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Glenn Beck Reports CIA Plot Between Embassy Killing and Something Awful

An anonymous reader writes "Here's one that even The Onion would reject as too blatantly ridiculous: American right-wing radio and TV clown Glenn Beck believes that Sean Smith aka Vile Rat, the EVE Online diplomat who was killed earlier this month during the attack on the US embassy in Benghazi, was actually a CIA agent, relaying communications to his fellow undercover agents at Something Awful."

413 comments

  1. Glenn Beck is a fucking moron. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I don't believe anything that guy says. He is only after ratings, and by extension, money.

    1. Re:Glenn Beck is a fucking moron. by MrEricSir · · Score: 5, Funny

      I don't believe anything that guy says. He is only after ratings, and by extension, money.

      Are you sure? I suspect he's an underground agent working for The Onion.

      --
      There's no -1 for "I don't get it."
    2. Re:Glenn Beck is a fucking moron. by Jeremy+Erwin · · Score: 5, Funny
    3. Re:Glenn Beck is a fucking moron. by the_fat_kid · · Score: 0

      Oh, how I cry out for a mod point.

      Good one, Sir.

      --
      -- Sig under construction...
    4. Re:Glenn Beck is a fucking moron. by DragonTHC · · Score: 1

      well, they could be using steganography in photoshop phriday!

      --
      They're using their grammar skills there.
    5. Re:Glenn Beck is a fucking moron. by flyneye · · Score: 4, Informative

      But,even with no Glenn Beck, there IS a conspiracy.
      http://www.subgenius.com/ts/hos_logs/Hour_of_Slack_1233.html
      A little retro smile for my slash buddies.

      --
      *Repent!Quit Your Job!Slack Off!The World Ends Tomorrow and You May Die!
    6. Re:Glenn Beck is a fucking moron. by fustakrakich · · Score: 5, Insightful

      He is only after ratings...

      Exactly what his bosses expect of him. How is that 'moronic'? You're not supposed to believe anything he says. That would be moronic. You're only expected to buy the products advertised on his show. It's TV, okay? He's there to entertain.

      --
      “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
    7. Re:Glenn Beck is a fucking moron. by reboot246 · · Score: 3, Informative

      In fact he even says not to believe him until you do your own research. So much of what he does is pure comedy and sometimes it's hard for the slower ones amongst us to tell the difference.

      Remember that sometimes he gets his point across by using hyperbole and comedy. You have to listen to several shows and learn his method before you judge him.

    8. Re:Glenn Beck is a fucking moron. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

      Have you ever listened to the guy for any period of time? He's been absolutely spot on about many things.

      Some of the things he says seems ridiculous when he says them, but a year later? Many have happened.

      Bottom line to the Slashdot Crowd... the intelligent Slashdot crowd anyway. Before you form a (very obviously) uninformed opinion, perhaps you should try to listed for two weeks straight. Then at least you have something credible to base it on.

      Be the intelligent, scientific crowd you think you are, and try it. Otherwise, you are more of a buffoon than you can comprehend.

    9. Re:Glenn Beck is a fucking moron. by Fnkmaster · · Score: 1

      Examples? Citations? Please share.

    10. Re:Glenn Beck is a fucking moron. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That was awesome. Thank you.

    11. Re:Glenn Beck is a fucking moron. by boundary · · Score: 1

      Come on then. Pics or it didn't happen.

    12. Re:Glenn Beck is a fucking moron. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      It's too bad almost nobody researches anything because he's already presenting the information as fact. What they do is go out and buy his books.

    13. Re:Glenn Beck is a fucking moron. by ganjadude · · Score: 5, Insightful

      this is /. where no one RTFA and you expect people to listen to MORE than one show BEFORE they decide their stance???

      --
      have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
    14. Re:Glenn Beck is a fucking moron. by leppi · · Score: 5, Insightful

      You realize that when you speak like this about a person, you become that which you claim to hate (I guess you would claim to hate Glenn Beck, I don't know). That doesn't bother you at all?

      I know the AC title is all about saying some kind of explitive joined with a derogatory ad hominem. But, This is EXACLTY the type of thing he would say about someone else! It's not productive. It just clouds your judgement and only speaks to people who only think like you do.

      I know it's slashdot, I know "someone on the internet is wrong". But This was modded "Insightful". Really?

    15. Re:Glenn Beck is a fucking moron. by bgat · · Score: 4, Insightful

      You have to listen to several shows and learn his method before you judge him.

      If you can survive listening to more than one of his shows nowadays, then you are either previously brain-damaged, or are seeking to become so. He was tolerable and even somewhat balanced in his early days, but then he went off the deep end and into whatever he is now.

      --
      b.g.
    16. Re:Glenn Beck is a fucking moron. by Nimey · · Score: 1

      I have relatives who believe him. :( They even ask me to prove that what he says isn't true, in a tone that screams "I too am a conspiracy theorist whose theories can never be proven wrong".

      --
      Hail Eris, full of mischief...

      E pluribus sanguinem
    17. Re:Glenn Beck is a fucking moron. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How do you know that Glen Beck didn't rape and murder a 9 year old child, he surely hasn't denied it.

    18. Re:Glenn Beck is a fucking moron. by drkim · · Score: 4, Informative

      The great thing about the Onion story is that Iran's Top News Agency (Fars) actually believed it!

      http://newsfeed.time.com/2012/10/01/irans-top-news-agency-reposts-onion-article-as-fact/

    19. Re:Glenn Beck is a fucking moron. by fustakrakich · · Score: 1

      What is there to judge? If he makes his nut, it's all good.

      --
      “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
    20. Re:Glenn Beck is a fucking moron. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Glenn Beck is an idiot for sure, but lol at all the people who think our intelligence agents don't have weird setups.

    21. Re:Glenn Beck is a fucking moron. by drkim · · Score: 3, Informative

      Have you ever listened to the guy for any period of time? He's been absolutely spot on about many things.

      You're right. He called himself a “...hopeless alcoholic and drug addict.

      "I'm on the verge of moral collapse at any time."

      "I’m not good for anything; I just keep hurting people, everybody I meet, everything I touch."

      Other, less "spot on" quotes:
      "When I see a 9/11 victim family on television, or whatever, I'm just like, 'Oh shut up' I'm so sick of them because they're always complaining."

      "The only [Katrina victims] we're seeing on television are the scumbags."

      "So here you have Barack Obama going in and spending the money on embryonic stem cell research. ... Eugenics. In case you don't know what Eugenics led us to: the Final Solution. A master race!"

    22. Re:Glenn Beck is a fucking moron. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Can they prove Glen Beck didn't rape and murder a 9 year old child? He surely hasn't denied it

    23. Re:Glenn Beck is a fucking moron. by plasticquart · · Score: 0

      Hahaha... ha haha ha!!!11!

      Whew.

      Good one. You almost got me.

    24. Re:Glenn Beck is a fucking moron. by tyrione · · Score: 4, Funny

      Robert Anton Wilson would concur, ``Glenn Beck is a fucking moron.''

    25. Re:Glenn Beck is a fucking moron. by hairyfeet · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Well the bitch is once in awhile...and its rare, its like a planetary alignment, he will say something that actually make sense. hell I even agreed with him twice, crazy i know.

      The first time was a few years back when they caught that NYC guy with a failed bomb and while the right wing wanted to go "enemy combatant" and take away his rights Beck said "You don't trash the constitution to get the bad guys, we're supposed to be better than that"..I can't find any fault with that statement, you really shouldn't trash the constitution just to get the bad guy. The second time was when there was talk of the US going into Iran and Libya and he said it was "time for the USA to be Switzerland and get the hell out of there"...again, can't find fault with that statement, between the military and the CIA we've been stirring shit all over the planet and it IS time to be Switzerland and stay the fuck out of everyone else's business.

      So while I think Beck and Alex Jones and the other "Its all a conspiracy!" nuts are just that every once in a while they actually say something that is true. I guess its like a broken clock being right twice a day, who knows. Most of the time though? Crazy as a loon.

      --
      ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
    26. Re:Glenn Beck is a fucking moron. by mvdwege · · Score: 3, Insightful

      As the right-wing Hate Machine spews its filth over the public spaces, it consistently maintains it's just "calling things as they are", "exercising their free speech" or "avoiding political correctness".

      But God forbid someone should call one of them names. Then suddenly out of the woodwork various arbiters of decency appear waving their fingers and going "tut-tut".

      Here's a deal for you: why don't you go fuck off?

      Mart

      --
      "I know I will be modded down for this": where's the option '-1, Asking for it'?
    27. Re:Glenn Beck is a fucking moron. by LordLimecat · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Nothing suprises me about this. Ive been attacked by fellow republicans (who claim I must be a democrat or something-- oh no!) simply for asking for civil discussion.

      Political discussion in this country is doomed.

    28. Re:Glenn Beck is a fucking moron. by khallow · · Score: 2

      Before you form a (very obviously) uninformed opinion, perhaps you should try to listed for two weeks straight.

      Why don't you try to read Das Kapital for two weeks straight? It's not enough time to form a reasoned opinion, one only needs an hour or so for that. But it is enough time to warp your sense of reality.

    29. Re:Glenn Beck is a fucking moron. by ArcherB · · Score: 1

      Examples? Citations? Please share.

      I remember thinking Beck was crazy when he said that the government was going to take over the auto and health industries. Of course, I thought he was crazy. Hell Bush was president!

      --
      There is no "I disagree" mod for a reason. Flamebait, Troll, and Overrated are not substitutes.
    30. Re:Glenn Beck is a fucking moron. by ArcherB · · Score: 1, Flamebait

      I'm sorry, but have you been in a coma for 12 years? Did you not hear the hatred that was spewed about Bush that is NOT spews about Obama. Hell, even the media is getting in on the game.
      See this "lady".
      And compare that to when Bush was president, HERE. It's actually the same reporter.

      Also, two wrongs don't make a right, especially when you have to make one of the wrongs up to justify your hatred and bad behavior.

      --
      There is no "I disagree" mod for a reason. Flamebait, Troll, and Overrated are not substitutes.
    31. Re:Glenn Beck is a fucking moron. by mvdwege · · Score: 1, Troll

      No, I've been living under a conservative Christian Democrat government the past 12 years, with a growing racist party in Parliament which actually got to govern in the last cabinet.

      The world is not the USA, and your predictable right-wing false equivalencies are tiring.

      --
      "I know I will be modded down for this": where's the option '-1, Asking for it'?
    32. Re:Glenn Beck is a fucking moron. by ArcherB · · Score: 3, Informative

      No, I've been living under a conservative Christian Democrat government the past 12 years, with a growing racist party in Parliament which actually got to govern in the last cabinet.

      The world is not the USA, and your predictable right-wing false equivalencies are tiring.

      Well, I can't really accurately reply to the "right wing" in your country since I don't know what country that is. And hell, your "right wing" may truly be "Hate Machines". But this article is about a US based libertarian talk show host who is falsely associated with the "right wing" because he, like all libertarians, favor a small, central government with most of the power given to the states and communities.

      Beck is not a "right wing Hate Machine" like what you have described. He is simply, like many libertarians, susceptible to conspiracy theories. In this case, he took a guess that maybe a guy who really was there to track weapons used Eve Online to relay a message that they were about to be attacked.

      Now I can forgive you for not understanding the political dynamics of US political talk radio, but I am unable to look past your speaking on the subject with such disdain for something you know nothing about. And it is true that "The world is not the USA", this article is about the USA, an embassy of the USA, and a talk show radio host from the USA sharing his conspiracy theories with others in the USA. If you don't understand what it's all about, then maybe you should simply read and sit this one out. After you've done a bit of research on the matter, listened to Beck a bit (I highly recommend "Moron Trivia"), and read about his views, where he stands, why people call him "right wing" and what "right wing" means in this country, then you might be able to speak on the matter without appearing foolish.

      --
      There is no "I disagree" mod for a reason. Flamebait, Troll, and Overrated are not substitutes.
    33. Re:Glenn Beck is a fucking moron. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      ...actually he runs his own network; and a quite successful one that is doing something revolutionary things. He is the boss.

    34. Re:Glenn Beck is a fucking moron. by toriver · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Take over in what sense? They made emergency loans to much of the car companies that otherwise would have gone bust (leaving mostly just Ford). And mandating health insurance so that you don't have poor contagious sick people walking the streets. There is no take-over there, either. So he was still crazy.

    35. Re:Glenn Beck is a fucking moron. by mvdwege · · Score: 1, Flamebait

      Take your fucking condescension, and ram it up that arse of yours; that's so tight that it could use some loosening.

      And stop equivocating: you right wing guys are all for tough talk as long as it's your side doing it, so the whining for decency when you get some nasty words back is hypocrisy, not 'two wrongs make a right'. Thank you for proving the point though, as suddenly you are now an arbiter of what is morally OK, while in any other discussion you like to pull up "Yes but them libruls do it too!".

      So fuck you and your hypocrisy. As long as your brand of idiocy is imported by way of Pam Geller into my country, I will keep an eye on what you Nutjobs in the States are doing, and I will comment on it. And no amount of your pussy whining will stop that, so better get used to it.

      --
      "I know I will be modded down for this": where's the option '-1, Asking for it'?
    36. Re:Glenn Beck is a fucking moron. by Rosy+At+Random · · Score: 2

      "Remember that sometimes he gets his point across by using hyperbole and comedy. You have to listen to several shows and learn his method before you judge him."

      OK, I'm listening. Please tell me how to interpret this into some kind of point or something.

      --
      Would you like a slice of toast?
    37. Re:Glenn Beck is a fucking moron. by ArcherB · · Score: 2

      Take over in what sense? They made emergency loans to much of the car companies that otherwise would have gone bust (leaving mostly just Ford). And mandating health insurance so that you don't have poor contagious sick people walking the streets. There is no take-over there, either. So he was still crazy.

      Buying $50 billion in stock is not "emergency loans". Also "emergency loans" don't give you the power to oust the CEO.

      --
      There is no "I disagree" mod for a reason. Flamebait, Troll, and Overrated are not substitutes.
    38. Re:Glenn Beck is a fucking moron. by ArcherB · · Score: 0

      Awesome! Thank you for proving my point. Go read my latest comment and then read yours and come back and tell me which one closer fits the description "Hate Machine". Also note that some loving, open minded leftists modded it "Flamebait" in order to make it not show up in the general thread, probably because I said Beck is libertarian and not "Beck if a fucking idiot who needs to die die DIE like hateful fucker he is". That would have been modded "Insightful +5". For example, this comment was modded (Score:4, Informative):

      As the right-wing Hate Machine spews its filth over the public spaces, it consistently maintains it's just "calling things as they are", "exercising their free speech" or "avoiding political correctness".

      But God forbid someone should call one of them names. Then suddenly out of the woodwork various arbiters of decency appear waving their fingers and going "tut-tut".

      Here's a deal for you: why don't you go fuck off?

      Mart

      I feel informed. Does nothing in your comment scream "Hate" to you? I think it's in there, but I can't quite put my finger on it. And it's strange, just about every single comment I read is insulting Beck, calling him all kinds of names. I'm not seeing anyone "Hate Machines" come out of the wood work.

      --
      There is no "I disagree" mod for a reason. Flamebait, Troll, and Overrated are not substitutes.
    39. Re:Glenn Beck is a fucking moron. by Talderas · · Score: 1

      Something Awful are horrible because they're connected to someone named "Vile Rat".

      Don't believe my statement until you research it for yourself.

      --
      "Lack of speed can be overcome. In the worst case by patience." --Znork
    40. Re:Glenn Beck is a fucking moron. by dave420 · · Score: 1

      Glenn Beck is no libertarian. He might be a Libertarian, but he's no libertarian. He's also a muppet. Hint: He is right-wing. The US's politics is right-of-centre when compared to the rest of the developed world.

    41. Re:Glenn Beck is a fucking moron. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      He doesn't want you to think for yourself. He wants you to think like he does, and tells you that that is thinking for yourself.

    42. Re:Glenn Beck is a fucking moron. by Dunbal · · Score: 2

      Steganography can be far more interesting than that. Especially when a post by DragonTHC on Slashdot means our New York assets, on grasscity.com means Chicago assets and penny-arcade means our Los Angeles assets. A Monday post means that work is going according to schedule, posting at an odd hour (7PM) as opposed to an even hour means that the message is true as opposed to possibly compromised, and the homepage that is linked contains a paragraph that is encrypted and tells me the name of a hotmail address with our common, shared password, that is being used as a drop-box for an encrypted file that has more information...

      PS - I'm not stalking you, I just used the first couple google hits on "DragonTHC"...

      --
      Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
    43. Re:Glenn Beck is a fucking moron. by Stormy+Dragon · · Score: 1

      Beck's not a moron, just his listeners. I used to listen to Beck back before he went national, and his current persona is a complete act. He just realized there was a lot more money in pandering to crazy people than in continuing to talk about what he actually believes.

    44. Re:Glenn Beck is a fucking moron. by Remus+Shepherd · · Score: 1

      You realize that when you speak like this about a person, you become that which you claim to hate

      No. If you call someone a 'fucking moron' out of anger then yes, you are lowering yourself to their level. But you can call someone a 'moron' because that really is the most apt word to describe what they are, and add the adjective 'fucking' to emphasize just how perfectly they match that derogatory term, and that's okay.

      It is not debasing yourself to call people what they really are. Glen Beck is emphatically a moron. It's okay to admit that, and I would say it's insightful to announce it to others.

      --
      Genocide Man -- Life is funny. Death is funnier. Mass murder can be hilarious.
    45. Re:Glenn Beck is a fucking moron. by Xyrus · · Score: 2

      In the words of the Daily Show: "What he says makes sense. And if you don't think about it he makes even more sense."

      Glenn Beck is about one thing and one thing only: Glenn Beck. He's not a moron. He's not stupid. He gets paid millions of dollars for spewing conspiracy laced nonsense across the airwaves. And his listeners love him for it.

      Sure, any rational thinking person would listen to one show and say, "Wow, that guy is a few sandwiches short of a picnic.". But then again, rational thinking people are not his target audience. He knows what he's doing, and I doubt he believes half of what he spews across the air.

      --
      ~X~
    46. Re:Glenn Beck is a fucking moron. by jellomizer · · Score: 3, Insightful

      "In fact he even says not to believe him until you do your own research"
      Unfortunately a lot of people take this to mean what I am saying is true, and you need to prove me wrong. Then you get stuck into conspiracy logic reasoning, where lack of evidence only means the conspiracy is deeper.

      For example the Birther Movement.
      Some Guy Pull out of his ass that Obama wasn't born in the united states, because his father wasn't a native citizen.
      Demand research, so they demand a copy of the birth certificate.
      They finally get it, well it could be fake,
      They find newspaper articles, about his birth,
      They figure that it was paid to be placed in there.
      They track it down to the hospital.
      they assume the hospital was paid off...

      For some reason a half white and half black child from a modest middle class family must be groomed to be president of the United States, as a plot for the UN communist to take over the United States.

      For average vote Joe, they do not have the research skills to realize they are going down a dead end path, and will research and pull more crazy and bad sourced information.

      --
      If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
    47. Re:Glenn Beck is a fucking moron. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You really believe what you just wrote? Companies go bankrupt all the time because of mis-management AND because of economic issues. It is the way business works. Ford was the ONLY smart one of the three by NOT taking any government money and pulling through on their on. And by the way, there are more than just the three car companies in the US. Maybe it is time for you to do some REAL research and learn something.

      As far as mandating health insurance? I say fuck them. It is just another way for redistribution of wealth in this country and Obama and his left wing wackos want. Funny how they spout off about hof all these millionaires need to pay their fair share and everything they put in place they exempt themselves from. They hammer on Romney's taxes paid but lets see how much HE gave to charity and how much the anointed one gave. My guess is that Romney gave a MUCH higher percentage than Obama did. Until they change tax laws and what can be deducted, then I say EVERYONE has the right to use them as they can in order to save money. Too bad that Obama is too stupid to figure that out.

    48. Re:Glenn Beck is a fucking moron. by Sectoid_Dev · · Score: 1

      Examples? Citations? Please share.

      I remember watching him using scare tactics to convince his audience that food shortages were immenient and everyone should rush out and buy 20 pound bags of rice. A shortage of rice(really a price increase) in the international market was in the news that week because the typical exporters of rice were keeping more of their output for domestic consumption that year. That was in 2008. I hope grandpa and uncle fred like 4 year old rancid rice.

    49. Re:Glenn Beck is a fucking moron. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      All you people are pretty dumm.

