Balta1701

QUOTE (kapkomet @ Jan 2, 2010 -> 01:38 AM) Read my post further up absolving Obama himself and basically making the same point Balta was in different words. However, all the links, posts, media stories, etc. have to give this guy his golden pile of s*** to hide behind. It's ridiculous. QUOTE (kapkomet @ Dec 31, 2009 -> 06:41 PM) Defend Obama, Bush sucks. That's all we need to know here.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Jan 1, 2010 -> 10:55 PM) I dont know Balta, it seems like Tennessee players want to find YOU. All of those football players were busted robbing some kids, werent they? IIRC they hit a convenience store of some sort. Edit: gas station. One of the ones down the street from the fcampus.

So, rather than continuing the sniping, let me ask this in reply...Lost...is this a level of attack that the U.S. simply could never gather the intelligence to stop beforehand, without, as I suggested, doing something like closing down every airport to international travel or something like that. (And if the answer is no, would there actually be such a level of attack?)

Oh come on, that title isn't fair.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Jan 1, 2010 -> 05:24 PM) open containers of alcohol, bags of pot, and 2 guns with altered serial numbers. Not good, not good at all. One would think that if you were going to drive around with your car loaded like that, you would try not to speed. So, I've decided that the safest way to live in this city is to avoid the sports teams as much as humanly possible.

QUOTE (farmteam @ Jan 1, 2010 -> 03:30 PM) Obviously feeling very embarrassed by all this, I felt much better later when I was driving, because apparently my car has started locking of its own accord -- this happened twice last night after I locked myself out. My vehicle has an automatic setting you can turn on/off that locks/unlocks the door when you put the car into and out of gear. It's a process of holding down random buttons to get it to do that. Might be something like that described in your manual?

Link

QUOTE (kapkomet @ Dec 31, 2009 -> 06:41 PM) Defend Obama, Bush sucks. That's all we need to know here. Interestingly, I wasn't even thinking this when I posted that article...I was genuinely expressing doubt that it would be possible to stop this type of attack at all while still maintaining any semblance of an open society. The 9/11 attack was hugely detailed, involved years of planning, gave tons of hints to law enforcement and intelligence agencies over the course of years, involved millions of dollars, etc. This case involved a very low level warning of the type that they've probably received about you a couple times, security screening not done by the U.S., only a couple thousand dollars, no training, and less than a month between the first hints of a warning and the actual attempt. I've long thought that if AQ ever got their act together, they could do the most damage by pulling off a series of the latter type of attacks, because they aren't the type on which you can gather intelligence effectively; you just give a guy a bomb or send him to a gun show & voila, 20 dead Americans a couple days later. You could shut down malls by hitting a couple of them, shut down commerce by hitting a couple banks, whatever. The 9/11 scale of attack ought to be preventable because it was so big. This is the level of attack I wonder if you can prevent if you let people out of their doors. Post investigation, it might turn out that there was some easily overlooked thing, but I doubt it. Of course, that's immediately viewed as defending Obama for some reason. I'm sure it's naturally me who's doing that somehow subconsciously, and not you guys trying to take every discussion out there and immediately use it as a way to say "See, Obama's as bad as Bush!"

QUOTE (mreye @ Jan 1, 2010 -> 09:06 AM) Yes, because that was a Republican Administration. No, because the plot was just a wee bit more detailed. Just a little.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Dec 31, 2009 -> 05:02 PM) so there was a bunch of threats, and we were supposed pick out exactly when, where, and how... Got it. Your opinion here strikes me as remarkable, that there's n o difference here, based on just the press reports so far. That's all I'll say.

This makes the Bulls what, 6-2 with TT? 7-2?

