6 December 2010

update: Politico (via BDR): Ron Paul stands up for Julian Assange

Teresa Nielsen Hayden "Holding US journalism in contempt"

BBC: Wikileaks: Swiss bank freezes Julian Assange's account

The Swiss post office's bank, PostFinance, has frozen the accounts of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange.The whistle-blowing website says the freeze includes a defence fund and personal assets worth 31,000 euros.

Rob Payne, "Dumping Assange"

BBC: China leadership 'orchestrated Google hacking'

Senior Chinese figures were behind the hacking of Google earlier this year which forced the search engine to quit the country, leaked US cables suggest. One cable, released by whistle-blowing site Wikileaks, cites a "well-placed" contact as saying the action against Google was "100% political". A politburo member is said to have been angered after Googling his name and finding critical comments online.

Richard Seymour, "Spanish government uses martial law to force strikers back to work"

the government, determined to crush the strike, declared a state of emergency and imposed martial law. And under martial law, the strikers could be subject to prison sentences for up to six years for sedition if they didn't return to work. Quelle surprise, the workers have felt compelled to return to work. In fact, just in case the threat of prison wasn't sufficient, the workers were actually rounded up by military escorts and marched back to work at gunpoint. This is not the first time that fascist-era legislation has been used against airport workers. But employers across the continent will be looking on in admiration and anticipation.

Ian Welsh, "Wikileaks And The End of the Open Internet"

Wikipedia's cablegate article: United States diplomatic cables leak

quote of the day-
from Ethan, regarding his bête noire:

You'd think that the motives of a bunch of millionaires deciding not to raise taxes on millionaires would be pretty easy to figure out, but apparently not!

(OK, this is from a few days ago, but I'm slow)