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Friday, October 4, 2024

CNBC: “The U.S. economy added far more jobs than expected in September, pointing to a vital employment picture as the unemployment rate edged lower, the Labor Department reported Friday. Nonfarm payrolls surged by 254,000 for the month, up from a revised 159,000 in August and better than the 150,000 Dow Jones consensus forecast. The unemployment rate fell to 4.1%, down 0.1 percentage point.”

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Public Service Announcement

Washington Post: "Americans can again order free rapid coronavirus tests by mail, the Biden administration announced Thursday. People can request four free at-home tests per household through covidtests.gov. They will begin shipping Monday. The move comes ahead of an expected winter wave of coronavirus cases. The September revival of the free testing program is in line with the Biden administration’s strategy to respond to the coronavirus as part of a broader public health campaign to protect Americans from respiratory viruses, including influenza and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), that surge every fall and winter. But free tests were not mailed during the summer wave, which wastewater surveillance data shows is now receding."

Washington Post: “Comedy news outlet the Onion — reinvigorated by new ownership over this year — is bringing back its once-popular video parodies of cable news. But this time, there’s someone with real news anchor experience in the chair. When the first episodes appear online Monday, former WAMU and MSNBC host Joshua Johnson will be the face of the resurrected 'Onion News Network.' Playing an ONN anchor character named Dwight Richmond, Johnson says he’s bringing a real anchor’s sense of clarity — and self-importance — to the job. 'If ONN is anything, it’s a news organization that is so unaware of its own ridiculousness that it has the confidence of a serial killer,' says Johnson, 44.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I'll be darned if I can figured out how to watch ONN. If anybody knows, do tell. Thanks.

Washington Post: “First came the surprising discovery that Earth’s atmosphere is leaking. But for roughly 60 years, the reason remained a mystery. Since the late 1960s, satellites over the poles detected an extremely fast flow of particles escaping into space — at speeds of 20 kilometers per second. Scientists suspected that gravity and the magnetic field alone could not fully explain the stream. There had to be another source creating this leaky faucet. It turns out the mysterious force is a previously undiscovered global electric field, a recent study found. The field is only about the strength of a watch battery — but it’s enough to thrust lighter ions from our atmosphere into space. It’s also generated unlike other electric fields on Earth. This newly discovered aspect of our planet provides clues about the evolution of our atmosphere, perhaps explaining why Earth is habitable. The electric field is 'an agent of chaos,' said Glyn Collinson, a NASA rocket scientist and lead author of the study. 'It undoes gravity.... Without it, Earth would be very different.'”

The New York Times lists Emmy winners. The AP has an overview story here.

New York Times: “Hvaldimir, a beluga whale who had captured the public’s imagination since 2019 after he was spotted wearing a harness seemingly designed for a camera, was found dead on Saturday in Norway, according to a nonprofit that worked to protect the whale.... [Hvaldimir] was wearing a harness that identified it as “equipment” from St. Petersburg. There also appeared to be a camera mount. Some wondered if the whale was on a Russian reconnaissance mission. Russia has never claimed ownership of the whale. If Hvaldimir was a spy, he was an exceptionally friendly one. The whale showed signs of domestication, and was comfortable around people. He remained in busier waters than are typical for belugas....” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Oh, Lord, do not let Bobby Kennedy, Jr., near that carcass. ~~~

     ~~~ AP Update: “There’s no evidence that a well-known beluga whale that lived off Norway’s coast and whose harness ignited speculation it was a Russian spy was shot to death last month as claimed by animal rights groups, Norwegian police said Monday.... Police said that the Norwegian Veterinary Institute conducted a preliminary autopsy on the animal, which was become known as 'Hvaldimir,' combining the Norwegian word for whale — hval — and the first name of Russian President Vladimir Putin. 'There are no findings from the autopsy that indicate that Hvaldimir has been shot,' police said in a statement.”

New York Times: Botswana's “President Mokgweetsi Masisi grinned as he lifted the diamond, a 2,492-carat stone that is the biggest diamond unearthed in more than a century and the second-largest ever found, according to the Vancouver-based mining operator Lucara, which owns the mine where it was found. This exceptional discovery could bring back the luster of the natural diamond mining industry, mining companies and experts say. The diamond was discovered in the same relatively small mine in northeastern Botswana that has produced several of the largest such stones in living memory. Such gemstones typically surface as a result of volcanic activity.... The diamond will likely sell in the range of tens of millions of dollars....”

