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Adilegian
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Joined: 05 Dec 2006
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PostPosted: Sat Jan 16, 2010 10:28 pm        Reply with quote

This was in Krugman's response to Greenwald's article:

Paul Krugman wrote:
And here’s the thing: by claiming that there’s a huge scandal when nothing worse happened than insufficient care about disclosure, Greenwald and the people at FDL are actually reducing our ability to call foul on real corruption.

I've heard this same bullshit reasoning from unenlightened critics of feminism, i.e., "Feminist concerns, while maybe okay valid sometimes, are distracting attention away from the real injustices." It's wonderful that people feel privileged enough to classify which concerns are more or less minor -- the concerns that would require them to change or accept some kind of culpability naturally tending toward the "more minor" -- but we never, ever get anywhere when we invent a line past which certain offenses are "real" and certain offenses are not serious.

Insufficient disclosure is a kind of propagandizing. So much bullshit.

EDIT: Looks like Greenwald made this same point in his response to Krugman's response. Ding.
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Adilegian
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PostPosted: Sun Jan 17, 2010 1:32 am        Reply with quote

HOLY SHIT.


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extrabastardformula
millmuck holecutter


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PostPosted: Sun Jan 17, 2010 5:03 am        Reply with quote

What's so HOLY SHIT about Olbermann calling out Limbaugh and Robertson? He does that pretty regularly, I thought.
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Mr. Mechanical
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Joined: 04 Dec 2006
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PostPosted: Sun Jan 17, 2010 5:36 am        Reply with quote

It's a pretty wicked burn though for network tv. He basically says straight up they aren't worth shit as human beings and should go to hell.
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Adilegian
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PostPosted: Sun Jan 17, 2010 5:37 am        Reply with quote

extrabastardformula wrote:
What's so HOLY SHIT about Olbermann calling out Limbaugh and Robertson? He does that pretty regularly, I thought.

I wasn't aware that openly calling them, literally, soulless wretches was currently part of the political conversation. The intensity of that response strikes me as remarkable.

Then again, I could have not been paying close enough attention to the media-at-large lately.
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psiga
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PostPosted: Sun Jan 17, 2010 6:53 am        Reply with quote

De rigueur, Fox News™.
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CubaLibre
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PostPosted: Sun Jan 17, 2010 8:28 am        Reply with quote

It's kind of Olbermann's thing.
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Adilegian
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PostPosted: Sun Jan 17, 2010 9:22 am        Reply with quote

CubaLibre wrote:
It's kind of Olbermann's thing.

Huh!

Okay, I guess I should be more versed on respective pundits' schticks before being taken in by the sensation. I thought this was out of the ordinary somehow, but I guess that shows how little attention I've been paying to network news.

psiga wrote:
De rigueur, Fox News™.

Yeah, this is on the mark. After successive re-viewings, it's evident that this is more of the same kind of distracting nonsense as Robertson and Limbaugh themselves engage in, only from a vantage point that I have more emotional sympathy with.

On the one hand, I feel I would be more honest recanting my upholding this as remarkable -- when it, in fact, seems fairly in-step with the times. On the other hand, it's always good to learn, and learning requires mistakes, so to hell with recanting.

So yeah, back to Greenwald, or something otherwise more substantial.
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Mr. Mechanical
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PostPosted: Sun Jan 17, 2010 9:35 am        Reply with quote

What You're Not Hearing about Haiti (But Should Be)

Spoilers: It's America's fault.

Yeah I'm just being facetious since that sounds like the Fox News response to this article. It does kind of highlight the influences America has on its neighbors and the kinds of consequences that can result, whether intended or not. Always something worth keeping in mind, these days.

Also a debate between Greenwald and Mr. Sunstein from 2008.
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psiga
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PostPosted: Sun Jan 17, 2010 10:28 am        Reply with quote

Fairly nice update on the google.cn situation's sociopolitical ramifications: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/dc906ade-0225-11df-8b56-00144feabdc0.html

It's not quite the postmortem that I am still looking forward to, but a good view of the wheels turning, anyway.

