US Politics Mega-thread - Page 1512

On December 10 2014 10:13 oneofthem wrote:

cute, but going blind is not an option in this world.

On December 10 2014 10:35 oneofthem wrote:
storing a backup is not equivalent to snooping into every email. it's to have some place to look when they conduct an investigation justified by specific, case by case information.

it's not like the physical world in which you can always find a person or an address (most of the time anyway).

On December 10 2014 10:40 nunez wrote:
surveillance = storing backups, got it.
should rename to international backup agency.

here's a backup of you hiring a prostitute,
we keep it lying around just in case anyone
needs it...

On December 10 2014 10:40 nunez wrote:
surveillance = storing backups, got it.
should rename to international backup agency.

“Neither psychologist had any experience as an interrogator,” the report notes, “nor did either have specialized knowledge of al-Qa'ida, a background in counterterrorism, or any relevant cultural or linguistic expertise.” Despite their lack of experience in these key areas, Mitchell and Jessen “carried out inherently governmental functions, such as acting as liaison between the CIA and foreign intelligence services, assessing the effectiveness of the interrogation program, and participating in the interrogation of detainees in held in foreign government custody.”

With the backing of agency headquarters, Dr. Mitchell ordered Mr. Zubaydah stripped, exposed to cold and blasted with rock music to prevent sleep. Not only the F.B.I. agents but also C.I.A. officers at the scene were uneasy about the harsh treatment. Among those questioning the use of physical pressure, according to one official present, were the Thailand station chief, the officer overseeing the jail, a top interrogator and a top agency psychologist.

In 2006, the value of the CIA's base contract with the company formed by the psychologists with all options exercised was in excess of $180 million; the contractors received $81 million prior to the contract's termination in 2009. In 2007, the CIA provided a multi-year indemnification agreement to protect the company and its employees from legal liability arising out of the program. The CIA has since paid out more than $1 million pursuant to the agreement.

On December 10 2014 10:50 oneofthem wrote:

the NSA has enough problems to deal with already, no time for looking at your choice of prostitutes.

On December 10 2014 11:45 IgnE wrote:
What was abu-ghraib? Higher ups hungry for results?

TOPEKA - Gov. Sam Brownback plans to transfer $95 million from the state highway fund and cut the budgets of state agencies by 4 percent to help plug a budget deficit.

State agencies will see their budgets reduced by 4 percent from January through June, resulting in about $79 million in savings. The state will also transfer $201 million from dedicated funds, including the highway fund, into its general fund.

Together these moves will give the state about $280 million to plug its budget hole, which is projected to be $279 million by the end of June. Details of the changes can be found here.

“These first steps are a down payment in resolving the immediate budget issue,” Brownback said in a press release. “I look forward to presenting a full budget proposal and policy recommendations to the legislature in January. Our job now is to address this situation through good fiscal governance while maintaining our investment in education, sustaining funding for public safety and allowing T-WORKS (the state’s highway plan) to be completed.”

On the campaign trail, Brownback had repeatedly denied that allotments were a possibility for the current fiscal year.

The state will transfer $95 million from the highway fund, a dedicated fund that goes toward construction projects, and reduce the operating budget for the Department of Transportation by $7.8 million.

Secretary of Transportation Mike King promised last week that the state’s transportation projections already scheduled to begin in 2015 and 2016 would proceed as planned.

On December 10 2014 13:12 Sub40APM wrote:
CIA has a pattern of lying to the public and the Senate on the efficacy of torture, contradicted by its own internal memorandums. http://www.vox.com/2014/12/9/7361091/cia-torture-bin-laden

On December 10 2014 13:19 oneofthem wrote:

well, it was really bad, but it's still an isolated incident early in the war. all the guys from that were very publicly disciplined.

...the United States government has repeatedly sought to portray the abuse as an isolated incident...

In fact, the only exceptional aspect of the abuse at Abu Ghraib may have been that it was photographed. Detainees in U.S. custody in Afghanistan have testified that they experienced treatment similar to what happened in Abu Ghraib -- from beatings to prolonged sleep and sensory deprivation to being held naked -- as early as 2002. Comparable -- and, indeed, more extreme -- cases of torture and inhuman treatment have been extensively documented by the International Committee of the Red Cross and by journalists at numerous locations in Iraq outside Abu Ghraib.

"The Bush administration did what the American public wanted, and that was do whatever it takes to keep us safe. These terror tactics have been stopped because as a country we decided we are better than this," she said. "It’s not about democracy now. No, no. It’s about politics."

Tantaros then exploded and asserted several times that the U.S. is simply "awesome."

"The United States of America is awesome, we are awesome," she said. "We’ve closed the book on it, and we’ve stopped doing it. And the reason they want to have this discussion is not to show how awesome we are. This administration wants to have this discussion to show us how we’re not awesome."

"They apologized for this country, they don’t like this country, they want us to look bad. And all this does is have our enemies laughing at us, that we are having this debate again," Tantaros continued.

Rick Santorum won primaries and caucuses in 11 states in 2012, coming in a respectable second in the GOP presidential primary season. And Republicans have a history of bestowing their nomination on the next guy in line, usually an also-ran from the last contest.

Yet the former senator from Pennsylvania is rarely mentioned in the already feverish pre-game 2016 chatter among the political commentariat and the donor class.

That’s just the way he likes it. Or so he says.

“America loves an underdog. We’re definitely the underdog in this race,” he said in an interview Tuesday. Santorum added that being underestimated — again — “has given me a lot of latitude.”

His iconic sweater vests will likely make a return appearance. But Santorum 2.0 will be a very different presidential campaign than the one that came from almost nowhere to win the Iowa caucuses in an overtime decision, he vows.

“I get the game,” Santorum said.

Where he had to build his operation from the ground up in 2012, Santorum now has a grass-roots operation called Patriot Voices, which boasts 150,000 activists across the country. Its current push, an online petition drive to oppose President Obama’s recent executive action on immigration, has generated what Santorum strategist John Brabender says are “30,000 new e-mail relationships.”

Whether Santorum can raise the money he needs is another question. Foster Friess, the benefactor who ponied up $2.1 million to a pro-Santorum super PAC in 2012, says he would support him again. The former senator is sounding out other deep-pocketed donors, whom he declined to identify.

He is retooling his message, hoping to appeal beyond his socially conservative base and reach blue-collar voters who are being left behind in the economy.