What I have learned so far from Snowden

[struggle4progress]

6 votes, 0 passes | Time left: Unlimited
	It's always good to have a back-up plan just in case
	1 (17%)
	As long as they're talking about you, it doesn't matter what they say
	0 (0%)
	Spies can be fickle and unreliable
	0 (0%)
	The Lone Ranger never actually won any political fights with his silver bullets
	0 (0%)
	Need a job but your resume's thin? Don't flip burgers! Call Booz-Allen-Hamilton! Do it today!
	1 (17%)
	With energy and determination, even a high school drop-out can cause multiple diplomatic crises
	2 (33%)
	People I nominate never get the Nobel Prize
	0 (0%)
	Perhaps "dude who lives in an embassy and hasn't been outside for over a year" is not really a synonym for "travel agent"
	0 (0%)
	There's a Cinnabon in Sheremetyevo's mile-long airport transit corridor
	2 (33%)
	This might not be a serious and committed relationship if your girlfriend still works as a pole dancer
	0 (0%)
	0 DU members did not wish to select any of the options provided.
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[think]

1. I learned that Booz Allen is a private contractor with access to

virtually fucking everything.

And then I learned that the Carlyle Group owns Booz Allen and makes billions for spying on us!

[AlinPA]

24. Bingo.

[Alameda]

33. Hmmmm Carlyle group....interesting indeed.

I wonder when the purchased BA?

[think]

39. Wikipedia says May 16th 2008

~snip~

On May 16, 2008, Booz Allen Hamilton announced that it would sell a majority stake in the US government business to The Carlyle Group for $2.54 billion. The transaction was expected to be complete July 31, 2008.[41]

In November 2008, The Carlyle Group was named Private Equity firm of the year in the U.S. at the Financial Times-Mergermarket 2008 M&A Awards.[42]

In March 2009, New York State and federal authorities began an investigation into payments made by Carlyle's Riverstone Holdings subsidiary to placement agents allegedly made in exchange for investments from the New York State Common Retirement System, the state's pension fund. In 2000, Carlyle had entered into a joint venture with Riverstone Holdings, an energy and power focused private equity firm founded by former Goldman Sachs investment bankers. It was alleged that these payments were in fact bribes or kickbacks, made to pension officials who have been under investigation by New York State Attorney General, Andrew Cuomo.[43] In May 2009, Carlyle agreed to pay $20 million in a settlement with Cuomo and accepted changes to its fundraising practices....[44]

~Snip~

Full entry:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlyle_Group#Since_2007

[silvershadow]

42. Which, of course, means the BFEE have better than virtual access to everything they ever had a wet

dream about. Can't get much better than that, if you're a in the "family". Of course, I think the name Booz Allen sounds suspiciously "company", if you get my drift Bet it's nothing more than a cost-cutting measure ostensibly, but in reality creates multiple revenue steams for Carlyle.

[snooper2]

50. "virtually fucking everything"

LOL


think, wait, no- THINK! I said think!

[think]

51. And you probably will laugh off the alleged bribes by Booz Allen investors too

But hey laugh away....

You mock my comments with sponge bob. I mock yours with alleged bribery by the company your so quickly ignore....

CARLYLE GROUP FINED IN NY PENSION SCANDAL

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Last Updated: 2:28 PM, May 14, 2009
Posted: 12:51 PM, May 14, 2009



One of the nation's largest private equity funds has agreed to pay $20 million over its role in a corruption scandal involving New York's public pension fund.

The Carlyle Group was one of several firms that paid millions of dollars to an aide to New York's former comptroller in exchange for help obtaining investments from the retirement fund. ...

~Snip~

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/regional/item_Y7TIdVqJlQ6A2qZOUYK3zM

[snooper2]

52. I guess they aren't very good being that they got caught

Damn,



You would think they would have been smart enough to look at all the WORLDS DATA

Maybe a keyword search "FBI Watching Me" LOL

[think]

53. Do you approve of The Carlyle group owning Booz Allen after investors are caught bribing

govt officials?

[Heddi]

2. wow. Sexist much?

"This might not be a serious and committed relationship if your girlfriend still works as a pole dancer"

stay classy

[struggle4progress]

3. Sorry. I never found any essays explaining pole-dancing as a brave Feminist challenge to Patriarchy

Maybe you think I didn't search long or hard enough?

[Heddi]

5. Well I know that you have google search at your fingertips for quick cut-and-paste

but have you actually known any strippers, pole dancers, etc?

I have. Many. Prostitutes as well.

Most of them were in stable, long term relationships. Many of them had kids. Many of them were married.

Or did you all just assume they're loose floozies who can't be with anyone for longer than a one-night-stand (as implicated by your nasty comment about them)?

And your comment has nothing to do with feminist challenge to patriarchy.

In fact, the strippers I knew...they were just trying to get by in this world. Their choices for making ends meet were McDonalds, where they'd get $4.25 an hour (min wage at the time), or another equally low-end job. Or prostitution (which stripping isnt'). Or stripping, where they could make several hundred dollars a night. These weren't the most highly educated women in the world. They didn't have a lot going for them: teenage moms, high school grads or drop-outs, no real family for help or dysfunctional family or family as poor as they are.

