Wikileaks Again

Ooopsie. Note to self before one opens one's mouth to pontificate on facts (as opposed to pontificating on one's own opinions, I guess) Google for a few minutes to make sure of those facts. Point in case: number of foreign troops in Afghanistan. It took me five minutes this morning to find out the answer. I think I should have done it before I went and commented at Lawyers, Guns and Money last night on one of a series of posts by one of the people there concerning Wikileaks 90,000+ document dump. She was opposed and busy attacking him because he (according to her and her unnamed sources and other people and their unnamed sources) put people in Afghanistan in mortal danger because with only some work the Taliban could find out who ratted them out and then exact retribution against them and their family. So the question she raised was should Assange be prosecuted. Of course, she thought he should be.

There then began a very heated thread which included the argument that he isn't a United States citizen, so we really had no legal grounds (as though that has stopped us in the past). The response was that other countries including Australia have troops there so they could prosecute him, since he is an Australian citizen. I then said they only have a few hundred. Which it turns out is obviously wrong (see above). Now the point was that in relation to the USofA they have few, and that is true (see above again), but my entire point is seriously weakened because I didn't bother to do the little research necessary to give the correct figures. Further, that they are there because we want them there and they are doing this mainly to give us cover and so in the end they don't really care, the governments I mean.

Which gets me to my main point. There seem to be five lines of attack on Wikileaks and this specific leak: First, it's old news nothing new here so move along, and besides that everybody already knows their major points; Second, it's unimportant (which may just be a corollary of the first); Third, it endangers our Afghan allies (since the documents stop at around the end of 2009 they can't really argue that it endangers our troops, although there seemed to be some attempt to do that early on, but that appears to have petered out); Fourth, that it isn't doing any good anyway; Fifth, Assange is a media hog and not very nice and ugly, too (I would have thought that was not a particularly compelling argument, but it does seem to be repeated quite a bit).

The third point seems to be the one that the poster is flogging at L,G & M. Perhaps I have been reading too many novels that have flash back sections to the Second World War, but Quisling was executed wasn't he? Not to confuse the Taliban with the freedom fighters of WWII, but when a person's country is invaded It is natural for him (in this case not her) to resist the invader and to consider those who support that invader a traitor deserving of the kind of punishment a traitor should receive. At any rate to reveal the truth which may lead to people getting killed because the truth was revealed, is in this line of argument something one must not do.

The fact that people are getting killed in a war that it appears that we can't win so we've got to stay there forever, does not seem to be something that people who make that kind of argument consider. So who is going to get killed: our minions or the various people we are killing right now (along with fewer of our minions). In passing I'd suggest that the only government that has provided a good deal of freedom to women in Afghanistan was the one the Soviet Union put in place and we helped to destroy with our allies who turned into (or in all probability were always) the Taliban.

In the end her position seems to come down to the belief my government is just right and there are certain things that I as a citizen should not know and therefore my government will prevent me from getting that information. Any one who reveals any of those government secrets can be accused of doing injury to out country or our allies or someone or thing and should be punished to teach us all that this must not be done. In a freedom loving way of course. This does not seem to be a particularly viable political theory for a real functioning democracy or representative republic. That may explain its use here and now.

Oh Yeah

And happy Mission Accomplished Day to you too.

A Couple of Brief Blogger Thoughts

I am a little delayed in getting the animals up, but I've had a couple of thoughts.

First, one reason I voted for Obama instead of Clinton in the primary was because I didn't want a Clinton II presidency. By that I mean that I believe that Hilliary and Bill are peas in a pod. Whatever their personal relationships are, their political beliefs are (I think) very similar. Particularly their economic thought. So, I figured that Obama would at least be a little different.

I did not think that Obama would recycle all these old Clintonistas as his economic advisers and appointees. I figured that he would have at least a few new faces, at least some people who did not parrot the Wall Street line. I guess not.

(By the time the general election came around I thought I had no choice. I figured the republicans were going with bat shit crazy. No matter how rational it seemed to let the worst be elected so the general public could feel the results of their own stupidity...........I live here. I do not really want to spend the last few years of my life under a bridge eating the apples I couldn't sell. Now I'm no so sure that isn't what is going to happen anyway.)

Second, this is just bullshit. All the complaints about anonymity in today's world seem like a wilful (one hopes it is wilful and it is not that they really don't know) refusal to know and understand our very own history and the importance of the anonymous pamphleteer. As Mudflats says Ben Franklin used a pseudonym in some of his writings. Also, the fellows who wrote the Federalist originally wrote anonymously. Outing someone like that is really kind of pricky. And one hopes it will come back to bite the ass of the asshole who did it.

Of course, given they way the world works, probably not. I would think that is probably the reason people believe in the afterlife. There everybody gets their just reward. Unless of course you are a fundie. In which case you can be the biggest asshole in the world as long as you believe in the correct way. Which might explain the incredible number of fundies in the world.

