Indefinite Detention? But I Have Soccer Practice at 4: U.S. Politics 2012

dying actually

oh man

he was THIS CLOSE to actually providing some sort of substance, too! he mentions that academics and experts agree that false balance is a problem. surely there's some sort of study or set of data that provides evidence? but no, it would be better just to get josh marshall to say it's a problem and some conservative asshole to say the opposite.

see? balance!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QER_yqTcmjM

i would've disagreed before i read this (re 'false balance' in media criticism), but shafer otm here: http://blogs.reuters.com/jackshafer/2012/08/09/president-obama’s-imbalanced-view-on-journalism

hey guys, the US public rebelled when the media kept saying Reagan was uttering blatant falsehoods in '81. Hence, Nu Balance.

i would've disagreed before i read this (re 'false balance' in media criticism)

really?

i don't think schafer really 'gets' what false balance is

yeah i dont think shafer and obama are talking about the same thing

I am shocked - SHOCKED I say

just saw a brief Romney interview on NBC news - this guy is such a terrible candidate, he can't nail softball questions like "what do you want your VP pick to say about you?"

no one seems to have any respect for him, i've noticed. especially conservatives

Should I start a blog called The Android Mitt Romney y/n

Executive branch continues rotting below the Bam (sorry, I know you guys are busy with your Ryan/Munster pics):

http://www.salon.com/2012/08/14/secrecy_creep/

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0812/79746.html#ixzz23dNc44Ij

here's an act of domestic terror we're going to be hearing about from now until kingdom come

Meanwhile, Fox News has reported sources said the suspect was 28 years old, possibly posed as an intern, and had multiple weapons. According to a Fox News, a source said the suspect “made statements regarding their policies, and then opened fire with a gun striking a security guard.”

Jacqueline Maguire, a spokesperson with the Washington Field Office of the FBI, told POLITICO she could not confirm whether the gunman made any political statements at the time of the shooting.

Meanwhile, Beverly Crossley, who said she works in the adjoining building, said she saw the suspect in handcuffs. She described him as a “light skinned, middle-aged” African American who “had blood on his body” going down the left side of his tan pants. Maguire said she could not confirm Crossley’s description.

The FRC is a conservative Christian non-profit organization that advocates and lobbies for socially conservative policies.

great

honestly can't remember the last time there was a lefty-motivated shooting in America

FRC is, not for nothing, tracked as an anti-gay hate group by the SPLC.

See also: http://wonkette.com/481131/michelle-malkin-why-is-the-southern-poverty-law-center-always-shooting-the-family-research-council-with-guns

i'm less interested in michelle malking doing her thing that in the shooter himself. wtf is this guy.

I like Malkin's Hatfields vs McCoys attitude

let's rock n' roll

President Obama is set to end his term with dozens fewer lower-court appointments than both Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush achieved in their first four years, and probably with less of a lasting ideological imprint on the judiciary than many liberals had hoped for and conservatives had feared.

Mr. Obama’s record stems in part from a decision at the start of his presidency to make judicial nominations a lower political priority, according to documents and interviews with more than a dozen current and former administration officials and with court watchers from across the political spectrum. Senate Republicans also played a role, ratcheting up partisan warfare over judges that has been escalating for the past generation by delaying even uncontroversial picks who would have been quickly approved in the past.

But a good portion of Mr. Obama’s judicial record stems from a deliberate strategy. While Mr. Bush quickly nominated a slate of appeals court judges early in his first year — including several outspoken conservatives — Mr. Obama moved more slowly and sought relatively moderate jurists who he hoped would not provoke culture wars that distracted attention from his ambitious legislative agenda.

“The White House in that first year did not want to nominate candidates who would generate rancorous disputes over social issues that would further polarize the Senate,” said Gregory B. Craig, Mr. Obama’s first White House counsel. “We were looking for mainstream, noncontroversial candidates to nominate.”

Mr. Obama has still put a significant stamp on the judiciary, appointing two Supreme Court justices — the same number as Mr. Clinton and Mr. Bush each did in eight years — and 30 appeals court judges, roughly as many as either did on average per term. But his impact has been uneven. He has made significant changes to some appeals court circuits — which have the final word on tens of thousands of cases a year — while leaving others untouched.

In federal district courts, where trials are held, Mr. Obama has appointed just 125 such judges, compared with 170 at a similar point in Mr. Clinton’s first term and 162 for Mr. Bush.

Mr. Obama is virtually certain to leave more vacant federal judgeships at the end of his term for the winner of the 2012 election to fill than he inherited from Mr. Bush. Beyond sheer numbers, Mr. Obama has reduced his long-term influence by appointing judges who were more than four years older, on average, than Mr. Bush’s, according to data compiled by Russell Wheeler, a Brookings Institution scholar.

