A neat video from the BBC showing how a hawk adapts to flying through increasingly smaller holes in a wall.

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Jon Stewart on "too big to jail."

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The 2009 election was stollen at the polls. This time it has been stollen before the ballots are even printed.

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A selection of baby pet pics that are so cute, you'll puke. Or your money back.

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The same DC cop also wrote on his Facebook page in 2009 that he "felt like taking a rifle to a tall building."

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This is indeed an existential threat to life on earth. The time for climate change civil disobedience is now.

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What definition of the term includes this horrific act of violence but excludes the acts of the US, the UK and its allies?

(updated below)

Two men yesterday engaged in a horrific act of violence on the streets of London by using what appeared to be a meat cleaver to hack to death a British soldier. In the wake of claims that the assailants shouted "Allahu Akbar" during the killing, and a video showing one of the assailants citing Islam as well as a desire to avenge and stop continuous UK violence against Muslims, media outlets (including the Guardian) and British politicians instantly characterized the attack as "terrorism".

That this was a barbaric and horrendous act goes without saying, but given the legal, military, cultural and political significance of the term "terrorism", it is vital to ask: is that term really applicable to this act of violence? To begin with ...

The bizarre behavior by the media giant reflects brewing tensions as it seeks to enter the US television market

(updated below)

Last Tuesday, Al Jazeera English published a lengthy Op-Ed by Columbia professor and Middle East scholar Joseph Massad entitled "The Last of the Semites". Massad's argument was obviously controversial: he highlighted the shared goal between the early Zionist movement and Europe's anti-Jewish bigots (namely, the removal of Jews from the continent), detailed the cooperation between German Nazis and Zionists to facilitate the departure of Jews out of Europe (the existence of that cooperation is not in dispute, though the extent of it very much is), and highlighted the extensive disagreements among Jews themselves over the wisdom and justness of Zionism (large numbers of European Jews were insistent that they did not want to, and should not have to, leave their homelands for a distant land that was ...

Yet another serious escalation of the Obama administration's attacks on press freedoms emerges

(updated below - Update II - Update III)

It is now well known that the Obama justice department has prosecuted more government leakers under the 1917 Espionage Act than all prior administrations combined - in fact, double the number of all such prior prosecutions. But as last week's controversy over the DOJ's pursuit of the phone records of AP reporters illustrated, this obsessive fixation in defense of secrecy also targets, and severely damages, journalists specifically and the newsgathering process in general.

New revelations emerged yesterday in the Washington Post that are perhaps the most extreme yet when it comes to the DOJ's attacks on press freedoms. It involves the prosecution of State Department adviser Stephen Kim, a naturalized citizen from South Korea who was indicted in 2009 for allegedly telling Fox News' chief Washington correspondent, James ...

Senior Obama officials tell the US Senate: the 'war', in limitless form, will continue for 'at least' another decade - or two

Last October, senior Obama officials anonymously unveiled to the Washington Post their newly minted "disposition matrix", a complex computer system that will be used to determine how a terrorist suspect will be "disposed of": indefinite detention, prosecution in a real court, assassination-by-CIA-drones, etc. Their rationale for why this was needed now, a full 12 years after the 9/11 attack:

Among senior Obama administration officials, there is a broad consensus that such operations are likely to be extended at least another decade. Given the way al-Qaida continues to metastasize, some officials said no clear end is in sight. . . . That timeline suggests that the United States has reached only the midpoint of what was once known as the global war on terrorism."

On Thursday, the Senate Armed Services Committee held ...

The controversies over the IRS and especially the AP phone records appear to have long-lasting effects

Due to the controversies over the IRS and (especially) the DOJ's attack on AP's news gathering process, media outlets have suddenly decided that President Obama has a very poor record on civil liberties, transparency, press freedoms, and a whole variety of other issues on which he based his first campaign. The first two paragraphs of this Washington Post article from yesterday, expressed in tones of recent epiphany, made me laugh audibly:

"President Obama, a former constitutional law lecturer who came to office pledging renewed respect for civil liberties, is today running an administration at odds with his résumé and preelection promises.

"The Justice Department's collection of journalists' phone records and the Internal Revenue Service's targeting of conservative groups have challenged Obama's credibility as a champion of civil liberties - and ...

The claimed legal basis for these actions is unknown, but the threats they pose to a free press and the newsgathering process are clear

(updated below)

Associated Press on Monday revealed that the Department of Justice (DOJ) "secretly obtained two months of telephone records of [its] reporters and editors", denouncing it as a "massive and unprecedented intrusion" into the news gathering process. In a letter sent yesterday to Attorney General Eric Holder, AP's President, Gary Pruitt, detailed that the phone records cover more than 20 telephone lines used by AP journalists, including their homes, offices and cell phones. He said the phones for which the DOJ obtained records also include ones at the AP bureaus in New York City, Washington DC, Hartford, and at the House of Representatives.

Pruitt wrote that "we regard this action by the Department of Justice as a serious interference with AP's constitutional rights ...

In the face of repeated infrastructure related disasters, Fox News host Neil Cavuto has continued to dismiss calls for an increase in infrastructure spending, claiming that spending on infrastructure is high enough. In reality, infrastructure spending has plummeted in recent years.

A Bridge Collapse In Washington "Shines Light On Aging Infrastructure"

The Seattle Times: "An I-5 Bridge Over The Skagit River In Mount Vernon Collapsed Thursday Evening, Sending Cars And People Into The Water." According to the Seattle Times: 

A chunk of Interstate 5 collapsed into the Skagit River near Mount Vernon on Thursday evening, dumping two vehicles into the icy waters and creating a gaping hole in Washington state's major north-south artery. 

[...]

Rescuers pulled three people with minor injuries from the water after the collapse, which authorities say began when a semitruck with an oversized load struck a steel beam at around 7 p.m. [Seattle Times, 5 ...

Fox News distorted the testimony of Attorney General Eric Holder to claim that he committed perjury before the House Judiciary Committee last week.

It was recently revealed that the Justice Department obtained a search warrant for the communications records of Fox News reporter James Rosen in an effort to track down a leaker who provided him with classified information on North Korea in 2009. On May 15, during a hearing of the House Judiciary Committee, Rep. Hank Johnson (D-GA) asked Holder about the warrant and the potential for prosecuting journalists accused of publishing classified information that they obtained from government sources. Holder responded (emphasis added):

With regard to the potential prosecution of the press for the disclosure of material. That is not something that I've ever been involved in, heard of, or would think would be a wise policy.

On May 24, the Justice Department released a statement clarifying ...

From the May 24 edition of Fox News' The Five:

Previously:

Conservative Media Seize On London Attack To Rail Against Immigration

Fox News Responds To London Attack With Islamophobia

The Washington Times attempted to recycle misinformation about Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's warning that GOP obstructionism of President Obama's nominees is unsustainable, but published an inaccurate argument that doesn't support its own rhetoric.

In a May 24 editorial, The Washington Times claimed Reid's announcement that he would revisit filibuster reform in July because of the unprecedented obstructionism of the president's executive and judicial nominees "disturbed the peace of the Senate" and was a "variant" of court-packing analogous to former President Franklin Roosevelt's famous threat to expand the number of seats on the pre-war Supreme Court. From the editorial:

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid doesn't like the direction the federal judiciary is heading, so he has come up with a variant of court-packing to achieve his results. He took the Senate floor Wednesday to defend the use of the "nuclear option" to bypass ...

