Late Night Video — Out of Sight, Out of Mind

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This isn't a video tonight, you'll have to click on the picture below to see the interactive graphic that shows monthly the casualties from US drone strikes. This is a sobering picture (even if a good chunk of their data (the Other category) isn't well defined. It is also a very well-done infographic:

The Current Situation in Iraq is George Bush’s fault. Period.

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To be Republican is to loud and wrong and loudly wrong whenever possible. The noise is so wrong and so loud and kept up for so long that weak minded people (the national media for example) sometimes mistake the persistence for legitimacy. Volume for validity. So if you hear one of your liberal minded friends fall prey to to thinking that Obama "has his share of blame" for Iraq - quickly correct them. Bush enabled the current Sunni power in Iraq by invading Iraq under false pretenses, and with no plan for the occupation. Bush elevated Osama bin Laden and Bin Laden's dreams to legitimacy. Bush removed Saddam Hussein, Bin Laden's key enemy in the region and shattered Iraq’s tenuous factional stability. And, Bush bequeathed military and political power to radicalized Sunni's that would have been unthinkable prior to our handing over arms by the crate load, and tens of millions of dollars for "rebuilding" that was delivered in duffel bags off the back of trucks.

Monday Open Thread [6.16.14]

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Andrew Sullivan believes we, the United States, are in a Cold Civil War, and have been for some time, after watching the alternative reality that is presented on Fox News as news. He points out that now, even inter-marriage between the ideologies of liberal and conservative is frowned upon more and more.
Three-out-of-ten (30%) consistent conservatives say they would be unhappy if an immediate family member married a Democrat and about a quarter (23%) of across-the-board liberals say the same about the prospect of a Republican in-law.
But two of his commenters aren't concerned. Why? Because of the age of the average Fox News Viewer.
Bomb Iraq? Why?

Bomb Iraq? Why?

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Can anyone give me one rational reason why we would even consider launching a bombing/missile/drone attack on so called Iraq militants? No, I mean a really rational reason?
New Jersey — Where Corporate Subsidies Aren’t Improving the Economy

New Jersey — Where Corporate Subsidies Aren’t Improving the Economy

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Interesting. A NJ think tank -- New Jersey Policy Perspective -- has a report out the shows that while subsidies to NJ businesses have surged under Governor Christie's administration (subsidies that are billed as economy boosting), NJ's economy has remained pretty sluggish. According to this report, $4bn worth of subsidies had been awarded to businesses in the past four and a half years by state authorities under Christie – more than three times the $1.2bn in subsidies that were given out in the prior 10 years. Got that? That's $4 billion dollars worth of corporate subsides for this result: