The whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks may have blood on its hands, the Pentagon said on Thursday, warning its unprecedented leak of secret U.S. military files could cost lives and damage trust of allies.

Admitting, of course, that when the truth is known about the situation, it’s more horrific than we thought. That lying and hiding the truth is the only way we can continue prosecuting this ‘war’ (read: invasion) that no one but the profiteers and defense hawks want. The defense hawks get their campaigns funded by the profiteers.

He also announced plans to tighten access to sensitive intelligence data.

In other words, hide the truth better so the lies can continue to keep us in this forever war. The longest the U.S. has been involved in.

“Mr. Assange can say whatever he likes about the greater good he thinks he and his source are doing,” Mullen said. “But the truth is they might already have on their hands the blood of some young soldier or that of an Afghan family.”

Pot: Kettle, I am going to say you are black and intimate that I’m not, even though I painted myself black and you are obviously silver.

The Pentagon and Congress and George W. Bush have blood on their hands of ALL the young soldiers that have died in this invasions, and all the Afghan and Iraqi families destroyed by these invasions. And they’re now trying to blame it on Wikileaks. Please, get real. Why should we believe anything you say, when we find out through Wikileaks that there is way more blood on your hands than you’ve begrudgingly admitted to these past 9 years? You’ve been lying to us throughout this war, why should we suddenly believe everything you say is the honest truth?

We can’t. Your credibility is destroyed utterly until you make all your files available to the citizens who are in charge of this government. By, of and for the people.

Until you stop the lies, you will only look more foolish.

In a statement, US National Security Adviser Gen James Jones said such classified information “could put the lives of Americans and our partners at risk, and threaten our national security”.

If by “threaten our national security” you mean expose our hypocrisy tell the embarrassing truth we’ve struggled so hard to hide from the world, then yes, it may.

You know what this reminds me of?

Both the Church committee in the Senate and the Pike committee in the House included several members who fought hard to disclose information to the public, despite an intense and savvy campaign of resistance from the Ford White House (a campaign coordinated by deputy chief of staff Dick Cheney). But though there were many congressmen who fought for disclosure, I soon discovered that the category of “journalists who investigated the CIA after Watergate” was limited to two people, Seymour Hersh (then with the New York Times) and Schorr of CBS. The rest of the press was too easily intimidated by the Ford administration’s claims of “national security” to break any stories of significance.

How much you want to bet the only coverage this story gets in mainstream American people is “Wikileaks is trying to destroy us!!!!!!!!!!” – even though freedom of the press was so important to our founding fathers, whom we all pretend to worship, that it is the very first item in the Bill of Rights guaranteed to all U.S. citizens. It’s enough to make you want to spit.

We have a right to know the truth from our goverment, but they seek to shroud us in lies.

They were discussing the recent leak of the gun camera footage of an Apache attack helicopter gunning down people on the street in Iraq with 30mm rounds. Two of whom were Reuters journalists. The host said “what would you say to an American citizen who came up to you and said ‘my son is in the military, fighting in Iraq, and all your serving to do is increase the hatred of honest Iraqis towards our force for good’”

He responded (this is all paraphrased) “The people in Baghdad, in Iraq, in Afghanistan they don’t need to see the video. They see it every day. We’re not changing their minds at all. It will only change the perception of the people who are paying for it all. That’s our hope.”

Video link for the feed customers.

Good stuff. I expect this poor man will either meet an abrupt, violent end to his life or rot in jail somewhere for a long time so powerful governments can muzzle him.

We need more like him.

“War is bigger than any one man or woman, whether a private, a general or president,” Mr. Obama said. “As difficult as it is to lose General McChrystal, I believe it is the right decision for our national security.”

“I welcome debate among my team,” he said, “but I won’t tolerate division.”

1. It’s not war it’s an invasion and occupation. Plain and simple. War implies two armies clashing and that is not nor has ever been what is happening.

