Heracles

Everyone knows this. Everyone outside the alternate RWN universe that is.

The right stick to this baseless notion of let the market fail and then all is good. You cannot illustrate otherwise, as they see this as religious in nature.

Essentially, in their opinion, it's normal for a country's wealth to be wiped out. In addition, allowing the same people who caused it and walked away with billions, to buy back again at the new low prices. They're not interested in reason, let alone to care to ask why other first world countries have not had a single recession since 88; yet another Wall Street induced recession, due to the lack of regulation and unabated greed.

I understand that those that are dirty and wealthy see no problem with this. What I fail to comprehend is how any logical middle American could actually cheer this own. Cheers their wealth [yet again] being reduced to laughable levels, then votes the ideology and party responsible straight back into office.

While I was driving the other day, I really appreciated all of the new and updated roads as a result of the recovery act.

Alternative universe of the "new normal" you mean.

Unemployment at nearly 10% is no joke except to Democrats who call it the new normal.

Most voters disagreed with the happy days are here again line on election day and the stock market shot up the next day.

Housing was the main problem not healthcare reform that most people didn't want it but Obama said to hell with to the people and they paid him back in spades.

Without the TARP, the country would have had a 15%+ unemployment - Depression.

As blue as the state is becoming, clueless idiots still plague the other end of town.

For anyone in Richmond to be anti-government / anti-investment is just laughable. That puny little city needs all of the investment it can get.

where is the story link?

http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/facebook-defacer-unmasked-as-white-supremacist-kkk-member-20101111-17oug.html

The guy does look at lot like someone else on here from there.

I've never very been personally worried about terrorism in this country because the terrorists have thing for airports and a couple of cities but because I don't frequent those places, I'm more likely to struck by lightning living in the boonies. The amount of money we spend to defend ourselves against terrorism seems out of line with a real threat a la WWII axis powers, the Soviets or the Chinese. Modern terrorist spend $20 at a Radio Shack in Aden to build mail bombs and we spend billions trying to defeat these losers.

That's how you stay ahead of the game. 9/11 almost cost them nothing, yet the cost to the US of A was in the hundreds of billions.

What's a waste of money is the $1 trillion wasted annually on the military, considering no army is going to attack the US. Not to mention cutting it in half and spending $500 billion, is still more than enough, five times #2 actually.

One post pointing out your well known lack of class or couth and I am stalking you? Then feel free to report me.

Scandal and I dislike each other, it's nothing new. Scandal fires a smartazz comment, after many months, I fire one back. Nothing offensive about that whatsoever.

Certainly no more offensive than your consistent 'leave the country' because I dislike you comments that you post regularly on an immigration forum.

Low blow as usual. Reported.

What's to report? Why is that offensive?

Not to mention, you just proved once again that you roam the board waiting for me to post. If you are going to report anyone, you should start with reporting yourself.

@heracles...double major, organisational communication and human resources

Interesting majors.

insults veiled or otherwise notwithstanding i stand by all of my statements. a bit all over the map. state run schools versus private versus other countries. i can't begin to sort out and condense it all into a forum post. you have your opinion and i have mine. on to the next.

**edit...i have homework to do...while no class as small token to honor the men and women around the world who have/are serving there countries still much work to do to get that cheap education california is giving me.

What are you going to major in?

Blah blah blah.

I'm surprised you didn't hate on the OP for discussing a situation in the UK, oh wait he's American. Carry on..

i've no desire to get into a slinging match with you....i will say that just pulling a number out of thin air and declaring it to be what should be charged is ill informed and seemingly what these bureaucrats/autocrats/idiots do here.

Not at all actually, if schools are charging ~$9K average in the DC area, then Californian UNIs should charge at the very least $13K. I am talking about the DC area here, in actual DC schools charge up to $55K per year... Heck, we pay $9k in AUS and our schools are federally funded, which usually means lower cost. Not to mention, a blue-collar worker can easily earn over $100K there, so college is not even necessary. In fact, many who go to uni end up earning less than blue-collar workers that are in demand. I know of a guy who quit his architectural job to work as a construction site cleaner, as he is now earning $90K and works 30 hours a week and with zero stress.

First lesson of the real world, you cannot have a vehicle that drives like an Audi, at the cost of a Kia. Surely someone who works would knows this.

Facebook defacer unmasked as white supremacist KKK member

Asher Moses

November 12, 2010 - 10:11AM

One of the men responsible for the grotesque defacing of Facebook tribute pages, including that of dead Melbourne teen Cameron Lowe, is a high-ranking Ku Klux Klan member who served two years in jail for viciously beating a 16-year-old Latino boy.