Click on photo to enlarge.

~~~ Guardian: "On a distant reef 16,000km from Paris, surfer Gabriel Medina has given Olympic viewers one of the most memorable images of the Games yet, with an airborne celebration so well poised it looked too good to be true. The Brazilian took off a thundering wave at Teahupo’o in Tahiti on Monday, emerging from a barrelling section before soaring into the air and appearing to settle on a Pacific cloud, pointing to the sky with biblical serenity, his movements mirrored precisely by his surfboard. The shot was taken by Agence France-Presse photographer Jérôme Brouillet, who said “the conditions were perfect, the waves were taller than we expected”. He took the photo while aboard a boat nearby, capturing the surreal image with such accuracy that at first some suspected Photoshop or AI." 

Washington Post: “'Mary Cassatt at Work' is a large and mostly satisfying exhibition devoted to the career of the great American artist beloved for her sensitive and often sentimental views of family life. The 'at work' in the title of the Philadelphia Museum of Art show references the curators’ interest in Cassatt’s pioneering effort to establish herself as a professional artist within a male-dominated field. Throughout the show, which includes some 130 paintings, pastels, prints and drawings, the wall text and the art on view stresses Cassatt’s fixation on art as a career rather than a pastime.... Mary Cassatt at Work is on view at the Philadelphia Museum of Art through Sept. 8. philamuseum.org”

New York Times: “Bob Newhart, who died on Thursday at the age of 94, has been such a beloved giant of popular culture for so long that it’s easy to forget how unlikely it was that he became one of the founding fathers of stand-up comedy. Before basically inventing the hit stand-up special, with the 1960 Grammy-winning album 'The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart' — that doesn’t even count his pay-per-view event broadcast on Canadian television that some cite as the first filmed special — he was a soft-spoken accountant who had never done a set in a nightclub. That he made a classic with so little preparation is one of the great miracles in the history of comedy.... Bob Newhart holds up. In fact, it’s hard to think of a stand-up from that era who is a better argument against the commonplace idea that comedy does not age well.”

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The Commentariat -- Jan, 15, 2014

Peter Baker & Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "President Obama will issue new guidelines on Friday to curtail government surveillance, but will not embrace the most far-reaching proposals of his own advisers and will ask Congress to help decide some of the toughest issues, according to people briefed on his thinking. Mr. Obama plans to increase limits on access to bulk telephone data, call for privacy safeguards for foreigners and propose the creation of a public advocate to represent privacy concerns at a secret intelligence court. But he will not endorse leaving bulk data in the custody of telecommunications firms, nor will he require court permission for all so-called national security letters seeking business records." ...

... David Sanger & Thom Shanker of the New York Times: "The National Security Agency has implanted software in nearly 100,000 computers around the world that allows the United States to conduct surveillance on those machines and can also create a digital highway for launching cyberattacks. While most of the software is inserted by gaining access to computer networks, the N.S.A. has increasingly made use of a secret technology that enables it to enter and alter data in computers even if they are not connected to the Internet, according to N.S.A. documents, computer experts and American officials.... In most cases, the radio frequency hardware must be physically inserted by a spy, a manufacturer or an unwitting user." CW: Every time my laptop freezes up, I'm going to call BestBuy & scream at the geek-spy who implanted radio waves in my brain computer. ...

... Mike Masnick of TechDirt: "... these activities certainly seem more in line with what you'd expect the NSA to be doing, and raise (yet again) the question of why the NSA needs to 'collect it all' when it appears that programs like these can be quite effective in doing targeted surveillance against those actually seeking to attack the US in some manner?"

Craig Whitlock & Craig Timberg of the Washington Post: "Federal, state and local law enforcement agencies are increasingly borrowing border-patrol drones for domestic surveillance operations, newly released records show, a harbinger of what is expected to become the commonplace use of unmanned aircraft by police. Customs and Border Protection, which has the largest U.S. drone fleet of its kind outside the Defense Department, flew nearly 700 such surveillance missions on behalf of other agencies from 2010 to 2012...." CW: Hollywood stars should see TMZ dronecams peeking in their windows any day now. ...

