Former Supreme Court Justice Switches to Video Games

TechDirt is reporting that former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor has moved into the one industry that I don't think anyone might have expected, video games. Not only did she speak at a recent gaming conference, she is also working on creating a video game about the courts. "There have been many similar 'civic education' video games out there, like the UN video game to teach kids about world hunger and, my personal favorite, a video game to teach kids how to gerrymander voting districts to get political support. It's not clear how successful any of these sorts of games really are, but it's nice to see a former Supreme Court Justice taking an interest in these sorts of things. Though, some might point out that this could be seen as something of a gimmick, and students might just be better served by adding a decent civics curriculum back into school (it's apparently gone thanks to No Child Left Behind)."

No Child Left Behind

[geekoid]

Dear next president, please kill that program on your first day.

Thank you.

Re:

[Sciros]

I only know Obama's stance on NCLB (haven't looked into McCain's) -- he plans on "rescuing" it by cutting NASA's budget. So... if you want NCLB gone (and I certainly do), then Obama isn't your guy. McCain may not be, either, but so far I haven't heard anything about it from him and his plan certainly can't be *worse.* Still, it's far from the only issue out there.

Re:

[geekoid]

Clarification:
He is cutting the severely underfunded Man to mars mission, not the entire budget.

Well, by 'fix it' he is effectively getting rid of it.
To be frank, I was being a little flip. If they fix the problems with it, that would be good. It would also be the same in name only.

McCain's view is the same as Bush's. Vouchers, Privitazation, etc...

Re:

[Chris Burke]

McCain's view is the same as Bush's. Vouchers, Privitazation, etc...

Yeah, I always have to remember to pretend to be surprised when the Public School policies of someone whose explicit and stated stance is that they want public schools to go away ends up harming the public schools more than helping.

Re:

[Sciros]

Agh, lame. Well, I don't know how he plans on fixing it, either, but Obama's plan is ridiculous in my opinion because he's taking money away from something that would educate us on a global scale (space exploration) in order to ensure the lowest common denominator being catered to in schools.

Basically NCLB is a horrible idea that I despise and anyone supporting it is misguided in my view. Since both McCain and Obama like NCLB, it'll have to as usual be a comparison of two evils.

Interesting idea

[Weaselmancer]

If you want to improve education in the USA, stop letting the dumbest folk breed like bunnies.

Describe in a thousand words or less how you accomplish that without facism. [wikipedia.org]

Re:Interesting idea

[KutuluWare]

Legalize highly explosive fireworks and wait a month?

Re:Interesting idea

[drsmithy]

Describe in a thousand words or less how you accomplish that without facism. [wikipedia.org]

1. Remove all government fiscal incentives (direct and indirect) for having children.
2. Thorough and compulsory sex education.
3. Free contraceptives.

Re:

[drsmithy]

3. Free contraceptives.

I should probably explicitly state that this includes abortion.

Re:

[drsmithy]

That won't happen in a million years. Americans are split evenly on abortion, but, nearly unanimously would prefer that the morons that get themselves pregnant take care of their own problems.

I fail to see how "taking care of their own problems" excludes abortion.

Regardless, the GP didn't ask for a solution that would be politically acceptable in the United States of Jesusland, he asked for a way to do it without resorting to fascism (which I assumed was being used in the colloquial "oppressive governmen

Re:

[drsmithy]

Change government fiscal incentives (direct and indirect) for having children to government fiscal incentives (direct and indirect) for NOT having children.

That would be counterproductive.

Re:

[Captain Splendid]

Fuck, you've got my vote. Sign up already!

Re:No Child Left Behind

[Enderandrew]

I'm not sure anyone understands the program, or the issues here. Enforcing common standards is a good thing, and yet it blamed universally when anything outside the standards isn't taught any more.

I think it is possible to teach crucial curriculum and still find time for other classes. The problem is that teachers have little to no control over children in an overly litigious society of hyper-sensitive parents.

And more often than not, you either have both parents working, or a single parent household, where the parent may not connect with their child enough. So when a teacher attempts to tell a parent of their child's failing, they don't want to believe it.

We have developed this society where teachers are terrified of instilling discipline (I'm not talking about hitting kids, but rather just instilling order) so that children don't feel the need to take education seriously.