From the May 24 edition of Fox News' America Live:

Previously:

Fox's Peters: White House Highlighting Obama's "Acts Of Terror" Statement Is "Stalinist Rewriting Of History"

Fox's Ralph Peters Invokes Reverend Wright, Says Obama Had "A Chip On His Shoulder Against Israel" And Thought "Israelis Are Oppressors"

Fox's Ralph Peters On Egypt: "It'd Be Nice If We Supported Democracy, But I Don't Think This Administration Does"

Ralph Peters, Fox's "Strategic Analyst" On Foreign Policy, Has A History Of Inflammatory Rhetoric

From the May 24 edition of Premiere Radio Networks' The Rush Limbaugh Show:

Previously:

John Fund Calls IRS Scrutiny Of Conservative Groups "Real Voter Suppression"

President Barack Obama addressed the rash of sexual assault criminal cases against U.S. military servicemembers on Friday, exhorting the graduating class at the Naval Academy to do better. “Those who commit sexual assault are not only committing a crime, they threaten the trust and discipline...

A British zoo worker mauled in a tiger attack has died of her injuries, police said Saturday. Sarah McClay, 24, was attacked Friday in the big cats enclosure at South Lakes Wild Animal Park in Dalton-in-Furness, northwest England. The woman, who is from the local area, was flown by air ambulance to...

Why did our ancestors start walking upright? Ancient terrain may hold clue. (via The Christian Science Monitor) Copyright ImageClick to View A reconstruction of the skeleton of Australopithecus sediba, center, stands next to a modern human female, left, and a male chimpanzee. (Lee R....

An explosive comparison made by a liberal Russian politician between Stalin’s agents and Hitler’s secret police has provoked a storm of abusive criticism in Russia that has been tinged by anti-Semitism. The controversy erupted when anti-Kremlin liberal politician Leonid Gozman, who is...

The stars of the classic Pac-Man video game series get a noir makeover in a new video parody by animator Chris Weller. “Goodnight Sweet Pakman” begins with a sweet moment between Mr. & Mrs. Pac-Man before the stakes are dramatically raised, as Blinky, Inky, Pinky and Clyde —...

A Zambian truck driver who was forced to kick, bite and stab his way from the clutches of a giant python, said Friday he was lucky to be alive. Kelvin Katoka, 25, unknowingly ran into the giant snake, while driving his excavator in the bush at a copper mine in north western Zambia. “Within no...

Via Media Matters, if Fox News made a sexual harassment video, it would be a "how to" not a "how to avoid."

Open thread below....

Title: Sign On The WindowArtist: Bob Dylan New Morning Artist: Bob Dylan

Happy Birthday Bob Dylan!

Click here to view this media

Following President Obama's big speech this Thursday on national security and counterterrorism, The Daily Show's Jon Stewart took the opportunity to go after the Obama administration and the DOJ for their willingness to go after whistleblowers, journalists, potheads, hackers and even people who just lied on their mortgage applications, while refusing to prosecute a single Wall Street banker.

While I agree with Stewart on majority of his criticisms here, I'd use the term "journalist" lightly when it comes to anyone from Fox and as Tommy Christopher over at Mediaite pointed out, James Rosen was not just simply reporting that North Korea wanted to do more nuclear tests to draw the government scrutiny he did, as Stewart asserted here.

I'd also like to hear more about that AP story and what was going on there before rushing to judgement as well ...

Luckily for Erick (who seems to believe people "become" gay, the doughy rube), there are still a few societies left on the planet that he might feel more comfortable raising his son in -- like Saudi Arabia, Iran, or Uganda.

Should we buy him a ticket?

This reminds us that the big "GOP Rebranding" project I keep reading about -- which is supposed to usher in a more libertarian, less hateful Republicanism -- won't amount to much until the party can purge the Teamams like Erickson. Good luck with that, guys.

Barry Goldwater weeps.

It's like they say: The more things change, the more they stay the same. Especially when it comes to right-wing extremists.

As Karoli reported yesterday, now the conspiracy theorists are claiming that President Obama deliberately created the killer tornadoes that swept Oklahoma last week, with Alex Jones (of course) leading the way.

It's not just Jones. Some Oklahoma versions of Truther nutcases, as Alexander Abad-Santos reports at The Atlantic, are also jumping aboard with a variation on Jones' theory:

So, yes, the Oklahoma tornado truthers claim the administration whipped up a storm that killed 24 people through HAARP, the High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program, in Alaska. Here's a screen grab of a contributor post on Before It's News, a citizen journalist website that's home to many of these conspiracy theories, from a contributor who says this is "compelling evidence" that HAARP is at work ...

You have to see this. Bob Fitzsimmonds is the treasurer of the Republican Party of Virginia who served as Ken Cuccinelli's legislative aide in the Senate, and is a close adviser to the man who very well may be Virginia's next governor:

1. Starting at 7:45, Fitzsimmonds starts ranting about sex education and "the spread of STDs." He claims that "HIV's kind of hard to catch, abortion happens if you get pregnant, but we're on the trajectory for 50% of the American people to have herpes... and that is a profound not only health but sociological crisis that's facing this country, and it's not even as prevalent as HPV." Fitzsimmonds adds, "we have a disease [HPV] out there that's killing women more than HIV is, and we don't even talk about it."

Hmmm...actually we do talk about vaccinating young people ...

So there’s all sorts of weird stuff turning up about the background of Boston bomber guy Tamerlan Tsarnaev, like how Florida cops shot and killed a boxing friend of his the other day … after the friend implicated himself and Tsarnaev in a 2011 triple homicide and then pulled a knife on the cops. Oh, [...]

Gee, I wonder what will happen if we build roads and bridges, then completely ignore them for decades and drastically cut funding everywhere in order to suck the knob of the right wing’s newest golden calf, austerity? Surely nothing bad will happen ever, because debt and deficit are lurking in the corner, threatening to molest [...]

Law blog Lawblog BLAWWWG. Time for more lawzzz! What are we thinking about/talking about/still really fucking pissed about today? We are still mad about this judge dude who LITERALLY sold kids and we get to write about it now because his sentence just got upheld. A federal appeals court Friday upheld the conviction and 28-year prison [...]

Why is total mob capo of the DHS HHS Kathleen Sebelius shaking down companies to send arms to Iran so it can rape Nicaraguan nuns? This is an excellent question, one posed just this week by Tennessee Senator Lamar Alexander, previously known for being the boring guy who ran for president before Jon Huntsman whose [...]

It had been a while since we heard from our old friend, union thug speed bag Steven Crowder, which was just fine with yr Wonkette. A mommyblog of our delicate constitution can only listen to so many Ashley Judd rape jokes or complaints about how trans people will destroy the integrity of the honorable sport [...]

So there was big Boy Scout news yesterday, where the Boy Scouts are gonna go gay all of a sudden. There are really three acceptable ways to react to this bit of news. First, there is the “meh, don’t care because Boy Scouts or am a lady person or whatever” reaction. There’s also the “wooooooo [...]

