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ThirdPartyView posted:"gently caress off, we're full." - White gently caress, when people are willing to risk everything to go to your country, which is full of deadly creatures that can kill them at any time, you know their situation is hosed up to begin with.
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Jul 16, 2014 01:12
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Glenn Beck's The Blaze has found a guy who found an Urdu-to-English phrasebook on his Texas ranch last year in today's shit_that_totally_didnt_happen.flv https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qS3HylBYUjc
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Jul 16, 2014 01:16
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Joementum posted:Glenn Beck's The Blaze has found a guy who found an Urdu-to-English phrasebook on his Texas ranch last year in today's shit_that_totally_didnt_happen.flv
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Jul 16, 2014 01:21
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Oh, cool, more shit_that_totally_didnt_happen.flv thanks to Minnesota State House candidate Bob Frey on the topic of dinosaurs and men living together. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GG_Fkvm5uto Stay tuned for the point where the State Senator asks him if he's brought in fake fossils.
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Jul 16, 2014 01:25
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Xibanya posted:This has to be some kind of Life of Brian parody. This can't be real. Huh. I didn't realize "que" could substitute for "porque" in that context. Learned something new today!
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Jul 16, 2014 01:33
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Joementum posted:Oh, cool, more shit_that_totally_didnt_happen.flv thanks to Minnesota State House candidate Bob Frey on the topic of dinosaurs and men living together. I promise that most people around here are sane and I have no idea where crazies like this guy and Michele Bachmann come from.
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Jul 16, 2014 01:56
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Zeroisanumber posted:I promise that most people around here are sane and I have no idea where crazies like this guy and Michele Bachmann come from. The outer suburbs.
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Jul 16, 2014 01:59
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Xibanya posted:This has to be some kind of Life of Brian parody. This can't be real. I actually remembered enough high school spanish to do a double take when reading the sign! Shouldn't that que be porque, amongst other problems?
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Jul 16, 2014 02:01
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hobbesmaster posted:I actually remembered enough high school spanish to do a double take when reading the sign! Shouldn't that que be porque, amongst other problems? You can use que like that, I've seen it a few times. Ir should probably Vayanse or something.
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Jul 16, 2014 02:06
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Xibanya posted:This has to be some kind of Life of Brian parody. This can't be real. You can't say Life of Brian without linking it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XbI-fDzUJXI
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Jul 16, 2014 02:09
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Captain_Maclaine posted:You should see what the original, obviously unimplemented plans were for breaking up Texas upon its entry to the Union, it's pretty nuts. Texas was broken up upon accession to the US.  
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Jul 16, 2014 02:09
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Ghost of Reagan Past posted:I bet their plan for effective government involves upgrading all the technology so the offices are super high tech. And running things like a Silicon Valley firm. Having done extensive government work including implementing new IT systems, upgraded IT systems would do wonders for the efficiency of the government and are something you should push for. Like, I'm honestly at a loss for comparisons to convey how bad it is. You have people doing work in excel 2003 on windows 98 boxes still. The macros running on these were built by someone who left years ago, and don't work on the rare more upgraded systems due to syntax changes. Their processes for things as simple as vice taxes are incredibly human intensive, a standard API web portal to let big distributors automatically get their stamps would save so much in time and money it isn't funny. On that note their inventory management system for the vice stamps doesn't have a replenishment system, so after the system stopped working after 3 months 6 years ago they went back to spreadsheets to track over a billion dollars worth of tax streams. I know of one case where the state passed on 8 million from the tobacco settlement because they couldn't do the data entry to provide the records to claim it. In another someone had set up automatic disbursements from collections to accounts, but since no one could program after that person left and they didn't know the accounts, the money was just going to bank accounts until a Deloitte audit found that 2.3 billion. It wasn't embezzled, every last penny was sitting in those accounts, plus interest. It had just been lost for 5 years. I know of another case where the workers knew people were cheating the system because they saw the same SSNs go through again and again, but because the two systems weren't talking to each other and they weren't allowed to do a comparison, people were able to grift the system. The strength of bureaucracy is that it provides a system that makes sure certain tasks always get done, whether it is Dr Einstein or Mr Bean working in that patent office. That even if the office just got bombed to poo poo in a war, jobs that let the day to day life carry on will still get done. That doesn't mean it shouldn't take advantage of IT systems to save money and provide a higher quality of service to the tax payer. You look at places like the Nordic states where they have matched good service training with good systems and part of the reason they can provide so much is because they are efficient with how they get it done. Our persistent under funding of services has resulted in a system that is inefficient, which means that politicians don't want to spend the money to fix it. It is a perpetuating circle of suck, and anyone with the foresight to try and fix it has to deal with the fact that poo poo is so bad that the payback period for a new system is longer than the election cycle. At this point, our government IT system is like the roads - we need to upgrade it, but the cost is so huge that is makes everyone's butthole clench at the price tag. Fried Chicken fucked around with this message at 02:33 on Jul 16, 2014 |
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Jul 16, 2014 02:25
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Nintendo Kid posted:Texas was broken up upon accession to the US. You know what I was talking about, smartass.
