[Carlhole]

Reporting From Iraq

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Truthdig', '.')..Instead of going to Iraq to report on why Americans keep dying, Katie could just stay here, in America. There are any number of corporations whose board rooms she could visit. Or she could smooth talk her way into a number of country clubs, to interview the human face of the "military industrial complex" that President Eisenhower warned us about a half-century ago. She might take a look at congressional campaign financing, where the profits from these corporations fund the campaigns of the politicians who continue to do nothing about Iraq. Then, and just then, would Katie come close to answering the question of "Why?"

But she won't. Or should I say, she can't. CBS is owned by General Electric. GE is working hard to get favorable trading status with any number of foreign trading partners. The U.S. trade representative is working hard on GE's behalf. Hard-nosed "reporting" by the likes of Couric would not go over well in the bowels of the White House, where instructions to the U.S. trade representative are issued. "I'm Katie Couric," her broadcast could begin. "Tonight I am declaring independence from corporate control over how I report (i.e., read) the news." Answering the "why" of Iraq requires confronting the layers of corruption and corporate domination of America on so many levels that even if Katie wanted to, she couldn't - at least not from her perch as anchor of the CBS Evening News.

In a way, Iraq is a manifestation of all that ails America today. A complete breakdown of fundamental societal checks and balances brought on by greed and hubris. From General Petraeus who will give it, to the mindless corporate-owned minions who populate much of Congress who will receive it, to the entertainment-as-news media which will report on it, and to the American people who will consume it with no foundation upon which to evaluate it, the "Petraeus Report" will have little relevance to what is really going on in Iraq. Once again, Americans will be searching for a solution to a problem they have yet to properly define.

Just ask Katie Couric. Or better yet, watch her.

[Offshore]

The pedophile is one of the only Ba'ath Party candidates this year.

[jboogy]

Oily , my dear , sweet , lying boy , you expose yourself yet again as being willing to sacrifice credibility for ideology at the drop of the flimsiest of hats.Ritter's character assassination was proven to be a poorly planned and executed smear attempt by neocon affiliated scum long ago . Didn't you get the memo?

[Plantagenet]

Wikipedia has some info on Mr. Ritter's legal problems:

"Legal problems

In 2001, Ritter was arrested near Albany, NY. News reports state that Ritter had brushes with police on two occasions, both involving allegations of intent to meet underage girls after chatting on the Internet.[26] Per an agreement with Assistant District Attorney Cynthia Preiser, the charges were suspended for six months, and were dropped after no further allegations arose. All court records from this matter were sealed. The District Attorney fired Preiser for her handling of the matter.[27] According to WTEN-TV, Ritter underwent court-ordered sex offender counseling from an Albany psychologist.[28]"

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[Opies]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'I')'ll break the ice. This has got to be the meanest most ignorant and ugliest smear I've seen here at PO. Offshore will never be respected, his voice will never be heard again here.

[jboogy]

Plantain I'm surprised you'd expend energy to validate the progressive viewpoint while pissing on a fellow conservative . What gives? starting to see the truth perhaps?

[Carlhole]

My advice to Plant, Off and others who are way too stupid to formulate anything more complex than a one-liner is this:

Whenever you encounter someone whose views run contrary to your own, find something about their character to attack no matter how flimsy or irrelevant the evidence. If you can't find anything derogatory to say, don't say anything at all.

It's not a very good way to limp along but it will have to do for you boys.

Anyway, I can't see how there is any sort of disagreement here in the first place since I wasmerely drawing a comparison between OBL's new video and recent comments from Scott Ritter, both characterizing the US as a country controlled by and helpless against corporate money/interests.

Seems like a true Freeper would have to acknowledge that they sound alike! But Plant and Offshore are too stupid to do agree with me! hehe

[Plantagenet]

Ritter admits he was arrested in an internet sex sting set up to catch predators.

http://www.upi.com/inc/view.php?StoryID ... 1722-8355r

[Carlhole]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Plantagenet', 'R')itter admits he was arrested in an internet sex sting set up to catch predators.

http://www.upi.com/inc/view.php?StoryID ... 1722-8355r

[Plantagenet]

"According to a report in the Albany Times Union, the June 2001 arrest was not William Ritter's first brush with the law. In April 2001, William Ritter attempted to meet someone he thought was a 14-year-old girl he met online but who in reality was an undercover police officer posing as an underage minor."


It might have been a mistake once, but Ritter has been caught in police stings set up to protect children on two separate occasions.

[Carlhole]

Again, what does it have to do with the price of eggs in China?

What's your point?

[mekrob]

What they, bin Laden and Ritter, say is what most of us on this board and many people throughout the world and US already know.

As to his claims of illegal pumping stations, how exactly could one easily get on Google Earth, identify the stations and then determine whether or not they are legal or not?

[Carlhole]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('mekrob', 'W')hat they, bin Laden and Ritter, say is what most of us on this board and many people throughout the world and US already know.

As to his claims of illegal pumping stations, how exactly could one easily get on Google Earth, identify the stations and then determine whether or not they are legal or not?

[Plantagenet]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('pstarr', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Plantagenet', '"')According to a report in the Albany Times Union, the June 2001 arrest was not William Ritter's first brush with the law. In April 2001, William Ritter attempted to meet someone he thought was a 14-year-old girl he met online but who in reality was an undercover police officer posing as an underage minor."


It might have been a mistake once, but Ritter has now been caught in police stings set up to protect children on two separate occasions.

[jboogy]

I don't understand your reasoning by putting the story out there Plantain , here I thought you were refuting oily's slander but now I see your apparently saying that Ritter is a pedophile? I hate to break it to you but 1 charge that gets dismissed does not a pedophile make. He wasn't even arrested in the other incident . The proof (weak as it is ) that this was most likely a politically motivated set-up lies in the fact that the prosecutor was fired !That should tell you she was hellbent on nailing Ritter and when her superiors found out the lengths she went to in order to accomplish this they summarily canned her. Bottom line , no convictions and he still has been right about more than you , oily and all the other repugs put together. Deal with the issue instead of trying some bullshit misdirection about internet sexpots and the men who diddle them. By avoiding the meat of the debate you reveal your cowardice. And here I thought you were evolving.

[Roy]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'r')epublican operatives... = ... mostly chicken hawks and cowards.

[Plantagenet]

Ritter had two run-ins with police.

The first occurred in April 2001, as he reportedly drove to a Colonie business to meet what he thought was a 14-year-old girl with whom he had chatted online. Instead, he reportedly was met by officers, who released him without a charge.

Two months later, the source told the paper, Ritter was caught in the same kind of sex sting after he tried to lure a 16-year-old girl to an area Burger King restaurant.

Though Ritter originally told the Daily Gazette the paper had him mistaken for someone else, the local NBC television affiliate WNYT produced video of a mug shot of Ritter after the arrest.

"If it's not him, it's either his clone or a twin," the station's news director, Paul Conti.

Conti said the 16-year-old girl had been lured by Ritter to meet him at the Burger King in Menands, N.Y., in order "to have her watch him have sex with himself."

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What a classy guy --that Scott Ritter. I'm sure he would be happy to know there are still people who support him and his activities.