Columbia Journalism Review on the Afghan war wikileaks

Campaign Desk — July 26, 2010 03:18 PM

The Assange Leaks

What’s new about the WikiLeaks data?

By Joshua Foust
Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, has compared his organization’s latest leak of almost 92,000 U.S. military documents relating to the war in Afghanistan to “opening the Stasi archives” in East Germany after the fall of the Berlin Wall. He also compared the leak to Daniel Ellsberg’s leaking of the Pentagon Papers....


..Did we know the ISI, Pakistan’s intelligence service, was supporting the Taliban in Afghanistan?

Fucking DUH!

Some articles just make me smile

Confiscated weapons to be melted into rebar
July 26, 2010 | 10:40 am Los Angeles Times
Weapons were on display Monday at Los Angeles County Sheriff's headquarters, where Sheriff Lee Baca announced the destruction of more than 8,300 weapons confiscated from criminals in Los Angeles County. The guns will be converted Tuesday morning into steel rebar as part of "Project Isaiah." Tamco Steel donates its furnace, equipment and personnel to convert the weapons into rebar, and will allocate the steel from the melted weapons to be used forupgrades to freeways and bridges in California, Nevada and Arizona.

Photo credit: Gary Friedman / Los Angeles Time

Arizona Immigration Law Came After Years Of Mounting Anger

.
I have heard someone I know and care about who is actually pretty liberal complain about the crime in Phoenix for 20 years. They just recently moved out to avoid it. Yes, people who deal with the problems of illegal immigration have a right to be angry. Wow, can't wait to be attacked for echoing the sentiments of someone who ACTUALLY LIVED WITH IT AND DEALT WITH IT FOR 20 YEARS.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Update Jul 25, 8pm -- Yup, 4 attackers so far...and um... 5 favorited on the comment and a new fan. Oh Jeez, they will probably drop off when they realize that I actually am liberal in most respects. I may sound like a raving right winger when it comes to illegal immigration, but I want the immigration system reformed. The system doesn't work now, not for anyone (except Big Ag) and certainly not for people trying to escape the corrupt oligarchy that is Mexico.

Oh Holy Gawd this guy is funny

For those of you who are not familiar with Johnny Virgil over at 15 Minute Lunch go, he's hilarious, here's a sample of what he does so well:

" This is your ass on drugs "

Bookmark his site, he just might make a really crappy day better. He did that for me today.

Should Shirley Sherrod sue Andrew Breitbart and Fox News?

	Should Shirley Sherrod Sue Andrew Breitbart and Fox News?
	By JOHN W. DEAN
	Friday, July 9, 2010

Dean says:

"...Frankly, if I found myself in Shirley Sherrod's situation, I would file a lawsuit next week. But I could represent myself in court, and would take delight in going after a jackass like Breitbart, not to mention Fox News, to expose what they are doing. For me, the reward would be holding them accountable for even nominal damages and making their lives miserable.

There is little doubt that such a legal action could proceed beyond any initial motions seeking immediate dismissal. And after that crucial threshold, I would have subpoena power and the ability to question those involved under oath. This would make it possible to fully uncover how this fraud was actually perpetrated. While I might enjoy doing this, I cannot recommend that anyone without legal training and litigation experience get into what might nicely be described as a brawl with skunks..."

Hmmm. Isn't any fight with Fox news rather like a fight with skunks? Dean knows law, so if he says it's probably better for her to take another avenue that might be more beneficial for her, then it probably is.

Crap

All this headache for a printer? Useless tech support? Seriously, a 2 hour wait only to be told to call the other manufacturer? So the other manufacturer tech support calls involve 3 calls and 3 times they hung up on me. This is after two days worth of trying to use the support websites. Why is it that no matter what the problem might be, it's blamed on the other manufacturer?

Retired Top Cops Slam Arguments Against Legalizing Pot

"...In an exclusive interview, the former police chief of San Jose and the former deputy police chief of Los Angeles County — both members of LEAP — took to task those favoring continued prohibition, insisting that both Sen. Feinstein and MADD level an “emotional, unreasoned” argument for keeping pot illegal....

...The main thrust of their argument is that due to the ballot initiative’s wording, officers or other public officials would not be able to take preemptive action against stoned drivers: they’d have to wait for accidents to happen. Much of the argument focuses on school bus drivers, and how they could be permitted to ingest marijuana and transport children, leaving the hands of authority bound until someone got hurt..."

