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You are here: Home / Open Threads / Old Blackwater, keep on rolling

Old Blackwater, keep on rolling

by DougJ|  August 4, 200910:38 pm| 120 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads

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Holy shit.

A former Blackwater employee and an ex-US Marine who has worked as a security operative for the company have made a series of explosive allegations in sworn statements filed on August 3 in federal court in Virginia. The two men claim that the company’s owner, Erik Prince, may have murdered or facilitated the murder of individuals who were cooperating with federal authorities investigating the company.

Update. Innocent until proven guilty, obviously, but maybe Dana Rohrabacher was prescient:

“Prince,” Rohrabacher said, “is on his way to being an American hero just like Ollie North was.”

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Reader Interactions

120Comments

  1. 1.

    Robin G.

    August 4, 2009 at 10:39 pm

    Raise your hand if you’re surprised.

  2. 2.

    asiangrrlMN

    August 4, 2009 at 10:40 pm

    Holy FUCKING shit. But, no, I am not surprised.

  3. 3.

    White House Department of Law (fmrly Jim-Bob)

    August 4, 2009 at 10:41 pm

    Wow. Prince murders political enemies. It’s like Hamlet, but without the happy ending …

  4. 4.

    beltane

    August 4, 2009 at 10:43 pm

    It’s getting scary out there. I’ll be shocked if Prince is ever charged with a crime; he is one of those who get away with everything, just like the people who hired him.

  5. 5.

    Colonel Danite

    August 4, 2009 at 10:43 pm

    Pay no attention to this. Let’s get back to searching or Obama’s birth certificate.

  6. 6.

    gex

    August 4, 2009 at 10:43 pm

    @Robin G.: I’m guessing no one is surprised. Not people who dislike Blackwater or Prince. And not people who support Blackwater or Prince.

  7. 7.

    asiangrrlMN

    August 4, 2009 at 10:45 pm

    @Colonel Danite: Sometimes, it’s just best to keep on walkin’.

  8. 8.

    cleek

    August 4, 2009 at 10:47 pm

    now would be a good time to reflect upon the pearl-clutching outrage that Kos received after expressing disapproval over our use of mercenaries.

  9. 9.

    Mike G

    August 4, 2009 at 10:47 pm

    I am shocked, SHOCKED, that a hard-right mercenary with crony ties to Cheney/Bush would engage in violent, criminal behavior.

  10. 10.

    Crashman06

    August 4, 2009 at 10:47 pm

    Just read the article and wow. that’s all I have to say. if this is true, I sure hope this gets some traction in the MSM.

  11. 11.

    Fax Paladin

    August 4, 2009 at 10:47 pm

    Just out of curiosity, how many other people are seeing the “Get the information you need tp [sic] advance your law enforcement career” ad?

  12. 12.

    Delia

    August 4, 2009 at 10:49 pm

    What was that thing about Cheney’s assassination squads that the loony lefters were nattering on about?

  13. 13.

    Jack T.

    August 4, 2009 at 10:51 pm

    “Mississippi moon won’t you keep on shining on me…”

    With that out of the way. I can only hope that Prince is forced to perp walk at some point in the near future.

  14. 14.

    Warren Terra

    August 4, 2009 at 10:52 pm

    Blackwater sure was an ugly, nasty company. Fortunately, now that they’ve renamed themselves Xe they’re all sweetness and light.

  15. 15.

    jenniebee

    August 4, 2009 at 11:01 pm

    One thing that most people aren’t aware of is that part of Rumsfeld’s restructuring of the Army was to move some officer training out of house and hire Blackwater to do it. A cousin of mine by marriage was one of those officers. What he told us a few years ago was that it was clear during the training that Blackwater was screening trainees for certain attitudinal proclivities and then keeping the ones they liked back after the class for a recruiting pitch.

    I don’t know if you remember a few years ago it became clear that the Pentagon had come to the conclusion that there was no way for it to operate without contractor support and augmentation; the reasoning for why not was that they couldn’t do without the contractors because no matter how many officers the Pentagon brought in, the contractors poached a significant number of them after the Pentagon/taxpayers had paid to have them trained.

    And they didn’t even buy us dinner first.

  16. 16.

    John Cole

    August 4, 2009 at 11:02 pm

    Somehow you disabled the comments. I fixed it.

    At any rate, this is really kind of odd, because I just watched episode 2 of Season 1 of Leverage, the Homecoming Job. As in, I just finished it five minutes ago.

  17. 17.

    Fulcanelli

    August 4, 2009 at 11:09 pm

    In New Jersey they call this the ‘witness protection program’. Bada Bing!

  18. 18.

