Ray McGovern and the Sam Adams party have presented the Sam Adams award to Edward Snowden. I am delighted. This from Ray’s account of the event:
In brief remarks from his visitors, Snowden was reassured — first and foremost — that he need no longer be worried that nothing significant would happen as a result of his decision to risk his future by revealing documentary proof that the U.S. government was playing fast and loose with the Constitutional rights of Americans.
Even amid the government shutdown, Establishment Washington and the normally docile “mainstream media” have not been able to deflect attention from the intrusive eavesdropping that makes a mockery of the Fourth Amendment. Even Congress is showing signs of awaking from its torpor.
In the somnolent Senate, a few hardy souls have gone so far as to express displeasure at having been lied to by Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and NSA Director Keith Alexander — Clapper having formally apologized for telling the Senate Intelligence Committee eavesdropping-related things that were, in his words, “clearly erroneous” and Alexander having told now-discredited whoppers about the effectiveness of NSA’s intrusive and unconstitutional methods in combating terrorism.
Coleen Rowley, the first winner of the Sam Adams Award (2002), cited some little-known history to remind Snowden that he is in good company as a whistleblower — and not only because of previous Sam Adams honorees. She noted that in 1773, Benjamin Franklin leaked confidential information by releasing letters written by then-Lt. Governor of Massachusetts Thomas Hutchinson to Thomas Whatley, an assistant to the British Prime Minister.
The letters suggested that it was impossible for the colonists to enjoy the same rights as subjects living in England and that “an abridgement of what are called English liberties” might be necessary. The content of the letters was so damaging to the British government that Benjamin Franklin was dismissed as colonial Postmaster General and had to endure an hour-long censure from British Solicitor General Alexander Wedderburn.
There has been a determined attempt by government to justify the need to intercept everybody’s communications, all the time. We have, yet again, had MI5 claim there are many thousand violent Islamic terrorists running around the UK, (yet somehow not managing to kill anybody). The cry of “paedophiles” is raised, as always. I can imagine them suggesting the entire population be shot dead, and justifying it as making sure they get the paedophiles. The tabloids would go with that.
There still had not been a single credible claim by the mainstream media that any named individual has died, despite that contingency being trotted out all the time as the reason Snowden and Manning should not have revealed state crimes and abuse of power. I am hopeful that, with the internet still largely free to the dissemination of information, out next massive whistleblower is only weeks away.
Ben, you might like this
Everyone else as well of course -)
http://squonk.tk/blog/2013/10/24/maybe-logic-the-lives-and-ideas-of-robert-anton-wilson/
Wow, AA
One of my all time heroes and incidentally taught George Carlin everything he know – according to Carlin.
RAW RIP
That should read “knew” above, of course.
You might like this – AA and others:
Lloyd Pye – Everything You Know Is Wrong
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OnjuGYqtJos
Right, when government officials have impunity you don’t need to conspire. You just do what you want and it works out.
Now take the latest patsy we ran as an agent, putting him through his paces and making him look like a Moslem nut, them setting him up like a bowling pin at the wrong place in the wrong time (Boston, this time, just to show we don’t need Southerners anymore) and then killing a cop to get the ball rolling. We execute counterinsurgency operations right in the cradle of liberty and they roll over on their backs like little whipped bitches. Then we blow the patsy to pieces, then… get this – we hang it on the big palooka’s beloved younger brother, who’s even more dazed and confused. Our crooked prosecutor’s gonna hide our tracks. Everything’s a national security secret now.
We can do this till the cows come home.
Robert Anton Wilson and Karl Hess passing the duchy whilst reminiscing:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kEdRde6jew0
Ben
I also like the idea.
But
As even The Chief Troll ordered his new underlings to not engage, then directed that starving them of oxygen was working…
Could not believe it..
Then they complain about a good wee conversation rolling along….Like you and Alcanon for example…
But i have to agree that Macky’s concern for new posters wondering WTF, and Who the Fuck is Who…even an ex mod is confused…
No disrespect man, just not sure it would make them go away…Primary reason being the points made by the blogs posters are too close to nasty truths for the elite’s comort…
And since I’m here – After listening to P. Gabriel – in preparation for tomorrow nights concert in Glasgow –
Nevermind Cheers for heads up re Jui jitsu… Loved wee meet ,Too short.
