Chris Hedges sues Barack Obama over the legality of the NDAA

Chris Hedges sues Barack Obama over legality of the NDAA

I wrote before that one of the consequences of the National Defense Authorization Act that was passed quickly and with little or no debate during the Christmas holiday season was the gutting of the 1878 Posse Comitatus Act that sought to prevent the use of the military in law enforcement activities within the country.

Now Chris Hedges, former foreign correspondent for the New York Times, has challenged in court the legality of the Authorization for Use of Military Force as embedded in the latest version of the NDAA. Hedges explains why he took that action, drawing upon [Read more…]

Still not coordinating!

I think that what Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart are doing is one of the most brilliant pieces of political satire, directly exposing the sham that is the current campaign financing restrictions and the highly porous wall between campaigns and Super PACs.

Here is the latest Colbert ad running in South Carolina.

More fun with the Jesus people

My office in the university is in a central location, at the intersection of two main streets that cut through the campus. If I look outside my window, I have a good chance of seeing most of the university community passing by during any given day. As a result, the street corner outside my office is a popular place for people who want to hand out religious tracts.

In days gone by, when approached by such people I would politely decline their offers and walk away. But now, if I am not in a hurry to go somewhere, I take the opportunity to question them about their beliefs. I take the Socratic approach of asking questions and then build on their responses by asking more questions, which I find leads to far more interesting discussions than trying to simply prove to them that they are wrong. (For my previous encounters with Jesus people, see here, here, and here. It’s all good clean fun.)

This happened again a few weeks ago, when a genial man about my age approached me at the intersection and asked me [Read more…]

The Republican debate crowds run amuck again

In an earlier post, I noted that in the first three of the interminable series of Republican debates, the main story was the response by the crowds, cheering wildly at the most extreme policies while booing anything that seemed tempered and reasonable and humane. One suspected that the crowds in subsequent debates were told to tone it down to prevent the impression being given that Republican voters were nuts.

But in Monday’s Republican debate, the crowds seem to have slipped their leash and were back in full baying frenzy. The Daily Show captured the moments.

We’re number one?

Dave Barry, columnist for the Miami Herald, is one of the funniest writers and for years he got a lot of mileage out of documenting the things that the people of Florida and Miami did that convinced him that it was the craziest state in the nation. He is fortunate to have retired from his weekly column because recent events suggest that my state of Ohio may well take that particular crown.

Consider the following recent stories that have garnered national attention for our state.

  • The owner of over 50 dangerous exotic animals abruptly released them, resulting in 48 of them (including 18 Bengal tigers, 17 lions, and eight bears) having to be killed.
  • We had an Amish sect led by a renegade bishop go on a rampage, cutting the beards of fellow Amish who had for whatever reason displeased him. He was improbably named Sam Mullett.
  • We then had the so-called ‘Craigslist killer‘, a 52-year old who claimed to be a chaplain in a church, who is charged, along with a 16-year old associate, with luring people to a remote area with the promise of a job to oversee some land and then hunting them down and killing them.
  • Then there was the case of an 8-year child who was taken away from his mother by the child protective services and put in foster care because they feared that the child was dangerously obese and the mother was not doing anything about it.
  • We have people putting forward a bill in the state legislature that would ban abortions as soon as a fetal heartbeat is detected, which could occur as early as six weeks into a pregnancy. This attempt has caused a deep split in the anti-abortion movement.
  • We had the owner of an apartment complex put a sign up that said the swimming pool could be used by white people only.

I am not claiming that Ohio has definitely become the craziest state in the nation. But we may at last have a shot at a national championship that has long been denied us in the sports arena.

Stephen Colbert asks people to vote for Herman Cain

Since the South Carolina primary ballot was locked some months ago, Stephen Colbert cannot get on it and Herman Cain can’t get off it, although the latter has dropped out of the race. So Colbert is urging everyone in the state to vote for Cain as a proxy to show their support for his own candidacy.

And here is the ad that is being run in South Carolina right now by the The Definitely Not Coordinating With Stephen Colbert Super PAC, also known as the America for a Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow Super PAC.

Cain has actually agreed to join Colbert for a rally on Friday in South Carolina.

Telling only half the story

The US government loves to pontificate to other countries about human rights and how they should improve their human rights record and increase democracy. As Ivan Eland writes:

Don’t get me wrong: the proliferation of democracy and human rights in the world is a great thing, but the arrogant belief that America should be the aggressive, high-profile guardian of the spread of such laudable beliefs is not. The invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan and the attack on Libya, all done at least ostensibly to usher in democracy and human rights, have further sullied the already shaky reputation of America’s forceful push for such causes around the world. In practice, the divergence of U.S. foreign policy from rhetoric promoting democracy and human rights makes other nations and peoples suspicious of American intentions.
…
Even in the cases in which the U.S. was genuinely interested in promoting democracy and human rights, foreign countries that meddle constantly in other nations’ business usually don’t get the benefit of the doubt among the locals. And who can blame them? America has restrictions against foreign involvement in U.S. elections, but that doesn’t stop the United States from funding political groups in Russia and other countries. Such hypocrisy doesn’t do America, the local political groups, or the promotion of democracy and human rights any favors.

But it looks like what other countries are doing is [Read more…]