Today's edition of quick hits:
* Fascinating protests have broken out in China this week over freedom of the press and censorship by Chinese government officials.
* Afghanistan: "Administration officials said publicly for the first time Tuesday that the U.S. might leave no American troops in Afghanistan after the end of combat in December 2014, an option that defies the view of Pentagon officials who say thousands of U.S. troops could be needed there to keep a lid on al-Qaida and to strengthen the Afghan army and police."
* Guantanamo: "The Obama administration legal team is divided over whether to drop two terrorism cases originally prosecuted in a military commission at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, a decision that could have far-reaching consequences by significantly reducing the number of other prisoners who can receive tribunal trials."
* Syria: "New signs of misery plaguing Syria's war-ravaged civilians emerged on Tuesday, with the United Nations saying it is unable to feed a million hungry residents in combat zones and aid agencies reporting an outbreak of violence in a large refugee camp in Jordan."
* Keep expectations low: "Obama administration officials will meet with the National Rifle Association Thursday, 'one of the many' gun-rights advocacy groups that will attend a series of events at the White House, according to White House officials."
* Exactly two years after the deadly shooting in Tucson, former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) and her husband, Mark Kelly, are launching a new group, Americans for Responsible Solutions, which hopes to "raise the funds necessary to balance the influence of the gun lobby, and will line up squarely behind leaders who will stand up for what's right."
* Manning trial: "A military judge on Tuesday reduced the potential sentence for an Army private accused of sending reams of classified documents to the WikiLeaks website. Col. Denise Lind made the ruling during a pretrial hearing at Fort Meade for Pfc. Bradley Manning."
* Congressional Democrats are not at all pleased with AIG threatening to sue the government over the way in which the government rescued AIG from collapse.
Anything to add? Consider this an open thread.
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The important thing in that Manning story is the reason: The judge found that his pretrial punishment was illegal.
Congressional Democrats are not at all pleased with AIG threatening to sue the government over the way in which the government rescued AIG from collapse.
So let's have a Congressional hearing into all the shennigans and out-and-out CRIMES pulled by Hank Greenburg and his fellow conspirators. Let it happen in the Senate Banking Committee and let the Counsel for the Prosecution by Senator Warren.
I suggest that we pay the Board of Directors of AIG back for their losses by offering them free housing at a federal correctional institution for several years.
I agree, and on their way to prison, they should drop off their profits at the federal reserve to pay down the debt. Time for a lot of those individuals to go to jail.
Wonder what the 6 New Zealand rugby teams (including the national team, the All Blacks) think about this
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-10-12/aig-becomes-jersey-sponsor-of-rugby-world-champion-all-blacks.html
The blog Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters has put together a booklet called How They See Us: Unmasking the Religious Right War on Gay America, which ties together many or most (all?) of the various slanders religious right figures use against LGBT people as a way of exposing the whole sordid mess. The lies are bad enough individually. They are really very sickening when put together like this. Know your enemy.
AIG is also getting some great tax breaks still. Also wasn't the goverment a shareholder at one time so AIG will be suing the goverment to give the goverment back its money. Am I missing something??