Administration Concedes on Domestic Assassinations, Businesses Hold Back on Hiring and Investing, Cop Shoots Cop Dog: P.M. Links

• 

  Hansueli Krapf

  The Obama administration concedes that it cannot, in fact, assassinate noncombatants on U.S. soil. That wasn't so hard, was it? As a good-will gesture, the White House has also reportedly offered Sen. Rand Paul a free trip anywhere he'd like, outside the United States.

• Rather than hire new workers or expand their businesses, U.S. companies are returning money to shareholders. Surveys reveal that uncertainty about policy and the economy keep the business community cautious,
• Colorado's "legal" maket for marijuana is expected to be heavily laden with taxes and regulations, far more so than the market for alcohol. So don't throw away your dealer's number.
• A narcotics officer serving with the Southeast Mississippi Metropolitan Enforcement Team shot a police dog, allegedly because he thought he was under attack when it tugged at his trousers. It's like some sort of horrible reflex …
• The FBI has joined the investigation into the murder of Marco McMillian, a black and openly gay candidate for mayor of Clarksdale, Mississippi. The feds want to determine if the killing was a "hate crime."
• Stephen Slevin spent two years in solitary confinement, without medical attention, in a New Mexico jail on a DWI charge for which he was never brought to trial. He's been awarded $15 million for his troubles.
• Mourners waited in long lines for a glimpse at the body of Hugo Chavez, the dictatorial thug who suppressed opposition and impoverished his country so successfully.

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Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

The Obama administration concedes that it cannot, in fact, assassinate noncombatants on U.S. soil.

Now can we filibuster for that Death Star?

[Rich]

“‘Does the president have the authority to use a weaponized drone to kill an American not engaged in combat on an American soil?’ The answer to that question is no.”

Is it possible for him to *obtain* the authority? What is “engaged in combat”? Can he use a *non*weaponized drone? Etc.

This’ll “very soon” degenerate into Birth Certificate redux.

[some guy]

Can he use a member of the military or FBI?

In my mind, this was never about how the President was going to execute the power (to kill noncombatant US citizens in the US), but whether the President should have that power at all. Focusing the comment specifically on drones leaves way too much wiggle room.

[Zeb]

I agree. What difference does it make how they assassinate someone. The problem is claiming that power at all.

[Almanian!]

So you’re saying, “What difference, at this point, does it make?”

[T]

Fred Hampton agrees.

[BuSab Agent]

So all they have to do is designate the target as a combatant (whether they actually are in the usually understood meaning of the word or not) and drones away!

[Rich]

By golly, you’ve got it!

[Episiarch]

This is why Rand’s filibuster was pointless. He just got different weasel words.

[Shine on, Nikki Diamond]

Not only did he get them, he then went back down to the floor and said he was satisfied with them. WTF?

[Rich]

It depends on what the meaning of “satisfied” is.

[Shine on, Nikki Diamond]

He actually said “I’m very pleased to have gotten this response back from the attorney general of the United States…”

[Rich]

Perhaps it will give him the strength to filibuster anew.

[Episiarch]

It means Rand Paul is just another fucking politician, and did the filibuster for show and attention. He may talk a good talk and walk a pretty good walk but at the end of the day he just wants to get re-elected, and he thinks this is the way to do it.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Well aren’t you just too cool for school. Everyone loves the filibuster but you have to poop all over it. Aren’t you the one who keeps telling me on gay marriage that I shouldn’t let the perfect get in the way of the good? People are talking about the drones and they’re talking about the hypocrisy of senators and congressmen. That’s a partial win.

[Episiarch]

I agree, and I’d take 50 more Rand Pauls if I could get them. However, at the end of the day, I think it’s pretty reasonable to assume that someone who has manged to become a US Senator is, inherently, a politician as we know them to be.

[Fist of Etiquette]

I consider your response a victory. For me.

[Shine on, Nikki Diamond]

I agree with Epi, no matter how fun it was to watch or how nice to have a decent 13-hour-long commercial for liberty out there yesterday. And it was.

[Irish]

You guys are being cynical and making Irish sad. :'(.

I’ve realized that nothing makes libertarians happy for more than 25 minutes. After 25 minutes, we have to shit on whatever cool thing just happened.

[Shine on, Nikki Diamond]

Shh, Irish, it’s okay. Epi should be along to complain that you are othering him by calling him a libertarian any minute now. It’s just “we” anarchists who have to be dicks.

[Episiarch]

Well maybe it’s good that I’m not a libertari…screw you nicole! You figure out why my double interface inheritance class isn’t working, and maybe I can respond faster!

[Irish]

I will other you long and hard, you son of a bitch. You stole my Rand Paul joy, and that is a sin that shall never be forgiven.

[Brandon]

That seems like a leap.

[Apatheist ?_??]

You weren’t so cynical last night 🙂

Episiarch| 3.7.13 @ 12:21AM |#|?|filternamelinkcustom

You can not look in the first place. I also find it hilarious how TEAM BLUE has descended so far that their major media blowhards mock a guy for not thinking that the President should be able to murderdrone American citizens on American soil. It’ll be epic when TEAM RED wins the presidency and pulls off one of these kills and they have to stay silent. Even shameless partisans can’t come back from this.

[Shine on, Nikki Diamond]

I actually thought he was being spoofed for a minute when I read that.

[Irish]

And you responded with this:

Hand in your card Epi, you have failed as our leader of cynicism and glibness.

So I assume Epi’s return to cynical rage is your doing Apatheist? You monster.

[Episiarch]

I was tired and had just gotten back from the gym! I was high on endorphins and overly optimistic!

