Primus Intra Pares's definitions
(1) Citizenship and Immigration Services; the successor to the investigations and processing arm of the former Immigration and Naturalization Services (INS) of the USA. In 2003, the INS was dissolved and its enforcement arm transferred to the new Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The INS had formerly been part of the Justice Department; the CIS is part of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
(2) Center for Immigration Studies, a thinktank founded by John Tanton as a project of FAIR. The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) lists the CIS as a racist nativist organization with extensive connections with other rightwing organizations.
(2) Center for Immigration Studies, a thinktank founded by John Tanton as a project of FAIR. The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) lists the CIS as a racist nativist organization with extensive connections with other rightwing organizations.
(DEF1) She spent the better part of a week struggling through the CIS website, trying to imagine how anyone could get a work permit without violating the laws of physics.
(DEF2) Some at CIS have also written for a nativist hate site, VDARE.com, which is named after Virginia Dare, said to be the first English child born in the New World. They include CIS Fellow John Miano and board member Carol Iannone.
(Heidi Beirich, "CIS: The 'Independent' Think Tank," Feb 2009)
(DEF2) Some at CIS have also written for a nativist hate site, VDARE.com, which is named after Virginia Dare, said to be the first English child born in the New World. They include CIS Fellow John Miano and board member Carol Iannone.
(Heidi Beirich, "CIS: The 'Independent' Think Tank," Feb 2009)
by Primus Intra Pares June 17, 2010
Get the CISmug. (HISTORY-VIETNAM, LAOS, CAMBODIA, USA) War between Communist forces native to the region and anti-Communists from several countries. Waged 1955 to 1975; ended in complete Communist victory. Probably 2.5 to 3.5 million people were killed, mostly in Vietnam, but also in Cambodia (1968-1975) and Laos (1953-1965).
US forces sent to prop up totally artificial "republic" in the south of Vietnam; helped Ngo Dinh Diem fake elections and suppress the population until he tried to cram Catholicism down throats of the Buddhist majority. Killed during coup d'etat 3 weeks before Kennedy assassinated. Military junta ran South Vietnam until it was defeated by the People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN). The US military referred to the PAVN as the North Vietnamese Army (NVA), and resistence in South Vietnam itself as "Viet Cong."
In Cambodia, war crept across the border as a result of Ho Chi Minh Trail; ruler, Norodim Sihanouk, tried to contain it through negotiation but in 1970 overthrown by a CIA coup; military junta totally useless and Khmer Communist Party formed an alliance with supporters of the monarchy (GRUNK). Named "Khmer Rouge" by Sihanouk before 1970.
In Laos, pitted Pathet Lao (Communist) against Royal Lao Army. RLA extremely poor, and Western assistance was much less than that of Communist Vietnam. Heavy US bombing there & in Cambodia.
The collapse of South Vietnam in early '75 allowed a total rout of the anti-Communist forces in Indochina.
US forces sent to prop up totally artificial "republic" in the south of Vietnam; helped Ngo Dinh Diem fake elections and suppress the population until he tried to cram Catholicism down throats of the Buddhist majority. Killed during coup d'etat 3 weeks before Kennedy assassinated. Military junta ran South Vietnam until it was defeated by the People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN). The US military referred to the PAVN as the North Vietnamese Army (NVA), and resistence in South Vietnam itself as "Viet Cong."
In Cambodia, war crept across the border as a result of Ho Chi Minh Trail; ruler, Norodim Sihanouk, tried to contain it through negotiation but in 1970 overthrown by a CIA coup; military junta totally useless and Khmer Communist Party formed an alliance with supporters of the monarchy (GRUNK). Named "Khmer Rouge" by Sihanouk before 1970.
In Laos, pitted Pathet Lao (Communist) against Royal Lao Army. RLA extremely poor, and Western assistance was much less than that of Communist Vietnam. Heavy US bombing there & in Cambodia.
The collapse of South Vietnam in early '75 allowed a total rout of the anti-Communist forces in Indochina.
At the time, journalists tended to speak of the Second Indochina War as three different civil wars, but in reality it was three local movements fighting a foreign occupation (and local collaborators). After the war, a third conflict erupted between Cambodia and Vietnam; the rulers of Cambodia, the Khmer Rouge, murdered an unknown but enormous number of their own people, then were crushed when they went to war with Vietnam.
Laos, tragically, remains horribly affected by huge numbers of unexploded mines.
