"The question is: how much farther must we travel down this road before people will be compelled to admit that 'the land of the free' is more a reassuring myth than a description of the land in which we actually live—to recognize that the freedoms to go shopping and browse the Web are not enough to make a society genuinely free?" Continue reading →
"At his confirmation hearing on Thursday, President Barack Obama’s nominee for CIA director refused to state whether or not waterboarding was a form of torture. When pressed by Democratic Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan, John Brennan said the simulated drowning technique should be banned. However, he repeatedly declined to label the practice torture." Continue reading →
"Thanks to NBC News, a lot of (now-former) drone supporters are confronted with a confidential Justice Department white paper justifying presidential killing of American citizens abroad, seemingly on the basis of thin air. The document, 16 pages of Bushian doublespeak, declares 'Here the Justice Department concludes only that where the following three conditions are met, a U.S. operation using lethal force in a foreign country against a U.S. citizen who is a senior operational leader of al-Qa’ida or an associated force would be lawful.' In other words, we’ll obliterate you because of reasons, and you’re now a terrorist because we said so." Continue reading →
"To save America from the supposedly 'savage' and 'draconian' budget cuts caused by sequestration, President Obama has instead asked Congress to approve an alternative fiscal package containing additional tax increases. So why is the sequester so bad? Does it slash the budget by 50 percent? Does it shut down departments, programs, and agencies? Well, the Congressional Budget Office today released its annual Budget and Economic Outlook, and Tables 1-1 and 1-5 allow us to see the 'brutal' impact of the sequester. As you can see from this chart, the sequester will 'cut' spending so much that the budget will grow by 'only' $2.4 trillion over the next 10 years." Continue reading →
"Republican strategist Karl Rove ripped the media on Tuesday for attacking Bush administration officials who justified the use of torture. He also praised President Barack Obama for using drone strikes to kill suspected terrorists, including U.S. citizens. The former Bush adviser said that officials like Alberto Gonzales, John Yoo, Jay Bybee and others were 'excoriated' and 'hounded' by liberals and the media. Yet the Obama administration has faced little criticism for justifying the use of drone strikes against U.S. citizens. Though Rove believed the 'cowardly' media was 'hypocritical' and 'callow,' he said he supported the President’s use of drones." Continue reading →
"For years, state Democratic parties have been gathering information about individual voters’ political leanings. They have noted down the opinions voters shared with canvassers - which candidates they said they supported or their positions on policy issues. Now, the record of what people told Democratic volunteers may go up for sale - and not just to political groups. Democrats are looking into whether credit card companies, retailers like Target or other commercial interests may want to buy the information." Continue reading →
"History does not necessarily repeat itself predictably, but there are patterns worth noting here that reemerge again and again. In election season, we hear countless theories about what electoral trends 'always hold' in presidential politics. Well, I’ve identified a fairly unsettling pattern myself: Democrats seem to become more bellicose in their second term. In the last hundred years, starting when early 20th century progressivism began shaping the ideology of the modern Democratic Party, the trend seems clear." Continue reading →
"The State Department has shut down the office of its special envoy for the closure of Guantanamo Bay, a US official said Monday, in a sign of the fading hopes of shuttering the jail. Daniel Fried, the special envoy in charge of the dossier, will now move to coordinate the State Department’s sanctions policy, including for Iran and Syria. Of the 779 inmates who passed through Guantanamo only nine were ever convicted or brought to trial, and of the 166 who remain, 55 are considered safe to be released by the US military, but have nowhere to go." Continue reading →
"The video also shows Fiasco seemingly doing an a capella freestyle rap away from the microphone while members of the crowd cheer. Buzzfeed quoted Josh Rogin, a writer for The Cable, as saying Fiasco went on 'an anti-Obama diatribe mid-set' and stayed on stage for 30 minutes without doing a different song. The footage does show Fiasco talking to security personnel before being led off the stage." Continue reading →
"With its talk of 'destroying' enemies and confronting 'jihadi terrorists', France has adopted a language of war for its intervention in Mali that few expected from Socialist President Francois Hollande. As French warplanes carry out airstrikes and French troops clash with Islamist rebels in the West African country, Hollande and his ministers seem to have taken a page from former US president George W. Bush’s playbook on war-time communications. French media reported that ministers have been banned from using the words 'Islamist fighters' in statements on the conflict and must always refer to rebels as 'terrorists'." Continue reading →