No they are just bankrupt from borrowing so much money over the years. They only have debt higher than their GDP and the interest payments alone are killing them. Then you can look at Belgium who doesn't even have a government right now. Yea Europe is doing so well. Big banks aren't their only issue, but they certainly don't help the problem.
Corporatism is the biggest problem in America. It will never go away until the public rises up and demands changes. The corporations will never die they will just move things around and sell to other countries to keep making a profit at any cost. You can already see them doing this. They have moved so many different parts of their operations outside of America. Corporations only care about one thing, profit. They love control and power because it lets them get more profit. The American public to a certain degree is responsible for this. We have as a society told corporations that if you aren't growing at least 20+% per year then you are a crap company not worth anyone's time. Corporations got the message and they do whatever it takes to keep profits growing year after year.
Until there are major legal changes and major shifts in the attitudes of the majority of the American public, we are basically screwed. There are more corporate executives in the government these days than I can ever recall. You think they only have the public's interest at heart? Think again they are there to do favors for their corporate buddies so when they leave office they will have a nice chushie job to go with a large salary. You only have to look at how far lobbyists have wormed in to the political process. You have lobbyist writing bills then handing them off to someone in Congress to try and get them enacted. You have companies that contribute huge amounts of money to both parties to make sure no matter who wins they are still protected.
The Democrats and the Republicans have become two arms of the same house. They both do exactly the same things just to different degrees. The public has no chance of changing this because the two parties control everything. They control who is allowed in the Presidential debates. They control huge amounts of money for advertising to promote the idea that if you vote 3rd party you are throwing away your vote, so vote mainstream. All you have to do is look at history to see how 3rd party candidates have been treated by both parties. You combine this with Corporatism in American and the American public has very little chance to make huge sweeping changes required to actually make things better. I suspect it won't be until the average American is bankrupt and all the governments are bankrupt that only then will sweeping changes come. None of this will effect the corporations they will keep getting bailouts when they do stupid stuff, and they will keep doing whatever it takes at any cost to continue to make profits.
It isn't about class warfare or the haves and have nots. It isn't about Democrats versus Republicans. That is all a distraction from the fact that Corporations have taken over, and we need to band together as a country and make some seriously hard choices and take control of our government back, and give the power back to the people. The government isn't there to take care of us. It is there to do the least possible to make sure we get to exercise our freedoms. The states should have far larger power that the Federal government but it doesn't work that way. The local city governments should have far more power in our daily lives, but it doesn't work that way either. The governments closest to us should be the ones with the most power to effect our daily lives, not some government body hundreds of miles away. Until a majority of the American public realizes this and is ready to seriously rise up against the system and make sweeping changes, nothing with change, and we will get the same crap we have for years and worse. If the American public doesn't start making changes we are going to end up exactly the same as Europe, specifically Greece, Ireland, and Belgium.
This was tried in several states to make the telcos and cable companies open up their last mile lines at reasonable market costs. It didn't work at all. Either they paid off the state legislators to make it pointless and/or they gave special deals to their own ISPs that no one else could get. It was a complete joke. Not to mention how much telcos were "donating" to some of the legislators election funds. Cable companies just waive their exclusive contracts under the nose of the local city governments and said, no we don't have to do that and you can't make us. If you try we will just shut down cable and tell everyone it is your fault. Not to mention how much cable companies were "donating" to some of the local city leaders election funds. So that never happened either. I saw both first hand in trying to deal with cable companies and telcos. The pay-offs in the form of campaign donations made it impossible for the average person to even talk to the government leaders and get them to understand what was going on. I heard dozens of times, oh they wouldn't do that, or they paid for all that stuff so why should they have to share it. The government leaders didn't want to hear about the monopolies that these companies had been operating under for many decades or more.
You want to know how the telcos and cable companies screwed ISP. Just look around and count how many locally owned ISPs even exist anymore. It isn't due to lack of technical ability, many locally owned ISPs used to do things the cable and telco companies said was impossible technically. It is due to predatory practices by the telcos and cable companies that locally owned ISPs are gone. They have killed a once vibrant and competitive market.
The telcos and cable companies will do the exact same thing to Internet websites and Internet technologies if someone doesn't stop them. They have a proven track record of destroying anyone who tries to complete with them by using unfair advantages. If they were serious about keeping the Internet free they would do what they gave lip service to years ago. They would make cable companies and telco completely spin off their Internet divisions, and rather than keep them at arms length, which is how it used to be. They would make it so they can't own any Internet companies, or stocks in any Internet company. These companies would have to compete just the same as anyone else out there. The telcos and cable companies have for years used their coffers from one side to prop up the Internet side and slash prices to run everyone else out of business and then raise rates later. Locally pipes have gotten smaller and more expensive. That isn't a competitive market that is leveraging a monopoly to dominate the market down to a few big players, and they have done it for years.
The cable companies and telcos have had monopolies for 40-100 years. So anyone trying to compete with them is facing a very serious uphill battle. Their coffers are huge, and their lobbyists are very entrenched with having the ears of politicians.
Telcos and Cable companies are not the friends of the public, and will screw the public over the first chance they think they can get away with it.
Throttling to the lowest level of bandwidth to make it basically unusable isn't the same as blocking. Based on what I have read of the order they absolutely can throttle down other traffic without breaking these new rules. If that breaks your internet application or makes it unusable, too bad. They will tell you to switch to their service which has better performance. That isn't protecting the consumer that is giving the telcos and cable companies a bigger hammer to beat the public down with legally.
They don't have to block traffic to get the same/similar end results as blocking. Throttling all non-local SIP/VOIP traffic down to 2k/sec would be legal. Throttling down all non-local streaming audio and video to 2k/sec would be totally legal. They will do it claiming, it makes their network run better. Well it kind of would since there is little traffic, other things will run better but it completely screws the consumer and gets around the spirit of what they were suppose to be doing here. They throttle traffic and then say, see our phone service runs better and our pay video on demand service runs better, that's why we throttled everyone else to make the network better. They only made it better for their services not for everyone trying to use the internet to get to random places online.
This is worse than if they had done nothing at all. Instead of having isolated cases like "Comcast and BitTorrent" and "Comcast and Level 3/Netflix", now every backbone provider and ISP can legally do the same thing and there is nothing anyone can do about it. You can't pick a new ISP because everyone will be doing it. You know Comcast has to be leaping for joy. Now they can legally do what they were doing before and there isn't anyone who can tell them to stop.
The FCC screwed the American public and they should have kept their hands out of the internet.
Parents need to take responsibility and keep track of what their kids are doing at all times, and that includes online. If the Internet is such a problem, move the computer into the family room or main room of the house. They won't be going to porn sites when anyone can walk by and see what they are doing online. The State isn't the parent. It's the ones who made the decision to have a child who need to step up and take responsibility and do their job as a parent and not leave it up to someone else to do what they are suppose to do. If it too hard to monitor the internet then don't let them have Internet access, or only when you are sitting there at the computer with them. It's actually really simple. You can't be bothered? Then don't have kids. It's that simple. The State doesn't own anyone the right to be the parent for you. People need to learn to take responsibility and stop demanding someone else do it for them.
