Letters to the Editor
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Obama - re: More Mudslinging And Pumping Up His Negatives
Greg Sargent, reporting for Talking Points Memo, suggests a smear campaign against Obama, possibly coming from the Washington Times, may be building now, based on questions about his ability to garner trust with military leaders.
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John King "interview" with McConnell
I sent CNN a polite but terse comment about this piece of one-side propaganda posing as journalism. This FISA/Protect America Act matter isn't that complicated, and if King had really been covering the presidential campaign so thoroughly, he would have known telecom immunity and the Protect America Act were among Dodd's platform issues.
Is CNN so short-staffed that they couldnt' provide King with a one-page fact sheet? Sheesh, they could even have printed one from the ACLU's web site.
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Timberman dodges a question?
Bucky1: “Can you name the cause?”
There are many. Given your past comments on the subject, I suspect you believe that there can be only one, and also, that you're just dying to announce what it is.
Please, be my guest....
-- William Timberman
No, it is the natural question to ask you after what you wrote to the other fellow. I never expected you to have the guts to offer anything but an insult. I was not surprised at your refusal to make any comment.
I am “just dying” to hear your answer to the question.
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gc wall
The conservative pundits treat their audiences and readers as if they are naive', uninformed, suckers, or all three.
They know their audience well and play them like Stradivari.
Watchers of Jon Stewart and Steven Colbert are far better informed than those who get their nooz from conservative talk show hosts.
I think it makes a profound statement when those who get their information from comedy shows are better informed than those who get it from supposedly serious news sources.
But then, Stewart and Colbert tend to let those they inteview have enough rope to hang themselves. I still chuckle about the Congresscritter who wanted to post the Ten Commandments in every public building and yet failed to name more than three (and that haltingly) when asked to do so by Colbert.
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Doesn't anyone read my posts?
The drug war was born of racism, but it is perpetuated by the fear of strangers (a natural human reaction) and the insistence that elected officials do something!
That there is a significant financial incentive for local governments to harass people and a legal system that prevents the "right" people from being excessively ensnared, only helps perpetuate the process even further.
Note to libertarians:
Drugs, like pornography is very difficult to get elected on a platform of "for".
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@ HRH, bucky, WT re: causes
Before this gets out of hand...
Isn't it reasonable to say concerning one cause or many that it depends on how broad a category you're contemplating?
One can cite many causes (hypocrisy, envy, jealously, religious fervor, control neuroses, and even "good faith" desire to protect people) if one wishes to get into detail.
One can lump all that together into a term - authoritarian mindset. Very general, but possibly not to the extent as to be meaningless.
Even liberals are subject to it on certain issues (hence the anti-gun lobby).
In a sense, ultra-libertarians are subject to it, investing the whim of the masses with control ("the marketplace" rather than with individual people like "traditional" authoritarians). The founders spoke eloquently about preventing the tyranny of the majority.
Much misery, I think, can be attributed to the authoritarian mindset.
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If Brezhnev Wanted Greater Spying Powers...
he wouldn't have to try to convince the people. In fact, he wouldn't even tell them about it. He'd just assume greater spying powers - as if it even makes sense to speak of such a thing, because he already had all the spying powers he could possibly want. What a stupid question. But, playing along with this idiotic hypothetical, if Brezhnev didn't already have maximal spying powers, and if he were somehow accountable to the people and needed their consent to get them - otherwise, why try to sell them on it - quite a few things would be different. The state would control the network. The reporter would be hired by the state. The whole conversation would be scripted. The interviewer would ask the softball questions, not out of honest ignorance, but because he was told to ask those particular questions. No one could go on TV and criticize the plan. Being a lawyer, I'm sure you understand the difference between incompetence and conspiracy.
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Platforms
Note to libertarians:
Drugs, like pornography is very difficult to get elected on a platform of "for".
-- Paul Dirks
Yep. Hell, another one that'll get you burned is being easy going and honest enough to tell teenagers that masturbation not only won't give you warts or send you to hell but that it is okie dokie and normal. Just ask Joycelyn Elders how far honesty will take you.
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Rove says: Free Don Siegelman!
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/02/26/rove-confronted-with-free-don-siegelman-banner/
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-- Dirigo
"....may be building now, based on questions about his ability to garner trust with military leaders."
I would suggest that it is the military leaders who should be concerned with garnering trust from Obama, not the other way around.
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I am pro-buckybaiting
Yep. Hell, another one that'll get you burned is being easy going and honest enough to tell teenagers that masturbation not only won't give you warts or send you to hell but that it is okie dokie and normal. Just ask Joycelyn Elders how far honesty will take you.
-- Kitt
Like wanking, it is natural and healthy.
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The Racist Roots of Gun Control!
The drug war was born of racism, but it is perpetuated by the fear of strangers (a natural human reaction) and the insistence that elected officials do something!
Because like today, back then Tombstone, Arizona was full of young fleet-footed black men with guns!
Relevant law in Tombstone
Ordinances Relevant in the Preliminary Hearing in the Earp-Holliday Case, Heard before Judge Wells Spicer.
November 1881
Ordinance No. 9:
"To Provide against Carrying of Deadly Weapons" (effective April 19, 1881).
Section 1. "It is hereby declared to be unlawful for any person to carry deadly weapons, concealed or otherwise [except the same be carried openly in sight, and in the hand] within the limits of the City of Tombstone.
Section 2: This prohibition does not extend to persons immediately leaving or entering the city, who, with good faith, and within reasonable time are proceeding to deposit, or take from the place of deposit such deadly weapon.
Section 3: All fire-arms of every description, and bowie knives and dirks, are included within the prohibition of this ordinance."
Ordinance No. 7, Section 1:
"Any establishment, house of prostitution or other place open to the public and it shall be the duty of any officer to enter such place and at once arrest such persons as he may then find engaged in or causing such breach of the peace." (effective April 12, 1881).[edit] Relevant law in Tombstone
Ordinances Relevant in the Preliminary Hearing in the Earp-Holliday Case, Heard before Judge Wells Spicer.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gunfight_at_the_O.K._Corral#Relevant_law_in_Tombstone