A.M. Links: Romney Hits Back at Obama, Clinton in Israel, North Korean Military Chief Relieved, Fierce Fighting in Damascus, Democrats Willing to Go Over "Fiscal Cliff"
- Mitt Romney has told the President to stop sharp political attacks, saying that Obama's attacks on his business record are "misdirected" and "dishonest".
- Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is in Israel for talks on Iran, Syria, and Egypt. The trip comes after Clinton's visit to Egypt where she was greeted by tomatoes and chants of "Monica, Monica, Monica."
- Democrats have made clear that they are willing to go over a "fiscal cliff" unless Republicans drop their opposition to tax increases for the wealthy.
- Damascus is the scene of the fiercest fighting in Syria since the uprising began last year.
- North Korea's military chief has been removed from all posts by Kim Jong-un due to "illness" in a move that North Korean experts say is "very unusual".
- Germany's Federal Constitutional Court will not rule on the constitutionality of the European Stability Mechanism and the new fiscal treaty for at least another eight weeks.
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Mitt Romney has told the President to stop sharp political attacks...
So far, they've been pretty dull. Class warfare? Does anyone find that interesting?
This Bain attack line is one of the dumber campaigns I can remember. SO BORING
Seriously. Obama's a complete joker if he thinks Bain can break Romney's back for him. It's going to take more than that to freeze Romney out in November.
I, for one, am eager to hear the media discuss whether Mitt's sensitive feelings are too sensitive and whether he understands that politics is bloodsport. Gabby Giffords will be put away until Mitt fights back.
Mitt Romney has told the President to stop sharp political attackslying.
Oh no! Anything but that. I'm sure that Obama's feelings were really hurt.
Mitt Romney has told the President to stop sharp political attacks lying.
FTFY. No need for pleonasms.
The ad doing the most damage to Romney is of him singing like a loon and only quotes newspapers directly.
There is no lying.
Romney is some sort of psychopath with his cop role playing and tying dogs to cars as an adult. His religiosity is Dumbyaish. If Mitt drank heavily the resemblance would be uncanny.
Holy shit, shrike's off his meds again.
Three deep breaths, shrike. Take three deep breaths (from a car's exhaust pipe) and try to relax.
He's been demolished over issues of politics and finance, so what else is left but to be our little resident partisan bedlamite?
What's funny is that if Romney was a Democrat, shrike would absolutely adore him and want to have his babies. He's got both a JD and MBA from Harvard! He became incredibly rich by turning around failed businesses! That is pure fap material to shrike. Oh, if only he was a Democrat!
of course, there is lying. It's all the campaigner in chief knows. He gives that sappy "DC won't play with me" interview, then does the very thing he accuses others of doing. And do you really want to go the religiosity route?
This is a man who got married in Wright's church, had his kids baptized there, attended for 20 years, yet managed to the only parishioner unaware of what the preacher was saying. And I suspect the Obama dog would have preferred riding on the roof to being eaten.
Don't forget his attendance at maddrassa.
I don't think he had a whole lot of choice in that one. Let's not go out of our way to make ourselves look stupid, m'kay?
The only thing Obama can't do this election season, is to get the private divorce records of his opponent unsealed.
BTW, doesn't Obama have a "religiosity"? Or is he an atheist now?
The ad doing the most damage to Romney is of him singing like a loon and only quotes newspapers directly.
There is no lying.
Because newspapers never lie. Every word on every page is unvarnished truth (except for those icky ads, since they were created by people wanting to get you buy stuff so they can make money).
Romney is some sort of psychopath
You would know. Take. Your. Meds.
Mitt Romney has told the President to stop sharp political attacks,
Technically, I think he told him to stop lying. Characterizing the recent allegations that Romney is either a liar or a felon as a "sharp political attack" fundamentally misrepresents the thuggery of the Obama campaign.
I read that with a hint of sarcasm since the "attacks" are clearly not very sharp.
Guns, Squirrels, and Steel: The Many Ways To Kill a Data Center
http://www.wired.com/wiredente.....ewall=true
And if it doesn't fuck up your comment at reason.com. it's a free squirrel
Reason.com uses enslaved squirrels to #$% up comments?! Viva la squirrel revolution!
Sure. Libertarians only use slave, child and otherwise exploited labor to unfairly make themselves rich. Do you not have a decoder monocle?
I was always more of the imperialist oppressor type, not so much an exploiter... maybe I need an update for the decoder? I am trying, however, as I am working for an evil multi-national CORPORASHUN!!11!
Its a good start, but really, until you've got beggar children toting your palanquin around for a crust of bread and a rag to wear, you've not gotten to the fun part of being a libertarian
Do I really have to give them the crust of bread?! Can't I just give them a ten minute break to go steal some food from other poor people?
I like the cut of your jib, sir.
Obligatory
First attempt at posting this resulted in the server squirrels chewing it up and spitting it out, so here goes the second attempt
*clap clap*
Rubin: July panic for Obama ? for good reason
http://www.washingtonpost.com/....._blog.html"
Obama spent the money in swing states like Rubin says and enjoys outsized leads in them - esp Ohio and Penn.
http://www.realclearpolitics.c.....s_ups.html
332-206 now.
Makes Portman a lock. He cannot win without Ohio.
The "no-toss-up" map is kind of pointless because it ignores the error in the polls. If the polls skew reality 3% towards the Democrats, then a real election will turn out very differently.
"""television commercials in selected battleground states"""'
Unfortunately it appears that I live in one of those battleground states since its almost non-stop Presidential commercials. I guess its a good excuse to read more and watch TV less.
Obama hasn't successfully moved the polls since the fall of 2008. He was behind when the banks collapsed. That gave him a lead he never relinquished. Since that time throughout his entire presidency he his poll numbers have done nothing but go down.
I think this latest campaign of smears and character assassination was aimed at the swing states. National polling numbers are meaningless. My vague recollection is that Obama has gained (a little?) in the swing states.
According to the polls, if the election were held today, Obama would win the electoral college by a decent margin. I have a sick feeling about this election.
me three. It reminds me of when Governor Granholm was re-elected here in Michigan. True, it was a Democrat surge year and the 'pubs put up a Devos (who may be the perfect Romney type).
It's almost like the wonderful folks in Michigan decided that yes, let's drive over the fiscal cliff because we're scared of the medicine we really need.
I have a sick feeling about this election regardless of who looks like winning. I don't think Romney with a Republican controlled legislature looks too appealing either. I think the best outcome might be Obama reelected and Republicans take the senate.
If the Supreme court had done their job on Obamacare right, I'd agree that Obama + Republicans control Senate was best outcome. I think with Obamacare still alive, doubling down on Romney is unfortunately the best likely outcome.
I'm strategically voting for Johnson though anyways. Don't want to waste my vote.
I live in one of those goddamn wishy-washy purple states.
I have been making good use of the mute button on my remote.
who still watches TV?
Kristen, apparently.
That's what the 30-second skip button is for.
Not if CBS, NBC, ABC, and FOX have anything to say about it.
the latest on the freedom-loving teddy bears of Belarus:
A journalist who posted pictures of "pro-free speech" teddy bears like those dropped by Swedes in Belarus in early July has been arrested by the country's security services as organizers of the stunt released more video footage of the flight.
http://www.thelocal.se/42048/20120716/
Romney is a habitual liar (even Newt called him one) - thus the irony of calling Obama "dishonest".