    Warren Terra

    August 4, 2009 at 11:09 pm

    @ Delia, # 12

    What was that thing about Cheney’s assassination squads that the loony lefters were nattering on about?

    No, that was something completely different, governmental in nature rather then private enterprise – and was possibly substantiated by news reports a few weeks ago, when it was announced that the Bush-Cheney administration had OK’d the assassination of people they didn’t like anywhere in the world, as opposed to individuals on a case-by-case basis iirc.

    Also, RE the tags on this post, is Erik Prince, whose company basically exists because of Bush/Cheney, too far removed to merit that tag about the criminal Bush administration, when the whole thing is about criminal, possibly lethal acts to cover up criminal actions in service of the Cheney agenda (and, of course, Mammon)?

  19. 19.

    jenniebee

    August 4, 2009 at 11:12 pm

    @John Cole: That’s one of my favorites, because it has the Tesla at the end.

    Unfortunately, it looks like Nate/the show didn’t get to keep the Tesla.

  20. 20.

    ericvsthem

    August 4, 2009 at 11:12 pm

    Well, at least one aspect of the Neocon War Agains Islam is just like the last season of 24… the part where the CEO of a private military contractor reveals himself to have a messianic complex.

  21. 21.

    Richard Bottoms

    August 4, 2009 at 11:17 pm

    All that’s missing is for a rouge African mercenary to attack the White House.

  22. 22.

    Andy K

    August 4, 2009 at 11:21 pm

    @Richard Bottoms:

    [Insert CFL joke here]

  23. 23.

    steve s

    August 4, 2009 at 11:29 pm

    That link came via my friend Mike Miller, fyi:

    http://www.michaelalanmiller.com/

  24. 24.

    Punchy

    August 4, 2009 at 11:29 pm

    Dont the mercenaries in Iraq all have blanket immunity? I’m assuming he did/oversaw the killing of these people while in Iraq. So how/why would he ever be charged?

  25. 25.

    Texas Dem

    August 4, 2009 at 11:30 pm

    Who will play Prince in the movie version?

  26. 26.

    freelancer

    August 4, 2009 at 11:33 pm

    Dont the mercenaries in Iraq all have blanket immunity? I’m assuming he did/oversaw the killing of these people while in Iraq. So how/why would he ever be charged?

    Apparently he’s accused of murder or conspiracy to murder whistleblowers in his own company. This may not have occurred in Iraq.

  27. 27.

    TeaJay

    August 4, 2009 at 11:34 pm

    Whoa,
    I realize it’s been a crazy decade when I read a piece like that and think to myself. “Great. Kucinich is ON IT.” As a former Libertarian I feel like I’ve just walked around the globe.

    Go DK!

  28. 28.

    Martin

    August 4, 2009 at 11:34 pm

    Just to point out – this is what a fundamentalist Christian army looks like. Erik’s mom funneled a lot of money to get Prop 8 passed in CA.

    Money, guns, and an unwavering belief that they’re doing God’s work. What could go wrong?

  29. 29.

    JPL

    August 4, 2009 at 11:34 pm

    @19; they borrowed it from one of the producers for that scene.

    You know, I knew what the twist was because I read the showrunner’s blog, and he mentioned a while back that all the scriptwriters were racing to get their heist scripts in first when the story about the money on pallets broke. So I was totally expecting everything, but when Parker actually hugged the money, I laughed so hard I cried.

  30. 30.

    Left Coast Tom

    August 4, 2009 at 11:40 pm

    This shouldn’t be surprising from a company that named itself after toilet water. What should be more surprising is that the State Department (thanks, Condi) hired the Toilet Water company to carry out it’s idiocy.

    But I’m still surprised. From their already-demonstrated depraved indifference to human life I only had them pegged for manslaughter.

  31. 31.

    Andy K

    August 4, 2009 at 11:41 pm

    @Martin:

    It wasn’t just old Elsa. Erik’s sis, Betsy Prince DeVos and hubby Dick (heir to the Amway fortune) threw an assload of cash that way, too.

  32. 32.

    Left Coast Tom

    August 4, 2009 at 11:41 pm

    After I posted I got a rather impressive list of MySQL errors, including complaints that the server “went away”. Yet my post still appeared.

  33. 33.

    gwangung

    August 4, 2009 at 11:45 pm

    Who will play Prince in the movie version?

    It’ll get to Law and Order first. Who’s part of Dick Wolfe’s stable?

  34. 34.

    gwangung

    August 4, 2009 at 11:45 pm

    @gwangung:

    On the other hand, I think L&O already did this plot. At LEAST once…

  35. 35.