      Off course that diplomat was a CIA agent, many US officials in embassies are, fkn dumm morowns!

      having this truth being spread by a known liar and disinfo agent glenn beck is actually a smart move so that the dumm GOYIM don't believe this obvious truth.

    50. Re:Glenn Beck is a fucking moron. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      So you're saying because every once in a while Beck, in between ranting that "God will bathe this nation in blood", and charlatan-speak, says the sky is blue, it's okay to listen?

      Beck is preaching the end of the world and then selling you survival kits and gold during the breaks. He's scum.

    51. Re:Glenn Beck is a fucking moron. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The auto bailouts where not a series of loans. The government seized the assets and rendered void the debts of GM and then restructured the company. It basically put the company through a quick bankruptcy without the courts or any due process. So people who were owed money by GM, like many pension plans, saw there corporate bonds basically turned into meaningless paper while the UAW was just given a share in the new company.

      Obamacare hasn't taken effect and yet the streets aren't filled with contagious zombies.

      Beck maybe a moron, but you shouldn't be a drone.

    52. Re:Glenn Beck is a fucking moron. by Bigby · · Score: 1

      It was unfair to Ford. Just like bailing out the big banks was unfair to smaller banks. The health system involvement is just ramping up.

    53. Re:Glenn Beck is a fucking moron. by PortHaven · · Score: 2

      Ford, and they've even admitted this themselves, were just lucky. They had just taken a big re-structuring loan out right before rates and credit availabity tanked. They did well because that allowd them to be the only American auto maker not needing a bail out.

    54. Re:Glenn Beck is a fucking moron. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's useful to have an unbelievable but popular clown to utter true phrases when you'd like to reduce the credibility of the truth.

    55. Re:Glenn Beck is a fucking moron. by Verdatum · · Score: 1

      "Whatever he is now"? He's the "Mad prophet" Howard Beale from the movie Network. Which was a pretty clever idea to steal, ratings wise. He has unashamedly admitted this relationship in the past.

    56. Re:Glenn Beck is a fucking moron. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "Political discussion in this country is doomed."

      That is relative, most of the contributors here act like 12 year old children which, I assume they are not. But I could be wrong.

      You will find the most open and honest debate in conservative forums, left wing forums invariably shutdown and attack any who do not accept the party line. I know this from experience.

      "Ive been attacked by fellow republicans (who claim I must be a democrat or something"

      Try me, I am very good at civil discussion when not attacked.

    57. Re:Glenn Beck is a fucking moron. by StillNeedMoreCoffee · · Score: 1

      "something credible" sorry, the fellow is a clown and a bad actor. (every see him cry? or get angry?, not even a b-adult movie director would hire him. )

      You must be hungry for dirt.

    58. Re:Glenn Beck is a fucking moron. by fustakrakich · · Score: 1

      Shit! After reading that, I kinda like the guy.

      --
      “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
    59. Re:Glenn Beck is a fucking moron. by Bucky24 · · Score: 1

      I used to watch Beck (though this was three years ago, I imagine he's gotten a little crazier since). I have to say I did agree with a lot of his points, mostly concerning the constitution. I mostly stopped watching when he started saying that we needed to get the country back to religious roots.

      --
      All the world's a CPU, and all the men and women merely AI agents
    60. Re:Glenn Beck is a fucking moron. by Bucky24 · · Score: 2

      So reading this little thread here I'm a little confused. How come ArcherB is being modded flamebait but mvdwege gets informative? They're both flamebait as far as I can tell..

      --
      All the world's a CPU, and all the men and women merely AI agents
    61. Re:Glenn Beck is a fucking moron. by datastew · · Score: 1

      Informative? Really? In my opinion, this is Off-topic and Flamebait. But with the declining general quality of Slashdot over the last couple years, I have stopped being so obsessive about using my mod-points and so don't get them very often.

    62. Re:Glenn Beck is a fucking moron. by oamasood · · Score: 1

      +1 if I could - I enjoy reading your insightful comments.

    63. Re:Glenn Beck is a fucking moron. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Whooooa there, Slick. Form an opinion based on observation and analysis? Slow your roll, way down. That's just not how it's done.

      Form an opinion based on a couple things you've heard in some other context, and then parrot what you hear other people say as if you know what you're talking about. Now you're one of the cool kids.

    64. Re:Glenn Beck is a fucking moron. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      He's a complete shill.
      3/4ths something that make sense. And 1/4 totally batshit insane to whip people into frothing rage for good ratings.

      The fact you actually fell for it like so many others... Kinda proves you're not nearly as intelligent as you believe.

    65. Re:Glenn Beck is a fucking moron. by Time.Ninja · · Score: 1

      Beck speaks the truth. The only f**king moron is you.

    66. Re:Glenn Beck is a fucking moron. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Wow, what a childish way of condescending in lieu of saying anything of value

    67. Re:Glenn Beck is a fucking moron. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Huh, I could have sworn the Feds own plenty of shares in GM/CHRY...

      Mandating health insurance on everyone to take care of the few.. Great idea, it will SURELY lower costs

      You sound like a typical Obamatron. Do you even realize that these DC goons will use the SCOTUS ruling on the individual mandate to push through other 'laws' that mandate some product or service on the people in the future?

      Can you think or see past the end of your nose?

    68. Re:Glenn Beck is a fucking moron. by khallow · · Score: 1

      They had just taken a big re-structuring loan out right before rates and credit availabity tanked. They did well because that allowd them to be the only American auto maker not needing a bail out.

      Given that the financial crash in question was very foreseeable, where's the luck? Sounds to me like the only luck was in the timing of the crash right after the loan than say, two years down the road or before the loan could be completed. And even without the loan, Ford wouldn't have needed a bailout.

      It's just common sense not to boast about having a better business than one's competitors in a dysfunctional political situation where nails that stick out get hammered in.

    69. Re:Glenn Beck is a fucking moron. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I don't believe anything that guy says. He is only after ratings, and by extension, money.

      Yes ratings are so important when you aren't on television anymore. Another democrat genius. You Go Obama idiots!

    70. Re:Glenn Beck is a fucking moron. by PortHaven · · Score: 1

      If it's so foreseeable...why did everyone's retirement funds lose thousands of dollars?

      Granted mine did not...and I wager your's probably did not. But for most people, for whatever reason (normalcy bias) it was not foreseeable.

    71. Re:Glenn Beck is a fucking moron. by khallow · · Score: 1

      If it's so foreseeable...why did everyone's retirement funds lose thousands of dollars?

      Because those retirement funds were in the hands of other people without a common interest in preserving the integrity of the retirement fund. It should be painfully obvious that people, businesses, and governments treat Other Peoples' Money differently than their own.

      There was also widespread losses from hidden systemic risk which nailed people who knew the crash was coming.

      But it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that a financial crises results in less access to credit. One merely needs to look at the history of financial crises to see that.

    72. Re:Glenn Beck is a fucking moron. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Where is Glenn Beck on TV these days?

      He lost his gig at FNC a long time ago. Did someone else put him back on?

    73. Re:Glenn Beck is a fucking moron. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Except Glenn Beck has clearly, repeatedly stated that he thinks birthers are crazy. So how about a pertinent example.

    74. Re:Glenn Beck is a fucking moron. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Going bankrupt doesn't mean going out of business. To say that the two options that car companies had were: 1) take the bailout 2) close their doors and "go out of business" is a flat out lie.

    75. Re:Glenn Beck is a fucking moron. by tehcyder · · Score: 1

      I'm sure if you went through the speeches of Hitler, Mao, Stalin (or whoever your favorite hate figure is) you'd find a few things that made sense. Successful demagogues can't be 100% loony tunes, even the stupidest of mobs would see through them.

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
    76. Re:Glenn Beck is a fucking moron. by tehcyder · · Score: 1

      If it's so foreseeable...why did everyone's retirement funds lose thousands of dollars?

      Because those retirement funds were in the hands of other people without a common interest in preserving the integrity of the retirement fund. It should be painfully obvious that people, businesses, and governments treat Other Peoples' Money differently than their own.

      You don't think that any of the funds that knew about this easily foreseeable financial crash thought about moving their investments around so that they could take advantage and make lots of money? (Being totally cynical, not money for their clients, but money for themselves).

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
  2. yospos bitch by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    decode that glenn beck.

  3. On a podcast first by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This was hypothesized on the No Agenda Show podcast weeks ago.

  4. Aha! It all makes sense! by gman003 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    This is why Beck is so against socialized healthcare - because if we had it, he'd be institutionalized for being so completely fucking nuts.

    1. Re:Aha! It all makes sense! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No, this is why:

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2jijuj1ysw

    2. Re:Aha! It all makes sense! by Zero__Kelvin · · Score: 1

      Because it will encourage ignorant morons to waste the time of the healthcare system trying to prove a point by showing up with cameras, telling them that they don't really have an issue that requires emergency medical attention, and then complaining that they didn't get seen immediately?

      --
      Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
  5. Glenn Beck Actually Working Deep Undercover by ohnocitizen · · Score: 2

    Would the Onion reject it? Or would they pay Glenn Beck to work deep undercover on the cutting edge of embedded satirical news radio?

    1. Re:Glenn Beck Actually Working Deep Undercover by timeOday · · Score: 2
      I'm not sure I get the joke here. The job of the deceased was "foreign service information management officer." I'm trying to imagine how somebody in that position could not work with intelligence services?

      However, I don't understand the supposed video game tie-in.

    2. Re:Glenn Beck Actually Working Deep Undercover by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I don't understand the supposed video game tie-in.

      EVE Online's players tend to begin to treat it as a lifestyle and many of them develop close friendships and connections to other players and I would not be surprised in the least that someone involved that much in EVE would be chatting with gamer friends practically all the time. And VileRat was associated with GoonSwarm which was a group mainly associated with Something Awful, so its no surprise he'd be chatting with them.

      Beck just has absolutely no clue about gamers. None.

    3. Re:Glenn Beck Actually Working Deep Undercover by egamma · · Score: 4, Informative

      I'm not sure I get the joke here. The job of the deceased was "foreign service information management officer." I'm trying to imagine how somebody in that position could not work with intelligence services?

      Perhaps he was the Exchange/Sharepoint/SAN administrator? "Foreign service" is pretty much any State Department employee stationed overseas. "Information Management Officer" sounds like he could be anything from the IT Admin to the filing clerk (if they still have paper files, that is).

    4. Re:Glenn Beck Actually Working Deep Undercover by DMUTPeregrine · · Score: 5, Informative

      He was one of the IT admins.

      He was an enemy in game, and a friend out of game. I miss talking shop with him.

      --
      Not a sentence!
    5. Re:Glenn Beck Actually Working Deep Undercover by HapSlappy_2222 · · Score: 1

      Interesting. I guess that means Radar from M*A*S*H* was their IT guy. Never thought of it that way before.

    6. Re:Glenn Beck Actually Working Deep Undercover by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Really? You think it isn't absurd to believe that the CIA is using 'Something Awful' as a covert channel for talking to the Syrian embassy?

      I mean, I get that **assets** and agents in the field (NOT AT AN EMBASSY) might be well-served by high-popularity random sites having covert communication linkages, but that idea falls on the floor for anyone working within an embassy. An embassy has secure channels. The only secure channels, in some countries/cities.

          SA, for what it's worth, isn't an ideal site for covert channels -- in restrictive nations like Syria, it'd be smarter to pick something less inflammatory, since a person of interest could be arrested just for engaging in offensive/pornographic surfing. Sports forums, hobbyist sites, mundane community-interest sites (like classical music), and pictures of kitties are all better target sites. An officer might carry their own preferred vices along for just such needs. An asset would have one or two of their interests identified to ramp up their enthusiasm in, as cover for their use of such sites. But SA? That's dicey, unless one wants an asset to have a plausible excuse for being freaked out during interrogation (OMG, they caught me surfing boobies!)

      Posted A/C because... well, because.

    7. Re:Glenn Beck Actually Working Deep Undercover by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Really? You think it isn't absurd to believe that the CIA is using 'Something Awful' as a covert channel for talking to the Syrian embassy?

      The summary is incorrect, Vile Rat was not talking through the somethingawful forums - the log Glenn Beck refers to was taken from the private Jabber server of the EVE Online Goonswarm alliance (alliance = a group of cooperating guilds) which primarily (but not exclusively) recruits their members from SA (and elitistjerks and Penny Arcade and in-game and ...).

      Of course this makes his claim even more ridiculous.

    8. Re:Glenn Beck Actually Working Deep Undercover by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Beck just has absolutely no clue. None.

      FTFY.

      (thank you, thank you, I'll be here all day -- despite my boss' urgings, I will)

    9. Re:Glenn Beck Actually Working Deep Undercover by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Actually, I think the CIA SHOULD investigate the Goons. Just sayin'. Not that I am allied with any opposing faction or anything.... it's a national security question.

    10. Re:Glenn Beck Actually Working Deep Undercover by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And VileRat was associated with GoonSwarm which was a group mainly associated with Something Awful, so its no surprise he'd be chatting with them.

      At the time of his death, VileRat was a SA forums moderator (of the Debate & Discussion subforum) who'd been posting on SA for about a decade. The SA forums are running a donation campaign to help Vilerat's family and set up a college fund for his kid. Last time I looked they'd raised about $100K.

      Also, for clarification, GoonSwarm only exists because of SA. SA forum members call themselves "goons". Every so often a member will discover an online game they like, post a thread about it, and try to recruit other goons to join the game and do goony things (read: silliness, trolling, griefing) in it. GoonSwarm was the result of such stuff, but unlike a lot of goon game invasions it snowballed into something bigger.

      So yeah, that's the connection to SA and EVE. None of it has anything to do with the CIA. Fuck Glenn Beck for using VileRat's death this way.

    11. Re:Glenn Beck Actually Working Deep Undercover by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "Could be" and "sounds like".... yup, this is /.

  6. Um, actually... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It's a pretty good cover.

  7. Sinister Plot Success! by Sponge+Bath · · Score: 5, Insightful

    People are talking about Glenn Beck :-P

    1. Re:Sinister Plot Success! by Black+Parrot · · Score: 3, Funny

      People are talking about Glenn Beck :-P

      Hey, at least Beck pushes gold instead of bitcoin.

      --
      Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
    2. Re:Sinister Plot Success! by TubeSteak · · Score: 1

      Hey, at least Beck pushes gold instead of bitcoin.

      http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/goldline-execs-charged-fraud/story?id=14857253

      The complaint alleges that Goldline "runs a bait and switch operation in which customers, seeking to invest in gold bullion, are switched to highly overpriced coins by using false and misleading claims," according to a statement released by the consumer affairs division of the Santa Monica City Attorney's office.

      The company has been charged in the court filing with misdemeanors that include theft by false pretenses, false advertising, and conspiracy, the City Attorney's office said. In addition to the charges against the company, the complaint accuses former CEO Mark Albarian, executives Robert Fazio and Luis Beeli, and salespeople Charles Boratgis and Stephanie Howard of defrauding customers. Current CEO Scott Carter is accused of making false or misleading statements. Each of the charged offenses carries a maximum penalty of one year in jail and maximum fines of between $1,000 and $10,000 per offense.

      And the conclusion
      http://blogs.wsj.com/totalreturn/2012/02/23/goldline-agrees-to-refund-4-5-million/

      Gold coin and bullion dealer Goldline International agreed on Wednesday to refund up to $4.5 million to former customers, ending the criminal prosecution brought against the company last November.

      Goldline was running a bait and switch.
      They were advertising bullion and pushing people to buy coins at an inflated collector's price.

      The Goldline press release about the settlement is a fine bit of doublespeak and PR nonsense.

      --
      [Fuck Beta]
      o0t!
  8. as the song goes... by wierd_w · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "Paranoia strikes deep, into your lives it will creep. It starts when you're always afraid. Step out of line, the man comes and takes you away."

    Really. The fine line between clear batshit-crazy paranoia and justifiable concern grows thinner and thinner the deeper down the "terrorists!" Rabbit hole we go. The cited song refered to the last boogeyman: "Commies!", but it fits very well, if eerily, 50 years later with "Terrorists!"

    People like Glen Beck just drink the koolaid. Rather than point and laugh about his over the top paranoia, take an honest look at how batshit we are acting in regard to "Terrorists!", where we are scared of plastic knives, exploding underwear, and flamable mouthwash to the point where we grope and tickle old women and 2 year old children as a daily occurance at our borders.

    In times like these, agencies like the CIA get ever expanding license to do stupid, batshit crazy stuff to "catch them terrorists", and "make us feel safe!" As such, things like the silly stupid of this story might not actually be as silly stupid as they seem.

    That is what is truly scary.

    1. Re:as the song goes... by Areyoukiddingme · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Drink the Koolaid? Glenn Beck IS Koolaid Man. Bashing through bricks walls. With poseur black-rimmed glasses.

      Consider for a moment, that Fox News felt obliged to take him off of television. THAT is how whacked out he sounds. When even Fox won't touch you, you've gotta be fuckin' crazy.

      I can't tell if he's actually crazy or if he's somehow the Republican answer to Stephen Colbert. Could he really believe the crazy shit he spouts? It doesn't even seem possible.

    2. Re:as the song goes... by wierd_w · · Score: 1

      Again, the really telling thing is that we even have enough plausibility in his whacked out schpeel to even CONTEMPLATE his screed as even remotely POSSIBLE.

      That he is koolaid man, shouting "terrorists, Oh Yeah!" At airports, online game communities, and neighborhoods around the US is more the result of his being abnormally vulnerable to official government bullshit than the rest of us. This could simply be because he takes it more seriously. (If you are serious about being afraid of terrorists, you will find them everywhere. Hell, to the diehard koolaid drinkers, this post could be construed as being "aiding and abetting terrorists", because it casts 'initiatives" like the farce of the TSA as being silly-stupid reactions to boogeymen, allowing those "so very scary towel-headded terrorists" to "destroy the American(tm) way of life!(pat pend)!" Distribution on the paranoid crank curve has a median, where most people will fall, and extrema, where "nay sayers" like me live on one side of the curve, and where "batshit crazy mother fuckers" like Glenn Beck live.

      To reduce the extremeness of people like Beck, we need to stop spraying koolaid. If it helps, just imagine Beck not as koolaid man, but as an empty pitcher that simply catches all the bullshit our media and government PR groups fling. What he gets full of is entirely dependant on what gets sprayed. People like Beck lack a well defined bullshit filter, because they dive headfirst into the rabbithole. You find the same problem with conspiracy nutters. Once you abandon rationality, you can't help but become a raving nutjob, and when SoP is to abandon reason at the door chasing shadows, the endgame is essentially assured.

      I'm not trying to defend Beck-- just pointing out that he is a diagnostic sympthom of the problem, and NOT the cause.

      The cause is waving around the spooky bedsheet with the word "scary terrorists!" Written on it, as the reason de etre for government doing power grabs.

      You can't fix stupid, but you can contain it, by not spraying it with miracle grow.

    3. Re:as the song goes... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Glen Beck did not drink the Coolaid, he is on the opposite side of the coolaid argument. Glen will not drink the coolaid and will trust no coolaid like substance even if it has been tested in 10 labs while he is watching.

    4. Re:as the song goes... by wierd_w · · Score: 1

      Au contraire! He very much *IS* a koolaid drinker.

      He is of the same stripe as your more typical paranoid conspiracy theorist is. The koolaid being that the government is always, without question, bad-- that regulation leads to sweatheart deal, that government needs to be totally hands off (except where his own money and interests (beck's) are concerned), and that anyone who voices a moderate or liberal opinion are deluded crazy people that need to be violently shouted down.

      The reality is that a well managed government is almost always a good thing. The problem is that our government is currently not well managed. The only way our government (in the US) can be well managed is if there is a well educated, and empowered populace to balance it and cry foul. This does not happen, so the government is out of control.

      The problem comes when people like Beck enable the out of control government by being the vocal halfwits that they are. The government line is "we are under attack by $BoogeyMan, and need $PowerAllocation to stop it!". When more sensible people ask "how does $PowerAllotment actually assist in detecting $BoogeyMan activity, and how do you account for $RealEncroachmentOnCivilLiberties that $PowerAllotment will invariably cause?", the government paints the sensible question with the broad brush of "batshit crazy conspiracy" that prominent crazies like Beck represent.

      The deeper down the rabbit hole we go, the finer the line between "sensible concern", and "batshit conspiracy" becomes, and the easier it is for government to paint with that brush. As such, people like Beck only *HURT* efforts to curtail government encroachment on civil liberties through legitimate public inquiry, through diluting the channel.

