The religious extemists that have sidelined the religiously moderate National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad do not demand independence from Mali. Their goal is to impose their idea of Sharia on all of Mali.
Mr. Cole has said that the Arab Spring would disempower al Queda. So why are they in Yemen, a country that got rid of its tyrant?
Yemen has 2 secesessionist movements, and a divided military. If the US is killing people in order to protect the current Yemeni government, is that really what Americans want?
The drone war has no geographic or temporal limits, no transparency or due process, and it seems the reasons for the strikes are straying from protecting Americans.
In 2001, the US partnered with misogynist fundamentalist warlords to defeat the Taliban. Then, our thugs were invited into the new government. For 12 years we've been enabling these women-haters, while selling ourselves as liberators. We've done nothing but exacerbate a dire situation.
Are there examples of countries that have said to other countries, "we'll grant you extraterritoriality in exchange for your keeping troops in our country" ?
Regarding Yemen, secessionists in the south, Shia rebels in the north, and al Queda all benefited from the upheaval that ousted Saleh. Al Queda has spread in the south despite the area's legacy of socialism and secularism. Southern separatist leaders say al Queda would lose traction and be neutralized more easily in an independent south where resentment would no longer fester over what they call a corrupt, repressive, and tribally defined system run from the north. They say Aden could curb al Queda better than Sanaa.
Israel shows that zealotry and racism can thrive in a wealthy country with a booming high-tech sector. Science and fanaticism can co-exist. Israel can serve as a model to Muslims on how to become technologically sophisticated while remaining ethically backwards.
The world's first novel, The Tale of the Gengi, was written in Japan by Lady Murasaki around 1000. The Japanese had earlier learned writing from the Chinese. In 2012, a Chinese man, Mo Yan, won the Nobel in literature. He beat a Japanese author who many had been betting on.
"Tens of millions of Muslim families will never consider letting their post-pubescent women wander outside the house for any reason whatsoever"
And you think an enlightened person would condone and respect this? The people being controlled comprise tens of millions of Muslims. What gives males the right to see them as their property?
The fact that the Communists put girls in schools while the Taliban keep them illiterate speaks for itself
In the film "Melancholia", a meteor collides with Earth. Kirsten Dunst's character somehow knows that there is no other intelligent life in the universe. She says "We're alone... Life on Earth is evil. No one will miss us."
If you want to change a situation, you need to have a workable plan. Palestinian activists have thus far not kept the Israelis from stealing their land. Going on and on about what is just and ideal does nothing to help the Palestinians.
If the Jews were in the Palestinians shoes, i'd similarly focus on the worst abuses, and be interested in realistic solutions
If the two-state solution worked, the Arabs in the West Bank and Gaza would be better off. Israel would remain a country that denies rights to minorities, and they would thus be in the company of India, Sri Lanka, Burma, China...
Why not solve the Middle East's problems one at a time? Let's face the reality that the Jewish State is rich and strong and has rich, powerful friends. It's not going anywhere anytime soon.
The "right of return" is another unrealistic fantasy.
Morsi has authorized the military to maintain security until the results of the referendem are in. The military has been authorized to arrest civilians.
There is also the fact that the military likes the draft constitution. It preserves the military's Mubarak-era prerogatives.
The electorate has a clear choice, but that fact is not really clear to many of them. The rights advocates should be urging a NO vote on the grounds that stability requires a constitution whose creation and content reflects inclusivity.
Paris Hilton caused a similar uproar when she opened a store in Mecca. This is how Los Angeles engages the Muslim world.
Sex Goddesses sometimes rub elbows with dictators, but they also help weaken the hold of religious rigidity.
Shortly after the bit you quote, Gregory Johnson says, "the Achilles' heel for the US in Yemen is that too often it just doesn't know what's taking place on the ground. The CIA doesn't know what's taking place...it doesn't know who is really a member of al -Queda."
The NYT article points out that Obama has not told the truth about who is targeted. For at least 2 years, the targets have not been people planning attacks on the US. In Pakistan, the targets have been mostly militants whose main battle is with the Pakistani government, or those who fight US troops in Afghanistan alongside the Taliban. In Yemen, we target seperatists.
Micah Zenko, a fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, says, "we don't say that we are the counterinsurgency air force of Pakistan, Yemen, and Somalia, but we are."
Yes, it's better to be ruled by a secular authoritarian than a theocrat. But there's also big differences amongst secular authoritarians.
Gamal Abdel Nasser was secular, modern, somewhat socialist, pan-Arab nationalist, "non-aligned", and loved by millions of Egyptians.
Better to be ruled by a Nasser than a Pinochet.
The constituent assembly was reformed by the court. For the court to act against that body because support for it is eroding and it doesn't like the constitution it is creating, would show that the court is acting with political motives. Egypt elected a president when there is no constitution or parliament. So, naturally you're going to have Morsi, the military, and the courts all desperately trying to make the rules.
The US and Israel want to keep the pressure on Hamas. If Egypt does too much to upset the US, it could lose financial aid and IMF loans. Egypt needs financial help and stability badly.
If Egypt had free trade with Gaza, Israel might wash its hands of Gaza and say that it is entirely Egypt's responsibility. They would stop providing electricity and whatever else they do. This would be
a burden for Egypt, which cannot feed its own people.
Fatah also worries that opening the Egypt-Gaza border would be akin to Egypt annexing Gaza, and leaving the West Bank on its own.
There are reasons for Morsi to tread cautiously.
We're not talking about targeted killing here, but since you brought it up-
The farther we get from targeting al-Queda (e.g. al-Shabab in Somalia), the harder it is to squeeze those operations into th AUMF.
But an updated AUMF (why not throw in drug kingpins too?) doesn't solve all the legal questions. If other states were to claim the broad-based authority that the US does, to kill people wherever, whenever, the result would be chaos.
Debbie, think of the family-defending politicians who've been caught cheating, sometimes in same-sex encounters. They did not let their private lives influence their voting.
You say the wrong type of private life could cloud views on rape. Well, maybe we should investigate Todd Aikens private life. If he is a faithful husband, maybe some time with a hooker would clear up his mind.
White male privilege has been discussed for years by all types of people. Someone described it thus: imagine your playing "the game of life" on your computer. First, you need to set the default settings. "Staight white male" is the lowest difficulty setting there is.
The discussion of white male privilege is not so fascinating to white men who have not succeeded.
I'm a low-income white man and I want things. I want health and dental coverage. I want to know that social security will be there.
I don't want rich Republicans trying to turn me against minorities.
I'm also tired of wealthy progressives telling me I'm privileged.
The ACLU has filed a lawsuit to demand the government release basic information about the targeted killing program. They're seeking the legal memos on which the program is based. They also want the evidentiary basis for strikes that killed 3 Americans in 2011. They are also seeking information about the process by which the administration adds Americans to the "kill list". Since you apparently are privy to all the secret information about the drone program, maybe you can call the ACLU and answer their questions
Some of Assad's Western fans pose as unbiased, but their comments always find fault with anything that reflects badly on Assad. They focus on crimes committed by the opposition, and keep quiet about the much larger number of crimes committed by the regime. These closet Baathists spend their time critiquing Human Rights Watch, Al Jazerra, and various journalists. They make equivalencies between Saudi Arabia and Assad's regime, apparently oblivios to the fact that Assad has killed tens of thousands of his countrymen.