    DaveInOz

    August 4, 2009 at 11:47 pm

    Crikey,

    It’s been written as a novel already. I read it a few weeks ago…

    http://www.amazon.com/Betrayal-John-Lescroart/dp/0451225708/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1249443849&sr=8-4

  36. 36.

    SpotWeld

    August 4, 2009 at 11:49 pm

    Good time to stay out of Grand Rapids

  37. 37.

    asiangrrlMN

    August 4, 2009 at 11:53 pm

    @Left Coast Tom: I got that, too! And, my comment showed up, too. So, the site isn’t totally bug-free yet.

    Oh crikey. I just got the title. Boy, am I thick tonight.

  38. 38.

    Andy K

    August 4, 2009 at 11:53 pm

    @SpotWeld:

    He isn’t around here any more. Betsy and Dick are- well, at this time of the year, if they aren’t traveling, they’re at the summer place in Holland, which is close enough.

  39. 39.

    General Winfield Stuck

    August 4, 2009 at 11:56 pm

    The former employee also alleges that Prince “views himself as a Christian crusader tasked with eliminating Muslims and the Islamic faith from the globe,” and that Prince’s companies “encouraged and rewarded the destruction of Iraqi life.”

    Jesus F. Christ. A Christian Crusading psychopath with a private army armed to the teeth. How in the fuck did we get to this point of the American Experiment.

    Somebody needs to pass a law against these animals before they get us all killed.

  40. 40.

    Comrade Kevin

    August 4, 2009 at 11:56 pm

    What’s with the Star Wars slash fiction ad?

  41. 41.

    Fulcanelli

    August 4, 2009 at 11:58 pm

    @Texas Dem: Christopher Walken

  42. 42.

    Comrade Darkness

    August 4, 2009 at 11:59 pm

    @SpotWeld: It is always a good time for that. You can tell what kind of place you are approaching by the god-fearing stations on the dial and the mega-churches per mile. Both peg the meter in GR.

    I wonder if Monaghan pays DeVos a PR fee for making him seem well-adjusted.

    On the upside, nothing destroys a functioning grass roots effort faster than throwing excessive money at it.

  43. 43.

    Fulcanelli

    August 4, 2009 at 11:59 pm

    @General Winfield Stuck: General, we need to kill these animals, THEN pass a law.

  44. 44.

    burnspbesq

    August 5, 2009 at 12:01 am

    I don’t like lawyers, regardless of political persuasion and regardless of how just they think their cause is, who go out of their way to taint the potential jury pool. I especially dislike it in cases like this, where a private plaintiff’s lawyer is mucking with the jury pool in a potential future criminal case. It’s going to be hard enough to get convictions against Blackwater personnel in the Eastern District of Virginia (home to the highest concentration of military, ex-military, and related-to-military of any of the 88 districts) without this dumbass “helping.”

    If you’re a conspiracy theories, doesn’t it make you wonder about her agenda?

  45. 45.

    gau

    August 5, 2009 at 12:01 am

    Does this remind anyone else of the most recent season of 24?

  46. 46.

    JenJen

    August 5, 2009 at 12:04 am

    O/T, but this story out of Pittsburgh is horrifying; at least 4 dead in gym shooting:

    http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/pittsburgh/s_636758.html

  47. 47.

    Comrade Kevin

    August 5, 2009 at 12:05 am

    Hey, I share a birthday with the President! woo-hoo!

  48. 48.

    Martin

    August 5, 2009 at 12:09 am

    How in the fuck did we get to this point of the American Experiment.

    Two words: Compassionate Conservatism

  49. 49.

    JGabriel

    August 5, 2009 at 12:10 am

    Sadly, no one has yet used the headline:

    Founder Of Company Hired By USA To Kill People, Kills People In USA

    It has a certain Onion quality to it, don’t ya think?

    Of course, no one could have predicted …

    .

  50. 50.

    Martin

    August 5, 2009 at 12:10 am

    Hey, I share a birthday with the President!

    Prove it. Birth certificate. Long form. Original. In B.O.B.s hand. Or it didn’t happen.

  51. 51.

    Andy K

    August 5, 2009 at 12:11 am

    @Comrade Darkness:

    There aren’t that many mega-churches. Just a lot of medium-size churches. Largest denomination in and around GR is Roman Catholic, although the Dutchies would have you believe that there are more Christian Reformed than anything else.

    And the Princes weren’t even raised CRC, but Dutch Reformed: small churches where a lot of Dutch is still spoken; a very nasty brand of racist Calvinism practiced within. Friend of mine was Dutch Reformed, told her mom she was marrying a plain ol CRC guy, to which mom commented, “I don’t know about you marrying that T—— boy. He’s got that Huguenot blood in him.”