Our countries in the world manage to pull off superior public education programs, not necessarily because of funding, but I believe because of cultural differences in which education is taken far more seriously.

Universally blaiming "No Child Left Behind" isn't actually addressing the issues of what's seriously wrong. Conversely, I think the the concept of NCLB is a very good one. We spend more money on education. We attempt to raise the bar of public education, and hold states accountable for poor results.

There is a great disparity between what a child in rural Alabama, a child inner-city New York, and another say here in Omaha (my town) receives in education. Individual states and school districts should have freedom and flexibility in determining their curriculum, but having a bare-minimum standard of education all American children should be given is a GOOD THING.

If you want to see what's really wrong with public education, don't blame a politician for spending more money on education. Read some Jonathon Kozol.

http://books.google.com/books?as_auth=Jonathan+Kozol&sa=X&oi=print&ct=title&cad=author-navigational&hl=en [google.com]

Re:

[goofy183]

Wish my mod points hadn't just expired, you'd be getting one.

My wife works in special-ed which has an even higher tendency to be litigious than general-ed courses do.

It is amazing how many parents immediately place blame on teachers for their child not doing well in a class. In many cases it may well be a case of a student and teacher not connecting at some level but jumping directly into "it's the teachers fault" versus trying to find a solution doesn't help and just puts teachers and parents more at odds.

Re:

[bigkahunah]

As a recent high school graduate (2006) I was in high school during NCLB. I do not see the program as having destroyed any meaningful civic curriculum because there never really was one to begin with. Sure the government and history teachers present the material, but as Enderandrew mentioned the parents can't stand to see a child failing or even falling short of perfection. This leads to great pressure on the teachers from parents and the school to pass all the students and inflate grades. The only thin

Re:

[Enderandrew]

If the school administration and teachers are stressed out, that is likely poor management/administration. Grade inflation and giving A's to idiots doesn't help on the metrics being used here, which are the standardized tests.

I understand that cramming for a test isn't as effective in long term education as practical knowledge, but if you know of a better way to establish a base line metric that isn't easily cheated or inflated, please let me know.

Re:

[Sciros]

NCLB doesn't raise the bar of public education, it lowers it so that people who are otherwise too stupid to pass would now do so. That's how it's handled due to punitive measures the act imposes against schools that do not improve based on its standardized tests. The achievement gap is lowered, but not by briging the bottom higher; rather it brings the top lower. It doesn't force underachieving students to rise to the occasion.

So, it's a POS.

Re:

[Enderandrew]

I'm not sure what you mean.

What standards have been lowered? NCLB didn't tell schools to give higher grades to underachievers. NCLB punishes schools who aren't educating their kids. How does that lower the bar?

I'm not following your so-called logic.

Re:

[Arccot]

I'm not sure anyone understands the program, or the issues here. Enforcing common standards is a good thing, and yet it blamed universally when anything outside the standards isn't taught any more.

Enforcing common standards isn't the problem; enforcing common standards while funding different school districts with wildly different amounts of money is. Fix the funding, and you fix the standards.

I think it is possible to teach crucial curriculum and still find time for other classes.

The problem is, if you test four different subjects (not sure how many there actually are), and don't test the rest, it would be foolish to focus on the untested subjects before the students are 100% capable in the tested subjects. You are funded because of four subjects. Your school loses funding, and you po

Re:

[mdarksbane]

My father works in arts and music education, as one of those travelling school performers who occasionally shows up to do a show that teacher kids history using music and theatre.

He's going to have to find a new job this year due to NCLB.

Funding for anything that is not on the NCLB standardized tests has completely dried up. Schools *have* to do well on those standardized exams, and they don't have the funding to be able to handle the extra costs of keeping up with them *and* having any sort of art/theatre/

Re:No student allowed to thrive

[colinnwn]

There is a problem in that the Federal government has no mandate to enforce common standards in education. But lets say the states allowed the Federal government that power, and I agree this might be a good thing to do for some under performing schools. I also agree blaming NCLB isn't addressing some of the serious problems. But by the same token, NCLB itself doesn't address the serious problems, and in its implementation is a hindrance to effective education.

I don't see the evidence that the litigious

Parents aren't having enough kids.