Well if Blizzard and Vivendi are involved it will only be a matter of time until they flip out and send C&Ds or threaten a lawsuit like they have always done. They never learned to play well with others and share. I thought everyone learned that at a young age, but I guess not.
The dot com bubble burst cost an estimated $10 Trillion and put a major crash in the tech sector and drove tons of good companies almost on the verge of profit out of business, and crashed other companies who were making money and weren't crap. So what should we have done about that?
It sucks the New York economy tanked, but economies tank in lots of cities for lots of reasons and they recover. Besides there will never be another incident like that again. Cockpit doors are re-enforced now, pilots are armed, and the passengers are ready to curb stomp anyone who tries to mess with the plane or them. The days of flying a plane into a building are over. Even the days of trying to blow up a plane are over. Look what passengers have done to people who have tried. Passengers have turned out to be great security for the airlines these days.
Wow you mean the new study saying that the back-scatter devices are worse than flying, much worse than anyone thought and increase breast cancer rates and can possibly mutate skin cells and sperm. That one...it's all wrong? I think I will believe the PhD Radiation scientist and doctors.
Not to mention the new reports of how the machine works. It isn't a flood of x-rays but a tiny thin high strength beam that scans you quickly like an ink jet printer. It is said if the beam ever got stuck it would instantly be an energy weapon and burn you. Google it.
No thanks I'll pass on the cancer causing death ray machine.
Well I certainly don't recommend the back-scatter scanners. Italy dumped them because they don't work. There was a German show that showed if you carry liquid explosives that it won't detect them. There is a paper talking about how if you completely tape a metal knife to you, then you can go right through the scanner and they will never see it. You can create a thin layer of 300+grams of PETN and go right through the scanner and they never see it. In fact anything completely taped to your skin that is mostly thin they will never see.
The scanners can't detect liquids. They can't detect powders. They are totally worthless other than to catch what a metal detector would already catch.
The TSA is now officially security theater.
Do a little googling and you will find all these reports and more.
Interesting that they were both arrested for being a terrorist originally then the government couldn't prove that so they got conspiracy which is a way easier case to make. You could trip over yourself and be a complete moron lawyer and still make a conspiracy case because the requirements of proof are so low.
So what if people lied about the Heath Bill. That is no reason to report them to the government. We still have free speech even if it is wrong and you don't agree with it. You are also talking about the government asking citizens to report on each other. It doesn't matter why, that is just wrong. We don't report on each other to the government for political reasons, that is wrong and evil. For actual crimes commited yes, but not for political reasons. That is just crap, and is very very evil for our government to start going down that road.
That is a violation of free press, and free speech. I don't care who is right or wrong. You don't report people to the government because their telling lies or you don't like their speech. So report them for lying? WTF!?! Is this a nanny state and your going to tattle to your mom that someone lied? Get over, politicians lie all the time right to our faces. Obama promised all these changes and good things, and ingnored most of them and directly gone against others he said he wouldn't do. Health care bill was suppose to be completely done on CSPAN, nothing in secret...oops fail! Put more limits on the Patriot Act....nope renewed parts and didn't limit it....ooops another lie. Cut back on warrantless wiretaps....nope more than Bush did....oops another lie.
It turns out the public was right, that the Health Bill was crap and is going to cost at least twice what they told us. So the government deserves to have some mud and dirt throw their way for ignoring the people and not doing what we wanted.
Don't even talk to me about people lying about the health bill. The politicians lie about far more important things than what is or isn't in a bill that people can go look up online. When the US government stops lying to the public, then they can worry about who is lying about them. Just look at all the lies that are coming out from the WikiLeaks cables. Some of those political people should loose their jobs over the things said in those cables and the lies told to the public.
There are dozens of YouTube videos about the military training on the streets of America. Why do they need to train on public streets and the entire city they are in? They can train on their bases just as well. They call these Urban Warfare Training. It is really creepy.
About the Tea Party. You said there are a few unhinged. That must be a few around you since we have had several Tea Party rallies here in Missouri and had none of those problems. They were peaceful, people talked and there were no issues.
The government lied about the reasons to going to war in Iraq. They waved around reports and papers and said it all proved why we need to go in. We believed the government. Now we find out they lied...well that sucks. Ok if you lied to us come home then, since we don't want a war that isn't justified.
That is what happened, and it isn't crazy to say the US public doesn't want to be there. We are not delusional, we were lied to and we are trying to correct that. I have no guilty conscience. I was lied to and there is nothing I can do about that. I didn't even get a vote about the war. Even if I hated the war, they sure didn't ask me or let me vote on it. The congress just did it, and off to war the country went.
American's have a problem believing that their government would lie to them. If you try and suggest it then the media in the US labels you a crazy conspiracy nut job. Well guess what there are conspiracies in the US government to hide greed and wrong doing. We are finding out there are conspiracies in the Federal Reserve and financial industry as well, for greed and wrong doing. America is finally starting to reach the boiling point. Will the public explode and start fighting the government? Who knows, maybe, maybe not. The Tea Party movement was an attempt to break away from the 2 party system in this country. Since we don't really have 2 parties, we have 2 wings of the same party, Republicans on one wing and Democrats on the other wing. Now we have Republicans trying to co-opt the Tea Party and bring it in to the Republican fold to get control back, and keep things the same.
You might want to double check why there are bases in Saudi Arabia. We were asked by the government to come in to the country and we did. Now everyone in that country may not like it, but that is the fault of their government.
Bin Laden is connected to the royal family in Saudi Arabia and he knows this. He was pointed out to the CIA by the royal family for use in the Afgan wars with Russia. The CIA needed a local for use to pump money and weapons into the area, and rally the fighters in the area to fight the Russians. Bin Laden was pointed out, by Saudi Arabia, to be their man. Saudi Arabia and other locals there also threw in money for the fight against Russia. Bin Laden is pissed that the CIA abruptly pull out and washed their hands of the whole mess when it became clear that Russia couldn't win. He was pissed that he wasn't get money from the US anymore and pissed that the US wasn't supporting him with weapons. This has *NOTHING* to do with bases in Saudi Arabia and he knows this, that is just an excuse. He is pissed that the US and the CIA left him and his group of militants high and dry. He thought he could take over Afghanistan with the help and support of the CIA and the US but that wasn't in the cards, and it pissed him off. That is what this is all about. It's about power and revenge, plain and simple. He can't scream to the people over there that the CIA didn't help him take over Afghanistan so he trumps up something else to rail on the US about. Now that the US is in Afghanistan that really has to piss him off, because he has no hope now of taking over.
Learn more about the Afghanistan and Russian war and the CIA involvement over there and it will all start to make sense.
This is why friends of the Saudi Arabian rulers are funding Al-Qaeda. It's why the US isn't surprised by this information, it happened before.
