I'MMA LET YOU FINISH
i can't click on that tom delay pic. too disturbing.
Can we at least get rid of that damn redirect? Now I try to hit Stop before it does it...
Durbin's Comments Waking the Dead
Illinois Senator Dick Durbin's recent comments equating the actions of U.S. soldiers with those of the Nazis, the Soviet gulag forced labor camp system and Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge may have backfired, as fully two-thirds of those deceased veterans who voted for him in 2002 have changed their voter registration to Republican. - Confederate Yankee
Clicking on the AI ad will get you (eventually) to a summary of the 2005 report and info on how to order the whole thing.
Since I doubt nobody in the Administration has actually read the damned thing themselves, it might be useful to have.
So... if we can agree that it's a consistent, predictable and effective Republican tactic to whine about the language, analogies and rhetoric of those who criticize them in order to distract from their wrongdoings and intimidate others from speaking out...
...then, what's the consistent, predictable and effective Democratic (or progressive) counter-tactic? There has to be one...
It may just be "hit 'em with the chair," but I'm askin' y'all.
"But your flag decal won't get you
Into Heaven any more.
They're already overcrowded
From your dirty little war.
Now Jesus don't like killin'
No matter what the reason's for,
And your flag decal won't get you
Into Heaven any more."
Just a reminder that John Prine has a new album out, first one in a while. Sorry to be OT.
Since I doubt nobody in the Administration has actually read the damned thing themselves, it might be useful to have.
Diane
Diane, State Dept. relies on AI heavily for their own human rights reports. Generally agree with everything but the stuff about the US and friends of Furious George. {at least that was true with Powell, father of Powell}.
one of these ads is crashing my browser (mozilla).
just started recently, happens with Kos too.
Jeb's LTE today was a peach.
I wonder how he feels about protecting those vulnerable Iraqi children that had napalm dropped on their sorry asses.
Fucking hypocrite.
Jeb is even more dangerous than George because he at least gives the appearance of intelligence and competence. At least he can speak intelligently.
Tom,
You are right, of course. I meant the top idiots: Bush, Cheney, Gonzalez, Rice, Rumsfield.
Podvin in Democratic rhetoric
http://makethemaccountable.com/
p...Realpolitik.htm
Nice link, Alice.
Illinois doesn't even have party registration so Confed Yank is full of crap.
It's kinda a sign they're lying when they make big claims and there's no link.
More Povdin:
By a vote of 58-42, the Senate has confirmed Dr. Josef Mengele to a seat on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. “The Democrat complaint against this nominee is that he sadistically mutilated defenseless living beings while conducting insane research experiments,” said Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN). “And your point is what?”
“This provocative nomination sorely tempts me to invoke the filibuster,” declared Robert Byrd (D-WV). “However, those of us who revere the institution of the Senate must honor the bipartisan compromise, even though it means losing our freedom and becoming enslaved by fascists.”
“I pose the same highly relevant question about every nominee: Is he gay?” stated Rick Santorum (R-PA). “As a reactionary yet very effeminate man, I am somewhat paranoid about being identified as gay, so I go to the opposite extreme and seek to persecute all homosexuals. I believe that a vote to confirm Dr. Mengele furthers this pathetic, self-loathing agenda of mine.”
“I want to emphasize that my support for Dr. Mengele in no way indicates that I favor turning the United States into the Fourth Reich,” asserted Mary Landrieu (D-LA). “What it does indicate is that I possess a pathological compulsion to stab my loyal constituents in the back.”
“I invoke the Priscilla Owen standard. Since someone with her views has been confirmed, Dr. Mengele should sail right through,” insisted Orrin Hatch (R-UT). “So why are the liberals raising such a stink? I can sum up their demagogic objections in three words: hatred of white people.”
“This nominee is a Nazi!” thundered Barbara Boxer (D-CA). “He is a sociopath! He is a torturer! He is a murderer! What’s more, he’s dead, and has been for quite some time! I could go on and on, but I’m afraid these facts are likely to convince more of my colleagues that he is the ideal judge.”
The Poor Man is back up today, after being down for the past several days as a result of a bandwidth-exploding link from Kos. Anyway, Andrew is aksing for donations. So, show the dude some love, y'all.
The Poor Man needs our help.
