Reason Morning Links: Senate Takes Up Public Option, Bush Speaks, Apology for "Driving While Speaking Spanish" Tickets

• State Department official resigns over war in Afghanistan.
• Senate health care bill will include public option, give states ability to opt out.
• The debut of George W. Bush, motivational speaker.
• Dallas police apologize for officers who ticketed Hispanics for not speaking English.
• Disney offers refund  to parents who purchased Baby Einstein videos.

Comments

[HamsterCam]

When Pravda says you're becoming a socialist country, it's time to sit up and take notice.

America Moving from Kingdom of Cash to Socialism Slowly but Surely:

http://english.pravda.ru/world.....ocialism-0

[HamsterCam]

Barney Frank: 'We Are Trying On Every Front To Increase The Role Of Government'...

http://www.realclearpolitics.c.....nment.html

[TrickyVic]

Something they learned from the past administrations in office. People want the feds help. Be it going after those who attack us, or expecting aid from natural disasters. A big part of our citizenry wants the feds to take a bigger role in supporting them.

Fuck you and your tit-for-tat mentality. You're as useless as a fart.

[The Gobbler]

Hey! Jefferson had slaves. So I can get some too, right TV?

[TrickyVic]

Wrong.

[Mike Laursen]

Senate health care bill will include public option, give states ability to opt out.

My beloved home state of California will opt in, of course.

[TrickyVic]

But will states still get their highway funds if they opt out? 😛

[Pablo]

Shhhh, don't give them any ideas.

[Johnny Longtorso]

How could you miss this news?

CNet: New Cheap Trick album available on 8-track tape

[Slut Bunwalla]

Who the hell is going to pay $30 for an album on 8-track? Let alone an album by Cheap Trick??

[Death Panelist]

"Now there is going to be a big internal affairs investigation into what?" [Senior Cpl. Glenn White, president of the Dallas Police Association] said, according to the newspaper. "They've corrected the problem; they're going to make it go away or refund the money. It's done."

Move along. Nothing to see here.

[Bergholt Stuttley Johnson]

Since no one's blogged this on the main page yet, congratulations to Shikha Dalmia for winning the first Bastiat Prize in Online Journalism! The prize was shared by everybody's favorite MEP Daniel Hannan.

[Nick]

So, people are mad at Disney because their kids aren't geniuses? Maybe that's not Disney's fault. Maybe it's genetic.

[Pro Libertate]

The idea is that Disney made claims that were not substantiated by anything (e.g., studies). I'm not sure what the claims were, but the standard is that they have to back up anything that they say about the product that isn't obvious puffery.

This is a little tough for me to swallow, just because one could go after a publisher for suggesting that early exposure to certain literature is good for your kid. I agree, but is there a scientific basis for that sort of claim?

[Just Saying...]

Well I have been drinking Red Bull for years I have neither received wings nor started flying. I smell a class action suit in the future.

[Pro Libertate]

What? Disney is refunding money because Baby Einstein didn't make all children into geniuses? WTF? Even if the videos were capable of doing something like that alone, they wouldn't work for everybody, right?

I understand the legal reasoning here--that Disney made unsubstantiated claims and that the current vogue is to keep very young children away from the TV--but I seriously doubt they made claims that rise to the point of anything actionable.

[JW]

Goddamnit! My kid is this close to coming up with the Grand Unified Theory, all because of the stimulation he received from watching Baby Einstein videos!

Now, all of mankind will suffer as a result of these tort-happy yuppies and their underachieving, mouth breathing spawn.

[Pro Libertate]

My kid was going to build a space elevator in the back yard. Damn you busybody lawyers! Damn you all to hell!

[Jack Beeno]

ROTFL, dude thats the funniest thing I have EVER heard!

Jess
http://www.anonymous.ua.tc

[Slut Bunwalla]

Has anybody ever clicked on the link the anonymity bot always posts? I have to admit I'm curious as to where it goes, but I don't want to take the chance of infecting a work computer with a virus or something.

[Nick]

Fear not. My daughter (2.5) is a genius already, and she has only watched one of those videos...because she progressed to Little Einstein's, Dora, and Sesame Street faster than anyone could have predicted. I'm going to stop bragging now, lest some government official swoop in to force her to watch C-Span, so as to bring her back to the pack.

[sixstring]

Is 2.5 her version number?

[Xeones]

Dora the Explorer, her shouty cousin Diego, and their retarded animal friends are the hellspawn of Satan. Back me up, Nick. My kid is losing interest in them, finally, and it is happy days around the Xeones household.

[JW]

MAP! SWIPER!! DIEGO!

I do hope that the next time they make a show like that, it's not produced by the hearing impaired.

[Slut Bunwalla]

Dora the Explorer is globalization propaganda for children, I always say.

My nephew loves Thomas the Tank Engine. My brother says it's a subtle endorsement of communism, and I kind of see his point. Thinking of it that way does make it a more entertaining program, at any rate.

[J sub D]

U.S. official resigns over Afghan war
He's nboticed that we have no objective. What is our mission in Afghanistan Mr. President?

[Barack Obama]

Cleaning up messes.

[TrickyVic]

We do have an objective, to defeat the Taliban and help Afghanistan build a democracy. The first wasn't too tough, the second may be unobtainable. But it's the same goals laid out by Bush.

It's not a question of no objective. The offical knows and was part of executing tasks to achive the objective. He's come to the understanding that Afghanistan wants to be the land of a 1,000 fiefdoms and has no interest in being a nation. So why continue with trying to build Afghanistan into a democracy if they don't want it. It will be fruitless.

We did most of what we could in the first year or two. But Bush had reasons to stay beyond that. Obama is trying to continue what Bush started.

Cheney seems to agree, and takes credit for the newish policy.

"Former Vice President Dick Cheney said Wednesday that the Bush administration had developed a new strategy on the war in Afghanistan before leaving office -- a strategy that he said "bears a striking resemblance" to the one announced by President Obama in March.:

http://www.foxnews.com/politic.....istration/

[R C Dean]

We do have an objective, to defeat the Taliban and help Afghanistan build a democracy.

Actually, I believe the administration's objective is to not get blamed for losing the war. You might notice that they seem completely stymied on how to achieve this.

[TrickyVic]

I would say the same about the last administration. After about 2 years, we were done with about as much as we could do. So why stay longer, unless you're afraid of being labeled as losing the war.

It was a Bush admin's impossible dream to make Afghanistan a democracy. Why blame Obama for failing on something that couldn't be won?

[TrickyVic]

Not that I really disagree. Of course Obama doesn't want to get blamed losing the war. Neither did the last guy, he stretched it out and was able to pass it off on the next sucker. Something Obama will not be able to do.

[lunchstealer]

Seriously Dallas? You thought that was a good idea?

Christ.

Its stupid that some cops were dumb enough to issue that citation, but who the fuck made that a citeable offense? This city has people from all over, speaking tons of different languages, including Spanish-speaking families were living here before that little scuffle down at Goliad. Dallas has been trying to build world-class-city status (with mixed results at best) for years now, and this kind of stupid provincial bullshit doesn't exactly help.

Also, STFU, LW.

[Nick]

I don't take much issue with them although I will say the guy that does the voice of Map and Swiper should have his vocal cords ripped out by a rabid rottweiler. At least they speak in complete sentences and don't promote poor speech like the friggin' Wonder Pets. Fortunately, my daughter's current favorites are the Backyardigans which is a clever show for the age group, and her favorite Sesame Street bits are the ones that are least annoying to me.