Confucius Says WTF? US To File Spying Charges Against Wikileaks

Paul Krugman
Dana Milbank
Jonathan Schanzer

"By seeming angrier at worried supporters than he is at the hostage-takers, Mr. Obama is already signaling weakness, giving Republicans every reason to believe that they can extract another ransom." - Paul Krugman

"This time, he stood against his Democratic colleagues, but there's reason to hope that he'll show his newly discovered spine to the Republicans the next time." - Dana Milbank

"It looks like the Bush-era tax cuts for the rich will continue, due to a strong Republican leader, Barack Obama. Today Obama changed his slogan from 'Yes we can' to 'Yes, we caved.' It’s so bad for him, now Democrats want to see his birth certificate." – Jay Leno

I've spent the last couple of days looking after my pet cat, who got into a fight and was bitten in his chest, the fang marks went rather deep. Even though he is neutered and getting older, he still thinks he has to establish dominance over the younger, tougher male cats that enter his area. Six months ago I took him to the vet because he got a part of his haunch bitten off. Because I live on a fixed income, I had to give up my monthly cigar allowance to buy medicine for him, and my having a healthy cat will have to be my Christmas present to my sister and brother-in-law, whom I live with. I am thankful that I don't have to pay storage for this blog, because I'd have to give it up this month, too.

It's been a strange couple of days if you are a Chinese government official, having been made to look like a fool over the Nobel Peace Prize fiasco. Not one official has been able to explain why they had gone ballistic that a Chinese man finally had won a Nobel Prize, and such a prestigious one as the Peace Prize. So what if the man was in prison for having written two years ago a manifesto of desired political reforms that China could undertake to guarantee the human rights of its citizens. I suppose the embarrassing part was partly that he was in jail, but rather, he was in jail on trumped up phony charges that suddenly were made public to the rest of the world, and the government was exposed to be petty, intolerant, and morbidly hypocritical, unchanged since the rule of the Gang of Four... How could I rationally explain the hysterical, angry reactions to the Nobel Committee? Cutting off diplomatic relations with Norway, canceling any business contracts, and trying to influence countries to not show up at the awards ceremonies today... Not allowing any of Liu Xiabo's friends to leave the country, and keep his wife under house arrest, demonstrating exactly how little rights all Chinese citizens really have... All designed so that there would be an empty chair when the awards were given out. The last time that a recipient of the Peace Prize was kept from attending the awards, it was under Nazi German occupation... Business as usual by blocking Chinese access to outside news sources like the BBC and CNN during their coverage of the Nobel awards, then lying about it and denying that it ever happened...

"To see what is right, and not to do it, is want of courage or of principle." - Confucius

To make matters even worse, the Chinese government hastily created a Peace Prize of its own, and had the first ever Confucius Peace Prize, held last night in Beijing: "Lien Chan was the lucky winner. A former vice-president of the Republic of China (better known as Taiwan), his office did not know he had won until journalists called.


"We've never heard of such an award and of course Mr Lien has no plans to accept it," said a spokesman from Lien's office.


In lieu of Lien then, organisers decided the cash prize of $15,000 would be given symbolically to a six-year-old girl, who had no relation to Lien. The block of cash, tied up in a red ribbon, was the size of the girl's head, and she clutched it while another organiser raised her up in his arms for everyone to see. She also received a certificate." Lucky girl, wonder which official she belongs to?

After the award was given, there came the question and answer period that quickly went horribly wrong: "During the question and answer period in the increasingly stuffy conference room of a central Beijing hotel, the Confucius Peace Prize Awards Committee couldn't even bring themselves to say Liu Xiaobo's name, instead circuitously referring to him as "he of the three-character name you mentioned".


When Liu Xiaobo conjures up Harry Potter's Lord Voldemort, the He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, you know some Chinese are experiencing a crisis.


The press conference went from bad to worse, as question after question was asked.


"Jimmy Carter was one of your nominees for the first Confucius Peace Prize. Carter signed a letter asking for the release of Liu. Does this make you a supporter of a supporter of Liu?"


Or, "Doesn't it bother you and speak volumes if Lien Chan, the winner, hasn't shown up? Do you just have a hard time accepting the truth?"


Or this one, by a Hong Kong journalist, "Have you studied Confucius? Because you appear to have gotten the concepts wrong..."


The failure to understand that their well-intentioned decision to defend China had actually come across to the rest of the world as a tragicomedy, is significant and underscores the disconnect domestic Chinese have about how China is perceived to outsiders. In other words: the propaganda works. And people here support their government and support the Communist Party." Something tells me that there won't be a second annual Confucius Peace Prize, unless they can get John Stewart or Jeff Ross to host the event. The Chinese government will continue the farce that they know what is best for the Chinese people, and continue to put idealistic men in jail. The next couple of years will be difficult for anyone who believes and organizes for human rights. It's best summed up by the Nobel Peace Prize winner himself, Liu Xiaobo, who may also deserve a Mother Theresa award:

"I have long been aware that when an independent intellectual stands up to an autocratic state, step one toward freedom is often a step into prison. Now I am taking that step; and true freedom is that much nearer.”

Even dumber than the US plan to impose even more sanctions on Iran after the last IAEA conference in Geneva didn't produce anything to our liking, is the decision to file spying charges against Julian Assange. Most of the rest of the world are laughing at us, thinking that we lack a sense of humor and are being very thin skinned over the recent wikileaks: " For many Europeans, Washington’s fierce reaction to the flood of secret diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks displays imperial arrogance and hypocrisy, indicating a post-9/11 obsession with secrecy that contradicts American principles." Hard to argue against that...

