Saddam took control of an oil rich nation of 30+ million people using violence and torture. He had them record his clinching moment on video, where you can still watch him drag out a visibly broken man(well agreed to have been broken through torture, Saddam deliberately flaunted this), and has the man read out a list of names of co-conspirators. Sure, Saddam undoubtedly wrote the list himself, but he was already powerful and feared enough it didn't matter and this evidence was enough. The co-conspirators were hauled out for execution, and the others in the room were fearful/relieved enough that when they were ordered to perform the executions themselves they did.

Saddam then ruled Iraq for another 24 years before he was forcibly removed by foreign powers, not any manner of domestic uprising.

Don't tell me that nobody else in Iraq wanted the job for that quarter century, instead Saddam's brutal methods were successful in keeping his hold on power throughout that time. None of that makes his methods 'right', but to declare that the methods are ineffective is just silly. Doubly so if you observe his hold on power wasn't removed by crowds of peaceful protesters rising up removing him in a bloodless coup, but rather through the use of more force and violence than Saddam could muster in return.

Scarfs are for people from Toronto and Vancouver who really have no f*#king clue how to dress for Winter. A good lined hood and a touque will do just fine, and if it dips below -30c haul out the dickie.

One can easily survive almost any Southern Canadian Winter (the majority of our population lives within 100km of the US border) with a coat like this:

http://1loveto.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/2082M_Black.jpg

Once you go North you may have to re-gear.

this was brilliant and totally worth the time.
complex issues take some time and dr wolff lays it out nicely the history to how we got here.

the ending is almost chilling when he speaks about board directors pushing the working man even further because there have been no reprisals of anger and rage.
seems this was done before the occupy movement started.
seems americans are not just angry...but pissed off.

ah..to watch occupy oakland and how those thousands of people shut down the highway.
or the new occupyyourhome movement.
or how they are going to occupy k street.
now that really warms my cockles (having no idea what a cockle is..but its warm i tell ya).

and i really hope our political and financial elite ignore frank luntz's suggestions to tone down the aggression.
please please please ignore that man.
that is the only thing i want for christmas.

ah fuck it.
here is my christmas list:
1.i want those who have corrupted our democracy to keep pushing back and with authoritarian vigor.to use the police force as their own gestopo to crush those people who dare question their dominance and right to fleece an entire country.i want them to totally overstep their power and in doing so enrage an entire people out of apathy.

2.i wish for the CEO of <fill in corporate thief> to wake up from his home and look outside his window to be greeted by an ocean of angry faces and to have somebody filming him as he pisses himself.

3.i wish for every politician be forced to choose between getting ass-fucked with a razor blade dildo OR confess to every back door deal that fucked over,not only our democracy,but every citizen in this country.
both to be televised of course.
im betting there will be a shortage of dildos and proctologists.

4.i wish to see more people on the streets.i want to see so many that even the GODS will notice.i want so many people on the street that traffic comes to a halt and businesses shut down.

and i want to see the people who KNEW they were fucking us in the ass to be hauled out by their testicles and put on public display,their family stripped of all ill-gotten wealth and influence and for them to know the true meaning of SHAME.

so../claps
when we doin this thing?
christmas is only a few weeks away.
ill bring the weed!

"From giant blue marlin to mighty bluefin tuna, and from tropical groupers to Antarctic cod, industrial fishing has scoured the global ocean. There is no blue frontier left," said lead author Ransom Myers, a fisheries biologist based at Dalhousie University in Canada. "Since 1950, with the onset of industrialized fisheries, we have rapidly reduced the resource base to less than 10 percent—not just in some areas, not just for some stocks, but for entire communities of these large fish species from the tropics to the poles."

>> ^Yogi:

>> ^Farhad2000:
Naa the fishing community has fucked itself long before there was an oil leak with its overly aggressive fishing practices.
You ever a seen a trawler? They basically scrap the entire bottom of the surface, only a small percentage of what they haul out is actually what they want/need.
>> ^Yogi:
Wow...BP is totally fucked now...this is actually being reported on CNN and really aggressively. As well they're totally fucking over the fishing community.