Heh.
“America hasn’t thought much about what it might mean for the United States and the rest of the world to have a repressive, one-party state in China three decades from now because it is widely assumed that China is destined for a political liberalisation, leading eventually to democracy,”

Is it really? I don't see the one-party state going anywhere in a scant few decades. Progressive liberalization perhaps, but only in baby steps.
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psiga
saudade


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PostPosted: Sun Jan 17, 2010 11:03 am        Reply with quote

Adilegian wrote:
psiga wrote:
De rigueur, Fox News™.

Yeah, this is on the mark. After successive re-viewings, it's evident that this is more of the same kind of distracting nonsense as Robertson and Limbaugh themselves engage in, only from a vantage point that I have more emotional sympathy with.

I remember having a glimmer of bewildered pseudo-hope when Glen Beck (his history then unknown to me) was introduced to the network, and he was actually talking about some topics that I didn't expect to see on national television. And of course, it didn't take much to realize that he's just a caricature of those views, to the point of making a grand mockery of everything remotely associated to him.

That does seem to be the game: shouty caricatures of different views, spouting ridiculous hyperbole, untruths, half-truths, and random actual truths; blocked into demographically targeted segments, then touted as 'fair and balanced'.

Rational, truthful, honorable, intelligent, fair and balanced.
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psiga
saudade


Joined: 04 Dec 2006

PostPosted: Sun Jan 17, 2010 1:38 pm        Reply with quote

Mr. Mechanical wrote:
What You're Not Hearing about Haiti (But Should Be)

Spoilers: It's America's fault.

For anyone interested in the last hundred years'ish of Haiti's history, here's a War Nerd piece from a fistful of yeas back: http://exile.ru/articles/detail.php?ARTICLE_ID=7249&IBLOCK_ID=35&PAGE=1

Good times. Usual stunted developing nation: negligible infrastructure, fragmented culture, blatantly corrupt turnstile of government bodies, and it's a cesspool economically. The kind of place that you either leave to its own devices perpetually, or have a first world power occupy for a number of consecutive generations until enough of the murderous stupidity has been wrung out.

And now, a quote:
"On Wednesday, amid the aftermath of the Haitian earthquake, the most-read story on the BBC website was about a dog that was learning Polish. Will Davies ponders the popular fascination with animal stories, and wonders if it is "just a variant on pornography. The animals are, after all, usually naked""

Edit: I'm more a fan of dogs that ride public transport, myself.
"Neuronov says there are some 500 strays that live in the metro stations, especially during the colder months, but only about 20 have learned how to ride the trains. This happened gradually, first as a way to broaden their territory. Later, it became a way of life. “Why should they go by foot if they can move around by public transport?” he asks.

“They orient themselves in a number of ways,” Neuronov adds. “They figure out where they are by smell, by recognising the name of the station from the recorded announcer’s voice and by time intervals. If, for example, you come every Monday and feed a dog, that dog will know when it’s Monday and the hour to expect you, based on their sense of time intervals from their ­biological clocks.” "
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Adilegian
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Joined: 05 Dec 2006
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PostPosted: Sun Jan 17, 2010 5:00 pm        Reply with quote

Mr. Mechanical wrote:
Also a debate between Greenwald and Mr. Sunstein from 2008.

The more I listen to Sunstein, the slimier he sounds.
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psiga
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PostPosted: Mon Jan 18, 2010 10:29 am        Reply with quote

I enjoy Palast's old-time gumshoe style. I don't seem to like it enough to make a habit of visiting his site, though. Regardless! Happy Haiti update: http://www.gregpalast.com/the-right-testicle-of-hell-history-of-a-haitian-holocaust/
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Mr. Mechanical
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PostPosted: Mon Jan 18, 2010 7:21 pm        Reply with quote



Quote:
A group known as the “Christian mafia” is the oldest and arguably the most powerful and influential religious rights organization in the United States, says American author Jeff Sharlet.