On Friday, Elite New York City private school Horace Mann posted a letter to its website, confirming allegations of sexual abuse of students, and addressing how it handled the situation after it became public last summer. While the letter "sincerely apologize[d]" for the abuse, it did not call for an independent investigation of the incidents.

Signed by the head of school and chair of the board of trustees, the letter comes almost exactly one year after The New York Times uncovered reports of sexual abuse taking place against the school's students from the 1960s through the 1990s. The letter outlined a number of initiatives the school had taken to “resolve never to forget this portion of our past and reiterate our commitment to the safety of today's students.”

Through speaking with former victims, the school decided that allegations of abuse were true. The perpetrators of the alleged ...

Sometimes, it's just not a good time to get divorced.

That's the problem apparently frustrating four-time NBA champion Tim Duncan, who has reportedly asked a Texas judge to delay divorce proceedings until after his San Antonio Spurs are out of the NBA Playoffs.

A San Antonio Express reporter got a hold of divorce documents on Thursday that detail the Bexar County District Court case of A.S.D. vs. T.T.D.

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We all have at least one enemy we'd love to see crawl on their knees to beg for our help, only for us to say no and laugh at their misery.

Some of the most powerful people in the world have found themselves in this exact situation ... and when the time came to tell off their rivals, they instead turned around and said, "Sure thing, buddy, let me help you with that."

Like the time when Hitler saved a jew.

Read More...

Matt Harvey's incredible rookie season seems to be going as impressively off the field as it is on the mound.

The New York Mets' 24-year-old ace was photographed attending a Rangers playoff game on Thursday night with supermodel Anne Vyalitsyna, who readers of the annual Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue may better know simply as Anne V. According to an US Weekly report on Friday, the high-profile pair are dating.


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Know what important ruling made this week affects German beer? Take the Fark Weird News Quiz and show your stuff.

However, you probably shouldn't drink beer before you take it.

Read More...

Despite a near-constant flow of customers at its Huntington Beach storefront, Patient Med Aid struggles with many of the most basic business tasks.

It can't accept credit or debit cards for customer transactions. It has to pay vendors in cash. It uses cashier's checks to pay its taxes.

The newly opened medical marijuana dispensary, like many clinics in the controversial industry, has been turned away by numerous banks, which refuse to open accounts or process transactions for cannabis companies.

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It's probably time for another round of quiltblogging, but that will have to wait until next week. Why? Because this week I got my lovely new Mother Jones T-shirt and Domino immediately curled up on it.

I'll bet you didn't know I was a union thug, did you? Well, I am—though, disappointingly, I've never received a union card. Domino, however, misunderstood when I told her California wasn't a right-to-work state, figuring that this meant it must be a right-to-not-work state, which exempts her from paying union dues. Probably all for the best. The discipline of a picket line is not for her.

The Economist's Jon Fasman reports on the latest political pandering from a member of the Greatest Deliberative Body On Earth:

On Wednesday David Vitter (pictured), a Republican senator from Louisiana, proposed—and the Senate agriculture committee accepted—an amendment to the farm bill that would, in Mr Vitter's words, "prohibit convicted murderers, rapists and pedophiles from receiving food stamps." It's not hard to see why this amendment passed. All Mr Vitter needed to do was propose it []. Then the tacit question arises: Does anyone in this chamber want to stand up and say that taxpayers should feed murderers, rapists and pedophiles? No? Of course not.

This is revolting. It obviously has no fiscal impact worth mentioning, and just as clearly does nothing to reduce the future rate of murder, rape, or pedophilia. It's just pure political grandstanding from a guy who knows an amendment like this ...

The number of people who are feeling the effect of the sequester continues to rise. It's now up to 37 percent, and unsurprisingly, that's affecting what people think of it:

More Americans continue to disapprove than approve of sequestration, now by 56-35 percent — again, a view influenced by experience of the cuts. Eight in 10 of those who report serious harm oppose the cuts, as do about two-thirds of those slightly harmed. But the majority, which has felt no impacts, divides exactly evenly — 46 percent favor the cuts, vs. 46 percent opposed.

Further, this poll, produced for ABC by Langer Research Associates, finds that 39 percent overall “strongly” disapprove of the cuts — but that soars to 66 percent of those who say they’ve been harmed in a major way.

Despite these results, I'll stick to my earlier prediction: this isn't enough to affect Congress. Overall ...

Is Obamacare fated to be a "train wreck"? Matt Yglesias says no, but warns us of what to expect as it rolls out:

You have to remember a few basic facts about ACA implementation coverage over the next 18 months. One is that the media has a large negativity bias. The other is that the aspirations of the law are quite high, and the status quo is quite bad. That means any time the situation improves but doesn't improve as much as the Obama administration wanted things to improve, that will tend to be covered as "bad news for Obamacare." That tendency will be re-enforced because Republicans will be eager to trumpet Obamacare's shortcomings (to make Obama look bad), and advocates for the poor will also be eager to trumpet Obamacare's shortcomings (to build pressure for improvement). So you'll hear lots of completely accurate stories about ...

I hate to say this, but the media is losing me. I'm mostly on their side when it comes to subpoenaing journalists' phone records, but the level of outrage and special pleading has gotten so palpable that I'm starting to waver. Aren't they supposed to at least feign objectivity, even when the subject is something that affects the press?

It's worse in some places than others. Roger Ailes, for example, released a histrionic statement yesterday about "the administration's attempt to intimidate Fox News." Sure, Roger. Other places it's only slightly more subtle. This morning's LA Times, for example, greeted me with the headline on the right. If the subject were, say, wiretaps on organized crime rings, would the Times have written a headline about "spying on mafia dons"? I don't think so.

I'm not sure what precisely has caused the big ...

A few days ago I mentioned some good news out of Oregon: competition among health insurers was forcing down the price of coverage on the state's new Obamacare exchanges. Yesterday we got more good news from a much bigger state: mine. Wonkbook has the deets:

In 2009, the Congressional Budget Office predicted that a medium-level "silver" plan — which covers 70 percent of a beneficiary's expected health costs — on the California health exchange would cost $5,200 annually. More recently, a report from the consulting firm Milliman predicted it would carry a $450 monthly premium. Yesterday, we got the real numbers. And they're lower than anyone thought.

As always, Sarah Kliff has the details. The California exchange will have 13 insurance options, and the heavy competition appears to be driving down prices. The most affordable silver-level plan is charging $276-a-month. The second-most affordable plan is charging $294. And ...

A federal judge ruled Friday that the office of America's self-proclaimed toughest sheriff systematically singled out Latinos in its trademark immigration patrols, marking the first finding by a court that the agency racially profiles people.    

Rep. Mike McIntyre (D-NC) told North Carolina television station WECT that he's unhappy the Boy Scouts of America lifted its ban on gay youth.    

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Netflix is hoping this weekend's release of the resurrected TV series "Arrested Development" will draw more subscribers to its Internet video service. The award-winning show about the dysfunctional Bluth family returns Sunday, seven years after Fox...    

President Obama had to compete with shouts from a member of the crowd during his speech Thursday on counterterrorism. It definitely wasn't the first time he had.    

Updated: 4:53pm ET TORONTO (AP) -- Toronto Mayor Rob Ford denied Friday that he smokes crack cocaine and said he is not an addict after a video purported to show him using the drug. The mayor of Canada's largest city...    