Jarred Hensley, 28, from Cincinnati, Ohio, outed himself to a pair of Australian vigilantes on a website chat room used by his group to organise and gloat about desecrating scores of Facebook tribute pages.

This week, the group was responsible for vandalising the pages of Cameron, 17, who died after being punched in the head, and Chantelle Rowe, 16, from Kapunda, north of Adelaide. Chantelle and her parents, Andrew and Rose Rowe, were stabbed to death.

Facebook vandal Jarred Hensley in full Ku Klux Klan regalia.

They harassed grieving family members through private messages and published obscene images on the tribute pages.

Facebook has removed the images and banned the users responsible but the largely US group is outside the reach of Australian law.

Australian law officials say it is not a crime to deface Facebook tribute pages and, while politicians have expressed outrage, they have acknowledged that it is difficult to act as the vandals are based overseas.

Cameron Lowe.

But two concerned Australians decided to visit the forum where the vandals congregate and infiltrate their chat room. They purposely baited Hensley on the chat room and he appeared there on webcam to give them the finger.

The identities of the two vigilantes are known to this website, but we have agreed to keep them anonymous in this story.

"He was only too proud to give out his name and he said come and get me, because he knows that international laws aren't there for Australians to do anything," one of the vigilantes said in a phone interview.

Jarred Hensley's distinctive tattoos.

Using the webcam image and the name, it was easy to verify the identity of Hensley, thanks to the distinctive tattoos covering his arms. Hensley is pictured online in formal KKK regalia giving a Hitler salute with white power and Nazi flags in the background.

The forum, which contains evidence of numerous other acts of Facebook tribute page vandalism, was quickly locked down when the defacers became concerned that the Australians were trying to break into their system.

In 2006, Hensley and three other members of the Imperial Klans of America, then the second largest KKK group, were on a recruiting mission at the Meade County Fair in Kentucky.

They saw a 16-year-old US boy of Panamanian-Indian descent, Jordan Gruver.They beat him to the ground and kicked him with steel-toe boots. Jordan suffered injuries including a broken jaw, broken teeth and permanent nerve damage and he was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.

Hensley along with several other Klansmen were found guilty of the offences and served two years in prison. In 2008, Jordan was awarded $US2.5 million in damages.

Hensley was the Klan "grand titan" in Ohio, making him the group's second-highest ranking official in the state.

Hensley has both a Facebook and MySpace page and is pictured in his MySpace profile picture with a young, smiling child. He did not respond to a request for comment.

Earlier this week, another member of the group who defaced the tribute pages, who did not give a name, called this website to discuss the issue. The American said the group was "motivated by the laughs and the entertainment we get from it" and said the victims of the attacks "deserve it".

He later published an audio recording of the conversation on the group's website, the same one that contains the chatroom where Hensley outed himself.

In internet parlance, antagonising other online users for entertainment is known as "trolling".

Debbie Frost, Facebook's director of communications and public affairs, who is based in the US, said the social networking site was "appalled" by the material the trolls placed on Cameron Lowe's tribute page and extended its sympathies to his friends and family.

"Once it was reported, we removed the offensive material and then disabled the accounts of the people responsible for posting it," she said.

"These so-called 'trolls' are human vandals who deface web pages across the internet everywhere. Unfortunately they are motivated by the level of public outrage they cause and the media attention they gain in doing so, and like other nuisances, they are not easily stopped."

Facebook was criticised for being slow to act to remove the obscene images but Frost said Facebook users could protect themselves against offensive posts.

Offensive content can be reported to Facebook admins, while a person who creates a tribute page can use the controls to remove inappropriate posts and block or ban people who make them. Creators of tribute pages can also choose to classify them as "open", "closed" or "secret".

Tips for keeping tribute pages safe (Source: Facebook)

1. Limit what others can post on your page: If you go to edit your page and select “Wall Settings”, you can choose what types of content fans can post to your page under “Fan Permissions”. For example, you can prevent people from posting videos or photos.

2. Remove content: Administrators have the ability to remove any content from a page. To do so, just select “remove” next to the piece of content.

3. Ban fans who are being abusive: If a fan of your page is repeatedly posting inappropriate content, you can go beyond reporting the fan by banning them from your page by following the instructions here.

What happened to all of those teaparty clowns who entered office on the premise of 'reducing the debt'? Hello..... anybody home?

I thought all of the recommendations were quite reasonable, yet the Dems decried murder.

Edit: It's actually starting to resemble 'Spooks forum', where you get to decide who and what can or cannot be discussed.

You'd be considered a troll in most forums. Consistent trolling results in automatic suspensions and leads to being banned. Over here, it's tolerated and why you get to regularly enter the Politics & Religion section and attack anyone voicing their opinion that is not American.