Bain outsourced, period. NTTIAWWT.
Own up to it, Willard.
and this matters why when the head of your alleged jobs group is the head of GE, and when virtually every other person on it is a ritual outsourcer. That Bain may have done that with some companies is called business, but then no one expects The Obama to know shit about that. Pity that after four years all the man can do is bitch about everyone else.
Its Rovian politics.
Just like the draft-dodging chickenhawk Dumbya Swiftboated Kerry you attack your opponents alleged strength.
Obama has never held a real job in his entire life outside of a part time gig as a adjunct at the University of Chicago. The Bain attacks are ridiculous. The only place they resonate is with people like you who just mouth whatever talking points your masters give you.
What, community organiser isn't a real job? Next you'll be saying writing your memoirs at 32 is a bit presumptuous
He practiced law for a private frim John. He is more real than you are.
He practiced law for a private frim John.
[Citation Required]
[Citation Required]
Frim at 11.
Lacist!!!
I practiced law at a private law firm too. And who cares how he compares to me. I am not running for President. Obama is the biggest loser ever put in the White House. Every other President had something in their life that was impressive. Every one but Obama.
You don't think that line is a little stale, John, considering he's now actually been a president? Hanging on to this "he's not qualified" thing starts to smell a little foul after a while. Plus, he got there entirely on his own. Bush would have been a used car salesman at best without his daddy's last name.
he's now actually been a president?
Sure, I would love to talk about what a complete disaster and incompetent he has been as President.
And Obama got elected President because he was black and people wanted to vote for a black President. It was an historical accident. And Bush was a successful governor. Obama was never even a successful Senator.
Tony you of all people should be angry at Obama. Look at what he did to your party? In 2008 Obama was handed the largest Democratic majorities since the 1970s. And look what is left.
Hanging on to this "he's not qualified" thing starts to smell a little foul after a while.
quite the contrary; the truth in it just becomes more evident by the day. Of course, there is an alternative - all the lousy outcomes were the actual goal.
And no, Obama hardly got their "on his own." Our affirmative action president had a host of benefactors and even the blind can see that. From his bankroll into the Ivies to his ghostwriter and introduction into political society to a curiosity-free media, Obama has gotten more passes than Jerry Rice.
And George Bush failed at everything he did including the presidency, which he would never have gotten near without his daddy's last name. There are diverse paths to the presidency in history. Obama's is hardly one of exceptional privilege, and is very evidently more of a story of individual determination than most.
All both of you are doing is being racist idiots.
Is there ANY valid, non-racist criticism of Obama, Tony?
Sure, but "affirmative action president" isn't it.
Tony, you really don't think that being half black didn't help him get elected?
That would be a question to be answered by data. From what I've seen people voted for his skin color in roughly the same number as those who voted against his skin color.
But let's not leave any stone unturned in the quest to highlight and battle against black privilege in this country.
Bush sucked... Obama sucks.
Give it up, Tony. Face ALL the facts.
Yes, Obama has shown his qualifications for the past 3+ years and they are even more sorely lacking than was thought. Still unqualified and out of his depth. I hope he ramps up his golf game this summer so he can't fuck up things more than he has already.
I'm trying to think of the impressive things that Clinton and Bush Jr. did before their presidencies, but coming up blank. Maybe we've entered the era of lame presidents.
Clinton was a Rhodes scholar and Bush was governor of Texas.
Well, yeah. I suppose Clinton was a genuinely intelligent person (regardless of what he did with it). And they both actually served at least one full term of a fairly major political office.
Yeah, that resonate with the proles.
"I trained ACORN 'volunteers' as lawyer!!!1!!"
Obama has never held a real job in his entire life outside of a part time gig as a adjunct at the University of Chicago.
That's not true John,
He sold drugs in college too.
Somebody needs to check Obama's tax records to see if he paid taxes on the drugs he sold as a college student. Shit worked to get Capone.
got it - so because the other side told a few malicious truths justifies your side casually tossing out insinuations of felonies.
Kerry, by the way, was the same horse's ass who blatantly lied to Congress about alleged atrocities he saw committed in Vietnam.
Did he lie? I don't think that is an uncontroversial assertion.
Clinton dodged the draft, too, shrike.
Of course, you never bring that up.
BTW, Kerry deserved even worse.
I'm confused, is dodging the draft good or bad?
I dunno, but it seems to only be okay to dodge the draft if you're a Democrat.
How do you type with Obama's manhood so far down your throat? Quite impressive.
braille?
Obama's manhood
Nice band name.
Obama has manhood??
Sheesh, standards have really dropped since I was dating.
I'm beyond caring about this, fetch me my monocle. I shall retreat to my underground lair and watch as the country burns under the one-party system.
Robert Samuelson: Character assassination on the campaign trail
http://www.washingtonpost.com/.....story.html
blah, blah... and the more interesting part:
Is it safe to assume that Robert Samuelson will be endorsing Gary Johnson, then?
Remember the story about Islamists wanting to destroy the pyramids? Turns out to be a hoax.
But they like Monica.
The Monica's of the world are a great roll in the hay and popular every where you go!
Chubby girls are halal, apparently.
Here's what pisses me off. If you read the CNN article, you get the impression that the usual suspects (frothing at the mouth, Islamist protestors) would dare sully the visit of the Great Hillary.
In actuality, the protest was held by supporters of secularism who think the U.S. is getting to chummy with the Brotherhood. But mentioning that would 'disrupt the narrative', yes?
Yes, because Islamists have never vandalized monuments of Ancient Egypt before:
Germany's Federal Constitutional Court will not rule on the constitutionality of the European Stability Mechanism and the new fiscal treaty for at least another eight weeks.
They are just hoping Greece, and possibly, Spain and Italy will drop off the map before the German taxpayers have take one for the team. Take it good and hard.
"Far as I see it, you people German taxpayers been given the shortest end of the stick ever been offered a human soul in this crap-heel 'verse. But you took that end, and you - well, you took it. And that's - Well, I guess that's somethin'."
Democrats have made clear that they are willing to go over a "fiscal cliff" unless Republicans drop their opposition to tax increases for the wealthy.
What's a cliff but a large ditch for Obama to display his unparalleled car-pulling strength?
$15,856,367,214,324 into the red isn't over the "fiscal cliff?"
Of course not! We owe it to ourselves!
/Boomer Logic
Yeah. Like I owe myself my mortgage? (Hey, wait... If I charge myself a higher interest rate, I'll be rich in no time!)
The great follo of the collective "we". We don't owe it to ourselves. Some of us owe it to others of us.
Some great people relish opportunities to show how great they are, Obama hates them because they might show he's not great.
it's the truism about character: tough times don't build it, they reveal it.
So the Dems are Thelma and the Repubs Louise, or do I have it backwards?
Yep, except this time Thelma (D) and Louise (R) stuffed Hal, Jimmy, Darryl, Max, J.D., Harlan, Lena, the State Trooper, Major and about 312 million other people in the trunk first.
not paying their fair share:
36 Obama aides owe $833,000 in back taxes
http://news.investors.com/arti.....-taxes.htm
'the scale of delinquency' will only annoy voters if they know about it. Let's see if this story makes it to the mainstream press. My guess is that if a Repub administration had this number of deadbeats, no one would be talking about outsourcing.
Holy Taxation.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydlLIScowHg
Navy's new gender-neutral carriers won't have urinals
http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2012.....e-urinals/
This makes no sense since the urinals on Navy ships are usually put where there is no room for a toilet so its no gain for female sailors and just wastes time for male sailors since they will have to wait to use a toilet.
Ironically having all the same kind of toilets will still cost twice as much.
Here it comes - Captain's Mast for leaving the seat up.
Plus, plus, plus!
And Captain's Log for not flushing.
A-hahahahah, that's Rich.
~runs away
Seriously, you'll see some masts for males who walk into a head when a woman is in there.
A chief wanted to fry me for that back in 1993, but my own chief squashed him.
i thought to most men pretty much anywhere could be a urinal, if they were busting for a slash
God created man and said "The world is your urinal."
Also it's a boat, they could just go over the side if they weren't such prudes.
Just what those poor gobs need - more rust to scrape.
We're gonna be too broke to send them anywhere soon, so they might as well have something to do.
In the good old days that is exactly what they did. And for #2 they could make use of a propitiously-placed hole in the prow, that may or may not have been screened away from the prying eyes of one's fellow sailors.
So where are the F2M Trannies supposed to pee?
The twin lost decades in housing and stocks ? baby boomers selling homes to a less affluent young American population. The impact of baby boomers on the housing market.
http://www.doctorhousingbubble.....me-trends/
Not sure how Case-Shiller shows that housing was a "lost decade". CS went from 100 in 2000 to 140 today. If you ignore the extreme runup first, its at a pretty reasonable point.
And even if you only want to go back 10 years, CS was in the low 120s in 2002, so its still gone up 15-20 points over 10 years.
North Korea's military chief has been removed from all posts by Kim Jong-un due to "illness" in a move that North Korean experts say is "very unusual".
Are these experts from North Korea or on North Korea? That'll help me decide whether the getting an illness is unusual or using this excuse is unusual.
the bigger mystery is the lack of alt-text on a picture that was crying out for it. Over to you, people...
"Who wants to buy a brooch?"
"What do we do now, Arrric Barrrwin?"
"Ronery... so very ronery... poor ritter meeeeeee."
I thought he had a girlfriend? Some singer if I remember correctly.
What the hell is "unusual" about North Korea whacking a high ranking official? I don't think those guys are quite the experts they claim to be.
They are experts on North Korea. They are surprised because usually such changes don't involve any formal announcement or explanation. They just happen. Analysts on NPR this morning said it is a sign that Kim Jong-Un feels confident in his control of the military.
Sure, NPR, giving the chief of your armed forces a 9mm heart attack is usually a sign of great confidence! Onward to the glorious future comrades!!1!
Well, he's confident the rest of the military won't take his ass out over the issue. That's a sort of confidence.
Or now he can saw "you saw what he got - who wants a piece of me?! Huh, ANYONE!!"
Here's to hoping he's wrong.
Forget Lobster Girl, we have a new mascot:
They really are dangerous curves: Heavily armed and bikini-clad female Israeli soldiers 'mingle' with beachgoers
I for one welcome Galil Girl.
No wonder Israel is expected to weather the zombie apocalypse fairly well.
That's pretty hot, I agree, but I wouldn't be caught dead on that beach. Looks like hell on earth.
It will never happen.
1.) Lobster Girl is the one, true Goddess and HnR is her prophet.
2.) We have too many commenters who go rabid, frothing at the mouth, bat-shit crazy at anything even remotely positive about Israel and the JOOZ.
The comments are appalling, but expected.
Not all were. I liked the one who suggested that guys choose their pick up line carefully.
Where is she keeping the magazine?
Deputies shoot, kill man after knocking on wrong door
http://www.wesh.com/news/centr.....index.html
The bottom line is, that if a deputy sheriff or police office, shows up at your door there is a good chance you're going to get shot if they get scared and they will walk away with no criminal charges"
The bottom line is, if someone with a gun knocks on or knocks down your door, you better assume its a LEO. If it turns out to be a rapist.... well, sorry.
So they have been charged with murder, right?
Trespassing and shooting the home owner seems like a slam dunk case to me.
That's not what would happen to a civilian and you know it! It was a good shoot! I've seen cops get charged with DUIs, so a double standard never happens!
Why do I talk on the AV Club about The Newsroom?
Why am I a masochist?
Also, my take on last episode...
SPOILERS
Wanna know what would have been a really ballsy news non-call?
If, instead of the "No RIP" the show had said, "Listen, I know we've been ripping on the Tea Party, and some have accused them of violent rhetoric, and there is a lot of RIchard Hoffstrader "The Paranoid Style in American Politics" floating around out there, but let's hold off identifying the guy as Tea Party-influenced, on the off chance that he's just a crazy person, John Hinckley-style"
I mean, if you are going to use "Hindsight is 20/20" as your premise for a show, why not use it in a case when the media was all too happy to paint a political movement as violent survivalist types and where many people are still under the impression that the Tea Party is responsible for Gabrielle Giffords precisely because of the media coverage (and probably some confirmation bias)?
Gonzo! I'm digging your stuff.
Thanks! Actually, that means a lot to me, because commenting there often feels like tilting at windmills, so it it nice to know that it counts for something with some people in the grand scheme of things.
Those folks are retards. You asked them to engage in a simple thought experiment, and they in all seriousness basically said "well, I can't do that because it would just be too unrealistic. Teabaggerz really are paranoid nutcases"
Yeah... yeah. That is going to be painful to deal with.
I just tried to link the comment, but can not figure out how. It is on the second page currently.
I hear The Newsroom is even worse than people imagined. Is that true?
John, here is The Newsroom on The Tea Party:
http://www.mrctv.org/videos/hb.....n-mccarthy
Not surprised. And what is sad and funny is that the whole premise of the show is how News organizations need to be truthful and not partisan and just tell the straight story.
They used Jane fucking Fonda for fuck's sake!
That tells you all you need to know about it.
Sorkiun or whatever his name is still thinks it is 1995. They can't get away with that shit anymore. Too many alternative sources of information out there ready to make fun of them.
And the West Wing was horrible and annoying. But it at least qualified as a well written soap opera. I don't think the Newsroom even does that.
I think that the West Wing had good characters to fall back on, and whenever Aaron Sorkin writes, the institution has to be "THE MOST IMPORTANT THING EVER!" which was believable with The West Wing.
Also, your comment came a minute after the 3 minute video. Watch the whole damn thing. You'll vomit in your mouth, but that's why God made the trash can at work.
WW was believable till it started believing its own bullshit and, suddenly, the Martin Sheen character became the Oracle, Jefferson, the Pope, and a few others rolled into one. It was enjoyable when it was about the characters; it became insufferable when it became about the politics.
I had a girlfriend back in the 1990s who was way into the West Wing. I hated the show's politics but I had to admit that it was mostly fairly well written and imaginative.