Laos, tragically, remains horribly affected by huge numbers of unexploded mines.
by Primus Intra Pares July 21, 2010
Get the Second Indochina Warmug. (US GOVERNMENT) Agency created in 2003 by merging the enforcement arm of the former Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) with that of the US Customs Service (see Customs and Border Protection {CPB}). It is part of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
The ICE employs 19,000 people worldwide and has a budget of about $5.7 billion (comparable to the military budget of Algeria or Norway). It is responsible for Detention and Removal Operations (DRO) of removable aliens.
The ICE also violates international laws on human rights by deporting immigrants (legal or not) accused of a crime (this is known as exile and violates international norms of criminal justice). This program is called "Secure Communities" and of course only makes communities a lot LESS secure; it has exiled over 14,000 immigrants for petty offices such as traffic violations.
The dog-and-pony show of the ICE is its Office of Investigations (OI). This "investigates, deters and interdicts ...arms and strategic technology exports, ...money laundering, ...media piracy, smuggling (contraband, narcotics and aliens), immigration fraud, transnational gangs, ...child exploitation and pornography..." The OI basically issues press releases for publication as "news" by lazy newsmedia. The fact remains that human trafficking is a tiny affair with few reliably documented cases, and the US is not dependent on imported porn.
The ICE employs 19,000 people worldwide and has a budget of about $5.7 billion (comparable to the military budget of Algeria or Norway). It is responsible for Detention and Removal Operations (DRO) of removable aliens.
The ICE also violates international laws on human rights by deporting immigrants (legal or not) accused of a crime (this is known as exile and violates international norms of criminal justice). This program is called "Secure Communities" and of course only makes communities a lot LESS secure; it has exiled over 14,000 immigrants for petty offices such as traffic violations.
The dog-and-pony show of the ICE is its Office of Investigations (OI). This "investigates, deters and interdicts ...arms and strategic technology exports, ...money laundering, ...media piracy, smuggling (contraband, narcotics and aliens), immigration fraud, transnational gangs, ...child exploitation and pornography..." The OI basically issues press releases for publication as "news" by lazy newsmedia. The fact remains that human trafficking is a tiny affair with few reliably documented cases, and the US is not dependent on imported porn.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement is a surplus agency of the US government that mostly duplicates the efforts of Customs and Border Protection and Citizenship and Immigration Services. It operates a gigantic, corporate-run incarceration system that surpasses anything Kafka, Orwell, or Solzhenitsyn ever wrote about.
by Primus Intra Pares June 19, 2010
Get the Immigration and Customs Enforcementmug. Action taken for public relations (PR); usually contrived to create a false impression of good will or concern.
Most people in positions of great power are basically sociopaths who don't care about the suffering their greed- and ego-driven rampages cause. But if it were generally known that they think general suffering is hilarious, they'd be less effective at causing more.
For this reason, the truly powerful have frontmen, like political functionaries, who pretend to have power, and pretend to care about doing good stuff. They can do stuff like fly to the Gulf of Mexico and make speeches about how they're going to help people affected by the Deepwater Horizon blowout, and while it fools very few people, it's at least moderately inoffensive.
PR moves are used by the powerful to make themselves look benign, indispensable, hardworking, smart, badass, serious, compassionate, respectful of the law, concerned about the rise of evil shit, blue-collar, in touch with the people, talented, far-sighted, thoughtful, devout, patriotic, global, or cool.
Most people in positions of great power are basically sociopaths who don't care about the suffering their greed- and ego-driven rampages cause. But if it were generally known that they think general suffering is hilarious, they'd be less effective at causing more.
For this reason, the truly powerful have frontmen, like political functionaries, who pretend to have power, and pretend to care about doing good stuff. They can do stuff like fly to the Gulf of Mexico and make speeches about how they're going to help people affected by the Deepwater Horizon blowout, and while it fools very few people, it's at least moderately inoffensive.
PR moves are used by the powerful to make themselves look benign, indispensable, hardworking, smart, badass, serious, compassionate, respectful of the law, concerned about the rise of evil shit, blue-collar, in touch with the people, talented, far-sighted, thoughtful, devout, patriotic, global, or cool.
One of the more successful PR moves of the oil industry was Chevron's "People Do" campaign. In this campaign, a series of television commercials and magazine ads showed a beautiful landscape with sea otters or giant turtles, and voice over talking about some thing Chevron did to help them out. Except the things Chevron said it was doing to help the environment, were (a) cheap, relative to the cost of blabbing about it, (b) usually mandated by law or consent decree, and (c) required to mitigate some larger environmental catastrophe caused by Chevron.
by Primus Intra Pares July 15, 2010
Get the PR movemug. (TELEVISION JOURNALISM) video segment created by a specialized PR firm under commission from a company or government agency, that is made to look like a regular news segment. It is then submitted to news stations and run without attribution. In this way, the official opinion of (say) British Petroleum, Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, or Regence Blue Shield is presented as journalism.