[Brett L]

I disagree. He gets an Iran-Contra hearing if anyone is killed on US soil.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

Realistically, Epi, what more could R Paul have done? He drew blood, put the issue in the news, and made it about as noteworthy an issue as is possible. That is preferable to doing nothing IMO, and there isn’t much evidence that he could have done something else that would have been more effective.

[Emmerson Biggins]

And he made John McCain, Lindsey Graham, and and whole bunch of Team Blue wankers agree with each other, out loud. I think that is worth something. Cognitive Dissonance is a precondition to what we want.

[Episiarch]

I didn’t say it was worthless…oh wait I sort of did. I just feel like after going through all that, accepting new weasel words seems shitty. Because all the shit you just described as having been achieved is much better for Rand Paul and his career than it is for people not getting murderdroned.

[Shine on, Nikki Diamond]

Yeah, he really should not have made the statement he made today. I honestly felt like that cheapened all of it significantly. Say nothing, say “I’m still not satisfied with the state of transparency on murderdrones,” whatever. Still, 13 hours of a dude talking about due process, Lochner, separation of powers, etc., I’ll take that over most other days in the Senate for sure.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

True, but it’s mutually beneficial IMO.

I’ll give props to a politician who makes a successful career out of challenging human rights abuses — especially when there exist so many like McCain, who build their careers on the exact opposite.

[NeonCat]

In the future drones will have a special compartment to drop bought-back Sat night specials beside “non-combatant” bodies.

[Archduke Pantsfan]

Mourners waited in long lines for a glimpse at the body of Hugo Chavez, the dictatorial thug who suppressed opposition and impoverished his country so successfully.

His body will be on permanent display.
Like any democratically elected leader.

[bmp1701]

I’d wait in a long line for a glimpse of his corpse. My only concern is that I might end up sporting a joy-boner at the sight of the Inflatable Commie lying dead at my feet.

[Archduke Pantsfan]

They’ve literally redefined the word literally.

[$park?]

I just literally shit in my pants.

[Teenage Girl]

Eewww!!

[$park?]

I’m gonna go drink some carbon-free sugar and grab some organic GMO hamburgers. Wanna come along?

[Zeb]

Gee, I hope you’re not at work. That would be awkward.

[some guy]

Words are for communication. There’s nothing pure or holy about them. If the audience understands the intent of the speaker, then all is well.

[Zeb]

Sure. But it is pretty striking when a word is used to mean the exact opposite of what it is supposed to mean. And such usage of “literally” does nothing to improve communication. It’s just confusing.

Language changes, and we have to accept that ultimately, but I think it is also important to have people who fight such change and point out when it is really silly.

[Jerryskids]

But it is pretty striking when a word is used to mean the exact opposite of what it is supposed to mean.

If you don’t like what they did to the word ‘literally’, you really aren’t going to like what they did to the word ‘imminent’.

[BigT]

Still cleaving to the old definitions? Don’t let it cleave our group.

(We all cleave to cleavage.)

[Bam!]

My head was literally spinning. I literally burst with joy.

[Zeb]

One nitpick on the article. The definitions of words are not grammar. Using “literally” to mean “figuratively” is not a grammatical error. It’s just the wrong word.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Colorado’s “legal” maket for marijuana is expected to be heavily laden with taxes and regulations, far more so than the market for alcohol.

In other words, eff you, Colorado voters.

[Xenocles]

I’d take a thousand regulations in place of the single one that says “if you possess it you go to jail.”

[Archduke Pantsfan]

The legend of Stompin’ Tom

[Episiarch]

That hockey night song has to be the dorkiest thing I’ve ever heard, and I’ve listened to the Dr. Demento show. I’m embarrassed for you.

[Warty]

The best game I can name is not the good old hockey game, it’s Calvinball. Fucking stupid Canadian hoseheads.

[Dagny T.]

I’ll just leave this here:

As a toddler, Tom begged for change with his unwed teenage mother on the dirty St. John streets. Later, he was orphaned out to a family in Skinner’s Pond, P.E.I., but ran away a few years later, barely a boy, with no sense of where or why or how. For the first twenty years of his life, he was a lonely spirit drifting through the crushing nowhere of Canada in the fifties and sixties. He worked in the mines; he rode in the boxcars.

Come back when you are even half as hard as that badass motherfucker. Ride a boxcar or something, idiot.

[Warty]

I’m only disputing his identification of the best game I can name. And you don’t know half of what I’ve done with boxcars.

Also, “orphaned out” is a fantastic phrase.

[Dagny T.]

Isn’t it? I wonder if that was a thing, maybe a Newfie-slut-specific sort of thing. “Aye, I’m t’rew raisin’ ye, bye. It’s off t’ orphan ye oot.”

[Dagny T.]

Oh, I just realized they were talking about Saint John, NB, not St. John’s, Newfoundland. Maritime-slut-specific, then, if you rather.

Herr Pantsfan, can I get a ruling? I thought one typically did not abbreviate Saint John. Get some fucking style, NP.

[Archduke Pantsfan]

Do not abbreviate words such as County, Fort, Mount, North, Point, Island, Port and Saint used as part of a proper noun, unless the official name for the location shows the abbreviated form:

[Shine on, Nikki Diamond]

I can verify that you’re right about the spelling in AP and Chicago styles.

[EDG reppin' LBC]

MLA or nothing!

[Shine on, Nikki Diamond]

YOU ARE A MONSTER

[db]

I enjoyed my time in St. John’s, Newfoundland. It was relaxing and cordial. Unfortunately, for an island witg a fishing-based economy, they have only one way to cook seafood: deep fry it until it’s well done.

[John]

Dagny with the burn. Don’t fuck with Canadians today Warty. This is a really emotional day for them. Just give them some space.

