cheney

A Bit or Twenty About My Political Views

RobotPirateNinja 3_RobotPirateNinja, advice, art, business, Examples of Work, friends, government, Int Poly, iraq, media, money, My World, nerd, oil, terror, us, war Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 5 Comments

[this is an excerpt from a private conversation with a friend, who wish to remail anonymous, I think]

This is a much more civilzed conversation, but I really do prefer to have these conversations in public, as, you know…I’m a struggling writer. Really struggling.

To summarize…I’m not a Democrat and don’t follow their agenda. I saw Obama admitted a mistake with Dashle, which is why I like Obama. Bush couldn’t think of a mistake he made after four years…which was a sad joke.

I think both Cavuto and Olbermann are loud mouthed windbags who treat politics like college football. Cavuto is damn near retarded and Olbermann is a pompous windbag.

I enjoy watching and responding to, the Sunday morning talkers. NPR is one of the better sources of info. I usually scan Google News, which is run by an AI and then research from there to do my writing.

I don’t think News and Opinion should be mixed, which is why I think Fox, MSNBC, CNN, etc. are a joke. Cronkite could say more with the raise of an eyebrow than most of these modern schlubs can say with a ten minute rant. All of them are first and foremost a BUSINESS and in the media game to make money. They are not after Truth, at all, they go after ratings, which is why they suck.

I blame Bush and Cheney for making a series of huge strategic blunders that pushed our country to bankruptcy. That was the goal of AQ, BTW, to bankrupt the country. It worked. Bush is an anti-intellectual fool who picked party over principle again and again and again. He picked image over substance and should be in jail for endorsing and pushing torture.

Morals are still important. 9/11 didn’t change that. We’ve killed tens, if not hundred of thousands of innocent people in response. That, I feel, is very immoral.

I’m against torture because I have friends in the military. I also believe in the Golden Rule, as it has been “discovered” by every major religion on the planet. If one endorses torture for others, they endorse it for their friends. I don’t want anyone tortured and think there are much better ways to get information. Study how we “interrogated” German and Japanese Generals during WWII for some good examples.

I can, and have, sat down with people, been honest with them, and have had them telling me their secrets in under 20 minutes. Torture only makes people tell their torturers what the tortoree thinks their torturers want to hear. It’s not a good avenue to get at the truth. It’s torture, and it’s wrong. No matter who does it. Jack Bauer is a fictional character and a number of lecturers at the U.S. War College had to make a public statement about it, because of bunch of keyboard commandos think we should torture more people.

It won’t work, and you also might want to read up on the Japanese we executed for war crimes after they water-boarded Americans. It’s just not right. We’ll have to agree to disagree on that one.

As Martin Luther King said, “An injustice anywhere is an injustice everywhere.” He got assassinated for that view.

I’m not a big fan of Clinton. He sold his soul to be President. Watch, or read “Primary Colors” to see how that worked.

I’m currently reading McClellen’s book on Bush, and consider it to be one of the more accurate readings on what went on in that White House.

I’ve also read two of Obama’s books, and consider him to be a very intelligent, very well read, and very good leader. I don’t agree with the Limbaughian traitorous stance that seems to be dominating the GOP. I also think “Joe the Plumber” is a tard and have written extensively about him.

I’m curious about your view of Islam, which I have a great deal of respect for, and am also critical of in my book.

BTW, would you like to buy a book? I hate to give my writings aways for free to people, as I believe them to have real value. I am an independent thinker, and wish to stay that way.

Regardless, I hope this finds you well. And I VERY MUCH appreciate the more respectful tone this conversation now has.

Peace,
-Roy

Desktop Clearing Post

RobotPirateNinja art, business, Doh, government, iraq, media, middle east, money, pirate, Poli-Fi, robot, terror, us, war Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 1 Comment

I have started a new productivity initiative where I’ll be using my desktop for writing and my laptop for blogging.  Hopefully this will work out better for everyone.  With that being said, I have to clear off my desktop, here’s the stuff I didn’t get to, but thought was worthwhile

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Here’s the walking across the U.S. for a good cause.

SAN DIEGO (AP) ― It took 10 months, 24 pairs of shoes and 40 pounds of flesh, but former New York Giant George Martin has finished a cross-country walk to raise money for people with health problems linked to the September 11 attacks.

[full article]

You can read all about it here.

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A slightly different story about Iraq can be found here.  It’s a more true-to-life kind of this.  Tyler Ziegel and Renee: one year on. 