The practice is illegal, but fines are derisory, license suspension for the offender NEVER has happened, and all news networks and affiliates do it. Most do it a lot.
The practice is illegal, but fines are derisory, license suspension for the offender NEVER has happened, and all news networks and affiliates do it. Most do it a lot.
Medialink Worldwide is one of the largest producers of video news releases.
When VNRs are created for the government, they are called "informational news releases" and are typically made to justify policies of the current ruling party.
When VNRs are created for the government, they are called "informational news releases" and are typically made to justify policies of the current ruling party.
by Primus Intra Pares July 15, 2010
Get the video news releasemug. Former name of BP, p.l.c. The name "British Petroleum" remains in use because "BP" is useless for internet searches. Third largest oil company in the world, by sales (behind Exxon Mobile and Royal Dutch Shell; in 2009, these were $246.1 billion.
BP is the largest oil and gas producer in the US.
Lessor of Deepwater Horizon offshore drilling platform in the Gulf of Mexico. On 20 April 2010, a fire and explosion on the Deepwater Horizon killed eleven crew members and was followed by a blowout, during which perhaps four million barrels of crude oil were poured into the ecologically sensitive area.
Company was founded in 1909 by William Knox D'Arcy as the Anglo-Persian Oil Company (APOC), and used its ties with the hapless Qejar Dynasty ruling Iran.
In 1925, Reza Khan (formerly an employee of APOC) had himself proclaimed Shah; his ascendancy from commoner to emperor was stimulated by Iran popular anger at the way APOC was pumping billions of pounds from Iran's land to the Exchequer of the UK, while a ridiculously small amount went to Iran itself. Shah Reza promised to revise the agreement with APOC, but after 7 years of negotiating with the company, got nothing more than a name change (to Anglo-Iranian).
In 1951, Prime Minister Muhammad Mussadegh nationalize the company's assets in Iran. On behalf of AIOC, MI-5 and the CIA staged a coup d'etat that ousted the democratically elected Prime Minister in favor of absolute dictatorship by the Shah (1953).
BP is the largest oil and gas producer in the US.
Lessor of Deepwater Horizon offshore drilling platform in the Gulf of Mexico. On 20 April 2010, a fire and explosion on the Deepwater Horizon killed eleven crew members and was followed by a blowout, during which perhaps four million barrels of crude oil were poured into the ecologically sensitive area.
Company was founded in 1909 by William Knox D'Arcy as the Anglo-Persian Oil Company (APOC), and used its ties with the hapless Qejar Dynasty ruling Iran.
In 1925, Reza Khan (formerly an employee of APOC) had himself proclaimed Shah; his ascendancy from commoner to emperor was stimulated by Iran popular anger at the way APOC was pumping billions of pounds from Iran's land to the Exchequer of the UK, while a ridiculously small amount went to Iran itself. Shah Reza promised to revise the agreement with APOC, but after 7 years of negotiating with the company, got nothing more than a name change (to Anglo-Iranian).
In 1951, Prime Minister Muhammad Mussadegh nationalize the company's assets in Iran. On behalf of AIOC, MI-5 and the CIA staged a coup d'etat that ousted the democratically elected Prime Minister in favor of absolute dictatorship by the Shah (1953).
Until 1997, British Petroleum was part of an industry-wide consortium that funded climate change "skepticism."
Although it is financially and legally unrelated to the British government, BP has historically been treated by the British FCO as if it were an arm of the state.
Although it is financially and legally unrelated to the British government, BP has historically been treated by the British FCO as if it were an arm of the state.
by Primus Intra Pares July 17, 2010
Get the British Petroleummug. (VIETNAMESE HISTORY) Vietnamese word for "liberation"; refers to 31 April 1975, when Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City) was captured by the PAVN, ending the Second Indochina War.
The "g" is pronounced like a "y."
The "g" is pronounced like a "y."
For both the Vietnamese and Usonians, Giai Phong was a massive turning point in history. For the Vietnamese, it meant that the huge sacrifices made for independence were crowned with grinding toil, but new dignity as well. For the Usonians, it meant shame and and denial.
The USA entered a long dark night of the soul from which it has yet to emerge.
The USA entered a long dark night of the soul from which it has yet to emerge.
by Primus Intra Pares July 26, 2010
Get the Giai phongmug.