drsmooth wrote:

CalvinBall wrote:bunch of fit, fashion forward white dudes in those pictures.

I can't shake the conviction that the guy gazing wistfully off to the horizon in the last picture is possessed by yearnings & desires best left unfathomed

RichmondPhilsFan wrote:

drsmooth wrote:

CalvinBall wrote:bunch of fit, fashion forward white dudes in those pictures.

I can't shake the conviction that the guy gazing wistfully off to the horizon in the last picture is possessed by yearnings & desires best left unfathomed

It's a mortal lock that he doesn't understand the fuss over the Riley Cooper video.

I’m going to trust everyone with this little tidbit, because I think it might brighten a few days and if anyone saw an intern wandering around with only one shoe on this morning, they have a right to know why. But with great power comes great responsibilities, my fellow listers.

This morning one of my interns (who is under 21) came in about 2 hours late, absolutely hammered, reeking of booze, wearing the same clothes that he had on yesterday. He wandered the legislative area, slurring about how he was in love with Paul Ryan *elected official mentioned* and can’t wait to see *him* at a hearing later today. Further crude conversation ensued that ended only when he abruptly ran out of our office to get in line for the aforementioned hearing (which was in about 3 hours). Allegedly, his plan was to find a “smokeshow” (in the spirit of list-lingo, wasn’t the word he actually used) at the front of the line to flirt with in order to cut and get in.

After an in-office powwow, we realized that no, we weren’t all crazy and yes, he is beyond drunk. My LC went after him before any further damage could be done but he was too late. It seems upon his arrival to the hearing room, our dear intern was the first in line (go figure). Having no one to “save his spot” he simply left one of his shoes there as a place-saver and went down to Longworth for some breakfast. When he returned, breakfast burrito in hand and one shoe on his foot, he discovered that he was indeed still first in the non-existent line, but his poor, abandoned shoe was nowhere to be found. That’s when my LC found him – in a heated discussion with a nearby janitor regarding the whereabouts of his “stolen” shoe.

Needless to say, he was promptly sent home to sleep it off and I’m down an intern for the remainder of the summer (not that I’m crying over it).

*Slow clap for the summer interns*

For the first time in seven years, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) has a confirmed leader. But it first had to wait for Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.) to get back to Washington.

A cloture vote on Jones’s nomination Wednesday afternoon left Democrats one vote short of preventing a filibuster — and the Senate waiting for Heitkamp to return from North Dakota. Around 7 p.m. eastern time, she arrived and cast the 60th vote — the number required to move forward with an up-or-down vote on Jones’s nomination.

Shortly thereafter, the Senate confirmed Jones by a vote of 53-42.

“This position hasn’t had a director for seven years and it’s way past time that the job is finally filled,” Heitkamp said in a statement. “Mr. Jones has strong credentials.”

Jones was nominated by President Obama in January, shortly after the mass shooting at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn. But he has been acting director since 2011.

The ATF has not had a permanent director since the position became subject to Senate confirmation in 2006, largely because of delays from senators protective of gun rights. The National Rifle Association chose to stay neutral on Jones’s nomination.

“We haven’t seen anything that concerns us from the standpoint of gun issues,” NRA lobbyist Jim Baker told the Associated Press.

While Jones was not part of a bipartisan deal on filibusters that helped moved several blocked nominees, the momentum from that agreement appears to have helped him.

Youseff wrote:http://thelead.blogs.cnn.com/2013/08/01/exclusive-dozens-of-cia-operatives-on-the-ground-during-benghazi-attack/?on.cnn=1

what the hell is going on here...

pacino wrote:1 year asylum for Snowden in Russia. THIS CAN ONLY BE CONSIDERED GREAT

Youseff wrote:http://thelead.blogs.cnn.com/2013/08/01/exclusive-dozens-of-cia-operatives-on-the-ground-during-benghazi-attack/?on.cnn=1

what the hell is going on here...

swishnicholson wrote:

pacino wrote:1 year asylum for Snowden in Russia. THIS CAN ONLY BE CONSIDERED GREAT

I have my suspicions that this was worked out behind the scenes and the U.S. is only too happy to postpone or eliminate all the tumult (with little or no profit) a trial would bring on, while still appearing all aggrieved.

Does this mean I should start wearing tin-foil?

Russia recently passed a law that will block any Web site aiding copyright infringement (which might be as simple as a user linking to a place where pirated material is available) if it doesn’t respond within three days. Many Internet activists are calling it the “Russian SOPA” after the controversial anti-piracy legislation that failed in the United States after online outrage. It was enacted on Thursday, the same day Russia granted temporary asylum to Snowden.

Russia’s proposal at the last World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT) called for the Internet to be regulated by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), a U.N. agency, and for member states to have the “sovereign right to [...] regulate the national Internet segment.”

Vint Cerf, one of the fathers of the Internet and now of Google, voiced concerns such control would lead to ‘”top-down control dictated by governments” and have detrimental effects on freedom of expression and security. The Russian proposal garnered support from the UAE, China, Saudi Arabia, Algeria and Sudan, but was ultimately withdrawn after objections from the United States and others.

Russia has an Internet blacklist that is used to censor political speech. And the tech used to enforce it can be used for surveillance.

Putin signed an Internet filtering law aimed at “protecting the children” from harmful content in July 2012. But Wired reported court decisions were extending the Single Register of banned sites created by that measure to include political speech by opponents of the Putin regime, and that Russia was relying on Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) to enforce the blacklist.

DPI is a network management practice that involves looking into the packets that speed across networks to determine how best to route them. But while it can have legitimate uses, it’s also been used as a cost-effective tool to suppress freedom of expression — including by former Libyan dictator Moammar Gaddafi.

Eric King, head of research at Privacy International was quoted in Wired claiming “No Western democracy has yet implemented a dragnet black-box DPI surveillance system due to the crushing effect it would have on free speech and privacy,” adding “DPI allows the state to peer into everyone’s internet traffic and read, copy or even modify e-mails and webpages.”

Russian politicians are trying to ban online swearing.

Some Russia politicians want the current Internet blacklist to go even further. State Duma Deputy Yelena Mizulina recently put forth a proposal requiring sites to be added to it if swear words aren’t removed from the Internet.

Obviously, Russia’s efforts to control the Internet don’t make Snowden’s leaks about U.S. surveillance any less revealing or important, but they do add a layer of irony to his flight.

pacino wrote:mark kessler, suspended for all of 30 days, needs 10k to pay his bills

give him a handout! welfare!!!