  52. 52.

    cliff

    August 5, 2009 at 12:25 am

    Way Way off topic ..

    W00t!! Finally We Have Apple Juice again!! The first apple juice of the season! @ … walmart .. (blahh).. but anyhow, 3 gallons of Apfelwein and Graff soon to be started (when I get the yeast. -> heh by the time the yeast gets here I’ll be starting 6 gallons I bet)

    gonna also do a big batch or 2 fresh from the local orchard but thats still quite a ways in the future.. oh I can’t wait!! ordering supplies tomorrow!

    Apfelwein!!

  53. 53.

    Anne Laurie

    August 5, 2009 at 12:26 am

    Money, guns, and an unwavering belief that they’re doing God’s work. What could go wrong?

    I have faith that the Fellowship(c) / “Family” of C Street infamy is somehow involved in this. Anyone want to place a bet?

  54. 54.

    Craig

    August 5, 2009 at 12:32 am

    Turning little liars into heroes, it’s what they’ve always done.

  55. 55.

    Llelldorin

    August 5, 2009 at 12:34 am

    Yes, but just remember, as per Douthat two days ago, that the Democrats have the more serious set of scandals. I’m sure any day now we’ll be hearing about George Soros using human sacrifice to send his birth-certificate-doctoring shamans back to 1961.

  56. 56.

    burnspbesq

    August 5, 2009 at 12:45 am

    @cliff:

    On a similar note, we have the first canteloupes of the year. Ten of the little buggers, about the size of Chicago softballs (we deliberately planted a variety that grow small, so that you can eat one all at once). Boy, are they tasty.

    And we have had more tomatoes than we can give away, continuously, for the last month. There are at least five pounds in the kitchen right now, and if I went out back with a flashlight I could probably find another two pounds that are ripe enough to be picked.

    Being married to a gardening freak has its moments.

  57. 57.

    SGEW

    August 5, 2009 at 12:56 am

    I am getting tired of not being shocked and disgusted by these people.

    Honestly. If tomorrow I found out that Bush ordered coalition forces to literally pull a Deuteronomy 20:16-20 in Iraq it would just be another edition of, well, there they go again . . .

  58. 58.

    Morbo

    August 5, 2009 at 12:57 am

    @General Winfield Stuck: We’d like to believe it’s just Blackwater, now wouldn’t we? Yeah, it’s not just Blackwater. (apologies if that’s behind a subscriber wall, nickel summary: there are plenty of factions in the military trying to Christianize the whole institution.)

  59. 59.

    SGEW

    August 5, 2009 at 12:57 am

    @Anne Laurie: You’re on. Bet ya a nickel. To be honest, this doesn’t seem to fit in their modus operandi.

    Too small scale, as fucked up as that sounds.

  60. 60.

    Comrade Kevin

    August 5, 2009 at 12:59 am

    @Martin: Which one?

  61. 61.

    Singularity

    August 5, 2009 at 1:07 am

    I’m amazed that no one has mentioned this.

    Everyone should keep it at the front of their mind that those assholes in the Bush administration deployed these psychotics to the streets of New Orleans following Katrina.

    I’m with the General. Congress needs to investigate these assholes, and then pass laws preventing the Pentagon from ever employing them. Also, laws preventing private companies from maintaining stockpiles of weapons and equipment used to wage war. Let these douchebags go out and be mercenaries in foreign wars with handguns or whatever their sponsors want to give them, but don’t allow them to bring that shit back into the States. The goal is to make it logistically impossible for them to do their jobs.

    Then we’ll see how many officers want to bail out to a company with no U.S. contracts, no domestic training facilities, and no government backup.

    Also, it wouldn’t hurt to pay our soldiers a competitive salary.

  62. 62.

    cliff

    August 5, 2009 at 1:12 am

    @burnspbesq:

    I’m jealous. all my tomatoes are stagnant (to much rain) and birds or something eat all my strawberries the day they ripen (first year, so only a few so far, so I don’t care That much) low bush blueberries were worthless, but highbush is ready now .. at least in wet sunny spots. …not prolific enough this year though for the blueberry wine I wanted to try .. – maybe next year, till then I can munch on about a cup a day =P last year was able to get a pint a day .. wish I’d known ’bout the blueberry wine then..

  63. 63.

    Perry Como

    August 5, 2009 at 1:14 am

    Everyone should keep it at the front of their mind that those assholes in the Bush administration deployed these psychotics to the streets of New Orleans following Katrina.

    They are also training domestic LEOs.

  64. 64.

    ninerdave

    August 5, 2009 at 1:24 am

    @Robin G.:

    Raise your hand if you’re surprised.