      The government, therefore, has every incentive to drum up as much paranoia as possible, to blur the line beyond all sensible recognition, so that plausible rational basis for decrying *all* opposition as sensational.

      The increases in government sensationalism (security theater, et al) push the extremity of stupid people like Beck into twilightzone levels of extremity, which is exactly what the desired effect is.

      Whether or not this is conspiratorial, or just an organic response from the gestalt structure that is government in response to the percieved threat of voter confidence and potentially empowered voters I can't even begin to address. I just don't know. That there might be a legitimate conspiracy there in the state department for whatever obfuscated reasons only they could hold, is scary-real, but that doesn't justify being a kook. (Personally, I think it is a reactionary gestalt phenomenon, where sociopaths naturally gravitate to positions of power, naturally resort to fabrications to explain their sociopathy, and the growing body of fabrications must be protected due to overapping internal interest. Rather than a "group of secret puppetmasters", (like you get in most conspiracy theories) you have a bunch of incompetent boobs with grandure complexes making shit up(tm), to get what they want(tm), and scratching each other's back to keep that dirt secret because if it got out, they would be held accountable. Note the mass-hysteria on capitol hill and subsequent ass pounding they did when the diplomatic cables leaked.)

      They know that the bigger they can spin the hype, the more they can get away with. Rather than extending the leading edge of crackpottery, like Beck does, he should be asking reasonable questions.

      The one and only thing incompetent boobs can't handle are straight answers to reasonable questions. That's why they make shit up, and put such extreme spin on boogeymen, like terrorists.

    5. Re:as the song goes... by ganjadude · · Score: 0

      he would fit right in with the man hating lesbian, the racist reverend and the drunk shultz on MSNBC though....

      --
      have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
    6. Re:as the song goes... by plasticquart · · Score: 0

      Come on -- perfect spot to mention Obama's weird blinking right here!!!1!1

    7. Re:as the song goes... by Torodung · · Score: 2

      But don't forget that the other side was crying "fascists." Then, when that didn't stick, it was "crypto-fascists" and we were expected to believe that everyone in the right secretly wore a Hitler moustache beneath their Klan robes, while they kept up a clean cut facade for the cameras.

      And that back and forth, between cries of "Commie!" and cries of "Fascist!," came directly from Joe Stalin's CCCP and the Nazis, when Hitler and he fell out. We just took it into our own politics with very little consideration of the results in Europe.

      The problem with all of these labels, my friend, is that our entire political dialogue is based on war propaganda. We live in a world dominated by the propaganda methods of Joseph Goebbels. For better, but usually for worse, he was extremely successful to the point that everyone in modern U.S. politics uses some form of his methods of media and public control. We use a variety of labels, instinctively at this point, to cause people to stop considering the opposition as human beings, and consider them instead as "the other," brutal in their methods and deserving of whatever aggression we can dream up. When we go too far and become brutal ourselves, our defense is that "their means justify our means," and that the other gets what they deserve.

      All can be mended if we open our ears and our minds though. Not from a point of weakness, we don't have to accept everything in some misconstrued overture of "tolerance," but simply by listening and thinking from a position of strength, and not of despair.

      The CIA consists of human beings trying to make the world a better place, generally for the American people first, then everyone else if possible. They, for the most part, don't wipe their butts without congressional authority, a Congress whom we in the U.S. elect. If we reject these methods and stop electing war propagandeers on both the right and the left to Congress (War on Poverty or War on Drugs, it doesn't matter, War isn't the way), their actions will better reflect the values of a peacetime society, and we won't be inexorably marched to yet another actual war.

      I have but a tiny little hope that may happen someday.

    8. Re:as the song goes... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I can't tell if he's actually crazy or if he's somehow the Republican answer to Stephen Colbert. Could he really believe the crazy shit he spouts? It doesn't even seem possible.

      c.f. Poe's Law

    9. Re:as the song goes... by wierd_w · · Score: 1

      You don't need to tell me... I see the whole thing and just groan.

      I'm a moderate, and get shafted by both loud voices regularly.

      When the sole motivator behind your political affiliation is to "be against THEM!" (like CA's "anti AZ" immigration law; drafted for all the wrong reasons. This isn't to say I think AZ is right either though. They already dove in. The smart thing to do is watch as the sharks come in with the tide after the fact. Not dive off the other side of the bridge to spite them.), you have abandoned reason, any semblence of perspective or balance, and have clearly dived headfirst into the sea of extremism. Like I said in later posts, when you abandon reason at the door, becoming a raving nutjob is assured.

      I am sick to death of the endless propoganda machine here in the US. So much so that I no longer watch TV of any sort, and only listen to music on the radio. (Still doesn't stop people insisting that I am either a flaming liberal pinko, or a limbaugh listener though. I just want people to stop yelling at each other, and open their eyes to what they are doing long enough to see the foxes raiding the henhouse, like I do.) Even still, I get bombarded by it, as koolaid soaked people wring out dirty laundry in earshot, and often in my direction.

      The US would do well to put the war machine to rest, and get its house (and senate) in order. The problem, is that we have developed two distinct, schizophrenic, and symbiotic cultures here in the US. One side feels that people are naturally entitled to a soft, comfortable, and enjoyable life, and with that, the promise of easy employment. (Not a bad ideal actually.. but in practice...) and on the other, you have the "manifest destiny" wardrummers, shouting that america is number one, and other scary madness.

      The problem? The former, depends on the latter for employment in a HUGE number of areas. Aircraft manufacturing? Financially powered by fighterjet and bomber sales. Neuclear energy research? Conjoined twins with neuclear arsenal research, and dependant on the win for grant funding. You can't disarm the war machine without putting literally millions of americans into the poorhouse. That's why military spending is a huge sacred cow. The USA is no longer a peace loving nation, and hasn't been for a very long time.

      Until we open our eyes, see that, and relinquish our iron grips on our schizophrenia, and accept that what we must do to move forward, we will always remain this way-- divided, at each other's throats, and batshit crazy while the rest of the world wishes fervently and earnestly for our destruction, before we destroy them. (Because that is what wars do.)

      We have to accept poverty and renouce war, before we can become a peaceful nation again. We have to embrace other industries besides indoctrination, propoganda, military armorments, and officious legislation if we want to survive.

      But we won't.

      We embraced industrial scale arms dealing and military might to escape the last financial crisis we had, and invested the whole farm into it. Now, military manufacture runs us.

      Even the damn space program was an offshoot of military research!

      That is the goddamn problem. Neither side will let go.

    10. Re:as the song goes... by gottabeme · · Score: 1

      There is a lot of truth and wisdom in your post. However, it's also the truth that we live in a world full of evil people, some of whom are in control of nation-states, some of which have military powers. It's also true that we cannot predict the future, so we must be prepared, and we should expect that someday there could be another large-scale conflict--yes, someday some evil group might try to take over the world again. There will always be war--or there will never be total peace--as long as this world is spinning. It's a sad but true fact.

      So it sounds great to say, "We have to accept poverty and renouce war, before we can become a peaceful nation again. We have to embrace other industries besides indoctrination, propoganda, military armorments, and officious legislation if we want to survive." However, this is not a realistic thing to say. We can renounce war all we want, we can disband our militaries and pour all our money into "peaceful" industries, but we cannot make those with whom we share this planet do the same. We would be utterly foolish and naive to do so.

      Your argument is ultimately based on a false dichotomy: that a) the military is imperialistic and evil, or b) there is no military. While Eisenhower's words about the military industrial complex may be more true than we realize, this does not mean that we can or should throw the whole thing away. It also does not mean that military research is inherently evil, or that offshoots of military research are a bad thing.

      The military could be used in a good way for good purposes--that's what Congress and the President are supposed to be for. Now, whether it's possible to put it all back into Pandora's box is another matter, but to stick our head in the sand and become "a peaceful nation" (implying that we don't have or don't use our military) would be naive and foolish; and, one could argue, irresponsible, considering the 20th century. "All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing." Neutrality is a nice idea in theory, but should we have stayed out of WWII? Assuming that we could have stayed out of it and still exist as a nation today, would that have been the right thing to do, morally and ethically?

      It might seem silly to mention a comic book, but "with great power comes great responsibility." Being a world superpower is a weighty matter. We should exercise our power with great care, but we should also use it for good, as best we can determine. The problem is that, quite simply, all humans are flawed, and that includes the leadership of the USA; so one cannot expect perfection, even from the most powerful nation or military in the world. To expect that is as unrealistic as to expect "world peace."

      --
      "Those who consume the bulk of goods are those who make them. We must never forget this secret of our prosperity."
  9. Re:Full Audio or it didn't happen... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I hear ya, but given the batshit insane reporting he's done in the past I wouldn't put it past him.

  10. Ad Hominem is called for in this case by Bruce+Perens · · Score: 4, Insightful

    He's not a particularly reliable source. Move along, no news here.

    1. Re:Ad Hominem is called for in this case by MobileTatsu-NJG · · Score: 4, Informative

      Move along, no news here

      Actually, I did learn something new today: Fanboys of Glenn Beck actually do exist!

      --

      "I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)

    2. Re:Ad Hominem is called for in this case by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      FTFY: Fanboys of Glenn Beck actually still do exist

      He had plenty of fanboys in the past, but even they left in massive numbers when he went further down the rabbit hole.

    3. Re:Ad Hominem is called for in this case by Warphammer · · Score: 1

      I would submit, that 'he's not a reliable source', being something that could well be backed up by facts and used as a predictor of probable veracity, would not be an ad hominem arguement, even. And in this case, you could fairly easily back that up with some of the things he's said. To get into true ad hominem territory, you'd have to get into politcs or percieved intelligence or anything less relevant, really.

    4. Re:Ad Hominem is called for in this case by sumdumass · · Score: 1

      I wouldn't call that being a fanboy. If anything, I would say it was partly informative. I haven't listened to Glenn Beck in years (pre CNN), but when I did, if you tuned in while he was doing it, you had no clue if he was being real or not. generally he would do or say something completely ridiculous at the start in an obviously weird voice before going off and doing it.

    5. Re:Ad Hominem is called for in this case by Bruce+Perens · · Score: 2

      It would be ad-hominem ("about the man"), but not the Ad-Hominem Fallacy if you demonstrated his previous perfidiousness. There's an interesting paper regarding when ad-hominem arguments are not fallacious here.

  11. Re:Full Audio or it didn't happen... by Microlith · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Ooh, is someone upset that the GOP and its representatives (official or otherwise) would be taken for being mad?

    Glenn Beck has been known to use this device known as "sarcasm"

    Beck falls into chasm created by Poe's law.

    which tends to escape the Aspergers crowd that runs Slashdot.

    I see, people see Beck say wild shit and you accuse people here of suffering from Aspergers. Real classy one you are.

    Considering the inability of the supposed "geniuses" on this site to spot an obvious joke that Mitt Romney made last week

    Considering the man can't tell a joke for shit and the other wild-ass garbage come out of the Republican Party these days, I'm not surprised at all that people missed it.

    I'll do the politically incorrect thing and not have the Pavlovian foaming at the mouth reaction to what the ringleaders on this site want

    IT'S A CONSPIRACY! And Slashdot is in on it too! Careful, you're starting to sound like Beck as well.

  12. Re:Full Audio or it didn't happen... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The Earth is 6,000 (excuse me, 6,016) years old, creation by a deity is a better explanation than evolution by natural selection, homosexuality is a choice and a sin, and women are meant to be subservient and deliver every time they conceive. When a party already believes laughable things like that, it’s hard to tell the sarcasm from the seriousness anymore.

  13. Re:Full Audio or it didn't happen... by FriendlyStatistician · · Score: 5, Informative

    Here is the official summary of the episode from Glenn Beck's website:
    http://www.glennbeck.com/2012/09/17/is-the-obama-administration-covering-up-scandalous-details-in-libya-attack/

    Note particularly this part at the end:

    So what does Glenn think really happened?

    - The U.S. government is indeed looking for missiles to recover, so that no one finds out that we supplied them to terrorists
    - They find a weapons cache of surface to air missles
    - Same missiles we supplied during the revolution to take out aircraft.
    - The CIA agents were forced to call in Stevens, our CIA weapons dealer.
    - He flies in on short notice and takes an unmarked car to avoid suspicion to meet them
    - The meeting goes south, he is taken to the closest safe house, which is why he ends up at the poorly secured consulate building.
    - The message Sean Smith sent to the gaming community was really a message to the CIA telling them they needed help.

    Audio from the relevant portion of the episode is posted on Soundcloud:
    http://soundcloud.com/nivdes/glenn-beck-goonswarm-is

    "Goonswarm" is the name of the in-game organization affiliated with Something Awful.

    TL;DR: It really did happen.

  14. Beck is stating the obvious by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    1. the guy had all of the skills that the CIA recruits;
    2. Benghazi was where we provided Libyan groups with weapons that are now still floating around between there and the Sinai;
    3. State Department, Diplomats, their security teams, etc are always cover for the CIA, the same way other governments use their diplomatic corps to get their intelligence officers in theater;

    I'm glad to know the CIA has such good guys.

    1. Re:Beck is stating the obvious by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm glad to know the CIA has such good guys.

      And I'm not glad to know that the CIA has people moderating web forums and managing online games.

  15. Summary is wrong by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If you read the article, you'll find that Beck didn't say that "Vile Rat"'s message to SA was to CIA operatives who work at SA. He suggests that the comment was to CIA through the SA forum. I don't know if that's true, but it's not unheard of to send a coded message through a public forum.

    1. Re:Summary is wrong by Black+Parrot · · Score: 1

      it's not unheard of to send a coded message through a public forum.

      y E 5

      i

      t 1 s

      --
      Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
  16. Slashdot by thammoud · · Score: 5, Insightful

    New for Nerds not from Idiots. Stop this shit.

    1. Re:Slashdot by Sponge+Bath · · Score: 5, Funny

      Stop this shit.

      What are you trying to hide? I'm not saying you are part of a global conspiracy, I'm just asking questions.

    2. Re:Slashdot by fm6 · · Score: 1

      I'm am saying this is all a global conspiracy to make people tear all their hair out!

    3. Re:Slashdot by Black+Parrot · · Score: 4, Funny

      Stop this shit.

      What are you trying to hide? I'm not saying you are part of a global conspiracy, I'm just asking questions.

      Clearly, thammoud is a CIA operative attempting damage control.

      --
      Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
    4. Re:Slashdot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Stop this shit.

      What are you trying to hide? I'm not saying you are part of a global conspiracy, I'm just asking questions.

      This clearly smells of a global conspiracy by Big Laxative, such a nefarious industry.

    5. Re:Slashdot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Go with the flow!

    6. Re:Slashdot by Alsee · · Score: 1

      And clearly Slashdot is his CIA contact point while he sells U.S. heavy arms to the terrorists for the Obama Administration.

      -

      --
      - - You can't take something off the Internet! That's like trying to take pee out of a swimming pool.
  17. Re:Full Audio or it didn't happen... by professionalfurryele · · Score: 5, Funny

    "Considering the inability of the supposed "geniuses" on this site to spot an obvious joke that Mitt Romney made last week"

    No, no jokes are funny.

  18. Re:Full Audio or it didn't happen... by tomhath · · Score: 4, Informative

    Glenn Beck has been known to use this device known as "sarcasm"

    Good point. There's a talk show host named Rush who does the same thing; basically says ridiculous stuff to get people's attention. But the foaming at the mouth crowd takes them both seriously.

  19. Re:Full Audio or it didn't happen... by CajunArson · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Assume that Glenn Beck was 100% dead serious in his assertion:

    1. Of course he's nuts, but do you think it would be impossible for the CIA to use an online game like Eve to communicate in some circumstances? Considering the conspiracy theories that get modded +5 on this website whenever somebody accuses Bush of plotting 9/11 it is not very far-fetched. That's not to say that Eve online itself is a CIA front any more than the phone company is a CIA front, but it could still be used.

    2. The Obama administration insisted publicly and repeatedly that this attack had absolutely nothing at all to do with terrorism, but it was just some stupid Internet video that magically turned the Libyans into Kill-Bots and we need to curtail the First Amendment in the name of "tolerance" RIGHT NOW!...

        Oh... until their own intelligence analysts and even the Libyan Government bascially embarrased them into admitting that an attack that used heavy weaponry and was obviously planned well in advance to coincide with the 9/11 anniversary was actually related to real terrorists and not just a spontaneous reaction to a stupid Youtube video.

    Now here's my point: How many people on this site will insult Glenn Beck, some nut on the radio who has no real power, while giving the White House a free pass?

    --
    AntiFA: An abbreviation for Anti First Amendment.
  20. Re:Full Audio or it didn't happen... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    If it's not easy to tell whether or not something's sarcasm, then you're doing it wrong. Or it could just be that glen beck depends on people misinterpreting "sarcasm" and believing really retarded stuff, without being willing to admit that they could misinterpret something.

  21. Interesting... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    With this much derision in the story, there is obviously something to the claim....

    That's how it works people...you don't come out swinging, unless you are trying to defend something.

    1. Re:Interesting... by Un+pobre+guey · · Score: 1

      If it's true that his first choice for a phone call when facing potential imminent death was to a gaming forum, well, you have to at least scratch your head.

  22. Re:Full Audio or it didn't happen... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Glenn Beck has been known to use this device known as "sarcasm" which tends to escape the Aspergers crowd that runs Slashdot.

    People also do this thing called "reading sites that they don't hate every person involved with", but I guess that would greatly reduce your ability to act butthurt.

    I'll do the politically incorrect thing and not have the Pavlovian foaming at the mouth reaction to what the ringleaders on this site want

    OOOOH! Somebody can use big words! Gold star for YOU!

    but instead rely on these things called "facts" before making a judgment.

    Well, that would certainly be refreshing coming from an average Beck fan. Next time, you might even want to try this thing we call "READING THE SUMMARY OF THE EPISODE", which would have demonstrated that Beck actually believes this.

  23. seriously? glenn beck? by nimbius · · Score: 5, Insightful

    when was the last time he was relevant? and with regard to his purported comment: thats his job. his job is to say, or do anything to anyone in order to garner enough attention to sell advertising slots. the formula is to find a hot-button item and exploit it. Whether he believes anything he says is irrellevant. He lost his job on Fox News because his ability to draw advertisers plummeted once americans realized the stalinist dystopia he insisted upon never arrived. Sean Hannity, Bill Oreilly, Glenn Beck, and Limbaugh are all designed and employed to keep people interacting with and talking about their respective shows. None have any expertise in anything of a technical nature, ever.

    --
    Good people go to bed earlier.
    1. Re:seriously? glenn beck? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      None have any expertise in anything of a technical nature, ever.

      That just puts him in the 99% over 30 that can't program a VCR doesn't it?

      He lost his job on Fox News because his ability to draw advertisers plummeted once americans realized the stalinist dystopia he insisted upon never arrived.

      Or he figured out that his brand of commentary was so bankable that he ought to go independent and keep all that pretty money for himself...

      That six camera studio he sits in cost a fortune... and he's laughing all the way to the bank at the folks still paying New York City/State taxes.

      I keep trying to discredit his sources, since HE asks people not to believe HIM but to do the research themselves...

      Haven't caught him off the mark on FACTS even when his OPINIONS/CONCLUSIONS were borderline crazy...
       

  24. Re:Full Audio or it didn't happen... by Osgeld · · Score: 5, Insightful

    the right side of politics sure has been "funny" a lot lately

  25. Re:Full Audio or it didn't happen... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    There have been cases where large scale drug rings have used MMO's for communication in the past, its not that far fetched.

  26. Public forums? by mr100percent · · Score: 2

    Why would the CIA, with a $50 billion budget, use public forums rather than some sort of secure satellite link or a VPN?

    1. Re:Public forums? by myowntrueself · · Score: 1

      Why would the CIA, with a $50 billion budget, use public forums rather than some sort of secure satellite link or a VPN?

      Because its more secure.

      Seriously.

      Hiding in plain sight. Secure satellite link, VPN or other encryption screams "I'm hiding something!!!"

      --
      In the free world the media isn't government run; the government is media run.
    2. Re:Public forums? by Areyoukiddingme · · Score: 1

      In the Middle East, encryption streams just say "I'm an oil sheikh." There's a lot of encrypted coms in that region of the world already. What's one more?

    3. Re:Public forums? by Pyrus.mg · · Score: 1

      Who cares, this means I can blame every stupid mistake I made in Eve Online on the CIA. Call me a believer.

