my, oh my

[gawntrail]

This was in the latest Famous Smoke Shop e-newsletter.

*OUT OF WASHINGTON, DC came a report from U.S. Newswire that the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), the Treasury department agency, charged with stopping the transit of illegal funds to terrorist organizations, allocates more employees to tracking Americans for Cuban embargo violations than to investigating where and how Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein get their money, according to an OFAC letter to Congress. In the letter from OFAC to Senators Charles Grassley and Max Baucus of the Senate Finance Committee it was revealed that just four full-time employees were assigned to investigating Osama bin Laden's and Saddam Hussein's wealth while nearly two dozen were working on Cuban embargo violations.*

There are no dates or sources cited.......but, if this is accurate...........IT is scary!

M. Gipson :0

 

[sir-smokes-a-lot]

saw this post over at CW too.

yeah, this is our govt. and it's skewed view of important things at the moment

 

[gkpk]

DAMN!!!!!!
These guys better get their priorities straight!!!!!! :angry:

 

[Muley]

:angry:

Guys, guys, guys...

1. Check your sources - I guarantee you more than 4 people did (and do) investigate sources of income from/to OBL and SH. And

2. remember, most of the funds those people received through "legitimate", "semi-legitimate", and "non-legitimate" means have been accounted for and the accounts, businesses, etc seized where possible.

3. SH is no longer receiving income. The bulk of his income was gathered through the financial rape of his country. We are now trying to halt his followers and competitors in Iraq that would do the same i they had the chance.

4. Any money OBL is getting (if he's still alive) has to be coming hand to hand from local supporters through so many corrupt washing machines that it's untraceable.

5. And lets not forget the "legitimate" and black-market foreign businesses that fund terrorism that we're powerless to affect (ie. Indonesian agriculture - read coffee, tobacco growers, Asian sex slavery markets - read Cambodian, Vietnamese, Thai sales of children into prostitution and strip clubs, Neo-facist/Communist governments with vested interests in arms and terror - read: Cuban gov't sponsored illegal sales of goods/merchandise/drugs to foreign countries incl USA)
And that's just a few of the glaringly obvious examples.

6. We live in a hugely corrupt, amazingly opportunistic (at all costs) world folks. Let's not put all of the clean-up responsibility and blame on the US government.

7. Hey, we could raise taxes and take away those increased child tax credits to hire more analysts! But then, we already have a ton of them that this "supposed letter" doesn't mention.

 

[oak]

The original post on USNewswire is here:

USNewswire Link

Here's a better link to read, though:

Grassley's Entire Release... PDF Format

If you are interested, start with the PDF and then dig deeper. All that glitters ain't gold from these two guys. Although I am of the opinion that anything anti-bush is a good thing - I really got to wish "my side" got more clever than this.

That's my limited 2-cents on the matter, and I humbly vote for keeping politics off this board per the guidelines. This memo makes me want to beat my head against the wall - along with the policies of literally everyone mentioned on both sides of the fence in this area of our esteemed government.

- Oak

 

[PuroBrat]

Brother Oak, I want you to know that you have my respect as a fellow BOTL, but you can't make a statement like:

Although I am of the opinion that anything anti-bush is a good thing ....

Then follow it with a statement like this:

I humbly vote for keeping politics off this board per the guidelines. ....

- Oak

Damn dude, talk about a Political Flame Thrower :angry:

In the interest of keeping Political arguments off the board, I will refrain from offering my oppinions of the first statement :angry: , and agree with the second. :thumbs:

 

[oak]

Brother Oak, I want you to know that you have my respect as a fellow BOTL, but you can't make a statement like:

Although I am of the opinion that anything anti-bush is a good thing ....

Then follow it with a statement like this:

I humbly vote for keeping politics off this board per the guidelines.  ....

- Oak

Damn dude, talk about a Political Flame Thrower :angry:

In the interest of keeping Political arguments off the board, I will refrain from offering my oppinions of the first statement :angry: , and agree with the second. :thumbs:

Completely agree... My mistake on that one. Thanks for holding the flames in check...

 

[PuroBrat]

see, the drugs really work :0

 

[Lumberg]

Brother Oak, I want you to know that you have my respect as a fellow BOTL, but you can't make a statement like:

Although I am of the opinion that anything anti-bush is a good thing ....

Then follow it with a statement like this:

I humbly vote for keeping politics off this board per the guidelines.  ....

- Oak

Damn dude, talk about a Political Flame Thrower :angry:

In the interest of keeping Political arguments off the board, I will refrain from offering my oppinions of the first statement :angry: , and agree with the second. :thumbs:

LMAO! You also simultaneously expressed your political views while admonishing Oak for expressing his!

 

[Monte]

This treads' locked



... what?? I can't do that??



Never mind

 

[PuroBrat]

LMAO! You also simultaneously expressed your political views while admonishing Oak for expressing his!

So Lums, you think you know my political views on the subject do you?

I expressed no views what-so-ever, I simply stated that the potential existed for a flame war after a statement like the one made. Not that any of those flames would come from me

 

[Lumberg]

LMAO! You also simultaneously expressed your political views while admonishing Oak for expressing his!

So Lums, you think you know my political views on the subject do you?

I expressed no views what-so-ever, I simply stated that the potential existed for a flame war after a statement like the one made. Not that any of those flames would come from me

Well even if you didn't mean to you gave the impression that you disagree with Oak's anti-Bush stance.

 

[oak]

Well even if you didn't mean to you gave the impression that you disagree with Oak's anti-Bush stance.

Also, I've decided I'm not anti-Bush anymore - but heading slowly towards being pro-douchebag...

:sign:

No opinions either way on the site above (I haven't read all of it), but you gotta admit the concept of the site is amusing. Every democrat I know (including me) has this sort of depressed look on their face when asked who they're going to vote for... Ahh well.

Here is a site that I do read (among many many others) that might actually interest everyone, regardless of your political stance: Factcheck.org

I've got a bias here (I know the main site author) - but I think he is doing as good a job as I've seen of actually attacking things thrown out by both sides (he actually takes turns...) Sometimes he's just nit-picky, but sometimes your jaw will drop.

Hopefully, everyone but the three of us had the sense to ignore this thread by this point... But for those that are still around:

Here's my main political statement for the day: Cheers to everyone out there that bothers to vote at all, regardless of who it's for... For the rest of you... come on back, we need you...

Regards,

- Oak

 

[Lumberg]

Here's my main political statement for the day: Cheers to everyone out there that bothers to vote at all, regardless of who it's for... For the rest of you... come on back, we need you...

Best statement ever.