Harry Reid says he might be:
Was Osama bin Laden killed in last month’s earthquake in Pakistan? So said Senate minority leader Harry Reid to a Nevada TV station (video here).
I hope he is enjoying his three score + raisins.
by John Cole| 34 Comments
This post is in: War on Terror aka GSAVE®
Harry Reid says he might be:
Was Osama bin Laden killed in last month’s earthquake in Pakistan? So said Senate minority leader Harry Reid to a Nevada TV station (video here).
I hope he is enjoying his three score + raisins.
by John Cole| 34 Comments
This post is in: Domestic Politics, War on Terror aka GSAVE®
I don’t understand this move:
A new plan by the Transportation Security Administration would allow airline passengers to bring scissors and other sharp objects in their carry-on bags because the items no longer pose the greatest threat to airline security, according to sources familiar with the plans.
In a series of briefings this week, TSA Director Edmund S. “Kip” Hawley told aviation industry leaders that he plans to announce changes at airport security checkpoints that would allow scissors less than four inches long and tools, such as screwdrivers, less than seven inches long, according to people familiar with the TSA’s plans. These people spoke on condition of anonymity because the TSA intends to make the plans public Friday.
“We’ll be announcing a number of new initiatives that will have both a positive security and customer service impact,” said TSA spokeswoman Yolanda Clark, who declined to comment on the details of the announcement. The plans must be approved by the Homeland Security Department and the Office of Management and Budget.
Faced with a tighter budget and morale problems among its workforce, the TSA says its new policy changes are aimed at making the best use of limited resources. Homeland Security Department officials are increasingly concerned about airports’ vulnerability to suicide bomb attacks. TSA officials now want airport screeners to spend more of their time looking for improvised explosive devices rather than sharp objects.
The TSA’s internal studies show that carry-on-item screeners spend half of their screening time searching for cigarette lighters, a recently banned item, and that they open 1 out of every 4 bags to remove a pair of scissors, according to sources briefed by the agency. Officials believe that other security measures now in place, such as hardened cockpit doors, would prevent a terrorist from commandeering an aircraft with box cutters or scissors.
A couple of quick observations:
1.) What kind of jackass is STILL packing scissors when he/she goes on a flight? I have been on dozens of plane flights, and never felt compelled to bring scissors with me. And please don’t tell me that you just have to bring your 99 cent sewing kit with you.
2.) Aren’t 3 1/2″ scissors every bit as dangerous as box cutters? If you read the article, the flight attendants think so.
3.) Some common sense, please. Lighters are not a threat, large sharp objects like scissors and 6″ screwdrivers ARE.
4.) Why are budgeting and MORALE issues forcing these changes?
In other words, what am I not getting here?
by John Cole| 14 Comments
This post is in: Popular Culture
It seems like they are changing their philosophy with respect to free exchange of their music:
The Grateful Dead, the business, is testing the loyalty of longtime fans of the Grateful Dead, the pioneering jam band, by cracking down on an independently run Web site that made thousands of recordings of its live concerts available for free downloading.
The band recently asked the operators of the popular Live Music Archive (archive.org) to make the concert recordings – a staple of Grateful Dead fandom – available only for listening online, the band’s spokesman, Dennis McNally, said yesterday. In the meantime, the files that previously had been freely downloaded were taken down from the site last week.
Feh. End of an era. The Dead cracking down on ‘bootleggers,’ and Monday Night Football ending and moving to cable in a few weeks. I feel sad.
by John Cole| 29 Comments
This post is in: Politics, War on Terror aka GSAVE®
Glenn Greenwald has a follow-up on the McCain torture piece, and outlines what is to come from those who support a policy of torture, to include labelling opponents ‘torture hysterics,’ insisting that ‘torture works’ despite the evidence to the contrary, and painting anyone who opposes torture as weak or ‘unpatriotic.’
Read the whole thing.
Think he is wrong? Check the comments here.
And when you are done, check out this piece by Cathy Young.
by John Cole| 33 Comments
This post is in: Movies
I can’t sleep, so I was flipping through the channels, and I ended up watching about 5 minutes of Taxi (the recent movie, not the superb television show with the same name).
It is clear to me that there are two types of people in the world- those who think Jimmy Fallon is funny, and the rest of us. Other than his reliably amusing Bawstahn routine on SNL, Fallon is awful.
How did that movie ever get made?
