Oceania, some of you wont get it.

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Mon, 20 May 2013 20:15:49 -0400

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Mon, 20 May 2013 19:02:57 -0400

i-needyoulikewaterinmylungs: thinksquad: “He who joyfully...

Mon, 20 May 2013 14:24:27 -0400

thinksquad:

“He who joyfully marches to music rank and file, has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would surely suffice. This disgrace to civilization should be done away with at once. Heroism at command, how violently I hate all this, how despicable and ignoble war is; I would rather be torn to shreds than be a part of so base an action. It is my conviction that killing under the cloak of war is nothing but an act of murder.”

~Albert Einstein

Says the man ultimately responsible for the creation of the atomic bomb.
But this is horrible nonetheless.

"Let’s face it, the Dow is so high not because the economy is great, or even because it is projected..."

Mon, 20 May 2013 07:56:20 -0400

“Let’s face it, the Dow is so high not because the economy is great, or even because it is projected to be great soon. It’s mostly inflated out of a combination of easy Fed money for banks, which translates to easy money for people who are already rich, and the fact that world-wide investors are afraid of Europe and are parking their money in the U.S. until the Euro problem gets solved. In other words, that money is going to go away if people decide Europe looks stable, or if the Fed decides to raise interest rates. The latter might happen when the economy (or rather, if the economy) looks better, so putting that together we’re talking about a possible negative stock market response to a positive economic outlook. The stock market has officially become decoupled from our nation’s future.”

- mathbabe (via azspot)

misspiffylizzy143: Miguel like “IM ABOUT TO DIVVVVVEEEE I- OH...

Mon, 20 May 2013 07:19:44 -0400

misspiffylizzy143:

Miguel like “IM ABOUT TO DIVVVVVEEEE I- OH SH*T

dolce-vita-lifestyle: La Dolce Vita got damm that chick on the...

Sun, 19 May 2013 15:54:22 -0400

dolce-vita-lifestyle:

La Dolce Vita

got damm that chick on the right is smoking

hipsterlibertarian: The force-feeding room and restraint chair...

Sat, 18 May 2013 21:02:12 -0400

hipsterlibertarian:

The force-feeding room and restraint chair being used at Guantanamo Bay in response to the detainee hunger strike.

Worse Than The AP Phone Scandal | Ken Klippenstein

Sat, 18 May 2013 18:13:48 -0400

Worse Than The AP Phone Scandal | Ken Klippenstein:

Before Attorney General Eric Holder oversaw a Justice Department that secretly seized AP journalists’ phone records, he was guilty of something even worse, and closely related to the AP scandal. He argued a little-known case before the Supreme Court called Holder v. Humanitarian Law Project, which found that speech (and other forms of nonviolent advocacy) could be construed as material support for terrorist organizations. The case involved a U.S.-based non-profit organization, the Humanitarian Law Project, which, according to its website, is “dedicated to protecting human rights and promoting the peaceful resolution of conflict by using established international human rights laws and humanitarian law.” It also enjoys a consultive status at the UN; so, in other words, hardly a radical organization.

The Humanitarian Law Project advised groups designated by the Secretary of State as “terror organizations” to enter into peace negotiations and the UN process. Holder argued that such advice was the same as material support for terrorist organizations. Elena Kagan (at the time Obama’s Solicitor General appointee) formally assisted Holder in his argument. Holder and Kagan won the case. Shortly thereafter, Obama promoted her to Supreme Court Justice. Back when he was a Senator, Obama wrote, “There is one way, over the long haul, to guarantee the appointment of judges that are sensitive to issues of social justice, and that is to win the right to appoint them by recapturing the presidency”. To the layperson, social justice and civil liberties would seem to be related; but Harvard-educated constitutional law scholars know better.

The High Court’s decision in favor of the Obama administration prompted criticism from President Jimmy Carter:

“We are disappointed that the Supreme Court has upheld a law that inhibits the work of human rights and conflict resolution groups. The ‘material support law’ – which is aimed at putting an end to terrorism – actually threatens our work and the work of many other peacemaking organizations that must interact directly with groups that have engaged in violence. The vague language of the law leaves us wondering if we will be prosecuted for our work to promote peace and freedom.”

Noam Chomsky has described Holder v. Humanitarian Law as “the first major attack on freedom of speech in the United States since the notorious Smith Act back around 1940.” I emailed him, asking why things like Obama’s NDAA are getting so much more attention than far more harmful Holder v. Humanitarian Law. Chomsky wrote back, “I agree with you that this is far more important than NDAA, and have been arguing that for some time, with no effect.”

Just as the Obama administration stifled speech in Holder v. Humanitarian Law, they did the same thing when they targeted AP journalists. Quite likely, the journalist’s great sin was exposing the story of a CIA operation in Yemen. We don’t know why the administration needs to know the identity of the journalist responsible for the story, because they won’t say. However, Holder assures us that “This was a very serious—a very serious leak, and a very, very serious leak.”

