“In related news, when Obama orders a drone strike that kills eight civilians — which is to say, his order results in both dead innocents and terrorist recruiting material — the mistake hardly makes news, and certainly isn’t held against him; whereas if, during roughly the same period of time, he makes a verbal gaffe that offends people in Poland, David Frum ends his column about the matter with the single word, “Shame.” In the War on Terror, America is losing its moral perspective.” — Hey Voters: The Kill List Is What Matters - Atlantic Mobile
“So to sum up, one candidate is portrayed, accurately, as being extremely rich, with a wife who has rich-person leisure-time pursuits; and the other candidate is portrayed, accurately, as someone whose secretive policies have wrought dead children, broken promises, violated due process rights, and possibly created more terrorists. And our political culture in the United States is so blinkered that the story about the rich candidate whose wife rides horses is regarded, by conservatives and savvy Politico journalists, as the one that is noteworthy for being negative; whereas the story about the Orwellian turn in the White House doesn’t even merit mention.” — Hey Voters: The Kill List Is What Matters - Atlantic Mobile
“Julianne Moore is 51. Want to know who else was 51? Rue McClanahan, when The Golden Girls first aired.” — The Beheld on what 36 looks like, via The New Inquiry
“That record, and Mr. Awlaki’s calls for more attacks, presented Mr. Obama with an urgent question: Could he order the targeted killing of an American citizen, in a country with which the United States was not at war, in secret and without the benefit of a trial? The Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel prepared a lengthy memo justifying that extraordinary step, asserting that while the Fifth Amendment’s guarantee of due process applied, it could be satisfied by internal deliberations in the executive branch.” —
Secret ‘Kill List’ Tests Obama’s Principles - NYTimes.com
Good lord … this administration thinks that due process is the process by which it decides to kill you.
When you vote for Obama, this is what you’re voting for.
Let me be clear: Killing someone is worse than water-boarding someone. So if you cared about the first, you better care about the second.
“To put it simply, if there’s a candidate for judge who comes from a criminal defense background running against a candidate for judge who comes from a prosecution background, I will vote for the defense attorney 9,999 times out of 10,000. (Might not cast a ballot for Levy from The Wire.)” —
dansolomon.com: Who I voted for in the Travis County Democratic Primary
A good rule of thumb.
“I here accuse no individual of inconsistency. But it does strike me as worthwhile to point out that the following two propositions are highly unlikely both to be correct: (1) massive military spending by Uncle Sam from 1940 through 1945 was economically beneficial; (2) massive military spending by Uncle Sam from 2002 through today is economically harmful.” — Just Asking
“Embattled Berkeley Police Chief Michael Meehan said Wednesday that having 10 police officers search for his son’s stolen iPhone on January 11 was not “some kind of preferential treatment,” but is something the department “would do for anybody in the city.” —
Of course.
“Former Seahawks quarterback Jon Kitna talks about parallel lines to a student in the algebra class he is teaching at Lincoln High School in Tacoma. Kitna teaches math, coaches and monitors workouts in the weight room at the school.” (via Jon Kitna’s greatest play: NFL QB to high-school math teacher | Seahawks | The Seattle Times)
He made $3 million last year in the NFL, and now he’s teaching math. That’s really great.
A chart for those who think Reagan shifted the tax burden from the rich to the middle class. (Source)
“That’s Reaganism in a nutshell: take $1.5 trillion from the middle class and hand it to the already rich. Every year. And Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan are champing at the bit to take even more.” —
Zompist’s E-Z rant page (via azspot)
I remember these Reagan years. The US Army drove tanks into the suburbs, raided homes, and then delivered the loot to men in mansions. And yes, this happened every single year. It was an awful time that never happened.
(via azspot)
On my writer’s blog, I’ve started a First Page Project, where I ask authors to explain the thought process behind the first page of their novels. Michael J. Sullivan provided the first post in the series. I supplied the second, linked above.
First in a Series--author Michael J. Sullivan explains the first page of his novel Theft of Swords -
I’ve started a series on my writing blog where authors explain the thought process behind the first page of their books. The first post, linked above, is by fantasy author Michael J. Sullivan.
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“Reby was driving down Interstate 40, heading west through Putnam County, when he was stopped for speeding. A Monterey police officer wanted to know if he was carrying any large amounts of cash. “I said, ‘Around $20,000,’” he recalled. “Then, at the point, he said, ‘Do you mind if I search your vehicle?’ I said, ‘No, I don’t mind.’ I certainly didn’t feel I was doing anything wrong. It was my money.” That’s when Officer Larry Bates confiscated the cash based on his suspicion that it was drug money. “Why didn’t you arrest him?” we asked Bates. “Because he hadn’t committed a criminal law,” the officer answered. Bates said the amount of money and the way it was packed gave him reason to be suspicious. “The safest place to put your money if it’s legitimate is in a bank account,” he explained. “He stated he had two. I would put it in a bank account. It draws interest and it’s safer.” “But it’s not illegal to carry cash,” we noted. “No, it’s not illegal to carry cash,” Bates said. “Again, it’s what the cash is being used for to facilitate or what it is being utilized for.” — Another Highway Robbery | The Agitator