Tales From the Other Side: New reality: US assassinates it own citizens with no due process

from Boing Boing by Cory Doctorow

New reality: US assassinates it own citizens with no due process:

Glenn Greenwald reports on the US assassination of Anwar al-Awlaki, a US citizen in Yemen, who had not been charged with (or convicted of) any crime. Al-Awlaki was "far from any battlefield," and no judge or jury considered any accusations that had been levelled against him, nor did he have the opportunity to face his accusers nor offer a defense. Whether or not al-Awlaki was a terrorist (something no court can determine now), this sets a new precedent: the US can assassinate its own citizens on presidential order without any due process or accountability.

After several unsuccessful efforts to assassinate its own citizen, the U.S. succeeded today (and it was the U.S.). It almost certainly was able to find and kill Awlaki with the help of its long-time close friend President Saleh, who took a little time off from murdering his own citizens to help the U.S. murder its. The U.S. thus transformed someone who was, at best, a marginal figure into a martyr, and again showed its true face to the world. The government and media search for The Next bin Laden has undoubtedly already commenced.

What's most striking about this is not that the U.S. Government has seized and exercised exactly the power the Fifth Amendment was designed to bar ("No person shall be deprived of life without due process of law"), and did so in a way that almost certainly violates core First Amendment protections (questions that will now never be decided in a court of law). What's most amazing is that its citizens will not merely refrain from objecting, but will stand and cheer the U.S. Government's new power to assassinate their fellow citizens, far from any battlefield, literally without a shred of due process from the U.S. Government. Many will celebrate the strong, decisive, Tough President's ability to eradicate the life of Anwar al-Awlaki -- including many who just so righteously condemned those Republican audience members as so terribly barbaric and crass for cheering Governor Perry's execution of scores of serial murderers and rapists -- criminals who were at least given a trial and appeals and the other trappings of due process before being killed.

New study: Politics makes people sad

from US Politics | AMERICAblog News by John Aravosis (DC)

New study: Politics makes people sad: Amen. From the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton:

Contact: Elisabeth Donahue, 609 258 5988

edonahue@princeton.edu



Thinking about politics and politicians makes people feel bad about themselves, even more so than losing their jobs, according to a new study by Wilson School professor Angus Deaton. Deaton set out to examine the effect of the financial crisis on Americans’ own reports of their well-being using daily data collected by the Gallup Organization (the Gallup Healthways Well-being Index). Many of his findings were expected—well-being took a big hit on the day that Lehman Brothers failed—but many others were very puzzling; there were days when nothing much happened but reported well-being changed dramatically.



He concluded that the way the survey question was asked had a lot to do with the answers. In a nutshell: when Americans are asked about politics at the start of the survey, they report much lower levels of well-being than when those questions are left off. Since January 2008, the Gallup Organization has been collecting data on 1,000 Americans each day with a range of self-reported well-being (SWB) questions. In the fall of 2008, around the time of the collapse of Lehman Brothers, and lasting into the spring of 2009, at the bottom of the stock market, Americans reported sharp declines in their life evaluation, sharp increases in worry and stress, and declines in positive affect – not surprising given the dire economic times. However, by the end of 2010, in spite of continuing high unemployment, these measures had largely recovered – although still lower than when the survey started in January 2008. That is, people reported feeling much happier even though the economy was still in a slump. This contradiction puzzled Deaton who predicted that the low levels of life evaluation would continue to mirror the state of the economy.



It turned out that two things were happening. First, from 2008 to 2009, political questions were asked before the life evaluation ones; during that time period, reports of life evaluation were quite low. When Gallup dropped the questions, reports of well-being increased even though there was no corresponding improvement in the economy. “People appear to dislike politics and politicians so much that prompting them to think about them has a very large downward effect on their assessment of their own lives,” Deaton notes. “The effect of asking the political questions on well-being is only a little less than the effect of someone becoming unemployed, so that to get the same effect on average well-being, three-quarters of the population would have to lose their jobs.”



Second, life evaluation tracked the stock market in an unusual way: while most Americans do not invest in the market, their happiness or unhappiness was tied to how the stock market behaved over the crisis. The most plausible explanation for this is that the media is almost compulsive in its coverage of the stock market, and Americans are quite sensitive to media reports. The result is that the stock market has become the most watched indicator of the present and future economy. So even though those surveyed may have not been directly influenced by nor had assets in the market, their sense of well-being was still tied to it. Unemployment, by contrast, hardly shows up, even though being unemployed is very bad for people’s well-being. This happens because unemployment rose by “only” five percentage points, so that the effect on the national average well-being is small. Even the effect of St Valentine’s Day on national well-being is larger!