Very well put, Holder.

Given Obama’s enthusiasm for prosecuting whistleblowers, one might be led to think that he’s opposed to leaks. Not so, as evidenced by Obama’s leak of his “kill list” to the Times for political gain—among other intentional leaks. The “kill list” represented a top-secret leak, unlike the lower security clearance level of so many leaks that the administration has prosecuted with alacrity. The effect of Obama’s leak prosecutions, coupled with his hypocritical employment of leaks, is to concentrate power in his own hands. (History shows how well it turns out when charismatic leaders are permitted to consolidate power.) As constitutional and civil rights litigator Glenn Greenwald’s careful analysis of the topic has argued,

“Their unprecedented attacks on whistleblowers ensures that only the White House but nobody else can disclose classified information to the public, which is another way of saying that they seek to seize the ultimate propaganda model whereby the president and he alone controls the flow of information to the public. That’s what their very selective and self-serving war on leaks achieves.”

By use of the term ‘propaganda model,’ Greenwald is probably referring to Chomsky and Herman’s landmark book, Manufacturing Consent. The book demonstrated empirically that the mainstream media are biased in the favor of elite interests, largely because the information it disseminates is subject to five different filters (things like corporate ownership). Obama is trying to introduce a sixth filter, namely himself. Simply put, Obama is attempting to acquire a monopoly on leaks—a chilling prospect. [++]

Benghazi

Fri, 17 May 2013 22:57:46 -0400

What I just posted about Lybia is somewhat provocative I suppose for some people because of my current profession but it should not be provocative. The CIA has been killing people around the world for a very long time. They have done this under the disguise of an Intelligence agency and in the defense of the homeland. There is a vein within the department is nefarious and compartmentalized. It ensures the left hand never knows what the right hand is doing. They have a long record of this in South America, Haiti, and other counties around the world. What happened in Benghazi is text book, the CIA enters the country under the disguise of diplomatic business and malfeasance ensues. They destabilized Lybia and took down the president. This is not new, this is the similar action taken during the elections in Venezuela. Destabilization is their specialty, and they have been at it for over 50 years what people need to understand is had the CIA compound not been funneling guns and training death squads. Has anyone noticed not one word has been mentioned about quadaffis other son, the one who was not killed, at least that we know of. The men who died at that compound were CIA destabilizers and the ambassador was acting like all others, he was facilitating the problem. How come no their americans were hurt or killed. This was a targeted strike by so called militants and those men were sent to die by their country. The American people are being lied to every step of the way and they don’t even know it. Slight if hand politics is being initiated and it working every step of the way.

Benghazi, Petraeus, and the CIA | Horace Campbell

Fri, 17 May 2013 21:23:01 -0400

Benghazi, Petraeus, and the CIA | Horace Campbell:

What Greg Hicks and Representative Darrell Issa did not probe was the role of the CIA and Petraeus in the use of Benghazi as the largest CIA station in North Africa, where they ran militias into Syria. When the information about the attack on the US ‘facility’ in Benghazi was first brought to light, there was confusion because this information had the potential of putting the vaunted military in its proper perspective. Was the space that was attacked a consulate, a State Department facility, a CIA safe house, or indeed a prison for captured militias? This confusion took attention away from the reality that elements in the military/intelligence hierarchy had formulated a policy to align with certain militia groups in Eastern Libya and that these militias (sometimes called jihadists) had in the past been linked to groups that the U.S. called ‘terrorist organizations.’ France, the CIA, and the U.S. Africa Command had aligned with these jihadists to destabilize Libya, freeze billions of dollars of assets, execute Gaddafi, and use Libya as a rear base in the drive for regime change in Syria.

… [T]his review and these hearings are obfuscating … the real issues that emanate from the role of the CIA in recruiting Jihadists in Benghazi. On Monday at a press conference, Obama called the continued discussions on Benghazi a “side show.” However, for the millions of persons in North Africa that have been negatively affected by the NATO intervention and the role of the CIA, private militias and private military contractors, the debates in the USA can be viewed as another diversion to cover up the CIA operations in North Africa. Ethan Chorin, one of the operators in Libya and close ally of Ambassador Stevens, has weighed in with an op-ed piece in the New York Times that stated,

“The biggest American failure wasn’t in the tactical mistakes about security at the diplomatic mission where Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three other Americans died. It lay in thinking that an intervention in Libya would be easier or less costly than it has proved to be — a judgment that led the United States to think it could go in light, get out fast and focus on the capital, Tripoli, without paying enough attention to Libya’s eastern provinces, where the rebellion began as a call for a constitution and increased civil liberties.”

Chorin, who was an insider in Benghazi, continues to insist that the NATO intervention was “inspired and skillfully executed, and had the potential to do more good than harm.”

livingxvxfaith: Friendly reminder that MAY 25 is March Against...

