Patterico's Pontifications

6/28/2013

A Little Perspective on Gleen Grenwald’s Possible Involvement in the Theft of Classified Information from the U.S. Government

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 10:29 pm



Edward Epstein in the Wall Street Journal:

Before taking the job in Hawaii, Mr. Snowden was in contact with people who would later help arrange the publication of the material he purloined. Two of these individuals, filmmaker Laura Poitras and Guardian blogger Glenn Greenwald, were on the Board of the Freedom of the Press Foundation that, among other things, funds WikiLeaks.

In January 2013, according to the Washington Post, Mr. Snowden requested that Ms. Poitras get an encryption key for Skype so that they could have a secure channel over which to communicate.

In February, he made a similar request to Mr. Greenwald, providing him with a step-by-step video on how to set up encrypted communications.

So, before Mr. Snowden proceeded with his NSA penetration in March 2013 through his Booz Allen Hamilton job, he had assistance, either wittingly or unwittingly, in arranging the secure channel of encrypted communications that he would use to facilitate the publication of classified communications intelligence.

So Rick Ellensburg was not just in touch with Snowden before he took the job with the purpose of stealing our secrets. Rick Ellers also set up secure communication paths with which to receive the secrets, before Snowden stole the secrets.

But let us have no talk of any possible prosecution of Ellison! Because that would be a STAIN ON THE FIRST AMENDMENT, I say!

After all, what does the First Amendment even mean if it doesn’t allow ideologues with a publishing capacity the right to coordinate a break-in to purloin our country’s most highly classified information?

Via narciso.

Zimmerman Prosecution Witness (?!): It Sure Looked to Me Like Trayvon Martin Was Beating Zimmerman

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 7:25 pm



The witness describes a darker-skinned person on top of a lighter skinned person, straddling him and making movements with his arms going downward.

He also said it looked like the darker-skinned guy was raining blows down on the lighter-skinned person MMA-style, and believes that the lighter-skinned person on the bottom was calling for help. But he was not 100% certain about this.

Sounds to me like the prosecution knew this guy was going to be called and did their best to put a positive spin on it, as best as they could. Problem is, his testimony is devastating to the prosecution any way you spin it.

UPDATE: Comments are closed. The thread is getting too big. New thread here.

Tommy Christopher: “Cracker” Is a Term of “Pride” in Florida

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 7:58 am



Tommy Christopher:

At the merciful close of key prosecution witness Rachel Jeantel‘s testimony in the trial of George Zimmerman for the murder of Trayvon Martin, defense attorney Don West asked Ms. Jeantel to describe the “culture” that she said uses the word “cracker” to describe white people. “The area I was raised in?” Jeantel asked, to which West replied “Yes.”

As it turns out, in the area in which Rachel Jeantel was raised, the word “cracker” isn’t a racial slur at all, but rather, a proud nod to the region’s history, and one’s own ancestry.

Indeed. And when a black person calls a whitish looking Hispanic guy a “creepy-ass cracker,” that is when the sincerity of one’s tribute to the region’s history and pride in one’s own ancestry truly shines.

I needed a laugh today, Tommy. Thanks.

Flashback: Rubio in 2009: Reagan Was Wrong to Grant Amnesty

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 7:52 am



November 17, 2009:

Here’s something you seldom hear in a Republican primary: a candidate taking issue with Ronald Reagan.

It happened this afternoon when former Florida House Speaker Marco Rubio, who’s running in the GOP Senate primary against Gov. Charlie Crist, answered a question on immigration at a Martin County Republican Womens Federated meeting that drew more than 100 attendees.

Rubio delivered a six-minute discourse on immigration policy in which he brought up The Gipper’s support for the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, which granted amnesty to most undocumented workers who could prove they had been in the country continuously for the previous five years.

“In 1986 Ronald Reagan granted amnesty to 3 million people,” Rubio said. “You know what happened, in addition to becoming 11 million a decade later? There were people trying to enter the country legally, who had done the paperwork, who were here legally, who were going through the process, who claimed, all of a sudden, ‘No, no no no , I’m illegal.’ Because it was easier to do the amnesty program than it was to do the legal process.”

“If you grant amnesty, the message that you’re sending is that if you come in this country and stay here long enough, we will let you stay. And no one will ever come through the legal process if you do that.”

There is a Twitter debate this morning about how Republicans watch folks like Rubio lie and then forgive them. Makes us look like chumps. How can we ever vote for such a person again?

But there is a difference between primary challenges and general elections.

As for me, I will now oppose Rubio strongly in the presidential primaries, but his support for amnesty would not cause me to sit home and let Hillary win in a Rubio-Clinton general election. Any more than I would have sat home in 1980 if you looked into your crystal ball and told me Reagan would grant amnesty to illegals, or nominate Anthony Kennedy to the Supreme Court. Reagan was better than Carter and Mondale. Kennedy, as much as I despise him, is better than Stephen Reinhardt, who is the sort of judge Jimmy Carter liked to nominate.

But for now? Rubio has to pay a price. That price should be that he is out of the running in 2016. Let’s see if we can find someone who won’t blatantly lie to get elected.

Ted Cruz, anyone?


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