    4. Re:Public forums? by AHuxley · · Score: 1

      So the NSA does not have to work on their own people?
      So good people in the NSA don't stumble over the classic Cocaine Import Agency...giving rockets to the freedom fighters ...
      So local nations with imported quality intercept equipment dont find 'something' strange and get someone local to go look.
      As for the "$50 billion budget" that is spread thin over many different sections form wondering what all the other nations are doing, super computing, running spies around the world, watching the press, academia, emerging threats, grooming future leaders around the world..., keeping up contacts with 'import' and 'export' groups - (Virgina boys out to bring home a Mig) stopping, shaping or taking over the next big trend.. to helping a group of freedom fighters rush a compound full of spies...

      --
      Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
    5. Re:Public forums? by blueg3 · · Score: 1

      Hiding in plain sight isn't actually more effective, it's just less expected. If it was more effective, they'd just call it "hiding".

  27. Re:Full Audio or it didn't happen... by Mashiki · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Now here's my point: How many people on this site will insult Glenn Beck, some nut on the radio who has no real power, while giving the White House a free pass?

    Good point. Then again most people here are still giving the White House a free pass on Fast and Furious along with Holder and Obama and the killing of 300+ Mexicans a US border agent, a mass murder(most recently discovered and linked at a party of teenagers), or they're blaming Bush still because that's the line the WH is still trying to feed on the narrative. Even though under Bush's program their guns were tracked. Under Obama and Holder they simply let the guns walk away.

    --
    Om, nomnomnom...
  28. Re:Old. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    yes! clearly, barack obama is the real reason why glenn beck is such a fucking moron. it's so obvious! is there anything obama isn't responsible for?

  29. And some other kook thinks... by John+Hasler · · Score: 1

    ...that the Masons are behind it all. So what? Why are the rantings of a loon news for nerds? Or anyone else?

    --
    Warning: this article may contain humor, sarcasm, parody, and perhaps even irony. Read at your own risk.
    1. Re:And some other kook thinks... by Penurious+Penguin · · Score: 1

      ...that the Masons are behind it all.

      Quick, someone ask Woz!

      --
      Forward! -- Emperor Norton, 2012
  30. Re:Full Audio or it didn't happen... by fm6 · · Score: 2

    Glenn Beck has been known to use this device known as "sarcasm" which tends to escape the Aspergers crowd that runs Slashdot.

    Isn't everything he says sarcastic?

    I have to admit that the right seems to have a very weird sense of humor these days (assuming Romney really was joking about those airplane windows) that seems to go past us feeble-minded libbies. On the other hand, right wing bloviators do tend to say stupid things in all seriousness and then claim they were being sarcastic when they're called on it. I guess that's why they say everything with a smirk, since this expression is so ambiguous with respect to seriousness.

  31. Oh, Glenn... by roesti · · Score: 3, Funny

    Did the internet make you stupid?

    1. Re:Oh, Glenn... by Rik+Rohl · · Score: 4, Funny

      No, he achieved that all on his own.

    2. Re:Oh, Glenn... by Alsee · · Score: 1

      He did build that.

      -

      --
      - - You can't take something off the Internet! That's like trying to take pee out of a swimming pool.
  32. "right-wing" by poity · · Score: 2

    Let's not pretend Beck's critics are left-wing. They may be predominantly Democrats (and other anti-TeaParty people) and disagree on how the power of the state should be applied, but they are as supportive as any of giving the state that power.

    --
    your thin skin doesn't make me a troll
    1. Re:"right-wing" by Un+pobre+guey · · Score: 3, Insightful

      The left wing is almost entirely absent from mainstream US politics. There's only Center Right, and Extreme Right. There is no Left in the discussion.

    2. Re:"right-wing" by Black+Parrot · · Score: 0

      The left wing is almost entirely absent from mainstream US politics. There's only Center Right, and Extreme Right. There is no Left in the discussion.

      I think Noam Chomsky is still out there somewhere.

      --
      Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
    3. Re:"right-wing" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Compared to what? The shit hole bankrupt continent of Europe? The land where limiting unemployment compensation to 3 years instead of lifetime dole payments, and not mandating that employers only have employees work 35 hours a week with 6 weeks of paid vacation is considered "extreme right wing"? Yeah, I'm going to trust a bunch of self important, better then thou, Euro-tards about what left and right are. The day that happens is the day the moon crashes to earth. Take your European socialism and shove it up your well stretched out asshole.

    4. Re:"right-wing" by gmhowell · · Score: 1

      The left wing is almost entirely absent from mainstream US politics. There's only Center Right, and Extreme Right. There is no Left in the discussion.

      I think Noam Chomsky is still out there somewhere.

      Yep.

      Abe Vigoda is doing ok also.

      --
      Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. -John Lennon
    5. Re:"right-wing" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What planet do you come from?

      There's no real right-wing in the U.S. any more. Both Democrats and Republicans have for decades supported big government (usually a "left" thing), a "progressive" tax code (always a "left" thing), various levels of government-run social safety nets (always a left thing) etc. Some degree of gun control (always a left thing), mass transit (left thing), entanglements with international bodies like the UN (ALWAYS a left thing) some form of inheritance taxes (left), Government controls on how you use your property (left) etc.

      When the US eliminates all the federal laws written in the past 60 years and the states similarly reduce the thousands and thousands of laws they have placed upon us all I will concede that things are moving back away from the left...

    6. Re:"right-wing" by dkleinsc · · Score: 1

      Let's see, the laws as they were 60 years ago, in 1952:
      - Pro-union regulations, and very strong labor unions
      - Big government projects like the Interstate Highway System
      - Upper income tax brackets at approximately 90% rather than the current 33%
      - A massive foreign aid package to help Europe rebuild after WWII
      - Not only were we entangled in the UN, the UN's very existence was the brainchild of then-president Harry Truman

      About the only things that were different legally in 1952 that had the approval of most conservatives at the time were (1) the South had a bunch of laws and customs dramatically limiting the rights of black people, and (2) gun control laws were a lot more lax than they are now. Which is it that you really care about? Or do you have your timeline wrong, and want to go back to the halcyon days not of 1952 but of 1922?

      --
      I am officially gone from /. Long live http://www.soylentnews.com/
    7. Re:"right-wing" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I couldn't agree with you more. You have to listen to the head on radio network or Mike Malloy on the web to hear any left wing news. Bob Kinkaid mentioned something about this.
      We all know that Beck is an idiot, and a liar to boot. It seems that he is also a tool of the RepubliCON Tea Party. They seem to have a plan for an October surprise which involves a "Carter plan," to dis the president, and make him look weak. I don't think that anything could look as weak as Willard myself, but that's me.

    8. Re:"right-wing" by bwen · · Score: 1

      Let's examine that.. - Unions are even stronger - Obama bailed out the UAW with the "auto bailout." Now unions get our tax dollars directly; this is hardly what was first imagined when unions were created. - Even bigger government spending - like on healthcare. Now they actually steal from Medicare which we have paid into to funnel into this new abomination - No one paid 90%, there were massive deductions that high earners were able to take that are not available now. Sheltering income was also much easier. The top bracket paid closer to 40% back then. And then there's the fact that the tax brackets are not indexed to inflation... - We give out more foreign aid every year than any other country. - and the UN has grown The leaders in our government have hardly swung to the right - I mean, you have to be kidding, right?

    9. Re:"right-wing" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Not even if you identify Marx as a centrist. Insightful? Fail.

    10. Re:"right-wing" by dkleinsc · · Score: 1

      - Unions in 1952 represented about 25-30% of all workers and were the primary source of funding for a major political party. Unions in 2012 represent about 12% of all workers and no longer are the primary source of funding for any political party. In 1952, the right to collectively bargain wasn't even a serious political question, while in 2011 in at least 2 states governors have acted to remove those rights for public sector workers.
      - On the point of federal spending, you're right, it's gone from 20% GDP in 1952 to 27% GDP in 2012. 5% of that increase was in pension programs created in the 1950's but paid for decades later. The remaining 2% is mostly unemployment insurance and food stamps in response to the recent mess. That's probably not where you thought the money was going.
      - On taxation, notice that the figure you cited, 40%, is still almost 3 times the 14% Mitt Romney recently announced he paid.
      - We give the largest absolute number, $12 billion or so, which amounts to 0.19% of GDP and barely a drop in the bucket of federal spending. European nations give about 2.5 times as much - if you combine the just big 3 of the EU (Germany, France, UK), you get more than the US gives.

      As far as leaders swinging to the right, pick an issue and I can pretty much guarantee you that you'll read what Dwight Eisenhower or Richard Nixon (the Republican presidential candidates in 1952) were saying and doing and you would think they were left-wing nutjobs compared to Barack Obama or Joe Biden.

      --
      I am officially gone from /. Long live http://www.soylentnews.com/
  33. Sad by thetoastman · · Score: 2

    Really? Is this what Slashdot has become? Posting Glenn Beck rants?

    1. Re:Sad by Black+Parrot · · Score: 2

      Really? Is this what Slashdot has become? Posting Glenn Beck rants?

      Well, the original plan was to post his well-reasoned analyses, but they had to find a Plan B.

      --
      Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
  34. Re:Full Audio or it didn't happen... by Obfuscant · · Score: 1

    And the wrong side has been despondent.

  35. Re:Full Audio or it didn't happen... by fm6 · · Score: 1

    I have to go with Occam's Razor here. Or maybe Occam's Meat Axe, since the differences really, really small. But I find it slightly more plausible that Mitt things that his joke is funny than that he hasn't seen Goldfinger.

  36. You have the Something Awful bit wrong by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Vilerat was posting those comments on an IRC channel for his gaming clan, not on SomethingAwful. Yes, Beck has it wrong too by calling it a "gaming website" when it's actually an IRC channel.

    SomethingAwful is mentioned separately in the story. Vilerat was a mod there.

  37. Re:Old. by englishknnigits · · Score: 1, Funny

    Creating jobs?

  38. Re:Full Audio or it didn't happen... by meglon · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Pull your head out of your ideological ass. Beck is a fucking mental case, and anyone with two brain cells can see that. Because you're a rabid ideologue doesn't mean you get your own reality. Beck rarely uses sarcasm, he mostly uses paranoid delusions... and it takes another fucking moron to believe his crap and defend him as something other than a fucking idiot.

    --
    Fascism: An authoritarian and nationalistic right-wing system of government and social organization. See also: NAZI's
  39. Re:Full Audio or it didn't happen... by fm6 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    1. Of course he's nuts, but do you think it would be impossible for the CIA to use an online game like Eve to communicate in some circumstances?

    Right, because there's nothing suspicious about an undercover operative who suddenly needs to contact headquarters firing up a video game. I guess that would be somebody infiltrating the Al Qada's notorious gold farming operation.

  40. Re:Old. by xevioso · · Score: 4, Funny

    Ask Osama about his experience in international affairs.

  41. Re:Full Audio or it didn't happen... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Since when are most people here giving that a pass? Most people here tend to think that both sides are fucked up. A lot of people just decide that one is less fucked up and go with the less fucked up one (which goes both ways). But a lot of us just hold on to that they're both fucked up and we're headed down the shitter in the US either way. Personally, I'm the latter: to say that any side is more fucked up than the other is just bickering over which way you want the pineapple being shoved up your ass to be pointed.

  42. Re:Old. by artor3 · · Score: 2

    Monday morning quarterbacking sure is fun. And the best part is, you can never be wrong!

  43. Re:Full Audio or it didn't happen... by meglon · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Even though under Bush's program their guns were tracked. Under Obama and Holder they simply let the guns walk away.

    Which brings us to the bigger point... people give the White House something of a pass because Obama isn't THE ONLY PERSON IN THE GOVERNMENT. He doesn't have a say in the minute details of everything... how ridiculous is it to even think that he would? But, the fascist conservatives hate Obama, so they'll lie like son of a bitches EVERY TIME something happens. They tracked the guns under Bush, they tracked the guns under Obama... fucking mental midget ideologues want to lie, however, and make asinine statements like you did.

    Quit fucking lying, and you'll get a little respect.

    --
    Fascism: An authoritarian and nationalistic right-wing system of government and social organization. See also: NAZI's
  44. Re:Full Audio or it didn't happen... by Obfuscant · · Score: 1, Insightful

    One can point out that name calling in a news summary is patent flamebait without being either a supporter of or an opponent to the person being insulted. Just as one could discuss whether it is appropriate to use inflammatory hehaviour in a summary without themselves becoming insulting and assuming straw men for their own amusement and importance.

  45. Has his own radio, tv, internet... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ...yet can't sell ads? Right.

    If you have ever listened to his show, they are sarcastic all the time. But then again, I can listen to political shows without the predetermined bias and make judgements on facts.

  46. Re:Full Audio or it didn't happen... by i_ate_god · · Score: 1

    you could have watched the video and then be able to tell whether he was being sarcastic or not.

    The issue with the Romney quote, is that there is no real context since it's all text. But in this case, there is a video, all the context is there. Glenn Beck, is quite bizarre.

    --
    I'm god, but it's a bit of a drag really...
  47. Re:Full Audio or it didn't happen... by artor3 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    If Obama had called it terrorism immediately, you'd be accusing him of scaremongering. No matter what he does, you'll call it the wrong thing. Why should anyone even care what you think any more? You're openly trying to turn the murder of innocent people into a politcal cudgel. Fuck you.

  48. Media Matters by Curunir_wolf · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I don't get why all these posts that belong on Media Matters or Crooks and Liars show up on Slashdot. Glenn Beck's an idiot and everybody's lying about the embassy attack in Libya. Yea, we get it. Take it somewhere else - this isn't "News for nerds" - it's clickbait. Take it somewhere else.

    --
    "Somebody has to do something. It's just incredibly pathetic it has to be us."
    --- Jerry Garcia
  49. Re:Full Audio or it didn't happen... by funwithBSD · · Score: 3, Insightful

    But I do suffer from Asperger's, you insensitive clod!

    This whole Benghazi thing is driving people nuts, just like 9/11.

    They think: How does this shit happen without a devious plot by the CIA, Illuminati, or some other shadowy government operatives?

    We are unable or unwilling to accept that both happened because of shear stupidity, hubris, and incompetence. (and not necessarily in that order)

    --
    Never answer an anonymous letter. - Yogi Berra
  50. Re:Full Audio or it didn't happen... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    If Obama had called it terrorism immediately, you'd be accusing him of scaremongering. No matter what he does, you'll call it the wrong thing

    No, he should wait until he knows before telling the world. He can say an investigation is ongoing.

    Don't tell the world you know when actually you don't. It's simple.

  51. Re:Full Audio or it didn't happen... by Mashiki · · Score: 4, Informative

    Right, now it's time to grow up. So, remember Iran-contra? And how the democrats blamed Regan for everything. No? Okay. So remember the last 8 years and oh let's go with the housing crisis. That was obviously all Bush's fault right. Despite the fact that in 2002 and 2003, that the republicans tried to change the rules but were blocked by the democrats. Wait, he was the only person in the government. Now that your little temper tantrum is done, you'd better get your head out of the sand.

    Under Obama they were not tracked, the documents received showed that. The real problem that comes back on this is that the democrats themselves are stonewalling and it has become a civil case because the DoJ itself is blocking further investigations into the issue. Now, if you're finished lying to yourself perhaps, just perhaps you learned something today.

    --
    Om, nomnomnom...
  52. Re:Old. by jhoegl · · Score: 1

    Except that maybe a president cant be in charge of all of government, and leaves it up to those in charge of that area to handle things.
    The biggest things presidents are liable for are what comes out of their mouths and what direction they direct their policies in.

  53. Re:Old. by hovelander · · Score: 4, Informative

    http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/06/magazine/job-creation-campaign-promises.html?pagewanted=all

    Good zinger, really! I chuckled.

    But the Prez can do very little to create jobs, realistically. Obama may have an easier time creating the Unicorn we all seem to want. Add in a obstructionist, insane House, and the Euro wanting to implode the European Union?

    Good zinger though, really...

  54. Re:Full Audio or it didn't happen... by funwithBSD · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Here is the problem you seem to not grasp:

    Holder fucked up
    Obama appointed Holder.
    Holder fucks up, then Obama is responsible.

    It has worked that way every time I fucked up as a manager, I got grilled by the higher ups why my people fucked up. I was responsible for them, and "gee I didn't know" was not fucking good enough.

    Sure as fuck is not good enough for "The smartest man in the room".

    Especially when he hires fucking Holder, who has admitted he fucking participated in the take-over of the Columbia University ROTC lounge in an effort to rename it after Malcolm X, and expect him to have any Fucking respect for the fucking rule of law.

    http://www.gq.com/news-politics/politics/201012/eric-holder-attorney-general-rahm-emanuel-white-house-elections?printable=true

    P.S. I hope all the extra "fuckings" made it easier for you to follow the argument.

    --
    Never answer an anonymous letter. - Yogi Berra
  55. Re:Old. by rickb928 · · Score: 2

    Why not ask the president? he will tell you whose fault it all is.

    --
    deleting the extra space after periods so i can stay relevant, yeah.
  56. So that's your attempt at spin... by publiclurker · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Whenever someone calls you out on your BS claim that it's either humor or sarcasm. too bad the grownups aren't dense enough to believe you.

  57. Re:Full Audio or it didn't happen... by publiclurker · · Score: 1

    Well, the president didn't ship them. Of course bigoted cowards like you always want to scapegoat "one of them" don't you.

  58. Re:Old. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "But the Prez can do very little to create jobs, realistically." - What a bunch of B.S! Obama's policies are EXACTLY why job creation is nearly non-existent.

  59. Re:Full Audio or it didn't happen... by CajunArson · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Uh.. as many people on Slashdot point out all the time, *LOTS* of people play online games. So what do you do if you are a spy and want to communicate without raising suspicion... do what *LOTS* of other people do and blend in.

    James Bond is not a real spy, Joe Blow, the average guy who you pass on the street without even noticing is what a real spy looks like. If it is expected that a white guy in his 20s - 30s and who is kind of nerdy will play video games, then that is an excellent thing for an operative to do so that he blends in with every expected stereotype.

      I'm not saying that this particular guy was doing it, but for you to call it ridiculous is patently silly... especially given the credulity of people on this website to every single conspiracy theory that supports the pet-prejudices that are promoted around here.

    --
    AntiFA: An abbreviation for Anti First Amendment.
  60. Glenn Beck IS something awful by fustakrakich · · Score: 1

    His ratings? Who knows, but that's all that matters in this business. This little story can only help in that department.

    --
    “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
  61. I don't know... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    which is sadder. That Beck is making wild theories about the attack on our consulate or that all the other so called main stream media aren't asking questions about how and why 4 (5 with Camp Leatherneck) were murdered?

    I live next to the Air Forces Special Operations Squadron and I can tell you there are a bunch of pissed off guys there. $60 billion for intelligence and a government that seems to want to pretend nothing wrong is making them wonder why they are risking their lives

  62. Re:Full Audio or it didn't happen... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Mayby you are just as crazy as Beck.

  63. Re:Old. by hovelander · · Score: 4, Informative

    http://money.cnn.com/2012/09/18/news/economy/obama-bush-jobs/?source=cnn_bin

    And what is Dubya's excuse during his orgy of spending? Where was the outcry then?

    Come to think of it, even as an independent, Dubya made me cry a lot...

  64. Re:Full Audio or it didn't happen... by Loosifur · · Score: 1

    The President didn't, but the Justice Department did, and by the policy of "the buck stops here" the president is at some point responsible. Problem is that the first series of "gunwalking" operations started under Bush. So, AC isn't a "bigoted coward" unless he or she is of neither African or Caucasian descent. And I don't know where the cowardice comes in, unless you're referring to posting as AC, in which case I totally agree. Except for the general tone of your reply, which seems sort of, I don't know, bitter and stupid.

    --
    This unbiased moderation brought to you by the Porcine Aviation Group!
  65. Be fair.. by marcushnk · · Score: 1

    Its not Paranoia if they really _ARE_ after you...

    --
    "Consider how lucky you are that life has been good to you so far. Alternatively, if life hasn't been good to you so far
  66. One conclusion to draw by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I think this makes a very strong case for universal health care. In an ideal world, Glenn Beck would have access to the medical care he so obviously needs.

  67. Broken clocks are right twice a day by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    So, if all you had was a smart phone, what'd be the easiest way to establish covert communication? Hide in plain sight, of course.

  68. EVE Online diplomat by frovingslosh · · Score: 2, Funny

    Your eloquently supported position convinced me. After all, what Beck says is nearly as crazy as calling a person an "EVE Online diplomat". And to suggest that the CIA would do anything wrong is just insane.