Wissam al-Hassan built a case implicating members of Hezbollah in the assassination of Rafiq al-Hariri. Hezbollah is a prime suspect in this bombing.
The Christians in Lebanon have long been divided between the pro-Assad and anti-Assad group. I don't see the Christians being behind Assad the way they are in Syria.
Whatever happens in Lebanon, I don't see why Christians would feel safer by being on Assad's side.
Since 9-11-2001, 16 Americans were killed by terrorists on US soil. 14 of those happened after we started droning Pakistan
You are 4 times more likely to be killed by lightning than by a terror attack. We should be spending billions deflecting lightning.
Someone should do a study that estimates how many innocent lives are saved by our drone strikes. Then, the claim that they save far more lives than they end could be verified or refuted. If the claim is correct, what is the ratio?
Of course, our government will never release any info on how it picks its' targets.
I would guess that in places like Yemen, you could get on the hit list by being a part of a seperatist movement.
Well, whatever Obama did to degrade al Queda, he has been unable to do in Afghanistan, where civilian casualties are the highest they've been since the invasion. 77% of the casualties in 2011 where caused by the Taliban and other anti-government forces. Obama put a lot of resources into Afghanistan, and things have not gone well.
Medea Benjamin says, 'we got a sense of how counterproductive drones are by hearing of the desire for revenge from people who lost loved ones'. But of those who lost loved ones, what percentage really want revenge? Of those who want revenge, only a fraction will act on that desire. Of those who try to take revenge, few will have the skills of the high-value targets that are supposedly being taken out. So drones may be 'productive' in a war. They may , however, be immoral. When the drone operators know there is a good chance some good guys will be killed alongside their targets, they're just putting a low value on the lives of some innocents. They wouldn't target a bad guy if they knew there were CIA agents sitting next to him. But some unimportant Pakistanis...well, some lives are more important than others.
There are kids who were killed by drones because they were too close to someone thought to be a bad guy. They are every bit as dead as kids who are deliberately targeted by the Taliban. And Mr. Obama is responsible for their deaths.
Driving the Islamist militias out of Bengazi is but one example of people in North Africa resisting militant Islam. In Tahrir Square, Egypt, secularists brawled with Morsi supporters. In northern Mali, there have been protests against the dangerous Islamists. The Tauregs who fought for Gaddafi, then fled to Mali and fought for independence, had their revolution hijacked by Islamists, and now want to be part of a force that fights the theocratic muslims.
The wars can go on autopilot, because the people are on autopilot. For example, their is zero transparency about how decisions are made about drone strikes. Nonetheless, we all believe what we are told (the drones just kill the worst of those who are trying to kill us). People generally don't want to think about the conflicts their military is involved in, and our politicians are happy to provide simplified stories.
Regarding the complaints of the Syrians that the West has forgotten them, it would be good for everyone in the world to remember this. People ought not to start revolutions expecting outside powers to come to their aid. Start an uprising when you have a plan and the means to see it through.
Some American Code Pink members are planning to go on this protest trip. The State Department warned them not to go. These Americans could include some Jews and Christians. But, if the Westerners stayed home, the self-interested Fundamentalist leaders would still have other complaints.
Did nuking Hiroshima and Nagasaki increase the cycle of violence? Did this massive violence create a lot of Japanese terrorists? What was the blowback?
Overwhelming violence may be immoral, but if your goal is to wipe out an enemy , violence is not always counterproductive.
Compare the way the British left India with the way it left Malaya. The hurried, careless way it left India contributed to the horrendous violence of the Partition. Also, look at the mess that followed Britain's exit from the Middle East. Apparently, Malaya was lucky that the Brits stayed on as long as the did.
I'm curious about how the conditions faced by the Palestinians compares to the persecution of the Rohingya in Burma, India's untouchables, the Tamils in Sri Lanka, the Kurds, and all the other oppressed groups.
Good point. Ryan could have praised Jimmy Carter for continuing military aid to El Salvador while it was killing it's citizens. Carter did the same for Indonesia when it killing the East Timorese.
Pam Geller calls the West Bank "Muslim Occupied Territory".
I think a lot of Zionists imagine that they are like Daniel Boone and Davy Crocket. They have a romantic Old West fantasy of fighting the savages. It's a delusion that doesn't work in the 21st century.
In the USA, we don't need to riot when our national identity is insulted because we know that when our collective blood-lust gets to a certain level, our leaders will calm us by blowing to pieces a lot of people in some country 3000 miles away. Our military does the rioting over there, so we don't have to do it here.
You can't really find any food that is free of toxins. Just choose your poison and stop worrying. Just imagine how hard it would be to eat healthy if you were on a tight budget, had bad teeth, and were too tired to cook.
In the first milleneum, Japan eagerly adopted from China Buddhism, Confucianism, writing, ways of governing, art styles, and much more.
India's history is one of repeatedly absorbing the cultures of those who conquered it. Today, India has millions of devoutly religious people as well as many highly educated and innovative people.
Like you say, more Muslims need to realize that they stand to gain by being more tolerant.
Since Republicans and Libertarians believe that poor people are irresponsible and are not entitled to food, shelter, or medical care, they ought to be trying to take the stigma out of suicide. Wouldn't the decent thing to do be to open up euthanasia centers and give all us losers a way out?
Another thing that adds to the divide between the Muslim world and the West is that Muslims take holiness and religion very seriously. I prefer secular libertinism with a dash of homemade religion, but I respect those who take holiness seriously.
Thirty years ago today, in Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon, Christian militiamen were killing men, women, and children. The massacre continued for three days. Israeli defense forces had the camps surrounded and controlled access to them.
Americans and Israelis find it easy to forget things like the Sabra and Shatilla masacres.
But then we find it necessary to state in the Democratic platform that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel.
Not all the anti-American violence during the past week was done by al Queda, unless you're defining any Muslim who commits violence against US, European, or Israeli people or property as al Queda. If an angry mob spontaneously trashes a Burger King in Lebanon, is that al Queda?
If Egypt, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Iran find a solution for Syria, it will likely not be something that benefits the Kurds, since Turkey and Iran both have problems with Kurds. But if a new Syrian Sunni regime tries to re-take the part of Syria that the Kurds are controlling, they'll meet with resistance. And a forceful crackdown on Syrian Kurds could frighten other minorities.
Due to the fact that many groups are involved in the Syrian mess, the fighting could continue even if Assad disappeared.
In "Rebellious God", Iranian poet Forugh Farrokhzad writes:
"I'd happily exchange the golden crown of divinity
For the dark, aching embrace of a sin."
She shares with Omar Khayyam a passion for passionate love and an allegiance to a kind of sin that is really unbridled divinity. Her style is intense and often meloncholy, however, in contrast to Khayyam's upbeatness.
