Who knew?
In her own home, threatened with physical harm by a man with a record of abuse, by a man with a restraining order...
As much as I despise this law, this seems to be the very kind of incident it was designed for, and yet...George Zimmerman is allowed to use, and Marissa Alexander is not. Please someone explain to me why.
Frankly speaking, if Marissa had killed her husband, and then told any old story she needed to, she might not be in jail today.
That's Florida for you.
That's why I just as soon it was cut off from our country and allowed to float away.
Friday, May 4, 2012
Thursday, May 3, 2012
Why the Obama Team is better than the Romney team at the web, Part 397
The Obama Campaign now presents the Life of Julia. Worth checking out.
Rock Center: Inside The Situation Room Special on the killing of Bin Laden (VIDEO)
In case, like my Dad, you missed it we have the whole special here:
Part 1:
Part 2:
Part 3:
Part 4:
Part 5:
Part 1:
Part 2:
Part 3:
Part 4:
Part 5:
Wednesday, May 2, 2012
What Ric Grenell's departure from the Romney campaign tells us about Romney as a leader...
It tells us that he isn't much of one, and that his first instinct is always to make the problem go away, not to solve it.
From Andrew Sullivan:
Some actual reporting from yours truly. It seems clear from sources close to Grenell and reporters on the foreign policy beat that his turning point came last week. He'd been part of organizing a conference call to respond to Vice President Biden's foreign policy speech, now known best for the "big stick" remark. So some reporters were puzzled as to why Grenell, a week into his job as Romney's national security spokesman, was not introduced by name as part of the Romney team at the beginning of the call, and his voice completely absent from the conversation. Some even called and questioned him afterwards as to why he was absent. He wasn't absent. He was simply muzzled. For a job where you are supposed to maintain good relations with reporters, being silenced on a key conference call on your area of expertise is pretty damaging. Especially when you helped set it up.
Sources close to Grenell say that he was specifically told by those high up in the Romney campaign to stay silent on the call, even while he was on it. And this was not the only time he had been instructed to shut up. Their response to the far right fooferaw was simply to go silent, to keep Grenell off-stage and mute, and to wait till the storm passed. But the storm was not likely to pass if no one in the Romney camp was prepared to back Grenell up. Hence his dilemma. The obvious solution was simply to get Grenell out there doling out the neocon red meat - which would have immediately changed the subject and helped dispel base skepticism. Instead the terrified Romneyites shut him up without any actual plan for when he might subsequently be able to do his job. To my mind, it's a mark of his integrity that he decided to quit rather than be put in this absurd situation. And it's a mark of Romney's fundamental weakness within his own party that he could not back his spokesman against the Bryan Fischers and Matthew Francks.
Oh, Lord. Here we go again. (Paul Krugman Edition)...
Sigh.
When you read this, remember two things. One, this blog always trusts Paul Krugman's numbers, but never his Political sense (which is terrible).
...and two, Paul Krugman is trying to sell a book.
When you read this, remember two things. One, this blog always trusts Paul Krugman's numbers, but never his Political sense (which is terrible).
...and two, Paul Krugman is trying to sell a book.
Ending Afghanistan, an a decade of War (VIDEO)
The Speech:
Signing the Agreement:
And talking to the Troops:
Signing the Agreement:
And talking to the Troops:
Tuesday, May 1, 2012
Monday, April 30, 2012
The President's Speech at the White House Correspondence Dinner 2012 (VIDEO)
I just LOVE the fact that the President just kicked the holy crap out of the Huffington Post:
Plenty of journalists are here tonight. I'd be remiss if I didn’t congratulate the Huffington Post on their Pulitzer Prize. You deserve it, Arianna. There's no one else out there linking to the kinds of hard-hitting journalism that HuffPo is linking to every single day. Give them a round of applause. And you don’t pay them -- it's a great business model.
Thursday, April 26, 2012
Spencer Ackerman (@attackerman) blasts the Beltway Culture (VIDEO)
Wow.
Traffic? Seriously, dude? Have you been to L.A.??
