News Stories

[Urzu 7]

Okay, clearer details about the woman that tried to storm the White House premises. I guess she never had a gun. She just tried to break through a barricade with her car. The police officer that was injured got struck by the car. Shots were fired by the police and news sites reported shooting in Washington D.C., making it seem the assailant had a gun, but the gun fire that was reported was just the gun fire from police, and no one else.

[ganbaru]

Republicans Say Boehner Vows to Avert Federal Default
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/04/us...t-impasse.html

[SeijiSensei]

Originally Posted by Urzu 7

Okay, clearer details about the woman that tried to storm the White House premises. I guess she never had a gun. She just tried to break through a barricade with her car. The police officer that was injured got struck by the car. Shots were fired by the police and news sites reported shooting in Washington D.C., making it seem the assailant had a gun, but the gun fire that was reported was just the gun fire from police, and no one else.

So now we'll never really know what was behind her mad assault on the White House, and there is now an orphaned 18-month-old kid as well. Whatever happened to shooting out the tires on cars rather than shooting the driver first? The Capitol Police couldn't figure out how to establish a roadblock to stop her progress and capture her alive?

[SaintessHeart]

Originally Posted by SeijiSensei

So now we'll never really know what was behind her mad assault on the White House, and there is now an orphaned 18-month-old kid as well. Whatever happened to shooting out the tires on cars rather than shooting the driver first? The Capitol Police couldn't figure out how to establish a roadblock to stop her progress and capture her alive?

Time for the gun lobby to help procure "more accurate pistols" for the domestic security force. Or more "road security solutions".

[Urzu 7]

Originally Posted by SeijiSensei

So now we'll never really know what was behind her mad assault on the White House, and there is now an orphaned 18-month-old kid as well. Whatever happened to shooting out the tires on cars rather than shooting the driver first? The Capitol Police couldn't figure out how to establish a roadblock to stop her progress and capture her alive?

Maybe they shouldn't have shot her. But first of all, she does something batshit insane such as try to drive onto the White House premises. Then she backs into a police car, hits at least one police officer with her car, and then dangerously runs from the police through the D.C. area. Clearly she is dangerous and the police shot her after she didn't comply with the police. They don't know if she has a gun or not and if she is about to start shooting at them. They commanded her to follow orders, maybe they saw her reaching around inside the car, I don't know, but she got shot. It is no one's fault but hers. You don't do all those things in the capitol and at the White House and then fail to follow police orders and expect things will end well.

[SeijiSensei]

I'm not trying to justify her actions at all. I just wonder what the protocols are for situations like this. I just watched the video from the Arabic channel again. Half a dozen officers surround her car, and they all are pointing their guns at the woman. None of them is firing at the tires or doing anything else to disable the vehicle.

By the way, the Capitol Police officers who were on the job today are not receiving any pay for their efforts. Their salaries are impounded, though they may get reimbursed when the shutdown ends. Even though they are deemed "essential," they are apparently not so essential as to deserve to be paid for putting their lives on the line. Instead they are expected to volunteer their services with the vague promise that they will get paid later on. Meanwhile, rent and mortgage payments are due, and their families need to eat.

[Cosmic Eagle]

Originally Posted by SeijiSensei

So now we'll never really know what was behind her mad assault on the White House, and there is now an orphaned 18-month-old kid as well. Whatever happened to shooting out the tires on cars rather than shooting the driver first? The Capitol Police couldn't figure out how to establish a roadblock to stop her progress and capture her alive?

Later you find out is just disgruntled worker from the shutdown. Well done creating such a tragedy with your childish politics

[Xellos-_^]

Forty-one people have died and more than 1,600 have been injured by a series of hornet attacks in China.
[WARNING: The images below are graphic]
The insect responsible for the deaths is the Asian giant hornet (Vespa mandarinia), which has a 6 millimeter stinger that injects its victim with venom containing a neurotoxin that is "powerful enough to dissolve human tissue," according to The Australian.
The hornet season typically lasts from May to November, but warmer weather that has led to more successful breeding could be to blame for an unexpected number of attacks this year, according to LiveScience.
Local mayors have dispatched firefighters to systematically destroy the hornet nests.

http://www.businessinsider.com/asian...-sting-2013-10

just looking at those photos is enough to make my hair on end.

[Urzu 7]

Originally Posted by Cosmic Eagle

Later you find out is just disgruntled worker from the shutdown. Well done creating such a tragedy with your childish politics

For the most part, it is the GOPs fault. They orchestrated this shutdown.

