Reality is indistinguishable from parody.
Speaking of Oliver North, anyone interested in the absurd game that is American politics owes it to themselves to watch The Perfect Candidate (streaming on Netflix!), which chronicles North’s failed bid for the Senate in North Carolina. Amazing stuff.
!!!
She’s an Obama-appointed judge, too. Oops.
I wonder how long this will last.
![theatlantic:
On National Pot Day, A Speech President Obama Should Give
My Fellow Americans:
Every day this Administration seeks as best it can to evaluate our nation’s existing policies and priorities to determine whether they continue to make sense or whether they are counterproductive to America’s evolving goals and ideals. As individuals, we make these sorts of re-evaluations all the time in our own lives. We learn from experience what works and what does not. We change our minds. We strive to be better. And as a nation we must do the same to ensure that the path we have chosen is still the one we want to be on.
So, after careful consideration and a through review by the Justice Department, and with the consent and cooperation of other relevant federal agencies, I announce today that this Administration will have a new approach to the issue of medical marijuana in those states which have legalized it. Our new policies are consistent with the promises I made as a candidate, they finally make good on pronouncements I made early in my term, they are faithful in their traditional deference to states’ rights, and they sensibly redirect federal resources at a time when we need every budget dollar we can find.
I have directed the attorney general to issue a directive to all U.S. attorneys and other federal officials that they may no longer raid or threaten to prosecute medical-marijuana growers and distributors in those states that have legalized the use of the drug. As of today, the federal government will be content to allow state authorities to monitor those growers and distributors to ensure that they are complying with state law. To those states we say: We are still here to help you if you need us. To the American people we say: No longer will your federal tax dollars be spent interfering with these particular state policy choices.
Read more. [Images: Reuters]
Too bad it won’t ever happen. :/](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m2smr02DnR1qcokc4o1_500.jpg)
View high resolution
On National Pot Day, A Speech President Obama Should Give
My Fellow Americans:
Every day this Administration seeks as best it can to evaluate our nation’s existing policies and priorities to determine whether they continue to make sense or whether they are counterproductive to America’s evolving goals and ideals. As individuals, we make these sorts of re-evaluations all the time in our own lives. We learn from experience what works and what does not. We change our minds. We strive to be better. And as a nation we must do the same to ensure that the path we have chosen is still the one we want to be on.
So, after careful consideration and a through review by the Justice Department, and with the consent and cooperation of other relevant federal agencies, I announce today that this Administration will have a new approach to the issue of medical marijuana in those states which have legalized it. Our new policies are consistent with the promises I made as a candidate, they finally make good on pronouncements I made early in my term, they are faithful in their traditional deference to states’ rights, and they sensibly redirect federal resources at a time when we need every budget dollar we can find.
I have directed the attorney general to issue a directive to all U.S. attorneys and other federal officials that they may no longer raid or threaten to prosecute medical-marijuana growers and distributors in those states that have legalized the use of the drug. As of today, the federal government will be content to allow state authorities to monitor those growers and distributors to ensure that they are complying with state law. To those states we say: We are still here to help you if you need us. To the American people we say: No longer will your federal tax dollars be spent interfering with these particular state policy choices.
Read more. [Images: Reuters]
Too bad it won’t ever happen. :/
Hillary Clinton on foreign whistleblowers:
I want to commend the Slovak Republic and Montenegro for also introducing whistle-blowing protection laws to ensure that those who expose corruption are not punished or harmed.
Do as I say, not as I do.
I just love how so many are claiming ignorance of what happened to the Al-awlakis, when it wasn’t just all over Tumblr but even on their popular left-leaning comedy shows. There’s a difference between honestly not knowing that something happened, and willfully ignoring it because it doesn’t fit into your nice little Obama-loving box.
But guys, Obama is so cool, amirite?
(via assassinofjoy)
View high resolution
Rina and I had a pretty lengthy talk about Doctor Who (and a host of other topics) last night on Facebook. By “lengthy talk,” I mean that Rina sang the praises of the era of the Seventh Doctor (played by Sylvester McCoy), which was characterized by his resourceful punk-rocker/explosives expert companion (Ace), a dark tone, and a stark (if subtle; remember that this was on the BBC) left-wing bias.
Well, I just finished “The Curse of Fenric” and I’m now a convert myself. I wish that New Who were this gutsy. Remember that recent episode where Winston Churchill is essentially played as a buffoon? In “Fenric,” the villain for most of the episode—before the gates of Evil burst open and everything gets all freaky and supernatural—is a genocidal British military officer whose plan to end World War II is to detonate nerve gas over major German population centers. He also plans on letting his wartime Russian allies borrow the “Ultima machine” (an analogue to Alan Turing’s Ultra decryption device; there’s even a character that resembles Turing), only so that the British can kill off a good portion of the Kremlin after the war against the Germans ends by sending them a code which will activate nerve gas contained within the machine.
There are other cool things besides the anti-war theme about this episode, including: vampires, Soviet spies, a local vicar whose faith was lost when British bombs began to be dropped on German children, Viking ruins, and an ancient evil known as “Fenric” who can only be stopped in a climactic game of chess (and who has faced the Doctor before). If you’ve ever been curious about Old Who, this is as fine a place as any to start. I’m not sure why McCoy and head writer Andrew Cartmel get a bad rep for their time on the series. Later tonight, I plan on watching “The Happiness Patrol,” which is a thinly-veiled assault on Margaret Thatcher’s Britain. I can’t wait.
