The Librarian
Banned
What corruption? The Justice Department hasn't done anything illegal here. The real scandal is what's legal.
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Obama's Justice Department snooping on Associated Press
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What corruption? The Justice Department hasn't done anything illegal here. The real scandal is what's legal.
I hadn't heard that term until this thread, either. At least I had never registered it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago-style_politics
Unlike Washington DC.
ElectricBlue187
Member
Why is Obama spying on the red leftist marxist liberal commie pinko media?
IpsoFacto
Member
I'll summarize:
One of the most violent cities in the US.
Long history of crony-ism.
Ganster culture.
Code of slience.
Long history of bribes, shady business,etc.
Read this article on how Chicago works: http://www.wbez.org/blog/best-game-town/bgit-19-bbc-examines-chicagos-culture-corruption
One of the most violent cities in the US.
Long history of crony-ism.
Ganster culture.
Code of slience.
Long history of bribes, shady business,etc.
Read this article on how Chicago works: http://www.wbez.org/blog/best-game-town/bgit-19-bbc-examines-chicagos-culture-corruption
Pristine_Condition
Member
Yeah. Funny how that happens.
Maybe we can find a Republican having a homosexual affair somewhere, or a Republican City Councilman from Deluth, MN saying something outrageous and have a 35-page thread about it. Because stuff like "Fast and Furious," the Benghazi coverup, and the IRS and AP scandals are boring and there's clearly nothing to see here...
Pristine_Condition
Member
I think this is important to remember. While this is really fucking shitty, not a single law was broken (the legal justification isn't even the Patriot Act it's a Supreme Court case from the late 70's). It's fucked up that this is legal and that should be the outrage.
You know that's right!
I'm sure i'm going to blow your mind clouded by your victimization but...
this does work for republicans, democrats and independents!
Will wait to see what exactly happened, if this is really serious, we might not know the whole story for decades. This sounds like The West Wing where Toby was leaking the existence of a classified military space vehicle used to secretly rescue astronaunts, because he sanctimoniously thought this information should be public. Counter terrorism is tough enough as it is for this administration trying to shut down gitmo and such, so someone leaking the details of a stopped bomb threat for differences in policy is lame and troubling. Also makes me wonder if there are other more substantial leaks with more immediate danger that the administration is trying to put a lid on that we aren't reading about.
The Benghazi stuff is just utter nonsense, so don't be surprised that no one takes it seriously.
The IRS stuff isn't exactly excusable, but since we're talking about looking at groups seeking special tax-exemptions in a post-Citizens United environment and by groups that are only nominally non-political in nature and are hostile to the very notion of taxes (which is different than using the IRS as a political arm to seek political retribution), I can at least understand the extra scrutiny, even if it may not have followed the letter of the law. Waiting on more info there.
On civil liberties, that's one issue that's just been in the shitter on both sides of the aisle. After over ten years, it's hard to get the outrage meter going any higher, and to single out this administration has being any better or worse than the past ones, let alone Congress.
I'm not giving the administration a pass by any means, but context matters, as does alternatives (I certainly wouldn't expect a Romney administration to have behaved any better on any of those counts whatsoever).
What we have here is thread-whining.
If political threads (at least the kind you want to see) are becoming scarce, then make the thread(s) yourself. If you're a Member, then there's nothing stopping you.
It's a way of easily recognizing people who live in the right wing media bubble.
If political threads (at least the kind you want to see) are becoming scarce, then make the thread(s) yourself. If you're a Member, then there's nothing stopping you.
It's a way of easily recognizing people who live in the right wing media bubble.
Republicans wanted to expand government's ability to intrude on privacy, Democrats didn't get rid of it when they took power, now everyone unites to complain when the AP gets phone records taken. Bunch of hypocrites, all of them.
The Librarian
Banned
The power for the Justice Department to obtain phone records (numbers and duration of calls) without a warrant comes from a Supreme Court decision made in the 1970s. It's not a policy the Republicans enacted.
I don't care so much that they pulled the phone records of an official news organization. Law enforcement has been able to do that at will to any private citizen they want. Did they think that the press would be immune? Why would they think that? What indication did they have that freedom of speech translated into freedom from being spied on? They helped birth this beast by worrying about their bottom lines more than they did the truth, so here we are. The Press and their "first line" status, compromised? They compromised that a long time ago.
I was speaking generally ( though in a rather specific case so i shouldn't have), but that's good to know.
el retorno
Member
Because those threads are actually about things affecting policy. Nobody is using these "scandals" to propose changes, just beat up their political opponents and when investigations usually find is these things a blown into something they're not.
The republican threads are due to these very same people, pushing creationism in schools, preventing women from getting access to health care, stopping action on climate change, increasing poverty, cutting services, etc. They actually affect MANY peoples lives.
And nobody is saying these things shouldn't be investigated. But continue to push the dems are just as bad as republicans.
