Glenn Greenwald is consumed by the widespread lie in the American media that WikiLeaks ‘indiscriminate’ dumped secret cables of the American government on the internet. This lie proves powerfully how mindlessly subservient the American establishment media has become. They are willing to repeat completely false claims as long as it pleases the right people — the same people to whom they claim they are ‘adversarial watchdogs’.
How reporting on WikiLeaks can and should be done shows this editorial from The Guardian yesterday, in which the British newspaper not only defends WikiLeaks, but also justifies the ‘denial of service’ attacks from anonymous individuals. One of them is the yesterday arrested sixteen year old boy boy from the Netherlands who hacked various companies (MasterCard, Amazon, Paypal, etc.) who are serving in the Government’s war on WikiLeaks.
The Guardian - These companies all considered that their association with WikiLeaks damaged their brand image, a reflection prompted in some cases by a helpful call from the US state department. In essence they are trying to have it both ways: pretending in their marketing that they are free spirits and enablers of the cyber world, but only living up to that image as long as they don’t upset anyone really important…
The hacktivists of Anonymous may be accused of many things – such as immaturity or being run by a herd instinct. But theirs is the cyber equivalent of non-violent action or civil disobedience. It disrupts rather than damages.
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How to get them radical American terrorists? Well, see how they do it in Southern California. There, convicted criminal Craig Monteilh spent fifteen months pretending to be Farouk al-Aziz, a French Syrian in search of his religious roots. His endless talk of violent “jihad” so alarmed worshippers atthe local mosque, that they took out a restraining order against him.
The spying game wasn’t all it was cracked up to be for Craig Monteilh, a convicted criminal recruited by the FBI to investigate the march of radical Islam into Southern California. His endless talk of violent “jihad” so alarmed worshippers at the local mosque, that they took out a restraining order against him. [read on] (more…)
White House reporter James Rosen, one of Fox News straight news reporters, said last night on The O’Reilly Factor, also Fox News, that Americans should be very concerned about national security since Obama said he’s open to negotiating with hostage-takers.
Political insiders in the U.S. stayed up late last night to discuss this alarming development. Almost all analists concluded that this means the end of the political career of Barack Obama. The general opinion was that ‘Obama just made himself a one term president’.
Terrorism experts warned that America should be prepared for a new wave of hostage taking by Al Qaeda and other muslim radicals now that they know that President Obama is prepared to negociate with hostage takers.
De Amerikaanse Westboro Baptist Church uit Kansas zien in homo’s de bron van alle kwaad op de wereld. De kerk, voornamelijk bestaande uit een grote familie, heeft de eigenaardige gewoonte om begrafenissen te verstoren van Amerikaanse soldaten die zijn omgekomen in Irak. Hun boodschap is dat de dode soldaten God’s straf is voor het toestaan van homosexualiteit in de VS.
Zo’n soort God dus!
De kerk kondigde gisteren aan te gaan demonstreren tijdens de begrafenis van Elizabeth Edwards, de vrouw van de, vanwege een affaire in opspraak geraakte, voormalige Democratische presidentskandidaat John Edwards.
Westboro Baptist Church will picket Elizabeth Edwards’ funeral
Members of Westboro Baptist Church said today they will demonstrate outside Elizabeth Edwards’ funeral this weekend. The Westboro Church is well known for holding publicity-seeking anti-gay stunts at funerals, particularly at those of U.S. soldiers. Why the church chose Edwards’ funeral to publicly demonstrate their hate for gays, is not clear. On it’s website the church claims Elizabeth Edwards “spent her life in defiance and disobedience to God” and spews other invectives towards her.
What’s most striking about Obama’s deal with Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell is the extent to which it only reinforces Obama’s image as an inside technocratic dealmaker. It turns out he will negotiate with anyone to get what seems sensible to him.
The problem is that this approach shortchanges the need to carry on a sustained argument on behalf of his overall objectives and rejects the idea that some “fights,” a word Obama uses with disdain (except, perhaps, when he’s criticizing liberals), are instructive and can help accomplish change over the long term.
Has any other President had a self-described “base” who hated him more? Has any other President had a “base” that was constantly attacking him?
That is not the right question. The right question is has any other President (and in particular, the President’s staff) been so eager to let go on his base? How about a top official calling the people who voted you in office: ’fucking retards’? The fact is that the President has never showed his base that he is fighting for them.
