President Obama speaks at the National Prayer Breakfast this morning before pitching his 2nd-term agenda to House Democrats.
House Democrats will offer their own gun-control plan today.
Defense Secretary Panetta and Joint Chiefs Chairman Dempsey testify about Benghazi in the Senate today.
Oh yeah, and there's that Brennan confirmation hearing, too.
The departing commander of the Afghanistan war gives an exit interview to the New York Times.
New temporary Massachusetts Senator Mo Cowan is sworn in today.
President Obama will be doing some fundraising to help House and Senate candidates.
Marco Rubio will deliver the SOTU response en español también.
How anti-abortion activists try to use medical boards to keep doctors from practicing.
New Hampshire lawmakers kill a bill blocking Agenda 21.
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Can you talk about the cancellation of the Hagel confirmation vote in the Senate? Thanks
I find it disturbing how pro-choice wins out if abortion gets voted on by the people yet when politicians at the state level decide to play dictator and impose anti-abortion legislation the people simply shrug it off and vote the same extremists back into office!
Right wing extremists have learned that they can enforce their dogma by buying the elected officials thus killing the term We the people.
I find it creepy that there's nothing that can be done about private citizens stalking ANY kind of patient in the ways described in the article above. These anti-abortion nuts* are DANGEROUS. Nuts not because they believe what they believe, but because they are willing to resort to terrorism.
OTOH hand they think people like you are dangerous because you're OK with mass murder. Whether or not you view it that way, that's how THEY see it. Personally I'm agnostic about abortion, but I'm seeing a real inability of the left to imagine other people's point of view.
Your argument is invalid. You have no idea what my views are on abortion. The view I expressed was about stalking and terrorism.
I went out of my way to stress that it was not about whether they believe in abortion or not, and you still missed the point. I'll try again: These insane people who make it their mission to terrorize and kill people who don't agree with them are DANGEROUS. There is no analog for that on the left.
Sorry, I shouldn't have taken off on a tangent.
Sarah Palin would disagree strenuously. I'm sure Malkin, Coulter, and Bachman have file drawers full of daily death threats. You're living in a glass house.
Again, missed the point. "private citizens stalking a patient."
Name-dropping demagogues is a red herring. Patients are not public figures.
I'm guessing your next tactic is going to be an ad hominem, something about me supporting mass murder of right wing idealogues. Bzzt.
What? you're saying it's OK for the left to issue death threats? As long as the person involved has a high profile?
Flashing your troll badge! :) LOL
What role does "defend against enemies, foreign AND DOMESTIC", play in the use of drones. I have always been under the impression that American's conspiring with, and providing information to, designated enemies are guilty of crime punishable by death. Getting them in the 'act' is justifiable.
Yeah, but we are supposed to use the judicial system to try, convict, and sentence them. Using the drones smacks of vigilante justice... complicated shadows. The Executive branch is supposed to uphold the rule of law.
Treason, conspiring with or giving information to designated enemies, is typically punishable by death. However, it presupposes a traditional declaration of war against a territorial nation, the kind of war that can be won, and thus ended, through military victory. The "War on Terror" is an unending conflict against non-territorial groups, defined by their use of a broad category of asymmetric tactics against us. Muslim extremists are the elusive, non-territorial groups we're focusing on now, but other elusive, non-territorial groups may use such tactics against us in the future, possibly for reasons totally unrelated to Muslim extremism. Christian extremists, engaging in domestic asymmetric warfare, come to mind.
Personally, I loathe all religious extremists who indulge themselves in the kind of childish conceits that justify murdering innocents who don't agree with them. Muslim extremists currently dominate that category, and I have no problem allowing President Barak Obama, and his advisors, to find them and blow them to smithereens. HOWEVER, he will only be President for slightly less than four years, and the short term effectiveness of asymmetric terrorism may lead other groups to use it as a tactic. How would you feel about President Marco Rubio, or President Bobby "creationism" Jindal (I know, I know :-\ ) designating individuals, perhaps american citizens, as assassination targets, or declining to designate murderous Christian extremists because they're Christian? The procedures we're comfortable with at the moment may be used, later on, as precedent for things that horrify us. We have to be vigilant about this, as Fran Simmons suggests.
