New ☆ Tweet from @socarolinesays

BILL: Hil did you see me and Barack on Twitter today HILL: Yep BILL: Oh, you didn’t fave HILL: Nope BILL: Can u fav http://pic.twitter.com/xdBZL6ZGiw

— Caro (@socarolinesays) May 18, 2015

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New ☆ Tweet from @kcm74

A walk-in. Not "enhanced interrogation." Not torture. Zero Dark thirty is pure CIA agitprop. In other words, lies. http://t.co/fmeeQRpLDt

— Kevin Murphy (@kcm74) May 12, 2015

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In our names, funded with the taxes we pay ...

How Many Have We Killed? by David Cole | NYRblog | The New York Review of Books: 

International law acknowledges that killing is not always illegal or wrong, and that a government has the authority to do so as a last resort in genuine self-defense. But if the US government’s targeted killings are lawful, we should have no hesitation in making them public. Surely the least we can do is to literally count and report the lives we’ve taken. Yet even that, for “the most transparent administration in history,” is apparently too much.

Dear Elected Officials (A Citizen's Ask)

President Obama, let's pick up where FDR left off ...

As a citizen of the United States of America, I'd like to ask the following of my elected representatives ...

Franklin D. Roosevelt proposed a second Bill of Rights in his 1944 State of the Union Address. In time for the 70th anniversary of his proposal, I humbly ask that my Representatives and Senators work towards preparing and passing a Joint Resolution enumerating those six rights: 

• employment with a living wage, 
• public education -- including, but not necessarily limited too, an undergraduate degree for those who would seek it, 
• Social Security, 
• universal health care, 
• housing, and 
• the right of every business to trade fairly without monopolies or unfair competition at home or abroad,

 to be ratified per Article V of the Constitution.

If, as a society, we can afford a decade plus of wars, a nuclear weapons stockpile, and hundreds (!!) of millions of dollars in spending on political campaigns*, then we can certainly afford the costs of the programs proposed. There is no question we are a wealthy enough society to pay for these things. It is simply a matter of priorities. It will take tremendous will, political courage, and a superhuman effort to make this happen. I will do everything in my power as a private citizen to assist, anything my country would ask of me, but only Congress can make it happen -- and they'll need strong direction from the Chief Executive to get this, or anything, done. 

In addition to the economic Bill of Rights proposed by FDR, the following rights should also be enshrined in the Constitution so no state can strip them unjustly from an American citizen:

• the right of any adult person to marry another adult person provided neither are already married
• the right of every person to obtain contraception to prevent unwanted pregnancy
• the right of every woman to terminate an unwanted pregnancy based on her own judgment
• the right of every person to be free from prohibitions against the use of recreational drugs provided they do no harm to others and do not support criminal organizations by their use

Finally, while amending the Constitution (as long as the hood is already up, so to speak) we should modernize, clarify, fix, or outright repeal, the Second Amendment. It is a dangerous, misunderstood antiquity. We must recognize that our Founding Fathers simply did not foresee the developments in technology that would lead to weapons that allow people to kill dozens, hundreds even, of their fellow citizens in a matter minutes, nor did they know we would maintain such a large military force to protect the nation. The idea of armed citizens forming militias to protect the nation from an invasion is laughable, Red Dawn notwithstanding. We can, and should, debate the rights and responsibilities of sportsmen and those who make an informed decision to maintain a firearm for defense of home, but there is no reason for anyone other than an active duty soldier or law enforcement officer to carry, never mind own, an automatic weapon.


* Can any of the things in this post be done before meaningful campaign finance reform is accomplished? Publicly financed elections, candidates able to get exposure based on the merit of their positions instead of their fundraising skills/connections, inclusive debates, an opening of the political system to those outside the plutocratic class: these are necessities for a properly functioning democracy, not mere nice-to-haves. 

Election Night 2012: The long march to an Obama victory just ended!

How about that Todd Akin concession speech? God, faith, you built that, blah, blah, blah. He couldn't shovel the theocratic nonsense fast enough. Did he ever concede in the midst of that blizzard of Tea Party bullet points and buzzwords? Good riddance.

Gack ... NC just went red per MSNBC.

• NC for Romney (This was my riskiest call for Obama and now I don't get to brag about what skilled prognosticator I am. Dangit. Since it looks like Florida will for Obama, my best brag might be I'm leaning sub-par. Which is still better than Karl Rove, who makes a lot of money being even more wrong than me.)

Here's one where I'm right though just coming in:

• IA for Obama

And here it is just now:

• OH for Obama! And we're done. 

What a relief.

Election Night 2012: Too early to assess all the picks ...