[Almanian!]

What – is it Canadian New Year or something?

[Dagny T.]

In Canadian terms, he was more punk rock than punk itself.

Fuckin’ truth. The good old hockey game! It’s the best game you can name! I plan to sing this to the Americans in my general vicinity for the next few days at least.

[Archduke Pantsfan]

I’d recommend Margo’s Cargo

[Episiarch]

I pity them.

[Killazontherun]

I pretty much knew this was going to happen when we made her the dame of the ballroom. Actually, that is why I went along with it. Meltdowns are a think of beauty, temporaneously.

[Shine on, Nikki Diamond]

Wait, there’s a dame of the ballroom and I had to be a fake porn star? Fuck you all.

[Episiarch]

I think Killaz just assumed you were the whore of the ballroom. There has to be one of those too, you know.

[Shine on, Nikki Diamond]

From each according to her ability…

[Killazontherun]

What epi said. How could you misinterpret my intentions when being an absolute whore is why I love you in the first place?

[Shine on, Nikki Diamond]

I’m sorry, Killaz, clearly I need a juicebox.

[Killazontherun]

S’alright. If your juice box is filled with this, you’ll be sippin’ what I’m sippin’.

[Shine on, Nikki Diamond]

Oh, shit. I am not but I do love narwhals. Surprised I have never noticed that at the store considering it’s Sierra Nevada.

[Killazontherun]

My local grocers are good about stocking Sierra Nevada products, but the store I stepped into on the evening commute was fresh out of Big Foot which I had been planning to be my desert for the evening. I can say I am quite pleased with this as a substitute.

[Killazontherun]

I have never had a bad SN anything.

[$park?]

Rather than hire new workers or expand their businesses, U.S. companies are returning money to shareholders. Surveys reveal that uncertainty about policy and the economy keep the business community cautious,

And the rich get richer! Typical.

[Copernicus]

ummm,

The shareholders are the owners of the business. When the business makes a profit, the owners are supposed to receive a dividend.

Why would/should the business “expand” if it is a money loser?

My comment (while valid) exists only because I think you are serious.
However, if you are merely sarcastic, then my reply is:

KORPERASHUNS!!

[$park?]

My comment (while valid) exists only because I think you are serious.

Well, hopefully you’ve learned your lesson.

[Raston Bot]

One word, jerbs.

[Almanian!]

EY TUK RRRR!

[Drake]

When the economy is growing at a good clip, businesses often re-invest more profits into growth rather than dividends.

In that case, the “rich” (shareholders) get richer because their stock is appreciating in value.

[Archduke Pantsfan]

Chicago coroner’s office posts photos of unclaimed dead bodies online

[Copernicus]

Storage Wars!

[Rich]

Some awesome tats. Surely they’ll help with identification.

[gaijin]

like this? link

[Fist of Etiquette]

Stephen Slevin spent two years in solitary confinement, without medical attention, in a New Mexico jail on a DWI charge for which he was never brought to trial.

He appears to have had mixed luck with attorneys.

[Raston Bot]

If someone offered me $15 million to spend two years in solitary confinement eating crap prison food and this was pre-family/kids, I’d seriously consider it.

[General Butt Naked]

Take me away right now. Fuck man, no consideration necessary.

[Almanian!]

Yeah, put me in the next cell available after you lock up General Butt.

Fuckin’ leech family will be damned happy to see me in two years.

[db]

Let me know how you’d feel about the tax bill on that.

[Episiarch]

Stephen Slevin spent two years in solitary confinement, without medical attention, in a New Mexico jail on a DWI charge for which he was never brought to trial.

And no one has been fired. For flat-out unlawful imprisonment. No, there’s no double standard. Not at all.

[Episiarch]

And I forgot to note that we’ve gotten to the point that we’re not even expecting criminal charges. For an abjectly criminal act in so many ways. Just maybe, maybe a firing?

[Fist of Etiquette]

That would have a chilling effect on law enforcement.

[Art Vandelay]

With all of this global warming? Doubtful.

[Archduke Pantsfan]

How to prepare for DST

[Fist of Etiquette]

Daylight saving time is the greatest saving time of them all.

[EDG reppin' LBC]

Now you’re just trolling us. That was neither entertaining or informative.

[Rich]

The changeover wreaks havoc with houseplants, too.

[$park?]

She says when many are already not getting enough shut-eye, losing another hour could potentially increase your heart attack risk.

Sweet fuck, does every story have to contain DOOM?

[Fist of Etiquette]

Keep your blood pressure down. Internet commenting can potentially lead to undue stress and eventually death.

[Rich]

“The slightest shock may kill you.”

[Capt Ace Rimmer]

that guy who won $15 million has lung cancer

[Fist of Etiquette]

THEY KEPT FEEDING HIM CIGARETTES?

[Zeb]

I usually just try to get drunk and stay up all night. That way my body is all fucked up and confused anyway, so it doesn’t really matter.

When it changes in the fall, I usually try to stay on daylight savings time as long as possible so ti isn’t so damn dark when I get home from work.

[gaijin]

Indiana and Arizona cast a fart upon thee

[EDG reppin' LBC]

I get Indiana not changing (farming and shit). But why Arizona?

[Zeb]

Perhaps a better question is why does everywhere else change?

[gaijin]

cause they tell us to! 🙂

[Archduke Pantsfan]

Why can’t I stay on summer time? There’s no need for it to be dark by 430pm in December.

[Zeb]

You just live on the wrong end of the time zone.

There is also no reason for it to be light until 5 PM in December. Or until 10 PM in the summer.

[Archduke Pantsfan]

going the other way, the sun coming up at 530 is preferred to 430.

