Looks hopeful to me. by Fremdfirma

REAL WORLD EVENT DISCUSSIONS

Looks hopeful to me.

POSTED BY: FREMDFIRMA
UPDATED: Thursday, January 22, 2009 12:51
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Wednesday, January 21, 2009 3:22 PM

Just ran across this little bit.
Obama to sign order shutting Gitmo in a year
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090122/ap_on_go_pr_wh/obama_guantanamo

Some other interesting bits...
"At the request of the White House, Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Tuesday night ordered military trials at Guantanamo to be frozen for 120 days during an Obama administration review."

I must say, Gates has impressed me as a good soldier, he executes his orders faithfully and without regard to his personal feelings one way or the other - above all the man does his job, and there's been little enough of that in the past eight years.

"One official said the first interrogation order will require all U.S. personnel to follow the U.S. Army Field Manual while questioning detainees. The manual explicitly prohibits threats, coercion, physical abuse and waterboarding, a technique that creates the sensation of drowning and has been termed a form of torture by critics."

About damn time - the folks who wrote that damn manual knew what they were doing from actual experience, not watching bullshit fiction like 24.

"At the same time, the second order will demand a study of interrogation methods that could be added to the Army manual. It was unknown Wednesday what those methods could include, but officials have said they would be more aggressive than what is currently allowed."

Yep, there's a couple psychological tricks we could add to the existing SOP that are effective and somewhat more aggressive without crossing into the realm of actual abuse.

In an interrogation, going hands-on is the mark of an incompetent failure, because the moment you do that any data you DO get needs so much additional support that it's about worthless, and if you don't cross-confirm it, your database winds up full of garbage and you wind up torturing craploads of nobodys who just fingered some other nobody to make it stop while telling you bullshit they thought you wanted to hear...

And you wind up with no info, no progress, and everyone hating your guts more than they hate the local fanatic bastards.

Which is about where we're at, due to the incompetence and stupidity of unprofessional morons who get their idea of how the world works from heavy handed feelgood fiction.

-Frem

It cannot be said enough, those who do not learn from history, are doomed to endlessly repeat it

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Wednesday, January 21, 2009 5:14 PM

GEEZER

Keep the Shiny side up

Cynical me says we've gotten any good out of Gitmo we could by now, and since it's become a liability we should shut it down and get the new administration points for doing so.

"Keep the Shiny side up"

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Wednesday, January 21, 2009 5:38 PM

KWICKO

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." -- William Casey, Reagan's presidential campaign manager & CIA Director (from first staff meeting in 1981)

He's also instituted new rules for lobbyists and for people leaving his administration to become lobbyists. It's not far-reaching enough, but it's a start.

And one of his first actions was to issue a "Not so fast!" memo reversing many of Bush's last-minute regulations that he tried to rush into effect on his way out the door.

So far, I'm kinda likin' this new guy.

Plenty of time for him to screw up, though, and I'm sure he'll have some failures.

But yes, I *am* a bit hopeful.

Mike

"It is complete now; the hands of time are neatly tied."

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Thursday, January 22, 2009 12:10 AM

FREMDFIRMA

Well, I'm still at the "ok he's not a *complete* fucking moron" stage here, but then again I set the bar pretty low - not choking on the snack food or drooling on the hired help is a beginning...

-F

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Thursday, January 22, 2009 3:02 AM

KWICKO

Quote:
Originally posted by Fremdfirma:
Well, I'm still at the "ok he's not a *complete* fucking moron" stage here, but then again I set the bar pretty low - not choking on the snack food or drooling on the hired help is a beginning...

-F

Heh. We'll take the small victories where we can, eh?

Mike

"It is complete now; the hands of time are neatly tied."

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Thursday, January 22, 2009 4:29 AM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Also, he reversed Cheney's stand in FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) requests: rather than put barriers and implement official foot-dragging to LEGAL requests, Obama has stated that when in doubt, agencies should err on the side of transparency.