2. You welcome debate but won’t tolerate division? But you fire the guy who speaks his mind. I don’t agree with what McChrystal said (mostly about saying the 2011 retreat from Afghanistan is arbitrary and not going to work. THE FUCKING INVASION WAS ARBITRARY AND IS ALMOST 10 YEARS OLD) but I will staunchy defend his right to say so.

Rumsfeld fired the man who said the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan wouldn’t be easy and would require 10x the amount of troops we originally sent. LOOK HOW WELL THAT TURNED OUT.

But no, we have no fucking memory in this society.

We all had such hopes. But Obama, like every other fucking career politician (and by career I mean anyone who has served more than one term in a row), is bought and sold by our society’s plutocrats.

I’m voting against all incumbents from now on. I don’t even care.

The only TRUE way to change is to actually CHANGE those in power. Constantly. Otherwise it truly is just business as usual.

Mr. Obama stressed that the change in leadership did not signal a shift in his overall war strategy in Afghanistan, where thousands of new American troops have been arriving in recent months among increasing casualties and growing questions about the progress of the war.

See? Business as usual. Not a goddamn change from Bush.

General McChrystal had proved to be one of the few Western leaders who could work well with President Karzai, building trust and traveling to tribal meetings with him, and personally apologizing when Western military actions resulted in major civilian casualties, which have been a source of deep anger for Afghans.

Which is something the US.gov patently will not do. We still haven’t apologized for kidnapping and torturing an innocent Canadian citizen.

Whenever I hear anyone arguing for slavery, I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him personally.
– Abraham Lincoln

It applies, I think, to quite a lot in life.

In a related development, a law student from western Germany said Tuesday that he had filed a formal complaint with the Hamburg state prosecutor’s office alleging that Google’s WLAN data collection violated German law. Jens Ferner of Alsdorf said he faxed his complaint to the prosecutor’s office on Monday seeking to clarify the legal situation regarding use of open WLANs.

Why poor Google? German recently ruled that if you have an unsecured WLAN and someone connects to it and shares copyrighted data through it, YOU are liable for having an unsecured WLAN. But collect one bit of that unsecured data and all of a sudden the other party is liable.

Send your data flying willy nilly through the air and you deserve to have it collected. I mean, even if you give away your encryption key it’s still encrypted, that’s the whole point of public key encryption. The German government should be less worried about Google (oooh they could fine them 300,000 Euros! They might almost be able to afford a Google stock option for that amount…) and more worried about the fact that anyone else in the country could be listening in. And if I know a thing or two about Germans, they most certainly are. They had a secret police up until a mere generation ago. Methinks thou doth protest too much.

I imagine many other companies would never admit such a thing, and either quietly bury it or keep and use the data. We should say “Wow, thanks for admitting this and trying to make it right. Lets help you make it right.” Instead they’re threatened legally. You want to know how Google’s gonna save themselves a potential $300,000 fine in the future? Yeah, they know now to keep that shit quiet and just bury it.

The Prophet, Muhammad

Freedom!

This episode was aired on American TV, which also depicted the Prophet Muhammad, in 2001. It has since been censored, due to the South Park episode “201.” In. Direct. Contravention. Of. American. Ideals.

The terrorists have already won. We just keep digging the hole deeper.

Imagine that hundreds of black protesters were to descend upon Washington DC and Northern Virginia, just a few miles from the Capitol and White House, armed with AK-47s, assorted handguns, and ammunition. And imagine that some of these protesters —the black protesters — spoke of the need for political revolution, and possibly even armed conflict in the event that laws they didn’t like were enforced by the government? Would these protester — these black protesters with guns — be seen as brave defenders of the Second Amendment, or would they be viewed by most whites as a danger to the republic? What if they were Arab-Americans? Because, after all, that’s what happened recently when white gun enthusiasts descended upon the nation’s capital, arms in hand, and verbally announced their readiness to make war on the country’s political leaders if the need arose.