He recently published a book entitled “The Family” in which he reveals how the group functions.

“It goes back to the 1930s. They don’t seek publicity. They like to refer to themselves as the ‘Christian mafia.’ The leaders say the more invisible you can make your organization the more influence it will have,” Sharlet told RT.

The group has “expansionist ideas of American power” that lead them to a very active role in foreign affairs, says the journalist.

In his book he describes, among other things, mechanisms through which the mafia influences other countries – mostly ones that are smaller and much weaker economically. For example, he claims the Family has been directly connected to Uganda’s new legislation that authorizes the execution of gays. Why do they need this? The answer is simple:

“There are a lot of policies they want to influence – gay laws and laws on abortion bring about economic changes,” Sharlet explains. “You go to a small country like Uganda or Somalia or Central America… A few US senators can have an outsized influence there and they can use those countries as guinea pigs for their religious right ideas. They can put into practice the very laws that they can’t get passed here.”

The idea is to sort of work from outside, the author says. “If you can build this in Central Asia, in Africa, even in Europe, all around the American empire, one day you look up and say – the rest of the world decided this is the way things should be.”

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Winona Ghost Ryder
lives in a monochromatic world


Joined: 04 Dec 2006

PostPosted: Mon Jan 18, 2010 10:47 pm        Reply with quote

GOD BLESS AMERICA! Again.
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Dracko
a sapphist fool


Joined: 06 Dec 2006

PostPosted: Tue Jan 19, 2010 4:56 am        Reply with quote


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psiga
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Joined: 04 Dec 2006

PostPosted: Tue Jan 19, 2010 6:24 am        Reply with quote

Mr. Mechanical wrote:
Quote:
A group known as the “Christian mafia” is the oldest and arguably the most powerful and influential religious rights organization in the United States, says American author Jeff Sharlet.

I haven't dwelt long on the topic of them, but I know that Reinhardt has been on the Opus Dei/Legatus trail for some time.
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Mr. Mechanical
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PostPosted: Tue Jan 19, 2010 6:45 am        Reply with quote

psiga wrote:
Mr. Mechanical wrote:
Quote:
A group known as the “Christian mafia” is the oldest and arguably the most powerful and influential religious rights organization in the United States, says American author Jeff Sharlet.

I haven't dwelt long on the topic of them, but I know that Reinhardt has been on the Opus Dei/Legatus trail for some time.


Yeah that Reinhardt fellow has really been instrumental in connecting some very interesting dots these past couple years in terms of explaining why the financial world behaves the way it does. It's creepy when the media starts seemingly reinforcing what he's been talking about. Also makes me wonder if he's doing what he's doing for the reasons he says he is (to help the little guy investor compete against the big guy investors) or if maybe he's got some other angle that no one's seeing (like he's one of the big guy investors leading everyone through the rose garden)or he's just in for the money, I mean he does ask a pretty hefty subscription price)). Good times. Feb. 9 is the one year anniversary for his site though, so be sure to remember to check it out on that day.

Just came across this excellent Jeff Rubin speech from last year.


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psiga
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Joined: 04 Dec 2006

PostPosted: Tue Jan 19, 2010 9:20 am        Reply with quote

Gist of his speech in a nutshell:
'Peak oil' is not about running out of oil, it's about running out of cheap oil.
The few nations still enjoying cheap gas are giving their developing economies preferred access.
India and China are going to put a massive number of new cars on their roads; you can't stop them.
Carbon taxes and tariffs, combined with increasing cost of fuel, are going to deter global export.
High cost of export/import will cause a resurgence of North American industries.

