December 2010
“…many of the same people who supported the invasion of Iraq and/or who support the war in Afghanistan, drone strikes and assassination programs — on the ground that the massive civilians deaths which result are justifiable “collateral damage” — are those objecting most vehemently to WikiLeaks’ disclosure on the ground that it may lead to the death of innocent people. For them, the moral framework suddenly becomes that if an act causes the deaths of any innocent person, that is proof that it is not only unjustifiable but morally repellent regardless of what it achieves. How glaringly selective is their alleged belief in that moral framework.”
—
Glenn Greenwald (via azspot)
I said this exact thing to Shaunda in the car two days ago.
(via jonathan-cunningham)
November 2010
“
The Obama administration is exploring the possibility of prosecuting WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange under the century-old Espionage Act, according to a front-page Washington Post story this morning. But legal experts tell Salon that such a prosecution would not only face myriad legal and practical hurdles, it would also set what one analyst calls “an extremely dangerous precedent.”
“This is novel legal territory. Every step involves uncertainty and virgin territory, and ideally it will be left that way,” says Steven Aftergood, a secrecy expert at the Federation of American Scientists. Aftergood, who has been a critic of WikiLeaks in the past, argues that “a prosecution of WikiLeaks would be a horrible precedent that in time would almost certainly be applied to other publishers of controversial information.”
” —Assange prosecution would be “extremely dangerous” (via ryking)
“The first thing that has to be done is secure the border … East Germany was very, very able to reduce the flow. Now, obviously, other things were involved. We have the capacity to, as a great nation, secure the border. If East Germany could, we could.”
—
Alaska GOP Senate candidate Joe Miller, on how to deal with illegal immigration, Oct. 17, 2010 - Daniel Kurtzman: The Top 20 Craziest Quotes by Tea Party Candidates (via furryrabbits)
East Germany is his model for how to run a border? Really?
(via dendroica)
What will the world do if Fiji Water can't get its water from Fiji? →
motherjones.com
Fiji Water announced today that it will close its operations in Fiji in response to a water extraction tax hike proposed by the Fijian government, to take effect in 2011. The abrupt shutdown comes just three days after the government announced the 2011 budget, which proposes increasing Fiji Water’s “extraction tax” to 15 cents a liter up from one-third of a cent.
Good. Its about time something happened to loosen that corporation’s parasitic grip on that country and their anti-democratic militaristic regime.
Nowhere in Fiji Water’s glossy marketing materials will you find reference to the typhoid outbreaks that plague Fijians because of the island’s faulty water supplies; the corporate entities that Fiji Water has—despite the owners’ talk of financial transparency—set up in tax havens like the Cayman Islands and Luxembourg; or the fact that its signature bottle is made from Chinese plastic in a diesel-fueled plant and hauled thousands of miles to its ecoconscious consumers. And, of course, you won’t find mention of the military junta for which Fiji Water is a major source of global recognition and legitimacy.
Access to water is a fundamental human right. The 1.1 billion people who lack access to clean drinking water (including 10% of the U.S. population) are those suffering from the profiteering that comes out of corporate bottled water.
Learn more here or visit The Story of Bottled Water. Read the numerous articles and pleas against this destructive industry at World Water Wars.
I quit drinking bottled water over 2 years ago. If you don’t like the tap water where you live, use a filter like Brita. Save money, plastic, and of course stop these corporations from profiting on what should be free: water.
Bottled water is one of the biggest cons going…
and another thing ...: Top 5 falsehoods about the Bush tax cuts →
silas216.tumblr.com
Small businesses that have “$250,000 in gross sales for the business. They’re the ones that are looking at massive tax increases.” - Michele Bachmann
“Pres. Obama’s finance team is recommending a 1% tax on all transactions at any financial institution.” - Anonymous Chain…
“I’ve been sitting here for the last few minutes trying to come up with a list of people I want to kill with a shovel.”
—
The Glenn Beck radio program, March 9, 2001
Does the bible not state “Thou shall not kill” or are religious men excluded from that rule?
(via stfuglennbeck)
What a funny coincidence! My list happens to start with Glenn Beck!
(via supakitsune)
The only thing I would need a shovel for is to bury his fat pasty body.
