russ-stein.com

Commented on Rangel's 13 ethics charges...
Friday, Jul 30, 10 at 11:50 AM
I'm gonna get me a PhD in hustling from the Charles B. Rangel Center for Public Opportunities!

Commented on Julian Assange on Antiwar Radio...
Friday, Jul 30, 10 at 01:34 AM
I wonder what kind of rhetoric they were using in private?
Director Panetta: #$@%&!
General Petraeus: Aussie mother-#$%&!!
Admiral Mullen: Albino...

Commented on Antiwar.com: "It’s fun to...
Saturday, Jul 10, 10 at 07:19 AM
If these military bureaucrats really care so much about Muslim oppression of women then why don't they say anything about their Neanderthal BFFs in Egypt, Jordan...

Commented on World Cup Buzz Day 8 Podcast
Saturday, Jun 19, 10 at 01:45 PM
Are you guys podcasting from a Waffle House? Haha! Farley was wrong about USA-Slovenia not once but twice. Question: What good does it do to spend your entire life...

torta_de_pollo on The strange and consequential case of Bradley Manning, Adrian Lamo and WikiLeaks
Saturday, Jun 19, 10 at 11:28 AM
Note to self: When on shaky ethical/moral ground, DO NOT under any circumstances schedule an interview with Glen Greenwald. The audio which accompanies Greenwald's column really says it all. Lamo comes across as a self important, sniveling little fraud, as well as a moral monster and probably a sociopath. You can't help thinking that Lamo was really never more than a troubled, homeless teen the story of whose alleged hacking exploits was useful to tech journalists. After listening to Lamo's reasoning about the Bradley Manning case, I'm certain that his "hacking" career was at least exaggerated, if not completely made up. The adult journalists who dealt with Lamo during the height of his notoriety surely should have known better, if he sounded anything like he did when he was talking to Greenwald back then.

torta_de_pollo on Adrian Lamo Rats Out Wikileaks Classified Leaker...
Friday, Jun 11, 10 at 05:45 PM
A few more thoughts: There was nothing about how the identity of the leaker came to light or how Wikileaks reacted to the Lamo/Bradley Manning revelations that was inconsistent with Wikileaks' anonymous encrypted submission system being legit. For example, Julian Assange, assuming that's who's behind Wikileaks' Twitter account, genuinely appeared to have no clue about the identity of the leaker when Wired posted the story. I think Bradley Manning probably was the leaker, but he wasn't caught because he used Wikileaks--he exposed himself by bragging about it online to a felon, who ran squealing to the FBI (probably seeking leniency with his fines, as someone else suggested). In other words, the circumstantial evidence here shouldn't trouble any future privates or GS12s with war crimes related dirt to dish. Leak away, cuz Wikileaks is the real deal--Just KEEP QUIET about it. Hopefully this incident will publicize throughout US diplomatic and military ranks the fact that you can anonymously expose the criminality of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan without personal consequences, in spite of how busily some in the media are going to work to confuse the issue and undermine Wikileaks. Finally, one more point about why there are so many narcs and why rats feature in basically every US headline story these days, in one way or another. It's related to prosecutorial overcharging plus the plea bargaining system. I heard Lord Black, who's the man on this issue even if he is a neocon, talking about his case on the BBC one time, and he explained that, basically, even a truly innocent person can't get too assertive with the American authorities because, once they've decided to take you down for whatever reason, you can't win. No rational person, even an innocent one, is going to roll the dice on a trial on some indictment stuffed with every felony the feds can dream up, risking multiple life sentences, when offered a plea. And once they take a deal then they're in the system, like Lamo--a guy who probably didn't really do much beyond boasting about hacking to overly credulous journalists. Did he really pull off the hacks he claimed he did? I was always skeptical, but he took a deal, so who knows? And then he became a leper contagious with federal prosecutions, like I said. Anyhow, the bottom line is that guys like that should really be quarantined until their legal troubles are finished.

torta_de_pollo on Adrian Lamo Rats Out Wikileaks Classified Leaker...
Thursday, Jun 10, 10 at 06:05 PM
Some people just don't get how riddled with narcs, rats, informants, and snitches American society is. There's no containing it because the feds can nail anyone they don't like with a felony rap even if they're just a loser or didn't really do much beyond loose talking, like Lamo. Then Lamo has to cooperate & rat out the next in line, guilty or not. Thus, Lamo (or anyone with federal probation and a felony conviction) is like a Typhoid Mary, contagious with federal prosecutions. Felons like Lamo should be confined to leper colonies. The use of desperate, favor seeking informants is how the feds cook up all their phony, headline grabbing militia plots & terrorist scams. Everybody knows that. Like, who knows if Bradley Manning really did the heroic leaking he's accused of, but there's zero doubt about Lamo's motive for ratting him out, or that he'll be convicted of it.