Hmmm, never thought of that, stoned drivers...

OMFG, could they possibly be worse than the assholes out there that are on meth, or hopped up on testosterone or just plain stressed out????? I betcha a lotta fuel gets saved by stoners, and wasted by tweakers. I don't even like pot and I think that it's retarded that it's illegal.

You know you have been messing round with computer stuff too long

when you almost Google "troubleshoot pituitary gland" when you want to look up some medical info for a friend.

Well surprise surprise

Report: Afghan, Iraq wars teaching US gang members military combat
By Daniel Tencer
Sunday, July 18th, 2010 -- 2:26 pm


Nah, please tell me I wasn't right.

Ummmm... I was right.

Three of Every Four Oil & Gas Lobbyists Worked for Federal Government

BP Hires Prison Labor to Clean Up Spill While Coastal Residents Struggle

Abe Louise Young

July 21, 2010 (The Nation)

"...Businesses earn a tax credit of $2,400 for every work release inmate they hire. On top of that, they can earn back up to 40 percent of the wages they pay annually to "target group workers."

Another dead energy bill

Lack of votes for Senate Democrats' energy bill may mean the end
By Perry Bacon Jr.
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, July 23, 2010

"...Conceding that they can't find enough votes for the legislation, Senate Democrats on Thursday abandoned efforts to put together a comprehensive energy bill that would seek to curb greenhouse gas emissions, delivering a potentially fatal blow to a proposal the party has long touted and President Obama campaigned on..."

"...Republicans took delight in the dispute..."

Bowing to political reality, Senate Democrats drop broad energy bill

"...It would drop the two most aggressive and controversial provisions of the energy bill that passed the House last year: a market-based cap on greenhouse gas emissions and nationwide mandates for renewable electricity generation.

Gee. What a surprise.

Yesterday I saw a bumper sticker that said "I'll keep my guns and my money and you can keep the change." I laughed when I saw a woman with a tight spaghetti strap top, waaaaaay too much muffin top and a baby on her hip climbing into the same adorned vehicle.

Twas obvious that she wasn't aware that change happens anyway.

DiFi sucks

LA Times / By Paul Armentano

39 COMMENTS

Sen. Dianne Feinstein's Wrong-Headed Opposition to Marijuana Legalization

Prohibition has failed, yet Feinstein's arguments against Proposition 19 suggest she is comfortable with the unacceptable status quo.

Democrat Dianne Feinstein, California's senior U.S. senator, has thrown her weight behind the effort to defeat Proposition 19, the Regulate, Control and Tax Cannabis Initiative of 2010.

DiFi and Blum: a Marriage Marinated in Money
How Imperial San Franciscans Loot the Planet
By WILL PARRISH and DARWIN BOND-GRAHAM

"Top Secret America" Washington Post Investigation

An explosive investigative series published in the Washington Post today begins, "The top-secret world the government created in response to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, has become so large, so unwieldy and so secretive that no one knows how much money it costs, how many people it employs, how many programs exist within it or exactly how many agencies do the same work." Among the findings: An estimated 854,000 people hold top-secret security clearances. More than 1,200 government organizations and nearly 2,000 private companies work on programs related to counterterrorism, homeland security and intelligence in 10,000 locations. We speak with one of the co-authors of the series, Bill Arkin.

Everybody is blogging about about this. I knew about this shit in the 80's and I KNEW it was going to explode after 9/11, even though I didn't quite know why. Now I do. The M-I-C is like bacteria or virus, it adapts in order to live and grow stronger. I've been watching the adaptations from the black heart of the M-I-C since the late 70's. I've lived my whole life in San Diego. I call SD the black heart of the M-I-C, but it's really DC and Virginia. You think in a city that is basically one big military base we don't have companies like Northrop Grumman, SAIC, General Dynamics, BAE....you want me to go on?

New AZ flag

My mother sent me this. She lives there. She also sent me some R wing (she's not r-wing, by the way, not at all!) e-mail that had been debunked by snopes.

I should be interested in this

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Committee vote Tuesday on Kagan court nomination
By MARK SHERMAN Associated Press Writer

I've been distracted lately. I don't know anything about Kagan.

