Stories to Watch: 12/1/10

Woke up to snow today. Not a lot, but it was groundcover. Any clinging on to autumn has now ended and we're in fullblown winter acceptance mode. Bring on the hot cocoa. Now here's the news...


The Debt Commission isn't so much a commission as it is two guy who disagree with all the other guys. None of this is going to go anywhere, so chalk another one up to the uselessness of blue ribbon panels.


The GOP announces what Steve Benen calls a "hostage plan" -- nothing moves unless the rich get to keep sucking on the public debt. Meanwhile, the unemployed get the shaft -- again. If you voted GOP and you aren't rich, these fuckers are laughing at you behind your back. You're just a chump. Time for filibuster reform?


The Union of Concerned Scientists calls the new food safety bill passed in the senate "good for all who eat." Unfortunately, there may be a speedbump ahead in the House.


Dems to hold tax cut vote tomorrow.


Glenn Greenwald takes on critics of Wikileaks -- masterfully.


Following up my morning post: Bank of America's stocks fall on speculation that they may be the next Wikileaks target. Mike Huckabee is in a very un-Christian killing mood over the whole Wikileaks thing.


Finally, another conservative commentator takes on Sarah Palin and her pretenses to Reagan-hood.

News Roundup for 12/1/10

Sen. Inhofe

-Headline of the Day-
"Inhofe refuses to participate in 'holiday' parade."

Give him credit for waiting until December to launch the War Against the War on Christmas. Sen. James Inhofe took a break from climate change denial to engage in pointless demagoguery over a made-up issue of very little importance. It seems that Tulsa is having a Holiday Parade of Lights and this is the worst thing ever.

See, it used called the Christmas Parade of Lights, but then someone figured out that not all Tulsans (Tulsaites?) are Christian and maybe it'd be a good idea to celebrate all their holidays, rather than just the Christian people's. This is commonly referred to as "not being a dick about it."

But if Jim Inhofe is anything at all, he's a dick. So he's not joining in on the parade. "Last year, the forces of political correctness removed the word 'Christmas' and replaced it with 'Holiday' instead," he said. "I am deeply saddened and disappointed by this change."

Doesn't Sen. Jim know that Oklahoma children come from miles around to specifically see him in this parade? Children will cry, "Wah! Where's Senator Inhofe? Wah! Christmas is ruined! Wah!"

Won't Jim Inhofe think of the children? (Tulsa World)


-Palin hates America-
War Room reports, "Sarah Palin's political action committee paid $10,000 in October to a consulting firm that also works for George Soros, the billionaire philanthropist who is a left-wing bogeyman to many of Palin's supporters." No big deal, right?

Wrong. At least, if you use Palin's own logic. Remember how Sarah used a tenuous connection between to people to prove that a certain presidential candidate was "palling around with terrorists?" This is pretty much the same thing.

Sara Palin is palling around with the Father of All Things Evil. Case closed. (War Room)


-Bonus HotD-
"Merry Xmas, 2 Million Americans Who Just Lost Unemployment Checks!"

Have Republicans fixed the economy yet? (Wonkette)

Griper Blade: Megaleak

According to Wikipedia, Wikileaks was founded in 2006. That sounds about right to me. I remember reading about it at the time and thinking it was a good idea -- a sort of investigative journalism without the journalist middleman. I checked it from time to time, but soon found that -- ironically -- all that raw info was a little hard to make use of without someone taking the time to weed out all the trivia. In short, what I'd originally thought of as direct journalism required a journalist to make sense of it.

Still, in just four short years, Wikileaks has gone from a backwater site of interest to few to an international controversy. Founder Julian Assange has become an international fugitive on Interpol's Most Wanted list, for rape charges which may be trumped up. He's a frontrunner for Time's "Person of the Year" for 2010. He's hated by some and beloved by others. To lift a line from an ad campaign, he is "The Most Interesting Man in the World."

It's probably a mistake to think of Assange in journalistic terms. A former hacker, he's more of an information extremist. After releasing video of US soldiers mistakenly gunning down journalists in Iraq, Wikileaks had to move their site to the same host that filesharing site The Pirate Bay uses -- Pirate Bay founders are likewise free-information activists. It's a strange world these people operate in, where legal and illegal aren't as important as right and wrong and there's no need to obey unjust laws. The very existence of both Wikileaks and The Pirate Bay are acts of civil disobedience and protest. And, while they're making enemies around the world, they're gaining political support and power elsewhere, mostly as part of global anti-corporate and transparency movements...[CLICK TO READ FULL POST]