Karee

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I just dont see why we need BX/PX and commissaries now

Like I said, I don't know much about that, but I'd guess they'd probably rather be getting a good deal at Sams.

It's not just the aircrafts. I was going to take my folks up to DC in a couple of weeks while they're here visiting from Germany. That's not happening now since I don't know that parks and sites and museums and the Capitol will be open for them to see. Airlines lose revenues. Hotels lose revenues. Restaurants lose revenues. Shops lose reveneues. Multiply that by the number of people cancelling trips to national sites. And that's just travel and hospitality. There's an severe impact to the economy. You can deny that all you want and pretend for yourself that somehow this is fiscally beneficial. But that does't change the simple fact that this moronic action of the jihadists actually COSTS money.

There's no money for the government to be spending on parks and museums. You know that. We've argued here about trillions of dollars of debt. Parks and museums are nice if you have the money for them. We don't. Sell them off and privatize them. I know that sounds harsh, but there's no money. Tough decisions need to be made.

Ran into a lady in Sams today . I heard her tell her son it was the governments fault they were there

Turns out all the commissaries are shut down., now that is nuts

of course the time of the commissaries might be over soon anyway

So the private sector steps up. Imagine that. They probably do a better job anyway. I'd take a guess that they'll probably wish they were still getting a deal at Sams rather than shopping at the govt. commissary after this is all over. Maybe not.

Sam's Club Extends Help to Military Following commissary Shutdowns

In response to dozens of domestic commissaries shutting down Wednesday as a part of the government shutdown, Sam’s Club has decided to help out the affected communities and military members.

In appreciation for the service that military personnel provide, Sam’s Club locations near military bases will waive membership requirements for military personnel, retirees and their families so they may continue saving on everyday goods and groceries.

These Sam’s Club locations will remain open to military personnel and families until the U.S. government resumes domestic commissary operations.

Source:

http://www.bigcountryhomepage.com/story/sams-club-extends-help-to-military-following-commissary-shutdowns/d/story/gG3k1-OB3Uy9F-CDqkvdEA

So you don't inspect airplanes thus preventing Boeing and Airbus making deliveries of their products to customers? Boeing should quit making airplanes so we can discontinue employing people at the FAA? Brilliant!

Nobody is going to quit making airplanes. You know that. You're being silly now. Some stupid battery grounded the entire fleet of 787s. There's always delays in delivering aircraft. If that's all you got, this is definitely worth it.

Let this go for two weeks and it will cost hundreds of thousands o jobs. Billions of dollars in economic activity. Lost tax revenues that will far outpace any saings you think there are to be had. This is the stupidest way to go about deficit reduction. There's really no possible way more moronioc than what you are advocating here.

We'll see. You don't go throwing good money after bad simply to keep people employed. Hey I'd love it if they did this the right way, but it's obvious neither party is capable of doing that. Everyone has their sacred cow. We'll see which cows are sacred after a few weeks of this.

Fair enough but you do seem to suport the idea that to save omeny one has to waste money.

The point I'm trying to make is that so far all these "the sky will fall predictions" have not come true in 3 days. Granted that's a very short period of time. I think this is a great opportunity for the American people to realize that government isn't doing as much for them as they might have thought. There's no money. That's just a fact.

Government spending is out of control, and this a great experiment to see if all that spending is really needed. Time to take off the training wheels. Personally I think the longer this goes on, the worse it'll be for ALL politicians, because people will start realizing that government doesn't play as big a role in their lives as they'd like you to think.

It may turn out that most of the govt. spending is needed. I kinda doubt that, but we'll see.

They stopped inspecting airplanes. I'm glad I don't fly until November.

I wonder if drug smuggling is ramping up?

This shutdown is proving a point....wait, what was the point? Oh that's right, hostage taking is legal in Congress.

According to a statement by the FAA, its Aviation Safety Organization is currently operating with a staff of 310 out of approximately 7,000 employees nationwide. The 310 include “managers in all field offices who will monitor the system and call back employees as necessary. If the furlough extends longer than a few days, we will begin to recall as many as 2,500 employees back to work incrementally, including safety inspectors, engineers and technical support staff, depending on need.”

Hmm. How is that possible?

Source:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/andrewbender/2013/10/02/government-shutdown-means-airplane-safety-checks-are-suspended/

This kamikaze mission costs money. It doesn't save any. It does the opposite. How does that further what you profess to support? Right, it doesn't. It's irrational. It's stupid. And it's counterproductive. And yet, you support it. It's like cutting back on your family budget and then opeing the window to toss out a few $20 dollar bills for no reason at all. Would you do that? Of course not. Because it would be stupid. And yet, when the Republican jihadists do just that, you sit thwere and applaud it. Weird.

I see. Lots of conviction. Yet no courage.

Sorry I don't buy into playing the "support the troops" card when trying to make a point. You're starting to sounds like GWB.