I've spent my life being a fisher-guy...and I say you're a Liar!

>> ^Farhad2000:

Naa the fishing community has fucked itself long before there was an oil leak with its overly aggressive fishing practices.
You ever a seen a trawler? They basically scrap the entire bottom of the surface, only a small percentage of what they haul out is actually what they want/need.
>> ^Yogi:
Wow...BP is totally fucked now...this is actually being reported on CNN and really aggressively. As well they're totally fucking over the fishing community.



I've spent my life being a fisher-guy...and I say you're a Liar!

Naa the fishing community has fucked itself long before there was an oil leak with its overly aggressive fishing practices.

You ever a seen a trawler? They basically scrap the entire bottom of the surface, only a small percentage of what they haul out is actually what they want/need.

>> ^Yogi:

Wow...BP is totally fucked now...this is actually being reported on CNN and really aggressively. As well they're totally fucking over the fishing community.

Yeah, I saw it. I think that Rachel should have had at least one question that wasn't fundamentally "I found evidence that someone who worked for your organization said something sympathetic to white supremacists no less than 10 years ago, what's your response?"

However, Stein's response was "you're making that up" to all of it, and he'd just impugn her motives and credibility. She was operating on a tenuous guilt by association tactic, but he never had any response to it other than ad hominem.

Rachel had some long questions, but he definitely was trying to do a "filibuster" style interview, where he just tries to talk the whole time, without letting her ask follow ups. For the first 3 minutes or so, she didn't really get a word in edgewise until she started getting pushy.

IMO, all I really need to know about this FAIR organization is that they proudly support the new Arizona legislation -- to me, that makes me highly dubious about their motives and integrity. Moreso when their president comes on Maddow's show to basically just say she's a liar and a fraud, and BTW so is the Southern Poverty Law Center.

That's the kind of shit you expect from highly partisan organizations, not from some sort of reasonable, centrist organization.

It was painful to watch, but I don't think Rachel's really to blame -- everyone she brings on is some sort of political activist of some sort, and usually when she brings on anyone even slightly right wing, they haul out the trope about her being an unreliable partisan journalist, and just repeat that through the whole interview with increasing loudness.

It seems to work out well for them, because a lot of people come away from the interview going "wow, that was just a shouting match, I guess Rachel is just like BillO", even people who normally think Rachel is worth listening to.

I've never seen her make a factual mistake on these kind of things without issuing a correction. She's definitely got a partisan editorial stance, but I generally share her editorial viewpoint on the events of the day. I think a lot of politics these days is played on the grounds of "who's a credible voice in the media", and anyone to the right of center has a strongly vested interest in trying to diminish her credibility. It's why they never even try to really respond to her facts with anything other than "you're making that up", because it's an accusation they wouldn't dare level at a more firmly established member of the press, and that kind of shocking disrespect makes casual observers think "wow, nobody talks to real reporters that way!" and has the side effect of making people doubt her credibility.

Eh, enough with my little rant. I think the guy from FAIR is a tool, and the way he acted is what made that interview look so ugly, not what Rachel did.

In reply to this comment by lampishthing:
Hey NR, did you see Rachel Maddow's interview with Dan Stein on Thursday night? What did you think? He made some points that have been bothering me about Rachel's methods recently.

E.g. taking information from 25 years ago about one person and applying it to an organisation they are a member of today. People's views can change over that length of time and she never seems to take that into account. She also alternated between berating Stein for interrupting her (lengthy) questions and talking over him when he was trying to rebut. It was very disappointing how much it reminded me of O'Reilly.

It seems to me that she provides very discontinuous reports on organisations and people she disagrees with for the sake of making her viewers disagree with them to.

Again, I'd really appreciate your views,

James

I'm a pretty lefty Canadian, but come on, why don't you take those cameras through a place that processes chicken or cow meat? There's a ton of reasons of why the seal hunt is good, and about two or three as to why it's bad. If it keeps the cod stock in balance, and it provides a stable income for first nations families, then how is it any different than any other hunting or fishing?

I'm sure no one minds the way fish and crab are hauled out of the ocean and suffocated or crushed under the weight their fellow crustaceans =P

You mean I finally get to do my first *quality? Woohoo! Drinks are on me.


