ifthethunderdontgetya™³²®©: Dana Priest at the Washington Post

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Dana Priest at the Washington Post

The Washington Post has been such a giant disappointment these last 15 years or so it comes as a shock when they do something good. But there are still great investigative reporters there.

Glenn Greenwald:

From the Q&A about the article:

18 comments:

fish said...: I can't believe that guy went for the jobs argument. Won't someone think about the poor out-of-work torturers as well?; July 20, 2010 at 8:57 AM
zombie rotten mcdonald said...: Tell Dana that the gov can't create jobs, so none of those jobs count.

Besides, fish, many of those torturers would probably just get jobs as cops, where they can use tasers to torture old ladies.; July 20, 2010 at 10:20 AM
zombie rotten mcdonald said...: The Taser Company has the torturers covered, fish.; July 20, 2010 at 10:20 AM
Brando said...: I can't believe that guy went for the jobs argument. Won't someone think about the poor out-of-work torturers as well?

It's the AmeriCorpse program.

This is the first news article I've seen in a while where I wanted to set aside time to read the whole thing.; July 20, 2010 at 2:12 PM
Kathleen said...: has anyone else read The Zero, by Jess Walter? highly recommend.

(this comment is on point); July 20, 2010 at 3:21 PM
fish said...: No, but now I want to.; July 20, 2010 at 4:20 PM
Smut Clyde said...: Not going into details or anything, but I remember when a high-level security clearance actually meant something. Then I read James Bamford's 2005 article* on the Rendon Group to discover that as far as the Cheney administration was concerned, security clearances were just another form of spoils, and in line with their general style of kleptocracy they were handing them out to their private-sector friends like so many party favours. There were a few discouraging words said that day.

* Article no longer on line at Rolling Stone -- the link leads to a 404 -- but it's probably cached somewhere; July 20, 2010 at 5:20 PM
Substance McGravitas said...: I can't believe that guy went for the jobs argument.

I'm sure there's the #1 candidate for the cleaning-toilets-with-tongues jobs the government will be doling out soon.; July 20, 2010 at 8:40 PM
Another Kiwi said...: asshole free trade agreements that they break at a moment's notice
That's it, piss on New Zild's parade. "We wnntz teh fee traaaaaaaaaade"; July 20, 2010 at 10:19 PM
Brando said...: In the book Betrayal about the Aldridge Ames case, the authors said that at the beginning of Ames' spying for the Russians, he made copies of top secret CIA documents that he checked out of the CIA document library. However, he eventually figured out he could just give the Russians existing copies of the top secret documents, because each year hundreds of top secret documents went missing from the CIA archives.; July 20, 2010 at 10:30 PM
ifthethunderdontgetya™³²®© said...: However, he eventually figured out he could just give the Russians existing copies of the top secret documents, because each year hundreds of top secret documents went missing from the CIA archives.

And thus saved lots of quarters for the laundry.
~; July 20, 2010 at 10:51 PM
Hamish Mack said...: Frugal spies are the worst kind.; July 21, 2010 at 12:02 AM
Smut Clyde said...: quarters for the laundry

That's a trigger for the Charlie Stross readers.; July 21, 2010 at 4:09 PM
fish said...: That's a trigger for the Charlie Stross readers.

Those books are awesome.; July 21, 2010 at 5:44 PM
Smut Clyde said...: Jennifer's crawlspace.

Contents may include Bad Ronald.; July 22, 2010 at 6:54 PM
zombie rotten mcdonald said...: you guys know nothing about home construction in hard winter zones. Crawlspaces don't work; you need frost footings of at least 4 feet, and at that point, you do a basement.

However, I make no claims as to what might be found in Jennifer's Basement. Even though personal experience indicates it is often lamblets.; July 22, 2010 at 7:14 PM
Jennifer said...: You know what's often found in Jennifer's basement... water.; July 23, 2010 at 10:26 AM