Profile
Ed Brayton is a freelance writer and speaker. He is the co-founder and president of Michigan Citizens for Science and co-founder of The Panda's Thumb. He has written for such publications as The Bard, Skeptic and Reports of the National Center for Science Education, spoken in front of many organizations and conferences, and appeared on nationally syndicated radio shows and on C-SPAN. Ed is also a Fellow with the Center for Independent Media.(static)
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August 7, 2008
Category: Politics
Worldnutdaily reports:
Organizers of a Christian prayer ministry are expecting over a million people will fill the National Mall in Washington, D.C, on Aug. 16 for a 12-hour assembly of fasting and prayer for the country.
The group is called TheCall, and according to their website, volunteers are working hard to gather people from every state in the country to fill the massive park between the Washington Monument and the U.S. Capitol on one day to fervently ask God for his undeserved mercy on the nation.
In related news, 14 people plan to gather in DC to throw salt over their shoulder. The effect of both events will be identical.
Posted by Ed Brayton at 9:30 AM • 66 Comments
Category: Politics
I agree completely with Sandefur about the Karen Fletcher case, where a woman from Pennsylvania has plead guilty to child pornography charges for writing fictional stories that depict the sexual abuse of children. Those charges are clearly contrary to Supreme Court precedent and to the first amendment. Sandefur does an excellent job of explaining the difference between laws that prohibit the production of child porn, the possession of child porn and the fictional depiction of child porn and why the first two may be punished within the scope of the first amendment and the last cannot.
Read on »
Posted by Ed Brayton at 9:23 AM • 17 Comments
Category: Politics
As if we needed any more evidence that drug prohibition causes massive corruption in our law enforcement agencies, look what's going on in Indianapolis.
The arrests of four Indianapolis police officers are forcing the dismissals of more than two dozen pending cases and could cause drug-crime convictions in other cases to be overturned on appeal, prosecutors said Monday.
As of today, the Marion County prosecutor's office expects to have dismissed 20 cases investigated by former narcotics officers Robert Long and Jason Edwards, officials said.
Read on »
Posted by Ed Brayton at 9:16 AM • 15 Comments
Category: Politics
Carol Kreck, the former librarian and Denver Post reporter who was arrested for carrying a sign that said "McCain = Bush" outside a John McCain appearance at a public venue, has pled not guilty to trespassing charges. I'm surprised it's gone this far. I would have thought the prosecutor would quietly decline to press charges and it would go away. Why on earth would they want to continue to draw attention to their unconstitutional policies?
Posted by Ed Brayton at 9:09 AM • 12 Comments
Category: Politics
I'm sorry, I mean "heckler." You have to see this video of some idiotic dumbass named John Quinn interrupting an Obama speech in Ohio to demand that they say the pledge of allegiance. Obama smoothly disarmed the man by inviting him to lead the audience in the pledge of allegiance, which was slick as hell. But after the event, the dolt started lecturing the media and the assembled throng for the great sin of not saying the pledge before a campaign event. Two videos below the fold, the first with the camera on Obama showing how he handled it and the second showing this mindless moron blathering on after the event to the press. This guy could power cities with his feigned outrage:
Read on »
Posted by Ed Brayton at 9:02 AM • 61 Comments
August 6, 2008
Category: Politics
The Westboro Baptist Church, home of Fred Phelps and his merry band of morons and bullies, caught fire over the weekend. The family, sadly, survived. Now I'll await the inevitable "you're a horrible person for wishing death upon anyone" comments. Sorry, I disagree. I don't think anyone should hurt them; anyone who did would rightly stand trial and, hopefully, go to prison. But if these vile human beings were to die in some non-premeditated way, am I really required to feign sadness? I'm just not capable of such dishonesty. There is a difference between advocating someone's murder, which I do not do, and cheering their accidental death should it happen. If that makes me a big meanie, I guess I can live with that. I just don't believe that all life is "precious" or has "dignity" (whatever the hell that means). Some people are evil and malevolent and when they shuffle off this mortal coil it gives a little added spring to my step. If the universe were sentient, I might even call it justice.
Posted by Ed Brayton at 9:30 AM • 106 Comments
Category: Politics
ThinkProgress reports on a Seymour Hersh story about a meeting in Cheney's office where they discussed the possibility of faking a confrontation with Iran to provide a pretext for going to war against yet another country.