"For Seumas Milne of The Guardian in London, which like The New York Times has published the latest WikiLeaks trove, the official American reaction “is tipping over toward derangement.” Most of the leaks are of low-level diplomatic cables, he noted, while concluding: “Not much truck with freedom of information, then, in the land of the free.”


John Naughton, writing in the same British paper, deplored the attack on the openness of the Internet and the pressure on companies like Amazon and eBay to evict the WikiLeaks site. “The response has been vicious, coordinated and potentially comprehensive,” he said, and presents a “delicious irony” that “it is now the so-called liberal democracies that are clamoring to shut WikiLeaks down.”


A year ago, he noted, Mrs. Clinton made a major speech about Internet freedom, interpreted as a rebuke to China’s cyberattack on Google. “Even in authoritarian countries,” she said, “information networks are helping people to discover new facts and making governments more accountable.” To Mr. Naughton now, “that Clinton speech reads like a satirical masterpiece.”


Perhaps the most embarrassing statements came from Russia's Prime Minister, Vladimeer Putin: “If it is a full-fledged democracy, then why have they put Mr. Assange away in jail? You call that democracy?” Mr. Putin then referred to a Russian proverb that roughly translates as “the pot calling the kettle black.” “You know, out in the countryside, we have a saying, ‘Someone else’s cow may moo, but yours should keep quiet,’ ” Mr. Putin said. “So I would like to shoot that puck right back at our American colleagues.”

The continued war against our own human rights that was so successfully waged against the American people by the Patriot Act and other policies instituted during George W Bush's regime seems to continuing unabated during Barack Obama's watch. Or maybe we keep looking at countries like China and Iran with open awe, wishing that we could openly abuse our citizen's the way that they do. I know that Hillary Clinton is a hawk, but we need some oversight to hold back those predatory instincts, or she'll end up killing all of the chicks in her nest, and we will be a poorer country, doing to ourselves without the military coups, civilian bloodshed, and mass jailing of the opposition like every other authoritarian form of government uses to establish itself. This desire to put a dufus like Mr Assange in an American jail means that we have been at war too long, and our worst instincts are beginning to take over. Instead of punishing wikileaks and Julian Assange, we should give him equal access to the rest of the cables and intelligence we have gathered, let him publish what other country's diplomats think of us, help spread the embarrassment around...

FRC Lobbies DADT, Netanyahu Asked To Step Down, Aaron Sorkin - Sarah Palin Facebook Deathmatch?

Maureen Dowd
Ezra Klein
Aluf Benn

"President Obama's pledge to have the most transparent administration in history has come true. Thanks to WikiLeaks." – Jay Leno

"You have to be careful of political correctness this time of the year. You can't call them 'Santa's elves' anymore. They're 'undocumented little people.'" – Jay Leno

"WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange says he's going to release damaging files on BP and Guantanamo Bay if his website is shut down. Excuse me? No one besmirches the good names of BP and Guantanamo Bay." – Jimmy Fallon

David Letterman's "Top Ten Signs Your Neighbor Is The WikiLeaks Guy"

10. Name on mailbox reads 'WikiLeaks Guy'
9. Spends most of his free time burying stuff in the yard
8. He insists you speak directly into his necktie
7. More than once, you've caught him crawling in your ventilation ducts
6. He told you about Jeter's new contract at Thanksgiving
5. He insists you speak directly into his necktie — that joke was already in the Top Ten. We really need someone checking these things
4. On recycling day, he puts out cans, bottles, and classified documents
3. His idea of small talk is 'Good morning' and 'Want the coordinates of our secret military base in the Strait of Hormuz?'
2. Any time you talk to him, all he says is, 'I know. I know. I know . . . '
1. Gets drunk and takes a 'WikiLeak' on your porch — Hayo!

Boy, is everyone pissed off at Obama, or what? I could be giving him too much credit, but if there is a Democratic backlash and not enough votes get cast in favor of the tax cut compromise, then one or two weeks later all of the Bush tax cuts will expire, the Repubs don't get anything, and folks will be saying how sly he was, what a good acting job he sold during the press conferences...

Senator's phones have been ringing all day long, either from Obama trying to get their vote to repeal the DADT policy on homosexuals serving in the military, or from the frantic and hysterical Family Research Council asking them to vote the repeal down. The FRC is an offshoot from my local Christian broadcasting and print empire, headed by James Dobson. The head of the FRC is Tony Perkins, who considers the repealing of DADT as part of the "anti-life/homosexual agenda." I wonder if they also make calendars? He is so far out in the ozone with his paranoid hysteria, that the Southern Poverty Law Center, who tracks hate and racist groups, recently put the Family Research Council on its list of hate groups.

"Senator Reid has arranged it that pro-family Senators do not have an opportunity to offer any of their own amendments to counter his political abuse of our military," Perkins wrote in the alert. "This means the only way to stop this monstrosity is to vote against proceeding to the bill." - Tony Perkins

Anyone like Mr Perkins who is unable to have a reasonable conversation on this subject, is either mentally ill, spiritually bankrupt, or most likely hiding something in the closet like most Catholic priests do...