    Not surprised, but wasn’t this the plot of last season’s 24?

    And holy shit, if this is true…wow, just fucking wow.

  65. 65.

    Martin

    August 5, 2009 at 1:37 am

    They are also training domestic LEOs.

    Low Earth Orbits?
    Lunar Exploration Orbiters?

  66. 66.

    alhutch

    August 5, 2009 at 1:42 am

    @Martin: Law Enforcement Officers

  67. 67.

    Martin

    August 5, 2009 at 1:54 am

    Which one?

    Either one would do.

  68. 68.

    Martin

    August 5, 2009 at 1:54 am

    @alhutch:

    Ah, of course…

  69. 69.

    Comrade Kevin

    August 5, 2009 at 2:00 am

    Heh, I just watched a repeat of Countdown, and Olbermann repeatedly referred to Orlty Taitz as “Orly Taint”.

  70. 70.

    hamletta

    August 5, 2009 at 2:11 am

    I’m raising my hand.

    I knew they were dirty, but damn!

    Fucking Calvinists. What a bunch of pervs. I’d like to dig that sucker up and burn him at the stake, but he’s probably spinning too fast from how American shitbags have turned his already perverse theology into Pure-D Evil.

  71. 71.

    Silver

    August 5, 2009 at 3:32 am

    Calvinism is nihilism for religious people. Once you’re elect, there is nothing you can do to change that, after all…

    You can’t blame Prince totally on Calvinism, however. He seems to have converted to Catholicism, and after growing up in a Dutch Calvinist denomination in Canada, I can tell you that a Catholic is viewed with essentially the same suspicion as a Muslim. That’s a pretty drastic change to make, but a man in charge of a mercenary army probably has plastic morals and ethics to begin with, no?

  72. 72.

    El Cid

    August 5, 2009 at 5:01 am

    The “surprise” part isn’t that such a figure would do or be involved in such a thing — but that it would emerge in such a way as to perhaps actually matter, that one of these minor shit-demons might actually have seriously gotten caught for their nightmarish behaviors in the 3rd world.

  73. 73.

    wilfred

    August 5, 2009 at 7:26 am

    Why did you drop this part of the quote?

    The former employee also alleges that Prince “views himself as a Christian crusader tasked with eliminating Muslims and the Islamic faith from the globe,” and that Prince’s companies “encouraged and rewarded the destruction of Iraqi life.”

    No one ever mentions this.

  74. 74.

    harlana pepper

    August 5, 2009 at 7:33 am

    Prince is one of those ideological christian whack jobs who also, SURPRISE, happens to be as corrupt as hell. It’s been 5 fucking years. I hope they nail his ass to the wall for something, jeebus.

  75. 75.

    harlana pepper

    August 5, 2009 at 7:37 am

    @freelancer: I think they have immunity from Iraqi law (naturally, thanks to Paul Bremer, if I recall) but not US law.

  76. 76.

    linda

    August 5, 2009 at 8:04 am

    there will be no accountability for erik prince. he’s one of the moneyed interests looting the treasury.

  77. 77.

    DebTX

    August 5, 2009 at 8:09 am

    Thanks a lot. Now I won’t be able to get that song out of my head for the rest of the day. First concert I ever went to.

  78. 78.

    kay

    August 5, 2009 at 8:19 am

    @linda:

    “Both individuals state that they have previously cooperated with federal prosecutors conducting a criminal inquiry into Blackwater.”

    The CCR lawsuits are civil. In the course of submitting sworn statements for the CCR civil cases, the two employees wrote that they had already cooperated in a criminal inquiry.

    The DOJ can’t confirm or deny that, but that’s the real question, I think. If there is indeed a criminal inquiry.
    It’s one thing to say he’s protected from civil liability, due to important contacts, or immunity written into contracts by the Bush State Department, it’s entirely another to say he’s protected from criminal liability.

    If he is, we’re screwed, and the whole system is broken.

  79. 79.

    Balconesfault

    August 5, 2009 at 8:22 am

    @Singularity: We’re paying our military pretty decently, when you consider the excellent health and retirement and education benefits. The problem is that we’re either overextended as a military, trying to maintain too many bases in too many places … or we’re running too small a military, forcing us by necessity to outsource a long list of functions that were once performed by active duty and reservists. Hell, the gate guards at Ft. Sam Houston in San Antonio when I take my dad for a medical checkup or my mom to the PX for shopping are now contractors from some cop-for-hire service, rather than MPs. How screwed up is that?

    The Cheney/Rumsfeld downsizing of the active duty force was a bait and switch, it now seems … never really intended to save us money over the long haul, but just intended to create massive contracting/profiteering opportunities for Republican cronies. And Prince stepped into that niche very nicely.