There is no Global Warming. This has been proven that all the scientist were lying and falsifying data and reports. Plotting against those who disagree with them to make sure they are not published. Large numbers of them are under police investigation for fraud. England, New Zealand, Japan, NASA all admit they screwed up the data about climate change. The game is over, everyone go home. There is no global warming caused by man. Even if you believed them your talking about.6 C increase over 100 years. Big whoop. In the grand scheme of things that is nothing.
The sun, the wobble of the earth, the moon, the shift of the tectonic plates, and a whole bunch of other natural events effect the temperature of the earth far more than man ever could with CO2. Hell the global warming models can't even predict the past climates and you want to use them for the future? Give me a break. The earth goes in cycles, just like the weather, hurricanes, El Nino, El Nina and everything else. The sooner people realize this the better everyone else will be.
Don't forget these were the same guys in 1970's screaming that there was an Ice Age coming. Now there is global warming? Which is it? These guys need to make up their mind, are we burning up or freezing to death. It is clear they have no clue and are just media whores and whores for research money.
That is a flat out lie. WikiLeaks has redacted all names that are not well know or public figures. To say otherwise is to lie. Also why in the hell are you putting mission operations in "Confidential" security level documents? They aren't because that type of info wouldn't be in these documents that are only "Confidential" clearance documents. Mission operations, and counter-terror operations document are "Top Secret" and these are not "Top Secret" documents. You need to do a lot more research on this. It is clear you haven't actually read any of the released documents and are only repeating talking points. The information you claim to be a problem isn't even in the documents. The clearance level you claim these documents are, is wrong. The person who stole the documents doesn't even have a "Secret" level clearance, so he couldn't have stolen anything "Secret" level or higher. So do you want to try again?
Also it doesn't matter what security level the documents are. The Supreme Court has already ruled the press can print "Top Secret" documents when it is news worth or in the interest of the public. These are clearly both since every mainstream media source is releasing information contained in these documents and some are releasing the actual documents. So what is happening here is 100% legal in the United States. End of story.
Actually the Supreme Court ruled that the press absolutely have the right to print about "Top Secret" stolen documents when it is news worthy or in the interest of the public good.
The press is not liable for the theft of information that someone else did. That is the law of the United States and is Constitutional law now. Period end, do not pass go. Everyone can scream what about the people in the reports, or what about the damage it might do. It does *NOT* matter. It is 100% legal, end of story.
This was true for the "Pentagon Papers" that were "Top Secret" documents. It was true of the "Watergate Scandal" papers that were "Secret" and "Top Secret". It didn't matter how they were classified, the courts ruled the press didn't steal them, and it was in the interest of the public to see them, so they could legally publish them. End of story.
You can even then throw in the whistle blower laws, and it becomes even more clear that this is supported by law and the Supreme Court.
Umm actually newspapers actually did get into long conversations with people who have released classified papers. You might want to look up the "Pentagon Papers" and the "Watergate Scandal". In both cases they did talk with the people who stole the documents for an extended period to make sure they were legit, and who they could fact check the papers with. So yes the newspaper do talk with their sources for extended periods.
The Constitution does not say who does and does not get to be part of the press. If you are publishing information for mass release then you are part of the press. The fact the mainstream media doesn't like this, and/or doesn't think other news sites and blogs aren't press doesn't make it so. It's not surprising they wouldn't want to call them press, since they are a threat and their competition. Alternative press is starting to eat mainstream media's lunch.
Also the Supreme Court has rule that the media outlet who receives the stolen documents is not liable for them. The media outlet can publish "Top Secret" documents when it is in the interest of the public, or is news worthy. These documents aren't even "Top Secret", they are just "Confidential" which is far less than "Top Secret".
What exactly makes someone the press? You ever take any journalism classes? You are only suppose to report the facts, and not insert your opinion in a story. What is more fact oriented than posting the cables with everyone's name redacted but public/well known names. Yes I am aware that almost every mainstream media source slants their stories, but that isn't pure journalism.
The Internet has forever changed who is the press, and everyone needs to catch up or get left behind.
Nice idea but never going to happen for at least two reason. First one is the shear amount of data that has to be mined because you never know what is and isn't relevant. The second is related to that. The public isn't an analyst. They don't know what is important and what isn't, and what exactly all of that means in relation to other events and comments. Hell not even the CIA knows that. Which is why they have analyst who specialize in different areas of the world, and different sectors of the business and public world. You have to be able to put all these details in context, and that is the hardest problem.
Now one way you might be able to overcome these limitations, has nothing to do with OpenSource really. You might be able to make it work with a public crowd-sourced intelligence database that anyone can access. If you let crowds of people who have huge ranges of interest and knowledge share the load of analyzing things, and then somehow balance differing opinions about the meanings, to get a consensus, then that might work. Somehow have all view points available but consensus would be highlighted as most probable. But that is a *HUGE* maybe. If you could make a kind of "Global Frequency" database and system of intelligence, then you might have a chance to make something really useful. If you really got it to work and could keep it 100% public....it would/could be one of the biggest forms of empowerment for the public/world ever seen, and would shine the light of day into many corners of the world that have never seen light.
There are very limited times that you would not want to scream your head off about certain information that the government is doing. I can think of at least one very serious and very major secret that had to be kept secret or the US and everyone else was totally and completely screwed. "D-Day" It was vital to keep secret when and where the US was going to do a major beach landing to make a drive for Germany. We lied our butts off and said it was going to be somewhere else, and the Germans moved their troops to that area rather than Normandy. It would have cost untold numbers of lives if everyone had screamed exactly what the government was doing. It cost a lot of lives to do the Normandy invasion, even though it was kept quite. So don't tell me that *EVERYTHING* the government does must be open. That is crap. There are times when the government *MUST* keep secrets.
Now do we need a more open government? You bet. The level of secrecy for the government is crazy, not everything needs to be secret. Is there any reason to keep the financial industry and the banking industry a secret? Absolutely not. Is there a reason to keep secret a majority meetings of senators and representatives? Absolutely not. Keep some of the defense meetings discussing weapons development and status of classified operations, secret. The rest need to see the sunlight of day. We absolutely do not need to keep meetings with lobbyists secret. Do we need to keep things the Federal Reserve does secret? Absolutely not, the public has a right to know how much money is being printed and who is getting it and where it is going. It's our money after all.
If banks or financial institutions fail, it's because of incompetence, not because you exposed their Fed dealings. Bad companies need to fail, not be propped up by the government, that just leads to bigger problems later. You bail out a company once they know they can do anything they want, because you will bail them out again because "they are too big to fail". I think that is crap. If a company is too big to fail then they need to be broken up in to smaller more manageable pieces by the government when they are bailed out.
The government always keeping everything secret only leads to corruption.There is nothing more cleansing for corruption than the light of day.
WikiLeaks is showing that there are multiple problems with the government in the US. There is a problem of making sure people aren't walking out of buildings with information that they shouldn't. There is the problem of our government telling us one thing, and the truth being something completely different. Everyone thinks the leaks were this super secret, bad for the troops and the country, information. Remember none of this is "Secret" or above. This is all stuff classified "Sensitive". So I can't imagine that operational details that would effect anyone would only be classified "Sensitive" that would be kind of crazy. Also names of common people are being redacted, so as not to cause them any problems.
