Marc Cooper's Blog, page 7

Podcast: My Latest Radio Debate On Assange Arrest

As aired Tuesday on KPCC, Southern California Public Radio.

Posted via email from The Marc Cooper Files

Assange: "Legal" Rendition?

On this morning of the British arrest of Julian Assange, I saw a great Tweet.  It read: "If Wikileaks would have been a Chinese organization it could have gotten the Nobel this year."

So, now Assange is in a U.K. jail, denied bail, and fighting extradition to Sweden.  I am not about to judge the substance of the evidence against him in the matter of alleged sexual assault.  I have read the accusations that smear his accuser as some sort of operative for shadowy anti-Cuban groups and, knowing the details that I do of that subject matter, I don't buy it. Nor do I buy the official story per se. There are a lot of holes in the official version of the events and while I am doubtful of the veracity of the charge I would certainly keep an open mind.

What I am fairly certain about is that once in Sweden, to face these charges that are unlikely to stand up, he will then bundled off "legally" to the United States to face some sort of draconian charges that U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder hinted at Monday.

Which is all a reminder that, in the end, this affair is NOT about the person of Julian Assange.

In the end, it is about freedom of speech and the right to a free flow of information. We criminalize that and we have gone a long, long way down the wrong road.  Dan Gillmor, who has been ambivalent about Wikileaks itself, makes the strong case as to why it is now either "Defend Wikileaks or lose free speech." Read it.

In the end, though, this is not about Julia

Defend WikiLeaks or lose free speech – Dan Gillmor – Salon.com

Dan Gillmor has got it right. This is a moment of Silence of the Lambs.

Media organizations with even half a clue need to recognize what is at stake at this point. It's more than immediate self-interest, namely their own ability to do their jobs. It's about the much more important result if they can't. If journalism can routinely be shut down the way the government wants to do this time, we'll have thrown out free speech in this lawless frenzy.

Like Clay Shirky, I'm deeply ambivalent about some of what WikiLeaks does, and what this affair portends. Governments need to keep some secrets, and laws matter. So does the First Amendment, and right now it's under an attack that could shred it.

via salon.com

Make sure to read the whole thing.

Posted via email from The Marc Cooper Files

Is Obama A Disaster?

Bob Kuttner thinks he is:

Let's stop pretending. Barack Obama is a disaster as a crisis president. He has taken an economic collapse that was the result of Republican ideology and Republican policies, and made it the Democrats' fault. And the more that he is pummeled, the more he bends over. So what exactly are our prospects and alternatives? If we are to be spared an awful decade, both economically and politically, Obama needs to grow a backbone and the progressive community needs to stop crying in our beer and get out and organize.

I am not going to dodge the question — not completely.  Other than to say that while I did have some hope in Obama, I never had any faith in the Democratic Party. I still don't. And I'm afraid I'm even more pessimistic than Kuttner as I don't know who or what he is talking about when he refers to that elusive "progressive community" going out to organize itself. In fact, progressives have been pretty vocal and pretty demanding for the last couple of years and what we've seen is that a) their numbers don't add up to very much and b) neither "their" own political party nor anybody else pays much attention to them.   If I hear the phrase about Democrats "growing a backbone" one more time, I think I will wretch.

The Democratic Party establishment has plenty of backbone. It is strong, not weak. It shows absolutely no fear whatsoever in promising its perpetually yearning constituencies one thing and then delivering mostly the opposite of what has been promised. The party pays the piper, period.

So, yes. We are, indeed, witnessing a fairly significant failure — perhaps a full-blown disaster– emanating from the White House. But it's of one piece with the Congressional Democrats (or to be precise, with the overwhelming majority of them).I repeat one more time: we not only have a President that betrays the hope he engendered, but we have an entire dysfunctional and non-responsive political system at which to gawk in fear and loathing.  Let me also add, unfortunately, we also have a rather non-responsive public that seems impossible to stir…except in the wrong direction.

In any "normal" advanced country if you mixed persistent 10% unemployment (in reality more like 17%) with the unparalleled and ongoing transfer of wealth upward and then threw in continuing tax breaks for zillionaires, the streets would be flooded with peasants with pitchforks. Instead, I had trouble finding a parking space at the local mall today as it was over-run with zombies on their annual Xmas shopping obligations.

The deal we are about to see emerge between the two parties is rather stomach-turning. The wealthiest slice of the wealthy will get at least another two year extension on their tax breaks (which will later be extended even further by a more Republican congress).   This is the heart of the GOP strategy. In return, what will they "give" to the party that actually still controls all three seats of beltway power?  Pick from this menu: extension of tax cuts for everybody else (i.e. a regressive mechanism in which the richer you are the more money you save); possible passage of DADT; and possible passage of that little thing called a nuclear arms reduction treaty with the Russians (which has been held hostage so far to the greed of the greediest and least needy). Oh, yes. And a probable extension of unemployment benefits for a couple of million fucked-over Americans — something that in "normal" times would have been automatic,

Want to take bets on how much of the "give" will really happen?  I'll take all your action that DADT ain't gonna happen. I give the START treaty about a 50 percent shot. And I give the same odds that this onerous deal might wind up including some more yet-to-be goodies for the Republicans and their donors.

Howard Fineman reports, meanwhile, that there is some rumbling from House Democrats that they might, in anger, sabotage the whole plan and toss Obama under the bus. That would be quite a development and one that would contradict the first part of this post. I hate to be right all the time, especially under these conditions. But…happy to take your action on that one as well.  Fineman doesn't believe it. Neither do I. My money is on Pelosi and Hoyer whipping their loyal troops into shape and swallowing the load of excrement coming their way.