Brian Beutler Live Chat

Brian Beutler joins us at 2 PM at TPMPrime for a live chat about everything and anything you want to ask him about. Brian's our Senior Congressional Correspondent and our house expert on fiscal policy and taxes and all that good stuff. Get your[...]

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Proposed Legislation Would Help Utah Parents
Teach Sex Ed At Home

In 2011, Utah’s Republican-controlled House and Senate passed a bill that would have enshrined abstinence-only education across the state and banned any instruction of birth control, condoms, or LGBT issues in student health classes. Utah Gov. Gary Herbert (R) vetoed the measure to prevent it from taking effect — and now that sexual education courses [...]



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gress0Borg0Chealth0C20A120C10A0C190C10A4330A10Cproposed0Elegislation0Eparents0Eteach0Esex0Eed0C/story01.htm

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President Obama Explains 'Romnesia'

This could possibly be the best riff he's done in the whole campaign. Speaking at a campaign rally in Virginia today specifically directed toward women, the president ran away with 'Romnesia', wrapping it all up with a cure: Obamacare.

Here's the transcript:

But now that we?re 18 days out from the election, Mr. ?Severely Conservative? wants you to think he was ?severely kidding? about everything he?s said over the last year. He told folks he was ?the ideal candidate? for the Tea Party, now suddenly he?s saying, ?what, who, me?? He?s forgetting what his own positions are, and he?s betting that you will too.

I mean he?s changing up so much ? backtracking and sidestepping. We?ve gotta name this condition that he?s going through.. I think it?s called ?Romnesia.? That?s what it?s called. I think that?s what he?s going through.

Now, I?m not a medical doctor but I do want to go over some of the symptoms with you because I want to make sure nobody else catches it.

If you say you?re for equal pay for equal work, but you keep refusing to say whether or not you?d sign a bill that protects equal pay for equal work ? you might have Romnesia.

If you say women should have access to contraceptive care, but you support legislation that would let your employer deny you contraceptive care ? you might have a case of Romnesia.

If you say you?ll protect a woman?s right to choose, but you stand up at a primary debate and said that you?d be ?delighted? to sign a law outlawing that right to choose in all cases ? man, you?ve definitely got Romnesia.

Now, this extends to other issues. If you say earlier in the year I?m going to give a tax cut to the top 1 percent and then in a debate you say, I don?t know anything about giving tax cuts to rich folks ? you need to get a thermometer, take your temperature, because you?ve probably got Romnesia.

If you say that you?re a champion of the coal industry when while you were Governor you stood in front of a coal plant and said, this plant will kill you ? that?s some Romnesia.

So ? I think you?re beginning to be able to identify these symptoms. And if you come down with a case of Romnesia, and you can?t seem to remember the policies that are still on your website, or the promises you?ve made over the six years you?ve been running for President, here?s the good news: Obamacare covers pre-existing conditions.

We can fix you up. We?ve got a cure. We can make you well, Virginia. This is a curable disease.

Pitch-perfect.

Read The Full Article:
http://crooksandliars.com/karoli/president-obama-explains-romnesia

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Nosty Pays Another Call: Sissies Love Their
Drones

I mention the following point not as an exercise of obnoxious, unbridled arrogance, or as some kind of boast. I myself view it much more prosaically: it just happens to be true. And the point is this: for many years now, I've predicted, often in some detail, how future events would play out. I've done so by identifying the nature of the principles involved in the actions and statements of our political leaders, and by consulting history to see how similar situations have developed in the past. The entire process is often inordinately complicated, and it frequently makes my head hurt a lot. I'm obviously naming just the essentials of the analysis involved, and in very abstract terms. It's the dizzying number of details (together with what are often inconsistencies and contradictions) that make it so damnably difficult.

I could offer many examples to support the claim. Here are just a few: "An Election Conceived in Nausea," concerning the utter uselessness of the Democrats, written on October 30, 2006; "The Fatal Illusion of Opposition" and "Silenced: Barack Obama and the End of Struggle toward Truth and Freedom," published in May and August 2008, respectively. Consider, too, this very brief excerpt from a longer argument:

The overall course the Obama administration will follow will be that indicated by [Naomi] Klein with regard to torture, and the same stratagem will be applied to the use of torture, to confrontation with Iran, and to every other issue of significance. Klein refers to the removal of "small piece[s]" of the torture apparatus, and the return to "plausible deniability." We can make the same point in a different way: the Obama administration will return to the days when the U.S. government practiced all these horrors, but with better PR.

