julian-assange-fanciers-guild:

A member of Australia’s political right weighs in on the debate over Julian Assange. (via the Sydney Morning Herald)

I recently put the proposition, to a senior frontbencher in Federal Parliament, that the WikiLeaks horse had bolted, and that shutting down Julian Assange could not…

“It is interesting to contrast Julia Gillard’s response to Andrew Wilkie, now the independent member for Denison. Wilkie’s principal claim to fame is that he leaked state secrets, which he came across while employed as an analyst in the Office of National Assessments.

The ONA leak was intended to damage the Howard government’s rationale for Australian involvement in Iraq, so it was greeted by the ALP as an act of heroism. The ALP’s response was to give Wilkie the preferences required to get elected to Parliament, to invite him to join an ALP/Green/independent alliance and to offer to pass whistleblower legislation to protect him and people like him.

By contrast, Gillard’s response to the US diplomatic cables leak is that ”the foundation of WikiLeaks is an illegal act”. But six weeks after this assertion was made, no one has named a law which was broken.”

streamsofwikileaks:

Julian’s Swedish case has been moved to the “terrorism” court at Belmarsh Jan 11 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/3714864.stm

via The offical wikileaks twitter account.

Just FYI for the people following the tumblr account, I have an rss feed of the @wikileaks twitter account…

krza:

Corporate media tells us what to think.

That’s right. Look at this headline. Look at this article. This is an example of federally subsidized media telling us how to think. Obama is toasting to his victories, let’s all celebrate him in his ground breaking presidency (perhaps with a “prestigious” award- Nobel prize, dare I say?) 

I’ve seen the news. I’ve heard the “celebration” of the DADT repeal (read: solution to the need for more cannon fodder in Iraq). I’ve listened to all of the “Obama unites both sides” rhetoric. But why is corporate media ignoring things of real importance that are happening? Well, because our beloved first black president wouldn’t look like such a great guy if we understood some of the behind the scenes moves.

Moves like the FCC’s service to communications corporations in the recent vote on net neutrality, which opens the door to a future of bleak, 1984-esque control of information on the last free medium, the internet. The federal government hates the recent outburst of damning information coming from well protected and heavily supported independent media. Wikileaks won’t be a future problem under the new net “neutrality” laws- we all saw corporate America side with Big Brother a few weeks back. Next time, ISPs will just block offending websites and filter information, as they now have the power to do so. Think I’m being alarmist? I think you’re naive. 

The recent food safety modernization act opens the door to a tighter grip on independent farming and small business, giving more power to factory farms and evil, health hating, money loving, federally tied organizations like Monsanto and ADM. 

Ah yes, the subjection to humiliation and draconian control of the TSA’s new full body scanners in our airports. Don’t even get me started.

Of course, there is the November authorization of the federal reserve to print more currency, further inflating our currency, and- as some chicken littles are predicting- bring about the complete collapse of our country, à la Great Depression. The shadowy stimulus was not spoken of and not reported on a few months ago- why not? 

Because if we were all focused on these things, we might be more pissed off with Mr. President and his service of corporate lobbyists, veiled as progress. 

The last 10 years have easily been the worst in the history of the United States. Endless war. Corporate America profiting off of everything from murder in the Middle East to the raping of middle class America and the destruction of the economy. Legalized torture and shadowy prisons. Blatant attacks on free speech and media. Regulation and monitoring of everything, from the way we move around the country and world, to the way we eat, to conversations we have. 

I hate to be so realistic about things, but it’s time to wake the fuck up, America. Complacency is the death of liberty.