pls no (hiatus b/c of job)

Huge voter suppression plot exposed in Wisconsin

weiner and his wife / amy davidson for the new yorker

firthofforth:

persifleur:

a nice take:

Measuring risk is what politicians do for a living—from when they decide to run, to voting to hire policemen or teachers or to go to war. One doesn’t want them to be completely, or even mostly cautious: politicians who never say anything that causes anyone to cringe, and never take a political risk, are useless. (That kind of risk can become routinized, of course; Ron Paul would probably make people angry if he made a safe vote.) There has to be some idiocy in idealism, as well as self-delusion. But that brand of bet is as different from what Weiner did as the gambit of putting up a Facebook page calling on people to come to Tahrir Square is different from spending hours hunched over an online-poker site. Not all hungers are alike, and courage shouldn’t be confused with mindless greed, or self-sacrifice with self-immolation, particularly because other people can easily get burned. (Did Weiner, in putting his political future in the hands of a twenty-six-year-old in Texas whom he had never met, congratulate himself for being brave?)

That is why it is, sad to say, a matter of legitimate interest that Weiner’s wife was pregnant when he sent those tweets. It widens our sense of just how careless he is with the lives of others, particularly those of people who are more vulnerable than he is. That is good to know about a politician; it is distinct from the question of whether someone who lies to his wife will lie to the public and, I’d argue, is more important.

Probably the best-written thing about what this scandal really is about.

(via pantslessprogressive)

Man gets ass kicked by SWAT for wife's student loan default

jonathan-cunningham:

Kenneth Wright does not have a criminal record and he had no reason to believe a S.W.A.T team would be breaking down his door at 6 a.m. on Tuesday.

“I look out of my window and I see 15 police officers,” Wright said.

Wright came downstairs in his boxer shorts as the officers team barged through his front door. Wright said an officer grabbed him by the neck and led him outside on his front lawn.

“He had his knee on my back and I had no idea why they were there,” Wright said.

According to Wright, officers also woke his three young children ages 3, 7, and 11, and put them in a Stockton police patrol car with him. Officers then searched his house.

As it turned out, the person law enforcement was looking for was not there - Wright’s estranged wife.

“They put me in handcuffs in that hot patrol car for six hours, traumatizing my kids,” Wright said.

Wright said he later went to the mayor and Stockton Police Department, but the City of Stockton had nothing to do with Wright’s search warrant.

The U.S. Department of Education issued the search and called in the S.W.A.T for his wife’s defaulted student loans.

Welcome to the second gilded age, where we have debtors prisons and the government uses force to make sure what meager earnings the poor and middle class receive go straight to the pockets of the wealthy.

Wow what the hell

(via robot-heart-politics)

'Patriotic Millionaires' Ask Obama, Congress To Raise Their Taxes

militantagnostic:

technipol:

NPR - The 200 members of Patriotic Millionaires for Fiscal Strength are advocating higher taxes on the wealthy. Group member Dennis Mehiel says this is part of balancing the country’s fiscal policy. Host Michel Martin speaks with Mehiel to learn more about this concept. Martin also checks in with Washington D.C. restaurant owner Andy Shallal for his views on taxing the business elite.

This is what real patriotism looks like.   

(via zombietwain)