The funny part is that their stated goals are to ensure that there are no shortages, to better streamline production, and a whole host of other things that governments are economically incapable of doing better than private markets.
The scary part is that this could actually go into effect.
Hey Obama voters, you may be happy giving Obama this power, but just remember this shit when a Republican is in office so you don’t forget that this is partially your fault.
I will be waiting and saying “I told you so”
Nobody ever realizes that he’s setting some awful precedents. The imperial Presidency knows no partisan bounds. It never has. It just keeps growing…and growing…
I personally can’t wait for Santorum or Gingrich to be able to mark U.S. citizens for assassination. Secretly, with no due process whatsoever. Thank you, Obama.
(via assassinofjoy)
“Nearly every national security institution, and every critic and watcher of these institutions, believes it is on the losing end of the stick in trying to influence U.S. counterterrorism policies and their associated accountability mechanisms. The Bush and Obama White Houses did not get the different things they wanted on GTMO and civilian trials, just as Michael Ratner and CCR did not get what they wanted on GTMO and civilian trials. Conservatives believe Ratner and the CCR achieved illegitimate victories in the Supreme Court that hamstrung the President. Ratner thinks he won some battles but lost the war. Congress pushed back on the presidency in novel ways, but it tried to go further, against both Bush and Obama, and failed. The press uncovered an astonishing array of classified national security secrets in the last decade, but it thinks the executive branch hoards too many secrets and unduly harasses journalists. The executive branch thinks leaks harm national security, and that it should crack down more on journalists and their sources. National security lawyers think they are besieged bastions of independence holding the executive branch in check; activist and media critics believe the lawyers are apologists for executive power. Lower court judges are unhappy that the Supreme Court dumped on them the duty to make terrorist detention policy from whole cloth in habeas corpus cases, and are frustrated that Congress has not stepped in more to fill the void. Some critics charge that these judges have released too many GTMO detainees; others charge that they have released too few. And so on, and so on.”
Sigh. This is our reality. This is the wave of the recent past, the present, and the future. Think about that.
I’m sure glad I read this one with a beer in my hand, let me tell you.
One nation, under surveillance, without liberty and justice for all any.
One thing that both the Democrats and Republicans agree on: you’ve got to keep feeding people in to the prison for profit machine.
Back when he was running for president in 2008, Barack Obama insisted that medical marijuana was an issue best left to state and local governments. “I’m not going to be using Justice Department resources to try to circumvent state laws on this issue,” he vowed, promising an end to the Bush administration’s high-profile raids on providers of medical pot, which is legal in 16 states and the District of Columbia.
But over the past year, the Obama administration has quietly unleashed a multiagency crackdown on medical cannabis that goes far beyond anything undertaken by George W. Bush. The feds are busting growers who operate in full compliance with state laws, vowing to seize the property of anyone who dares to even rent to legal pot dispensaries, and threatening to imprison state employees responsible for regulating medical marijuana.
With more than 100 raids on pot dispensaries during his first three years, Obama is now on pace to exceed Bush’s record for medical-marijuana busts. “There’s no question that Obama’s the worst president on medical marijuana,” says Rob Kampia, executive director of the Marijuana Policy Project. “He’s gone from first to worst.” The federal crackdown imperils the medical care of the estimated 730,000 patients nationwide – many of them seriously ill or dying – who rely on state-sanctioned marijuana recommended by their doctors. In addition, drug experts warn, the White House’s war on law-abiding providers of medical marijuana will only drum up business for real criminals. “The administration is going after legal dispensaries and state and local authorities in ways that are going to push this stuff back underground again,” says Ethan Nadelmann, director of the Drug Policy Alliance. Gov. Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island, a former Republican senator who has urged the DEA to legalize medical marijuana, pulls no punches in describing the state of affairs produced by Obama’s efforts to circumvent state law: “Utter chaos.”
Wow.
The sharpest edges of President Obama’s counterterrorism policy, including the use of drone aircraft to kill suspected terrorists abroad and keeping open the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, have broad public support, including from the left wing of the Democratic Party.
A new Washington Post-ABC News poll shows that Obama, who campaigned on a pledge to close the brig at Guantanamo Bay and to change national security policies he criticized as inconsistent with U.S. law and values, has little to fear politically for failing to live up to all of those promises.
The survey shows that 70 percent of respondents approve of Obama’s decision to keep open the prison at Guantanamo Bay… . The poll shows that 53 percent of self-identified liberal Democrats — and 67 percent of moderate or conservative Democrats — support keeping Guantanamo Bay open, even though it emerged as a symbol of the post-Sept. 11 national security policies of George W. Bush, which many liberals bitterly opposed.
"“Poll finds broad support for Obama’s counterterrorism policies,” Washington Post.
Civil liberties get thrown under the bus again! But it’s okay now, since a Democratic President is overseeing their erosion. I guess that if Obama is advocating for Guantanamo staying open, it must be cool or something. As usual, Glenn Greenwald has a lot of good stuff to say about this.
This is an actual political commercial created by the Michigan GOP Senate candidate. Let that sink in.
“Your economy get very weak, ours get very good.”
MUHAHAHA PING WONG CHING CHANG WANG!
STUPID AMERICAN VOTER WILL FALL FOR THIS XENOPHOBIC STUNT YES.
Dear people of Britain/Europe/the world:
Please don’t copy this trend. You really don’t want this.