During the time of Vietnamese occupation of Cambodia, Cambodia's seat at the UN was kept for Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge. There was international condemnation of Vietnam and widespread refusal to recognize the new government of Cambodia. This was an example of a failure of the international legal framework.
Having the least number of people killed should be the goal. But non-interventionism, following international law, self-determination, sovereignty, toppling tyrants-- none of these are perfect guidelines for attaining the goal of minimizing killing. Humanitarians need to be flexible.
Clinton's action was far too long in coming. He was influenced by Robert Kaplan's travel book "Balkan Ghosts", which made it seem like outside intervention wouldn't work because everyone in the Balkans was caught up in centuries old hostilities. There was also the fact that Britain and France thought NATO action would interfere with what the UN was doing. But Joe Biden was an early supporter of arming the Bosniaks and NATO airstrikes. When Clinton finally intervened, it was an action not popular with either the American people or our allies. Thousands of lives were saved.
If you take the anti-government rhetoric of the right a little farther down that road, you conclude that the ideal is to have zero government. You become a right-wing anarchist. If you're zealous and dumb, you start stockpiling weapons. I mean, if all the government does is get in the way of the job-creators, then all good citizens should become militant anarcho-capitalists.
Women's bodies become a part of the battlefield in wars.
Anti-choice activists tell women that while they are pregnant, they are the property of the state.
Assume, for the sake of argument, that life begins at conception. Then, pregnancy is the unique situation in which a person lives inside the body of another person.
Human life has little value if the person has no freedom or privacy. A woman has little freedom if she can't decide what happens with her own body. You would think that people who talk about freedom as much as Republicans do, would notice that dictating what a woman does with her body is a serious limitation on liberty.
Anyway, the stupidity of the Republicans makes it clear that reproductive issues do not belong in the hands of politicians.
It's unfortunate that Russian Orthodox often seem to lack the humility and winsomeness of Alyosha and Father Zossima in Dostoyevsky's "The Brothers Karamazov", or the wayfarer in "The Way of the Pilgrim". Holding icons while thumping gays and hooligans on the head is not really holding up the picture of Christ.
Yes, it's all relative. If we include all 7 billion people on earth, the top 1% is anyone who earns $48,000 per year. If we're going to draw a line based on income, why not draw it right there at $48,000? The answer, of course, is that that would make far too many Americans uncomfortable.
Michael Moore goes out and urges the Occupiers to return to Zacati Park, then goes home to a $2M mansion. He's worth $50M. There are other multimillionaires who make their money by being progessives- selling books, being journalists, etc. George Soros didn't make his money by being a leftist and he doesn't feign being a commoner. To people on the bottom, it is all the same. They don't know what 'real wealth' is and they don't care. I don't think the bottom 5% feel any solidarity with the middle 94%.
Israel got no medals this year, even though it's a wealthy nation.
Egypt's best Olympic performance was at the 1948 Summer Games in London. They won 2 gold, 2 silver, and 1 bronze. But their performance at the games was not reflected in their performance in the war with Israel.
I think the rise of fundamentalism is due in part to the failure of earlier secular, modernist projects. Nasserism, neoliberalism, Baathism...none of these delivered the goods to the masses.
If the Affordable Care Act is not repealed, poor people in states that accept the expansion plan will get medicaid regardless of age. Romney promises to repeal Obamacare. Is that, or is that not a difference between the candidates?
Most of the people in the world who have internet access have that access only through smart phones. Providing Africans with cheap smart phones is a good thing.
There is the possibility of governments monitoring conversations. The US does it, so why shouldn't China. But, how are the spys going to monitor and analyze 60 trillion conversations? The g-men are the ones who will be driven batty. And the counter-spies will figure out how to use the technology against the g-men (like Wikileaks did).
Yes, that was a sickening video. But the Berri family, in addition to being Assad loyalists, were mafia-types, and everyone hated them. The rebels are only human, as one activist explained.
It's strange that thieves often praise free enterprise. The cornerstone of free enterprise and capitalism is respect for private property. Theft is stabbing at the heart of free enterprise. But, right-wing thieves pass themselves off as businessmen. It's like listening to rapists praising celibacy.
I don't know if they're beautiful, but traders are doing a job that needs to be done. Capitalism involves buying, selling, saving, investing, and property ownership. Whether you're trading financial assets, holding a garage sale, teaching classes, or managing a baseball team, it's all good. Viva capitalism!
Imagine him taking a gondola ride in Venice with Silvio Berlusconi:
Mitt: "Silvio, how long have your streets been F#'d Up like this?"
Silvio:"Mitt...Bite Me!"
After the War of 1812 , the business done between British merchants and US plantation owners was a huge boon to both. The agreement not to fight over the Canada border enabled both Britain and the US to expand westward. The Royal Navy helped keep the Russians from overrunning the Oregon territory. So , the shared history has some roots in the slave economy and imperialism. Black people, Native Americans, and Hispanics can't really aprreciate this history the way Mitt does.
I don't think anyone should be able to buy assault weapons. I think that testing and doing background checks would be insufficient to weed out all the sickos. I think it's annoying that media pundits talk about our inability to do anything about lone nuts , when they could be talking about gun control and other solutions. I think it's wrong to trash the Bill of Rights, rather than having sane gun control. But, when media pundits say we are helpless against loners, that may suggest to some that loners are the kind of threat that witches were thought to be in the old days. I was not clear enough, but you read a lot into what I said that wasn't there.
If we tested gun buyers for sanity, James Holmes may have passed that test. He was a graduate student with a clean record. But, he was also a lone wolf. Society is helpless against The Lone Wolf. Perhaps, white men who are not sociable enough need to be monitored , or burnt at the stake.
General Manaf Tlas has turned up in Paris, joining his multi-millionaire sister and his father (who was Assad's defense minister at the time of the 1982 massacre in Hama). He condemned the regimes killing of civilians, but did not say he was joining the opposition. Maybe he is hoping there will be a transitional, unity government that he can play a leading role in.
"The government enforces all of its edicts with the threat of violence". Yes, and the government could not exist without taxation, which is theft. But, if their were no government, other groups and individuals would steal and use violence. Many rich people use the state to transfer power and wealth to themselves. If there were no state, the rich would create one.
Jesus gave sight to the blind and healed the sick. Today, many poor people get healed in county hospitals that are funded by tax money. Thank God societies are willing to steal and ENFORCE laws that save peoples lives
And don't forget what happened to Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5).
On march 17 2003, you stated that there was no evidence of nuclear weapons in Iraq, thereby debunking the justification for the war. That blogpost, written 3 days before the war, proves that you did not support the war.
If you went through everything that your critics said in 2003, you might find something you could use to mischaracterize their positions.
I would like to know what your critics were saying and doing when the Afghan War and the first Gulf War began. I presume they were all in jail for doing civil disobediene to protest those wars.
There were people in the crowd on Friday holding pictures of Rahman and calling for his release. Morsi needs to deal with these guys. A Brotherhood spokesman later said Morsi would ask the US to extradite Rahman on humanitarian grounds, and was not saying that his conviction should be overturned or that he was a political prisoner.