... Adam Silverman of the Burlington (Vermont) Free Press: "The National Security Agency's director, responding to questions from independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, says the government is not spying on Congress. But a two-page letter from Army Gen. Keith Alexander to Sanders goes on to state that the agency can make no guarantee that representatives or senators have not had their 'telephone metadata' caught up in broad government sweeps."

Our Congress at Work

Burgess Everett of Politico: "The Senate blocked two separate proposals to revive emergency unemployment benefits that expired in December, all but killing the prospects of reviving jobless aid for now. The chamber voted 52-48 to reject a bill that would have extended benefits through November and pay for it by extending the sequester's mandatory spending cuts into 2024. A different measure to extend the aid for three months -- without a pay-for -- was defeated 55-45. Both measures needed 60 votes to advance."

Ed O'Keefe of the Washington Post "called out some of the more notable and controversial elements" in the $1.1 trillion spending bill:

The bill ... bars the State Department from closing the chancery at the U.S. Embassy in the Holy See and merging it with the one at the U.S. Embassy in Rome for security reasons, a project first pushed by George W. Bush's administration. -- Ed O'Keefe ...

God is in the details. -- Anonymous


Despite the concern over security after the 2012 attack on the United States Mission in Benghazi, Libya, the spending bill earmarks less to embassy security, construction and maintenance than it allotted for fiscal 2013 -- $2.67 billion, down by $224 million. -- Jonathan Weisman, New York Times ...

That isn't a line-item. It's a punchline. -- Charles Pierce

Edward Wyatt of the New York Times: "A federal appeals court on Tuesday threw out Federal Communications Commission rules that require Internet service providers to give all traffic equal access through their networks. The decision could pave the way for Internet service providers like Verizon and AT&T to charge content companies -- say ESPN or Facebook -- to deliver their data to consumers at a faster speed." ...

... Wyatt has more on the ruling here. ...

... Charles Pierce: "The Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia appears pretty much to have decided that any attempt by this particular executive branch to regulate anything ever is prima facie unconstitutional.... I think that first sentence may be the only explanation necessary for this ruling. The FCC is going to fight the ruling, as it should, and good for it. But, at the moment, Internet is sliding toward pay-for-play because, I suppose, freedom."

Juliet Eilperin of the Washington Post: "Faced with a recalcitrant Congress and a constrained budget, President Obama and his top aides are increasingly working to mobilize an outside coalition of corporate, nonprofit and academic groups to promote White House economic and social policies. The strategy will be on display Thursday as the White House holds a summit with more than 100 college and university presidents, who will promise to enroll more low-income students and ensure that they graduate. This month, the administration also will sponsor a session for corporations that pledge to hire the long-term unemployed."

Screw the Workers. Harold Meyerson of the Washington Post: "... the kind of free-trade deal embodied by NAFTA ... and the Trans-Pacific Partnership ... increase the incomes of Americans investing abroad even as they diminish the incomes of Americans working at home.... There are ways that a developed nation can trade with the developing world without gutting its own economy. Germany has been able to protect its workers through the advantage of having the euro as its currency, by requiring its corporations to give their employees a major say in their companies' investment decisions and by embracing a form of capitalism in which shareholders don't play a major role.... Absent such reforms ... trade deals will only negate our attempts to diminish inequality." ...

... Screw the Environment. Coral Davenport of the New York Times: "The Obama administration is retreating from previous demands of strong international environmental protections in order to reach agreement on a sweeping Pacific trade deal that is a pillar of President Obama's strategic shift to Asia, according to documents obtained by WikiLeaks, environmentalists and people close to the contentious trade talks."

Conservatives Are Liars, Ctd. John Cassidy of the New Yorker: "Conservatives often regard the government's anti-poverty programs as failures. But new measurements show that they are wrong."

AFP: "Senator Rand Paul will introduce legislation Tuesday to finally bring Washington's Iraq war authorization to an end, his office said, and the White House backs the Republican's efforts in principle."

Jonathan Easley of the Hill: "The Obama administration announced Tuesday that it was again extending the ObamaCare enrollment deadline for people with pre-existing conditions. The administration said it will extend the Pre-Existing Conditions Insurance Plan (PCIP), slated to end January 31, until March 15." ...

... Ezra Klein: "The risk of a[n ObamaCare] 'death spiral' is over." Klein explains why.