What a day

Went to urgent care with bug bite that swelled up. I figured I should because I've killed brown widows and black widows on my porch, even though I didn't see what bit me and it didn't hurt, it just itched a bit for the first 24 hours and kept swelling. I got the runs from the antibiotics and found two more bites that are swelling quickly. Not that my idiot husband gives a crap, he'd probably be relieved if I died. Seriously. He won't even vacuum or spray his room. Hmmmmm. Come to think of it....(Oh come on you married people, you've never thought "I wish he/she would just fucking die?")

So then I went to the periodontist and I found out I need another bone graft surgery. You know, it hurts when they stick that damned measuring thing down in between your gums and your teeth, I don't care how big those pockets are. It hurts. And oh yeah, the insurance won't pay for all of it. $950 in premiums a year and they won't cover $2600. What the fuck makes shareholders more important than the people who make money for them? Greedy fucking fucks.

I dunno when I"m going to have time to take the car in to fix the latest ding. I didn't do it, and the other guy's insurance is paying. The dang car is cursed, I swear. Very first decent car I've ever owned and somebody has backed into the side of me 4 times in 10 years and I only put 8,000 miles a year on it, so you know I don't drive much. Not to mention the damned tree that fell on it the 2nd month I had it and did half what we paid for it in damages.

Hmmm come to think of it, maybe I'm the one that's cursed.

Reading now

The Killing Hands by P.D. Martin.

Fun little romp, but not in a chick flick, gooey romance kind of way. More fun than political news because it's fiction. Nice little escape from the heat when I turn off the computer because it's hot, I don't have air conditioning and I don't want it to overheat when it's 97 (F) fucking degrees outside.

I have noticed something about Aussie actors, and now writers. I don't care how good an Australian actor's American accent is, they obviously feel the need to sneak in the fact that they are from Oz by using Australian idioms. From a native Californian's perspective, it's jarring, discordant, distracting and frankly, a bit arrogant.

And that comes from someone who actually likes Aussies, Scots and the Irish, but tends to bristle around the English, Afrikaners, and at times, upper caste Indians.

Dudette. Little miss P.D. Martin, here's a little tip for you; a character from California (and increasingly, all over the US) is much more likely to use a Spanish, French or Italian phrase than they are something like "early days." I know it's common amongst Brits and Aussies, but umm... yeah, could be why I got your book for free, and it wudn't from the library.

This is one reason why I think marijuana should be legalized

Legalization of Pot in California Could Hurt Mexican Cartels
by SOURCE on JULY 17, 2010
in CIVIL RIGHTS & LIBERTIES, CULTURE, ECONOMY

"...Estimates vary, but analysts say pot accounts for somewhere in the range of 20 to 50 percent of the cartels’ profits..."

Only Republicans like Sarah Palin

and stupid ones at that. (any excuse to use Molly McMooseturd's image, man I love that flaming turd costume. She is the flaming turd queen, isn't she?)

"..The numbers from Gallup tell the story. Palin has a whopping 76 percent favorability rating among Republicans; only 20 percent don't like her. That's significantly higher than the other GOP 2012 hopefuls....

Dayum there are a lot of stupid Republicans.

Anybody else heard about this?

US Military Surge in Costa Rica May Fan Regional Tensions

With the “War on Drugs” as Pretext, 46 Warships and 7,000 Troops Reported to Be Heading to Central American Country and Coast

By Jamie Way
Special to The Narco News Bulletin
July 14, 2010

It's already 91degrees fahrenheit

and I'm making vegetable lasagna. WTF is wrong with me? I don't have air conditioning. Well, it's done, cooling and the oven is open to dissipate some of the heat. Hope it's edible, I kind of went a little crazy with the garlic in the sauce I cooked all night in the crock pot.

I watched "The Lone Gunmen" pilot episode last night because I had read somewhere that the episode dealt with an airplane attack on the World Trade Center and thought the timing strange. The debut of the show was in March 2001 and the episode dealt with a government conspiracy behind the attack.

I couldn't help but wonder if Dick Cheney saw that episode as one line in the movie totally creeped me out. Someone was explaining why the government might be behind the attack and the reason was that the arms market was flat because the US had no enemies to fight since the break up of the USSR.