"While the US actively supported the negotiated transfer, underscored by the recent Executive Order authorizing sanctions against anyone who disrupts the transition...".
These sanctions restrict free speech and should be objected to.
"Yemen faces armed threats to its own security beyond AQAP ...".
The Yemeni and US governments have been conflating the seperatist groups with al-Queda. For the US to be helping states fight their rebel groups no doubt increases the number of militants who are anti-US.
The rich men in charge of the Muslim Brotherhood certainly don't want a civil war. A gathering of secular-leaning politicians today accused the US of meddling on behalf of the MB. Perhaps we'll see power-sharing, with Morsi,the Mulim Brotherhood's charmless spare tire, being the face of change that gives legitimacy to the new hybrid regime.
Sounds like Hank Williams Jr. "Nobody wants to get drunk and get loud...
I myself have seen my wilder days
I have seen my name at the top of the page
But I need to find a friend just to run around
But nobody wants to get high on the town
And all my rowdy friends have settled down"
Adnan Menderes was the first democratically elected Turkish Prime Minister between 1950-1960. He was hanged by the military junta after the 1960 coup. When did the military usher in democracy?
The problem with the secular, nationalist, modernist tradition in both Egypt and Turkey is that it has been wedded to militarism and divorced from democracy and freedom.
The abuses by the military during the past year have taught the left that the army and the people are not one.
Immigrants rights groups are upset that he's deported one million people. He's set a precedent by killinng a US citizen without due process. He fought hard for government secrecy and for increased spying on Americans. But , while the right is watching Rush Limbaugh, the rest of us are watching Dancing With Octomom and letting Obama's PR lull us to sleep.
The Danish king that Kierkegard favored over the multitudes did not have the power that 21st century US presidents have. And our presidents are elected by the multitudes that Kierkegard disdained. So let's not insult Kierkegard by associating him with our president.
I know a 70 year old man who's only income is a 700$ Social Security check. It doesn't cover his expenses. His TV doesn't work, but he interacts with people online who are like those in this cartoon. He believes Obama is a foreign-born Muslim. It's too bad that the poor are being fed so much disinformation that some of them participate in their own decline.
Two cities in California voted to cut their employees pensions. This will be coming to a city near you. Someone said that since so many in the private sector got screwed out of their pensions, it's not fair for public employees to have good pensions. In other words, let's pull down the middle class, so that we're all screwed, except for the very rich. This is a strange idea of fairness.
Peter and Richard compare Libya positively to what Iraq was like 6 months after the fall of Sadam Hussein. They left Libya feeling fairly hopeful about its future. Their piece ends on a positive note.
Having a choice between a theocratic police state and a secular police state is indeed a travesty. Both the Muslim Brotherhood and the military did things that led to this sorry state of affairs. And millions of voters are stupid, fearful, and unprincipled.
If an election results in empowering a regime that will break heads and detain people without trial, then democracy should be specifically be rejected in that case. Breaking peoples, bones is either right or wrong.it doesn't go from wrong to right depending on how people vote. Democracy may be the best form of government, but it does not magically transform evil into good. Why not be an advocate for human rights, even in places where the majority is not on your side!
It's wonderful that Charles Taylor was sentenced to fifty years, the first former head of state convicted by the ICC at the Hague. The first convicted by an international tribunal since WWII.
So we have 66,000 special ops people in 120 countries to fight al Qaeda? About 30 guys for every terrorist? I think the US taxpayers are being scammed.
A plan to end the civil war needs to recognize that defeating Assad will not be enough. The civilians who need protecting could quickly change from the Sunnis to the Shiites and Christians.
Allowing the executive to kill people without trial, in secret, and without congressional oversight is an offense to the principle of the rule of law. But priciples like rule of law, due process, or limiting the president's authority are abstractions that few care about. Nor do most people care about the innocent civilians that are killed alongside alleged terrorists. And why try to stop the proliferation of drones here at home? If most Americans are okay with killing suspected terrorists, they should be willing to have armed drones flying over their homes.
True enough. But a libertarian leftist (if there are any out there) could point out that a real respect for private property would mean that there would not have been the forcible taking of homes in poor neighborhoods to make room for baseball stadiums. A real respect for the free market would mean an end to harassment of poor street vendors. In our country, the state steals the private property of the poor through $500 traffic tickets and such. A radical capitalist could point out that the real welfare kings are the defense industry engineers and security firm owners.
*...So the analysts were passing up false information to the White House which was provided by their own colleagues."
This is the silver lining to authoritarianism. The authorities end up choking on themselves. Stalin killed many who had been his best supporters. The Chinese under Mao's guidance killed many of their comrades. Abandoning truth and rule of law creates an environment in which a fire can erupt which burns the people who thought they were in control.
Obama just signed an executive order to financially punish those who oppose the Yemeni president. Obama does not seem lax on civil liberties issues. Rather, he's on the wrong side.
Dooley proposed taking the war on Islam to the Muslim civilians. Anwar al-Awlaki advocated killing American civilians. Two Americans advocating slaughter. Awlaki was killed. Dooley will be re-assigned and reprimanded.
If a nation is consistently moral, it will loose ground in the competition for power. Great powers have no reason to exist other than the competition between them. Their interests are not necessarily the interests of the people living in the territory they control. Loyality to one's country necessarily means disloyality to righteousness, because it will inevitably mean supporting something immoral. Nationalism is the big scam that keeps humanity divided and constrained.
In addition to the names of those killed, we should know their ages and gender and whatever else we can learn. We should see photos of them. If we are killing children, pregnant women, and old folks , we need to know that, and be reminded of it often.
Just as current events are falsified, much of history is distorted by people with axes to grind or books to sell. Significant events are forgotten and silk purses are made of sow's ears. We can be sure that much of what we know is wrong.
This is a warning to those who support repressive laws and bad war policies. Those laws will inevitably snag some of those who voted for them. And a drone may someday hit a group of US special operations forces.
If Obamacare is not struck down, low income people will get medicare in 2014, regardless of age. That's a good deal. But on civil liberties and foreign policy, Obama is awful. US drones have killed kids, pregnant women,... And we have to believe this is the best possible policy, because that's what we're told.
The rule of law wilts in a secretive, centalized, unaccountable athority.
Several times in the last few months an Israeli or US military or intelligence expert has stated that Iran is not doing anything that calls for a military response, or even sanctions. At the same time, politicians keep saying we need to have ever harsher sanctions and should prepare for war. The politicians don't argue with the experts, they ignore them. They imply that Iran is an imminent threat. They know they don't need to present evidence. Because people assume their leaders know what they're doing. So it is strange to read the news, because of the bizarre mix of fact and propaganda.
The religious extemists that have sidelined the religiously moderate National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad do not demand independence from Mali. Their goal is to impose their idea of Sharia on all of Mali.
Did Bamako also know that the Tauregs would be driven out by Ansar Dine?
