Quote
January 18, 2012
4 notes
"The likelihood of military conflict between the United States and Iran is higher now than at any time in more than two decades, military analysts say, as tensions continue to escalate over Iran’s nuclear ambitions and blustery rhetoric."

— http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/204429-us-and-iran-inch-closer-to-conflict-

Tags: Iran War politics

Quote
January 18, 2012
61 notes
"We train young men to drop fire on people. But their commanders won’t allow them to write “fuck” on their airplanes because it’s obscene!"

—

Col. Kurtz (Marlon Brando), Apocalypse Now

Relevant to the Marines urinating on Taliban corpses.

(via politicalprof)

Quote
January 17, 2012
102 notes
"Yet if King could see America now, I believe that he would be disappointed, and feel that his work was nowhere near done. He dreamed of a nation in which his children “will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” But what we actually became is a nation that judges people not by the color of their skin — or at least not as much as in the past — but by the size of their paychecks. And in America, more than in most other wealthy nations, the size of your paycheck is strongly correlated with the size of your father’s paycheck. Goodbye Jim Crow, hello class system."

— Paul Krugman (via azspot)

(via azspot)

Text
January 17, 2012
5 notes

The war on terrorism demanded a military capability that delivered violence with precision, efficiency and expediency: violence committed globally, with or without the host government’s consent and sometimes covertly - without states taking responsibility. 

Was September 11 the end for the sovereign state? Since then military technology and strategy has evolved dramatically with startling consequences. I posted about predator drones becoming a key tool in the war on terror and the implications for the idea of “sovereignty” in international relations. This post looks at how political forces driven by the the war on terrorism has weakened the ideas of the “state”.  

The US approach to terrorism changes the institution of war. Sovereignty was sacrosanct. But if terrorists are elusive figure who advance their political agenda by drifting across state boarders and attacking with impunity than predator drones and special operations teams are the state sanctioned response. 

This response to terrorism departs from the respected norms of sovereignty so the the use of force by one state against the territory of another is no longer an immediate violation of sovereignty. But the inability to control violence across territories weakens the current system of global governance which is still dependent on the idea of sovereignty. 

The US responded to September 11 using conventional military forces - tanks, marines and a bombing campaign - against Afghanistan and Iraq. The strategy: deny the terrorists real estate. Taking sovereignty away from governments was a classical response for the US and its allies. 

Fast forward to 2011 and predator drones lazily circle over Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia. SEAL teams conduct raids with impunity. Covert operations are aided by a global intelligence network, supported by allies and cooperating states, and rest on the global military network that has transformed US military preponderance into a staging point for operations. Violence has gone global and into the everyday. 

Tags: politics war on terrorism war conflict

Text
January 14, 2012
7 notes

We are in an age were powerful nations hunt down and arbitrarily execute people anytime and anywhere. The implications are startling: predator drones (and other covert actions; more on that later) are redefining the global order by committing acts of violence within sovereign states without their consent, brining ‘violence between states’ into the everyday without oversight or adherence to any rule of law.

The antagonist is the Predator Drones, a  name for remote controlled aircraft used by the US military. I have always had a morbid fascination with these machines. Maybe its because  “predator drone” describes a group of machines with names that are akin to the Deception clan from Transformers: Predator, from which the family draws its namesake, and Rapier, the missile armed hunter-killers of the family, and the Dark Star, an all seeing eye in the sky. 

Defending truth, beauty and the American Way, these drones capture the popular imagination as a dark sentinel in the sky, with a remote eye peering into the night, doing the awful but necessary work of executing terrorists from afar. Describe it as cold, menacing and detached but we can say such tactics are necessary against a foe with no armies.

And this is the future, isn’t it?  Predator drones conjure up the childish boyhood dreams  machines fighting our wars. 

Then again predator drones are not Optimus Prime.  

In 2010, 114 reported drone strikes were conducted in Pakistan. By 2011 drones were used in Yemen and Somalia. The Bureau of Investigative Journalism, a not-for-profit news agency, reported 2011 between 2,373 and 2,997 people were killed by drone strikes in 2011. 391 to 780 were allegedly civilians. 

Tags: Predator Drones War Terrorism

Quote
January 10, 2012
8 notes
"The theme here is that Newt Gingrich has decided to hit his opponents where it hurts, even if with the same attacks liberals would make. Giveaways like the Pittsburgh stadiums are not exactly a liberal policy. In fact, the business the stadiums generate (or that their owners say they do) is an excuse team owners use to get taxpayers to pay the bill in the same way that corporations get better treatment from Republicans when they ask for lower tax rates in order to create a business-friendly environment. Similarly, the attacks on Romney’s record in private equity is identical to the liberal attack on what conservatives often see as a sacrosanct industry. But Newt is not the candidate he was this fall. Now he says he would vote for Obama over Ron Paul, and is helping Democrats by lobbing liberal critiques at both Romney and Santorum."