    --
    I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
    1. Re:EVE Online diplomat by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      > nearly as crazy as calling a person an "EVE Online diplomat"

      You haven't played Eve Online, have you?

    2. Re:EVE Online diplomat by cheekyboy · · Score: 1, Funny

      You forgot who killed JFK ;-)

      Enjoy your fake federal reserve corporate private dollar notes that will devalue faster than bitcoins.

      --
      Liberty freedom are no1, not dicks in suits.
    3. Re:EVE Online diplomat by Trilkin · · Score: 2

      Yeah? I know exactly what you mean, man. Here, check out this sign I'm going to be protesting in front of D.C. with after Obama gets reelected.

      ELMSFORD
      12 GALAXIES
      CESJROGRENICAL ERGONOMICS
      NBC: XOXPHROZENIGUL COVERAGE
      WASPROVRENIKIL
      ADMONISHMENTS MINISCULE
      STRATOSPHERICAL

      --
      Nobody cares what the CAPTCHA for your post was.
    4. Re:EVE Online diplomat by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The diplomat killed was also an EVE Online player.

  69. Re:Full Audio or it didn't happen... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Especially if his cover job is the IT guy, it would be quite an ordinary thing. IIRC he was on IRC at the time, not EvE.

  70. Re:Full Audio or it didn't happen... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    You used the fuckings as adjectives, which some consider ad hominem.
    You could simply have inserted proper nouns thusly:
    Eric fucking Holder.
    Malcolm fucking X.

    Now you get a smoother flow, and informative mod points.

  71. Re:Old. by ne0n · · Score: 0

    I think you're getting your Osamas and Obamas mixed up.

    --
    $ :(){ :|:& };:
  72. Re:Full Audio or it didn't happen... by ceoyoyo · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Wait, your position is that Beck has a radio show that features him saying things in jest, for entertainment, and that he shouldn't be taken seriously, but that it's flamebait to call him a clown?

  73. Re:Old. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    What do you mean where was the outcry?
    People talked so badly of George W the entire time he was president. Hell..we still make fun of him in Texas :)
    There was even a sitcom about how dumb he is.

  74. Re:Old. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    We all know it was because of free speech and some stupid movie trailer. The president has already apologized for it.

  75. Re:Full Audio or it didn't happen... by fm6 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    *LOTS* of people play online games

    Lots of people don't play MMORPGs that suck up half their lives. What kind of cover story includes that much time spent on a collective fantasy? Not one that includes actual time spent gathering intelligence.

    You mention that James Bond is fiction. That's very true. Real secret agents don't have elaborate schemes for doing ordinary things, like talking to people.

  76. Re:Old. by phantomfive · · Score: 4, Funny

    I always wonder about the people who compare Obama to Bush. It's like comparing yourself to a squirrel or a bonobo monkey, if you can't do obviously better then you are in trouble.

    --
    "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
  77. Re:Full Audio or it didn't happen... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You couldn't be more wrong. Thinly veiled sarcasm is an art form. Often it takes the other party several minutes to process what you have said, after you have left the room, they realize you have won.
    Then they really start paying attention.
    Most people don't like sarcasm, not because they dont understand it, rather they float like lead shot.

  78. Re:Old. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    woosh!

  79. They figured them out by davydagger · · Score: 5, Interesting

    As a former goon, and former goonfleet pilot I can say how tightknit that

    1. something awful is
    2. goonfleet in particular was.

    I am still in shock and disbelief that both get into the news, and vile rat will be deeply missed.

    Some back story, before there was 4chan, there was something awful. Goons used to do pranks and raids (far more mild that what 4chan/anonymous eventually became). Goons became named "Goons" because they were Lowtax's "goons" who'd invade forums and crash websites. But there were no LOIC, or any other tools. it was just using the /. effect with malice, e.g. hitting the reload button on a site you didn't like until the pipes clogged, at the same time as every other goon. Back in the day, it was very feasible to clog down the low-rent juggalo, furry, pedo, and other stupid sites somethingawful would target. They also asked eachother for advice. traded stories, made confessions, trolled eachother. There was "goon justice", when goons fucked up a pedophile, scammer, spammer, or other internet lowlife. The also did photoshop contests, made memes, and trolled eachother really hard.

    There were also pranks, such as habo hotel, and the like.

    The Forums "Goons" had a general dislike for the rest of the internet, and would play internet games with other goons, because they disliked the general population of gamers at the time. Goonfleet stuck out because of how harsh the game was, and how goons when from harrassing people in game, to becoming a serious angry force hell bent on serious stellar conquest. EVE is a game where everyone is a ruthless bastard hell bent on conquest, and people fucked with the goons, they pushed back harder. They kept to themselves and disliked outsiders, and took a dim view on the status quo of the EVE eliete(poopsocking pubbies). Goons made a break for power in 2006 and I am proud to say I was there. Other alliances had players with far more skill points(like level), who where more powerful, but goons had numbers, excellent organization, and teamwork. There was a profound sense of "goon nationalism" in the game that we were out to stake our claim and challenge the status quo. leaders had charisma, and leadership skills, but not as much in game skill points. We bucked the pecking order in favor of our own. We let anyone from Something Awful in, while rejecting the most seasoned non-goon EVE players.

    The world hated us, but as goons we reveled in their hatred, and it made us closer, stronger, more determined. We had the numbers and were far far far more ruthless than the worst the game had to offer. EVE is not just played online, its played over instanat message, cell phones, text messages, and even in the real world. When we allied with the Russians, we sent a real life delegation to Russia to visit them in person, and they sent one to NY, to shore up in game ties.

    We upset some major long standing alliances who had publicly gone on EVE TV to bash us.(Lokta Voltera, Vertas Imortalis) to bash us and our antics. We went on to terminate them with prejudice.

    EVE got serious just about the same time goons were almost at the height of their in game power.

    Somewhere around 2005, when the internet started getting really "serious" and pranks and raids started to have legal conotations, site founder, lowtax put a halt to raids and pranks. The sense of community remained. But just a reminder before "Anonymous" was "Leigon", we were "40 thousand screaming goons"

    RIP VIle Rat. Here is a speech remedial made on teamspeak before the epic battle of XZH-, of which I was a defender. I recorded this as I listened to.

    http://www.favupload.com/audio/6704/

    1. Re:They figured them out by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Too much information... please delete

    2. Re:They figured them out by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Somewhere around 2005, when the internet started getting really "serious"

      Yeah, that operation sundevil was bound to catch up to Something Awful eventually.

      But yeah... RIP VIle Rat.

    3. Re:They figured them out by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Other alliances had players with far more skill points(like level), who where more powerful, but goons had numbers, excellent organization, and teamwork.

      This.

      I'm telling you. It was real.

      RIP, Vile Rat.

  80. Re:Full Audio or it didn't happen... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I know plenty of conservative Republicans at my work place that hate Rush and Beck, having called them unofficial spokesmen of the party (not so much Beck now, but more so a few years ago). The thing about being unofficial, is it is unofficial. Such a label is based on the impact they had, in thiscase the number of people that took them very seriously within the Republican part of the population.

    Maybe they they were foaming at mouth Asperger's type (combining a few posts' claims...), or maybe they just believed important topics should be discussed civially, and be fact-centric. Here is a hint: I actually enjoy talking about politics with them, even on subjects I strongly disagree with, because I would always learn a lot from them about current events, economics and politics (unlike online arguments that only seem to teach crappy insults).

  81. Re:Full Audio or it didn't happen... by mbkennel · · Score: 1

    "would be impossible for the CIA to use an online game like Eve to communicate in some circumstances?"

    impossible of course not. Silly, certainly, and unnecessary and risky. If he guy had an IP connection he could ssh in somewhere.

  82. Biased a bit? by BorgAssimilator · · Score: 4, Insightful

    ...American right-wing radio and TV clown Glenn Beck...

    Now, I'm not commenting on whether he's right or wrong, but this in an accepted summary? Seems a bit much even by Slashdot standards.

    --
    "Intelligence has nothing to do with politics!"
    -Londo Mollari
    1. Re:Biased a bit? by H0p313ss · · Score: 1, Funny

      ...American right-wing radio and TV clown Glenn Beck...

      Now, I'm not commenting on whether he's right or wrong, but this in an accepted summary? Seems a bit much even by Slashdot standards.

      Give me five clear examples of where he said something intelligent and insightful.

      --
      XML is a known as a key material required to create SMD: Software of Mass Destruction
    2. Re:Biased a bit? by artor3 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      It's actually quite nice to see a spade called a spade, instead of the typical media "all opinions are equally valid" bullshit.

    3. Re:Biased a bit? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      ...American right-wing radio and TV clown Glenn Beck...

      Now, I'm not commenting on whether he's right or wrong, but this in an accepted summary? Seems a bit much even by Slashdot standards.

      Well, it's certainly insulting and offensive to Bozo, Chuckles, Ronald McDonald and other TV clowns to compare them to Glenn Beck....

    4. Re:Biased a bit? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      agreed. how can they even maintain the impression of a simplistic political binary in this day and age?

    5. Re:Biased a bit? by dywolf · · Score: 1

      So next time Ken Oberman spouts off one of his equally crazy rants we can go with "left-wing radio and TV liar/clown/sensationalist/etc Ken Oberman" ?

      Clown is obviously meant to be a dig, an insult. And much as I may agree with the assessment, allowing it to fly in the summary is akin to when some of Fox news' tv faces while supposedly reporting the news saying something like "And today Liar-In-Chief Obama met with world leaders in the UN General Assembly to ..."

      Any first year journalism student knows better than to write something like that summary.

      --
      The guy who said the election was rigged won the presidency with the second-most votes.
    6. Re:Biased a bit? by retchdog · · Score: 1

      i assume you meant Keith Olbermann. seeing as he was just fired from his last job, and replaced by Eliot Spitzer of all people, yeah, i think you're just about right. the media did go with that.

      as for the rest of your example, yes, if Obama made a lie substantial enough to warrant such a comment (and similar standards were applied across the fence; this is the `problem' with fox news), it would be just fine.

      --
      "They were pure niggers." – Noam Chomsky
  83. Re:Full Audio or it didn't happen... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    As much as I don't believe James Bond is anywhere near what a real spy would do, it's pretty hilarious to see you guys argue about what a "real" spy would do as if you knew.

  84. Re:Full Audio or it didn't happen... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I know it's probably useless to debate this with you, but here's the problem.

    I don't think Rush or Beck are 'insane' or 'stupid' or whatever. They are varying degrees of successful businessmen who know how to make money (albeit with hate speech, 'ridiculous' or not) off the ignorant populace.

    My issue comes with the audience these guys cater to: people who very likely either a) actually believe the 'ridiculous' crap that they spew as the gospel truth or b) are mentally unstable enough to consider the hate a call to arms.

    These guys would be fine and dandy if their ridiculous BS wasn't believed by a segment of the population, but they ARE. And then you have ridiculous groups like the 'birthers' who honestly believe the President of the damn United States has somehow duped all of us into electing a 'foreigner' to the highest office in the country via bad Photoshops of his birth certificate, or that Michael J Fox is 'faking' his Parkinson's disease to elicit sympathy votes or whatever bullshit they decide to say in their public forum (these are just two examples of crap they've promoted that I can think of, I know there's tons more).

    Now, is it their fault that people believe this stuff? That's debatable, I'd say yes, but whatever. That said, I believe the world would indeed be a better place without Rush and Beck's brand of ridiculousness, if only because then these groups of ignorant people might not have something to rally behind and maybe they'd be more apt to become informed rather than believe ridiculous conspiracies, etc.

    My personal opinion?

    The media in general has a *huge* influence on our culture and social order, ask any sociologist. The media, therefore, *should* have a responsibility to not produce things that inspire hate and ignorance but either be unbiased or, if necessary, promote tolerance and knowledge.

    It's pretty simple to not cater to the lowest common denominator and it's one of the things I believe this country has failed wildly in (ON BOTH SIDES of the political spectrum). The fact is the media are pitting us against one another in some silly battle over politics and ideology for their own profit. They don't care what the results are, just that it gets ratings. The bloodier the better. It's disgusting and it needs to stop yesterday. The more we call out this sort of thing, the less it will (hopefully) happen. The more we realize we're in this thing together and the more we try to negotiate and agree on *something*, the better this country and this world will be.

    But hey, maybe I'm just a lonely idealist railing against something far too big to change. With enough of us though.... maybe we CAN change things.

  85. Re:Full Audio or it didn't happen... by Qzukk · · Score: 5, Funny

    Makes sense to me. After all, if you want to send a message to the FBI you use 4chan, therefore it's entirely reasonable that if you want to talk to the CIA, you use Something Awful.

    --
    If I have been able to see further than others, it is because I bought a pair of binoculars.
  86. Re:Full Audio or it didn't happen... by thoth · · Score: 1

    It has worked that way every time I fucked up as a manager, I got grilled by the higher ups why my people fucked up. I was responsible for them, and "gee I didn't know" was not fucking good enough.

    I see the problem, both you and Holder should have used the Alberto Gonzales "I don't remember" defense.

  87. Re:Full Audio or it didn't happen... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Please don't confuse those who self diagnose themselves with Aspergers, and those who really have it. The self diagnosed are those who are afraid to use their voice unless behind a keyboard. Or, they use their voice too much and can't make/keep any friends as a result.

    Those to whom you refer to are mostly malignantly narcissistic, with a dash of Internet Fuckwad Syndrome.

  88. Re:Old. by cold+fjord · · Score: 2, Informative

    Ask Osama about his experience in international affairs.

    Killing Bin Laden was indeed a military and intelligence coup, but in his success he is indebted to others. (He didn't build that, at least not alone.)

    To Get Bin Laden, Obama Relied on Policies He Decried - By Michael Barone
    The president deserves credit—but so does his predecessor.

    Let’s cheerfully and ungrudgingly give credit to Barack Obama for approving the military operation that resulted in the death of Osama bin Laden. . . .

    While we may not know all the details about and behind this operation, it’s fascinating to see how many of the things that made the success of this operation possible were not so long ago decried by many of the president’s fans and fellow partisans.

    For one thing, it apparently would not have happened without those infamous enhanced interrogation techniques — “torture,” according to critics of the Bush administration.

    The enhanced interrogation techniques reportedly led to identification of the courier who eventually led our forces to bin Laden’s hiding place. Critics of waterboarding and other enhanced interrogation techniques assured us that “torture” could not produce reliable information.

    They were probably right that sometimes such techniques yield false information. But the bin Laden operation shows that they can also produce actionable intelligence.

    You may remember that many Democrats called for criminal prosecution of CIA interrogators who were acting under orders vetted by legal counsel. Attorney General Eric Holder actually considered bringing such prosecutions.

    Fortunately, he decided not to do so — fortunately for the individuals involved but fortunately also for his own reputation. Who would want to be known for prosecuting the people who helped track down bin Laden?

    It has also been reported that in hunting down bin Laden our forces relied on intercepted communications. I wonder if any of them included contacts between suspected terrorists abroad and persons in the United States.

    This was the “domestic wiretapping” revealed to great acclaim by the New York Times and presented as an intolerable infringement of civil liberties. Given what we know now, it’s a good thing our folks were tuning in.

    Obama deserves credit also for employing the Navy SEALs, who are part of the Joint Special Operations Command. It was fashionable a few years ago to call the JSOC “Dick Cheney’s death squad” and “Cheney’s assassination team.”

    The assumption behind such criticism was that Bush administration officials were using what they termed the war against terrorism as a smokescreen for persecuting domestic dissidents. But there is not a scrap of evidence that either the Bush administration or the Obama administration was doing anything of the kind. They were too busy trying to protect us.

    There was criticism as well of the idea of targeting particular individuals for assassination. But, in ordering the raid on bin Laden’s compound, Obama authorized the killing of bin Laden. And no Miranda warnings first.

    Smart Diplomacy (a Danish View)

    Obama Regretted His ‘Muted’ Early Stance on Iran - By Jim Geraghty - September 25, 2012

    This morning, The New York Times offers a lengthy look at President Obama’s relationship with leaders in the Arab world, full of revealing detail. It never quite comes out and explicitly says the president’s approach has failed, but the overall picture is withe

    --
    much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot - George Orwell
  89. If a game show host can be an agent by Culture20 · · Score: 2

    An eve online dude can work for the CIA too.

  90. RL Troll by Truth_Quark · · Score: 0

    The Guy's a real-life troll, except as well as getting his excitement from stirring people up, he gets market share and money.

    Don't feed him with this attention except where there is a real chance of getting him sued or imprisoned.

  91. Re:Old. by ganjadude · · Score: 1

    bush did it..... (that is obamas answer for everything right? well except for killing bin laden (which he didnt, remember, "you didnt build that") and saving GM (oh wait, they STILL went bankrupt after getting billions of dollars from americans....but no, obama saved them.....)

    --
    have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
  92. Can you prove.... by Mr.+Underbridge · · Score: 1

    ...that Something Awful *isn't* part of a CIA conspiracy? These allegations need to be investigated further.

    1. Re:Can you prove.... by gmhowell · · Score: 1, Funny

      As soon as Glenn Beck is willing to deny raping and murdering a girl in 1980.

      --
      Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. -John Lennon
  93. Re:Old. by ganjadude · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    no comparing obama to bush is like comparing twins, not identical twins because, well... but fraternal twins none the less. Obama is the exact same as bush, the only difference is that bush didnt try and cover up his stupid statements, he just walked away from them. Obama on the other hand embraces them, and twists the meaning to try and make him look good. 20 embassies get attacked? fuck it lets go to vegas, we can blame a movie maker anyway

    --
    have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
  94. Re:Old. by ganjadude · · Score: 1

    you mean where he had to be forced to give the ok (or didnt give the ok and it was done anyway because he was a bitch about it) ??

    --
    have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
  95. Late to the conspiracy game? by lockecole2 · · Score: 1

    This guy obviously can't find his own news or his writers are just late to the party, considering this was discussed and established on No Agenda weeks ago.

    1. Re:Late to the conspiracy game? by modmans2ndcoming · · Score: 1

      too much credit...he probably listens and rips off everything he hears....

  96. Re:Old. by ganjadude · · Score: 2

    to be fair, pakis have arrested the man who helped us get bin laden... and obama has done NOTHING to help him, and would not even pay him the reward offered for his head whiich was available

    --
    have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
  97. Re:Full Audio or it didn't happen... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    I wonder why Ollie North ended up taking the fall for Reagan for that whole Iran-Contra scandal when the government was openly supporting Iraq in the Iran-Iraq war but secretly giving weapons to Iranian "freedom fighters".

  98. It it were true.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If this were true wouldn't Glenn Beck be a traitor? If so, I think we should hang him immediately.

  99. He may have a point. by Minwee · · Score: 1

    Technically, the guy never specifically denied being a CIA agent. Why wouldn't he do that? Obviously because he's hiding something.

    On to other matters. That little frosted guy on the Mini-Wheats box still hasn't made any official comment on his involvement with the CIA and their HAARP death ray experiments. What's he trying to hide?

  100. Re:Full Audio or it didn't happen... by ganjadude · · Score: 0

    someone needs to tell the obama supporters about this. I mean hell, as long as hes giving his suppoerters free phones, they dont seem to notice that they are being fucked

    --
    have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
  101. Re:Full Audio or it didn't happen... by ganjadude · · Score: 1

    and we have a party that believes that nothing " we" do is good, a party that believes that giving a man a fish, instead of teaching him to fish is good, and a party that continues to push the lies that another party wants their grandparents to eat dogfood, when THEY are the ones who cut over 1/2 a BILLION from medicare. That is the parrty that continues to claim that we were attacked, in over 20 locations, due to a movie, NOT lead by a man that the party let out of prision (gitmo) who is known to have been involved. Also it is the party that claims we cant know the truth about it, however CNN can roll in a few days later, get the embassador who was murdered (first time since carter... coincidence??) diary, and see that he was worried prior to 9/11 (which i as a new yorker am every year, and will be for life) yet the president doesnt see that... This is the party that blames a movie for the murders of americans, and locks up the movie maker, without talking about those who did the killing in front of the entire world (the UN)

    but no, lets talk about what some people believe may or may not be true, people who dont kill other for simply disagreeing with them, or drawing pictures of their holy ghost.....

    long story short, both major american parties are fulll of shit, and until we get rid of both of them, we, as americans, are fucked.

    --
    have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
  102. Re:Full Audio or it didn't happen... by ganjadude · · Score: 1

    but he did, single handedly kill bin laden... he keeps saying so so it MUST be true right???

