STOP ME IF YOU THINK THAT YOU’VE HEARD THIS ONE BEFORE: “Asked whether they were coming home with mission accomplished, Cameron said: ‘Yes I think they do. I think they can come home with their heads held high. You know, we will not leave behind a perfect country or a perfect democracy. You have to remember that Afghanistan is an extremely poor country with a very, very troubled history but I think the purpose of our mission was always to build an Afghanistan and Afghan security forces that were capable of maintaining a basic level of security so this country never again became a haven for terrorist training camps.” (via the Guardian)
ONLY SLIGHTLY, ONLY SLIGHTLY LESS THAN I USED TO:
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THE PART WHERE POLITICIANS AREN’T ABOVE THE LAW ANYMORE, ESPECIALLY WHEN THEY’RE DRAWING THEIR OWN DISTRICTS: “In a blistering dissent, Justice Charles Canady, joined by Chief Justice Ricky Polston, called the majority's conclusions ‘unprecedented’ and said the ruling ‘grievously violates the constitutional separation of powers.’ ‘For the first time in the recorded history of our Republic, a court has ruled that state legislators are required to submit to interrogation in a civil case concerning their legislative activities,’ Canady wrote.” (via Tampa Bay Times)
SIGN OF THE TIMES. THIS GUY CAN’T REALLY GET ANY WORSE, CAN HE?: “The bogus sign language interpreter at last week's Nelson Mandela memorial service was among a group of people who accosted two men found with a stolen television and burned them to death by setting fire to tires placed around their necks, one of the interpreter's cousins and three of his friends told The Associated Press Monday. But Thamsanqa Jantjie never went to trial for the 2003 killings when other suspects did in 2006 because authorities determined he was not mentally fit to stand trial, said the four. They insisted on speaking anonymously because of the sensitivity of the fake signing fiasco, which has deeply embarrassed South Africa's government and prompted a high-level investigation into how it happened.” (via Politico)
I SAY YOU’RE LYING, NOTHING HAS CHANGED:
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GONNA COUNT THREE. THEN, EQUALITY: “GOAL #1: FULL MARRIAGE EQUALITY IN FLORIDA IN THREE YEARS. It won’t be easy. It will take a fight like we’ve never seen before, but with a growing, bipartisan majority of Floridians on our side, we are gearing up to win. We have screened more than one thousand potential plaintiffs and are preparing to go to court to challenge Florida’s marriage ban.” (via Miami Herald)
SPECULATIVE GOLD RUSHES ARE THE BEST: “In all of 2012, health insurers spent $216 million advertising on local television stations. But that's nothing compared to what they're about to spend. According to trade association TVB, insurers will spend more than $500 million on local television ads in 2014. And that's to say nothing of cable television ads and social media campaigns. Insurers look at these next few years as a gold rush. Tens of millions of people will be buying private insurance of the exchanges. It's a swarm of customers like nothing they've ever seen. And they plan to capture them — even if they need to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to do so.” (via Washington Post)
