January 2012
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Thoughts on Barack Obama's Signing of the NDAA
Statement by the President on H.R. 1540:
Today I have signed into law H.R. 1540, the “National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012.” I have signed the Act chiefly because it authorizes funding for the defense of the United States and its interests abroad, crucial services for service members and their families, and vital national security programs that must be renewed. In hundreds of...
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“This is as dark a day as the signing of the Patriot Act. The Obama...”
– The American Bear on the Nobel Peace Prize winning, most transparent President ever signing the FY2012 NDAA into law.
I just quoted myself. Happy New Year everyone.
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“Welcome to the latest and perhaps most unique iteration of Occupy Wall Street,...”
– Occupy Des Moines is the Democrats’ problem
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“I think that the conservative idea of revolting against the ruling class by...”
– Thomas Frank
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Progressives and the Ron Paul fallacies | Glenn... →
Apologies for the massive cut and paste, but every bit of this needs to be read and digested.
The thing I loathe most about election season is reflected in the central fallacy that drives progressive discussion the minute “Ron Paul” is mentioned. As soon as his candidacy is discussed, progressives will reflexively point to a slew of positions he holds that are anathema to liberalism and odious...
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December 2011
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“People are desperate. They think their entire way of life is crumbling around...”
– Thomas Frank | The Tea Party’s “utopian market populism”
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I haven't relied on tumblr support yet. I will...
Please don’t fuck with me out of spite, tumblr.
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On the Campaign Season Big Top
From Glenn Greenwald:
As I’ve written about before, America’s election season degrades mainstream political discourse even beyond its usual lowly state. The worst attributes of our political culture — obsession with trivialities, the dominance of horserace “reporting,” and mindless partisan loyalties — become more pronounced than ever. Meanwhile, the actually consequential acts of the U.S....
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The Tea Party’s “utopian market populism” |... →
JM: With Obama the muscle memory of the Democratic Party is the Clintonian technocracy of the 1990s.
TF: That’s exactly right. Their message was: The technocratic way is going to solve our problems. Just leave it up to the experts who are going to figure a way out. [Obama and the Democrats] seemed to think they didn’t need to dirty their hands by making a populist appeal. They did a lot of...
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“Any hope that the Obama administration would roll back the constitutional...”
– Anthony D. Romero, ACLU executive director, on Barack Obama’s signing of the NDAA. (via cwnl)
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Ali Abdullah Saleh's will they won't they... →
darling80m:
Now he’s not gonna come and will continue to terrorize Yemen from within.
The continuing adventures of the world’s most duplicitous despot.
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“The process, led by NSC Senior Director Steve Simon, involves only a few select...”
– US Gaming Out Strategies on Syria
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A Message Entangled With Its Form | Adbusters →
From Nicole Pemby:
Occupy Wall Street is still a writhing, inchoate entity, yet it has a structure that can and must beget more structure. Its future is totally unknown, but the commitment among OWS’s ranks, the resonance of its message, and the appreciation so many feel for the rupture it presents from the status quo, assures me that this occupation will persist, whatever this persistence looks...
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2011: End of US Hyperpower & its War with Islamdom... →
Juan Cole:
Some years are pivotal and serve to mark off eras of history. 2011 saw the end of American hyperpower, and it announced the end of a decade of US-Muslim conflict that began with 2001. It saw the killing of Usama Bin Laden, the virtual rolling up of al-Qaeda, the repudiation of al-Qaeda’s methods by the masses of the Arab world, and the US military withdrawal from Iraq. The upheavals...
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“PERHAPS the sight from Liberty Plaza is similar to the one a person might have...”
– A Message Entangled With Its Form | Nicole Demby
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3.5 Million Homeless and 18.5 Million Vacant Homes... →
The National Economic and Social Rights Initiative along with Amnesty International are asking the U.S. to step up its efforts to address the foreclosure crisis, including by giving serious consideration to the growing call for a foreclosure moratorium and other forms of relief for those at risk, and establishing a housing finance system that fulfills human rights obligations.
New...
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Syria's two largest opposition groups sign draft... →
Syria’s two leading opposition groups have agreed on the ground rules for what they call “a transitional period” after the end of the regime of President Bashar Assad, activists said Saturday.
Representatives from the Syrian National Council (SNC) and the National Coordination Body for Democratic Change in Syria signed the agreement in Cairo late Friday after talks that...
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“We are told that it is only people’s objective actions that matter, and their...”
– George Orwell (via we-never-jump-ship)
i.e., If you’re against the war on terror, then you are, by default, a terrorist.
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Ongoing Delusions About Obama's Foreign Policy |... →
The conundrum - You’re a hawkish republican pundit with an opinion column. The president’s foreign policy closely matches the foreign policy approach preferred by the majority of your party, but you still want to paint him as “soft on defense” or some similar ad hominem.
