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    PrayForDentonMax Read
    8/05/13 8:50am

    Are you telling me they have these stupid ass car stickers in the Middle East too?

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      BRRRRRICKFROGPrayForDenton
      8/05/13 8:53am

      The next car had a COEXIST sticker.

      The soldier opened fire into it, nobody complained.

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      We're Jerrys. I know, right?PrayForDenton
      8/05/13 8:54am

      My thought is that somewhere this morning in America, someone is waking up to, "Honey, call the police!. I found our stolen Santa Fe."

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    John BoehnerMax Read
    8/05/13 8:59am
    GIF

    Definitely the best thing the U.S. can do is confirm that terrorists don't need to do anything besides exist to disrupt and discomfit [sic] America's diplomatic presence overseas. (But, you know, Benghazi!!!, or whatever.)

    Aaaaaand that's all that needs to be said.

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      ChiminyCherooJohn Boehner
      8/05/13 10:41am

      Why did you use sic? Discomfit is a word and correctly used in the sentence.

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      John BoehnerChiminyCheroo
      8/05/13 10:53am

      Because I am drunk and did it. But then I doubted myself. And after I started my linguistics-expert sentence diagramming, I said, "Fuck everything, I don't fucking care."

      Are you the Ghost of Mrs. Hovey resurrected to come back and bite me in the ass?

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    Graby SauceMax Read
    8/05/13 10:04am

    Exactly what information do you want, Max? The fact that they closed 22 embassies around the world means that they don't know exactly where it will be. Would you rather they remain open and be sitting ducks until they get more specific information?

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      elaine layaboutGraby Sauce
      8/05/13 11:28am

      i, personally, would want a little honesty about why the embassies are being closed

      interpol has also issued a global terror alert, not because of "chatter", but because the taliban has liberated more than 1,500 prisoners, including high-ranking al qaeda leaders, from prisons in iraq and pakistan

      of course there's increased chatter ... a lot of bad guys are getting caught up ... and, of course, security should be tightened ... but our leaders should be honest about why and not just throw out vague, but terrifying "we haven't seen this much chatter since before 9/11" and "see, this is why we read granny's email" comments

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      Graby Sauceelaine layabout
      8/05/13 11:58am

      What do you mean by why? Don't we already know why? What kind of specifics are you looking for?

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    woorijipMax Read
    8/05/13 9:54am

    NPR reported that this should effectively shut down any discussion of NSA oversight in Congress. Mission accomplished.

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      Favelawoorijip
      8/05/13 10:11am

      Oh yeah, most news orgs have picked up on it, its pretty shameless. Chambliss and Graham hit the Sunday Political show circuit repeating:

      "This is a good indication of why they [the surveillance powers] are so important," he said.

      His defence of the NSA was echoed by another Republican, Lindsey Graham. Asked by CNN host Candy Crowley whether Americans were right to be frightened, senator Graham said: "It is scary … the NSA programme is proving its worth yet again."

      Despite these claims, Adam Schiff, a Democrat who is also on the House intelligence committee, threw some water on the idea:

      "You have to be very careful how much you represent that any particular programme has contributed to our security. There is no indication that themetadata programme [related to domestic surveillance] contributed to information about this particular plot."

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      talktotalktoFavela
      8/05/13 12:01pm

      as if America was awash in terrorist attacks before we could effectively monitor most digital communication. The "war on terror," has basically become an ego stroking contest for federal agencies hungry for glory, funding, and fancy toys, and in the case of the intelligence community, post Cold War relevance.

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    HamsterOfTheGodsMax Read
    8/05/13 9:45am

    "Definitely the best thing the U.S. can do is confirm that terrorists don't need to do anything besides exist to disrupt and discomfit America's diplomatic presence overseas. (But, you know, Benghazi!!!, or whatever.)"

    Max, you really should not be making determinations about what is best for the safety of American diplomats. Way above your pay grade. Also, what sort of specificity from the govt do you expect at this point? Your knee jerk response is tiresome.

