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Brown Moses posted:Well buying Fraps would be a tax deductable business expense, so that's not a problem. I should actually do an Ask/Tell thread at some point, I don't post half the stuff that happens to me because of the blog. Only yesterday I was told the Department of Defence are fans of the blog. I'm getting loads of views on it now as well, about 120,000 in the last month, and once the Arabic version is out I'm sure to get a lot more. Of course they are fans of the blog, it's like you're an open source analyst for them (perhaps the wave of the future). If you were working for the DOD you'd probably be making 70-100k US/yr as an analyst, but they are getting you for free. Even better deal for them considering how hard they've been hit by sequestration.
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May 26, 2013 14:51
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Brown Moses posted:Abu Sakkar has been injured in fighting, more here, plus details of other smaller casualties. I guess non of us can tell who the corpse belong to, but as long as they were serving Assad, I don't think the corpse should get any dignity. if his way of expressing his frustration is by sodomizing dead corpse, I couldn't care less. it is disgusting, I don't think I would've done anything of that sort even in the same situation just because it is absolutely disgusting. but I don't think it is wrong. Even if they (the dead solders) weren't directly torturing others, they worked for someone who did this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8T5FuD2HGkc. and if this people get similar or severe treatment, I'd be happy. Abu sakar fights for his ruined homeland so one day someone can live there like a normal human. his methods may be questionable, but his goals deserve all the respect there is to give. I don't blame you BM, but it seems to me he gets the flame for minor stuff while he should be praised.
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May 26, 2013 16:45
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Kill and torture everybody. Death shall reign. No peace.
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May 26, 2013 16:58
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ToiletPost posted:I really don't get the hate for this guy. according to your information, all he did was eating the heart of a dead body. and he did this in-front of a camera, as some sort of psychological warfare. it is easy to assume that he was exposed on a daily basis to some of the most horrible things happening to his friends. Dehumanize yourself and face to bloodshed.
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May 26, 2013 17:04
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ToiletPost posted:I really don't get the hate for this guy. according to your information, all he did was eating the heart of a dead body. and he did this in-front of a camera, as some sort of psychological warfare. it is easy to assume that he was exposed on a daily basis to some of the most horrible things happening to his friends. One thing to note is the version of the video that made it online (because they sent it to government officials and the like), had part of it edited out, where he said they directly threatened Alawites, so there's a sectarian element to this. Really, the reason he gets so much attention is because he did something really weird and gross, and the media loves that.
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May 26, 2013 17:06
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Will someone on the fence support the rebels after seeing them eating the hearts of their enemies? Will the loyalists be inclined to defect now that they heard about cannibals in the opposition? Will someone spoon fed government propaganda react well to damning evidence of people eating hearts? It's not a question of forcing the revolutionary forces to be saints, it's about them ensuring they have *some* sort of image to transmit aboard that they, in all this mess, are the best option. Heart-eating Syrian is not a representative of the entire movement and he saw a lot of hosed up poo poo. But going down this alley we might aswell forgive government soldiers for doing so now and rebel soldiers from doing even worse later, in an elegant dance to the bottom of humanity where everyone can stab each other's eyes out and eat each other's hearts because they other side did something too. It's like when in 1961 an Angolan resistance movement called UPA went and murdered entire villages composed of white settlers. Sure, it was a reaction to a lot of awful things, but do you think people in Luanda, even blacks, thought it was okay? This kind of thing ruin the image of the resistance and only makes people on the fence turn into conservatism, even if Assad is a brutal dictator.
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May 26, 2013 17:11
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I've had some more intercepted radio communications form Qusayr transcribed http://brown-moses.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/more-translated-radio-communications.html
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May 26, 2013 17:22
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Brown Moses posted:I've had some more intercepted radio communications form Qusayr transcribed You're the best. Seems HA learned quickly and started using codes in their trnamissions (first part). Did you see the two lengthier excrepts I posted earlier in the thread? I have a hard time understanding them due to bad audio quality (edit: and heavy dialect), but perhaps your translator will. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVJSi4tc2ws http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwK68Mm7pgM Herostratus fucked around with this message at 18:16 on May 26, 2013 |
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May 26, 2013 18:14
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Brown Moses posted:One thing to note is the version of the video that made it online (because they sent it to government officials and the like), had part of it edited out, where he said they directly threatened Alawites, so there's a sectarian element to this. Really, the reason he gets so much attention is because he did something really weird and gross, and the media loves that. Mans posted:Will someone on the fence support the rebels after seeing them eating the hearts of their enemies? Will the loyalists be inclined to defect now that they heard about cannibals in the opposition? Will someone spoon fed government propaganda react well to damning evidence of people eating hearts? Further more, I think that one youtube canibal, is the least of their problems in terms of PR when they have the jihadists and everyones asks themselves if it is worth to live under taliban instead of an rear end in a top hat dictator.