Also, as a Native D.C.er, as in born and raised in D.C., I have to admit, I've ALWAYS called it a Subway. "Hey, Malcolm...what's the Metro?" "Well, that's our Subway System." I don't know what else you'd call it.
Traffic? Seriously, dude? Have you been to L.A.??
Also, as a Native D.C.er, as in born and raised in D.C., I have to admit, I've ALWAYS called it a Subway. "Hey, Malcolm...what's the Metro?" "Well, that's our Subway System." I don't know what else you'd call it.
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
The Rolling Stone Interview with President Obama...
Yeah, the link is right here. Jon Stewart, Paul Krugman and Andrew Sullivan are going to have reasons to smile a bit today.
Also, I thought this was important:
What do you read regularly to keep you informed or provide you with perspectives beyond the inner circle of your advisers?
[Laughs] Other than Rolling Stone?
That goes without saying.
I don't watch a lot of TV news. I don't watch cable at all. I like The Daily Show, so sometimes if I'm home late at night, I'll catch snippets of that. I think Jon Stewart's brilliant. It's amazing to me the degree to which he's able to cut through a bunch of the nonsense – for young people in particular, where I think he ends up having more credibility than a lot of more conventional news programs do.
I spend a lot of time just reading reports, studies, briefing books, intelligence assessments.
Newspapers?
I'll thumb through all the major papers in the morning. I'll read the Times and Wall Street Journal and Washington Post, just to catch up.
Do you read Paul Krugman?
I read all of the New York Times columnists. Krugman's obviously one of the smartest economic reporters out there, but I also read some of the conservative columnists, just to get a sense of where those arguments are going. There are a handful of blogs, Andrew Sullivan's on the Daily Beast being an example, that combine thoughtful analysis with a sampling of lots of essays that are out there. The New Yorker and The Atlantic still do terrific work. Every once in a while, I sneak in a novel or a nonfiction book.
I thought you were going to say Playboy.
No [laughs].
Also, I thought this was important:
In working with the Republicans in this term, it seems clear that the traditional rules of give-and-take politics have changed – that the Republicans have been playing a "lose-lose" game with you. What's your relationship with the GOP leadership at this point? A little frosty?
It's not frosty. This isn't personal. When John Boehner and I sit down, I enjoy a conversation with him. I don't think he's a bad person. I think he's patriotic. I think that the Republicans up on the Hill care about this country, but they have a very ideologically rigid view of how to move this country forward, and a lot of how they approach issues is defined by "Will this help us defeat the president?" as opposed to "Will this move the country forward?"
Is there any way to break through that obstructionism by Republicans?
My hope is that if the American people send a message to them that's consistent with the fact that Congress is polling at 13 percent right now, and they suffer some losses in this next election, that there's going to be some self-reflection going on – that it might break the fever. They might say to themselves, "You know what, we've lost our way here. We need to refocus on trying to get things done for the American people."
Frankly, I know that there are good, decent Republicans on Capitol Hill who, in a different environment, would welcome the capacity to work with me. But right now, in an atmosphere in which folks like Rush Limbaugh and Grover Norquist are defining what it means to be a true conservative, they are lying low. My hope is that after this next election, they'll feel a little more liberated to go out and say, "Let's redirect the Republican Party back to those traditions in which a Dwight Eisenhower can build an interstate highway system."
The President's Interview on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon... (VIDEO)
Part 1:
Part 2:
Part 3:
Part 4:
Part 5:
Part 6: (Man, there's a Part 6???)
And finally, and most importantly...slow jammin' the News:
Technically, that was first, but...it's a great way to end this post.
Part 2:
Part 3:
Part 4:
Part 5:
Part 6: (Man, there's a Part 6???)
And finally, and most importantly...slow jammin' the News:
Technically, that was first, but...it's a great way to end this post.
The Daily Show: The War on Women...Jason Jones style (VIDEO)
I've fallen behind...badly. So I'm catching up with a couple of greatest hits...
Friday, April 13, 2012
Courtesy of @beardedstoner, the ethical rationale of the Mitt Romney Campaign (VIDEO)
Full props to @beardedstoner for a damn good idea.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)