Torture Memo Assistant goes to Facebook!

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Tuesday September 30, 2008 · 12:48 PM PDT

2008/09/30 · 12:48

I know this may seem low-priority with the current crisis's, but I think it's important that we do everything we can to punish those who participated in this crime against what America stands for.

Thanks to Josh at TPM, I learned that Gonzales chief of staff has just been hired by Facebook. His name is Ted Ullyot, and he was among those who worked on crafting the infamous "torture memo".

More information here:
http://valleywag.com/...
Digg it here:
http://digg.com/...

Passive

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Friday September 19, 2008 · 5:28 AM PDT

2008/09/19 · 05:28

There's a very interesting thing that has happened, with McCain's Spanish Fly gaffe. His top foreign policy advisor, Randy Scheunemann, has given us what we need to win this election.

In "The Book of Five Rings", Musashi discusses how to discern an opponents weak point. It's been a while since I read it, but in essence, if you simply attack an opponent on all fronts, the area that they defend the most strongly is likely to be their weakest point.

Randy continues to insist that it was McCain's intention to insult the Prime Minister of Spain. This is an incredibly strong statement, so it bears asking: what is he defending against?

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Friday September 12, 2008 · 11:49 AM PDT

2008/09/12 · 11:49

Or "the sadness of missed opportunities".

I'm a Canadian.

I'm on Obama's mailing list. He sends me plenty of letters asking me to become involved in things that don't allow someone outside of the US to register for. His donation page allows ex-pat donations only with a US Passport Number or Alien Resident # number. I only have a Canadian passport, and no one can tell me what an Alien Resident # is.

(So I donate to ActBlue)

I'm on Move-On's mailing list. They send me plenty of letters asking me to host parties, and register them with Move On. I do the former (as there are lots of other ex-pats up here), but can't do the latter, because they don't allow someone outside of the US to register.

Passive

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Wednesday September 10, 2008 · 6:52 AM PDT

2008/09/10 · 06:52

As I mentioned yesterday, I'm going to devote my diary to the discussions I participated in today.

See this diary for an explanation:
http://www.dailykos.com/...

Please jump in and involve yourself in these discussions!

Passive

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Tuesday September 09, 2008 · 6:13 AM PDT

2008/09/09 · 06:13

We're in the end game now. We've come an incredible way to get here, and shed blood, sweat, and tears in the process. There's been a number of excellent activism diaries that have talked about voting, donating, and other ways you can contribute to improve our results on November 4th.

But there's one avenue that I haven't seen get much discussion, and I think it's quite important. We need to put a herculean effort over the two months into shaping the media.

How do we do this? I'll detail some of the ideas I have in the body.

Passive

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Monday September 08, 2008 · 6:44 AM PDT

2008/09/08 · 06:44

I've just had some discoveries of some very moving songs, and I would like to share those, and hear what you're listening to.

Recently, mostly from emusic (emusic.com), which is a really nice service, especially for those of us on Linux (though it has some downsides there too), and are DRM-averse:

Corb Lund: Horse Soldier! Horse Soldier!

The actual "Horse Soldier! Horse Soldier!" song really opened my eyes about how human wars have really taken a toll on horses throughout the years (seems obvious in retrospect), and "Student Visa's" really struck a cord about just how long we've had to endure idiots running the country. Not to try to demean them, because probably many of them actually had good intentions, which brings me to my next artist...

Passive

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Tuesday September 02, 2008 · 8:24 AM PDT

2008/09/02 · 08:24

John McCain, that is.

For all we spent the weeks leading up to the convention constantly fretting about how the media kept playing up the "Democrats Divided" storyline, it seems like we have that same storyline to thank for McCain's disastrous VP pick.

Given that even Howard Wolfson is now on board with Obama, after being the go-to guy for the idea that women everywhere would flee the Democratic party if Hillary wasn't on the ticket, I have to assume that this was planned. Obama played it cool, allowing the media to continue to spin the story, and putting out that oh-so-tempting idea that a woman on the Republican ticket would steal Hillary voters...

