Condoleezza Rice photo album discovered in Gaddafi compound
Eric T. Schneiderman, the top prosecutor in New York, was removed on Tuesday from a committee of state attorneys general investigating mortgage abuses.
In recent months, Mr. Schneiderman has voiced concerns over a proposed settlement between major banks and a coalition of federal and state officials over claims of foreclosure abuses. He has come under increasing pressure to approve the deal.
...
...
Mr. Schneiderman has said that he opposes any deal that gives participating banks a release from other litigation surrounding their mortgage activities. Attorneys general from other states have also questioned aspects of the deal, including Beau Biden of Delaware.
...
But amidst all the hardcore politics, grisly details and hugely cinematic spectacle, one vital detail swung by almost without notice like a thief in night-vision goggles; it was a potent flash of insight so devastating and telling I re-read the passage a few extra times to really let it soak in, to induce a deeply felt shudder and sigh.
It was this: We do this sort of thing all the time.
The truth remains: To the mainstream, America is all flag waving patriotism and God-sanctioned moral righteousness, and any blood or misery or harrowing "Hurt Locker"-like suffering is reserved for some faraway place most can't locate on a map. Americans remain, along with a few almost equally well-pampered allies, perhaps the most coddled, blindfolded, happily ignorant populace on earth.
And then comes the kicker: This is how we like it.
For the most part, it's an ignorance most of us gleefully accept, encourage, even happily pay for, both in taxpayer cash and in wary, informed understanding. "Here," we seem to say, "take all this money, use our billions to pay for the most advanced, bloated military in the world; just promise to never, ever tell me the full details or (especially) the moral ambiguity of what we're doing. Deal?"
Deal.
We know, but we do not want to know. [...]
So it goes and same as it ever was. But what happens when people start denying facts en masse? What happens when larger and larger numbers of Americans band together in their willful ignorance, going beyond mere foreign policy and the military to start championing a lack of education, demonizing books and learning and science? What happens, in other words, when collective ignorance gets institutionalized and becomes a dangerous cultural force?
Why, you get fundamentalist Christianity. You get the Bush administration. You get the Tea Party. You get Palin and Bachmann and Rick Perry. And lo, the nation shudders and fractures even more painfully.
Put it this way: For anyone who values peace and moral progress, who resists using our military as pre-emptive attack force, who cares about fostering humane sensibility in the national dialogue, with Obama, this is about as good as it gets.
The sad news is, it's still not very good at all.
1. You hate science and the corrupt scientists who manufacture data in nefarious schemes
...
3. You think there are hundreds of Nobel Peace Prize-winning scientists who believe in Intelligent Design
...
17. You think governors who advocate their state's secession from the Union would make great presidents of the United States.
...
22. You love America but scowl when your opponents exercise the very Democratic principles which make it great, like free speech; separation of church and state; a free and open press; freedom of religion; checks and balances; freedom from persecution; and civil rights for all
23. And most of all, unlike your founding Tea Party brethren 238 years ago, you think "No taxation without representation" really just means "No taxation."
2. Who the fuck cares what kind of backwards ass country shitkicker stuff Rick Perry says? He's a dumbass hick from the barren wastelands of west Texas. Of course he's gonna say stupid shit. It's what he's hardwired to do. And because we've fetishized dumbass hicks in this country as having some kind of wisdom, people lap it up like dogs on cat turds. No, he's an idiot. He needs to be treated like an idiot. And anyone who supports him needs to be dunce-capped and beaten in the streets.
3. Who the fuck cares about demented, uber-Christian, Jesus ball-licking Michele Bachmann? Just...who the fuck cares?
The entire Republican nomination has already devolved into bullshit like who hates evolution and who wants to take health care away from old people, who loves Jesus and who really, really loves Jesus. The whole degrading affair is less an absurd circus than a version of "The Aristocrats" that ends up with all of us covered in blood and piss.
Could we just get to the Mitt Romney nomination already?
For all the braying by the Senate’s top three hawks about how the U.S. wasn’t doing enough to oust Libyan dictator Col. Muammar Qaddafi from power, one might be surprised to learn that exactly two years ago, Sens. John McCain (R-AZ), Joe Lieberman (I-CT) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) were in Tripoli meeting with the erratic leader and giving him assurances that relations between the nations were on the mend.
According to a recounting the Senators’ junket, the neoconservative Connecticut Senator captured the dynamic of aligning with a brutal dictator:
Lieberman called Libya an important ally in the war on terrorism, noting that common enemies sometimes make better friends.
