Politics

Domestic drones and their unique dangersDismissive claims that drones do nothing more than helicopters and satellites already do are wildly misinformed Glenn Greenwald guardian.co.uk,Friday 29 March 2013 10.48 EDT AR Drone: almost certainly the world's first Wi-Fi enabled iPhone-controllable miniature flying device. The use of drones by domestic US law enforcement agencies is growing rapidly, both in terms of numbers and types of usage. As a result, civil liberties and privacy groups led by the ACLU - while accepting that domestic drones are inevitable - have been devoting increasing efforts to publicizing their unique dangers and agitating for statutory limit…

On this week's episode of "Real Time," Bill Maher used his final "New Rule" of the night to take on Libertarianism and the conservatives whose obsessions with Ayn Rand have "ruined" the political philosophy for him. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9PezT3n4To

Seen it before, but doesn't hurt repeating...

WTF. First our munificent Congress enacts Obamacare without knowing what it contains and no one understands it and then, suddenly, there becomes a need for 100,000+ civil servants to interpret it. At best this is a travesty of the blind leading the blind down a road to havoc and ruin of our medical care delivery system and maybe our already shattered economy. At worst it was a political ploy from the beginning to hire more federal workers for their votes and to seemingly stimulate the economy. Some federal workers are obviously necessary but none of them produces a product or increases the productivity of the economy. They do not pay more taxes, they only require th…

For the love of God. As it were... Proposal would allow state religion in North Carolina By Laura Leslie Posted: 8:29 p.m. yesterday Updated: 10:43 a.m. today Raleigh, N.C. — A bill filed by Republican lawmakers would allow North Carolina to declare an official religion, in violation of the Establishment Clause of the U.S. Bill of Rights, and seeks to nullify any federal ruling against Christian prayer by public bodies statewide. The legislation grew out of a dispute between the American Civil Liberties Union and the Rowan County Board of Commissioners. In a federal lawsuit filed last month, the ACLU says the board has opened 97 percent of its meetings since 2007 …

A small town in North Georgia passed an ordinance last night that requires every household to own a gun and ammunition. City of Nelson council members are seeking to make a point about gun rights with this measure, which contains no penalties and exempts anyone who objects. City Councilman Duane Cronic believes it will make the town safer. http://abcnews.go.com/US/georgia-towns-law-gun/story?id=18863226#.UVtgo7_PX5i This has to be the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard. We have the inmates running the asylum.

Anyone care to comment on the so called Monsanto Law recently "slipped" by Congress and signed into law by BO ignoring a 250,000 signature petition to veto it? Basically this absolves Monsanto and others who are genetically modifying grain and other food crops of any and all current and future blame when and if any negative effects are found. Long term effects are not now known. Best regards, RA1

The numbers prove it: The GOP is estranged from America By Andrew Kohut, Friday, March 22, 11:05 AM Andrew Kohut is the founding director and former president of the Pew Research Center. He served as president of the Gallup Organization from 1979 to 1989. In my decades of polling, I recall only one moment when a party had been driven as far from the center as the Republican Party has been today. The outsize influence of hard-line elements in the party base is doing to the GOP what supporters of Gene McCarthy and George McGovern did to the Democratic Party in the late 1960s and early 1970s — radicalizing its image and standing in the way of its revitalization. …

Mother Jones maps how the gun industry has inserted itself into NRA's upper echelons. With predictable results. Which, as this and other reporting is making more and more evident, look to be much at odds with views of many sane hunting-type rank-&-file NRA members. http://m.motherjones.com/politics/2013/01/nra-board-newtown-bushmaster?page=1

Pentagon Papers lawyer on Obama, secrecy and press freedoms: 'worse than Nixon' Career First Amendment and transparency advocate James Goodale sounds the alarm about the current president Glenn Greenwald guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 19 March 2013 17.40 EDT In 1971, when the New York Times decided to publish the Pentagon Papers leaked to it by Daniel Ellsberg, it knew it was triggering a major fight with the secrecy-obsessed Nixon administration. As expected, the Nixon administration sued the NYT in an attempt to ban it from publishing the documents, but the US Supreme Court, in a landmark decision for press freedom, ruled the prior restraint unconstitutional. The paper…

The following is the complete text of the president's address as prepared for delivery. Mr. Speaker, Mr. Vice President, Members of Congress, fellow citizens: Fifty-one years ago, John F. Kennedy declared to this Chamber that "the Constitution makes us not rivals for power but partners for progress...It is my task," he said, "to report the State of the Union - to improve it is the task of us all." Tonight, thanks to the grit and determination of the American people, there is much progress to report. After a decade of grinding war, our brave men and women in uniform are coming home. After years of grueling recession, our businesses have created over six million n…

