Free kibbles

FREEDOM OF SPEECH:

The maelstrom surrounding WikiLeaks grows.

"A number of readers have sent in new WikiLeaks stories today, many of which focus on the content of the leaked diplomatic cables. The documents showed how the US government bullied and manipulated other countries to gain support for its Copenhagen climate treaty (though behavior from the US wasn't all negative), how copyright negotiations largely meet the expectations of critics like Michael Geist, and how Intel threatened to move jobs out of Russia if the Russian government didn't loosen encryption regulations. Perhaps the biggest new piece of information is a list of facilities the US considers 'vital to security.' Meanwhile, the drama surrounding WikiLeaks continues; Julian Assange's Swiss bank account has been frozen and the UK has received an arrest warrant for the man himself; the effort to mirror the site has gained support from Pirate Parties in Australia, in the UK and elsewhere; and PayPal was hit with a DDoS for their decision not to accept donations for WikiLeaks."

Government loves to invade your privacy but really hates to have its secrets exposed. The WikiLeaks maelstrom shows that western civilization has shed the values to which it pays lip service.

"The leaked documents show that the last thing the US government wants anywhere is a government that is accountable to its own citizens instead of to the US government."

This is true of all government.

"The US government’s frontal assault on freedom of information goes well beyond WikiLeaks and shutting down its host servers. In a December 2 editorial, "Wave goodbye to Internet freedom," the Washington Times reports that Federal Communications Commission chairman Julius Genachowski has "outlined a plan to expand the federal government’s power over the Internet."

The obvious, but unasked, question is: Why does the US government fear the American people and believe that only news that is managed and spun by the government is fit to print? Is there an agenda afoot to turn citizens into subjects?"

Glad to see more people figuring this out.

"In my opinion, the most important of all the cables leaked is the secret directive sent by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to 33 US embassies and consulates ordering US diplomats to provide credit card numbers, email addresses, phone, fax and pager numbers, frequent-flyer account numbers and biographic and biometric information including DNA information on UN officials from the Secretary General down, including "heads of peace operations and political field missions."

The directive has been characterized as the spy directive, but this is an unusual kind of spying. Usually, spying focuses on what other governments think, how they are likely to vote on US initiatives, who can be bribed, and on sexual affairs that could be used to blackmail acquiescence to US agendas.

In contrast, the information requested in the secret directive is the kind of information that would be used to steal a person’s identity.

Why does the US government want information that would enable it to steal the identities of UN officials and impersonate them?"

I hope that's a rhetorical question because the answer is obvious.

"Could it be that Washington wants to be able to impersonate UN officials and country delegates so that it can compromise them by involving them in fake terrorist plots, communications with terrorists real or contrived, money laundering, sex scandals and other such means of suborning their cooperation with Washington’s agendas? All the CIA has to do is to call a Taliban or Hamas chief on a UN official’s telephone number or send a compromising fax with a UN official’s fax number or have operatives pay for visits to prostitutes with a UN official’s credit card number."

I'm sure the creative minds at the CIA and State Dept. have thought of all these ideas and more.

ECONOMY:

The specific cause of our unemployment problem.

"Some new data reported by the Wall Street Journal help us get to the core of the problem in greater detail. In the current environment, which the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) laughably calls a recovery, business startups of job-creating companies have not kept up with closings.

As compared with other recession aftermaths, new businesses are not hiring as they once did. The number of companies with at least one employee continues to fall at a rate we've not seen in 18 years. Everyone speaks of this as a recovery, but the numbers don't add up. New jobs in new companies are appearing a rate 15 percent less than the last recovery."

What's going on is government is crushing small businesses and paying people to not work.

TAX AND SPEND:

It looks like Obama caved to Republicans on extending the Bush tax cuts for people making above $250,000. I won't say I'm surprised, but neither would I have been surprised if he hadn't. I think Obama's radical supporters have a point:

"Some Democrats called on Obama to stand firm and let the Republicans carry the blame for the inevitable middle-class backlash. But leading Democrats say the president is backing down and has agreed to extend tax cuts for everyone. In return, the White House appears to have extracted an agreement to extend benefits for the long-term unemployed."

On the other hand, maybe realizes that in January, House Republicans would pass a bill reinstating all Bush tax cuts and force Democrats to either cave or take the blame. I think the Republicans had him over a barrel in the long run, and he knew it. It also enabled him to claim the moral high ground and appear as a compromiser and tax cutter. He also wrangled a 13 month extension of paying people to not work - classic vote buying.

How many of our tax dollars will be spent on Noah's Ark in Kentucky and the rest of the creationist theme park? Plenty, I bet.

