This is an interesting one because when Brown first started talking about this, they found that without the sales tax increase, it passed easily. With the sales tax increase, however, it barely edged past 50%.

What our state really needs to do is remove commercial property from the Prop 13 umbrella. It’s one of the things that’s killing business from moving to this state.

“It has posted videos purporting to be of a number of the alleged breaches. We cannot independently verify this information.”

Again, reports from the opposition that the Syrian government is not honoring the truce, but the information is completely unverified. They’re producing videos of tanks firing and people throwing rocks but no one knows where the footage is from or when it was shot.

There’s no way to tell who is right and who is wrong in this, but keep waving that interventionist flag. I’m sure Syrians will appreciate NATO bombing their country to smithereens the same way the people of Afghanistan and Libya do.

This is Libya all over again. Ignoring reports of human rights abuses by the opposition groups to play into the interventionist meme:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/syria/9090324/Syrias-crisis-is-leading-us-to-unlikely-bedfellows.html

We still don’t know how accurate reports are of any of the atrocities in Syria because we’re unable to get independent verification:

http://www.thenation.com/blog/166096/united-states-should-stay-out-syria

http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/patrick-cockburn-whose-hands-are-behind-those-dramatic-youtube-pictures-6289808.html

“The killings in Syria are ugly, but no doubt wildly exaggerated. Nearly all, repeat all, of the information about the violence in Syria is coming from a handful of exiled Syrian opposition groups backed by Saudi Arabia, Qatar and various Western powers. Did 200 people really die in Homs this past weekend, conveniently just on the eve of the UNSC debate? Who knows? The only source for the fishy information, though ubiquitously quoted in the New York Times, the wire services, the network news and elsewhere, are the suspect Syrian opposition groups, who have axes galore to grind.”

The terms “liberal” and “progressive” are not interchangeable and I’m sick of seeing people use them like they’re the same thing.

Liberalism focuses on the use of money collected through taxes for the common good.

Progressivism focuses on the use of government authority for the common good.

If we use the bank bailout as an example, it’s easy to see the difference: President Bush took the liberal approach by providing loans and subsidies to the banks, assuming that by providing them money, they would cease their risky (probably illegal) behavior. The progressive approach would have been to institute a new kind of Glass-Steagall and prosecute illegal behavior at the banks.

Maybe the love of creating? I’m lucky enough to be a “professional artist” and I’d still be doing it even if I didn’t make a dime off of what I do.

I think he’s referring to the Left Hegelians. The Left Hegelians espoused the idea of a benevolent state where the government would use its’ power to advance freedom and liberty.

Wrong. They did a poll after the election and it turned out 90% of people who voted for Nader in Florida wouldn’t have even voted if he wasn’t on the ballot. Those votes wouldn’t have gone to Gore.

Tim Scott’s the same one who said Congress should impeach Obama if he invokes the 14th Amendment.

I think the Boyz-n-the-Hood quote should actually be attributed to Eazy-E. It originally appeared on an album that was produced by Dr. Dre and written by Ice Cube but the performance was credited entirely to Eazy.

The idea that you should vote for someone cause you’re afraid of what will happen if the other guy wins is ridiculous. It’s the same as becoming a Christian because you’re afraid you’ll go to Hell if you don’t.

But I guess George W. Bush said almost the exact same shit about a woman’s right to choose and he had huge majorities in both chambers and now abortion is illegal. Oh wait… it’s not.

Also, for the last time: RALPH NADER DIDN’T COST AL GORE THE ELECTION. The Supreme Court cost Al Gore the election.

Ralph Nader didn’t cost Al Gore the election. The Supreme Court did.

Today is also the (assumed) 9th anniversary of Layne Staley’s death.