JAPAN NEWS AND DISCUSSION
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To be healthy, live in the big city
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Japan's nuclear safety standards flawed, says commission chief
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Teacher nabbed for using miror to peek up girl's skirt
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From carnivores to herbivores: how men are defined in Japan
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Why do Japanese change their attitude when they communicate with foreigners?
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- English Instructor (Osaka, Kyoto, Kobe)
- Berlitz Japan, Inc. (ベルリッツ・ジャパン株式会社), Kansai
- Salary: ¥125,000 ~ ¥250,000 / Month
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- FT English Teachers for Kids - Osaka
- Kohgakusha Co., Ltd. （株式会社興学社）, Osaka
- Salary: ¥255,000 ~ ¥275,000 / Month Travel Expenses, Encouragement of Japanese learning*
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- Translator
- ZAIHON, Inc. (日本財務翻訳株式会社), Tokyo
- Salary: ¥6.0M / Year Negotiable
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yabits
Totally discredited Republicans do not possess the honesty and integrity to be telling decent Americans like Speaker Pelosi what to do.
"She supported waterboarding..." A complete lie. I rest my case.
Posted in: Pelosi says CIA misled her on waterboarding
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yabits
Anvil: The Story of Anvil
Posted in: Which summer blockbuster are you looking forward to seeing most of all?
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yabits
You haven't given an example of one. She faithfully reported what she was told by Bush's intelligence people.
As to feeding others lies, one might take a look at Scott McClellan's book. David Brock's too. What Republicans have to count on is that others will always be content to be fed lies -- not exactly the best way to grow a party.
Posted in: Pelosi says CIA misled her on waterboarding
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yabits
The reason you can't get the point is because you can't see that people who think like you do not differ in kind with the terrorists, but only in degree.
That is the reality.
Posted in: Pelosi draws CIA response, Republican criticism
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yabits
grafton: I understand what you are trying to get across, but you seem to be misreading or misunderstanding.
Speaker Pelosi, in 2009, can contend that the Democrats who became aware that the CIA might be using waterboarding -- from 2003 onwards -- did what they could to try and stop it. In 2002, Pelosi was not aware because the CIA did not make it explicitly clear that they were actively using the tactic. Hence her contention of being misled.
To be misleading, all the CIA needed to have said was along the lines of "we may consider using waterboarding since it appears that there is no legal prohibition to do so." Since there is no recorded transcript of the meeting, we simply don't know. What we do know is that three reliable US Senators: Bob Graham of Florida, Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia, and Diane Feinstein of California have publicly spoken out about the CIA's extremely ambiguous presentation of data all along as well as their totally getting some the dates of their briefings dead wrong.
If, when Jane Harman received her briefings in 2003, there was less ambiguity, fine. Harman did what she could to present the Democratic opposition to the practice, to the extent that it was being used, and in accordance with the proper channels. But at that time, Pelosi, not being on the Intelligence Committee, would have had no formal way to make her reservations known without getting herself and her party into a controversy -- if it were to be made public that Democrats were leaking information out of the classified briefings.
No, it's the Republicans who are lying here.
Posted in: Pelosi says CIA misled her on waterboarding
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yabits
AlphaApe: I just watched Senator Feinstein on a news-show and she was anything but quiet. When asked about the controversy with Speaker Pelosi, she started by saying that she has known Mrs. Pelosi for over 30-40 years, and has never, ever known her to lie.
Secondly, when asked about CIA briefings, Senator Feinstein said that these briefings are notorious for being very vague and "antiseptic" in how they convey information. Attendees are not allowed to take notes or to ask questions for clarification. She says wants to change that.
Posted in: Pelosi says CIA misled her on waterboarding
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yabits
Wow, a Republican using "political correctness" as an excuse for Republican failure. So, when the FBI wanted to perform due diligence on a detainee, the reason they could not was that AG Ashcroft was bowing to "goofballs on the left?"
Are you surprised that the vast majority of Americans do not buy your logic?
Posted in: Obama to restart military tribunals for Gitmo detainees, dismaying liberals
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yabits
And you've made my point: the right-wing Republicans as apologists for the incompetence of their party and their leadership. The American people know better. When a highly suspicious Middle-Eastern person was pulled out of flight school and detained by the FBI a month before the attacks, it was Bush's AG who denied granting them a complete search of the person's computer.
Moussaoui did not have to be tried by military tribunal.
Posted in: Obama to restart military tribunals for Gitmo detainees, dismaying liberals
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yabits
One (of many) things that the French have over Americans: Solidarity.