—

Newt Goes Ballistic On Pretty Much Everyone | TPM2012

Newt tosses a tantrum! xD

And it could kill the GOP chances.

Now you know why they didn’t want him in there.

King Newt’s ego is bruised.

(via tinfoilandtea)

(via tinfoilandtea)

Quote
January 10, 2012
10 notes
"

Like the scientific method, Liberalism is not a creed seeking dominance but a system of thought that attempts to alleviate oppression and exploitation wherever possible, providing equality of opportunity and a minimum standard of living to everyone, thus ensuring basic human dignity and the ability to better one’s station in life. If providing those things were possible without the use of force or even laws, that would be fine. In cases where human behavior is self-guided and does not create oppression over others (e.g., mutually consenting sexual activity, the right to choose, marijuana usage, etc.) liberalism stands aside, shattering the use of force or law that curtails human freedom.

Where human behavior does inevitably create oppression (and it most certainly does), liberalism seeks first and foremost to implement laws, legitimized by the consent of the governed, to regulate against that oppression. The use of force is a last resort, and is only necessary to enforce the law, or to act in the most egregious circumstances of oppression where domestic law will not reach.

Dominance is not part of the liberal program. Far from it. Remember the basic dictum: power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. Dominance corrupts, even liberal dominance. That’s part of what went wrong with totalitarian communism: too much dominance by ostensibly leftist ideologues who were allowed to maximize their own power at the expense of others. The program of liberalism is not about putting dominant people in charge, so much as about creating self-regulating systems of government that function for the benefit of people regardless of the who is temporarily in charge.

"

— David Atkins (via ryking)

Link
January 10, 2012
3 notes
Republicans do their own...

Newt Gingrich: “Is capitalism really about the ability of a handful of rich people to manipulate the lives of thousands of other people and walk off with the money?” Republicans, doing Mitt with lines like this: Whose side are you guys on?

This line attack will hurt Romney, but if you tug at that string hard enough you find the deregulatory-free-market-capitalism-solves-every-problem thinking associated with George W Bush. Keep going and you will run smack bang into some Occupy Wall Street people.

Hit Romney hard enough and if he is nominated he’ll be saddled as a corporate raider of the old school who strips company’s for a buck- the free-market true believer is a mere mask for the capitalist destroyer of the American dream. See the political attack ad?


Mitt Romney’s going to be too damaged to run in the General if they keep this up. The narrative the Republicans need to be pushing to the electorate is that they are the only party who can turn the economy around. In a time when the base needs a true believer and the independents want someone who can help them - without expanding government - the powerful story is the impassioned belief free-markets alone will create jobs and drive growth.

Probably not a bad thing if you’re a Democrat.  

Tags: US politics US elections Republican Primaries Politics Mitt Romney Presidential Elections

Photo
January 05, 2012
191 notes
thepoliticalnotebook: Picture of the Day. Tiananmen Square. Artist Pavel Maria Smejkal digitally removes the people from famous pictures of historical events. Above is the doctored photo of the famous Tiananmen Sqaure shot by Stuart Franklin of Magnum Photos. He’s also doctored the class Abu Ghraib prisoner photo and the Kent State photo, among others, for the “Fatescapes” series. Photo Credit: Pavel Maria Smejkal/Stuart Franklin. Via. View more Picture of the Day posts. Submit a photo.

thepoliticalnotebook:

Picture of the Day. Tiananmen Square. Artist Pavel Maria Smejkal digitally removes the people from famous pictures of historical events. Above is the doctored photo of the famous Tiananmen Sqaure shot by Stuart Franklin of Magnum Photos. He’s also doctored the class Abu Ghraib prisoner photo and the Kent State photo, among others, for the “Fatescapes” series.

Photo Credit: Pavel Maria Smejkal/Stuart Franklin. Via.

View more Picture of the Day posts. Submit a photo.

Text
January 05, 2012
10,996 notes

The Gay Agenda

ryking:

bughug:

  1. turn all kids gay >:)
  2. destroy american values
  3. have sex with every soldier
  4. give AIDS to everyone
  5. destroy America
  6. go shopping

My copy of the agenda is missing action items 1, 2, 4, and 5 so apparently — other than the occasional sexual encounter with soldiers, police officers, and firemen (IT’S NOT A FETISH) and spending too much money at the Borgata — I’ve been doing the whole homosexuality thing wrong. Fabulously wrong. — Ryking