Merry Christmas

Beware the word "Thug"

"Thug." Watch it carefully. It's only use is to dehumanize people. We humans have inalienable rights and even criminals are protected by the due process clause. But if you're a thug? Not so much. "Thug" is just a spam-filter safe spelling of "ni&&er".

Somebody help me out......

What I find fascinating is that while we all worry about the rise of the surveillance state, it's first and most prominent victims are the police. I'm not sure what to make of that.

New Republic goes after Dawkins.

The capacity and propensity for destruction goes with being human. One does not have to be religious to acknowledge this dark fact.

It's astounding how many writers get this exactly backward. As animals, we simply are.. There are no value judgments to be applied beyond the fact that living seems better than dying. It's quite unremarkable that we are capable of evil. What is absolutely ASTOUNDING is that we are capable of thinking about it. Good and Evil is a strictly human preoccupation; it does not exist in nature without our very peculiar and rare brains. It's worth noting too that all creatures on earth are equally evolved. Therefore intelligent, moral creatures are a one in a billion long shot.

I take issue

I take issue The rise of intelligence and consciousness, far from being a natural result of evolution is incredibly rare. On earth it has only been achieved by one species out of millions (all of which are equally 'evolved') You may be right about what's next for us, but you can't accurately portray it as a natural progression. Our's is a quite unique road.

Re; Upcoming ISIS operations.

My #1 concern is that our enemies in Iraq and our friends in Syria happen to be the same people. Current estimates of ISIS fighting strength is only 30,000 or the number in attendance at a typical Hockey game. Do we really think that we can muster a force that will defeat them while that force is in fact fighting the Syrian regime side by side with their alleged enemies. This whole mess is a direct result of the American reflex that insists that no matter what, we have to DO SOMETHING. It doesn't help that 'Caliphate" is one of those magic words that causes neocon's ears to bleed whenever they hear it. Obama has to DO SOMETHING and by God, he's going to do it, at least until 11/4 is safely in the rear-view mirror.

Re: McCain vs Carney

The trouble is that this clip has now appeared on every news site there is. McCain isn't going away until people start ignoring him. When I asked the folks at Time why he was always on TeeVee, they insisted that it's because he always "makes news". Unfortunately as long as we consider crap like this "news" they will continue to be right.

Ask Time Magazine

#AskTime My Grandfather was Methodist Minister, a noted leftist, and dedicated his life to helping the less fortunate as Director of the Indianapolis Goodwill for 35 years. I attended Church as a youth and was taught in no uncertain terms that Jesus's mission was one of mercy and forgiveness. I then attended a summer camp run by Wheaton College and was presented with an entirely different and (to me) alien version of Christianity. 

My question is simply this: What happened to allow the word "Christian" to become a synonym for "Right Wing"? I know for a fact that there are literally millions of Liberal Christians but any close look at the media and the words they choose, makes it seem like such people are insignificant to the point of non-existence. 

What we do to help journalists write more carefully so they aren't lazily conflating two very different concepts?

Another way "Centrism" equals dishonesty.

It appears that every news outlet that covering the Lerner story is ignoring the fact that the subject of the conversation was "the whacko wing of the GOP". That does not mean 'Conservatives". That does not mean 'Some Republicans" The fact that they are pretending that it does means that the MSM INCLUDING Time is willing to lie in order to push a false narrative. Lois Lerner's e-mails acknowledged a simple fact that is also apparent to most mainstream Republicans. The fact that they are unwilling to admit it makes them liars as well.

Reminder

Of course Benghazi wouldn't be nearly the obsession it has become if Mitt Romney hadn't made a complete a$$ of himself the night it happened. Accusing the Commander in Chief of the Armed forces of siding with the enemy is NOT something you should be doing if you happen to be a loyal American. The real cover up is the fact that no one remembers that little slip because of all the chaff that's been deployed since.

I'm posting this here and now so that my bragging rights are preserved

Today the Senate eliminated the filibuster for judicial nominees. I am therefore compelled to make this prediction: The senate is NOT going to change hands in 2014 OR 2016. There is no question that the problems with the Federal exchange will be worked out WELL before springtime and the Party of NO will be relegated to hoping to cancel policies that are written and in place.

