Reason Morning Links: Ballots and Bullets Edition

- The White House is reportedly close to reversing itself on whether to try Khalid Sheik Mohammed in a civilian court.

- The House passes a "jobs" bill.

- Iraq's election is off to a precarious start.

- A shootout breaks out at the Pentagon.

- Memo to journalists: A text message from some yo-yo at a university lecture is not a good source for scoops about the Supreme Court.

Comments

[ed]

A text message from some yo-yo at a university lecture is not a good source

This is how World War III will start, you know. Some guy at NORAD with a Twitter account...

[Suki]

Pentagon terrorist was a 9/11 truther from California.

In an internet posting, a user by the name JPatrickBedell wrote that he was "determined to see that justice is served" in the death of Marine Colonel James Sabow, who was found dead in the backyard of his California home in 1991, MSNBC reported.

Sabow's death was ruled to be a suicide but the matter has long been the source of theories of a cover-up.

The user named JPatrickBedell wrote that the Sabow case was "a step toward establishing the truth of events such as the September 11 demolitions."

The author also attacked the Government's enforcement of marijuana laws and included links to a 2006 court case involving Bedell in which he faced charges for cultivating marijuana and resisting a police officer.

Court records available online show the date of birth on the case mentioned by the user JPatrickBedell matches that of the John Patrick Bedell suspected in the shooting.

[John]

Leftists re-write history to fit their prejudices. They live by the axium "he who owns the past owns the future". Their willful ignorance of history quickly turns into conventional wisdom. Every leftist I know will tell you with firm conviction that the "Right" killed Kennedy. The fact that Oswald was a committed communist who once defected to the USSR and killed Kennedy out of anger over the treatment of Castro, are just facts that don't fit the narative and are forgotten. Same with saying McVeigh, a guy who turned against the US government because of Gulf War I, was an agnostic and had views right out of Noam Chomsky, was a "Christian terrorist"

The same will happen here. In six months, Chony will be on here listing this shooter as an example of "right wing terrorism". So it really doesn't matter what this guy believes. To leftists all terrorists are rightwing.

[Suki]

Think they will be calling all pot growers "Right wing" because of this terrorist?

New conspiracy: the right made him do it because pot users are mellow.

[Sorry - just a PITA.]

"Every leftist I know will tell you with firm conviction that the "Right" killed Kennedy"...John, this is just hyperbole and you know it. It is just a falsehood that fits your narrative.

[John]

Yeah. it is just a figment of my imagination. No leftist ever says the Right killed Kennedy.

The Reality-Based Community's Having a Breakdown [Mark Hemingway]

Exhibit A ? liberal talk-radio host Mike Malloy, August 27:

So with the death of Ted Kennedy last night, liberalism in this country has lost its champion; the person who, in the modern era, personified liberalism to a greater degree than anyone in Congress; I think that his death heralds the beginning of a very, very very dark period in this country.

I remember feeling that way in 1963 and in 1968-when his two brothers were murdered by the right wing in this country.

Exhibit B ? Novelist Lorenzo Carcaterra, September 13:

What won't stop is the growing hatred toward a young President based on his beliefs and the color of his skin.

It won't stop until he is stopped. That is the goal of the right.

They've done it before.

In the summer months of 1963, the voices of the right were tossing hate bombs at another young President. This time over concerns he was too liberal and his religion was one that frightened a fair number of them, primarily those who lived in the South. There were no Becks, Rushs or Hannitys back then, so the John Birch Society filled the void. They tossed out messages of hate, threats and warnings.

One such warning was for President John F. Kennedy to stay out of Texas.

To stay out of Dallas.

Exhibit C ? Eric Boehlert, Media Matters for America, September 18:

A President was killed the last time right-wing hatred ran wild like this

That being John F. Kennedy, who was gunned down in Dallas, of course.

I've been thinking a lot of Kennedy and Dallas as I've watched the increasingly violent rhetorical attacks on Obama be unfurled. As Americans yank their kids of class in order to save them from being exposed to the President of the United States who only wanted to urge them to excel in the classroom. And as unvarnished hate and name-calling passed for health care 'debate' this summer.

The radical right, aided by a GOP Noise Machine that positively dwarfs what existed in 1963, has turned demonizing Obama?making him into a vile object of disgust?into a crusade. It's a demented national jihad, the likes of which this country has not seen in modern times.

