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Reason Morning Links: Obama Asserts Broad Secrecy Powers, Student Suspended Over the Pill, Fallen Soldiers Photographed for First Time in Two Decades

| April 7, 2009

• Tim Carney explains how the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's congressional scorecard shows the difference between lawmakers who support free markets and lawmakers who serve corporations.

• Glenn Greenwald on how the Obama administration's newest executive immunity claims go well beyond anything even the Bush administration tried to argue.

• Stuart Varney says Obama is refusing to allow some banks to repay TARP funds so the federal government can maintain control over them.

• Fairfax, Virginia teen faces two week suspension, possible expulsion for taking birth control pill at lunch. She had a prescription and her parents' permission to be on the pill. Oddly, if she had been caught with heroin, she would only have been suspended for five days.

• Red Cross report dubs CIA treatment of detainees "inhuman."

• For the first time in 18 years, press and photographers allowed to view and record fallen soldiers returning home to Dover Air Force Base.

← Washington: Crackling With Brainy Sacrifice | Main | Washington Pays Mills to Pollute →

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Xeones|4.7.09 @ 9:30AM|

'Nother fun link: hier

|4.7.09 @ 9:31AM|

A 2006 state law in Maryland overturned some local rules requiring a doctor's note for children to use sunscreen at school.



I guess the state of Maryland just wants your kids to die in those all-day SPF parties Dateline warned us all about.

"When little Susie came home without skin cancer, I knew the kids at school were out of hand and that it was time for the board to act."

|4.7.09 @ 9:36AM|

Refusing to accept TARP funds back. How could they, this is an offer you dont refuse...

|4.7.09 @ 9:39AM|

Sorely missed H&R commenter joe made this absolutely beautiful post about telecom immunity (I think this was prior to The Chosen One's decision to support it)

I think the corporations involved, and the individuals who helped with the wiretapping, should be given immunity.

By the Special Prosecutor.

In exchange for their testimony during the criminal trials.


Alas, when Obama found himself with the power to spy on others without consequences, he embraced it. The whole Dem outrage over privacy violations and illegal wiretapping now appears to be just a cynical ploy to bash the Bush administration. Now that their folks are doing it, it's not a big deal anymore.

People ask me, Jsub, why are you such a cynical bastard? I respond with "Why aren't you?"

Obligatory Pete Townsend lyrics reply to this

|4.7.09 @ 9:49AM|

Yo, fuck the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.*
Shills for big businesses who abhor competition.

* So it's not original. I can't always be at the top of my game.

|4.7.09 @ 9:52AM|

The good news is, in NZ, they seem to realize that when a law is stupid it should be changed or repealed. Sounds like only one person thinks a $180 fee will save everyone under a wall-less tent should disaster strike. Hopefully, she'll be overruled.

Abdul|4.7.09 @ 9:55AM|

I liked this quote from the birth-control-pill-suspended student article:

The teenager said she started taking birth-control pills over the summer, a decision made with her mother, her boyfriend and a doctor.

What the fuck kind of parent gets input on her minor daughter's boyfriend about birth control? Call me a sexually regressive prude, but if my daughter's boyfriend approached me with his input on a birth control decision, he'd need the doctor for a whole new set of problems.

|4.7.09 @ 9:56AM|

"Alas, when Obama found himself with the power to spy on others without consequences, he embraced it. The whole Dem outrage over privacy violations and illegal wiretapping now appears to be just a cynical ploy to bash the Bush administration. Now that their folks are doing it, it's not a big deal anymore."

And you are surprised by this? Really? I don't always agree with you J Sub D, but I always figured you had at least a room temperature IQ, which is about all it took to figure out the Dems were lying and manipulating the issue for political purposes since about, oh I don't know, the smoke rose from the WTC on 9-11.

|4.7.09 @ 10:04AM|

That birth control pill story is clear cut evidence that we live in Bizarro World.

I know, I know, preaching to the choir...but wow, just wow.

Taktix®|4.7.09 @ 10:06AM|

Can we go one day -- just one fucking day -- without Obama doing somthing that isn't extremely fucked up?

And is there any national movement to stop this? Is anyone paying attention?

Xeones|4.7.09 @ 10:13AM|

And is there any national movement to stop this?

Well, H'n'R posters are from all over. Asking the ToughQuestions!

But, in all seriousness, no. We're boned.

|4.7.09 @ 10:14AM|

A 2006 state law in Maryland overturned some local rules requiring a doctor's note for children to use sunscreen at school.

When my kid, who suffers from cystic fibrosis, was caught cutting class in a Maryland high school, he was also found to be carrying digestive enzyme supplements that allow him to digest fats and proteins (i.e. these enzymes keeping him alive and he would starve to death because of malabsorption). The asst. principle called me and told me that my son had Saturday school for cutting class. No problem said I. The asst. principle told me he had to do something about my son carrying the enzyme caps. I told the principle don't be stupid, the pill keep him alive. The principle replied, "ok." Thank god for male school administrators!

