Disqus - Latest Comments for Pete

Re: Are you using Firefox 3? (Scripting News)

Pete — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 14:30:15 -0000

I got Beta 4 a few days ago when I installed the beta of Ubuntu Hardy. So far I'm liking it a lot, if for no other reason than it looks a lot nicer.

It's been surprisingly stable so far--crashed on my once when I had 10+ tabs open, but otherwise, no problems. I wouldn't say I've had a chance to test extensively yet, though.

Re: Salon builds it — but will anyone come?

Pete — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 10:48:26 -0000

Honestly, I'm having a difficult time making heads or tails of the cover page. My first impression is "Holy hell, what a hideous, cluttered mess."

Re: A Rogue CEO Speaks Out: Raise My Taxes and Take My Earnings

Pete — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 09:03:03 -0000

I agree, in general.

However, the Obama administration isn't talking about capping executive/CEO pay across the board. They're talking about capping pay for execs of failed/failing firms that are being bailed out at direct tax-payer expense.

For a company that is *not* receiving assistance from the federal government, sure--they should be able to pay their executives whatever they want. I think there's a reasonable argument to be made that the government then ought to tax the hell out of those highest income brackets.

But for failed companies who are now getting direct government assistance and investment, their executives ought to be held to account. Compensation caps imposed by the government are the best way to do this, as these executives have no other motivation to keep rewarding themselves for poor and short-sighted management at the expense of tax-payers.

Re: Sarah Palin Works the News Cycle

Pete — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 16:53:58 -0000

Alternate title: "Sarah Palin struggles to maintain the fiction that her opinion is relevant"

Re: The Abandonment of America’s Cities

Pete — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 09:13:07 -0000

Call me crazy, but Mr. Shedlock seems to have something of an agenda here:

"Razing sections of Flint, Detroit, Youngstown, and anywhere else where abandoned buildings blight neighborhoods arguably makes more sense than Obama's idea of pouring money into schools to make them more energy efficient."

Despite his use of the word "arguably", Shedlock fails to provide any actual argument as to why demolishing whole neighborhoods makes more sense than increasing government investment.

Taking Flint, MI and Youngstown, OH as examples and then extrapolating some sort of national trend strikes me as pretty obvious cherry-picking (rotten cherries though they may be). Why not just make it three by throwing in Gary, IN?

Re: A Senate Bill to End Cocaine Sentencing Disparity

Pete — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 15:48:13 -0000

It's not clear from this post what "treating crack and powder cocaine equally" actually means.

Would the bill in question reduce sentences for crack possession, or increase sentences for powdered cocaine possession? If the latter, then it seems like passage of the bill would serve to increase the number of people incarcerated.