5
POPSThe degrading effects of terrorism fears Demands that genuinely inept government officials be held accountable are necessary and wise, but demands that political leaders ensure that we can live in womb-like Absolute Safety are delusional and destructive. Yet this is what the citizenry screams out every time something threatening happens: please, take more of our privacy away; monitor more of our communications; ban more of us from flying; engage in rituals to create the illusion of Strength; imprison more people without charges; take more and more control and power so you can Keep Us Safe.
7
POPSMaking "Islam" synonymous with "terrorism" "Olympic bombing suspect Eric Robert Rudolph -- wanted in attacks that killed two people and injured more than 100 in the Southeast -- was arrested early Saturday in western North Carolina and faces a Monday morning court date. Rudolph has been charged in the 1996 Centennial Olympic Park bombing in Atlanta, Georgia; 1997 bombings at a gay nightclub and a clinic that performed abortions in the Atlanta area; and a bombing at a clinic in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1998" -- CNN, May 31, 2003. "Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated at a peace rally Saturday night in Tel Aviv's Kings Square, a top aide confirmed. He was reportedly shot in the arm and back by a Jewish man in his mid-20s who is allegedly affiliated with right-wing extremist groups. . . . Amir confessed to the assassination and reportedly told investigators, 'I acted alone on God's orders and I have no regrets'." -- CNN, November 4, 1995.
5
POPSCraving terrorist melodrama As for Armao's "point" about how Janet Napolitano probably took it easy because the "boss was away" -- and her belief that Terrorists will strike more on holidays if Obama isn't affixed to his chair in the Oval Office, as though he's the Supreme Airport Screener: those are so self-evidently dumb it's hard to believe they found their way even into something written by one of Fred Hiatt's editorial writers. What this actually illustrates is that many people are addicted to the excitement and fear of Terrorist melodramas. They crave some of that awesome 9/12 energy, where we overnight became The Greatest Generation and -- unified and resolute -- rose to the challenge of a Towering, Evil Enemy. Armao is angry and upset because the leader didn't oblige her need to re-create that high drama by flamboyantly flying back to Washington to create a tense storyline, pick up a bullhorn, stand on some rubble, and personally make her feel "safe."
4
POPSGlenn Beck Compares Derailing Health Care To Preparing For 9/11 
HERE IS A TRANSCRIPT OF BECK: Ten years ago, I could have shouted every single day about Osama bin Laden and his wacky crazy threats to kill Americans in New York and nobody would have been willing to stand in line two hours while some security officer made grandma take her shoes off. No one would have done it. But don't you see. While the government is still not willing to do these things, today America is different. America has changed. Washington, we're not going to let you get away with it anymore. Look, fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Conservatives are awake. 9/12ers are willing to do the hard things. We know what this means! We're taking time out of our busy lives, taking time away from their families, they're attending town hall meetings. Do you think they want to do that? They are calling their representatives. How many times do we have to be yelled at by your people in Washington? They are reading 2,000-page healthcare bills on the weekend. The 9
2
POPSPuerto Rico Unions Protest Job Cuts From the article: Several protesters, holding signs demanding work, directed their criticism at Gov. Luis G. Fortuño. He was elected to his first term last year as a Republican, promising to jumpstart the economy, but so far, job losses and negative growth have continued, punishing the island with its fourth year of recession. Governor Fortuño has said repeatedly that he did not want layoffs, but had no choice. In interviews on radio and television on Thursday, he said that it was the only way to avoid a government shutdown because of the territory’s $3.2 billion deficit. “There was no alternative,” Mr. Fortuño said. “And there is no turning back.” ----- Which I can tell you is an total lie.
10
POPSSocial change could spark violence And this week, the FBI said that it is investigating whether anti-government sentiment played a role in the death of a U.S. Census worker who was found hanged from a tree in rural Kentucky, because the body had the word “fed” scrawled on the chest — though authorities say there are too many unanswered questions at this point to rule the case a homicide or a hate crime. There’s a big difference, of course, between a person who shouts at a congressman at a town hall and a person who would do something much more violent. But security experts say that the shouting incidents and other angry moments in recent weeks serve as indicators of an increase in political rage in the culture. That rage comes against a backdrop of enormous changes in American life. The United States suffered a humiliating economic collapse that threatens its long-term position as the world’s most important economy, with a staggering 9.7 percent unemployment rate. President Barack Obama made several controversial
12
POPSThe difference between "legal" and "illegal" The surveillance controversy is not and never has been over whether the Government should be able to intercept the communications of Terrorist suspects. The law (FISA) has always allowed such interception since its inception and virtually nobody opposes that. Nor was there controversy about whether the NSA could intercept foreign-to-foreign communications, as they did here. The controversy was and is whether they should be able to engage in surveillance of American citizens in violation of the law -- i.e., without judicial oversight and/or beyond the parameters the law allows.
