Jimmy Carter calls for end to global War on Drugs →
Most underrated president ever
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TY Wikileaks
TY wikileaks for this one:
“Contractors for Fruit of the Loom, Hanes and Levi’s worked in close concert with the US Embassy when they aggressively moved to block a minimum wage increase for Haitian assembly zone workers, the lowest-paid in the hemisphere, according to secret State Department cables.
”...the factory owners refused to pay 62 cents per hour, or $5 per day, as a measure unanimously passed by the Haitian Parliament in June 2009 would have mandated.”
“…A deputy chief of mission, David E. Lindwall, said the $5 per day minimum ‘did not take economic reality into account.’”
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WikiLeaks: Osama bin Laden killing: Information about courier and location appeared in Gitmo Files release ad t →
Damning evidence that Wikileaks really can damage American and international security in a meaningful way. For those of you who consider Wikileaks an unambiguous force for good, consider this. It could have led to bin Laden getting away again.
This document could not have provided any actionable information about Bin Laden’s whereabouts. Let’s not go overboard because it simply mentions “Abbottabad, PK” and Bin Laden in the same paragraph.
Really? It says that the courier “is the official messenger between UBL and others in Pakistan” and that he “worked between Abbottabad and Peshewar.” How much more would you like it spelled out? If you were UBL or one of UBL’s security people and saw this leaked document how would you react?
This is as serious a leak as if the Germans found out we broke Enigma or the Japanese learned that we broke Purple. This is no joke.
Am I missing something? It says he moved to Abbottabad in 2003 to be UBL’s courier. I think my only point is that this piece of information is small, and that given all the noise that comes out of these type of leaked documents, doesn’t strike me as being enough info to blow the raid. Perhaps you are right and the alarm bells for UBL’s team would be calibrated the same as yours and UBL would have jumped ship had they found it (or maybe they did find it and he just didn’t see it as threatening?).
tl;dr: Epilogue: I am not an intel expert
(Source: soupsoup)
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WikiLeaks: Osama bin Laden killing: Information about courier and location appeared in Gitmo Files release ad t →
Damning evidence that Wikileaks really can damage American and international security in a meaningful way. For those of you who consider Wikileaks an unambiguous force for good, consider this. It could have led to bin Laden getting away again.
This document could not have provided any actionable information about Bin Laden’s whereabouts. Let’s not go overboard because it simply mentions “Abbottabad, PK” and Bin Laden in the same paragraph.
(Source: soupsoup)
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Al Pacino/Serpico
Key quote: “Now I gotta make my pee pee in the dark.”
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Egypt
It is a good thing Obama backed the protracted transition plan for Mubarak, what with him stepping down and all. Sometimes I feel like this whole everyone’s playing checkers while Obama is playing chess thing is 99.9% mythology and .1% hope.
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On Daley
The comments section on the NYT Caucus blog’s post about Daley becoming Obama’s new Chief of Staff is spot on:
…ad infinitum.I have been very concerned that the interests of investment banks have not been sufficiently represented in this administration. The appointment of a current executive from JP Morgan Chase can redress this imbalance.
David H. Rockville, MD
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Colorado Prepares Tough Regulations on Medical Marijuana - WSJ.com →
DENVER—Colorado state regulators are putting the final touches on a fat stack of rules aimed at monitoring, recording and tracking every aspect of the booming medical-marijuana industry, from seed to sale.
On the one hand, it legitimizes medical marijuana in Colorado. On the other, it is incredibly intrusive into the lives of patients, overstepping the boundaries of medical privacy in a country that considers medical privacy nearly sacrosanct (as if we have forgotten the battle over the federal health care overhaul). I don’t know which is better (or worse).
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“Americans can no longer afford to underwrite a government that does not work. A condition of quasi-permanent crisis stretching across generations has distorted our Constitution with near-disastrous results. To imagine at this juncture installing some fresh face in the White House, transferring the control of Congress from one party to another, or embarking upon yet another effort to fix the national security apparatus will make much of a difference is to ignore decades of experience.”
— Andrew Bacevich, The Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalism.