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And there's a nice piece on John Prine, poet's poet and great American, in today's WaPost.
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Speakin' of ads. It's a good thing that there ain't any guns in the home. Otherwise, that hotel TV that showed Robert Goulet wouldn't be the only TV that had a slug put through it. Here's some commercials that make me want to put a slug through the tube:
John Basedow and his frosted, highlighted hair and his 6-pak goddamn abs.
That Raisin Bran putz that got fired and still sits at his desk munchin' his fuckin' Raisin fuckin' Bran. If'un I was "Johnson," I'd take a tire iron to Mr. fuckin' Raisin fuckin' Bran. Same goes for that Grape Nuts ad. How fuckin' bad does Grape Nuts have to be that even a hungry fuckin' bear won't eat it?
That fat fuck "Lost Another Loan to Ditech" asshole. How come that putz still had a job after losin' so many loans to Ditech? It looks like Ditech finally realized that. Haven't seen that fat fuck in the Ditech ads the last few weeks.
Goddamn Geico and their fuckin' lizard. They never save me any money and they wasted 15 minutes of my life.
Since Atrios brought up "causes that might be of interest to readers", here's one:
Independent World Television
Spread the word. It's time to stop complaining about the compromised corporate media whores, and time to start writing the agenda ourselves.
Why is DeLay smoking a turd? Must be one of those Cacanudos.
Ditto re the link, Alice.
The ads are the bane of my Eschatonian existence.
The ads re-direct Firefox users every time the page refreshes. It is the most annoying goddammed thing in the world. Funny... it is only THESE ads on THIS site. BlogAds anywhere else have no effect on Firefox.
I hate the ads. I want to crush the ads. Balefire the ads from the web. erase them from the Akashic Records.... AH--ha-ha!
[/whining]
aside from that, the posting has been incredible.
Tony B.
Here's some commercials that make me want to put a slug through the tube:
"Zoom zoom zoom."
Taco Bell commercials.
Denny's commercials. Ever since the Corlick Sisters (*spits*) and maybe before, they've had some pretty fucking awful commercials. I don't even remember what they're doing now, just that it sucks.
I second *most* of the Geico commercials, especially the "But I do have good news" ones, which are uniformly, embarrassingly unfunny.
Oh! I knew I was forgetting some:
The godaddy.com commercials, and the Barbasol commercials with the non-sequitur "Close shave!" "Better buy Barbasol!" exchanges...
Lampley:
The Ultimate Deception?
A Bush-watcher website identified as TBRNews.org is reporting under the byline of "domestic intelligence reporter" Brian Harring that the Department of Defense is using a cynical tactic to mislead the public regarding the true death toll for American military personnel in Iraq. Harring claims he has an internal pdf. file from the D.O.D. which establishes that nearly 9000 Americans have died in Operation Iraqi Freedom, but that the official number has been held to 1713 by designating as Iraq deaths only those who perish on Iraqi soil. The remainder, he says, are military personnel who have died en route to Germany or in German hospitals-- casualties of the war, but not listed in the official death toll.
...
There's more at the site. Harring also asserts more than 5500 American military personnel assigned to Iraq have deserted, most to Ireland and Canada. But I am at a loss to figure the origin of this site or the validity of its information without help...
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/
th...ption_2838.html
After a quick google:
60 Minutes:
Deserters: We Won't Go To Iraq
Dec. 8, 2004
CBS) The Pentagon says more than 5,500 servicemen have deserted since the war started in Iraq.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/
2...ain659336.shtml
And most frightening from global security:
While we make every diligent effort to reconcile the casualties' name with the original incident notice, it is nonetheless possible for a few casualties to have been doublecounted. This is in contrast to the official DoD count, which appears to undercount US casualties and account for them only once the next-of-kin have been notified and the names publicly released. Casualties whose next-of-kin are not notified or cannot be contacted/located do not therefore appear to be counted in the official tally.