[tjstork]

The problem is, ultimately, that parents are not having enough kids. So, whereas before, you might have one smart kid and a couple of ok ones destined for the factory, now, just that one kid you have HAS to go to college, and frankly, they may not be up to it. Instead of parents beating their children and their teachers up because Johnny isn't into books, maybe these parents should have had more kids, so that they could get one that's really and truly cut out for higher education, rather than being shoeho

Re:

[lgw]

Have you seen how much a plumber can make? A welder doesn't excatly pinch pennies either. This idea that a college educaiton is the only way to get a technical job that pays well also has to go. Not all technical jobs are *abstract* - some are hands on, appeal to a different set of people, and can't be outsourced.

Re:

[Enderandrew]

You bring up a very good point that I was thinking about earlier. The federal government has no real authority to do I'd say 75% of the things it does given a strict interpretation of the Constitution, yet citizens expect and demand a good deal of services from the Federal Government.

I could suggest that democracy in action has yielded a good deal amount of power, even if it wasn't implicitly stated, so that the federal government do more.

Does the government have the right? Arguably no. Should they howev

Re:

[R2.0]

Yeah, because there weren't any schools failing before that law passed, and states don't have a choice whether to participate.

Perhaps it doesn't work. Fine. What would you have the government do?

I'll start: abolish the Dept. of Education and get the Feds out of the schools. Period.

Don't like that? What's your idea? Don't have one? Then STFU.

Re:

[Dachannien]

Dear next president, please kill that program on your first day.

It's pretty obvious that you never got to take that civics class mentioned in the OP, because otherwise you'd know that it's Congress's responsibility to change or repeal laws.

Re:

[Jherek Carnelian]

Wasn't "no child left behind" largely an unfunded mandate to begin with? Forcing the states to re-allocate funding from other parts of the curriculum to support teaching to the test?

Re:

[Layer 3 Ninja]

Not only does it force teachers to teach the test, with budget penalties etc etc, if a student fails his or her EoG test twice, they get promoted to the next grade anyway. No child is left behind, because they eventually get promoted whether they pass the tests or not. Its fucking brilliant.

Re:No Child Left Behind

[0111 1110]

I have recently had the opportunity to get to know a child who is so dumb that I regard him as basically unteachable. I seriously don't see the point of trying to educate him to do anything more intellectual than janitorial work or "fries with that?" kind of work. I'm tired of all the blame being left at the feet of the poor teachers trying to educate these idiots who clearly hate studying and thinking. Let them just go out and play sports or play in traffic or whatever. They are only going to very negatively contribute to the gene pool. So, yes, "leaving them behind" is definitely what we should be doing. Otherwise the smart kids whose brains are actually able to accomplish something useful will be the ones "left behind".

Rather than focus on the dumb people (say because they represent the majority of voters), we should be mandating some basic IQ and/or knowledge testing before we even allow a child to progress to the next grade. And I'm not talking about weeding out only those who are both mentally retarded AND lazy. We should be weeding out something like the bottom 30% of the curve entirely from intellectual pursuits. What's the point? They will never be succesful at it anyway. If they suddenly "get smart" at some later point they can always test themselves back onto one of the intellectual tracks. We should make staying in school something that is challenging and requires lots of work for the average person. The square peg in round hole kiddies should be derailed onto less intellectually challenging pursuits like the building trades or sewing or cooking. We should be making an effort to train people at something they might actually be useful at rather than just assuming every kid is some kind of budding genius. What we are doing now is our own kind of square peg to round hole fitting. It's not going to work no matter how much we wish it would.

Re:

[American Scum]

As a high-school teacher I just don't know where I stand on this issue. I have taught kids who do learn, and progress, in my class that really did have some sort of problem, and were quite behind the rest of the class. Nonetheless, with my help they refined, and improved upon, what they gave me - and all I know is that I don't have a crystal ball, so I really don't know where their progress will end.

On the other side of the spectrum are the ones born who really are borderline retarded (and I'm serious in

Re:

[religious freak]

Your idea may seem logical on its surface, but will ultimately result in creating a permanent underclass and undercutting the principles of meritocracy in our society.

If someone is born without the help of a good parent/grandparent, they will start out below normal, but given an opportunity will have a shot at contributing significantly to society, if not by themselves directly, through their children who will be taught better.

