ago

          No I don’t remember that but not surprising.

  12. The DerpRider   11 years ago

    You’re paying how much for a Dartmouth education?

    “Do you (Rick Perry) dislike bootysex because the peeny goes in where the poopy comes out?”

    1. LynchPin1477   11 years ago

      “Since the event organizers knew what we were doing before it happened, they sort of controlled the lens through which the questions were viewed,” said Packer. “The questions ? they’re funny, right? I think they’re funny. I think a lot of people think that they’re funny, but since the event had control over the framing of the questions, nobody in the audience laughed. They booed.”

      Then I guess they weren’t funny, idiot.

      1. Entropy Void   11 years ago

        HEH
        You said “Packer”.

    2. Injun, as in from India   11 years ago

      It is obviously more important to ask questions like this, instead of asking what policies made Texas the jobs leader post-recession.

      Ivy League “education”. LOL.

    3. JEP   11 years ago

      Was that question posed by Jar Jar Binks?

      1. trshmnster the terrible   11 years ago

        Meesa likah dah poopah!

    4. Apatheist ?_??   11 years ago

      I support all trolling of politicians of any political party, and I especially support trolling Perry. That said, this is pretty weak tea.

      1. MJGreen   11 years ago

        Yeah, this is more along the lines of Seinfeld’s, “It offends me as a comedian.”

      2. Ted S.   11 years ago

        You can just imagine the reaction if somebody were trolling Michelle Obama.

    5. cavalier973   11 years ago

      “He uses those donations to convince people to vote against their economic interest…

      Uh…

      Ah…

      KNEE TO THE GROIN!
      KNEE TO THE GROIN!
      PUNCH TO THE KIDNEY!
      FACEPUNCH! FACEPUNCH! FACEPUNCH!

      FINISH HIM!

      ROUNDHOUSE TO THE HEAD! HIS SKULL POPS OUT AND HIS SPINE DANGLES!

  13. Mike M.   11 years ago

    Only a week and a half and Kevin Love is already sick and tired of LeBron James.

    1. Warrren   11 years ago

      Well if Bron-Bron won’t touch him inside it’s no wonder he’s leaving.

    2. The DerpRider   11 years ago

      He would be silly not to opt out anyway, but this is funny so early in the season.

    3. Andrew S.   11 years ago

      It was truly a miracle for LeBron that Bosh and Wade put up with him so successfully for 4 years.

      1. Mike M.   11 years ago

        Yep. I think once they’re both retired, we’re going to find out a lot about just how much of a total douchebag he is.

        I predict his heroic return to Cleveland will neither go well, nor end well.

        1. CE   11 years ago

          Should have kept Wiggins, who can at least play some defense and run the floor, instead of trading for Love. Kyrie already has the shoot too much and don’t play any defense role nailed down.

  14. PapayaSF   11 years ago

    I can see the pro-neutrality side in one aspect: I think ISPs throttling traffic can easily become a form of extortion. On the other hand, I’m not opposed to charging extra for “fast lanes,” which I see a separate issue.

    But is there really some sort of terrible problem that net neutrality is going to “fix,” and what are the downsides? It’s not hard to imagine gleeful regulators rubbing their hands at the thought of all the meddling they can do. Maybe political candidates should get special treatment! And the poor! And people helping to save the planet from global warming! And what about all those bad people on the internet? Surely something should be done to impede the “haters,” the weapons-sellers, etc., etc.! Internet regulation is a can of worms I don’t want to open.

    1. Stormy Dragon   11 years ago

      I wouldn’t mind throttling if there was an actual free market in telecommunications. But when the incumbents have already used regulation to completely entrench a couple of monopoly providers in most parts of the company, they can’t just light the “Fried Man Signal” when suddenly they aren’t the party benefitting from excessive regulation.

      When Comcast has it’s lobbiest put forward a bill that bans local governments from offering franchise monopolies, I’ll start caring about what they thing about regulation. Until then it’s just statist #1 vs. statist #2 and I don’t care who wins.

      1. PRX   11 years ago

        regulate away because I hate comcast isn’t an argument. but no one expects you to argue for free markets either.

        1. jesse.in.mb   11 years ago

          no one expects you to argue for free markets either.

          It must’ve been a surprise then when he said “I wouldn’t mind throttling if there was an actual free market in telecommunications.”

      2. Plopper   11 years ago


        Comcast you say?

        Also, I don’t think you seem to understand that there is tons of competition as far as national/international transit providers go. The problem that exists in some places is a “last mile” problem which net neutrality will do nothing but make worse.

        For example, under net neutrality it would be somehow “bad” for youtube(google) and/or Netflix to directly connect to your ISP and only allow their traffic over these “fast lanes”.