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Jul 16, 2014 02:26
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Also  at the idea Texas actually administered any of those claimed northern areas, New Mexicans whooped our asses out, Feds stepped in and humbled those Alabaman carpetbaggers in Austin.
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Jul 16, 2014 02:27
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Captain_Maclaine posted:You know what I was talking about, smartass. Eh, part of the reason the idea of splitting Texas back then is so bizarre to us today is because they didn't split it. If they had and we'd seen all those states develop in their own ways rather than needing to balance say, the Houston area quasi "Southern" interests against the high plains Amarillo interests and coming out with a compromise, well it would probably make a lot more sense. But that's the thing with alt history and counter-factuals, there is no way to know.
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Jul 16, 2014 02:32
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Captain_Maclaine posted:You know what I was talking about, smartass. No actually I don't, because most of time people come along with "how Texas was really going to be split up" it's some bullshit with no historical basis. Largely due to the fact that actual Texan settlement was very sparse.
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Jul 16, 2014 02:48
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BetterToRuleInHell posted:This doesn't make sense. I thought there was going to be another investigation about his disappearance, why would they put him back on active duty? Not to mention what the quick return could do to his rehabilitation. Even if you're going to be tried for dessertion, you can't be while on justifiable I-was-tortured-for-years convalescence leave. And they have to investigate, which means he has to be doing something while that happens. Of course the meme will be how he gets all that sweet pay from OUR TAX DOLLARS, instead of "Missing veteran gets back pay for time spent as enemy prisoner" FAUXTON posted:They never actually seceded - that's like breaking your leg on the first try getting off the lift and saying you "went skiing," except you tried to win a war in defense of slavery. They did succeed, that's why they had to be readmitted during reconstruction. OR DID THEY BECAUSE THE STATE QUARTER SERIES LISTS THEIR ORIGINAL ENTRANCE DATE!? For the history nerds, they did not legally secede. HootTheOwl fucked around with this message at 02:54 on Jul 16, 2014 |
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Jul 16, 2014 02:48
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Fried Chicken posted:Having done extensive government work including implementing new IT systems, upgraded IT systems would do wonders for the efficiency of the government and are something you should push for. Well one party runs on the idea the government is inefficient and doesn't work, so fixing the IT systems so that things whirr like a well oiled machine isn't in their best interest. Then there are those who are rent-seeking and profiting off the inefficiencies of government (such as Liberty Tax prep) who lobby hard to prevent any improvements. Of course finally there is the trouble of government contracting (and IT contracting in general, not just in government) being a complete clusterfuck of cost overruns and lovely quality results. We could really use an in-house department which did software dev and procurement for the US government but that just isn't going to happen any time soon.
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Jul 16, 2014 02:53
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Shifty Pony posted:I would bet on government via "big data". The government has always done big data, that is one of its core functions across all states throughout history. Enforcement of territorial property claims, collector of records, provider of last resort. That's the entire loving point of a government. The difference is that all the stuff they have been slurping up into their databases isn't being used intelligently. You could combine crime maps, predictive algorithms derived from epidemiology, and interventionist social services to combat crime before it happens for example. EG Here and Here Or track mileage for a fluctuating usage taxes for roads like Oregon does (which is why their state highway fund is well funded and noted for efficiency). Or small scale do what I did in my last job and use it to combat tax fraud - mine records to come out with indicative income levels and cross reference that with reported ones and send out your audits accordingly. The guy claiming he made 15k but registered 2 corvettes and got a boating permit is the one who needs the audit, not 100 other people at random. We saved the state 1.2 million in the first month of operation. Here's my theory of big government. Big government is, obviously, a bullshit term. When spending 2 trillion on invading, occupying, and rebuilding a foreign country with no benefit to us is small government in action but the world renowned and copied Office of Technological Assessment with its budget of $22 million that saves us billions in avoiding science boondoggles and regulatory capture is oppressive big government, it is clear bullshit. Big government is a bogeyman term. People don't care about "big" government, they care about BAD government. If you pay in your tax dollars and get quick, efficient benefits that are directly attributive to the money you paid in taxes, people are happy with it. Look at the view of Social Security - it isn't quick or efficient, but people know it is a benefit they paid for and they fight like mad to keep it. Or the highway fund (which saw most of the GOP blow off the nutjobs) - people know their taxes get roads, the use and like roads, so they don't complain about paying taxes and tolls for them. If anything they complain about potholes and long commutes, demanding better roads. Where I'm going with this is this: Deploying anything with a positive payback that allows the government to deliver services more efficiently is something anyone who likes a certain level of service should be behind. Basic government functions like "enforcing property rights" or "preventing plague outbreaks" could be enhanced by good use of the massive amounts of data they already collect. Hell, that "air quality" app they used to push China to improving its standards, put that out to us in major cities.
