It first begins with a peculiar, bitter smell. As you inhale, it starts to burn your throat, your eyes get red and you start to cry. Then it becomes difficult to breathe. You feel suffocated. Get sufficiently exposed, and you may faint or even die.
The same scenario seems to be playing out right here in our own backyard. Substitute the word "conservative" for the despised "secular" in this article and it sounds eerily familiar. At what point do the people in this country revolt? js

There are two great centers of unaccountable power in the American political–economic system today –– places where decisions that significantly affect large numbers of Americans are made in secret, and are unchecked either by effective democratic oversight or by market competition.
And it all goes back to too powerful of a government. bbm

The Obama administration’s legs are wobbling under the weight of so many scandals lately that whole chunks of the edifice – the IRS, the NSA, the DOJ – are threatening to implode, particularly without support from the normally adoring media. Even the New York Times – the New York Times! – is no longer willing to bolster an administration whose totalitarian urges have been exposed to the light.
Excellent short article. It exposes succinctly the "criminally and politically abusive activities" by the Obama administration and their common thread. js

An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly. But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself.
This is an excellent article worth keeping and reviewing from time to time so as we don't lose sight of the horror in the White House…..and NEVER AGAIN make the same mistake of electing a dangerous fraud and narcissist. js

Not only is President Barack Obama leading from behind, now he's leading from behind Bill Clinton.
The less Obama leads, the more likely it is that history will see him as a pallid interregnum between two chaotic Clinton eras.
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Voting just got easier in Colorado.
Looks to me like Colorado is going to the dogs. bbm

Patriot Coal wins in bankruptcy court, reneges on retiree benefits.
5 times more retirees than workers. That is a problem. People should be responsible for their own retirement, from the beginning and they should own their retirement assets. bbm

I’ve been in this economics business for a while. In fact, I’ve been in it so long I still remember what people considered normal in those long–ago days before the financial crisis. Normal, back then, meant an economy adding a million or more jobs each year, enough to keep up with the growth in the working–age population. Normal meant an unemployment rate not much above 5 percent, except for brief recessions. And while there was always some unemployment, normal meant very few people out of work for extended periods.
Same old, same old. "And Fed officials are, as I said, the good guys." Wrong, it is the Fed that is partly responsible for our doldrums. The rest of government is the other reason.

Last week the International Monetary Fund, whose normal role is that of stern disciplinarian to spendthrift governments, gave the United States some unusual advice.

“Lighten up,” urged the fund. “Enjoy life! Seize the day!”

OK, fund officials didn’t use quite those words, but they came close, with an article in IMF Survey magazine titled “Ease Off Spending Cuts to Boost U.S. Recovery.” In its more formal statement, the fund argued that the sequester and other forms of fiscal contraction will cut this year’s U.S. growth rate by almost half, undermining what might otherwise have been a fairly vigorous recovery. And these spending cuts are both unwise and unnecessary.

When was the last time the IMF said anything intelligent? bbm

Here is the bottom line: if the minimum wage in 1968 had been adjusted for inflation, right now instead of $7.25 per hour, it would be $10.55 per hour –– 45 percent higher. Instead of making $15,080 per year for 52 weeks of full–time work, a minimum wage worker would make almost $22,000.
The bottom line is that raising the wage will increase unemployment and remove opportunities for young people to get a start on moving up the ladder. bbm

Washington’s attack on the poor continues as the Senate votes for big cuts to food aid.

I wonder why the program is bigger than ever? bbm

You can replace all the light bulbs you want, but it will make little difference in the war on global warming as long as China releases 10 billion tons of carbon dioxide into the air each year, while altogether the world dumps 2.4 million pounds every second.

Carbon dioxide, or CO2 for short, is that pesky heat–trapping gas that blankets the earth, making it the warmest it’s been in 1,000 years. Most CO2 comes from burning fossil fuels such as coal, oil, and gas.

As things heat up, it is by now well–accepted science that ice melts, seas rise, more people cough, and the weather gets crazy.

It would be a great story except temperatures are not warming and haven 't for 16 years. Maybe CO2 is not the culprit. bbm

Edward Snowden, age 29 and now temporarily living in Hong Kong, is the overnight sensation who leaked details about the National Security Administration’s (NSA) practice of massive and sweeping surveillance of Americans’ browsing habits. He has also provided a model of what it means to live a principled life, even when it comes at personal expense.
A Libertarian's argument. I don't buy it. bbm

Why does the U.S. government go to such extraordinary lengths to discredit, punish, and ruin persons such as Daniel Ellsberg, Bradley Manning, Julian Assange, and—next in line, no doubt—Edward Snowden? The government alleges that these persons give aid and comfort to the nation’s enemies and endanger national security. In reality, however, these persons’ only “crime” is to tell the truth to the public about what the U.S. government is doing. By telling the truth about especially important matters, they endanger only the state, by exposing its lies and its hidden crimes for the world to see.
I don't think Higgs ever had to defend the country in any way. bbm