  80. 80.

    wilfred

    August 5, 2009 at 8:25 am

    @Balconesfault:

    Security services at the US Embassy in Manama, Bahrain are provided by Gurkhas. This despite the presence of an enormous US naval base and American presence. I thought I was in the wrong place.

  81. 81.

    harlana pepper

    August 5, 2009 at 8:27 am

    In related news, wonder what’s happening with the KBR rape cases. Those are pretty vomit-worthy also.

  82. 82.

    wilfred

    August 5, 2009 at 8:29 am

    Go back and take a look at Kucinich questioning Prince.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5QhD-EWneP8

    And this:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jYD68tEXbk&feature=related

    Because it’s ok to kill Muslims.

  83. 83.

    Morbo

    August 5, 2009 at 8:38 am

    @Comrade Kevin: And another polyp manifests in Bob Somerby’s colon.

  84. 84.

    TR

    August 5, 2009 at 8:39 am

    Kent Brockman: Well, what do you say to the accusation that your group has been causing more crimes than it’s been committing?

    Homer: Oh Kent, I’d be lying if I said my men weren’t committing crimes.

    Kent Brockman: (pause) Mmm, well … touche.

  85. 85.

    R-Jud

    August 5, 2009 at 8:40 am

    Don’t worry about a little thing like paying mercenaries’ salaries with your tax dollars. Look at this picture! It will make you feel so much better, even though Nixon looks more like Prince Charles than he ought to.

  86. 86.

    Michael57

    August 5, 2009 at 8:46 am

    Jon Voight is already lined up for the role in the Lifetime movie.

  87. 87.

    CalD

    August 5, 2009 at 8:50 am

    This is obviously the fault of liberals.

  88. 88.

    Balconesfault

    August 5, 2009 at 8:53 am

    @R-Jud: Where’s Herbert Hoover?

    And Teddy Roosevelt would kick the crap out of half the people at that table.

  89. 89.

    MR Bill

    August 5, 2009 at 8:55 am

    R-Jud, this will never replace the ‘dogs playing cards’ picture.
    I think it needs so flames to suggest hellfire, too.

  90. 90.

    R-Jud

    August 5, 2009 at 9:11 am

    @Balconesfault: I was wondering that myself, Balconesfault. Considering that they included Lincoln, I’m also wondering why I don’t see Grant, Hayes, Harrison, Arthur, Coolidge, etc. I can understand leaving out Taft, because if you included him, you’d have to make it a mural.

    And yes, TR would have most likely ripped GWB’s lungs out through his anus within five minutes of meeting him.

  91. 91.

    Joey Maloney a/k/a The Bard Of Balloon Juice

    August 5, 2009 at 9:22 am

    @Texas Dem: The Artist Formerly Known As. Just because.

  92. 92.

    Demo Woman

    August 5, 2009 at 9:23 am

    There’s not a dry eye in the Burbank hangar where the two journalists just got off the plane bringing them back to the United States. There’s not a dry eye in my house either. I’m a sap for stories like this.

  93. 93.

    flukebucket

    August 5, 2009 at 9:29 am

    Where’s Herbert Hoover?

    He and Taft went to get Pizza and Beer

  94. 94.

    Cat Lady

    August 5, 2009 at 9:34 am

    That sound you just heard is wingnut heads assploding all over the country now if they’re watching the Big Dog and the rescued women. I actually watched enough of one of the Fox panels last night to see how they were going to spin this today. Some wingnut panelist actually said that it would be better to forsake the women in order not to appease a dictator. Let’s see if they’ll trot that meme out today.

  95. 95.

    NobodySpecial

    August 5, 2009 at 9:39 am

    And yes, TR would have most likely ripped GWB’s lungs out through his anus within five minutes of meeting him.

    No, he was the 19th Century’s version of the Most Interesting Man In The World. He would have taken all their money at the poker table, THEN killed them and given their women to his friend The Sultan.

  96. 96.

    Balconesfault

    August 5, 2009 at 9:44 am

    @R-Jud: Yeah – I figure that including Teddy in that crowd was a spoof. Can you imagine someone making the following pitch in front of a crowd of teabaggers?

    The really big fortune, the swollen fortune, by the mere fact of its size, acquires qualities which differentiate it in kind as well as in degree from what is possessed by men of relatively small means. Therefore, I believe in a graduated income tax on big fortunes, and in another tax which is far more easily collected and far more effective—a graduated inheritance tax on big fortunes, properly safeguarded against evasion, and increasing rapidly in amount with the size of the estate.

    OK, too many big words. But you get the point.

