Monday, November 29, 2010

The Economist > ongoing feature dossier American politics: Democracy in America (Nov29,2k10) "In defence of WikiLeaks" by "W.W." located iin Iowa City, a university-industried town in corn country.

If secrecy is necessary for national security and effective diplomacy, it is also inevitable that the prerogative of secrecy will be used to hide the misdeeds of the permanent state and its privileged agents. I suspect that there is no scheme of government oversight that will not eventually come under the indirect control of the generals, spies, and foreign-service officers it is meant to oversee. Organisations such as WikiLeaks, which are philosophically opposed to state secrecy and which operate as much as is possible outside the global nation-state system, may be the best we can hope for in the way of promoting the climate of transparency and accountability necessary for authentically liberal democracy. Some folks ask,
"Who elected Julian Assange?" 
The answer is nobody did, which is, ironically, why WikiLeaks is able to improve the quality of our democracy. Of course, those jealously protective of the privileges of unaccountable state power will tell us that people will die if we can read their email, but so what? Different people, maybe more people, will die if we can't.
...the wildspaces of terror, it's framed all too anti-statist for m+ taste, have an antipasto ...



The foregoing by "W.W. in Iowa City" (I think its hometown to the University of Iowa with a huge fan-based footbhall team, prominent in the College Football series on TV).  Better check out my factoids!

--  inauthentically liberal democratic schmatic, Christian-democratic, Christian-social, reformational-democratic but yours, Politicarp.

EconomyUSA: Federal Emploiyees: Obama will freeze salary advancements becawz Fed workers must "sacrifice" too

Federal Eye columnist in Washington Post, Ed O'Keefe, co-author with Perry Bacon and Joe Davidson, "Obama announces 2-year pay freeze for federal workers" (Nove29,2k10)  Obama said he woud "stop pay increases for most of the two million people who work for the federal government" (Nov290,2k10).  He calls on the uniion+zd Fedworkers to make "broad sacrif+ces."


-- EconoMix

EconomyUSA: Corporations: Wild satire of corporate greed in America at Christmast+m

Sashay yo'self over to The Onion, America's online satire magazeen supremo.  The article of note is "20,000 sacrificed in annual blood offering to corporate America" (Nov29,2k10).   Then you sashay, after yoo reed it, sash yo'self on back, go to refWr+t backpage to get all the good comments thereupon.

-- Satyriasis and Satirkos, backpage demons

USA: Labor: Job Insurance gained by unions asking less in wages

Unions Yield on Wage Scales 

to Preserve Jobs





MILWAUKEE — Organized labor appears to be losing an important battle in the Great Recession.
Gary Tramontina for The New York Times
Matthew Levatich, president of Harley-Davidson, left, and Bill Peek, owner of Heart of Dixie Harley-Davidson in Pelham, Ala.
Peter Wynn Thompson for The New York Times
Mike Masik Sr., president of United Steelworkers local 2-209.
Even at manufacturing companies that are profitable, union workers are reluctantly agreeing to tiered contracts that create two levels of pay.
In years past, two-tiered systems were used to drive down costs in hard times, but mainly at companies already in trouble. And those arrangements, at the insistence of the unions, were designed, in most cases, to expire in a few years.
Now, the managers of some marquee companies are aiming to make this concession permanent. If they are successful, their contracts could become blueprints for other companies in other cities, extending a wage system that would be a startling retreat for labor.


New York T+mz (Nov19,2k10)

Picture at top: some employers who make motorsc+clz; 2nd pix, the Wisconsin-based union leader in the motorc+cl manufacturing industry.

Read more ....

-- Politicarp posting lead-in to Uchitelle's article

Sierra Leone: Conversion: Terror tribalist, King & Warrior confesses all and prepares to face International Criminal Court

An intrepid female reporter, Edna Ferandes for the Mail Online UK, has sat down with stark raving murder, Blood Diamond trader, mass drugger of child soldiers,  eater himself of roasted child offered in sacrifice to the divinity of the Krahn tribe in Sierra Leone,  by this Warrior-Priest mpe turned convert to Jesus Christ, confessor of his sin, and spiritually preparing himself to face the International Criminal Justice, knowing he's guilty.   Face to Face with General Butt Naked -- 'the most evil man in the world" Mail Online (Nov28,2k10).