Imagine that white members of Congress, while walking to work, were surrounded by thousands of angry black people, one of whom proceeded to spit on one of those congressmen for not voting the way the black demonstrators desired. Would the protesters be seen as merely patriotic Americans voicing their opinions, or as an angry, potentially violent, and even insurrectionary mob? After all, this is what white Tea Party protesters did recently in Washington.

Imagine that a rap artist were to say, in reference to a white president: “He’s a piece of shit and I told him to suck on my machine gun.” Because that’s what rocker Ted Nugent said recently about President Obama.

An important and worthwhile read.

burqa flash

I’m not sure whether it’s an act of protestation or exploitation, but if anyone knows I’d like to hear.

Indeed, the very ease with which pico projectors can be used to create social awkwardness could be a significant feature. Alexander Besher, one of the organizers of the pico projector film festival, thinks there could be significant use of pico projectors in political protests. Picture a nighttime war protest where hundreds of people have pico projectors showing graphic images of devastation on every available surface.

This was kinda ancillary to the article but man, what a great idea. Not one I’ve ever really heard before, either, but I can think of so many uses for these things now. Muwahahaha.

I, unfortunately, am broke. However, I will do what I can, and spread the word around.

“ … serves as an uncensorable and untraceable depository for the truth, able to publish documents that the courts may prevent newspapers and broadcasters from being able to touch. ”
— In praise of… Wikileaks – The Guardian, October 20, 2009

I’m sure there are many in goverments and businesses around the world that would love to see this website shuttered because they expose ugly truths that otherwise would not see the light of day. They’ve been involved in some pretty heavy-duty shit.

A copy of Standard Operating Procedures for Camp Delta – the protocol of the U.S. Army at the Guantánamo Bay detention camp – dated March 2003 was released on the Wikileaks website on 7 November 2007.[42] The document, named “gitmo-sop.pdf”, is also mirrored at The Guardian.[43] Its release revealed some of the restrictions placed over detainees at the camp, including the designation of some prisoners as off-limits to the International Committee of the Red Cross, something that the U.S. military had in the past repeatedly denied.[44] emphasis mine

So, they exposed a lie the US goverment told. They have faced legal challenge after legal challenge, and one of their spokepeople’s houses was raided in Germany. They are considered very dangerous. Knowledge, after all, is power. And power is dangerous to those who jealously hoard their own power over others.

Lets hope no one gets this bright idea.

They must attend jury duty.

They can go to jail.

If you live with them for a certain amount of time, you may become common law married to them depending on your state’s laws.

If they give you a black eye, we should see them on Cops.

They can go insane.

They need to eat, drink, and shit.

They should be subject to an inheritance tax when they die.

If they cheat on you, divorce them and sue for alimony and custody.

They should mate, settle down, have kids, and watch them grow up while they retire gracefully.

Do you really believe corporations are people? Well, it’s the law, and the first amendment protects them.

The company CEO dictates policy for how political contributions are disbursed from the company. Tens, hundreds, or hundreds of thousands of people may be earning money for that CEO. But now he decides how their productivity shapes American politics. These corporations are multi-national. If wealthy foreigners, foreign companies or even foreign sovereignty want to get involved, they just have to “buy X amount of whatever” from an American company in exchange for X-10% donations to American political figures. Don’t think it will happen?

Betcha didn’t even think the Great Recession (which I highly doubt it truly over) was gonna happen, didja?

This earthquake is only the latest in a string of disasters, mostly humanitarian, that have hit Haiti since it became the first black slave nation to win its independence, albeit with a heavy penalty that hung around their necks for the next 150 years.

On 1 January 1804, Dessalines, the new leader under the dictatorial 1801 constitution, declared Haiti a free republic. Haiti was the first independent nation in Latin America, the first post-colonial independent black-led nation in the world, and the only nation whose independence was gained as part of a successful slave rebellion. The country was crippled by years of war, its agriculture devastated, its formal commerce nonexistent, and the people uneducated and mostly unskilled.