5
POPSNew CIA Docs Detail Brutal "Extraordinary Rendition" Process All of these practices are carefully engineered to facilitate the interrogation process. Nudity, sleep deprivation and dietary manipulation are used as standard preparatory steps. It then details the standard "corrective techniques:" these are a series of physical assaults labeled with innocuous titles like insult slap, abdominal slap, facial hold and attention grasp. "Coercive techniques" used include: walling (slamming a prisoner's head against the wall, with some protective measures to avoid severe injuries), water dousing, the use of the stress position (known to the inquisition as the strapado, to the Germans in World War II as Pfahlbinden), wall standing (referred to by the NKVD and KGB as stoika) and cramped confinement. Because of substantial redactions, it seems unlikely that this list is complete. None of this information is surprising. In fact it all tallies perfectly with the description of the renditions program that can be derived from the report prepared by the Intern
6
POPSJustice Dept. Report Advises Pursuing C.I.A. Abuse Cases With the release of the details on Monday and the formal advice that at least some cases be reopened, it now seems all but certain that the appointment of a prosecutor or other concrete steps will follow, posing significant new problems for the C.I.A. It is politically awkward, too, for Mr. Holder because President Obama has said that he would rather move forward than get bogged down in the issue at the expense of his own agenda. The advice from the Office of Professional Responsibility strengthens Mr. Holder’s hand. The recommendation to review the closed cases, in effect renewing the inquiries, centers mainly on allegations of detainee abuse in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Justice Department report is to be made public after classified information is deleted from it.
5
POPSReport: Bush mulled sending troops into Buffalo And who supported this daft idea? The usual suspects, of course! "According to the Times, Cheney and other Bush aides said an Oct. 23, 2001, Justice Department memo gave broad presidential authority that allowed Bush to use the domestic use of the military against al-Qaida if it was justified on the grounds of national security, rather than law enforcement. Among those arguing for the military use besides Cheney were his legal adviser David S. Addington and some senior Defense Department officials, the Times reported."
4
POPSCatherine Crabill, VA GOP Candidate: We May Have To "Resort To The Bullet Box" (VIDEO) UPDATE: Crabill has defended her words in an interview with the Washington Post. "Those are my convictions," Crabill, 52, said in a telephone interview this morning. "I am a full-blooded, freedom-loving American, and what we're seeing in Washington is domestic terrorism at its worst." But as a video of some provocative remarks zipped around the Internet, she also worried that she would be caricatured as an extremist. And she said she wanted to make clear that she was not advocating armed resistance. "I have no desire to see this country erupt in any kind of violent revolution," Crabill said. "I don't even own a gun."
7
POPSReport: Bush program extended beyond wiretapping The report also questions the legal advice used by President Bush to set up the program, pinpointing omissions and questionable legal memos written by Yoo at the Justice Department. The report suggests Yoo ignored an explicit provision in the FISA law designed to restrict the government's authority to conduct electronic surveillance during wartime. And it said flaws in Yoo's memos later presented "a serious impediment" to recertifying the program.
3
POPSEliminationism on parade: Coulter, Joe the Plumber, and military chaplains' leader wish for deaths As noted in the Newsweek story, last fall - as the presidential election was heating up, retired Colonel E.H. "Jim" Ammerman, in the official September 2008 newsletter of his Department of Defense approved chaplain endorsing agency, published a letter which suggested, per the advice of a fabricated Abraham Lincoln quote, that four US Senators should be be "arrested, quickly tried and hanged!!!"... The alleged crime ? - voting against a Senate bill that would have established English as the official language of the United States. Newsweek did not reveal the names of the four senators. But a May 20, 2009 Huffington Post story by Military Religious Freedom Foundation Senior Researcher Chris Rodda does: Democratic Party senators Dodd, Biden, Clinton, and Obama.
15
POPSNeo-Nazis are in the Army now Army regulations prohibit soldiers from participating in racist groups, and recruiters are instructed to keep an eye out for suspicious tattoos. Before signing on the dotted line, enlistees are required to explain any tattoos. At a Tampa recruitment office, though, Fogarty sailed right through the signup process. "They just told me to write an explanation of each tattoo, and I made up some stuff, and that was that," he says. Soon he was posted to Fort Stewart in Georgia, where he became part of the 3rd Infantry Division. In 2003, Fogarty was sent to Iraq. For two years he served in the military police, escorting officers, including generals, around the hostile country. He says he was granted top-secret clearance and access to battle plans. Fogarty speaks with regret that he "never had any kill counts." But he says his time in Iraq increased his racist resolve. "I hate Arabs more than anybody, for the simple fact I've served over there and seen how they live," he tells me. "They'r
11
POPSRight-wing media and the fringe: A growing history of violence (and denial) While right-wing media are certainly not legally culpable for any recent attacks, they are responsible for promoting a culture of fear, paranoia, and violence that is anti-government in the extreme -- a culture in which extremists, including von Brunn and Richard Poplawski, who fatally shot three Pittsburgh police officers, were apparently immersed. Poplawski was convinced that the Obama administration was going to take away his guns. Even though no evidence of such a policy exists, right-wing commentators and news organizations made the claim repeatedly before the shooting and have continued to do so since. Predictably, conservative media figures responded to the museum shooting by attempting to shift attention away from themselves and onto political liberals and even President Obama himself. On June 10, the day of the museum shooting, financial analyst and radio host Jim Lacamp said on Fox News that "we have an administration that's really done a lot of class warfare, a lot of cla
Newest Clips
see Newest Clips
2
Latest Pops
Latest Comments
Most Pops
Tags
Print
Save
Turn on live update