(via savagemike)
“The fact of the matter is, the Tea Party political positions are rooted in Medieval approaches to knowledge. Limbaugh and Beck are the new Vicars of the official Canon, and they are infallible. Their world view is based on mythology and carelessly constructed wish fulfilling fantasies, but it is uttered as a matter De Fide for the congregants. I have argued with these types of people for years. No amount of facts, evidence, or rational analysis has ANY value for them—unless it comes from someone they regard as ‘Authoritative’. If Dick Cheney says it, it must be so. If Sarah Palin tweets it, it’s Moses bringing the stone tablets. In the dark ages of European history, religious authoritarians would not be regarded as crazy, for their superstitious beliefs—but in the modern world, where the genome has been unravelled, and all the libraries of the world are as close as your smart phone—to be so willfully ignorant is crazy. As a species, we have come by our knowledge of the material world through a long slog of blood, sweat, and tears. The acquisition of wisdom is a life and death struggle. Why would you willingly throw out the knowledge gained from centuries of struggle to get your wisdom from the lips of media prophets?”
—
Comment on Argumentum Ad Populum @ The Washington Monthly
Because thinking is so HARD
(via savagemike)
“
[Palin’s sneering compilation of Obama’s verbal gaffes] may be a smart-ass retort; it may be useful inoculation against a potentially damaging gaffe; it may even be a well-researched blog-post, but what it isn’t is anything approaching the kind of character we expect in a president. A simple respect for the office she seeks would not reflect itself in these increasingly callow, sarcastic, cheap jibes at a sitting president. But sadly, like so many now purporting to represent conservatism, there is, behind the faux awe before the constitution, a contempt for the restraint and dignity a polity’s institutions require from its leaders.
There is no maturity here; no self-reflection; no capacity even to think how to appeal to the half of Americans who are already so appalled by her trashy behavior and cheap publicity stunts. There is a meanness, a disrespect, a vicious partisanship that, if allowed to gain more power, would split this country more deeply and more rancorously than at any time in recent years. And that’s saying something.
” —Why America Won’t Buy Palinism - The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan (via ayse)
“But it’s worth reflecting that employment as a TSA agent is a good job in these hard times of high unemployment. The starting pay is $12.85 an hour, better than Wendy’s for an employee who needs only a high school diploma.”
—
Where I draw the line - Roger Ebert’s Journal
$12.85 an hour is $26,728 a year.
The ‘poverty line’ in Australia is $34,395 per year.
Holy fuck.
(via indefensible)
Play
'We’ve got to stand with our North Korean allies,’ Palin tells Beck →
rawstory.com
This woman is half retarded! Seriously lady, you’re going to say that you’re going to run for POTUS, and you can’t even tell me who is and isn’t our ally? Good luck to the military stationed out there.
Here you go Teabaggers. This is your champion. I hope Beck, Faux, and the Tea Party choke on her.
To reserve the right to execute gay people →
maddowblog.msnbc.msn.com
The Maddow Blog: A new U.N. resolution [which] condemns the arbitrary execution of whole classes of humanity, from street kids to indigenous groups, was to have included sexual minorities, but a bunch of nations balked at protection for LGBTs. The U.N. General Assembly then approved an amendment that removed them from the list. The vote was 79-70. Here’s the list of countries that want to reserve the right to kill the gay:
Afghanistan, Algeria, Angola, Azerbaijan, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Belize, Benin, Botswana, Brunei Dar-Sala, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, China, Comoros, Congo, Cote d’Ivoire, Cuba, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Democratic Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Ghana, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Jamaica, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kuwait, Lebanon, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Madagascar, Malawi, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Russian Federation, Rwanda, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and Grenadines, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, Sudan, Suriname, Swaziland, Syrian Arab Republic, Tajikistan, Tunisia, Uganda, United Arab Emirates, United Republic of Tanzania, Uzbekistan, Viet Nam, Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwe
via: The New Yorker
TSA: Pilots & Flight Attendants Can Skip Scanners →
huffingtonpost.com
Well, sure. But if NATO can be fooled by impostors, can’t the TSA?
Related: Man flies for 13 years with fake license.
“I want to help clean up the state that is so sorry today of journalism.”
—
Sarah Palin, criticizing the media for biased reporting. Palin said she will not waste her time with another interview with CBS’ Katie Couric. (via officialssay)
So help much I do can! First, speak everyone English me like I’ll make. Then, reality with dispense me like them I’ll make too! Sky from puppies and kittens the rain will, because loves Jesus me and us all guide He will in good making journalism. Clever, I aren’t?
(via robot-heart-politics)
