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1.) What is a libertarian Marxist? — Apparently former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura. Or not. It depends. Consistency isn’t really his thing. TheDC’s Jamie Weinstein (ME!) reports:
“Castro ran — and his brother now runs — a freedomless despotism, Jesse! By definition, that’s inhumane, TheDC argued. ‘Wait a minute, that’s Communism,’ he protested. ‘It’s a different form a government.’ Does Ventura, who sometimes claims he’s libertarian, not have a problem with Communism? ‘Communism is what it is,’ he said. ‘I don’t support Communism. I don’t like that type of government.’ Contradicting himself, as he did on more than one occasion during the interview, he then claimed that Communism may actually be the best political system. ‘The Communism of Karl Marx would probably be actually the best for everybody as a whole,’ he explained. ‘But what he didn’t figure into was human nature and that’s what corrupts it.'”
Read the whole interview. It’s wild.
2.) President Obama, uniter — Well, maybe not so much. The Daily Caller’s Tucker Carlson and Vince Coglianese report on a video of a speech President Obama gave in 2007 that they uncovered:
“In a video obtained exclusively by The Daily Caller, then-presidential candidate Barack Obama tells an audience of black ministers, including the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, that the U.S. government shortchanged Hurricane Katrina victims because of racism. ‘The people down in New Orleans they don’t care about as much!’ Obama shouts in the video, which was shot in June of 2007 at Hampton University in Virginia. By contrast, survivors of Sept. 11 and Hurricane Andrew received generous amounts of aid, Obama explains. The reason? Unlike residents of majority-black New Orleans, the federal government considers those victims ‘part of the American family.'”
Watch the whole video here.
3.) A civil war within the Democratic Party? — A growing number of Democrats are turning against one of the party’s top financial patrons, teachers’ unions. Robby Soave reports for The Daily Caller News Foundation:
“’You have your old guard teachers’ union members who have been longtime supporters of the Democratic Party and then you have a new generation of education reformers coming out of a lot of big cities and coming up from the states that have real world on the ground experience,’ said Michael McShane, a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, in an interview with The Daily Caller News Foundation. ‘There is definitely a struggle within the Democratic Party, and it’s not entirely clear at this moment who is going to win.’ The unions’ vast financial resources, as well as the ability to mobilize members for protest and strikes, have given them a loud voice in the Democratic Party for decades. Still, McShane said that may be changing. ‘The teachers’ unions have money, lots of it, and this huge membership — they are extremely powerful,’ he said. ‘But these younger generations appear to be really good at organizing and messaging and getting their point across, so I think the momentum is swinging in their direction.'”
4.) Let’s start a war on the War on Drugs — A new documentary explores the failed “War on Drugs,” which is a leading contender for the dumbest war ever fought. TheDC’s Taylor Bigler reports:
“Instead of focusing attention and resources at prevention and treatment of drug abusers, the system penalizes users — and often in an alarmingly draconian way: One of the inmates in the film, for example, is currently serving a life sentence for the nonviolent crime of crystal methamphetamine possession. … The tough war on drugs rhetoric of Presidents Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton is something that most politicians have copied. Since it is a political tactic that has worked to gain votes, Jarecki says that the solution has to start with the public. ‘The public has to demand a different approach,’ [filmmaker Eugene Jarecki] said.”
The problem is that if a politician came out to modify America’s inane drug laws, they would immediately be targeted by their opponent in the next election with ads like: “Did you know Congressman X wants to get your son high?” Sigh.
5.) Poll of Yesterday: Obama leads on debate eve — RealClearPolitics polling average of presidential race: President Obama 49%, Mitt Romney 45.7%.
6.) Today in North Korea News –– BREAKING: “Int’l Day of Old Persons Observed in DPRK”
VIDEO: Rush Limbaugh says Washington Post polling shows “genuine corruption”