Ben you are forgiven Lol, i tried and loved Tai Chi, VERY Powerful Martial Art… Tried Aikido too – mabe more me than jitsu, or tai chi undecided like a Librian might be – 17/10 -Sharing the Dude
Anyway Peace All
Peter Gabriel Bleeds a beautiful song – San Jacinto –
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1IxE6z1tjo
@ Jpn,
Q: We can do this till the cows come home.
R: Provided they can find that FEMA camp…
Found a Frog in my rice Paddy the other day, wonder what that means…
Send it to Dubbya Daniel. He is proficient at putting firecrackers inside them and then watching them explode.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2004/08/02/41798/-Bush-Blew-Up-Frogs#
‘We were terrible to animals,’ recalled [Bush pal Terry] Throckmorton, laughing. A dip behind the Bush borne turned into a small lake after a good rain, and thousands of frogs would come out. `Everybody would get BB guns and shoot them,’ Throckmorton said. `Or we’d put firecrackers in the frogs and throw them and blow them up.’
Terrible to Iraqis and Afghans too!
@Macky, you’ve finally outed me .. as a bad speller. But you are no detective. I refer to StF.Mary as such because of a combination of her obsession with JIZ and the comedy that ensued when Res Dis referred to the (allegedly) false comment on Stormthingy. But I have decided to drop the Stormthingy prefix and now the StF abbreviation because it’s all too fiddly for my fat fingers on the tablet. Instead, I’ll refer to her as SS Mary because it has an old world ring to it – like in the days when big ships would be launched with so much public fanfare – *wink*
But please feel free to continue to peddle this theory of yours and in the meantime also visit some of these other sites that I have visited –
http://www.google.com/search?q=harrassment
Any comments?
/Now, quite how the idea for Ambassadors (BBC Two, Wednesday) came about is anybody’s guess. A comedy drama about the inner workings of the British embassy in a fictional Central Asian republic called Tazbekistan? What? But it is certain that the extensive research carried out by the writing team of Rupert Walters and James Wood (who have written for Spooks and Rev respectively) added a vital dose of realism, without which it would just have been silly.
Apparently, the writers were allowed to spend a week shadowing the British ambassador to Kazakhstan. And the Foreign Office, in addition to placing senior officials at the writers’ disposal, allowed the cast to conduct a read-through in one of their grandest rooms. Was this Her Majesty’s Government’s attempt at soft propaganda? Maybe. But it was jolly good.
The two leading actors, Messrs David Mitchell and Robert Webb, brought the thing alive. Ambassador Keith Davis (Mitchell) was a wonderfully explosive and strait-laced character, who thought nothing of placing the sale of British military helicopters above rescuing British citizens from death at the hands of the Tazbekistan regime. At the same time, of course, he was 100 per cent buffoon. His sidekick, Neil Tilly (Webb), was a laissez-faire yet browbeaten second-in-command, whose liberal credentials – he argued in favour of rescuing the British citizen rather than flogging British helicopters – were clear right from the start.
When the Ambassador was forced, by dint of etiquette, to accompany the Tazbekistani president on a six-day vodka drinking session, it was hilarious; and it had that especial hilarity that derived from being just two degrees from the truth. This was no Carry On Foreign Office. It was a true and sensitive portrayal of the surreal world of the middle-ranking diplomat, and was made only the more accurate by its comic exaggeration
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/10400689/Ambassadors-BBC-Two-review.html
I saw very little comedy or ‘satire’ as the continuity presenter told us to expect. It was slow and laborious and more like a travelogue for the ‘stan’ in which it was supposed to be set. Must have cost a bomb in location filming alone.
PS to Mr Jake Wallis Simons who wrote the review above. We know where the idea for the series came from!
Jon @8:31p
I’m just going to assume that you agree with the insults and slurs that get hurled at me. Because I’m sure you don’t think so highly of ESLO and me that you expect us to conform to a higher standard of discourse.
. . .
