“Today our campaign for the presidency ends, but our campaign to build a better and brighter America continues.”
I’m so terribly used to choosing the best candidate that no one ever elects…
Huntsman could bring us back together
“We need a president who can work within our poisonous political environment to solve our nation’s problems, not simply score partisan points. Someone who understands that negotiation is essential in a representative democracy, and that there are good ideas across the political spectrum. Someone who has a well-defined set of core values but is not so rigid that he ignores new information and new conditions. Someone who has shown himself to be honest and trustworthy. And competent. Someone whose positions are well-reasoned and based on the world as it is rather than as he pretends it to be. Someone with the temperament and judgment and experience to be taken seriously as the commander in chief and leader of the free world.
We think Mr. Romney could demonstrate those characteristics. Mr. Huntsman already does. And we are proud to endorse him for the Republican nomination for president of the United States.”
If i were an american citizen, i would definitely vote for Mr.Huntsman. Seems the only rational, convincing and principled candidate of the GOP primaries.
Before Solving a Problem, Make Sure You’ve Got the Right one
“History shows us, again and again, that frontiers are lawless places, but that as they get richer and more settled, they join in the rule of law. American publishing, now the largest publishing industry in the world, began with piracy.”
A must read.
Should The Times Be a Truth Vigilante?
“I’m looking for reader input on whether and when New York Times news reporters should challenge “facts” that are asserted by newsmakers they write about.”
I don’t know what’s more troubling: That they are actually asking if they should be making real journalism or the fact that they haven’t done any for the last two decades.
Does Airport Security Really Make Us Safer?
” Even if the T.S.A. were somehow to make airports impregnable, this would simply divert terrorists to other, less heavily defended targets—shopping malls, movie theaters, churches, stadiums, museums. The terrorist’s goal isn’t to attack an airplane specifically; it’s to sow terror generally. “You spend billions of dollars on the airports and force the terrorists to spend an extra $30 on gas to drive to a hotel or casino and attack it,” Schneier says. “Congratulations!” “
The TSA Proves its Own Irrelevance
“That’s right; not a single terrorist on the list. Mostly forgetful, and entirely innocent, people. Note that they fail to point out that the firearms and knives would have been just as easily caught by pre-9/11 screening procedures. And that the C4 — their #1 “good catch” — was on the return flight; they missed it the first time. So only 1 for 2 on that one.”
Please disrupt your entire life so we don’t disrupt it even more for you
“So when you pack your bags for a trip, you may want to think about what items you are placing next to others to avoid the hassle of unintentionally creating an X-ray image which could cause TSA to conduct a further inspection of your carry-on and checked bags.”
What Endless War looks like
“I’m sure we can all agree that we must endure years more of civil liberties assaults, endless war, bulging military budgets, suffocating government secrecy, a sprawling surveillance regime, and the slaughter of countless more Muslim children in order to save ourselves from this existential Lone Wolf threat. And that’s to say nothing of the fact that endless war, drone attacks, occupying countries, and engineering regime change is precisely what causes and fuels these threats in the first place. Indeed, NYPD’s Police Commission Raymond Kelly claimed that “Pimentel’s talk did not ‘turn to action’ until recently” when he “clearly ‘jacked up his speed after the elimination’ of the Yemeni cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, who was killed by an American drone strike in September.” In other words, what little Terrorism does exist is caused directly by our own actions — the very actions justified in the name of stopping Terrorism.”
Maybe the US Citizens should pay special attention to Mr.Greenwald. Seems one of the few sane voices coming from across the Atlantic lately. Him and Jon Stewart. Which says a lot…
By the way, i don’t have any specific knowledge or background info about Mr.Greenwald but as far as Presidential Candidates go, couldn’t he be the option for the sane broader middle-class citizen which doesn’t want to choose between the Koch-funded nutjobs of the religious far-right and the hypocritical utterly-incompetent and cynical messiah-complex “falcon” Obama?
Change
Priorities
“That is the mindset of the U.S. Government and its followers expressed as vividly as can be: we can spy on, imprison, or even kill anyone we want — including citizens — without any due process or any evidence shown, simply because we will tell you they are Bad People, and you will trust us and believe us. That was absolutely the principal justification offered by Bush followers for everything their Leader did — I know they’re Terrorists because My President said so, so no courts or evidence is required – and that is now exactly the mindset of Obama loyalists to justify what he does[…].
That mentality — he’s a Terrorist because my Government said he’s one and I therefore don’t need evidence or trials to subject that evidence to scrutiny — also happens to be the purest definition of an authoritarian mentality, the exact opposite of the dynamic that was supposed drive how the country functioned (Thomas Jefferson: “In questions of power, let no more be heard of confidence in men, but bind him down from mischief with the chains of the Constitution“). I trust My President and don’t need to see evidence or have due process is the slavish mentality against which Jefferson warned; it’s also one of the most pervasive ones in much of the American citizenry, which explains a lot.”
I would love if just for a day, most of the “tech-world blogosphere” that has million of websites and views on endless Mac vs Linux vs Windows discussions or other insignificant issue, would read this and republish a bit of it on their blogs. Maybe then some of it would reach the American population (( and us Europeans too, we are not so far from this nightmarish behaviour… )) who stands idly by this kind of deterioration of their Republic and Human Rights.