Chaos Never Dies

thepoliticalnotebook:

Picture of the Day: Tripoli, Lebanon. A young boy sits on his father’s lap. His father is a gunman, currently involved in clashes that have spilled over from Syria into Lebanon.

Read: ”Trouble in Tripoli: Syrian Crisis Shifts the Stage” at Al-Akhbar; the AP report by Bassem Mroue; and “Lebanon’s Tripoli fears escalation of Syria spillover” from AFP.

Credit: Horst Faas/AP. Via.

View more Picture of the Day posts. Submit a photo.

This is upsetting to know that there are kids out there who see this kind of violence and are okay with it.

That lose of innocence is truly heartbreaking.

nickturse:

A protester holds a sign during a rally coinciding with the 45th Annual Meeting of the Board of Governors of the Asian Development Bank Wednesday, May 2, 2012 in Manila, Philippines. The protesters were rallying against the bank’s alleged role in the privatization of energy and water sectors and in pushing coal and other dirty technologies in Asia and the Pacific. (Pat Roque)

stfuconservatives:

stfuhypocrisy:

divineirony:

underthemountainbunker:

MITT ROMNEY: “I’ll take a lot of credit” for auto industry recovery — Romney said his views helped save the industry. “I pushed the idea of a managed bankruptcy,” Romney said. “And finally, when that was done, and help was given, the companies got back on their feet. So I’ll take a lot of credit for the fact that this industry’s come back.” […] Romney’s stance on the bailouts and his infamous 2008 New York Times op-ed “Let Detroit Go Bankrupt,” have come up throughout the campaign, especially ahead of February’s primary in Michigan. In that editorial, Romney argued that a government bailout for ailing auto giants Chrysler and General Motors would do more harm than good. […] Romney also spoke out on his opposition to the government loaning money to the industry in 2009, placing some of the blame on Bush. —HuffPo [image: drunkonstevphen]

• John Kerry laughed: “I just – he cannot be serious.”
• Former auto czar Steve Rattner reacts to Mitt Romney taking credit for the auto bailout: “I’ve read, I think, everything Romney’s had to say on this subject, and the level of flip flopping and dissembling is truly mindboggling. He’s been on every side of the auto rescue at different times and said different things, so it’s hard to know what he honestly thinks.”
• Another point – Before we even got to the managed bankruptcy in 2009 that Romney says he called for all along, there were a series of emergency loans in late 2008 to the carmakers from the federal government that Romney opposed. […] If Romney’s position had prevailed, there would have been no emergency loans and no auto industry left to put through a managed bankruptcy.
• 
• Image: “This is outside Romney’s Lansing event,” Reuters correspondent Sam Youngman tweets. – reuters

Honey Badger 2012, he doesn’t give a shit.

Does this guy remember a single one of his previous stances or statements? I’m beginning to wonder if he’s got amnesia or if he hit his head or something. He’s trying to take credit for something he didn’t do, and not only that, but something he actually opposed. 

Hey Mittens. “Let Detroit go bankrupt” does not equal “Give Detroit/Chrysler a bailout”

Just a complete, utter, and outright lie. Not so much a distortion as it is a complete fabrication of facts.

Mitt Romney is bringing manufacturing back to America! The manufacturing of bullshit.

-Joe

What a complete joke

kohenari:

So … this is an actual headline on Fox Nation right now. Leaving aside the question whether Obama will prioritize his new War on Marriage over his old War on Christmas, I think it’s really odd that Fox routinely chooses the trope of warfare to cast a negative light on something President Obama says. After all, Fox typically seems pretty supportive of warfare …

Incidentally, the Fox Nation website has this to say about itself:

The Fox Nation is for those opposed to intolerance, excessive government control of our lives, and attempts to monopolize opinion or suppress freedom of thought, expression, and worship.

I highly recommend spending two minutes reading some of the comments that accompany this story … just in case you weren’t sure who turns to the Fox Nation website for their news.

Hint: They aren’t really so concerned about intolerance.

Comments are actually pretty funny

motherjones:

On Tuesday, Indiana Sen. Dick Lugar (seen here with Ashley Judd for some reason) officially became a lame duck, losing in the GOP primary to tea partier Richard Mourdock.

David Corn explains why the white-haired Republlican—a voice of caution on foreign policy who worked with the White House on nuclear proliferation—will be missed.

jakke:

So here’s how things are looking for the Greek election. They’re at 82% reporting, but most of the remaining votes are around Athens, Piraeus, and Thessalonika - all strong SYRIZA territory. So we can probably expect a slight shift towards SYRIZA, but no more than a seat or two.

I was going to do a big long post on the possibilities for coalitions and so on, but with this seat distribution there are basically just two possibilities:

1. ND and PASOK continue on as a pro-austerity pro-bailout pro-eurozone coalition with the bare minimum number of seats until someone defects and the coalition collapses.
2. A fresh round of elections gets called for next month.

There really aren’t any other feasible governing prospects here. Honestly I’m expecting #2, because a “grand coalition” style government that received just under a third of the total vote (and around a quarter of the total vote in the capital) would be perceived as having very little legitimacy and almost certainly would not last.

(via soupsoup)

thepoliticalnotebook:

World Press Freedom Day Round-Up: “In 2012, 1 journalist is killed every 5 days.”

• Check out Global Voices’ Threatened Voices Project, which is a collaborative database that maps bloggers who have been threatened.
• The Committee to Protect Journalists has released a Journalist Security Guide that’s really comprehensive (H/T: Future Journalism Project)
• CPJ also has recent article on safer mobile use for journalists and a list of the 10 most censored countries.
• A WNYC interview with reporter Sebastian Junger about the organization he founded, Reporters Instructed in Saving Colleagues, after the death of his friend and colleague Tim Hetherington.
• UNESCO has used the Ushahidi platform to crowdsource a map of World Press Freedom celebrations.
• UNESCO is honoring Azerbaijani journalist Eynulla Fatullayev with its annual Guillermo Cano freedom prize.
• Human Rights Watch is calling for action against Azerbaijan’s “appalling record on freedom of expression.”
• Reporters Sans Frontières reminds us that one journalist is killed every five days (see photo above). This day can be a celebration of freedoms but it’s also a time to consider how much there is to condemn and fight against.
• Here’s RSF’s 2012 Press Freedom Index. And, I encourage you to read through basically everything RSF has posted about journalists under threat.
• The Journalists Freedoms Observatory is noting the deterioration of press freedom in Iraq.
• From Amnesty International: reports on journalists and bloggers under threat in Sudan, Iran and Cuba.
• The International Federation of Journalists has a recently released report on the state of press freedoms in South Asia.
• UNESCO released a report in late March titled “The Safety of Journalists and the Danger of Impunity.” 
• There is much cause to examine Pakistan’s press freedom problems. A report has apparently been released by the Pakistan Press Foundation, but I can’t yet find a copy. Be on the look out.
• Freedom House’s 2012 Freedom of the Press survey has an unfortunate stat: only 14.5% of the world’s population live in a country with a free press. There is good news, though. Egypt, Libya and Tunisia have all shown marked improvements with the overthrows of Mubarak, Gaddhafi and Ben Ali.

(via realfakescientist)