The whole sequence where Rob Lowe's character slept with a prostitute was absolute gold. You're right, though, once they decided to be all Team Blue the show went to shit.
Yeah, around Season 3-ish, when they for the Presidential election said, "Let's stop these silly soundbites and talk about grand issues!" was when the show lost it till Sorkin left.
It also coincided with Bush, which I think is not a coincidence.
I for one welcome Jane Fonda (at least the 1960s-1970s version).
Barbarella really was the Queen of the Galaxy. It's been all downhill since then.
She was wildly hot. And according to a review of a biography of Warren Beaty I read a while back, was known in Hollywood circles as "They Python" for her skills at certain sex acts.
she was good (as a self-centered whore) in Klute
Well, yeah, but how is she in movies where she has to act?
It's become almost a daily thing for me, but I find myself consistently asking "Why do I read the AV Club and, more importantly, why do I read the comments?"
I go because of how good it used to be.
For shit that is non-politcal, like Community or Leverage reviews, it is good. Whenever politcs enters, it becomes a prgressive circle jerk.
Also this:
http://www.avclub.com/articles.....-274888012
There is the occasional thread that makes it all worth it.
The Other Scandal In Unhappy Valley
...Michael Mann, like Joe Paterno (and to a lesser degree, Jerry Sandusky) was a rock star in the context of Penn State University, bringing in millions in research funding. The same university president who resigned in the wake of the Sandusky scandal was also the president when Mann was being investigated. We saw what the university administration was willing to do to cover up heinous crimes, and even let them continue, rather than expose them. Should we suppose, in light of what we now know, they would do any less to hide academic and scientific misconduct, with so much at stake?...
integrity-developing time for the NCAA -- stop with the bullshit of punishing players who had nothing to do with a scandal and go after the grownups who did.
What can the NCAA do?
One is dead and the others involved are adminstration, not athletic.
no, the NCAA cannot divorce itself from the admin side when it is convenient, unless it wants to say that the presidents of its member institutions are clueless buffoons who have no idea what those crazy football/basketball programs are up to. No, in this case without question the admin side knew full well what was going on.
The NCAA needs to stop exempting its admins from the consequences of institutional wrongdoing. Not doing so basically says the buck stops with athletics, that it is the one running schools. I doubt the org would make such a public admission. It has to sanction the other three key figures; punishing players who had nothing to do with it is bullshit.
What Im saying is that the NCAA has no ability to punish a school president. They cant suspend him from his job for 3 years or anything, like with a coach.
They can punish coaches, they can punish schools. They cant punish english professors or school presidents.
One could say the same about punishing corporations where the leader that had orchestrated or covered the wrongdoing is now gone, yet nobody seems to have a problem with that.
Man, that's a lot of medals for someone who hasn't won a war in...well...ever.
Old and a pro or young and novice, it doesn't matter for North Korea. Without an entirely new direction, one way or another, they're doomed; they can't keep starving their people forever.
That's entirely possible if everyone stopped fucking feeding them.
Probably, although I think most of that aid goes to feeding their military.
That's my point. They maintain control of their starving serfs by feeding their military first and then giving just enough to everyone else so they can take some beatings. The peasants are always going to be in some state of starvation in NK, because of the government, but every time someone cuts of food shipments the starving masses are highlighted and the governments of the world send food to NK troops so they can be well fed enough to beat down some starving serfs. It's a circle of stupidity.
What SC said.
Deputies shoot, kill man after knocking on wrong door.
Two minutes late.
The Hill Poll: Voters say wealth is now an impossible dream
http://thehill.com/polls/23798.....ible-dream
Fewer than 2-in-5 voters have the intelligence and work ethic to ever become rich. Maybe they're just finally being honest with themselves?
Work ethic, or lack thereof.
There are still occasions for people to work their way up these days, but it seems like more often than not, the best way to get really smokin' rich is to get the government to give your company a fuckton of tax money (Solyndra) or to get elected to major office so you can handout political favors to large multinationals to secure your post-congress sinecure as an "advisor".
Seems like a rather optimistic result to me. Most people aren't going to become rich, and they know it.
Which is funny taken in the context of Bailey's post last week about how 50% of us are wealthier than our parents.
David Brooks Alert!!!!
...Over the past half?century, a more diverse and meritocratic elite has replaced the Protestant Establishment. People are more likely to rise on the basis of grades, test scores, effort and performance.
Yet, as this meritocratic elite has taken over institutions, trust in them has plummeted. It's not even clear that the brainy elite is doing a better job of running them than the old boys' network. Would we say that Wall Street is working better now than it did 60 years ago? Or government? ...
As a result, today's elite lacks the self-conscious leadership ethos that the racist, sexist and anti-Semitic old boys' network did possess. If you went to Groton a century ago, you knew you were privileged. You were taught how morally precarious privilege was and how much responsibility it entailed. You were housed in a spartan 6-foot-by-9-foot cubicle to prepare you for the rigors of leadership.
The best of the WASP elites had a stewardship mentality, that they were temporary caretakers of institutions that would span generations. They cruelly ostracized people who did not live up to their codes of gentlemanly conduct and scrupulosity. They were insular and struggled with intimacy, but they did believe in restraint, reticence and service.
so today's elites would be better if they would only revert to the racist, sexist, anti-Semitic ways of the past? Because, as socially repugnant as those folks might have been, they knew how to get shit done.
There is something about using terms like "ethos" and "gentlemanly conduct" to describe people you have just labeled as morally repugnant.
David Brook's version of history is fascinating. I look forward to the alt-history novel he's writing.
Do you remember the smell of your Grandmother's kitchen? Pepperidge Farm remembers.
Do you remember when we were led by a technocratic elite who didn't let women, blacks, or gays have a say? Pepperidge Farm remembers.
+1,000
Actually Brooks makes a rare decent point. In the past elites had a feeling of Protestant guilt and responsibility. That kept them somewhat in line. Now they are just fucking crapweasels who have spent their lives being told by mumsy and pupsy what a special snowflake they are and apple polishing whomever could get them ahead. They just don't give a shit about anything and think they are entitled to whatever they want because they are so special.
Eh, I think they always have felt that way.
Look at the treatment of Catholics by the Protestant establishment. Public schools and reform of political machines had to be enacted, because those damn dirty Irish and Italians and Jews and Blacks were starting to get a piece of the pie.
They always stuck it to other tribes because that is what tribes do. But they did at least care a bit about the institutions they served. Our current generation doesn't even do that.
but the current generation talks about diversity and tolerance and all the rest, so doesn't that make them morally superior to the barons of old. Rhetorical question.....
I don't think it's so much that they are greedy, as much as they think they are brilliant, don't need outside opinions, and can do no wrong. This leads them to haughtily push forward with bad ideas. At least that's been my experience.
Just so I'm clear, somehow all of the "meritocratic" elite graduated from one of about 4 institutions that has long constituted the old boys club. Gee, what could go wrong with meritocracy by school tie?
Generally, I have a reflexive 'vote against' for anybody who came out of the Ivy League. I figure they've fucked things up for long enough, let's give some state college grads a try.
