apple juice

Props to Bernie Sanders.

If you don’t want to watch the entire 9 hours (and I don’t either) I think the first 12 minutes are worthwhile:

He states towards the end of this segment that the estate tax only applies to the richest .3% of Americans. I did not know that.

Here’s a bit more about the speech at the New York Times. Sanders Rails Against Tax Bill

The crux of the WikiLeaks debate – Glenn Greenwald – Salon.com

“but this segment, in my view, really highlights the core disputes — and many of the misconceptions and falsehoods — at the heart of this controversy, one that I think will be seen as easily one of the most important political developments of the last several years”

Take a look at this one…

I’ve been following the wikileaks story pretty closely, but I’m less interested in what they’re releasing and more interested in what wikileaks means for the future of free speech here and elsewhere.

I don’t think it is an understatement to say that wikileaks will shake the American foundation of “free speech” and “freedom of the press”.

When you have potential a presidential candidate, Mike Huckabee, saying that Assange should be tried for treason and executed, you know we’ve got a problem. (Can’t be tried for treason, not an American citizen. But I guess you can’t give Huckabee too much credit for being an idiot, since a recent poll suggests 51% of Americans (and Glenn Beck) want leakers tried for treason, but I digress)

How many of those tea partiers are standing up for Assange? Not many.

You can’t have it both ways. You can’t fight corruption by fighting to hide corruption. You can’t fight government intrusion by not allowing the light to shine on government oversteps.

You can’t be for the free markets if you aren’t for free information.

And I guess I now agree with Ron Paul on something…

Ron Paul stands up for Julian Assange – Andy Barr – POLITICO.com

“‘In a free society we’re supposed to know the truth,’ Paul said. ‘In a society where truth becomes treason, then we’re in big trouble. And now, people who are revealing the truth are getting into trouble for it.’”

-Ron Paul

The tech community, which should be for open and free access to information, has failed us, says Dave Winer.

Scripting News: A perfect Wikileaks storm for Berkman:

“We now understand that we can’t look to the tech industry or even the Library of Congress. The tech industry more or less failed the neutrality test, and the LOC has failed the unwritten code of librarians everywhere.”

-Dave Winer

And if you want to hear from the man himself, Julian Assange, I suggest the following interview. It is pretty comprehensive.

An Interview with Julian Assange – Forbes.com

In a rare, two-hour interview conducted in London on November 11, Assange said that he’s still sitting on a trove of secret documents, about half of which relate to the private sector. And WikiLeaks’ next target will be a major American bank. “It will give a true and representative insight into how banks behave at the executive level in a way that will stimulate investigations and reforms, I presume,” he said, adding: “For this, there’s only one similar example. It’s like the Enron emails.”

also, on being a “computer hacker”

“There’s a deliberate attempt to redefine what we’re doing not as publishing, which is protected in many countries, or the journalist activities, which is protected in other ways, as something which doesn’t have a protection, like computer hacking, and to therefore split us off from the rest of the press and from these legal protections. It’s done quite deliberately by some of our opponents. It’s also done because of fear, from publishers likeThe New York Times that they’ll be regulated and investigated if they include our activities in publishing and journalism.”

-Julian Assange

 

The Washington Post has a great infographic comparing the Republican and Democratic tax plans.

Remember my last post about unequal distribution of wealth?

Not the clothing manufacturer…

the United States now arguably has a more unequal distribution of wealth than traditional banana republics like Nicaragua, Venezuela and Guyana.

Let’s just get this straight. Who will really benefit from the tax cuts Republicans are pushing? I’ve got a 1 in a 1000 bet that it won’t be you.

The richest 0.1 percent of taxpayers would get a tax cut of $61,000 from President Obama. They would get $370,000 from Republicans, according to the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center.

So if the average american worker makes $30,000 / year. That $370,000 tax cut would allow the richest 0.1% percent to hire 12 personal assistants! Talk about an economic stimulus! The average income of the richest 0.1%? Nine-million dollars a year.

if Republicans are worried about long-term budget deficits, a reasonable concern, why are they insistent on two steps that nonpartisan economists say would worsen the deficits by more than $800 billion over a decade — cutting taxes for the most opulent, and repealing health care reform? What other programs would they cut to make up the lost $800 billion in revenue?

The quotes are from this article by Nicholas Kristof: Our Banana Republic

This is apolitical and important:

Bill Moyers: “Welcome to the Plutocracy”

Democrat or Republican, you should pay attention to the central thesis of this speech… Money has already absolutely corrupted the political process, and unless real campaign finance reform is introduced, and Supreme Court cases are reversed that allow unlimited anonymous donations to political action committees, we are done as a nation.

The Tea Kettle Movement

“how can you take seriously a movement that sat largely silent while the Bush administration launched two wars and a new entitlement, Medicare prescription drugs — while cutting taxes — but is now, suddenly, mad as hell about the deficit and won’t take it anymore from President Obama? Say what? Where were you folks for eight years?”

Exactly.