About one in four detainees released from Guantanamo are suspected or confirmed to be involved in terrorism activities, the Obama administration said yesterday. Most of the problematic ex-detainees were released during the Bush administration; the Obama administration has transferred 66 prisoners, of whom 5 are confirmed or suspected of post-detention terrorist activity.
Just another rather important thing the U.S. has given up on.
The U.S. “has given up its effort to persuade the Israeli government to freeze construction of Jewish settlements for 90 days,” according to a senior administration official. The move is a sign of faltering peace talks and comes as a number of Latin American countries — Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay — have decided to unilaterally recognize a Palestinian state rather than wait for negotiations.
Glenn Greenwald is one of the strongest supporters of the publication on Wikileaks of documents which show the deceitful policies of the American government worldwide. Most other Americans are furious with Julian Assange - now in a British prison - who is seen as responsible for the publications. Glenn Greenwald, the man nobody knew three years ago, is now running from one tv-station to another. Pew poll from today, found that 60% of Americans believe the latest WikiLeaks disclosure harms the public interest, while only 31% believe it helps it. Apparently, a majority of Americans demand: keep us ignorant about what our Government is doing in the world!!
In this section Greenwald is discussing Jamie Rubin.
Glenn Greenwald:
Below is the audio from the To the Point segment. Just trust me and listen to it. The first 20 minutes or so is just John Burns reporting on the Assange court hearing, which is unnecessary to listen to. Then, at roughly 23:45, Jamie Rubin is brought in, and he repeats his denunciations of WikiLeaks that he published in The New Republic; he also claims that the diplomatic cables show no deceit or wrongdoing whatsoever on the part of the U.S. Government. Rubin’s segment goes on for about 10 minutes, and while listening to it will give important context for what follows, it’s not completely necessary.
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Harold Meyerson characterises the Obama policies in the Washington Post as follows:
Changelessness we can believe in. Not much of a slogan, I admit, but a pretty fair statement of where we’re at after the president’s tax deal with congressional Republicans.
Be very careful what you say these days in the U.S.A. If you are considering saying happy holidays to anyone, think again:
This week, First Baptist Church of Dallas pastor Dr. Robert Jeffress joined the war effort. Jeffress announced on a local radio station this morning that his church is launching a website — the Grinch Alert — “dedicated to showcasing businesses that do not show outward signs of supporting Christmas.” The top of the site reads: “Help us keep Christmas everywhere!”
Is liberal lefty Glenn Greenwald finally showing his true colors?
“At 11:30 am this morning, I’ll be on Al Jazeera debating WikiLeaks.”
There’s a big misunderstanding about WikiLeaks. Some people seem to think that Julian Assange - yesterday arrested and denied bail in England - and his cabal dumped 250.000 unedited documents on the internet.
That is not true.
WikiLeaks has posted on its website only 960 of the 251,297 diplomatic cables it has obtained. Almost every one of these cables was first published by one of its newspaper partners which are disclosing them, like The Guardian (Britain), the NYT (U.S.), El Pais (Spain), Le Monde (France), Der Spiegel (Germany), etc.
Does he have a partner in the Netherlands?
The cables are edited to protect innocent people and otherwise minimize harm.
Some American politicians seem to want to prosecute everyone publishing the cables, including all journalists, newspapers, blogs etc..
In The New Republic today, Todd Gitlin writes an entire anti-WikiLeaks column that is based on an absolute factual falsehood. Anyone listening to most media accounts would believe that WikiLeaks has indiscriminately published all 250,000 of the diplomatic cables it possesses, and Gitlin — in the course of denouncing Julian Assange — bolsters this falsehood: “Wikileaks’s huge data dump, including the names of agents and recent diplomatic cables, is indiscriminate” and Assange is “fighting for a world of total transparency.”
The reality is the exact opposite — literally — of what Gitlin told TNR readers.
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Nobelprizewinning American economist Paul Krugman (NYTimes) checks out the new tax cut deal that President Obama made with the Republicans and thinks it’s not as bad as it could have been, but it’s still disappointing.
So, was this worth it? I’d still say no, although it’s better than what I expected over the weekend. It still greatly increases the chances of the Bush tax cuts being made permanent — especially because the front-loading of the stimulative stuff actually worsens Obama’s 2012 electoral prospects. Overall, enough sweetener has been added to diminish, but not eliminate, the bitterness of the disappointment.
The progressive rebellion to the extension of the Bush tax cuts deal is spreading through America like wildfire. There is a petition out there which everyone opposed to taxcuts for millionaires and billionaires can sign: Petition in support of the rebels here.
