Welcome! "What's Happenin'?" is a casual community diary (a daily series, 8:30 AM Eastern on weekdays, 10 AM on weekends and holidays) where we hang out and talk about the goings on here and everywhere.
We welcome links to your writings here on dkos or elsewhere, posts of pictures, music, news, etc.
Just about anything goes, but attacks and pie fights are not welcome here. This is a community diary and a friendly, peaceful, supportive place for people to interact.
Everyone who wants to join in peaceful interaction is very welcome here.
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Good Morning!
March, 2012 by joanneleon
Any man who can drive safely while kissing a pretty girl is simply not giving the kiss the attention it deserves.
~ Albert Einstein
News
Bradley Manning’s Treatment Should ‘Shock Conscience of Court,’ Defense Declares
Coombs indicated in December 2010, when it became clear his client was being unlawfully and inhumanely treated, that he would be taking this kind of action that first chance he had in the court martial process. Now, he is filing an Article 13 motion on July 27 that will be over 100 pages long and he says it should “shock the conscience of the court.”
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As Coombs outlines, if Lind would determine Manning had been “illegally punished prior to trial,” she would have “substantial discretion to grant administrative credit, usually in the form of additional pretrial confinement credit, or even grant an outright dismissal of the charges.”
The government’s opposition to Mendez is quite revealing. The government—primarily, the military in this instance—does not want to be subjected to the authority of another body, especially an international body like the United Nations, whose human rights opinions are so utterly disregarded routinely. They would not want Mendez to take the stand and describe publicly in a military court all that happened to him in his effort to meet with Manning.
Yeah, this will play well in Peoria. @@ (eyeroll)
Pelosi dismisses idea of Congress releasing tax returns
"When I run for president of the United States, you can hold me to that standard," House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., who refuses to disclose her returns, told reporters during a tense news conference.
A day after McClatchy reported that most members of Congress refused repeated requests to release their tax returns, Pelosi talked at some length about why Romney, who has released 2010 returns and says he will release 2011 data when it’s ready, should release even more returns.
“If you release them you tell a story,” she said. “If you don’t release them you leave it up to the imagination of anybody who wants to talk about it to talk about it.”
But she reacted testily when asked whether she and members of Congress should abide by such rules.
: Online sales tax could pass this year
Retail groups and other supporters have lobbied fervently for online sales tax measures in both the House and the Senate, saying the current law favors Internet retailers over traditional brick-and-mortar stores.
Internet Defense League creates "cat signal" to save Web from next SOPA
Mozilla, reddit, lawmakers, even a Tea Party activist team to protect the Web.
You've heard of the bat signal—now get ready for the cat signal. A diverse crew of Internet businesses, advocacy groups, and lawmakers has banded together to create something called the Internet Defense League. The organization seeks to save the 'Net from bad laws like SOPA. And a cat signal—modeled after the signal used to rouse Batman each time Gotham City is threatened—is what the group will use to alert the world when it's protest time.
The League is launched!
People are blasting cat signals all over the internet and IRL, you should too.
Sign up, then get the code.
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It was epic. While member sites broadcasted their support, we blasted our “cat signal” into the sky in cities around the world (on Batman's opening night!)
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The Internet Blackout was just the beginning. Together, our websites and personal networks can mobilize the planet to defend the internet from bad laws & monopolies. Are you in?
U.S. increases planned aid to Yemen in fight against al-Qaeda
In the latest sign of Washington’s deepening involvement in Yemen’s battle against an al-Qaeda affiliate, the U.S. military is preparing to give more than $100 million in counterterrorism and security aid to the Arabian country this year, according to newly obtained documents.
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In June, the Pentagon told lawmakers that it would give $75 million worth of small arms, ammunition, vehicles, hand-launched surveillance drones and other equipment to Yemen’s Interior Ministry.
New documents show that the military aid will be more extensive. This month the Pentagon notified Congress that it would give Yemen an additional $37 million for its U.S.-trained special operations units. Included in that package are two small troop-transport aircraft, 100 night-vision devices, five small “raiding” boats for commandos as well as more small arms and ammunition.
House votes to appropriate $606 billion for defense
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The House of Representatives approved on Thursday $606 billion in defense spending for next year after two days of debate that saw lawmakers from both parties line up to condemn the ongoing war in Afghanistan as a waste of lives and money.
The Republican-dominated House voted 326-90 to approve the annual defense appropriations bill, which includes a Pentagon base budget of $518 billion plus $87.7 billion in spending for the Afghanistan war and other overseas operations, according to the House Appropriations Committee.
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In a last series of amendments, lawmakers agreed to freeze Pentagon spending at 2012 levels, effectively cutting $1 billion from the base budget appropriation. They also approved an amendment switching $5.6 billion between accounts for technical reasons.
Blog Posts of Interest
From an Unlikely Source, a Serious Challenge to Wall Street on Rolling Stone taibblog by Matt Taibbi: "Something very interesting is happening."
Sadly, Nation Knows Exactly How Colorado Shooting's Aftermath Will Play Out (seriously) on The Onion
Omar Khadr Still Not Home An Update on dailykos by chauconne
Weaving Reality V Diversity on dailykos by rserven
Freaky Friday on dailykos by Lady Libertine
The Evening Blues 7-20-12 on dailykos KBO sitting in for joe shikspack
Envision… a cyber home with a bold vision of a better world, and a determination to create it.
Another world is possible.
We will investigate strategies for building personal and community empowerment as a means of lessening the influence of corporate power and increasing equality.
"There are those who look at things the way they are, and ask why... I dream of things that never were, and ask why not?"
~ Robert F. Kennedy
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