Although wikileaks founder Julian Assange has threatened to release a bunch of very toxic and embarrassing files if he were arrested or his website came down, authorities decided to call his bluff and took him into custody. The farcical part is that he is only wanted for questioning as a person of interest in the claims of two Swedish women against him. Neither have filed any formal charges. Since he is Australian and a nerdy introvert, I'm sure that he treated the women with a lack of respect and a lack of sensitivity... His supporters were hopping mad, and got into combat gear in front of their computer, as reported in the Guardian: "WikiLeaks supporters struck back Wednesday at perceived enemies of the site and its jailed founder Julian Assange, launching hack attacks against MasterCard, Swedish prosecutors, a Swedish lawyer and a Swiss group that froze Assange’s bank account." I haven't come across any assessment of their damage done, if it was a lot or if it all was stopped at the firewall or trapped in a honeypot...

The US may have predictably failed to influence the Israeli government in creating another building moratorium, but that's mainly because of the stubborn and unyielding right-wingers in office, including the Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, who has shown nothing but contempt for the US over the course of his political career. Because Israel was so lacking in preparedness for the recent Carmel fire, they had 1,400 firefighters employed when the standard for their population size called for at least 10,000 firefighters, there are calls for the Prime Minister to step down and let the moderates take over... The recent campaign labeling a European pro-Islamic propaganda has spurred the ultra right wing: "Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman is ordering Israeli embassies all over Europe to adopt measures to improve Israel's standing in Europe, including the recruitment of 1,000 "allies" who will be encouraged to speak up for Israel in the media and at public meetings." You can look for them on your next European vacation, or coming soon to a town hall meeting nearest you... Netanyahu had to call up the leaders of Turkey, Jordan, Syria, and Gaza for sending firefighting men and equipment to fight the devastating Carmel fire. It shows that even among "enemies" there is compassion in saving innocent lives...

The Guardian had an interesting diatribe against the fake reality show, Sarah Palin's Alaska, by Aaron Sorkin: "Sorkin, writer of the recent Facebook movie The Social Network, also accused the Fox News contributor of making a "snuff film" after the latest episode of Sarah's Palin's Alaska featured the politician going hunting with her father and shooting a caribou.


He described Palin as "deranged", a "witless bully" and a "phony pioneer girl". He also said The Learning Channel, the US cable network, "should be ashamed of itself" for broadcasting her "truly awful reality show".


Sorkin was responding to a post on Palin's Facebook page in which the former governor of Alaska reacted to criticism of Sunday's episode by accusing her detractors of hypocrisy: "Unless you've never worn leather shoes, sat upon a leather chair or eaten meat, save your condemnation."


"I eat meat, chicken and fish, have shoes and furniture made of leather ... I'm able to make a distinction between you and me without feeling the least bit hypocritical," Sorkin wrote in an incendiary comment piece posted on the Huffington Post website early today.


"I don't watch snuff films and you make them. You weren't killing that animal for food or shelter or even fashion, you were killing it for fun. You enjoy killing animals," he added.


"And you didn't just do it for fun and you didn't just do it for money. That was the first moose [sic] ever murdered for political gain. You knew there'd be a protest from Peta and you knew that would be an opportunity to hate on some people, you witless bully. What a uniter you'd be – bringing the right together with the far right."


Sorkin said he could not make a distinction between what Palin got paid to do in her show and "what Michael Vick went to prison for doing". Vick is an American football player convicted three years ago on dog-fighting charges." Unfortunately for Sorkin, our Sarah never forgets, and they don't lovingly call her Sarah Barracuda for nothing. His career may soon be over, so I suggest he invests the money he has made outside of the US, or the bank he uses may mysteriously go bankrupt overnight, its funds discovered to have been lost in the latest billionaire's ponzi scheme... unless we can convince Facebook to hold a Deathmatch 2000 between them, for all of their friends to see...

Assassinations OK'd By Judge Bates, Let's Add 14 Year Old Hookah Smoking Israeli Boy

Eugene Robinson
John Avlon

"Congress is buried under a crushing surplus of cynicism, while the White House seems paralyzed by a deficit of courage." - Eugene Robinson

"There is one point of growing agreement between the left and right: this president is a lousy poker player, with no love for the tough-minded gamesmanship of high-stakes negotiations. He believes in reasoning together, even with unreasonable people. This honorable approach leaves him liable to get rolled." - John Avlon

It may prove that having wikileak's founder Julian Assange arrested in Britain was the best thing that could have happened to him right now. Nobody likes living in a jail cell, but the alternative could have been that President Obama puts him on his personal assassination list... In a ruling today, Federal Judge John Bates (insert Master jokes here) said that having an assassination list is the kind of decision that only rests with the executive branch and is not open to judicial review

The judge further avoided answering any of the other questions regarding having an assassination list in the first place. Here's the blurb from the NY Times: "A federal judge threw out a lawsuit on Tuesday that sought to block the American government from trying to kill Anwar al-Awlaki, a United States citizen and Muslim cleric accused of playing a significant role in Al Qaeda’s branch in Yemen.


The ruling clears the way for the Obama administration to continue to try to kill Mr. Awlaki and represents a victory in its efforts to shield from judicial review one of its most striking counter-terrorism policies.


The court not only rejected the lawsuit on the grounds that Mr. Awlaki’s father had no standing to file it on behalf of his son, but held that decisions to mount targeted killings overseas are a “political question” for executive officials to make — not judges." Instead of getting into any ethical questions, the judge threw out the court case based on the father filing the case to protect his son, and only the person Anwar al-Awlaki has the right to file. The argument is that when a decision to take the life of an American born citizen, that decision should be open to a judicial review. The judge said it ain't so, the President can kill anyone he wants to. Thank god this decision didn't happen when Dick Cheney was still in charge, since this kind of hit list originated with him, with George Bush adding Osama bin Laden after 9/11. They both used mercenaries to find and kill people on the presidential list, and towards the end of Bush's term he was even hiring commando units from Britain and Germany in trying to find bin Laden. I guess the next thing to do is to find out who else is on the hit list without getting themselves added, too.

