Iranians are saying that they hijacked the drone and had it land on their soil.  And will gather info, and sell it to their friends.  The drone was compromised. 

"Iranian electronic warfare specialists were able to cut off communications links of the American bat-wing RQ-170 Sentinel, says the engineer, who works for one of many Iranian military and civilian teams currently trying to unravel the drone’s stealth and intelligence secrets, and who could not be named for his safety.

Using knowledge gleaned from previous downed American drones and a technique proudly claimed by Iranian commanders in September, the Iranian specialists then reconfigured the drone's GPS coordinates to make it land in Iran at what the drone thought was its actual home base in Afghanistan."

http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Middle-East/2011/1215/Exclusive-Iran-hijacked-US-drone-says-Iranian-engineer

well if you want to believe habitual liars.  they also said they shot it down first...and theyve "shot" down countless other american drones too. 

bet you also believe that europe is stealing irans clouds....

no, i don't believe what they say, but we do have to investigate this.  Was it just a software failure?  Is it outdated like the article seem to suggest?

its an awfully rough landing for the drone if it was hijacked.   the plane being programmed to land itself and the damage on the vehicle suggest to me that it made an attempt to land itself in iran (so a failure with its programing to return to its point of origin)

The single most important factor holding America back today is that the house of representatives is now overflowing with fresh new representatives that are not respecting their office, the office of president or the functioning of the Republic. This was prominently on display over the shameful debt deiling 'showdown' where a bunch of nimwits claimed that the US defaulting on their obligations wasn't really a big deal, not nearly a big enough deal anywhay to compromise with the Democratic party. This is irrisponsible to the point where I am surprised these representatives are not politically dead a long time ago. The same 'statemanship' is on display again over the stupid debate over the pay roll taxes. The current Republican party are obstructionist by design and will continue to be so until the next election at least. This can not be said of the Democratic party.

If you are looking for examples of Democrats working with republicans, it's happeneing right now if you want to see it. To get the Republican party to extend the pay roll tax cuts the Democratic party is now reported to be willing to drop all together the 'Millionaire's sur tax'. That is one example of Democrats giving in on one issue that is central to their politics, while getting nothing in return basically. What's more, this will mark the 4th time they come back with modified versions of this proposed tax increase to try to get a deal done with the Republicans. What have the Republicans concedeed in the discussions? Not a single thing as they continue to refuse any sort of compromise regardless of the fallout for the country and contrary to what the vast majority of Americans want to see happening.

Yet, due to an increadibly uninformed electorate the political debate is continously getting framed by meaningless Republican sound bites. One example being "You don't raise taxes during a recession". This talking point is even being spouted by Obama for whatever reason. No one demands an explanation to why or how beyond the ubersimplistic 'more money paid in taxes means less money to invest in jobs' and ignoring the fact that the US is no longer in a recession and hasn't been for over a year. Instead politicians keep feeding into discontent and pretend that it 'feels' like a recession. For someone who has lived both in the USA and in Europe, the level of the political debate in teh US is mindnumingly shallow and almost completely void of facts.

True the US is not in a recession but the only reason the US economy looks half decent is because now the Europeans are in a worse spot.

I think we need to adapt to the current situation by rethinking our basic economic understandings.
What we have now is not a recession. Things are not getting worse, but things are not improving much.

The economy is improving, but my good friend the economic decline that occurred (rather harshly to many) has not gone back to per-recession levels and unlike many developed countries, the US population has grown by millions since 2008. That means for most people things are still quite bad and due to weak leadership in Washington and Europe, there is great instability.

So, yes we all know about macroeconomics but do not be so simplistic and think just because we are not in technical recession that things are great and we can go back to massive tax increases like if we are in booming economy.

The US is not in a recession, but I do not see how one can see how tens of millions and perhaps 100's of millions of Americans  feel like if they are in a recession.

Things have improved in the past few months, but we have seen due to great instability that things can easily reverse.

Its quite remarkable in Canada people talk about a bad economy but if you drive across the border you see it straight away how things are so much worse in the US.

Yeah... the numbers in general aren't in recession anymore, HOWEVER They aren't large enough to meet increasing population numbers (EX new jobs in a month enough jobs to cover all the new workers that would like to work entering the workforce in that same month.)

Essentially things are getting worse... but better worse anyway.  Though europe will send us all back to the ground again.  Thankfully it seems like the "Too big to fail" banks are pretty well secured this time however.  I can't imagine how many people would be pissed if Obama had to pull another TARP next term.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but i thought the pay roll tax was specifically for social security.  I think for the first time we are losing money on social security so we can't cut the pay roll tax.

There are other taxes too...

As for Social Security... we've lost money on it a lot of times actually.  When it first implemented we lost a lot... which made sense, what being pay as you go.   A few people made one payment, hit retirment and were "set".

In 1984 it started losing money too, until reforms by Reagan, and a Demcoratic Senator who's name I'm forgetting.

Either way the whole "Social Security Surplus" is a giant myth anyway... and will just be used as an excuse to cut benefits down the line.

I mean, here is what happens with social security in any given year.   They cas their "Special US Treasury Bonds" and get the money to pay for social security from the Treasury.  Any excess is then used to buy new "Special US Treasury Bonds" any shortfall is made up by revenue collected in taxes.

The US Treasury takes that money it gets for the bonds and puts it into the "General Funds" for congressional spending for the year.

Now if the idocy of that isn't apparent i'll paint you an example....

Say I buy a house, and my morgage is $500 a month and it begins NEXT Month.  However I want to plan ahead to have a "Surplus" to make sure i never fall behind.  

So i put a quarter of what I make a month aside.  Say $600 dollar (I make way less then this but it's an example.)   I put that money into my "Morgage box."

So... now i'm looking at that $600 dollars and think.  "Hey I can use that money to buy some new furniture, but i need to have a Morgage Surplus so... I'll write myself an IOU, but i'll charge myself 10% interest, so next month when my morgage is due, i'll cash my IOU and pay myself $660."  So i put a 10% 1 month Personal bond in my "Morgage Box" and buy msyelf some furniture.   My current "Morgage Burden"  $600 out of 18000.

Next month comes along, I "Cash" my bond... and pay $600, from my paychecks.   Then I put $660 that $660 in my morgage box and IMMEDIATLY trade it for another 10% personal Bond.   My total Morgage costs this month?   $1,260 out of my 1800.  (Or 660 when you consider that I get back $600 from the Iou)

The third month comes along, I pay $600 from my paychecks and cash my bond.  Total Burden $1,326. out of 1800. (Or 726 see above)

So as you can see, in a situation where neither my pay nor my morgage rises or falls, my morgage and morgage surplus fund is completely unsustainable... because it keeps rising and is based soley on the fact that I will be able to pay it back later.  Now imagine I spend more then I earn in any given month, charging the rest to credit cards...

Social Security works EXACTLY the same way.  The Soical Security Trust fund is just filled with IOU's from the treasure department.  IE one part of government essentially relying on the other part of government to pay the bills.   The only difference is that the costs and revenue fluctuate based on the number of retirees vs the number of workers, but at it's base it's ALWAYS been a disaster waiting to happen and has never REALLY been seperate from congressional funds.

Oh and for religion and government... I'd say this.

1) Forcing kids to say prayers in school is wrong.

2) Forcing kids to NOT say prayers in school is wrong.

3) Politicians should be able to talk about their religious beliefs... there is no reason they shouldn't. After all if my politician is making a decision based on religion... I'd rather know that's the reason why.

4) Not all religious symbols should be banned from government buildings if they are appropriately historical in context. For example... Hammurabi Code/Ten Commandments in Justice buildings, as nearly all early recorded laws were religious in some way. In doing so you are essentially robbing important historical knowledge and context for political correctness.

After all, should all teaching about religions and ancient myths be pulled out of schools? Is that what we really want? A society that's even MORE ignorant about each others religions then we already are?