O Canada: We love you for your exceptional beer, hockey prowess and William Shatner. America thanks you for being such a stylish hat.*
*Stolen from someone, somewhere.
Happy Canada Day / Bonne Fête du CanadaPost + Comments (162)
by Betty Cracker| 162 Comments
This post is in: Domestic Politics, Foreign Affairs, Open Threads
O Canada: We love you for your exceptional beer, hockey prowess and William Shatner. America thanks you for being such a stylish hat.*
*Stolen from someone, somewhere.
Happy Canada Day / Bonne Fête du CanadaPost + Comments (162)
by $8 blue check mistermix| 78 Comments
This post is in: Foreign Affairs
As usual, I don’t know a lot about Egypt, but I thought this picture was pretty amazing (video here) as was this picture tweeted by a CNN reporter.
Photo: The anti-Morsi demonstrations are THE biggest I've ever seen in #Egypt. #30June pic.twitter.com/BTA0N18RVq
— benwedeman (@bencnn) June 30, 2013
by Zandar| 435 Comments
This post is in: Foreign Affairs, I Reject Your Reality and Substitute My Own, Security Theatre
Take this as you will, from the South China Morning Post:
Edward Snowden secured a job with a US government contractor for one reason alone – to obtain evidence of Washington’s cyberspying networks, the South China Morning Post can reveal.
For the first time, Snowden has admitted he sought a position at Booz Allen Hamilton so he could collect proof about the US National Security Agency’s secret surveillance programmes ahead of planned leaks to the media.
“My position with Booz Allen Hamilton granted me access to lists of machines all over the world the NSA hacked,” he told the Post on June 12. “That is why I accepted that position about three months ago.”
During a live global online chat last week, Snowden also stated he took pay cuts “in the course of pursuing specific work”. He said: “Booz was not the most I’ve been paid.”
Kinda throws a big-ass crimp in the whole “hero” angle if this is true, yes?
Discuss.
For Reasons As Pure As The Driven SnowdenPost + Comments (435)
This post is in: Excellent Links, Foreign Affairs, Open Threads
Shamelessly filched from loyal commentor Schroedinger’s Cat, to encourage everyone to click over and find out how “The Die Is Caste“:
NYT is now outsourcing their vacuous analysis on the Opinion Pages to op-ed contributors from Bangalore, no less. Tom Friedman beware, your competition has arrived. Ms Sankar’s column in a nutshell, nobody I know of speaks of uncomfortable stuff like caste or caste discrimination, ergo its no longer a relevant factor. Also, it makes me sad that others, not as enlightened as I am, are using caste when deciding who to vote for….
A quick Google search with the word caste, came up with multiple stories from Indian newspapers with caste in the head lines. Even when it is not in the headlines, caste provides the subtext for almost everything in India. So much for her claim that newspaper headlines don’t obsess over caste anymore… Caste-based discrimination is the reality of life for far too many Indians. Although, truly reprehensible practices around who you can touch and share food with may be dying out in the urban areas out of sheer necessity. The opportunities that are available to you depend to a great extent on your caste. Since caste and class usually go together, abject poverty is the fate of many at the bottom of the caste ladder…
Nothing like a thorough fisking to clear out those blocked passages full of unthinking assumptions and mealy-mouthed platitudes!
I am moderately addicted to the NYTimes‘ “India Ink” blog, because it’s really interesting to see the One Percenters of a giant conglomerate nation that is not us/US grapple with global geopolitics. During the first Gilded Age, British imperialists and their American admirers were always talking about “the Raj” as a shining example of how True Civilization would naturallly “evolve” into a system where a oligarchy could use an ever-insecure class of “warriors, scholars & merchants” to keep the vast majority of the population controlled. (If only Jeebus had had the forethought to announce that those poor who were always with us should be permanently branded, and their children after them!) If Rich Lowry can bring himself to risk the spiritual contamination inherent in perusing EvenTheLiberal NYTimes, I’m sure Ms. Sankar’s column gave him Starbursts!
Open Thread: Dogwhistles for Global Tools!Post + Comments (133)
by $8 blue check mistermix| 98 Comments
This post is in: War
You had me up until “al-Assad’s departure”:
David Cameron tried at the G8 leaders’ summit to create “a clarifying moment” that would pave the way for a Syrian peace conference, by setting out the terms those present should agree on as the basis for a transition to a government after Bashar al-Assad’s departure.
