Top stories according to google news analytics, 2 pm Monday 8.13.12
You might be Paul Ryan if….
If you admitted that you got into politics because of the impact on you of the philosopher of personal greed and egotism, Ayn Rand, but later had to deny it because it was bad publicity, you might be Paul Ryan. If you want to destroy social security for others, but after your father died when […]
In Switch, Egypt’s Civilian President Makes Coup against Generals
This is BIG. The BBC says that Egypt’s elected president, from the fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood, has just ordered the firing of Field Marshall Hussein Tantawi, the leader of the 23-member Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF). He also ordered the Army Chief of Staff and another SCAF stalwart, Gen. Sami Anan, to retire. The […]
Paul Ryan was for Big Deficits before he was against them (graphic)
Paul Ryan blames President Obama for the government’s budget deficits, and singles out the stimulus program as the culprit. But stimulus was one-time expenditures, not ongoing annual ones, and so over time will contribute little to the deficit. What does drive up the deficit annually is a series of Bush-era measures, including the Iraq and […]
Romney Hood and his Merry Band (Cartoon)
Two Ways Mitt Romney Really Will Kill lots of People
Controversy is swirling about a poorly argued attack ad done by a super PAC that is pro-Obama, which accuses Mitt Romney of being responsible for throwing a family where the wife had cancer out of health insurance when he closed the company. The case seems convoluted and the argument tenuous. Romney isn’t responsible for people […]
On Martyrdom for Freedom of Expression (Thomas Jefferson Poster)
America’s New Proxy Wars (Turse)
Nick Turse writes at Tomdispatch.com: In the 1980s, the U.S. government began funneling aid to mujahedeen rebels in Afghanistan as part of an American proxy war against the Soviet Union. It was, in the minds of America’s Cold War leaders, a rare chance to bloody the Soviets, to give them a taste of the sort […]
Parliament takes over in Modern Libya’s First Peaceful Transfer of Power
The UN observer sent to commemorate the event said it all. The peaceful transfer of power from the National Transitional Council to the newly elected Libyan parliament “surprised the world.”. Mustafa Abdel Jalil, the head of the NTC during the transitional period, handed the baton to parliament, which was buzzing with deliberations about who the […]