Added pickle - one of the candidates for prez in your own party opposes the president’s foreign...
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Druckversion - Inside Syria's Death Zone: Assad's... →
When the haze dissipates in the late afternoon light, and when the last unfortunate souls hurry across the open space, running in a zigzag pattern, hunting season begins on Cairo Street. There is random shooting all day long at this spot, but from this moment on the shooting becomes targeted. A few people make it to the other side on this day, but one does not. He screams and falls to the ground...
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“What began nine months ago as a peaceful protest against the dictatorship of the...”
– Druckversion - Inside Syria’s Death Zone
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SOPA Update
occupyallstreets:
Major game companies Nintendo, Sony and Electronic Arts have quietly removed themselves from the official list of organizations that support the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA).
On the surface, the gaming companies probably threw their support to the bill because it would also help curb piracy of gaming. However, I’m sure they’ve been paying attention to the onslaught of...
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Riding Israel: A tragicomedy | Marwan Bishara →
[Even Republican pollster and master propagandist] Frank Luntz has warned: “Don’t pretend that Israel is without mistakes or fault. It’s not true and no one believes it”. In his how-to-market-Israel guide, he adds, “We’re at a time in history when Jews in general (and Israelis in particular) are no longer perceived as the persecuted people. In fact, among American and European audiences...
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“One of the problems with liberalism in this country is that it’s headquartered...”
– Thomas Frank (via azspot)
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Hundreds of thousands rally across Syria -... →
proletarianengineer:
Emboldened by the presence of Arab League monitors, protesters took to the streets in mass rallies.
250,000 rally in the Idlib province
70,000 rally in a suburb in Damascus
the Free Syria Army, made up of defecting Syrian military personnel, is now estimated to be around 10,000 strong
over 5000 people have been killed since the beginning of the uprising
130 have been...
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Transcript: Decline of the American empire | Al... →
An excerpt:
Marwan Bishara
You’re actually far more vast than the Roman empire. Aren’t you? I mean how many bases are there around the world?
Professor Susan Glasser - editor Foreign Policy Magazine
It’s a different model, right.
Marwan Bishara
1,000?
Tom Engelhardt - editor TomDispatch
It’s approximately 1,000 if you don’t count for instance the 400 odd that we built in...
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“Whenever the defence budget comes under pressure you hear the argument that this...”
– Stephen Walt
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“Our Internet intellectuals lack the intellectual ambition, and the basic...”
– The Internet Intellectual | The New Republic By Evgeny Morozov on October 12, 2011 (via zeitvox)
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Underreported Stories of 2011: More Soldiers...
joshsternberg:
At the end of January 2011, the U.S. military released stats that raised some eyebrows, but not nearly as many as it should have. Congress.org reported that there were 434 reported suicides by personnel in active duty in 2010, but when we include the Air Force and Marine Corps (“who do not include any non-mobilized reservists in their numbers”), the Individual Ready Reserve (“a...
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“We solemnly declare to the world’s foolish politicians, including the puppets in...”
– North Korea’s National Defense Commission (the country’s most powerful body), as quoted by the KCNA News Agency, this morning. (via thepoliticalnotebook)
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Crackdown in Cairo | Sarah Carr →
CAIRO – There was a flurry of good news last week in Egypt. Activist Alaa Abdel-Fattah was released on Christmas Day, Cairo’s Administrative Court issued a ruling banning “virginity tests,” and thousands of women took part in a spirited march in downtown Cairo to denounce the military’s brutal violence against women protesters during the breakup of a sit-in in front of the Cabinet building on...
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Hawks who learned nothing | Matt Duss →
If you’d prefer not to read this entire list, just take note that any advice you read by Bill Kristol, Charles Krauthammer, Reulle Marc Gerecht, Danielle Pletka, Max Boot, Jeffrey Goldberg, or Harold Rhode can now be reliably taken as the opposite of what should be done in terms of United States foreign policy.
[Bill] Kristol has been calling for escalation against Iran since at least...
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“Asked if a president could bomb Iran without Congressional permission [in 2008],...”
– Charlie Savage | G.O.P. Field Has Broad Views on Executive Power
Thanks for the precedent, Mr. President.
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MSF Shocked And Deeply Saddened By The Killing Of... →
doctorswithoutborders:
It is with great sadness that the international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) confirms that two of its staff members were killed Thursday morning as a result of a shooting at the MSF compound in Mogadishu, Somalia.
While one of the aid workers died during the shooting, the other was transferred to a hospital and...
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“‘My preference would be to capture, interrogate, and prosecute any U.S....”
– Charlie Savage | G.O.P. Field Has Broad Views on Executive Power
Thanks for the precedent, Mr. President. 