Fri, 17 May 2013 14:15:55 -0400

livingxvxfaith:

Friendly reminder that MAY 25 is March Against Monsanto day

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Fri, 17 May 2013 13:59:48 -0400

earnthedownhill: I love Christmas … and I don’t mean the...

Fri, 17 May 2013 07:57:59 -0400

earnthedownhill:

I love Christmas … and I don’t mean the holiday.

US House set to approve cuts to food stamp programme with new farm bill | guardian.co.uk

Thu, 16 May 2013 17:17:07 -0400

US House set to approve cuts to food stamp programme with new farm bill | guardian.co.uk:

theamericanbear:

How to make sense of this. Hmm. How about:

[F]our little words that capture the grand, overarching political philosophy of the age:

Fuck Off And Die.

This is the lodestar guiding leaders of every political stripe across the breadth of western civilization. If you want to make your way through their billows of bullshit, hold fast to this phrase. It’s what they’re really saying to you.

yes!!!!! because cutting the $3.50 a day people get to feed their families is really whats causing problems. not to mention to food they are allowed to buy with foodstamps is just processed garbage that contributes to obesity and other various problems.

Untangling Obamacare: What's behind the rate increases?

Thu, 16 May 2013 17:15:37 -0400

Untangling Obamacare: What's behind the rate increases?

Pentagon official sees "at least 10 to 20" more years fighting al Qaeda. Welcome to America’s Thirty Years War.

Thu, 16 May 2013 17:15:23 -0400

Pentagon official sees "at least 10 to 20" more years fighting al Qaeda. Welcome to America’s Thirty Years War.:

It was just two months ago the top U.S. intelligence official testified that al-Qaida had been battered by the U.S. into a state of disarray. A year ago, the current CIA director, John Brennan, said that “For the first time since this fight began, we can look ahead and envision a world in which the al Qaeda core is simply no longer relevant.” Just this week, the commander of the Joint Special Operations Command, Army Lt. Gen. Joseph Votel, told a Florida conference that he was looking at missions beyond the counterterrorism manhunt.

Yet a spokeswoman, Army Col. Anne Edgecomb, clarified that [the official] meant the conflict is likely to last ten to twenty more years from today — atop the 12 years that the conflict has already lasted. Welcome to America’s Thirty Years War.

randomactsofchaos: Adam Zyglis/Buffalo News (05/16/2013)

Thu, 16 May 2013 17:11:26 -0400

randomactsofchaos:

Adam Zyglis/Buffalo News (05/16/2013)

U.S. Guilty of Genocide in Guatemala Should be real headline | Ajamu Baraka

Wed, 15 May 2013 21:08:23 -0400

U.S. Guilty of Genocide in Guatemala Should be real headline | Ajamu Baraka:

Last week news coverage around the world heralded the conviction of Efrain Rios Montt on the charges of genocide against the Mayan people during his 17 month tenure as Guatemala’s head of government and military strongman. The three-judge panel led by Jazmin Barrios determined that evidence presented to the court established that there was a clear and systematic plan to exterminate the Ixil people as a race and that the plan developed and executed by the Montt government satisfied the definition of genocide. With this conviction, the 86 year-old ex-dictator was sentenced to 80 years in prison.

This is a tremendous victory for the people of Guatemala that is a powerful expression of justice and accountability for human rights abuses that offers hope to the many victims of atrocities around the world. This victory, however, doesn’t end with the sentence of the Guatemalan dictator. Another chapter needs to be opened with a more thorough examination of the relationship between Montt, the Guatemalan military and the United States government which, if examined objectively, establishes a clear chain of moral and legal culpability. A relationship that even with a cursory understanding of the history of the conflict in Guatemala would lead logically to the inescapable conclusion that if Efrain Rios Montt, and by extension the Guatemalan military, are guilty of the crime of genocide, the U.S. government and its officials are just as guilty as Rios Montt and that justice in Guatemala remains unfulfilled until everyone, including those responsible for pulling the strings in Guatemala, are also brought to justice. [++]

"[Obama is] just too tied to Wall Street. And at this point he is a war criminal. You can’t meet..."

Tue, 14 May 2013 13:04:26 -0400

“[Obama is] just too tied to Wall Street. And at this point he is a war criminal. You can’t meet every Tuesday with a killer list and continually have drones drop bombs. You can do that once or twice and say: ‘I shouldn’t have done that, I’ve got to stop.’ But when you do it month in, month out, year in, year out – that’s a pattern of behaviour. I think there is a chance of a snowball in hell that he will ever be tried, but I think he should be tried and I said the same about George Bush. These are war crimes. We suffer in this age from an indifference toward criminality and a callousness to catastrophe when it comes to poor and working people.”

- Professor Cornel West, speaking to The Guardian.
(via hipsterlibertarian)

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Tue, 14 May 2013 12:57:48 -0400