To understand that story a bit better, here’s the picture that goes with it.

As I said, true-to-life.  Here’s the video if you want to watch that. It gives another angle on the story.

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5 Bible Superpowers

5 Reasons GTA IV is the Worst Great Game Ever Made

I haven’t read Cracked in years, but found both of these articles read-worthy.  The GTA:IV one is particularly good.  It’s always nice to critique perfection..which kinda goes along with the first link…

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Cheney is a lying, cheating jerk.

Vice President Dick Cheney’s office was involved in removing statements on health risks posed by global warming from a draft of a health official’s Senate testimony last year, a former senior government environmental official said on Tuesday.

He hasn’t been heard from much lately, but he’s up to the same old b.s.

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Israel keeps pissing off her neighbors and allies.

Jerusalem – Israel plans to build some 1,800 new homes in two Jewish neighbourhoods of Jerusalem built on occupied West Bank land, Israel Radio reported Wednesday.

Some 900 homes will be built in Homat Shmuel G’, an eastern extension of Israel’s controversial Har Homa neighbourhood, on Jerusalem’s southern outskirts, the radio said.

This settlement building just keeps angreing the Palestinians and even goes agiainst what the U.S. has asked for.  With each new settlement built under protest, peace retreats a bit more.   Stop building until an greement is reached, por favor.

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The U.S. is teetering.

Loong article on the problems facing the U.S.  A good read from a solid scholar.

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What it’s like to watch Fox for 24 Hours.

Found this one pretty funny.  I wouldn’t recommend watching Fox (or any cable news) for 24-consecutive hours.  Heck. I wouldn’t recommend 24 hours a year.

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This is the best Halloween tower EVAR!!!

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World’s oldest bible on the Interwebs.  In the dump trucks.  Just like Jesus predicted.

This is actually pretty cool.  The technology makes so much knowledge and history so much more widely available than ever before.  Good times.  Good times.

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Terror driver in court.

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba (AP) — The judge in the first American war crimes trial since World War II barred evidence on Monday that interrogators obtained from Osama bin Laden’s driver, ruling he was subjected to “highly coercive” conditions in Afghanistan.

But Judge Keith Allred, a Navy captain, left the door open for the prosecution to use statements Salim Hamdan made at Guantanamo, despite defense claims that all his statements were tainted by alleged abuse including sleep deprivation and solitary confinement.

Hamdan, who was captured at a roadblock in Afghanistan in November 2001, pleaded not guilty at the start of a trial that will be closely watched as the first full test of the Pentagon’s system for prosecuting alleged terrorists. He faces a maximum life sentence if convicted of conspiracy and aiding terrorism.

It looks like they are going to allow “coerced” (i.e. tortured) testimony in these trials.  So much for “justice”
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And last but not least, my favorite song of the summer.

The Old Rich White Curmudgeon Agrees, It’s Torture

RobotPirateNinja iraq, media, middle east, pirate, Poli-Fi, us, war Tags: , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Believe Me, It’s Torture: Politics & Power: vanityfair.com

The interrogators would hardly have had time to ask me any questions, and I knew that I would quite readily have agreed to supply any answer. I still feel ashamed when I think about it. Also, in case it’s of interest, I have since woken up trying to push the bedcovers off my face, and if I do anything that makes me short of breath I find myself clawing at the air with a horrible sensation of smothering and claustrophobia. No doubt this will pass. As if detecting my misery and shame, one of my interrogators comfortingly said, “Any time is a long time when you’re breathing water.” I could have hugged him for saying so, and just then I was hit with a ghastly sense of the sadomasochistic dimension that underlies the relationship between the torturer and the tortured. I apply the Abraham Lincoln test for moral casuistry: “If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong.” Well, then, if waterboarding does not constitute torture, then there is no such thing as torture.

Master of the Bbvious (and with 20/100 hindsight) Chris Hitchens has officially weighed in on the waterboarding/torture thing.

This paragraph points out the fundamental problem..you can get anyone to confess to anything with the right pressure.

The other bad points get covered here.  This is from an expert in the technique, or at least training men to resist it.

1. Waterboarding is a deliberate torture technique and has been prosecuted as such by our judicial arm when perpetrated by others.

2. If we allow it and justify it, we cannot complain if it is employed in the future by other regimes on captive U.S. citizens. It is a method of putting American prisoners in harm’s way.