    --
    have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
  103. Re:Full Audio or it didn't happen... by ganjadude · · Score: 1

    2 words

    OBAMA PHONE!!!!!

    whos foaming at the mouth again????

    --
    have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
  104. Re:Full Audio or it didn't happen... by PPH · · Score: 1

    Glenn Beck has been known to use this device known as "sarcasm" which tends to escape the Aspergers crowd that runs Slashdot.

    The problem is: Beck's followers don't recognize the humor either (if that's what it really is). For all I know, Beck is a Berkeley educated flaming liberal hippie freak. One who is smart enough to have found a market and produced product for it. Kudos for him. He's getting rich and probably laughing all the way to the bank.

    The problem is the people who believe his 'connect the dots' theories. Beck may or may not know he is producing crap. If he takes it seriously, I've heard psychologists compare him and his scribbling to John Nash. Russel Crowe was acting. Nash wasn't. I'm not certain Beck's followers can tell the difference either.

    --
    Have gnu, will travel.
  105. Re:Full Audio or it didn't happen... by ganjadude · · Score: 0

    ok fine, if that is your point meglon, than why is it ok for obama to blame bush for all his failures??? why isnt he blaming all the people he apointed who failed?? didnt obama say "the buck stops...uhhh..with me"

    you cannot have it both ways. You cannot allow obama to take credit for killing bin laden, at the same time blaming bush for the economy. You cannot give credit to obama for "saving GM" without giving bush that same "credit"

    --
    have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
  106. Re:Full Audio or it didn't happen... by ganjadude · · Score: 1

    Actually I might respect him for the second time in 4 years( the first being when he allowed the seals to kill bin laden)

    --
    have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
  107. Um.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Hey, at least Beck pushes gold instead of bitcoin.

    You say that like it's a good thing.

    Do we really want something as important as the gold market perturbed by the cumulative effect of Beck and other gold bugs like him?

    I say it's better for society if fringe people come up with some crazy "safe haven money store" that the rest of us have no use for, so we won't have to pay inflated prices for useful money like gold, bitcoin, or major stable nation-backed currencies.

    1. Re:Um.... by khallow · · Score: 1

      Do we really want something as important as the gold market perturbed by the cumulative effect of Beck and other gold bugs like him?

      Of course, we do. The disease is the cure.

  108. Re:Full Audio or it didn't happen... by ganjadude · · Score: 1

    CLEARLY you missed south park this week

    --
    have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
  109. Re:Full Audio or it didn't happen... by ganjadude · · Score: 1

    You act as if people on the liberal side dont say alot of stupid things. Obama is gonna pay my rent, and we got the obama phone are 2 good counterpoints, There are many more.

    long story short, ANY party person is a dumbass, as people latch on to parties because they dont have ideas of their own

    --
    have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
  110. Re:Old. by Black+Parrot · · Score: 1

    Ask Osama about his experience in international affairs.

    Is Paradise considered to be "international"?

    --
    Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
  111. Re:Old. by HapSlappy_2222 · · Score: 2

    I'm generally bipartisan, and I don't take any issue with the point you're trying to make here (very clearly the President relied on others to "get" Bin Laden; he didn't infiltrate the hideout himself....).

    However, the article you pasted is chock full of weasel words, sarcasm, "quotes", and general contempt. It's difficult - very difficult - to take articles like this seriously; at least for those of us who are what "moderate" used to be. Why don't people ever seem to understand that the facts speak for themselves, and pointing them out without snark is an elegant weapon for a civilized age?

  112. Re:Full Audio or it didn't happen... by Black+Parrot · · Score: 1

    I have to go with Occam's Razor here. Or maybe Occam's Meat Axe, since the differences really, really small. But I find it slightly more plausible that Mitt things that his joke is funny than that he hasn't seen Goldfinger.

    However, he probably thinks Goldfinger is a tragic story.

    --
    Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
  113. Re:Full Audio or it didn't happen... by Black+Parrot · · Score: 1

    I know plenty of conservative Republicans at my work place that hate Rush and Beck, having called them unofficial spokesmen of the party (not so much Beck now, but more so a few years ago). The thing about being unofficial, is it is unofficial. Such a label is based on the impact they had, in thiscase the number of people that took them very seriously within the Republican part of the population.

    Maybe they they were foaming at mouth Asperger's type (combining a few posts' claims...), or maybe they just believed important topics should be discussed civially, and be fact-centric.

    Probably they think Colbert makes a better unofficial party spokesman.

    --
    Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
  114. Re:Old. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Obstructionist, insane House?

    What do you call the first two years of his office? You really need to quit leaving those hits of Acid next to you keyboard dude, you're spouting crap that's not even close to reality.

    I don't know what's more disturbing...that you're spouting this tripe or that someone was so fucking stupid as to upmod it as informative when it's not even remotely close to that...

  115. Re:Full Audio or it didn't happen... by fm6 · · Score: 1

    You act as if people on the liberal side dont say alot of stupid things.

    Oh please. I'm not allowed to get snarky about Glen Beck without invoking the equal time rule?

    Obama is gonna pay my rent, and we got the obama phone are 2 good counterpoints,

    Let's see, Glenn Beck has 3 million viewers. Miss Obama Phone has how many?

  116. Re:Full Audio or it didn't happen... by fm6 · · Score: 1

    Well, of course it's a tragic story. Goldfinger is obviously the hero. I mean he gets all the good lines ("No, Mr Bond, I want you to die!") while James Bond stands around making bad puns.

  117. Re:Full Audio or it didn't happen... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I am at a loss for what seems so implausible about posting there not being meant to garner the attention of someone specifically. Surely, in a fight for your life, you wouldn't post a message describing the security situation on a gaming message board.

    If they had lived, then that message would have likely gone unnoticed, or at least unassociated, and it could be easily denied. But, at the same time, a bot for any number of agencies could have been simply waiting for that user to post on the forum for any reason to alert someone else. Maybe it wasn't the CIA, but what about any number of covert agencies? They don't need a secure connection to go there, on either side, and it's unlikely to be blocked for religious reasons. There's a lot to it that seem really convenient for such a purpose, and it could easily be swept under the rug if nothing came of it.

    It sounds to me that it's just because Glenn Beck said it, that makes it sound crazy. But, I suppose the rabid obsession of liberals on Slashdot will ignore the plausible nature of the story because, after all, it's Glenn Beck and a game website. Clearly, he was just posting some dudes he met online that he really took a liking too. That sounds so much more reasonable...

  118. Re:Full Audio or it didn't happen... by ganjadude · · Score: 1

    havent checked the youtube link so i dont know what its up to now, but id say its gotta be close to that number

    i didnt say you cant get snarky, beck is a loon. Im just saying that if you look at his listeners, and you look at obamas supporters.... well ill take becks listeners over obama supporters any day

    --
    have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
  119. Plagiarizer!!!!! by modmans2ndcoming · · Score: 2

    He ripped that off from Adam Curry who said this exact thing two weeks ago on No Agenda

    1. Re:Plagiarizer!!!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Of course, that's Glenn Beck's schtick. His job is to parrot libertarian, conspiratorial talk-show hosts like Adam Curry and Alex Jones, while carefully controlling the message in order to ensure that the "I" word is never mentioned in a negative light, stooping to ridiculous depths like blaming Saudi Arabia for 9/11 and attacking the 9/11 widows to do so.

      And he makes a barrel of money for his efforts.

  120. Re:Old. by rickb928 · · Score: 4, Funny

    "it's so obvious! is there anything obama isn't responsible for?"

    Yup.

    The film caused all the unrest.

    The economy is still Bush's fault. Either one, Doesn't really matter.

    The banks are the Republicans' fault, collectively. They started it, and the whole financial industry precipitated all this.

    Housing is a Republican problem too. Along with student loans. Same problem, but that's not at issue here. We are not really too involved in reality, just in avoiding holding our President accountable for a damned thing.

    Because, after all, it was like that when he got there. It could be worse. Bush could have left it all for Obama to figure out. Oh,wait...

    --
    deleting the extra space after periods so i can stay relevant, yeah.
  121. Re:Old. by artor3 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Blah blah blah. No president does anything single-handedly. Lincoln didn't tear through the Confederacy like an action hero. FDR didn't paradrop into Nazi Germany. Obama didn't pull the literal trigger on Osama. But it was his decision to refocus efforts on finding OBL, it was his decision to go with troops on the ground rather than an airstrike, it was his decision to keep the Pakistanis out of the loop. All of those turned out to be the right choices, and Obama deserves credit for that.

    All you Republicans claiming the credit should go exclusively to the military, ask yourself this: If the mission had ended with a dozen dead SEALs instead of a dead terrorist, would you be placing the blame solely on the military?

  122. Re:Full Audio or it didn't happen... by artor3 · · Score: 1

    We are unable or unwilling to accept that both happened because of shear stupidity, hubris, and incompetence. (and not necessarily in that order)

    Why does it need to be our fault at all? Why can't it be the fault of the murderers?

    I think you're falling into a sort of just-world fallacy. You're thinking that as long as the good guys are clever, they'll always win. Sadly, that's not the case.

  123. James Bond is not a real spy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    But Ian Fleming was.
    So clearly to the genius's here no 'spy' would ever try to blend in while trying to cover for his boss (obama) and then end up dead.

  124. Re:Old. by plasticquart · · Score: 1

    What I love most about this argument is that there are people on the other side of it (a lot of people apparently) who instead blame Obama for all it. And they, like their opponents, think the their opponents are a bunch of nutters who are drinking sweet sugary drink, etc.

    But as usual, the truth is nuanced and bla bla bla.

    Oh look, a kitty!!!

  125. Re:Old. by plasticquart · · Score: 2

    What I love most about this argument is those who put it forth typically will not give Obama credit for anything and see all of his acts as a failure (even acts where failure isn't really possible -- "Obama blinks diffrent!!1"). Such a viewpoint is obviously only held by twizzler wrappers, but such is the state of our twizzler wrapper population.

  126. Re: Agent by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    He worked in the embassy. Of course he was a CIA asset. (They call them assets. The word agent has specific legal connotations. It's why special agents aren't called agents either. They're called special operators.)

    Say what you will about Glenn Beck, but even a stopped clock is right twice a day.

  127. If the CIa really went after assholes by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This guy would be Jimmy Hoffa of TV assholes.

  128. Re:Full Audio or it didn't happen... by Ghjnut · · Score: 1

    Yes you can, welcome to politics. You just have to ask the right person...

    --
    MouseClass extends ScrollClass, which extends TabClass, which extends SidebarClass, which extends PowerClass, w
  129. Re:Old. by plasticquart · · Score: 1

    Your presentation of the twizzler wrapper viewpoint is pitch-perfect.

  130. Re:Old. by plasticquart · · Score: 0

    Don't forget to slam Obama for his blinking deficiencies!! You know how he blinks all weird and stuff... sucka can't do anything right.

  131. Re:Old. by plasticquart · · Score: 0

    See... this is where you can also hit Obama on that blinking thing I mentioned.

    Come on! Don't let us down!!! USA! USA!

  132. Re:Full Audio or it didn't happen... by funwithBSD · · Score: 1

    Possibly.

    But like Pearl Harbor, and 9/11, we had intelligence this was coming, and we did not have our guard up.

    I don't blame the "murderers", because it was a legitimate target. The fact that we want to see it as a police action and thus a "murder" is hubris and stupidity. They have declared war on us many times and we won't treat it as such.

    It. is. a. fucking. war.

    --
    Never answer an anonymous letter. - Yogi Berra
  133. Re:Full Audio or it didn't happen... by plasticquart · · Score: 1, Redundant

    Ooooh, the free phone thing that comes from a program started under Reagan -- good one!!!1 And don't forget the blinking thing. Come on!! Obama blinks weird (pssst, like a Muslim... try to slip "Muslim" or "Socialist" in there if you can, but don't do those too much because, you know... USA! USA!).

  134. Re:Full Audio or it didn't happen... by plasticquart · · Score: 1

    Hey buddy, I think your shift-key is broken. We won't be taken seriously if we can't get some of the the basic communication things right at least some of the time.

    USA! USA!

  135. Re:Full Audio or it didn't happen... by plasticquart · · Score: 0

    Whoa... a string of these --> "!" must have a "1" inserted occasionally.

    And seriously, how many times do I gotta mention it? BLINKING!!!1!1! (See how I did the "!!!1, etc" there? That is how you Dew it.)

    USA!

  136. Re:Full Audio or it didn't happen... by plasticquart · · Score: 1

    I've got a new item just down from the big man himself. We are to now start putting forth the true 9/11 facts. This is a prime directive that replaces previous directive 7X, sub C.

    All forum postings should, whenever possible, mention the known facts for what really happened on 9/11. And don't forget to mention that Obama blinks weird. That is a prime directive now too.

    USA!

  137. Re:Full Audio or it didn't happen... by plasticquart · · Score: 1

    You are right. Glenn Beck is perfectly sane and right. Thank you for putting forth the truth. There are billions of us out here fighting and I hope you will join us.

    USA!

  138. Re:Full Audio or it didn't happen... by plasticquart · · Score: 0

    This was a perfect time to mention the blinking!!!1!1

    It shows that he is always wrong. Even when he is right he is wrong because have you seen the blinking!?!?!

    USA!!

  139. Re:Old. by LordLimecat · · Score: 1

    Except that maybe a president cant be in charge of all of government,

    Here I thought that thats EXACTLY what he was elected to do, as head of the executive and armed forces.

    But then I also thought that part of being top of the heirarchy was having competent people beneath you who you could hold accountable.

  140. Re:Full Audio or it didn't happen... by plasticquart · · Score: 1

    Whoa... did... did you just put down Mr. Glenneth Samuel Beck Sr. Esq??!?! You know the rules... I must now report you. Good luck.

    USA!!

  141. Re:Old. by LordLimecat · · Score: 1

    Its obstructionist for the opposition party who holds ONE part of the government, to refuse to give democrats everything they want? What if we flipped it around and called the Senate obstructionist for refusing to give in to every whim of the house?

    Or better yet, how about everyone grows up and deals with it? Like we have for the last 200 years?

  142. Re:Old. by LordLimecat · · Score: 1

    lets go to vegas

    I thought that was Hillary...?

    Wooo spring break 2012!

  143. Re:Old. by LordLimecat · · Score: 4, Funny

    Lincoln didn't tear through the Confederacy like an action hero.

    Yea, but to be fair, he did take on all those vampires single-handedly.

  144. Re:Old. by LordLimecat · · Score: 0

    If the mission had ended with a dozen dead SEALs instead of a dead terrorist, would you be placing the blame solely on the military?

    Unless there was a clear indicator that it was someone elses fault, yes. I give some credit to Obama for the Bin Laden kill, since he IS commander in chief, but I recognize that a HUGE part of what happened is because of intelligence infrastructure that predates him. It wasnt an "Obama policy" that lead to the raid AFAIK, so the credit he gets is somewhat limited-- perhaps to the fact that he had the guts to authorize the raid into pakistan.

    I may be a republican but that doesnt mean I dont think Obama can do ANYTHING right, it just means I think that hes wrong on most things.

  145. Re:Old. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    The entire point of congress is to obstruct laws from getting passed. That is deliberate and by design, which is why it is a huge committee that needs to have a majority agree before anything happens. It was designed that way on purpose so no single person could dictate policy in America and "take over" the government.

    Only policies that are serious and have widespread popular appeal are going to be seriously considered and accepted. For those who are trying to run roughshod over the political process and demand that your pet programs that have only a minority of the people of America supporting those ideas, of course they are going to be seen as obstructing those projects. That just means you aren't doing you job to convince the American people and especially a majority of congress to accept your ideas.

  146. Re:Old. by ArcherB · · Score: 1

    I don't know if you are being sarcastic or not. If you are, the guy who responded first who agrees with you really goes a long way to proving your point.

    If you were not being sarcastic, I have to ask:
    If this is Bush's economy, and it was Bush's economy when Bush was president, and it was "on Bush's watch" when 9-11 happened seven months after he took office, at what point does this become Obama's economy and Obama's watch?

    --
    There is no "I disagree" mod for a reason. Flamebait, Troll, and Overrated are not substitutes.
  147. politics has no place on Slashdot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    In politics sound minds may differ. There are appropriate forums for such discussions. This is not one such.

  148. Re:Old. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    And your empty repartee is the written version of sticking your tongue out.

  149. Re:Full Audio or it didn't happen... by artor3 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Answer yes or no:

    Is Reagan responsible for the Iran-Contra scandal?

    If "yes", then why are you whining about Democrats blaming him for it?
    If "no", then why are blaming Obama for Fast and Furious?

    You're complaining about double-standards being applied by liberals while simultaneously using double-standards yourself.

    Either the president is responsible for everything that happens in his administration, in which case you had best condemn everyone from Reagan to Roosevelt to Lincoln, or they're not, in which case you have no reason to be condemning Obama.

    The second option seems far more sane to me.

  150. Re:Old. by Nos9 · · Score: 1

    Well he certainly didn't help anything when his administration made that video he claims got the Middle East in an uproar, the filmmaker didn't build that.

  151. Re:Old. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    to be fair, pakis have arrested the man who helped us get bin laden... and obama has done NOTHING to help him, and would not even pay him the reward offered for his head whiich was available

    And why should he? That paki is no more useful.

  152. Re:Old. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Facts may be inconvenient... but they do matter

    The House is not the obstruction in the government... they have passed many bills on jobs and taxes and budgets and such. Given that the House is where the Constitution requires certain money-oriented bills to START, they cannot (by definition) be the obstruction if they pass such bills.

    The obstruction is Democrat Senator Harry Reid of Nevada who simply places these bills in his desk drawer. These bills are not even being debated or voted on in the Senate... Harry Does not want them debated or voted on in the Senate because then his members would have to take actual positions on those bills; that would mean (a) the voters could hold them accountable for specific votes and (b) some of his members might actually vote for some of the bills (many of which went through the House with bi-partisan support). The result would be that the bills would make it to Obama's desk and he would then have to sign or veto them and be accountable to the voters for his decisions. Harry prefers a system where Obama (playing the role of monarch) does what he wants by executive order and the senate obstructs the other party from stopping him. The United States has never before operated this way... it is absolutely corrupt and evil.

    The Democrats have not offered a budget in 3 years... they have turned irresponsibility and dodging accountability into a campaign tactic and they have set a horrendous precedent in doing so. You might think you like all this lawlessness now while your guys are doing it...but I bet you'll get all angry and critical if the Republicans get control of the Senate someday in the future and use these same tactics and Harry's precedents....

    Think about it and don't be such a zombie. Pre-1969 Democrats were civilized and generally played by the rules... and our political system was far less divisive. It's impossible to have civilized politics in the modern era where Democrats argue about the meaning of words, completely ignore the Constitutional order for how the government should operate, and believe that there is no such thing as objective truth. It is completely impossible for people who believe in the Constitution to find any common ground with these people.

  153. Re:Old. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
  154. Re:Full Audio or it didn't happen... by Gearoid_Murphy · · Score: 4, Informative

    In 2003, Republicans controlled the house and the senate, I cannot find evidence for your claim that Democrats blocked regulatory legislation which would have prevented the US housing crash. http://uspolitics.about.com/b/2008/09/18/republican-congress-talked-about-financial-reform-but-did-nothing.htm In fact, given the disdain Republicans have for any form of governmental regulation, I find your claim doubtful

    --
    prepare the survey weasels.
  155. Re:Old. by ravenshrike · · Score: 1

    Monday morning quarterbacking? They were offered a full WIPS. They DECLINED the protection package. Moreover, the Brits clearly saw the writing on the fucking wall.

  156. Doubt if something awful was really involved by Big+Hairy+Ian · · Score: 1

    But if you think anyone who works at an embassy isn't a spy then you are the Moron

    --

    Build a Man a Fire, and He'll Be Warm for a Day. Set a Man on Fire, and He'll Be Warm for the Rest of His Life.

  157. Re:Old. by cold+fjord · · Score: 0

    Blah blah blah. No president does anything single-handedly. Lincoln didn't tear through the Confederacy like an action hero. FDR didn't paradrop into Nazi Germany. Obama didn't pull the literal trigger on Osama.

    That is an awful lot of verbiage to say you agree with me. (See above: "in his success he is indebted to others")

    Obama didn't pull the literal trigger on Osama. But it was his decision to refocus efforts on finding OBL, it was his decision to go with troops on the ground rather than an airstrike, it was his decision to keep the Pakistanis out of the loop. All of those turned out to be the right choices, and Obama deserves credit for that.

    So, once again we agree.

    All you Republicans claiming the credit should go exclusively to the military, . . .