... but so far I'm 5 for 6. Admittedly, these were some of the less difficult picks that I had relatively high confidence in:

• MI for Obama
• WI for Obama
• PA for Obama (Romney and  was deluded to think he could steal this one.)
• CT Senate - Murphy (D) defeated McMahon (R) 
• MA Senate - Warren (D) defeated Brown (R) -- Woot!
• IN Senate - Donnelly (D) defeated Mourdock (R) -- Excellent! I got it wrong but what a relief!

That Warren call just came in and bolstered my spirits. That is a key win for progressives.

And even more recently, I'm wrong on Mourdock, who I thought Hoosiers might straight-party vote in along with Romney. 

Based on early returns, it looks like I'm going be wrong on NC (which was my boldest pick for Obama) and FL (where I thought Rick Scott would manage to scumbag a narrow victory for Romney). As much as this would damage my predictor credibility, it's a better outcome than I'd dare to hope for.

I'm thinking some of these 'too close to calls' will start getting called soon so going to break from typing and let a few play out ... 

What Would Mitt Romney Do?

A 10-year-old girl with two dads wrote to Obama, thanked him for supporting same-sex marriage. He replied: lettersofnote.com/2012/11/our-di…
— Shaun Usher (@LettersOfNote) November 6, 2012

Let's speculate ...

[Ripple dissolve to Mitt Romney sitting in the Oval Office, he writes ... ]

From the Desk of Mitt Romney 

Dear Sophia,  

Your family is an abomination. Everything they say about you at school is correct.
Rest assured, I am doing everything in my power to ensure no homosexuals can ever marry or raise children.  

Enclosed please find a helpful pamphlet produced by the Church of Latter Day Saints that I'm sure will answer all your questions!

Contemptuously yours,
Mitt Romney

This election matters.

It may not be much comfort to all the future Pakistani drone victims out there but, come to think of it, imagine what Romney would use them for given the chance ...

Any North Carolina Libertarians planning to hold their nose and vote Romney interested in a vote pairing arrangement?

As a registered Democrat prepared to vote Obama, but who'd rather vote for Jill Stein, I'm wondering if there's any registered Republican with Libertarian leanings who's declared their intention to vote for Romney, but would rather vote Gary Johnson?

If so, we should talk.

Vote pairing isn't so unusual. However, it looks like the sites that used to facilitate this process have gone offline so we'd have to come to a gentleman's agreement. I've been open and direct about my intent to vote Obama in 2012, and did vote for him in 2008. But, if I could be satisfied that someone on the right with the equivalent dilemma, who's already on record either on a blog, on twitter, or somewhere reasonably verifiable as planning to vote for Romney, I'd be willing to vote for Jill Stein if that person would vote someone other than Romney.

NC is, I think, going to end up going Romney anyways. There are some recent polls that have Obama taking the lead back here; but, Nate Silver currently has NC 68.9% likely to go for Romney. If we were dark red, I wouldn't offer the pairing, I'd just vote Stein. Same if the state were dark blue. I dread the prospect of this state going Romney in a close count though, so I'll need to trust the integrity of any prospective partner in this operation. It'd probably take a few conversations, or a really good one over a beer, before I'd commit to the scheme.

Let me know here in the comments or on Schemer.

Has anyone else on the left considered this, or heard of anyone else in a swing/close-to-being-a-swing state trying to make a similar arrangement?

"You can't stop the signal, Mal." (Obama as Mr. Universe)

U.S. Underwrites Internet Detour Around Censors Abroad - NYTimes.com:

The Obama administration is leading a global effort to deploy “shadow” Internet and mobile phone systems that dissidents can use to undermine repressive governments that seek to silence them by censoring or shutting down telecommunications networks.

Can these rumblings turn into a primary challenger for Obama in 2012?

Budget Showdown Democrats' Disgust with Obama - The Daily Beast: 

Obama image via Daily Beast

There is no more visible symbol of Democratic disgruntlement than the woman who was perhaps the president’s closest ally when she wielded the speaker’s gavel. When Nancy Pelosi voted against the budget measure Thursday, she did little to hide her anger with the White House over the fact that Obama, for the first time, had left her out of the negotiations on a major deal. Instead, he chose to work directly with Boehner and Reid to hammer out the compromise that each could take back to their caucuses for approval.

There are so few progressives in Congress, and no money behind any of them, so what do we do? We could try, but we know we can't get Bernie Sanders elected, right? So who then? Surely not Grayson or Kucinich? (I love Kucinich, but when your top google auto-complete searches after your name are "lawsuit" and "olive pit" and you know they're going to photoshop his head onto the top of a tank with a big ol' helmet on ... ) Wellstone? Who could be a legitimate contender?

Mitt Romney to Birthers: Chill, idiots. (He'll never get the nomination now.)