Did I miss anything? That's about it.
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psiga
saudade


Joined: 04 Dec 2006

PostPosted: Tue Jan 19, 2010 9:50 am        Reply with quote

Uh oh. My favorite biofuel guys are suddenly not talking about biofuel anymore. What the hell? http://www.valcent.net/s/Ecotech.asp?ReportID=182039

These guys were claiming at least 33k gallons of algae per acre, with upwards of 100k projected as they refined their technology. Even with the lower figure of 33k, at our current rate of consumption, it would require less than 10 million acres of arid/crappy land to replace 100% of America's oil appetite. Just 3 or so million acres if they achieve their projected outputs. (We use 440 million acres of arable/fertile land to grow our crops in America, by the way. Ten mil in the deserts of New Mexico et al wouldn't hurt a bit.)

They've practically whitewashed it, as far as I can see. All of the press releases about it have been removed, and old links have gone 404. Hm. The blog still has stuff, leading up to August. http://blog.valcent.net/?tag=algae

That's curious and not just a little bit disturbing.

Edit: Found an older news story from '08 that they don't list on their main news archive. http://www.valcent.net/s/RelatedArticles.asp?ReportID=327731 This is just plain strange.
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ninjafetus



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PostPosted: Tue Jan 19, 2010 2:02 pm        Reply with quote

Oh, those guys. I think my dad was acting as the go between for them and some of the NM indian tribes at one point. I'll ask him and see if he knows anything, but I think he's been off that for a while now, so no promises.
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boojiboy7
narcissistic irony-laden twat


Joined: 04 Dec 2006
Location: take me on a blatant doom trip.

PostPosted: Tue Jan 19, 2010 2:04 pm        Reply with quote

psiga wrote:
Mr. Mechanical wrote:
What You're Not Hearing about Haiti (But Should Be)

Spoilers: It's America's fault.

For anyone interested in the last hundred years'ish of Haiti's history, here's a War Nerd piece from a fistful of yeas back: http://exile.ru/articles/detail.php?ARTICLE_ID=7249&IBLOCK_ID=35&PAGE=1

Good times. Usual stunted developing nation: negligible infrastructure, fragmented culture, blatantly corrupt turnstile of government bodies, and it's a cesspool economically. The kind of place that you either leave to its own devices perpetually, or have a first world power occupy for a number of consecutive generations until enough of the murderous stupidity has been wrung out.


The problem of Haiti is that the "first-world" has made a perpetual habit of blocking Haiti from anything for years and years, back to the French blockading them. From my understanding of the history in that region, basically the slaves revolted, and Europe (and America) pretty much cut them off and to this day haven't done much to actually help it as a developing nation. In 18th and 19th century literature from Europe, Haiti has this awesome role as incredibly evil because, well, the black guys got to win there. Haiti got incredibly demonized, and as a result, has largely been ignored for centuries.

This is not to suggest that a nation can't establish itself without outside help (plenty of them have), but that when your nation starts in what was, by necessity, a violent revolt, the worst thing for stability is probably being entirely cut off from everyone for a couple hundred years.
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Adilegian
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PostPosted: Tue Jan 19, 2010 2:35 pm        Reply with quote

Mr. Mechanical wrote:
Quote:
A group known as the “Christian mafia” is the oldest and arguably the most powerful and influential religious rights organization in the United States, says American author Jeff Sharlet.

Oh! I remember coming across an interview with Sharlet on DemocracyNow.Org. It's a bit longer, and there's some different content in it than in the video you'd provided, Mech.
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CubaLibre
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PostPosted: Tue Jan 19, 2010 5:19 pm        Reply with quote

psiga wrote:
Gist of his speech in a nutshell:
'Peak oil' is not about running out of oil, it's about running out of cheap oil.
The few nations still enjoying cheap gas are giving their developing economies preferred access.
India and China are going to put a massive number of new cars on their roads; you can't stop them.
Carbon taxes and tariffs, combined with increasing cost of fuel, are going to deter global export.
High cost of export/import will cause a resurgence of North American industries.

