Tag: WTF?

Cass Sunstein wants to re-educate you (v.2)

Cass Sunstein, professor of law at Harvard and Obama’s “Information Tsar,” gets his proto-fascist freak on in Conspiracy Theories, wherein he forwards the thesis that, conspiracy theorists are bad, because they endanger government anti-terrorism policy,  whatever that policy may be,  therefore conspiracy theorists need to be thwarted by a strategy of government-sponsored infiltration and re-education.  Government needs to fight back against independent public thinking!  I kid you not.

Update  Let’s be perfectly clear: Sunstein is literally advocating a government conspiracy against those “conspiracy theorists” he claims are damaging to governmental purposes.  Let that sink in.

Cass Sunstein wants to re-educate you

Cass Sunstein, professor of law at Harvard and Obama’s “Information Tsar,” gets his proto-fascist freak on in Conspiracy Theories, wherein he forwards the thesis that, conspiracy theorists are bad, because they endanger government anti-terrorism policy,  whatever that policy may be,  therefore conspiracy theorists need to be thwarted by a strategy of government-sponsored infiltration and re-education.  Government needs to fight back against independent public thinking!  I kid you not.

Update:

http://www.law.harvard.edu/fac…

Sunstein’s full list of publications does not list “conspiracy theories” among them, at least not over the past couple of years.  It is definitely a topic he has written about before.  I wonder if this paper I linked is a forgery attributed to him.  That is first and foremost on my mind.

Update 2My second guessing was a mistake.  We’ve got a live one.  His Harvard web page does indeed list the paper and was published as, Vermeule, Adrian & Cass R. Sunstein. “Conspiracy Theories: Causes and Cures,” 17 Journal of Political Philosophy 202 (2008).

h/t soilyeti.

Breaking! Republicans re-discover racism!

Crossposted at Daily Kos

    In the year 2010, the Republican party has finally, officially, re-discovered racism.

    In between demanding to see President Obama’s birth certificate so that he can prove for once and for all that he is NOT a secret Kenyan Muslim and Republican demands to be able to racially profile all Muslim-Americans who might be mistaken for a terrorist based on appearance, name or faith, the Republican party has re-discovered racism in America, and all because of this comment by Democratic Senator Harry Reid.

    Despite many, many acts on their own part that could be considered racist, Republicans finally became aware of the existance of racism in America again when a Democrat supposedly did it too.

    In 2009 I catalouged racist moments made by Republicans in an article titled Just call him a N!&&ER and get it over with, Republicans. We ALL KNOW that’s what you mean. By Republican standards NONE of these instances were racist. Why? Because It Doesn’t Count If You Are A Republican.

Obviously.

    But, just for the sake of accuracy, lets review the year of 2009 in Republican racism and selective outrage.

Updated with Corrections Re: 9th Circuit legalizes torture

Crossposted at Daily Kos

Update #2: It has been brought to my attention that my initial analysis on the subject of this diary, originally titled “SCOTUS legalizes TORTURE and creates legal ‘unpersons'”, and then edited to state 9th Circuit . . .  is factually incorrect. I apologize for the confusion and will be writing a thorough dairy tomorrow based on the facts of the ruling by the 9th Circuit court.

    I have left the full text of the original diary intact below the fold and will be glad to be further corrected. I seek to learn as well as to share what knowledge I have.

    But I will ask this: When? When do we start to see accountability, for the super rich, for the Corporations and their CEO class, and for the crimes and other excesses of the politically powerful. When?

Thank you, and apologies to all.

Cheers

120% of public think climate scientists lie about global warming says Fox FAIL and Balanced News

 Crossposted at Daily Kos

    I thought mistakes at Fox would have consequences?

    Guess not.

    Last week, Fox and Friends showed a Rasmussen poll graphic revealing that a whopping 120 percent of the American public believes scientists may be falsifying research to support their own theories on global warming:

ThinkProgress.org

    Fox News’ graphics department added together the “very likely” and “somewhat likely” numbers to reach 59 percent, and called that new group “somewhat likely.” Then, for some reason, they threw in the 35 percent “very likely” as their own group, even though they already added that number to the “somewhat likely” percentage. Then they mashed together the “not very likely” and “not likely at all” groups, and threw the 15 percent who were unsure into the waste bin. Voila – 120 percent.

Hat tip to MediaMatters.org

Some Bold text added by the diarist.

    More fun with inventing numbers below the fold . . .  

Sofa King Stupid Republican Response to my diary proves my point.

Crossposted at Daily Kos

    You know what? I’m not sorry anymore.