-- Politicarp

PoliticsUSA: WikiLeaks: Reuters reporters finger Saudi King Abdullah vs Iran


Reuters reporters Arshad Mohammed and Ross Colvin (I geezered them via Yahoo! Nooz), they filed a story with their editors on the latest intrusion of WikiLeaks 'Hole, the guy who has stolen and assembled huge files of digital documents, from the USA govt.
The cables are the third huge release of classified U.S. data by WikiLeaks. U.S. officials believe they were passed to WikiLeaks by a disgruntled Army private, Bradley Manning, who had access to classified computer networks as a junior intelligence analyst in Iraq. Manning is now in a military jail, but authorities believe he provided the classified data before he was arrested. WikiLeaks has been parceling it out at intervals.
In the round I most remember the world's star info-blackmailer (said Leaker mentioned above) endangers l+vz of USA intelligence operatives a/o contacts in warzones (I've seen this possiblity impugned on fuzzy-evangelical s+t Jesus Creed, a spirituality + politics blog. The Leaker, l+k the nuke plants in Iran, shoud have been taken out long ago.

Instead, we are made privy to exchanges between Saudi Arabia (home of Islam's holiest shrines upon which country and king  is, therefore, incumbent the task  of the religiously-necessitated hosting of the annual Hajj from everywhere, including Iran, to Mecca, Saudi Arabia > ) hence Saudiland's King is exposed in the latest WikLleaks for using colourful langwij in regard to the status of Iran, and supplying inc+siveness of analysis and adv+ce to the USA -- that's what had happened.  But, the bigger question is What has since happened to his now-revealed adv+s ?   
Both Israel and Saudi Arabia, and now apparently the potentate of Bahrain, at the t+m, thawt the USA shoud do the bombing.  After all, the Saudi Monarch's decision that it was t+m to take out nuke-monger Iran fell on the deaf ears of the American political establishment, not least of all the Presidency.  Neither President Bush of the previous t+m, nor President Obana since, have deterred Iran.  Nor have they deterred the Saudi-financed expansion of Muslim mosques and schools in the USA where Saudiland's creepy Wahhhist state-religionists of the established Muslim sect control curriculum and textbooks, some of them qu+t nefarious to American values, whether secularist, or Christian.  Or Judaic.  Or Shi'ite for that matter (Shi'a compose 15% of Saudi Arabia's population, who feel they are maltreated as 2nd-class citizens). Or the United Arab Emirites (several of which have Sh'ite minorities, even a majority in one emirate with a Sunni monarach).  Or Alawite (Syria's elite minority, with Sunni, Shi'ite, and Christian subcurrents).  

WASHINGTON – Saudi King Abdullah has repeatedy urged the United States to attack Iran's nuclear program and [counter-attack] China-directed cyberattacks on the United States, according to a vast cache of diplomatic cables [cabled documents] released on Sunday in an embarrassing leak that undermines U.S. diplomacy. 
The more than 250,000 documents, given to five media groups by the whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks, provide candid and at times critical views of foreign leaders as well as sensitive information on terrorism and nuclear proliferation filed by U.S. diplomats, according to New York T+mz.
The White House condemned the release by WikiLeaks and said the disclosures may endanger U.S. informants abroad. WikiLeaks said its website was under attack and none of the underlying [cabled documents] was visible there Sunday night, though some were posted by news organizations.
Among the revelations in Britain's Guardian newspaper, which also received an advance look at the documents along with France's Le Monde, Germany's Der Spiegel and Spain's El Pais, King Abdullah is reported to have "frequently exhorted the U.S. to attack Iran to put an end to its nuclear weapons program."
First, the term "whistle-blowing webs+t WikiLeaks" hardly seems appropriate.  


Here's the longer version of the Mohammed and Colvin story that appears on an unofficial webs+t  section with many pages, a webpage devoted to the Royalty of Saudiland Royalty.nu -- The World of Royalty, carrying a version of  Mohammed-Colvin, Saudi King urged U.S. to attack Iran: WikiLeaks.