        Even though, this would mean Netflix and/or Youtube would work better AND it would mean your ISPs other traffic exchange points would be less congested as a result making it faster for everyone!

        Also the entire concept is absurd on it’s face. So bittorrent traffic should get the same priority as DNS traffic bound to the root nameservers?

        Your neighbor’s porn downloads will have to be treated equally to your VOIP traffic?

        Seriously?

        The FCC will never enforce strict net neutrality though. What will happen is they will get involved in a bunch of peering disputes between major transit providers where there is already a lot of competition and favor whoever has the best people working for them at the FCC.

        At worst it will be used by the FCC to censor things and ruin the internet like they’ve ruined television.

    2. LynchPin1477   11 years ago

      If other regulatory bodies are any indicator, internet regulation will start off with populist rules that, if at least in their end results, may not be all that bad. And shortly thereafter, entrenched interests will start to rewrite and make new rules that will stifle competition and creativity, resulting in stagnation, higher prices, and miles of bureaucratic red tape. It may take a while given the momentum that the internet creative classes have going for them, but it will happen.

      1. Pro Libertate   11 years ago

        Yes, all we need is more regulation. Ye gods, haven’t we seen enough destructive crap from the federal government? Internet access pricing bubble for starters.

        1. JW   11 years ago

          CLAP HARDER, ProL!

          You have to believe.

          1. Pro Libertate   11 years ago

            I’m all out of faith in the government.

            1. Lady Bertrum   11 years ago

              But, are you all out of love?

              https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yr3dJxeT4oA

              1. SugarFree   11 years ago

                He is so lost without you.

                1. Pro Libertate   11 years ago

                  Wait, that music is real? Huh. And here I am, all these years, thinking it was a tequila-induced nightmare. So ABBA really happened, too? Ditto hip-hop?

    3. JW   11 years ago

      I think ISPs throttling traffic can easily become a form of extortion.

      What’s that word again, that would prevent that sort of thing, or at least ruthlessly punish any company stupid enough to try it? Compe…compet…compa….Damn, I can’t remember it.

      1. Pro Libertate   11 years ago

        Compassionate conservatism?

        1. JW   11 years ago

          No, that’s not it.

          It’s something to do with ponies or something.

          1. Pro Libertate   11 years ago

            Internet access is akin to health insurance. Getting the federal government out of it isn’t enough. That states and local governments are also contributing mightily to the problem.

            1. JW   11 years ago

              No, no, no, you have it all wrong.

              Because, Comcast.

              1. Pro Libertate   11 years ago

                Whenever a company seems to take on the bureaucratic evilness of government, there’s a brilliant sign that the government is too involved in that company’s industry.

              2. PapayaSF   11 years ago

                Yes, Comcast. A big part of the problem is local cable monopolies, which are the result of local (and maybe state) governments. I don’t think it’s unreasonable to not want Comcast to make Netflix unwatchable in order to force Netflix to pay them more money, or to demand the Google or anyone else pay them to avoid throttling.

                1. Pro Libertate   11 years ago

                  COMPETITION.

                  We really do need an amendment providing for the separation of commerce and state. What a hash all levels of government make of things!

                2. Plopper   11 years ago

                  PapayaSF: See my comment above.

                  Net neutrality would also prevent Netflix from more or less directly connecting to ISPs which would just make things faster for everyone.

                  Something google/youtube already more or less does in a lot of cases.

    4. Ted S.   11 years ago

      Minitels for all!

  15. Carl ?s the level   11 years ago

    I saw this commercial on Fox News today.

    lolwut?

    1. GILMORE   11 years ago

      Spoken-word/Rapping about American Indians Combined with Modern Dance is actually more common than you’d think

      Horrifying by itself? Yes. Worse is when you realize that it is funded by Federal Tax money.

      1. jesse.in.mb   11 years ago

        M.E.Ch.A. brought some M?xihcah dancers to campus. They launched into a litany about how they danced to remember their mothers who were raped by the white man. I think we made it 7 minutes before it just got way too awkward and we left.

    2. PapayaSF   11 years ago

      Trigger warning: Hip-hop music.

    3. Juice   11 years ago

      They’re rapping? Cultural appropriation!!!!!!

  16. Anonymous Coward   11 years ago

    From the Future Leaders of America Files: Sophomoric Dartmouth student prepared obscene questions for Rick Perry

    Texas Gov. Rick Perry was barraged with sexually explicit questions at Dartmouth University on Sunday by students who oppose his stances on homosexuality and gay marriage.

    Senior Emily Sellers, for example, asked the likely 2016 presidential candidate whether he would submit to anal sex in exchange for $102 million in campaign contributions, the college’s newspaper, The Dartmouth, reported.