For those who haven't been keeping an eye on it, the past administration, from the very start, claimed executive privilege on everything, issued orders to all agencies to interpret FOIA requests very narrowly and to stonewall on the ones that were legal. The Administration also issued "gag" orders to all agencies, forbidding staff from talking with the press, telling staff (illegally) not to supply information to the Inspector General and other investigative bodies, and even interfering with subpoenas.

Yanno why Cheney was in a wheelchair at the Inauguration? Lifting a box of records that he wouldn't allow anyone else to handle. And now his appointee has discretion of how much will be preserved. Oh goody. I bet that if peeps knew what Cheney had done, they'd string him up on the nearest lampost.

---------------------------------
It's the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine.

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Thursday, January 22, 2009 4:44 AM

KWICKO

Quote:
Originally posted by SignyM:
Also, he reversed Cheney's stand in FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) requests: rather than put barriers and implement official foot-dragging to LEGAL requests, Obama has stated that when in doubt, agencies should err on the side of transparency.

For those who haven't been keeping an eye on it, the past administration, from the very start, claimed executive privilege on everything, issued orders to all agencies to interpret FOIA requests very narrowly and to stonewall on the ones that were legal. The Administration also issued "gag" orders to all agencies, forbidding staff from talking with the press, telling staff (illegally) not to supply information to the Inspector General and other investigative bodies, and even interfering with subpoenas.

And all the while telling *US* that we shouldn't mind *THEM* looking into every aspect of our personal lives, because if we have nothing to hide, we have nothing to fear! THAT is the part of all this bullshit Patriot Act crap that really pisses me off!

Quote:

Yanno why Cheney was in a wheelchair at the Inauguration? Lifting a box of records that he wouldn't allow anyone else to handle. And now his appointee has discretion of how much will be preserved. Oh goody. I bet that if peeps knew what Cheney had done, they'd string him up on the nearest lampost.

Weird - I thought he was going for the Mister Potter look ("It's a Wonderful Life"). Or trying to garner some sympathy. "Oh, poor me... poor me... Pour me another cup of that child's blood!! Muahhahahahahahahahahah!!!!"

Mike

"It is complete now; the hands of time are neatly tied."

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Thursday, January 22, 2009 5:17 AM

DREAMTROVE

lol. I think that we have new standards for elected officials, not just for president.

An elected official should speak no languages. It's okay if he can mumble 200 sounds or so. Well trained sheepdogs are now eligible to run for office, the only thing stopping them is the age barrier. Fortunately, stem cell researchers are working on their problem. After all, wouldn't it be nice to have a life-long furry companion?

Secondly, a politician should support the free market by using commercial prostitution services, rather than molesting employees, and should order his drugs from local vendors, rather than importing from overseas.

Third, keep the incompetence local. There's no need to go outsourcing the Job of secretary of the state to some guy from Banglor, we have plenty of unqualified criminals right here at home that can make America look worse.

Finally, never listen to your constitutents. You were elected by corporate lobbyists, they write policy and tell you what to think, what to say, and don't tell you who they're really working for, but who cares? They just gave you money so make the damn law already.

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Thursday, January 22, 2009 11:07 AM

FREMDFIRMA

"I bet that if peeps knew what Cheney had done, they'd string him up on the nearest lampost."

Quote:
"If the people knew what we had done, they would chase us down the street and lynch us.”

-George H. W. Bush

Of course, by now Cheney is either in Dubai, or busy shredding documents and moving assets, while having a nice long chat with his buddy Kissinger.

*hisssss*

-F

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Thursday, January 22, 2009 11:34 AM

WHOZIT

And he's also sooooooo dreamy!

I'm going to microwave a bagel and have sex with it - Peter Griffin

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Thursday, January 22, 2009 12:51 PM

DREAMTROVE

Ah, cosmetic sense of a man who gets a hardon every time he enters the bakery aisle.

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