Reason Morning Links: From Sacramento to Tehran

Jesse Walker | June 22, 2009

• It was a weekend of state violence and popular resistance in Iran, where some election irregularities have now been acknowledged.

• California politicians are using accounting tricks to reduce the state's deficit.

• A New York Times reporter was secretly held hostage by the Taliban for seven months. And just escaped.

• Obama proposes a ROTC for spies.

• And in other intelligence news: Guess whose email they've been reading at the NSA?

Comments

|6.22.09 @ 9:25AM|#

A New York Times reporter was secretly held hostage by the Taliban for seven months. And just escaped.

What the hell? What is the point of holding a hostage secretly? I'll go RTFA now.

perilisk|6.22.09 @ 9:34AM|#

Did the ex-hostage build a robot suit? Or whatever the equivalent is for journalists?

|6.22.09 @ 9:38AM|#

Election irregularities? Are they saying a few ballots were actually counted properly?

Mike in PA|6.22.09 @ 9:45AM|#

Obama proposes a ROTC for spies

Oh how lovely?! The ObamaYouth. Will they have their own theme song?

I swear... I see too many signs that history is repeating itself.

Xeones|6.22.09 @ 9:59AM|#

Did the ex-hostage build a robot suit? Or whatever the equivalent is for journalists?

The journalistic equivalent is a really scathing blog entry. So, maybe!

I have a cunning plan: if the mullahs don't call off their goon squads, we will threaten to give them California.

Mike M.|6.22.09 @ 10:15AM|#

For the first time yesterday and again today, the Rasmussen Reports daily tracking poll for Obama has higher "Strongly Disapprove" than "Strongly Approve" numbers (33-34, -1%).

The dishonest, overexposed, jug-eared narcissist is slowly but surely starting to wear on the American people.

Mainstream Media|6.22.09 @ 10:18AM|#

slowly but surely starting to wear on the American people.

Well that simply cannot do. We'll have to take care of that. Trust me, we'll have those numbers back up by the end of the week.

roystgnr|6.22.09 @ 10:35AM|#

ROTC for spies? Maybe I got a distorted view of the whole Valerie Plame thing, but I'm under the impression that most spies would be better off if their yearbook photos were *not* captioned, "I'm going to become a spy!"

Dave Krueger|6.22.09 @ 10:43AM|#

I can't believe the NSA would flagrantly violate the law and invade people's privacy by reading their emails and listening in on their phone calls, especially given the the way Congress has vigorously stood up for our rights, cracking down on the practice by generously doling out harsh career-destroying punishments and criminal prosecution to those who engage in it or authorize no matter how high an office they hold.

Hahaha! Just kidding.

|6.22.09 @ 11:13AM|#

• Obama proposes a ROTC for spies.

The idea is to create a stream "of first- and second-generation Americans, who already have critical language and cultural knowledge, and prepare them for careers in the intelligence agencies," according to a description sent to Congress by Director of National Intelligence Dennis C. Blair.

At first blush, this seems a very good idea. Before anyone asks, yes, I believe foreign intelligence collection is a legitimate function of government. Interfering in the internal affairs of other nations, not so much.

|6.22.09 @ 11:56AM|#

Obama proposes a ROTC for spies

I think this is, indeed, a good idea. One of the major problems the US has in gathering intelligence is that we lack native speakers with cultural awareness. It's led to an overreliance on expensive and ineffective technical collection methods as opposed to far more valuable human intelligence.

Intelligence agencies ALREADY recruit and provide scholarships for math oriented college students - in fact NSA is the largest single employer of mathmeticians worldwide. What's wrong with doing the same for linguists?

|6.22.09 @ 12:19PM|#

Those cunning, cunning linguists...

Mike Laursen|6.22.09 @ 12:42PM|#

Obama proposes a ROTC for spies.

Being in Secret Agent ROTC in high school would be cooler than regular ROTC. It would probably get you more girls. Of course, I was such a nerd in high school I'd only be accepted to be in the Junior NSA, and still not have had a date to the prom.

|6.22.09 @ 3:21PM|#

Being in Secret Agent ROTC in high school would be cooler than regular ROTC. It would probably get you more girls.

It is virtually impossible for your second sentence to be false.

ellipsis|6.22.09 @ 4:34PM|#

Mainstream Media | June 22, 2009, 10:18am | #

Well that simply cannot do. We'll have to take care of that. Trust me, we'll have those numbers back up by the end of the week.

How's that going to work? I have yet to see a pause between reporters giving blowjobs of hope. I don't think it's possible to increase the fellatio any more, but I could be wrong.

But has anybody stopped to think about the possibility that the overboard fawning might actually be hurting the poll numbers?