Did I miss anything? That's about it.

This all sounds good to me, and it's also how I've understood the way things are going, so I'm glad someone smart enough to be on YouTube agrees.
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Shiren the Launderer



Joined: 25 Sep 2008

PostPosted: Tue Jan 19, 2010 7:22 pm        Reply with quote

The Guardian wrote:
Cruise ships still find a Haitian berth

Luxury liners are still docking at private beaches near Haiti's devastated earthquake zone for holidaymakers to enjoy the water
Latest: Cruise company to donate sun loungers to Haiti makeshift hospital

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jan/17/cruise-ships-haiti-earthquake
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extrabastardformula
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Joined: 01 Jan 2007
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PostPosted: Tue Jan 19, 2010 8:46 pm        Reply with quote

Shiren the Launderer wrote:
The Guardian wrote:
Cruise ships still find a Haitian berth

Luxury liners are still docking at private beaches near Haiti's devastated earthquake zone for holidaymakers to enjoy the water
Latest: Cruise company to donate sun loungers to Haiti makeshift hospital

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jan/17/cruise-ships-haiti-earthquake
Charity as a replacement for justice. It's the american way!
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psiga
saudade


Joined: 04 Dec 2006

PostPosted: Wed Jan 20, 2010 6:05 am        Reply with quote

boojiboy7 wrote:
This is not to suggest that a nation can't establish itself without outside help (plenty of them have), but that when your nation starts in what was, by necessity, a violent revolt, the worst thing for stability is probably being entirely cut off from everyone for a couple hundred years.

Yeah, I totally said that poorly — I was just thinking that this last thing "we" did to "help" them back in the '90s came off more as exploitative capitalistic nationbuilding as a business plan for rich whities, rather than an earnest attempt at letting them develop their own strengths at their own pace. I thought that, and then apparently wrote "fuck it, let them rot" instead. Yay!

ninjafetus wrote:
Oh, those guys. I think my dad was acting as the go between for them and some of the NM indian tribes at one point. I'll ask him and see if he knows anything, but I think he's been off that for a while now, so no promises.

Trés cool, thanks. It's probably something that happened within the last six months or so, so yeah, no expectations.
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Mr. Mechanical
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PostPosted: Thu Jan 21, 2010 2:04 am        Reply with quote

The Guantánamo “Suicides”: A Camp Delta sergeant blows the whistle

Your tax dollars at work.
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psiga
saudade


Joined: 04 Dec 2006

PostPosted: Thu Jan 21, 2010 9:06 am        Reply with quote

My mom got me a gitmo shirt for xmas.



I might re-gift it to stot some day.
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Toto



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PostPosted: Thu Jan 21, 2010 9:43 am        Reply with quote

Mr. Mechanical wrote:
The Guantánamo “Suicides”: A Camp Delta sergeant blows the whistle

Your tax dollars at work.


i started crying reading this. fucking hell.
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psiga
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Joined: 04 Dec 2006

PostPosted: Thu Jan 21, 2010 2:55 pm        Reply with quote

I figured they woulda kept the CIA parts farther away. What a sloppy job.

Or maybe it wasn't CIA. Just because some plainclothes people were assumed to be from that organization, it doesn't mean they necessarily were. Overtly removing paper-trailed detainees from publically-acknowledged Naval base manned by not-CIA-psych-evaluated officers and then returning them after oops'ing them to death doesn't seem like a clean job that I'd associate with the really hard boiled.

