You Don’t Say

Tuesday 23 October 2012 - Filed under Uncategorized

Incumbents are displeased at the “barrage” of negative ads at the hands of “outside groups.” Los Tiempos de Nueva York:

An expansive onslaught of negative political advertisements in Congressional races has left many incumbents, including some Republicans long opposed to restrictions on campaign spending, concluding that legislative measures may be in order to curtail the power of the outside groups behind most of the attacks.

Gee. Incumbents upset that political insiders and media lackeys more concerned with access than with journalism can no longer have sole control over political discourse in America. You don’t say. How dare we proles have the ability to form and dictate political discourse when our betters want the full stage?

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Fittest Man of All Time

Tuesday 23 October 2012 - Filed under Uncategorized

Admitted and documented pot smoker named fittest man of all time.

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Too Much

Monday 22 October 2012 - Filed under Uncategorized

TSA douche, Robin Kane:

It’s a really, really small amount [of radiation exposure] relative to the security benefit you’re going to get.

Uhhh . . . Any exposure to radiation in exchange for TSA-style security is TOO FUCKING MUCH. Eat a bag of dicks, Robin Kane.

Comments Off on Too Much  ::  Share or discuss  ::  2012-10-22  ::  madlibertarianguy

Uhh . . .

Saturday 29 September 2012 - Filed under Uncategorized

The Seattle Times on the administration’s initial response to embassy attacks in Libya:

Extremists from groups linked to al-Qaida struck the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, in a “deliberate and organized terrorist attack,” the top U.S. intelligence agency said Friday, as it took responsibility for the Obama administration’s initial claims the assault grew from a spontaneous protest against an anti-Muslim video.

The statement from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) appeared to have two goals: updating the public on the latest findings of the investigation into the assault, and shielding the Obama administration from a political backlash over its original accounts.

Uhh . . . no shit. Of course blaming the embassy attacks and the death of 4 Americans on a fucking YouTube video was nothing but political cover to get Obama through the initial few days, which is, coincidentally, just enough time for the story to blow over and move the national discussion to limiting our first amendment rights.

Comments Off on Uhh . . .  ::  Share or discuss  ::  2012-09-29  ::  madlibertarianguy

On The War on Terror

Saturday 29 September 2012 - Filed under Uncategorized

Ken at Popehat on The War on Terror:

But this episode says something about far more than Bob. It says something very fundamental about the War on Terror. It says this: if we let it, the government will define the War on Terror however it wants.

The United States government, under two opposed increasingly indistinguishable political parties, asserts the right to kill anyone on the face of the earth in the name of the War on Terror. It asserts the right todetain anyone on the face of the earth in the name of the War on Terror, and to do so based on undisclosed facts applied to undisclosed standards in undisclosed locations under undisclosed conditions for however long it wants, all without judicial review. It asserts the right to be free of lawsuits or other judicial proceedings that might reveal its secrets in the War on Terror. It asserts that the people it kills in drone strikes are either probably enemy combatants in the War on Terror or acceptable collateral damage. It asserts that increasing surveillance of Americans, increasing interception of Americans’ communications, and increasinglyintrusive security measures are all required by the War on Terror.

But the War on Terror, unlike other wars, will last as long as the government says it will. And, as the MEK episode illustrates, the scope of the War on Terror — the very identity of the Terror we fight — is a subjective matter in the discretion of the government. The compelling need the government cites to do whatever it wants is itself defined by the government.

We’ve always been at war with Eastasia.

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Republicans Aren’t the Only Ones Demanding Answers

Friday 28 September 2012 - Filed under Uncategorized

CBS on the Obama administration’s insistence on trying jedi mind tricks in regards to the various embassy attacks on 9/11 and after:

The Washington Post on Thursday published a timeline of the White House responses over the last two weeks, from the initial claims that the attacks were the result of protests over the anti-Muslim video, to the Tuesday admission that the four Americans killed in the violence were victims of a “terrorist attack on our embassy,” to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s suggestion on Wednesday that al Qaeda or other similar terrorist groups may have somehow figured into the attacks.

