Hopefully, there’s nobody out there who is so stupid as to accuse me of defending alleged Ft. Hood shooter Nidal Hassan because I find this outrageous on principle*:
Banks won’t take Fort Hood shooting suspect’s paychecks READ FULL POST
New York Congressman Charles Rangel now faces 13 charges of breaking House rules as well as federal statutes.
The charges, which were formally issued Thursday by the House Ethics Panel, do not come as a surprise. As had been expected, Rangel stands accused, among other things, of improperly using “his letterhead, staff and franking privilege to solicit donations to the Charles B. Center for Public Policy at the City College of New York; of using a rent-stabilized apartment in Harlem for his campaign office; of failing to report more than $600,000 on his financial disclosure report; and of failing to pay taxes on rental income from a villa he owns in the Dominican Republic.” READ FULL POST
This post originally appeared on Think Progress.
Three U.S. service members were killed in Afghanistan yesterday, bringing the death toll for July to at least 63, making it the deadliest month thus far in America’s longest war. Meanwhile, Pakistan’s ambassador to the United Nations told CBS News yesterday that the U.S needs to change its strategy in Afghanistan, saying, “the way the war is being fought, it doesn’t seem winnable.” Abdullah Hussain Haroon also suggested that the insurgent attacks in Afghanistan will decrease when U.S. and NATO troops leave:
Thursday’s Daily Show was yet another case study in Fox News absurdity.
The network’s bloviating came quickly after Obama appeared on “The View” — a move that apparently equals a monumental “snubbing” of the Boy Scouts of America.
Is it just us, or are these pundits really running out of things to hate?
Watch it:
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| Leader’s Digest | ||||
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Written by Steph Harold for RHRealityCheck.org – News, commentary and community for reproductive health and justice.
Most of us don’t think we’ll ever have an abortion, until we become one of the one in four women in the US who has an unwanted pregnancy. And if we think about it at all, we assume we’d get an abortion pretty early in the pregnancy. While 90 percent of abortions do happen before 12 weeks, some women seek abortions later in their pregnancies.
Most women do not try to have later abortions. In fact, in a study done by Finer et al, nearly three fifths (58 percent) of women in the survey reported that they would have preferred to have had the abortion earlier than they did. In another study done by Drey et al, 29 percent or one third of women who ended up having abortions during their second trimester were in their first trimester when they made the first call to an abortion clinic. If this is the case, what causes women to have second trimester abortions? Read more
This post originally appeared on Mother Jones.
The Six Flags amusement park chain has had its share of bad press lately, what with kids getting decapitated or having their feet chopped off on roller coaster rides, filing for bankruptcy and other Dan Snyder-related disasters. But the latest flap is more political. Tea partiers and other anti-Islam activists are freaking out about a Muslim Family Day planned for several Six Flags parks around the country on Sept. 12, the day after the World Trade Center attacks. The event, sponsored by the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA), offers Muslim families a chance to hang at the amusement park and be catered to by modestly dressed employees and halal food vendors.
If public schools or Medicare providers were held to the same standards as military contractors, they’d never have to beg for cash. Need money? Sure! — Congress would say — what’s a few missing billions of tax dollars?
Congress agreed to pump an extra $33 billion into Afghanistan this week, even as a new report revealed that almost nine billion earmarked for the nation’s other occupation — Iraq — simply, it seems, went missing.
The Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction says $8.7 billion earmarked for Iraq reconstruction has gone. Precisely where, no one can tell him.
Not one percent or five percent, but a full 96 percent of the special fund created from the sale of Iraqi oil and gas—and frozen Saddam Hussein-era assets — is missing according to the BBC. The Pentagon is “unable to fully account for” it.
And they’re blaming a lack of accounting, oversight, and who knows what — probably some secretaries. Powerful politicians have a habit of blaming their secretaries.
It’s not the first time billions have disappeared—in 2005, the Coalition Provisional Authority faced a criminal investigation over its management of an $8.8 billion fund. This isn’t the same $9 billion. It’s a different one. In that case, eight US officials were convicted of bribery, fraud and money-laundering.
It’s not the same $9 billion but it is the the same old story. How many strikes and the Pentagon’s pals are out? There’s a very different law for shop-lifters.
Officials are now, as they always do, mouthing words like “undetected loss” and “significant archival retrieval efforts.” I’d say — no more talk of deficits or cash crunches or tax — until the lost cash is accounted for. Can’t afford to support the troops you’ve deployed? Bring them home then.
The F Word is a regular commentary by Laura Flanders, the host of GRITtv which broadcasts weekdays on satellite TV (Dish Network Ch. 9415 Free Speech TV) on cable, and online at GRITtv.org and TheNation.com. Support us by signing up for our podcast, and follow GRITtv or GRITlaura on Twitter.com.
The Economist has a great article, “Rough Justice in America.” Go and read the whole thing.
This jumped out at me:
“You’re (probably) a federal criminal,” declares Alex Kozinski, an appeals-court judge, in a provocative essay of that title. Making a false statement to a federal official is an offence. So is lying to someone who then repeats your lie to a federal official.
Given that any lie you utter may be repeated to a federal official, every lie told in America is a potential criminal offense. Meanwhile, they lie to us all the time, without shame and certainly without fear of prosecution.
Also:
Such cases account for only a tiny share of the Americans behind bars, but they still matter. When so many people are technically breaking the law, it is up to prosecutors to decide whom to pursue. No doubt most prosecutors choose wisely. But members of unpopular groups may not find that reassuring.
This post first appeared on Think Progress.
In May, the American Society for Muslim Advancement (ASMA) and the Cordoba Initiative proposed plans to build a community center two blocks away from Ground Zero in New York City that would include “a mosque, performance art center, gym, swimming pool and other public spaces.” Since then, radical conservatives across the country have expressed open hostility to the construction of Muslim places of worship. Speaking about the Muslim center in New York City, right-wing radio host Michael Berry stated, “If you do build a mosque, I hope somebody blows it up.”
This is absolutely the best campaign platform ever:
