Free kibbles

FREEDOM OF SPEECH:

Hypocrisy on WikiLeaks.

"In a recent press briefing, State Department spokesman Phillip Crowley made the Obama administration’s case. In answer to a question, Crowley said: 

"Mr. Assange obviously has a particular political objective behind his activities, and I think that, among other things, disqualifies him as being considered a journalist. 

"QUESTION: What is his political objective? 

MR. CROWLEY: Well, his – I mean he could be considered a political actor. I think he’s an anarchist, but he’s not a journalist. 

QUESTION: So his objective is to sow chaos, you mean? 

MR. CROWLEY: Well, I mean, you all come here prepared to objectively report the activities of the United States Government. I think that Mr. Assange doesn’t meet that particular standard. 

QUESTION: But just so I understand, P.J., what – I mean you just said the – that you thought he was – 

MR. CROWLEY: Well, but I mean – let me – he’s not a journalist. He’s not a whistleblower. And there – he is a political actor. He has a political agenda. He is trying to undermine the international system of — that enables us to cooperate and collaborate with other governments and to work in multilateral settings and on a bilateral basis to help solve regional and international issues." "

I love how this guy is playing to the reporters, pretending they have no political bias. Freedom of speech for those who support the government but not for those who don't.

The FCC's new net neutrality regulations is an example of price fixing which always leads to shortages, i.e. a slower internet. It's also a reminder that government actually owns all property in the US since it exercises final control over all property.

ECONOMY:

US birthrates decline following the world-wide pattern of government-dominated countries wiping out their populations.

Riding a motorcycle is good economics.

Movie to convince skeptics that western civilization is collapsing.

TAX AND SPEND:

Remember last summer when Congress passed a law that said all future spending must be paid for? Funny how the compromise on the Bush tax cuts happened to cut the payroll tax while increasing spending. And you fell for the claim that one party or the other actually cares about the deficit. Both parties are laughing all the way to the bank with our money.

REGULATION:

Government wants to regulate women sharing breast milk.

GLOBAL WARMING AND ENERGY:

Article describes the costs of the CFC ban which was the environmental bogeyman before CO2. Banning CFCs had no noticeable effect on the ozone hole which appears to be a natural phenomena, but cost people many inexpensive, high-quality products, as always especially harming the poor.

POLICE STATE:

TSA begins abusing Washington D.C. train passengers.

Police murder an Iraqi war veteran. And as usual...

"Through the miracle of socialized municipal risk management, nobody will face accountability for the extra-judicial killing of a 25-year-old husband and father of two stepchildren who had celebrated his first wedding anniversary just days before he was murdered." 

 "No charges were filed against the individual who murdered Derek Hale. Shortly after Biden issued his report, Browne was promoted. This infuriating detail was merely filigree on the tapestry of mendacity woven by Delaware's "law enforcement community" to cover up the murder of Derek Hale."

No prosecution of the murderers. A promotion instead.

Red light cameras as tools of the surveillance state.

WAR:

Government tells so many lies, they often contradict. For example we're fighting in Afghanistan to defeat al Qaeda but Yemen is the operational host of al Qaeda.

"And now we are being told by senior administration officials that al-Qaida’s new base and center of activity is…wait for it…in Yemen!

If that’s the case, why are 150,000 US and dragooned NATO troops still in Afghanistan? CIA chief Leon Panetta recently admitted there were no more than 50 al-Qaida personnel in Afghanistan.

What, then, are American and NATO troops doing there? The oil and gas of the nearby Caspian Basin and a desire to exclude China from the resource-rich region seems a likely answer."

Oops. Contrast these three reports:

"First, a political whitewash issued by the Obama White House claiming the war was going well and some US troops might be withdrawn next year. This ‘don’t worry be happy’ summary was trumpeted by the pro-war New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and other members of the government-friendly US media.

US generals spoke of "progress" in Afghanistan, whatever that means, as US forces were conducted a brutal campaign around Kandahar to crush resistance to the occupation and punish communities that supported Taliban.

Second, the Red Cross issued a grim report showing that Afghans were suffering widespread malnutrition and serious health problems after nearly a decade of Western occupation. So much for US-led nation-building.

Third, there were leaks about a new National Intelligence Estimate (NIE), the combined findings of all 16 US intelligence agencies. This key intelligence report is explosive and may not be fully revealed.

The NIE reportedly asserts that the Afghan War, now costing over $13 billion monthly, is at best stalemated; at worse, Western occupation forces are on the defensive and their vulnerable supply lines increasingly threatened. Taliban is expanding its sphere of control, particularly in northern Afghanistan.

