All Your Conspiracy Theory Are Belong To U.S. (Trees And Things)

uncarved block: Setting Standards

Wed, 4 Jul 2007 16:28:53 EST

Sorry for the long delay-- it's been hotter than hell the last couple weeks (over 105 for two weeks, and 112 today), and my ability to focus has suffered some.

What's interesting about the abuses of power chronicled in the CI

thefadd: Re: Blame The Recount

Sat, 30 Jun 2007 21:30:33 EST

New Orleans was a disaster decades in the making, and Bush just happened to be the guy on watch.

Clinton wouldn't have taken three days to notice that there were black people dying on CNN.

Lou: Re: Blame The Recount

Sat, 30 Jun 2007 18:27:32 EST

New Orleans was a disaster decades in the making, and Bush just happened to be the guy on watch.

I don't think anyone really (or at least jokingly) blames the hurricane...or the failure of the levees on Bush. The thing that sticks in my cra

thefadd: Re: Blame The Recount

Sat, 30 Jun 2007 17:55:20 EST

HW's gotta be considered better than his son. His grasp of international politics was far better and he had some decent domestic social policies. The only concern I have with HW was the ever increasing racial tensions that he made no effort to curb. His so

thefadd: Re: Who knew?

Sat, 30 Jun 2007 17:51:04 EST

I'm inclined to agree your sentiment that they need to be cowboys who push the boundaries. But I don't think that mitigates the responsibility the rest of us have to keep them in check. The friction is likely a good thing.

gerrymander: Re: Blame The Recount

Sat, 30 Jun 2007 13:49:44 EST

The eventual winner was going to get off to a bad start no matter what

Yep.

As to the history, I think there's at least a good fraction of what could be called the Left who would agree with the assessment that every president since Truman-

gerrymander: Re: Who knew?

Sat, 30 Jun 2007 13:49:35 EST
But "Kennedy did it" is hardly a defense when everyone knows what a reckless cowboy he was.
I'm less interested in presenting a defense than a question. That so many presidents with such different political viewpoints all respond in similar ways

uncarved block: Blame The Recount

Sat, 30 Jun 2007 00:13:57 EST
If the tenor surrounding Bush's violations is more shrill than normal, there's a lot of blame to hand around, but I'd say you have to start with Florida. The eventual winner was going to get off to a bad start no matter what~, and it would ha

Lou: Soft sell

Fri, 29 Jun 2007 21:52:16 EST
Bush is a middle-of-the-road president,
So, that's what they're calling the Harbinger of the Apocalypse these days?

thefadd: Re: Who knew?

Fri, 29 Jun 2007 18:15:45 EST
Is Bush suffering a little extra blow back because people are finally fed up with the level of transgressions on personal liberty? I'd allow that. But "Kennedy did it" is hardly a defense when everyone knows what a reckless cowboy he was. Based on reported

gerrymander: Re: Who knew?

Fri, 29 Jun 2007 17:02:57 EST
Bush's wiretapping, however, was done through the NSA, not the CIA. You're conflating the CIA with the Executive.
Both the CIA and NSA fall under the purview of the Executive branch.
Just because the CIA has been doing it, doesn't mean the

thefadd: Re: Who knew?

Fri, 29 Jun 2007 15:59:54 EST
Wiretapping and warrantless searches bother people across the political spectrum no matter who is doing them. People are upset that the CIA was doing these types of things. People are also upset that the current President has been doing these types of thin

gerrymander: Re: Who knew?

Fri, 29 Jun 2007 14:58:19 EST
I don't see what's made you so defensive.
Hearing the constant refrain of our current president's critics is what makes me defensive, thefadd. Here's an almost 700-page report, cataloging offense after offense to civil liberties under Democratic

thefadd: Re: Who knew?

Fri, 29 Jun 2007 13:14:37 EST
The CIA for a large part acts independent of the executive and I think that's one of the problems people have with it. That's one of the issues those who fought for the release of these documents hope to bring to the fore. None of the comments made prior t

gerrymander: Re: Who knew?

Fri, 29 Jun 2007 10:10:27 EST
That would be why I wrote "most of." The CIA report was subsequent and in direct response to Watergate, but the abuses described therein took place since the organization's founding -- under all Democratic presidents, save one.
Curiously, most reports p

thefadd: Re: Who knew?

Thu, 28 Jun 2007 20:09:33 EST
Well, he did go to communist China and institute socialist price controls.

Lou: Who knew?

Thu, 28 Jun 2007 16:37:48 EST
Nixon was a democrat?

gerrymander: Re: All Your Conspiracy Theory Are Belong To U.S.

Thu, 28 Jun 2007 14:54:12 EST
So let's see, we have spying upon and illegal wiretapping of US citizens run rampant, testing illegal drugs on unwitting subjects, assassination attempts, working with the mafia -- and most of it during Democratic administrations. Kind of interesting, in l

MayorBob: The Hell With Germany & Italy.

Thu, 28 Jun 2007 08:34:44 EST
The US Senate would like a few words from the administration. The subpoenas are out and, of course,

uncarved block: Related Reading

Thu, 28 Jun 2007 08:24:22 EST
Don't have time for a full comment, so this will have to remain a sketch only. If you want an idea of the stranger things the US government has been up to in the last couple years, Jon Ronson's The Men Who Stare At Goats is an interest