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POPSIn defense of William Ayers But to call Ayers a "terrorist" and throw him in the Osama bin Laden pile is a reach for the moral high ground by the very people and political establishment that secretly carpet bombed Cambodia, murdering hundreds of thousands of civilians. ...Ayers is no martyr, and he's no role model. But he doesn't deserve to be the punching bag of the moral cretins who still celebrate lying wars of aggression and the pointless slaughter of untold thousands.
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POPSBush admin. should save Libyan dissident Upon his release, Eljahmi began speaking up for political reform in Libya. Within the month, Gadhafi had him back in prison, where he has been held, mostly incommunicado, since late March 2004. In all that time, there have been no more public mentions of Eljahmi's name from the White House. Gadhafi, meanwhile, has hit the jackpot as America's prime example of a rogue regime on rehab - presumably a case study for the likes of Iran and North Korea of how good life can get for tyrants if only they will forego an interest in nukes. Astride the oil wells of Libya, Gadhafi has enjoyed a parade of high-level visitors, including United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, and he has been welcomed in Paris. This year, with no protest from the United States, Libya gained one of the 10 rotating seats on the U.N. Security Council. Last month, Rice treated the Libyan foreign minister to a personal tour of the White House.
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POPSChristian college denies tenure for objectivist historian In some respects, Mr. Lewis is an unlikely poster child for academic freedom. In his 2006 essay on Iran, he urged the U.S. military in war zones to threaten Muslim intellectuals with "immediate personal destruction" if they do not renounce political Islamism. And he often writes and speaks on behalf of the Ayn Rand Institute, whose leaders are famously insistent on enforcing fidelity to Rand's beliefs, as they see them. "We have to always make a judgment about things we put out, or things put out by people associated with us," says Onkar Ghate, dean of the Objectivist Academic Center, which is affiliated with the institute. "Are they going to be teaching, talking about, advocating Ayn Rand's ideas, or are they doing something else?"
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POPSBork files $1 million slip-and-fall lawsuit The present tort system poses dangers to interstate commerce not unlike those faced under the Articles of Confederation. Even if Congress would not, in 1789, have had the power to displace state tort law, the nature of the problem has changed so dramatically as to bring the problem within the scope of the power granted to Congress. Accordingly, proposals, such as placing limits or caps on punitive damages, or eliminating joint or strict liability, which may once have been clearly understood as beyond Congress's power, may now be constitutionally appropriate. I love it!
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POPSJustice Dept funding "john schools" This discrepancy between punishments for prostitutes and for johns is outrageous. I'd rather have prostitution be legalized, but if we're going to be jailing prostitutes, then johns ought to be given the same sentence--not a slap on the wrist.
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POPS'Never again' for Armenians too A Los Angeles Times op-ed written by Jewish progressives lamenting the role of Jewish organizations (the ADL, AJC, B'nai B'rith) opposing US Congressional recognition of the Armenian genocide.
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POPSCorporate hypocrisy on bankruptcy Corporate America has a message: bankruptcy is about moral depravity. It isn't about medical debt and job loss, not about ex-spouses who die or who run off. and it certainly isn't about anything the lenders might have done--like high fee mortgages with introductory teaser rates or credit cards with interest rates that quadruple when a customer is late paying another creditor.
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POPSHillary Clinton & The Bankruptcy Bill This is a disturbing story about Hillary Clinton and our system of governance. During the Clinton administration, a bill was wounding through Congress that would make it harder for individuals to declare bankruptcy. Hillary Clinton, as First Lady, summoned consumer finance expert Elizabeth Warren , who convinced Hillary that this bill was bad news. Hillary convinced her husband to reverse course and veto the bill. Fast forward to Hillary Clinton getting elected Senator from New York, and she has to vote on a similar bill. She, having been a beneficiary of campaign contributions from the consumer finance industry, votes for it --the same bill she knew was bad for debtors and fought against as First Lady. I put together this jetpack that quotes from two interviews with Elizabeth Warren about Hilary Clinton's actions regarding this bill.
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POPSWashington Post, Dick Cheney, and War Crimes Since this editorial appeared, the evidentiary trail has led straight to Vice President Richard Cheney as the author of the administration’s torture policy. Indeed, Cheney openly advocated the need for torture before the Republican Senate Caucus in his efforts to block the McCain Detainee Treatment Act of 2005, and in his advocacy of the initial version of the Military Commissions Act of 2006.
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POPSJournalist: Republican Senators believe surge won't work Journalist Andrea Mitchell says that Republican senators are telling her they don't believe the surge will work, and have told Petraeus that if they don't see real progress by August 2007, they will "pull the plug" on the war in Iraq. Personally, I wish both the Republicans and Democrats would stop fooling around and pull the plug NOW. Via hilzoy at Obsidian Wings
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POPSWaste, Fraud, and Abuse Mississippi Democrat Representative Gene Taylor is censured by Congress for his uncivil criticism of Georgia Republican Representative Tom Price. Georgia Republican Representative Tom Price wanted to weaken aid to Katrina victims on grounds that it would be wasted due to fraud; Mississppi Democrat Gene Taylor, who represents parts of Mississippi devastated by Katrina, asks him why he didn't protest the fraud and abuse that occurred when the Bush administration gave out contracts to Bush political supporters. Taylor gets censured by Congress for his allegedly uncivil (but IMHO entirely deserved) criticism of Price. See David Lublin's brief summary at the source.
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POPSScenes From a Straight Talk Express For the 2008 presidential campaign, John McCain "relaunched" his "Straight Talk Express" tour of America. Also check out the painful conversation on sex education in the US: Q: "I mean, I think you'd probably agree probably does help stop ?" Mr. McCain: (Laughs) "Are we on the Straight Talk express? I'm not informed enough on it. Let me find out. You know, I'm sure I've taken a position on it on the past. I have to find out what my position was. Brian, would you find out what my position is on contraception--I'm sure I'm opposed to government spending on it, I'm sure I support the president's policies on it." Q: "But you would agree that condoms do stop the spread of sexually transmitted diseases. Would you say: 'No, we're not going to distribute them,' knowing that?" Mr. McCain: (Twelve-second pause) "Get me Coburn's thing, ask Weaver to get me Coburn's paper that he just gave me in the last couple of days. I've never gotten into these issues befo
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POPSThe hypocrisy of opposition to gay marriage After decades of catering to straight people's desires to ahve the advantages of marriage without its costs, through cohabitation regimes and no-fault divorce, it is unfair to draw the line with gay and lesbian couples...If you really want to combat the expanded choice norm, it would be much more powerful to revoke no-fault divorce or cohabitation regimes...astoundingly, these are the two reforms most social conservatives are not pressing....Under this logic, American society should swallow the liberalizations we have already adopted to accommodate the choices straight people want to have, even though this prochoice regime significantly undermines marriage and facilitates divorce--and should rescue marriage from decline by denying gay people eligibility for it, even though it is highly speculative that such denila would have any effect on the institution. Eskridge & Spedale, Gay Marriage: For Better or for Worse , p. 189.
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