Whittling away at my bookmarks

While the Obama administration’s penchant for secrecy is not news, this is something of an eye-raiser: The Pentagon refuses to define what constitutes “associated forces” tied to the Taliban or al Qaeda. If the Pentagon divulged this to ordinary citizens, everyone would know and the groups would “build credibility by being listed as such by the United States.”
So apparently they’re dangerous enough we have to treat them as a serious threat and attack them, but somehow if we name them they’ll get to be a worse threat? I don’t buy it. And even if I did, I don’t give a damn. The government belongs to us: We are entitled, 100 percent to know who we’re waging war on. Though I’m sure from Washington’s viewpoint (and the Pentagon’s) not having to explain or justify attacks is much more convenient (avoids the furor over drone strikes, for instance)
•Mark Bittman on the recent fast-food worker strikes.
•The 2013 NC state government session has wrapped up, with some really nasty vote-restricting policies (restrictions on students voting, easier to challenge registrations, a week less of early voting). Gov. Pat McClory says he’ll sign it even though he hasn’t read some of the controversial parts.
As I’ve said before, to white Repubs who are convinced they should be running the country, making it harder to vote isn’t a bug, it’s a feature.
•I can’t see any justification for charging kids $600 to go to a public, tax-supported high school.
•As I mentioned last week, Rowan County’s response to criticism of it’s prayer-before-meeting policy is a state resolution rejecting First Amendment rights at the state and county level. Which they doubtless dream would protect them from decisions shutting down the prayers.
•Some years ago, a Congressional report established most abstinence-only programs in schools lie a lot. They still do. And here’s how the myth that rape doesn’t cause pregnancy began.
•How a $500 loan can bulk up with $3,000 in fees.
•One blogger looks at how two pre-teen kids, one white, one black, were treated by the media after trying to drive the family car. Meanwhile, some Twitter-ers freak out that American-born, Puerto-Rican ancestry got to sing God Bless America for the All-Star baseball game.
•A satirical post on Goblin Books looks at the wonderful way we united behind our national-security state on 9/11. Here the blog considers whether the United States could be an elaborate prank.
•Post 9/11, the government assured us that the kind of profiling and excessive security measures they were taking would never be turned on Americans. Think again.
•Digby looks at the difference between institutionalists who want to fix the system and insurrectionists who believe it has to be torn down completely to get anywhere.