Westboro Baptist Church Plans 29 Anti-Gay/Jewish/Military Protests in San Diego (Links)
California: America’s first failed state? The state that was once held up as the epitome of the boundless opportunities of America has collapsed. Westboro Baptist Church planning 29 anti-gay/Jewish/military protests in San Diego The Kansas-based church known for its anti-gay, anti-Semitic and anti-military protests is planning four days of demonstrations at 29 locations in San Diego County next week. Happy birthday, War in Afghanistan (photos) Violence in Afghanistan has reached its most intense of the eight-year-old war despite record levels of U.S. and NATO troops being sent to fight the Taliban. War: Bipartisanship Republicans can get behind Up until now President Obama has been unable to round up any Republican backing for his major initiatives. Finally, though, it appears that the GOP will come to his rescue—because he doesn’t have enough backing within his own party. Earth feels ‘massive relief’ that Obama is in office “What’s really remarkable is that in all my years studying national reputation, I have never seen any country experience such a dramatic change in its standing as we see for the United States for 2009.” Census Bureau: U.S. lost ground on every major economic measurement under Bush Thursday’s annual Census Bureau report on income, poverty and access to health care-the Bureau’s principal report card on the well-being of average Americans-closes the books on the economic record of George W. Bush. They tortured a man they knew to be innocent We now know that torturing a human being to get proof that he deserved to be tortured was not just a theoretical fear of mine. It happened. Bob Dole: now or never on health care If the reform proves popular, then the GOP will forever be tarred as the party that refused to help more people get health insurance or to tackle healthcare costs. Dick Cheney’s daughter to bring another ‘innocent child’ into her ‘lesbianic home’ The right-wing base loves Dick and Liz, but it dislikes the way Mary Cheney is gay and having children with her life partner. Texas gov. Perry acts to derail wrongful execution hearing Texas Gov. Rick Perry has shaken up a state commission looking into whether a man was wrongly executed in 2004. Life without parole for minors: cruel and unusual? The United States Supreme court will soon weigh in, and the question will be an early test of whether Justice Sonia Sotomayor, a former prosecutor, will align herself with the court’s tough-on-crime conservatives or join with its liberals to strike down prison policies perceived as going too far. Raines: Safire’s ‘rigid’ GOP loyalty contrasted with his openness to new information Bill Safire’s “rigid loyalty to the Republican Party stood in contrast to his intellectual habits, which were liberal in the old-fashioned sense of being comprehensive and open to new information,” writes Howell Raines. Glenn Beck uses Vaporub to get the “tears” flowing Now we see how Glenn Beck gets himself properly weepy for the cameras: a little Vicks Vaporub. He also can’t explain what he meant by ‘white culture’ Er, well, oh, er… Bill Gates has fifty thousand million dollars It’s that time of the year again when Forbes publishes their annual list of the 400 richest Americans, and the rest of us look at the billions they own, dream away for a minute or two, and then get back to reality, remembering we’ve forgotten to pay our cell phone bill.
The Guns Are Out, the Risks Are Real (Links)
Cheney: We Didn’t Go Far Enough Former U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney believes that the Bush Administration’s policies should have been pushed much further. Whores on Terror The documentation of “sexual humiliation,” sodomy, and other forms of “enhanced interrogation” conducted by U.S. personnel are too extensive to be denied or pawned off on a couple of redneck privates. Ten of Obama’s Health-Care Missteps What the White House did wrong, in no particular order. Obama Isn’t Saying the Right Thing He should be saying, “Stop lying.” At Health Care Events, Guns Are Out, and the Risks Are Real It’s not enough for conservatives to repudiate violence, as some are belatedly beginning to do. Krugman: Extreme Opponents of Health Care Unappeasable “What they hate is the whole idea of any kind of health reform and more broadly what they hate is the whole idea of Democrats actually holding the White House.” In Alaska, Palin Leaves Behind Mismanaged Health Care System—Hundreds Die Waiting For Care The situation is so bad that the federal government has forbidden Alaska from signing up new people; no other state in the nation is under such a moratorium. A Case of Affinity Fraud The peddlers of anti-progressive lies are managing to convince a certain kind of American—white, socially conservative, etc.—that the hate-mongers are people like them; and, even more important, that progressives are Those People, people not like them. Them Versus Us By 1900, the U.S. had become more diverse and densely populated, with an industrial economy dominated by large corporations, and it had became abundantly clear that government power was necessary to regulate the marketplace, provide a safety net for the poor and elderly, and protect the environment. O’Reilly gloats that Fox’s ratings are due to its ‘fair and balanced’ approach You know how when someone says, “Now, I’m not trying to be a jerk, but…”, you can be certain that what will follow is them being a jerk. Ironic Divorce Protector of traditional marriage Doug Manchester is leaving his wife of 43 years.