Security classifications starting at the lowest level for the US are: Controlled Unclassified Information, Confidential, Secret, Top Secret, and Compartmented Information. "Controlled Unclassified Information", such material might cause "undesirable effects" if publicly available. It controls who is allowed to see these documents. This is not a clearance level but rather a classification level for documents. "Confidential", such material would cause "damage" or be "prejudicial" to national security if publicly available.
That is what we have here, confidential documents. Documents that they didn't want getting out because it would make them look bad and show that they lied. The person who stole these documents was a first class private. He didn't have access to "dangerous" secrets. There would be no need for him to have a "Secret" or "Top Secret" level clearance at his rank.
Did he steal? You bet. Is he going to jail over it? I would be surprised if he didn't. Is WikiLeaks a terrorist organization? Don't be silly, if they are then so is every newspaper who posted the same information, and there are dozens of mainstream news outlets that posted this information. There are even a few newspapers who printed the raw cables not redacted with the names of even common people showing. WikiLeaks has made sure to redact all the common man/non-pubic figure names from the cables before posting them on their website.
We still have freedom of the press in the US, and it doesn't say who is allowed to be press and who isn't. The Supreme Court has ruled that the media outlet that receives these documents can not be held liable for their theft. The media outlet can release the information if there is clear news value, and value for the public to know the information. Does the public need to know the government lied? You bet they have a right to know that. Does the public have a right to know officially that friends of the Saudi Arabian government are funding Al-Qaeda? You bet. Does the public have a right to know that the US is bombing Yemen rather than the Yemen government? You bet. If none of this was news worthy they wouldn't be printing this information, they would instead be just talking about the leak of information.
You can make words on paper secure? Really? Are you sure about that? I seem to recall at least one time when that wasn't the case. I seem to recall some "Top Secret" level documents that got out. You may better remember them as the "Pentagon Papers". Oh and then I remember another time someone leaked information and a few papers to the newspapers. You might remember it better as the "Watergate Scandal".
Now what was that about words on paper can be made secure but not electronic archives? They are both the same. You can make them secure, but if someone wants to release the information then there isn't much you can do about that. The human being in the equation will always be the weak link. Someone committed to releasing the information will find a way eventually. History is proof of that.
We didn't loose so much as we got more of the same crap we have been getting for a long time.
Obama has done more warrant-less wiretaps than Bush has, you can find dozens of stories on this. Obama was suppose to put more oversight on this, which was a campaign promise, but he hasn't. He has done the exact opposite. Now he wants to introduce an Internet wiretapping law next year. Huh? Why does he need that? The FBI can and already does get warrants for Internet wiretapping. The FBI even wrote a special program to do it. It was called Carnivore, remember that?
TSA is a huge issue right now. Obama could pick up the phone and tell the TSA to stop right this second, but he doesn't do that. He doesn't care if it is abusive and people don't like it. He doesn't even care that it might possibly violate the public's rights. At least before this administration we didn't get groped and felt up when we flew, or basically strip searched, and exposed to radiation.
Obama said he would increase oversight for the Patriot Act. He then goes and renews parts of the Patriot Act without changing a thing. Did anyone so much as make a peep about it, did people even know? So much for change again.
Communications Director Linda Douglass says, “we’re asking for your help. If you get an email or see something on the web about health insurance reform that seems fishy, send it to flag@whitehouse.gov.” What we attack people who don't agree with what you say or think differently? Wow, what are we becoming? Citizens reporting on each other for what they think? Sounds like old Soviet Russia.
How about the work the army is doing on the streets with police inside the US? WTF?!? How about a battalion stationed here in the US, official listed duty is "for civil unrest". WTF!?! Are we ignoring posse comitatus, and creating a police state?
Now let's talk about Laurie Williams and Alan Zabel, EPA attorneys who saw big problems with Cap & Trade. They told people about it, and thought there was a better way to do. They were told to take down their web video about it. Wow! You violate people's right to free speech, or at a bare minimum tell people who it is their job to deal with legal issues and advise the EPA, not to do their job, and to take down a web video? WTH? Let's stomp all over the first amendment again, or ignore people who are suppose to understand these things.
Democrats have been blasting people who don't agree with them calling them unhinged, crazy, racist, bigoted and other terms. The Tea Party and conservative Republicans don't agree with them, so now they are evil and threat to America? They completely forget how hard and heavy they blasted Bush/Republicans, and no one called them that. Let alone the fact that the ability to disagree with someone about politics is a fundamental part of the Country and part of the checks and balances of government. What do they want a dictatorship where no one can disagree and everything is only done one way?
Let's not even get started talking about how much the government has grown and how Obama and the current government has spent more in 2 years than any other presidency, not including the bailouts.
Democrats and Obama did *NOT* bring change or save us. Obama promised sweeping changes and reforms, a better government for the people. Not a chance. He hasn't honored most of his promises and has continued business as usual. They are just more of the same thing we have always had in government.
We, the public, have lost for years. The government never listens to what the people want no matter who you vote in. Just look at the health care bill for one example. They all promise one thing, and do something completely different when they are in office. For years and years it has been a vote to pick the lesser of two evils. The two party system, and corporate campaign contributions have assured the fact that the public will only get more of the same.
I used to run an ISP. I started back a bit after the national science foundation stopped paying for the majority of the backbone. I have seen this happen many many times over the years. Some ISP or backbone provider will be working on a router and fat finger their routing tables, and then suddenly all kinds of traffic is re-routed and then they instantly notice a huge upswing in traffic, or rarely don't notice until they get a phone call, and then its "oh crap I have to fix that quick". Most of the time people didn't freak out as long as you jumped on it right away and fixed it. I even did it once. I instantly notice a huge surge in traffic, looked at the traffic, then routing table, oops typo, better fix that quick. Yes I did get a phone call about it, and told them yes I know why your calling, and yes I made a mistake, and yes I already fixed it. It occasionally happens and people usually instantly notice, and usually it isn't a big deal, since everyone gets right on fixing the problem. I never saw anyone do it on purpose. Everyone jumps on fixing it, because it effects your own and ability to get out to certain parts of the internet, not mention it could flood your connection so nothing usable gets in or out, when you screw up the routing. So no one wants that, and especially not to stay that way.
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No they are just bankrupt from borrowing so much money over the years. They only have debt higher than their GDP and the interest payments alone are killing them. Then you can look at Belgium who doesn't even have a government right now. Yea Europe is doing so well. Big banks aren't their only issue, but they certainly don't help the problem.
Corporatism is the biggest problem in America. It will never go away until the public rises up and demands changes. The corporations will never die they will just move things around and sell to other countries to keep making a profit at any cost. You can already see them doing this. They have moved so many different parts of their operations outside of America. Corporations only care about one thing, profit. They love control and power because it lets them get more profit. The American public to a certain degree is responsible for this. We have as a society told corporations that if you aren't growing at least 20+% per year then you are a crap company not worth anyone's time. Corporations got the message and they do whatever it takes to keep profits growing year after year.