What does Australia have to do with economic growth in Texas and the US? One would almost think this was an Australian immigration forum.

Definitely more than your opinion of me or what I post being throwing out in every second thread by you.

yes my company pays for it,yes it's american and i do realize that i am very fortunate that i will graduate at some point next year with zero debt. but i am here to assure you that my quarterly fees are just over 1700 per quarter which if my lousy math serves me is $6800 (and a 15.5%increase approved yesterday, and therefore imminently forthcoming) a year not inclusive of books etc so that is a significant difference from the website you are quoting and will in fact price many truly struggling students right out of college. i also realize my education is a bargain given what opportunities i believe it will afford me, doors it will open that would be shuttered without a degree. those points notwithstanding, i absolutely empathize with the frustrations of the aforementioned students (not necessarily the methods) and deal with my own daily frustrations related to inflated fees and decreased services.

A high quality education costs money to provide, so tuition fees should cost over $8K. The base tuition fees at the aforementioned uni in a state like CA, which is also flat-out bankrupt, is still unreasonably low. Students over there should be paying $13k a year and up.

Don't even get me started on illegal aliens or anchor-babies qualifying for in-state. What did you guys think is going to happen over there? That you could simply feed Mexico based on your porn industry, the gang bangers and Hollywood. Stop educating illegals and start taxing the porn industry and you may very-well be able to keep those low fees.

Yes these are "those" countries..... and the credit card is about Maxed.

We in the USA are about there too.

Q: when does the "Great Society" finally get up and rolling?

Maxed out? They have a deficit of 155 billion, you owed $9 trillion under GWB [r].

Australia owes $30 billion - just saying. You would have to reduce your debt to $450 billion, to be on par with them. No factor that they provide a greater number of benefits and much more in terms of welfare than the UK; ten fold whatever is given here.

I believe the UK has indefinite unemployment payments as does AUS, so this is just common sense. Conservatives implemented this in AUS a good 12+ years ago and it starts from 6 months of being unemployed. We [conservatives] actually do stuff in AUS, than just talk about pointless cuts or block anything the other party does.

I suspect many western countries will go down for this very reason, no one will accept less than they have grown accustomed to believe is their DUE.

Like fools they will look to the super wealthy to be fleeced to bail things out.

The democratic system is not built for this kin a thing (huge cutbacks) instead People get what they want...... up until total collapse.

At that point even the function of fire and police may be gone, as will the wealthy.

Good old Danno / Teaparty / Beck / Rush style pick-n-choose the international examples. Are these going to be the same western countries that currently rank in the top ten for Q.O.L? Basically, pick the bad incidents and try make them out as some sort of failure or movement, ignore anything they are beating you in.

Funny you should mention fire and police, as I have never heard of paying a fee otherwise your house burns down. Not since the 19th century. Not to mention the police are severely under-quipped and underfunded in a majority of counties here, non-existent in others but shhh, let's not tell anyone about that little inconvenient reality.

what makes you think i pay 5k? i get no aid and that's fine as i am fortunate enough to have a company who subsidizes the bulk of my education but 5k is a wild understatement and additionally i make a very good living, so i am certainly ahead of the game. my books for this quarter alone were $1k.

with all that said, regardless of where one goes to school it is never acceptable to increase fees 3x in 18 months each time at more than 10% and cut services every single time.

You're undertaking a BA and an American organization is actually paying for it?

This comparison is interesting, as it shows the fees to be $$4,893. $4.9k in California, a state where even a burger at Macas cost almost double the price to one here and you think its expensive. George Mason is down the road and their fees alone are $8K. Heck, UVA here is now $10,836 a year. http://www.calstate.edu/budget/student-fees/comparison-fees/

Source

http://www.politico.com/wuerker/archive/20100317-look-at-the-mess-youve-made.html

Great pic and spot on. Too bad the right in this country fails to grasp this concept.

I few weeks ago I switched on Rush and heard that the left is killing the middle-class, no kidding. Straight back off it went.

It's the equivalent of Bin Laden now claiming he's the one bringing round world peace.

i totally feel their pain! i am a csu student and just last night they approved another 15.5% tuition increase while cutting more classes, they also infomred us the we may register for fewer units ensuring we'll be around longer for them to collect fees. they have eliminated the bulk of the distance learning programmes (online) which would certainly alleviate some of the problems with classroom size etc.

it's the 3rd increase of more than 10% in less than 18months. i wish that we had some friggin recourse but they have us over a barrell. i am fortunate enough to work for a company that underwrites a significant portion of my fees including books but it doesn't assuage my frustration it simply allows me to be debt free while getting my education.

viva la students!!!!