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May 26, 2013 18:21
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ToiletPost posted:I agree about this can of worms theory, but What I'm telling myself is that if I can relate to his furstration in his PR stunts (which now according to BM may unfortunetly be more then that) then I assume the syrians can relate to him much more. it is possible that I'm insane, but I really think that brutulizing corpses is far less worse then making them. Yes, but that's the awful thing about it. The Free Syrian army needs to distance themselves from the islamic sect without turning them into oponents. It's a battle that i don't see how they could win easily or how they could surpress said movements without creating even more propaganda\leverage in favor of Assad. I don't think goons are turning to favor Assad, they are just fearing that the government is gaining more and more ground and that these videos are showing more and more desperation, sectarianism and extremism from an opposition who needs to use more and more lunatics as their weapons against the regime Goons are simply worried about the future of Syria, not exactly praising Assad.
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May 26, 2013 18:29
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More following today's rocket attack in Lebanonquote:FSA official: Dahiyeh attack warning to Hezbollah But then quote:FSA Strongly Condemns Dahiyeh Rocket Attack, Disavows Its Secretary's Threats
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May 26, 2013 18:53
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Watching the rebels eat people's hearts isn't going to do anything but convince the Alawites in particular, and non-Sunnis in general, that they are even more screwed if Assad falls.
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May 26, 2013 19:02
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Cordyceps Headache posted:Watching the rebels eat people's hearts isn't going to do anything but convince the Alawites in particular, and non-Sunnis in general, that they are even more screwed if Assad falls. I think the writing's been on the wall for a long time now for the Alawites and Christians in Syria when/if Assad falls. It will be absolutely horrific. The nearest thing I can imagine of their eventual fate would be Srebrenica or Rwanda on an absolutely massive scale. I think there's been little to no discussion amongst the international community on what they could try to do for these people in the event that Assad falls. Zedsdeadbaby fucked around with this message at 19:11 on May 26, 2013 |
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May 26, 2013 19:09
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Here's the newest cluster munition of the conflict https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6kcQhU5rFA More on it here. That's the 6th cluster munition of the conflict.
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May 26, 2013 22:50
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The Syrian government has agreed in principle to take part in the peace conference: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-22672715 Meanwhile, the Syrian National Coalition is in the process of falling apart (more so than previously): Syrian opposition unity talks hit snags before peace conference http://news.yahoo.com/syrian-opposition-unity-talks-hit-snags-peace-conference-124808820.html Discord bogs down Syrian opposition talks http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2013/05/2013525101221796276.html
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May 26, 2013 23:45
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When will the jihad stop? 
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May 26, 2013 23:45
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Graham posted:When will the jihad stop? I actually have no idea what you're talking about here.
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May 26, 2013 23:50
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I empathize with Sakkar, but he's clearly a broken, twisted man, not that it really makes him just an all around awful person given the circumstances that drove him to it. I'm willing to bet that the morality of committing such an act never even crossed his mind. He and the group he was with figured it could be intimidating and help the war effort. With a war like this one, that leaves no aspirations, no dreams, no plans for the future, nothing other than "We must win," which is what any logical person in that scenario would think, I can't imagine you'd dwell much about whether or not you'll be able to sleep at night later in life knowing the things you've done. It still drives me nuts to see people act like this is representative of anything at all, whether it be an increase in fundamentalists or a lack of SNC control. There is literally not one other conclusion you can take from it other than that Abu Sakkar is a broken individual. American soldiers entire families were safe, thousands of miles away, they fought for only a year at a time, and had the benefit of having the richest military support in the entire world while fighting a massively overwhelmed force, and we saw them torture prisoners, murder civilians, piss on the dead, and every manner of humiliating act you can think of. Simply because they were stressed out about how long was left til they got to go home and be done with the fighting ( a luxury which Syrians don't even get to count the days until). That and maybe seen someone they grew close with since they first met them a couple years ago, die, although on a person by person basis, at a much smaller ratio than Syrians. You can't realistically place higher standards on a ragtag army than the U.S. was able to achieve, especially considering how much worse their situation is. Sakkar's happen.
