TMR: White House Reporters Claim Admin Forces Report Changes, Chicago Could Be Next to Decriminalize Weed, and An Interesting Argument For A Military Draft
Your Thursday Morning Roar! White House Reporters Claim Administration Sometimes Demands Changes To Reports The blurred lines between factual media and government propaganda just got a little more hazy, with reporters that are part of the White House press pool - a small group of reporters that issue reports to the broader newsgathering community - reporting that the administration sometimes demands changes be made to their reports.From the Washington Post:
Journalists who cover the White House say Obama’s press aides have demanded — and received — changes in press-pool reports before the reports have been disseminated to other journalists. They say the White House has used its unusual role as the distributor of the reports as leverage to steer coverage in a more favorable direction.The disputed episodes involve mostly trivial issues and minor matters of fact. But that the White House has become involved at all represents a troubling trend for journalists and has prompted their main representative, the White House Correspondents’ Association, to consider revising its approach to pool reporting.
The second quoted paragraph hits the nail on the head. If the facts are correct, they shouldn't be altered to skew public opinion. The press is one of the few untainted (in theory) watchdogs we have left and this obvious overreaching interference by the government needs to be stamped out in order to assure Americans actually get the factual reporting that is so desperately needed.Rahm Emanuel Wants To Decriminalize Marijuana Across IllinoisObama's former stooge and current Mayor of Murderville Chicago Rahm Emanuel has come out supporting a decriminalization of marijuana across the entire state of Illinois, and specifically under his jurisdiction in the city. He also wants any charge for possession of any illegal drug possession under 1 gram to be reduced to misdemeanor in Chicago. From the Trib:
During 90 minutes of testimony before the House-Senate Joint Criminal Reform Committee in Chicago, Emanuel encouraged lawmakers to challenge the “assumptions that are embedded in the criminal justice system.” The mayor argued that reducing the penalties for minor drug possession would allow the city and state to focus their efforts on more violent crime.“It’s time, in my view, to free up our criminal justice system to address our real public safety challenges and build on the progress that has been made,” Emanuel said.The proposed changes, the mayor said, would “change, not just the criminal system, and the fact that we’ll save time and money, but it also will change people’s lives. Some who are walking around with a felony, their employment prospects, their job prospects, their lives are on a different trajectory than if they had a misdemeanor associated with them.”
It's a day for people I despise to do things I applaud! Who's next? What? Chuck Rangel??? Chuck Rangel Wants a New Military Draft - But His Argument Actually Makes SenseI'm no fan of ol' Chuckie Rangel. He's overall unpalatable to me on many levels, however, credit where credit is due, he actually took what would be an insane position and made a pretty good argument of it. Chuck recently stated in a TIME interview that he wanted to bring back the military draft. Let's get it straight from the horse's mouth:
While I am optimistic about our Commander-in-Chief’s strategy to defeat the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, I voted against the Continuing Appropriations Resolution 2015 that would grant the President the authority to provide funds to train and arm Syrian rebels against the enemy. I opposed the amendment because I strongly believe amassing additional debt to go to war should involve all of America debating the matter. That is why I have called for levying a war tax in addition to bringing back the military draft. Both the war surcharge and conscription will give everyone in America a real stake in any decision on going to war, and compel the public to think twice before they make a commitment to send their loved ones into harm’s way.
I'm against conscription, obviously, but that's a damn good argument for it when one takes into account how hesitant the nation would be to charge headlong into wars if its collective asses or the offspring of said asses were on the line. The cycle of perpetual war might actually slow or halt for some time as the impact of the costly loss of life to all areas of society took their toll.A military draft is akin to slavery, and no libertarian could make a serious argument for it, but it's definitely an interesting take.Read The Morning Roar every weekday Monday-Friday!The Lions of Liberty are on Twitter, Facebook & Google+Receive access to ALL of our EXCLUSIVE bonus audio content – including “Conspiracy Corner”, “Degenerate Gamblers” and the “League of Liberty Podcast” by joining the Lions of Liberty Pride and supporting us on Patreon!