Pastor Urges His Flock to Bring Guns to Church (Links)
An Incoherent Truth On health care, the conservative Democrats can’t extract major concessions on the shape of health care reform without dooming the whole project. What’s Cost Got to Do With It? Costs have skewed the debate on health care much like they have the debate on climate change—as if business-as-usual on either of them will be magically cost-free. Bush Officials: Where Are They Now? A guide to who’s cashing in. A Day of Reckoning for Bush’s ‘Torture’ Lawyers Eric Holder must decide whether to pursue Bush administration lawyers and one sitting federal judge who set the legal stage for officially sanctioned torture and other degrading practices that violated fundamental principles of international law. Barack Obama is More Likely Than Bush to Get Things Right We have a fox in the Oval Office, and he has replaced a hedgehog. U.S. Guns Fuel Canada And Mexico Crimes, UK Gun Crime Remains Rare Guns smuggled from the US arm criminals in Canada and Mexico, contributing to a higher murder rate in Canada and more intense drug crime conflict near the Mexican border, according to a study. Gun Flow South is a Crisis for Two Nations A report says the U.S. failure to curb smuggling has strengthened drug cartels. Pastor Urges His Flock to Bring Guns to Church In Louisville, Kentucky, Ken Pagano’s congregation is a sign that American gun culture is thriving despite, or perhaps because of, President Obama. Winning the Ultimate Battle: How Humans Could End War Optimists called the first world war “the war to end all wars.” She Broke the G.O.P. and Now She Owns It As the Republicans’ lone charismatic performer, Sarah Palin has come to represent a dwindling white nonurban America that is aflame with grievances. Robert McNamara in Context Should the Vietnam-era secretary of defense be remembered as a public servant, hawk, technocrat, hero, or all of the above? Assassination: A Brief History Governments can bomb faceless troops of enemy conscripts with impunity, but are questioned closely about bombing photographable individuals. Numbers numb; identity humanizes. That’s the general rule. Does Religion Have a Monopoly on ‘Enchantment’? Weber linked rationalisation with ‘the disenchantment of the world,’ but is it fair to equate the lack of religion to an absence of magic and mystery? The Bachmann Comic So how is the new comic book about our favorite House GOP backbencher, Michele Bachmann (R-MN)?
California Voters Exercise Their Power–and That’s the Problem (Links)
California Voters Exercise Their Power–and That’s the Problem Residents relish their role in the lawmaking process, but they share the blame for the state’s severe dysfunction. ‘Hyperlocal’ Web Sites Deliver News Without Newspapers If your local newspaper shuts down, what will take the place of its coverage? Law Students Teach Scalia About Privacy and the Web Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia was not amused when he became the subject of a law professor’s classroom assignment on how much private information on individuals is available online. Nothing To (S)Coff At Why the two biggest U.S. tobacco companies are fighting each other. Boy Scouts Train in Post-9/11 Law Enforcement Methods Ten minutes into arrant mayhem in this town near the Mexican border, and the gunman, a disgruntled Iraq war veteran, has already taken out two people, one slumped in his desk, the other covered in blood on the floor. Cheney’s Outspokenness Correlated to Potential Book Deal The former vice president’s blitz of appearances have made him a leading conservative voice as he shops his memoirs. Fact-Checking Cheney McClatchy has turned in another commendable example of skeptical political reporting. Dick Just Wants To Be Loved Cheney’s attempts at public redemption have a logical root in his Cold War experience. Accused Palin Hacker Says Stolen E-Mails Were Public Record A surprise legal maneuver by the defense in the Sarah Palin hacking case could undermine key charges carrying the stiffest potential penalties. Why Republicans Make the Rest of Us Miserable When They Lose Out of power, they’re bigger babies than Democrats. Here’s why. If Gay Marriage Isn’t a Big Deal Anymore, Maybe The Religious Right Isn’t Either If a state legalizes gay marriage and nobody notices, can gay people still get married? What if four states do it in six weeks? Right Wing Talk Show Host Gets Waterboarded, Says It’s Absolutely Torture ‘It is way worse than I thought it would be, and that’s no joke…It is such an odd feeling to have water poured down your nose with your head back…It was instantaneous…and I don’t want to say this: absolutely torture…They cut off our heads, we put water on their face…I really thought ‘I’m going to laugh this off.’
