xkcd

EsotericWombat

Which is why judges issue stays and preliminary injunctions. Pennsylvania, a state not subject to preclearance, passed a voter ID law last year. The actual trial is set to begin next month. During that time the state has held 2 elections (the 2012 general and a primary last month), and the voter ID...

EsotericWombat

There's still Section 2 of the VRA, but by the time a Section 2 case makes its way to a final judgment, chances are the election is already over and the damage is done. Incidentally, the real damage is going to come in state houses, city council races, school board races, etc. The kinds of elections...

EsotericWombat

Section 1. The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude. Section 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation Congress, by ...

EsotericWombat

I haven't checked the news on this all day, it's no use and they are just going to show the same 30 second clips over and over again. No new information, just recaps for anyone who hasn't had access to the internet or tv for 2 days. You're right. It is disrespectful. I'm glad you're not interested ...

EsotericWombat

On that note, it's somewhat interesting that there doesn't appear to have been any secondary devices targeting first responders. It's possible that the second device was intended to target first responders and simply went off early This was my initial thought based on hearing that it was one blast ...

EsotericWombat

There has been a hesitancy on the part of US pols to exercise leverage on Israel, but can you imagine what Israel's posture would be like if they were getting their weapons from Russia or China, who start to consider withdrawing support for a government when they slaughter their own people?

EsotericWombat

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2012/09/iran-war-plan/all/ I still stand by what I've been saying for the past couple of years now. This war is just too fucking stupid to ever happen. If Israel goes it alone they can delay development for 2 years. If the US helps them, we can extend that 10 years. I...

EsotericWombat

Uh, no. They aren't even making that case. Cutting Medicaid is explicitly part of their proposals. It's just that when they talk to seniors, they leave Medicaid out of it entirely. Seniors are currently more likely to support the current incarnation of the Romney-Ryan plan than other Americans, larg...

EsotericWombat

The thing about current seniors being safe isn't even a little bit true. Ryan guts Medicaid, 23% of whose expenditures go towards care for seniors also receiving Medicare. Repealing the Affordable Care Act would re-open the donut hole, reduce access to preventative care, and increase premiums to the...

EsotericWombat

Who the fuck said they were surprised? I'm no more surprised by this story than I am by that tired old line being trotted out to justify it. None of this shit is actually new.

EsotericWombat

I'm not 100% on whether it applies to soldiers, but in this case it's being applied to the IDF

EsotericWombat

From the Jerusalem Post A Haifa District Court invoked the “combatant activities” exception, and said on Tuesday that the US activist who was killed in disputed circumstances involving an IDF bulldozer could have avoided the dangerous situation, but calls her death a “regrettable accident.” In the v...

EsotericWombat

If they couldn't see that there was a person in front of them when they knew that there were protesters standing in their way at least intermittently, they weren't upholding their obligations under Geneva to protect civilians. Again, the judge specifically said that the IDF was immune regardless of ...

EsotericWombat

Turns out international law doesn't go away just because you call something an active combat zone.

EsotericWombat

I find it kind of funny that you're trying to use a picture (which I've already seen, thanks) to try and convince me that three people on the scene with a clear view of what was going on weren't capable of judging whether there was ever a direct line of sight. At least one of the eyewitnesses report...

EsotericWombat

Every account says that she reached the top of the mound, so cut out the obfuscation if you want to be taken seriously. They also state that she was standing in clear visibility before kneeling, and that the bulldozer started from far off enough that there was no question that there was a line of si...

EsotericWombat

Gonna need a cite on that one, because three sworn affadavits say otherwise

EsotericWombat

Whether or not the injuries sustained are consistent with the claim that she had climbed to the top of the dirt mound, in full view of the driver, who kept driving.

EsotericWombat

Uh, the claim that the driver never saw Rachel Corrie is something that can potentially be challenged by forensic science. This isn't hard.

EsotericWombat

I'm glad you think that, bro. Doesn't change the fact that this one unreasonably skewed the body of evidence in a way that favored the IDF.

