Comments

1
But you are missing another opportunity for left-wing schadenfreude! The beauty of this is that the state's domestic spying "we don't need no hippie warrant or 4th amendment" infrastructure brought down one of their rising stars :-)))

Not that it will change anything.
3
Well, there is at least one interesting question raised by the Petraeus affair:

How did an investigation into harassing emails result in FBI access to the sender's email account? With the sender already identified as Broadwell, and copies of the incriminating(?) emails already in the victim's possession, what further purpose did the FBI have in seeking a warrant to access Broadwell's email account?
4
The Illuminati must have some serious $#!t going down, since they’ve cooked up this scandal to Dr. Evil proportions to distract the public. Teach the controversy, sheeples!
5
They’re just jealous ’cause Pussy Broadwell’s so pretty.

You’d think Lindsay Graham would’ve wanted first dibs for sitting on Betrayus’s Hellfire Missile. Lookout, betches, this kitty’s got claws!
6
Fuck the soap opera. What pisses me of is the ease at which one crackpot lady can commandeer FBI resources to investigate here email spat. Which becomes a fishing expedition, sucking in further people. This is a personal matter, and the surveillance statism is nauseating.
7
What @6 said.

Including a certain ex-Sheriff from King County in Congress who leaked classified information. Which we used to call, wait for it ... TREASON.
8
I so agree with you, Brendan.

I clipped that NYT article about the CIA report and carried it around with me yesterday so friends would have a chance to read it. I also was talking a lot about Venice.

On the other hand, all of this Petraeus news has fallen on my deaf ears.
9
@6 That's nothing. At least there was some crazy person threatening her. Check out how they got the generals to intervene in a family custody dispute.

Minor point to article: Patraeus' affair apparently strayed after he became CIA chief.

To be honest, I never understood why his experience as a general qualified him to run the CIA. At least Leon Penetta served in Military Intelligence when he was in the Army, though that was back in the 60s.

Can they not find any competent appointees from inside the agency, or does no one inside want the job?
10
If Patraeus was using his position to try to influence the election, that's a big fucking deal. That needs to be demonstrated, but as long as it's being alleged, you have to have serious blinders on to want to dismiss it the way you do.
11
It may be a soap opera, but it's not just about the sex.

The CIA expressly prohibits senior staff from having affairs for legitimate national security reasons. It makes them vulnerable to blackmail, for example. In this case, there is also some indication Broadwell may have accessed classified documents. That possibility certainly needs to be investigated.

@6: If we're talking about legitimately harassing emails that involve the Director of the CIA and that include plausible threats to use government resources, influence, and/or connections to harm an individual, then even you could have triggered an FBI investigation, Fnarf.
12
This whole thing is worth it just for the bit that Jon Stewart did last night. Because the minute this story broke and I realized who hit mistress was I went back and watched Broadwell's Daily Show interview and laughed a lot (I only remembered it because she made Stewart do push-ups).
13
The "Venice is flooding" story is completely overblown and inaccurate. Venice is not "flooding" in the same sense that Hoboken and Red Hook flooded during Sandy. Venice is an island in the middle of a tidal lagoon, and the flood they are experiencing is simply a very high tide -- acqua alta, they call it. The water flows in, the water flows out six hours later. It's actually a very common occurrence in Venice, several times a year, for many centuries, with a good coded warning system of sirens and digital readouts around town, and people are used to having water up over some of the plazas and streets. Normal street life goes on; people are sitting in cafes and shopping at produce stands like usual; they're just wearing rubber boots. It's NOTHING like the devastation of Sandy or Katrina or the floods in Genoa last year, where massive quantities of water and mud rise up and then don't leave. Remember, the ground floors of Venice buildings are usually just stairs and stroller and bike parking; the living is done upstairs.

And please tell me that the massive government fraud and waste program MOSE, which is being built for the purpose of "protecting Venice", when in fact all it's likely to accomplish is the death of all life in the lagoon, isn't going to be a model for anything here.

National Geographic writer Erla Zwingle lives in Venice, and has interesting observations and photos here:

http://iamnotmakingthisup.net/15202/san-…

http://iamnotmakingthisup.net/category/v…

http://iamnotmakingthisup.net/4927/acqua…

Re Petraeus -- there are excellent reasons why the White House is not involved in investigations of public officials; a trip over to the Wikipedia pages of "Watergate" and "J. Edgar Hoover" might refresh your memory. The FBI pretty much decided, correctly, that the "scandal" was a matter of hubris and poor judgement but not national security; the broader "conspiracy" angle was pushed by an FBI agent with a "world view" (uh-huh) who was out to get Obama, and so went to Reichert with what he knew (which was pretty much nothing). If there's a conspiracy to protect the president's reelection chances, then Eric Cantor was in on it, which seems unlikely. Petraeus is apparently a dumbass, which is surprising for someone as obsessed with burnishing his reputation as he is; and Broadwell, who was so effective at burnish it for him decided to burnish another part of him as well. The Kelleys are a bit mysterious: "self-appointed go-between for CENTCOM officers with Middle Eastern officials". More military culture, in its own bubble. We'll survive the loss of these people.
14
@11, I don't know why your comments directed @6 include my name. I am not Karlheinz Arschbomber.
15
@14: Well excuse me, Karlheinz, I quickly glanced at your avatar and mistook it for Fnarf's.

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