    And now you are claiming something that isn't true. I didn't write that. The primary article that I quote doesn't state that, in fact it is the reverse. Quoting from above, "Let’s cheerfully and ungrudgingly give credit to Barack Obama for approving the military operation that resulted in the death of Osama bin Laden." That contradicts your claim. You go pretty far off the mark in a very short distance.

    Maybe you were confused by the post I responded to which stated, "Ask Osama about his experience in international affairs." I pointed out that the implied Raid on Bin Laden was a military and intelligence action, not diplomatic.

    . . . . ask yourself this: If the mission had ended with a dozen dead SEALs instead of a dead terrorist, would you be placing the blame solely on the military?

    Well, since neither I nor the primary author I quote gives them sole credit, it doesn't immediately follow that they would deserve sole blame, does it? (Would you attribute any blame to President Obama if there was a failure? Even if it was the result of his not accepting a strong recommendation about not going under present conditions?) Besides, I doubt you are aware of how thoroughly the military goes through such failures, such as occurred at Desert One, and the years of hard questions that would follow from the media, military, and government. It was self-criticism over Desert One that led to the reforms that ultimately enabled the raid against Bin Laden to succeed.

    So, after agreeing with me, then making a false claim about my position, you never get around to addressing the main point in the main piece I quote: "While we may not know all the details about and behind this operation, it’s fascinating to see how many of the things that made the success of this operation possible were not so long ago decried by many of the president’s fans and fellow partisans." President Obama was successful primarily because of not fulfilling his platform. I'm not surprised you won't touch that. That's a pity though, as it would have been a chance to demonstrate real insight, if you have any, rather than simple Republican bashing.

    --
    much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot - George Orwell
  158. Makes Sense by tmm1414 · · Score: 2

    It's almost certain VR was an intelligence agent. A large number of those working at foreign embassies are actually CIA officers. Primary function of an Embassy is to collect intelligence in the host country and report it back to US govt agencies. I don't see how he could not be an agent. He is former military, trained in DC/Virginia area, served in Iraq, South Africa, and other places. His mother stated she never knew what he really did, and that if she asked he might joke " i would have to kill you" so she pretty much assumed it was classified and didn't inquire. She didn't even know that he had gone to Libya. So, his work was without question sensitive. Whether Something Awful and EVE online are some type of CIA fronts isn't likely. However, it is possible VR did use the platform for communicating to assets/other intelligence officials. Not for that purpose, but because it's something he already does a lot and enjoys, AND same time does provide excellent cover for occasionally communicating with intelligence assets. I don't see what the outrage is. I guess because it's coming from GB. Who has totally shattered his credibility as he has become an agitator. I didn't even hear what he said, just read about it. Not worth even listening, Years ago, Beck was appeared to be a thoughtful, sensitive, rational pundit. But he sold out to become something just because there is an audience for it. Look at Rush, or that blonde chick author- total jokes. They are just riling up the crowd and pushing something the extreme wants. Same with some liberals, like Olberman who went from ESPN to crying about Bush everyday. These people don't represent american opinion, they just cater to extremes who are a slim minority. Yet it divides our country and dialogue. Nobody wants to discuss intelligent, balanced analysis.

    1. Re:Makes Sense by I+Read+Good · · Score: 1

      I'm not saying it's not plausible that VR was CIA. However, given the circumstances, if you think that to be true, then it would follow logically to believe that his participation in EVE was of some serious significance. Why else would he insist on staying online right up until the shooting started? I've heard of being a game addict, but damn. If I'm CIA on a super-duper sensitive mission and shit is going down, then I think I'd have more important things to focus on besides playing some vidyuh. Unless, of course, being online had some significance to the mission/clusterfuck at hand.

  159. Re:Full Audio or it didn't happen... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I completely agree with your post! Mod parent up!

  160. Re:Old. by PCM2 · · Score: 1

    Here I thought that thats EXACTLY what he was elected to do, as head of the executive and armed forces.

    Then you need to go back to civics class and learn that there are two other branches of the U.S. government in addition to the executive. Furthermore, of the three branches of government, only one is empowered to write and pass laws, and it ain't the executive.

    --
    Breakfast served all day!
  161. Re:Full Audio or it didn't happen... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    posted as ac lol

  162. Re:Old. by Plumpaquatsch · · Score: 1

    Ask Osama about his experience in international affairs.

    Killing Bin Laden was indeed a military and intelligence coup, but in his success he is indebted to others. (He didn't build that, at least not alone.)

    To Get Bin Laden, Obama Relied on Policies He Decried - By Michael Barone
    The president deserves credit—but so does his predecessor.

    For one thing, it apparently would not have happened without those infamous enhanced interrogation techniques — “torture,” according to critics of the Bush administration.

    The enhanced interrogation techniques reportedly led to identification of the courier who eventually led our forces to bin Laden’s hiding place. Critics of waterboarding and other enhanced interrogation techniques assured us that “torture” could not produce reliable information.

    Ahh. Reported by whom? Of course former members of the Bush administration. There is no single evidence that Osama was found based on "enhanced interrogation techniques", we'll have to take the torturer's words for it.

    http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/05/03/osama-bin-laden-was-not-caught-because-of-torture-but-in-spite-of-it.html

    --
    Of course news about a fake are Fake News.
  163. Re:Full Audio or it didn't happen... by dkleinsc · · Score: 2

    Whether Reagan is responsible for Iran-Contra, and Obama responsible for Fast and Furious, is an open historical question that will probably not be answered for a very long time.

    The question in both cases is "What did the president know, when did he know it, and what did he do about it?" And in both cases, we don't know the answer to any of those questions because all the relevant documents are classified.

    --
    I am officially gone from /. Long live http://www.soylentnews.com/
  164. 100000s work for the CIA, BIG DEAL by cheekyboy · · Score: 2

    Seriously, Bin Ladin worked for the CIA.
    Stupid politicians work for CIA.
    CNN has fake reporters making fake stories, YES they got caught, idiots.

    Wakeup dumb stupid americans, working for the CIA is nothing special, 100000000000s work for them.

    Again, Dumb asses (except the 1% linux users).

    Then again, most wouldnt know google was 'funded' a bit by CIA ppl.

    Oh my god, our saviour has mirrored 'backups' and Langley.

    --
    Liberty freedom are no1, not dicks in suits.
    1. Re:100000s work for the CIA, BIG DEAL by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Bin laden didnt work for the CIA. That is 9/11 conspiracy retard lies.

    2. Re:100000s work for the CIA, BIG DEAL by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "working for the CIA is nothing special, 100000000000s work for them"

      100 billion, really? Why not a trillion? Yea, we clearly should listen to you as you are smart.

      Yes that is sarcasm.

  165. That means that Slashdot is.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Slashdot, of course, is the designated contact point for the NSA.

    BTW, Agent Smith, please don't forget to adjust the sarcasm filter on Echelon. It keeps overloading.

  166. Not the bonobo! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    > if you can't do obviously better then you are in trouble.

    I doubt there's anyone on all of Slashdot who can do as much or as often as those bonobos. Many here have never done anyone at all.

  167. Re:Old. by dave420 · · Score: 1

    When Obama starts a bunch of wars and deregulates banking to the brink of global collapse. When that happens, we can all blame Obama. Until then, though, only one out of Bush or Obama has actually done both.

  168. Re:Old. by dave420 · · Score: 1

    So Bush's fist-fucking of the world is directly comparable to 20 embassies getting attacked. Gotcha. Thanks for clearing that up.

  169. he smoked pot, but wont legalize it = dick by cheekyboy · · Score: 1

    All pollies are hypocrits that only want self fame, NEVER ULTIMATE GOODNESS FOR SOCIETY.

    Oh btw, creationism doesnt exist, and your god is an alien from Prometheos, who came from B Reti.

    And and that funny prophet that cannot be drawn doesnt exist either.

    --
    Liberty freedom are no1, not dicks in suits.
  170. Ha? by superwiz · · Score: 1

    An ambassador is already an agent of the President... by definition. That's just the job. Even if he were "taking orders from CIA", that both still have the same boss -- POTUS. I call bull shit on the whole story. Sounds like an attempt to attribute a stupid right wing conspiracy in order to divert attention from the actual screw of the administration (failure to protect a US embassy and the subsequent attempt at covering up that failure by blaming attacks on an unrelated movie).

    --
    Any guest worker system is indistinguishable from indentured servitude.
    1. Re:Ha? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Please learn the difference between an embassy and a consular office. Then, go beat yourself in the face with dictionaries and logic puzzle books.

    2. Re:Ha? by superwiz · · Score: 1

      In this particular case, the difference is zilch, natta, nothing, none. Because in the American system of government POTUS is both the head of state and the head of the administrative (aka "executive") branch of the government. So both ambassadors and consuls serve at the pleasure of The President (their boss). As such, both ambassadors and consuls are his agents. The distinction is only relevant for other government systems -- in which administrative branch and head of state have separate powers. Technically speaking, consuls work for the Secretary of State. But Secretary of State also works at The President's pleasure. She is confirmed by the Congress as The President's adviser because Congress has the power of advice and consent according to The Constitution.

      Oh, and now that this is done with, let me borrow an apropos formal British expression: fuck off, you stupid cunt!

      --
      Any guest worker system is indistinguishable from indentured servitude.
  171. Re:Full Audio or it didn't happen... by icebraining · · Score: 1

    Not that it's relevant to this particular event, but having an IP connection doesn't mean it's unecumbered. For example, the Iran "state firewall" filters TLS (HTTPS, IMAPS, etc) and SSH.

  172. note to mods about above post by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I know there is a general slashdot trend of modding comments "insightful" in order to give positive karma to humorous posts, as opposed to using the "funny" mod, but in this case you really should stick with the "funny" option as modding comments which ride the fine borderline between hilarious satire and psychotic denial of reality is thin and you wouldn't want to confuse anybody.

  173. Re:Old. by RockClimbingFool · · Score: 1

    During Obama's first two years, they had "control" of both the House and Senate. But without 60 members of the senate in your party, you don't control it. Democrats never had 60.

    The republicans in the senate have filibustered more than any other time in US history. They were on record as saying their primary objective was making Obama a one term president. And how do you do that? You tank the economy. Oh you want stimulus? Here is 1/3 of the amount of money needed. So it won't work as well as it should have and then we can say "See? the stimulus didn't work!"

  174. Re:Old. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    and Zombies! Lincoln was awesome!

  175. Re:Old. by LordLimecat · · Score: 1

    During Obama's first two years, they had "control" of both the House and Senate. But without 60 members of the senate in your party, you don't control it. Democrats never had 60.

    Are you saying that to get anything done, you need the executive AND a 60 vote majority in the house AND a 60 vote majority in the senate?

    Wow, one wonders how anything got done over the last 200 years. For the record btw, there are many things (like the budget) that were NOT filibustered (since they CANT be filibustered by senate / house rules) that the dem congress still didnt manage to get done.

    And for the record, its ridiculous to blame the other party for being opposed to your ideas: thats the reason theyre in the other party, because they dont agree with you.

  176. Re:Old. by LordLimecat · · Score: 1

    cough, should have said 2/3rds in the house, not 60 vote. Derp.

  177. But, of course... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Not to support Glenn in any way, but the link between CIA stations and the Embassies they are located in is well know.
    The CIA station chief would likely be under the Embassador, however.

  178. Re:Old. by LordLimecat · · Score: 1

    The executive technically DOES pass laws, but I wont make this pedantic. Certainly he has the power to set policy, and certainly he influences the direction legislation goes in congress. He also has the power to enforce-- or apparently, not enforce-- laws as he sees fit (hence executive), which gives him an awful lot of power.

    And of course, he can write executive orders, and I dont think its clear what the extent of that power is.

  179. Re:Old. by RockClimbingFool · · Score: 1

    There is no filibuster in the House, so you only need a majority. But depending on the makeup of the committee a bill gets assigned to, it may never come up for a vote. I don't have any good info on that.

    But in today's hyper partisan climate? Yes, you need the presidency, house majority and filibuster proof senate majority of 60 votes to pass anything of substance. Does that sound crazy? It should because it is. You can't reason with and make compromises with crazy people with irrational views and a party that is willing to accept their crazy ass views for the sake of party. Michelle Bachman for example.

  180. Re:Old. by rickb928 · · Score: 1

    Our President said he would 'fix it'. He not only hasn't, he's done a bunch of other things and not even attempted to fix core problems. Even discounting promises as purely electioneering, he's failed. Failed.

    --
    deleting the extra space after periods so i can stay relevant, yeah.
  181. What about Glenn Beck? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Shocking allegations have come to light that Glenn Beck is responsible for the rape and murder of a girl in 1990. Are these allegations true? Is Beck guilty? Various websites are offering conflicting points of view. Some claim it is a hoax. Many are suspicious because Beck has remained silent on the matter. If the story isn't true, why won't Glenn Beck deny that he raped and murdered a young girl in 1990?

  182. Re:Old. by rickb928 · · Score: 1

    Banking deregulation goes back decades. Plenty of blame to share among many past presidents. As for 'bunch' of wars, ymmv.

    --
    deleting the extra space after periods so i can stay relevant, yeah.
  183. word for word summary? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Wow /. is so down the tubes now you are allowing someone to just post the entire first paragraph of the story as your summary?

  184. Re:Full Audio or it didn't happen... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Sandra Fluke testifies before congress that her friend needed treatment for a cervical cyst, and the treatment was birth control pills, but they weren't covered under her health care plan.

    So rush spends 45 minutes calling Sandra a slut, saying she can't walk she's so sore down there, men are lined up around the block, on and on, and you defend that as sarcasm?

    Your Fat Flacid Rushbo is luck I'm not Sandra Fluke's dad.

  185. Re:Full Audio or it didn't happen... by Bobb+Sledd · · Score: 1

    Now hold on a minute. You're making quite a leap here. You're assuming that all members of a party collectively believe those things that you just listed. I don't. You're equating conservatism to Republicans, and it just isn't so true. I just also happen to not believe in the redistribution of wealth, the insertion of government into private sector business, the sheer crazy number of executive orders the administration has issued (to maneuver around the legislative branch), the uncontrolled spending, the blocking of mining and export our own fossil fuels, the prosecution of enemy combatants as US civilians, not to mention the way Fast and Furious and the Libya debacle have been handled. Lastly, I believe there is sufficient evidence that the man is a racist and has worked harder to divide our country than he has to unify it. And that's just the stuff I can think of off the top of my head. And when I think back 4 years ago, my life (financially) is not better now than it was back then, nor does it look like it will be, and I can cite several reasons why it is DIRECTLY his doing. No, sir, I'd vote for a bag of potato chips before I'd vote for the current administration again. At least a bag of chips can do no more harm.

    --
    "They said I probly shouldn't fly with just one eye," "I am Bender. Please insert girder."
  186. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 1

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  187. Re:Full Audio or it didn't happen... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The guy was an information officer for the State Department working out of a US consulate--you're right, it's very likely his most secure line of communication to the CIA was coded chats through a MMORPG.

  188. Re:Old. by Bobb+Sledd · · Score: 1

    Hey, there was an outcry against it. I VOTED for Bush, and I was completely against the stimulus spending toward the end of his administration. But what gives Obama the right to do it 10X more?

    --
    "They said I probly shouldn't fly with just one eye," "I am Bender. Please insert girder."
  189. Re:Old. by Bobb+Sledd · · Score: 1

    Sure. And Obama had both the House and Senate for the first two years, he could have passed almost anything he wanted. The only reason that the healthcare bill almost didn't pass is because they didn't have enough Democrats to pass it!

    Let's see, the film caused unrest... do you actually know anyone who saw the film? That was a complete fabrication that the White House made and that has been substantiated by several news stories already (Washington Post). Not only that it wasn't the films, but that the White House KNEW it wasn't the films and covered it up for 2 weeks, and that they were given prior knowledge that this attack was going to happen and did nothing. That is a fact.

    Economy.... do you think 4 years should be enough time (especially with a House and Senate on your side) to turn the economy around? I do. Two should be ample.

    The banks... oky, you're uninformed here. The banks were regulated into having to create bad loans -- that they knew were bad loans at the time -- and then bundled and resold to other financial institutions, all started under Clinton. Now, I'm not saying Clinton was the cause per se, but that's where it started. The Republicans (specifically Bush) actually pointed out the problem with the banks (and the housing) (same problem), but could not get the rules changed/de-regulated. Thus, voila, the house-of-cards collapses eventually 8 years later, as it did.

    The thing is, the President IS accountable for all these things, because it is his responsibility to appoint the right people to get these things done. This president has proven himself to be ineffective at it. You could argue that Bush was ineffective at some of those same things, and I'd agree. But that was then, this is now.

    --
    "They said I probly shouldn't fly with just one eye," "I am Bender. Please insert girder."
  190. Re:Full Audio or it didn't happen... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Well then please cite some of them

  191. that's double racist! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    And presidents don't ship thousands of assult rifles to Mexican drug lords who use them to kill hundreds of Mexicans.

    that's a start...
    hey, at least he's trying.

  192. I've got the +1 Doritos of healing, bitch! by Thud457 · · Score: 1

    There have been cases where large scale drug rings have used MMO's for communication in the past, its not that far fetched.

    Ohhhh, that's why Walter keeps Jesse around.
    that, and killing people.

    --

    the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff

  193. Re:Full Audio or it didn't happen... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    >Don't tell the world you know when actually you don't. It's simple.

    YOU'RE simple and you don't get how this thing called diplomacy and statesmanship works.

    Did it ever occur to you that the administration would rather take a beating in the press for soft or incorrect early statements than make early statements that might have escalated the attacks?

    You don't really think Obama believes what's going on in the Middle East are just "bumps in the road", do you? He just doesn't want to add fuel to the fire by saying, "You know, you're right, things are spinning out of control and all Hell is breaking loose". Perhaps you'd also like him to tell the media exactly what he's doing behind the scenes to manage the situation?

    Obama and the rest of the world are frantically trying to keep the lid on the Middle East and you're mad because US government statements don't match your conception of how to respond to rapidly-changing, conflicting, and incomplete data in real time when getting it wrong can trigger a war?

    You're an AMATEUR. Were you as harsh on the President when Reagan got THREE embassies blown up due to his not-ready-for-prime-time Middle East diplomacy? Go look up to confused babble that his administration spewed about them, especially since at least one of the Beirut embassy bombings was in direct retaliation for car bombings done by US proxy forces...

    18 April 1983 Beirut, Lebanon Islamic Jihad car bomb destroys Embassy
    12 December 1983 Kuwait City, Kuwait al-Dawa truck bomb outside Embassy
    20 September 1984 Beirut, Lebanon Hezbollah truck bomb outside Embassy

  194. Re:Full Audio or it didn't happen... by FriendlyStatistician · · Score: 1

    Here's what's so implausible:

    Sean Smith had been playing Eve for years. He was one of the most important members of the Goonswarm coalition. He had personally met many of the people he was talking to that night, at the Eve Fanfest and CSM (an elected body that represents the player base's interests to CCP) events in Iceland and in personal visits back home in the U.S.A.

    This was not some random bloke using a random website as an inconspicuous spot to get in touch. This was a player deeply involved in the game, who had formed personal, real-life friendships with many of his coalition members over a half-dozen years, chatting with them during a stressful time.

    Here are some personal memories from The Mittani, the de facto leader of Goonswarm (Sean's in-game coalition) and a personal friend:
    http://themittani.com/news/rip-vile-rat
    In particular, he recalls that they would often have similar situations in 07-08 when Sean was posted in Baghdad. The Mittani is probably the most famous (infamous) Eve player in the world. Many other (less famous) players have posted their memories of Sean, both in-game and in real life, too.

    This is not "rabid obsession of liberals" ignoring "the plausible nature of the story." This is people like me who actually know something about the situation getting frustrated at idiots like you and Glenn Beck who don't. Glenn Beck knows nothing about Sean Smith--he just made something up. You know nothing about Sean Smith, but you happily believe Glenn Beck and refuse to do even a little bit of research into it before spouting off a diatribe about how OMG TEH LIBERALS ARE REPPRESING GLEN BEKK!!!

  195. Re:Old. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    in the first two years Obama had a majority in the congress for something like a month.

  196. Re:Old. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The uncivil and hyperpartisan crap started with Newt Gingrich and his GOPAC memo during the 1980s. Up to that point, even such polar opposites as Reagan and Tip O'Neill or Ted Kennedy and Bob Dole could negotiate without being ostracized by party leadership. In the congress now, if a Republican is seen even TALKING with a Democrat the GOP leadership pounds the GOPer back into the obstructionist line.