I know this may be shocking to you and your prejudices towards "pole dancers, but they weren't prostitutes. They weren't drug addicts. They were (mostly) younger women using what they were given (nice bodies and a shitty turn at life) to make the most $$ they could for themselves or their families. Nothing feminist about wanting to have enough money at the end of the week to buy food AND school clothes for your toddler

[struggle4progress]

9. So your view is that she was pole-dancing to make ends meet, while he made $122K,

and then told her he had to be away for a few weeks when in fact he walking out? What commitment!

Got a wife and kids in Baltimore, Jack. I went out for a ride and I never went back ...

[KittyWampus]

12. He claims he was making $200,000. Hope he took her out for nice dinners.

[Heddi]

15. no. I'm not claiming anything

you're the one insinuating that she's a whore, or floozy, or one-night-stand by virtue of being a pole dancer

[struggle4progress]

17. 10 Tips to Improve Your Reading Comprehension

[treestar]

32. I've only known one

married with children.

Her husband killed her.

I think they were both drug addicts.

[Agnosticsherbet]

29. Best comeback I've seen in a while.

LOL

[otohara]

56. Not All Pole Dancers Work In Sex Industry

It's become quite the exercise craze for the youngsters....I see them at music festivals where my son's band has played and cirque du soleil comes to mind....they've taken hula hooping to a whole new level too.

[noamnety]

4. Thank you.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=3184724

[Heddi]

6. I've known several women who were strippers

SEVERAL.

Prostitutes as well.

And I can't, I REFUSE to judge.

These aren't bad people. They're women who, in many cases, got a shitty deal at life and are doing what they can to get by and make it in this world.

Some of the prostitutes I knew were highly educated and traveled the world and made a lot of fucking money. Hundreds of thousands of tax-free dollars a year.

Some of the prostitutes I knew were living in weekly-rate motels.

Some were just normal people living on a cul-de-sac with their kids turning tricks on the weekends.

There's a whole world out there, the "underbelly" of society.

They're not all drug addicts.
They're not all mentally ill
they're not all homeless.

Many are, but far more aren't

And the ones I knew were mostly dealt a shit hand at life, little to no education, little to no family to help, a whole lotta problems that a minimum wage job couldn't handle and they were just trying to get by just like I am, just like you are. They just made a different choice than many of us did and they don't need shaming, they need support.

Suggesting that a stripper is the same as a prostitute is sickening.

And even if she were a prostitute...so what? Maybe the OP can tell us all *HIS* (important) dirty little secrets so that we can judge HIM.

[Alameda]

35. Me too...

Most were just doing a job that paid well. Some did well, saved their money and got ahead. Others suffered from the stupid stigma and suffered terribly.

[CakeGrrl]

7. About that Cinnabon...

technically, Snowden didn't inform me of that directly.



Snowden HAS provided a stark reminder that beggars cannot be choosers, especially when they deal classified U.S. information to other nations.

[flamingdem]

13. Will that be plain

or powdered.

[marions ghost]

8. I've learned that

a LOT of people want this topic to go away. It brings on uncomfortable images of Big Brother and pollutes their beautiful minds. Or their cousin works for the NSA. So they resort to ridicule like this, and character assassination of the messenger.

I've learned from Snowden the extent of the government's absurdly expensive and invasive project to collect the personal data of all Americans and of other countries. We had a right to know about this. But our own government treats us like children. It is insulting and it is ominous.

[struggle4progress]

11. Or maybe not everyone automatically believes in the Man on the White Horse

It's difficult to produce accurate two-tone images of the world, y'know: had the Lincoln County range wars ended differently, Billy the Kid might have been considered a hero in his time

[marions ghost]

44. Wierd

Here's another one for ya:

[MADem]

30. And an equal number want to beat it like a dead horse....

I haven't learned a thing from Snowden. He's made accusations, he hasn't provided any proof. His paper work does not match his claims.


You know I'm an astronaut.

Really.

I just told you I was one.

What, you doubt me?

Look up four lines, see, there's your proof, it says "You know I'm an astronaut." You have to believe it. It is written. I said it. Would I lie?

[marions ghost]

43. If you want to believe the obvious

denials and damage control whitewash, don't let me stop you.

Most people think Snowden has provided plenty of proof. Too much proof in the eyes of those who would keep the American public in the dark. Give it time...you'll see resistance to this flagrant abuse of power.

[MADem]

46. Most people "think"---but they don't KNOW.

I believe in one whistleblower, the leaker almighty...

People take his assertions on faith, even as they don't understand what "metadata" is.

[marions ghost]

48. I forgot, only you KNOW...

and the rest of us are flaky faith-based lefties:

[MADem]

58. What a gratuitous insult--hardly something a "faith-based lefty" would come up with....

Flaky, or otherwise.

Thanks for that bulls-eye look into the depths of your soul!

I don't claim to "know" anything--but I'm not afraid to enquire.

[marions ghost]

59. Here is your line that implies

that those who don't believe as you are flaky faith-based lefties:

"I believe in one whistleblower, the leaker almighty..."

