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[GlyphGryph]

Oddly, space colonization doesn't work here as it's relatively small scale despite the size of the budget. You only need so many people to build the rocket, after all, and speanding the money elsewhere would have just as big a trail back to the raw materials.
I like the train network too, although the opposition would claim it would crash the car market (it would, though the train market would soar again.).
I think I heard somewhere that we would have used trains forever save for some crazy market manipulation by car companies knocking it off the rails. Not sure where I heard that or the reliability, but it sems plausible to me.

I'm not sure what you mean - you could dump a TON of resources into space projects if you wanted to. Build a goddamn space elevator, or at least a humungous space cannon, and you'll have tons of jobs! Start launching multiple scientific missions, kick those factories into overdrive, create a demand for more skilled engineers and scientists and renew the countries taste for adventure and the frontier... there's a reason why states compete so heavily for space contracts, there's a TON of economic activity that surrounds them. It takes a TON of people to go from scratch to a space lunch.

[Reelya]

It takes a TON of people to go from scratch to a space lunch.

Mmm, space lunch.

[Moghjubar]

I've already mentioned my mega-project of interest. Large scale solar power. It would cost under $20 trillion to replace 100% of electrical production. And probably less than twice that to replace rest of the energy industry. And the year over year savings would break even after a few decades.

Speaking of megaprojects, I'm all for a massive tiered greenhouse complex tied to a space elevator linked to orbital ziplines around the planet for delivery, complete with solar microwave arrays.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

I've already mentioned my mega-project of interest. Large scale solar power. It would cost under $20 trillion to replace 100% of electrical production. And probably less than twice that to replace rest of the energy industry. And the year over year savings would break even after a few decades.

You wouldn't need to replace 100% with solar. Over 50% of energy produced in the US is lost to inefficiency in the first place, most of which could be eliminated through standards and infrastructure legislation.

[Jervill]

The New York Times put up an interesting graphic comparing states's voting history over the past 60 years.

[Toady One]

There's been a bit more degeneracy and insults hurled in this thread than usual over the last few days.  I'd appreciate it if people would avoid name-calling and garbled text and so on.

[Eagle_eye]

The New York Times put up an interesting graphic comparing states's voting history over the past 60 years.

And this is why we need to dump the electoral college.

[Osmosis Jones]

So, most of the more dedicated among you will already know much of this info, but Wired has made up a handy little tool for checking out the funding sources for each political candidate.

Kinda nifty to browse through.

[mainiac]

The debt from WWII and rebuilding Western Europe afterward is a big part of today's budget problems.

Not remotely.  The Marshal plan in particular was a drop in the bucket (13 billion dollars cost over several years when the GDP was ~$250 billion).  But debt quickly fell after WWII and was small compared to the size of the economy in the 70s.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:USDebt.png

Two things happened after that: republicans passed a lot of debt funded tax cuts and the demographic shift meant that the government had to put a lot of money into the social security and medicare trust funds which consist of US treasury bonds, meaning the government owed money to itself.

[Karnewarrior]

So, most of the more dedicated among you will already know much of this info, but Wired has made up a handy little tool for checking out the funding sources for each political candidate.

Kinda nifty to browse through.

Huh.

Romney's top ten seems to be mostly banks while Obama gets a ton of cash from Universities and Silicon Valley. Which means Romney will probably try to pass laws that benifit banks while Obama's agenda will be more likely to support Software development and education.

I like education, so this only means I support Obama more.

An interesting app though.

ALSO 2 MILLION DOLLARS FROM THE U.S GOVERNMENT? I expected Romney to have the richer campaign, with all the ads on youtube. Where's all that money going, Obama?

[Sheb]

Two millions is chump change. This also do not take into account PAC as far as I can tell.

[palsch]

ALSO 2 MILLION DOLLARS FROM THE U.S GOVERNMENT? I expected Romney to have the richer campaign, with all the ads on youtube. Where's all that money going, Obama?

Ground teams and better targeting. Obama has always played the local organisation game better, so it's less likely those outside areas he is specifically targeting will see the majority of his campaign dollars.

[Osmosis Jones]

ALSO 2 MILLION DOLLARS FROM THE U.S GOVERNMENT?

Like Sheb said, that's nothing compared to the >$200 million he has already.

This also do not take into account PAC as far as I can tell.

Yes, it does. The article states

When it comes to the top-10 donor lists, the total from each company or organization includes donations from individual workers and a firm’s Political Action Committee, if it has one.

That's where that $2 million to Obama from the government came from, btw; the individual employees.

[genmac]

Romney's top ten seems to be mostly banks while Obama gets a ton of cash from Universities and Silicon Valley. Which means Romney will probably try to pass laws that benifit banks while Obama's agenda will be more likely to support Software development and education.

Huh.

[SalmonGod]

I like education, so this only means I support Obama more.

I'm not sure if I would expect it to mean this, or that nothing will be done about the student loan debt crisis over the next 4 years.

Also, have an Epic Rap Battle (of History).