“If the court’s ruling is correct, the government has unreviewable authority to carry out the targeted killing of any American, anywhere, whom the president deems to be a threat to the nation. It would be difficult to conceive of a proposition more inconsistent with the Constitution, or more dangerous to American liberty.” - Jaleel Jaffer, ACLU Lawyer

The most disheartening part to me about this whole wikileaks affair, is how quickly American companies like Amazon and Paypal turned feral on their own customer by kicking him out of their systems at the slightest pressure from the government. Another reason why Meg Whitman should not have been elected as Governor of California? There is something vaguely sinister about this, and once Mr Assange is turned over to Sweden to face sex charges, he will then be sent to the US, who will try to put him away like he was Manuel Noriega. I guess that's what you get for tilting at windmills in our modern age of drive-by shootings and suicide bombers; your romantic self-image doesn't match up with the reality based disconnect... If the military had already repealed its Don't Ask Don't Tell policy, then Private Manning wouldn't have been so bitter and not have downloaded all of those files... As a result, more of the dumb and mundane will be classified top secret, surfing the Internet to sites not approved by your government may result in your loss of using the Internet and having your hard drive confiscated by your local police. The madness will build to a crescendo when a 14 year old boy gets put on the hit list and ends up assassinated, in a not too distant day and age when a hookah-smoking 14 year old boy can start the largest forest fire in the short history of Israel. Questions inevitably get asked, like if Israel is not prepared to put out a fire by itself, how can it possibly be ready to fight a country like Iran?

With the distractions of the wikileaks and the forest fire, Israel and the US had stopped pointing their fingers at each other and blaming the other for the stopped negotiations over a Palestinian state. Today the US will announce that its pressure on Israel to stop building in disputed areas is not working. Instead, we hope to resove where the borders will be for the state without having to sit down again, then Israel can build all it wants, as long as its not within the agreed upon boundaries. Already Argentina and Brazil have recognized Palestine as a separate state, that coincides with the PA's push for recognition as a state from the UN. It has become a game of chess, and every time Israel blocks one move, another strategy must be employed. Maybe Israel can use those illegal settlers to replant the areas burned by the forest fire instead of the illegal workers it has imported to do manual labor, then reward the children of those people by kicking them out of the country and denying them any chance at citizenship, a strategy that is hoped to be adopted here in the US by the fervid anti-imgrates...

Are you thrilled that the Bush tax cuts will be extended for another two years, that is, if some Democrat doesn't decide to filibuster... add another $90 billion to the deficit over the next two years, if that's what you are concerned about. Myself, it's the realization that it doesn't matter one bit whether the tax cuts are extended or they expire, because either way will not do anything towards providing jobs. Our economy will not bounce back within the next two, four, or even six years enough to bring the jobless rate down significantly. If someone tells you different, they are lying or misinformed, probably both...

My biggest gripe with my conservative brethren is that they believe that a tax cut will solve everything, therefore they don't bother to come up with any more ideas. I have finally begun hearing some people talk how we need to rebuild our manufacturing base. The Chinese have the world-wide market in solar panels locked up, so we need to be more innovative in the alternative energy markets; after all, we can't rely on clean coal technology forever... Otherwise, there will be a world-wide escalation of nuclear plants and technology, with Iran leading the way, our future resembling a nuclear meltdown, with the poorest countries on each continent turned into a waste dump for the others...

Julian Assange: Angel Or Demon? Paedophile Barbie, Mormons On The Run

Paul Krugman
Marc Thiessen

"Yes, letting taxes go up would be politically risky. But giving in would be risky, too — especially for a president whom voters are starting to write off as a man too timid to take a stand. Now is the time for him to prove them wrong." - Paul Krugman

"You are either with us, or you are with WikiLeaks." - Marc Thiessen

"WikiLeaks continues to release thousands of classified documents, but some of the leaks are just gossip. Like the one saying Iranian President Ahmadinejad was once offered a 10 pm show on NBC. I guess they were just trying to ruin his reputation." – Jay Leno

Switzerland just froze all of his bank accounts, and now Julian Assange is trying to negotiate with British police to turn himself in. I can't believe how outraged many pundits and politicians are over wikileaks, they should be published in a pocket book form for light bathroom reading. People of an authoritarian mind set, whom I like to call fascists, want to see this guy punished in the worst way, see Marc Thiessen's link above. Marc used to work for the Bush White House and thinks that the NY Times should also be held responsible for publishing so much of the files this past week. It will end up in the courts, of course, and might have a similar ruling that the Pentagon Papers received, which then allowed them to be published in full. The distinction being made here is that the Pentagon Papers is the Pentagon's internal historical document being made public, and these wikileaks files are of opinions from current officers working in the field. Or are they seeded, as Dr Zbignew Brzinski suggests, with nuggets of disinformation from sources like Israel? The plot thickens...

The old hippie in me rears its ugly head and says question authority wherever it seeks to impose itself in a punitive way. The reason most things are labeled top secret is that they are mildly embarrassing if they get out, and the wikileak files is proving to be just that. They are mildly embarrassing, but there are no gonzo moments of withering descriptions of our allies, just mild criticisms that they already should be aware of, if they were any good at their jobs. In fact, there are instances of spin that show our diplomats were doing their jobs and performing well, even showing the absurdity of certain political events in a volatile world.