I agree. I also vote against anyone that lists any class president in their bio or experiences. So you've been seeking power since you were a child and you think that qualifies you for a bigger job?
Meritocracy usually involves "merit."
But Pro, they got good grades in HS and had high SATs, how dare we judge them on their adult performances once they matriculated.
This leads me to a USNWR; rant.
My school had lower admissions standards than the Ivies or Stanford or etc. I couldnt have gotten into them due to mediocre grades (and a high SAT). And in the USNWR;, this knocks my school down a bit. Okay, acceptable. We have high standards, but not THAT high.
However, we fail out a significant portion of our freshman class. And dont grade inflate. And for this, USNWR; also knocks us down.
WTF? LISTEN YOU FUCKERS, FAILING OUT THOSE WHO CANT HACK IT IS A POSITIVE FUCKING TRAIT YOU MOTHERFUCKERS, NOT A NEGATIVE. FUCK YOU!
Maybe it's the engineer in me, but at some point, your grand scheme/policy needs to produce a positive result or we get to brand you and it a failure.
Of course, I work in a profession where at the end of the day, your performance is binary: it either works or it doesn't.
People are more likely to rise on the basis of grades, test scores, effort and performance.
That's only meritocratic if those grades and test scores are actually reflective of something useful or worthwhile.
The trip comes after Clinton's visit to Egypt where she was greeted by tomatoes and chants of "Monica, Monica, Monica."
LOL
If she ever runs for president again, we should follow their example...
Every time she makes a speech, the audience should just start chanting, "Monica, Monica, Monica"
Or "I like big butts and I cannot lie"
Did they chant it ? la "Attica!"
It makes me feel like...connected to the Egyptian people.
They're really not so much different from us after all!
Monica! Monica! Monica!
LOL
It's kinda weird that the guy who points out how offended women are by the "c"-word thinks this is OK. I'd feel like an ass chanting "Monica!" at Hillary Clinton. Though, honestly, I would chuckle if everyone else was doing it.
By "c"-word, do you mean cunt?
I think he means this
Germany's Federal Constitutional Court will not rule on the constitutionality of the European Stability Mechanism and the new fiscal treaty for at least another eight weeks.
In the Court's defense, four of those weeks they will be on paid vacation.
Unless they get sick and then it won't count toward their vacation time.
Weiner 2? Electric bugaloo
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/l.....tent=Local
More proof vegetarians are evil- they helped the French revolution:
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesa.....t=1f=1008
You know who else was a vegetarian?
Gandhi? (I think)
Ellen De Generes?
Meat Loaf?
Meat Loaf?
Michelle Obama?
Bugs Bunny?
Triceratops.
you know who else was a vegetarian?
gah - out-Godwinned! (is that two Ns? Wait, is that racist?)
#GOD-WINNING!
That's good, right?
Well...A bit less effect than Madame Guillotine at removing your foes.
World's Funniest Human lectures us on what's not funny. Super-cereal.
Sarah Palin might disagree.
Here's why this joke doesn't make me feel like shit: Louis CK has spent 20 years making it very publicly clear that he is on the side of making things better.
Wow.
Isn't that amazing? Louis CK's rape jokes are OK because he agrees with my political viewpoint.
And as far as I know, there isn't even an indication that Tosh doesn't.
Tosh appeals to the wrong audience, therefore he is verboten.
What Shug said. Men find Tosh funny. Therefore, Tosh is pro-rape, and probably things a woman's weight is within her control, too.
Louis CK was making Donald Rumsfeld jokes like two months ago. He's insufferable.
You know, I saw part of his act, and even when he wasn't discussing politics (I never got that point), I didn't think he was funny.
"...got to that point"
I wasn't going to touch the Jezebel-Tosh stuff with a 10 foot pole after I looked it over this weekend, but you, SugarFree... your a dick.
Basically, what it proved to me is that Jez simply does not understand how stand up comedy works. Margret Cho may sell to those people, but they would be horrified at the average open mic.
Also, it is so weird to see dudes on Jez. Do they have no balls or very tiny ones?
Yes.
(The owner of the Laugh Factory disputes the account, explaining that Tosh made a rape "comment" and not a rape "joke," but that's pretty much irrelevant to the larger point here.)
Yes, let's not bother with the facts. They harm the narrative.
She really wants to have it both ways, doesn't she?
I think George Carlin made the best rape joke joke. If you don't think rape can ever be funny, picture Porky Pig raping Elmer Fudd.
Follow up on a story about a cop/criminal that at least shows one town that doesn't want to be held hostage to the bullshit union.
Still, the simplest solution would be to criminally charge him, have him convicted and fire him when he doesn't show up for work because he is incarcerated.
Maria Menounos is still good enough to eat!
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvs.....-game.html
Those are some serious thighs.
Short people got no business....
I wonder which one of these is dunphy...
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....etail.html
Hillary gets the welcome she deserves.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....Egypt.html
Egypt is just starting to go through all the Lenos they saved on their DVRs from the 90s.
That "No For Hillary Clinton" sign is devastatingly clever.
Obama says all success should be credited to government (surprise surprise).
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....ccess.html
That isn't quite what he said. This was his same old crap about how you wouldn't be successful if it weren't for teachers and roads and courts and police and fire fighters and all the other public goods and services. As usual, he left off the part about how you and your parents have already paid for those goods and services through taxes.
Really, there's nothing new here, but the way he worded one of his sentences has provided a nice soundbite for the Drudge crowd.
I don't know who gave him the idea that channelling Fauxcahontas was a winning strategy.
There's really no channeling taking place. It's a little shocking to me, but he has truly decided to run as the far-left Marxist piece of shit that he in fact is.
It's unfortunate for America that he didn't run as his true self in '08. He never would have been elected in the first place.
Funny chalkboard signs.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....treet.html
Soup of the Day: Tears of our Enemies.
I love it.
Best
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix.....34x843.jpg
Megan Fox is still pregnant!
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvs.....thday.html
And still super fine.
http://www.wesh.com/news/centr.....index.html
Lake County Sheriff's Office deputies shot and killed a man they assumed was an attempted murder suspect on Sunday, but they now know they shot the wrong man.
Related
In the early morning hours, deputies knocked on 26-year-old Andrew Lee Scott's door without identifying themselves as law enforcement officers. Scott answered the door with a gun in his hand.
"When we knocked on the door, the door opened and the occupant of that apartment was pointing a gun at deputies and that's when we opened fire and killed him," Lt. John Herrell said.
Outright fucking murder.
C-C-C-COMBO BREAKER!
it was better the third time (that's what she said)
They claim self defense when they kill the guy who comes to the door armed to an unannounced party at 1:30 in the morning.
Unreal.
It is no different than a cop fucking up and killing someone during a high speed chase. Their negligence killed that guy.
It's totally different. In a high speed chase you've got someone who running away from people he/she knows to be cops.
In this situation you've got someone who is presumably rousted from bed a 1:30AM by an unknown party, who then answers the door with a gun in hand, and is cut down for it.
Anyone else would be charged with murder one.
They had a right to do the search. and if they had gotten the right guy and he had gone after the police, I wouldn't be too offended by this. But the incompetent apes got the wrong guy and an innocent person is dead because these baboons can't read a proper address.