Mr. Cole has said that the Arab Spring would disempower al Queda. So why are they in Yemen, a country that got rid of its tyrant?
Yemen has 2 secesessionist movements, and a divided military. If the US is killing people in order to protect the current Yemeni government, is that really what Americans want?
The drone war has no geographic or temporal limits, no transparency or due process, and it seems the reasons for the strikes are straying from protecting Americans.
In 2001, the US partnered with misogynist fundamentalist warlords to defeat the Taliban. Then, our thugs were invited into the new government. For 12 years we've been enabling these women-haters, while selling ourselves as liberators. We've done nothing but exacerbate a dire situation.
Are there examples of countries that have said to other countries, "we'll grant you extraterritoriality in exchange for your keeping troops in our country" ?
Regarding Yemen, secessionists in the south, Shia rebels in the north, and al Queda all benefited from the upheaval that ousted Saleh. Al Queda has spread in the south despite the area's legacy of socialism and secularism. Southern separatist leaders say al Queda would lose traction and be neutralized more easily in an independent south where resentment would no longer fester over what they call a corrupt, repressive, and tribally defined system run from the north. They say Aden could curb al Queda better than Sanaa.
Israel shows that zealotry and racism can thrive in a wealthy country with a booming high-tech sector. Science and fanaticism can co-exist. Israel can serve as a model to Muslims on how to become technologically sophisticated while remaining ethically backwards.
The world's first novel, The Tale of the Gengi, was written in Japan by Lady Murasaki around 1000. The Japanese had earlier learned writing from the Chinese. In 2012, a Chinese man, Mo Yan, won the Nobel in literature. He beat a Japanese author who many had been betting on.
"Tens of millions of Muslim families will never consider letting their post-pubescent women wander outside the house for any reason whatsoever"
And you think an enlightened person would condone and respect this? The people being controlled comprise tens of millions of Muslims. What gives males the right to see them as their property?
The fact that the Communists put girls in schools while the Taliban keep them illiterate speaks for itself
In the film "Melancholia", a meteor collides with Earth. Kirsten Dunst's character somehow knows that there is no other intelligent life in the universe. She says "We're alone... Life on Earth is evil. No one will miss us."
If you want to change a situation, you need to have a workable plan. Palestinian activists have thus far not kept the Israelis from stealing their land. Going on and on about what is just and ideal does nothing to help the Palestinians.
If the Jews were in the Palestinians shoes, i'd similarly focus on the worst abuses, and be interested in realistic solutions
If the two-state solution worked, the Arabs in the West Bank and Gaza would be better off. Israel would remain a country that denies rights to minorities, and they would thus be in the company of India, Sri Lanka, Burma, China...
Why not solve the Middle East's problems one at a time? Let's face the reality that the Jewish State is rich and strong and has rich, powerful friends. It's not going anywhere anytime soon.
The "right of return" is another unrealistic fantasy.
Morsi has authorized the military to maintain security until the results of the referendem are in. The military has been authorized to arrest civilians.
There is also the fact that the military likes the draft constitution. It preserves the military's Mubarak-era prerogatives.
The electorate has a clear choice, but that fact is not really clear to many of them. The rights advocates should be urging a NO vote on the grounds that stability requires a constitution whose creation and content reflects inclusivity.
Paris Hilton caused a similar uproar when she opened a store in Mecca. This is how Los Angeles engages the Muslim world.
Sex Goddesses sometimes rub elbows with dictators, but they also help weaken the hold of religious rigidity.
Shortly after the bit you quote, Gregory Johnson says, "the Achilles' heel for the US in Yemen is that too often it just doesn't know what's taking place on the ground. The CIA doesn't know what's taking place...it doesn't know who is really a member of al -Queda."
The NYT article points out that Obama has not told the truth about who is targeted. For at least 2 years, the targets have not been people planning attacks on the US. In Pakistan, the targets have been mostly militants whose main battle is with the Pakistani government, or those who fight US troops in Afghanistan alongside the Taliban. In Yemen, we target seperatists.
Micah Zenko, a fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, says, "we don't say that we are the counterinsurgency air force of Pakistan, Yemen, and Somalia, but we are."
Yes, it's better to be ruled by a secular authoritarian than a theocrat. But there's also big differences amongst secular authoritarians.
Gamal Abdel Nasser was secular, modern, somewhat socialist, pan-Arab nationalist, "non-aligned", and loved by millions of Egyptians.
Better to be ruled by a Nasser than a Pinochet.
The constituent assembly was reformed by the court. For the court to act against that body because support for it is eroding and it doesn't like the constitution it is creating, would show that the court is acting with political motives. Egypt elected a president when there is no constitution or parliament. So, naturally you're going to have Morsi, the military, and the courts all desperately trying to make the rules.
The US and Israel want to keep the pressure on Hamas. If Egypt does too much to upset the US, it could lose financial aid and IMF loans. Egypt needs financial help and stability badly.
If Egypt had free trade with Gaza, Israel might wash its hands of Gaza and say that it is entirely Egypt's responsibility. They would stop providing electricity and whatever else they do. This would be
a burden for Egypt, which cannot feed its own people.
Fatah also worries that opening the Egypt-Gaza border would be akin to Egypt annexing Gaza, and leaving the West Bank on its own.
There are reasons for Morsi to tread cautiously.
We're not talking about targeted killing here, but since you brought it up-
The farther we get from targeting al-Queda (e.g. al-Shabab in Somalia), the harder it is to squeeze those operations into th AUMF.
But an updated AUMF (why not throw in drug kingpins too?) doesn't solve all the legal questions. If other states were to claim the broad-based authority that the US does, to kill people wherever, whenever, the result would be chaos.
Debbie, think of the family-defending politicians who've been caught cheating, sometimes in same-sex encounters. They did not let their private lives influence their voting.
You say the wrong type of private life could cloud views on rape. Well, maybe we should investigate Todd Aikens private life. If he is a faithful husband, maybe some time with a hooker would clear up his mind.
White male privilege has been discussed for years by all types of people. Someone described it thus: imagine your playing "the game of life" on your computer. First, you need to set the default settings. "Staight white male" is the lowest difficulty setting there is.
The discussion of white male privilege is not so fascinating to white men who have not succeeded.
I'm a low-income white man and I want things. I want health and dental coverage. I want to know that social security will be there.
I don't want rich Republicans trying to turn me against minorities.
I'm also tired of wealthy progressives telling me I'm privileged.
The ACLU has filed a lawsuit to demand the government release basic information about the targeted killing program. They're seeking the legal memos on which the program is based. They also want the evidentiary basis for strikes that killed 3 Americans in 2011. They are also seeking information about the process by which the administration adds Americans to the "kill list". Since you apparently are privy to all the secret information about the drone program, maybe you can call the ACLU and answer their questions
Some of Assad's Western fans pose as unbiased, but their comments always find fault with anything that reflects badly on Assad. They focus on crimes committed by the opposition, and keep quiet about the much larger number of crimes committed by the regime. These closet Baathists spend their time critiquing Human Rights Watch, Al Jazerra, and various journalists. They make equivalencies between Saudi Arabia and Assad's regime, apparently oblivios to the fact that Assad has killed tens of thousands of his countrymen.