Until there are major legal changes and major shifts in the attitudes of the majority of the American public, we are basically screwed. There are more corporate executives in the government these days than I can ever recall. You think they only have the public's interest at heart? Think again they are there to do favors for their corporate buddies so when they leave office they will have a nice chushie job to go with a large salary. You only have to look at how far lobbyists have wormed in to the political process. You have lobbyist writing bills then handing them off to someone in Congress to try and get them enacted. You have companies that contribute huge amounts of money to both parties to make sure no matter who wins they are still protected.
The Democrats and the Republicans have become two arms of the same house. They both do exactly the same things just to different degrees. The public has no chance of changing this because the two parties control everything. They control who is allowed in the Presidential debates. They control huge amounts of money for advertising to promote the idea that if you vote 3rd party you are throwing away your vote, so vote mainstream. All you have to do is look at history to see how 3rd party candidates have been treated by both parties. You combine this with Corporatism in American and the American public has very little chance to make huge sweeping changes required to actually make things better. I suspect it won't be until the average American is bankrupt and all the governments are bankrupt that only then will sweeping changes come. None of this will effect the corporations they will keep getting bailouts when they do stupid stuff, and they will keep doing whatever it takes at any cost to continue to make profits.
It isn't about class warfare or the haves and have nots. It isn't about Democrats versus Republicans. That is all a distraction from the fact that Corporations have taken over, and we need to band together as a country and make some seriously hard choices and take control of our government back, and give the power back to the people. The government isn't there to take care of us. It is there to do the least possible to make sure we get to exercise our freedoms. The states should have far larger power that the Federal government but it doesn't work that way. The local city governments should have far more power in our daily lives, but it doesn't work that way either. The governments closest to us should be the ones with the most power to effect our daily lives, not some government body hundreds of miles away. Until a majority of the American public realizes this and is ready to seriously rise up against the system and make sweeping changes, nothing with change, and we will get the same crap we have for years and worse. If the American public doesn't start making changes we are going to end up exactly the same as Europe, specifically Greece, Ireland, and Belgium.
This was tried in several states to make the telcos and cable companies open up their last mile lines at reasonable market costs. It didn't work at all. Either they paid off the state legislators to make it pointless and/or they gave special deals to their own ISPs that no one else could get. It was a complete joke. Not to mention how much telcos were "donating" to some of the legislators election funds. Cable companies just waive their exclusive contracts under the nose of the local city governments and said, no we don't have to do that and you can't make us. If you try we will just shut down cable and tell everyone it is your fault. Not to mention how much cable companies were "donating" to some of the local city leaders election funds. So that never happened either. I saw both first hand in trying to deal with cable companies and telcos. The pay-offs in the form of campaign donations made it impossible for the average person to even talk to the government leaders and get them to understand what was going on. I heard dozens of times, oh they wouldn't do that, or they paid for all that stuff so why should they have to share it. The government leaders didn't want to hear about the monopolies that these companies had been operating under for many decades or more.
You want to know how the telcos and cable companies screwed ISP. Just look around and count how many locally owned ISPs even exist anymore. It isn't due to lack of technical ability, many locally owned ISPs used to do things the cable and telco companies said was impossible technically. It is due to predatory practices by the telcos and cable companies that locally owned ISPs are gone. They have killed a once vibrant and competitive market.
The telcos and cable companies will do the exact same thing to Internet websites and Internet technologies if someone doesn't stop them. They have a proven track record of destroying anyone who tries to complete with them by using unfair advantages. If they were serious about keeping the Internet free they would do what they gave lip service to years ago. They would make cable companies and telco completely spin off their Internet divisions, and rather than keep them at arms length, which is how it used to be. They would make it so they can't own any Internet companies, or stocks in any Internet company. These companies would have to compete just the same as anyone else out there. The telcos and cable companies have for years used their coffers from one side to prop up the Internet side and slash prices to run everyone else out of business and then raise rates later. Locally pipes have gotten smaller and more expensive. That isn't a competitive market that is leveraging a monopoly to dominate the market down to a few big players, and they have done it for years.
The cable companies and telcos have had monopolies for 40-100 years. So anyone trying to compete with them is facing a very serious uphill battle. Their coffers are huge, and their lobbyists are very entrenched with having the ears of politicians.
Telcos and Cable companies are not the friends of the public, and will screw the public over the first chance they think they can get away with it.
Throttling to the lowest level of bandwidth to make it basically unusable isn't the same as blocking. Based on what I have read of the order they absolutely can throttle down other traffic without breaking these new rules. If that breaks your internet application or makes it unusable, too bad. They will tell you to switch to their service which has better performance. That isn't protecting the consumer that is giving the telcos and cable companies a bigger hammer to beat the public down with legally.
They don't have to block traffic to get the same/similar end results as blocking. Throttling all non-local SIP/VOIP traffic down to 2k/sec would be legal. Throttling down all non-local streaming audio and video to 2k/sec would be totally legal. They will do it claiming, it makes their network run better. Well it kind of would since there is little traffic, other things will run better but it completely screws the consumer and gets around the spirit of what they were suppose to be doing here. They throttle traffic and then say, see our phone service runs better and our pay video on demand service runs better, that's why we throttled everyone else to make the network better. They only made it better for their services not for everyone trying to use the internet to get to random places online.
This is worse than if they had done nothing at all. Instead of having isolated cases like "Comcast and BitTorrent" and "Comcast and Level 3/Netflix", now every backbone provider and ISP can legally do the same thing and there is nothing anyone can do about it. You can't pick a new ISP because everyone will be doing it. You know Comcast has to be leaping for joy. Now they can legally do what they were doing before and there isn't anyone who can tell them to stop.
The FCC screwed the American public and they should have kept their hands out of the internet.
Parents need to take responsibility and keep track of what their kids are doing at all times, and that includes online. If the Internet is such a problem, move the computer into the family room or main room of the house. They won't be going to porn sites when anyone can walk by and see what they are doing online. The State isn't the parent. It's the ones who made the decision to have a child who need to step up and take responsibility and do their job as a parent and not leave it up to someone else to do what they are suppose to do. If it too hard to monitor the internet then don't let them have Internet access, or only when you are sitting there at the computer with them. It's actually really simple. You can't be bothered? Then don't have kids. It's that simple. The State doesn't own anyone the right to be the parent for you. People need to learn to take responsibility and stop demanding someone else do it for them.
You might want to check out these games.
Wing Commander Universe
http://sourceforge.net/projects/wcuniverse/
Privateer Gemini Gold
http://sourceforge.net/projects/privateer/
Wing Commander Saga (Built on top of Freespace 2)
http://www.wcsaga.com/
Well if Blizzard and Vivendi are involved it will only be a matter of time until they flip out and send C&Ds or threaten a lawsuit like they have always done. They never learned to play well with others and share. I thought everyone learned that at a young age, but I guess not.
The dot com bubble burst cost an estimated $10 Trillion and put a major crash in the tech sector and drove tons of good companies almost on the verge of profit out of business, and crashed other companies who were making money and weren't crap. So what should we have done about that?