[EDG reppin' LBC]

We need to switch to metric clocks.

[Archduke Pantsfan]

Internet Time

[gaijin]

Summertime heat I think, for Arizona. Either that or general contrariness.

[BuSab Agent]

Strike Indiana from that. The state went retard (again?) and decided they had to do something stupid like DST because all the other states were.

[jesse.in.mb]

I thought they were doing it by county and then decided to unify it state wide. A friend of mine said it used to be a mess and is now slightly less of a mess.

[BuSab Agent]

What it was was the majority of the state was split between EST and CST (no time) ,but Lake, Porter, and LaPorte counties did DST to match up to Chicago. Then the state legislature decided the whole fucking state should play games with their clocks to match those three counties. BUT it didn’t help because we still have a time zone boundary running through the middle of the state so nobody knows what time it is even now. This is a Special pet peeve of mine because I live on the boundary and you can actually time travel on your cell phone by walking from one side of the house to the other as the different cell towers pick you up.
I now live by Busab Standard Time which was determined by reading high noon on a sundial in my back yard on the summer solstice.

[EDG reppin' LBC]

The FBI has joined the investigation into the murder of Marco McMillian, a black and openly gay candidate for mayor of Clarksdale, Mississippi. The feds want to determine if the killing was a “hate crime.”

I’m guessing it wasn’t a love crime?

[Chris Mallory]

The killer was black and depending on who you ask was also gay. McMillan’s people say the killer was straight. The killer’s people say the pair were lovers who had a tiff.

[gaijin]

maybe it was racism.

[Archduke Pantsfan]

bacon will kill you

[$park?]

MEALS containing too much processed meat such as bacon and sausages could send you to an early grave, a large-scale study has found.

Good, at least it will be something I like. And I don’t think I want to live so long in this shitty world anyway.

[EDG reppin' LBC]

It’s the cause in 1 of 30 deaths. I’ll take those odds.

[NeonCat]

YOU ARE GOING TO DIE OF SOMETHING.

One of the things that bugs me about liberals/progressives is that it seems like they believe that if they eat right, get lots of exercise, don’t smoke or drink or do drugs (or at least do them in approved/minimum amounts), get universal health care for all then they aren’t going to die. They seem to me to be really terrified of death, in denial that it will ever happen to them: they’re precious snowflakes that should never melt (Maybe that explains their aversion to climate change?)

[NeonCat]

It also goes along with their fear of non-government armed individuals. They seem to be constantly afraid they’re going to be shot.

[A Serious Man]

Canadians torpedo ban on polar bear trade.

Gee, I wonder what sick prurient interest those Canucks have for not wanting to stop the polar bear trade?

[Irish]

Koch money.

[generic Brand]

Light the Dunphy signal!

Federal lawsuit filed against Lake sheriff for Andrew Lee Scott shooting death

“We think it’s reasonable that an unannounced person, pounding at your door at 1 a.m., and also hiding, will be greeted by a homeowner with a gun protecting his loved ones and property,” NeJame said. “This was not a violent person. This was not a person who had it out for law enforcement. This was a pizza deliveryman at home watching TV with his girlfriend.”

Prosecutors declined to file charges against Sylvester, deciding that the use of deadly force was justified.

[Episiarch]

It’s always justified, just ask Tulpa!

[Andrew S.]

That was the one where Dunphy said the guy was an idiot and deseved to die, right?

[generic Brand]

That is correct.

[Capt Ace Rimmer]

Do you know who else deserved to die?

[Capt Ace Rimmer]

Oh, and I have no fucking clue what the answer is

[gaijin]

Many that live deserve death. And some die that deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then be not too eager to deal out death in the name of justice, fearing for your own safety. Even the wise cannot see all ends.

[Archduke Pantsfan]

is that Churchill?

[gaijin]

Tolkein

[gaijin]

or Gandalf if you prefer 😉

[generic Brand]

I was gonna say Batman.

[BuSab Agent]

+1 Ring of Power

[Almanian!]

Michael Jackson?

[tarran]

Yes, that was the one where Dunphy claimed in an environment that was so dangerous that a group of interlopers were justified in having their guns out and ready to fire but that it wasn’t dangerous enough that a resident had no business having a firearm anywhere near him.

I can see why he was fired from the Martha’s Vineyard police force.

[sloopyinca]

It was not dunphy’s finest hour.

[NeonCat]

You know, instead of answering the door with a gun in hand, it’s probably a lot safer to make something that looks like a suicide vest, complete with wires and a little capacitor-charging sound. When the cops (if it turns out to be cops) ask you what the hell you’re thinking, tell them it’s for a costume party.

If it’s not the cops, giggle in a deranged fashion.

[Fist of Etiquette]

A narcotics officer serving with the Southeast Mississippi Metropolitan Enforcement Team shot a police dog, allegedly because he thought he was under attack when it tugged at his trousers.

Blindly firing at things. Outstanding police work.

[Tim]

Frank Drebin?

[Marshall Gill]

Are you telling me that The Naked Gun wasn’t a training video?!

[A Serious Man]

Stephen Slevin spent two years in solitary confinement, without medical attention, in a New Mexico jail on a DWI charge for which he was never brought to trial. He’s been awarded $15 million for his troubles.

Lucky number Slevin.

[A Serious Man]

Former ACORN employee wins $100,000 in damages from James O’Keefe.

[John]

No. He didn’t win the settlement. He got the settlement. That tells me O’Keefe is raking in the bucks. I love how Gawkers is so concerned about O’Keefe raising money. Get back to me when they start worrying about the SPLC. What a bunch of doucebags.