On July 19, 2010, the Washington Post published the first of three large reports by Dana Priest and William M. Arkin on the dimensions of the gigantic US apparatus of "intelligence" activities being undertaken to combat terrorist acts against the United States, such as the 9/11 attacks. To say that this activity amounts to mobilizing every police officer in the country to stop street fights in Camden only begins to suggest its almost–unbelievable disproportion to the alleged threat.
I don't think Higgs understands the scope of the problem facing America. bbm

WASHINGTON — The hardest thing in an argument is to acknowledge competing truths. We know that our government will continue with large–scale surveillance programs to prevent future terrorist attacks. We also know that such programs have operated up to now with too little public scrutiny and insufficient concern over their long–term implications for our rights and our privacy.

I don't believe it is much of a tradeoff between liberty and security. Intelligence gathering can be done so that only terrorists will have their liberty impacted, which is goodness. bbm

As a candidate for president in 2008, Barack Obama set a high bar for his administration, declaring that it would be "the most open and transparent in history."
This might be the first time that the Mercury has EVER worried about people's liberty. More taxes, sure, why not? Yet that is the worst violation of liberty. bbm

WASHINGTON — Keep your distance: The director of national intelligence is having intestinal distress.

"For me, it is literally – not figuratively, literally – gut–wrenching to see this happen," James Clapper told NBC News' Andrea Mitchell over the weekend, referring to leaks about the government's secret program to collect vast troves of phone and Internet data.

There might be a bit more sympathy for Clapper's digestive difficulty if he hadn't delivered a kick in the gut to the American public just three months ago.

Milbank takes shots at Republican Congress people. But where was he? Isn't Milbank an investigative reporter? How come he missed this one? bbm

Aside from questions about the legality, constitutionality, ethical propriety and necessity of the federal government's intrusion into the Internet and phone records of untold millions of Americans, two things about the recent National Security Agency controversy seem abundantly clear: The intelligence community – our first line of defense against faceless terrorists – needs less reliance on outside contractors and far better vetting of those it does hire.
Utter lack of knowledge of how the intelligence community works. bbm

Even the legendary Houdini can't get the U.S. out of its Syrian straightjacket. For over three agonizing years the Obama administration has twisted itself into diplomatic contortions in vain attempts to downplay Syria's infectious civil war as a policy and humanitarian challenge to American national security. Instead, avoiding any game–changing involvement in Syria became the vital national security interest for a White House determined to prove to itself it will not get entangled in another Middle East conflict.
Not a bad article except when he says, "....loss of vital American prestige". First of all, we don't have any prestige in that part of the world and it isn't vital. bbm

The issue of judicial nominations causes an outbreak of hypocrisy in both political parties, and President Obama isn’t immune. In fact, he seems to have come down with a particularly bad case lately.

On June 4, the president went to the Rose Garden to deliver a peevish and lecturing speech announcing three candidates for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. Noting that it is the president’s constitutional duty to nominate judges and the Senate’s duty to provide advice and consent, a clearly frustrated Obama said, “Time and again, congressional Republicans cynically used Senate rules and procedures to delay and even block qualified nominees from coming to a full vote.”

No, he lies again. bbm

What happens when good jobs disappear? It’s a question that’s been asked for centuries.

In 1786, the cloth workers of Leeds, a wool–industry center in northern England, issued a protest against the growing use of “scribbling” machines, which were taking over a task formerly performed by skilled labor. “How are those men, thus thrown out of employ to provide for their families?” asked the petitioners. “And what are they to put their children apprentice to?”

Always, more redistribution. bbm

You don't need me to tell you, but it's a whole lot tougher leading a garage band than being a superstar. What you might not have known is just how much harder.

If you want an example of growing inequality, try the rock 'n' roll industry. Between 1982 and 2003, the share of concert income taken home by the top 1 percent of performers more than doubled, rising from 26 percent to 56 percent. The top 5 percent collected almost 90 percent of all concert revenues.

I suspect that government has more to do with inequality than you might suspect. When government makes dependents out of up to 50% of the people, of course you are going to have inequality. The other 50% have to do all the producing for slackers. Thus, they are going to get rich. bbm

“Have these men lost their minds?” That trenchant question was posed by Fox News commentator Greta Van Susteren after a panel of her male colleagues bemoaned a new report by the Pew Research Center documenting the rise of “breadwinner moms.” Women are now the primary earner in 40 percent of households with children, up from 11 percent 50 years ago, and that news was just too much for the men of Fox to handle.
Trends tend to reverse over time. I think they shouldn't get too excited. bbm