    And didn’t Abe Lincoln create the first income tax?

  97. 97.

    McCormick

    August 5, 2009 at 9:47 am

    @Comrade Kevin:

    What’s with the Star Wars slash fiction ad?

    Yeah, really. Why pay for what you can get for free?

  98. 98.

    gex

    August 5, 2009 at 9:49 am

    @Cat Lady: Well, it won’t be the first time in recent weeks that Fox put someone on who hoped that kidnappers would just kill an American hostage.

  99. 99.

    Bob

    August 5, 2009 at 9:53 am

    Prince: Brother to Betsy DeVos, who is married to Dick DeVos, Amway Prez and last Republican candidate for Governor of Michigan.

  100. 100.

    pharniel

    August 5, 2009 at 9:54 am

    re 80 – c’mon. they’re ghurkas! that’s an honest to god upgrade.

    but it looks like Mi dodged a bullet otherwise we might have had Detroit used as a pre-deployment, training camp for blackwater to practice killing ‘non-people’.

    as noted in “Dogs of War” for the World of Darkness and RPG.Net PMCs look alot like adventuring parties. y’know, of the kill everything and take its stuff variety, and that’s a BAD THING(tm)

  101. 101.

    Barry

    August 5, 2009 at 9:57 am

    hamletta

    “Fucking Calvinists. What a bunch of pervs. I’d like to dig that sucker up and burn him at the stake, but he’s probably spinning too fast from how American shitbags have turned his already perverse theology into Pure-D Evil.”

    As Silver said, Calvinism is inherently evil – once you have salvation of the elect, nihilism (to be specific, antinomianism) happens automatically.

  102. 102.

    Ivan Ivanovich Renko

    August 5, 2009 at 10:00 am

    “Using his various companies, [Prince] procured and distributed various weapons, including unlawful weapons such as sawed off semi-automatic machine guns with silencers, through unlawful channels of distribution.”

    I know I’m probably picking at a nit, here, but “sawed off semi-automatic machine guns with silencers” just don’t make no damn sense.

    At least, not coming from someone with military and/or weapons expertise. There ain’t no sucha thang as a “semi-automatic machine gun,” and a military guy would know that a semi-automatic can’t be either a machine-gun (usually heavier caliber crew-served weapon) or a submachinegun (such as an HK MP5 or a good ol’ American Thompson- a full-auto weapon firing pistol sized cartridges such as 9mm or .45 cal). And then why would you saw it off, fer chrissakes? Then put a silencer on it??

    Such a thing coming from one of us “guns scare me” lefties, I could understand (some of us are frightfully ignorant about such things), but not from a Marine– and I wouldn’t think from a senior executive of a PMC (who I’d think of as a senior officer in a mercenary outfit).

    Wierd.

  103. 103.

    RememberNovember

    August 5, 2009 at 10:06 am

    Not so much a need to shred documents these days as hit the Delete button.

    Prince looks like one of these Fundementally Handicapped Christians who believe Jesus was a white man.

  104. 104.

    RememberNovember

    August 5, 2009 at 10:11 am

    @Ivan Ivanovich Renko:

    you are nit picking. Not everyone can rattle off burst fire rate of an Uzi vs. a Tec-9. Not everyone is clued to the idiomatic lingo either.

    But to me “machine gun”, regardless of calibre means full auto, not semi-auto. That seems to be a error in editorial.

    but fwiw, live by the gun, die by the gun.
    I choose to exit as non violently as possible.

  105. 105.

    steve s

    August 5, 2009 at 10:32 am

    more info

    http://scienceblogs.com/dispatches/2009/08/former_employees_accuse_blackw.php

  106. 106.

    someguy

    August 5, 2009 at 11:22 am

    I think Prince is actually Catholic, if anybody cares.

    In which case we can drop the Calvinism discussion and take up the Spanish Inquisition.

    Bet you didn’t expect that.

  107. 107.

    ChrisB

    August 5, 2009 at 11:22 am

    @R-Jud: And I wa going to say, “where’s harding?” to complete the picture.

    It sucks to come late to a thread.

  108. 108.

    RememberNovember

    August 5, 2009 at 11:26 am

    @Andy K:

    Amway, I knew it- Cultists all!

  109. 109.

    L Boom

    August 5, 2009 at 11:27 am

    Someguy, I will admit that I, for one, did not expect the Spanish Inquisition.

  110. 110.

    slippytoad

    August 5, 2009 at 11:33 am

    @RememberNovember:

    Deleting a document does not mean it’s gone.

    You still have to basically shred the hard drive.

  111. 111.