The story of the leak itself may be found here: Cables obtained by Wikileaks sh+n l+t into secret diplomatic worlds by Scott Shane and Andrew W. Lehren, NYT (Nov28,2k10)
Some of the cables [cabled documents], made available to New York T+mz and several other nooz organizations, were written as recently as late February [2k10],  revealing the Obama administration’s exchanges over crises and conflicts. The material was originally obtained by WikiLeaks, an organization devoted to revealing secret documents. WikiLeaks posted 220 cables, some redacted to protect diplomatic sources, in the first installment of the archive on its Web site on Sunday.
The author of this perfidy shoud be treated like the uncommon criminal he is, and shoud be taken out by a rogue CIA guy, or somebody, just as they do it in the movies.


-- Politicarp


More Info:


•  WikiLeaks on Iran: Arab world in fear of Iran, Borzou Daragahi (Nov28,2k10; updated Nov29,2k10) Los Angeles T+mz (original: "Iran must be stopped: Arab leaders implored U.S. to attack, WikiLeakes disclosures show by Borzou Daragahi and Paul Richter, via Daily Caller

Posted: 28 Nov 2010 08:22 PM PST
(Kenneth Anderson posted to Volokh Conspiracy email newsletter)

I think my Opinio Juris co-blogger Peter Spiro is probably right that one of the collateral consequences of Wikileaks is the demise, or anyway acceleration toward the demise, of the traditional diplomatic cable [cabled document].
But this episode will surely make cables look less attractive still. It’s one thing to understand that your work will come to light 25 years hence, when you (and your interlocutors) will either be dead or retired, too old much to care; or else flattered to see your handiwork become the stuff of history. It’s another to have to worry about something being disclosed that might affect your ability to function in your next post (or whether you’ll get one at all).


  

Wh+l you're on the email page, or on the webs+t, scroll down to:




•  perhaps more later ....


-- Politicarp

Enviro: UN: No action at this year's gathering in Cancun, Mexico

Climate chiefs warn of limited progress

Sunday, November 28, 2010

AfricaEconomics: Aid: Is the culprit, says prof Dambisa Moyo, decrying dis-incentiv+zation of Africa



Doing business in Africa - Dambisa Moyo speaks at a conference in Italy


From: dambisamoyo | October 09, 2010  | 1,302 views


Speaking at a conference in Italy (7 Oct 2010) Dambisa Moyo highlights some of the problems limiting Africa's trade and economic growth. She highlights the positive example of Rwanda which despite all the odds was ranked global #1 in the World Bank's Doing Business Survey 2010.


-- Politicarp


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Saturday, November 27, 2010

Willie Nelson charged with pot possession in Texas


SIERRA BLANCA, Texas – A U.S. Border Patrol spokesman says country singer Willie Nelson was charged with marijuana possession after 6 ounces was found aboard his tour bus in Texas.
AP via Yahoo! News.

refWr+t editorial:  
It's t+m the USA stops harassing its entertainment artists (and others) for inconsequential amounts of Mary Jane!  Especially at the border, considering especially that the recent underground-railway express train for tonnes of dope was only belatedly uncovered in a huge tunnel that surfaced incognito in San Diego.
-- Lawt

JuridicsUSA: Arbitration: AT&T Mobility tries to sucker clients out of their day in court, proper payback

NYT carries an editorial (Nov26,2k10) decrying AT&T's apparent attempted fraud in California over the provision of Arbitration to AT&T Mobility cl+ents:



The Arbitration War



Unexpected wireless charges are a chronic affliction of life on the grid. The industry triggers more complaints from consumers than any other. AT&T Mobility, by consumer rankings, is the worst. Its performance in a case the Supreme Court heard recently has done nothing to improve that reputation.

Readers' Comments

This is the latest in the arbitration war — a battle over whether the United States will increasingly have a privatized system of justice that bars people from enforcing rights in court and, if so, what will be considered fair in that system. It would be grossly unfair for the court to let the corporation get away with what it wants to in AT&T Mobility v. Concepcion — a case that involves a small amount of money and a huge principle.
When Vincent and Liza Concepcion signed up for AT&T cellphone service, they received two new phones in exchange for making a two-year agreement. To their consternation, AT&T charged them $30.22 in sales tax for the phones. The Concepcions sued the company for fraud in Federal District Court and their case and another were consolidated as a class action.
Because of an arbitration clause in its customer agreement, AT&T insisted that the Concepcions had to submit their claim to individual arbitration. The federal district judge said no. The judge ruled that the agreement is “unconscionable” under California law — imposed by the company harshly, coerced and not consented to. The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit forcefully upheld the decision.
Click the t+mstamp to Read more ...