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

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal-a/2012_07/leaving_it_to_the_parents_in_l038357.php#

More on Bobby Jindal's voucher plan. Ugh

yup it's gross: public schools/public teachers will have their work evaluated on the basis of their students' standard test scores. the voucherized schools? not at all.

so the solution to poorly performing schools using taxpayer money with not enough oversight or direction is... give taxpayer money to schools with no performance record at all with zero oversight. liberty!!!

http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2012/07/louisiana-gives-us-taste-mitt-romneys-education-policy

scary stuff

more scary stuff from the Head Bomber:

http://www.esquire.com/features/obama-lethal-presidency-0812

Last night I heard about 6 seconds of James Carville on the radio before I could hit the off switch. Still recovering.

How horrible.

my thoughts & prayers are with you doc

so, the NYC BOE finally certified Rangel's primary win after 2 weeks! A comedy of ineptitude.

http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/politics/2012/07/6134025/whats-board-elections-going-do-about-elephant

When I mentioned I am going to get rid of Obamacare they weren’t happy, I didn’t get the same response. That’s O.K, I want people to know what I stand for and if I don’t stand for what they want, go vote for someone else, that’s just fine…

But I hope people understand this, your friends who like Obamacare, you remind them of this, if they want more stuff from government tell them to go vote for the other guy — more free stuff.

Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/taibblog/romneys-free-stuff-speech-is-a-new-low-20120713#ixzz20W4lNIPp

Out of the mouth of a rich man's child.

Your ENTIRE LIFE is built on free stuff, you asshole.

good morning!

The whole Republican meme regarding rich people who have made it, and suggesting that the rest of us are just jealous, ignores that taking advantage of family wealth and benefiting from manipulation of tax rates and deductions and off-shore accounts is not hard work

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/07/meet-the-house-dems-who-voted-to-repeal-obamacare.php?ref=fpblg

The 5 Blue-dog Dems in the House who voted to repal Obamacare

repeal

vote for repel

http://www.esquire.com/features/obama-lethal-presidency-0812

just to make sure everybody gets that one

welcome to the role of government on behalf of the governed. The principle at play is that you elect and pay people to protect your interests - and that includes murdering people who are demonstrably not in your interest. This was true when it was waged as siege warfare, and frankly if you can imagine having a clue about the nature of siege warfare, or trench warfare, or any other kind of warfare that involves thousands of people and famine and pestilence, as it has for millenia, then this kind of warfare - 3am helicopters, robot assassinations, and self-destructing computer code - should be recognized for what it is - the most civilized form of war that this species has ever seen.

I've been sick and tired of domestic progressives' snark about foreign policy for as long as I've been legal to drink. Learn some fucking history. Nation states do not care for one another. Death is measured in dollars. Deals get made. The deals getting made now are the best deals we have seen - as a species - since Adam and Eve.

On the topic of WH go codes for sketchy sounding shit, please to whine about stuxnet sometime. I guarantee you don't have a leg to stand on unless you prefer a land war with Iran on principle, and if that's the case, bring back the draft.

I'm that guy.

lol

you're so right, that 16-year-old boy hanging out with his buddies on the beach was demonstrably not in any of our interests.

Rich man/government teat types are a really audaciously blinders-on sort of crew. As mentioned before by myself and others, Obama gets shit for going on vacation, including to placed like Hawaii, where he was (allegedly!) born, but he needs to go somewhere because unlike Bush, or Reagan or Romney he is not independently wealthy and owner of a family homestead or retreat. And before that you had someone like John McCain, who is not only also independently wealthy, but has literally been living off the government from the moment of his birth on.

I'm not sure why folks like Obama pussyfoot around this stuff. Bring on the class warfare, I say.

tombot's right of course: one must either object to the entirety of the country's foriegn policy ("domestic progressives", lol) or unquestioningly assent to its every aspect (tombot). there's no in-between

how does that old saying go? to a guy who supported the iraq war, every problem looks like an iraq war. or something

ah, CIVILIZATION.

snarkin' on, like Jesus would.

apparently there's a cover article in Foreign Affairs arguing to let Iran have nukes, bcz every nation that's gotten them has started to behave more responsibly? I can assent to that. We don't need no fuckin' land war.