The Chad|4.7.09 @ 10:18AM|

And is there any national movement to stop this?

The Chad|4.7.09 @ 10:19AM|

Weird, where's the rest of my comment?
should've continued: Tea Parties. Remember remember the 15th of April

|4.7.09 @ 10:28AM|

MOS, was the asst. principle a woman?

Warty|4.7.09 @ 10:35AM|

Speaking of fallen soldiers...Fred Reed is awesome.

|4.7.09 @ 10:47AM|

"And you are surprised by this? Really? I don't always agree with you J Sub D, but I always figured you had at least a room temperature IQ, which is about all it took to figure out the Dems were lying and manipulating the issue for political purposes since about, oh I don't know, the smoke rose from the WTC on 9-11."

There's a good article at antiwar.com by Norman Solomon about how the war in Pakistan and Afghanistan may be the Democrat Party's undoing. It's true that there are lots of Democrats that are hypocrites who were all opposed to war and wiretapping when Bush was president, but there still is a large segment of Democrats who are antiwar and for individual rights who are very disgusted with Obama. If Obama doesn't straighten up his act, he's in danger of not being reelected.

|4.7.09 @ 10:51AM|

Call me a sexually regressive prude, but if my daughter's boyfriend approached me with his input on a birth control decision, he'd need the doctor for a whole new set of problems.

Once upon a time, it was possible for different people in this country to deal with similar circumstances differently, based on their personal beliefs and predilections. Their busybody neighbors, and the government, stayed out of it.

Thank god that's no longer the case.

|4.7.09 @ 10:54AM|

Boyfriends are the enemy of the family, plain and simple. They will comply or be utterly destroyed.

Kreel Sarloo|4.7.09 @ 11:04AM|

John | April 7, 2009, 9:56am

If I recall correctly, JsubD called joe on this at the time.

Many of us have been predicting things like this, well, since before the dems took the CONgress in oughtsix.

We are just now getting our final confirmations.

I find it satisfying to rub some people's faces in it. But I don't do it near as often as I might.

|4.7.09 @ 11:09AM|

MOS, was the asst. principle a woman?

Hell no. Female administrators would have reacted to me telling them not to be stupid, by proving that they could not be talked to that way rather than reflecting upon their own actions and realizing that they were being stupid. No, my kid should not have had the enzymes on him, especially since there was a supply in the nurses office for him that he could go get anytime he wanted. But that is beside the point, he was 18 at the time and carrying a drug that was perfectly legal for him to have in his posession.

Thank god both of my sons are out of the public school system. At least now when they fuck up, they will have actually done something wrong.

Moreover, my 1st grade teacher girlfriend was lamenting on how "bad" this one boy in her class was being. By bad she meant that he would not sit still in his seat and was figiting around with his pencil. I asked her if the kids had had any recess that day. It had been ever so slightly damp, so they were left inside at lunch. Then, with no prompting from me, she says, "You know, we reward feminim behavior and punshing boys for being boys. I need to make sure the kids get more exercise, if only a walk around the school."

|4.7.09 @ 11:10AM|

... he's in danger of not being reelected.


You write that like that would be a bad thing.

|4.7.09 @ 11:21AM|

I know this will come as a shock to most people, but the Chamber of Commerce is not exactly composed of laissez-faire free marketeers.

|4.7.09 @ 11:23AM|

And you are surprised by this? Really? I don't always agree with you J Sub D, but I always figured you had at least a room temperature IQ, which is about all it took to figure out the Dems were lying and manipulating the issue for political purposes since about, oh I don't know, the smoke rose from the WTC on 9-11.

Jesus H. McChrist, John. Don't you read what the hell I've been writing at H&R the last few years? Lessee, I decried the GOP congresscritters for deferring to the Executive branch, pointing out to the dumbshits that those powers weren't going to disappear when a Dem inevitably becomes POTUS how long ago?

A) Days
B) Weeks
C) Months
D) Years ✔✔✔

One more question for you
J sub D is a __________

A) Skeptic
B) Cynic
C) Asshole
D) All of the above ✔✔✔

If you haven't figgered that out by now, I don't know what the hell to say.

Warty|4.7.09 @ 11:29AM|

What's the ASCII code for a checkmark, J sub?

|4.7.09 @ 11:35AM|

Boyfriends are the enemy of the family, plain and simple. They will comply or be utterly destroyed.

and that is the good old fashioned OR - not XOR.

|4.7.09 @ 11:36AM|

It's ✓

|4.7.09 @ 11:37AM|

Which shows up as crap in Firefox. At least, it does for me. Didn't use to.

|4.7.09 @ 11:38AM|

J Sub D,

I didn't think you were actually surprised by this. I was just making a rethorical point.

Zeb|4.7.09 @ 11:48AM|

Abdul, you are a sexually regressive prude.