    The questions, which were prepared in advance by a sophomore named Ben Packer, reportedly did not go over well with other students who attended Perry’s talk.

    The sophomore, however, lamented the fact that his “funny” questions were not well received and that some of his fellow Dartmouth students even booed.

    I’m all for bashing politicians, but let’s bash them for, oh say, mortgaging the future of America and infringing on the rights of the public, not go “LOL WUD U BUTTSEX 4 KASH?”

    1. RBS   11 years ago

      Ben Packer

      Hmmm…

    2. RBS   11 years ago

      You know that kid thought his questions were really fucking funny too.

      1. Anonymous Coward   11 years ago

        Here is the actual list of questions, just to give you an idea of the quality of thinker that gets admitted to Dartmouth these days.

        1. Notorious G.K.C.   11 years ago

          What about the booing students? Don’t let a handful of retards taint a whole cohort of students.

          1. Knarf Yenrab!   11 years ago

            These were people who spent an hour of their lives listening to Rick Perry speak. Presumably willingly.

            So, Dartmouth men.

          2. Anonymous Coward   11 years ago

            I’ll give the other students who booed this stupidity into oblivion their credit. At least until The Dartmouth publishes an article about how Mr. Packer was traumatized by how mean his fellow students were to him and the school should discipline everyone in attendance for hurting his FEELS.

        2. Hyperion   11 years ago

          Did it trigger him that some people didn’t think his stupid questions weren’t funny, and did it make him feel unsafe?

    3. LynchPin1477   11 years ago

      Rick Perry has been closing down abortion clinics in my home state and winning elections by playing off of the socially reactionary fears of the racist and sexually traditional poor and middle class, while soliciting mass donations from the rich and crafting economic policy in their favor,” Packer told Campus Reform.

      Which socioeconomic class do most minorities belong to again?

      1. Andrew S.   11 years ago

        Wonder if he’d be willing to criticize African-Americans in that “sexually traditional” part, given how anti-gay marriage they are.

        1. Anonymous Coward   11 years ago

          Ahem.

          *taps the sign “OBEY THE NARRATIVE AT ALL TIMES.”*

          1. Andrew S.   11 years ago

            But I can never remember what the hierarchy is when the narrative conflicts with other parts of the narrative. Is it gays that have priority? Or women? Or African-Americans?

            1. Anonymous Coward   11 years ago

              We’ve been over this a hundred times: It goes women, then gays, then brown people. Come on now, it’s really easy.

              1. Andrew S.   11 years ago

                I was confused. I thought it went women, brown people, then gays. My apologies.

                1. jesse.in.mb   11 years ago

                  I was confused. I thought it went women, brown people, then gays. My apologies.

                  Gays jump up the list whenever fundraising becomes an issue. Nobody is sure why.

                  1. Lady Bertrum   11 years ago

                    Gays jump up the list whenever fundraising becomes an issue. Nobody is sure why.

                    Wait, what? Are gays the new Jews?

                    Someone needs to create a flow-chart.

                    1. jesse.in.mb   11 years ago

                      Wait, what? Are gays the new Jews?

                      Both groups are looking to steal good Christian babies for their own nefarious purposes whether it be to make matzoh or to replenish their sodomitical ranks.

              2. jesse.in.mb   11 years ago

                I don’t know, I’d need to ask a lesbian of color what the correct answer is.

                1. PapayaSF   11 years ago

                  Yes. In contemporary progressive/Marxist thinking, lesbians of color are the new proletariat, and their wishes trump all. But we may have to work “disabled” in there to precisely identify our new rulers.

              3. Knarf Yenrab!   11 years ago

                Non-white people are more likely to be anti-gay and misogynistic (the only people to take either of these peculiar oppressions seriously to this point being western Europeans and their progeny), so the hierarchy has to be mutable if it’s to be politically viable.

    4. Mark22   11 years ago

      Well, given that Perry favors criminalizing sex acts between consenting adults, I’d say he is intending to “infringe on the rights of the public”.

  17. GILMORE   11 years ago

    Post-Structural Anti-Racist Racist Humor

    if you think you understand what the joke is, you’re missing the point, and you’re probably racist if you don’t laugh anyway

    1. jesse.in.mb   11 years ago

      Are you by any chance related to Magus Peter H. Gilmore, the Church of Satan’s High Priest:

      Satanism is an atheist philosophy using Satan as a symbol of pride, liberty, and individualism, as did many before us who would not accept the status quo such as Milton, Byron, Twain, and Carducci.

      1. GILMORE   11 years ago

        No, sorry, I’m catholic and therefore actually believe* Satan is real.

        (*in lay catholic-speak, that means “laugh about the idea”)

    2. Warrren   11 years ago

      Could only take about 30 seconds of that.

      Where do I get my ‘I’m a Racist’ I.D. card? And do I get to choose its color?