Even if they had the right address, they did not identify themselves as law enforcement.
So the person who is answering the door at 1:30AM has every right to be armed and suspicious.
It is almost as if the deputies were looking for an excuse to kill someone (which wouldn't surprise me a bit).
"Gee. Let's pound on someone's door at 1:30, not identify ourselves as law enforcement, and then kill the guy if he's armed when he answers the door. Sound good to you? Cool. Let's go!"
True enough. The lack of identifying themselves makes if felony murder in my book.
The only person who knows for a fact they didn't identify themselves is dead. Everyone else that comes forward, they can say "It was 1:30 in the morning. You people can't be competent that early in the morning." And then the circle will be complete.
"It was 1:30 in the morning. You people can't be competent that early in the morning."
Good point. They erred when they said they did not identify themselves when they filled out the report. They actually did identify themselves, but were too groggy to remember when they made the report. Thus the perp had no right to be armed when he answered the door, and got what he deserved.
They had a right to do the search.
Actually, they had a right to do some other search. They had no right to search his house. Standing on his porch, they had no special cop rights or privileges. If it would be murder for you to knock on a complete stranger's door at 1:30 am and shoot them down if they answered with a gun in their hand, its murder for these cops to do it.
Especially since they didn't identify themselves. By their own admission.
They had a right to do a search. And that gave them the right to be there, provided they were at the right house. That makes the situation different
But they weren't at the right house.
I wonder if they'll charge the guy they were looking for with the murder of this guy?
I mean, it was his fault they went to the wrong door and shot the wrong guy.
because there is absolutely nothing unusual about someone pounding and screaming at your door at that time of night.
This is probably going to get some traction. People can put themselves in the place of the victim.
At the most it will result in a "review of training".
The murderers will face no consequences.
None at all.
Hey, don't sell review of training short. That's big. They don't usually have to pretend to do that.
Baby steps.
Nah, I predict "If guns were illegal he wouldn't have answered the door with one and he'd be alive right now."
There are so many different kinds of Federal LEOs it's hard to keep them all straight.
Another ethics violations stipulated in the OIG documents focused on a Treasury Department employee in the Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC).
The intoxicated OFAC official attempted to bring prohibited alcoholic beverages into a college football game, and was stopped by law enforcement.
The OFAC official was perceived to be "disorderly and disruptive" and was nearly arrested even after University of North Carolina police noticed the official's badge and credentials. The report said the officers used "restraint because they believed him to be a law enforcement officer." OIG found him to be in "violation of Treasury policy."
was nearly arrested even after University of North Carolina police noticed the official's badge and credentials.
translation: his behavior would have resulted in anyone else going to jail, but because he had a badge and credentials, no-harm-no-foul..
semi-related: My old man and his cronies used to hire a state cop to drive them to the football/baseball/hockey game over on the other side of Michigan. It was an easy way to get there fast and not be hassled.
the official's badge and credentials
Serious question: How is Joe Blow citizen supposed to know that some presented "badge and credentials" are real? "Please wait a while, Sir, while I photograph these purported qualifiers and then check around for validation"?
Department of Health and Human Services! Freeze motherfucker!
"Simply stated, we will not stand idly by as the HyR commentariat mocks ...."
If Obamacare survives, this won't be a joke.
Ah, the sweet smell of "professional courtesy". Gah!
No double standard for LEOs, right, dunphy? RIGHT?
"and chants of "Monica, Monica, Monica."
Sweet!
Obama tells fainting supporters in audience that they can get medical attention from "paralegals".
Remember, this guy went to Columbia and Harvard.
Maybe he was just advising them to get a lawsuit ready against the facility where they fainted?
Hey, cut the President a little slack, Mike. His expertise is in Constitutional law.
no corpse-men in the crowd?
He doesn't understand how auto liability insurance works, what do you expect?
I just long ago accepted that Columbia and Harvard produce a lot of fucktards, rather than judging Obama personally.
They can get medical attention from paralegals. It just won't be any good.
You know, like all medical attention after Obamacare.
http://online.wsj.com/article/.....lenews_wsj
How American free enterprise beat European central planning and environmental superstition. Sorry for the long quote it is behind the pay wall.
'Whoever owns the soil, it's theirs up to Heaven and down to Hell." So goes the ancient common-law principle. Today, however, almost no major country recognizes full subsurface private property rights, except for the United States.
We mention this because that blessing of American jurisprudence helps explain one of the few bright patches in the Obama economy?the booming production of shale gas and, increasingly, oil. The U.S. ranked 159th in GDP growth last year. But in natural gas production, it's now No. 1.
How did that happen? Partly it's the luck of geology, though plenty of other countries have abundant shale resources. Partly, too, it's American technological leadership in developing hydraulic fracturing (fracking) and horizontal drilling. But those techniques are now widely understood the world over.
What has given the U.S. its edge is that the early development risks were largely borne by small-time entrepreneurs, drilling a lot of dry holes on private land. These "wildcat" developers were gradually able to buy up oil, gas and mineral leases from private owners while gathering enough geological data to bring in commercial producers.
So what John?
Obama told me yesterday that people are not responsible for their own success. "If you've been successful, you didn't get there on your own. You didn't ... Somebody else made that happen,"
No more MSNBC.
I kid, I kid.
"...a new division led by Vivian Schiller, the former president and chief executive of National Public Radio."
NPR alum, huh. So, no lurching toward the center for them. Lean Forward!
"how many divisions does he have?"
And now... your hipster mega-douche of the day.
You really are trying to get sloopy to go postal on NYC, aren't you?
I get annoyed with the several hundred we have in Tallahassee, and I remind myself that we're a college town and most of them will grow out of it or move somewhere. I can't imagine what Brooklynites feel, well, except that diehipster.com does it so well.
I drove past a bar this weekend that was advertising dodgeball. The wife and agreed that was some fucked-up hipster bullshit.
Maybe I'm old and alcoholic, but the last thing I want to do at a bar is play fucking dodgeball. I want to sit inside with the AC blasting and some quiet service personnel bringing me drinks.
That sounds like old age talking, man. Do you like drinking and batting cages? I know I do. Drinking and dodgeball sounds pretty sweet, especially when playing against sissies.
Was it Sawyer Park Sports Bar on Washington? Because if so the crowd there is most certainly not hipster but they do hold a ton of events like dodgeball, basketball and soccer tournaments.
Yup. We were looking at houses in Old 6th Ward and drove past there.
I just moved in walking distance from there earlier this year. Enjoying it so far.
Yeah, the ones from Tallahassee will move to Brooklyn!
Solves my problem.
The tree of syrup must be refreshed from time to time with the urine of bums and crack heads.
I lol'd
I might just print that comment out and pin it up on my cubicle wall...
Birch Tree sweetened artisanal mayo, yummy.
I'll help sloopy firebomb the artisanal mayo store. For no other reason than making flavored mayo doesn't require an artisan.
Thank you, but we can't go down that road. Do we want to create an opportunity for these fuckwits to engender even the tiniest bit of sympathy from America? Nosiree. If we firebomb it, which is what any self-respecting American would want to do to the place, we will set off an introspective look at hipster culture that could set hipster hate back at least 3-6 months.