    The real problem is the poison pill amendments the GOP adds to the budget bills to ensure they fail. Continuing Resolutions have been used by other presidents (including G W Bush) when their budgets are trapped in the political process. Did you complain then?

    And if you think Reid and Pelosi are bad, think back to the manipulations pulled under Bush II by the majority leaders. They turned the parliamentary system inside out, it wasn't pretty, and it got us unfunded tax breaks on the rich and two unfunded wars.

  197. Re:Old. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    oh, right, the Obama administration is going to tell the world about any back-channel negotiations with Pakistan about getting that guy out of jail. Besides, his jailing by the Pakistanis was purely for domestic political reasons because Pakistan is playing a balancing act between us and the extremists. Pakistan had to do SOMETHING and this was something they could do, so expect him to be in jail for a while regardless of US attempts. Poor man.

  198. Re:Full Audio or it didn't happen... by Bobb+Sledd · · Score: 1

    Ok, here you go.

    #1 This administration has yet to pass a budget in 4 years. I had a great job working for the government. Directly due to this, I was told that my contracting company (the people I worked for) could not get funding to continue the contract, and so I was essentially laid off. Not only that, but no new contracts could be funded, so it made it very difficult to get work elsewhere, and dumped a lot of competition in my field. I did finally get another job, but it was for about $23,000 less. Thanks Obama.

    #2 We had a child last year. I work, and my wife works. My wife gets free insurance, but adding another dependent would be $550/mo. I also got free insurance, and adding to mine would be about $420/mo. I have a friend who sells insurance, and I know I can get a better rate just getting a single policy for my son that way for about $280/mo, same level of coverage. However, he couldn't sell it to me --- due to the Obamacare laws, health insurance providers cannot sell just a single policy to a child (crazy, isn't it?) -- they must sell it to at least one parent and child. So, I thought, well, I'll just get a high-deductible plan for me, and the really good plan for him. But nope, due to Obamacare laws, the coverage has to be identical. So, thank you Obama, I'm spending more than is necessary now -- just for insurance.

    #3 Due to the housing crisis (which is not Obama's fault), our house is now worth about $40,000 less than what we purchased it in 2008. So it has been this way for 4 years now, and gets worth less every year for some reason. Now, under normal circumstances, the industry would crash, and then rebuild, and the market should boom, or at least come back to where we bought. But no, Obama has had a plethora of life-support stimulus programs sustaining what should have completely failed and recovered already -- which has kept the price of housing artificially low. I can't even refinance now because the house is worth so much less. Just do something different Obama, this is killing us.

    #4 Of course, my wife and I still are in the highest tax bracket, we don't qualify for or take any government subsidies, and somehow even though my income went down, our income taxes went up last year -- just paid a nice tax bill (even after having reduced bill with a house and a kid and taking more out of paycheck for taxes) -- $820.

    I'm sure I can think of more, but I really don't feel like getting more pissed off right now. And I don't really think you care anyway.

    --
    "They said I probly shouldn't fly with just one eye," "I am Bender. Please insert girder."
  199. Re:Old. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Even FOX NEWS rejects the lie that Obama was found with data produced by torture. McCain came out and said so and he sits on the committees which would know.

    http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/05/12/mccain-torture-did-lead-bin-laden-death/

    McCain: Torture did not lead to bin Laden death
    Published May 12, 2011
    Associated Press
    WASHINGTON – Waterboarding and other harsh interrogation techniques were not a factor in tracking down Osama bin Laden, a leading Republican senator insisted Thursday.

    Sen. John McCain, who spent 5½ years as a prisoner of war in North Vietnam, also rejected the argument that any form of torture is critical to U.S. success in the fight against terrorism.

    In an impassioned speech on the Senate floor, the Arizona Republican said former Attorney General Michael Mukasey and others who back those tactics were wrong to claim that waterboarding al-Qaida's No. 3 leader, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, provided information that led to bin Laden's compound in Pakistan.

  200. Re:Old. by rickb928 · · Score: 1

    "Sure. And Obama had both the House and Senate for the first two years, he could have passed almost anything he wanted. The only reason that the healthcare bill almost didn't pass is because they didn't have enough Democrats to pass it!"

    And stumbling past that, the healthcare bill was a HUGE distraction. It did not need to be done then, but we should be able to discern what is important to our President from that episode.

    "Let's see, the film caused unrest..."

    You got it right. Fakery.

    "Economy.... do you think 4 years should be enough time (especially with a House and Senate on your side) to turn the economy around? I do. Two should be ample."

    I'm not looking for a solution, just real progress. I don't see it.

    "The banks... oky, you're uninformed here. The banks were regulated into having to create bad loans..."

    You wren't thinking I was unformed, were you? This goes way back to the S&L scams, and the industry trying again to deregulate, and the various administrations trying to oblige in little ways, moderate ways, until key regulations were finally tossed aside. Not the bankers, so much, as the 'investment houses', who make money even when they lose yours.

    "The thing is, the President IS accountable for all these things, because it is his responsibility to appoint the right people to get these things done. This president has proven himself to be ineffective at it. You could argue that Bush was ineffective at some of those same things, and I'd agree. But that was then, this is now."

    Amen.

    --
    deleting the extra space after periods so i can stay relevant, yeah.
  201. Re:Full Audio or it didn't happen... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'm quite glad that Reagan started giving away phones. I'm even more excited he did it through a law that was passed in 1996 to give out free landlines, a full eight years after he left office. I'm actually happy that it's a program that does not get funded through the federal government; that's right, federal dollars do not go toward the so-called Obama phones. However, everyone that pays for their own phones does effectively pay a tax, but it just goes directly toward non-profit fund that provides said phones rather than the federal government, and it is the federal government that mandated it, which does, through an odd backdoor, tax us without calling it a tax, by requiring the companies to collect a fee that is used for a federally mandated program.

    Now, the program has expanded under Obama, and people are on video time-after-time proclaiming their love for receiving their Obama-money, or Obama-phone. Sure, the number of people in households on some form of welfare has skyrocketed under Obama, but you know, let's ignore all of that, because, after all, it must be some racist reason to not like the guy. It can't be that he genuinely acts like a socialist supporting class warfare-like tactics.

  202. Oh really? by gosand · · Score: 1

    No president does anything single-handedly? How about getting us INTO a war that never ever should have happened? Now, you could argue that it wasn't just GWB who did it, he had all his advisors, etc. But he was the guy. He made the call. He had no evidence of weapons, anything close to it has been falsified, and it had nothing to do with his "war on terror". There has never ever been any reasonable explanation for invading and overthrowing the government of a sovereign nation.

    Obama may not have been able to live up to his promises, and he hasn't fixed everything he inherited. He inherited a deficet that GWB built, and made it even bigger. He made some promises he didn't keep. But here's the thing - his mistakes had the INTENT to fix things, and didn't cost thousands of lives. THAT is the difference between Obama and his predecessor.

    --

    My beliefs do not require that you agree with them.

  203. Re:Full Audio or it didn't happen... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Please refrain from commenting, adults are trying to have a conversation.

  204. Re:Full Audio or it didn't happen... by fm6 · · Score: 1

    Oh right, a woman whose sole claim to fame is that she said something really stupid has a one-time spike of hits, mostly by people who are thinking "Wow, what a stupid cow!" That's exactly equivalent to a guy who gets millions of viewers every week, most of whom are thinking "Tell it like it is, Glenn!"

    Can't think why that never occurred to me.

  205. Re:Full Audio or it didn't happen... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Don't forget blind hatred by Islamic jihadists

  206. Can anyone say double agent? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Forget Glenn Beck or the other details. The basic accusation is either someone who is an enemy of the USA has infiltrated the CIA, or someone who already worked for the CIA has turned against their country. In other words a double agent. Why is it so hard too believe that? It's not like this type of thing is unheard of.

  207. Re:Full Audio or it didn't happen... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Bawny Fwank stood up and said there was no mortgage crisis in 2005. This was in response to a republican senator questioning the state of the mortgage industry, the ARM heavy ratio of new loans, the super inflation of home prices, and the lack of regulatory oversight. It's well documented if you'd like to go do some research. While many people were complicit in causing the crisis spanning both parties it was Frank who chose to ignore all of the warning signs and forecast clear blue skys right before the fit hit the shan.

    http://tjhancock.wordpress.com/housing-bubble-financial-crisis-detailed-comprehensive-assessment/

  208. Glenn Beck who? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Isn't this the same freak that once was on CNN? Thought he passed on or something - wouldn't even want to listen to the opinion-only, conspiracy-theorist/liar if you paid me. Folks like this thrive on fear and falsity - hoping someone will listen or tune in.
    Glenn and Rush are hopefully married on an island in Fiji somewhere

  209. Re:Old. by Bobb+Sledd · · Score: 1

    Apparently my sarcasm parser was not enabled when I read your original post.

    *click*

    Oh.

    --
    "They said I probly shouldn't fly with just one eye," "I am Bender. Please insert girder."
  210. Re:Full Audio or it didn't happen... by fm6 · · Score: 1

    I could respond to that, but it would blow my cover....

  211. Mr. Beck: by metaforest · · Score: 1

    Hey man, nice troll.

  212. Re:Full Audio or it didn't happen... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I never said that he hadn't formed friendships in the game, but that doesn't change the fact that it's an awfully weird post to put up, even with the closest of friendships involved.

    We’re in Benghazi. At a safehouse. If we get out of this one alive, I’ll let you know. There are people watching all three exits.

    Because, with my life on the line as a high ranking official in the US government, my first thought would be to contact my friends that have zero ability to help. That sounds incredibly reasonable, particularly given the connected nature of all US Ambassadors.

    Realizing full well how the real world works, I would expect that message to be quickly forwardable, and readable on a phone by anyone that actually mattered who may have had a computer watching. I suppose that this is the difference of being a friend versus being someone that can think logically about the situation, but the truth still stands on its own. The fact that you give him such little credit is baffling because if his instinct was truly to contact a gaming forum, then, grimly, his instinct could have quite possibly gotten him killed. Now, to be fair (not that liberals tend to actually give both sides of an argument themselves), it's quite possible that he went through other channels first before posting said message, but that is a highly risky OPSEC breach if that's the case.

    When my brother was overseas in a regularly dangerous location (both Iraq and Afghanistan), I never once caught him, nor did I catch his friends posting OPSEC-related messages to his friends. Not even when they were surrounded by a supposedly larger force, which I heard about much later.

    EVE Online is not a game run by the CIA, nor is it likely that the Goons are either (though considering their early targets, one might question the altruistic leadership). That doesn't change the fact that this message, no matter how deep the friendship was, makes no sense to post. It's short. It's terrifying. And it provides no benefit to anyone unless it's being picked up by some covert office.

  213. Re:Old. by rickb928 · · Score: 1

    It's not your detector. On /. you rarely see sensible^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hconservative opinions that aren't modded into oblivion.

    We are on the same page here, my friend. Mostly, anyways, and that's good enough for now.

    --
    deleting the extra space after periods so i can stay relevant, yeah.
  214. Re:Full Audio or it didn't happen... by FriendlyStatistician · · Score: 1

    Once again you display your ignorance of the situation. Sean Smith was hardly a "high ranking official in the US government." He was not an ambassador. He was an IT worker, one of thousands in the State Department alone, one of tens or hundreds of thousands in the government as a whole. Just one of the little people who make the world go round.

    As for the rest of your points,

    1) He had been in situations like this before, particularly when he was in Iraq. He had always escaped before. It's easy to underestimate the real risk posed.
    2) He was in the habit of chatting with his friends from the game every day. This was not a "Hey, I'm in trouble, I think I'll go to the gaming forum" deal. This was more like "Hey, friends who I chat with every day, here's what's going on in my life."
    3) It's only an OPSEC breach if he's on a classified/sensitive operation. In fact, to me this seems to be one of the strongest arguments against him being a CIA operative who was trying to use this channel to contact his supervisors. Any CIA operative who went and told random people from Eve Online that he was in a safe house in Benghazi would be an idiot who should be fired. A random IT guy who works for the embassy, not working on a classified operation, is a different matter.
    4) I don't think I claimed that the Goons had altruistic leadership, so I'm not sure what point you're trying to make about that. I mean, SA isn't exactly known for being the most friendly place on the internet, is it? The leaders like The Mittani are about what one might expect. I was the one who called him infamous, remember?

    But I think I'm done arguing about this now. Feel free to go on living in your deluded little world.

  215. Re:Old. by Alsee · · Score: 1

    Monday morning quarterbacks can never be wrong?
    Have you seen the Republican Party lately?

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  216. Except, Das Kapital is better by formfeed · · Score: 1

    Before you form a (very obviously) uninformed opinion, perhaps you should try to listed for two weeks straight.

    Why don't you try to read Das Kapital for two weeks straight? It's not enough time to form a reasoned opinion, one only needs an hour or so for that. But it is enough time to warp your sense of reality.

    But Das Kapital actually makes sense. At least the beginning part about capitalism: that it needs constant growth and new markets and will eventually lead to globalization. Pretty good analysis for the 1800s.
    And if you gave just that excerpt to people, they certainly wouldn't guess that they're reading old Charlie Marx. Ronald Reagan perhaps, except that it is too well written.

    1. Re:Except, Das Kapital is better by khallow · · Score: 1

      At least the beginning part about capitalism: that it needs constant growth and new markets and will eventually lead to globalization

      Well, those assertions are wrong. Capitalism is merely private ownership of capital even by Marx's definition. The claims for need for growth (which due to economic crises described in the book, aren't "constant") are unfounded assumptions. So that's not looking good for your claims that Das Kapital makes sense.

      And if you gave just that excerpt to people, they certainly wouldn't guess that they're reading old Charlie Marx.

      The pejoratives give him away as does the almost religious assertions. When he drops terms like "commodity fetishism", it's painfully clear that he has no sense of objectivity.

      Or the assertion that the value of a good is the labor that goes into its production. Just in the few pages of the book, we already see both a failure of basic premises and the first demonstration of the semantic games he plays throughout the book. Here, "use value" is what we'd normally consider the value of the good. And "value" (note no adjective modifier) is what is usually considered the labor cost of the good. He's clearly implying that the true value of a good is the labor that goes into the good, even though it's not.

      If I pick up a hammer, I don't instinctively know how much labor or other costs went into production of that hammer. But I do have an notion of what I can do with that hammer. Marx's notion of "value" as labor cost has no meaning for me, unless I happen to know those details.

    2. Re:Except, Das Kapital is better by tehcyder · · Score: 1

      All Marx was saying was that capitalism functions by paying workers X amount in order to make a product that can be sold for Y amount, and the difference between X (plus other costs such as overheads) and Y is profit, which goes to the capitalist. There are clear arguments about his ignoring the element of risk associated with being a capitalist (since clearly not all capitalists are guaranteed to make profits), but I don't see how you can argue that this isn't how capitalism works.

      The difference is that Socialists would say that it is wrong that the capitalist should keep the profit, and that it should be shared amongst all the workers since in a socialist economy the workers would own all the means of production.

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  217. Re:Full Audio or it didn't happen... by dywolf · · Score: 1

    I've read the party platform and none of those statements is in there.

    In fact, it may astonish you to know, that there are a great many religious people on the left as well, many of whom also believe that stuff.

    Only ~15% of the population identifies as not religious. Other than a small sliver of "Other" everyone else, ~79%, claims to be Christian. Christians, their political beliefs, and their beliefs on "bible strictness" shall we say, vary widely. No one side can claim a monopoly on any of it.

    So lets get the facts straight:
    -Not all GOP are Christians
    -Not all Christians are GOP
    -Not all atheists or other non-religious are Democrats
    -Not all Democrats are non-religious
    -Not all Christians believe what you said
    -There are plenty of atheist GOP
    -There are plenty of fundamentalist Christian democrats

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  218. Re:Full Audio or it didn't happen... by dywolf · · Score: 1

    And the GOP is unique in this?
    Did you just mentally tune out when the "fascist liberals hate Bush, so they'll lie like son of a bitches EVERY TIME something happens" during the previous 8 years?

    Standard political rules:
    -When its your guy, he gets all the credit and none of the blame, regardless of how much of each he deserves.
    -When its not, he gets none of the credit and all the blame, regardless of how much of each he deserves.

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  219. I thought Glenn Beck is a rapist? by Tsu-na-mi · · Score: 1

    I thought I read somewhere that Glenn Beck is a rapist. That Glenn Beck raped someone back in the 1980s. Am I mistaken in remembering that Glenn beck raped someone in the 1980s? I could have sworn I read somewhere that Glenn Beck was a rapist. I don't really care for his show, and he seems to have a lot of crackpot ideas. Still, I don;t think they'd give him his own radio show if Glenn Beck was a rapist. I mean, if Glenn Beck raped someone in the 1980s, would Fox News give him a TV show? I don't believe Fox News supports rapists.

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  220. Re:Old. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    LOL I love how this was modded troll. Some Obama fanbois no doubt. Just because the dood thinks Obama is incompetent doesn't make it a troll. Grow up kids!

  221. Re:Old. by ganjadude · · Score: 1

    I give credit to obama for one thing and that is allowing bin laden to be killed, I do not support any other policy that I can think of that he wanted I agree with. I dont care about how he looks or blinks or that crap, policy is what matters to me, and he failed

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  222. Re:Old. by ganjadude · · Score: 1

    right lets blame bush for that too.....

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  223. Re:Old. by ganjadude · · Score: 1

    what the hell do you keep blabering about on all my posts? I dont give a flying fuck about how a man blinks. But continue to deflect, instead of listening to the facts.

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  224. Re:Full Audio or it didn't happen... by ganjadude · · Score: 1

    just the response I would expect from a sheep, Instead of listening to the words I speak, you insult. Keep up the good work there

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  225. Re:Another dumbass american, toyota by Trilkin · · Score: 1

    Actually, no. GM made a deal with the USSR to send some engineers over to help build plants to develop and build autos, but Stalin became so paranoid over outsiders in his country that most of those engineers ended up getting sent to prison as traitors/spies.

    The plan itself ended up being a failure as a result and most Soviet tanks were Soviet built and designed with only TINY amounts of input by the GM engineers.

    For further information, you can get this book from Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Dancing-Under-Red-Star-Extraordinary/dp/1400070783

    Also, I'm not sure what this has to do with this topic.

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  226. Re:Old. by PCM2 · · Score: 1

    You can split hairs all you want, but none of the above is what he was "elected to do" (your words).

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  227. Some truth in there... by thadeej · · Score: 1

    Well, there DEFINITELY is some form of coverup here, because the US HAS NO EMBASSY IN BENGAZI. The only Embassy or Consulate the US has in Libya is in Tripoli. http://libya.usembassy.gov/ The Government even stated that they knew this attack had NOTHING to do with any YouTube Video, but it was "blowback" for US Drone Strikes, and was carried out by Al-Qaeda (actually an affiliate group called Ansar al-Sharia). http://newsbusters.org/blogs/matthew-balan/2012/09/28/abc-reports-obama-administration-knew-terrorists-carried-out-libya-at So it sounds like Beck is speaking more truth than any other news/media company. Except, of course, for Ben Swann: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nPf0waX2HI

  228. Re:Old. by thadeej · · Score: 1

    Well, the attacks WERE caused by Obama, since he ordered the Drone Strikes in June that caused this attack. No, it had NOTHING to do with any YouTube video: http://newsbusters.org/blogs/matthew-balan/2012/09/28/abc-reports-obama-administration-knew-terrorists-carried-out-libya-at And if you believe it was in response to the YouTube video, as CNN tells you, then why do all the news companies ALSO keep saying they attacked a US EMbassy in Benghazi? THERE NEVER WAS A US EMBASSY IN BENGHAZI! Our only Consulate in all of Libya is in Tripoli: http://libya.usembassy.gov/ Now they are calling it a "US Mission" that they attacked. Translation = Safe House = CIA. Watch some REAL news: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nPf0waX2HI

  229. What's the probem? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Is it really unbelievable that the diplomat was a CIA agent??
    It actually makes perfect sense -- look where he was stationed!

    Would you not want a CIA agent over there?

    In fact, it doesn't matter if he was CIA per se -- it is not unreasonable that he was gathering intelligence for the US.
    In fact, it is unreasonable to think that he wasn't..

  230. Re:Full Audio or it didn't happen... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Explain the phenomenon of homosexuality in view of natural selection. Logically, homosexuals should have been naturally selected out of the gene pool a long time ago.

    The rest of your "points" are just fundamentalist flamebait; they have no basis in reason.