I think that some in government think we are stupid. The military can't solve problems anymore, it's the economy stupid. Anybody that separates national security from politics and economics is stupid, ignorant and apathetic, or too damn brainwashed to believe that anyone in our government would do anything to harm it's citizens. More accurately, a few rogue elements in high places who let the arms industries lead them around by their dicks. Or by a Dick. Or with a Dick, or...something.

Fuck the DEA

Raid Legal Marijuana Farm, Destroy Crops
Agents descended on the property of Joy Greenfield with guns drawn, tore out the plants and took Greenfield's computer and cash.

Goddamned asinine cowboy asshole fuckheads. I swear there are some people in law enforcement who are seriously fucked in the head. And lazy. And stupid. And cowardly.

Comcast and NBC Universal

Gawd, I've been a bad politicky blogger lately.


FCC Requests Input On Comcast, NBC Universal Deal listen

Showdown in Chicago over the Comcast-NBCU deal
Posted on Mon, Jul. 12, 2010
By Bob Fernandez
Inquirer Staff Writer
The activist group Free Press published a full-page "wanted" poster in a Chicago alternative weekly for no-show Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski and has been blasting out e-mail alerts about Tuesday's public hearing on Comcast Corp.'s proposed deal to acquire control of NBC Universal Inc.

The event in Chicago, hosted by the FCC, promises lively political theater over media consolidation issues with five hours of testimony from supporters and opponents of the $30 billion Comcast-NBCU deal and two hours of "open microphone" public comment.

Senator Al Franken doesn't like it.

"Franken has become the lead voice opposing the merger of NBC and Comcast, a position Democrats on the Judiciary Committee are only happy to cede him given his first-hand experience in the entertainment industry and as a former NBC employee."

Economic worries cast a cloud at media conference
By ANDREW VANACORE (AP) – 3 days ag0
"In past years, the ground work for some major deals has been laid here, including the pending takeover of NBC Universal by cable TV provider Comcast Corp."

Comcast knows how to play the pork game:

"Perhaps you recall $40 million to Philly-based Comcast in Ed's first term. He's paid by Comcast as a football analyst. His forever adviser David L. Cohen is a Comcast vice president. And we're asked to believe that the monster cable company (it bought NBC last December for $13.7 billion in cash and assets) would leave its hometown starving if it didn't get a slice of the public pie."

My friend just told me about this English girl

who spends time filming old 78s spinning and uploading the videos to YouTube.

Kinda fun, her YouTube channel:

78s4FR's Channel

Great way to avoid grocery shopping, eh? Man, I just don't want to go, even though I am sick of frozen foods.

So I guess the 70's didn't totally suck

I'm not goo-goo for Gaga. Many of the electronically filtered voices, synth beats, and tedious lyrics just don't do it for me. In fact, they irritate the crap out of me.

Hey kids, hate to tell you this, but the shock factor of "Lady" Gaga been done before. She was called Madonna and it didn't take her 3 minutes to start the dance-schlock-synth-pop bullshit. Ho hum. Wow, did you kids know that before MTV and YouTube videos that musicians actually had to do more than look interesting? Whoa, what a concept. Some really good songs came from people who didn't look good?

OH. MY. GOD.

Oh lovely, is this what the Brits think of us Californians?

Crapola. I have a now local friend who helped put men on the moon, not helped moon men.

Seriously, my friend was an Apollo test engineer. I've never heard of the yearly ritual of mooning Amtrak before. I have lived my whole life in in Southern California and I have been goofing around online since 1995 and had to find out from the BBC about this ritual and the website Moon Amtrak. org

The Dancing Boys of Afghanistan

Watch here at PBS Frontline if you've the stomach for it. I found it disturbing (like nauseating) as I would hope any mother would. The last few years while we have been in Afghanistan things that the Taliban banned have returned, and not good ones. This thing they call bacha bazi is a revolting practice.

I hate Wordpress

Can't set your username or password. It's a fucking pain in the ass. Wordpress users, hope you don't give a shit whether I ever comment again. Fuck Wordpress.

BP Makes Me Sick

I finally got around to reading my email this morning. I opened this

Is the web editor at BBC amused?

I sure was when I saw both of these article titles on the same page within centimeters of each other:

Cameroon denies homosexuals harassed

Black hole blows huge gas bubble