Sunlight is the best disinfectant, and the more pictures posted like SF's above or these faggots*, the more likely they will all be pitched into a bonfire in Staten Island one day very soon.
*No sexual connotation intended.
That one in the middle looks just like one of my old interns.
Didn't say "maple" did it? You can actually make syrup from black or yellow birch. Tastes like wintergreen. Though he'd have to tap a lot of trees that size to make any usable amount of syrup.
Honestly, except for the self righteousness, I think that the urban food production trend is great. Making and producing things for yourself is fun and rewarding and helps people appreciate quality things.
Where are those guys who attacked the Central Park jogger when you need them.
That image is so pitch-perfect that you almost think it's a joke.
I used to think that about most of the pictures I would see of hipsters. "Oh fuck that can't be real. Someone is just making a joke picture to make fun of hipsters". But since ever single picture of these worthless assholes is so pitch perfect, I have changed my mind. There are not that many pranksters out there. They really are fucking self parodies.
The restaurant across the street from mine is staffed, run and owned exclusively by hipsters. You'd think a slightly overweight man in his mid 30's wearing a too tight tweed suit with a 6 inch gap between his pant hem and ankle with no socks on and dirty dirty vans is a joke but, okay it is a joke, and it makes me chuckle when I take a smoke break.
There is a site called the Satorialist. It goes around New York taking pictures of people the operator of the site considers to be "highly fashionable". If you are in New York, I would not be surprised if that guy hasn't made it.
Philly not NYC.
Ever go to Mon Amis? I went there last fall. What a great down home Italian place.
Never heard of it. Don't do much Italian when I go out. Not that I don't love Italian food.
It is actually Amis, it is just south of Center city. It is great. I love phily, great food.
Except that its in Slate, who have even less of a sense of humor than Salon or Jezebel.
Slate would never make fun of hipsters. If that photo was fake it would be because someone trolled them.
At a meeting of the New York Mycological Society, everyone places what they've collected on the table for others to view and classify. Some are edible, but many are poisonous, and jaded mycologists swap battle stories about surviving accidental ingestion of the most toxic kinds.
Shroom junkies!
jaded mycologists swap battle stories about surviving accidental ingestion of the most toxic kinds.
I would call them retards but even the retards are smart enough not know not to eat wild mushrooms.
even the retards are smart enough not know not to eat wild mushrooms.
Well, morels are harvested mostly in the wild, AFAIK. And are just about the best eatin' mushroom around.
Many, many people spend their whole lives collecting and eating wild mushrooms with no ill effect. Outside of the toadstool types, there are very few edible mushrooms that closely resemble anything poisonous. If you have a clue about what you are doing, it is not so dangerous and certainly not stupid.
He's going to hate that picture in 3 months when he's taken to wearing a top hat, velour suit, and smoking a corn-cob pipe.
He carved that pipe himself from an even bigger pipe.
I'm kinda hoping that ironic Appalachian poor comes back. Hipsters in overalls, ill-fitting rolled up dungarees, and shitty calico dresses chewing plug tobacco. I wonder if I could troll the ones down here...
Great, it'll be just like a family reunion. Except I won't feel guilty afterwards when I drink too much and start fights.
you feel guilty?
No matter how any Appalachian fight starts, it always ends with Grandma getting a black eye. She doesn't deserve that.
"it always ends with Grandma getting a black eye."
Well, sure. Next thing you know she's got a scatter gun full of rock salt and a good drunk on and all your uncles are running for cover.
Tell grandma not to go staggering down the road looking for meth and I won't have to punch her.
Maybe he's not Irish.
We were raised varying degrees of Catholic or Southern Baptist. Guilt and damnation were about the only tricks they had to make us behave.
And you won't have to feel guilty when you hook up with a girl from the party that night. Well, you might have a different kind of guilt.
It's already here, Brett.
love how the commenters keep saying he looks like Tilda Swinton
Jeebus. I love this modern world where parody by hyperbole is impossible.
And he doesn't use a power drill because...
Power drill doesn't go with the 1870s riverboat gambler pimp vampire look he's got going. They'd kick him out of the underground absinthe club if he breaks character.
"1870s riverboat gambler pimp vampire look"
You need to trademark that, STAT! I almost convulsed, I was so wracked with laughter.
My contribution (taken by my sister). You will note that it was about 97 degrees out on that particular day.
Dammit, the curse of SF strikes again
Wow.
HMmmm. I wouldn't call Baron Ambrosia a hipster. He's a persona for a culinary TV show/ comedy act, so it may be he is just goofing around here. Hes dressed up like the Baron (over-the-top stupid), but I concede that may make him indistinguishable from a generic hipster.
Ok, NYC is not all retarded hipsters. There are intelligent people here.
doesn't it look like that pipe has never been smoked out of. Like it's just a prop?
Not really, no.
http://www.thegatewaypundit.co.....ist-china/
Obama schedules fundraisers in Sweden, Switzerland, and Communist China this coming month. Can you imagine the kittens the media would be having if Romney did this?
Kick-off reception in Shanghai
1) Careful.
2) One night in Bangkok and the world's your oyster
Whaddya mean? Ya seen one crowded, polluted, stinking town --
This might be one of the nerdiest references you've ever made.
Eh. I've made nerdier. They probably just flew over your urbane head.
I know him so well...
Rich made the reference, SF just extended.
Yes, I was really just a cockring for the joke Rich started.
You know back when Bailey was in Rio I got half way through writing a parody of that song to post in here but damn work kept getting in the way of my finishing it
good thing we don't have to worry about the influence of foreign money in this election.
How much government money is going to be spent to provide him with SS in China so he can fund-raise for his campaign?
The president should pay for his own security while campaigning.
The president should pay for his own security.
Is he outsourcing campaign contributions?
http://www.washingtontimes.com.....ou-didnt-/
Obama to America, "You don't deserve the wealth you have"
The dumb bastard is going straight Lizzie Warren. Next he is going to claim he is part Indian.
Is he including his *own* wealth?
This is also very revealing:
There are some things, just like fighting fires, we don't do on our own. I mean, imagine if everybody had their own fire service. That would be a hard way to organize fighting fires.
(1) He thinks of things in terms of how they can be coordinated by a central authority.
(2) If he can't think of how something would work, who possibly could?
(3) He is either oblivious to how the private sector works on a daily basis or purposely ignores it. The billions of individual preferences and billions of ways to express them are coordinated beautifully literally all of the time.
Obama is like his own Onion parody.
It sounds to me like he's just spewing shit for his base to lap up. What's amazing is that this is what the dipshit left wants to hear.
This explains everything
The progressives really think anyone who reads that will see the light.
http://www.reuters.com/article.....3720120715
An armed gang raped seven young women in a brutal attack on a youth camp just outside Mexico City, state prosecutors said on Saturday.
Good thing Mexico has strict gun laws to keep the country safe.
lets require everyone to have guns and all crime will be ended.
a'ight den
If those girls had been armed, raping them wouldn't have been nearly as fun.
It will reduce it among the sane, certainly. And perhaps the issue of what to do about the mentally ill will take on more urgency, which will also reduce the homeless population.
http://www.foxnews.com/politic.....picks=true
I am soooooo torn here.