Till now twenty one Democratic members of the House have already signed a letter, first circulated by Democratic Representative Peter Welch, stating opposition to the extending of the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest 2% of Americans. It is expected that also some real conservatives and new Tea Party members will stand up to the deal Obama made with the Republicans leadership. [read on] (more…)
The priorities of the Obama-administration and of the Republicans can be seen clearly in the new tax cut deal. The priorities of Obama will help 156 million Americans, the priorities of the Republicans (extending the Bush tax cuts for the rich and cutting the estate tax) will help 4,8 million Americans.
Yesterday, the White House agreed with Congressional Republicans on a “framework” for extending the soon-to-expire Bush tax cuts.
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American gay and lesbian students are more likely to be “harshly punished by schools and courts than their straight peers, according to a new study, even though they are less likely to engage in serious misdeeds.” The study’s authors speculated that the more severe punishments meted out might reflect a bias by school and court officials, or that the teenagers are less likely to receive support services than their straight peers.
Tea Party leader Republican representative Michele Bachmann told Fox News radio host Sean Hannity yesterday that Republicans may scuttle the tax deal if the extension of the Bush tax cuts is tied to helping unemployed Americans. Bachmann called jobless aid ‘massive spending’ and said ‘tying’ the tax cuts ‘to massive spending is something that would be very difficult for members to swallow’.
The conservative House in Texas no longer wants a Jewish speaker. They elected a House with plenty Christian, conservative values and now they want a true Christian, conservative running it. So last month, several Tea Party activists came together to form a right-wing coalition to oust Rep. Joe Straus (R) as Texas House Speaker. Very soon emails started to circulate with anti-Semitic messages against Straus, who is Jewish.
The groups even ran robo-calls calling Straus’ opponent, Rep. Ken Paxton (R), “a Christian Conservative who decided not to be pushed around by the Joe Straus thugs.”
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Fox News host Glenn Beck warned in his radio show yesterday that close to ten percent of muslims are terrorists. And it’s worse because not only terrorists are threatening the U.S., there’s also a dangerous group of violent radical Communists who want to overthrow the government. Though this is an imminent threat, no percentage was given by Glenn Beck. But back to the muslims:
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WikiLeaks is nog nooit van iets beschuldigd.
WikiLeaks-oprichter Julian Assange wel, van verkrachting en sexuele intimidatie in Zweden. Pas na de publicatie van de geheime documenten op zijn site WikiLeaks overigens.
Volgens Glenn Greenwald zal het heel moeilijk zijn om Julian Assange voor WikiLeaks te veroordelen. Misschien daarom dat hij zich vrijwillig gaat melden bij de politie in Groot-Brittannië om vragen te beantwoorden over de beschuldigingen van verkrachting. Assange zou zich ophouden in het Venrenigd Koninkrijk. Het eerste internationale opsporingsbevel van Interpol bevatte volgens de Britse politie te weinig informatie om in actie te komen tegen Assange. Vandaar dat Stockholm met een nieuw bevel kwam. Verder is vandaag bekend geworden dat de Zwitserse bankrekening van Assange is geblokkeerd.
Those wishing to donate to WikiLeaks can still do so here, via Options 2 (online credit card) or 3 (wire to bank in Iceland).
WikiLeaks has never been charged with a crime, let alone indicted for one or convicted of one. A consensus of legal experts agree that prosecuting the organization or Julian Assange for any of its leaks would be difficult in the extreme. Despite those facts, look at just some of the punishment that has been doled out to them and what has been threatened:
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Nobelprize winning American economist Paul Krugman thinks they should in his NYTimes column:
Democrats have tried to push a compromise: let tax cuts for the wealthy expire, but extend tax cuts for the middle class. Republicans, however, are having none of it. They have been filibustering Democratic attempts to separate tax cuts that mainly benefit a tiny group of wealthy Americans from those that mainly help the middle class. It’s all or nothing, they say: all the Bush tax cuts must be extended. What should Democrats do?
The answer is that they should just say no. If G.O.P. intransigence means that taxes rise at the end of this month, so be it.
Bij ons is de man de baas. Ik beslis alleen over de kleine dingen, waar we ons geld aan uitgeven bijvoorbeeld. Mijn man gaat over de grote dingen, zoals onze houding tegenover Noord Korea.
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Bij ons is de man de baas. Ik beslis alleen over de kleine dingen, waar we ons geld aan uitgeven bijvoorbeeld. Mijn man gaat over de grote dingen, zoals onze houding tegenover Noord Korea.
Mevrouw De Wit