Kevin Liptak of CNN: "President Barack Obama plans to soon meet with Pope Francis for the first time. Secretary of State John Kerry said the President was 'looking forward' to visiting the popular new leader of the Roman Catholic Church at the Vatican.... The White House said it had no specific travel announcements to make...."

Congressional Races

Alex Eisenstadt of Politico: "Former lobbyist David Jolly on Tuesday won the Republican primary in the special election for a vacant Florida congressional seat, vaulting him into a nationally watched battle with Democrat Alex Sink for the right to succeed the late GOP Rep. Bill Young. With 96 percent of precincts reporting, according to The Associated Press, Jolly led with 44.6 percent of the vote.... Sink glided to her party's nomination unscathed."

Jake Sherman & John Bresnahan of Politico: "Virginia Democratic Rep. Jim Moran will retire after 23 years in the House, according to multiple Democratic sources. The retirement is the third for Democrats this week: On Monday, California Rep. George Miller said he would leave Congress after 40 years and New York Rep. Bill Owens announced Tuesday he would forgo reelection in 2014."

Carl Hulse of the New York Times: "Since September, Americans for Prosperity, a group financed in part by the billionaire Koch brothers, has spent an estimated $20 million on television advertising that calls out House and Senate Democrats by name for their support of the Affordable Care Act. The unusually aggressive early run of television ads, which has been supplemented by other conservative initiatives, has gone largely unanswered, and strategists in both parties agree it is taking a toll on its targets."

Local News

Juliet Eilperin: "A federal judge ruled Tuesday that Oklahoma's ban on same-sex marriage is unconstitutional, the latest in a string of recent court decisions that have challenged such state prohibitions. The decision by U.S. District Judge Terence Kernis stayed pending appeal, meaning marriages will not take place immediately in Oklahoma."


Jenna Portnoy of the Star-Ledger: "In his fourth State of the State address [Tuesday, New Jersey] Gov. Chris Christie called for a longer school day for New Jersey students, and hinted that he will push for another round of pension reform. Christie only briefly touched on the George Washington Bridge controversy, saying 'mistakes were clearly made,' but pledged to push forward with his agenda." The full text is here. ...

... Ted Mann of the Wall Street Journal: "Gov. Chris Christie was with [David Wildstein,] the official who arranged the closure of local lanes leading to the George Washington Bridge on Sept. 11, 2013 -- the third day of the closures, and well after they had triggered outrage from local officials beset by heavy traffic.... Also present with Mr. Christie that day were Bill Baroni, the authority's deputy executive director, who was helping Mr. Wildstein manage the fallout from the closures among local officials, subpoenaed documents show. Also there was David Samson, the Port Authority chairman and close Christie ally...." ...

... Bob Jordan of the Asbury Park Press: "Chris Christie says he had no role in the planning of last year's $25 million 'Stronger Than the Storm' advertising campaign, but a bidder says staff officials made it clear the Republican governor should star in the TV commercials. At oral presentations for bidders on March 15, state officials 'inquired if we would be open to featuring the governor in the ads,' said Shannon Morris, president of Sigma Group of Oradell. 'They stated an interest. They asked us about using the governor,' Morris told the Asbury Park Press, adding that officials 'didn't ask us about anybody else as a subject.'"

... David Chen of the New York Times talks to friends & co-workers of Bridget Kelly: "Several Trenton political operatives said that Ms. Kelly, having paid her dues, became more brusque after being elevated to Mr. Christie's inner circle. She stopped mingling with lobbyists and other staff members, and, they suggested, she seemed to relish teaming up with [Christie campaign manager Bill] Stepien in administering political payback." CW: In other words, mostly bullshit "impressions." ...

... CW.: Looks as if we're about to hear that Stepien put Kelly up to ordering the lane closings. Maybe he did. That would at least make some sense. In his marathon presser, Christie claimed he let Stepien go because, "I was disturbed by the tone and behavior and attitude of callous indifference that was displayed in the emails by my former campaign manager, Bill Stepien. And reading that, it made me lose my confidence in Bill's judgment." It seems likely that Christie also knew Stepien was implicated in Bridgegate far beyond his "tone." ...

... Steve M. takes on a couple of stupid Christie apologists -- Charlie Cook & Michael Gerson.

