The Imaginary Drone Problem

“Getting Ridiculous,” Josh Marshall, Talking Points Memo:

“A new Gallup poll shows that 66% of respondents do not believe drone strikes should be used against suspected terrorists within the United States. And an even larger number, 79% of respondents, don’t believe strikes should be permitted in the United States against suspected terrorists who are US citizens.

“In other words, we now know that an overwhelming majority of Americans oppose a preposterous idea that no one had ever considered doing. Set aside any constitutional or moral questions about counter-terrorism or the rights of US citizens, the whole point of using drones is to mount attacks in areas where you have no pervasive and secure control over the ground — something that the US has everywhere inside the United States.

“Really, wholly apart from any constitutional or legal issue, why would the US government use a drone to attack a suspected terrorist in the US — as opposed to arresting them or in a more extreme situation attacking them in their compound/house like the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department did with Chris Dorner last month. And if things really got totally out of hand, why not a conventional bomber or fighter jet since there’s no anti-aircraft capacity in the US that the US military or US government doesn’t control?

“A real question is whether police and SWAT teams should use militarized tactics in raids within the US. That’s a real question. Whether we think drone attacks inside the US are alright or not is a silly one.

“The whole thing confirms my belief that in most cases the ‘drone issue’ is a distraction from actual civil liberties or war powers questions.”  Emphasis added.

We have so many real problems and face so many real threats, it just drives me crazy to see energy wasted on imaginary ones.

NRA’s Solution — Cops in Every School

“The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.”  Wayne La Pierre, head of the NRA, at his press conference today in response to the Newtown massacre.

Um, how about stopping that bad guy from getting the gun, so that he doesn’t ever become “a bad guy with a gun.”

Anyway, LaPierre’s solution is to have police officers in every single school in the country.

And for good measure, he blamed violent movies, video games and music videos.

So, the NRA wants more cops who will of course need more guns.  Since the NRA really represents gun manufacturers, that is a great solution to make its masters richer.

Sometimes you don’t know whether to laugh or cry, but this is really a moment to just scream at the top of your lungs.

 

 

The GOP Keeps Unemployment High

We hear so much about jobs being outsourced.  But the job losses that are really dragging down our economy right now are public sector jobs (teacher, firefighters, police officers, etc.) that can’t be outsourced.  We’ve lost more than 600,000 of these jobs in the last three years, mostly in states controlled by Republicans.  If these jobs still existed, unemployment would be about 7%.

If you have a problem with your credit card bill, you can get help from a guy in India.  If your house is burning down, not so much.

The GOP is attacking President Obama for not reducing unemployment enough, but we’ve gained back all the private sector jobs that were lost in the Great Recession.  It’s the GOP, using their power at the state and local levels to fire people, and using their power at the federal level to block more stimulus in the form of direct aid to states to retain those teachers and firefighters, that is keeping unemployment high.