MILAN (AP) -- The woman who prosecutors allege had sex with Silvio Berlusconi while he was Italy's premier in exchange for money spent her second day on the witness stand Friday, denying her own sworn descriptions of racy escapades at...    

Your mileage may vary.

Larry Ball is right.

California beaming.

Still not a game.

What was that about?

Honestly, mostly.

Traci and Bill review the so-called scandals Republicans are wasting their time on. You can download the podcast at these links: (iTunes / XML feed / MP3). Or watch us on the YouTube machine! Click here to subscribe to our...

We explore the mathematical theory that the raising of taxes somehow has managed to reduce our budget deficit. And we chronicle the pathetic attempts of the House Republican to come up with an excuse to take the debt limit hostage...

After a week off, Traci feels extra stabby. Bill tries to talk slowly. Why Rand Paul could be the next, and last, GOP nominee. And too much information about Ronald Reagan. You can download the podcast at these links: (iTunes...

On this week's edition of "The DMZ" on Bloggingheads.tv, Matt Lewis and I discuss my article in The Week, "Rand Paul: The next and last GOP nominee?", and Matt's article in The Week, Why I Could Never Be a Liberal."...

Traci and Bill discuss the very bad events of the week. You can download the podcast at these links: (iTunes / XML feed / MP3). Or watch us on the YouTube machine! Click here to subscribe to our YouTube channel....

Will Rand Paul's cluelessness ever stop being hilarious? What the hell is Chained CPI? Traci and Bill duel over "Accidental Racist." And in Bill's story time, when Reagan met Maggie. You can download the podcast at these links: (iTunes /...

Well, all the goodbye posts have been made, so this is really it.

Comments on articles will continue to work for seven days after the articles were posted. After that point, Open Left will become frozen in time.

This is, both ironically and fittingly, an open thread.

March 19, 2009. Gchat:

Stoller: Does Forrest Brown work for you?
Me: ??? who?
Stoller: Someone at PCCC.

New GChat window with my Progressive Change Campaign Committee co-founder Stephanie Taylor:

Me: Do we have someone named Forrest working with us?
Stephanie: Yes! He just volunteered to do a research project about how various congressional campaigns spent their money in 2008. He's researching Grayson first.
Me: ah!

I relayed the news to Stoller, who had recently left OpenLeft to work for Rep. Alan Grayson -- letting him know that this guy poking around asking probing questions was legit.

Subequent Gchat conversation with Forrest:

Me: how'd you join the PCCC list?
Forrest: i think i read a post by Bowers about it
Me: he wrote some nice stuff 
Forrest: i read almost everything on openleft

Forrest (who makes a cameo at the front of this recent PCCC video) was a 17 year ...

Thanks for being part of this community, and thank you for letting me develop my voice and ideas in concert with your voice and your ideas.  In 2007, Chris, Mike, and I started OpenLeft based on the idea that there was a new ideologically left-wing yet open set of actors on stage.  I still think this is true, and perhaps, there's some of that going on right now in the uprisings in the Middle East.  Though it's in fashion, I'm not going to pretend to be an expert on Egypt, except to note that Facebook will totally set everyone free.  Thanks, Zuck!

The signs of a world undergoing profound change are everywhere.  Wikileaks is a genuine social innovation, a new form of collaborative media that scales what Daniel Ellsberg did.  The political blogosphere, and then the financial blogs, have sketched an open counter-elite that can truly challenge ...

This has been a wonderful community to be a very small part of. When Matt and Chris said they were leaving MyDD, I knew I would be following them to wherever they were going. I thought they were full of wild and crazy ideas, but ones that could be implemented.

They knew that principles mattered because they set the course of events.  Principles told you when you were veering off course.  

My identifier on this site was this quote from a Matt Stoller piece during the 2008 election cycle

"Incrementalism isn't a different path to the same place, it could be a different path to a different place"

I have been doing politics in different ways at different levels for many years. From being one of the founders of the first women's "liberation" group in Boston, to marching in the streets against war and for equality, to helping ...

Please see the end for my thanks yous and where to find me after today. I have opted to close with an attempt to describe the field of play -D

Shortly after Kerry's loss in 2004, at MyDD, Chris wrote "Conservatism is our enemy" which I think is the first time I ever encountered a direct ideological assault on conservatism itself.  Along with Phil Agre's rightly famous essay on the subject, it began me on a road and mission to better understanding this beast.  Everything I have learned to date from then continues to bolster Chris' original thesis.  Conservativism is still the primary enemy of progress, justice, fairness and widespread happiness for humanity.  It remains a destructive and corrosive force on the institutions of democracy and the single biggest obstacle to world peace.

If I have had a broad meta thesis here at Open Left, it is that ...

How about, "See you around"?  I don't know where, exactly, though I do have some good ideas.  More on that at the end.

While that may suffice for us individually, though, it certainly can't for us as a community. And that's what I will miss most of all about Open Left.  Of course I'm grateful to Chris, Matt & Mike for creating this place, and then giving me the opportunity to write here.  But I've always craved online writing because of the immediacy of hearing what people think of what you've written, because there is so much to be learned.  It's axiomatic, really, that the group mind is orders of magnitude smarter than the individual mind, so the smartest thing the individual mind can do is find the best way to benefit from the group mind.

It's not just about intelligence, of course.  It's also about wisdom, compassion, humor, patience, forgiveness, forbearance, resilience... and on, and ...

Your turn. Here's an open thread, all topics welcome.

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There's been a spate of new pleadings in the George Zimmerman case. (This morning's filings are discussed here.) The defense is asking for a trial continuance (motion here) because of expert Alan Reich, who it appears, is not a speaker...

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The jury has deadlocked on the sentence for Jodi Arias and the court declared a mistrial. Under federal law, that would mean a life sentence. Not so in Arizona. A new jury will be seated to give the state another shot at killing her. Under...

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(Larger version here) The defense in the George Zimmerman case today released another batch of discovery it has provided the state. They include text messages and photos extracted from Trayvon Martin's cell phone. Several texts pertain to...

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While unnamed officials continue to tell the media that Ibragim Todashev "implicated" himself in the killing of three men in Boston in 2011, his wife (from whom he was separated) and father are speaking out and disputing the media allegations. ...

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Lots of work today. Here's an open thread, all topics welcome.

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The new review at Mother Jones reminded me I’m looking forward to seeing this, once it goes “on demand”. NYMag‘s movie reviewer, David Edelstein: Before I saw Alex Gibney’s documentary We Steal Secrets: The Story of WikiLeaks, I figured Gibney would be kicking the same government hornet’s nest already inflamed by his protagonist, Julian Assange—or [Read more...]
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I know I am breaking my “going off the grid” thing, but as a creature of superstition, I have to post a Pens thread like I have for every other game, because if they don’t and lose, I will blame myself. Sooo…. Let’s go Pens! Also, is it possible that Rosie has found the most [Read more...]

My house was the most popular house on the block this week. That’s because I decided to make a different batch of frozen treats everyday. All so you could have something fun for the holiday weekend. I toiled away in the kitchen and gave no thought whatsoever to my hips, freezing and taste-testing five batches [Read more...]