You pay $5k now right? That's a freagin joke for a school in CA. At the very least you guys should be paying $10k.

Can't be true - UK folks are subjects of the crown, have no rights and are not allowed to revolt, have access to free speech and certainly have no right to congregate and object en mass to the will of the glorious rulers in parliament. Scurrilous lies!

What students were paying in the UK is a CA equivalent joke. It's also why I worked with so many Brits in AUS who acquired an education there, then moved abroad to work. Guess who is left to foot the bill for their education in the UK?

Cookie-cutter neighborhoods are ugly/annoying, I agree... Not the case to see those everywhere though. Just have to know where to look, which builders to pick.

Would you rather buy a 2500 sq ft home for $160,000, OR would you rather pay $350,000 for the same home, same style, same ameneties, in the same type of neighborhood... Same quality materials, etc. Goods overall are cheap here. The low tax burden really helps a lot in this area as well. You try and define too much by if it's expensive, it's better... it's all relative to where you live though at the end of the day.

The reason homes are expensive in most other areas is not only size, it's about the location, location, location. Australia's house prices, for example, have gone through the roof because people are moving there and want to purchase homes.

The right always beats on about taxes yet anyone wealthy I know of here, and I mean $1 million and up types, all live in high taxing counties. I wonder why that is? Because these freagin hypocrites enjoy the amenities, services and quality of the high-taxing county they live in. Surely if the Repubs were correct, then the rich would all move to low taxing counties. I see quite the opposite actually. Canada, Australia and Europe got the memo, hence why so many of there communities are awesome to live in. And I only pay $1K in council [country] rates [tax] per house over there.

It's also funny that Australia is only 2 places above Texas @ 13 in World economies... Looks like a 'state' is just as good as a first-world country there!

Yeah, the 'per capita' might be a bit higher for you, but cost of living is A LOT cheaper here as well. Our Q.O.L. with low cost of living > Aussie land man. Sorry to break it to you!

Love the Paul, Gary, lucky [libertarian] shoot-from-the-hip on everything. This love of opinion explains why you guys like the libertarian view, as no actual data or research [facts] is every needed for everything.

Texas GDP per capita is $36,484, while Australia's is $54,869. The GDP of Texan's is essentially 66% of Australians. Can you imagine what it would be if I break those figures down to the key states in AUS? I was like a king in Bali..

Apart from being good for corporations, I am yet to see anything really about Q.O.L and Texas. Cost of living? Like we have discussed before, the cost of living is dirt cheap in third world [libertarianesque] countries, therefore, should we move there too?

Texans have always fallen for the if you cannot have quality, just make up for it in size. For example, pickup trucks. The equivalent size vehicle from Audi would cost $130K to purchase, in order to maintain the same level of quality found in their other vehicles.

A great business climate and no state income tax. Texas (Dallas and Houston in particular) don't have the benefits of somewhere say like New York (good public transport etc.) on the flip side there is no income tax here. The sales tax is fairly high (7.25% or in my case 8.25% thanks to the yellow buses I an most other people here rarely ride.

If you want to hate companies, look at AIG, Investment banks, brokerage houses etc. I'm pretty sure they are all based in NY. AT&T used to be based in NJ, now based in Dallas. Verizon is still based in NJ (Basking Ridge), but they have a very large presence based in the DFW area. Don't be surprised if VZ moves their HQ here after Seidenberg retires.

Housing is very cheap here, and the quality is the same if not better.

AT&T dropped in service once they moved to Texas, or following their purchase by crapular. Verizon kicks some serious azz, love that company and their rock-solid cell service. Fios apparently kicks some serious azz too.

Great climate for business, however I am one of the 94% of people in the US that is not self-employed (88% in AUS - 70% in European countries), so why would I care what tax rate a company pays? I am interested in what I earn and what they do for the community and country I live in. Zero tax for them means they get to amass wealth, while putting FA back into the community. It's also why less than 9% of the federal budget is derived from US business, a rate much higher abroad.

I fail to see the rationale of cheap house prices, as there is always a reason as to why they are cheap. Supply and Demand 101. I do remember seeing something on housing in Houston, noticing that street after street of carbon choppy homes in a new area. Block after block, both the streets and the homes all looked the same and where in a same straight line. Clear win for the corporation who built them and extracted the most profit wise out of it but a future ghetto for anyone who buys there. The county doe snot permit such construction back in AUS, even if it's on private land. One of the most crucial steps to a permit is whether a development will add future value to an area. Build and run housing projects are not permitted there, hence why the burbs are so visually appealingly there. However, this seems to be a problem all over the US than Texas alone.