Re:

[a1ok]

Every time someone presents a reasoned argument to change an existing status quo, why does someone have to trot out the 'slippery slope' argument? I'm not a U.S. citizen and don't really want to comment on it, but the No Child Left Behind act is incredibly harmful to any intelligent kids imho, based on what I've read about it (mind you, this is mostly /. comments).

The GP was suggesting that people with no/little aptitude for thinking aren't steered into professions that require a lot of it. I certainly thin

Re:No Child Left Behind

[MasaMuneCyrus]

No Child Left Behind is very harmful to intelligent kids. When I was in middle school, I learnt close to nothing and the only thing that was widely regarded was improvement, not achievement. At the end of the year, the school always handed out awards to exemplary students, and there were maybe 10 awards for various kinds of improvement, and then maybe one award for achievements or grades.

Having been home schooled until second grade, we finally decided to quit school and begin homeschooling again after 7th grade. This is when I was 12. At 13, we found that IUPUI (Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis) offered a program called SPAN [iupui.edu], which basically allows you to take any college course for both college credit and equivalent high school credit. And since college work is much harder than high school work, they're sometimes worth more credits, too. In other words, I was able to completely replace all of my public middle school and high school, and all of my home schooling with full-time college. Doing so, I entered college at the age of 13.

IUPUI isn't the only college doing this, though. America has many of the best colleges and universities in the world, and its public school system is among the worst (down near the likes of Mexico last I saw a report on it, and that was years ago when schools were better). The universities here are increasingly growing weary of having to teach freshman what they used to learn in high school. Universities now love home schoolers because they have a much better education, and they are usually more disciplined and ready for college than their public school counter-parts.

The American school system is steadily moving towards a point where if you want your child to attend college, you can't enroll them in a public school.

Re:No Child Left Behind

[qbzzt]

It was only unfunded in comparative terms. The federal government is not allowed to mess with education. They get around this by paying school districts to do something.

Before NCLB the federal government has some requirements to give money. NCLB changed those requirements, without allocating more money. School districts are allowed to tell the DoE to take their money, take their standards, and stuff them both into the same shredder.

We, as voters for each school district, have decided not to do so. We want our federal education subsidies.

Re:

[Machtyn]

No Child Left Behind was a far-right pendulum swing in the ongoing battle over whether the purpose of public education is to train people to function as workers or to lead better lives.

The far-right direction is what catches me off-guard about NCLB. The right-wing / conservative values are to keep the government out of personal lives - minimize government. The public education system, welfare, and this program are among many government programs that interfere with personal lives (good and bad).

IMO, t

Re:No Child Left Behind

[StopKoolaidPoliticsT]

No Child Left Behind was a far-right pendulum swingin the ongoing battle over whether the purpose of public education is to train people to function as workers or to lead better lives.

As proven by the fact that the bill was largely written by that ultra right neo-con Ted Kennedy. To quote him, "The tragedy is that these long overdue reforms are finally in place, but the funds are not." In other words, he was happy with the policy but not the amount of funding.

Sure, it was part of GWB's 2000 election platform, but after taking office, he decided to extend an olive branch to the other party and let Kennedy focus on one of his pet issues in an attempt to ease the partisan fighting in DC. But we'll leave the Senior Senator from Massachussets out of it as we rewrite history to prove yet again that only Republicans are evil.

Re:

[geekoid]

That won't work.
The current administration tends to demand things, but not provide funding. Then when it fails, they start talking about privatization.

Don't get me wrong, education for all children are critical to the health of the long term existence of any country.

Re:

[rts008]

I'll give you the benefit of doubt on this one, but at the same time, look at how the money was spent by the school systems.

Here, we have a jr. high that has roof leaks because one wall of an entire wing was built over a sink-hole:
the foundation sinks>the wall tries to fall over to the outside (crack in attached wall goes from 1/2" at floor to 14-22" at roof/decking depending on time of year)>when it rains, water runs in a sheet down the wall>stresses roofing>multiple leaks form at every roof ju

Re:

[lgw]

It's quite amuzing chatting with all the Indian H1-Bs that I works with: their uniform opinion is that they need to return to India before their kids reach school age, so that their kids can focus on education instead of sports in school. Yes, emerging economies mock our school system, and rightly so.