Those are the same politicians that now refuse to keep the government operating. You support that blow all this shite up jihad so you should have no problem making your case to the men and woimen in uniform.

Sorry, they need to take it up with their govt. representatives. I had no say in how the money was spent in past years. I'd bet if someone told those military folks the truth, that their children's futures are being ruined by this massive spending, they probably look at it differently. Maybe not.

I don't think reducing the debt is a bad thing. Frankly, I'd like to see someone start moving us in the other direction in a safe/stable manner. THIS is not the way to do that IMO. This is all about political posturing and I take exception to people that think this is a political tool. They're holding the government/nation hostage to try to get their way on a law that was passed legally with majority support. That's BS. They lost that one, f**king suck it and move on to the next one. Maybe stop acting like this and you may have a chance at regaining majority control. Obamacare is not perfect ad in some cases it may really suck. But the level of hatred for this law is beyond irrational. I heard a republican call obamacare one of the most heinous laws in the history of mankind earlier this week. This is the level of irrationality.

While I agree that the health care thing is bad excuse for this, something has to give. If that's the excuse they use, so be it. There needs to be fiscal responsibility in this country. They could've done it years ago when it would've been less painful, but they wait and wait and wait, in the mean time spending spending spending, money they don't have. Hey it sucks. No doubt about it. But it's going to suck alot more if they don't do something about it now.

You shoulkd come down here and argue your case at McDill AFB where the men and women serving this nation now head off base to go grocery shopping at prices some 30% higher than what they usually pay at the commissary on base. You should come down here and tell them why they need to stop leeching on this nation. Tell me when you'll do that. I wanna watch.

They need to take it up with the politicians that have been spending more than they take in year after year after year. There's no money left.

There's more at stake than one company. You cut the government to this level permanently and we'll all be sucking it in recession land.

Recession now, or absolute economic ruin later? Think about the children and their future.

South Tampa alone is losing $400K a day due to the Republican jihadist forced shut down. Local businesses are losing money by the hour and looking to cut wokers' hours. Government contractors are readying sending hundreds of thousands of workers onto forced time off without pay. Many of these workers face the possibility of ruining their credi ratings which would cost them their required security clearance which would cost them their jobs once he government opens up again. But who cares, right? Taxpayers will be on the hook for billions of dollars for this useless shutdown and lives will be shattered all across the nation. Just as the jihadists want it. Got your explosives strapped to your body yet?

Hopefully they saved some of that money they made contracting to the government, because the govt. doesn't have any left.

No you don't. You may not have been directly affected yet but some honest, good working people are out of the job now. Surely you've been at a company after downsizing. Is the effect felt immediately or later when stuff starts falling between the racks and people start burning out due to stress and hours. That's why I was surprised you would say something as short sighted as "Well, three days and we're all still here" To think its been long enough to see the full effect losing this much of the government is silly and you know it.

Sorry. Any other company that runs a deficit that is a large percentage of their income year after year after would've been out of business by now. That's just a reality. The further down the road they go and the bigger this debt grows, the worse it's going to be later. It's going to painful no matter what.

Keeping someone employed because it'll be tough on them if they lose their job is what is silly. If responsible companies did stupid things like that everyone would lose their job.

Trimming a tree is one thing. Cutting it down is another.

I guess when trimming never works, you gotta put down the pruning shears and break out the chain saw.

That's what's being leveraged. Its not something to use for political purposes.

Sounds like they better get out the axe and start chopping some spending that it's becoming very apparent we don't need. Looks like the debt ceiling deadline is Oct. 17th.

Its not that simple. If the US doesn't raise the debt ceiling, you're looking at a global economic recession........ again. Long term reduction in spending along with increased tax revenue is likely the only real option to reduce the debt. Not that I believe the debt matters as much since everything is all economy based. A stronger dollar would do much to reduce debt without really doing anything. Uncertainty will lower that value and increase the debt.

Apples and oranges. Debt ceiling is a different battle.

Its a bit worse than that I'm afraid

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2013/10/03/228895455/cdc-shutdown-strains-foodborne-illness-tracking

This one even mentions your panda cam

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/10/01/the-nine-most-painful-consequences-of-a-government-shutdown/

Yeah I know how it is. Sometimes when you don't have money, you have to cut back. I had to trade in my Ferrari for a Porsche.

Ohh snap!! No panda cam!!

None of the batteries work, people stole all the lithium for meth and we refuse to use nickel cadmium out of principle.

Tree hugger.

Don't be obtuse.

Glad to see the internet and electricity is still working in Kentucky. Hopefully you wont have to switch over to battery power soon.

Everything normal here. No signs of the world coming to an end.

Cool. Boehner is here to save the day.

Bachman and Palin should make a porn.

The SPCA might have a problem with that.

no - fees are 'same day' with an attorney.

also, the attorney will fill out the ds-260.

since there is an attorney, there is no DS-261, at all.