You heard it here first (08-20-13 to be precise)

@ggreenwald If you need to avoid a law against spying on your own citizens, you can just ask a foreign government to do it for you.

— Paul Dirks (@phd9) August 20, 2013

Regarding Eric Holder's new sentencing strategies.

 It's apparently difficult for people to fully comprehend how important this is. It matters not whether it's a DOJ idea or a State idea and sniping over timing is just plain stupid. For decades, the most reliable way politicians could pander for votes is to promise to lock up more of "those" people. The strategy was always unsustainable, but the fact that people can reliably talk about reversing the trend without inviting virulent attacks is HUGE. I never would have believed I'd see it in my lifetime.

Swampland

A Republican Senate?

I want to emphasize that the possibility of Republicans taking over the chamber does NOT change my mind about the filibuster. The only way that Congresscritters are actually held accountable to their constituents is if they pass laws that they don't like. The number one argument against Republican rule is what happens when they have it.

The games people play with votes and procedure targeting nothing than opportunities for soundbites is disgusting. The best way around that is to allow whichever party is in control to actually implement their agenda. Temporary pain is the only way to actually fix what's wrong with current thinking.

Re: Guantanomo

It's worth remembering while the Right Wing rends it's garments over informing Dzhokhar Tsarnaev that he has rights under the Constitution, the reason these people can't be dealt with is precisely because Bush ignored the Constitution in dealing with them in the first place. Once you've tortured someone you no longer can use the evidence they provide to try them. And since the policy going in was always err on the side of locking up anyone suspicious, what's left is a massive mess that no one wants responsibility for. 

"Blame Bush" may be regarded as a copout in some circles but anything less is gross negligence.

Read more: http://swampland.time.com/2013/05/01/president-obama-sides-with-his-guantanamo-bay-protesters/#ixzz2S2YtlojE

Re Michael Grunwald

Tread On Me 

There are two threads of though that seem to be missing from the current debate. One is the fact that private actors if they act in concert can be just as threatening to freedom as government. Though I can pee in a cup, free from fear, the fact that I need to even think of such things if I want to fully participate in society is a serious erosion of Freedom. If Government forbids employers from asking me for my Facebook password, then it's pretty clear that the government is DEFENDING my Freedom against Private sector infringement.

The second thing that seems to be severely misunderstood is Miranda. The point of Miranda is to prevent Police from beating confessions out of suspects who may or may not be guilty. It doesn't even prevent police from beating confessions out of people. It just stipulates, that if they do so, they can't use those confessions in court. 

It's a very important right to preserve for obvious reasons, but it the idea that we can't question someone without reading his rights, when we already have more than enough evidence to convict WITHOUT his statements, is to blow the problem up out of proportion. Miranda is an  important right to defend. This is not a good case on which to hang your defense.

For the record......

To make it official, I am not among the one's who's immediately clamoring for stricter gun control laws, but the people who are arguing against them might just change my mind. What a heaping pile of idiocy!

Just sayin.......

As long as news organizations think that the causes of Global Warming are worthy poll questions, misinformation will continue to run rampant. The planet itself really doesn't CARE whether people think temperature trends are caused by human activity or not. Science is not a matter of opinion.

Oops

Those of us who pay attention to the political landscape on a daily basis have trouble understanding the viewpoint of people who don't pay any attention at all. The entire Romney campaign is based on the assumption that his target audience doesn't know any better. His most severe miscalculation was thinking that Ohio autoworkers might be among those who don't pay attention.

TPM Prime

TalkingPointsMemo has a new 'prime' site up. The first thread was full of introductions. Here's mine:

I'm 54 years old. I spent 17 years working in manufacturing, working my way up from QC technician to Production Manager. In that capacity I was instrumental in helping to resist several Union organizing drives. I was convinced that Labor Unions had performed an important service in the past but had outlived their usefulness. Then the company was acquired by a much larger entity. Needless to say, within two years I was busy deciding the order to let people go as we shuttered the plant. Having no particular ties to the area, my wife and I then relocated to the US Virgin Islands where I split my time as an Office Manager by day and a Musician in the evenings. I feel very fortunate, but I nevertheless have strong opinions about how the dire state of our economy is directly related to the fact that we have allowed our manufacturing capacity to be outflanked. It's an issue that NEITHER party seems willing to address in any forceful manner.