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Thursday August 21, 2008 · 9:35 AM PDT

2008/08/21 · 09:35

Title flagrantly stolen from buhdydharma. :)

Like many in the blogosphere, I too occasionally worry about Obama's strategy. However, I've spent the last few weeks reminding myself of how it has played out in the long term, and I think the strategy has been clear, consistent, and effective.

It's all about Washington, not Obama. Obama is the finger that the people use to poke Washington in the eye. Clinton was in many ways the ultimate manifestation of Washington, in the ways she was connected, and who her most vehement supporters were. So Obama didn't need to attack, he just needed to continue defining the debate in terms of "change". As long as that was the framing, he was pretty sure to win. The same applies to November. More elaboration in the body.

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Friday July 04, 2008 · 7:18 AM PDT

2008/07/04 · 07:18

Does not good legislative policy make. That's the most glaring of my disappointments in Barack's recent FISA statement. I firmly believe he will be the next President, and I even trust that he means he would fix it. But things can change between now and November, and handing out ridiculous new powers to invade our privacy that could end up in the hands of deranged hothead John McCain is not something that needs to be done.

But of course, that's not the only problem with his statement. The exclusivity provision nonsense also bothers me a great deal, coming as it does on the heels of a judge confirming that FISA was already the exclusive means for the President to conduct this type of surveillance. Passing another law stating the same thing does nothing except open the door to question like: "If it was already the law, why did they have to pass a new one". It's shit like that which will get Bush off the hook, which of course will make it more likely for future Presidents to emulate his behaviour.

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Tuesday June 24, 2008 · 6:45 AM PDT

2008/06/24 · 06:45

Like most of you, I spent last week working myself up into a lather over FISA. I simply could not understand what was happening. We had several smart people tie logic into knots to try justify their capitulation, despite the fact it was clear to literally everyone else how bad and ill-conceived their actions were.

But I can only stay angry for so long, then I start to get calculating. Why is this happening? What do they know that we don't? It seems clear to me that there is something missing from this puzzle. I don't believe it's a matter of electoral politics, because it would be plenty easy to pass a bill that "fixed" FISA without including many of the provisions that have the blogosphere so up in arms.

No, there's a reason the telecom immunity is in there. It's a little too easy to say it's about money, that ATT and co's lobbying efforts are finally paying off. That would explain the immunity, but not many of secrecy provisions around the immunity. In fact, I would imagine the telecoms would prefer that their immunity be made very public. So what's the leverage involved? Follow me over the break...

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Tuesday June 03, 2008 · 10:05 AM PDT

2008/06/03 · 10:05

So I was watching Scotty on the Daily Show last night, and he kept reminding me of something. By this morning, I had figured it out.

In a sixth season episode of the Simpsons, titled "Homer: Bad Man", Homer is accused of sexual harassment by a local college student. His house is surrounding by picketers, and his every move becomes fodder for the tabloid journalists ("Simpson scandal update: Homer sleeps nude in an oxygen tent which he believes gives him sexual powers!").

Just when things are looking darkest for Homer, a band of his friends, led by local tavern owner Moe Syzlak, march defiantly through the picketers, and proudly declares: "How can you judge this man without talking to the people who know him best?"...

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Thursday May 22, 2008 · 7:24 PM PDT

2008/05/22 · 19:24

This will be short, and hopefully sweet, but it's something that's been rattling around in my head for a while now. Essentially, it goes like this: McCain is in this to lose.

When I saw McCain on the Daily Show a while ago, this idea began to crystallize that perhaps he wasn't really serious about this running for President thing. I don't remember what in particular did it, perhaps it was the mere fact that he was willing to go on the Daily Show, knowing full well that Jon Stewart could grill him more in 5 minutes than the media has his whole campaign.

But since then, pieces have been falling into place, and for me there's only two ways that his behaviour makes sense:

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Torture Memo Assistant goes to Facebook!

Randy Scheunemann has revealed McCain's weakness

Where's the love for ex-pats?

What I did today

Be polite, persistent, and prolific!

Music open thread (what's resonating with you?)

I can't believe he fell for it!

It's Washington, Stupid!

I'll fix it when I'm President!

Iran as a hostage?

Scotty = Moe Syzlak

The real McCain?