This post is in: Outrage
I can’t believe someone wrote this:
Sen. John McCain is leading the charge against so-called “torture” techniques allegedly used by U.S. interrogators, insisting that practices like sleep deprivation and withholding medical attention are not only brutal – they simply don’t work to persuade terrorist suspects to give accurate information.
Nearly forty years ago, however – when McCain was held captive in a North Vietnamese prison camp – some of the same techniques were used on him. And – as McCain has publicly admitted at least twice – the torture worked!
And what was that useful information? Our authors tell us:
The punishment finally worked, McCain said. “Eventually, I gave them my ship’s name and squadron number, and confirmed that my target had been the power plant.”
Recalling how he gave up military information to his interrogators, McCain said: “I regret very much having done so. The information was of no real use to the Vietnamese, but the Code of Conduct for American Prisoners of War orders us to refrain from providing any information beyond our names, rank and serial number.”
Yeah. I can see how that sort of confession would be useful in the War on Terror. And how did they get it? Just a few beatings:
He described the day Hanoi Hilton guards beat him “from pillar to post, kicking and laughing and scratching. After a few hours of that, ropes were put on me and I sat that night bound with ropes.”
“For the next four days, I was beaten every two to three hours by different guards . . . Finally, I reached the lowest point of my 5 1/2 years in North Vietnam. I was at the point of suicide, because I saw that I was reaching the end of my rope.”
McCain was taken to an interrogation room and ordered to sign a document confessing to war crimes. “I signed it,” he recalled. “It was in their language, and spoke about black crimes, and other generalities.”
“I had learned what we all learned over there,” McCain said. “Every man has his breaking point. I had reached mine.”
Excellent. In other words, according to the rocket scientist who wrote this, we need to authorize torture so we can beat people relentlessly for four days until they confess to ‘war crimes,’ or other such useful and ‘accurate’ information.
People like the author of this piece, Carl Limbacher, should be put in a small room and beaten with a cane and waterboarded until they confess to being unmitigated assholes. This isn’t a defense of torture for use in extreme cases (the ‘ticking time bomb’ scenario)- this is a call for legalized sadism and brutality.
What kind of moral cretins are these Newsmax folks?
(h/t Sullivan)
*** Update ***
Ace, IMHO, is just wrong about this. What is disgusting about this is not that every man has a breaking point, or that this somehow makes McCain less of a patriot (or, subsequently, less of a man), but that the authors, in an article ostensibly supporting torture as a necessary and useful interrogation method, claim that McCain’s breaking down after weeks of abuse and giving USELESS information somehow validates the need for torture. It doesn’t.
I think Ace’s dislike for Sullivan colored his perspective on this one.
*** Update ***
If you want to make the argument that this proves torture ‘works’ because McCain ‘broke,’ I am going to simply laugh. It does not take any genius to figure out that if you beat or abuse an individual enough, he/she will eventually ‘break.’ No shit, sherlock, in other words.
The problem is not that I doubt people will ‘break,’ it is that I doubt torture will ‘work.’ I simply disagree that beating McCain until he signs a random ‘confession’ in a language he does not understand somehow proves that doing the same to others will provide us with necessary intel. Further, I do not trust the government with the death penalty, and amd not inclined to trust the government with torture. Furthermore, I do not like the idea of having foreign governments and despotic regimes to similarly be allowed to torture, because it will be, in many cases, our guys they are now LEGALLY torturing. And spare me the ‘they are going to abuse and our torture our guys anyway, if they want to.’ Again, no shit.
That is why we rightly view them as EVIL, and why we are fighting them in the first place.
*** Update ***
More here and here, and an excellent piece here by Cathy Young.
by John Cole| 57 Comments
This post is in: Popular Culture
About once a year I try to give Phish a chance, because I really enjoy the Dead (had thousands of hours of tapes, have dozens of concerts on disc, went to the concerts back in the day, and, well, I just love them), and I figure all those people can’t be wrong about Phish. So I tried again while riding the bike (figured I was captive and would be forced to listen for a half hour).
I tried. All those people who like Phish ARE wrong. Plain and simple, Phish sucks.
Period.
I had to listen to Delbert McClinton and Little Feat for a half hour to get the unpleasant sounds out of my head.
But back to my point. Phish sucks, I don’t get them, and they are a 4th rate jam band compared to the Dead. And it isn’t because I hate Trey Anastasio, either, because he’s great with Oysterhead. Then again, I think Les Claypool is a genius.
And just as a side note, while many people think the greatest band instrument is the guitar, I argue that the Hammond B-3 organ is one of the greatest achievements ever in the production of musical instruments.