{"id":3629,"date":"2010-12-15T14:41:03","date_gmt":"2010-12-15T22:41:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=3629"},"modified":"2010-12-15T14:41:03","modified_gmt":"2010-12-15T22:41:03","slug":"michael-moore-convinced-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2010\/12\/15\/michael-moore-convinced-me\/","title":{"rendered":"Michael Moore Convinced Me"},"content":{"rendered":"

I have not spent much time covering the Wikileaks controversy, largely because I have had mixed feelings about it.  Governments need to have some secrets.  In his earliest releases, Assange could have done a better job of redacting the names of foreign nationals who have worked with the US.  Much of the material released has been merely embarrassing personally, having little bearing on improper conduct.  What difference does it make if the Premier of Oobadoobaland secretly likes to be spanked by gorillas?  On the other hand, there is no evidence that anyone has been harmed by the releases.  Our own Secretary of Defense claims that they are no threat to national security.  Some of the material has been most valuable in exposing government misconduct.  Most of all, many of the tactics used by the US to defame and censor Assange have been sufficiently overboard as to indicate a need for him.<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\"15wikileaks\"The US Air Force has blocked access for computers on its network to at least 25 websites that published sensitive diplomatic documents released by the Internet site WikiLeaks<\/strong>, a spokeswoman said.<\/p>\n

Major Toni Tones, a spokesperson at Air Force Space Command in Colorado, said on Tuesday that the websites that carried WikiLeaks documents had been blocked and could not be viewed by any Air Force computer.<\/p>\n

The Air Force "routinely blocks Air Force network access to websites hosting inappropriate materials or malware (malicious software) and this includes any website that hosts classified materials and those that are released by WikiLeaks," Tones said.<\/p>\n

She said the action was taken by the 24th Air Force, which is commanded by Major Generral Richard Webber and is responsible for cyber warfare and computer security for the service. The move was approved by Air Force lawyers, she said.<\/p>\n

The Army and Navy say they have not taken similar actions<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

‘Unfortunate’<\/p>\n

"If a site has republished the documents, then we block it," she said, adding that the move to prevent access to the media sites was done recently. She said she was not sure of the date.<\/p>\n

Tones said The New York Times is the only major US newspaper included in the ban<\/strong>\u2026 [emphasis added<\/em>]<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Inserted from <Common Dreams<\/a>><\/p>\n

Frankly, the Times and other papers has performed a valuable service to the US by taking on the job of redacting the documents.<\/font><\/p>\n

So there I was, leaning in favor of Wikileaks, but still not sure.  Then Keith Olbermann interviewed Michael Moore, and Moore\u2019s arguments settled the matter for me.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/embed><\/object><\/font><\/p>\n

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news<\/a>, world news<\/a>, and news about the economy<\/a><\/p>\n

Moore is right. \u201cIt\u2019s not the leaks that are killing anyone.  It\u2019s the secrets.\u201d  He is also right that if a Wikileaks type organization had been there before the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, the authorization to use force in Iraq, or even 9\/11, those tragedies might have been prevented.  Assange might not have done the best job.  He might not even be the best person to be doing it.  But he is the one who is doing it, and especially in light of Obama\u2019s choice to ignore the transparency he promised, it is a job that desperately needs to be done.  The abuse of power through secrecy is a common thread running through our history.  That thread must be broken.<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have not spent much time covering the Wikileaks controversy, largely because I have had mixed feelings about it.  Governments need to have some secrets.  In his earliest releases, Assange could have done a better job of redacting the names of foreign nationals who have worked with the US.  Much of the material released has […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3629","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","category-5-id","post-seq-1","post-parity-odd","meta-position-corners","fix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3629","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3629"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3629\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3629"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3629"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3629"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}