Haiti agreed to make reparations to French slaveholders in 1825 in the amount of 150 million francs, reduced in 1838 to 60 million francs, in exchange for French recognition of its independence and to achieve freedom from French aggression. This indemnity bankrupted the Haitian treasury and mortgaged Haiti’s future to the French banks providing the funds for the large first installment, permanently affecting Haiti’s ability to be prosperous.

There is much, much more to this sad story, including the United States’ muckery in their situation to their detriment.

People have been fighting for Haiti for years. I’ve personally met Leisa Faulkner, who is again going to Haiti to help. It’s a sad tragedy, what’s happened there in the past days, but with sudden international fame maybe the rest of their plight will receive attention. The poor populace just wants their democratically elected president to be president and not forced to flee from the country time and again. Lavalas!

To my absolute fucking horror this morning, Comcast does this:

Comcast is now hijacking your mispelt URLs to show you ads.

Now I have to go bother my landlord to find out if they even know their login to the Comcast website, which I doubt they do. So I’ll have to call in. All to get them to stop doing something they shouldn’t be doing in the first place.

If this were like, 1999 I could see this being useful as all you would have gotten is a “URL not found QQ some more bitch,” message. But this is 2009. When you misspell something, your browser automatically searches for it, or in the case of Chrome, puts what you typed into a search box and lets you click search if you want to, or lets you figure out what you did wrong.

Comcast, this should be an OPT-IN feature, not an OPT-OUT feature. Please stop hijacking my traffic.

“When she awoke the next morning still affected by the drug, she found her body naked and severely bruised, with lacerations to her vagina and anus, blood running down her leg, her breast implants ruptured and her pectoral muscles torn‚ which would later require reconstructive surgery. Upon walking to the rest room, she passed out again,” the papers say.

And in America, the details of this case are kept carefully hidden from the media spotlight. The hipocracy from the Republican wing of Congress should be shocking but sadly no longer is. The incapability of the Democrats with a Senatorial supermajority to even pass a bill dis-allowing rape should also be shocking but is at this point par for the course. They can’t even pass a bill the Republicans want.

One nation, with liberty and justice for all.

Quid pro quo, the market shouldn’t be free. Like regular humans, businesses should be ruled by laws for the common good.

Ex-Miss California sues over gay marriage comment

Ah yes, “beauty” pageants. I guess your soul has to be beautiful too, to win, and her was not.

Prejean, 22, made headlines worldwide when she said she believed only men and women should be allowed to wed in reply to a question by a gay celebrity blogger and pageant judge. She subsequently was named first runner-up. In the weeks that followed, she claimed the answer cost her the Miss USA crown.

So what if the answer DID cost her the Miss USA crown (for the record, it didn’t)? She was competing. When you compete, you are in a competition with others. If others do better and you do worse, you lose. Giving a horrible answer to a civil rights question, when others give better answers, will lose you a contest upon which that question and answer weighs.

It’s great that you have been and continue to be sticking to your guns, Ms. Prejean. It is your opinion and you have every right to it. You also had every right to lose that contest because of it.

If you tripped in the swimsuit contest, would you be suing over gravity?

Tell me, Ms. Prejean, what would you say to the question of whether or not marriage between a black man and white woman should be legalized? Because not all that long ago, that was the question. And it was illegal for a black man and white woman to marry. California was the first state to legalize that particular union.

Why is the ability to make a baby, not love, the deciding factor in a marriage? Should all the couples that are infertile divorce, because they can’t have a ‘real’ family, being defined as a man married to a woman producing offspring?

You were never and will never be my Miss California, Ms. Prejean, even if you do somehow miraculously win your frivolous lawsuit and get reinstated as Miss California. Should that come to pass I will not hesitate to make t-shirts emblazoned with your name, subtitled “Miss Hate” and “Couldn’t win Miss California, Won Miss Litigate.”