We Are Doomed in Afghanistan

Clearly we are doomed to lose in Afghanistan.

As a Speices We Are Not Fit To LIve

This does not give me much hope for us as a species. This is a guy who helped get us into this mess and now he is telling us it's all better. He knew nothing last year, why should we believe him now. Incidentally, his song was the same last year just before the plunge.

It was said of the French aristocracy: That they forgot nothing, and they learned nothing. I think that our ruling class and money managers remember nothing and learn nothing.

I Guess I Just Must Be An Anti-Semite

How can the entire country or Israel go so crazy as to have their electoral board to throw out the Arab parties. So the Arab parties won't be allowed to run (at this point) in the next election. How crazy is that. Those parties wouldn't have gotten a significant minority. Why throw them out, it is simply a way to --- to what? I don't think that there is a rational explanation. The rulers have simply no chance of losing power to a few marginal Arab parties. So what is the point?

One of the things that Israel has had going for it is that it is a real democracy, unlike most of the other middle eastern countries. What this shows is a little of the way the real power is used. It is simply a way to keep their ni**ers down. It is now clear that the current rules have more in common with the American South before the 60s or South Africa under apartide. I suspect it is simply the desire for a ruling group to show the under groups how powerless those undergroups really are.

Then a second story goes to show just how much control the current Israeli government has over what our rulers are allowed to do and to think about Israel in our own country. The Israeli leader tells our President what to do and our president just caves and does it.

Wow just wow.

WOW

I assumed that there would be some recovery today in the market, but it looks worse than yesterday.

I got a nice email from my congressman explaining that he had to vote for the bill because well all the smartest people told him he had to -- and just that bill, I'm sure. Fuck him. The smartest and best informed people have been telling us what to do for at least eight years and we seem to be digging ourselves deeper and deeper. Of course, perhaps that is what we want to do, dig ourselves deeper and deeper. If that is the case then we are doing a bang up job, and the congressman has my apologies.

Unfortunately, as I think I may have mentioned my office is on the ground floor, so that even if I were to leap I don't think that I'd hurt myself much.

Well, I guess I'll give my congressman a call and ask him if he's going to continue to listen to those very smart people.

You know the scariest thing about this whole episode is that I know nothing about economics and I knew these people were being dragged by the nose down another rabbit hole. And by the same people who put us there to begin with. Not of course, just this hole, but every other one we've been down in the last 8 years. There is a word for those kind of people: Democrats (ok just joking) stupid Democrats (two words really).

Groundhog Day

I'm starting to feel like Murray in Groundhog Day. Or maybe Travis Bickle, but without Jodi Foster to encourage me. Nah, I'm more like Murray too stuck to blow up. Plus I don't have any guns. I keep watching the politics and seeing the same old things again and again. SOMETHING BAD happens on Bush's watch and in large part because of his policies. So he gets on the news and says "We're all gonna die if you don't absolutely trust me and give me more power (and more money to my good friends."

What happens? Well in the last few years even though people (that is normal people: the electorate) don't believe him the Democrats give him essentially what he wants. Oh, there are minor changes (deck chairs, Titanic you know) then the Dems cave. It's happening again. A lot of noise then the bucks and power go to the pres.

It might make me feel better if I was the only one who noticed this. Then I might think I was crazy. But I'm not I'm merely a small voice from nowhere. Many people who have really a fairly wide readership see it, call it, and it doesn't matter it just keeps happening.

I don't have it in me to be or even try to be funny some times about this shit any more. Maybe it's time to retire to my palatial estate under that bridge and start my novel. Perhaps I could take my cell phone and begin filming that epic movie which will blow the lid off the whole thing.

Or perhaps those crazy and fun loving Fins have it right. Total and complete senseless violence aimed at the weakest in our society. Actually, I think that our ruling class has a lock on that total and senseless violence thing on the weakest here in America. At any rate this whole thing makes be crazy. These people (congress and the president and the press and the money people) are either the stupidest on the face of the earth or.............. Or what? If this is a clever plan what could their goal possibly be? They can't think that this will work.

Perhaps just put off the inevitable end until they are dead or so senile they won't know what is going on. Perhaps they all simply see the hypocrisy and pointlessness of our society and feel that they must do their utmost to destroy it from within. Or maybe they are just end timers.

Well as I say perhaps Travis had the right idea.

Can you say Kleptocracy? I knew you could.

How it works

Ok this is how it will work: Both the "left" and right agree that this is just toooo much this time. Therefore, we will bail these people out just like we bailed out the S & Ls, but it will be a little slower and with less authority for President Obama down the road.

Unless it looks like McCain is a shew in. In which case the right will push this through and the "left" will disappear.

Either way the people will pay through the nose to the wealthy while the rest of us get screwed again.