Comment: "No Insight" - What they really mean (Score 4, Interesting) 262
Comment: Re:IANAL (Score 5, Insightful) 203
Comment: Re:Hear the answer from Manning himself (Score 1) 348
He didn't know of anything wrong, he didn't want to fix something, he didn't see some injustice. He just released documents in mass in the hopes that something would show up.\
You claim to know what Manning thought process was, yet in the link provided you can hear Manning himself say the exact opposite of what your claiming: He saw US soldiers persecuting people complaining about corruption by handing them off to be tortured and killed as being wrong, and it was a gave injustice that he wanted to fix because nobody else including his superiors wanted to know. He also talks at length about how he considered the pros/cons of releasing the documents of certain clearance levels before actually doing so.
Considering this is the first time Manning has had a chance to get his side of the story out to the world, perhaps you can be forgiven for being ignorant of his reasoning...
Comment: Hear the answer from Manning himself (Score 5, Informative) 348
Comment: Reporters w/o Borders:A dubious/shady organization (Score 4, Informative) 29
Any info from Reporters w/o Borders should be taken with a large grain of salt - is a dubious organization at best, a propaganda mouth piece for special interests. References:
"Reporters Without Borders Unmasked"
"Reporters Without Borders seems to have a geopolitical agenda"
Comment: Second type of target... (Score 5, Insightful) 303
Following nine months of intensive research—including two investigations in Pakistan, more than 130 interviews with victims, witnesses, and experts, and review of thousands of pages of documentation and media reporting—this report presents evidence of the damaging and counterproductive effects of current US drone strike policies. Based on extensive interviews with Pakistanis living in the regions directly affected, as well as humanitarian and medical workers, this report provides new and firsthand testimony about the negative impacts US policies are having on the civilians living under drones.
It is like those holding the reins want to create terrorists, must not be enough already to justify the defence spending we already have - good for MIC business.
Comment: Re:Economics - Simple Vs Complex system modelling (Score 5, Informative) 290
Comment: Economics - Simple Vs Complex system modelling (Score 3, Interesting) 290
Wonder if the RBA will now start listening more to one of Australia's most forward thinking economists, Dr Steve Keen. Surprisingly, the vast majority of economist model "the economic system" based on simple linear assumptions. Steve Keen is trying to change all that by modelling the economy for what it is: a complex system. (See this short intro video). It is amazing the amount of flak he gets for applying complex system modelling techniques to the world of economics... (see some of his arguments with Krugman)
Here is a link to a presentation Dr Keen gave to google, interesting stuff.
Comment: Re:Persecute the whistleblower (Score 5, Insightful) 400
two-tiered justice system — the way in which political and financial elites now enjoy virtually full-scale legal immunity for even the most egregious lawbreaking, while ordinary Americans, especially the poor and racial and ethnic minorities, are subjected to exactly the opposite treatment: the world’s largest prison state and most merciless justice system.
Comment: In Financial Crisis, No Prosecutions of Top Figure (Score 2) 151
“In Financial Crisis, No Prosecutions of Top Figures.” It asks: “why, in the aftermath of a financial mess that generated hundreds of billions in losses, have no high-profile participants in the disaster been prosecuted?” And it recounts that not only have no high-level culprits been indicted (or even subjected to meaningful criminal investigations), but few have suffered any financial repercussions in the form of civil enforcements or other lawsuits. The evidence of rampant criminality that led to the 2008 financial crisis is overwhelming, but perhaps the clearest and most compelling such evidence comes from long-time Wall-Street-servant Alan Greenspan; even he was forced to acknowledge that much of the precipitating conduct was “certainly illegal and clearly criminal” and that “a lot of that stuff was just plain fraud.
Comment: Two Tier Justice system (Score 5, Insightful) 151
two-tiered justice system — the way in which political and financial elites now enjoy virtually full-scale legal immunity for even the most egregious lawbreaking, while ordinary Americans, especially the poor and racial and ethnic minorities, are subjected to exactly the opposite treatment: the world’s largest prison state and most merciless justice system.
Comment: Re:Data Retention, Bush and Blair (Score 4, Interesting) 61
It is also worth considering why our political and financial elite are so keen with data retention laws:
National Intelligence Council's Global Trends 2030 report, quotes:
"...major trends are the end of U.S. global dominance, the rising power of individuals against states, a rising middle class whose demands challenge governments, and a Gordian knot of water, food and energy shortages, according to the analysts."
"[enormous caches of data] will enable governments to ' figure out and predict what people are going to be doing' and 'get more control over society,'
We (collectively) pose a risk to the power of the 0.1% going forward, and bills like this are being pushed through in "democratic" nations worldwide to "get more control over society".