Ah well. On one hand I like that the public is getting to see more and more and more of the reality of war; on the other hand I know that the dark agencies are just going to learn to keep things darker.
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Dark Age Iron Savior
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PostPosted: Thu Jan 21, 2010 3:34 pm        Reply with quote

SCOTUS apparently just ruled (5-4) that, correct me if I'm wrong, corporations and unions have no restrictions on financing political campaign media (such as attack ads).

also there's no back(?)slash on this virtual keyboard so I have to go :/

wtf is ð
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Shiren the Launderer



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PostPosted: Thu Jan 21, 2010 4:18 pm        Reply with quote

(ð )
-_-
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CubaLibre
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Joined: 02 Mar 2007
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PostPosted: Thu Jan 21, 2010 5:27 pm        Reply with quote

psiga wrote:
Or maybe it wasn't CIA. Just because some plainclothes people were assumed to be from that organization, it doesn't mean they necessarily were. Overtly removing paper-trailed detainees from publically-acknowledged Naval base manned by not-CIA-psych-evaluated officers and then returning them after oops'ing them to death doesn't seem like a clean job that I'd associate with the really hard boiled.

You associate the CIA with clean jobs?
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psiga
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PostPosted: Thu Jan 21, 2010 8:06 pm        Reply with quote

Clean enough to not be overtly removing paper-trailed detainees from publicly-acknowledged Naval base manned by not-CIA-psych-evaluated officers and then returning them after oops'ing them to death, anyway. That is such poor form.

If it is CIA, then they should know better, and really deserve every bit of shit that they get for this.

Rule #1: Don't do bad things.

Rule #2: Failing that, don't get caught doing bad things.
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extrabastardformula
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PostPosted: Thu Jan 21, 2010 11:04 pm        Reply with quote

Rule #3: don't be in a position where anybody catching you doing bad things has what it takes to prove it or bring any sort of punishment against you without destroying themselves.
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CubaLibre
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PostPosted: Thu Jan 21, 2010 11:13 pm        Reply with quote

psiga wrote:
Clean enough to not be overtly removing paper-trailed detainees from publicly-acknowledged Naval base manned by not-CIA-psych-evaluated officers and then returning them after oops'ing them to death, anyway. That is such poor form.

And standard CIA procedure. I don't know what you've read that has ever suggested that the CIA is anything but a bunch of clowns. Their image in the popular media of a razor-sharp organization of keen minds and endless secrets is just that, a popular image. Same as the popular image of the police is as an organization that can catch any criminal with the power of science. In reality each is a bloated and thoroughly corrupt bureaucracy concerned only with perpetuating itself as a political institution with no inherent interest, and little talent or expertise, in doing whatever it is they are "supposed" to be doing.
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psiga
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PostPosted: Fri Jan 22, 2010 12:33 am        Reply with quote

I didn't think of them as razor sharp. Just figured that they'd have enough experience sending people-who-don't-exist to procure people-who-soon-won't-exist and go to places-that-don't-exist to do things-that-never-happened, that they wouldn't be like hey if we drive to this shack that's just on the outskirts of this highly publicized base (see it there on the aerial view??) then nobody will ever find us!!

I guess the idea is that they, whomever they are, thought they'd be able to write anything off as 'a suicide'.

Super disappointed in them itt.
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Swimmy



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PostPosted: Fri Jan 22, 2010 3:58 am        Reply with quote

Cuba's spot-on. The history of the CIA is the history of failure. My guess based on that is they're not even very good at sending people-who-don't-blah-blah to do blah. But of course it's all SEKRIT so you never know.
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Mr. Mechanical
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PostPosted: Fri Jan 22, 2010 4:18 am        Reply with quote

Dark Age Iron Savior wrote:
SCOTUS apparently just ruled (5-4) that, correct me if I'm wrong, corporations and unions have no restrictions on financing political campaign media (such as attack ads).


No that's right. I read about it today on my phone between classes. Really depressing stuff if this ruling stands. How can ordinary people like you or me compete with companies worth billion of dollars over who has more influence over our elected representatives, especially now that the SCOTUS is saying it's alright for those companies/unions to use their money as campaign donations? The American people need to incorporate and buy their own damn lobbyists, it would seem. Checkbook democracy just became official.

The mid-term elections this year are going to be a freak show.
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