That's from "You Aren't Going to Beat the System, Baby" -- and it was published on January 10, 2009. Yes, friends, before the supersplendiferous, transcenfuckingdental Obama even took office.

There are many more examples; take a stroll through the archives if you have the time and interest. Given the nature of the all-devouring system that consumes us as it lays waste to increasing swathes of the world, my predictions have generally been awful ones. This is another reason my record in this regard is not offered boastfully: the accuracy of my ability makes me desolately unhappy. It also does not make me very popular or widely read; most people would prefer not to think about the hell that lies ahead. Nonetheless, even if I could fundamentally alter my approach (I can't), I wouldn't. I myself think it's best to know the truth, as accurately and fully as we can ascertain it, the better to prepare ourselves. The reference in the title of this post comes from "Concerning Those Who Manufacture and Eat Shit," from 2010, where I noted at the end that: "I think I may change my name on this here blog. From now on, perhaps I'll sign my posts: Nostradamus Silber. But you can call me Nosty."

That is by way of preface. In my essay the other day, I included the following argument. It was off the major topic, so I offered it parenthetically. After noting that many of the nightmarish developments over the last decade were barely credible in one sense (although they remained predictable, if one knows what to look for), I wrote:

(As just one example, consider the trajectory of public attitudes concerning drones being used domestically in the United States. First, almost no one thought drones would ever be used domestically, certainly not in significant numbers. Then, most Americans got used to the idea of domestic drones, but we were concerned about "intrusive" surveillance and invasions of "privacy." Now, most Americans have already become accustomed to the idea of wide-scale surveillance, and they don't resist overhauling our conception of "privacy" altogether. This battle is already over; the battle was never actually engaged. The incontrovertible fact is that incomprehensible, endless, ever-proliferating regulations, statutes, rules and orders already allow the government to do whatever the hell it wants -- including murdering whomever it chooses, whenever it wants. In perhaps as few as five years, the skies over the United States will be filled with huge numbers of drones on a regular basis. Within ten years, most people won't even remember what life was like without them -- and if they do remember, most people won't care.)

Yesterday, just one day after I published that article, I saw this: "Bay Area Law Enforcement Agencies Test Drones." The story begins this way:

They began as tools in military combat. Now aerial drones are being considered by Bay Area law enforcement agencies as a cost-cutting way to replace helicopters, and use technology to fight crime and save lives.

A few aspects of the story should be noted, for they reveal the manner in which certain patterns are repeated over and over again.

The Alameda County Sheriff "says the drones get a birds-eye view that most tactical officers on the ground would never get, sometimes endangering their lives." The Sheriff goes on:

?Very valuable to any tactical officer, as you?re setting up your perimeters and knowing what the suspect may have in his hands, how the suspect is dressed, what are the avenues of escape?? Ahern added that his office would only use drones during emergencies, from a high-speed or high-risk chase to search-and-rescue operations in disasters, as well as proactive policing measures like catching marijuana grows in fields on public lands and in grow houses.

These patterns are all too horribly familiar at this point. Just as the U.S. military and its adjuncts rejoice that they can murder human beings and wreak destruction all over the globe without ever endangering oh-so-precious American lives (in contrast to all those other lives, which aren't worth shit), the Sheriff exults in the realization that law enforcement can spy everywhere in detail, and then develop and execute its plans of capture and murder (only with great reluctance, of course, and only if those rotten bastards make the good guys murder them, of course) -- all while protecting their own miserable asses. It's highly amusing. The good-guy tough guys used to be inordinately proud of their willingness "to put their asses on the line." Now they puff up their manly chests with the knowledge that their own asses will be sprinkled with baby powder and swaddled in the softest down, far from even the smallest particle of danger.

Bless the drones! For they have brought us the burgeoning legions of the New Sheriffs (and New Presidents, and New Generals, and...), all fashioned in accordance with Gore Vidal's memorable line about Theodore Roosevelt: "Give a sissy a gun and he will kill everything in sight." Drones dispense entirely with the requirement of "sight" in the old, immediate sense. Today, the farther away the victim is, the better.

I note only in passing the reference to "proactive policing measures," such as those concerning the horrific crime of growing marijuana, which would never be viewed as anything other than shatteringly good news in a minimally sane world. But ask yourself: if, rather when drones are found to be so wonderful in terms of saving certain lives, as well as marvelously effective in providing oodles of information about criminal activity (together with information about what a healthy three-year-old would consider entirely non-criminal), why not increase their use? Why not use drones to ferret out information about, well, anything and everything at all? That is the pattern the U.S. government follows abroad; it will be precisely the same here at home.