I keep writing about bad news on the public school privatization front, so I thought I’d give you some good news. First, a genuinely funny story out of Michigan, where the public school system has (apparently!) been completely deregulated and is now without any meaningful oversight or adult supervision at all, from eclectablog: Last year, [Read more...]

Punch Out at Malibu: (h/t reader MM) Andrea Tantaros crossed a line that should have caused her to be fired on the spot but, sadly, will probably earn her accolades from her right-wing community: calling for actual violence against Obama supporters. On her radio show today, the co-host of Fox News’ The Five said,“If you [Read more...]
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Any new ‘gates I should know about?

Big Mac Hero

by digby

I'm not a major McDonalds fan, but this is great

Life is good for this Ohio hero.

Just one day after a group of Cleveland restaurants announced plans to give local man Charles Ramsey free burgers for life, McDonald's quietly confirmed that it will offer him free food for a year.

Ramsey's quirky interviews detailing his efforts to help free kidnapping victims Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight earlier in May made the dishwasher famous -- especially the part about him eating a McDonald's Big Mac moments before the rescue.

The three women had been abducted, held in a squalid house and abused for roughly a decade, allegedly by homeowner Ariel Castro. On May 6, Ramsey heard Amanda Berry's screams from his neighboring porch and helped break down Castro's door.

As word of Ramsey's heroics spread, the Internet ...

Map 'O the Day: two countries edition

by digby

Plus ca change and all that rot:


That’s a very detailed, county-level map of the 1880 presidential election results, published in 1889.
It's trite to point it out after all this time, I know, but America has always been two political cultures. So when we see gridlock as we have now, we shouldn't be so surprised.

.

Priorities

by David Atkins

Jon Stewart is funny, but depressing:



Sigh...

Political grifter on offense

by digby

So Sarah Palin wrote an "op-ed" for Breitbart, which is, I guess, a step above Facebook...
“These Obama administration scandals are a sad and stark reminder that only limited government can ensure liberty. At our core, we Americans just want to be left alone to live freely, peacefully, and productively. Last year the Obama campaign told us that government is something we all ‘belong’ to. I guess they’re right because when the government is powerful enough to target, intimidate, and harass us, we do “belong” to them. Most of the right wing hysteria is wishful thinking by people who want more than anything to be martyred for the cause. But that is Sarah Palin talking. With the amount of "political" money that's flowed through her hands over the past few years, I can see why she'd be concerned. The real con ...

Fox News host Andrea Tarantos wants her listeners to punch Obama voters in the face

by David Atkins

Fox News host Andrea Tarantos was on the radio delivering that time-honored respectful conservatism:

“He said he would change the country. He said it. He said it. And a lot of people voted for him. And if you see any of those people today, do me a favor: punch them in the face.”...

“To be clear, I didn’t say punch Obama in the face...But if someone voted for him. If anyone that you know who voted for President Obama, smack them down.”
Here's the audio:


What a charming person. And what a charming "movement" American conservatism is. I feel totally safer as an American knowing that so many are armed, too. Sheepdogs and wolves, amirite?



.

Political stunts and political smarts

by digby

There has been a fair amount of jaded criticism from the wonkosphere over Elizabeth Warren's alleged student loan "stunt"  but apparently it's gaining political steam anyway:

A little more than two weeks after introducing her first bill, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) is already seeing a wave of strong support.

Back on May 8, Warren announced her plans to set student loan interest rates at the same level big banks receive from the Federal Reserve. Come July 1, some student loan rates are set to double from 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent, prompting Warren to push for legislation that reduces the level to 0.75 percent.

By Thursday, Warren's website showcased that more than two dozen organizations have endorsed the measure. Among the notable supporters were major universities like the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and groups like American Federation ...

Here is a photo gallery from my visit on May 9, 2013, to the Iraqi National Museum, courtesy the Ministry of Culture. Ancient Iraq or Mesopotamia was, of course, the cradle of civilization, and the treasures on display are breathtaking. Donald Rumsfeld allowed thousands of items to be looted from the museum in 2003. (US [...]

Nabil goes in: A British Muslim responds to the Woolwich murder in which Lee Rigby, 25, of 2nd Battalion The Royal Regiment of Fusiliers, was butchered by clearly unbalanced persons. Our hearts go out to the Rigbys. h/t reddit.com, where it went to the top today.

The next time you hear politicians campaigning on “lower taxes,” you should realize two things. First, they don’t intend to lower your taxes, which are probably mostly social security. In fact, they might like effectively to raise those taxes by extending the retirement age. They mean they intend to lower taxes for rich people and [...]

Here are the good, the bad and the ugly things in President Obama’s important speech on counter-terrorism Thursday, and in the off-stage steps he has announced that mysteriously did not appear in the speech: The Good: President Obama seems determined to give responsibility for drone strikes to the Department of Defense, taking it away from [...]

Chris Woods writes at the Bureau of Investigative Journalism Barack Obama has made it clear that the US will continue with its controversial targeted killing programme. In a major speech the US president also announced that he has signed into force a new – and secret – rule book for lethal action that provides ‘clear [...]

Tom Engelhardt writes at Tomdispatch.com: We have a word for the conscious slaughter of a racial or ethnic group: genocide.  And one for the conscious destruction of aspects of the environment: ecocide.  But we don’t have a word for the conscious act of destroying the planet we live on, the world as humanity had known [...]

Fed up with health concerns, environmental threats and political corruption, a Utah mom organizes a global movement against the biotech giant.

Fed up with the fact that she has to spend “a small fortune” in order to feed her family things she says “aren’t poisonous,” Tami Canal of Utah has organized a global movement against the giant chemical and seed corporation Monsanto. Monsanto is the conglomerate mastermind behind many of the pesticides and genetically engineered seeds that pervade farm fields around the world. Monsanto produces the world’s top-selling herbicide; 40 percent of US crops contain its genes; it spends millions lobbying the government each year; and several of its factories are now toxic Superfund sites.

Canal, who has a 17-month-old baby and a six-year-old girl, cites concerns over public health, adverse affects on the environment, and political corruption as her motivation to organize against the biotech giant. And ...

Federal lawmakers and the White House continue to willfully ignore science in regards to the cannabis plant.

Despite issuing a highly publicized memorandum in 2009 stating, "Science and the scientific process must inform and guide decisions of my Administration," it remains clear that federal lawmakers and the White House continue to willfully ignore science in regards to the cannabis plant and the federal policies which condemn it to the same prohibitive legal status as heroin. In fact, in 2011 the Obama administration went so far as to reject an administrative petition that called for hearings to reevaluate pot’s safety and efficacy, pronouncing in the Federal Register, “Marijuana does not have a currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States or a currently accepted medical use with severe restrictions. At this time, the known risks of marijuana use have not been shown to be outweighed by specific benefits ...

It's been another week of the insane, inane, and outright offensive.

It's been another week of the insane, inane, and outright offensive. Here's your top ten:

Pennsylvania governor can't find any Latinos to work for him. Gov. Tom Corbett (R-PA) told a Spanish-language newspaper this week that he didn't have any Latinos working for him. There are approximately 18,000 Latinos just in the Harrisburg, PA area alone.Pennsylvania governor remembers single Latino who works for him. A day after saying he didn't have any Latinos working for him, Corbett suddenly remembered a single Latino appointee working in his administration.Conservatives freak out over Boy Scouts decision to admit gays. Here'sthe ten best conservative freak-outs over the group's decision to admit gay scouts while maintaining a ban on gay leaders.Tea Party congressman mansplains his anti-abortion views. Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX), speaking ...