      1. GILMORE   11 years ago

        Well, try my above links to the Indian Rapper/modern Dance piece.

        If you laugh at that, you can still be in the club

    3. PapayaSF   11 years ago

      I thank African-Americans for jazz, R ‘n’ B, rock ‘n’ roll, and Motown, but I think every one of their cultural contributions since then has sucked.

      And get off my lawn.

      1. Every Cop is a Criminal   11 years ago

        Culturally, they are pretty much stuck in the late 80’s. Nothing new since then.

        1. Hyperion   11 years ago

          How can you come up with something new when you can’t get off the team blue plantation?

          1. Every Cop is a Criminal   11 years ago

            That has a lot to do with it. Stiffles creativity is my take on it.

      2. GILMORE   11 years ago

        KANYE WEST IS CRYING FOR YOU

      3. GILMORE   11 years ago

        “I thank African-Americans for jazz, R ‘n’ B, rock ‘n’ roll, and Motown, but I think every one of their cultural contributions since then has sucked.”

        The irony here is that almost everything in American music is simply derivative of that, more or less. So, that’s sort of like, “Aside from that, Mrs Lincoln, how did you like the play?“

        1. Mark22   11 years ago

          I don’t see much irony in pointing out that someone has made great and enduring contributions in the past, but failed to make important contributions more recently.

      4. The Laconic   11 years ago

        I thank African-Americans for jazz, R ‘n’ B, rock ‘n’ roll, and Motown, but I think every one of their cultural contributions since then has sucked.

        You thank, and then criticize, all African-Americans for things that the vast majority aren’t responsible for one way or another?

        1. PapayaSF   11 years ago

          Well, Mr. Laconic nitpicker, when one speaks of the cultural contributions of different cultures, lumping everyone together is unavoidable. When we thank the Chinese for Chinese cuisine, we don’t mean that every individual Chinese person contributed to it.

          1. GILMORE   11 years ago

            “When we thank the Chinese for Chinese-American cuisine…”

            I actually think New York Jews deserve more credit here.

            I mean, have you been to china? some of the food is downright scary

            1. PapayaSF   11 years ago

              Yikes, they really do eat everything in China.

              But the nitpicking never ends around here… yeah, “Chinese-American,” sheesh.

    4. LynchPin1477   11 years ago

      I…what? I have no idea what that was.

      1. GILMORE   11 years ago

        YOU ARE THE ONLY PERSON WHO REALLY UNDERSTANDS

  18. jesse.in.mb   11 years ago

    Two federal government Web sites that help people find AIDS-related medical services have begun routinely encrypting user data after years in which they let sensitive information — including the real-world locations of site visitors ? onto the Internet unprotected.

    “We started requiring SSL for the [services] Locator because we understood that information should be encrypted to protect privacy,” said Miguel Gomez, director of AIDS.gov. The site had been transmitting unencrypted location information of users searching for healthcare providers on the Web site since 2010. It had offered encryption as an option, for those who knew how to activate it, since last year.

    Reminder kids, install HTTPS Everywhere on your parents’ and friends’ computers.

    Drum roll for the most libertarian snippet of the article please…

    Federal rules governing healthcare privacy typically require the use of encryption when private institutions, such as hospitals or insurance companies, transmit personal medical information over the Internet.

    I have a great idea. Let’s put them in charge of ALL THE HEALTHCARES.

    Link

  19. Andrew S.   11 years ago

    The local LP has a feed the homeless at the park event (in Fort Lauderdale, at the same park where the 90 year old was arrested) scheduled for December 17. Hopefully the idiotic law is changed by then, because otherwise I’ll probably end up being arrested, and my wife will likely kill me for doing that right before we’re going to see her parents for Christmas.

    1. Warrren   11 years ago

      Seems to me you win either way.

      1. Atanarjuat   11 years ago

        Normally I like quick and nimble fingers. But darn yours, Warrren, darn them to heck.

        1. Marshall Gill   11 years ago

          Hey, watch the language!

      2. Andrew S.   11 years ago

        My wife’s family is awesome, mostly because my own basically sucks. I need to figure out how to do this in reverse and stay up there.

    2. Atanarjuat   11 years ago

      Arrested for fighting the good fight, right before being subjected to your in-laws? Win-win.

    3. JEP   11 years ago

      “So Andrew, what have you been up to besides being bailed out of jail?”

      “I knew you weren’t good enough for my daughter!”

      1. Anonymous Coward   11 years ago

        “Learned make a prison microwave out of some foil and a light bulb. I also shanked a guy for trying to take my anal virginity. Pass the stuffing, please.”

