Microsoft and DOJ reaching settlement?

Post #16,002 by cwbrenn 11/1/01 1:36:22 AM Reply	Microsoft and DOJ reaching settlement? There's something at Slashdot that links to an article talking about this nonsense. sigh And I was just getting warmed up on this storyline... here I go interrupting it. "We are all born originals -- why is it so many of us die copies?" - Edward Young
Post #16,006 by Ashton 11/1/01 2:22:31 AM Reply	What I heard Had a teaser re 'settlement' on the talking heads 'News' just as I was about to switch off, so I read, while they were going through the local car crashes before the Big Story. Alleged that a settlement had been reached, but "they were still thrashing out the language" [I'll bet.. weaseling non-commital phrase by wncp] This noninformative soundbyte with XP background for the heads - concluded with.. "the judge has given them til Friday to settle.." Conclusion: whatever it is is set in Jello\ufffd. Ashton can a settlement include jail time?
Post #16,063 by tuberculosis 11/1/01 2:15:51 PM Reply	Sold out Apparently, our government hasn't a clue what is in our best interest. Wanna fix the economy? Level the fucking playing field.
Post #16,170 by jb4 11/2/01 9:13:38 AM 11/2/01 9:13:57 AM Reply	Don't agree I believe they really do know what's in our best interest. They just don't care. Especially if what's in our best interest might somehow be percieved as either costing them money or power. jb4 (Resistance is not futile...) Edited by jb4 Nov. 2, 2001, 09:13:57 AM EST Expand All History
Post #16,325 by gtall 11/3/01 7:13:16 AM Reply	I agree They are not free market conservatives. In believe they've bought the same pile of el crappola that the big companies buy from M$. M$ convinces the PHBs and suits that M$ is good software at a reasonable price and will be around for another 100 years...and the dumbasses buy it: "Bill is my shephard, I shall not think." The Justice Dept. probably figured that if they nailed M$, and the economy tanks (uh...it's already done that...but tanks a lot further...and it will) that they will get blamed because M$ will be screaming from the rafters that if only they had been left unfettered, little bluebirds of economic happiness would stop pissing on them. So they caved. Let's hope the states AGs have more balls. Gerard Allwein
Post #16,365 by Ashton 11/3/01 1:49:07 PM Reply	Point of definition. Remember: these folk ran as compassionateconservatives. I wouldn't dream of dropping the oxymoron flag, epecially a red one but.. You Tell Me! er 'what they stand for / against / marginally wishy-washy' on ?? Our campaigns have no slightest interest in setting out platforms, planks and debating issues - just the same meaningless ComSymp/Patriot doggerel warmed over. (Besides - this govt was Selected by a rogue Court, and no amount of 'election-machine' spin can ever erase that patent reversal of these folks' historical POV re both 'judicial restraint'* and States' rights: to get Their retirement-safe guys in power) * code for - not 'conservative', but reactionary interpretation of all laws, if we see what they actually do with that power. Still got faith in this Admin's essential just plain Goodness for Us All\ufffd ? Ashton I refuse to become a member of any organization which accepts people like me. The Immortal Groucho
Post #16,437 by gtall 11/4/01 7:16:13 AM Reply	Re: Point of definition. Sure, I still got faith, more in this crowd than the dimwit Demos. Let's not forget who got nailed by bin Laden while his pants were down and did little more than light off a few cruise missiles. Is Hillary still channelling Eleanor? "Free market" stands for freedom of entry and exit, not freedom to do as one chooses, a fact Demos spit at and the Repubs. sometimes ignore. That freedom of entry relies, in part, on having no monopolies to restrict entry. Re gov. chosen by a rogue court...your argument reminds me of the snake at a dinner party offended by stares as a guest is noticed missing and a suspicious lump slides down its body. I don't trust you Demos further than I can spit a rat. I put "compassionate conservative" right in there with the Demos claim to somehow represent the little people. I think they represent the little people all right, the little-minded ones running Hollywood. Tell me, is Babs still a Demo strategist? Gerard Allwein
Post #16,484 by Ashton 11/4/01 5:23:26 PM Reply	False dichotomy, guaranteed. "compassionateconservatives" is hardly Party-specific. It is the rubric for - simply, election at all! in a time where Both Parties are Right-wing in deed (never mind the meaningless obfuscating rhetoric). There IS no 'organized Left' in Murican politics.. now for at least two decades. Sprinkling in 'Hollywood' is neither illuminating nor even good fun. (Who Buys Their Stuff? over and over and) For most atrocities against the English language, I nominate a pox on 'Both' their identical houses. We have to get past these stupid Librul/Cunservative, Democrat/Republican BS - there are "Repos" / Repomen? whose purely self-serving appetite for Power is IMhO - the engine behind keeping the political rhetoric mindless for as long as possible. In this they have succeeded almost to a certainty. There's enough A-holishness within Clinton, the Bush dynasty starting with Prescott, the Gore dynasty (hopefully ending with Al) et al, to fuel NR-style cutesy polysyllabic propaganda wars ad infinitum. Must we indulge these murderers of Language by pretending those labels retain any meaning at all? A.
