The McCain/Lieberman Abolish The Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh and Fourteenth Amendments Act

Jordan — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 20:03:42 +0000

Among other things, this short piece of legislation would allow (or really, require) the President to lock up unprivileged combatants – including US citizens – in military custody, prevents DOJ from bringing any prosecution against such persons, and allow such persons to be detained and interrogated "for the duration" (without defining whose discretion would determine that limit). That this monstrosity doesn't have a prayer in hell of surviving a SCOTUS challenge is about the only comfort here.

If you think we should stay in Afghanistan...

vinteuil — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 19:36:41 +0000

...for another micro-second, than you really need to listen to Matthew Hoh:

How to Pass Health Care Reform the Chicago Way

Jordan — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 17:32:00 +0000

Amid all the complaints of common procedures like "deem-and-pass" and reconciliation (now demonized as a process of "ramming legislation through Congress" with a majority vote, it might be helpful to step into the Wayback Machine and see how a prior Congress handled Health Care Reform.

The year is 2003. Congress, firmly in Republican control, is working on passing a trillion dollar prescription drug benefit for Medicare, the largest expansion of health entitlements in four decades.

Unhinged: the Laudantes attacks Tom Hanks.

BlaiseP — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 17:28:18 +0000

Précis: Tom Hanks has been lionized in Time Magazine as America's Historian . He has also become the latest target of Right Wing anger for remarks concerning American racist attitudes directed against the Japanese during WW2. Here is what Hanks said:

“Back in World War II, we viewed the Japanese as ‘yellow, slant-eyed dogs’ that believed in different gods. They were out to kill us because our way of living was different. We, in turn, wanted to annihilate them because they were different. Does that sound familiar, by any chance, to what’s going on today?”

Honor is rare enough among today's Conservatives. So few of them served in war. The wars they've fought have not gone well and their historians fallen into disrepute for rah-rahing those wars. It has all been seen before.

To form a more perfect union....

Bernard Guerrero — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 20:40:19 +0000

...just ditch the Greeks. :^)

The political message of the Schäuble plan is that Greece will be the last bail-out ever. As preparations for a bail-out reach an advanced stage, the German public reaction has become progressively more hostile. If the Schäuble plan had already been in place, Greece would already have headed to the exit. It is hard to conceive of a situation under the plan where a country simultaneously fulfills the criteria for aid, and needs it.

God Help Us Open Thread

Model 62 — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 18:44:16 +0000

A SPECIAL MESSAGE TO THE CHILDREN OF THE WORLD

Hello. This website is not DGamer. This is Wired.com, a news website where we write articles about videogames. For example, the article below is about DGamer.

You cannot sign up for DGamer by commenting on this article, as at least ten of you have tried, every day, for the past two years.

You CAN sign up for DGamer by going to Disney’s official DGamer website and clicking the button that says “Register.”

Why is no one talking about Lehman?

catchy — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 00:33:06 +0000

How did an allegedly solvent firm suddenly spring a $130+ billion hole in its $660 billion balance sheet? An examiner's report was recently released:

Memoir to McGee

mplo — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 02:36:26 +0000

I'm sad to report that my beautiful, beloved pet Noble Macaw, McGee, passed over into Bird Heaven on Sunday night, February 7th, 2010, at the age of about 20. I found him dead, at around 10:30 p. m., on the bottom of his cage. It was very much of a shock, which I still haven't gotten over, but I hope it'll wear off soon.

So saying, I've decided to write a memoir of McGee. Here goes:

A Bibi bubu [Update: It was a BIG bubu]

Bird Dog — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 01:57:17 +0000

The Obama administration made clear its concerns about the expansion of Jewish settlements, so it was insulting to Joe Biden to arrive in Israel and--less than day later--hear the Israeli government announce the approval of 1,600 new homes in East Jersalem. SecState Clinton was understandably peeved. Jeffrey Goldberg:

What's Wrong With Distributism

vinteuil — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 22:37:17 +0000

Distributism is, basically, the doctrine that "ownership of the means of production should be spread as widely as possible among the general populace, rather than being centralized under the control of the state (state socialism) or a few large businesses or wealthy private individuals (plutarchic capitalism)."

TGI Open Thread

stillnotking — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 15:27:25 +0000

Pope refuses to condemn Ugandan bill proposing execution of gays.

H.R. 4789 - Public Option Act, or Medicare You Can Buy Into Act

Username — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 21:19:43 +0000

Congressman Alan Grayson (D-FL) introduced yesterday H.R. 4789, a bill amending the Social Security Act Title XVIII, Health Insurance for the Aged and Disabled (Medicare). If we won't get a public option through reconciliation, if the public polls are showing overwhelming support for a public option, and if we want to avoid creating a new agency, then let's open up Medicare in its own act and make some progress regardless of what happens with the HCR mess.