[Archduke Pantsfan]

The end of Bieber?

[Irish]

On Monday (local time) Bieber showed up two hours late to his performance in London, infuriating young fans and their parents. Many attendees had to leave early in order to get enough rest for school the next day.

This is the best paragraph I’ve ever read.

[General Butt Naked]

People love to hate on teen idols, but they invariably fuck up their lives beyond belief.

Trust me, 10 years from now he’ll be on some celebrity rehab show bitching that whatever the IRS didn’t take was owned by the record companies, so now he supports his sherm habit by doing appearances at grocery store openings.

Lesson is, don’t be bitter and say bad things; just be able to wait it out (works for fucks in your life too).

[Fist of Etiquette]

Jealous much? FELLOW BELIEBERS UNITE!

[Drake]

Hopefully he’ll be sitting between Shaun Cassidy and Leif Garrett.

[sloopyinca]

What the fuck? Marky Mark, Justin Timberlake and, and, and…well, I’m sure there are a couple of others that didn’t make a mess of their lives.

[$park?]

Cops don’t like it when the shoe is on the other foot.

Lt. Bisa French of the Richmond Police Department told The Contra Costa Times that investigators believe the unidentified officer was targeted because he works in law enforcement. The officer’s dogs were poisoned so the perpetrators could carry out the burglary and one of the animals, a 1-year-old black Labrador retriever, died in a veterinary hospital the next day. The other, a K-9 dog in the police department, is recovering, French said.

[Andrew S.]

The dogs were coming right for the guy; he had no choice.

[John]

I hate dog killers, even cop dog killers. Fucking animals.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Surveys reveal that uncertainty about policy and the economy keep the business community cautious…

Let me clear up the uncertainty. THINGS ARE GOING TO CONTINUE BEING BAD.

[rts]

Sorry if this has been discussed already (I was away and very busy), but this is making the rounds in the left-o-sphere: Wealth Inequality in America.

Whenever I ask why wealth inequality is a big deal in America, the answers range from “we’re just seconds away from guillotines and cake!” to “it’s unfair” to “theft and plunder by the 1%!”.

[Irish]

Wealth inequality has exploded under Obama. Funny how they don’t blame him.

[A Serious Man]

Just ask them if they’d like to move to Venezuela where the price of a more equitable wealth distribution has been having to scavenge for shoes and toilet paper on the black market because the currency has been so devalued.

[rts]

Too much like shouting “SOMALIA!”.

Each of the three, uh, “arguments”, are easily defeated.

[db]

Unless you’re a “Boligarch.” Then you get to use your pull to enrich yourself at the expense of everone else.

[Jordan]

Anybody who wines about wealth inequality and simultaneously supports the Fed and the regulatory leviathan is a fucking moron (i.e. a progressive).

[Calidissident]

Or supports someone who voted for TARP and supports subsidies to corporations

[DesigNate]

What I love about all of the wealth inequality bullshit is the fact that no one seems to acknowledge that the richest motherfuckers, the ones with all that cash in the video, are in one way or another part of the government.

[mad libertarian guy]

Lamb of God LIVES!!!!!

Lamb of God’s Randy Blythe has been acquitted of manslaughter charges in the Czech Republic, Novinky.cz reports. He will not serve jail time, nor does he owe any monetary damages to the family of nineteen year old fan Daniel Nosek, who suffered fatal injuries at a Lamb of God show in 2010.

\m/

[Warty]

That’s good. They continue to suck, but that’s good.

[Coeus]

Think Progress had an initial non-judgmental article on Rand’s filibuster, and the commenters were pissed.

Robert Levi Marenda ? Top Commenter ? University of Wisconsin?Whitewater
Mohammed Junaid Noori – What part of it don’t you understand? Right wingers hate Obama, that is no surprise. Right wingers also hate this country enough to attempt to destroy it. Are you following it so far?
Reply ? 16 ? ? 20 hours ago

Josef P Melech ? Top Commenter ? Albuquerque, New Mexico
smoke in mirrors, He advocated the policy under Bush.
Reply ? 13 ? ? 22 hours ago

Sharon Cooper ? Top Commenter ? Mary Washington
Oliver Richards Ron Paul being a “staunch supporter of civil liberties for a long time” depends on WHOSE civil liberties you’re talking about, doesn’t it?
Reply ? 7 ? ? 21 hours ago

[Warty]

Gregory Bembry ? U.S. MARINES School of HArd Knocks
Don’t Cops kill American Citizens who pose a threat on American Soil everyday? I mean what is he scared of? So he protects the rights of crazies to obtain weapons and kill kids…but argues against the CIA “possibly” killing an American Terrorist on American soil?
Reply ? 29 ? Like ? Follow Post ? 22 hours ago

Thom Jones ? Top Commenter ? The Johns Hopkins University
What he’s really afraid of is a black guy in the White House.
Reply ? 20 ? Like ? 21 hours ago

Uh huh. I see.

[Coeus]

So they quickly made up for it with the following:

What Rand Paul Really Thinks About Drones.

But this one is the best:

Rand Paul Praises Horrendous Supreme Court Decision, Would Let Employers Ruthlessly Exploit Workers

Lochner fabricated a so-called right to contract in order to strike down a New York law preventing bakery owners from overworking bakers

[Warty]

Stephen Toothman ? Top Commenter
Wow, the amount of Obama kool aid drinking by most liberals on this fillibuster is amazing. Completely ignore the brazen civil rights violations that Holder endorsed and focus on one line in a 13 hour fillibuster. I am ashamed to call myself a progressive this morning after watching so many on the left sell out their principles because it was Rand Paul who was speaking. Sanders and many other supposedly progressive senators really showed their mettle yesterday.
Reply ? 6 ? Like ? Follow Post ? 7 hours ago

Robert Levi Marenda ? Top Commenter ? University of Wisconsin?Whitewater
You are not a progressive. No progressive would claim other liberals were drinking, “Obama kool aid”. You are operating under a false flag.
Reply ? 21 ? Like ? 7 hours ago

Heh.