Robert Grenier, who worked for the CIA for 27 years and was Director of the CIA’s Counter-Terrorism Center from 2004 to 2006, points out that any system as poorly designed to allow: "... a ubiquitous military system for storing and sharing classified information which permitted a junior enlisted man of no particular account, located off in some minor military intelligence unit in Iraq, to have access to literally hundreds of thousands of classified documents on topics of little if any concern to him, as well as the means to independently download them, ought to be shot." Like most of the government's software and databases, they have been cobbled together over the years by grafting different systems onto much older, antiquated systems. In this case, it was designed to allow access by over 2.5 million employees worldwide, so the security had to suck eggs, big time.

Mr Grenier goes on to talk about the problems we've always had towards leaks of sensitive information: "Even more important, however, is the inconvenient truth lying at the heart of this whole matter: that even at this late date, the US government has not devised a straightforward, effective and intellectually honest means of dealing with the conflicting values at play when a serious leak of classified government information occurs.


This is true even in the context of normal press leaks, let alone when dealing with the issues generated by mass information-storage devices and the internet. The US government is well equipped to deal with cold-war-era espionage: Individuals providing classified information clandestinely to foreign – usually hostile – powers. The law here is quite unambiguous, and there is a large body of case precedents to back it up.


Where the press is concerned, however, the US government, even after many decades, still has not arrived at a clear, viable means of balancing the legitimate need for a free, open and unfettered press (to use an archaic term) with the equally legitimate government requirement to protect certain information for the public good.


In fact, there routinely are press leaks every bit as harmful as old-fashioned espionage. About the only thing one can say in favor of leaks, as against compromise of the same information through classic espionage, is that at least in the former case, you know when you’ve been robbed. Indeed, in the latest WikiLeaks case, the harm to national security and international relations is all the greater precisely because it was an open leak; at least a hostile power having acquired the same information would have treated it more discreetly."

Pepe Escpbar wites in the Asia Times that: "...at the same time, the US government and virtually the whole establishment - from neo-conservatives to Obama-light practitioners - want to pull out all stops to delete WikiLeaks or, even take out Assange, as George W Bush wanted to do with bin Laden. Grizzly nutjob Sarah Palin says Assange is worse than al-Qaeda. Such hysteria lead an Atlanta radio station to ask listeners whether Assange should be executed or imprisoned (no third option; execution won). Redneck Baptist priest Mike Huckabee, who might have been the Republican contender for president in 2008 and is now a talk-show fixture, goes for execution as well.

Who to believe? These freaks, or two frustrated US federal investigators who told the Los Angeles Times that if WikiLeaks had been active in 2001, it would have prevented 9/11? " Wikileaks as horrible demon bent on destroying our established bureaucratic way of doing things, or potential savior, bringing things up from the muck into the light of day? Interesting that the Pentagon still hasn't gotten around to fixing the security weak links, and more files can still be potentially downloaded...

Personally, I'm enjoying reading about the wikileaks, as presented each day in my newspaper. It makes it so much easier than going to the website itself and flagging to law enforcement that I've been there, and having intelligence service follow me back to my blog. Many older versions of browsers allow for the kind of software that checks your history, all of the other websites that you have been to. It was developed so that marketers could customize their advertising to you according to your browsing history, even planting a sniffer to detect where you go next on the Internet and report back to mama... Most newer versions of your browser have corrected the flaw that allowed that software to operate, so upgrading your browser to its newest version is a good thing, and make big brother's task a bit harder. although if they really want to, all they have to do is trump up some bogus charge and confiscate your computer and copy its hard drive, which would put me out of business. Good thing I am just grumpy and not obnoxious like I was when I was younger, when I thought it was fun to piss people in power off...

Well, this is just a creepy story. I don't know whether to be alarmed at the FBI's warning over the new Video Camera Barbie, or more alarmed that some sicko in the Sacramento office would come up with such a use: "A memo to investigators warned that the Barbie Video Girl could be used for the "production and possession of child pornography".


An FBI spokeswoman said there had been no reported evidence that the doll, made by Mattell, had been used in any way other than intended. The agency stressed the alert had been intended only for internal circulation.


It was issued by the Sacramento field office of the FBI, to raise awareness among investigators of "unconventional avenues" by which child pornography can be obtained, the spokeswoman added. The Barbie Video Girl doll, which went on sale earlier in the year, can record up to 30 minutes of footage through a digital camera on its front. The images can be viewed on the doll itself, or can be uploaded to a computer via USB cable.


Mattel said its products were "designed with children and their best interests in mind". Its statement added: "Many of Mattel's employees are parents themselves and we understand the importance of child safety - it is our number one priority." And one of the child's parents would have to be a child molester and personally upload the Barbie video to their computer. Guess how long this item will remain on the shelves this year?... I always thought that Mattel toys were made with ulterior purposes, now the FBI has confirmed it... Which reminds me, my sister's youngest grandchild just told us that she is now too old for dolls and not to get her any this Christmas. Oh crap, where does that leave us for presents?

I was wondering where our local allotment of Mormon missionaries had gone, there had only been one or two knocks on the door this year from those polite young men with bad haircuts. Now I know that they have been reassigned to Southeast Asia, as reported in the Asia Times: "The Mormon church is focusing more of its considerable resources on its "frontier" in Southeast and South Asia. The dedication of its young missionaries is paying off in Cambodia, where the number of converts passed 10,000 in March. Vietnam is the next big target in the region for grassroots proselytizing. - "


Maybe they feel that they've worn out their welcome in the US... I grew up with strange cultist books like the Book of Mormon and the writings of Mary Baker Eddy around the house. I also had a great-great-great grandfather who was a gunfighter, a punk who migrated to Colorado from Utah with two stated missions in his life: One - to fall in love and marry an Indian girl, and Two - to find and kill as many Mormons as he could. I know he was successful at his first objective, but not so sure as to his second, although he did end up becoming the sheriff of Canon City before the Civil War...