        1. Every Cop is a Criminal   11 years ago

          “Pass the stuffing, please”

          ISWYDT

      2. RussianPrimeMinister   11 years ago

        I dunno. I’d stand behind an in-law if they did something like this.

        Of course, her parents are probably democrats. It’s inevitable that your in-laws will disagree with your politics.

        1. Andrew S.   11 years ago

          My in-laws are southern Democrats. They generally vote blue, but they’re fairly conservative overall.

          They’d definitely disagree with my politics.

  20. Grand Moff Serious Man   11 years ago

    Hail to the King, baby! ‘Evil Dead’ TV series starring Bruce Campbell greenlit by Starz

    Starz has ordered an Evil Dead TV show.
    Original franchise director Sam Raimi will executive produce the series and write and direct the first episode, with Rob Tapert also executive producing.
    And ? and ? and ?

    Bruce Campbell will star, reprising his iconic career-making role as Ash.

    The logline: “Bruce Campbell will be reprising his role as Ash, the stock boy, aging lothario and chainsaw-handed monster hunter who has spent the last 30 years avoiding responsibility, maturity and the terrors of the Evil Dead. When a Deadite plague threatens to destroy all of mankind, Ash is finally forced to face his demons ?personal and literal. Destiny, it turns out, has no plans to release the unlikely hero from its ‘Evil’ grip.”
    Campbell played Ash in the cult-favorite horror comedies The Evil Dead (1981), Evil Dead II (1987) and Army of Darkness (1992). Raimi previously teased at Comic-Con last summer he was developing a show based on the films and wanted Campbell to star.

    “I’m really excited to bring this series to the Evil Dead fans worldwide ? it’s going to be everything they have been clamoring for: serious deadite ass-kicking and plenty of outrageous humor,” Campbell said.

    1. Anonymous Coward   11 years ago

      YES!

    2. Pro Libertate   11 years ago

      The Chin has returned.

    3. Entropy Void   11 years ago

      So I take it Burn Notice was not renewed?

      1. Wasteland Wanderer   11 years ago

        They ended the series last year.

    4. Wasteland Wanderer   11 years ago

      This could be either really good or really awful….

  21. jesse.in.mb   11 years ago

    Fun Fact:

    It may sound absurd, but taking a picture of the Eiffel Tower at night and sharing that online may be copyright infringement. The stance is confirmed by the Soci?t? d’Exploitation de la Tour Eiffel, who note the following on their website.

    “Daytime views from the Eiffel Tower are rights-free. However, its various illuminations are subject to author’s rights as well as brand rights. Usage of these images is subject to prior request from the Soci?t? d’Exploitation de la Tour Eiffel.”

    1. Protagoronus   11 years ago

      If you take them to court, they’ll just surrender.

    2. PapayaSF   11 years ago

      Another fun fact:

      Did you know that for almost a decade (9 years to be exact), the Citro?n car company ‘rented’ the Eiffel Tower and had it’s brand name emblazoned on it with 125,000 glowing lights? The sign was erected in 1925 and remained there until Citro?n went bankrupt for the first time in 1934. The ironic thing is, their bankruptcy was partly due to incredibly high electricity bills.

      1. Notorious G.K.C.   11 years ago

        What do you mean “ironic,” Ms. Morrisette?

      2. Ted S.   11 years ago

        Yes, I knew that. If you watch the 1934 Bette Davis version of Of Human Bondage (which I highly recommend), the establishing shot of Paris has the Eiffel Tower with the Citro?n ad.

    3. Pro Libertate   11 years ago

      So the tower itself is well into the public domain, but novel lighting isn’t.

      You know, that’s a little weird. By that token, perhaps I can bring public domain works back under copyright protection by just using a new color of paper.

  22. Grand Moff Serious Man   11 years ago

    Watch a man beat Super Mario 64 without using the jump button

    1. HeteroPatriarch   11 years ago

      Uh, no thanks.

  23. Stormy Dragon   11 years ago

    Things that should be a red flag that whatever you are going to say next is a thought that is best kept to yourself:

    Rick Santorum: Obama and Bush Have ‘Given All Muslims A Pass’

    I’m not saying all Muslims are terrorists, but…

  24. Carl ?s the level   11 years ago

    Whoa: ABC Just Canceled ‘Modern Family’ In Order To Teach People That Something You Love Can Be Taken From You With No Warning Whatsoever

    But don’t despair just yet, folks! Though the network seems to have sealed the fate of Modern Family on ABC, several sources within the company have hinted that the show could be revived on Netflix or Hulu in order to teach people that, sometimes, miracles really do happen.

    1. PapayaSF   11 years ago

      You know that’s an Onion-related site, right?

      1. OldMexican   11 years ago

        He probably knows… now.