Depends if the attorney is a slacker or not. He may sit on it for weeks.

(Reuters) - U.S. law enforcement authorities have shut down "Silk Road," an anonymous Internet marketplace for illegal drugs like heroin and cocaine and criminal activities such as murder for hire, and arrested its alleged owner.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation said Wednesday it arrested Silk Road owner, Ross William Ulbricht, 29, known online as "Dread Pirate Roberts," in San Francisco on Tuesday, according to court filings.

Ulbricht, who holds an advanced degree in chemical engineering, appeared in federal court on Wednesday and a bail hearing was set for Friday.

His lawyer Brandon LeBlanc, a public defender, declined to comment.

Federal prosecutors in New York charged Ulbricht with one count each of narcotics trafficking conspiracy, computer hacking conspiracy and money laundering conspiracy, the filing said.

"Silk Road has emerged as the most sophisticated and extensive criminal marketplace on the Internet today," FBI agent Christopher Tarbell said in the criminal complaint.

The site was used by "several thousand drug dealers" to sell "hundreds of kilograms of illegal drugs," he said.

The site, which has operated since early 2011, also offered tutorials on hacking ATM machines, contact lists for black market connections and counterfeiters, and guns and hit men for sale, according to the charges.

More than 900,000 registered users of the site bought and sold drugs using the digital currency Bitcoin. In recent media reports about the growing popularity of Bitcoin, the Silk Road website has emerged as part of a darker side to the use of digital currencies.

Through the site, according to the charges, users could buy drugs and have them shipped to an address. Investigators, posing as regular users on Silk Road, made more than 100 purchases of drugs, which were shipped to the New York area.

"DREAD PIRATE ROBERTS"

According to the complaint, Ulbricht, who shortened his alias from Dread Pirate Roberts to DPR when posting on Silk Road's forums, operated the site from San Francisco.

At times, he used computers at Internet cafes to access the servers running the website, which employed several technological tools to mask the location of its servers and the identities of its administrators and users.

The complaint described other aspects of Ulbricht's online presence: In a Google+ profile, he described himself as a fan of libertarian economic philosophy and posted videos from the Ludwig von Mises Institute, an Auburn, Alabama-based economics institute.

Reached by phone in Austin, Texas, Ubricht's parents said they had not known what their son was doing in San Francisco.

"He is a really stellar, good person and very idealistic," said Ulbricht's mother, Lyn Lacava. "I know he never meant to hurt anyone."

Ulbricht's father Kirk confirmed his son had received a master's in material sciences from Pennsylvania State University. His thesis was titled: "Growth of EuO Thin Films by Molecular Beam Epitaxy."

"He did amazing research on crystals and exotic materials they hoped would have some use for humans," Ulbricht said. "But it was very theoretical stuff."

The complaint against Ulbricht describes a darker side. During one correspondence with a Silk Road user, Ulbricht tried to call out a hit on another user with whom he had a dispute. That user, known online as "FriendlyChemist," was threatening to expose the identities of thousands of Silk Road users unless Ulbricht sent him money.

"I wouldn't mind if he was executed," Ulbricht wrote, offering personal details about his foe, including the fact that he was a married father of three, and the names of the city and province where he lived.

In a later post, Ulbricht wrote: "He is threatening to expose the identities of thousands of my clients."

"This kind of behavior is unforgivable to me. Especially here on Silk Road, anonymity is sacrosanct."

BITCOIN CONNECTION

During the raid, authorities seized $3.6 million worth of bitcoin, which was used instead of cash or credit cards to complete transactions on Silk Road.

The charges against Ulbricht said his website generated sales of more than 9.5 million bitcoin, roughly equivalent to $1.2 billion.

Authorities seized the currency by taking control of the digital "wallets" Silk Road used to store bitcoin.

In a corresponding civil asset forfeiture action, prosecutors claimed Silk Road and Ulbricht were liable to the government for the value of all transactions involving drug tracking and computer hacking, as well as for money laundering penalties, and a final amount would be determined at trial.

The raid on Wednesday was not the first time the U.S. government has made arrests related to Silk Road.

Earlier this year, authorities in South Carolina arrested Eric Daniel Hughes, known on Silk Road as "Casey Jones," and charged him in state court with drug possession. The Drug Enforcement Agency seized units of bitcoin, which Hughes allegedly used to purchase drugs from the online market.

Bitcoin, which has been around since 2008, first came under scrutiny by law enforcement officials in mid-2011 after media reports surfaced linking the digital currency to Silk Road.

(Additional reporting by Daniel Levine in San Francisco; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe and Bernadette Baum)

Source:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/10/02/us-crime-silkroad-raid-idUSBRE9910TR20131002

The Bitcoin aspect of that article is interesting. I didn't think they would ever catch on as more than a passing fad. Apparently, I was wrong.