Attacked by Lethal Bag of Popcorn. Josh Marshall of TPM: "We have the latest development in the national joke known as 'Stand Your Ground' gun laws. The murderous jerk who killed a man in a Tampa theater [Monday] because he wouldn't stop texting may be planning to use a 'stand your ground' defense. Curtis Reeves, Jr., a retired police captain says he feared for his life after the victim 'assaulted' him with a bag of movie popcorn."

News Ledes

New York Times: "New York City will pay nearly $18 million to settle civil rights lawsuits filed on behalf of roughly 1,600 people who claimed they were wrongfully swept up in mass arrests during the 2004 Republican National Convention, lawyers for the city and plaintiffs said on Wednesday. Many of those arrested during the convention, at which President George W. Bush was nominated for a second term, were detained in filthy cells with poor air quality in a former bus depot on a Hudson River pier, according to a complaint filed in the case. They included protesters, journalists and bystanders who were trapped on the sidewalk by police officers using mesh nets, according to the complaint."

AP: "The company responsible for the chemical spill in West Virginia moved its chemicals to a nearby plant that has already been cited for safety violations, including a backup containment wall with holes in it, and state officials may force the company to move the chemicals elsewhere. Inspectors on Monday found five safety violations at Freedom Industries' storage facility in Nitro, about 10 miles from the spill site in Charleston."

Comments Off

Reader Comments (10)

My favorite Chris Crisco story so far: a rock star in the making.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/new-jersey-officials-asked-for-christie-to-be-in-ads

January 14, 2014 | Unregistered CommenterJames Singer

A bit off the topic of today's Commentariat, but very much on my mind (all of ours, I am sure) about Secy. Kerry getting closer to brokering an Israeli/Palestinian peace. No help from AIPAC (should we be surprised?) or Bibi's henchmen!

..." Israel's defence minister has accused the US Secretary of State, John Kerry, of having an "incomprehensible obsession" with his push for Middle East peace.....but later apologized."

P.S. He did not really apologize--and insists that Kerry does not understand the Palestinian "mind." A bigot and racist of the first order. The right wing Israeli government will do whatever is necessary to wreck the peace-making process--which finally looks like it has a chance. I am sure our AIPAC senator, Chuckie Schumer is a happy camper.

January 15, 2014 | Unregistered CommenterKate Madison

My, oh my, how do those gunslingers do it? We argue, I shoot you. You're dead, but I'm the victim. Those poor gun nuts. Always the victims.

I'm thinking it may come out that this former police captain, Curtis Reeves, who murdered a dad for the obscene crime of texting his three year old little girl (horrors!) in a movie theater (where, according to theater policy, weapons are not allowed...but since when has that ever stopped the gun nuts?) in the Tampa area is somehow related to George Zimmerman.

In fact, Zimmerman may his illegitimate offspring. Both of them seem unnaturally attached to carrying weapons wherever they go (let's face it. If you're packing a piece into a suburban multiplex movie theater in the middle of the day, that thing might as well be surgically attached to your hip), they fly into fits of rage at the slightest provocation (texting, walking, both without permission, mind you), they both go out of their way to instigate and purposefully escalate a non event into a deadly encounter, and they both have a perverse fear of death by junk food. Skittles and popcorn. "Your honor, the guy threatened me with popcorn." " Popcorn? Shit! Why didn't you say so? Case dismissed."

What's next? Shooting someone for waving a deadly bag M&Ms?

The fact is that had Mr. Law and Order not been packing, against the policy of the theater management, the worst that would have happened might have been a punch in the nose (and assault with a popcorn kernel). But the presence of the weapon turned that theater into a crime scene and left a little girl fatherless.

But I guess he had to die. And that little girl has to grow up without her daddy. There was nothing for it, because, that ex-cop needed to be FRRREEEEE to exercise his second amendment rights and blow another human being away.

Funny, how so often it's the innocent who have to die for the other guy's freedom.

But that's life in Gun Lovers' Paradise.

January 15, 2014 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

"Senator Rand Paul will introduce legislation Tuesday to finally bring Washington’s Iraq war authorization to an end"

How much will you bet me that Li'l Randy, when he makes his play for the White House, takes credit for ending the war in Iraq?

All he really has to do to end that conflict is show the warring parties his toupée. It would be over like that. My hands would be in the air in seconds if I thought that thing was coming for me.