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Dec 31, 2009 -> 04:22 PM) [/b] Just like 9-11. As I said, I've certainly gotten the impression that there was a unique period of threats before 9/11. The "Summer of threat" in the words of the CIA director. With his "Hair on Fire". That doesn't sound like this at all.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Dec 31, 2009 -> 04:12 PM) And of course all of that was in hindsight. What did the intelligence community know ahead of time? They had a general plot of something that could be done. No specifics. No names. No dates. Just like this one. They had one of them in custody didn't they? They had reports of guys in pilot schools, they had things that just weren't decoded in time, IIRC there were quite a few other things that they could have reacted to. Anyway, the question is, how do you react to this level of intel? If we get 1000 reports of the level that we received about this guy per day, and one of them turns into a legit plot, how do you react to that?

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Dec 31, 2009 -> 04:08 PM) Yes, he was eventually traded for a 5th rounder (to appease Baltimore) and Brandon Whiting (for some compensation to San Fran), and there were a ton of circumstances surrounding that anyways (specifically his agent not filing the papers to make him a free agent). I'm just stating, his value on the market to atleast one team was a 2nd round pick, and he was a fantastic receiver. The Bears are going to be very hard pressed to get that much value out of Devin Hester . My point that I was trying to make in reply is...yes, the Ravens were willing to give up a 2nd rounder, but they made that deal while already knowing there could be serious issues...the 2nd rounder wasn't a priceless piece they'd never give up, they gambled it on working things out.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Dec 31, 2009 -> 04:02 PM) That sounds incredibly familiar. That is almost exactly the scenario of the before and after of 9/11. We had some vague information regarding some ideas, and possibilities, but nothing concrete. And one other point...a large plot involving months of training within the U.S., millions of dollars, overseas communications, getting 20 people into the country with Visas, years of overseas planning, etc., compared with a guy smuggling a small, 100 gram package onto a plane in his underwear...the difference in complexity between these 2 should have produced a huge difference in the amount and quality of intel available. I think the argument there is...it might be that there is a clear failure of intelligence to do something it was supposed to do. But short of closing the borders and closing every airport everywhere, it might be that there just isn't enough available to do anything about a plot of this scale. Its possible everything could have worked exactly the way it should have (yes, you should still conduct an investigation) and the guy still could have gotten the charge onto the plane.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Dec 31, 2009 -> 04:02 PM) That sounds incredibly familiar. That is almost exactly the scenario of the before and after of 9/11. We had some vague information regarding some ideas, and possibilities, but nothing concrete. I sure got the impression from the 9/11 commission report that you're really underestimating how much info they had before 9/11 there.

Glad you're ok Shipps

Being there for Sosa's 12th consecutive strikeout.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Dec 31, 2009 -> 03:28 PM) Terrell Owens, prior to the 2004 season, was initially dealt for a 2nd round pick, and TO was really f***ing good 5 years ago too. Hester is an explosive #2 receiver at best. He has no place as the #1 receiver on any team, and anybody willing to give up more than a 3rd round pick for him is crazy. TO was dealt for a 2nd round pick, but at the same time, there were somewhat more complex issues. For example, he was attempting to be declared a free agent and was challenging things in court...beyond just the personality problems.

Spencer Ackerman discusses to what level this should be considered a failure of the intelligence system.

Might be a poster here who actually knows those lyrics without looking them up. But it isn'tme.

QUOTE (chw42 @ Dec 31, 2009 -> 02:22 PM) With our situation, I wouldn't have. Byrd has a lot more power, but since we kind of needed a leadoff hitter, I'd rather take Pierre. Their defense in LF pretty much cancel each other out. Pierre's definitely the better base runner and will most likely put up a higher OBP than Byrd. Plus, we're paying $1 million less for Pierre and for only two years. The Cubs kind of nead a leadoff type hitter too.

Well, hell of a game Indiana.

Obviously, if I knew the lyrics to Auld Lang Syne, this would be the time to post them. Alas, no one does.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Dec 31, 2009 -> 09:27 AM) Rush Limbaugh in the hospital due to karma. This can't be, he's at a hospital in Hawai'i? Why that's impossible. Only a crazed, America hating liberal punk would vacation in a fancy foreign country like that.