Advised that the Politics forum is also the repository for things religious, herewith without comment... http://www.naturist-christians.org/

Cardinal Keith O'Brien was in long-term gay relationship, claims 'partner' Formerly Britain's most senior Catholic cleric O'Brien is renowned for railing against homosexuality The Independent Thursday 21 March 2013 Cardinal Keith O’Brien, formerly Britain’s most senior Catholic cleric and a man renowned for railing against homosexuality, was in a “longstanding physical relationship” with one of the men whose recent allegations brought about his downfall, it has been claimed. According to a report in The Herald newspaper, Cardinal O’Brien confessed to the relationship after it was recently revealed there had been several complaints to the Vatican about his sexual beh…

Hillary Clinton endorses same-sex marriage http://usat.ly/WyRXJA

Granted made for TV and for dramatic impact, but may provoke some thinking. What do you think and do you agree or disagree with what is being said? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16K6m3Ua2nw&feature=player_embedded

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-34222_162-57560668-10391739/sen-michael-crapo-arrested-on-dui-in-virginia/

An article about a German fighter pilot who took pity on an American bomber pilot and crew during WWII currently leads cnn.com. Key excerpt: ... What is this bond that surfaces between enemies during and after battle? It's called the warrior's code, say soldiers and military scholars. It's shaped cultures as diverse as the Vikings, the Samurai, the Romans and Native Americans, says Shannon E. French, author of "Code of the Warrior." The code is designed to protect the victor, as well as the vanquished, French says. "People think of the rules of war primarily as a way to protect innocent civilians from being victims of atrocities," she says. "In a much more profound se…

Christine Quinn has officially launched her bid to become the first openly gay mayor of New York City. Quinn leads virtually all polls, with a high profile as City Council Speaker for seven years. If she has a liability, it's not that she's a married lesbian, it's that she's seen as too friendly to Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who people love to hate.

Interesting article for California residents needing health insurance or wanting to change health insurance companies. http://elcerrito.patch.com/articles/coming-soon-a-new-way-to-buy-health-insurance-in-california

Queen Elizabeth II has requested television time to sign what is being called ahistoric pledge of non-discrimination in the Commonwealth. "We are implacably opposed to all forms of discrimination, whether rooted in gender, race, colour, creed, political belief or other grounds." Other grounds is meant to refer to GLBT people, but toned down to defer to members of the Commonwealth that still have draconian gay laws. While it sounds like a cop out to me, diplomatic sources say "The impact of this statement on gay and women’s rights should not be underestimated. Nothing this progressive has ever been approved by the United Nations. And it is most unusual for the Queen to r…

Now this definitely belongs in the Politics forum. From politico.com... Friday cocktail: Corpse Reviver (No. 2) By DYLAN BYERS and MACKENZIE WEINGER | 3/8/13 5:00 PM EDT It's always five o'clock somewhere, and sometimes that place happens to be Washington, D.C. Every Friday, starting today, we're asking one member of the media to share a favorite cocktail recipe. This gives journalists, pundits, hacks and flacks a chance to share their personal tastes with our readers, while giving us a chance to post something pertaining neither to media perfidy nor partisanship. Because we could all use a break. Our inaugural recipe comes from Ryan Lizza, The New Yorker’s Washingt…

Withering analysis of DOJ internal memo justifying targeted assassinations of citizens, just obtained & released by Isikoff: http://m.guardiannews.com/commentisfree/2013/feb/05/obama-kill-list-doj-memo The memo itself: http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/i/msnbc/sections/news/020413_DOJ_White_Paper.pdf

For are committed Fox watchers here, PLAGIARISM, twice in one week! http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/08/juan-williams-plagiarism-researcher_n_2836427.html Fox News pundit Juan Williams has been caught lifting large portions of a Center for American Progress report for a recent column. Salon's Alex Seitz-Wald reported Thursday night that The Hill newspaper had recently revised a Williams piece about immigration reform after it was discovered that whole paragraphs were extremely similar to a CAP study on the subject. In an interview with Salon, Williams blamed his researcher, who he said gave him what Williams thought were "his words and summaries" of the CAP repor…

It's looking to me like if the Voting Rights Act is to survive it will take an extraordinary position by Roberts to make it so. The other conservatives are a sure vote to kill. Swing vote Anthony Kennedy's questions indicated leaning against the act. That would comport with his 'populist' leanings which can be described about getting government out of the way. Think Rand Paul and the Public Accommodations Act. News is breaking today that as a lawyer for the Reagan Admin, Roberts worked to undo the Voting Right Act. That was 30 years ago. That does not portend well for saving the Act. However, his Obama Care vote gives me hope that Mr Roberts has grown in perspective f…