[Episiarch]

And now I have the image of Donald Sutherland pointing at what’s her name and making the Bodysnatcher scream stuck in my head. Thanks.

[Coeus]

Just like on Policeone when anyone says the cops might have gone too far.

[EDG reppin' LBC]

And now I have the image of Donald Sutherland pointing at what’s her name…

That’s some sloppy commenting there. With the internet, you could have at least Googled the actress’ name (Veronica Cartwright). or linked to the scene from Youtube. Disappointing.

[Episiarch]

Normally I would, jerk, but I’m trying to get a service up and running and it’s blowing up on me and my time is limited.

[RBS]

No true scotsman!

[Irish]

The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.

– Ninth Amendment

Everything the government cannot expressly do as part of the constitution is to be left to the people. Everything. This includes the right to contract as you see fit.

[Coeus]

Update: Volokh responds to Think Progress Lochner article.

A summary (shamelessly stolen from another comment):

1) Lochner was fundamentally about the court protecting individual rights against majoritarian tendencies.
2) Of course Bork didn’t like Lochner, as Bork was a conservative majoritarian, not a civil libertarian. Bork hated the concept of substantive due process because it interfered with state’s ability to regulate abortion.
3) Millhiser either doesn’t know what the court actually did during the Lochner era, or willingly misrepresents it.

[Coeus]

cont…

4) The law at issue in Lochner was one that was authored and supported by large corporations because it gave them an advantage in the market. The law was challenged by the small independent businesses that were intended targets of the corporate backers.
5) The only case of the era that successfully defended a woman’s right to work was one based on the ‘liberty of contract’ theory, which was opposed by progessives at the time. (“The only case to explicitly defend women’s right to equality in employment law until the 1920s was Adkins v. Children’s Hospital, a liberty of contract case much scorned by Progressives of the 1920s, and by the separate group of self-described Progressives today”)
6) Despite what Millhiser thinks, the Lochner court never disputed the idea that health and safety regulations come within the state police power.
7) W.E.B. Du Bois himself credited Buchanan (a liberty of contract case) with “breaking the backbone of segregation,”

[Heroic Mulatto]

Josef P Melech ? Top Commenter ? Albuquerque, New Mexico
smoke in mirrors, He advocated the policy under Bush.
Reply ? 13 ? ? 22 hours ago

So I guess Mr. Melech was a patient of Rand’s back in the Bush days, and they had a conversation about it during his eye exam?

[Episiarch]

Words fail. These people aren’t sheep, they’re androids and they’ve received their programming. Even sheep can have an independent thought or action once in a while.

[Raston Bot]

Erik Rieder ? Brooklyn Park, Minnesota
Name me one American citizen who has been killed on American soil by a drone attack?

[Irish]

If the government hasn’t done it yet, we should not worry when they give themselves the power.

GODWIN ALERT!!!!!!!

In 1930, the Germans hadn’t killed any Jews yet, either.

GODWIN COMPLETE

[Shine on, Nikki Diamond]

This man clearly watched Lindsay Graham with his important chart earlier today.

[Brandon]

He advocated the policy under Bush.

Do they even know who Rand Paul is?

[jesse.in.mb]

Maybe they’re confusing him with Ron Paul. Oh, wait that doesn’t really work either 🙁

[A Serious Man]

He’s the enemy and that’s all that matters.

[Archduke Pantsfan]

Whenever you go grocery shopping, or into your kitchen, you’re in a war zone. You have to really be prepared before you go in,” she said. She decides, in advance, exactly what she’s going to eat, and she forces herself to stick to the plan. Because she knows she is just one sweet mouthful away from a descent back into hell. Pat Guillet is a food addict.

[Warty]

Maybe those people should squat more.

[Episiarch]

I have a better suggestion: maybe these people should SHUT THE FUCK UP.

[RBS]

Both!

[Irish]

A descent back into hell. Oh good lord that is fucking stupid.

[Heroic Mulatto]

BIG FOOD!!!!

That’s the stupidest “Big” slur I’ve ever read.

“These companies rely on deep science and pure science to understand how we’re attracted to food and how they can make their foods attractive to us,” Michael Moss said.

How dare a company attempt to make its product more marketable! You’d think they were trying to make money or something!

On the art of “more-ishness,” Lukehurst explained it this way. “Some products, like most savoury snack products, want to be continually more-ish, so at the end of each product, they want you to reach out for the next product and put it in again, and they often achieve that by having an intense taste at the front of the mouth, and that dies off quickly, and so by the time you’ve finished each mouthful, you’re looking to re-taste what you’ve lost.”

The crunch is also crucial, Lukehurst said. “It’s partly the noise, the noise amplifies, through the jaw bones connected to your ears, and you can hear the crunch quite loudly when you bite. But it’s also the physical requirement to chew on something and crunch it. It just distracts you and pours your mind onto what you’re eating.”

It’s not my fault I’m a lardass with no self-control! It’s the JEWS Food Industry’s fault! They’ve taken control of my BRAIN!!!

[Zeb]

WEll, now I’m going to go home and eat a box of Cheezits. And I won’t get fat.

[Heroic Mulatto]

For Pat Guillet, back in her kitchen, determinedly chopping celery, there is little hope for relief. “If I had one spoonful of ice cream, I would want the whole tub,” she said. “And there were times I ate the whole tub. And I would sit there and say ‘I’ve gotta stop, I’ve gotta stop,’ really feeling completely unable to act on what my brain is telling me.”