Then the story provides us with the obligatory "Oh, but wait a sec..." passage, with the obligatory appearance by the ACLU:

But not everyone is pleased at the growing number of agencies looking to use these [Unmanned Aerial Systems]. The American Civil Liberties Union or ACLU says drones should only be deployed when a warrant for a specific crime is involved. The ACLU is also worried that they may harm both privacy and people. In a statement, the ACLU wrote, ?Drone manufacturers are also considering offering police the option of arming these remote-controlled aircraft with weapons like rubber bullets, Tasers, and tear gas.?

Sheriff Ahern says an armed drone is out of the question. He says local public safety agencies must take advantage of innovation that?s out there, calling it a ?no brainer.?

"[A]n armed drone is out of the question." Sheriff Ahern doesn't mean that. You know he doesn't mean it. He knows you know it. None of that matters. The "innovation that's out there" will include armed drones soon enough. And then it, too, will be a "no brainer." That's always how this pattern plays out. Everyone knows that, at least if they're honest. The ACLU knows it, too, just as the ACLU knows it will lose this battle. At a certain point, you have to wonder how long, and how innocently, people can continue to engage in these charades.

Then this morning, Vastleft sent me this link: "CIA seeks to expand drone fleet, officials say":

The CIA is urging the White House to approve a significant expansion of the agency?s fleet of armed drones, a move that would extend the spy service?s decade-long transformation into a paramilitary force, U.S. officials said.

The proposal by CIA Director David H. Petraeus would bolster the agency?s ability to sustain its campaigns of lethal strikes in Pakistan and Yemen and enable it, if directed, to shift aircraft to emerging al-Qaeda threats in North Africa or other trouble spots, officials said

Sissies love their drones.

And here is where another critical pattern comes into play, one I've written about extensively. In brief: In addition to pursuing its goal of global hegemony, the United States government uses foreign countries as a lethal laboratory in which to practice the techniques it intends to use domestically, at home within U.S. borders. As I explained in "Terrorist State, Abroad and At Home" (from 2008, I note):

Just as it is not possible for an individual to restrict what constitutes a fundamental psychological methodology to only one area of his life, so a ruling class will not employ one approach in foreign policy while dealing with matters of domestic politics in a radically different manner. In any case, the U.S. ruling class never had such a desire: in one way or another, other nations would be made to submit to the demands of the U.S. government -- and the same is true for U.S. citizens. The citizens of America will do exactly as the ruling class demands -- or else. As far as the ruling class is concerned, you have as little reason to complain as the murdered Iraqis do: the ruling class only wishes to improve your life. The ruling class acts only on your behalf, and "for your own good.

In other words:

In perhaps as few as five years, the skies over the United States will be filled with huge numbers of drones on a regular basis [including armed drones]. Within ten years, most people won't even remember what life was like without them -- and if they do remember, most people won't care.

I have no more predictions for today.

Lucky me. Lucky you.

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http://powerofnarrative.blogspot.com/2012/10/nosty-pays-another-call-sissies-love
.html

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Midday open thread

• Today's comic by Mark Fiore is Undecided Flakes:
  
• What's coming up on Sunday Kos ...
  

  • Are we 'Better Off Without 'Em?' A live Q & A with author Chuck Thompson about Southern secession, by Susan Gardner
  • GOP cranks up class warfare again with tax break plans. Time for a wealth tax, by Meteor Blades
  • Get the transcript: Mitt Romney and the Republican Party's antipathy toward reality, by Laurence Lewis
  • Voting rights, voter suppression and bullies at the ballot box, by Denise Oliver Velez
  • What an angry Black man actually looks like, by Shanikka
  • Are debates fact-free zones, by Dante Atkins
  • Mitt Romney's Foreign Policy Follies, by Jon Perr
  • Corporate U: Higher ed the Bain Way, part 2, by Mother Mags

• Last week's book review of Chuck Thompson's Better Off Without 'Em: A Northern Manifesto for Southern Secession spurred the comment section into overdrive in a passionate discussion of the book's premise. This coming Sunday, the author will join us live in a Q & A at 1:30 PM PDT/4:30 PM EDT that will initially address some of the points made by commenters in that review, and to take questions from users in real time. .
• Nice:
  

  The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee raised $29.2 million for the third fundraising quarter of the year, its biggest filing period in the committee?s history, officials told POLITICO.

