Letters to the Editor
-
True
GG... America isn't the only country in the world that spies and eavesdrops on other countries. Quite the opposite - most countries with the capability to do that do it, particularly in war zones.
Maybe there should be a UN treaty or some other internationsl covnention to govern how countries spy on each other. But there isn't. And that is a different issue - implicating all sorts of different considerations and dangers - than when a government spies on its own people.
-- GlennGreenwald
The Brits (gentleman that they are) were reading our mail prior to our entry into WWI. That's how they intercepted the Zimmerman telegram, and we were their allies. They couldn't admit that they were because "gentleman don't read other gentleman's mail" but they had to let us know what the telegram said. In that game the key is not to let the other gentleman KNOW that your gentleman ARE reading their mail.
Then there is industrial espionage. The only thing "industrial" to remain secret are the recipe for Coke, the Colonel's seasonings and spices and maybe some source code.
-
depressing
Just finished reading the post over at firedoglake and it seems that immunity for the telco's will be part of the bill. We have no idea who they have been listening to but they are going to get immunity for it. As for the poster who said maybe we should be inspiring the dems instead of condemning them. Well if the damn congressional dems can't state their case to the american people, on why immunity for prior lawlessness is a bad idea. I don't think it matters one damn bit if I try to do it for them. I'm not in congress and I don't get to vote. While a few dems in congress were against immunity, the leadership was always going to do it. Pelosi and Reid have caved to Bush on everything he's demanded, why change the pattern now? Can't risk losing the next election, now can we? The repugs might call us names and say we are weak on terror. That would just be terrible, better cave in and give Bush everything he wants. Bye bye 4th amendment, it was nice while it lasted. Hello police state.
-
@ bebop-o
The possum was not a real W.T. possum- It was a skunk with unshaven armpits.
Another favourite: Mamzelle Hepzibah
http://tinyurl.com/3xwpmv
She must have had unshaven armpits; she was French. ;-)
Now doan get upset wid me, mon freres, I mean no insult nor no aspersians....
Cheers,
-
The Brits and WWI
During Week TWO of World War One- a Brit cable laying boat off the coast of Germany and in cover of night- dredged up and then cut the bundle of transatlantic cables from Germany to the United States. Thereafter- all news about the war to the US was dominated by the Brits- and their quite extensive government coordinated propaganda campaign directed towards the US run from Wellington House.
Of course, nowadays- our DC press just refuses to air foreign views entirely- as the near total abscence of foreigners from American broadcast and even print news clearly demonstrates.
-
Conservativeslayer, what post?
The post I read, by Christy, suggested that it's worthwhile calling, and calling, and calling. I didn't have the impression it was a done deal. Of course, it might be a done deal if there's no pressure on these people.
-
Heh...
We had no deciphering, decrypting capability prior to or during much of WWI. The Brits did. Stimson said it the famous quote when he found out in 1929 that we had developed one, mainly because it was necessary.
From Yardley's biographer:
The Reader of Gentleman's Mail
Chapter 3 A History of American Intelligence Before Yardley
http://david-kahn.com/book-david-kahn-reader-gentelmen-mail.htm#Chapter_3
Don't blame Britain for the propaganda. Try the CPI. That's where this "consent manufacturing" machine was born.
http://www.firstworldwar.com/features/propaganda.htm
There was no choice but to enter WWI. Randolph Bourne was wrong on that score. Dewey was right. Think unrestricted submarine warfare. Jefferson would have done it in a heartbeat.
-
Arne, Ya's can't insult me.
At 6:00 Pm, each eve, I can hear the town church bells ring. I think tonight the bells chime: O, For One-Thousand Tongues To Sing.
O, I'll eat Okra this eve and visit my valley camaraderie...For, at my home you see, a air of suppressed damn crying, a lament, and there are other's who wait, elsewhere, and even wonder if I'll carry a jug of brew- but I get to eat some grump/grub, that always awaits me. Wail, ya's neocon's.
Gads. Yes!
Never sell.
The Soul-ah-o!
-
Arne
Do you visit BanjoHangout regularly? Or was that just something that just fit the moment?
-
No Choice?
Sure there was a choice. There was the choice on not selling arms to Britain. There was the choice of entering on the side of Germany as Britain forcefully and illegally blockaded US trade to and from that country (and thus helped starve many German civilians to death in the first mass act of targeting civilians in modern warfare).
Course- the civilian leadership of the US at the time wasn't German descended but rather Anglo- so they masked their tribal motivations to enter that war with a lot of bullcrap about "Democracy" to get Irish, Italian, Polish, and other "hyphenated Americans" (as the racist Wilson and the rest of Anglo Protestant America reffered to them) to fight in that idiotic war that involved them not at all.
-
@ Kitt
Arne
Do you visit BanjoHangout regularly? Or was that just something that just fit the moment?
Why would I do that? Banjers are those things that people too stoopid to play fiddles carry around. Think "Deliverance". You know what four banjer picks on the dashboard are? "Handicapped stickers"....
OT: What's the diff between and fiddle and a hammered dulcimer?
Now doan go gettin' thin skinned on me; the bridge will pop through the head.... ;-)
Cheers,
-
@dwarfstar -- Jefferson
But then Jefferson (I think) said this nation is destined to need a revolution every 200 years or so to oust those who would destroy the country from within.
Two errors here. 1) Jefferson said every twenty years 2) The barefaced assertion, "I think." I guess we can all understand how you might make the first mistake. But it sure is hard to understand how you could make the second.