EsotericWombat

Forgive me if I take with a grain of salt the findings of a court that refused to allow the physician who performed the autopsy to testify.

EsotericWombat

s/Some parts of/46 states, including the jurisdiction relevant to this case.

EsotericWombat

If someone dies in the process of you committing a felony, that's murder, not manslaughter.

EsotericWombat

I don't think we can say a piece of writing over 2000 years old is wrong to call the moon a "light" And who said it was wrong? Oooh! Pick Me! Turns out that however you interpret "source of light," it's still bullshit because the Sun was hanging out long before the Earth and the...

EsotericWombat

A self-appointed vigilante was following someone under suspicion of being a black teenager, and not, it seems, for the first time. After emergency services told him to stand down, he accosted Trayvon without cause. He had no business approaching a teenager with a gun under those circumstances. When ...

EsotericWombat

Geraldo Rivera is the same man who gave away the position of the unit he was embedded with in Iraq. The fact that he still has a career is freaking mind-boggling. And Thesh, sit down before you fall down. Zimmermann has an established history of calling 911 whenever a black kid was in his gated comm...

EsotericWombat

EsotericWombat

Conveniently, an illustrative and not-all-that-time-consuming method of hashing that near-term strategy out has been prepared by someone who knows what they're talking about. Even more conveniently, you have been alerted to the presence of such a tool by a link in a thread on a forum that you freque...

EsotericWombat

also, restructuring the geopolitical economic paradigm is going to take rather more time than Troika has to work with. What's your near-term strategy?

EsotericWombat

I played the game and ended on 5. “You’re going to take a lot of flak for this from some quarters, but it seems to me to be that you could do a lot worse”, says Maynard, finishing his tea. “In terms of consumption smoothing and reducing the fiscal adjustment, I don’t think you’ll do better – you’ve ...

EsotericWombat

It wasn't a primary. It was a non-binding caucus. I would be a little surprised if there was actually a rule against what happened.

EsotericWombat

The Paul campaign was supposedly targeting the county, and given the low turnout overall, I think it's plausible that a concerted effort to get the vote out there could have swung the result. But it's kind of hilarious that they're claiming voterigging from one side of their mouths while from the ot...

EsotericWombat

The uproar over the birth control decision didn't happen in a vacuum. The GOP platform has very recently become openly hostile to birth control. The failed personhood amendments in Mississippi and Colorado, the threat to shut down the government over Title X... This is quite clearly a sustained assa...

EsotericWombat

Many of the Catholic groups that are up in arms about this want the birth control mandate to not exist at all. I'm not sure that this is going to end the debate. It certainly reframes the issue into one where any bishops still complaining about it are clearly in the wrong

EsotericWombat

More evidence that the Church is on a different planet from the average American voter on this one: That means removing the provision from the health care law altogether, he said, not simply changing it for Catholic employers and their insurers. He cited the problem that would create for "good ...

EsotericWombat

Pretty sure that you don't have the ability to make use of birth control if you don't have the money to pay for it, chuckles. There's going to be another side to that ad war. One that will paint a convincing picture of a GOP that is openly hostile to women's health. Women stayed home from the polls ...

EsotericWombat

The answer is pretty clear. This isn't about religious freedom, even a little bit. This is about the Right continuing it's war on birth control, just like the fight to defund Planned Parenthood and the personhood amendments in Mississippi and Colorado.

It isn't going to win them a goddamned thing.

EsotericWombat

ac·cess (kss)
n.
1. A means of approaching, entering, exiting, communicating with, or making use of

Pretty sure that the money to pay for birth control is pretty well subsumed within "access" to it.

Thanks for playing, though

EsotericWombat

You know, I think you're right!

EsotericWombat

I've been thinking about doing some street performance, but currently lack the means to amplify my electric without plugging it into the wall. There are some battery powered amps that seem to fit the bill and my price range, but I haven't been able to find them all in stock at local shops to try the...

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