    Steeplejack

    August 5, 2009 at 11:47 am

    @R-Jud:

    Man, looking at that picture, I felt sorry for Abe, T.R. and even Ike. Brr!

  112. 112.

    Fax Paladin

    August 5, 2009 at 11:49 am

    @pharniel: Oooh, ouch. Real-life Munchkin…

    @L Boom: Oh, all right: NOOOOO-ONE EXPECTS THE SPANISH INQUISITION!

  113. 113.

    R-Jud

    August 5, 2009 at 12:00 pm

    I should add that a handsome 2×3′ giclee reproduction of the “Grand Old Gang” painting could be yours for a mere $825.00.

  114. 114.

    bwono

    August 5, 2009 at 1:01 pm

    Isn’t Prince entitled to a “Geo. Bush pass” like all the other thugs from that era?

  115. 115.

    Jay in Oregon

    August 5, 2009 at 1:29 pm

    @harlana pepper:

    You mean stories like Jamie Leigh Jones, who was gang-raped by KBR/Halliburton co-workers and locked in a guarded shipping container for over 24 hours until she convinced a guard to loan her a cell phone, which she used to call for help? (After which, KBR banned the use of personal cell phones but its employees in Iraq. Gotta plug the security breach, after all.)

    The case where the rape kit was picked up by KBR security officers and vanshed shortly thereafter?

    The case that will likely never see criminal charges because it happened in Iraq, where contractors were given de facto immunity from Iraq’s laws as mentioned above?

  116. 116.

    Andy K

    August 5, 2009 at 1:48 pm

    @someguy:

    Only converted to marry. That wife died some years back.

  117. 117.

    David Hunt

    August 5, 2009 at 2:23 pm

    @jenniebee:

    From John Rogers’ Blog

    “The one in the ep is the prototype. Dean [Devlyn] actually has #19 off the assembly line.”

    So I think it unlikely that particular car will be showing up. Devlyn’s personal car might make a cameo appearance, but who can say?

  118. 118.

    Anne Laurie

    August 5, 2009 at 3:40 pm

    [TR] would have taken all their money at the poker table, THEN killed them and given their women to his friend The Sultan.

    Teddy (my childhood favorite) wasn’t much of a card player, especially not at games that require subtlety/subterfuge. Nixon, on the other hand, was reputed to be quite the poker shark — he’s said to have made a ton of money off his shipmates during WWII — although from contemporary reports the guy you really didn’t want to play against was Honest Abe. The only “true” part of the picture, in fact, is Ike not being dumb enough to play against either Abe or his ex-VP (heck, he didn’t even like to be photographed in the same frame with Tricky Dick).

  119. 119.

    Jay in Oregon

    August 5, 2009 at 5:16 pm

    @David Hunt:

    Rogers’ latest blog post refers to criticisms of the fictional “Castleman” private security corp being a thinly-veiled reference to Blackwater and, therefore, unfairly impinging the good name of private mercenaries everywhere, and compares it to this story.

    As far as I can see, the only part he got wrong was that the head of the company wasn’t a delusional modern-day Crusader.

  120. 120.

    KaffeeMeister

    August 5, 2009 at 5:49 pm

    Ollie North?

    Oliver North is not a hero, he is another one of those republican “the end justifies the means” asshats. Of course, the end DIDN’T justify the means, he broke the law, was arrogant about it, and he is probably one of the inspirations for Blackwater.

    Blackwater is the absolute scum of the earth, and it’s no wonder that our enemies ARE our enemies.

    If regular American military troops were the only operators in Iraq after the the overthrow of the (semi legitimate) president of Iraq, it’s possible that Iraqis WOULD have been parading through the streets in our favor. The neocon asshats instead wanted punishment and punitive measures.

    The neocons in the Bush administration made sure that THEY dictated policy towards the Iraqi people and due to their total lack of tact and true American Values, the possible gains for American policy in the middle east were squandered and any chance for gains in American values to gain hold in the middle east were not only squandered, but made impossible.

    Now, President Obama must steer through all this crap left behind the bush administration. Relations with the entire middle east will take some work to fix. In the meantime, the scolds from the right are never ending, and totally unhelpful. In fact, if this was a republican administration, they would be calling some of the current rants from congress and the parties to be “possibly treasonous” and certainly discourteous to the Executive.

    Republicans would be far better served to button up, let the new administration deal with the republican failure in the middle east, and spend the next couple of years working on strategy for future elections rather than just saying “NO” to everything that needs to be done for our countries future.

    Just say no didn’t end the drug and sex problems of Nancy Reagan’s time, in fact statistics say it made things worse. Perhaps Republicans might consider the fact that most of their policies are of similar bent…

    Just saying….

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