US Politics Mega-thread - Page 1644

On February 14 2015 13:26 Mohdoo wrote:


I'm not sure what you're getting at with this.

On February 14 2015 13:59 coverpunch wrote:

I have mixed feelings on the issue, but it's basically President Obama signing an executive order urging tech companies to help the US government protect them from cyberattacks by building mandatory backdoors in their products.

I just added a facetious comment in the beginning.

On February 14 2015 14:08 Mohdoo wrote:


My take on it was this:

"There is stuff we can do that you can't do. There is stuff that you can do that we can't do. Let's be like China and combine forces so that we have the same fighting power that they do."

On February 14 2015 14:08 Mohdoo wrote:


My take on it was this:

"There is stuff we can do that you can't do. There is stuff that you can do that we can't do. Let's be like China and combine forces so that we have the same fighting power that they do."

Less than six weeks on his powerful Capitol Hill perch, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is on the verge of watching one of his most important promises — to never again shut down the government — go up in smoke.

Lawmakers on Friday began a 10-day hiatus, leaving them just four days when they return to pass funding for the Department of Homeland Security to avoid the shutdown of a key federal agency. The DHS budget fight follows an effort among GOP conservatives to roll back President Obama’s recent executive orders on immigration.

Conservatives are adamant that the security agency should be funded only if the legislation also overrules Obama’s orders, which prevent the deportation of millions of illegal immigrants. But Senate Democrats, even the few who oppose Obama’s moves, have blocked the House-passed legislation with repeated filibusters.

That has left McConnell trapped inside a legislative box that he had vowed to avoid — and one that for the previous four years his close ally, House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio), frequently wandered into without an exit strategy.

On February 15 2015 02:03 Danglars wrote:
McConnell, after his no-shutdowns pledge, quickly finds himself boxed in
WaPo

A homeless man who was shot and killed by officers at a busy intersection had thrown multiple rocks, hitting two officers, and had refused to put down other stones, authorities said Wednesday.

Officers used a stun gun on the man, but it had no effect, Pasco Police Chief Bob Metzger said at a news conference. Because of his "threatening" behavior, officers fired their guns, he said.

Metzger said he did not know whether a weapon was found.

The man killed was 35-year-old Antonio Zambrano-Montes, whose last address was a Pasco homeless shelter, said Franklin County Coroner Dan Blasdel.

Witnesses say the man was running away when he was shot. They told the Tri-City Herald ( http://goo.gl/vm1Aln ) the man had run about half a block when he was killed about 5 p.m. Tuesday near the Fiesta Foods store.

The shooting occurred after officers responded to a report of a man throwing rocks at cars at a busy intersection near a grocery store.

Dario Infante, 21, of Pasco, recorded video from a vehicle about 50 feet away as the scene unfolded. In an email interview, he said he decided to start recording when he saw an officer trying to use a stun gun on the man. Infante said he saw the man throw a few rocks at police officers but he didn't see him hit any officers. Five "pops" are audible shortly after the video begins, and the man can be seen running away, across a street and down a sidewalk, pursued by three officers.

As the officers draw closer to the running man, he stops, turns around and faces them. Multiple "pops" are heard and the man falls to the ground.

"He didn't throw any rocks after he started running," Infante said.

Several dozen people gathered at Pasco City Hall on Wednesday afternoon to raise concerns about the shooting.

The ACLU of Washington also issued a statement, calling the incident "very disturbing."

"Fleeing from police and not following an officer's command should not be sufficient for a person to get shot," the group's executive director, Kathleen Taylor. Deadly force should be used only as a last resort, she said.

Witness Ben Patrick told the newspaper police fired at the man as his back was turned.

"I really thought they were just going walk up and tackle or tase him," he said. "But they opened fire. His back was turned."

Tuesday's case was the fourth fatal shooting involving a Tri-City police officer in Pasco in the last six months. Officers have been cleared of any wrongdoing in all three of the previous cases.

PASCO, Wash. - A police officer involved in a deadly shooting in Washington state was a defendant in a federal civil-rights lawsuit the city of Pasco settled in 2013 for $100,000.