• Prayers, good thoughts, crossed fingers, whatever ... send them her way:
  

  The Pakistani schoolgirl who was shot in the head by Taliban gunmen in Pakistan has recovered to the extent that she is now able to stand with assistance and communicate in writing, medical officials at the British hospital where she is being treated said on Friday. [...]

  The 14-year-old Pakistani student, shot on Oct. 9 in the Swat Valley, has become an icon of resistance against the Taliban, advocating that girls have access to education. Her case has generated widespread interest among the local and international media, as well as among public officials and complete strangers worldwide offering to help her.

• Nothing to see here, move along, everything is under control:
  

  TransCanada Corp. has temporarily shut down its existing 2,100-mile Keystone pipeline after tests showed possible safety issues, a federal agency said Thursday.

• It's so rare that a Republican makes a joke that is funny, it seems worth mentioning:
  

  "I was a '73 graduate. I should have been '72, but I stayed an extra year to work on our party rating."

  -- West Virginia U.S. Senate [candidate] John Raese (R), quoted by the Daily Athenaeum, on attending West Virginia University.

• A fine Friday news roundup on the Kagro in the Morning show, plus polling from Greg Dworkin. What's up with Gallup? Romney kills financial disclosure tradition. Is the OH Sec. of State flipping SCOTUS the bird? An arrest in VA over GOP election shenanigans. And in WI, ALEC poster boy Thompson is caught underwriting Iranian uranium mining! And hey! Last day to vote for nominees in the 2012 Stitcher Awards!
• Sign up to help get Democratic voters to the polls in swing states with Workers' Voice, the largest independent Democratic voter turnout operation in the country. You can participate no matter where you live.

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Rep. Joe Walsh: Of course the GOP wants to end
Medicare!

Rep. Joe Walsh is really on a wingnut roll this week. First he's trying to out-Akin Akin on lady parts, and then he's admitting the truth about Republican plans for Medicare.

The House GOP budget plan, [Duckworth] said, ?would end Medicare as we know it.? But Walsh responded, ?If we don?t end it as it is, it?s going to end as we know it all by itself.?

Yes, that's the Republican plan, written by Paul Ryan, voted on by almost every Republican in Congress, and embraced by Mitt Romney. It took a loose cannon like Walsh to finally admit that fact to the American public.

Let's take over the House to protect Medicare. Please contribute $3 to one of these House candidates on ActBlue.

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nt-to-end-Medicare

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Castro Dying

Fidel Castro is reported to have had a serious stroke. His death could have a major impact on the vote in FL.

.

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Number Of Gun Dealers Increased By 3000 Under
Obama

The moment President Obama took office, the NRA’s primary product became paranoid theories about how Obama plans to seize gun owners’ guns. Even after Obama served as president for nearly three full years without signing a single new gun regulation — his primary contribution to gun law is a minor bill allowing gun owners to [...]



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http://thinkprogress.org.feedsportal.com/c/34726/f/638927/s/24abea70/l/0Lthinkpro
gress0Borg0Cjustice0C20A120C10A0C190C10A480A910Cnumber0Eof0Egun0Edealers0Erose0Emore0Ethan0E30A0A0A0Eunder0Eobama0C/story01.htm

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Portrait Of A Drought: Finding Water Where It
Aint

by Peyton Fleming I’m on a bus driving across West Texas and all appears well. Miles and miles of white-speckled cotton fields line both sides of the road. Splotches of green grassland are a welcome sign from last year’s devastating drought. Dozens of giant wind turbines churn away far off in the distance. But appearances [...]



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gress0Borg0Cclimate0C20A120C10A0C190C10A520A910Cportrait0Eof0Ea0Edrought0Efinding0Ewater0Ewhere0Eit0Eaint0C/story01.htm

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NHL Extends Lockout, Cancels Games Through
November 1

The National Hockey League canceled all games through November 1 today, adding another week to the two weeks of games it had already canceled due to its lockout of players. The cancellations don’t remove the possibility of a full 82-game schedule, which NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said could be saved if the NHL Players Association [...]



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gress0Borg0Calyssa0C20A120C10A0C190C10A517210Cnhl0Eextends0Elockout0Ecancels0Egames0Ethrough0Enovember0E10C/story01.htm

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