In the aftermath of the incident, some have questioned the security measures in Benghazi that allowed the attacks to penetrate the American embassy – leading to the death of four Americans, including the U.S. ambassador to Libya – as well as the White House’s explanation of how the events unfolded.

On Wednesday, the Daily Beast published a report suggesting that U.S. officials knew terrorists were behind the attacks within 24 hours – even while members of the administration were still publicly tying them to the video.

Even now that the Obama administration says the attacks were the work of terrorists, it maintains there is no evidence to suggest the attacks were “pre-planned” or “well-coordinated.” And President Obama has not personally used the word “terrorism” or “terrorist” in relation to the Benghazi attack.

Republicans aren’t the only ones who want answers. It’s obvious why the administration is spinning this story dizzy, but we deserve real answers if we’re to take you serious that the welfare of the country, and not his being reelected, is Obama’s most important priority.

Comments Off on Republicans Aren’t the Only Ones Demanding Answers  ::  Share or discuss  ::  2012-09-28  ::  madlibertarianguy

Language Defiled

Friday 28 September 2012 - Filed under Uncategorized

The Atlantic on the Obama administration and his media lackies torturing language in order to form the narrative that drone strikes are “surgical”:

The Obama Administration deliberately uses the word “surgical” to describe its drone strikes. Official White House spokesman Jay Carney marshaled the medical metaphor here, saying that “a hallmark of our counterterrorism efforts has been our ability to be exceptionally precise, exceptionally surgical and exceptionally targeted.” White House counterterrorism adviser John Brennan attributed “surgical precision” and “laser-like focus” to the drone program. He also spoke of “delivering targeted, surgical pressure to the groups that threaten us.” And a “senior administration official” told The Washington Post that “there is still a very firm emphasis on being surgical and targeting only those who have a direct interest in attacking the United States.”

They’ve successfully transplanted the term into public discourse about drones.

I’ve been told American drone strikes are “surgical” while attending Aspen Ideas Festival panels, interviewing delegates at the Democratic National Convention, and perusing reader emails after every time I write about the innocents killed and maimed in Pakistan, Yemen, and elsewhere.

It is a triumph of propaganda.

When propaganda triumphs, we all lose.

Comments Off on Language Defiled  ::  Share or discuss  ::  2012-09-28  ::  madlibertarianguy

More Transparency

Friday 28 September 2012 - Filed under Uncategorized

Behold! The most transparent administration ever!

On his first full day in office, President Barack Obama ordered federal officials to “usher in a new era of open government” and “act promptly” to make information public.

As Obama nears the end of his term, his administration hasn’t met those goals, failing to follow the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act, according to an analysis of open-government requests filed by Bloomberg News.

Nineteen of 20 cabinet-level agencies disobeyed the law requiring the disclosure of public information: The cost of travel by top officials. In all, just eight of the 57 federal agencies met Bloomberg’s request for those documents within the 20-day window required by the Act.

“When it comes to implementation of Obama’s wonderful transparency policy goals, especially FOIA policy in particular, there has been far more ‘talk the talk’ rather than ‘walk the walk,’” said Daniel Metcalfe, director of the Department of Justice’s office monitoring the government’s compliance with FOIA requests from 1981 to 2007.

The Bloomberg survey was designed in part to gauge the timeliness of responses, which Attorney General Eric Holder called “an essential component of transparency” in a March 2009 memo. About half of the 57 agencies eventually disclosed the out-of-town travel expenses generated by their top official by Sept. 14, most of them well past the legal deadline.

Hopey! Changey!

Comments Off on More Transparency  ::  Share or discuss  ::  2012-09-28  ::  madlibertarianguy

Overvalue

Friday 28 September 2012 - Filed under Uncategorized

It seems to me that most people undervalue their right to free speech and overvalue the babbling of authoritarian law professors. The idea of curbing our free speech to quell radicals half way around the world is repulsive and offensive. Fuck off, Eric Posner.

Comments Off on Overvalue  ::  Share or discuss  ::  2012-09-28  ::  madlibertarianguy

Headline of the Day

Friday 28 September 2012 - Filed under Uncategorized

Truth.

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