June 25, 2012

Jimmy Carter Is Spot on: "The USA is abandoning its role as the global champion of human rights".

THE United States is abandoning its role as the global champion of human rights.
By JIMMY CARTER
Published: June 24, 2012


Revelations that top officials are targeting people to be assassinated abroad, including American citizens, are only the most recent, disturbing proof of how far our nation’s violation of human rights has extended. This development began after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and has been sanctioned and escalated by bipartisan executive and legislative actions, without dissent from the general public. As a result, our country can no longer speak with moral authority on these critical issues.



Despite an arbitrary rule that any man killed by drones is declared an enemy terrorist, the death of nearby innocent women and children is accepted as inevitable. After more than 30 airstrikes on civilian homes this year in Afghanistan, President Hamid Karzai has demanded that such attacks end, but the practice continues in areas of Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen that are not in any war zone. We don’t know how many hundreds of innocent civilians have been killed in these attacks, each one approved by the highest authorities in Washington. This would have been unthinkable in previous times.



At a time when popular revolutions are sweeping the globe, the United States should be strengthening, not weakening, basic rules of law and principles of justice enumerated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. But instead of making the world safer, America’s violation of international human rights abets our enemies and alienates our friends.






http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/25/opinion/americas-shameful-human-rights-record.html?_r=1

June 25, 2012

Not red states, nor blue states, but the United States of America.

Liberal democracies like ours depend on rules but also on norms -- on the assumption that you'll go so far, but no further, to advance your political ends. The norms imply some loyalty to the system as a whole that outweighs your immediate partisan interest. Not red states, nor blue states, but the United States of America. It was out of loyalty to the system that Al Gore stepped aside after Bush v. Gore. Norms have given the Supreme Court its unquestioned legitimacy. The Roberts majority is barreling ahead without regard for the norms, and it is taking the court's legitimacy with it.


http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2012/06/scotus-update-la-loi-cest-moi/258900/

June 25, 2012

You Can't Blame Your Brother...Why Not? Isn't That Exactly What Issa Has Always Done?

You Can't Blame Your Brother...Why Not? Isn't That Exactly What Issa Has Always Done?

Darrell Issa, today on ABC's This Week, made a blunder I won't soon forget. He won't either, because what he said today is the same thing he has said for years, each and every time he was arrested for auto theft or illegal possession of firearms.

Issa's quote: "The whole point of this thing is a little bit like when you do something wrong and then lie about it as a young person, you can't say, oh, after you get caught, my brother did it, too..."
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/week-transcript-rep-darrell-issa/story?id=16611079&page=3

When questioned about his dubious past and many criminal arrests, Issa has always said, "I was just a kid", or "It was my brother". Sometimes Issa goes even further to say that these things happened so long ago, when he was a kid (in his mid and late twenties), that he doesn't even remember...

Just saying, maybe Issa forgot that these have always been his favorite words when he was caught red-handed.


http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/06/24/1102799/-Darrell-Issa-s-ABC-Blunder-Todayhttp://jillianbarclay.hubpages.com/hub/Darrell-Issa-To-Lead-Obama-Investigations-Suspected-Arson-Car-Theft-Weapons-Charges-Wait-Thats-Issas-Past

June 25, 2012

5 Signs of a Radical Change in U.S. Politics - by JAMES FALLOWS

Pick a country and describe a sequence in which:

First, a presidential election is decided by five people, who don't even try to explain their choice in normal legal terms.

Then the beneficiary of that decision appoints the next two members of the court, who present themselves for consideration as restrained, humble figures who care only about law rather than ideology.

Once on the bench, for life, those two actively second-guess and re-do existing law, to advance the interests of the party that appointed them.

Meanwhile their party's representatives in the Senate abuse procedural rules to an extent never previously seen to block legislation -- and appointments, especially to the courts.

And, when a major piece of legislation gets through, the party's majority on the Supreme Court prepares to negate it -- even though the details of the plan were originally Republican proposals and even though the party's presidential nominee endorsed these concepts only a few years ago.

How would you describe a democracy where power was being shifted that way?

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2012/06/5-signs-the-united-states-is-undergoing-a-coup/258904/?google_editors_picks=true

June 25, 2012

The "Simplicity" Of Romney's Economic Plan Revealed

June 25, 2012

Jail is pretty fucking humiliating and crazy, huh Jerry?

Fellow Inmates Reportedly Sang “Hey, Teacher, Leave Those Kids Alone” To Jerry Sandusky

Following guilty verdicts on 45 of 48 counts, Jerry Sandusky was shipped off to Centre County Correctional Facility, the same facility he was initially held in December. According to a fellow inmate at the time, known only as Josh, Sandusky was on the receiving end of some a cappella ridiculing.

Other prisoners were barred from communicating directly with Sandusky, but they could see him. And when the lights went out, inmates serenaded the disgraced coach with a famous line from Pink Floyd's "The Wall."

"At night, we were singing ‘Hey, teacher, leave those kids alone,' " Josh said, adding that everyone knew who Sandusky was because inmates had access to television and newspapers.