It sucks the New York economy tanked, but economies tank in lots of cities for lots of reasons and they recover. Besides there will never be another incident like that again. Cockpit doors are re-enforced now, pilots are armed, and the passengers are ready to curb stomp anyone who tries to mess with the plane or them. The days of flying a plane into a building are over. Even the days of trying to blow up a plane are over. Look what passengers have done to people who have tried. Passengers have turned out to be great security for the airlines these days.
Wow you mean the new study saying that the back-scatter devices are worse than flying, much worse than anyone thought and increase breast cancer rates and can possibly mutate skin cells and sperm. That one...it's all wrong? I think I will believe the PhD Radiation scientist and doctors.
http://www.infowars.com/radiation-scientists-agree-tsa-naked-body-scanners-could-cause-breast-cancer-and-sperm-mutations/
Not to mention the new reports of how the machine works. It isn't a flood of x-rays but a tiny thin high strength beam that scans you quickly like an ink jet printer. It is said if the beam ever got stuck it would instantly be an energy weapon and burn you. Google it.
No thanks I'll pass on the cancer causing death ray machine.
Well I certainly don't recommend the back-scatter scanners. Italy dumped them because they don't work. There was a German show that showed if you carry liquid explosives that it won't detect them. There is a paper talking about how if you completely tape a metal knife to you, then you can go right through the scanner and they will never see it. You can create a thin layer of 300+grams of PETN and go right through the scanner and they never see it. In fact anything completely taped to your skin that is mostly thin they will never see.
The scanners can't detect liquids. They can't detect powders. They are totally worthless other than to catch what a metal detector would already catch.
The TSA is now officially security theater.
Do a little googling and you will find all these reports and more.
The two big cases that I couldn't find but finally did find were, and yes they were both citizens:
Mike Hawash- He was disappeared for a few weeks.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Hawash
José Padilla- He was disappeared for 3.5 years
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jos%C3%A9_Padilla_(prisoner)
Interesting that they were both arrested for being a terrorist originally then the government couldn't prove that so they got conspiracy which is a way easier case to make. You could trip over yourself and be a complete moron lawyer and still make a conspiracy case because the requirements of proof are so low.
So what if people lied about the Heath Bill. That is no reason to report them to the government. We still have free speech even if it is wrong and you don't agree with it. You are also talking about the government asking citizens to report on each other. It doesn't matter why, that is just wrong. We don't report on each other to the government for political reasons, that is wrong and evil. For actual crimes commited yes, but not for political reasons. That is just crap, and is very very evil for our government to start going down that road.
That is a violation of free press, and free speech. I don't care who is right or wrong. You don't report people to the government because their telling lies or you don't like their speech. So report them for lying? WTF!?! Is this a nanny state and your going to tattle to your mom that someone lied? Get over, politicians lie all the time right to our faces. Obama promised all these changes and good things, and ingnored most of them and directly gone against others he said he wouldn't do. Health care bill was suppose to be completely done on CSPAN, nothing in secret...oops fail! Put more limits on the Patriot Act....nope renewed parts and didn't limit it....ooops another lie. Cut back on warrantless wiretaps....nope more than Bush did....oops another lie.
It turns out the public was right, that the Health Bill was crap and is going to cost at least twice what they told us. So the government deserves to have some mud and dirt throw their way for ignoring the people and not doing what we wanted.
Don't even talk to me about people lying about the health bill. The politicians lie about far more important things than what is or isn't in a bill that people can go look up online. When the US government stops lying to the public, then they can worry about who is lying about them. Just look at all the lies that are coming out from the WikiLeaks cables. Some of those political people should loose their jobs over the things said in those cables and the lies told to the public.
Ok, here is the link to the Army, not Battalion but rather combat Brigade stationed to the US. If you read the article it talks about "civil unrest".
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/09/army_homeland_090708w/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bl6RXRHMXwE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYyvw0x4h88
Here is one about the Marines operating a DUI check point with the police
http://freespeech.vo.llnwd.net/o25/pub/images/chp01.png
http://www.infowars.com/massive-checkpoint-operation-in-tennessee-violated-posse-comitatus-fourth-amendment/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UgMx2F41XD0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFWs4A8WEFk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TE2oLMsNJnE
There are dozens of YouTube videos about the military training on the streets of America. Why do they need to train on public streets and the entire city they are in? They can train on their bases just as well. They call these Urban Warfare Training. It is really creepy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71Jux68F_AQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ks43WZftoqA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3NDmqZU_2a0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ah_8xu--IEA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FX6u8kqL5Z8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5swzxOYQ0k
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xdeWTjDrIls
About the Tea Party. You said there are a few unhinged. That must be a few around you since we have had several Tea Party rallies here in Missouri and had none of those problems. They were peaceful, people talked and there were no issues.
The government lied about the reasons to going to war in Iraq. They waved around reports and papers and said it all proved why we need to go in. We believed the government. Now we find out they lied...well that sucks. Ok if you lied to us come home then, since we don't want a war that isn't justified.
That is what happened, and it isn't crazy to say the US public doesn't want to be there. We are not delusional, we were lied to and we are trying to correct that. I have no guilty conscience. I was lied to and there is nothing I can do about that. I didn't even get a vote about the war. Even if I hated the war, they sure didn't ask me or let me vote on it. The congress just did it, and off to war the country went.
American's have a problem believing that their government would lie to them. If you try and suggest it then the media in the US labels you a crazy conspiracy nut job. Well guess what there are conspiracies in the US government to hide greed and wrong doing. We are finding out there are conspiracies in the Federal Reserve and financial industry as well, for greed and wrong doing. America is finally starting to reach the boiling point. Will the public explode and start fighting the government? Who knows, maybe, maybe not. The Tea Party movement was an attempt to break away from the 2 party system in this country. Since we don't really have 2 parties, we have 2 wings of the same party, Republicans on one wing and Democrats on the other wing. Now we have Republicans trying to co-opt the Tea Party and bring it in to the Republican fold to get control back, and keep things the same.
You might want to double check why there are bases in Saudi Arabia. We were asked by the government to come in to the country and we did. Now everyone in that country may not like it, but that is the fault of their government.
Bin Laden is connected to the royal family in Saudi Arabia and he knows this. He was pointed out to the CIA by the royal family for use in the Afgan wars with Russia. The CIA needed a local for use to pump money and weapons into the area, and rally the fighters in the area to fight the Russians. Bin Laden was pointed out, by Saudi Arabia, to be their man. Saudi Arabia and other locals there also threw in money for the fight against Russia. Bin Laden is pissed that the CIA abruptly pull out and washed their hands of the whole mess when it became clear that Russia couldn't win. He was pissed that he wasn't get money from the US anymore and pissed that the US wasn't supporting him with weapons. This has *NOTHING* to do with bases in Saudi Arabia and he knows this, that is just an excuse. He is pissed that the US and the CIA left him and his group of militants high and dry. He thought he could take over Afghanistan with the help and support of the CIA and the US but that wasn't in the cards, and it pissed him off. That is what this is all about. It's about power and revenge, plain and simple. He can't scream to the people over there that the CIA didn't help him take over Afghanistan so he trumps up something else to rail on the US about. Now that the US is in Afghanistan that really has to piss him off, because he has no hope now of taking over.