Additionally, an April 27, 2004, story titled "The Lasting Wounds Of War: Roadside Bombs Have Devastated Troops and Doctors Who Treat Them" by Karl Vick and published in the Washington Post, page 1, mentioned instances where US casualties, having suffered extensive brain-damage and with no prospect of regaining consciousness, are sent home for families to decide whether or not to terminate life support. According to the article, "The practice, subject to review after gathering feedback from families, assumes that loved ones will find value in holding the soldier's hand before confronting the decision to remove life support." It is not immediately apparent the extent to which these casualties are accounted for in the official DoD casualties count.
http://www.globalsecurity.org/
mi...lties_notes.htm
Also, GS says as of 31st of July 2004 over 14,000 troops had been "evacuated from Iraq for treatment outside the theater for various medical reasons, broadly defined as Wounded In Action, Non-Battle Injury, and Disease"
GS could only find a total of ten US service members that died following evacuation from Iraq. So out 14,000 wounded or sick enough to be evacuated out of Iraq and only 10 died? Doesn't sound right to me.
Why is DeLay smoking a turd? Must be one of those Cacanudos.
Isn't that, like, cannibalism or something?
Please stop making all these hurtful remarks about me, you're liable to damage my self esteem.
And death to the cheesy Samuel Adams guy. The Samuel L. Jackson lager commercials, on the other hand...
("Mmm-MMM! That's some good motherf***in' beer!")
OT, but have you heard about the new excuse Conservatives (and Hardball with Chris Matthews) are giving for the Downing Street memo? They claim that "fixed" has a different meaning in Britain (to put in order) than in the US (to lie unashamedly about WMD's).
Well, for the record, I looked the word "fixed" up in the online version of the Oxford English Dictionary, and no such special British meaning exists. It means exactly what we think it means. There is an obscure definition (#8 on the list) which means "to put in order" but it hasn't been used since 1789 and it was not specifically British.
Since I doubt nobody in the Administration has actually read the damned thing themselves, it might be useful to have.
Diane
diane, at the risk of seeming pedantic, we gotta stop referring to the gang of thugs, gunsels, murderers, thieves, liars, pimps, and whores as an "Administration."
gives 'em too much cred, by blocks...
the opposition has traditionally utilized "Junta" or "Regime" to castigate odious, criminal usurpers...
As long as we're discussing the DeLay ad, I think it's appropriate to repost this bit of wisdom:
"Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. Yeah well sometimes it's just a big brown dick with a white collar business asshole sucking on the wet end of it!" - George Carlin
Very possibly the cruelest and most misleading letter I've ever seen in the LAT op-ed page.
PTSD Overdiagnosed
Needless to say, the writer has no understanding of war or mental health issues. i say we slam it.
Either that, or the writer is just snark laden as hell, and I was undercaffeinated. You make the call.
OT, but have you heard about the new excuse Conservatives (and Hardball with Chris Matthews) are giving for the Downing Street memo? They claim that "fixed" has a different meaning in Britain (to put in order) than in the US (to lie unashamedly about WMD's).
Michael Smith, the Times reporter who's been covering this, dispenses with this foolishness quite effectively:
There are number of people asking about fixed and its meaning. This is a real joke. I do not know anyone in the UK who took it to mean anything other than fixed as in fixed a race, fixed an election, fixed the intelligence. If you fix something, you make it the way you want it. The intelligence was fixed and as for the reports that said this was one British official. Pleeeaaassee! This was the head of MI6. How much authority do you want the man to have? He has just been to Washington, he has just talked to George Tenet. He said the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy. That translates in clearer terms as the intelligence was being cooked to match what the administration wanted it to say to justify invading Iraq. Fixed means the same here as it does there.
i'm with WGG. Regime is my choice of term, but junta works too.
Administrations lead and govern. This gang does neither.
The ads themselves don't bug me, but sometimes that "Political Wires" ad fills up the whole page, and I have to re-laod it. Sometimes I have to do this as many as a dozen times.
I don't know if anyone else is having this problem, maybe it's a Firefox thing, I don't know.
Cup O' Joe - Blog Of The Working Man!
(read the whole chat; it's super fantastic)
Heh: Rall.
I heard that the Chimp will resign today. True?
T-Cho - I said this below, but it's honestly kind of funny watching the Bushistas trying to slime away from their criminality by attacked the language used to describe what happened and is happening.
They don't have anything else - the facts can no longer be denied. So they hit phase 2 of the Repug conspiracy defense - the words being used.
It's pathetic. It isn't going to save their pimpled asses either.