NOTE TO Shooter 242: The childish conceits I referred to, supra, all share the same basic structure: (1) I claim to possess the one and only Truth, therefore, (2) Anyone who disagrees is inherently wrong, and (3) I will rely on Faith, the suspension of rational inquiry, to avoid thinking beyond step (2). The pro and anti choice conflict may not be resolvable, and the two sides may always see each other as dangerous. However, pro-choice advocates don't undertake to persuade pregnant women to have abortions, let alone harass them into having abortions, nor do they righteously murder anti-choice advocates. Though I'm an ardent pro-choice advocate, I would not prosecute a parent who refused to allow a raped minor daughter to get an abortion, even though I personally view that as ghastly and sickening. The free exercise clause of the First amendment forbids it. From the observable behavior of the two opposing sides, it's the extreme Christians who can't imagine, or even tolerate, other people's point of view, because they all too readily indulge in these childish conceits.
Your reply is way better than mine. :)
[Deleted duplicate. Apologies.]
There is a smart bi-partisan gun bill in the House right now. It cracks down on gun trafficking and straw purchasers. The FBI and ATF already know that the vast majority of guns used in street crime is coming from a few sources. I watched something on Current that showed how almost all the guns on the streets in Camden came from one particular gun store, and most likely, from only a handful of straw purchasers. The same thing applies along the border. The Mexican Drug Cartels are getting most of their guns from the United States, and from a few select gun stores.
This bill could go a long way towards lessening gun violence in our cities, and save thousands of lives in the process. It has bi-partisan support. We need the legislation because there are few federal laws that relates to gun trafficking. This law isn't "sane and sensible", it's desperately needed.
Please watch what's happening in LA today. Four policemen have been shot, one dead. One daughter of a police officer and her fiance were killed. The former police officer, a military vet has written a "manifesto" in which he has made a hit list. In an attempt to protect those on the list, the truck of two Asian women delivering newspapers in Torrance was shot up and both were shot by the police and another truck that had turned around on police orders, was also shot up. I asked my daughter in law not to drive her grey Titan truck to work today because her truck matches that of the accused and she lives in the upper middle class city of his last known address. She's driving to Irvine where the young couple were ambushed. She looks as much like the accused, a 250 pound African American, as the two Asian women delivering newspapers that the police shot while protecting one the those on the manifesto hit list. The hit list includes policemen, their families and the schools that their children attend.He is using some kind of long rifle and it's thought to be an assault rifle. He is a veteran who is claiming that he must reclaim his name and that the police department is still like that when Rodney King was beaten and is claiming that he is a patriot that has quoted Jefferson in claiming that the tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of tyrants. He is targeting the LA police force with bringing an unconventional warfare to officers, on and off duty. I just traded my car for my daughter in law's truck and there was a police car behind me within two minutes and helicopters flying above. I'm safely home and am thankful that this elderly grandmother didn't have problems driving that gray Titan truck that the elderly Asian drivers had this morning while delivering newspapers. What in God's name is happening in America. I've never been afraid before, but today I had some fear of being shot by the police.
Hey, a meta thing.
Notice how Newsvine has gotten totally redesigned today? Does anybody have any idea how to display a list of all one's own comments (especially here in Maddowblog) easily, as was possible up until yesterday?
I've found a way to list the comments now, but not a way that tells me if the threads the comments are in have been updated.
Anybody else find that yet?
Plus, it and msnbc.com are logging me in and out like (to use a Firesign Theatre term) a crazy monkey.
Probably final update: Oay, the "Activity" tab now shows new comment activity. It didn't seem to, before. So all's back to as well as it was before, kinda.