Intelligent politics for savvy people: Common sense view of world politics and news. Roundup of best stories. News analysis and news opinion unfettered by media mogul ownership or agendas - and some funny political humor. - Denny Lyon
Posts on astronomy, news, politics, poetry, lots of crazy humor, health and food.
From Denny: The past month I've been busy rounding up what the readers enjoyed throughout the year on all the blogs. It's amazing what people find intriguing - like the crazy humor post about the sloths over at Dennys Funny Quotes. The sloth post has gone past 30,000 views. People just love the cute little guys in the video. It's for a good cause too - a sloth sanctuary in Costa Rica.
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Rape, treason and information-dealing pay off for WikiLeaks Assange.
From Denny: Well, Assange just can't seem to stay out of the headlines. This guy must be a media exhibitionist. Now he's whining how he isn't rich enough to pay his own legal fees? This guy is supposed to be a billionaire. So, where did all his money go?
Apparently, Founder Assange is worried he can't keep his WikiLeaks "whistle blower" site running. Why? He says it is running out of cash since Paypal, MasterCard and Visa quit allowing payment donations through their sites to the WikiLeaks site. Assange states he has lost as much as $650,000 since the three sites blocked his donors. Get this: Assange was raking in as much as $130,000 a day in pure untaxed donationsto the tune of almost $4 million per month before the financial crackdown. What a sweet con. And now it looks like the wild ride is over.
So, what does a con man move on to next? Well, that's obvious: he moves on to the other muckrakers, the gossip publishing industry. He signed a $1.3 million deal with Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group at Random House in America and British publisher Canongate.
Assange may have good reason to worry. It isn't just his current legal costs fighting extradition to Sweden to face a rape charge. There are mounting lawsuits against his WikiLeaks site to consider. We can only wonder what fantastic stories will be told in this book, since he is known for his embellishment of the truth.
Assange also claims he does not want to write the book. Who believes that garbage? "I don't want to write this book, but I have to," he told the Sunday Times of London, per ABC News. "I have already spent £200,000 for legal costs and I need to defend myself and to keep WikiLeaks afloat."
In case you have been completely unplugged from technology - or living under a rock - the past few months here's the rundown on the developing WikiLeaks-Assange story:
To date, Australian Julian Assange, founder of WikiLeaks, turned himself in to police in the United Kingdom. He was wanted on an Interpol warrant for extradition to Sweden. Two women in Sweden accused him of rape and sexual misconduct. Assange is fighting extradition and is currently out on bail with an ankle monitor and house arrest, staying at a friend's house.
Assange's fear of assassins
Assange is terrified of the American government and fears assassination squads were sent to kill him. If that were true he would already be dead. But then this guy ticked off the entire world and embarrassed the diplomatic community. There isn't a government on this planet that approves of him, his methods, his so-called cause. He reeks of selling information to the highest bidder, releasing the low level intelligence just for fun to screw with everyone's lives. I'm sure there are plenty of Afghan families who are just thrilled with him outting them as intelligence sources. Now those tribal people and their code of vengeance is something to fear.
Taliban seeking Assange
Better yet, the Taliban are who Assange should really fear. Those guys are ruthless and will kill those close to him just to get more information, especially if they are too cheap to pay for it. Assange just can't go around claiming he is the world storehouse of all the most secret and precious information and think he has no enemies. It's ludicrous.
Diplomatic cables released
For several months now WikiLeaks has released low level secret documents and video regarding the Iraq and Afghan wars. The vast majority of the information was already in the public domain. And let's not forget the diplomatic cables between American and foreign diplomats, detailing stupid opinion that no smart diplomat would ever write and send in an electronic missive. Those opinions and observations are only mentioned among friends or in person. Talk about amateurs. Who is actually stupid enough to think that electronic anything is private?
Providing political theater lately are the Republicans like Rep. King from New York who is calling Assange a terrorist and he should be classified as an enemy combatant. King is the incoming chairman of the Homeland Security Committee and wants a crackdown on WikiLeaks.
One of the few interesting ideas King has had is to label WikiLeaks dumps as a treasonable offense. By so doing then the site can be labeled as a terrorist group. And by labeling WikiLeaks as a terrorist group then it is easier to go after their finances legally. Just this month, King introduced a bill to stop WikiLeaks by declaring its activities as criminal.
ABC Interview with Assange
In this video Assange tries to defend his actions, claiming no one has died or been hurt by the vomiting release document dumps from his site. Like that's going to become public knowledge. Nor have we seen Assange digging to find out if it's true.
It's one thing to push boundaries to challenge possibly corrupt governments and authority, to want freedom of information. It's quite another to release information indiscriminately without regards to consequences for innocents or intelligence sources in a war-torn country. No one really cares how much these docs embarrass various countries and their diplomatic communities.
Listen to Assange work his wriggle room interview. It's astounding anyone labels this guy as a hero, a person so completely devoid of human compassion for, well, anyone. Is a rapist, a for-profit information dealer and a con man worthy of hero status?
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Check out the irreverent cartoonist offerings for the holiday season.
From Denny: Have you ever noticed how gift giving is always related to crafty politicians? They gift to their rich donors and take from those in need. So when holiday season comes around every year cartoonists are quick on the uptake to notice and offer their observations.
Of course, with the growing need of everyone to be plugged into technology the tech cartoons are growing in abundance too. Santa has to get in the act when it comes to social media.
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From Denny: Big government moves soooo slooow like this silly sloth. The Democrats give in to the Republicans protecting the very rich in this country. The problem is that the extension of the Bush Tax Cuts is a not paid for $900 billion two-year gamble in a shaky economy. Not exactly the best odds. Let's hope Obama gets this one right because most economists and the public don't feel confident about it.
Moving right along to the WikiLeaks amusement. This week the WikiLeaks thugs got in a snit with Mastercard, Visa and Paypal for not allowing anyone to donate to WikiLeaks, essentially cutting off a lot of their funding. So, about 40,000 folks downloaded some happy software that took over their computers and basically jammed the servers of Mastercard, Visa and Paypal, shutting down their sites. Why anyone would allow some anonymous site to take over their computer is beyond me. Talk about a personal security nightmare.
Anyway, the word is that WikiLeaks kids are also making mischief on those sites, messing with accounts. Here's a suggestion to WikiLeaks followers: how about tripping on over to all the Big Banks and making like Robin Hood during the holiday season? You could zero out account balances for people in hospital, past due credit cards, house mortgages in foreclosure and the like. Oh, what fun we have on the way to Grandma's for Christmas! :)
More sarcasm on WikiLeaks:
Obama vs. his own Democrats instead of vs. the Republicans. "What's wrong with this picture?" asks the public and the world:
The constant garbage hurled at gay soldiers, many who gave their lives for their country:
Too bad Sen. McCain (R-AZ.) can't keep any of his campaign speeches straight either. He constantly flip-flops his positions on every issue:
The Christian hate groups who picket funerals of gay soldiers also picketed the recent funeral of Elizabeth Edwards who promoted equal civil rights for all, yes, gays are people too. Only five of the hate group showed up. What was heart-warming is that about 300 protesters showed up to support the Edwards family, dwarfing the noise from the hate group. They held up positive signs of support. What a thing for young children to view just after they bury their mother:
The tiny beginning of reining in corruption in politics:
How corrupt government continues to operate unchecked:
How Americans feel about their government and the economy. Definitely time to look for a primary challenger to Obama for 2012 because his poll numbers continue downward:
Nobel Peace Prize awarded to a Chinese dissedent in jail for 11 years:
Let's not forget about Europe:
Oh, and Spying For Dummies:
World Peace during the holiday season?
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