That’s why she is bracing for a lifelong battle with the sugar demons that lurk in the processed food aisle. “These foods are so addictive, so appealing, they give you a high and you feel better,” she said. “And the thing many food addicts say is, long after the food causes us joy, long after it causes us misery, we still couldn’t stop. It becomes hard-wired and it’s very hard to overcome.”

So my food is supposed to taste like shit, because you have a genetic pre-dispoition for being a tub of lard? Fuck you, Pat.

Besides, how many of these ninnies would take the the responsibility for feeding themselves into their own hands, and I don’t know, plant a fucking garden? Perhaps raise a few backyard chickens? Or even buy shares in community supported agriculture? No, it’s much more satisfying to be a grievance-monger and engage in a self-righteous and self-indulgent crusade against food science.

I can’t wait until these people are dragged from their homes and hanged from the nearest lamppost or tree branch.

[Ruckus]

So when food tastes good you want more of it? I smell a market opportunity there.

I can only assume, as an amateur internet psychologist, that stressing over the food you are consuming, while you are consuming it, is probably not good for one’s health.

[a better weapon]

Seriously. If Aisle 9 keeps beckoning to you to stuff your fat fucking face then maybe you shouldn’t be at a fucking grocery store. Go to the farmer’s market every Wednesday and Friday. Enroll in a home delivery grocery service. Hire a friend or family member to grocery shop for you to save you from your goddamn self, your “addiction,” and certainly from the food scientists.

The way Pat speaks is completely without any sense of responsibility and its truly nauseating. I hope Pat has a massive coronary and soon.

[mad libertarian guy]

I can’t wait until these people are dragged from their homes and hanged from the nearest lamppost or tree branch.

And break a perfectly good tree? Why do you hate trees?

[Zeb]

Fucking fat-asses want the world to be set up for them alone. If it weren’t for delicious, compulsion inducing food, I’d waste away to nothing.

[DesigNate]

I too know the sirens call of Little Debbies and Oreos. But sweet fucking Christ, it’s called self control.

[Sevo]

Pat Guillet is a raging ignoramus.
Fixed.

[Archduke Pantsfan]

Jezza swears off Australia

[Brandon]

glitzy Woolloomooloo wharf.

I think the author is having a stroke.

[Archduke Pantsfan]

Barbie Man

[NeonCat]

Before I clicked on your link I smiled, a smarmy kind of smile, the smile of the man I knew to be at the end of the link.

I was right on the money.

[NeonCat]

I shouldn’t be unfair. This guy isn’t hurting anyone.

[Atanarjuat]

Well, that’s weird as fuck, but you’re right, he’s a better person than most of the sadistic cops and venal politicians highlighted daily on HnR.

Apparently the guy’s boyfriend has collected every Ken doll in existence. I don’t say this often, but that is truly a match made in heaven.

[Rhywun]

I thought it was going to be one of those plastic surgery disaster stories – so I was pleasantly surprised not to be throwing up after clicking the link.

[Shine on, Nikki Diamond]

How the FDA is keeping new cigarettes off the market:

Also in October 2011, Sley asked whether his plan to age tobacco in cedar, a common practice in the cigar industry, would violate the Tobacco Control Act’s ban on characterizing flavors. David Ashley, director of the Office of Science at the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products, replied by merely quoting the statute without clarification. Despite multiple follow-ups, Sley still has not received an answer. In an interview in February, Ashley said that he had not thought about the question. A spokesperson for the FDA has declined any further comment on the issue.

Of course, that’s just one of the many sweet, sweet ways.

[Coeus]

I love the comments on that one. Crony capitalism is fine, as long as it’s cigarettes. I thought they hated “Big Tobacco”?

[Coeus]

an example:

LaurelhurstLiberal ? a day ago ?
It’s an industry which has been shown to target kids with cartoon brands and candy-flavored cigarettes. I understand that an affiliate of the Big Tobacco-friendly Cato and Reason institutes would be upset that the business is being regulated with an eye to the public’s health rather than to the bottom line, but maybe that’s what’s needed for while. In any case, the 1998 Master Settlement Agreement does much more to keep newcomers out of the tobacco business than the FDA does.

[Irish]

Wait…Reason and Cato are against regulations that are HELPING Big Tobacco. That’s what the entire article is about. How are they ‘Big Tobacco friendly?’

[Irish]

Also, KOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOCH!

[Shine on, Nikki Diamond]

I think you answered your own question there, Irish.

[generic Brand]

cooch?

[Irish]

Coochtopus! That sounds way dirtier than the normal word.

[Rhywun]

“That’s my little Coochtopussy.” Sorry… I was just watching some Bond the other day.

[Killazontherun]

Why Mr. Sley, you are free to produce your product as you wish, and you are free to offer it for sale with the understanding that it is up to the customer to decide if he is informed enough to use the product in a manner suitable to his interest. Why would you need permission? It’s free country, right?

[Jerry on the boat]

Senate confirms Brennan as CIA Director

Lawmakers approve Obama’s choice despite Rand Paul’s 13-hour rant.

Rant, rant?! FU Yahoo Mail.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

Ron Paul Forum: Hugo Chavez Could Be Dead

RIP Chavez

You do know that he helped the people in Venezuela right?

Gotta love people on the site talking trash Chavez. Oh he killed people, oh he took other people’s property, oh he is a socialist etc etc. I hope you guys will say the same thing when say a Rand Paul/Amash or Mike Lee becomes president and the killing of people(wars), taking of properties(taxes) and the socialism(medicare and SS) in the country doesn’t immediately end.

