Nom de guerre.
America’s federal government will reach its “debt limit,” its statutory cap on borrowing, this month. This semi-annual event will send an endless parade of Republicans to the congressional microphone to pay lip-service to cutting spending and controlling the deficit. GOP leadership will enter into a sham-negotiation before ultimately capitulating to Democrats with the revealing apology: … Continued
Listening to the DC commentariat talk about Syria is naturally mind-numbing, but perhaps the most infuriating line of arguments are about how “confused” we (as a nation) look for going to Congress and debating this “limited action” (let’s not call it a war). Because we don’t follow the script of one single mind, and could … Continued
The dust had barely settled on lower Manhattan and the Pentagon when Dick Cheney and his legal advisors set out to remake U.S. law. Just five days after 9/11, the vice president gave Meet the Press’s audience insight into his thinking, arguing for the need to work on “the dark side,” in “the shadows of … Continued
Anti-GMO conspiracy theorists are promulgating a multitude of myths about the recent Farmer Assurance provision of the annual farm bill, what they erroneously have dubbed The Monsanto Protection Act (page 78, Sec. 735). Many reasonable people have bought into the hype, not because they want to join the anti-science lunatic fringe, but because the Center … Continued
Anti-GMO conspiracy theorists are losing it over a minor deregulatory provision in Congress’s short-term appropriations bill. Infowars.com declares, “Senate passes Monsanto Protection Act, granting Monsanto power over U.S. government.” The Daily Sheeple calls the provision, “the most dangerous food act ever to pass the US Congress.” Food Democracy Now claims that “Monsanto and the biotech … Continued
John Yoo, George W. Bush’s Assistant US Attorney General in the Office of Legal Counsel, has a real problem with Obama’s use of drones. But unlike civil libertarians, his problem isn’t that Obama claims the right to kill U.S. citizens without charge or trial—it’s that we can’t capture and torture them without charge or trial. … Continued
America’s favorite reality television program, the presidential election, aired its latest episode this week. As I have argued previously, presidential debates and television debates in particular degrade public discourse by their very nature, regardless of who the candidates are. Nonetheless, it is hard to ignore the two men seeking to be chief executive. For the conspiratorial, … Continued
“If there’s an Arab-American family that is being rounded up without benefit of an attorney or due process, that threatens my civil liberties,” proclaimed Barack Obama during his famous Democratic National Convention Speech in 2004. “It is that fundamental belief–I am my brother’s keeper. I am my sister’s keeper–that makes this country work.” How far he … Continued