Re:

[lgw]

Don't blame me, I was left behind. :)

Cite?

[spun]

Got any sources on that? Preferably showing how much money congress actually budgeted, not just how much the program costs.

Re:

[lilomar]

So the only way to leave a child behind is to starve it first?

That's harsh man.

(kidding aside, the sooner NCLB dies the better)

I thought I'd never see the day

[TubeSteak]

This game will teach generations of children how to get away with murder!
Jack Thompson, save us from this calamity!

Re:

[Kumba]

OBJECTION!

Re:

[compro01]

On what grounds?

Re:

[lilomar]

I wish to stab him. [lfgcomic.com]

Re:I thought I'd never see the day

[The Moof]

Oooo.. Sorry, you barely missed him. He just walked out.

Re:

[sm62704]

If a videogame about the courts takes hold, I'm writing one about paint peeling, steel rusting, and grass growing.

Re:

[rts008]

You might want to throw 'watching concrete harden' in the mix for the impatient/short attention span 'twitch' gamers.

Re:

[thealsir]

Or how about "How many witnesses can you sink to the bottom of swimming pools after filling concrete around their feet?"

Phoenix Wright and Animal Crossing, only for DS

[tepples]

If a videogame about the courts takes hold

Is Hooked on Phoenix Wright for you? It's Wright for journeymanmetal.

I'm writing one about paint peeling, steel rusting, and grass growing

What about animal crossing?

Harvest Moon is on a speed-up

[tepples]

I don't think he's played Harvest Moon either.

Harvest Moon is not as slow as "paint peeling, steel rusting, and grass growing". Specifically, HM: Magical Melody is on what appears to be a fixed 120:1 speed-up, unlike the Animal Crossing series that runs at 1:1 and then catches up all time since last save when you resume the game.

The Havok physics engine

[xPsi]

should be well suited for this genre for all the obvious reasons (not to mention crucial ragdoll effects for the Marionette Hordes and Lobbyists, Zero-Point Energy Field Manipulator for realistic simulation of the dissenting opinion, etc.)

Phoenix Wright: Ace Former Supreme Court Judge

[DeanCubed]

Coming soon to your DS - a brand new game from Capcom. Now you too can experience what it's like to hear appeal after appeal on Bush administration pet projects. Over 700 hours of game time with our new RealPaperwork Engine! Unlockable characters like Sandra Day O'Connor and Stephen Colbert! No objections to that!

Final Boss Ideas

[exley]

Jack Thompson (maybe more of a mini-boss... like it'd be that hard to beat this guy)

Jack McCoy (now we're talking)

Re:

[Hotawa Hawk-eye]

Jack Thompson (maybe more of a mini-boss... like it'd be that hard to beat this guy)

I dub thee ... Mid-Boss [wikipedia.org].

I just ask the Mod community

[antifoidulus]

Please, Please, PLEASE do not come out with a "Sandra Day O'Conner" nude hack!

The mod would have to be called....

[DigitalReverend]

Quid Pro Whoa!

Re:

[sm62704]

It could be worse [ada.gov]

Re:

[Ukab the Great]

More likely it would be "Hot Coffee With Clarence Thomas".

Just think...

[xpuppykickerx]

How awesome would a Judge Judy video game be? You can take all the criminals from other videos and put them in her court!!!

Re:

[CogDissident]

It is very popular with women BECAUSE of her feminist slant. Whenever it is a man versus a woman on her show, the woman is usually the kind of person that the audience can relate to, and she always wins.

A game that teaches about courts

[Lucas123]

I can see it now. Milton Bradley will name it, "He Who Has The Most Money Wins"

Gerrymandering

[D Ninja]

...and, my personal favorite, a video game to teach kids how to gerrymander voting districts to get political support.

OMG! That game is so freaken awesome! I love redistricting constituency boundaries in order to get an electoral advantage!!!

Nice Idea...

[Thelasko]

too bad the folks at Capcom already beat them to it. [wikipedia.org]

Good news everyone!

[GroeFaZ]

You don't have to RTFA, because TFS is virtually identical to TFA.

Funny...