Mitt Romney: President Obama Was Born in the US: 

Romney is well placed to comment on issues relating to citizenship and the presidency, notes Daniel Freedman at Forbes. The Romney family lawyers probed the issue in the '60s when his father, George Romney, was seeking the Republican nomination. The Michigan governor was born to American parents in a Mormon colony in Chihuahua, Mexico. Romney's opponents labeled him 'Chihuahua George' but his eligibility for the presidency was never seriously challenged, Freedman notes.

He's right, there are real reasons to defeat Obama in 2012; however, I don't think Romney has any real clue what they are, because a President that's (even more) of a Screw-The-Poor-Welfare-For-The-Rich-Lots-Of-Wars-Including-A-War-On-Women-Civil-Rights-Denying-Republican is not what we need.

If Obama's speech later today doesn't flip Ryan's proposal on its ear and lay out a plan that addresses the inequality crisis that is destroying our economy, and our future, and talk about restoring tax rates on the wealthy to pre-George W. Bush levels, and address the unsustainable growth in defense spending, then he is going to be paving the way for whichever nutjob the GOP puts up in 2012 to win, because working people are going to walk away from him, and there's nobody on the left to rally around. 

2011 Barack-etology (I wish I could say this was the worst judgment he's exercised)

2011 NCAA tournament: President Barack Obama: No. 1 seeds will rule in NCAA tournaments - ESPN:

Obama's national champion: Kansas, the top seed in the Southwest, over the Buckeyes, the No. 1 overall seed of the 68-team tournament.

'Kansas has more firepower,' Obama told Katz.

Obama granting sit-down interview to Fox's Bill O'Reilly on Super Bowl Sunday

Obama granting sit-down interview to Fox's Bill O'Reilly on Super Bowl Sunday - 1/6/2011 7:19:10 PM | Newser:

President Barack Obama will sit for an interview with Fox News Channel host Bill O'Reilly on Super Bowl Sunday.

Maybe the President can explain how the moon affects the tides and at least clear that up for him.

Obama To Progressives: I Won’t Be Held To ‘Some Abstract Ideal’

Cynical-C | Obama To Progressives: I Won’t Be Held To ‘Some Abstract Ideal’:

Image via Cynical-C

Fiscal sanity, then, being some abstract ideal to which only crazy people would expect their elected officials to be held.

The Economist seems to retroactively approve of the GM bail out.

General Motors: Government Motors no more | The Economist:

Saving GM was a harder call, but, with the benefit of hindsight, the right one. The lesson for governments is that for a bail-out to work, it must be brutal and temporary. The lesson for American voters is that their president, for all his flaws, has no desire to own the commanding heights of industry. A gambler, yes. An interventionist, yes. A socialist, no.

Suggesting Obama is owed an apology may be hard for their readership to swallow though. Right wing backlash in 3 ... 2 ... 1 ...

A seat at the table for India.

Obama Backs India for Seat on Security Council - NYTimes.com:

Image via NY Times

NEW DELHI — President Obama announced here on Monday that the United States will back India’s bid for a permanent seat on an expanded United Nations Security Council, a major policy shift that could aggravate China, which opposes such a move.

I suspect we're going to want (and need) close relations with India as our primacy on the world scene is superseded by the giant economies of Asia and the sub-continent in the years ahead.

Evocative

This picture, instantly upon seeing it, made the Housemartins start playing in my mind.

President Obama's Weekly Address for 9/5/2010: Honoring the American Worker

First priority is job creation. That seems about right.

With Great Power Comes ... Accountability

The President is doing better on PolitiFact's Scorecard than I would have guessed with 122 kept versus 22 broken thusfar. And, to be clear, I'm not sure all of them were really great ideas to begin with, so some I'd be fine with some being broken. (This is me giving the side eye to #21 -- sounds nice, you say? Well, some 401(k) plans are shit and shouldn't be opted in to. This one smells like a bone thrown to Wall Street.) Promise #38 is getting a lot of attention these days and, frankly, I'm a little surprised it's being framed as a "tax cut repeal" when really it's just a matter of letting the unfunded tax cuts for the wealthy expire, as the Republicans wrote them in to law to do. And, it's inexcusable that #175 wasn't accomplished immediately.

Why Is Obama Shining W's Knob?

Obama: "No one could doubt Pres Bush's support for our troops or his love of country & commitment 2 our security." Um, anyone agree w/ that?Wed Sep 01 00:40:57 via webMichael Moore
MMFlint

I didn't watch the speech. I just read through it and wasn't impressed. I don't think many on the left were, judging by my twitstream.

Obama: "I'm gonna spend a shitload of money in Afghanistan. Hope we can get by at home on a few coins in your cups."Wed Sep 01 00:15:42 via webThe Rude Pundit
rudepundit