      2. Carl ?s the level   11 years ago

        1. Yes, I was aware before I navigated to clickhole.com that it was owned by the Onion.

        2. Even had I not know that ahead of time, if I’m am ever enough of an idiot to think something like that is a serious news story, I want to be killed. That you would even ask is mildly insulting.

        1. Carl ?s the level   11 years ago

          s/I’m am/I’m/

          1. Sevo   11 years ago

            There, their, they’re…

            1. Warrren   11 years ago

              Lose, loose.

    2. OldMexican   11 years ago

      Phew! I thought it said they cancelled “The Middle”. But no, it was only Modern Family. The world hasn’t come to an end, yet.

  25. OldMexican   11 years ago

    Obama Wants the Internet Treated as a Utility

    Of course he would. How can you control something if you can’t destroy it(*)?

    (*)Paraphrasing Muad’Dib

    Known for harsh enforcement of drug laws, New York City is poised to turn marijuana possession into a ticketable offense. The cops will find some other reason to lay a beating on you.

    As if they needed one…

  26. Winston   11 years ago

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LisSYXj9HoM

    /hattip: Pro-Life libertarian

    Using pro-sports to justify salary caps? Skip Oliva will love Jesse.

  27. EdWuncler   11 years ago

    http://egbertowillies.com/2012…..residency/

    Has anyone seen the article about some Canadian who said that we should be thankful that we Have Barack Obama as our President? This is beyond stupid. This guy has droned American citizens, waged war without Congressional support, crapped all over our civil liberties, and lied to the American people about his health care law. How can anyone defend Obama after all the stupid shit he has done?

    1. EdWuncler   11 years ago

      Hopefully my sarcasm meter is down because this has to be a parody. It’s just my liberal friends been parading this bullshit for a couple of days.

    2. AlmightyJB   11 years ago

      “we use to rally around the President after elected”

      In what universe?

      1. All-Seeing Monocle   11 years ago

        Gosh, I wonder if the “we won, now suck it bitches while we ram all this legislation through on strict party lines” approach to government has anything at all to do with that? Nah, can’t be that.

    3. All-Seeing Monocle   11 years ago

      “We definitely rallied around Kennedy, Reagan, Daddy Bush, and for a time Baby Bush.”

      That must be the kind of respect he’s referring to.

      1. Juice   11 years ago

        Didn’t Bush, Jr. have eggs thrown at him on inauguration day?

    4. All-Seeing Monocle   11 years ago

      In President Obama, Americans have the real deal, the whole package and a leader that citizens of almost every country around the world look to with great envy. Given the opportunity, Canadians would trade our leader, hell, most of our leaders for Obama in a heartbeat.”

      Sir, you have got yourself a deal.

    5. Steve G   11 years ago

      Oh god, they’re multiplying. Here’s the unsolicited Canadian article that cluttered my FB feed that’s even worse:
      http://www.addictinginfo.org/2…..ith-obama/

  28. Grand Moff Serious Man   11 years ago

    Progressive Democratic Caucus to Obama: Go Mussolini

    Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.), co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said on Monday that unilateral action by the president on economic issues is more necessary than ever.

    “The president is in a pivotal position to go assertively with executive orders to create a political balance and an economic balance,” Grijalva told reporters on a conference call. “I’m one member that urges them to use that as a balancing tool and a leadership tool in these next two years.”

    Grijalva and his fellow caucus co-chair, Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), are putting their weight behind two proposals in particular: one executive order that would give federal contracting preference to firms that pay a living wage of $15 and provide basic benefits to workers, and another guaranteeing that contractors wouldn’t interfere with worker efforts to unionize. Branded as “More Than the Minimum,” the proposals are being pushed by the Change to Win labor federation, which includes the Service Employees International Union, and other progressive allies.

    Ellison and Grijalva, along with Change to Win, already have a couple of executive-action victories under their belts. They successfully pressured the White House to institute two executive actions that were signed by the president earlier this year.

    Can’t see that backfiring.

    1. Winston   11 years ago

      As long as it results in immigration reform Reason will be happy.

    2. Pro Libertate   11 years ago

      Look, if Obama doubles down on his Tyrant of the Month subscription, then fucking impeach him.

      1. Winston   11 years ago

        Will all Republicans and 15-13 Democrats support it though?

        1. Pro Libertate   11 years ago

          Depends on what they go after him for. Even the Democrats have to be worrying now about what the next president, who may very well be a Republican with the same party controlling the other two branches of government, will do with these new powers.

      2. Stormy Dragon   11 years ago

        It’s a bad idea, but I’m not sure how it qualifies as “tyranny”. Specifying the details of federal contracting is pretty firmly within the executive branch’s milieu.

        1. Pro Libertate   11 years ago

          I just meant generally. Some of the things he’s threatening to use executive orders to accomplish aren’t within his sole province.