Jail is pretty fucking humiliating and crazy, huh Jerry?

http://www.thedaily.com/page/2012/06/24/062412-news-sandusky-folo-1-2/
http://deadspin.com/5920864/fellow-inmates-reportedly-sang-hey-teacher-leave-those-kids-alone-to-jerry-sandusky

June 24, 2012

Multiple deferment Mitt Romney would make citizenship available ONLY to those who join the military

Multiple deferment Mitt Romney would make citizenship available ONLY to those who join the military
Posted on June 23, 2012

TPM: Mitt Romney would “replace” President Obama’s new immigration policy in favor of one that staves off deportation only for those who sign up for military service, though the full details were unclear.

Obama’s plan applies to all children of illegal immigrants who are under 30, were brought to the country before age 16, have lived in the U.S. for five years and have earned a high school diploma or GED or serve in the U.S. military.

Earlier this month, Boston.com reported: Though an early supporter of the Vietnam War, Romney avoided military service at the height of the fighting after high school by seeking and receiving four draft deferments, according to Selective Service records. They included college deferments and a 31-month stretch as a “minister of religion” in France, a classification for Mormon missionaries that the church at the time feared was being overused.

...............................

http://underthemountainbunker.com/2012/06/23/multiple-deferment-mitt-romney-would-make-citizenship-available-only-to-those-who-sign-up-for-military-service/

June 24, 2012

Maher: Conservatism is not an ideology, ‘It’s just about being a dick’

Maher: Conservatism is not an ideology, ‘It’s just about being a dick’

On this week’s edition of “Real Time with Bill Maher,” host Bill Maher dedicated the last segment of his “New Rules” feature to conservatives’ penchant for finding spokesmen among the pre-shaving set. This week internet radio sensation Caiden Cowger made a splash for his recorded rant about LGBT teens in his area.

Maher coined a New Rule to mark the occasion, saying to conservatives, “If a 14-year-old can deliver your message, it’s not because he’s gifted. It’s because intellectually, you’re a child.”

............

Caiden and CPAC 2011 darling Jonathan Krohn are perfect exemplars of conservative Republican philosophy, said Maher, and that’s a problem. “When 14-year-old boys sound exactly like you do and can produce radio shows and books and speeches that sound exactly like yours,” he said, “maybe you should rethink the shit that comes out of your mouth.”

He went on, “Remember the Republican debates we had this year? They applauded for the idea of letting a sick man without insurance die. Herman Cain got cheers for saying he’d electrify the border fence. They booed a gay man serving his country in the military. No wonder 14-year-old boys can do your act, you act exactly like 14-year-old boys. There’s no ideology here. It’s just about being a dick.”

VIDEO & More:
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/06/23/maher-conservatism-is-not-a-philosophy-its-just-about-being-a-dick/

June 24, 2012

Romney "Sick at Heart" Over Bain Job Losses

Back in 2007, Republican White House hopeful Mitt Romney declared that taking a big payment from a company that later failed "would make me sick, sick at heart." If so, Romney by now must be badly in need of a quadruple by-pass. Because as the New York Times became just the latest to report, through massive consulting fees, sales of stock and, most perversely, dividend payments, Romney and his partners at Bain Capital reaped whirlwind profits even when the companies they acquired collapsed.

Back in January, McClatchy offered this primer on how private equity firms like Bain Capital work, at least on paper. As candidate Romney explained at a GOP debate back in June 2007, "Don't forget that when companies earn profit, that money is supposed to be reinvested in growth."

But as the New York Times documented Friday, large sums of that money were going to Mitt Romney and his Bain colleagues whether their portfolio companies were profitable or not. Put another way, Bain won either way:

Bain structured deals so that it was difficult for the firm and its executives to ever really lose, even if practically everyone else involved with the company that Bain owned did, including its employees, creditors and even, at times, investors in Bain's funds.

...........

http://crooksandliars.com/jon-perr/romney-sick-at-heart-over-bain-job-losses
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/23/us/politics/companies-ills-did-not-harm-romneys-firm.html?_r=2&pagewanted=all

June 24, 2012

Call It OutSourcing Or OffShoring-Mitt's Bain Created Jobs Overseas-THAT COULD HAVE BEEN DONE IN USA

When Romney’s Bain Capital created jobs outside the U.S. that could have been done here
Posted on June 24, 2012

Caroline Bankoff at Daily Intel discusses the recent Washington Post article about how Romney’s Bain Capital invested in companies that moved American jobs overseas: [The Romney] campaign has responded with a statement criticizing the article as “fundamentally flawed”:

However, as Politico notes, the statement does not address one of the article’s main points, which is that Bain was directly involved with companies that created jobs outside the United States that could have been done here. Meanwhile, the New York Times has a piece (also based on Securities and Exchange Commission filings) detailing a number of instances in which Bain made a profit off of taking over companies that eventually went bankrupt. While some of the companies profiled may have simply been “too troubled to rescue” (or brought down by larger economic or industry trends), there are examples like steel manufacturer GS Industries…

more:
http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2012/06/bain-horror-stories-continue-to-haunt-romney.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+nymag%2Fintel+%28Daily+Intelligencer+-+New+York+Magazine%29