Ok, so this was years ago, and I was at a friend's birthday party. I had lost a significant amount of weight because I would bicycle everywhere, and I hadn't been out drinking. So I decide, damnit man, ahm Scah-ish, and I'm goun ta drink meh ancestor's drink! So I get a fifth of Cutty Sark and start doing shots. Now, not having ever tried Scotch but once prior to that night, I have to tell ya. It's liquid peat moss. Or maybe just Cutty Sark is. I don't know. But as with any liquor, once you get the first few shots down, you don't even taste or care anymore. So I proceed to drink about more than 1/2 the bottle, as well as a few beers...

So let me lay the scene for you here. We've got a small 1 bedroom apartment crowded with about 30 people. The stereo is up high, and after about 3 hours, I've made it to a chair at the dining room table. I start to get dizzy, so I put my elbows on the table, interlock my fingers and rest my chin in my hands, as I'm looking out into the room. And EVERYTHING is going up and down, in and out, and swirly. You know, like a merry-go-round? I can also hear every word at each of the conversations which were taking place around the room, as well as in whatever song was playing at the time. I don't even remember who eventually was around me but people were saying stuff like "Oh man, look how white he is!" "Dude, you need to go to the bathroom..." And I'm going "No, it's ok. I'm not gonna puke...I'm not gonna"

The last thing I saw was vomit shooting through my interlaced fingers.

So what do you do? Just put yourself there for a minute. Your that fucked up and you just start throwing up. Yup, I cupped my hands together to lean forward and make a bowl with my hands.

Now, physics was the LAST thing on my mind at this point. I forgot a critical variable: volume. Needless to say, I got. it. everywhere. All over the cake, in the ashtrays, people's cigarettes, in people's drinks, on people. Someone told me later I looked like a fire hydrant with an obstruction in the way. Luckily almost everyone there was a friend, so I survived a potential beating. (But at the cost of the ribbing I still take to this day )

So they throw me in the bathroom. Now, I'm conscious enough to know that I don't want someone pissing next to my face as I bow before the Porcelain God, so I lock the door. And promptly pass out. Eventually I finally wake up enough to open the door, and am promptly hauled out passed the line that formed, and am unceremoniously dumped on the bed. The only recollection I have of the rest of the night, is waking up several times lying face down, my hands and arms in the "goalpost" formation, and my head to pointing to the left. Have you ever gotten tired of lying in one position? I lifted my head, just to turn it to the right and got the whole Ferris Wheel action from before. So I kept passing out unable to turn my head.

Next morning, incredibly, I had no hangover. However, that is the only night in my life where I have no recollection of events. You could say I blew the dog and I'd have to take your word on it.

Ah well...it's good for a laugh.

I just wanted to take a moment say and tell you I greatly appreciated your saying that. I myself have duel-citizenship with Canada and the US... almost all my family is Canadian and i've spent a very large portion of my life in Canada. While i absolutly love it and look forward to going back each year... i can't tell you how many times i've heard this... this exact thing... friends, family, classmates this gets hauled out and worked into conversation a truly bizzare number of times when people realize I'm an American... the other one... The Space Arm... A close second... It's one I usually nod and smile and insie wonder exactly why they'd even want to lay claim to that... let alone how they figure...

Anyway i agreed completely and especially with regard to your final comment "There are a lot better examples for Candians to use."...

Cheers
Jan

In reply to this comment by Skeeve:
A good retort to Gutfeld, until near the end. I'm Canadian and I am getting tired of Canadians bringing up the War of 1812 and the burning of Washington. Yeah, we burnt the capital of the United States to the ground... almost 200 years ago. And it wasn't like it was really Canada, it was thousands of seasoned British veterans led by experienced commanders who took along some Canadian provincials to fight an inexperienced and smaller American army supported by relatively unorganized militias (very few of whom left their homes to fight on the campaigns).

There are a lot better examples for Canadians to use.

P.S., we didn't burn it down in 1812, it was actually burnt down in 1814, during the War of 1812 (which lasted 3 years).