3. It may be a means of extracting information, but it is also a means of extracting junk information. (Mr. Nance told me that he had heard of someone’s being compelled to confess that he was a hermaphrodite. I later had an awful twinge while wondering if I myself could have been “dunked” this far.) To put it briefly, even the C.I.A. sources for the Washington Post story on waterboarding conceded that the information they got out of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was “not all of it reliable.” Just put a pencil line under that last phrase, or commit it to memory.

4. It opens a door that cannot be closed. Once you have posed the notorious “ticking bomb” question, and once you assume that you are in the right, what will you not do? Waterboarding not getting results fast enough? The terrorist’s clock still ticking? Well, then, bring on the thumbscrews and the pincers and the electrodes and the rack.

And that’s it.

Waterboarding is torture.  Torture is wrong. Bush and Cheney should be impeached.  Why is this so difficult to make happen?

The Cost of Stupidity Just Went Up

RobotPirateNinja business, iraq, money, oil, pirate, Poli-Fi Tags: , , , , , , , , , 1 Comment

FARK.com: (3656470) As the national average for a gallon of unleaded regular gasoline reaches $4, keep in mind that mere months ago President Bush accused a reporter who asked about $4 gas of liberal bias

Dr.Zom : 2008-06-08 08:22:47 PM
Electing an oil man president and complaining when the price of gas goes up is like electing a pimp and complaining about the rising price of vagina.

And the truthiness flows…this particular piece of it coming from this story.

NEW YORK – The average price of regular gas crept up to $4 a gallon for the first time over the weekend, passing the once-unthinkable milestone just in time for the peak summer travel season.

Prices at the pump are expected to keep climbing, especially after last week’s furious surge in oil prices, which neared $140 a barrel in a record-shattering rally Friday.

While Americans who have to drive will feel the biggest squeeze, the increased prices also translate into higher costs for consumers and businesses, who will be forced to shoulder increased transportation costs of food and anything else that needs to be transported.

[full story]

Really folks, is there any question left as to where the blame lies for this debacle?

Der Vassermeister Quote 2008-06-08 08:52:25 PM
Do you know the price per barrel of oil in February 200[3]? (For historical context, that would be the month before the Iraq invasion). The answer is that in February 200[3], the month before the Iraq invasion, the per barrel price of oil was [$35.87]. Thank you preznit numb nutz.
[note: had to edit for accuracy, but I liked the point. source]

No Law For You!

RobotPirateNinja Poli-Fi, us Tags: , , , 1 Comment

FOXNews.com – ‘Scooter’ Libby Barred From Practicing Law in Washington, D.C. – Politics | Republican Party | Democratic Party | Political Spectrum

WASHINGTON — Former top White House aide I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby was banned Thursday from practicing law in the nation’s capital following his perjury conviction in the case of a CIA operative’s leaked identity.The disbarment order of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia had been expected.

“When a member of the bar is convicted of an offense involving moral turpitude, disbarment is mandatory,” the appeals court ruled.

Last May, a court panel that oversees lawyer ethics recommended that Libby be stripped of his law license in Washington. The Board on Professional Responsibility then found that Libby’s conviction for lying to the FBI about the case of former CIA operative Valerie Plame amounted to “crimes that involve moral turpitude.”

“This action is required by the rules following a conviction regardless of the merits of the case, and for that reason Mr. Libby expected and did not oppose the court’s order,” said Libby attorney William Jeffress.

Being the fall guy is good work if you can get it.

Ah, One Of My Favorite Games

RobotPirateNinja middle east, war Tags: , , , Leave a comment

US ‘deploys nuclear sub to Persian Gulf’ « TheZoo

A US nuclear submarine has crossed the Suez Canal to join the US fleet already deployed in the Persian Gulf, Egyptian sources say.Egyptian officials reported that the gigantic nuclear submarine along with a destroyer crossed the canal on Friday.

Egyptian forces were put on high alert when the navy convoy was passing through the canal, informed sources revealed.

Earlier on Thursday, a US Navy rescue ship crossed the canal to enter the Red Sea.

An American destroyer has recently left the Persian Gulf, heading towards the Mediterranean Sea.

The deployment comes as recent reports allege that US Vice President Dick Cheney is seeking to buy the support of Middle East nations for launching an attack on Iran.

I used to love this game as a young ‘bot.  I would take all my new shiny toys and parade them around in front of the po-ass dumb ‘bots who couldn’t make their own.