Post #16,557 by gtall 11/5/01 6:39:12 AM Reply	Re: False dichotomy, guaranteed. I agree they are labels as they are popularly bandied about. However, there are ideologies behind them which animate aspects of one's political outlook. The problem with political parties is that they are currently the expression of those ideologies. In a sense, I think that is unavoidable. There is an ideology which is for free enterprise and as little central control as possible. Both parties violate the free enterprise bit with corporate welfare and moneyed access to government. But then there needs to be government rules to ensure a fair marketplace and safe products, so government is in the marketplace. There is an opposing ideology that embraces much government control and no corporate welfare. Where you fall on that ideological spectrum will pretty much determine how you view a particular government policy. In general, I find myself having more in sympathy with repubs than the demos. If you read any of P.J. O'Rourke's stuff (Republican Party Reptile, Give War a Chance, etc.), I'm very close to his ideology. Gerard Allwein
Post #16,568 by Ashton 11/5/01 8:28:45 AM Reply	Studs Terkel, George Carlin and Zippy - here_______:-\ufffd Heard a quote on NPR, driving home tonight. Anna deVere Smith (has a kind of road show IIRC). She, speaking in Studs' accent: ..lotsa 'communications' today. Much less communication. and various other wry comments on the state of language misuse and the general absurdity of the whole political 'process'. What do you call a group which imagines that handing over government to Corporations (prisons, medicine - soon schools) - is a better answer than behaving like citizens and voting out incompetent assholes (and basing that vote on actual campaign reform, too) ? There are so many contradictions in 'the conventional wisdom' here: it ain't. Pox remains - both houses and the non-voting consumer suck (to use the technical word). GIGO A.
Post #16,572 by cwbrenn 11/5/01 9:28:26 AM Reply	The problem with both political parties is that all of the leaders are rich assholes. I would take the republicans more seriously if more of the party leaders were solidly middle-or-working class. But they're all a bunch of stupid rich fucks. I would take the democrats more seriously if... ... Oh, hell, I don't take either of 'em seriously. They're all a bunch of goddamned liars. Rhetoric be damned. "We are all born originals -- why is it so many of us die copies?" - Edward Young
Post #16,600 by Another Scott 11/5/01 11:22:27 AM Reply	Top 11 in US Congress + Senate. As estimated by Roll Call in 2000, [link\|http://www.rollcall.com/pages/features/00/50richest/\|here]. Of the top 11 (3 way tie for 9th), 4 are Republicans, 7 are Democrats. Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) still leads the pack, despite the fact that estimates of his wife's ketchup fortune took a dip - it fell from $675 million to $620 million - and she did not qualify for the Forbes 400 list of the wealthiest Americans. Behind Kerry were Rep. Amo Houghton (R-N.Y.), who is estimated to be worth $350 million; Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wis.), worth roughly $300 million; Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), worth approximately $200 million; Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), the fifth-richest Member with an estimated $50 million fortune; Sen. Peter Fitzgerald (R-Ill.), worth about $40 million; and Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.), whose worth is also estimated at about $40 million. [...] Delay and Hastert and many of the other big names aren't even in the top 50. :-) Cheers, Scott.
Post #16,602 by addison 11/5/01 11:29:37 AM Reply	The problem with that... I would take the republicans more seriously if more of the party leaders were solidly middle-or-working class. But they're all a bunch of stupid rich fucks. As you note, the other parties, likewise. Of course, in most cases, the solid middle and working class don't have TIME To be politicians, they're too busy working for a living. Addison
Post #16,614 by Brandioch 11/5/01 12:29:52 PM Reply	Ummmmmm, yes. And both sides are out to feather their own nests at the expense of everyone else. All the differentiates them is what group of idiots they court for their votes.
Post #16,615 by boxley 11/5/01 12:32:13 PM Reply	Hey! who you calling an.... oh, yer right :) tshirt front "born to die before I get old" thshirt back "fscked another one didnja?"
Post #16,609 by gtall 11/5/01 11:55:14 AM Reply	Re: Studs Terkel, George Carlin and Zippy - here_______:-\ufffd Ashton, I do not consider the repubs in favor of handing over government to business, but rather for decreasing federal intervention. I do not see them handing over the military. You won't find any sympathy with me for turning the schools over to private enterprise. I'm no fan of the Education Establishment and their unions and their political action committees and their PC-ness. They are running a fraternity here and the sooner they get busted up the better. I don't advovate turning it over to the religious right either, if I have to hear about creationism one more time in reference to science, I'll puke on the person's shoes. Gerard Allwein
Post #16,659 by Ashton 11/5/01 4:03:44 PM Reply	Deal. If we meet on the barricades ~ 2004 (look for the guy with the blow-gun and Mad Hatter hat), I'll be glad to share a few curare-tipped darts with ya.. hell, maybe even a few of the Pentothal-tipped ones: for debriefing captured congresscritters. We can work out the details for rehab of our representatives - but only amongst the folks who read Proust AND Pavlov. [sorry - one from the '70s] (Ever see a radar-controlled smart dart in full flight?) Ashton :-\ufffd

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