[Vallen Chaos Valiant]

Originally Posted by ganbaru

Republicans Say Boehner Vows to Avert Federal Default
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/04/us...t-impasse.html

What is there to "Vow"?
Just let everything have their chance via a vote. That's all anyone wanted. The only person who has the power to prevent voting is Boehner.

[SaintessHeart]

Originally Posted by Xellos-_^

just looking at those photos is enough to make my hair on end.

Are the firefighters carrying flamethrowers?

[Sackett]

What the crap is going on with these park closures?

They closed the wilderness area nearby where I am at... but it's just the outdoors, there's no facilities or anything. They don't even have any rangers on duty there normally. They must have had to spend some extra money to close it down and block off the trails.

I mean, once a year (in the spring) they send a ranger up to the shelter at the knoll near the river bend to inspect the place, and then if repairs are needed they fix it (over the summer, usually done by a local boy scout troop as a service project).

How does the government shutdown require closing a river?

They didn't close the river back in 1995 when Gingrich shutdown the government.

I mean... shouldn't Obama be trying to lessen the effects of the shutdown as much as possible?

[Sackett]

Originally Posted by kuroishinigami

Can I ask something?why is a lot of American opposed to obama-care? I mean, this is "free" health benefit right? Why would some people opposed this? Do those side opposing the idea thinks that the poor doesn't deserve free health service or is there some kind of negative things attached to the plan?

As someone who has a pre-existing condition, had no health insurance, and all sorts of heath issues (specifically Lyme Disease) and whom "Obamacare" is targeted at helping, I have to say that I am opposed to it for the following reasons:

1: I feel the biggest problem in American health care today is a lack of control rather then lack of money. The fact that I couldn't get a doctor to listen to me instead of the insurance agency (back when I still had insurance) was the main problem in my opinion. The second biggest problem was the way insurance companies weasel out of paying for the care they promised once you get sick. Neither of these problems are addressed by Obamacare, and in fact I think it makes both of them worse.

2: I feel Obamacare combines the worst aspects of a publicly funded program with the worst aspects of a privately funded program. (My preference would be free market reforms, but if that's not possible single payer would be better then this Frankenstien).

3: I think Obamacare has been incompetently designed, and incompetently executed and it's going to blow up in our faces. Specifically the provisions that incentivise part time hires over full time hires is already hurting us. (My own employer has shifted to more contractor work and part time positions). I'm certain there are more problems coming.

4: I find the insurance mandate to be a terrible precedent, and rather corrupt. Just force me to pay taxes and pay for it with government funds, don't force me to pay a private business tons of money for a product that I can't trust them to provide.

5: I think requiring insurance companies to provide insurance for people with pre-existing conditions is immoral, and violates the takings clause. I hate insurance companies, but I don't understand under what moral framework they should be responsible to pay for the care of people who didn't buy insurance from them before getting sick.

Now maybe as a society we should do something for people with pre-existing conditions, I'm open to that (and self interested to boot). But by what right do we obligate insurance companies to pay for it? Obligations need to either be agreed to, or shared by the entire society. If we are going to do something then we should pay for it out of tax revenue directly. Not impose a financial obligation on a subset of the population (even if they are cheats and probably deserve it).

Also note, that if the individual mandate fails to work, this provision will ensure the destruction of health insurance for everyone.

6: It's apparent to me that no one really knew what was contained in Obamacare when Congress passed it, which makes me certain there are gotchas hidden in it to make certain interest groups a lot of money at the expense of the rest of us.

[kuroishinigami]

For your point no. 5, as an actuarist myself, it actually doesn't matter for insurance company to cover people with pre-existing condition, as long as the pool of insured is not pre-selective(as in, it only contains people with pre-existing condition and doesn't contain currently healthy people at all). In fact, this is the reason in group insurance, insurance company doesn't care about pre-existing condition as much as long as every employee in the company is insured in the same insurance company. Considering the program obligate every citizen to take the insurance, I don't think this will be a problem for the insurance company.

I couldn't refute nor agree with the other points though since it seems like valid ponts, yet there might also be some countermeasure buried inside the thousand page agreement already

[JokerD]

Originally Posted by SeijiSensei

Whatever happened to shooting out the tires on cars rather than shooting the driver first?

Images

Sorry; dynamic content not loaded. Reload?

OK here's an image of the rear of the car, try shooting the tires.
Oh, btw, you have around 45m (effective range of the pistol) to do it, or around 8 seconds if the car is going away at 20km/h (a very slow speed)

Originally Posted by SeijiSensei

The Capitol Police couldn't figure out how to establish a roadblock to stop her progress and capture her alive?