Mr. Obama has also largely shied away from nominating assertive liberals who might stand as ideological counterpoints to some of the assertive conservatives Mr. Bush named. Instead of prominent liberal academics whose scholarly writings and videotaped panel discussions would provide ammunition to conservatives, Mr. Obama gravitated toward litigators, prosecutors and sitting district and state judges, especially those who would diversify the bench.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/18/us/politics/obama-lags-on-filling-seats-in-the-judiciary.html?_r=1&hp&pagewanted=all

haha I was about to post the same story

Speaking of the courts:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/federal-appeals-court-strikes-down-obama-air-rule/2012/08/21/50af1caa-eb9c-11e1-b811-09036bcb182b_story.html?hpid=z2

DC Court of Appeals 2 to 1 decision rejecting cross-state air pollution rule

In the ruling, the court wrote that the EPA used a section in the Clean Air Act known as the “good neighbor provision” to “impose massive emissions reduction requirements on upwind States without regard to the limits imposed by the statutory text. Whatever its merits as a policy matter, EPA’s Transport Rule violates the statute.” It also wrote that the EPA overstepped its bounds in regulating power plants directly, rather than giving upwind states a chance to develop their own plans for federal compliance.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/12/us/politics/obama-nominates-halligan-and-srinivasan-to-dc-appeals-court.html

The District of Columbia appeals court is generally considered the second most powerful court in the country because it hears many cases involving challenges to federal policies and regulations. It currently has five Republican-appointed judges, three Democratic-appointed ones and three vacancies, two of which have been open throughout the Obama administration.

It is also a panel whose balance Mr. Obama has been unable to alter, in part because his administration has been slow to nominate people to fill its vacancies and in part because of Republican opposition to his nominees, including Ms. Halligan.

UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGH

It is also a panel whose balance Mr. Obama has been unable to alter, in part because his administration has been slow to nominate people to fill its vacancie

srsly can anyone name a liberal advocacy group specifically targeting court nominations? They need my money and energy. This is an area in which liberals have simply not given a damn.

ACLU?

People for the American Way used to

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/19/opinion/sunday/coates-obamas-perceived-transformation.html?hp

Morbs, you'll like that Coates guest-piece for the NY Times (if you read it all). It starts in one direction but keep reading till the end.

x-post--- heard an NPR morning edition story re the states rights corporate air pollution ruling. They said the dissent was 44 pages and "blistering". I wonder if the Obama Justice Department will appeal? Although they'd proably lose 5 to 4 at the Supreme court.

And no surprise, the 2 majority votes were both Dubya appointees

"Congress has been America's favorite whipping boy for over 200 years, and I don't think that's going to change anytime soon," Boehner said during a Christian Science Monitor luncheon near the Republican National Convention. "On any given day, some of them may be out there doing things they probably shouldn't be doing. It's just a fact."

Republican Linda McMahon actually holds a small lead in the Connecticut Senate race. According to a new Qunnipiac poll she holds a three point lead over Democrat Chris Murphy in the race to replace Joe Lieberman.

She's running again? And ahead this time. She's got so much money (is it all from the wrestling biz?)

yeah they had an IPO a long time ago and she and vince probably made out like bandits

http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/08/28/times-reporter-shared-maureen-dowd-column-with-c-i-a-before-publication/

I think Greenwald was tweeting about that.

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal-a/2012_08/impeach_brian_sandoval039549.php

But let’s say for the sake of argument he’s right and Obama’s HHS was actively conspiring with the State of Nevada (the culprit in Mickey’s account) to let one or two welfare recipients go an entire six months without taking advantage of one of those incredibly abundant jobs out there. If “Obama” is “gutting” welfare reform via this conspiracy, then so, too, is Nevada Republican Gov. Brian Sandoval. What was he doing on the stage of the Republican National Convention last night? Shouldn’t he be impeached?

http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2012/08/charts-us-arms-sales-overseas-triples

Much of the surge was driven exclusively by the ongoing freak-out over Iran: Saudi Arabia, Oman, and the United Arab Emirates (all Persian Gulf allies or partners of the United States) in particular started buying missile defense systems, fighter jets, and other hardware from the US at record levels, just in case Iran ever goes nuclear and tries to throw its weight around West Asia and the Gulf. Saudi Arabia's $33.4 billion deal included dozens of F-15 fighter jets and Black Hawk helicopters. The UAE threw down $4.5 billion for a missile shield and other toys.

And in case you were wondering: In arms sales to both developing and developed nations, our closest competitor is Russia, which came in at a total of $4.8 billion in 2011—roughly 7 percent of what the United States hauled in that same year:

GG with more on the CIA's editorial desk at the NYT

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/aug/29/correspondence-collusion-new-york-times-cia

http://my.firedoglake.com/Jane-2/2012/08/30/apple-helps-dod-keep-iphone-customers-ignorant-about-drone-strike-deaths/

Glen Greenwald will write about this one soon I'm sure

i would just like to quickly point out the official GOP platform says, on pg. 19,

"The most powerful environmental policy is liberty, the central organizing principle of the American Republic and its people."

has anyone actually read through this thing yet? there's some batty, batty shit in there.

holy shit even the first page is just batzone

megalol @ Hillel the Elder quote

Exclusive behind-the-scenes photo of the authors of the GOP Platform at work:

http://i48.tinypic.com/2q2h5j5.jpg

Obama just opened up the Arctic.

http://money.cnn.com/2012/08/30/news/companies/shell-arctic/

What a terrible thing!

Well, BP and Exxon have had their shot, so maybe third time's a charm!

great