:large

Washington has also emerged as the world champion in generating terror. Former CIA analyst Paul Pillar warns of the "resentment-generating impact of the U.S. strikes" in Syria, which may further induce the jihadi organizations Jabhat al-Nusra and the Islamic State toward "repairing their breach from last year and campaigning in tandem against the U.S. intervention by portraying it as a war against Islam."

That is by now a familiar consequence of U.S. operations that have helped to spread jihadism from a corner of Afghanistan to a large part of the world.

Jihadism's most fearsome current manifestation is the Islamic State, or ISIS, which has established its murderous caliphate in large areas of Iraq and Syria.

"I think the United States is one of the key creators of this organization," reports former CIA analyst Graham Fuller, a prominent commentator on the region. "The United States did not plan the formation of ISIS," he adds, "but its destructive interventions in the Middle East and the War in Iraq were the basic causes of the birth of ISIS."

.....................



MORE:
http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/27201-the-leading-terrorist-state

Bill that is:

?w=580

A presidential photo-bombing in Arkansas, captured by a Redditor via a phone. Money quote: “She didn’t want to be there. It was really cold outside for what we’re used to and this was after the event.” The former president was in Arkansas, vacuuming up the crowds as usual.

http://dish.andrewsullivan.com/2014/11/03/faces-of-the-day-133/

No ‘wave,’ no ‘mandate’
By Paul Waldman November 3 at 1:36 PM

With Republicans increasingly likely to take the Senate, we can be sure of one thing: Whether their victory is narrow or enormous, Republicans will claim a sweeping mandate to enact a radical shift in policy on pretty much any issue that they care about. The American people have spoken, they’ll say. This was a wave that swept us into power and washed away Barack Obama’s right to pursue his agenda.

We should be extremely skeptical of that claim, for a number of reasons.

The first is that it isn’t really looking like much of a wave. Every election analyst projects that Republicans will pick up a few seats in the House — maybe five, maybe ten — but nothing like the 63 seats they gained in 2010 or the 54 they netted in 1994. If they manage to take the Senate, it will be because most of the incredibly close races this year tipped their way in the end. Which would undoubtedly be a victory, but it would be hard to argue that the GOP squeaking out wins in deep-red states in the South and adding a couple in swing states like Iowa or Colorado represents some huge shift in public sentiment.

New polling data suggests that even if Republicans do take the Senate, we’re hardly looking at a “GOP wave.” The final pre-election poll from NBC News and the Wall Street Journal was released today, and it shows the two parties nearly deadlocked (46-45 in Republicans’ favor) in the generic ballot test among likely voters. Democratic voters’ interest in the campaign has risen to match Republicans’, and approval of the GOP as a party remains abysmal. There’s also evidence to suggest that turnout will be low.


http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2014/11/03/no-wave-no-mandate/

Republicans have rigged state elections all over the country to keep Republicans in power

In 2012, Barack Obama was elected President by nearly 3.5 million votes. In Congressional races, Democrats drew nearly 1.4 million more votes than Republicans yet Republicans won control of the House 234 seats to 201 seats.




Source: Mother Jones.

And yeah, Maryland and Illinois are gerrymandered for the Democratic Party. This is wrong.

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/11/republicans-gerrymandering-house-representatives-election-chart
MORE:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/11/03/1341253/-Perhaps-the-biggest-difference-between-Republicans-and-Democrats#

Betsy Ross
‏@DoHoBOB
"White" or "Colored" - 1966 receipt. MT @byjayroot: My mother paid the poll tax.
https://twitter.com/DoHoBOB/status/528907247204589569

Wow....

"A wave just doesn't happen. Waves happen when every single member of a cause or a movement come together. This is our time, we need to crush it and push their heads under over and over and over again until they cannot breathe anymore."

-- New Hampshire GOP Chairman Jennifer Horn, quoted by NH Journal, on defeating Democrats in the midterm elections.


really?
http://nhjournal.com/republicans-ride-their-victory-bus-to-manchester-rally/

FAA Officials Agreed to Help Police Prevent Media From Filming Ferguson Protests
Caroline Bankoff
New York Magazine
November 2, 2014 4:15PM

In the early days of this summer's protests over the death of Michael Brown, the Federal Aviation Administration agreed to enforce a 37-square-mile no-fly zone over Ferguson, Missouri. This was done at the request of the St. Louis Police Department, which claimed that shots had been fired at one of its helicopters. (That claim was never substantiated.) Of course, the supposed safety ban on flights in the area had the side effect of preventing news helicopters from filming the clashes between cops and demonstrators from above. Now, an Associated Press report seems to show that the no-fly zone's true purpose was to keep the press away, and local FAA officials knew it…
…

…The FAA enforced the no-fly zone until August 22. According to the AP, a St. Louis police captain tried to get it extended just before Brown's funeral and the day Darren Wilson was identified as the officer who shot the teenager because those events were expected to "bring out the emotions."

The AP's report on the no-fly zone is hardly the first time that the police have been accused of violating the First Amendment rights of reporters trying to cover the events in Ferguson, but the apparent participation of the federal officials at the FAA makes this one especially troubling.


http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2014/11/report-ferguson-no-fly-zone-was-aimed-at-media.html
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/11/03/1341226/-AP-Exclusive-Ferguson-no-fly-zone-was-deliberate-FPD-effort-to-obstruct-media-coverage-of-protests