Modern conservatives can't stop talking about sex. And what they say opens a window into the strange, sexist worldview of patriarchal religion.

Modern conservative Christianity is obsessed with marriage, relationships, and sexuality to the point where these concerns crowd pretty much everything else out. Much of their obsession is directed towards trying to get the government to force you to live by their rules, but they also spend a great deal of time offering advice on these issues to each other. Unfortunately, most of their advice is utter garbage that puts prudery, unfair expectations, and strict gender policing over actual advice that can make your life better. Here are ten examples of evangelical advice that show how far adrift the Christian right advice industry is from the real world:

1) Be a better housekeeper to prevent cheating. Recently, Pat Robertson addressed a question that haunts many a woman who ...

"We Steal Secrets: The Story of WikiLeaks" premieres today -- but the transcript hit the internet last night.

Beating the entertainment industry in the message control race, Wikileaks leaked the transcript of the new documentary, “We Steal Secrets: The Story of WikiLeaks,” one night ahead of its worldwide release. The leaked transcript includes annotations that allege factual errors, misrepresentations and misguided framing in the film, directed by Academy Award winner Alex Gibney.

An unnamed annotator disputes several over-arching conclusions drawn in Gibney’s film, starting with its title, which implies that Wikileaks “steals secrets.” “In fact, the statement is made by former CIA/NSA director Michael Hayden in relation to the activities of US government spies, not in relation to WikiLeaks,” the annotator writes.

The annotator also addresses Gibney’s characterizations of Bradley Manning, the private accused of leaking classified information to WikiLeaks. By focusing on Manning’s alleged sexuality, rather ...

In Texas, a judge is enforcing a morality clause in one of the women's divorce papers to prevent the lesbians from living together.

 

A Texas judge has ordered a lesbian couple to stop living together due a morality clause in one of the women's divorce papers.
     Judge John Roach of the 296th District Court in Collin County enforced the clause from Carolyn Compton's 2011 divorce decree on May 7, the Dallas Voice reported.
     Compton has lived for three years with Page Price, who was ordered by Roach to move out within 30 days because Compton's children live with the couple. The clause states that a person who has a "dating or intimate relationship" or is not related "by blood or marriage" must leave after 9 p.m. when the children are present.
     Shortly after the ruling, Price posted on her Facebook profile that Roach was a ...

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Russia Says Syria Will Attend Geneva Peace Talks - NYTimes.com

Is Bashar al-Assad winning the civil war in Syria? - Telegraph

Bashar al-Assad makes small but strategic gains in Syrian civil war - National Post

Israel, in reassessment, thinks Syria’s Bashar Assad will last awhile - MiamiHerald.com

Syria army can conduct successful operations at will: Germany’s BND - PressTV

Rebel Leaders Ask for Weapons from the West, The FSA could lose its fight against the regime of Assad within a few months, warns Idriss - SPIEGEL ONLINE

Saudi officials meets the Free Syrian Army’s Higher Military Command - TIME.com

Details on Syrian opposition's talks in Turkey - Hassan Hassan

Syria army says rebels trapped in Al-Qusayr's north - AFP

Al-Akhbar takes a close look at the Syrian army’s movements on the ground in Qusayr - Al Akhbar English

VIDEO: Russian state TV with Syrian troops in Qusayr - LiveLeak.com

Clashes in ...

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A message to RootsAction members from Douglas Valentine, author of
The Phoenix Program: Lies about Iraq. Cash to corrupt Afghanistan.  Drone wars
waged in secret.  Blowback endangering us all. The CIA does not exist to defend our
freedoms. Wrapped in government secrecy, it exists to assure the political security of
rich political elites. CIA operations -- engaging in secret, legally protected wars, sabotage,
subversion, murders and tortures -- create enemies that Americans fear. And the agency
is an instrument of psychological warfare aimed at you and me. 

Background:
Douglas Valentine: The Phoenix Program
CNN: Karzai: CIA Promises to Continue Cash Payments
The Atlantic: Drone War Has More Victims Than Bush-Era CIA Scandals
Washington Post: An Alternative Explanation for Benghazi

It's time we stop funding this out-of-control agency.

CLICK HERE.

 

read more

 

Woolrich London Killing: Terrorism or False Flag?

 

by Stephen Lendman

 

Reports said two assailants hacked a British soldier to death. He's been identified as Lee Rigby. He was killed in broad daylight. It was several hundred meters from southeast London's Woolwich Royal Artillery barracks.

 

Weapons included a machete type knife. Alleged attackers remained on the scene. They did so until police arrived 20 minutes later.

 

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-- "A multimillionaire president nominated a billionaire who raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for his campaigns, and he sent her to be confirmed by the millionaires' club that is the U.S. Senate."

-- "Whatever Obama's preferences are, he has killed exponentially more people than he has detained and prosecuted."

-- "I started ordering Long Island Iced Teas because, secretly, I've always believed it to be a more interesting drink than people credit."

-- "Hearing a foreign language is like seeing a postcard from some other land, even when you are actually in that other land."

-- "While contestants take their seats onstage, an emcee recites rules. Competitors have 20 seconds to eat as many chilies as they can. Peppers must be chewed at least three times, to ensure the release of the pain-causing ingredient; the highest concentration of capsaicin is in the lining of the pepper—its placenta—and the seeds ...

Earlier this week, Rob Wile of Business Insider posted his graph-heavy opus: "31 Charts That Will Restore Your Faith In Humanity."

Naturally, we here at Wonkblog were all eager to see the results. But we'd quibble a bit with Wile's interpretations of the data. His charts all struck us as horrible news. So we're re-analyzing them here with the proper, gloom-heavy spin:

1) Inter-state wars are on the rise since 2002. Zoom in on that pink line:

2) Dictatorships still exist:

Systemic Peace

3) We haven't eradicated human slavery:

4) People around the world are becoming just as lazy as the French:

5) Look at all the frivolous crap we're spending money on:

6) Pretty much everyone in the United States can now read Fifty Shades of Grey :

7) More 77-year-olds are dying than ever before:

8) We vanquished infectious disease only to find more ...

Health Reform Watch, Sarah Kliff's regular look at how the Affordable Care Act is changing the American health-care system, is being written by Ezra Klein today. Sarah, unfortunately, is doing some firsthand reporting on America's dental system. You can reach Sarah with questions, comments and suggestions here. Check back every Monday, Wednesday and Friday afternoon for the latest edition, and read previous columns here.

For all the speculating in Washington about how the Affordable Care Act will work — much of it, I admit, from me — there's been too little attention given to the best evidence we have on the subject: How the extremely similar reforms in Massachusetts have worked.

Take employers. There's real concern that companies will see the Affordable Care Act as an opportunity to drop health insurance for their employees and let taxpayers pick up the tab. For those with more than 50 full-time ...

Earlier this week, the Senate immigration bill passed the Judiciary Committee easily, by a 13-5 vote, with three Republican supporters. And odds are looking good on the Senate floor. If Democrats stay unified in favor of the bill (a big if), and if those three Republicans and the two members of the Gang of Eight who are not on the committee back it on the floor, that's 60 votes in favor, enough to break a filibuster. Supporters are hoping to have more like 70 yes votes, a surprising possibility.

