1. “WikiLeaks: The Touchstone
Your reaction speaks volumes
One’s response to WikiLeaks and its charismatic founder tells us more about the respondent than it does about the subject of transparency in government. Like a work of art, WikiLeaks evokes visceral emotions and brings out our true selves: “libertarians” (some of them) are outed as closet authoritarians, right-wing blowhards are exposed as libertarians at heart, and shameless hypocrites are impaled on a sword of their own making.”
http://original.antiwar.com/justin/2010/12/16/wikileaks-the-touchstone/
2. So much for democracy:
“Gates: Public Opinion Can’t Stop Afghan War
As Clinton Chides Americans to Support Occupation, Gates Insists Their Opinions Don’t Count Anyhow
In that regard, it seems Gates is continuing the Bush Administration’s rhetoric, that massive unpopularity really doesn’t matter when the ruling class has decided that a bad war is going to continue, and that critics of administration policy must inevitably be drown out by the enormous echo chamber of officials who see an endless, failing war as politically expedient.”
http://news.antiwar.com/2010/12/16/gates-public-opinion-cant-stop-afghan-war/
3. “Federal court blocks Obama Administration attempt to spy on cell phones without a warrant
The 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Wednesday that the Justice Department cannot obtain information about which cell phone towers mobile phones communicate with without a warrant.”
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/12/obama-attempt-spy-cell-phones-overturned-federal-court/
4. “Kosovo and the myth of liberal intervention
Far from being Tony Blair’s ‘good’ war, the assault on Yugoslavia was as wrong as the invasion of Iraq”
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/dec/15/balkans-report-blairs-liberal-intervention
5. “Washington subway police to begin random bag checks”
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6BF5FM20101216?feedType=RSS&feedName=domesticNews&rpc=76
6. “SUPPORT GEORGIA PRISONERS STRIKE
Thousands of men, from Augusta, Baldwin, Hancock, Hays, Macon, Smith and Telfair State Prisons went on strike to press the Georgia Department of Corrections (“DOC”) to stop treating them like animals and slaves and institute programs that address their basic human rights. Prisons in the U.S. are not rehabilitation centers; in reality, they are concentration camps for the poor and people of color.
…
While the prisoners were non-violent, the DOC violently attempted to force the men back to work—claiming it was “lawful” to order prisoners to work without pay, in defiance of the 13th Amendment’s abolition of slavery. “
http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=22435
7. “
Wikileaks did not commit a crime, House Judiciary chairman says
Many feel that the WikiLeaks publication was offensive,” Conyers said, according to prepared remarks. “But being unpopular is not a crime, and publishing offensive information is not either. And the repeated calls from politicians, journalists, and other so-called experts crying out for criminal prosecutions or other extreme measures make me very uncomfortable.”
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article27079.htm