Will Iran Be A No-Show In Geneva? McCain's Homo Experience

Maureen Dowd
Robert Kaplan
Howard Kurtz

"A 19-year-old Somali man was arrested in Portland for allegedly planning to detonate a bomb at a Christmas tree lighting ceremony. His parents are devastated. He had such a promising career as a pirate." – Jay Leno

"WikiLeaks shows our allies are also funding the terrorists. So we’re like the commissionless middlemen in a war we’re waging against ourselves." – Jon Stewart

"The head of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange, has gone into hiding. They say he's some place all alone where no one can find him. In fact, officials believe he may be hiding in a theater showing 'Burlesque.'" – Jay Leno

Now that we have realized that the 250,000 pages of diplomatic documents released by Wikileaks have no real importance than to illustrate how lower-level employees file their opinions, it's interesting to see which world leaders are still getting their panties in a bunch... The more emotionally false, arrogant ones like Putin and Karzai take offense. Whoa dudes, wait until the next level of documents get released and the world sees even more what kinds of douche bags you are, no wonder now that Hillary Clinton is having a good laugh in private - without any aides writing down what she says, of course. The information contained in the documents aren't anything earthshaking enough to change relationships between countries, most of it has already been reported as speculation, like China hiring a bunch of its hackers to get information from american networks. In response to that , China arrested 646 of its hackers, so they wouldn't go public with more their personal parts in the nefarious plans...

This week the UN committee on nuclear energy is meeting in Geneva, to talk about Iran's program. The games have already begun, with the new head of the committee claiming that Iran is not being cooperative with the UN inspectors, who want to see if Iran's recent claims about progress is true. Iran is saying that it won't discuss its enrichment program, that its intentions in attending the meeting is to point out the benefits of a nuclear Iran, to the world's energy problems and stability in the Middle East... All of the big boys: the US, France, Britain, Germany, China, and Russia is hoping to persuade Iran to rejoin the world community in a diplomatic way. Egypt says if that doesn't work, it wants to put in orders for some nuclear plants to be built in Egypt, signaling a possible nuclear race among Middle Eastern countries. Economically, this would help Germany, France, and South Korea, who already have some kind of contract in place with the UAE and Saudi Arabia.

The two differing viewpoints are illustrated by what Ahmadinejad said on state-run tv, and Hillary's response: "We are ready to negotiate but... (world powers) should acknowledge that the rights of the Iranian nation are non-negotiable. They should also stop being hostile," said Ahmadinejad. Included in those hostilities are the murdering of Iran's nuclear scientists. Hillary responded in a speech in Bahrain: "We hope that you will come to it, as we will, in good faith and prepared to engage constructively on your nuclear programme." Clinton acknowledged that Iran has "the right to a peaceful nuclear programme," but said Tehran must fully address the world's concerns about its atomic activities." Tehran then tried to calm the fears of its neighbors by sending personal notes saying that it doesn't have designs on the region, but just wants to be a good neighbor, if only you'll let them...

This morning Iran announced that it has processed the first batch of raw uranium into yellowcake, and is now in control of the whole fuel-making process. Hillary has yet to respond to this nugget of information, but the prognosis for Geneva doesn't look good. China seems to have the most pragmatic goal, it will be happy if the parties agree to meet again... Who knows, if Iran can prove to its Sunni neighbors that it doesn't want to establish a Shiite hegemony, that it won't take over and invade Iraq within the next five years, that it will stop sending over suicide bomb vests and other munitions into Pakistan and Afghanistan, that it will finally give up the spot where Osama bin Laden is hiding, then maybe the US and Russia might be convinced, too. Until then, a game of Stuxnet anyone?


The wikileak backlash wave has been organized and launched, and it will end up playing havoc with some of our institutions and personal freedoms, what little there are that's left. First, the US intelligence service used its hackers to find out where wikileaks keeps its servers, and successfully pressured companies like Amazon and Paypal to kick wikileaks off of their servers and no longer accept their business. Next, all government employees and members of the military have been ordered not to link to wikileaks, or else. The implied threat is being tried for treason, if the justice dept ever figures out a way to bring any charges against wikileaks. Students at colleges like Columbia have been told that if they ever hope to have a job in the govt, then do not link to wikileaks. And if you have ever linked to wikileaks.org, it's possible that you might be getting a threatening e-mail sometime soon, for what it's worth...

Paranoia strikes deep.

Into your life it will creep.

It starts when you're always afraid.

Step out of line, the MAN come and take you away.

It's time we stop.

Hey, what's that sound?

Everybody look what's goin' down.

The more stubborn and erratic that Sen John McCain's behavior gets in opposition to repealing the DADT policy about gays serving in the military, the happier I am that I didn't vote for him as President. He makes me look positively cheerful, even his best friend, Joe Lieberman, has taken him to task during the recent congressional hearing. DADT was a taboo subject at the McCain house this thanksgiving, with both mom and daughters supporting the repeal.

The more irrational he gets makes me think that my former assessment of his behavior is correct, and it means that the man should go and see a therapist. It's not just the men of his generation's blind fear of all things homo, that some guy will try to cornhole you while under stress in some foxhole, or to admit to even seeing another man's penis is an admission that you aren't all macho that you can be...