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Jul 16, 2014 03:14
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Shifty Pony posted:Well one party runs on the idea the government is inefficient and doesn't work, so fixing the IT systems so that things whirr like a well oiled machine isn't in their best interest. Then there are those who are rent-seeking and profiting off the inefficiencies of government (such as Liberty Tax prep) who lobby hard to prevent any improvements. Of course finally there is the trouble of government contracting (and IT contracting in general, not just in government) being a complete clusterfuck of cost overruns and lovely quality results. quote:We could really use an in-house department which did software dev and procurement for the US government but that just isn't going to happen any time soon. 
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Jul 16, 2014 03:16
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hobbesmaster posted:I actually remembered enough high school spanish to do a double take when reading the sign! Shouldn't that que be porque, amongst other problems? "que" can be used as a full "because" in certain contexts (linking some clauses), not that whoever made the sign would know that.
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Jul 16, 2014 03:34
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zoux posted:Someone needs to remind these motherfuckers they live in a society. this is not an empty quote edit: also, Augest title found
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Jul 16, 2014 03:43
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Joementum posted:Glenn Beck's The Blaze has found a guy who found an Urdu-to-English phrasebook on his Texas ranch last year in today's shit_that_totally_didnt_happen.flv I got a link to that on Facebook just now by way of an examiner.com article. One of the related articles was "NASA finds an alien animal on Mars". It'd give 'em both the same level of credibility.
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Jul 16, 2014 03:54
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Joementum posted:Oh, cool, more shit_that_totally_didnt_happen.flv thanks to Minnesota State House candidate Bob Frey on the topic of dinosaurs and men living together. Content aside, how the gently caress does a guy with that level of public speaking get elected?
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Jul 16, 2014 03:54
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zoux posted:Is there a gender equivalent term for "Uncle Tom"? Aunt Jemima.
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Jul 16, 2014 06:19
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George Costanza would also like to remind everyone that we are living in a society.
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Jul 16, 2014 08:10
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You guys left off that the requirement to contract every single thing not only means you have rent-seeking like crazy it also means that you get huge chunks taken out of whatever institutional knowledge was amassed by the workforce that doesn't transition over when some other titan of incompetence gets the contract. That doesn't just apply to IT, but it's really fun as it applies to IT. It's almost like all of this is by design.
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Jul 16, 2014 12:20
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Buffer posted:You guys left off that the requirement to contract every single thing not only means you have rent-seeking like crazy it also means that you get huge chunks taken out of whatever institutional knowledge was amassed by the workforce that doesn't transition over when some other titan of incompetence gets the contract. Compound that "accepted practice" in IT is A. Not really followed as closely as it should be 99% of the time, and B. Very loose and varied for what is called "accepted" for the same/similar tasks. Government contract lifecycle: A contract needs to be filled asking for a gold nugget, you end up with a cheapest bidder shining up a corn filled pile of poo poo, so it gets taken and handed to the next cheapest bidder receiving that pile of poo poo with no/little information about it, then having to dissect the poo poo to figure out where the bits of corn are and how they are laid out, and then getting mad because that's not how they like the corn to be structured, so they move the corn around, never documenting anything. Then after this has repeated enough times, eventually the corn's gone missing, the poo poo has somehow been turned into a chunk of coal, and no one knows what it is, was, or should have been anymore and the whole thing gets tossed and a contract comes out asking for the gold nugget again.
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Jul 16, 2014 12:46
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Buffer posted:You guys left off that the requirement to contract every single thing not only means you have rent-seeking like crazy it also means that you get huge chunks taken out of whatever institutional knowledge was amassed by the workforce that doesn't transition over when some other titan of incompetence gets the contract. And the best part is that every layer of contracting lets private companies skim their margins off the top of government spending, before you even get to any considerations of fraud or mismanagement. Let someone earn a profit from something the government could do at cost, good old fashioned corporate welfare.
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Jul 16, 2014 13:01
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Reposting here because I didn't have coffee and seeing a Rush Limbaugh transcript didn't tip me off that it was the RWM thread. In North Raleigh, NC, a road is being repaved. The proposal is to build it so that they don't have to loving touch it again for a long time because while you can save some money by cheaping out on it, you'll wind up paying for it long term. A prime metaphor is why your lovely Ikea dinner table doesn't have the same sort of longevity of something built by an actual carpenter. Oh yeah, they also want to get some green cert (Green road) that basically says "hey, this road isn't ACTIVELY loving up the surrounding environment". Well, this cannot stand. The Republicans are in some idiotic tax consortium for Real Americans or some poo poo and they're literally whining about UN AGENDA 21 over a $4k cert on a $10 million project. Happy Wednesday, everyone.