REGULATION:

After decades of regulation by the government, or should I say because of decades of regulation by the government, toys still contain lead and other dangerous heavy metals. But a mom can find them and get the products recalled. This is because corporations are the Sheriff of Nottingham's tax collectors, so the sheriff is on their side. The government and its corporate agents are all on team confiscation, working together to loot us and make us unhealthy so they can enrich themselves at our expense.


The real reason government prohibits gambling? So it can monopolize it through lotteries and control it through big horse racing corporations and casinos.

FEDERAL RESERVE:

The new $100 bill is so high-tech to foil counterfeiters, that even the official government counterfeiters can't produce it.

Liberal Mark Cuban lampoons Ben Bernanke. I'm telling you, ridicule is the most powerful tool we have for taking back our power from government.

Counting Fannie and Freddie debt, the Fed is monetizing government debt significantly faster than it lets on.

HEALTH CARE:

I'm not surprised Michelle Obama's children's nutrition oppression bill will enable the feds to:

"A child nutrition bill on its way to President Barack Obama - and championed by the first lady - gives the government power to limit school bake sales and other fundraisers that health advocates say sometimes replace wholesome meals in the lunchroom."

If that's not oppression, I don't know what is.

GLOBAL WARMING AND ENERGY:

The frauds are already hyping 2010 as one of the hottest three years on record, but the details tell a more complete story:

"2010 will be remembered for just two warm months, attributable to the El Nino effect, with the rest of the year being nothing but average, or less than average temperature."

Ho hum. And so what if it is in the top three? That means 2010 is still colder than 1998, 1934 and 2005. That's hardly a warming trend. But you can bet the frauds are going to try to make hay with it. A cold winter should mute the impact.

Lord Monckton claims that more is being accomplished at the little-noted Cancun conference with typical bureaucrat claptrap than was achieved at the highly publicized Copenhagen conference last year. Yikes.

BBC pulls down story reporting today is the coldest December day on record in some cities.

POLICE STATE:

Fox NFL show lampoons TSA.

Philadelphia police stopping people on the streets and frisking them. 250,000 people have been frisked, but they may not be different people. Some have been searched multiple times. About 20,000 have been prosecuted. This is nuts. But don't worry. Trust the mayor. Trust the government.

This video of Janet Napolitano praising Walmart and requesting people to report other people to the police seems like something out of Brazil or 1984. It's flat out creepy.

TSA lies about groping people's genitals. TSA workers concerned about radiation, but they claim travelers should not. You can't make this stuff up. Notice how this report took at least five years to finish? Five years.

In essay advocating privatizing the TSA, Walter Block destroys the argument TSA is using for its latest oppression:

"So Thiessen is justifying its current procedures — which many Americans find repugnant — by reminding us that the TSA totally failed to prevent the "underwear bomber" from getting into position on a plane above Detroit. According to Thiessen's own story, even though the TSA had been in place for eight years at that point, it took a vigilant member of the private sector, i.e., the Dutch tourist, to avert catastrophe."

That's not much of an argument that government and only government can keep us safe. Includes a nice analysis of how insurance actuaries would help quantify the costs and benefits of certain security procedures, something the TSA, since it's funded by theft, can't even consider.

WAR:

Poll shows Afghans turning against the US.

"The poll found that 36% of Afghans express confidence in the U.S. and NATO forces to provide security and stability — down from 48% last year. It also found that acceptance of attacks against U.S. forces has risen sharply even as the coalition works to curtail civilian deaths."

There's no way to win in Afghanistan. There are no victory conditions. I'm sure this poll is restricted to pro-American people, Taliban supporters aren't likely to respond, but I'm surprised it took even those Afghans this long to turn.

POLITICS:

I didn't know Democrats denied Obama was an acolyte of Saul Alinsky.

MEDIA:

Gary North praises Julian Assange's strategy of releasing documents to the press before he releases them publicly.

"Readers are going to websites: plural. They are not going to WikiLeaks' site. They are going to the "bookies'" sites: The Guardian, Der Spiegel, , and the New York Times. These are the national "newspapers of record." These are the Establishment's main news sources in the West.

Do you see what Julian Assange has done? He has pitted one against another. He gives them first shot at the leaked documents for a few days. Then he releases them to everyone. "Want a scoop? I'll provide it. Want to be an also-ran? Just sit on the story." He has them salivating for the next release. The papers have staffers ready to read, write, and post."

So that's his plan.

"We are witnessing the undermining of the U.S. government. The stories are harmless. They are all gossip. But it makes the experts look like the rest of us -- mean-spirited, jealous, behind-the-back snipers. These experts have no respect for the bureaucrats on the other side of the borders. They look like petty schoolgirls. This undermines the required sense of public awe."

I love that part.

MISC:

Google launches ebook store.

Genetics undoubtedly plays a role in cheating, it plays a role in everything, but cheating is still a choice.

NASA launches a satellite that uses a solar sail for propulsion.