[SatanicPuppy]

I was thinking, "Lamest game EVER", and then I thought a bit more about how it could be, and maybe framed it in terms of an RPG where you start off with a character who is a new lawyer, and you get to choose career paths, and how the courtroom scenes could be a kind of mini-game where your arguments convince the jury.

You could have stats like "knowledge" which would allow you to more accurately cite precedent to derail your opponent, and "oratory" to baffle with BS...

As you continue through your career you'

Re:

[argent]

Funny how just about anything can be made into a decent video game...

http://www.somethingpositive.net/sp05282008.shtml [somethingpositive.net]

Re:

[SatanicPuppy]

Too easy.

USC's Redistricting Game was actually fun...

[Trojan35]

http://www.redistrictinggame.com/ [redistrictinggame.com]

Try it out.

Re:

[jonaskoelker]

For those of you who haven't played the game, here's a brief description:

You are given a map (n by m grid). Each square has a number of democratic, republican and udecided voters. The total number of voters and their distribution across parties varies from square to square. The map is divided into four connected regions.

Mission 1: change the division such that each region contains between 640K and 650K voters. Fairly easy.

Mission 2: change the division, such that the above constraint is satisfied, and suc

There's room in the Geek Pantheon

[hey!]

After all, the initials SDO aren't taken yet.

Re:

[lilomar]

I like SDO'C. Apostrophes are awesome.

Unlockable bloodless coup content?

[kherr]

Considering Sandra Day O'Connor's direct hand in subverting democracy, will there there be a bonus level for executing a bloodless coup by judicial fiat?

And if you choose the conservative career...

[bobdotorg]

... The final level is completed by fixing a presidential election, and then trekking through the Forest of Intelligent design to kill the Roe v. Wade Boss.

GTA4 Engine = Success

[CambodiaSam]

If they use the GTA4 Engine, I personally gaurantee success. Of course, kids will be rather shocked to see that in reality criminals aren't released from jail 4 hours later with nothing but their weapons and $1000 taken away.

Wow, does it teach corruption?

[BrookHarty]

While I'd like to think the legal system is responsible, if you have paid any attention to history and news lets review some of the things courts have done, its amazing people still trust the courts.

1. Pushed political agendas
2. Made careers for DA's prosecuting innocent people.
3. Court rulings overturned multiple times all the way to the supreme court. (No consensus about what is the law)
4. Family courts stripping away fathers rights or rights of parents.
5. Supreme court deciding to rule on law or preceden

Re:

[mr_matticus]

Wow. I just couldn't pass this up.

1. Are you human? Yes? You're pushing a political agenda. Anyone asking for apolitical performance is just asking to be lied to.
2. Adversarial system. Jury of peers. Courts don't make careers for attorneys who convict innocent people, and your premise is invalid and unsupported. If you're suggesting that some other metric for DAs other than number of convictions should be used, name it. False positives will happen, but must be balanced against evidentiary failures

she was schooled in SIlicon Valley!

[peter303]

Stanford 1952. That was when Silicon Valley was mostly orange groves.

The game will be horrific

[MSTCrow5429]

Last thing we need is a game created by a jurist with absolutely zero discernible legal philosophy to teach "law."

Hmm next GTA?

[someone1234]

The next GTA will have authentic court scenes?

Re:

[morgan_greywolf]

Wow. SDO was on the ISG?

The way you paint that makes me want to put a tinfoil hat on -- NOW.

Re:

[jdgeorge]

Such a post containing a petulant, childish, and largely inaccurate personal attack on Justice O'Connor is completely inappropriate for a....

Oh, nevermind... Slashdot... got it.

Jolly good show, carry on.

Re:

[jdgeorge]

I just posted cited facts in a restrained tone.

You just posted exactly the kind of bullshit that you projected on me with your post, like a loyal Republican. You people never quit, do you? Unless it's quitting a lifetime obligation to rake in some private sector money, with your sick spouse as your excuse.

Okay, I'll explain why I disagree with you posted, starting with this post:

You have no idea what my politics are, yet you say I am a Republican. You have no reason to believe I am or am not a Republican, though I infer that you are not, and therefore you conclude that I am what you are not, because I wrote a post critical of what you wrote.