Sallyh,
that first letter in response to Satel, seems like full blown snark to me.
morning folks.
.
ResIpsa - no offense, but Fuck Ted Rall.
He's a sorry cocksucker, despite his cartoons.
Firefox redirect--I had this problem until I installed the very latest engine for Norton Internet Security. For some reason, once I did that, the problem vanished.
They don't have anything else - the facts can no longer be denied. So they hit phase 2 of the Repug conspiracy defense - the words being used.
I'm sure they'll figure out a way to use the kerning to change "fixed" into a completely different word...
Kent--now that I've read it again,with caffeine in system, it looks like full on snark. The last sentence gives it away.
He's a sorry cocksucker, despite his cartoons.
No, he's not. Please don't say unkind things about him, Tena.
What's your problem with Rall, Tena?
Sallyh,
either I need to re-load mor often or post more quickly.
talk about dry wit though.
.
Tena, I hope you're right. I worry that if they repeat the fake meaning enough times, people will think it's true. We shouldn't let that happen. We should ridicule them the way they ridiculed Clinton when he quibbled over the meaning of "is".
Eli - A troll reported to Rall a comment I made about Michele Malagulag - one of the more incendiary things I've said in comments. Rall published the comment on his blog as an unacceptable comment from the left. I emailed him and told him that it wasn't fair of him to do that, but he was downright nasty to me about it.
He's a fucking asshole who cannot be trusted.
I imagine my comment is now in Malagulag's book about nasty liberals. I don't much care about that, but I do very much care that the son of a bitch went with a tattletale troll instead of having a civilized discussion with me about the comment.
I'll never forgive him.
it's a consistent, predictable and effective Republican tactic to whine about the language, analogies and rhetoric of those who criticize them in order to distract from their wrongdoings and intimidate others from speaking out...
SteveLG
Nail on the head!
...then, what's the consistent, predictable and effective Democratic (or progressive) counter-tactic?
I would think it would be to fight back vehemently and stick to the facts - i.e. a gulag by any other name, (GITMO) is still in violation of human rights, yes? The lack of due process and the treatment of the prisoners is shameful and unAmerican, yes? Gulag refers to the methods of imprisoning not to the number of deaths, yes?
And there is always judo, they should turn the question back on those who are trying to redefinre the terms "...given the catalogued abuses that have been verified by the Pentagon, what words would you use you describe GITMO?"
He who defines the terms wins the argument.
The greatest lie of all:
What motivates suicide bombers?
GEORGIE ANNE GEYER
June 17, 2005
http://www.signonsandiego.com/
un...z1e17geyer.html
We have entered a new phase of the Iraq war since the optimism following the Jan. 30 elections there, and the manifestations of the changes are everywhere.
Every American general who comes out of Baghdad now speaks only in words that are hesitant, relative, depressed. Here at home, the figures emerging from even the Pentagon are frightening: The Army and the Army National Guard are likely to meet only 75 percent of their recruiting targets in the next year.
Andrew Kohut of the Pew Research Center reported this week that disillusionment is setting in with the American people over Iraq. "We are seeing more and more saying, 'Get the troops out,' " he said this week. "They are getting the continuing portrait of an insurgency that just doesn't quit. Six months ago, 65 percent of Americans were saying the war could meet its goals; now only 46 percent are saying that." London's International Institute of Strategic Studies says U.S. troops will be needed for six more years.
Yet, despite these surface indications of trouble ahead, the administration sticks stubbornly to its underlying thesis: Suicide bombers are religious zealots who must be defeated there, lest they attack us here. The logic has not budged an inch in two years: They are crazy and brutal Islamic fundamentalists, motivated by religious beliefs that would radicalize the entire Middle East were it not for us.
The problem now is that the rationalization for all the mistakes that led us into Iraq and keep us there is quite awfully turned on its head. According to ground-shaking analyses by two brilliant, nonideological scholars, it is our military presence in the Middle East that is every day creating the suicide bombers - and will continue to do so until we change our policies.
Robert A. Pape, associate professor of political science at the University of Chicago, has also been heading the Chicago Project on Suicide Terrorism. With a team of analysts, he has studied suicide terrorist bombers from Sri Lanka, where they began, to Israel-
Palestine, to Lebanon, to Iraq. He has created a database - the first ever conceived - of every suicide bombing and attack around the globe from 1980 to 2003, and his findings are unequivocal.
