Cutting the debt and war-mongering

I figure I should just put up a banner ad urging all DI readers to go read Glenn Greenwald every day. He is that good at identifying important issues of the day and making sense of them. Today he pointed out the hypocrisy of the conservatives who are urging that we need to cut the debt, but who are wiling to run the economy into the ground with endless warmongering.

[I]t's vital that we continue to splurge for military spending that is almost equal to what the entire rest of the world spends combined, and that we continue to spend 6 times more than the second-largest military spender (China). Why is that? Because we may need to fight our fourth, fifth and sixth wars (not counting the covert ones) and must remain ready to start those wars at a moment's notice. There are many things one can say about someone plagued by that warmongering mentality; that they are serious opponents of borrowed spending and debt financing is most assuredly not one of them.

Continue ReadingCutting the debt and war-mongering

Translated: “Because we are torturing Bradley Manning and we don’t want people outside the prison to know about it.”

Why is it so hard for the public at large to learn how Bradley Manning is being treated? You won't hear a straight answer from Mark Toner, spokesman for Barack Obama's State Department. Here's a translation for all you are hearing: "Because we are torturing Bradley Manning and we don't want people outside the military prison to know about it."

Continue ReadingTranslated: “Because we are torturing Bradley Manning and we don’t want people outside the prison to know about it.”

Election Day Separation

Today was a local election day. We have a new polling place in our ward. Instead of the school to which we walked for years, it is now in a nearby church basement. It seems a good use of the space on an off day. But as I deposited my ballot, I had a creepy feeling. Suddenly Jesus was in my personal space, uninvited. How well does this mesh with the separation of church and state?

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It is dangerous to quote the United States Constitution in America

Here's a cool idea: Write the Fourth Amendment on your chest in a marker, and then refuse electronic scanning at an airport, henceforth removing your shirt and thus displaying the Fourth Amendment. Actually, it's not a cool idea, Aaron Tobey used this technique of self-expression, and here's what the TSA did, as described at Lowering the Bar:

they cuffed him, interrogated him, had the airport police charge him with "disorderly conduct" (favorite of official thugs everywhere), and then contacted the cops at his university and suggested that they report Tobey to the Dean of Students.
Here's a copy of Tobey's lawsuit. A link provided in this same article suggests that the body scanners used at many airports might be emitting ten times as much radiation as previously claimed.

Continue ReadingIt is dangerous to quote the United States Constitution in America