Archive for the ‘Security Theatre’ Category
Crossing The Rubin Con: Endless Wargasm
Jennifer Rubin pauses from her Romney cheerleading day job to go after the 51% of America that actually learned a lesson from the decade of wars we’ve been thrust into, as the latest Pew Research poll finds there’s not too much support for backing up an Israeli attack on Iran. With only 39% of Americans [...]
February 16, 2012
· 
Zandar · 
173 Comments
Posted in: Foreign Affairs, Military, Our Failed Media Experiment, Security Theatre, This is not where you come to do your madness!, War on Terror aka GSAVE®, We Are All Mayans Now
Working As Intended, Citizen Pierce!
Charlie Pierce, Esquire, is alarmed by a new “pediatric health” study: Of all the numbers in this new study, the following remains an astonishing statistic: By the time they’re 23, 41 percent of American kids have been busted for something more serious than a traffic stop… To me, it’s an indication of that something is [...]
December 21, 2011
· Anne Laurie · 17 Comments
Posted in: An Unexamined Scandal, Decline and Fall, Domestic Affairs, Education, Good News For Conservatives, Security Theatre
Not Just Some Dystopian Fantasy
The new surveillance state and domestic drones. Since that last thread had me as disgusted as I’ve ever been with the commentariat here, bonus points to the first commenter to come up with some variation of “If you haven’t done anything wrong” or “Nothing you do outside is private” to excuse this. Extra bonus points [...]
December 12, 2011
· John Cole · 284 Comments
Posted in: Decline and Fall, Security Theatre
Auto-Neurotic In Alabama
One has to wonder what Alabama cops have against foreign car executives anyway. Oh wait: they have no choice but to ask for papers, please. The Guardian reports that Honda manager Ichiro Yada was arrested earlier this week at a checkpoint in Leeds, Alabama, despite being able to show police his passport, US work permit, [...]
December 3, 2011
· Zandar · 67 Comments
Posted in: Security Theatre, Teabagger Stupidity, The Brown Enemy Within, Wingnut Event Horizon
LA Police Support Occupy Movement
Last night, in the latest in a series of nationwide police actions designed to prolong and strengthen the Occupy Movement, Los Angeles police engaged in a focused, decisive and ultimately successful attention-gathering operation. Drawing on their storied history of overreaction as well as demonstrating their leadership status in American law enforcement, the LAPD was the [...]
November 30, 2011
· mistermix · 33 Comments
Posted in: Security Theatre, Shitty Cops
Keep Your Enemies Close, Keep Pakistan Closer
Pakistan is pretty pissed off right now as a NATO gunship assault on a border checkpoint near Afghanistan has resulted in at least 26 dead Pakistani soldiers so far. Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has called an emergency meeting of military services chiefs to formulate his country’s response, his spokesman said. The Defense Committee [...]
November 26, 2011
· Zandar · 145 Comments
Posted in: Military, Security Theatre, War on Terror aka GSAVE®
My Creation, Is It Real, It’s My Creation, I Do Not Know
Ten years after the Transportation Security Administration was created, Republicans have a bunch of conflicting, hypocritical nonsense to helpfully spout in order for you to approve of them grifting the system they made in the first place. Reps. John Mica (R-Fla.) and Paul Broun (R-Ga.) want to give the Transportation Security Administration a series of [...]
November 17, 2011
· Zandar · 69 Comments
Posted in: Blatant Liars and the Lies They Tell, Ever Get The Feeling You've Been Cheated?, Free Markets Solve Everything, Republican Stupidity, Security Theatre
DHS ‘Coordinated’ Police Assaults on Occupy Everywhere Protestors
(Update from NYMag’s Daily Intel as of 8pm: “Around 2,000 activists have marched single-file back into the newly tentless Zuccotti Park. They are spending the evening in general assembly, forging a strategy for the coming days…” and links to OccupyNYC’s livestream, which won’t load directly on my pc.) Via the Guardian, Rick Ellis at the [...]
November 15, 2011
· Anne Laurie · 108 Comments
Posted in: #OWS, Security Theatre, Shitty Cops
The War Against Ourselves
The key component of any Republican argument is a tautology involving whatever it is they don’t like being the greatest threat to our universe since the Weeping Angels. As yesterday was Veteran’s Day, at least one Republican from Tennessee has decided that the Big Bad threat is Muslims in our military. State representative Rick Womick [...]
November 12, 2011
· Zandar · 140 Comments
Posted in: I Reject Your Reality and Substitute My Own, Republican Venality, Security Theatre, Somewhere a Village is Missing its Idiot, The Brown Enemy Within, War on Terror aka GSAVE®
“Meet Oakland, Singapore-by-the-Bay.”
Gods bless Mr. Charles P. Pierce (he’ll need it): Make no mistake about it: The actions of the police department in Oakland last night were a military assault on a legitimate political demonstration. That it was a milder military assault than it could have been, which is to say it wasn’t a massacre, is very [...]
October 27, 2011
· Anne Laurie · 65 Comments
Posted in: #OWS, Decline and Fall, Security Theatre, Shitty Cops
Police Arrest OccupyBoston Protestors
From the Boston Globe website, timestamp 2:53am: Boston police moved in and began arresting scores of Occupy Boston protesters who refused to leave a large part of the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway early this morning. At 1:20 a.m., the first riot police officers lined up on Atlantic Avenue. Minutes later, dozens of sheriff vans and [...]
October 11, 2011
· Anne Laurie · 47 Comments
Posted in: Don't Mourn, Organize, Security Theatre
Because NineElevenNineElevenNineElevenAreYOUSomeKindaTerrorist?!?
Watch the full episode. See more POV. Jay Gould is supposed to have said, “I can hire one half of the working class to kill the other half.” As it turns out, that works as well among modern-day activists as it did for Gilded Age factory hands. From the NYTimes review of “Better This World”: [...]
September 5, 2011
· Anne Laurie · 10 Comments
Posted in: An Unexamined Scandal, C.R.E.A.M., Election 2008, Security Theatre, War on Terror aka GSAVE®
No Money for Butter, But Always Money for More Bigger Guns
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Joint-Chiefs-of-Staff chair Admiral Mike Mullen are already shrieking like neurotic lapdogs confronted with a nail-clipping… I mean, “warn[ing] of dire consequences if the Pentagon is forced to make cuts to its budget beyond the $400 billion in savings planned for the next decade… “ “We’re already taking our share of [...]
August 5, 2011
· Anne Laurie · 72 Comments
Posted in: Assholes, C.R.E.A.M., Military, Security Theatre
Murdoch’s Media, National Security & “The Innocent Have Nothing to Hide”
Drafted this last night, and eventually decided it was a little too inside-baseball, especially since so many people would prefer to devote their free time to freaking out about the Neverending Debt-Ceiling Debacle. But after Cole’s ISP post Sunday afternoon… That subsector of Rupertdammerung known as “Hackgate” may have found its Frank Wills. According to [...]
August 1, 2011
· Anne Laurie · 20 Comments
Posted in: An Unexamined Scandal, C.R.E.A.M., Security Theatre
All Your ISP Are Belong to U.S.
This is horrifying: Internet providers would be forced to keep logs of their customers’ activities for one year—in case police want to review them in the future—under legislation that a U.S. House of Representatives committee approved today. The 19 to 10 vote represents a victory for conservative Republicans, who made data retention their first major [...]
July 31, 2011
· John Cole · 155 Comments
Posted in: Both Sides Do It!, Science and Technology, Security Theatre
