June 22, 2013

A word about the BOG:

Don't like it?







Just kidding. It's a fun place and all are welcome and the hosts there are the nicest DUers you'll ever meet. They'll make you feel welcome even if you're a newbie and find a picture to make you laugh if you're feeling down. You'll leave feeling glad you voted Dem all over again!



So come on down and say hi, but do keep in mind that it's a protected group and unloading the latest nut-rage is generally frowned on: http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=forum&id=1102

June 21, 2013

Those are fine points, thank you. Here's what I would add:

It's important to remember that while they may use the same tools, or "repressive state apparatus" if you want to sound ponderous, the Bush-Cheney and Obama administrations were and are using them to different purposes. So while it's possible that Bush-Cheney had assorted nefarious motives with their rendition and torture operations, including terrorist recruitment, I see no evidence that the Obama admin does. From what I can gather Obama is using drones for what he keeps telling us they're being used for, i.e., to curb terrorism.

That's a police function and that's exactly how Kerry in 2004 said he would approach terrorism. And the available evidence suggests to me that that's what's happening: instead of increasing recruitment, as Chomsky and others would like us to believe so as to transfer Bush-Cheney crimes to the black guy, Obama and Kerry seem in fact to be diminishing it. And if you read the articles you posted it's easy to see why: if you were a teenager in Yemen and there were drones hovering around I imagine it would curb your appetite for mischief in the same way police cruisers do in small towns.


p.s. I often suspected that the torture prisons were experiments in terrorist creation, but from what I can gather it doesn't work -- innocent torture victims when released make every effort to resume what's left of their previous lives, as do combatants, if their war is still on, otherwise they return to civilian life. So there's little or no net gain in terrorism.

June 21, 2013

I'm afraid he's very wrong. He offers no evidence that Obama is "dedicated to increasing terror"

in any real way and Chomsky's claim is insulting and ridiculous. Nor does he offer any evidence that "terror" is actually increasing anywhere, just speculation:

Uh, no Noam. How do "we react to acts of terror"? Let's see, there was 9/11, a spectacular, internationally televised and re-televised catastrophe widely exploited by the US media in collusion with Bush administration as war propaganda. If present-day drone strikes on Pakistani farmers compare in any conceivable way to 9/11 Chomsky doesn't say so. In other words this article a silly pack of lies.

June 20, 2013

GTF outta here

p.s. to all BOGgers!

June 20, 2013

Strong rec and 2 points:

1 - Dissenters, please at least read the thread title. ProSense is not saying it's all about race. It's all about hate and theres no shortage of that:

2 - A few weeks back a poster asked a question I couldn't answer: if mainstream and alternative media are both unreliable, what would I consider a reliable source of political news? Well, I figured out the answer and it's right here on DU, namely ProSense, who can always be trusted to to find the needle in the haystack and post a link to it before the MSM turns the on lights in the studio. As for racism, ProSense has twice put it very diplomatically, so I'll put it more bluntly: if you think it has nothing to do with race, then it does.

June 19, 2013

EarlG you have a knack

p.s. LBN link : http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014512236

UK Telegraph: Barack Obama calls for nuclear stockpile reduction in Berlin

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/barackobama/10130273/Barack-Obama-calls-for-nuclear-stockpile-reduction-in-Berlin.html

June 19, 2013

Here's last night's interview with Charlie Rose

in case it hasn't been already posted. I couldn't figure out which thread to put it in, NSA or Ireland:
...................
President Barack Obama Sits Down with Charlie Rose 06/17/2013 (FULL INTERVIEW)

President Barack Obama sits down with Charlie Rose for an exclusive interview at the White House. The President shares his thoughts on Iran, Syria, China. NSA leaks, and more.

Published on Jun 17, 2013 - 50 minutes.
...................
Link borrowed from Uzair's excellent "Is It Because He's Black?" thread here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=3042330

Highlights:

1 - Iran, Syria, and China - first 25 minutes

2 - NSA-gate starts at 25 minutes

3 - A few words from Charlie about Fathers' Day and Ireland, then about 5 minutes of PBO's Belfast speech at the end.

June 18, 2013

Wikileaks released the "hacked" CRU emails, a deed Assange proudly takes credit for here:

June 18, 2013

He's in character at the moment, playing the part of the disappointed Obama supporter

but apparently he's a former male model, read actor, so I suspect his entire backstory including you-know-who is a lot of baloney. I seriously doubt if he knows much more than what he's been coached to say, which is basically Manning was coached to say, and exactly what fake-left luminaries like Hedges say every chance they get:

“I pointed out where the NSA has hacked civilian infrastructure such as universities, hospitals and private businesses because it is dangerous,” he wrote in the online Q&A, adding that part of what motivated him to leak the details was his disillusionment with Obama’s failure to live up to some of his 2008 campaign promises.

“Obama’s campaign promises and election gave me faith that he would lead us toward fixing the problems he outlined in his quest for votes. Many Americans felt similarly,” he said. “Unfortunately, shortly after assuming power, he closed the door on investigating systemic violations of law, deepened and expanded several abusive programs, and refused to spend the political capital to end the kind of human rights violations like we see in Guantanamo, where men still sit without charge.”

http://www.france24.com/en/20130617-snowden-guardian-nsa-surveillance-obama-cheney-china

Let's see, Paul supporter Snowden was disillusioned by Obama's "human rights violations" at Guantanamo so he slipped classified US intel to the Guardian to splash around the world at politically embarrassing moments like the G8?



Heck yeah, I believe that, you betcha!