Concludes Deaton, “Surveys about “happiness” and self-reported well-being certainly have their place and are very are useful in some arenas. However, in the area of assessing economic policy, we need to tread lightly when relying on these findings.”

Castro calls Obama stupid, rips policy

from CNN.com

Castro calls Obama stupid, rips policy: Former Cuban leader Fidel Castro lashed out at U.S. President Barack Obama on Thursday for demanding changes on the island in order to improve bilateral relations and referred to him as "stupid."

Bristol Palin's Heckler Apologizes [The Palins]

Bristol Palin's Heckler Apologizes [The Palins]:

from Gawker by Maureen O'Connor

from Gawker by Maureen O'Connor
After initially announcing that he'd attack her again if he had the chance, angry drunk Stephen Hanks has apologized for telling Bristol Palin that her mother is a "whore" and "white trash." His lawyer released a statement to E! News: More »

Tales from the Other Side: Rick Perry says he regrets saying it's 'heartless' to oppose education for children of immigrants

Rick Perry says he regrets saying it's 'heartless' to oppose education for children of immigrants:

from Daily Kos by rss@dailykos.com (Jed Lewison)

Eating his words, too (Iowa Politics)

Rick Perry tries to reassure the haters that he's really one of them:

After declining to back down from his earlier comments on immigration as recently as this morning, Gov. Rick Perry (R-TX) seems to be changing his tune.

In an interview with Newsmax.TV, Perry referred to his remark that anyone who opposed giving tuition breaks to children of illegal immigrants was “heartless” and admitted that he was “probably a bit over-passionate by using that word.”

He's not changing his position on the substance of the policy, but the thing that really set off conservatives was the fact that he (correctly) had called them "heartless." It's not a surprise that he's recanting that criticism, even though it comes on the same day that his campaign said its candidate wouldn't change direction. As I said earlier, you could bet your last nickel that Perry was going to change course, particularly on immigration, in order to shore up his right flank. And he's already doing it.

Axelrod: Obama faces 'titanic struggle'

from NEWS 9 - News

Axelrod: Obama faces 'titanic struggle': President Barack Obama's chief political adviser on Tuesday conceded that a dark cloud looms over the American economy and Obama's political future, describing the president's road to a second term in the White...

Apparent pro-Syria group hacks Harvard website

from Newsvine - technology by Associated Press

Apparent pro-Syria group hacks Harvard website: Hackers have briefly defaced Harvard University's website, replacing the home page with an image of Syria's President Bashar Assad together with a message accusing the U.S. of supporting the uprising against him and threatening retaliation.

Censored Firefly Poster of the Day

Censored Firefly Poster of the Day:

from TDW Geeks by Cheezburger Network

Censored Firefly Poster of the Day: James Miller, a theatre professor at the University of Wisconsin-Stout, decorated his office door with a poster of Captain Mal Reynolds from Firefly, along with the Mal quote, “You don’t know me, son, so let me explain this to you once: If I ever kill you, you’ll be awake. You’ll be facing me. And you’ll be armed.”

The campus police didn’t think a reference to killing on a professor’s office door was appropriate — never mind that Mal’s point was about honor and fighting fair — so they tore it down and warned Miller that further posters would count as “disorderly conduct.”

His next poster was a “Fascism warning,” which read, “Fascism can cause blunt head trauma and/or violent death. Keep fascism away from children and pets.”

The reference to “violent death” got that one torn down too.

No word on what’s on Prof. Miller’s door right now or whether campus Browncoats are organizing a protest. Nathan Fillion, who played Captain Mal, weighed in via Twitter, calling the situation “Another example of ‘Just relax.’”

[io9]

Tagged: censorship, controversy, door signs, firefly, poster, prof. james miller, university of wisconsin-stout

Submitted by: Unknown

FORBES: Correcting President Obama’s Myriad Tax Fallacies….

FORBES: Correcting President Obama’s Myriad Tax Fallacies….:

from Instapundit by Glenn Reynolds

FORBES: Correcting President Obama’s Myriad Tax Fallacies.

Personal Finance Daily: Obama’s debt plan may hit your retirement

from MarketWatch.com - Top Stories

Personal Finance Daily: Obama’s debt plan may hit your retirement: How will President Obama’s deficit-reduction proposal hit your retirement? Robert Powell writes in his column today about the potential impacts from the plan. Not only would the changes affect your long-term retirement savings strategy, but they would have a more direct impact on taxes and Medicare benefits and costs.