Wissam al-Hassan built a case implicating members of Hezbollah in the assassination of Rafiq al-Hariri. Hezbollah is a prime suspect in this bombing.
The Christians in Lebanon have long been divided between the pro-Assad and anti-Assad group. I don't see the Christians being behind Assad the way they are in Syria.
Whatever happens in Lebanon, I don't see why Christians would feel safer by being on Assad's side.
Since 9-11-2001, 16 Americans were killed by terrorists on US soil. 14 of those happened after we started droning Pakistan
You are 4 times more likely to be killed by lightning than by a terror attack. We should be spending billions deflecting lightning.
Someone should do a study that estimates how many innocent lives are saved by our drone strikes. Then, the claim that they save far more lives than they end could be verified or refuted. If the claim is correct, what is the ratio?
Of course, our government will never release any info on how it picks its' targets.
I would guess that in places like Yemen, you could get on the hit list by being a part of a seperatist movement.
Well, whatever Obama did to degrade al Queda, he has been unable to do in Afghanistan, where civilian casualties are the highest they've been since the invasion. 77% of the casualties in 2011 where caused by the Taliban and other anti-government forces. Obama put a lot of resources into Afghanistan, and things have not gone well.
Medea Benjamin says, 'we got a sense of how counterproductive drones are by hearing of the desire for revenge from people who lost loved ones'. But of those who lost loved ones, what percentage really want revenge? Of those who want revenge, only a fraction will act on that desire. Of those who try to take revenge, few will have the skills of the high-value targets that are supposedly being taken out. So drones may be 'productive' in a war. They may , however, be immoral. When the drone operators know there is a good chance some good guys will be killed alongside their targets, they're just putting a low value on the lives of some innocents. They wouldn't target a bad guy if they knew there were CIA agents sitting next to him. But some unimportant Pakistanis...well, some lives are more important than others.
There are kids who were killed by drones because they were too close to someone thought to be a bad guy. They are every bit as dead as kids who are deliberately targeted by the Taliban. And Mr. Obama is responsible for their deaths.
Driving the Islamist militias out of Bengazi is but one example of people in North Africa resisting militant Islam. In Tahrir Square, Egypt, secularists brawled with Morsi supporters. In northern Mali, there have been protests against the dangerous Islamists. The Tauregs who fought for Gaddafi, then fled to Mali and fought for independence, had their revolution hijacked by Islamists, and now want to be part of a force that fights the theocratic muslims.
The wars can go on autopilot, because the people are on autopilot. For example, their is zero transparency about how decisions are made about drone strikes. Nonetheless, we all believe what we are told (the drones just kill the worst of those who are trying to kill us). People generally don't want to think about the conflicts their military is involved in, and our politicians are happy to provide simplified stories.
Regarding the complaints of the Syrians that the West has forgotten them, it would be good for everyone in the world to remember this. People ought not to start revolutions expecting outside powers to come to their aid. Start an uprising when you have a plan and the means to see it through.
Some American Code Pink members are planning to go on this protest trip. The State Department warned them not to go. These Americans could include some Jews and Christians. But, if the Westerners stayed home, the self-interested Fundamentalist leaders would still have other complaints.
Did nuking Hiroshima and Nagasaki increase the cycle of violence? Did this massive violence create a lot of Japanese terrorists? What was the blowback?
Overwhelming violence may be immoral, but if your goal is to wipe out an enemy , violence is not always counterproductive.
Compare the way the British left India with the way it left Malaya. The hurried, careless way it left India contributed to the horrendous violence of the Partition. Also, look at the mess that followed Britain's exit from the Middle East. Apparently, Malaya was lucky that the Brits stayed on as long as the did.
I'm curious about how the conditions faced by the Palestinians compares to the persecution of the Rohingya in Burma, India's untouchables, the Tamils in Sri Lanka, the Kurds, and all the other oppressed groups.
Good point. Ryan could have praised Jimmy Carter for continuing military aid to El Salvador while it was killing it's citizens. Carter did the same for Indonesia when it killing the East Timorese.
Pam Geller calls the West Bank "Muslim Occupied Territory".
I think a lot of Zionists imagine that they are like Daniel Boone and Davy Crocket. They have a romantic Old West fantasy of fighting the savages. It's a delusion that doesn't work in the 21st century.
In the USA, we don't need to riot when our national identity is insulted because we know that when our collective blood-lust gets to a certain level, our leaders will calm us by blowing to pieces a lot of people in some country 3000 miles away. Our military does the rioting over there, so we don't have to do it here.
You can't really find any food that is free of toxins. Just choose your poison and stop worrying. Just imagine how hard it would be to eat healthy if you were on a tight budget, had bad teeth, and were too tired to cook.
In the first milleneum, Japan eagerly adopted from China Buddhism, Confucianism, writing, ways of governing, art styles, and much more.
India's history is one of repeatedly absorbing the cultures of those who conquered it. Today, India has millions of devoutly religious people as well as many highly educated and innovative people.
Like you say, more Muslims need to realize that they stand to gain by being more tolerant.
Since Republicans and Libertarians believe that poor people are irresponsible and are not entitled to food, shelter, or medical care, they ought to be trying to take the stigma out of suicide. Wouldn't the decent thing to do be to open up euthanasia centers and give all us losers a way out?
Another thing that adds to the divide between the Muslim world and the West is that Muslims take holiness and religion very seriously. I prefer secular libertinism with a dash of homemade religion, but I respect those who take holiness seriously.
Thirty years ago today, in Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon, Christian militiamen were killing men, women, and children. The massacre continued for three days. Israeli defense forces had the camps surrounded and controlled access to them.
Americans and Israelis find it easy to forget things like the Sabra and Shatilla masacres.
But then we find it necessary to state in the Democratic platform that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel.
Not all the anti-American violence during the past week was done by al Queda, unless you're defining any Muslim who commits violence against US, European, or Israeli people or property as al Queda. If an angry mob spontaneously trashes a Burger King in Lebanon, is that al Queda?
If Egypt, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Iran find a solution for Syria, it will likely not be something that benefits the Kurds, since Turkey and Iran both have problems with Kurds. But if a new Syrian Sunni regime tries to re-take the part of Syria that the Kurds are controlling, they'll meet with resistance. And a forceful crackdown on Syrian Kurds could frighten other minorities.
Due to the fact that many groups are involved in the Syrian mess, the fighting could continue even if Assad disappeared.
In "Rebellious God", Iranian poet Forugh Farrokhzad writes:
"I'd happily exchange the golden crown of divinity
For the dark, aching embrace of a sin."
She shares with Omar Khayyam a passion for passionate love and an allegiance to a kind of sin that is really unbridled divinity. Her style is intense and often meloncholy, however, in contrast to Khayyam's upbeatness.
During the time of Vietnamese occupation of Cambodia, Cambodia's seat at the UN was kept for Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge. There was international condemnation of Vietnam and widespread refusal to recognize the new government of Cambodia. This was an example of a failure of the international legal framework.