A failure to reach consensus at the summit in Lough Erne, Northern Ireland, British officials warned, might well represent the last chance for a peace to end the bloody two-year civil war in Syria that has claimed more than 90,000 lives. It comes as pressure is mounting for western countries to arm the rebels.
Here’s my ugly American take on Syria, tell me where I’m wrong:
It’s not a pretty picture, and I don’t see any smart move other than keeping out.
This post is in: Foreign Affairs, War on Terror aka GSAVE®, Security Theatre
Charlie Savage, at the NYTimes:
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration on Monday is expected to name Cliff Sloan, a Washington lawyer and confidant of Secretary of State John Kerry, as the new diplomatic envoy for the shutdown of the military prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, an official said on Sunday…
The new appointment was first reported by The Associated Press on Sunday. An administration official confirmed the move, and the State Department circulated a statement by Mr. Kerry praising Mr. Sloan, whom he was said to have recommended.
“I appreciate his willingness to take on this challenge,” Mr. Kerry said. “Cliff and I share the president’s conviction that Guantánamo’s continued operation isn’t in our security interests. In Iraq we’ve turned over prisoners, and we’ve transferred facilities to the Afghan government. Our fidelity to the rule of law likewise compels us also to end the long, uncertain detention of the detainees at Guantánamo.” …
The larger questions now are what to do with low-level prisoners who are from countries with troubled security conditions, like Yemen. Of the 166 remaining detainees, 86 have long since been cleared for transfer if security conditions can be met; 56 of them are Yemenis. As part of his speech last month, Mr. Obama lifted an executive branch moratorium on transfers to Yemen.
Mr. Obama also pledged to name a new “envoy” in the Pentagon to handle Guantánamo transfer issues, apparently removing that authority from William K. Lietzau, the Defense Department’s top official for detainee policy. No one has yet been designated for that role….
More at the link. From what I can gather, Mr. Sloan doesn’t seem the type to take a purely ornamental job just to add another line to his CV, so this is progress, yes?
Anybody know whether this particular slot requires Congressional approval?
“New Diplomatic Envoy Chosen for Guantanamo”Post + Comments (26)
by Betty Cracker| 281 Comments
This post is in: Politics, War, General Stupidity
Sully goes full-bore firebagger in a post last night entitled, “Obama’s Betrayal on Syria.” Even if you hold the (understandable) position that Sullivan is best ignored, you can use the rhetoric below as a stand-in for what many others are saying, including plenty of folks in the comments section from my post last night:
You voted twice for Obama? You’re getting the policies of McCain and the Clintons, the candidates he defeated. I wish I could understand this – but, of course, my worry is that the pincer movement of Rice and Power is already pushing us into a war we do not need, and cannot win.
This is worse than a mistake. It’s a betrayal – delivered casually. Maybe he thinks his supporters will treat this declaration of war just as casually. In which case, he’s in for a big surprise.
Okay, can we just take a step back from the ledge here? I agree that putting US blood and treasure on the line in a sectarian conflict being waged largely by religious fanatics would be a huge mistake. Is that what Obama is contemplating? Here’s the statement from the White House that was issued last night:
Following on the credible evidence that the regime has used chemical weapons against the Syrian people, the President has augmented the provision of non-lethal assistance to the civilian opposition, and also authorized the expansion of our assistance to the Supreme Military Council (SMC), and we will be consulting with Congress on these matters in the coming weeks. This effort is aimed at strengthening the effectiveness of the SMC, and helping to coordinate the provision of assistance by the United States and other partners and allies. Put simply, the Assad regime should know that its actions have led us to increase the scope and scale of assistance that we provide to the opposition, including direct support to the SMC. These efforts will increase going forward.
The United States and the international community have a number of other legal, financial, diplomatic, and military responses available. We are prepared for all contingencies, and we will make decisions on our own timeline. Any future action we take will be consistent with our national interest, and must advance our objectives, which include achieving a negotiated political settlement to establish an authority that can provide basic stability and administer state institutions; protecting the rights of all Syrians; securing unconventional and advanced conventional weapons; and countering terrorist activity.
That’s a far cry from “a smoking gun in the form of a mushroom cloud.” I’m willing to be persuaded that Obama is worse than Bush and has betrayed us, but I’m just not seeing any evidence of that yet.