    Yesterday I wrote a diary titled “We’re sorry you’re stupid, but you’re not allowed to hold back the rest of the class anymore.” in which I made the point that most Republicans are reality denying fools who will swallow any lie if it fits into their pre-conceived view of the world. The point of that diary was that we should try to reach out and pull out of the matrix whoever we can from the burning, sinking S.S. Ronald Reagan and then leave the rest of the fools behind, because, quite frankly, we are wasting our phucking time with these nit-wits and I’m tired of explaining reality over and over again to the Orly Taitz’s of the world who will scream “WHERE IS THE BIRTH CERTIFICATE!” no matter how many times we show it to them.

    Therefore, without further ado, I present for your approval the Republican rebuttal to my diary below the fold.

Why not burn Obama in effigy too, you cowards

Crossposted at Daily Kos

    Since a group of tea bagging protestors comprised of mostly white people have the cojones to burn Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Congressmen Tom Perriello in effigy, I thought it would be a good idea if someone in the media would go so far as to ask these people why they don’t just go all the way in their supposed “defense of freedom and liberty” and burn President Barack Obama in effigy as well. I mean, if they are really brave and all, why shouldn’t they?

     Oh, wait a minute . . . .

     More below the fold.

Part 2. NYT-American workers are OVERpaid (compared to other wage slaves globally)

Crossposted at Daily Kos

    A hat tip to Inky99, one of my favorite bloggers out

there.
This story was so BIG I had to expand on it.

    Got that Tiny Tim? Mr. Scrooge isn’t the problem, the problem is that overpaid bum, Cratchett.

American Wages Out of Balance

By EDWARD HADAS, MARTIN HUTCHINSON and ANTONY CURRIE

Published: November 10, 2009

American workers are overpaid, relative to equally productive employees elsewhere doing the same work. If the global economy is to get into balance, that gap must close.

New York Times.com

Bold text added by the diarist

    So how much more do the Masters Of the Universe at Goldman Sachs and elsewhere think that Americans should be paid comapred to the outright slaves and other indentured servants throughout the world? Join me below the fold to find out, and do’t forget your torches and pitchforks.

Grassley promotes Glenn Beck’s new book at town hall. Does he agree that Obama is a racist, too?

Crossposted at Daily Kos

thanks for the FP bump, Buhdy

    From the invaluable thinkprogress.org



TOWN HALL ATTENDEE: I noticed that you have the book “Common Sense” with you today, I hope you share it with a lot more of those 535 people.

GRASSLEY: Well the reason I brought it is you’re supposed to pass it on to other people when you’re not reading it.

    I’ve had about enough of the whole Senate Finance Committee, but Senator Grassley takes the cake with this one.

    I wonder what else Beck sells that Grassley buys?

    Senator Grassley actually read this Piece Of Shit?

    After the town hall, Thinkprogress.org reports that Senator Grassley gave them an autographed copy of Glenn Beck’s new book and said “It’s something you gotta read a couple of times.”

    I assume that it is one of those books where they ask you questions and you go to different chapters to follow different storylines, and each storyline has a different ending where the world ends thanks to us no good reverse racist fascist neo-Nazi progressive socialists Democrats.

    Did Senator Grassley actually pay for this garbage?

    So, if Senator Grassley is endorsing Glenn Beck’s new book, Common Sense (which, presumably one lacks if they are reading it.), I wonder if Senator Grassley endorses these other classic asshat Glenn Beck statements.

more below the fold

What else was the CIA lying about?

Crossposted at http://www.dailykos.com/story/…

   

Panetta: “Agency officials did indeed mislead Congress and did so since 2001.”

~snip~

    ” Congress was not adequately informed about unspecified post – 9/11 activity, classified activity. ”

Investigate and Prosecute Bush/Cheney

   

    Now that Torture News Roundup has been discontinued for the time being I would like to carry on the hard work of Meteor Blades, Valtin and Patriots Daily News Clearinghouse.

    This will be an ongoing series of diaries detailing the evidence of criminal behavior engaged in by the Bush/Cheney Administration as well as the need to fully investigate and prosecute the Bush/Cheney Administration. I would like to find two or three other diarists who want to contribute to this series on a rotation so that we can keep others informed on a daily basis. If you wish to contribute please e-mail me at [email protected]

    Some reports state that the lies were in regards to torture, others say they are not. Who is to say what these “false statements” were? I will leave the issue of what the CIA was lying about be discussed in the comments below.

You’re Welcome!!

Let’s just get that out of the way right now, because after you finish reading this you’ll be going ‘wow, thanks, moneysmith, this is great. You rock!’ Seriously. You will. Because I have a feeling a lot of us are at the end of our proverbial ropes, which by  now are so frayed they look more like worn-out drawstrings on a pair of ten-year-old sweatpants than the nice, thick, resilient ropes they once were.  

Ready for more? Walk this way (it’s all in the hips, really not that hard) …