          The ship has long since sailed, but I’d fucking impeach him for fighting illegal wars, too. What a bad idea it has been to allow one guy to get the entire country into war.

    3. Every Cop is a Criminal   11 years ago

      Ellison is my congressman. He really sucks ass and will never lose an election.

    4. All-Seeing Monocle   11 years ago

      So wait, now elections aren’t supposed to have consequences?

      1. Pro Libertate   11 years ago

        No, where did you ever get such a silly idea from?

    5. Chinny Chin Chin   11 years ago

      Executive action…

      THIS IS HOW DEMOCRACY WORKS! THIS IS HOW DEMOCRACY WORKS!

    6. Faceless Commenter   11 years ago

      Obama has not yet recovered from his awful lesson that the federal procurement process is bad for websites. He also never recovered from his discovery that there are no “shovel-ready” jobs thanks to federal contracting rules.

      Now comes the big idea that he Mussolini things even further.

      I think he might do it, just to fuck over his successor.

  29. Grand Moff Serious Man   11 years ago

    Gallup: 6 in 10 Americans think guns in the home make you safer

    Huffington Post ‘Gun Guy’ haz a sad because the science is settled!

    In the place where the argument really counts, the arena of public opinion, the folks who believe that guns are a risk have fallen far behind. This week the Gallup Organization published a poll on whether Americans feel safer around guns, the fourth time they have conducted this poll in the last 14 years. In 2000, the poll showed that 35 percent of respondents thought the house with a gun safer and 51 percent thought it was less safe. This year, more than 60 percent thought a house with a gun was safer and only 30 percent believed it to be less safe.

    Why is there such a clear disconnect between the consensus among health researchers and the general public regarding the safety of guns? Somehow, the results of an awful lot of research doesn’t seem to be getting through. I’ve been a gun guy all my life and if anyone tries to convince me that guns aren’t lethally dangerous, it’s a discussion that will come to a quick end. But it’s not a discussion that seems to be happening between gun scholars and anyone else.

    I dunno, maybe because guns are inanimate objects and individuals are able to assess the risks when they buy them?

    1. HeteroPatriarch   11 years ago

      Only 60%?

    2. Warrren   11 years ago

      Wow. He starts with Kellerman study. Way to throw yourself under the bus right at the start, panty-wad.

    3. All-Seeing Monocle   11 years ago

      They aren’t listening to the TOP MEN. HOW CAN THIS BE? *smoke coming out of ears*

    4. Trouser-Pod   11 years ago

      There have been some people online that have questioned whether or not the HP Gun Guy is real/legit.

      At the very least, he seems to be of the opinion, “Ewww, no guns for anyone unless they meet my criteria.” That tends to be only “professionals” and proglodytes that wouldn’t dare be around a gun.

    5. Suthenboy   11 years ago

      “gun scholars”

      If ever there was a bullshit title that is it. I think what he means is ‘gun grabbers’.

  30. Stormy Dragon   11 years ago

    The hipster effect: When anticonformists all look the same

    when hipsters are too slow in detecting the trends, they will keep making the same choices and therefore remain correlated as time goes by, while their trend evolves in time as a periodic function. This is true as long as the majority of the population is made of hipsters. Otherwise, hipsters will be, again, largely aligned, towards a constant direction which is imposed by the mainstream choices.

    1. Winston   11 years ago

      Not surprising. Non-conformists originally referred to Baptists and Methodists after all.

      1. Winston   11 years ago

        And the originally anti-establishmentarians were the Puritans.

        1. Marshall Gill   11 years ago

          But who were the original antidisestablimenatianists?

          1. Winston   11 years ago

            Anglicans.

          2. Mickey Rat   11 years ago

            Cavaliers.

  31. Rich Vail   11 years ago

    This isn’t about regulating a business model. It’s about regulating an area of speech that the government has no control over. What will come next will be licensing of blogs, and websites…and the government will have control over WHO gets a license…just like the IRS…

    Does anyone where not think that will come? Democrats already want journalists to be licensed…

    1. HeteroPatriarch   11 years ago

      Journalists and any group that talks about politics publicly.

    2. Warrren   11 years ago

      They want to license everybody for everything.

  32. Iucundus   11 years ago

    Italians find common sense, quash convictions of scientists who failed to predict earthquake

    Common sense supplies now depleted for foreseeable future

    1. Warrren   11 years ago

      I did not predict that.

    2. paranoid android   11 years ago

      Charges are now pending against the legal analysts who told the prosecution their case was a slam-dunk.

  33. Stormy Dragon   11 years ago

    In a shocking twist, the nurse that didn’t have ebola turns out not to have had ebola all along:

    Kaci Hickox Still Doesn’t Have Ebola, Might Move Out of Maine

    Nurse Kaci Hickox, who was quarantined in New Jersey after returning from a trip to treat Ebola patients in Sierra Leone, today reaches the end of the 21-day period during which individuals exposed to Ebola are at risk of developing the disease.