Having the least number of people killed should be the goal. But non-interventionism, following international law, self-determination, sovereignty, toppling tyrants-- none of these are perfect guidelines for attaining the goal of minimizing killing. Humanitarians need to be flexible.
That's what Clint meant when he said, "WE OWN THIS COUNTRY"
Clinton's action was far too long in coming. He was influenced by Robert Kaplan's travel book "Balkan Ghosts", which made it seem like outside intervention wouldn't work because everyone in the Balkans was caught up in centuries old hostilities. There was also the fact that Britain and France thought NATO action would interfere with what the UN was doing. But Joe Biden was an early supporter of arming the Bosniaks and NATO airstrikes. When Clinton finally intervened, it was an action not popular with either the American people or our allies. Thousands of lives were saved.
If you take the anti-government rhetoric of the right a little farther down that road, you conclude that the ideal is to have zero government. You become a right-wing anarchist. If you're zealous and dumb, you start stockpiling weapons. I mean, if all the government does is get in the way of the job-creators, then all good citizens should become militant anarcho-capitalists.
Women's bodies become a part of the battlefield in wars.
Anti-choice activists tell women that while they are pregnant, they are the property of the state.
Assume, for the sake of argument, that life begins at conception. Then, pregnancy is the unique situation in which a person lives inside the body of another person.
Human life has little value if the person has no freedom or privacy. A woman has little freedom if she can't decide what happens with her own body. You would think that people who talk about freedom as much as Republicans do, would notice that dictating what a woman does with her body is a serious limitation on liberty.
Anyway, the stupidity of the Republicans makes it clear that reproductive issues do not belong in the hands of politicians.
It's unfortunate that Russian Orthodox often seem to lack the humility and winsomeness of Alyosha and Father Zossima in Dostoyevsky's "The Brothers Karamazov", or the wayfarer in "The Way of the Pilgrim". Holding icons while thumping gays and hooligans on the head is not really holding up the picture of Christ.
Yes, it's all relative. If we include all 7 billion people on earth, the top 1% is anyone who earns $48,000 per year. If we're going to draw a line based on income, why not draw it right there at $48,000? The answer, of course, is that that would make far too many Americans uncomfortable.
Michael Moore goes out and urges the Occupiers to return to Zacati Park, then goes home to a $2M mansion. He's worth $50M. There are other multimillionaires who make their money by being progessives- selling books, being journalists, etc. George Soros didn't make his money by being a leftist and he doesn't feign being a commoner. To people on the bottom, it is all the same. They don't know what 'real wealth' is and they don't care. I don't think the bottom 5% feel any solidarity with the middle 94%.
Israel got no medals this year, even though it's a wealthy nation.
Egypt's best Olympic performance was at the 1948 Summer Games in London. They won 2 gold, 2 silver, and 1 bronze. But their performance at the games was not reflected in their performance in the war with Israel.
I think the rise of fundamentalism is due in part to the failure of earlier secular, modernist projects. Nasserism, neoliberalism, Baathism...none of these delivered the goods to the masses.
It will be interesting to see what the judiciary does, given that the top court has been working with and for SCAF up to now.
If the Affordable Care Act is not repealed, poor people in states that accept the expansion plan will get medicaid regardless of age. Romney promises to repeal Obamacare. Is that, or is that not a difference between the candidates?
Since Paul Ryan's medicare piratization plan only affects those who are now 55 or younger, it steals from the younger and gives to the rich.
Most of the people in the world who have internet access have that access only through smart phones. Providing Africans with cheap smart phones is a good thing.
There is the possibility of governments monitoring conversations. The US does it, so why shouldn't China. But, how are the spys going to monitor and analyze 60 trillion conversations? The g-men are the ones who will be driven batty. And the counter-spies will figure out how to use the technology against the g-men (like Wikileaks did).
Yes, that was a sickening video. But the Berri family, in addition to being Assad loyalists, were mafia-types, and everyone hated them. The rebels are only human, as one activist explained.
It's strange that thieves often praise free enterprise. The cornerstone of free enterprise and capitalism is respect for private property. Theft is stabbing at the heart of free enterprise. But, right-wing thieves pass themselves off as businessmen. It's like listening to rapists praising celibacy.
I don't know if they're beautiful, but traders are doing a job that needs to be done. Capitalism involves buying, selling, saving, investing, and property ownership. Whether you're trading financial assets, holding a garage sale, teaching classes, or managing a baseball team, it's all good. Viva capitalism!
Imagine him taking a gondola ride in Venice with Silvio Berlusconi:
Mitt: "Silvio, how long have your streets been F#'d Up like this?"
Silvio:"Mitt...Bite Me!"
After the War of 1812 , the business done between British merchants and US plantation owners was a huge boon to both. The agreement not to fight over the Canada border enabled both Britain and the US to expand westward. The Royal Navy helped keep the Russians from overrunning the Oregon territory. So , the shared history has some roots in the slave economy and imperialism. Black people, Native Americans, and Hispanics can't really aprreciate this history the way Mitt does.
I don't think anyone should be able to buy assault weapons. I think that testing and doing background checks would be insufficient to weed out all the sickos. I think it's annoying that media pundits talk about our inability to do anything about lone nuts , when they could be talking about gun control and other solutions. I think it's wrong to trash the Bill of Rights, rather than having sane gun control. But, when media pundits say we are helpless against loners, that may suggest to some that loners are the kind of threat that witches were thought to be in the old days. I was not clear enough, but you read a lot into what I said that wasn't there.
If we tested gun buyers for sanity, James Holmes may have passed that test. He was a graduate student with a clean record. But, he was also a lone wolf. Society is helpless against The Lone Wolf. Perhaps, white men who are not sociable enough need to be monitored , or burnt at the stake.
General Manaf Tlas has turned up in Paris, joining his multi-millionaire sister and his father (who was Assad's defense minister at the time of the 1982 massacre in Hama). He condemned the regimes killing of civilians, but did not say he was joining the opposition. Maybe he is hoping there will be a transitional, unity government that he can play a leading role in.
"The government enforces all of its edicts with the threat of violence". Yes, and the government could not exist without taxation, which is theft. But, if their were no government, other groups and individuals would steal and use violence. Many rich people use the state to transfer power and wealth to themselves. If there were no state, the rich would create one.
Jesus gave sight to the blind and healed the sick. Today, many poor people get healed in county hospitals that are funded by tax money. Thank God societies are willing to steal and ENFORCE laws that save peoples lives
And don't forget what happened to Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5).
On march 17 2003, you stated that there was no evidence of nuclear weapons in Iraq, thereby debunking the justification for the war. That blogpost, written 3 days before the war, proves that you did not support the war.
If you went through everything that your critics said in 2003, you might find something you could use to mischaracterize their positions.
I would like to know what your critics were saying and doing when the Afghan War and the first Gulf War began. I presume they were all in jail for doing civil disobediene to protest those wars.