Your daughter is going to fuck boys. Be glad if she has a boyfriend and isn't just some party slut.
Being the father of a daughter appears to cause brain damage.

|4.7.09 @ 11:51AM|

Zeb,

Don't be foolish. Being a former teenaged boy is the issue. I have no problem psychologically and physically damaging those that attempt to corrupt my daughter. Of course, the best defense is raising your daughter properly, of course.

|4.7.09 @ 11:51AM|

What's the ASCII code for a checkmark, J sub?

Althoug PL already answered, this tip might prove useful. When looking for an HTML symbol I generally just google the name of the symbol followed by HTML symbol. Then I cut and paste.
Googling "Star of David Html symbol" quickly leads to ✡.

Also Character Entity Reference HTML 4 is a good list of symbols to dress up your comments.



|4.7.09 @ 11:52AM|

Boyfriends are the enemy of the family, plain and simple. They will comply or be utterly destroyed.

What about guys your daughters are just banging (you know, like me), but not being exclusive with? They're not technically boyfriends, but they do care about birth control.

|4.7.09 @ 11:57AM|

Episiarch,

You mean the castrati?

|4.7.09 @ 12:02PM|

ProL, your daughters are going to have sex. Most likely with dirty, horrible, yet fun dudes like myself. You need to face this fact and accept it.

|4.7.09 @ 12:09PM|

It's not the sex I oppose; it's the sex with people like you that I object to.

Charles|4.7.09 @ 12:12PM|

Someone older than me, tell me: has it always seemed like things were going downhill so fast? I remember the mild abuses under Clinton, but it seems like government overreaching has reached exponential levels of growth.

|4.7.09 @ 12:15PM|

It's not the sex I oppose; it's the sex with people like you that I object to.

You do realize that girls do exactly what daddy doesn't want them to do, right? Because I sure do.

|4.7.09 @ 12:18PM|

Actually, no. The girls you connected with did that, not all girls. It's the problem when you're aiming for whores with ample supplies of illicit drugs--they distort your view of reality. Ask Spitzer about that.

|4.7.09 @ 12:23PM|

That's not very nice, ProL. It seems that daughters distort your view of reality.

|4.7.09 @ 12:25PM|

Not at all. If it makes you feel any better, I won't let them date analogues of me, either.

|4.7.09 @ 12:39PM|

What you think you let them do isn't what they're going to be doing, ProL. You're a smart guy, but you're delusional about this. I'm saying this to be helpful, by the way, not to be an ass.

|4.7.09 @ 12:43PM|

You grossly overestimate the intelligence of today's youth, my friend. The days of kids outsmarting their elders--at least, the intelligent variety--are over. It's pathetic, really. I suspect that once they are running things, Canada will annex us out of pity.

My youngest daughter is the smartest and most dangerous of the bunch.

Abdul|4.7.09 @ 1:08PM|

Your daughter is going to fuck boys. Be glad if she has a boyfriend and isn't just some party slut.
Being the father of a daughter appears to cause brain damage.

A boyfriend of a teenaged daughter ought to have the common decency to do it behind the parents' back. It's tradition.

forchrisssakes, are you going to get birth control for your teenaged daughter so she can bang her boyfriend, or Episiarch, without getting preggers? What if she can't buy the sex toys, lubes, and porno that Episiarch prefers because retailers only sell to those 18 and older? Are you going to buy those too? Might as well shell out for the high quality implants while you're at it, because I hear Episiarch is a silicone conniseuer.

|4.7.09 @ 1:15PM|

OK, sorry, MOS. I read your comment to mean the asst. principal was a busy-body controlling woman and the principle who let your son off the hook was a guy. I think I may have been predisposed to that conclusion. Not your fault.

|4.7.09 @ 1:41PM|

The best defense against capitalism is the free market.

Naga Sadow|4.7.09 @ 1:42PM|

Abdul,

Epi is NOT a silicone conniseuer. That would be me. Anyways, I noticed a disturbing trend(which I used to like) of mothers trying to be their daughters best friend instead of . . . well their mothers. Now that me and the girlfriend are talking of marriage and kids openly I suddenly have a bad opinion of such mother/daughter relationships.

alan|4.7.09 @ 2:04PM|

Which shows up as crap in Firefox. At least, it does for me. Didn't use to.

Firefox 3.x was a major step backwards. Memory hog, bloated and unconfiguarable to the max.

I hope some party of individuals will take up the old FF 2.x base and revamp it to where the security updates are mere plugins so those who want to hold on to previous versions are not forced to upgrade due to obsoletion. Could rant for hours . . .

|4.7.09 @ 2:44PM|

Now that me and the girlfriend are talking of marriage and kids

Naga is thinking of procreating? Holy shit! Is there a national movement to stop this?

Abdul|4.7.09 @ 3:19PM|

Naga,

Apparently the preferred term for the mom-daughter "friendship" you are describing is "consensual living".

Bronwyn|4.7.09 @ 3:35PM|

As a former 'victim' of poorly raised boys, wife to a former bad boy, and mother to two baby boys, I hereby solemnly swear to do everything in my power to raise perfect gentlemen.

On pain of exile to a foreign monastery.

Seriously, fathers of daughters. I'll beat you in the race to the shotgun.

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