Obama has officially (well, pretty much) won Florida by 50,000 votes.
Do you have any idea how close an election that is. That is absurdly close.
When Sen. Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat, stopped by the Senate floor Wednesday to help out Rand Paul with his filibuster, he spoke for several minutes in the guise of asking a question. But his remarks can really be boiled down to one powerful sentence that I’ve transcribed:
Mr. President, what it comes down to is every American has the right to know when their government believes that it is allowed to kill them.
Ponder the modesty of that claim. He is merely asking that American citizens be given the most basic information about their legal system: when they’re lawfully subject to capital punishment.
What would possibly justify withholding it?
The mere fact that multiple U.S. Senators, civil liberties organizations and journalists are having to hound the Obama Administration for answers is a scandal. Promulgating the law is one of the most basic precursors of its legitimacy. Yet the bulk of Congress is as yet content with ignorance.
I feel weird quoting a whole article, but that is the whole article on the Atlantic this morning.
Not much else needs to be said.
3 notes
We are not as divided as our politics suggest. We are not as cynical as the pundits believe. We are greater than the sum of our individual ambitions, and we remain more than a collection of red states and blue states.
President Obama’s 2012 victory speech
We have the most powerful military in history, but that’s not what makes us strong.
Obama tells it like it is
Some headlines for y’all
Six Days to the Election!
No matter which candidate you support, go out and vote either in this coming week or on Election Day proper. I can’t speak for every state, but in Illinois there is grace period registration until Nov. 3 where you can register and vote on the same day.
But if you think elections don’t matter and that maybe you’ll sit this one out, consider this: if Gore was elected instead of Bush, it’s unlikely we would have gotten involved in a war in the Middle East. If McGovern had been president instead of Nixon in 72, who knows when we would have started establishing diplomatic ties to China? Maybe McCain wouldn’t have been able to stop our economic bleed-out like Obama did. If Johnson hadn’t been re-elected…
Don’t even talk to me about that asshole.
My point being, elections matter. Even if you can’t see how they directly benefit you (which they do), know that they benefit someone out there, and that it’s your responsibility to vote on behalf of those someones who often get stepped on and stomped out in politics.
If you can vote, no matter who you vote for, then you had better fucking vote, because you owe it to everyone in the country who, for whatever reason, can’t. And you owe it to the history and future of the country. And you owe it to the rest of the world because, whether you like it or not, America is still a powerful player in global politics, and who we elect as president will affect so many more people than just us. To think the candidates are the same or that the elections won’t affect you is small-minded, ignorant, and irresponsible.
So go vote, all right. The worst thing you can do is let other people’s decisions determine your future and the future of the country without letting your voice be heard.
/Sorkinesque inspirational speech over (also, if anyone ever hears which candidate you support and tells you not to vote, you have my Express Encouragement as a student of politics to punch them in the face, because saying something like that is an insult to the history of democracy, and that is Not Okay)
Phone banking it with the Obama campaign this Saturday. Anyone Chicagoans who are interested can pretty much just sign up on the Obama website.
If you’re not in Chicago, there are probably still phone banks, but you can also call from the safety and comfort of your home using the Call Tool, which gives you phone numbers and a script to read from.
Originally Posted By theamericanbear
We now have drones equipped with EMP beams — and that could be lethal
If you’re worried about surveillance drones cruising over your neighborhood, then this new technology from Boeing will have you running for your microwave shielded shelter. Last week, defense company Boeing conducted the first successful test of a drone called the Counter-electronics High-powered Advanced Missile Project (CHAMP) that can emit a powerful burst of microwaves and fry every piece of electronics in its path — from personal computers and cameras to high-tech hospital equipment and flight control computers.
CHAMP approached its first target and fired a burst of High Power Microwaves at a two story building built on the test range. Inside rows of personal computers and electrical systems were turned on to gauge the effects of the powerful radio waves.
Seconds later the PC monitors went dark and cheers erupted in the conference room. CHAMP had successfully knocked out the computer and electrical systems in the target building. Even the television cameras set up to record the test were knocked off line without collateral damage.
“This technology marks a new era in modern-day warfare,” said Keith Coleman, CHAMP program manager for Boeing Phantom Works. “In the near future, this technology may be used to render an enemy’s electronic and data systems useless even before the first troops or aircraft arrive.”
These drones are being touted as non-lethal weapons, aimed at taking out an enemy’s “electrical systems,” like say targeting systems or maybe their intelligence databases. But to say that this is a non-lethal weapon seems a bit disingenuous, since so many lives depend on electricity. Knocking out the computers in a hospital, or the technology in computer-guided vehicles, could lead to fatalities. And losing databases of information could lead to many more deaths in the long term. Imagine one of these drones taking out a stock exchange or a water management system. Or a computer-controlled dam. The consequences could be quite dire.
So thanks, Boeing, for bringing us into the era of indirectly lethal weapons. Things are about to get interesting, as they say.
So, here we are. And we haven’t even had the “should we be using drones?” debate yet. “Just close your eyes and jump. Trust me, there’s water down there.”
If any of you ever wondered why I was taking so long to decide between the two candidates, this is actually the main reason.
(via wespeakfortheearth)