Afghan president Hamid Karzai, who was installed into power by CIA, put it bluntly last year, saying the US-led war was "ineffective apart from causing civilian casualties.""

Central planning is always doomed to fail.

"It’s amusing watching Washington blast poor old Hamid Karzai in Kabul for corruption while the US is furiously bribing many top officials and generals in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Not to mention US collaboration with Afghanistan’s top heroin kingpins and communist war criminals. Pretty sordid stuff that will one day come out and cause a furor, just as CIA’s involvement in the Laotian and Central American drug trade did."

Government by definition is violence and the threat of violence, and it's funded by armed robbery. War is violence. It's impossible for it to be anything but fraught with corruption.

"President Obama declared last week that the US would continue fighting al-Qaida in Afghanistan. He is clearly not telling Americans the truth."

Knock me over with a feather.

FOREIGN POLICY:

South Korea continues to try and provoke North Korea into war.

"A South Korean destroyer prowled the sea and fighter jets screamed across the skies Tuesday in preparation for possible North Korean attacks a day after staging provocative artillery drills on an island the North shelled last month."

At least our mainstream media recognizes the provocation.

Washington's foreign policy rules:

"The credo is global leadership."

"America chooses the means, not just the ends, of global leadership. There are three fundamental assumptions about the means:

• global military presence

• global power projection

• global interventionism

While much has changed in the US military in the last 60 years, this trinity apparently remains too holy to be questioned (p. 14)."

Anybody who fails to adhere to these rules is washed out of Washington. I prefer leadership by example.

"Note the emphasis on "global." The United States must have a forward presence everywhere. It must be set up to project its power globally, whether that means boots on the ground, bombs from the sky, or knives in the dark. Able to intervene anywhere on the globe, the United States must have a policy of doing so."

I don't think being able to do this is a bad thing. The US must wield a powerful deterrent to every nation on earth. It's best if we have many prongs on that deterrent: economic, diplomatic and military. The problem isn't having those deterrents. The problem is aristocrats use them for advancing their personal and political agendas, not deterring an attack on the US. The other problem is what the author calls the forward presence. That's the trappings of empire. In other words over 700 military bases in 130 countries. Those bases are counterproductive. Aristocrats use them to intimidate and attack others, making us less safe. The US missile, navy and air force deterrent can reach any country on earth without foreign bases. The US marines can reach any country on earth without a foreign military base. Those bases aren't about deterrent. They're about giving the federal government control over foreign countries and a convenience for fighting perpetual wars.

"The corollary of this is that the United States exempts itself from norms that it expects others to comply with. Bacevich gives the example of how outraged Americans and the world would be if China had a defense budget that matched all the great powers' except the United States', created garrisons around the world including in Latin America, appointed People's Liberation Army generals responsible for different parts of the globe (including one for North America and one for Europe), conducted war games globally, and created a global strike force (pp. 23–24). In reality, American policy is far more expansive than the hypothetical Chinese example. Because Americans are the good guys, they are surprised when others are outraged."

Very true. The American people rightly think of themselves as the good guys, but our aristocrats are not. Just as they use government for their own ends in domestic policy, they do the same with foreign policy. Americans need to figure that out.

"The implications of this are fascinating. America has the ability, right, and duty to change the world however it wants and by whatever means."

The sociopaths don't suddenly become noble on foreign policy issues. Just as the ruling class uses the government's gun to loot us and socially engineer the US to their advantage in domestic policy, they do the same thing in foreign policy. We don't like it when they do it to us, and foreigners like it even less. This makes us less safe.

""What's the point of having this superb military you're always talking about if we can't use it?" [Madeline Albright] Said to Colin Powell, this question summed up the foreign-policy elite's problem with how the army was rebuilt."

Which goes back to my statement of the problem: the aristocrats use our deterrents for their own petty power plays, not to deter attack on America. Interesting viewpoint that Petraeus created his new counter-insurgency
strategy, the key to which was controlling public perception, to enable government to perpetually fight wars.

"Bacevich suggests that we tend our garden before it is too late. His vision is an America that leads by example."

That's funny.

"Bacevich says that unfortunately it is easy to simply blame our leaders, but it is also the American people who let them get away with it, because too many Americans believe in the credo and trinity of Washington rules."

We have nobody blame for our government but ourselves.

MEDIA:

Julian Assange takes credit for breaking the climategate emails though WikiLeaks was only a secondary site.