Roadblocks take time, and in a city environment, she can just take another road to skip it. Besides, didn't she u turn at 2 road blocks already?

I'm not saying that they should just shoot to kill. But just saying what you just did makes it seem so easy, which is not the case.
1 last thing, it seems that the police were on duty while not being paid. Now that's dedication... Should have let her go into congress and say, 'sorry, we are off duty since there's no pay'

[monir]

Originally Posted by SeijiSensei

I'm not trying to justify her actions at all. I just wonder what the protocols are for situations like this. I just watched the video from the Arabic channel again. Half a dozen officers surround her car, and they all are pointing their guns at the woman. None of them is firing at the tires or doing anything else to disable the vehicle.

The incident with the Navy Yard shooting took place at about 1.5 miles away. Once she ran into a cop car and then hit an officer, she was pretty much deemed someone who is going to take life if given the opportunity. So I'm guessing that's what justified the need for shoot-to-kill at the time once she refused to comply with whatever order was given. They couldn't just let her continue to drive after cornering her to a stop. Capitol Police also have this nasty memory of a guy who goes on to kill couple of their officers in the 90's. That guy wasn't even charged for those murders because he was deemed insane. I'm sure Capitol Police made some adjustment to their policy when it came to dealing with someone who is deemed not-normal.

[maplehurry]

Originally Posted by Sackett

5: I think requiring insurance companies to provide insurance for people with pre-existing conditions is immoral, and violates the takings clause. I hate insurance companies, but I don't understand under what moral framework they should be responsible to pay for the care of people who didn't buy insurance from them before getting sick.

Now maybe as a society we should do something for people with pre-existing conditions, I'm open to that (and self interested to boot). But by what right do we obligate insurance companies to pay for it? Obligations need to either be agreed to, or shared by the entire society. If we are going to do something then we should pay for it out of tax revenue directly. Not impose a financial obligation on a subset of the population (even if they are cheats and probably deserve it).

It's not a financial burden if they actually profit more out of this.


But of course, it's too soon to tell whether they will really profit out of this in the coming years. Though keep in mind that at least four of the CEOs of big insurers do not support repealing Obamacare. WellPoint, in particular, highly supports Obamacare.

Originally Posted by monir

The incident with the Navy Yard shooting took place at about 1.5 miles away. Once she ran into a cop car and then hit an officer, she was pretty much deemed someone who is going to take life if given the opportunity. So I'm guessing that's what justified the need for shoot-to-kill at the time once she refused to comply with whatever order was given. They couldn't just let her continue to drive after cornering her to a stop.

The cops shot her multiple times after she got out of her car though. Not sure if she was given a chance to surrender there. Maybe the cops thought she's armed...

[Mentar]

I don't want to delve into things too far, but this part intrigued me.

Originally Posted by Sackett

5: I think requiring insurance companies to provide insurance for people with pre-existing conditions is immoral, and violates the takings clause. I hate insurance companies, but I don't understand under what moral framework they should be responsible to pay for the care of people who didn't buy insurance from them before getting sick.

Yet you don't consider it immoral when those who need health care the most (usually those with preexisting conditions) are consciously _denied_ affordable access to it? Really?

For me, this is one of the reasons why I consider the old American "healthcare system" to be utterly broken and corrupt. There are certain services that I consider so basic and important that any society which fancies itself to be civilized needs to find a way to provide it to everyone, and health care is one of them.

The way I see it, it's up to the government to set the rules for the game, and the free market to do their best within these confines (that's how it's set up in Germany, by the way). If you want to dabble in the healthcare market, you need to abide by these rules. Simple as that. Just like when you're running a logistics service, you have to service _all_ addresses, not only those which are profitable to you. The German railway system also has to service those lines that are unprofitable, since it's offering a service to the public, so it can't just cherrypick the best ones. Likewise, I consider it perfectly normal and _fair_ to make sure that insurance companies need to offer affordable insurance to people with preexisting conditions.

A sideeffect of this is that seen in the big picture, costs tend to go down because preexisting conditions get _treated_ and usually get better. Nothing is financially as devastating as the retarded "plan" of several Republicans to argue that everyone can see an ER when necessary. This is exactly how serious health problems develop. Prevention and early treatment are so much cheaper.

Yes, I am aware that the American mindset is very much influenced by "I got mine, screw you!" - but healthcare is one of those parts where community and charity are actually cheaper than selfishness. No matter what the lobbying hordes in DC like to tell people.

