Senate Wants The Military To Lock You Up Without Trial

Uh… so a bill in the US Senate with bipartisan support would allow the military to lock up citizens indefinitely without trial.  That would be unconstitutional, right?  Like, the Supreme Court would overturn it, right?  Obama will veto it, right?  Am I dreaming here?  And both parties are in favor of this?  Are you kidding?  How fucking timid can you be?  Any statement even remotely resembling this should be a clear poison pill, with the bill going down in flames, even if it is the Defense Authorization.

Egypt: The January 25 Uprising and Implications for U.S. Foreign Policy

Congressional Research Service report on the implications of the Egyptian revolution for US foreign policy (pdf).  Also has good background on the nature of our relationship with Egypt, including our ongoing aid package and political pressures.

Understanding the Republican Party’s Reluctance to Invest in Transit Infrastructure

A great look at the geography behind the Republican demonization of mass transit.  To a large degree in the US cities are democratic and the exurbs and hinterlands are republican.  Since so much of our transportation funding gets funneled through the federal government, this means cites spend a lot of time getting screwed.  Policy decentralization would help a lot.

Dittoheads and Socialists

I have to say, it’s been a long time since I felt like the Democrats did anything politically savvy, but I think running with the recent re-branding of Rush Limbaugh as the head of the GOP qualifies.  Incredibly both Fox and the Huffington Post seem almost to agree on the substance of the story: the GOP is currently in disarray, and searching for leadership.  The dittohead masses that follow Limbaugh are a big enough voting bloc that the party’s current nominal spokesmen cannot be seen to oppose him too much outright, lest he savage them from his bully pulpit.

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