Learn more about the Afghanistan and Russian war and the CIA involvement over there and it will all start to make sense.
This is why friends of the Saudi Arabian rulers are funding Al-Qaeda. It's why the US isn't surprised by this information, it happened before.
There is no Global Warming. This has been proven that all the scientist were lying and falsifying data and reports. Plotting against those who disagree with them to make sure they are not published. Large numbers of them are under police investigation for fraud. England, New Zealand, Japan, NASA all admit they screwed up the data about climate change. The game is over, everyone go home. There is no global warming caused by man. Even if you believed them your talking about .6 C increase over 100 years. Big whoop. In the grand scheme of things that is nothing.
The sun, the wobble of the earth, the moon, the shift of the tectonic plates, and a whole bunch of other natural events effect the temperature of the earth far more than man ever could with CO2. Hell the global warming models can't even predict the past climates and you want to use them for the future? Give me a break. The earth goes in cycles, just like the weather, hurricanes, El Nino, El Nina and everything else. The sooner people realize this the better everyone else will be.
Don't forget these were the same guys in 1970's screaming that there was an Ice Age coming. Now there is global warming? Which is it? These guys need to make up their mind, are we burning up or freezing to death. It is clear they have no clue and are just media whores and whores for research money.
That is a flat out lie. WikiLeaks has redacted all names that are not well know or public figures. To say otherwise is to lie. Also why in the hell are you putting mission operations in "Confidential" security level documents? They aren't because that type of info wouldn't be in these documents that are only "Confidential" clearance documents. Mission operations, and counter-terror operations document are "Top Secret" and these are not "Top Secret" documents. You need to do a lot more research on this. It is clear you haven't actually read any of the released documents and are only repeating talking points. The information you claim to be a problem isn't even in the documents. The clearance level you claim these documents are, is wrong. The person who stole the documents doesn't even have a "Secret" level clearance, so he couldn't have stolen anything "Secret" level or higher. So do you want to try again?
Also it doesn't matter what security level the documents are. The Supreme Court has already ruled the press can print "Top Secret" documents when it is news worth or in the interest of the public. These are clearly both since every mainstream media source is releasing information contained in these documents and some are releasing the actual documents. So what is happening here is 100% legal in the United States. End of story.
Actually the Supreme Court ruled that the press absolutely have the right to print about "Top Secret" stolen documents when it is news worthy or in the interest of the public good.
The press is not liable for the theft of information that someone else did. That is the law of the United States and is Constitutional law now. Period end, do not pass go. Everyone can scream what about the people in the reports, or what about the damage it might do. It does *NOT* matter. It is 100% legal, end of story.
This was true for the "Pentagon Papers" that were "Top Secret" documents. It was true of the "Watergate Scandal" papers that were "Secret" and "Top Secret". It didn't matter how they were classified, the courts ruled the press didn't steal them, and it was in the interest of the public to see them, so they could legally publish them. End of story.
You can even then throw in the whistle blower laws, and it becomes even more clear that this is supported by law and the Supreme Court.
Umm actually newspapers actually did get into long conversations with people who have released classified papers. You might want to look up the "Pentagon Papers" and the "Watergate Scandal". In both cases they did talk with the people who stole the documents for an extended period to make sure they were legit, and who they could fact check the papers with. So yes the newspaper do talk with their sources for extended periods.
The Constitution does not say who does and does not get to be part of the press. If you are publishing information for mass release then you are part of the press. The fact the mainstream media doesn't like this, and/or doesn't think other news sites and blogs aren't press doesn't make it so. It's not surprising they wouldn't want to call them press, since they are a threat and their competition. Alternative press is starting to eat mainstream media's lunch.
Also the Supreme Court has rule that the media outlet who receives the stolen documents is not liable for them. The media outlet can publish "Top Secret" documents when it is in the interest of the public, or is news worthy. These documents aren't even "Top Secret", they are just "Confidential" which is far less than "Top Secret".
What exactly makes someone the press? You ever take any journalism classes? You are only suppose to report the facts, and not insert your opinion in a story. What is more fact oriented than posting the cables with everyone's name redacted but public/well known names. Yes I am aware that almost every mainstream media source slants their stories, but that isn't pure journalism.
The Internet has forever changed who is the press, and everyone needs to catch up or get left behind.
Nice idea but never going to happen for at least two reason. First one is the shear amount of data that has to be mined because you never know what is and isn't relevant. The second is related to that. The public isn't an analyst. They don't know what is important and what isn't, and what exactly all of that means in relation to other events and comments. Hell not even the CIA knows that. Which is why they have analyst who specialize in different areas of the world, and different sectors of the business and public world. You have to be able to put all these details in context, and that is the hardest problem.
Now one way you might be able to overcome these limitations, has nothing to do with OpenSource really. You might be able to make it work with a public crowd-sourced intelligence database that anyone can access. If you let crowds of people who have huge ranges of interest and knowledge share the load of analyzing things, and then somehow balance differing opinions about the meanings, to get a consensus, then that might work. Somehow have all view points available but consensus would be highlighted as most probable. But that is a *HUGE* maybe. If you could make a kind of "Global Frequency" database and system of intelligence, then you might have a chance to make something really useful. If you really got it to work and could keep it 100% public....it would/could be one of the biggest forms of empowerment for the public/world ever seen, and would shine the light of day into many corners of the world that have never seen light.
But at this point it is just a dream or fantasy.
There are very limited times that you would not want to scream your head off about certain information that the government is doing. I can think of at least one very serious and very major secret that had to be kept secret or the US and everyone else was totally and completely screwed. "D-Day" It was vital to keep secret when and where the US was going to do a major beach landing to make a drive for Germany. We lied our butts off and said it was going to be somewhere else, and the Germans moved their troops to that area rather than Normandy. It would have cost untold numbers of lives if everyone had screamed exactly what the government was doing. It cost a lot of lives to do the Normandy invasion, even though it was kept quite. So don't tell me that *EVERYTHING* the government does must be open. That is crap. There are times when the government *MUST* keep secrets.
Now do we need a more open government? You bet. The level of secrecy for the government is crazy, not everything needs to be secret. Is there any reason to keep the financial industry and the banking industry a secret? Absolutely not. Is there a reason to keep secret a majority meetings of senators and representatives? Absolutely not. Keep some of the defense meetings discussing weapons development and status of classified operations, secret. The rest need to see the sunlight of day. We absolutely do not need to keep meetings with lobbyists secret. Do we need to keep things the Federal Reserve does secret? Absolutely not, the public has a right to know how much money is being printed and who is getting it and where it is going. It's our money after all.
