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19
Jul 10

Witness the Law-Enforcement-Intelligence Industrial Complex!

Shortly after 9/11/2001, the departed Dr. Hunter S. Thompson said the following (via Colin Horgan at True/Slant):

The towers are gone now, reduced to bloody rubble, along with all hopes for Peace in Our Time, in the United States or any other country. Make no mistake about it: we are At War now “ with somebody “ and we will stay At War with that mysterious Enemy for the rest of our lives.

It will be a Religious War, a sort of Christian Jihad, fueled by religious hatred and led by merciless fanatics on both sides. It will be guerilla warfare on a global scale, with no front lines and no identifiable enemy. [ ¦]

HST “  September 12, 2001

We are At War now, according to President Bush, and I take him at his word. He also says the war might last for a ‘very long time’.

Generals and military scholars will tell you that 8 or 10 years is actually not such a long time in the span of human history “ which is no doubt true “ but history also tells us that 10 years of martial law and a wartime economy are going to feel like a Lifetime to people who are in their twenties today. The poor bastards of what will forever be known as Generation Z are doomed to be the first generation of Americans who will grow up with a lower standard of living than their parents enjoyed.

¦The 22 babies born in New York City while the World Trade Center burned will never know what they missed. The last half of the 20th Century will seem like a wild party for rich kids, compared to what’s coming now. [ ¦]

The first news they get in this world will be News subjected to Military Censorship. That is a given in wartime, along with massive campaigns of deliberately planted ‘Dis-information’. That is routine behavior in wartime “ for all countries and all combatants “ and it makes life difficult for people who value real news. Count on it.

HST “  September 19, 2001

Long wars, economic crises, and failing journalism?  The good doctor was more right than he could possibly have imagined.  I don’t think he specifically wrote of the birth of a law-enforcement intelligence apparatus, but given more time, I’m sure he would.

Perhaps that is why he choose to go out with a bang at a time of his choosing.  Consider his words as you read Dana Priest and William  M. Arkin’s Top Secret America in the WaPo, and understand that we will never see blue, green, or yellow ever again (on the Terror Chart), and know full well that Barack Obama will do no different.

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05
Dec 09

Daily Links for December 2nd through December 4th

All excerpts are quoted from the respective link(s).

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16
Sep 09

Daily Links for September 15th

All excerpts are quoted from the respective link(s).

  • ME TALK PRESIDENTIAL ONE DAY: GQ Features on men.style.com – we wrote speeches nearly every time the stock market flipped. Meanwhile, the White House seemed to have ceded all of its authority on economic matters to the secretive secretary of the treasury. The president was clearly frustrated with this. I was told that at one Oval Office meeting, he got very animated and exclaimed to Paulson, “You’ve got to tell me what you’re doing!” (In the weeks that followed, Paulson changed his spending priorities two or three times. Incredibly, he’d been given the power to do with that money virtually anything he pleased. All thanks to a president who didn’t understand his proposal and a Congress that didn’t stop to think.)
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31
Aug 09

Daily Links for August 31st

All excerpts are quoted from the respective link(s).

  • The Washington Monthly: HURTING DICK CHENEY’S FEELINGS…. – I seem to recall the Bush/Cheney era a little differently. Cheney thinks it was a sterling success when it came to national security and counter-terrorism. Perhaps there's something to this. After all, except for the catastrophic events of 9/11, and the anthrax attacks against Americans, and terrorist attacks against U.S. allies, and the terrorist attacks against U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, and Bush's inability to capture those responsible for 9/11, and waging an unnecessary war that inspired more terrorists, and the success terrorists had in exploiting Bush's international unpopularity, the Bush/Cheney record on counter-terrorism was awesome.
  • This We Know – Explore U.S. Government Data About Your Community
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13
Jul 09

Daily Links for July 11th through July 13th

All excerpts are quoted from the respective link(s).

  • Seth’s Blog: The CPM gap – Here's the thing: advertisers treat prospects online as targets, as victims, as people to subject to interruption. Conferences treat attendees as royalty, as paying customers who invested time and money to be there.

    And that's the difference. As long as your site is about something else and the ads are a distraction, you'll see CPM rates drop. As soon as you (or the advertisers) figure out that creating online communities aligned with the advertising, where attendance is a choice by the consumer, then you're creating genuine value.

  • Think Progress » Inspectors General Confirm Bush Admin Carried Out Massive Illegal Surveillance, More Than Previously Known – A congressionally-mandated report by Inspectors General of five separate intelligence agencies confirms that the Bush administration carried out “unprecedented,” massive surveillance activities beyond the warrantless wirteapping program that had previously been revealed.
  • U.S. Inaction Seen After Taliban P.O.W.’s Died – NYTimes.com – After a mass killing of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of Taliban prisoners of war by the forces of an American-backed warlord during the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan, Bush administration officials repeatedly discouraged efforts to investigate the episode, according to government officials and human rights organizations.
  • Six Things That Could Still Send the Economy Down the Tubes | Financial Infographics – Some analysts say that the worst is over and the end of the recession is in sight, while others are predicting that we haven’t seen the half of it. The following infographic shows a few things that could realistically still go wrong, postponing the return to the economy’s previous state for a little while longer.
  • Want to keep your wallet? Carry a baby picture – Times Online – When faced with the photograph of the baby people were far more likely to send the wallet back, the study found. In fact, only one in ten were hearthearted enough not to do so. With no picture to tug at the emotions, just one in seven were sent back.

    According to Dr Wiseman the result reflects a compassionate instinct towards vulnerable infants that people have evolved to ensure the survival of future generations. "The baby kicked off a caring feeling in people, which is not surprising from an evolutionary perspective," he said.

    Scientists argue that it would be difficult to genetically code for feeling empathy exclusively towards your own child and much easier to code for feeling empathy towards all children. If you find a baby alone, there is a good chance it belongs to you, making it an effective evolutionary trait, said Dr Wiseman.

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