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Jul 16, 2014 13:51
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GOP Congressional candidate Adam Kwasman is making it his personal responsibility to protect America from the scourge that is kids on buses. Any kids really, whether they're migrants from central America or YMCA campers from Phoenix.
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Jul 16, 2014 14:00
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Ballz posted:GOP Congressional candidate Adam Kwasman is making it his personal responsibility to protect America from the scourge that is kids on buses. Any kids really, whether they're migrants from central America or YMCA campers from Phoenix. In a just world, his political career would be DOA from this incident. But since we don't live in a just world, he gets a polling spike for the event because Obama.
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Jul 16, 2014 14:13
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Dante Logos posted:In a just world, his political career would be DOA from this incident. But since we don't live in a just world, he gets a polling spike for the event because Obama. Don't blame Obama for how deep into third-world-hellhole territory Arizona has plunged itself. That's Arizona's fault. Maybe that and the apparent high rate of meth use among their elected officials. Little else explains it.
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Jul 16, 2014 14:44
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Rolling Stone has a profile of Gunowners of America founder Larry Pratt, who is identical to the crazy Facebook libertarian gun fucker, with the exception that he wields enormous amounts of influence.quote:Pratt's critics have called him many things over the years: extreme, radical, pernicious, creepy, dogged, effective. But no one who's studied his multi-faceted career could describe him as stupid. On CNN, Pratt was smart enough not to tell Piers Morgan what he really thinks about the Second Amendment. Because what he really thinks resonates deeply with the theocratic tenets of Christian Reconstructionism, which holds that American government should be ordered according to events and dictates found in the Old and New Testaments. Nor is Pratt so stupid as to use his regular access to mainstream media to promote the "active measures" he believes American gun owners will one day be forced to unleash on a secular federal government. As he explained in his 1999 essay, "What does the Bible Say About Gun Control?" Pratt writes, "If Christ is not our King, we shall have a dictator to rule over us, just as Samuel warned." quote:"The Second Amendment is not for hunting, it's not even for self-defense," Pratt explained in his Leadership Institute talk. Rather, it is "for restraining tyrannical tendencies in government. . .Especially those in the liberal, tyrannical end of the spectrum. There is some restraint, and even if the voters of Brooklyn don't hold them back, it may be there are other ways that their impulses are somewhat restrained. That's the whole idea of the Second Amendment." He reiterated the point this March during an interview with conservative talk show host Bill Cunningham. Speaking of a New York Congresswoman who had expressed fear that one of Pratt's members wanted to shoot her, Pratt said, "You know, I'm kind of glad that's in the back of their minds. Hopefully they'll behave." He's old so hopefully he'll die very soon.
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Jul 16, 2014 14:48
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And by Behave, he means... do what he wants them to do?
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Jul 16, 2014 14:51
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I checked back a couple of pages and didn't see any mention of this. In some delightful news, our past 2 AG's got arrested on corruption charges. I'm a state employee and was in the office yesterday. Somebody yelled out "holy crap, Shurtleff and Swallow just got arrested!" and the whole floor let out a large hurrah. 
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Jul 16, 2014 14:56
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SquadronROE posted:And by Behave, he means... do what he wants them to do? Same thing Breitbart meant in video of one of his last great coke binges - "do exactly as I wish and don't you dare question why."
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Jul 16, 2014 15:07
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SquadronROE posted:And by Behave, he means... do what he wants them to do? I don't see how that makes any sense to anyone. Like, if you want people to "behave" how is that any different than government at any level pointing guns at you and hoping you "behave"? Do they not get how they are in their own little way a bit tyrannical? The majority of the country want background checks, but they're deathly afraid of the gun lobby (not out of fear of violent retribution) so nothing ever comes of it.
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Jul 16, 2014 15:08
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On Terra Firma posted:I don't see how that makes any sense to anyone. Like, if you want people to "behave" how is that any different than government at any level pointing guns at you and hoping you "behave"? Do they not get how they are in their own little way a bit tyrannical? The majority of the country want background checks, but they're deathly afraid of the gun lobby (not out of fear of violent retribution) so nothing ever comes of it. Because reasons.
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Jul 16, 2014 15:20
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On Terra Firma posted:I don't see how that makes any sense to anyone. Like, if you want people to "behave" how is that any different than government at any level pointing guns at you and hoping you "behave"? Do they not get how they are in their own little way a bit tyrannical? The majority of the country want background checks, but they're deathly afraid of the gun lobby (not out of fear of violent retribution) so nothing ever comes of it. They effectively believe that fascism doesn't exist without armbands and gas chambers. To them, Eco is "that dolphin game or some hippie poo poo in my TV settings, right?"
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Jul 16, 2014 15:22
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