Bill Maher: the United States is like herpes

Recent activity in Libya reminds me of the following from Real Time with Bill Maher, Episode 147, premiering on March 27, 2009:

New Rule: Forget about bringing the troops home from Iraq. We need to get the troops home from World War II. Can anybody tell me why, in 2009, we still have more than 50,000 troops in Germany and 30,000 in Japan?

. . .

How did this country get stuck with an empire? Now, I’m not saying we’re Rome. Rome had good infrastructure. But, we are an empire, and I think the reason is because once America lands in a country, there is no exit strategy. We’re like cellulite, herpes and Irish relatives. We are not going anywhere! “We love you long time!”

Continue ReadingBill Maher: the United States is like herpes

Anthony Weiner aims his sarcasm at do-nothing Republicans

NPR is fighting hard to keep it's sliver of federal funding. On the Hill, Anthony Weiner aims his arrows at the Republicans. And at least one Republican, Ron Paul, understands that our Nation's (destructive) money pit is Afghanistan, not NPR. Every week we spend four times more on our military adventure in Afghanistan than we spend for one year on funding domestic public media (we spend a lot more on propaganda devoted for international audiences than we spend on domestic programming).

Continue ReadingAnthony Weiner aims his sarcasm at do-nothing Republicans

Fertilizing democracy at home

What follows is utterly precious, needing no further comment. Here's the opening sentence of some extraordinary information provided by the U.K. Guardian:

The US military is developing software that will let it secretly manipulate social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter by using fake online personas to influence internet conversations and spread pro-American propaganda.

Continue ReadingFertilizing democracy at home