But even if the bill passes the Senate, it has a long way to go before it might hit President Obama's desk. The reform bill the Senate took up in 2006 passed with 62 votes, only to go nowhere in the House. So, how is the Gang of Eight deal going to pass? And what could sink it? Here ...

Some of the Wonkbloggers haven't, uh, quite finished their reading. So we're delaying until next Friday our discussion of Ira Katznelson's "Fear Itself: The New Deal and the Origins of Our Time." But we haven't forgotten about this, we swear!

Here's the amended schedule:

Friday, May 31. Part 2, "Southern Cage." pp. 131-224.

Friday, June 7. Part 3, "Emergency." pp. 225-364.

Friday, June 21. Part 4, "Democracy's Price" and Epilogue. 365-486.

And feel free to harass the writers around here to do their homework!

    

I know Josh Barro. Josh Barro is a friend of mine. Josh Barro does not climb trees and throw coconuts at you, as the Atlantic's graphic alleges. But he really, really, really likes talking about state pension systems. That part is true. And, these days, he doesn't come across as much of a Republican. That part is also true.

But is that his fault? Or the Republican Party's?

Over the last few years, the Republican Party has been retreating from policy ground they once held and salting the earth after them. This has coincided with, and perhaps even been driven by, the Democratic Party pushing into policy positions they once rejected as overly conservative. The result is that the range of policies you can hold and still be a Republican is much narrower than it was in, say, 2005. That's left a lot of once-Republican wonks ...

Ever since the release of the iPhone 4S, rumors regarding features not included in that iteration, and thus desired in the next, began to circulate in news outlets and consumer forums everywhere. Since then, however, the mobile device marketplace has changed as the iPhone 5 faces some potentially stiff competition from a few other currently

The post In the Wake of the Apple Keynote, Rumors Surrounding the iPhone 5 Become Reality appeared first on Politics, Business, Arts, Technology, Opinions And The News Less Traveled.

Press agencies are actively advertising and commenting  part of President Putin in the ornithologists project “Flight of Hope.” Many publications are reminded that this is not the first dramatic action of this kind. The Washington Post newspaper even publishes a collection of photographs entitled “Vladimir Putin: his miracles of power.” Many articles were written before the

The post Cranberry leader Putin – hit in the internet. appeared first on Politics, Business, Arts, Technology, Opinions And The News Less Traveled.

Many people consider the Quadrocopter, a small unmanned aircraft with four propellers, as a universal solution for aerial photography, reconnaissance, surveillance, and other tasks. But what you will see in the video below reveals another somewhat atypical application of the Quadrocopter. This video is of an aerial light show demonstration performed by a group of

The post Extraordinary light show performed by a group of 50-quadrocopter drone. appeared first on Politics, Business, Arts, Technology, Opinions And The News Less Traveled.

DataRetrieval, one of the United States’ largest data recovery firms with more than thirty offices domestically and internationally, are currently making preparations to unveil what could be a significant revolutionary step forward in the methodology of recovering data from crashed or failed RAID arrays. While only a few official statements have been made regarding the

The post DataRetrieval Gets Ready for a Revolution in RAID Data Recovery Service appeared first on Politics, Business, Arts, Technology, Opinions And The News Less Traveled.

Tom Richmond sketches Inspirational caricature artist; Tom Richmond, born May 4, 1966, is an American freelance humorous illustrator, cartoonist and caricaturist whose work has appeared in many national and international publications since 1990. Below some of funny caricatures he made. Whoopi Goldberg: Will Smith Snoop Dogg Tiger Woods: Hugh Laurie (Dr.House): Angelina Jolie: Marilyn Monroe:

The post Many caricatures of famous people appeared first on Politics, Business, Arts, Technology, Opinions And The News Less Traveled.

This first lady of the United States was the culmination of the opening of the election the Democratic Party, which started in North Carolina.   Michelle Obama tried to convince voters to keep her husband as president for a second term, as “a man who can be trusted.”  In just the first night of the Democratic convention

The post First Lady Michelle Obama’s speech … Boris Becker crying appeared first on Politics, Business, Arts, Technology, Opinions And The News Less Traveled.

A year-long operation by New Jersey state alcohol officials found numerous alterations of booze -- including a bar serving rubbing alcohol with caramel coloring and calling it scotch and a bar filling liquor bottles with dirty water -- at 29 restaurants and bars. Thirteen of the violators were TGI Fridays restaurants. In "Operation Swill," state agents in January and February ordered drinks neat (without ice or mixers) and covertly tested them. Of 150 samples collected, 30 were altered or not the brand ordered.

Police in the Swedish capital, Stockholm, have called in reinforcements after the city's suburbs were hit by a fifth night of riots. Gangs set fire to two schools and a police station. Peter Oliver of Russia's RT said he witnessed rioters throwing stones at police and journalists alike. Swedish Democrats MP Kent Ekeroth told RT, "In Sweden you've got welfare, access to the educational system -- up to university level, you got access to public transport, libraries, healthcare -- to everything. And still they feel that they [immigrants] need to riot through stones and Molotov cocktails. It's ridiculous and a bad excuse."

Working father Dan Greeley asked his employer to cut his pay so could still qualify for as much as $1,700 a month through Colorado's Child Care Assistance Program. Without the child care assistance provided by the government, most of his take home pay would go to child care let alone rent, utilities, and food. He fell victim to what is known as the "Cliff Effect," when a small increase in a family's income can lead to an abrupt termination of an essential public benefit like food stamps, health insurance or child care assistance. "The way I was brought up, we didn't ask for help," Greeley said. "We just figured it out and this was the first time I had to ask for help."

A controversial search warrant for a Fox News reporter's private emails was approved "at the highest levels" of the Justice Department, including "discussions" with Attorney General Eric Holder, reports Michael Isikoff of NBC News. A DOJ statement defended the secret warrant to obtain reporter James Rosen's emails as a legitimate step to obtain evidence against Stephen Kim, a former U.S. intelligence analyst indicted under the Espionage Act for leaking classified information to Rosen about North Korea.

President Barack Obama delivered a commencement speech to Naval Academy graduates Friday in which he warned that sexual assaults in the military branches threaten to erode America's faith in the armed forces. "We need your honor, that inner compass that guides you," the president said. "Even more than physical courage, we need your moral courage -- the strength to do what's right, even when it's unpopular." Earlier this month, Obama expressed his impatience that military commenders have not fixed the problem. "I don't want just more speeches or awareness programs or training but, ultimately, folks look the other way," he said. "If we find out somebody is engaging in this stuff, they've got to be held accountable -- prosecuted, stripped of their positions, court-martialed, fired, dishonorably discharged. Period."

An Oregon woman was told by a 911 dispatcher that authorities couldn't help her because of budget cuts as her ex-boyfriend broke into her residence. The unidentified woman called 911 during a weekend in August 2012 while Michael Bellah was breaking in. Her call was forwarded to Oregon state police because the Josephine County Sheriff's Office cut back to a Monday through Friday schedule due to budget cuts. "Uh, I don't have anybody to send out there," the 911 dispatcher told the woman. "You know, obviously, if he comes inside the residence and assaults you, can you ask him to go away?" Bellah choked the woman and sexually assaulted her, police said.

