USA Today has the article House gets hung up on $1 trillion spending package.

But in a blistering speech on the House floor, Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., characterized the package as a “moral hazard” and said she was “enormously disappointed” in the president.

This is a speech you have to hear. C-Span has the video Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) on 2015 Federal Spending Bill.

If the President signs this bill, he needs to be impeached.

Comedy Central sent me an email about the video clip from the Colbert Report titled Stephen Talks “Serial”.

Journalist Sarah Koenig talks about “Serial,” her true-crime show that has emerged as the most popular podcast in history.

I found this so interesting that I decided to see whether I could get access to this “podcast”. There is a web site Serial the Podcast.

It’s Baltimore, 1999. Hae Min Lee, a popular high-school senior, disappears after school one day. Six weeks later detectives arrest her classmate and ex-boyfriend, Adnan Syed, for her murder. He says he’s innocent – though he can’t exactly remember what he was doing on that January afternoon. But someone can. A classmate at Woodlawn High School says she knows where Adnan was. The trouble is, she’s nowhere to be found.

I listened to the first episode. I think I am hooked. That is the reason I am writing this blog post. I will be returning again and again to the above link as I have the time to listen to the other episodes.

The Daily Kos has a very interesting article The Torture-Free TRUE Story of The Best USMC Interrogator in WWII [Update].

We’ve known for some time that just as career military commanders warned against invading and occupying Iraq, career military interrogators warned against the use of torture or abuse of the Geneva Convention.  Of course that didn’t stop the hysterics from screaming “What about that ticking time bomb scenario?” or “What about our troops in harm’s way?”

People promoting those arguments are betting on hysterical hyperbole to silence their critics.  Ok, let’s play that hand.

I’ll see your “ticking time bomb” and raise you “exploding ordnance in the middle of armed conflict.”

I’ll see your “troops in harm’s way” and raise you “troops in kill zones.”

I’ll see your “contractors posing as troops” raise and call you with “the most effective United States Marine Corps interrogator during the Pacific Campaign of World War II.”

The author of the post then goes on to tell the story of  Maj. Sherwood Moran.  The article even reprints the Major’s instructions to other interrogators about the principles of interrogation even during the heat of the battle.  If more people would listen to the stories of real soldiers rather than the stories of easy chair soldiers, we could put an end  to this issue of using torture.

You have to wonder about the people who know that torture does not work but use it anyway.  There is definitely some deep moral flaw in their character.  We do not want such people interacting with our enemies.  They will do none of us any good.