NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg has been pushing for immigration reform and marriage equality in some recent speeches. It’s great to see a Republican leader supporting these hugely important reforms.
Can we see more of this from the Republican party nationally instead of so much fear-mongering and tea-party nonsense?
(Via DF)
The Abuse of Private Manning (which I’ve mentioned before) continues:
Private Manning is in solitary confinement at the Marine Corps brig in Quantico, Va. For one hour a day, he is allowed to walk around a room in shackles. He is forced to remove all his clothes every night. And every morning he is required to stand outside his cell, naked, until he passes inspection and is given his clothes back.
I don’t understand why we condone this torture of a person who has not even been tried and convicted.
(Via DF)
Update, May 31, 2011: Manning has since been moved to a less restrictive environment, but has still not been tried of any crimes as far as we know. Wired has the details.
Bradley Manning, the 22-year-old U.S. Army Private accused of leaking classified documents to WikiLeaks, has never been convicted of that crime, nor of any other crime. Despite that, he has been detained [for seven months] under conditions that constitute cruel and inhumane treatment and, by the standards of many nations, even torture.
This is a must-read article, and a disturbing look at how the United States is turning its back on The Constitution, justice, and the experiences and promises of our own leaders.
In part one of what is sure to be an ongoing series of ‘no governance but our governance’ or NGBOG (which I coined earlier), Senate Republicans figured they didn’t need to actually have won a Senate majority to claim a mandate and demand that they’re in charge. The New York Times outlines the facts (it’s worth reading the whole article):
Not even 24 hours after President Obama met with senior Republican Congressional leaders and expressed hopes for a “new dialogue,” renewed partisan fury engulfed the Senate on Wednesday, as Republicans threatened to block any legislation until a deal is reached to extend the expiring Bush-era tax cuts, potentially derailing the Democrats’ busy end-of-year agenda.
(In case you’re not aware, the Republicans are fighting to extend the tax cuts to couples with more than $250,000 in annual income or individuals earning more than $200,000, which is the richest 2% of America. Democrats and Republicans have already agreed to extend the cuts to everyone else.)
There are a lot of things I could say in response, but it really boils down to this: today I feel that there something really wrong with our country and it’s been getting worse.
(Thanks to Mom for the link.)
Will Wilkinson writes about how everyone seems to be missing the point of WikiLeaks:
With or without WikiLeaks, the technology exists to allow whistleblowers to leak data and documents while maintaining anonymity. With or without WikiLeaks, the personnel, technical know-how, and ideological will exists to enable anonymous leaking and to make this information available to the public.
This is exactly what I’ve been telling people a while before the latest big WikiLeak dump. As someone who knows how to make a website, I could set up, say, ZikiLeaks, on servers anywhere in the developed world tomorrow for an inconsequential sum of money. I can also download and/or upload any of these documents via BitTorrent (which has already been done) and avoid having to rely on servers that governments can take down. Shutting down WikiLeaks or arresting people does nothing to change this.
The best thing those with sensitive information can do to combat leaks today is to increase security around these sensitive files (which the Pentagon is already doing). Second, reduce leaks by keeping information open and honest as much as possible. Finally, keep employes with access to sensitive data happy.
(Link via DF.)