The French understand that an injustice to one is an injustice against all and are more likely to react to it, as such events occur. Americans are more likely to think that whoever is getting screwed by the system has got it coming -- and completely forget the words of Benjamin Franklin. Words, which the French live out: "Either we all hang together, or we all hang separately."
Posted in: Paris police say protests growing increasingly violent
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yabits
We are still months away from September 11, 2009. As we recall, the Republicans fluffed the blame away from Bush in 2001 -- saying it was all Clinton's fault.
No matter what move Obama makes, we know that mindless conservatives will say he's painting himself into a corner. This is just the way they are.
I, for one, am not disappointed in the slightest that President Obama has decided against military tribunals for 254 of the Gitmo inmates.
Posted in: Obama to restart military tribunals for Gitmo detainees, dismaying liberals
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yabits
likeitis hits the nail squarely on the head.
Posted in: Obama to restart military tribunals for Gitmo detainees, dismaying liberals
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yabits
You will have to cite references saying that waterboarding is still being used. My sources say that the technique was given up -- at least in the training of SEALS -- years ago.
Is this the same military that used waterboarding that folks claimed were mainly Republicans?
It is as simple as this: A nation is no more and no less than the values and principles it stands for and upholds. Once you adopt the terrorists methods you prove that you're not any better than they are -- and the nation you claim to be trying to protect has been sent down the tubes. You have destroyed the nation through your own actions.
Posted in: Pelosi draws CIA response, Republican criticism
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yabits
JoeBigs: Great post!
A breath of fresh air.
Posted in: Pelosi draws CIA response, Republican criticism
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yabits
Former Senator Bob Graham has a long, proven track record of honesty and integrity. He casts serious and credible doubt on the CIA version of events.
On the other hand, we have the CIA, Cheney, and the Republican camp-followers. Not the most credible bunch. At the end of the day, you believe who you want to.
Posted in: Pelosi says CIA misled her on waterboarding
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yabits
Bush took the CIA's lies and did one better himself. Folks only have to recall his state of the union address in 2003 where he mentioned those aluminum tubes and how they were suitable for nuclear weapons production. The intelligence community never believed any such thing. (He must have heard that from Cheney.)
Posted in: Pelosi says CIA misled her on waterboarding
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yabits
According to the AP: "Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein, a Democrat, backed Pelosi.
"I think it's a tempest in a teapot really to say: Well, Speaker Pelosi should have known all of this, she should have stopped this, she should have done this or done that," [Feinstein] said.
Posted in: Pelosi says CIA misled her on waterboarding
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yabits
The Republicans are masters at giving false impressions and at leveling false accusations. It's why we are in Iraq.
They really need Democrats around to wipe their bloody hands on.
Posted in: Pelosi says CIA misled her on waterboarding
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yabits
A neutral observer would note that, according to Senator Bob Graham, (a guy who has a solid reputation for scrupulous recording of details) many of the meetings that the CIA claims didn't even happen.
"In testimony that could bolster Speaker Nancy Pelosi's claim that the CIA misled her during briefings on detainee interrogations, former Senator Bob Graham insisted on Thursday that he too was kept in the dark about the use of waterboarding, and called the agency's records on these briefings "suspect."
"More relevant in this case, Graham also has a specific reputation for keeping detailed daily records of people he met and things they said. He's sometimes been mocked for this compulsive practice, but he's never been doubted about the completeness or accuracy of what he compiles. (In the fine print of those records would be an indication that I had interviewed him about Iraq war policy while he was in the Senate and recently spent time with him when he was on this side of the world.)
"So if he says he never got the briefing, he didn't. And if the CIA or anyone acting on its behalf challenges him, they are stupid and incompetent as well as being untrustworthy. This doesn't prove that the accounts of briefing Pelosi are also inaccurate. But it shifts the burden of proof."
A neutral observer can't help but recall the words "slam dunk" when relating to the CIA. Yes, someone pointed out that Tenant was a Clinton-appointee -- but he lied under Bush and Bush gave him the nation's highest civilian award for it.
Posted in: Pelosi says CIA misled her on waterboarding
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yabits
alphaape writes: "Cheney has all ready been on record as saying that the Obama Administration should go ahead and open the files ad reveal what they learned from these methods. Pretty bold you would think for a person who was trying to hide something willing to expose state secrets to prove that they were right."
Cheney? Bold? Laughable. Cheney wants very selective disclosure. Put him under oath and ask him questions that he hasn't cherry-picked himself.
Posted in: Pelosi says CIA misled her on waterboarding
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yabits
You do what you think needs to be done, President Obama.
Posted in: Obama to restart military tribunals for Gitmo detainees, dismaying liberals