I believe that John McCain's fears run deeper, because while he was incarcerated as a prisoner of war in North Vietnam, he had homosexual experiences to relieve suppressed sexual tension, much like men in our prison system do because they have few options available to them. I believe that John McCain has repressed these memories, more so because they contain torture and elements of cruelty; and the fear of having to revisit them makes him stubborn and a little batshit. It also means that he will no go gently into that good night, ever become reasonable on the subject, and the only way he will change his mind is if he experiences a huge meltdown in public, some kind of temper tantrum in front of the television cameras.

Elections, PakUSAstan, Aliens Among Us, Pelosi Pulls Rabbit Out Of Hat

Gail Collins
Dana Milbank

Dear world, how's that let's-have-elections-to-promote-democracy thingy coming along? I don't know if we've always had such a blatant amount of election fraud and corruption, and the results of the recent elections in Afghanistan, Egypt, and the Ivory Coast are very disappointing. In Egypt, the government just scoffed and waved a dismissive hand at the fact that the major opposition group didn't win any seats at all in parliament, where last year they had won 88. In the Ivory Coast, an election official was taped bringing out the results for an area, looking at what was printed on the page, then angrily ripping the results paper up and tossing them. The current dictator, Laurent Gbagbo, has said that losing the election to his rival is unacceptable, so look forward to some more African violence...

 But Afghanistan takes the cake by arresting the honest election officials because its unhappy with the results. In Karzai's case, the areas where he has tribal affinity with the Pashtuns are now under-represented in parliament because it was too dangerous for people to come out and vote. So, it must be the election official's fault, who won't fudge any winners that are loyal to Karzai... the end results are the people's increased cynicism in this type of government along with the US's increasing impotence to influence the government officials.

We might as well rename Pakistan right now, into PakUSAstan, since it's become clear the our military is over-running the country. The Pakistani parliament has given up and directed the military to deal with all further exhortations to root out al-Qaeda groups, and the Prime Minister is in negotiations to buy a house in Qatar or the UAE for his family to live while he finishes serving out his term in office. First, it was the unmanned drone flying over the border, then, it was the skirmishes with mercenaries and the CIA. Now, we have groups of our military riding along with the Pakistani military, as they go out on patrols. Next, it will be General Petraeus setting up a headquarters in Islamabad, all the better to share information, you know...

Another disquieting incident is the arresting of 39 suspected members of al-Qaeda in Iraq. That's not too bad, except they are wearing the orange jumpsuits adopted by the US jail system. In Iraq, these accused face the death penalty, and there is a loud protest that a trial is too good for them, let's execute them all right now...! Take note, we might hear similar sounds if the US AG ever finds the founder of Wikileaks and hauls his butt over to the US...

For years Hollywood has made science fiction films about the Earth being attacked by aliens, with smaller films made about one or a few aliens living among us, with mixed results. Today, NASA announced the discovery of a life-form that is based on arsenic, something that will take quite some imagination getting used to, but something that had been imagined not too long ago. This television season we were introduced to The Event, so it may not be much longer before we are introduced formally to the Brother From another Planet. Or, it may take on the Wolfen variety, an entity that was here before humankind. My guess is that we will soon become aware of beings described by David Icke, beings that fueled the conspiracy theories for hundreds of years, from gods who seeded the human race to vampires and demons. So, if Bill O'Reilly and Keith Olbermann both have guests on their shows who are shape-shifting lizards that mostly live in another dimension, I would pay very close attention on whom they support in the upcoming election... These lizard people are supposed to be very resistant to change and personally resent the phrase Don't Ask Don't Tell:

And Nancy Pelosi has proven once again why the conservative Republicans hate her guts, because time and time again she has proven to be the most effective Speaker of the House, ever. TPM reports that: "Using a wily procedural maneuver to tie Republican hands, House Democrats managed to pass, by a vote of 234-188, legislation that will allow the Bush tax cuts benefiting only the wealthiest Americans to expire. John Boehner is livid, but really, everyone saw it coming, it was announced for months as the strategy that Obama wished to pursue, and if Republicans bitch too much about it, then they look like they care more for the rich than anyone else. Besides, the tax cuts that will expire just go back to where they were during the Clinton administration, and nobody complained then. Besides, leaders like Eric Cantor and Mitch McConnell were getting too full of themselves, thinking that the wussies were going to lay down and do whatever they proposed...

"Harry Potter, eat your heart out..."

There Must Be A Pony In that Room Full Of Teabags, Somewhere!

George W Bush
Glenn Greenwald
Howard Fineman

"The name 'WikiLeaks' doesn't sounds like espionage. It sounds like Barbara Walters interviewing Ricky Martin." – Craig Ferguson

"According to the TSA, most of the people protesting the new body search procedures are men. At last they're getting to see what it's like to be groped by someone who won't take no for an answer." – Jay Leno

"In a recent interview, Sarah Palin said we must stand with our North Korean allies. When she was corrected she said, 'Listen, geometry was never my strong suit.'" – Jay Leno

On a recent radio show, Rush Limbaugh told Barack Obama to keep his hands off his teabag. Next thing we know, Obama is rushed to the hospital and got 12 stitches on his lower lip. Coincidence? I don't think so... I never thought that I'd provide a link to anything that was ghostwritten for George W Bush, but his opinion piece for AIDS is worth reading. I give him points for continuing to support the fight against AIDS after he is out of office, especially in Africa. Few presidents or first ladies continue to support charitable causes once they finish their terms in office; I'm thinking of Betty Ford and Nancy Reagan here. Jimmy Carter is probably better known for his charity work after he left office than for what he accomplished while he was in office, few American politicians live up to the Christian ideals they so loudly espoused while they hypocritically served, so Jimmy earns bonus points for practicing what he preaches. Clinton looks like the perfect elder statesman, yet Alzheimer's is keeping George HW Bush from doing much in the public spotlight, to give him a pass...