--------------

I only fleshed out your words. And if that gave you an insight into my soul, well I'd say

[Douglas Carpenter]

10. I've learned that if you challenge the power of the clandestine services - There will be countless

numbers of people most of whom have no connection to the clandestine services themselves who will hate you for it and believe anything bad about you and and say terrible things about you. I've learned that if the opportunity should ever arise that you feel compelled by your conscience to sacrifice all that you have and all that you ever hope to have on freedom's sacred alter - do not expect to be appreciated for it in your time.

[struggle4progress]

16. Yah, tis hard for folk like thee and me, us bein so blest with such pure and saintly

characters, t'understand why ithers might be such doubters of th'sanity of th'righteous

"It is by the goodness of God that in our country we have those three unspeakably precious things: freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, and the prudence never to practice either of them"
-- Mark Twain

[flamingdem]

14. Clock ticking for Snowden. By midnight tomorrow he must decide

5:39 AM
Monday, July 8, 2013 (MSK)
Time in Moscow, Russia

[whatchamacallit]

18. Too bad you didn't learn how

to get lost.

[struggle4progress]

19. Thanks! That's really helpful! This is what makes DU so unique!

[whatchamacallit]

20. My charm and wit?

[struggle4progress]

23. of course! and more generally your mastery of diplomatic phraseology

[CakeGrrl]

49. Another shining examplar of civility

and class.

What's that about wanting to make someone with a dissenting opinion go away?

Team Snowden FTW!

[whatchamacallit]

60. Give me a break, Cake

Most of us don't give a rat's ass about Snowden. If anyone is "Team Snowden" it's the NSA-lovin fools who follow his every move and every aspect of his life.

[UTUSN]

21. r#3 too many good choices

[flamingdem]

22. Eddie only has one choice according to Putin

and he's got 18 hours to git outta Dodge!

[treestar]

25. And the embassy is a bit more comfortable

than a transit hotel in the transit zone of Sheremetyevo.

Should have gone to the Ecuadorian Embassy in Hong Kong or the Venezuelan one rather than boarded that flight to Moscow.

[HipChick]

28. Assange was running the show..

Too bad he listened to him..

[NoOneMan]

26. People will bend over backwards to obfuscate a 4th amendment issue if it may tarnish their leader

[treestar]

34. Bring it on

What is the Fourth Amendment Issue? Citations?

Why is anyone tarnished by the Fourth Amendment Jurisprudence? Because you don't agree with / understand it in the least?

[NoOneMan]

36. And sideways

[treestar]

37. Oh, a non-answer

That was an interesting discussion of Fourth Amendment issues. Not.

[NoOneMan]

38. Becoming gnarled caricatures of amateur partisan hacks

[struggle4progress]

41. There's an art to political messaging, and it isn't always easy to learn it

Presentation and framing really matter, because media editors adore a quick hot soundbite

About thirty years ago, some of my friends spent several weeks setting up an event guaranteed to snag attention for the local anti-apartheid movement. Everybody knew media would show, but somehow nobody had quite guessed what would actually happen -- though in hindsight it was perfectly predictable: the TV crews gravitated towards the most colorfully-attired fellow there, who graced them with a long exposition of his views on anything and everything. And on the news that night, instead of seeing a well-thought-out thirty-second comment about how various US corporations made money exploiting what was (for all practical purposes) slave labor in South Africa, we were instead treated to short and emotional soundbite from him, in which he complained that people discriminated against him for being a vegan wiccan who believed in UFOs or whatever it was he said. I knew him: he was a pleasant enough fellow, and he really was dedicated to the anti-apartheid movement. I bore him no ill-will until I saw his soundbite on TV, at which point I thought he was a complete political moron. But, of course, he was not the only moron: someone should have foreseen such a possibility and should have planned how to avoid it

The "conscientious-whistleblower-versus-national-security-snoops" might have been a compelling narrative in competent hands. Snowden, unfortunately, bungled that from the beginning: claiming to have an issue that should be of national concern, he appeared on the international stage and immediately introduced issues of international spying. Once Snowden's activities began to affect conversations between Obama and Xi, or between Obama and Putin, or began to affect public relations between France and the US, there simply remained no way to keep the conversation on the Fourth Amendment, even if that had been Snowden's actual original aim: other issues come up unavoidably

[MADem]

27. Hilarious poll, btw... nt

[flamingdem]

40. best.poll.ever

[markiv]

47. 11. 'DU participates in character assasination?'

give a plus to this post if that would have been your vote, that's what your learned

[WovenGems]

54. Snow taught me

People don't know a great deal about the intelligence services or technical knowledge. I now know that we had better never have a leak from DARPA. Hardcore cutting edge science is scarier than imagining what technology may be able to do.

[polichick]

55. I've learned that sensitive info is collected by private companies...

that have one mission: not to protect this country, but to rack up profits.

Wonder who's paying the highest price for all that info these days.

[Gin]

57. I learned the FISA court judges 10 of 11 were appointed by Roberts.....and we have another

Court like scotus but worse....at least there are 4 differing voices on the supremes.

Snowden did us all a favor....the discussion is out in the open.