God Smites GOP Leader Eric Cantor’s District with 5.8 Earthquake
If this latest visitation from God won’t open their eyes, what will? If they won’t heed the 130-year curse of kudzu, the recent bouts of record heat, the droughts, floods, hurricanes, oil spills and now an earthquake, what will it take to force them to mend their wicked ways?
Cue the swarms of locusts.
Obama may yet be saved by the sheer extremism of the likely Republican nominee. But we should not bet the farm on that either. I vividly remember being reassured that Ronald Reagan was too far-right, and George W. Bush too dumb, to be elected. So much for that theory.
...
Meanwhile, it's worth remembering how Ghaddafi thanked Republicans for their help in defending his regime in June:
Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi has written to members of Congress thanking them for criticizing President Obama last week over his involvement in the NATO-led military campaign in Libya.
...
If national Democrats have an ounce of intelligence, they will hang this issue over the heads of Republicans at least 1/10th as vociferously as Republicans would have done to Democrats had the roles been reversed. [my em]
...
...
That Republicans still somehow retain the mantle of national security is a testament to a massive lack of political courage on the part of Democrats to tell the truth about who is effective even in military policy, and who is not.
...
Analyses of large representative samples, from both the United States and the United Kingdom, confirm this prediction. In both countries, more intelligent children are more likely to grow up to be liberals than less intelligent children. For example, among the American sample, those who identify themselves as “very liberal” in early adulthood have a mean childhood IQ of 106.4, whereas those who identify themselves as “very conservative” in early adulthood have a mean childhood IQ of 94.8.
Even though past studies show that women are more liberal than men, and blacks are more liberal than whites, the effect of childhood intelligence on adult political ideology is twice as large as the effect of either sex or race. So it appears that, as the Hypothesis predicts, more intelligent individuals are more likely to espouse the value of liberalism than less intelligent individuals, possibly because liberalism is evolutionarily novel and conservatism is evolutionarily familiar.
...
...
Lord & Taylor on Fifth Avenue was also evacuated.
...
Michele Bachmann Bizarro World is an attempt to organize her insanity, bigotry and lying into categories.
We don't claim that she is insane, a bigot and a liar haphazardly -- we can point to many specific examples. We would like anyone who just discovered Michele to get an idea of the depth and breadth of her wackiness, hate and lack of honesty. For anyone familiar with her, we hope you'll find this helpful.
...
CONCORD, NH August 22, 2011 (The Borowitz Report) – he mystery surrounding Col. Muammar Gaddafi's whereabouts was resolved today as the dictator announced his candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination in a town hall meeting in Concord, New Hampshire.
...
"In those final days in Tripoli he was becoming increasingly disconnected from reality," said the aide. "So I think he'll fit right in."
...
"Unfortunately for Muammar Gaddafi, he might be out of step with the current crop of Republican candidates," one pollster said. "There's a perception that he's too moderate."
Analysts: Perry Could Win if Things Break His Way
If Jesus suddenly appears and debunks global warming, he's in.
Rep. Paul Ryan Charging $15 Per Person to Speak to Him
Considerably more if you want him to listen.
Perry Hopes to Bring “Texas Miracle” to Rest of Country
The miracle of low wages, lousy schools and fewer public services.
Billionaire Funding Project to Establish Sea-Based Libertarian Nations
Each would be just like America except no taxes, no regulations, no lawyers, no ex-wives.
REMINDER
Safety nets are for sissies.
...
The GOP is also coming out against extending the payroll tax cuts. Yes, I know that takes some special chutzpah considering that they have made the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy a sacred cause. But giving tax breaks to workers will cost ...
...
Moments later my teevee made a long, pleasant dopplerish sound as it sailed out the window.
...
The new cult of the uniform began with the call to "support our troops" during the Iraq war. The slogan played on a justified collective desire to avoid repeating the mistake of the Vietnam era, when hatred of the conflict spilled over into hostility toward the people who were fighting it. Now the logic was inverted: supporting the troops, we were given to understand, meant that you had to support the war. In fact, that’s all it seemed to mean. The ploy was a bait and switch, an act of emotional blackmail. If you opposed the war or questioned the way it was conducted, you undermined our troops.
As the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have dragged on, other purposes have come into play. The greater the sacrifice that has fallen on one small group of people, the members of the military and their families, the more we have gone from supporting our troops to putting them on a pedestal. In the Second World War, everybody fought. Soldiers were not remote figures to most of us; they were us. Now, instead of sharing the burden, we sentimentalize it. It’s a lot easier to idealize the people who are fighting than it is to send your kid to join them. This is also a form of service, I suppose: lip service. [my ems]
...