Both in this post and your previous post in this thread, you refer to (implicitly in the previous post) a lifetime obligation for the Supreme Court Justices. There is no

Re:

[jdgeorge]

I just wanted to chip in and mention that I appreciated your post.

Thank you; that may be the nicest thing I've read on Slashdot.

There's always room for a civil discussion, but there is rarely time. It's easier and faster to provide a harsh, emotional, or witty response than a well reasoned one. This leads to the quality of debate we tend to see both within and outside of the Internet.

Re:

[lgw]

I've found that simply ignoring DocRuby about doubles the signal-to-noise ratio here.

Re:

[Doc Ruby]

Please continue. Your ceasing to post bullshit at me would therefore reduce it towards 0%.

Re:

[Doc Ruby]

No, she screwed my country, as I detailed. But I guess you can't tell the difference, even when it's spelled out for you.

Re:

[lgw]

If you think the president has mcuh power over what happens in the country, you might learn more about civics from a video game soon to be released by SDOC!

Re:

[Doc Ruby]

Thanks for volunteering to stay home in November. That copout is the Republican last resort. If you don't think that blowing over a $TRILLION in Iraq, the 4100+ Americans killed, the dozens of thousands maimed for life, the million or more Mideasterners killed and maimed, the $130 barrels of oil, the $1.50 Euros, the rise of Iran and China, the $10 TRILLION in Federal debt, plus the $20 TRILLION city/state/local debt, the $10 TRILLION mortgage debt, all that extra CO2 pumped into the air, the tortured priso

Re:

[lgw]

Bush is my hero. I'm voting for him again as a write-in candidate! He's made the world a safer place, and kept my taxes low. If you don't like $130/bbl oil, it's not *my* fault you didn't by stock in oil companies when he was elected. The tortured prisoners had it coming, and all that extra CO2 is holding off the next ice age.

Of course, you did have 1 valid point: Bush did force millions of Americans to take out mortages he couldn't afford. Why, my fried was just about to say "no thanks" to his adjusta

Re:

[Dachannien]

When O'Connor voted to tell Florida in 2000 it couldn't recount only some of its ballots

Fixed.

Re:

[Doc Ruby]

Yeah, "fixed" as in "rigged", the way you Republicans love it.

Re:

[Doc Ruby]

I wonder how many stories of Republican political crimes I could drag up, if I were to reach back a half century, before practically everyone on Slashdot, or their parents even, were even born.

Hey, Lincoln was a Republican, and he was honest. I guess if that's all you've got, that's all you can run on.

Re:

[Mr. Underbridge]

I wonder how many stories of Republican political crimes I could drag up, if I were to reach back a half century, before practically everyone on Slashdot, or their parents even, were even born.

Um, Clinton? There you go. You don't have to go back a half century. Hell, I thought it was vogue to dig up the Clintons' dirty laundry now that it supports the golden boy, even though it's the same damned laundry the Dems spent 10 years discounting when they were in office.

Hey, Lincoln was a Republican, and he

We wanted to do Obama a favor.

[tjstork]

The Republicans spent tens of millions of dollars investigating

We Republicans were just doing our part to help the first black american get nominated to a political party. You see, back then, Dick Cheney's spies had already pegged Obama as an up and comer and Hillary as a future rival, so, we had to do our part to help the guy out.

It is amazing, though that, Obama's people went and brought up EVERY SINGLE REPUBLICAN CHARGE as if it were fact. We heard it all from the Obama camp, as if it were gospel. I h

Re:

[Doc Ruby]

Oh, right, a "libertarian" or something that can't admit its a "Republican", because that scam is dead now.

You voted for Bush. You're a Republican. Who cares.

Re:

[Chris Burke]

When O'Connor voted to tell Florida in 2000 it couldn't recount only some of its ballots

Fixed.

So did she (and the Court) order them to count all the ballots? Or did she order them to stop counting, making the stated difference irrelevant?

Right.

Re:

[Doc Ruby]

Moderation 0
    50% Flamebait
    50% Informative

TrollMods want more whitewash, and less facts about O'Connor's career [slashdot.org].

Re:

[Scoth]

I'm playing through these now, on the second case of the third game. I showed a couple bits to a lawyer friend of mine who got a kick out of how ridiculous the courtroom process is. I'm still finding them entertaining, though.