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May 26, 2013 23:52
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Volkerball posted:It still drives me nuts to see people act like this is representative of anything at all, whether it be an increase in fundamentalists or a lack of SNC control. There is literally not one other conclusion you can take from it other than that Abu Sakkar is a broken individual. American soldiers entire families were safe, thousands of miles away, they fought for only a year at a time, and had the benefit of having the richest military support in the entire world while fighting a massively overwhelmed force, and we saw them torture prisoners, murder civilians, piss on the dead, and every manner of humiliating act you can think of. Simply because they were stressed out about how long was left til they got to go home and be done with the fighting ( a luxury which Syrians don't even get to count the days until). That and maybe seen someone they grew close with since they first met them a couple years ago, die, although on a person by person basis, at a much smaller ratio than Syrians. You can't realistically place higher standards on a ragtag army than the U.S. was able to achieve, especially considering how much worse their situation is. Sakkar's happen. But the SNC do lack control. I'd say that the lack of an overarching Syrian opposition force that is directing the war and lacks even the semblance of a chain of command or ability to maintain discipline makes the existance of people like Sakkar far more worrying. If the Assad government does fall, then there will be absolutely nothing stopping Sakkar and his ilk, never mind the jihadists, from carrying out whatever sort of revenge their twisted minds find approporiate on the enemy civilian population. George Sabra and his 'Abu Sakkar dead or alive! Thirty thousand men to secure the oil fields!" claims are surely a joke by now. I doubt he has any authority or respect at all inside Syria. mediadave fucked around with this message at 00:11 on May 27, 2013 |
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May 27, 2013 00:09
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mediadave posted:But the SNC do lack control. I'd say that the lack of an overarching Syrian opposition force that is directing the war and lacks even the semblance of a chain of command or ability to maintain discipline makes the existance of people like Sakkar far more worrying. If the Assad government does fall, then there will be absolutely nothing stopping Sakkar and his ilk, never mind the jihadists, from carrying out whatever sort of revenge their twisted minds find approporiate on the enemy civilian population. I agree. Khatib even called upon Sabra to resign, and the fact that the entire Syrian faction of the SNC took their ball and went home, leaving the Qatari and MB blocs to wear the SNC as their organization pretty much dooms it. But bI don't think there will be "nothing stopping" people like Sakkar should Assad fall, as Russian interests in the region would be largely diminished, meaning it'll likely be less politically toxic for the international community to provide aid to the opposition. My point is simply Sakkar isn't indicative of any of this.
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May 27, 2013 00:20
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Found this picture on a semi-official Hezbollah website. It contains a list of martyrs (or rather a screencap of a folder with subfolders named after martyrs, which amounts to the same thing). There sre 97 names of HA fighters killed in Syria since at least late April. I think that's about as reliable as you can get with regards to Hezbollah KIA in Syria so far. https://fbcdn-sphotos-e-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-prn1/936344_582190801812612_1270463485_n.jpg
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May 27, 2013 06:58
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Is Shiyah part of Dahiyeh? A lot of articles I'm reading are really unclear about where exactly this attack took place.
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May 27, 2013 09:23
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If I had to place it, I'd say it's really around the middle of Dahiyeh.
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May 27, 2013 15:30
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The Daily Beast has an exclusive on John McCain entering Syria and meeting with the upper echelon of the Free Syrian Army. Looks like he's ramping up his ongoing push for further U.S. involvement in the conflict that would surely change the dynamics on the ground. Not sure if this is a good thing by any stretch...
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May 27, 2013 18:21
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dox posted:The Daily Beast has an exclusive on John McCain entering Syria and meeting with the upper echelon of the Free Syrian Army. Looks like he's ramping up his ongoing push for further U.S. involvement in the conflict that would surely change the dynamics on the ground. Not sure if this is a good thing by any stretch... He's been calling for it for a while now. Keep in mind that right after the Benghazi incident, when everyone was making GBS threads on Libya and Obama for letting terrorists exist, McCain went on television and said that Libya had a free election and elected moderates as a result of the war. Called them our friends and said it was ridiculous to portray them as an enemy to the U.S. He caught a lot of flak for that. He's a bit eager to go into other places at times when it would end in a disaster, but I think he genuinely feels for people stuck in conflicts like this. His opinion coming out might be poo poo, but at least he's the kind of conservative who actually wants to know what is going on and how to help instead of just defaulting to the anti-democrat position without really caring.