The Seattle Times reports the lawsuit claimed Pasco officers were inadequately trained in the use of force and how to respond to street confrontations, according to court records.

On February 14 2015 06:08 Mohdoo wrote:


I think "Only 7 years" is a silly argument to make when you look at how many states legalized it between now and then. This is clearly an extremely different landscape. Progress is happening a lot faster than it ever did. I think that's a big reason a lot of anti-gay marriage people have been comfortable making their positions public on social media etc. They assumed that it would be a long time before it was nationally recognized, which essentially puts them in the same position as people who were in favor of segregation shortly before that was overturned. They are going to become the people we read about in textbooks and I think a lot of people against gay marriage assumed that label would come much later, if at all (likely not at all) because they didn't expect this to happen so fast.

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R) isn't interested in talking about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, especially as it relates to his brother, former President George W. Bush.

"I won't talk about the past," Bush said on Friday when a reporter asked him about an upcoming foreign policy speech in Chicago, according to Bloomberg Politics. "I'll talk about the future. If I'm in the process of considering the possibility of running, it's not about re-litigating anything in the past. It's about trying to create a set of ideas and principles that will help us move forward."

The former Florida governor said that if he decides to run for president in 2016, his campaign would focus on a positive vision of the future rather than focus on the past.

Bush also refused to answer a question about fighting the Islamic State, only saying that he would get into foreign policy during his speech on Wednesday at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs.

On February 15 2015 09:54 Stratos_speAr wrote:


Actually, 12 out of 37 states/districts have legalized it by the legislative process, and several of them (e.g. Minnesota, Washington state) did it via a public referendum.

Legal marijuana was a $700 million dollar industry in Colorado last year, according to a Washington Post analysis of recently-released tax data from the state's Department of Revenue. In 2014, Colorado retailers sold $386 million of medical marijuana and $313 million for purely recreational purposes. The two segments of the market generated $63 million in tax revenue, with an additional $13 million collected in licenses and fees.

+ Show Spoiler +

The total economic impact of the state's marijuana industry is likely greater, as these figures don't include retail sales of products related to marijuana, like pipes and bongs, and they don't account for increased tourist spending in other segments of Colorado's economy, like hotels and restaurants.

With a full year of data to work with, the state has a clearer picture of what to expect from its marijuana market going forward. Total marijuana tax revenues are now expected to climb to $94 million annually by 2016, according to the latest projections. This would equate to a $1 billion dollar retail market.

The revenue figures are high enough that Colorado now finds itself in the enviable situation of having to figure out what to do with all that money. And it's catching the attention of other states, like Vermont, now considering legalization.

On February 15 2015 12:04 Mindcrime wrote:
Quick, how many states approved the Constitution by referendum.

On February 15 2015 09:54 Stratos_speAr wrote:


Actually, 12 out of 37 states/districts have legalized it by the legislative process, and several of them (e.g. Minnesota, Washington state) did it via a public referendum.

As Congress mulls America's war with the Islamic State terror group, more than 4,000 Fort Carson soldiers prepared Thursday to leave for Kuwait, where they will take over as America's largest ground force in the troubled region.

The 3rd Brigade Combat Team bid farewell to the post in a ceremony and soon will serve as U.S. Central Command's Reserve force in the Middle East - the first soldiers into battle if a major combat force is used to battle Islamic State fighters.

The unit is Fort Carson's heaviest force, armed with tanks and Bradley Fighting Vehicles. Many of its soldiers are veterans of one or more of the brigade's four combat tours in Iraq.

"We're no strangers to deployment," the brigade's commander, Col. Greg Sierra, told a crowd gathered for the ceremony.

Sierra's soldiers have trained for more than a year for the Kuwait mission. They practiced skills that atrophied over more than a decade of counterinsurgency fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, relearning the armored combat skills last used in the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

"We are absolutely ready for this mission," Sierra said.

President Barack Obama on Wednesday asked Congress to authorize long-term combat efforts against the Islamic State, but reinforced his pledge to not use the Army's big combat units in the fight.