For those oh-some-pleasant holiday discussions about the latest political controversies, here's a little reference aid for one of them, The Gun Glossary: What’s a semi-automatic? What counts as an assault weapon? by Mark Joseph Stern Slate 12/17/2012.

One of my Facebook friends and one his commenters like the idea of armed guards in schools because it makes kids "feel good" to see them. It makes six-year-olds "feel good" to see a guy in a Santa Claus suit, too. But if you're an NRA True Believer, nothing is too silly an argument to repeat. As long as it changes the topic from enacting and enforcing sane gun laws. Putting armed guards in the schools - like they had at Columbine - isn't going to prevent or even much mitigate mass shootings as long as automatic and semiautomatic assault weapons are easily available with enormous clips and no ...

Somehow I listened to the presentation on Friday by the NRA's Wayne LaPierre without gaq reflexes kicking in. If you want to try it yourself, here's the whole thing, courtesy of PBS Newshour, NRA's Wayne LaPierre Calls for Armed Security in Every School 12/21/2012:



LaPierre proposes armed security guards at every school as an excuse not to have any restrictions at all on the manufacture and sale of the kinds of weapons that were not so long ago banned as "assault weapons". But this week's Facebook setting don't seem to allow it.

German cartoonist Klaus Stuttmann has a drawing (12/17/2012) of what LaPierre's ideal of a public school would be, captioned "the next thing".


Also, the Christian homeschool lobby would love to have public schools looking like this to market against. I wonder how many Christian homeschooling arrangements, which sometimes ...

"And frankly, I’m convinced that the president is unwilling to stand up to his own party on the big issues that face our country." - House Speaker John Boehner (Sabrina Siddiqui, John Boehner To Obama On Fiscal Cliff: Act On Plan B Or Get 'Serious' Huffington Post 12/20/2012

Tags: barack obama

Yanis Varoufakis describes the experience of the eurozone with austerity policies, in the context of describing why the non-financial sector may not recover as fast as the financial sector (Will the real economy rebound, following Wall Street’s resuscitation? And what of Europe? – Interviewed by El Confidencial 12/20/2012):

Rapid, unregulated growth is usually built on the back of a financial sector bubble; also known as irrational exuberance. Credit expands fast, increasingly risky bets are placed and a portion of this is channelled into productive investments in industry (the real economy, as you put it). Then the bubble bursts, liquidity disappears and the real economy entered a vicious cycle, of having to pay back unsustainable debts through austerity that causes investment to plummet, debt-to-income ratios to remain prohibitively high and, alas, growth to turn increasingly negative. In this sense, the answer to your question is bleak: No, there is ...

I've resisted trying to speculate about some of the more subjective aspects of gun violence in the US political culture because of the very reason Charlie Pierce mentions in his The Night Before The President Came To Newtown Esquire Politics Blog 12/17/2012: "One pastor got on TV and blamed "the evil in the heart of man." (Unless you adopt his particular interpretation of monotheism, there is something inherent in you that might put seven bullets into a seven-year old.) This is convenient, because this is something against which we cannot legislate." (my emphasis)

A lot of the pet theories that Christian fundamentalists in particular like to throw out there on these all-too-frequent occasions of mass gun massacres are just that: a cover for the gun lobby to focus people's attention on anything and everything but better gun regulations.

For example, Franklin Graham - who apparently is more ...

So President and Social Security opponent Obama has gone there. After he let people hope for a weekend that the Grand Bargaining to cut benefits on Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid might at least be on hold until January, on Monday comes the news that he's agreed with House Speaker John Boehner on a "fiscal cliff" plan. (Jonathan Weisman, Obama's New Offer on Fiscal Crisis Could Lead to Deal New York Times 12/17/2012)

The details are overshadowed by the only thing in it that really matters: cuts to Social Security benefits, including current recipients, by adopting the "chained CPI" inflation-adjustment measure. There are various places to find explanations of "chained CPI," e.g., David Dayen, What Chained CPI Means, and Why a Cut in a Time of Inadequate Social Security Benefits Makes No Sense FDL News 12/17/2012; Mide Konczal, A Cost of Living Adjustment ...

If you're looking for a testosterone infused sausage fest of extreme machismo, look no further than Bill O'Reilly's rap sessions with "comedian" and co-host of "The Five" Greg Gutfeld and Bernard McGuirk, Imus sidekick, who once referred to female African-American college basketball players as "hard core hos." When these three Catholic, former altar boys get together it's open season on women, gays, and anybody else that isn't part of their white, patriarchal, Christian boyz club. Included in this list of those who aren't part of O'Reilly's manly locker room posse are the male hosts on MSNBC who, according to Gutfeld and McGuirk, don't score high on the macho scale. That's right folks, the 5 foot 5 Gutfeld and the skinny, skin headed McGuirk actually impugned the manliness of MSNBC hosts during a discussion about a recent study that correlates the ...

If anyone on the planet still thinks America Live is an “objective” news program, as Fox News insists it is, then I strongly recommend watching the clip after the jump in which substitute host Greg Jarrett and reporter Chris Stirewalt sneer and jeer at Attorney General Eric Holder and compare Obama unfavorably to disgraced President Richard Milhous Nixon.

That the supposed "fair & balanced" Fox News official news services a "pro-life" agenda was underscored by their sensationalist, editorialized, and almost tabloid coverage of the Gosnell abortion case - coverage not seen on Fox during the trial of Scott Roeder, who was convicted of murdering abortion provider, Dr. George Tiller. The anti-choice movement is using the Gosnell case as ammunition in their attempts to roll back abortion rights - a crusade that is being aided and abetted by Fox News which refuses to address the reality that lack of access to safe, affordable abortion will lead to more Gosnell's. Wednesday, alleged "news" host Megyn Kelly spoke with Gosnell's attorney in a piece that could have been a discussion about the need for legal, safe abortion; but, instead, consisted of Kelly screaming at the attorney in a not very "fair & balanced" scolding which earned her praise from the radical movement that ...

On last night’s Lou Dobbs Tonight, host Dobbs dismissed President Obama’s lengthy, substantive speech on national security as an attempt to change the subject and said, “Now let’s go back to what is really important.” By that, he meant the trumped-up scandals that Republicans Fox is doing its utmost to exploit against the Obama administration. And who better to help with an effort to exploit a trumped-up scandal into a full-blown, anti-Obama conspiracy theory than Monica Crowley, the pundit who blamed her decision not to eat a hamburger on President Obama?

Andrea Tantaros crossed a line that should have caused her to be fired on the spot but, sadly, will probably earn her accolades from her right-wing community: calling for actual violence against Obama supporters. On her radio show today, the co-host of Fox News’ The Five said,“If you see any of those people (Obama supporters) today, do me a favor, punch ‘em in the face.”

Former Vice President Dick Cheney had some stiff competition but he trounced each and every one of them to win our Most Outrageous Quote of the Week Poll with a decisive 58.4% of the vote or 122 votes. What made him such a "winner:" His comment that the attack on the American compound in Benghazi, Libya was “one of the worst incidents that, frankly, that I can recall in my career.”