n2doc
n2doc's JournalDrone Strikes Reveal Uncomfortable Truth: U.S. Is Often Unsure About Who Will Die
Barack Obama inherited two ugly, intractable wars in Iraq and Afghanistan when he became president and set to work to end them. But a third, more covert war he made his own, escalating drone strikes in Pakistan and expanding them to Yemen and Somalia.
The drone’s vaunted capability for pinpoint killing appealed to a president intrigued by a new technology and determined to try to keep the United States out of new quagmires. Aides said Mr. Obama liked the idea of picking off dangerous terrorists a few at a time, without endangering American lives or risking the yearslong bloodshed of conventional war.
“Let’s kill the people who are trying to kill us,” he often told aides.
By most accounts, hundreds of dangerous militants have, indeed, been killed by drones, including some high-ranking Qaeda figures. But for six years, when the heavy cloak of secrecy has occasionally been breached, the results of some strikes have often turned out to be deeply troubling.
Every independent investigation of the strikes has found far more civilian casualties than administration officials admit. Gradually, it has become clear that when operators in Nevada fire missiles into remote tribal territories on the other side of the world, they often do not know who they are killing, but are making an imperfect best guess.
more
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/24/world/asia/drone-strikes-reveal-uncomfortable-truth-us-is-often-unsure-about-who-will-die.html
Lois Lilienstein, of the Children’s Trio Sharon, Lois & Bram, Dies at 78
Source: NYT
Lois Lilienstein, whose sunny personality and tuneful, bell-clear voice were central to the live and televised performances of Sharon, Lois & Bram, the Canadian singing group popular among young children and their families, died on Wednesday at her home in Toronto. She was 78.
The cause was cancer, her son, David, told The Associated Press.
A trained pianist and singer, Ms. Lilienstein was an American Midwesterner who in 1966 moved with her husband, Ernest, to Toronto, where she began performing for and teaching music to preschoolers and other children. In the 1970s, she met Sharon Hampson and Bramwell Morrison when all three were performing at the Mariposa Folk Festival in Orillia, Ontario, north of Toronto. They released an album of eclectic folk songs for children, “One Elephant, Deux Éléphants,” in 1978, and began touring with a show that often encouraged singalongs and other forms of audience participation.
Their profile was raised in 1984 with the premiere of their television show, “Sharon, Lois & Bram’s Elephant Show” (initially merely “The Elephant Show”), featuring the trio; another children’s entertainer, Eric Nagler; an actor in a cheery elephant costume, Paula Gallivan; and both child and adult guests. The show was on the Canadian Broadcasting Company until January 1989, and in reruns on the Nickelodeon cable channel in the late 1980s and the 1990s.
Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/24/arts/music/lois-lilienstein-78-of-the-childrens-trio-sharon-lois-bram-is-dead.html
The Senate’s Top Climate Denier Is Using Climate Change To Argue For More Nuclear Power
The traditional definition of chutzpah involves a guy who kills his parents, then pleads for mercy because he is now an orphan. The modern definition of chutzpah involves … Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK).
The chair of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee has an Earth Day (!) op-ed arguing we should embrace carbon-free nuclear power because of the threat posed by global warming. You remember Inhofe, the guy who called global warming a hoax, the guy who for over a decade has trashed climate scientists, such as James Hansen, whom he called in 2006 a “NASA scientist and alarmist.”
Apparently, however, Inhofe no longer sees Hansen as radioactive. He writes, without a trace of irony:
How cool is it that Inhofe is now apparently on board with top climatologist Hansen on the urgent need “to avoid dangerous climate change” by accelerated deployment of zero-carbon technologies? Presumably he’ll soon be on board with Hansen’s call for a high and rising carbon dioxide fee (returned to the public as a dividend), and a World War II scale effort to return CO2 levels back to 350 parts per million from their current level of 400 ppm (and rising 2+ ppm a year).
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2015/04/24/3650610/americas-top-climate-denier-now-agrees-top-climate-scientist/
Trans-Pacific Partnership: bill on trade deals passes key Congress committee
...
A companion “fast-track” bill cleared a Senate panel on Wednesday and both are now ready for action in their respective chambers.
Still, the way forward is likely to be treacherous with many of Obama’s fellow Democrats in opposition over worries that trade deals could harm jobs and the environment, leaving the White House to rely heavily on Republican support.
The House committee’s 25-13 vote in favour of the bill provided an exhibit of this unusual alliance, with only two of the panel’s 15 Democrats voting for the legislation – much less support than it received in the Senate panel.
Committee chairman Paul Ryan joked it was a “strange world” when he had to defend Obama against amendments moved by his own party.
The panel’s top Democrat, Sander Levin of Michigan, is one of the fiercest opponents. He put forward an alternative backed by unions and the House Democratic leadership, but Ryan did not allow a vote.
more
http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/apr/24/trans-pacific-partnership-bill-on-trade-deals-passes-key-congress-committee
Money and corruption make strange bedfellows, no?
Medical marijuana in Alabama is dead: Key senator says state not ready
Was it all for nothing?
Medical marijuana legislation won a small victory in an Alabama Senate panel on Wednesday, but long-time senator and chairman of the committee that sets the calendar for the floor says the bill is dead.
This means the full membership of the Senate won't even get a chance to debate it.
Sen. Jabo Waggoner, Rules Committee chairman, told AL.com that Alabama isn't ready for legislation that would allow patients with some chronic medical issues to purchase medical marijuana.
"It is bad legislation," he said. "We don't need that in Alabama."
more
http://www.al.com/news/index.ssf/2015/04/all_for_nothing_key_senator_sa.html
Delusional House GOP Claims to Have 'Balanced the Budget' Already
In a new promotional image celebrating its first 100 days in power, the Republican leadership of the House of Representatives puts a happy green check mark next to something that hasn't really happened. To buttress some articles about how "Congress is actually doing its job," the House GOP insists that it has "balanced the budget."
If you missed those headlines about the elimination of the deficit, don't worry: They never happened. On March 25, the Republican-controlled House passed a budget for fiscal 2016, with all but 17 members of the majority voting for it. If followed, and if its predictions panned out, it would eliminate the deficit by fiscal 2025. Among the "no" voters was North Carolina Representative Walter Jones, who complained that the budget would... not eliminate the deficit until fiscal 2025. "This budget relies on a host of smoke and mirrors accounting gimmicks and rosy economic forecasting to make it appear as if it balances in ten years," he explained.
more
https://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2015-04-23/house-gop-claims-to-have-balanced-the-budget-already
Friday TOON Roundup 4 -The Rest
Vets
War
Cops
Comcast
Oz
History
100 years ago…
http://whatwouldjackdo.net/2015/04/when-is-killing-15-million-people-not-genocide-when-its-too-inconvenient-for-politicians-to-acknowle.html#more
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