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      FaustianSlipHamsterOfTheGods
      8/05/13 10:23am

      Thank you. As someone who has a lot of friends posted to consulates and embassies on this list, I find this article ridiculous and tiresome. Of course they're not going to give specifics about what they've heard- that endangers both their sources and the diplomats they're trying to protect, since it gives an opportunity for people planning attacks to come up with an alternate plan.

      I can tell you, however, that it takes a lot to just shut an embassy or a consulate down. They don't do shit like this on a whim- if they're closing this many embassies, there's something serious behind it. And as someone who could be working at one of these places in a year or three, I appreciate it, since once people start coming over the wall, it's a little too late to do much (and visa foils aren't great at stopping bullets).

      As far as all of the people saying, "Fine, shut them all down," I'll go ahead and assume that you never leave the country. If you do, I hope you're never in a position where you find yourself in jail or in the hospital or in some kind of disaster that leaves you requiring assistance.

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      see you in rach-hell only comments on tswift nowHamsterOfTheGods
      8/05/13 10:27am

      Agreed. I'm not surprised at the skepticism, but I am surprised by how casually this warning has been dismissed by the author and so many commenters. I prefer to question decisions made by the government but I don't actually think this is just a ~PR~ ploy.

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    RolodexMax Read
    8/05/13 9:30am

    “It’s a very credible threat and it’s based on intelligence,”

    Uh, as opposed to... ?

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      MarcabExpatRolodex
      8/05/13 9:38am

      As opposed to made-up tales of WMDs, I guess.

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      FavelaMarcabExpat
      8/05/13 10:14am

      That's what WMDs were supposed to be based off of too, I think he means. Failure of "intelligence" was the whoops no need to hold anyone accountable else, as I remember.

      Far be it from me to suggest they were just lying...

      "Intelligence."

      We need a different word for it. They ruined it. Maybe go for reconnaissance?

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    SlicingFairMax Read
    8/05/13 8:52am

    I know, right? Why can't they just tell us all the intel they have about these things? That would probably not jeopardize anything at all and besides, we are the internets and we are curious! So tell us things!!! More things!

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      Exponential GrapeMax Read
      8/05/13 9:00am

      Nice, specific information here

      Do you remember during the Bush administration when a general said in a press conference that we'd been tracking Bin Laden by his cell phone signal? That was moronic, right? If you had any doubts, they were unable to continue tracking him by his cell phone shortly thereafter. Plus the general lost his position pretty quickly as well.

      I can understand some skepticism, but do you really expect them to tell you all the details?

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        allofthelightsExponential Grape
        8/05/13 11:19am

        Did this really happen? Who was the general?

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        _Redshirtallofthelights
        8/05/13 11:30am

        It's basically an urban legend. Bin Laden did shut off his satellite phone, and that was a loss for the CIA, but the narrative leaves out that we had just fired cruise missiles at one of his training camps the day before.

        http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content…

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      PoopiesAFMax Read
      8/05/13 9:13am

      So why isn't our embassy in Yemen on lock down? Large trucks just driving through like normal: https://twitter.com/ionacraig/stat…

      Our government is useless. "The chatter is higher than normal." Oh, ok then. So should I still take the MTA? Should I be cool with y'alls collecting all my meta data? When is it safe for me to get out of the fetal position?

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        FavelaPoopiesAF
        8/05/13 11:30am

        I've duck-taped my eyes and ears. Typing this comment is hard!

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        FavelaPoopiesAF
        8/05/13 11:44am

        If you think about it for a minute, it becomes achingly clear how stupid these chicken-hawks are.

        To say that you have achieved an important level of chatter equal to that of before 9/11, you are also saying the controversial Patriot Act programs are completely unnescesarry.

        We were already picking up this level of chatter before 9/11, before the NSA spying. Besides, the needed intelligence pre-9/11 was there, just used/shared incorrectly, it wasn't a problem of needing more info, in fact too much info can be as bad a problem. So, the Domestic Spying program could be making things worse by wasting resources and clogging up the pipes.

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      JayR727Max Read
      8/05/13 11:36am

      - Healey HYUNDAI -

      Best Prices in The Kingdom!

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