Problem is: It’s a howling contradiction to leave up to the states an issue Obama now says is a right.
I love Margaret Atwood. Don’t know if this article means I now don’t have to ready Moby Richard, or that I need to do a deep-dive to see how her metaphor holds up…
It seems likely that this persistence [in ever-grader policies of deregulation] despite repeated disaster had a lot to do with rising inequality, with the causation running in both directions. On one side, the explosive growth of the financial sector was a major source of soaring incomes at the very top of the income distribution. On the other side, the fact that the very rich were the prime beneficiaries of deregulation meant that as this group gained power — simply because of its rising wealth — the push for deregulation intensified. These impacts of inequality on ideology did not end in 2008. In an important sense, the rightward drift of ideas, both driven by and driving rising income concentration at the top, left us incapacitated in the face of crisis.
It’s always a bit strange to hear people with government-funded single-payer health plans describe the need for other Americans to be free from health insurance. But after the aggressive battery of questions from the court’s conservatives this morning, it’s clear that we can only be truly free when the young are released from the obligation to subsidize the old and the ailing.
The real Palin (an ignoramus who condemned this nonideological film sight unseen) is a born star; Moore’s Palin is a victim of American politics, just like us. The performance is so compassionate that anyone with an imagination will feel her terror as a deer in the Klieg lights of the national stage. A militant atheist could admire this Palin’s religious faith. Moore makes a good liberal’s heart bleed.
The police claim, as Mark Donahue, president of the Fraternal Order of Police, told the New York Times last week, that audio recording of police officers while performing their duty “can affect how an officer does his job on the street.” Well of course it does. The whole purpose of the newsgathering function of a free press is to do just that. As Jonathan Turley notes, without citizens recording police misconduct, America wouldn’t have known of the Rodney King beatings.
Benjamin Franklin is said to have once described democracy as two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for dinner. Liberty, he went on to point out, is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote.
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Well-Armed Lambs: The Real Way To Get Congress To Understand SOPA | PandoDaily
After watching a couple of debates on the SOPA issue, I’ll admit to being more in the dark than when I started — it just seems like one or both parties must be outright lying about the effects of the bill. They’re not debating its merits and downsides as a measure for combating piracy, they just seem to be talking about two different pieces of legislation. My gut says we shouldn’t be doing anything to make it easier for huge corporations to exercise their inherent litigiousness against the little guy, but respecting copyright is legitimate issue and if the bill really would only effect overseas organizations it doesn’t seem unreasonable. But nobody’s giving straight answers to questions about how the bill would actually effect the internet as I use it, so how can one take an informed position?
In any case, Benj Franklin certainly had a way with words, didn’t he.
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Some conservatives have been pushing the argument that Section 5 is no longer constitutional, because the states subject to preclearance don’t present a special danger of racial discrimination. In 2009, the Supreme Court strongly signaled that this crown jewel of the civil rights movement may no longer be constitutional because of its interference with states’ rights.
Oh how I wish I could take credit for this bit of copy right here.
This interactive graphic is a pretty fun recap of the beginning of the Republican Hunger Games this election season. Four stars.
I’m inclined to quit this job right this minute and go knock on doors in Maude-forsaken Ohio to get my favorite vegan Congressman re-elected.