But I've been thinking about Dallas in 1963 because I've been recalling the history and how that city stood as an outpost for the radical right, which never tried to hide its contempt for the New England Democrat.

http://corner.nationalreview.c.....diYjFjZjE=

[cmace]

Wiiliam F Buckley described this as the Kenedy-Oswald Syndrome: JFK was the hero of all young disaffected people. But one of them went and blew his brains out.

The left just can't accept this.

[Suki]

He is a very smart man. I love his work.

[dang girl smartin']

The only smart man is one who knows how to STFU.

[Suki]

He hasn't been doing much talking since his demise. Good thing he wrote so many things down!

[Sorry - just a PITA.]

I know John is pissed off when re responds with a multitude of paragraphs and quotes. You are fun to play with.;-)

[Can't help myself]

Stop listening to your johns;-)

[Suki]

+1 LULZ

[Suki]

I have heard many people say that too. Not much since college, but quite a few and they lean the way John says.

[The Art-P.O.G.]

I agree with Pita, that it's hyperbole to say all leftists say this. I agree with John that way too many leftists do go in for this sort of thing.

[Slut Bunwalla]

He didn't say all leftists say that. He said every leftist he knows says that. Regardless, the standard line is that a right-winger killed JFK, which is simply not true.

[The Art-P.O.G.]

I stand corrected. Well, clearly he needs to upgrade to a higher standard of leftist. 😉

[John]

If the stadard line is something different, provide some links to Leftists admitting that Oswald was one of them. I would be curious to see them because I can't find a single example of such behavior.

[Slut Bunwalla]

Er, I meant it's not true that a right-winger killed Oswald, but that it's the standard line anyway. Sorry, poor wording on my part.

[chip of the old block]

The problem is not acknowledging the fact that both sides have their own perpetuators of craziness who like to re-edit history. Yes, these opinions are often published and receive more attention that they deserve. It is more of a reflection of the media than of the true politics of either the right or the left.

[Enjoy Every Sandwich]

I doubt that it will take six months.

[Tulpa]

Leftists re-write history to fit their prejudices. They live by the axium "he who owns the past owns the future". Their willful ignorance of history quickly turns into conventional wisdom.

Maybe you should look at some poll numbers on how many conservatives think Saddam Hussein was connected with 9/11. It's not a purely leftist tendency to rewrite the past to make your actions seem more logical.

Heck, even I am convinced that Alison Cavanaugh turned me down for the prom because of my heterodox political and philosophical beliefs, rather than because of my lack of height, overabundance of weight, and dubious personal hygeine at that time.

[Slut Bunwalla]

You're right, it's not a habit exclusive to the left. But more often than not, the left is the only group able to impress their selective history into the minds of young people through the educational system.

[Sorry - just a PITA.]

Slut, In the end that makes little difference. College teaches you to think and eventually you use the skill and derive your own opinions.

[Mad Elf]

College teaches you to think

Never been in a sociology department I see.

[Slut Bunwalla]

Haha. I went to college for several semesters and never once found that to be true. Seemed to me like they were way more interested in making my opinions match their own than helping me form independent ones. That's a big part of why I dropped out.

[Suki]

It took less than 24 hours for him to become a "libertarian" in an AOL news story I can't find today 🙁 His parents told the cops he was unstable, missing and had pistols. The cops didn't do anything about it.

I guess the gun control deal is "you can't have any, but if you do we don't care until something happens to give us an excuse to keep you from having any".

[Suki]

good morning reason

[Flatus Rex]

? A shootout breaks out at the Pentagon.

Just another suicide.

[Suki]

No fighting in the war room!

[Flatus Rex]

No really. No one goes to the Pentagon with the expectation that they can open fire on security and not get taken out. The fact that he was a Truther (a variant of Bush Derangement syndrome) indicates he was mentally imbalanced.

[Suki]

I pretty much agree with you. That was some old movie quote that I have seen in other pentagon threads that makes me giggle. This is so sad I needed a giggle.

[robc]

Dr Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb

Not just "some old movie".

[Flatus Rex]

Agreed. It's great one to see in a theater.

[The Art-P.O.G.]

How I love that movie.

[dang girl smartin']

Suki, It could get messy in the bathroom.

[Suki]

Then I better use a cup.

[dang girl smartin']

A lady uses a saucer too.

[Suki]

Mine flew off. Drat!

[Death Panelist]

Ballots and Bullets Edition

Bollocks.

[Citizen Nothing]

"...some old movie quote.."
Sigh.

[Barack Obama]

"If President Obama reverses Holder's decision to try the 9/11 defendants in criminal court and retreats to using the Bush military commissions, he deals a death blow to his own Justice Department, breaks a clear campaign promise to restore the rule of law and demonstrates that the promises to his constituents are all up for grabs," said Anthony Romero, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union.

Let me be clear.

Eric, you're doing a heck of a job.

[R C Dean]

Of course, lets not forget that by trying these accused war criminals in military tribunals, Obama is retreating to the position adopted by Bush the Supreme Court.

[Flatus Rex]

Of course, lets not forget that by trying these accused war criminals in military tribunals, Obama is retreating to the position adopted by Bush the Supreme Court and Congress.

FIFY

[peachy]

I would think that here, of all places, people would recognise the divergence between "right" and "adopted by the Supreme Court." Raich, Kelo...

[P Brooks]

Representative Bob Etheridge, Democrat of North Carolina, said the bill was "really all about our three most important priorities in this Congress: jobs, jobs, jobs."

What the esteemed Representative failed to point out is the jobs most of concern to the assembled Public Servants are their own.

[P Brooks]

That was some old movie quote that I have seen in other pentagon threads that makes me giggle.

"I've been to one World's Fair, a picnic, and rodeo, and that's the stupidest thing I ever heard come over a pair of earphones."

[Citizen Nothing]

+(B)52

[Suki]

I feel a pick on the young dummy day coming on. Sigh.

[The Art-P.O.G.]

Now you have to watch "Dr. Strangelove." SRSLY.

[Suki]

I swear I know that title from somewhere. Okaaaaay I will try to find it or send beloved on a mission to get it.

[Suki]

This just in, request to beloved went something like this:

"You know that Strangelove movie?"
"Yea"
"Can we watch it this weekend?"
"Sure, I have it. Why?"
"I didn't know where the "no fighting in the war room" quote came from."
Suppressed giggles from beloved squeak across the phone, "uh, yes dear, no problem. I'll point out that one and some of the others."
"Ugh, go ahead and laugh . . . while you can!"

Telephones facilitate bravery.

[JW]

The best exchange from Strangelove

Doctor, you mentioned the ratio of ten women to each man. Now, wouldn't that necessitate the abandonment of the so-called monogamous sexual relationship, I mean, as far as men were concerned?

Regrettably, yes. But it is, you know, a sacrifice required for the future of the human race. I hasten to add that since each man will be required to do prodigious... service along these lines, the women will have to be selected for their sexual characteristics which will have to be of a highly stimulating nature.

I must confess, you have an astonishingly good idea there, Doctor.

[Flatus Rex]

That paradigm didn't work well for Charlie Manson.

[Suki]

Oh boy. Jeesh! Post lunch movie time is going to be interesting.

[P Brooks]

Opinion is divided on whether the approach is effective or simply gives businesses a break on workers they would have hired anyway. But lawmakers said that given the dismal unemployment picture, they were willing to give it a try, and estimated the tax breaks would put 300,000 people to work.

"What the fuck- it's not we're betting OUR money."

[R C Dean]

Opinion is divided on whether There is a consensus that the approach is effective or simply gives businesses a break on workers

Isn't that how we do it nowadays?

[R C Dean]

HTML fail. You may rearrange strikethroughs to fit your prejudices.

[Jersey Patriot]

HTML fail. You may rearrange strikethroughs to fit your prejudices.

oookay!

[Pro Libertate]

Here are several alternative readings:

Opinion is divided on whether [t]here is a consensus that the approach is effective or simply gives businesses a break on workers[.]

Opinion is divided on whether [t]here is a consensus that the approach is effective or simply gives businesses a break on workers[.]

[Pro Libertate]

Make that two. I dropped the third.

[VikingMoose]

fear
surprise
ruthless efficiency

[Mike Laursen]

A shootout breaks out at the Pentagon.

Brandybuck, this isn't you, is it?

[Mike Laursen]

Uh oh, no reply from Brandybuck.