Binge-Reading Ms. Klein

I haven't slept well the last couple of nights, and have devoted the otherwise wasted time to an attempt to finish Naomi Klein's The Shock Doctrine before I turn 67 years old tomorrow. In sheer number of pages, I have not that far to go, but the entire book is truly depressing reading, and it is so packed full of information and examples that one gets the most out of it by reading every word. And of course Ms. Klein, of necessity, takes the reader back to the George W. Bush presidency, which was IMNSHO even worse than the Obama era. Ah, well; I have plenty of good, cheap wine on hand, and an undeniably good book, to see me through the evening...

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AFTERTHOUGHT: let me clarify. Obama has been disappointing to me, while GeeDubya and crew were utterly disgusting. Got it?

'One Might Even Call It A Lie'

That's George Zornick at The Nation, in his article, "Nothing Ted Cruz Said About the ACA Today is True," describing one of many, many "wildly, wildly overstat[ed]" arguments made by Sen. Ted Cruz about ObamaCare. And there are a lot of them.

Cruz is the worst example of the lawyer stereotype, and gives a by-and-large honorable profession a black eye. Of course he does it for the publicity, gearing up for a possible presidential run in 2016. I did not think it was possible for Republicans to contemplate someone for the presidency who was morally inferior to George W. Bush, but I was wrong. At what point will the American people say "enough" and relegate the GOP to history's dumpster?

Quoth McRaven: 'Nevermore!' - Top Special Ops Commander Orders Bin Laden Raid Files Sealed In CIA

Richard Lardner at TPM:

WASHINGTON (AP) — The nation’s top special operations commander ordered military files about the Navy SEAL raid on Osama bin Laden’s hideout to be purged from Defense Department computers and sent to the CIA, where they could be more easily shielded from ever being made public.

The secret move, described briefly in a draft report by the Pentagon’s inspector general, set off no alarms within the Obama administration even though it appears to have sidestepped federal rules and perhaps also the Freedom of Information Act.

An acknowledgement by Adm. William McRaven of his actions was quietly removed from the final version of an inspector general’s report published weeks ago. ...

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(As always with AP material, please read it on the original site.)

The fact that the Obama administration is attempting to run the whole bloody government in secret is hardly news, but it is still regrettable that they are not even willing to conceal their secrecy. I do not know if history will look kindly on their attempts to hide everything they do, but it is certain that historians won't.

OK, I'll be honest. I just wanted an opportunity to use that post title...

How Does Mitt Lie To Thee? Let Me Count The Ways...

I'm running into bandwidth problems viewing my own blog on this ancient computer, so I don't want to post yet another video right away. But when I refer you to this YouTube video of Mitt Rmoney's lies (H/T TPM) from last Wednesday's debate, thirty (30) of them laid end to end (apologies to Dorothy Parker), I hope you take it as seriously as if I had posted it right here. Seeing all of Rmoney's lies debunked in one place is no shocker, of course; it must have been a systematic if tedious effort by the debunkers. But seeing that virtually every significant statement Rmoney made that entire night long was a lie, including all his manifestly false accusations against Obama, surely gives us insight into Rmoney's character. Why would anyone consider voting for this con man?