

Senator "series of tubes" Stevens  convicted on 7 felony counts - tptacek
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1008/14819.html

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DarkShikari
Maybe soon he'll discover that a prison isn't a big building: it's a series of
cubes.

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jadence
Did you come up w/ that joke on your own? I ask because it's awfully similar
to a highly moderated comment left on /.

[http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1009471&cid=2553...](http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1009471&cid=25533549)

If you borrowed it from /., I would imagine that giving credit to the creator
(who happens to be "Anonymous Coward" in this case) would be appropriate.

~~~
DarkShikari
I think I remember seeing it on Fark, and I wouldn't be surprised if that guy
took it from Slashdot, who then probably took it from a blog somewhere...

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sh3l1
You see, the legal system is just a series of tubes. It's not a big truck! If
you put me into it I will just clog up the whole thing.

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dgordon
How do idiots like this get reelected for forty years?

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ajmoir
Look around you. It's the people. Dumb and ignorant.

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mhartl
Not that there aren't plenty of dumb people around, but the ignorance part is
practically unavoidable. Even smart people have little incentive to be well-
informed when there are a large number of voters. This "rational ignorance" is
a basic defect of democracy.

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newt0311
so is systematic irrationality. Turns out that according to polls, people has
systematically irrational beliefs when it comes to voting (probably because
they have no immediate personal stake). Poll here:
<http://www.kff.org/kaiserpolls/1199-econgen.cfm>

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mynameishere
Err, hmm?

<http://www.kff.org/kaiserpolls/1199-econgen3.cfm>

58 percent of the general public think that tax cuts are good for the economy,
while 37 percent of economists do. So, the lesson learned is.....the general
public is more qualified to set policy than experts.

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colinplamondon
Uh, whoa? Tax cuts in the United States are generally done without
corresponding decreases in spending, leading to a massive deficit, leading to
an unpayably large national debt.

You can't simply say 'tax cuts are good' and call it a day- that's a gross
oversimplification. "Tax cuts are good when accompanied by a decrease in
government spending such as that we have a large surplus" I can agree with.

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lutorm
I don't even want to agree with that. The function of government is to provide
essential services to society, and I don't think you can just say that it's
better for the economy if you cut spending so it doesn't. I doubt the economy
would be improved in a total anarchy, which is essentially your suggestion
seen to its ultimate conclusion.

For example, even the Economist agrees that a market economy won't function
without clear rules that everyone plays by. And they are also of the opinion
that carbon taxes are better than cap-and-trade, because taxes provide better
long-term stability so businesses are able to plan and adapt.

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huhtenberg
Karma.

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thras
As usual, I'm amazed at how cheap it is to buy off our Congressmen. Abramoff
was sentenced for picking up a few $100 restaurant tabs. Now Stevens is
heading to jail over things like a free massage chair and work done on his
house.

With the price so cheap, I wonder if I should look at buying my own
Congressman as an investment opportunity? I'm sure I could think of useful
things for him to do.

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vaksel
I think the reason we see these guys getting caught for $100 tabs is because
they get sloppy. There were probably millions in kickbacks which they were
able to hide properly because they took the effort to do it right. But a $100
kickback by comparison gets overlooked as an insignificant amount

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Eliezer
+1 Insightful, mod parent up

(no, seriously, this is a really important point)

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helveticaman
Why the downvotes?

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alecco
There are no special people with moderator points in HN, it is pointless to
beg.

~~~
helveticaman
I'm not asking for me, I'm asking about the post above mine...well, whatever.