If banks or financial institutions fail, it's because of incompetence, not because you exposed their Fed dealings. Bad companies need to fail, not be propped up by the government, that just leads to bigger problems later. You bail out a company once they know they can do anything they want, because you will bail them out again because "they are too big to fail". I think that is crap. If a company is too big to fail then they need to be broken up in to smaller more manageable pieces by the government when they are bailed out.
The government always keeping everything secret only leads to corruption.There is nothing more cleansing for corruption than the light of day.
WikiLeaks is showing that there are multiple problems with the government in the US. There is a problem of making sure people aren't walking out of buildings with information that they shouldn't. There is the problem of our government telling us one thing, and the truth being something completely different. Everyone thinks the leaks were this super secret, bad for the troops and the country, information. Remember none of this is "Secret" or above. This is all stuff classified "Sensitive". So I can't imagine that operational details that would effect anyone would only be classified "Sensitive" that would be kind of crazy. Also names of common people are being redacted, so as not to cause them any problems.
Security classifications starting at the lowest level for the US are: Controlled Unclassified Information, Confidential, Secret, Top Secret, and Compartmented Information. "Controlled Unclassified Information", such material might cause "undesirable effects" if publicly available. It controls who is allowed to see these documents. This is not a clearance level but rather a classification level for documents. "Confidential", such material would cause "damage" or be "prejudicial" to national security if publicly available.
That is what we have here, confidential documents. Documents that they didn't want getting out because it would make them look bad and show that they lied. The person who stole these documents was a first class private. He didn't have access to "dangerous" secrets. There would be no need for him to have a "Secret" or "Top Secret" level clearance at his rank.
Did he steal? You bet. Is he going to jail over it? I would be surprised if he didn't. Is WikiLeaks a terrorist organization? Don't be silly, if they are then so is every newspaper who posted the same information, and there are dozens of mainstream news outlets that posted this information. There are even a few newspapers who printed the raw cables not redacted with the names of even common people showing. WikiLeaks has made sure to redact all the common man/non-pubic figure names from the cables before posting them on their website.
We still have freedom of the press in the US, and it doesn't say who is allowed to be press and who isn't. The Supreme Court has ruled that the media outlet that receives these documents can not be held liable for their theft. The media outlet can release the information if there is clear news value, and value for the public to know the information. Does the public need to know the government lied? You bet they have a right to know that. Does the public have a right to know officially that friends of the Saudi Arabian government are funding Al-Qaeda? You bet. Does the public have a right to know that the US is bombing Yemen rather than the Yemen government? You bet. If none of this was news worthy they wouldn't be printing this information, they would instead be just talking about the leak of information.
You can make words on paper secure? Really? Are you sure about that? I seem to recall at least one time when that wasn't the case. I seem to recall some "Top Secret" level documents that got out. You may better remember them as the "Pentagon Papers". Oh and then I remember another time someone leaked information and a few papers to the newspapers. You might remember it better as the "Watergate Scandal".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentagon_papers
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watergate
Now what was that about words on paper can be made secure but not electronic archives? They are both the same. You can make them secure, but if someone wants to release the information then there isn't much you can do about that. The human being in the equation will always be the weak link. Someone committed to releasing the information will find a way eventually. History is proof of that.
We didn't loose so much as we got more of the same crap we have been getting for a long time.
Obama has done more warrant-less wiretaps than Bush has, you can find dozens of stories on this. Obama was suppose to put more oversight on this, which was a campaign promise, but he hasn't. He has done the exact opposite. Now he wants to introduce an Internet wiretapping law next year. Huh? Why does he need that? The FBI can and already does get warrants for Internet wiretapping. The FBI even wrote a special program to do it. It was called Carnivore, remember that?
TSA is a huge issue right now. Obama could pick up the phone and tell the TSA to stop right this second, but he doesn't do that. He doesn't care if it is abusive and people don't like it. He doesn't even care that it might possibly violate the public's rights. At least before this administration we didn't get groped and felt up when we flew, or basically strip searched, and exposed to radiation.
Obama said he would increase oversight for the Patriot Act. He then goes and renews parts of the Patriot Act without changing a thing. Did anyone so much as make a peep about it, did people even know? So much for change again.
Communications Director Linda Douglass says, “we’re asking for your help. If you get an email or see something on the web about health insurance reform that seems fishy, send it to flag@whitehouse.gov.” What we attack people who don't agree with what you say or think differently? Wow, what are we becoming? Citizens reporting on each other for what they think? Sounds like old Soviet Russia.
How about the work the army is doing on the streets with police inside the US? WTF?!? How about a battalion stationed here in the US, official listed duty is "for civil unrest". WTF!?! Are we ignoring posse comitatus, and creating a police state?
Now let's talk about Laurie Williams and Alan Zabel, EPA attorneys who saw big problems with Cap & Trade. They told people about it, and thought there was a better way to do. They were told to take down their web video about it. Wow! You violate people's right to free speech, or at a bare minimum tell people who it is their job to deal with legal issues and advise the EPA, not to do their job, and to take down a web video? WTH? Let's stomp all over the first amendment again, or ignore people who are suppose to understand these things.
Democrats have been blasting people who don't agree with them calling them unhinged, crazy, racist, bigoted and other terms. The Tea Party and conservative Republicans don't agree with them, so now they are evil and threat to America? They completely forget how hard and heavy they blasted Bush/Republicans, and no one called them that. Let alone the fact that the ability to disagree with someone about politics is a fundamental part of the Country and part of the checks and balances of government. What do they want a dictatorship where no one can disagree and everything is only done one way?
Let's not even get started talking about how much the government has grown and how Obama and the current government has spent more in 2 years than any other presidency, not including the bailouts.
Democrats and Obama did *NOT* bring change or save us. Obama promised sweeping changes and reforms, a better government for the people. Not a chance. He hasn't honored most of his promises and has continued business as usual. They are just more of the same thing we have always had in government.
We, the public, have lost for years. The government never listens to what the people want no matter who you vote in. Just look at the health care bill for one example. They all promise one thing, and do something completely different when they are in office. For years and years it has been a vote to pick the lesser of two evils. The two party system, and corporate campaign contributions have assured the fact that the public will only get more of the same.
I used to run an ISP. I started back a bit after the national science foundation stopped paying for the majority of the backbone. I have seen this happen many many times over the years. Some ISP or backbone provider will be working on a router and fat finger their routing tables, and then suddenly all kinds of traffic is re-routed and then they instantly notice a huge upswing in traffic, or rarely don't notice until they get a phone call, and then its "oh crap I have to fix that quick". Most of the time people didn't freak out as long as you jumped on it right away and fixed it. I even did it once. I instantly notice a huge surge in traffic, looked at the traffic, then routing table, oops typo, better fix that quick. Yes I did get a phone call about it, and told them yes I know why your calling, and yes I made a mistake, and yes I already fixed it. It occasionally happens and people usually instantly notice, and usually it isn't a big deal, since everyone gets right on fixing the problem. I never saw anyone do it on purpose. Everyone jumps on fixing it, because it effects your own and ability to get out to certain parts of the internet, not mention it could flood your connection so nothing usable gets in or out, when you screw up the routing. So no one wants that, and especially not to stay that way.