    1. PapayaSF   11 years ago

      The point of a quarantine is to make sure someone does not have a disease. Exiting quarantine without succumbing to a disease does not mean quarantine is a bad idea. It’s like saying you didn’t really need to wear your seatbelt today, because you didn’t have an accident.

      And note that 21 days only covers 95% of cases, and even 42 days only covers 98%.

      Also of note: CDC officials have ordered $2.7 million in personal protective equipment (PPE) in order to assist U.S. hospitals caring for Ebola patients

      1. Stormy Dragon   11 years ago

        In this case the quarantine was more like saying that because you might get in a car accident, you should wear a seatbelt on the toilet.

        1. PapayaSF   11 years ago

          No, it was because she worked directly with Ebola patients, and many such people have gotten Ebola. Sheesh.

          1. Stormy Dragon   11 years ago

            She also had numerous blood tests showing she didn’t have ebola.

        2. cavalier973   11 years ago

          You don’t wear a seatbelt on the toilet? I guess next you’re going to tell me that you go wingsuiting on the weekends.

    2. Ted S.   11 years ago

      This proves that the border walls worked!

  34. Warrren   11 years ago

    A sub 300 comment PM lynx? Shameful.

  35. CE   11 years ago

    Headed into the presidential campaign, leading Paul advisers include Jesse Benton, a longtime Paul family operative, who lives in Louisville…

    Better finish up some house cleaning before April then.

    http://www.politico.com/story/…..z3IiOw6Toc

  36. Brendan   11 years ago

    If the internet is treated like a utility, that would mean that users/companies that send and/or receive large amounts of data would pay proportionally more on metered connection the way everyone does with power, water, etc.

    As large originators/recipients of data seek out low cost metering/flat fee providers, you can bet that the transit providers/ISPs that peer with them on a settlement free basis will dissolve those agreements and demand paid peering as they see huge imbalances in their peer connections. (Typical SFI agreements require near equal exchange of data)

    It won’t take long before the large originators and/or recipients naturally have to slow down or limit capacity as they find their customers won’t absorb anymore of the costs. The alternative is what some have been doing where they install replica servers or content distribution servers inside the networks of ISPs so that streaming traffic is local to each ISP. This isn’t cheap and no doubt more ISPs will demand that local replication be installed in more and more of their datacenters to keep traffic as local as possible.

    The same people who always complain when reality is uncomfortable can be counted on to demand price caps, mandatory SFI, looser replica/CDN policies, etc. at which point we’ll all see our service become progressively poorer and less reliable. Not the kind of neutrality and equality I want.

  37. Cyto   11 years ago

    Back on topic:

    This “net neutrality” proposal is nothing close to the anti-corporate internet freedom that supporters on the left believe it to be. This is how regulatory capture begins.

    Once the FCC has power over a many, many billion dollar industry like the internet, the money and power will begin to flow in their direction until the big ISP’s have the regulations rewritten to their advantage. Eventually they will have their monopolies preserved and protected by the government. Service will get crappier, not better. And if they really want paid access for big data services like google and netflix, the government will be happy to add that to the regulations. Lose-lose.

    If you really wanted to preserve “net neutrality” you would just require some explicit disclosures about what the ISP will be doing with it’s traffic. That way the market can decide if it wants to pay $35 per month for broadband with boosted access to services that pay for extra speed, or pay $85 per month for guaranteed neutral access at high speeds.

    1. Knarf Yenrab!   11 years ago

      This “net neutrality” proposal is nothing close to the anti-corporate internet freedom that supporters on the left believe it to be. This is how regulatory capture begins.

      It’s Cartelization 101. Halfway-educated lefties are at least aware that the FDA is run by industry insiders like Margaret Hamburg and Michael Taylor, mainly because they’ve been trained to hate Monsanto as much as they do the Kochs. As usual, they hate Monsanto for all the wrong reasons.

      The FCC is run by the ultimate industry insider, someone who has spent his entire career protecting the profits of the cartelized businesses from potential threats. But that’s totally different because Monsanto is bad and Wheeler is sure to be turncoat who will stick it to Comcast and Verizon. Meanwhile all of his senior staff are former reps, attorneys, and assorted bigwigs of the telecom industry.

    2. kbolino   11 years ago

      That way the market can decide if it wants to pay $35 per month for broadband with boosted access to services that pay for extra speed, or pay $85 per month for guaranteed neutral access at high speeds.

      But that would involve some form of personal accountability. They’d much rather force you to subsidize their usage than have to pay for it themselves.

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