Pristine_Condition
Member
LOL.
Good one, dood. Nice to see you are sticking to the playbook of implying that anyone who has an opinion that doesn't match yours is mentally ill. But this one was more subtle than most, so good on ya for the creativity.
...
Benghazi doesn't affect policy? I'd suggest it already has. How else would you explain the reluctance to get involved in Syria? I think most observers would suggest that the incident at Benghazi has cooled the administration's desire to get involved there.
Glad you are fired up to investigate these things. You should be. After all, "Fast and Furious" directly resulted in DEAD people. Benghazi directly resulted in DEAD people.
shadyspace
Banned
What's the benghazi cover up?
didn't say you were mentally ill, just thought maybe after reading a paragraph of you bemoaning the lack of threads on these topics you may have forgotten where the "new thread" button is
el retorno
Member
The current witch hunt doesn't not affect policy, its about talking points. Nobody is seemingly investigating how to better protect diplomatic missions, just who knew what when and if they said the T word.
Fast and Furious was a stupid operation I think it was investigated though and policy changed, and the hearings were about who opened an email, not about how to protect agents. And the "benghazi cover up" TM did not result in dead people. A terrorist attack lead to dead people.
http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/cnn-leaked-benghazi-email-edited-to-focus-on
Apparently someone in the GOP is covering up the editing of emails. We should launch a full investigation into what they knew and when they knew it.
Zeus Molecules
illegal immigrants are stealing our air
....... NO!
Pristine_Condition
Member
Reading this, unless the law has changed, it seems either Attorney General Holder is lying when he said he had "no knowledge," or those in his office under his leadership didn't follow the law:
http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CFR-2010-title28-vol2/pdf/CFR-2010-title28-vol2-sec50-10.pdf
http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CFR-2010-title28-vol2/pdf/CFR-2010-title28-vol2-sec50-10.pdf
his excuse is that he recused himself from the investigation after being questioned by the FBI, leaving the deputy AG in charge for this case. I'm not a big Eric Holder fan as it seems its convienent that he always has an excuse, but thats the excuse for him not knowing
Open Source
Banned
No, you entirely missed the point, which is that people here post all sort of minor crazy right wing crap and revel in dozens of pages of moral superiority. And then when massive stuff that actually matters - people with actual power abusing it to attack their political opponents, incompetence and cover-ups relating to life and death matters - hits, it's tumbleweeds.
It has nothing to do with the ability to make new threads; it's a commentary on the propensity of many people here to ignore and excuse incompetence, cover-ups, and abuse of power from their own "team" at the highest levels of government while obsessing over the fringiest, most ineffectual, most irrelevant goofs on the other.
Personally, I could do without the political threads, although posting in them is a guilty pleasure. We should have Democrat-related scandals all the time just to keep the place clear.
Pristine_Condition
Member
No, you just came out of the box characterizing my frame of mind by your use of the phrase "your mind clouded by your victimization."
Yep. Big difference. That's why I complemented you on sticking to PoliGAF's Personal Attack Playbook™ of painting people who don't share your views as unhinged or irrational, yet doing it in such a subtle manner that it didn't come off as so boorishly overt as is normal around here. It was a genuine compliment. You should be flattered.
Pristine_Condition
Member
Not knowing about the subpoena of phone records though? This occurred in April and May of 2012, far before Holder recused himself, and it seems pretty clear the law required him to know and review it.
Dude Abides
Banned
It's when a Democratic mayor sics police thugs on protesting hippies.
Just kidding, that's the kind of Chicago-style politics conservatives like.
To be fair, jumping from "your mind clouded by victimization" to an accusation of mental illness does lend itself to the statement about victimization.
A person's mind can be clouded by many emotions without it being a sign of illness.
GungHo
Single-handedly caused Exxon-Mobil to sue FOX, start World War 3
i haven't been able to find when the actual subpoena or getting of the records happened, i thought it was a few months after the leak, from preliminary searching he apparently recused himself in June 2012 according to the below story. If the subpoena was before this date, then that makes him look even worse.
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/atto...d-back-ap-leak/story?id=19176645#.UZKg-rXvs1L
Fast and Furious has a lot to do with loose gun laws both at the federal level and also along the bordering states:
These things have been investigated, but that they don't churn up the desired political results some would like doesn't mean it's worth beating a DEAD horse ad nauseam.
Link
The Autumn Wind
Republicans have only themselves to blame for no one taking them seriously with their constant faux outrage. No one even listens to them anymore, even when there might be substance behind what they're screaming about. It gets even worse when more details come out about these things, and not only is it way less of a "scandal" than they make it out to be, it's based on rules and regulations that they themselves support.
The party that cried wolf.
The party that cried wolf.
Then stop your whining and create the thread.
Fenderputty
Banned
This is probably the best part about this whole thing. I'm really having a hard time understanding anyone's rage at this point.
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