The Angry Man, the Droll, the Perv (Links)
Ronald Reagan: A Vengeful, Score-Settling, Hard Left Ideologue? How severely has our political spectrum shifted in the last two decades? The Banality of Bush White House Evil Torture was a tool in the campaign to exploit 9/11 so that fearful Americans would support a war that had nothing to do with Al Qaeda. Orwell on Law Scholarship In the quest to adopt a simpler and more direct style in legal discussion, lawyers could learn a lot from Orwell. Op-Ed Art That Was Rejected by NYT Editors Milton Glaser drew an alien for a Valentine’s Day manuscript in 1996, but an editor determined that its beak “looked like a taboo human part.” Human Landscapes From Above (Photos) Photographer Jason Hawkes has been carrying his Nikon D3 aboard helicopters around the world, hanging out the doorway and capturing landscapes—most somehow affected by humans—below. What Kind of Web Commenter Are You? The Angry Man? The Droll? The Perv?
Bush 'Torture Architect' John Yoo Escapes From Berkeley
UC Berkeley Professor John Yoo is now Chapman School of Law Professor John Yoo, after intense protesting drove him out of the Berkeley community.
In Berkeley, city leaders branded him a war criminal and human rights activists put up a billboard to denounce him. But in suburban Orange County, John Yoo–the primary architect of the Bush administration’s policy on harsh interrogation techniques that many consider torture–has found relatively calmer waters.
[LAT]
Pentagon to Cut Benefits for PTSD Afflicted Vets (Links)
Can someone please remind me why ‘Average Joes’ are supposed to support the GOP? The Bush Administration is rushing to de-regulate hazardous chemicals in the workplace and the Bush Pentagon is cutting benefits for veterans with PTSD. An American special ops intelligence officer says that the number of soldiers killed as a result of America’s torture policy ‘is close to the number of lives lost on September 11, 2001.’ Condoleeza Rice says ‘you won’t…hear from me again‘, and I’m beginning to like her more and more. Everyone is talking about Bush’s admitted ‘unpreparedness for war.’ Meanwhile, Jeb Bush suggests that the GOP create a separate ’shadow government’. The San Diego Union Trib profiles Howard Kaloogian, a ‘local conservative’ who appeared in that ‘daffy palin ad‘. The following people don’t know history from a hole in the ground: Tom Friedman and Joe Klein. Peggy Noonan is also trying to join the ’saying stupid things’ club. Upon leaving office, George Bush will miss ‘flying in the presidential airplane and the food at the White House,’ as well as trains, dumptrucks, and making mudpies. California officials will investigate accusations that the Mormon Church violated its tax-exemption requirements by participating in the effort to ban same-sex marriage in California. At Mother Jones, Kiera Butler interviews historian Frank Rich. Finally, am I actually supposed to care about the LA Times‘ front page series profiling the unlikely romance between a racist California murderer and ‘a thoughtful, successful Omaha woman’? Maybe critics are right that LAT owner Sam Zell is in the process of ‘eviscerating some of [America's] best newspapers.’
