Confusing Medium And Messaging

You’ve Got Better Things To Do, Al.

I’m very much in the camp of privacy protection being a default approach, and I believe the pipes and tubes providing access to the information age should be regulated for the benefit of the citizenry, but at which point did citizens and users stop being responsible for their own approach to being informed?

The web is wide and deep and I’ve not found it hard at all to locate information of wildly divergent points of view on any given subject.

If citizens choose to live in an echo chamber, whether that's provided by Facebook or Twitter, that’s hardly new, and should be no more governed than one’s choice of books to be read or plays to be seen. Further, if a citizen chooses to be commoditized in order to benefit in some way they value, I don’t consider that wise, but I definitely consider it a choice they should be allowed to make.

Will this allow shadow players to insert poisoned whispers into those chambers? Certainly! You can explain to the tobacco industry and George W's council for selling the Iraq war how that's new.

Don’t get me wrong, these companies are part of the principalities and powers, and I would encourage distrust as a foundation for dealing with any of them, but if the goal is to protect users from their own biases, I see this kind of finger pointing as a waste of time.

Tea With Sarkozy and Lou Dobbs

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“Alongside the already heated debate over the place of Muslim, African and Asian immigrants in European societies, the debate about the Roma could call into question one of the basic tenets of the European Union: the rights of its 500 million citizens to cross internal borders.” - The New York TImes, Dispute Grows Over France’s Removal of Roma Camps

Interesting how when the Western European countries wanted to roam the world availing themselves of whatever resources or opportunities could be found, it was considered a golden age of civilization, but as the scions of empire find their way back to our door steps, sans plagues, and swords, and guns, mind you, it’s some kind of unholy invasion.

A Cold Sunday Morning

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“(The "deal" that was ultimately rammed through was nothing more than a grubby pact between the world's biggest emitters: I'll pretend that you are doing something about climate change if you pretend that I am too. Deal? Deal.)” - Naomi Klein, For Obama, No Opportunity Too Big To Blow

And whereas the mainstream media has paid almost no attention to the one year anniversary of Israel’s Operation Cast Lead - the consequences of the invasion and the recent protests, and attempts to protest against it - thankfully Amy Goodman and Dear Noam think it’s worth continuing to pay attention to the plight of the Palestinians.

Noam Chomsky on Democracy Now!, Gaza: One Year Later

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Progressive Disappointment

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It’s been interesting listening to progressives these last several weeks as Obama-san announced his Afghan Surge while receiving the Nobel Peace Prize then swooped back to Europe a week later to ‘save’ the UN climate talks in Copenhagen, all while the Senate wrapped up its debate on health care to pass a reform bill which sent insurance company stocks through the roof. Most of the people on the far left had reservations about Obama-san from the beginning, knowing he was not an actual progressive, but a centrist with liberal leanings. Still, coming out of the nearly decade long John Wayne theme park ride that was Saint George, there was an inescapable hope in the social justice camp that change was really coming.

The encouraging bit has been watching the left re-gird itself and prepare to struggle as fiercely now in the face of Democratic flavored Corporatocracy as it did against the tarter Republican version.

Brown Shirts Unite!

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“Last week, a protester hanged an effigy of Representative Frank Kratovil Jr., Democrat of Maryland, at a rally opposing health care change. This week, Representative Brad Miller, Democrat of North Carolina, said he had received a death threat about his support.” - Health Debate Turns Hostile at Town Hall Meetings by Ian Urbina

Fascism, historically, is a conservative, backwards looking world view that eschews dialogue, preferring a more force oriented means to ends methodology.

As relates to the linked article this begs the question: which group is really acting like Nazis?

The Best Justice Money Can Buy

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“The Justice Department said a 1976 law on sovereign immunity protected the Saudis from liability and noted that “potentially significant foreign relations consequences” would arise if such suits were allowed to proceed.“ - Eric Lichtblau, Documents Back Saudi Link to Extremists

Odd how we have this 1976 law which provides protection from legal action in the face of presentable if sometimes tenuous evidence, but there seems to have been no law against fabricating information in order to invade Iraq.

I also note the mention on yesterdays Democracy Now! that the Supreme Court has chosen not to hear Valerie Plame’s case against the Bush administration for illegally outing her as an undercover CIA agent.

I need to find out where the Texas Mafia gets those wonderful teflon suits.

More On Bair The Bear From The NY Times

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At a public meeting three weeks ago, John C. Dugan, the comptroller of the currency, blasted a proposal to impose stiff new insurance fees on banks as unfair to the largest banks, which he regulates. The financial crisis stemmed in part from problems at small banks, he insisted. Sheila C. Bair, chairwoman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the regulator for many smaller, community banks, could barely hide her contempt. The large banks, she said, had wreaked havoc on the system, only to be bailed out by “hundreds of billions, if not trillions, in government assistance.” She added, “Fairness is always an issue.”

- Stephen Labaton and Edmund L. Andrews, Regulators Feud as Banking System Overhauled