HERSH: There was a dozen ideas proffered about how to trigger a war. The one that interested me the most was why don't we build -- we in our shipyard -- build four or five boats that look like Iranian PT boats. Put Navy seals on them with a lot of arms. And next time one of our boats goes to the Straits of Hormuz, start a shoot-up.
Might cost some lives. And it was rejected because you can't have Americans killing Americans. That's the kind of -- that's the level of stuff we're talking about. Provocation. But that was rejected.
Read on »
Posted by Ed Brayton at 9:23 AM • 11 Comments
Category: Politics
That is the actual title of an inane commentary at the Worldnutdaily, this one from Craig R. Smith.
One would think when millions of Americans campaign for and contribute to a virtually unknown commodity like Obama, it would create within the candidate a sense of awe: A humility that would overwhelm the average person, an outpouring of love and support which might bring a mere mortal to tears, a heart so filled with gratitude the candidate would thank the American people for the vote of confidence.
Not Obama - quite the opposite.
When he takes the stage, there is an air of arrogance I have never sensed from anyone else in a similar situation. There is a tone of pompousness and entitlement. One gets the sense that Obama feels he is doing his attendees a favor for allowing them in his presence. His body language screams, "I am better than you." His confidence is not quiet. His soaring rhetoric is accompanied by the dropping of the final syllable or vowel. His almost preacher-like twang is devoid of even the slightest shred of modesty.
Read on »
Posted by Ed Brayton at 9:16 AM • 78 Comments
Category: Politics
McCain: I supported the establishment of a holiday honoring Martin Luther King's birthday.
Reality: not so much.
Posted by Ed Brayton at 9:09 AM • 4 Comments
Category: Politics
The only thing left now is to develop "reparative therapy" and start up Parents and Friends of Ex-Christians. Video below the fold:
Read on »
Posted by Ed Brayton at 9:02 AM • 15 Comments
August 5, 2008
Category: Politics
Bilerico makes a strong case that Sen. Evan Bayh of Indiana is going to be Obama's VP pick and that it will be announced in the next couple days. I think it would be a good pick. He's more conservative than Obama, which is a necessity on the ticket. He's from a key swing state where Obama is doing pretty well and has a chance to flip and that pick would help him do it. If he flips Indiana, it's game over folks.
Posted by Ed Brayton at 9:30 AM • 24 Comments
Category: Politics
Here's an absolutely bizarre post on the political insider blog at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that seems to be suggesting that me asking Bob Barr whether he had repudiated his previous position on Wiccans in the military was inappropriate. The author of the post, Jim Galloway, doesn't actually say this, mind you, he implies it in some vaguely insulting snark and an analogy that makes little sense to me. Long excerpt below the fold:
Read on »
Posted by Ed Brayton at 9:23 AM • 21 Comments
Category: Politics
Of all the idiotic memes the right has tried to throw at Obama, the arugula meme is the dumbest of all. Well, it's not dumb politically; I'm sure the message gets through to precisely the ignorant dolts they intend it for. But to anyone with an IQ above room temperature, it's just plain fucking stupid. Here's McCain's campaign manager:
"Only celebrities like Barack Obama go to the gym three times a day, demand 'MET-RX chocolate roasted-peanut protein bars and bottles of a hard-to-find organic brew--Black Forest Berry Honest Tea' and worry about the price of arugula."
Read on »
Posted by Ed Brayton at 9:23 AM • 52 Comments
Category: Politics
A federal judge has ruled against a student who inserted a proselytizing statement into a graduation speech after getting approval of a different speech from the school administration. In 2006, Erica Corder was one of 15 students picked as valedictorians at her high school. The school had each of them take 30 seconds to deliver part of a speech around a single theme, with the text of their 30 seconds getting pre-approval from the administration.
Corder submitted a text with no religious references, knowing it would not be approved, then when the time came for her to give her speech she inserted the following:
Read on »
Posted by Ed Brayton at 9:09 AM • 48 Comments
Category:
For anyone planning on attending the NYC reader meet up, the location has changed - significantly. It's been moved to a bar called Social on the westside. Here are the details:
2pm-4pm on Saturday, August 9
Social
795 8th Ave (close to 48th St.)
New York, NY 10019
Posted by Ed Brayton at 9:01 AM • 2 Comments
August 4, 2008
Category:
I am in Lansing covering an Obama campaign event along with my colleague Todd Heywood. We're liveblogging it at the Michigan Messenger, so click on over there. Also look at the pretty new site design for the Messenger.
Posted by Ed Brayton at 11:24 AM • 3 Comments