(also we shouldn't have shit to say about nukes, EVER #harrystruman)

Rich man/government teat types are a really audaciously blinders-on sort of crew. As mentioned before by myself and others, Obama gets shit for going on vacation, including to placed like Hawaii, where he was (allegedly!) born, but he needs to go somewhere because unlike Bush, or Reagan or Romney he is not independently wealthy and owner of a family homestead or retreat. And before that you had someone like John McCain, who is not only also independently wealthy, but has literally been living off the government from the moment of his birth on.

I'm not sure why folks like Obama pussyfoot around this stuff. Bring on the class warfare, I say.

one reason ... many of the people who go off on government spending for The Poors whilst they themselves have been the beneficiaries of government largesse are military veterans. McCain is the most obvious example, but this includes your friendly neighborhood Teabag who served in, say, the OG Persian Gulf War and who now shouts his belief that "Obama = Hitler" when he isn't cashing his VA disability check.

attacking military veterans, or their benefits/preferences in hiring/etc., is tantamount to defending child molesters or killing kittens.

i.e, the Teatard military veteran "earned his benefits and privileges." those lazy shiftless layabouts on welfare/unemployment/Obamacare haven't. or so that's the mindset.

Watching Bob Schieffer on Face the Nation trot out the usual blame both sides and why can't they get together arguments. Ugh. At least Robert Reich was on there. Now Schieffer is denying he's part of the Romney campaign because they are using footage of he and David Brooks in an ad about how Obama is just Mr. Negative

I started watching a segment of Meet the Press but Grover Norquist was there and I can't handle that.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/2chambers/post/disclose-act-new-donor-transparency-law-blocked-in-senate/2012/07/16/gJQAbm7WpW_blog.html

The Senate has failed to advance legislation that would require independent groups to disclose the names of contributors who give more than $10,000 for use in political campaigns.

The measure, known as the DISCLOSE Act, died in a 51 to 44 vote on a procedural motion. It needed 60 votes to move forward.

bcz every nation that's gotten them has started to behave more responsibly?

lol

you mean like Israel? or North Korea? Pakistan?

Republicans say the measure could have a chilling affect on political giving, subjecting campaign donors to intimidation from their political opponents.

The bill is a response to the 2010 Citizens United ruling, in which the U.S. Supreme Court said that corporate campaign donations are a form of free speech and cannot be limited by government. Some nonprofit groups and unions are not required to reveal their donors. The bill would require speedy disclosure of big donors.

Intimidation, huh?

if you can imagine having a clue about the nature of siege warfare, or trench warfare, or any other kind of warfare that involves thousands of people and famine and pestilence, as it has for millenia, then this kind of warfare - 3am helicopters, robot assassinations, and self-destructing computer code - should be recognized for what it is - the most civilized form of war that this species has ever seen.

tombototm

fwiw I still don't like it, but it's better than firebombing Tokyo

ugh

v easy to say when you're not on the receiving end of a pushed button

i think we're having a means-ends disagreement here tom...

v easy to say when you're not on the receiving end of a pushed button

tmi

automated warfare: so fresh, so clean.

Republicans say the measure could have a chilling affect on political giving, subjecting campaign donors to intimidation from their political opponents.

Wasn't this argument explicitly rejected by the Supreme Court in regards to the California Prop. 8 donors?

the important thing about it is that less people die. that is all. that you can't see that as an improvement is weird.

xp

not good enough

and fwiw one person dead is still too many afaic. but 10 dead people /= 10,000 dead people.

xp

being a "less"/"fewer" pedant is total hell

imagine teaching the diff between "amount" and "number" to twenty year olds.

DJP that's why you should be in favor of more death and more dead, it's just simpler

I agree Shakey but I'm more and more appalled by the distance it gives us from the killing and the way it no longer implicates us since we're no longer sending our sons to do it on the ground but I guess people probably felt that way when the first jawbone or javelin was used instead of strangling or pummeling to death with your fists.

being a "less"/"fewer" pedant is total hell

being a "less"/"fewer" pedant is total hell

― PITILESS LIVE SHOW (DJP), Tuesday, July 17, 2012 9:09 AM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

hurts me a thousand times more than any other solecism