Today is Memorial Day, and we are at war, again

Today is Memorial Day, which, in paper, is set aside to honor those who serve the national interest in the armed forces. But no one, at least no one conducting the most attended conversations on the national stage, is discussing the servicemen and women we have inLibyaright now. Nor are they discussing the violations of [...]

WH press secretary confirms OBL was unarmed

Via NY Times via Jerry Coyne (from here on in, whenever discussing NY Times stories, I’ll link to non-NY Timse blogs as often as possible so as not to burn through your 20 free monthly stories): Jay Carney, the White House press secretary, read the narrative in an attempt to correct statements by administration officials who [...]

White House counterterrorism adviser: “Inconceivable” OBL had no Pakistani aid

Via The Hill: President Obama’s top counterterrorism adviser called it “inconceivable” that Pakistan was not providing a “support system” for Osama bin Laden, who was killed Sunday in a raid in a mansion north of the capital city of Islamabad. “We are pursuing all leads on this issue,” Deputy National Security Adviser John Brennan said [...]

TPM has first coherent piece on OBL death

It includes unique details on the operation itself. Via Brian Beutler,  Susan Crabtree, Evan McMorris-Santoro, Ryan Reilly at TPM: In a rare, late-night statement from the White House Sunday at 11:35 p.m., President Obama announced that Osama Bin Laden was killed by U.S. forces in a firefight Sunday, in “a compound deep inside Pakistan.” Bin Laden [...]

AP’s video of Obama’s announcement of Osama bin Laden’s death

Update: The White House’s official YouTube account has posted the entirety of the president’s remarks.

The full transcript of Obama’s remarks on Osama bin Laden’s death

Via The White House: 11:35 P.M. EDT   THE PRESIDENT:  Good evening.  Tonight, I can report to the American people and to the world that the United States has conducted an operation that killed Osama bin Laden, the leader of al Qaeda, and a terrorist who’s responsible for the murder of thousands of innocent men, [...]

Osama bin Laden is dead

10:50 PM-President Barack Obama will address the nation momentarily on the death of Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden, founder of the Sunni terrorist organization al Qaeda, 19 members of which planned and executed the 9/11 attacks against American military and commerce centers. ABC is reporting he was killed in a military or intelligence [...]

Michele Bachmann “all in” for 2012?

Via the Minnesota Independent, some conspicuous closing remarks from a speech to some 200 loyalists in South Carolina: “And so now it’s for us. We decide. Do we go on? Or does the bubble burst? And I’ve made my decision. That’s why I’m here in South Carolina. Because I say the dream goes on,” she [...]

Americans, unsurprisingly, have terrible tastes in presidents

Via Gallup: Kennedy, Obama, and especially George W. Bush have no business breaking the top ten. But there they are. And apparently heaping strong words on an empire already crumbling under the weight of its own untenable economic system trumps dragging the country back from schism and abolishing the cruelest institution every to pollute our country.

George H.W. Bush recieves Presidential Medal of Freedom

…and so does Warren Buffett, Maya Angelou Yo-Yo Ma and some other people. Buffett’s done a lot of humanitarian work–in sheer terms of utility, it might be said he’s done more humanitarian work than any other human–so I can’t help but approve of that. It’s also good to see artistic figures like Ma and Angelou receive [...]