First, he did not find the bombers to be fanatical or essentially unusual people - "Suicide terrorists' political aims, if not their methods, are often more mainstream than observers realize," he wrote in his recent book, "Dying to Win." "They generally reflect quite common, straightforward nationalist self-determination claims of their community."
Second, contrary to the beliefs of this administration, religion plays a very small role in their motivations. "Rather," Pape pointed out to me when we met recently at the University of Chicago, "what nearly all suicide terrorist attacks have in common is a specific secular and strategic goal: to compel modern democracies to withdraw military forces from territory that the terrorists consider to be their homeland. Religion is rarely the root cause."
Third, the president's beloved idea that "regime change" and "democratization" will decrease suicide bombings and other related violence is flawed. In fact, Pape says: "An attempt to transform Muslim societies through regime change is likely to dramatically increase the threat we face. The root cause of suicide terrorism is foreign occupation and the threat that foreign military presence poses to the local community's way of life.
"The stationing of tens of thousands of American combat troops on the Arabian Peninsula from 1990 to 2001 probably made al-Qaeda suicide attacks against Americans ... from five to 20 times more likely. Hence, the longer American troops remain in Iraq and in the Persian Gulf in general, the greater the risk of the next Sept. 11."
Another scholar and analyst who has done outstanding and original work on suicide bombers is Rona M. Fields, clinical psychologist and sociologist, and author of "Martyrdom: The Psychology, Theology and Politics of Self-Sacrifice." After 35 years of research on terrorism in 11 different countries, she came to exactly the same conclusions.
"The main thing is that terrorism is a choice people make," Fields told me. "It's not a sickness, and it's not religious as such. It's a choice they make when they feel that their group is threatened. It's a level of retributive justice; it's vendetta, not psychosis. In fact, the word 'martyrdom' was originally a Christian term, and the Muslims got the idea from intermingling with Christians."
If these findings are true - and they certainly ring true to me and to many who have worked in and covered the Middle East - then not only are we finding it treacherous going in Iraq, but every minute we stay there, perceived as invaders in a foreign land, we are perversely creating the dangerous and effective violence against us and the middle-ground Iraqis whom we depend upon. Odd, that our leaders cannot even begin to fathom this.
Geyer is a nationally syndicated columnist focusing on international affairs.
Copyright 2005 Union-Tribune Publishing Co.
We should ridicule them the way they ridiculed Clinton when he quibbled over the meaning of "is".
We should mock them as often as possible, with pointing and laughing, when the opportunity presents itself.
.
Fair enough, Tena. I remember when he was doing that, and thought it seemed a bit... odd.
Tena- I don't blame you. But chill in the notion that you've been written up along with King Leopold by Madingaling.
Nothing can be too extreme to describe the traitorous wench Madingaling.
It worked.
Being fiendishly clever, I tricked President Cheney into invading Iraq to get the oil.
Now we don't have to get passports to attack the Americans, there is a neverending supply. They have too much at stake to retreat. It's the perfect trick.
I call it my flypaper strategy.
Fuck Ted Rall for talking shit about our Tena. He's a sorry sack of crap who doesn't realize the stakes.
Tom - Daai Tou Laam - I'm ok with what I said and I'm proud of the fact that I fucking despise that useless piece of human garbage. I'll show my comment to my grandnieces and nephews with pride.
The point wasn't what I said exactly - it was that the troll "ether" went right to Rall and reported it and Rall ran it. Ether is a fucking goddamned right wing troll - and I pointed that out to Rall, and pointed out that I had clarified what I said just 2 inches down the thread. He was an asshole about it so fuck Rall along with Maglagulag.
I don't think comments should be extracted from 400+comment threads and used against people. It isn't fair - for all Rall knew, it was a namestealer who had made the comment. He absolutely would not talk to me about that and I put him in the same category now and any winger.
He's a sorry sack of crap who doesn't realize the stakes.
With all due respect, Blak, that is simply not true. In fact, he saw Bush for what he was -- a tinpot dictator in disguise -- early, and called him on it often.
as any winger.
BlakNo1 - thank you, you are always so sweet.