[Skane]

Frankly, it still boggles my mind how backwards the Healthcare is in the USA. I imagine the level of "mindfuck" also applied to my sister's husband (she got married to an American) when he got sick in Singapore and found the medical bill to be dirt-cheap (his opinion, not mine).

When he told me what the equivalent cost would be for a non-insured person would be in the USA, I kinda went, "Wat." USA spends more money on medical than some countries combined, but has worse coverage. It's ludicrous.

Natch.

[SaintessHeart]

Obama cancels Asia tour over shutdown; raises questions on U.S. pivot

(Reuters) - President Barack Obama called off plans to visit Asia and attend two summits because of the U.S. government shutdown, raising questions about the strategic "pivot" to the region that he announced just two years ago.

Obama had planned to depart on Saturday for a four-nation, week-long trip. He canceled visits to Malaysia and the Philippines earlier this week because of his budget struggle in the U.S. Congress and said late on Thursday he would not attend the regional summits in Indonesia and Brunei.

The political standoff over the U.S. budget has shut down non-essential government services and appeared likely to drag on for another week or longer. Another crisis looms in two weeks when lawmakers must decide whether to increase the U.S. government's $16.7 trillion debt borrowing limit.

"The president made this decision based on the difficulty in moving forward with foreign travel in the face of a shutdown, and his determination to continue pressing his case that Republicans should immediately allow a vote to reopen the government," the White House said.

Obama was scheduled to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, among other leaders, at the summits.

Two of his main aims would have been to discuss the Syria crisis with Putin and to hold talks on a maritime code of conduct for disputed territories in the oil- and gas-rich South China Sea.

"We are disappointed," said Indonesian Information Minister Tifatul Sembiring on the island of Bali, host of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit from Sunday.

"I think the summit will go on, there is a long-term plan. (But) without Obama, you can imagine how disappointed we are. We could hardly imagine he wouldn't come."

Obama was also scheduled to attend the East Asia Summit, organized by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), in Brunei next week.

Xi, who was on a visit to Malaysia on Friday, did not comment on Obama's decision. But analysts said the no-show by the U.S. president would work to China's advantage.

"While his decision is perfectly understandable, it projects a poor image of America as a country that is politically dysfunctional and on the verge of another economic crisis," said Ian Storey, senior fellow at Singapore's Institute of Southeast Asian Studies.

"Meanwhile, cash-rich and self-confident China will have the floor to itself."

Obama twice postponed visits to Indonesia and Australia in 2010, because of a health reform bill and then because of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. He was absent from the APEC meeting last year in Vladivostok, Russia because of a Democratic Party convention.

SEVERE DILEMMA

In Tokyo, Japan's top government spokesman, Yoshihide Suga, said Abe would attend the summits as planned.

"This is a domestic problem of the United States," he said. "We hope the (Obama) administration and Congress negotiate earnestly to solve the problem as early as possible, so that the problem won't be affecting various issues."

Storey said the latest domestic crisis was posing a severe dilemma for Obama, since it clashed with a cherished foreign policy objective. At the APEC and East Asia Summits two years ago, Obama announced the U.S. strategic pivot, or rebalancing, toward Asia, which was seen as a reaction to the growing clout of China.

"On the one hand he needs to be in Asia to demonstrate America's commitment to the region and especially to the ASEAN-led regional security architecture that has been one of the central planks of his administration's Asia policy," said Storey.

"But with government employees on unpaid leave, Obama cannot afford to leave Washington and be seen hob-nobbing with world leaders on a tropical island."

The Washington stalemate has idled hundreds of thousands of federal government workers and comes two weeks before Washington faces an even more crucial deadline - raising the U.S. debt limit so the United States can pay its bills. A bitter debate rages over that issue as well and if left unresolved could result in a U.S. debt default.

Denis Blair, the former commander of U.S. forces in the Pacific region, said not too much should be read into Obama's decision to call off the tour.

"I would read nothing more into the postponement of President Obama's trip than that he has to stay on and take care of this (crisis)," he told reporters in Manila.

"I'm very confident that he will reschedule and frankly it will be a better visit if he's not on the phone having to call back home to get reports on the latest development there."

Secretary of State John Kerry will lead delegations to both summits in place of Obama. Kerry will also go to Malaysia and the Philippines.

Obama phoned both President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and the Sultan of Brunei to inform them of his decision, the White House said.

Obama looks forward to working with Asian allies and returning to the region at a later date, the White House said.