There were people in the crowd on Friday holding pictures of Rahman and calling for his release. Morsi needs to deal with these guys. A Brotherhood spokesman later said Morsi would ask the US to extradite Rahman on humanitarian grounds, and was not saying that his conviction should be overturned or that he was a political prisoner.
"While the US actively supported the negotiated transfer, underscored by the recent Executive Order authorizing sanctions against anyone who disrupts the transition...".
These sanctions restrict free speech and should be objected to.
"Yemen faces armed threats to its own security beyond AQAP ...".
The Yemeni and US governments have been conflating the seperatist groups with al-Queda. For the US to be helping states fight their rebel groups no doubt increases the number of militants who are anti-US.
The rich men in charge of the Muslim Brotherhood certainly don't want a civil war. A gathering of secular-leaning politicians today accused the US of meddling on behalf of the MB. Perhaps we'll see power-sharing, with Morsi,the Mulim Brotherhood's charmless spare tire, being the face of change that gives legitimacy to the new hybrid regime.
Sounds like Hank Williams Jr. "Nobody wants to get drunk and get loud...
I myself have seen my wilder days
I have seen my name at the top of the page
But I need to find a friend just to run around
But nobody wants to get high on the town
And all my rowdy friends have settled down"
Adnan Menderes was the first democratically elected Turkish Prime Minister between 1950-1960. He was hanged by the military junta after the 1960 coup. When did the military usher in democracy?
The problem with the secular, nationalist, modernist tradition in both Egypt and Turkey is that it has been wedded to militarism and divorced from democracy and freedom.
The abuses by the military during the past year have taught the left that the army and the people are not one.
Immigrants rights groups are upset that he's deported one million people. He's set a precedent by killinng a US citizen without due process. He fought hard for government secrecy and for increased spying on Americans. But , while the right is watching Rush Limbaugh, the rest of us are watching Dancing With Octomom and letting Obama's PR lull us to sleep.
The Danish king that Kierkegard favored over the multitudes did not have the power that 21st century US presidents have. And our presidents are elected by the multitudes that Kierkegard disdained. So let's not insult Kierkegard by associating him with our president.
I know a 70 year old man who's only income is a 700$ Social Security check. It doesn't cover his expenses. His TV doesn't work, but he interacts with people online who are like those in this cartoon. He believes Obama is a foreign-born Muslim. It's too bad that the poor are being fed so much disinformation that some of them participate in their own decline.
Two cities in California voted to cut their employees pensions. This will be coming to a city near you. Someone said that since so many in the private sector got screwed out of their pensions, it's not fair for public employees to have good pensions. In other words, let's pull down the middle class, so that we're all screwed, except for the very rich. This is a strange idea of fairness.
Peter and Richard compare Libya positively to what Iraq was like 6 months after the fall of Sadam Hussein. They left Libya feeling fairly hopeful about its future. Their piece ends on a positive note.
Having a choice between a theocratic police state and a secular police state is indeed a travesty. Both the Muslim Brotherhood and the military did things that led to this sorry state of affairs. And millions of voters are stupid, fearful, and unprincipled.
If an election results in empowering a regime that will break heads and detain people without trial, then democracy should be specifically be rejected in that case. Breaking peoples, bones is either right or wrong.it doesn't go from wrong to right depending on how people vote. Democracy may be the best form of government, but it does not magically transform evil into good. Why not be an advocate for human rights, even in places where the majority is not on your side!
It's wonderful that Charles Taylor was sentenced to fifty years, the first former head of state convicted by the ICC at the Hague. The first convicted by an international tribunal since WWII.
So we have 66,000 special ops people in 120 countries to fight al Qaeda? About 30 guys for every terrorist? I think the US taxpayers are being scammed.
A plan to end the civil war needs to recognize that defeating Assad will not be enough. The civilians who need protecting could quickly change from the Sunnis to the Shiites and Christians.
Allowing the executive to kill people without trial, in secret, and without congressional oversight is an offense to the principle of the rule of law. But priciples like rule of law, due process, or limiting the president's authority are abstractions that few care about. Nor do most people care about the innocent civilians that are killed alongside alleged terrorists. And why try to stop the proliferation of drones here at home? If most Americans are okay with killing suspected terrorists, they should be willing to have armed drones flying over their homes.
True enough. But a libertarian leftist (if there are any out there) could point out that a real respect for private property would mean that there would not have been the forcible taking of homes in poor neighborhoods to make room for baseball stadiums. A real respect for the free market would mean an end to harassment of poor street vendors. In our country, the state steals the private property of the poor through $500 traffic tickets and such. A radical capitalist could point out that the real welfare kings are the defense industry engineers and security firm owners.
*...So the analysts were passing up false information to the White House which was provided by their own colleagues."
This is the silver lining to authoritarianism. The authorities end up choking on themselves. Stalin killed many who had been his best supporters. The Chinese under Mao's guidance killed many of their comrades. Abandoning truth and rule of law creates an environment in which a fire can erupt which burns the people who thought they were in control.
Obama just signed an executive order to financially punish those who oppose the Yemeni president. Obama does not seem lax on civil liberties issues. Rather, he's on the wrong side.
Dooley proposed taking the war on Islam to the Muslim civilians. Anwar al-Awlaki advocated killing American civilians. Two Americans advocating slaughter. Awlaki was killed. Dooley will be re-assigned and reprimanded.
If a nation is consistently moral, it will loose ground in the competition for power. Great powers have no reason to exist other than the competition between them. Their interests are not necessarily the interests of the people living in the territory they control. Loyality to one's country necessarily means disloyality to righteousness, because it will inevitably mean supporting something immoral. Nationalism is the big scam that keeps humanity divided and constrained.
In addition to the names of those killed, we should know their ages and gender and whatever else we can learn. We should see photos of them. If we are killing children, pregnant women, and old folks , we need to know that, and be reminded of it often.
Is the Salafi leadership leading the demos? Didn't they just endorse the moderate Fotouh? Is there disunity amongst the Salafis?
Just as current events are falsified, much of history is distorted by people with axes to grind or books to sell. Significant events are forgotten and silk purses are made of sow's ears. We can be sure that much of what we know is wrong.
This is a warning to those who support repressive laws and bad war policies. Those laws will inevitably snag some of those who voted for them. And a drone may someday hit a group of US special operations forces.
If Obamacare is not struck down, low income people will get medicare in 2014, regardless of age. That's a good deal. But on civil liberties and foreign policy, Obama is awful. US drones have killed kids, pregnant women,... And we have to believe this is the best possible policy, because that's what we're told.
The rule of law wilts in a secretive, centalized, unaccountable athority.
Several times in the last few months an Israeli or US military or intelligence expert has stated that Iran is not doing anything that calls for a military response, or even sanctions. At the same time, politicians keep saying we need to have ever harsher sanctions and should prepare for war. The politicians don't argue with the experts, they ignore them. They imply that Iran is an imminent threat. They know they don't need to present evidence. Because people assume their leaders know what they're doing. So it is strange to read the news, because of the bizarre mix of fact and propaganda.