A wise man once said, if you are going in the right direction, all you have to do is keep walking. The man greatly improved the country and for the most part he stopped the thieving of the country’s national resources by foreign corporations and if that makes him a monster then so be it.

Question: what the hell?!

[Irish]

This is yet more evidence that a lot of people who support Ron Paul aren’t really libertarians, they’re just paranoid dumbasses who have been drawn in by a cult of personality. They’re like Obama supporters.

That said, most of the people there seemed anti-Chavez, so I probably shouldn’t tar them all with the same brush.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

Think it’s about half-and-half.

Still, pretty embarrassing that libertarians are getting lapped by muddle-headed conservatives when it comes to clearly denouncing a true-blue tyrant.

[Archduke Pantsfan]

A matt black Lamborghini Aventador chasing down the Batmobile.

[Dunphy (the real one)]

Speaking of New Mexico, iirc New Mexico requires all custodial interrogations at a precinct to be videotaped. That’s certainly a proactive step in open govt. and striking a blow against potential interrogatorial misconduct.

[Almanian!]

That worked out really super for this dude Slevin.

[Dunphy (the real one)]

Not really. Nor is it a fault with cops, but a fault with “corrections officers”.

[Ken Shultz]

“U.S. companies are returning money to shareholders. Surveys reveal that uncertainty about policy and the economy keep the business community cautious.”

It’s also hard for small to medium sized businesses to get loan these days. …not because their balance sheets aren’t good–but because the regulators are still breathing down the regional banks’ necks.

Despite ObamaCare, I still say heaping regulation on the financial industry–when we were just coming out of the recession–was the stupidest thing Obama did. Not having pulled the plug on that regulation despite the choke job its doing on hiring? That would be the second stupidest thing Obama ever did.

[Almanian!]

also, this ^^

[Ken Shultz]

Yeah, how does a growing small to medium sized business expand their business without financing?

I know it’s hard for Obama and his retarded followers to understand, but the unemployment rate goes down when businesses are expanding.

[Soda]

Small to medium sized businesses don’t count. That’s not where the big donors are.

[Almanian!]

Rather than hire new workers or expand their businesses, U.S. companies are returning money to shareholders. Surveys reveal that uncertainty about policy and the economy keep the business community cautious

derp

Is this still a thing? Helllloooooo – the gummint keeps larding on the spend-o-matic mandates, and be all raisin’ taxes and shit – yeah, we’re not doing a lot of hiring.

Fuck you, US, state and local government elected officials and employees.

[Ken Shultz]

Oh, yeah, and why the fuck would I feel compelled to chase marginally more profits, when I know the dipshits in the government have already squandered my profits for the next ten years and beyond?

Meanwhile, if I keep my workforce under 50 people, ObamaCare doesn’t cost me as much as it would otherwise.

[Sevo]

“The FBI has joined the investigation into the murder of Marco McMillian, a black and openly gay candidate for mayor of Clarksdale, Mississippi. The feds want to determine if the killing was a “hate crime.””
Of *course* it was a hate crime you idiots! Somebody hated him!

[Coeus]

It’s looking like a gay lover did it. For some reason, those killings seem to be particularly violent.

[EDG reppin' LBC]

Two dudes. They may be gay, but they are still dudes.

[Coeus]

I was specifically referring to the post murder mutilation. Which does not seem to be anywhere near as common as when a man kills a woman he was involved with.

[Irish]

Domestic violence is a huge problem in the gay community. Of course, people hardly ever talk about it because progressives care more about attacking their political opponents than protecting the people they claim to want to protect.

[Sevo]

This beating seemed to be:
“The punches from Harris broke bones around Geier’s eye socket and led a metal plate being installed in his face and other surgeries, said his attorney Craig Charles.”
http://www.sportsgrid.com/nfl/…..soy-sauce/
Oh, and for those who think there’s no gay NFL players, well…

[BuSab Agent]

They want to know if it was special hate, ordinary hate just won’t do.

[Coeus]

EU votes on a complete ban on pornography. Guess what group is pushing it? Go ahead, guess. Here’s a hint: The report calling for the ban is titled “Eliminating Gender Stereotypes in the EU”. Do you see, PBrooks and OldMex? Do you see?

[EDG reppin' LBC]

This is the leftist toad that proposed the legislation. Enough said.

[Irish]

Oh my god…its eyes. Its eyes.

[Killazontherun]

You are pulling my leg. That’s the picture of a toy store troll doll, not a human being.

[Coeus]

I am frankly amazed. Jennifer Rubin said something I agree with.

And so it’s come to this: Rand Paul talking all by himself on the Senate floor. On one level, it shows the power of a single senator to make a difference. On the other hand, it is a very sad statement on the intellectual collapse of both the right and the left ? and most especially of the media, whose first impulse in this administration is to circle the wagons around the White House.

And as for those pushing filibuster reform ? in essence running interference for an administration that wants no push-back from any quarter on any nominee or legislation ? they might take a good look at why the ability of the minority to hold up the majority is something we shouldn’t easily cast aside.

[Coeus]

Fark really, really hates people defending their property.

[BigT]

Texas proposes one of nation’s “most sweeping” mobile privacy laws
If signed into law, cops would finally need a warrant to get location data.

http://arstechnica.com/tech-po…..vacy-laws/

[Coeus]

Now that is a strange thing to come out of Texas. Though with our authoritarian streak, I doubt it’ll pass.

[SumpTump]

Dude seems to know what time it is.

http://www.WorldAnon.da.bz

[BuSab Agent]

Anonbot does live (exist?) in Indiana then.