We never did get around to defining what a “peaceful religion” really is, did we?
Will the Gharqad tree change its mind after the false gassing flag by bandar/satanyahu where 426 Alawite children were kidnapped in Latakia and ended up gassed in Ghouta? But first why hasnt our usual jew shilling for war on israels behalf, JIC Chairman rifkind resigned yet?!!
Resident Dissident
23 Oct, 2013 – 10:31 pm
Just popping in having been away the last few days – I wish I hadn’t bothered.
That makes about six of us. Please feel free to exercise that option in future.
@Daniel Rich
I’ve read it Daniel. The link you first posted had a typo in it – a quotation mark at the end as part of the URL.
What a curious development with the World Bank raising the issue of the necessity Isr@eli withdrawal from the occupied territories.
@” ישראל בכל מקום ” “One day we’ll let them all out, and they won’t even want to come back.”
This view sounds a lot like the ancient Romans, Babylonians, Nazi Germans etc. Consider what happened to them. And consider what happened to your community in 586 BC and 70 AD, and so on. I’m saying that your continued survival depends on trying to be pleasing to Heaven, and that means a humane attitude to Palestinians.
Therefore, if you know what’s good for you in the long term, seek harmony with them, abandoning arrogance and short-sightedness. America might not be there for you forever.
Comparing us with the Nazis is antisemitic, you realise. Thousands of years of unjust persecution and the Holocaust justify us in everything we do, isn’t there a shoah memorial near you? We need Lebensraum, and by G-d we’re going to get it.
The list of suspects grows –
Guano (disappointed in you my Muslim friend)
http://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2013/06/lack-of-intelligence/
Parky (Michael Parkinson?)
http://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2013/04/the-tsarnaev-conundrum/
Nevermind (Well there’s a surprise! And it’s even on this thread!!)
http://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2013/10/edward-snowden-gets-sam-adams-award/comment-page-5/
Ingo (Isn’t that .. ? Oh, nevermind)
http://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2010/05/i_just_cant_bel/
Craig Murray – (oh, no. I can’t believe it was you)
http://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2006/02/outrage_grows_o_2/
Or maybe it was someone who took a signature piece of writing style, like mispelling, and used it to frame one of us. Now who would do something as low as that and then show up dressed as Sherlock Holmes?
“But please feel free to continue to peddle this theory of yours and in the meantime also visit some of these other sites that I have visited –
http://www.google.com/search?q=harrassment ”
That’s v interesting Jemand. The first three entries show it spelled two different ways. So both spellings are correct. So much for Macky and his “beyond reasonable doubt”. Silly little man that he is.
Harrassment – Legal Dictionary – The Free Dictionary
legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Harrassment
harassment (either harris-meant or huh-rass-meant) n. the act of systematic and/or continued unwanted and annoying actions of one party or a group, including …
Harrassment – The Free Dictionary
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Harrassment
ha·rass (h -r s , h r s). tr.v. ha·rassed, ha·rass·ing, ha·rass·es. 1. To irritate or torment persistently. 2. To wear out; exhaust. 3. To impede and exhaust (an enemy) …
Harassment – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harassment
Harassment covers a wide range of behaviours of an offensive nature. It is commonly understood as behaviour intended to disturb or upset, and it is …
Sexual harassment – Harassment in the United – Wikipedia:Harassment
Macky would want to watch himself in the pub, if he throws allegations around with such gay abandon …
Which “gay” would that be, Dreoilin? Cheerful gay, queer gay or uncool gay? The English language is becoming so unreliable as a medium of communication that I’m thinking of dropping it and taking up Chinese (.. now would that be Standard Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Cantonese, Mandarin ..?)
“Craig Murray – (oh, no. I can’t believe it was you)
http://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2006/02/outrage_grows_o_2/ ”
Hilarious
Habbabkuk (La Vita È Bella!) 23 Oct, 2013 – 9:30 pm
@ John Goss
“Nevertheless Ceausescu and the Communist regime spared the life of the king and even let him take his possessions with him.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The historical accuracy of that comment reminds me of your “The Zionists funded Stalin” moment.