"Rush, don't tea bag me, bro..."

Interpol has issued an arrest warrant on Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, based on bogus sex charges filed in the Netherlands. Ecuador has offered him a place to live and promises never to extradite him, nice to find a safe haven. The grandstanding hasn't died down over the latest batch of wikileaks, it's like each country is being made to stand up one after another and introduce themselves to the 12 step crowd: "Hello, I am Turkey, and I have been wikileaked..." Putting things in a more sensible perspective, the NY Times quotes Defense Secretary Robert Gates: “Let me just offer some perspective as somebody who’s been at this a long time. Every other government in the world knows the United States government leaks like a sieve, and it has for a long time. And I dragged this up the other day when I was looking at some of these prospective releases. And this is a quote from John Adams: ‘How can a government go on, publishing all of their negotiations with foreign nations, I know not. To me, it appears as dangerous and pernicious as it is novel.’


“Now, I’ve heard the impact of these releases on our foreign policy described as a meltdown, as a game-changer, and so on. I think those descriptions are fairly significantly overwrought. The fact is, governments deal with the United States because it’s in their interest, not because they like us, not because they trust us, and not because they believe we can keep secrets. Many governments — some governments — deal with us because they fear us, some because they respect us, most because they need us. We are still essentially, as has been said before, the indispensable nation.


“So other nations will continue to deal with us. They will continue to work with us. We will continue to share sensitive information with one another. Is this embarrassing? Yes. Is it awkward? Yes. Consequences for U.S. foreign policy? I think fairly modest.’’




Despite all of the bluff and bluster that conservatives have let off over how Obamacare is unconstitutional, among other things, and every Republican state attorney general were itching to file a lawsuit against it, so far their results have produced zero. Nothing, zilch, big fat goose-egg... As the NY Times reports: "For the second time in two months, a federal judge has upheld the constitutionality of the new health care law, ruling on Tuesday that the requirement that most Americans obtain medical coverage falls within Congress’s authority to regulate interstate commerce... The measure is designed to cover the majority of the country’s uninsured by requiring that most people have insurance and providing subsidies to make it affordable.


Judge Moon rejected the argument by plaintiffs around the country that the Commerce Clause of the Constitution does not empower Congress to require Americans to buy a commercial product like health insurance. To do so, they argue, would amount to the regulation of inactivity.


In disagreeing, Judge Moon embraced arguments made by the Justice Department. “Far from ‘inactivity,’ ” he wrote, “by choosing to forgo insurance, plaintiffs are making an economic decision to try to pay for health care services later, out of pocket, rather than now, through the purchase of insurance.” So, it looks like our homegrown constitutional scholars are again misinterpreting the intentions of our founding fathers. I can only wonder what else they have gotten wrong...

Actually, I know what our tea baggers have gotten wrong. Instead of listening to Rush and Glenn everyday, and I would rather shoot myself in the head, I go to the library and check out at least one or two socially conservative books, to try and keep up with their arguments. I don't know if there is really such a large audience out there for political conservatism, but there certainly is a lot money going into publishing a lot of these books. I know that many of the old money that supported George W Bush were riled when a lot of books were published over his incompetence and cronyism, and that their current goal is to totally discredit Obama in every direction he turns; but the sheer volume of vitriol and lies and total bullshit is astounding. We could solve our energy problems if we put all of that hot air to use turning turbines instead of launching slings and arrows of ninja misfortune. With negative brainwashed slanders relentlessly invading our consciousness, it's no wonder that I wake up in the morning doubting all faith I had in Barack Obama.

I still am naive enough to believe in bi-partisanship solutions, though it's obvious that John Boehner, Mitch McConnell, and Eric Cantor don't plan on playing along. They won't be happy until Obama bends to their will and bows to them in subservience, a black man that knows his proper place... In fact, Obama's appointing his most recent bi-partisan commission reminds me of the old joke that describes the definition of an optimist:

A young boy was very happy all of the time, much to the dismay of his older relatives. They decided to teach him a lesson. On his next birthday they gave him as a present a room-full of shit. When the boy opened the door and saw what was in the room, he gave an exclamation and dived right in, laughing and digging away.

When the older relatives asked him why he was so happy, digging in a room full of shit, he replied: "But, there must be a pony in here somewhere!" I guess if we substitute the Senate floor for that room, the analogy would be perfect...

In the meantime, if anything gets passed during this short session of Congress, it will happen at the very last minute, as Congressman and women are darting out their doors to finish their Christmas shopping. It's very rare for both of Russia's leaders, Dmitry Medvedev and Vladimeer Putin to tell Congress to pass the nuclear non-proliferation treaty or else... Will that make  idiots like John Kyl look up from the trough enough to paw twice for yes? Or will he and others like him keep their sheepish heads down... My own House Representative Doug Lamborn, recently wrote how he is more concerned with more important issues, like ending any more funding for National Public Radio, which is liberal and therefore, biased and needs to go... Let's see, ending the possibility of a nuclear war on one hand, or never again listening to "All Things Considered..." what a tough choice to make for our lockstepping mindless marching morons (points if you know the 1950's sci fi author who used that phrase as a title of his collection of short stories...)