I have to get dressed and start planting again before the wind starts.
I'll talk to y'all later.
When I see them, I know what to be against. Them.
Oh, I didn't know that he was tipped off by ether.
Anyone who takes scum like ether seriously deserves all the derision I can dish out and then some.
At least in his public persona, rall's a misanthropist who hates all creatures not named Rall.
I heard him host radio a few times when I lived in CA and he was much more reasonable.
Maladangadingdong grabbed a comment of mine, too. And ether reported it to him, too. And I discussed it with him, too. And my experience was different from Tena's.
Oh, and fuck that racist piece of shit Maglalangadingdong too. Put her in a fucking internment camp and see how she likes it.
I would pay good money to see a debate between her and George Takei. He'd wipe the floor with her.
As far as Rall goes, fuck him. He made it personal when he started talking trash about people on this site in the name of so-called "civility". That alone tells me he has NO CLUE what the stakes are here, none.
i actually never had any idea rall was talking about us.
In any case, fuck him sideways with a rusty chainsaw!
Hey, this Atrios fellow seems pretty cool. Maybe I should check out his homepage.
Buzzzzzzzz......
• I have the impression that King Leopold dried up and blew away just after being quoted by the Malkin-Thing.
Did I miss something, i.e. a farewell statement or other explanation for "his" absence?
What a shame. "He" was, in my opinion, a hilarious parody persona-- in a different league from the lifelike plastic-poop/fake vomit parodies. King Leopold, we hardly knew ye.
• Ted Rall's scathing screed attacking "Maus" creator Art Spiegelman (the link is to various letters to the editor concerning the article, which is linked therein) suggests that Rall is not exactly a nice guy. He may be the Al Capp of the left...
BTW, it was interesting to find out that, based on the withering comments by cartoon/graphic novel cognoscenti, that I am quite wrong to admire "Maus" as a masterpiece. It reaffirms the old saying: I may not understand Art, but I know what I like!"
Oh yeah, my "mates" at the Blake's 7 site have informed me(not that I didn't already know)that fixed has the exact same meaning there that it does here.
Rall taked shit about Art Speigelman too?
Ted Rall = clueless moron
Little Brother - well the Pulitzer committee agreed with you about Art Spieglemann, since Maus won a Pulitzer. I love that graphic series n- I have it and I think it's genius.
Ok - Now I am off to plant the flowers I got for my barrel in front.
Later.
The ads are the bane of my Eschatonian existence.
The ads re-direct Firefox users every time the page refreshes. It is the most annoying goddammed thing in the world. Funny... it is only THESE ads on THIS site. BlogAds anywhere else have no effect on Firefox.
Agreed 10,000%! But what can you do--this is still the best political ranting blog.
The ads re-direct Firefox users every time the page refreshes.
OMG ... this is The ... Most ... Annoying ... Thing ... Ever.
I think I may have to switch to lynx to read Eschaton.
Hard to say which is more loathsome: Duncan's pimping for his bosses at Media Matters with constant linkage to their partisan bile; or his transparent solicitations for ad income from his own site's commercialization - while implying they are all "good causes".
If so, I wonder if Duncan will donate all of his ad income to those same causes?
I didn't think so.
Trolling a dead thread, what a pathetic attempt at a "last word".
If these findings are true - and they certainly ring true to me and to many who have worked in and covered the Middle East - then not only are we finding it treacherous going in Iraq, but every minute we stay there, perceived as invaders in a foreign land, we are perversely creating the dangerous and effective violence against us and the middle-ground Iraqis whom we depend upon. Odd, that our leaders cannot even begin to fathom this.
fathoming it, and then acting upon it would require the busheviks to admit they had erred, blundered, toobed the pooch, fucked up; and that is something they are resloutely unwilling (or unable) to do...
nothing is more important than the fascists saving face. NOTHING! and they're secure in the knowledge that, when the next attack comes, they'll be able to lay off the responsibility on the people who opposed their stupid, insidious war in the first place.,.
and that 'average' Murkins will buy it...
.
Trolling a dead thread, what a pathetic attempt at a "last word".
And what you're doing is not trolling a dead thread? Who's pathetic now?
any ads for Giblets n' gravy?
I didn't start this, but I for damn shore am gonna end it.
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