Kind Michael of Romania was ousted (and it is true, allowed to depart) in 1947. Can you remind us how old Nicolae Ceausescu was in
1947?
THanks.
********************
Always look on the…accurate….side of life!
Yes, 29 most of the year and in charge of Romania’s agriculture department. Is that accurate enough for you?
Habby, do you deliberately try to make yourself look stupid? Or is it natural?
“Which “gay” would that be, Dreoilin? Cheerful gay, queer gay or uncool gay?”
You don’t remember gay abandon? Used to post here with the handle Queer Eye or something. Long time ago. 🙂
(got to run – travelling)
http://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2013/10/edward-snowden-gets-sam-adams-award/comment-page-10/#comment-435095
Infantilism and a slur. The SS has unpleasant connotations for most decent people.
~~
Q Why does that same poster type Israeli as Isr@eli and Jew as J3w? Just asking. Is it the same as typing God as G-d or similar?
No comments on last night’s The Ambassadors then? Thought the subject might be worthy of one or two. I am sure Craig has an opinion. Reminder. He’s the blog owner.
~~~
This just in.
Tell EU: stop supporting settlements
Please email your MEPS to support the EU guidelines, due to come into force in January 2014, which aim to stop Israeli projects in illegal West Bank settlements from being granted EU research funds, awards, prizes or loans.
The European Commission are under incredible pressure from the US Secretary of State and other friends of Israel to reverse these plans. So please ask your MEPs to ask them to hold firm. There are worrying signs that they might be bending to the pressure.
Thousands of letters have already been sent. Thank you. But if you haven’t yet emailed your MEPs please do so today. If you have, then please forward to your family & friends. It is very important that the EU stands firm.
Email your MEPs today.
http://www.eccpalestine.org/tell-your-meps-to-support-new-rules-on-israels-participation-in-eu-programs/
http://www.palestinecampaign.org/euguidelines/
“Q Why does that same poster type Israeli as Isr@eli and Jew as J3w? Just asking. Is it the same as typing God as G-d or similar?”
In theory it’s so that people can tell what you are talking about but machines cant.
It is true apparently. Oops!
Australia Bushfire ‘Started By Army’
The mayor of the beleaguered Blue Mountains says the live ordnance exercise should not have gone ahead in view of the fire threat.
6:13pm UK, Wednesday 23 October 2013
http://news.sky.com/story/1158444/australia-bushfire-started-by-army
Dreoilin: “So much for Macky and his “beyond reasonable doubt””
Strong circumstantial evidence is more than enough to secure convictions on the principle of reasonable doubt, unless you want to join Jemand’s desperate straw-clutching of suggesting it could be Craig or Nevermind, etc
Macky: “it will be interesting to see how they react to it being their lying Angry Hate Filled Aussie pal Jemand”
So the answer to my own question is, with desperate denial.
Jemand’s reaction on being found out;
http://i.imgur.com/DrcTTpS.gif
Thanks Fred, correct.
SS Mary, no I am not a Jew as you implied, I just thought I would show some repect to Craig by limiting the usage of those words in their correct spellings. You see, search engines tend to push webpages up in the search results and I disn’t want to contribute to making Craig’s blog prominent by association with searches on those words.
I did the same thing by with St0rmfr0nt(zeroes) and left a comment about others’ frequent references to STORMFRONT as boosting their popularity.
But if it makes you uncomfortable and you wish me to use the correct spelling of JEWS, ISRAEL and ZIONISM, I’ll happily oblige until Craig has something to say on the matter.
Re Oz bush fires, I’m not sure what you are implying by stating that the army sparked it. We have literally hundreds of small and large bushfires, mostly accidental (we believe) and sometimes caused by mentally disturbed people. But I think you were trying something else, weren’t you?
“Strong circumstantial evidence is more than enough to secure convictions on the principle of reasonable doubt, unless you want to join Jemand’s desperate straw-clutching of suggesting it could be Craig or Nevermind, etc”
Then please let us know when you have some strong circumstantial evidence because Jemand seems to be the one talking sense.
Macky, I’ve never heard of a single misspelled being called “strong circumstantial evidence” before.
But I did enjoy your self portrait – handsome devil, you.