January 15, 2014 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

It appears that John Boehner, spiffy speaker of the do nothing branch of government, took money from Freedom Industries, (which is linked to Koch industries) the company with the faulty container that contaminated West V. Elk River, which might explain his reason for saying "We don't need any more regulation," but then again, it may be just him being ornery given headaches from too much consumption of that old dog that bites.

http://www.newrepublic.com/article/116212/west-virginia-chemical-spill-john-boehner-and-freedom-industries

January 15, 2014 | Unregistered CommenterPD Pepe

Re: The Second Amendment 2014 edition. "You have the right to shoot people who are doing something you don't approve of."
That's great.
The "kid clause' of the Second Amendment 2014 edition. "Your kid has the right to take your weapon to school." Cause everyone else does.
That's great.
2015 promises even better gun freedoms. "Share a gun"; publicly owned guns scattered about the schools, theaters, churches and playgrounds just in case your right to shoot somebody needs to be exercised; and you forgot your weapon at home.
That will be great too.

January 15, 2014 | Unregistered CommenterJJG

I have to concede, grudgingly, the reasonableness of my wife's contention; a man does not deserve to die for texting during the previews of coming attractions.

Having both of his thumbs and his dominant forearm broken and being ejected from the theater should be enough. The previews are an essential part of the movie-going experience for me. Even if you are an interventional cardiologist, put your phone on vibrate and leave the seating area of the theater if your phone goes off.

January 15, 2014 | Unregistered CommenterDavid

JJG,

Hey, I think you're on to something there.

I can easily see some entrepreneurial 2nd Amendment zombies, with funding from the NRA's billion dollar slush fund, starting up a short term firearm rental/share business, something like the Zipcars in Boston and the City CarShare program in Frisco.

They could have conveniently placed kiosks (malls, school playgrounds, cineplexes, grocery stores, cafes, anywhere some 'Merica Lovin' Patriot might be accosted by someone with "subversive" ideas or wielding dangerous fresh fruit or life threatening pastries; cheese danish are the worst!) from which the Patriot could select various caliber pistols, semi-automatics, rifles (in case the "attacker" is trying to get away--you can shoot 'em in the back, because, you know, freedom) and maybe the odd sawed off or two (never know when you'll need to shoot a bunch of 10 year olds when they start to scatter).

Plus! You can return it at any one of the 10,000 kiosks nationwide, in case you need to maybe go out of state to, er, "take care of business", know what I mean?

There could be specials for repeat customers! Shoot three people inside a week and you get half off your next rental of an Adam Lanza autographed Bushmaster XM-15 (okay, not his real autograph. He's dead. Self inflicted gunshot wound. But we'll put his picture--bug eyes and all--on the stock. Your pals will be sooooo jealous). If all three people are innocent you get a month's supply of ammo, because, really, no one is truly innocent. They must have done something that deserved killing. Maybe looked at a picture of Karl Marx without spitting.

Of course large capacity cartridges are always available at no extra charge, just in case you haven't been to the firing range in a few months. Your aim might be a little off and you might have to pop a few pain in the ass bystanders before capping your primary target. Wouldn't want to run out of ammo just as you're startin' to the get the range, am I right?

No pantywaist background checks, no regulations, no nothin' to stand between you and FREEDOOM. We take all major credit cards and debit cards.

Coming soon to a killing field (aka your neighborhood) near you.

I see big money ahead with this idea.

January 15, 2014 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

PD,

Is it any surprise that the company that has poisoned the water supply for hundreds of thousands of West Virginians, likely for months, due to shoddy practices with no oversight and no regulations is named "Freedom Industries"? Or that they're connected to the Kochs?

It's too perfect. You can't make this shit up.

But from here on out, maybe they could start migrating to more accurate names and put the faux patriotism on hold for a while. How about something like '"Money Making Death Scythe, Inc." or "Greedy Pricks, LLC" or the "We Just Don't Fucking Care Corporation".

Ahh...I guess I won't hold my breath. Hold on, I've got a call from my internet service provider, "Patriots and Internet Freedom (but not for long, sucker), Inc".

January 15, 2014 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

Okay, just one more then I'm done.

Is anyone else feeling a little pissed that a resource (the internet) developed and originally created with taxpayer money is on the verge of being turned over to Wall Street corporations who can then gouge those same taxpayers for their use of the system they already paid to develop?

January 15, 2014 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus
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