Thom's blog
Thom's blog - Tuesday December 28th, 2010
You need to know this. While much of the media’s focus has been on Julian Assange over the last few months – there’s been little attention focused on a soldier who sits in solitary confinement in Virginia – Bradley Manning. Manning is the fellow suspected of leaking the original classified documents to Wikileaks. He was caught after he started conversing online with a notorious hacker named Adrian Lamo. After Manning admitted the leak – Lamo turned him over to authorities. Now – it’s these chat logs between Lamo and Manning that are receiving a lot of a
Thom's blog - Monday December 27th, 2010
You need to know this. The mainstream media has been taken over by Conservative ideology. A new Pew Research Center Survey studied the media exposure of politicians during the recent midterm elections. What they found was – out of the ten most covered candidates during the election season – the top 3 were all Republicans. And most surprising – Sarah Palin – who essentially has no job and was not running for one – received three times more coverage to spew her talking points than the sitting Vice President Joe Biden. Also – conservative commentators like
The 111th session of Congress has passed more legislation affecting more people than any other Congress since the 1960’s...
On Capitol Hill - The START nuclear treaty passed a cloture vote yesterday in the Senate. 67 Senators agreed to end debate on the treaty setting up a final vote for passage today. Majority Leader Harry Reid will need all of those 67 votes to hold for the treaty to garner the necessary 2/3 majority for passage – and thus securing an important foreign policy victory for President Obama. And for that matter – the rest of the world that w
Thom's blog - Wednesday December 22nd, 2010
You need to know this. President Obama is preparing to sign an executive order that will affirm the White House’s policy of indefinite detention for suspected terrorists. In other words – President Obama is following the same path as President Bush when it comes to throwing the legal rights of a suspected criminal out the window. 48 detainees at Guantanamo Bay have been selected for indefinite detention and will remain incarcerated with no charges brought against them for as long as the White House deems necessary. That number is likely to grow over the comin
Why the Media isn't Talking about the War...
You need to know this. A new study by the Pew Research Center may explain why outrage isn't growing around the country over the unpopular war in Afghanistan. Simply – the media is not talking about it. This year – Afghanistan surpassed Vietnam as the longest military engagement in American history. It was also the bloodiest year on record in the 9-year war. In great detail – a release of wikileaks cables illuminated the conflict
Thom's blog - Tuesday December 21st, 2010
You need to know this. A new study by the Pew Research Center may explain why outrage isn't growing around the country over the unpopular war in Afghanistan. Simply – the media is not talking about it. This year – Afghanistan surpassed Vietnam as the longest military engagement in American history. It was also the bloodiest year on record in the 9-year war. In great detail – a release of wikileaks cables illuminated the conflict for Americans to see the brutality clearer. And – a strategy review released by President Obama stated the US military wi
Thom's blog - Monday December 20th, 2010
You need to know this. Progressives and defenders of civil rights celebrated over the weekend when the US Senate succeeded in passing “Don’t Ask, Don’t tell” repeal legislation. 8 Republicans ended up voting in support of the measure after weeks of a near unified filibuster – showing politics not policy was the main reason for opposition. The President is expected to sign the bill this week. Still though – “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” will remain the official policy in the military until the Pentagon, the President and the Joint Chiefs of Staff issue a certificati
Is President Obama on the verge of handing Republicans yet another victory?
According to sources within the White House – the President is planning on announcing deep cuts to Social Security in his State of the Union address next month. Hoping to preempt Republican calls to cut the social safety net and show some seriousness about trimming the deficit – President Obama will once again shirk his progressive base and embrace Republican ideology. If he thought the left was angry over the tax cut cap