This Week In Tyranny
Sunday, August 22, 2010 at 08:53AM No Associated Press content was harmed in the writing of this post
Julian Assange got an agreement with the Swedish Pirate Party (my second favorite political party in the whole world) to provide hosting for WikiLeaks, thus giving it a measure of protection. Which it clearly needs. Assange was accused of rape yesterday, and the case almost immediately fell apart (note that there is less than five hours between the first and second BBC stories).
Clearly there’s an effort to smear him (cf. Scott Ritter), and those opposed to him are all too ready to believe anything:
UPDATE: Via Hot Air, prosecutors withdrew the warrant, citing the charges are “without basis”. Strange indeed since Sweden leads European nations in rape statistics at about 23 for every 100,000 and were violent crime has increased 200 percent since 2006. So the question is just how much probable cause did the Swedes need, or was the judge “called off”?In other words, he’s already guilty; we just need to decide of what. Don’t think that’s just a wingnut outlier either. Hard right bloggers are the movement’s id. They don’t say anything the rest of conservatives don’t believe, they are just more willing to plainly state it.
Something isn’t right at all about this. Nevertheless it may not be necessary to nab him anyway. I’m fully expecting the US to draw up formal charges in the weeks to come.
While we’re in the neighborhood, let’s set one thing straight. Leaders, activists and other public figures, being human, are flawed. Assange’s work on WikiLeaks is admirable to me, and it stands on its own. There is no allegation that the “Collateral Murder” video, the recently released trove of documents or the one set to be released soon are fraudulent, breaches of national security, illegally obtained or in any other way tainted. His efforts in this respect have been an enormously valuable public service. Should he at some point in the future be legitimately accused and convicted of a crime, or the subject of some salacious piece of gossip, or otherwise revealed to be less than perfect, it does not discredit what he has done with WikiLeaks to this point. Here in the real world we don’t get sent heroes out of central casting, we get ordinary people who are a mixture of frailties. Sometimes they may do extraordinary things, and sometimes they fuck up. Just like I do. And you.
One of the few dissenting views I’ve read about WikiLeaks that was not based on fear and loathing:
I find it odd that disclosure in itself has become a kind of performance. And I use the word ‘performance’ carefully, because performance is a kind of artifice. While all journalists love to obtain forbidden or secret documents, these don’t become a substitute for the primary job in hand, which is explaining the world, and this is performed by the journalist. It requires analytical skills at both ends of the chain - with the reader also making rational choices, and joining the dots. Leaks typically provide the seed for a scoop, maybe a great scoop, but they don’t join the dots.Fair enough, but Assange is doing half the job traditional reporting does: Bringing the information to light. It’s not the alpha and omega of journalistic endeavor, but it certainly moves stories along. Analysis of such raw data could be done by, I don’t know, a news organization. Since they’re too timid to ferret this stuff out themselves anymore the least they could do is devote some of their vastly greater resources to analyzing them once WikiLeaks serves it up on a silver platter.
Orlowski also quotes Cryptome’s John Young: “Assange is a master at hiding his assets and providing hypnotic illusions.” Professional jealousy or incisive analysis (or both)? You be the judge! It’s an excellent article though.
Pat Garofalo wins headline of the week. Why not tell it like it is?
That Gulf oil eruption isn’t just going away, much as we’d all love to turn our attention away from the mess.
TBogg gets serious:
No, he just treats citizens who are against the mosque for what they are: low-information emotionally-stunted dipshits who are being whipped into a frenzy by fearmongering cowards who have always counted upon the gullibility and bloodlust of the mob.Alex Pareene goes the opposite direction:
You hear that, Republican Party? You’re getting taken over by… longtime Republican party supporters, former RNC staffers, major corporate interests, right-wing economists, old white populists, and former Republican elected officials!
Paul Krugman gets to the heart of the matter: “Central bankers, finance ministers, politicians who pose as defenders of fiscal virtue … are acting like the priests of some ancient cult, demanding that we engage in human sacrifices to appease the anger of invisible gods.” Prairie Weather adds: “Isn’t that precisely what’s happening — what’s been happening since we elected that cruel, ignorant Aztec, Inc. chief, Ronald Reagan?” Meanwhile, Annie Lowrey on the human cost of long term unemployment.
Hat trick from three different authors at Naked Capitalism:
From the same site, this from Steve Waldman. Ambiguous date in original, I believe the correct one is September 15: “On September 10, 2008, Lehman reported 11% ‘tier one’ capital and very conservative ‘net leverage’. On September 25 15, 2008, Lehman declared bankruptcy.” In other words, it was the picture of health on the first date and five days later in bankruptcy. Big financial firms don’t have tangible assets, all they have are exceedingly complex and in some cases purely theoretical algorithms for valuing their bets. All of which is no more substantial than a puff of smoke if people decide they no longer have confidence in them.
Words I never thought I’d write: Be sure to check out this must-read article by Peter Beinart.
Leftover links. Watch this if you can. And Omar Khadr’s trial was suspended for a very odd reason.
I WISH I COULD WRITE LIKE Josh Mull:
When something like this happens in Pakistan, we completely lose our s**t and call them a failed state, a tyrannical dictatorship, a collapsing nuclear-armed time bomb full of apocalyptic religious fanatics and corrupt, out-of-touch plutocrats. When it happens here, it’s called a “media blitz.”
Reader Comments