On the one hand, Rand Paul wants to cut overseas aid. Yay!
OTOH, Rand Paul will let them keep their overseas aid if they just declare that a traitor who dispensed fraudulent medical aid to children as part of a scheme dreamed up by another country's intelligence service will be set free.
Funny, I doubt if I took money from the KGB to go around telling American children I was innoculating them against a deadly disease, and then didn't actually innoculate them, I'd go to jail. And no one in the US would dispute that I was a traitor and criminal.
...don't doubt...
Sorry about that.
Call me a monster, but too fucking bad if that's what would have happened. Pakistan can keep it's oh-so-treasured "integrity" or it can keep an ally.
Of course you wouldn't expect the KGB to aid the US now would you? If Pakistan wants to call this guy a traitor and lock him up, that is their right. But if they do, then they are calling us their enemy (since traitors sell out to enemies) and we should cut off their aid.
Pakistan has a choice, lock up the doctor for helping the US or let him go and take the money. That is a fair choice.
Good point. Pakistan's relationship to the CIA is not analogous to our relationship to the KGB.
And we don't know the full story. It is entirely possible if not likely that the Pakistani intelligence services were working with this guy and the CIA too. The Pakistani government has every reason to lie and claim they had nothing to do with capturing Bin Ladin.
Well, yeah, that's why I said I'm torn.
I'm giving Rand the benefit of the doubt here. I'm going to assume he is doing the right thing for the right reason, but is also cynically aware that his ass is covered on this one because he has jingoistic deniability.
Need to keep some sliver of hope alive.
Policeone readers respond to the not guilty plea in the Kelly Thomas killing. Some of these guys are just the scum of the earth.
Pretty please?
Problem is, they were dispatched in this case. Hell, I'd rather there be no dispatch at all. It would accomplish two things:
1: It would force people to learn self-reliance as opposed to thinking they can call the cops when something bad is happening.
2: It will keep cops who get dispatched into a situation from getting all amped up and ready for a confrontation which may or may not be necessary. They might actually take the situation as it comes rather than go in expecting the worst, leading to escalated situations and untold deaths of innocent people and canines alike.
Here's my perfect world IRT police:
Cops have no radios in their car.
Cops are not allowed to use cellphones while on duty.
Cops will wear a camera on their uniform while on duty, which is watchable by any member of the public at any time and is retained for review by any civilian at any time on demand.
Cops testimony will only be permitted to corroborate the video recording.
I know the video takes a few minutes, but I'd like some thoughts. The Policeone thoughts are pretty easy to predict. I warn you not to read them if you suffer from anxiety, fits of rage or are likely to bust your monitor if you are easily overexcited by jackbooted thuggery.
I will be absolutely stunned if these guys don't all get convicted of at least involuntary manslaughter. Most of the reports I've seen indicate that the local community was completely appalled by this incident. I don't think even Dunphy can defend the cops in this particular case.
I will be absolutely stunned if these guys don't all get convicted of at least involuntary manslaughter.
I hope you have your phaser set for stun.
Democrats have made clear that they are willing to go over a "fiscal cliff" unless Republicans drop their opposition to tax increases for the wealthy.
I think they drove us off that cliff a couple decades ago.
There's another cliff. This time, we don't have retro rockets that some nongovernmental folks put on the car without the government's knowledge or understanding.
In spite of everything they say, I still think that they're bluffing and they don't have the balls to go through with it.
I'm sticking to my prediction that the current tax rates all get extended again at the eleventh hour, probably right before the election.
I suspect they'll kick the can down the road two more years, have the tax increases set to expire then instead of in January 2013.
It takes a Senator from a Blue state like Washington to cheerlead for a tax increase in an election year where she is up for reelection.
"Seizure" vs. "Ambien"? Why Not Both?: A wave of sudden and unexplained seizures sweeps across the political class
Your callousness and cynicism about this lady's illness disgust me Mr Free. Decades of caring for her inferiors using other people's money have clearly strained her brain beyond breaking point. She has suffered for all of us, just like Jesus, only blonder and richer
Could be. Cancer certainly seems to be sweeping the Latin American socialist dictator class.
I'm going to take a guess and say that no drug/alcohol tests were administered.
The House of Windsor couldn't get more favorable press...
I'm as much a libertarian as the next guy, but maybe we should amend the Constitution to do something about the Kennedy clan--it's a public safety issue!
Let's just lock them all up! How much longer are we going stand by, watch, and do nothing? How many more people are we going to let them kill?
Whatever happened with that Commerce Secretary? Was his a 'seizure' too?
That's the last I heard of it. Why don't these rich drunks get a driver?
He was not charged after the blood tests came back and said he had no booze in his system and only trace amounts of Ambien.
That should set up a good defense mechanism for the next prole that falls asleep at the wheel and plows into someone. Right? RIGHT?????
So, an anonymous source insists that someone who committed multiple crimes can't remember a thing?
This is news, why?
"She does not remember how she got to the side of the road. All she remembers is feeling very woozy, and then the cops were there," the source said.
I believe the phrase is "stoned or drunk or both", not "woozy", at least out here in the middle of the Pacific.
Ambien is a plausible explanation, but why would she be taking one in the morning?
Because they are fun.
Otters may look cute with their wee little hands, but they're actually whirlwinds of sharp teeth.
All this does is up the deterrent factor when I threaten to unleash my otter army on my enemies.
"I shall personally kill the time child, and eat his entrails on my tummy!"
She's lucky. I knew a guy that lost a hand to a loose seal while he was swimming.
According to the excerpts, Murray will say Monday that she hopes an agreement can be reached before then: "Democrats are willing to compromise. We just need a partner."
Translation: "We are willing to "compromise" by fucking over the Republicans, if they are fool enough to allow us to be the "partner" fucking them.
They use the word "partner" the same way a rapist uses the word.
How Democrats view compromise (and Republicans):
"You want us to cut spending and not raise taxes at all. We want to increase spending and taxes by 20 and 10 percent. Instead we'll increase spending by 15 percent and taxes by 9 percent."
The only way "compromise" hasn't been redefined to mean "giving Republicans everything they want" is for taxes to be raised on some people by some amount.
True, cutting spending is simply impossible, as is holding it steady and letting the economy outgrow it. No, the only solution is to plunder harder. Fuck off, parasite.
he retrial of former Troy, N.Y., City Councilman Michael LoPorto on ballot fraud charges has revealed detailed testimony about the casting and soliciting of absentee ballots.
LoPorto was charged with 22 counts of second-degree criminal possession of a forged instrument for his role in an alleged Democratic Party attempt to steal a city council primary victory in 2009, according to the Times Union.
Robert Martiniano, a former Democratic candidate for the City Council's second district, testified that forging absentee ballots is a tradition in local politics.
"It's was something that was just in the culture for both major political parties," Martiniano testified, according to the Mental Recession blog.
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder has said voter fraud is "a problem that does not really exist."
http://dailycaller.com/2012/07.....z20nfZIjih
The Democrats and the Republicans drove us off the fiscal cliff 4 years ago. We're still flying pretty much straight out, but the nose is starting to point down.