YES, NSA. THERE IS A BETTER WAY.

I just watched a fascinating interview with National Security Agency Director, General Keith Alexander, where he answers critics of the NSA’s counter-terrorism surveillance programs with a challenge at the 15:09 mark: “Can somebody come up with a better way of doing it?” Here’s my way: starve the terrorist beast. I admit that my way […]

STOP AND FRISK COMES TO BARNEYS

I’m not surprised to hear about the New York City Police Department extending its stop-n-frisk behavior to upscale joints like Barneys when they falsely arrested 19-year old African American Trayon Christian, after he legally bought a $350 Ferragamo belt from the retailer. But since we now know the NYPD “periodically” visits Barneys to nab credit […]

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL AND THE US DRONE SHOW

Shortly after Pakistan’s hottest young human rights export, Malala Yousafzai, warned President Obama that current US drone attacks in support of the global War on Terror are killing civilians and fueling terrorism, Amnesty International reviewed a subset of US drone attacks in Pakistan and released a report [PDF] with a takeaway that the organization […]

RONALD SHANNON JACKSON, 1940-2013

I delayed making this post about drummer and composer Ronald Shannon Jackson because a part of me hoped that the news was a bad rumor, but I consider Vernon Reid an extremely reliable source for this instance—Ronald Shannon Jackson has left us at the age of 73. I’ve written on another site about my […]

MR. LEIGH REMIXES JANELLE MONAE & ESPERANZA SPALDING

Premium remixer and Facebook pal Leighton Hema – also known as Mr. Leigh – pulled together a groove-lover’s remix of Janelle Monáe and Esperanza Spalding’s “Dorothy Dandridge Eyes.” Here’s the Jazzy Soul-spiked original version for the sake of reference, and Mr. Leigh’s take is embedded below…

WHAT DID THIS GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN ACCOMPLISH?

I see two things accomplished by the recent partisan-driven budget standoff between Congress and the White House. In a case of twin-irony, the Party of No Guts displayed a rare streak of courage while the Party of No Brains won something that they’ve always claimed to be viscerally against – more government regulations! (Laughing) C’mon, what […]

TARGET: OBAMA OR OBAMACARE?

Talk show host, blogger and online comrade Tanya Free raised a question yesterday that will likely spark a passionate debate: “What role, if any in your opinion, has race played in the government shutdown? Is it about ObamaCare or Obama?” My short answer is “Both,” and the evidence I’ll present in this post is one […]

THE DUMP AMERICA THEME CATCHES ON

Remember when I posted last week about how the myopic budget battles between the Party of No Brains and the Party of No Guts miss the bigger picture of other nations looking at our internal beef and beginning to question America’s status as the owner of the world’s reserve currency? After all, why should […]

DOG FOOD ALERT STILL IN EFFECT

Why are Conservative members in Congress feeling more optimistic about reaching a budget deal with President Obama to end the government shutdown and raise the debt ceiling, as reported in today’s New York Times? I’ve hinted in more recent posts that I always felt the target of the current budget drama is bigger than […]

ROBOT SOLDIERS – OH, THE POSSIBILITIES

OilPrice describes how companies are developing four-legged android soldiers that can move fast, take plenty of punishment, and of course reliably carry out its programmed instructions to hunt and kill targets. The piece also talk about the implications. Almost makes you wish we remain in the drone age… For those of you who […]