Indefinite Detention? But I Have Soccer Practice at 4: U.S. Politics 2012

http://motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2012/02/soaking-poor-state-state

Surprise surprise, state taxes are not very progressive

it looks like Limbaugh is "digging for treasure" (so to speak) in that pic.

excerpt from latest moveon.org petition:

President Obama, I oppose your appointment of Michael Taylor, a former VP and lobbyist for Monsanto, the widely criticized genetically modified (GM) food multinational, as senior advisor to the commissioner at the FDA. Taylor is the same person who as a high ranking official at the FDA in the 1990s promoted allowing genetically modified organisms into the U.S. food supply without undergoing a single test to determine their safety or risks. This is a travesty.
Taylor was in charge of policy for Monsanto's now-discredited GM bovine growth hormone (rBGH), which is opposed by many medical and hospital organizations. It was Michael Taylor who pursued a policy that milk from rBGH-treated cows should not be labeled with disclosures. Michael Taylor and Monsanto do not belong in our government.
President Obama, Monsanto has been seen as a foe to family-based agriculture, the backbone of America, by introducing dangerous changes to plants and animals and by using strong-arm legal tactics against farmers for decades. Naturally occurring plant and animal species are permanently threatened by the introduction of DNA and hormonal modification, Monsanto's core businesses.

Report: US drones target rescuers, funeral attendees

A three month investigation including eye witness reports has found evidence that at least 50 civilians were killed in follow-up strikes when they had gone to help victims. More than 20 civilians have also been attacked in deliberate strikes on funerals and mourners. The tactics have been condemned by leading legal experts.

Although the drone attacks were started under the Bush administration in 2004, they have been stepped up enormously under Obama.

There have been 260 attacks by unmanned Predators or Reapers in Pakistan by Obama’s administration – averaging one every four days.

http://www.salon.com/2012/02/05/u_s_drones_targeting_rescuers_and_mourners/singleton/

ANONYMOUS "senior American counterterrorism official" tells NYT: "One must wonder why an effort that has so carefully gone after terrorists who plot to kill civilians has been subjected to so much misinformation. Let’s be under no illusions — there are a number of elements who would like nothing more than to malign these efforts and help Al Qaeda succeed."

http://www.salon.com/2012/02/06/top_official_drone_critics_are_al_qaeda_enablers/singleton/

Getting a full picture of the drone campaign is difficult. It is classified as top secret, and Obama administration officials have refused to make public even the much-disputed legal opinions underpinning it. --from the NY Times

"it is difficult, are we supposed to ask somebody else?"

I wonder if the ACLU lawsuit re the legal memos will get anywhere? I doubt it.

don't hold your breath. Justice Department will probably make some appeal to top-secret details that nobody else can look at and the judges will go "welp, can't argue with that, you'll just have to take my word for it"

also if the president says it's legal, it is - B.Milhous Obama

http://debbiespenditnow.com/#anchor3

the Debbie Spend it Now ad/website/campaign is pretty awful, but i do have to express some admiration for the cool little animated shit that flies around in the background of the website, behind the text

is there anything in this besides momentary embarrassment? not sure what to think, potential GOP attack ad fodder but what else??

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/07/us/politics/major-obama-donors-are-tied-to-pepe-cardona-mexican-fugitive.html?hp

just momentary embarrassment.

How about the Republican's latest negotiation tool re extending the payroll taxes again. More extraneous demands:

At the behest of the manufacturing lobby, for example, Republican negotiators still want to delay an environmental regulation that would require industrial boilers and incinerators to release less mercury, lead and soot. What does that have to do with the payroll tax cut? Nothing, of course; Republicans are simply trying to get Democrats to pay a price for something they want.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/07/opinion/the-payroll-tax-fight.html?_r=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha211

If this glowing piece from Sunday's Washington Post Business section is credible, Gene Sperling is the White House's liberal economic guy--trying to push Geithner slightly leftward and advocating to Obama for job-creation ideas