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May 27, 2013 19:27
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Volkerball posted:He's been calling for it for a while now. Keep in mind that right after the Benghazi incident, when everyone was making GBS threads on Libya and Obama for letting terrorists exist, McCain went on television and said that Libya had a free election and elected moderates as a result of the war. Called them our friends and said it was ridiculous to portray them as an enemy to the U.S. He caught a lot of flak for that. He's a bit eager to go into other places at times when it would end in a disaster, but I think he genuinely feels for people stuck in conflicts like this. His opinion coming out might be poo poo, but at least he's the kind of conservative who actually wants to know what is going on and how to help instead of just defaulting to the anti-democrat position without really caring. US Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham have consistently said that the US military needs to be involved more in these conflicts, even if there is zero reason for them to be there. They had plenty to say criticizing Obama's 'Lead from Behind' role for months during the NATO mission over Libya. Really anything less than Obama sending actual troops to the area, he won't be 'doing enough' in McCain's eyes.
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May 27, 2013 19:44
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McCain is one of the neocon hawks in government, I don't think anyone should take him seriously really. It's absolutely not surprising at all that he would try to start a fight. He's an old republican being an old republican.
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May 27, 2013 20:50
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So the BBC are reporting the the EU will meet to discuss easing arms sanctions so the rebels can be armed. I see that ending well... http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-22677599
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May 27, 2013 21:20
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Apparent description of chemical weapons attacks from French reporter embeds with the Syrian resistance.quote:Reporters for Le Monde spent two months clandestinely in the Damascus area alongside Syrian rebels. They describe the extent of the Syrian tragedy, the intensity of the fighting, the humanitarian drama. On the scene during chemical weapons attacks, they bear witness to the use of toxic arms by the government of Bashar al-Assad.
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May 27, 2013 21:37
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Don't you need some kind of propellant to disperse a chemical weapon in order for it to...work?
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May 27, 2013 21:58
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If someone like McCain/Romney were in the Oval Office we'd be fighting World War 3 already.
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May 27, 2013 23:01
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Syria arms embargo lifted. God help the people of Syria. They're gonna need it.
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May 27, 2013 23:08
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People of Syria, alone? Nay, it's the entire Middle East and further that is going to be hosed if EU starts truly pumping weapons to Syria. And just as we achieved the arms trade treaty in UN, it's the loving EU that screws it. William Hague is insane.
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May 28, 2013 00:04
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Your move, Putin.
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May 28, 2013 00:21
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Nenonen posted:People of Syria, alone? Nay, it's the entire Middle East and further that is going to be hosed if EU starts truly pumping weapons to Syria. And just as we achieved the arms trade treaty in UN, it's the loving EU that screws it. A/RES/67/234 (which, really, is just a for-real-this-time implementation of A/CONF.217/CRP.1) was never meant to control weapon transfers meant for the Syrian rebels. It very specifically lays out the the principles and methods of international arms trade between states. To me, owing to the timing and wording of the resolution, it seems likely that the treaty as implemented exists mainly to prevent the Iranians from supplying the Syrian government while giving outside states free reign to continue arming the non-state rebels- note that at the time of the resolution's adoption the main complaints from the Iranians was that the treaty failed to have enough regulations preventing transfer of arms to "terrorist groups" who probably in the mind of the Iranian government include the Syrian rebels. This isn't to say that arms control is a bad thing, certainly. But I think the timing of it all is just a little too pat. illrepute fucked around with this message at 01:01 on May 28, 2013 |
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May 28, 2013 00:57
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Jut posted:Don't you need some kind of propellant to disperse a chemical weapon in order for it to...work? Not a visible one. Beyond that many methods involve dispersing the agent on the way down to the ground so by the time the munition impacts there's nothing to see or hear. That method would also explain the delayed effect, as it takes a little time for the cloud of dispersed agent to drift to the ground. Warbadger fucked around with this message at 01:41 on May 28, 2013 |
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May 28, 2013 01:37
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dox posted:The Daily Beast has an exclusive on John McCain entering Syria and meeting with the upper echelon of the Free Syrian Army. Looks like he's ramping up his ongoing push for further U.S. involvement in the conflict that would surely change the dynamics on the ground. Not sure if this is a good thing by any stretch... I really hope there is some White House response to this, did they give him the go ahead for this? If not, what the hell is he doing going all rogue on the State Department?
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May 28, 2013 01:40
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CommieGIR posted:If not, what the hell is he doing going all rogue on the State Department? You could say... he's a maverick! 
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May 28, 2013 01:59
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ecureuilmatrix posted:You could say... he's a maverick! You could say that, save for the fact that John McCain has disavowed EVER being maverick-ey.
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May 28, 2013 03:44
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He was just lying to the feds.
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