When Obama tapped him as Treasury secretary, Geithner asked Sperling to join as a no-title adviser. “The great thing about him was he was willing to come help do anything,” Geithner said. Sperling asked to be Treasury’s top adviser on fiscal policy. But he also encouraged Geithner — who was focused on stabilizing the financial system and faced critics who accused him of being too sympathetic to Wall Street — to pay more attention to populist ideas such as curbing executive pay.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/gene-b-sperling-obamas-jobs-creator/2012/01/17/gIQAJ8KXqQ_story.html

so glad Congress is authorizing drones to be flown in the US ugh way to go you stupid assholes

gotta get em ready for use on the Occupy Conventions

would it be hilar if people figured out how to shoot them down?

^ srs question

or would it be like for sumter

The FAA is also required under the bill to provide military, commercial and privately-owned drones with expanded access to U.S. airspace currently reserved for manned aircraft by Sept. 30, 2015. That means permitting unmanned drones controlled by remote operators on the ground to fly in the same airspace as airliners, cargo planes, business jets and private aircraft.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/breaking/chi-congress-oks-faa-bill-allowing-drones-in-us-gps-air-traffic-control-20120207,0,3563340.story

I want my own drone

PRIVATELY-OWNED DRONES

argh

Lots of issues involved in this bill

The labor provision, which was opposed by the Democratic-controlled Senate, became the principal issue holding up the bill. A compromise reached two weeks ago by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, allows the mediation board's rules to stand, but it also toughens some lesser requirements that must be met in order to hold a union organizing election.

While the compromise was acceptable to some unions, more than a dozen other unions that represent airline industry workers — including the Teamsters, Communications Workers, Machinists and Flight Attendants — complained the deal was reached without their input and urged its rejection.

PRIVATELY-OWNED DRONES

argh

Well you can presently fly remote-controlled model airplanes, this just becomes an issue of air traffic.

Also, prownes?

PRIVATELY-OWNED DRONES

superfluous hyphen

unmanned cargo aircraft isn't such a bad idea

http://blogs.ajc.com/political-insider-jim-galloway/2012/02/07/karen-handel-resigns-from-komen-for-the-cure/

unmanned cargo aircraft isn't such a bad idea

Apparently 'they' have been saying that for ages. The pilots of commercial carriers are basically just hostages.

I totally want a drone. I could put a slim jim and some little debbies in it and fly it to DJP in Boston and be all here are your intergalactic snacks in a robot voice.

good morning!

if drones are allowed over the US, just a matter of time before one is hacked by anonymous and crashes

preferably when [redacted]

DIY drones

I don't have a problem with private drones anymore than I do with private aircraft

govt drones are more sinister if you ask me.

the pilot of a private aircraft is much more likely to be responsible about its use if he or she is inside it imo

Yeah, that's why I referred to them as hostages

eh bring on the robots

given that it'll likely be very easy to make a DIY drone in yr garage v soon, I'd rather they be allowed and regulated (as air traffic is today) and made useful, and not outlawed. Or worse, allowed to be used by only rhe govt and a v narrow slice of the private sector. I really don't understand how drones would be bad aside from cluttering the airways

some dubious syntax there but I think u get me

that Monsanto dude appt. is a fucking embarrassment btw not like there's anything anybody can do about it but seriously

I have problems with, say, Donald Trump owning a drone.

private security drone armies

I would prob start watching the apprentice tbh

why? srs q. Xp

private security drone armies

I would assume that ARMED drones would be illegal

bear in mind my def of "drone" is "robot that flys"

what if drones started falling from the sky

oh no

don't really want to find out what, say, the Oakland Police Department would do with armed drones fwiw

basically this comes down to me having real, serious problems with the militarization of law enforcement in this country - police departments are armed and trained as if they are serving in warzones, it's fucked up.

this drone thing reminds me of recent things like this and this

Oh, it's worse than you think, Shakey: Now college campus police departments are getting SWAT teams. A solution in search of a problem.

http://nineronline.com/2011/unc-charlotte-swat-team-%E2%80%93-an-asset-we-hope-to-never-use/