As Julian Assange sits in jail until his December 14th court hearing in the UK, and Bradley Manning, and the U.S. Military's former Army Private Bradley Manning sits in incarceration in a military jail in Quantico, Va, one thought comes to mind: who's paying their legal bills?
According to CBS News, the amount of money is donations may not be enough to cover the legal expenses both will incur. In Julian's case, his profile is so high that he may be able to get probono legal representation, but that's almost certainly not the case for Bradley Manning.
What this proves is that Wikileak's staffers and supporters didn't really think through their overall approach to the point of considering the "negative feedback loops" in their approach.
What Wikileaks is doing is taking on not just "the establishment" but a culture; one has to make sure they have the resources to take on such a task. Moreover, in this Internet age, just who's part of that culture seems to change every year.
Wow, what a sensational headline. Be prepared, because this will be quite the blog post. This journalist is letting her blogger side really take over with this post. This is not Fox News, but that headline could definitely be confused or could potentially be a Fox News headline - apologies for that. Anyway, Miley Cyrus (who turned 18 on November 23, so she's not jailbait anymore and no one can give her any more complaints about her being overly sexual) has been said to have been smoking from a bong, but the claims are that the bong contains salvia.
TMZ video screen shot
All right so the following information was gathered from CBS News.
It seems like not very many people know what salvia is. It looks like the bigger story is "What is salvia" more so than Cyrus doing salvia. All right, being a college student may help in educating this. Salvia is legal and it is comparable to marijuana (not from personal experience). Salvia is said to give hallucinations and all sorts of things, but it's temporary.
CBS' headline for this story is: Miley Cyrus Bong Said to Contain Salvia: What's That? Aside from the fact that the headline should probably say "Miley Cyrus' Bong." Or if read in a different tone it could make it sound like Cyrus' bong is actually speaking.
CBS includes:
Google Images
Whatever Cyrus was feeling inside, outwardly she was giggling up a storm and jabbering - mostly incomprehensibly, except for a choice remark: "I want some more of that s***, I swear."
As for the video ... the source tells us it was shot by one of Miley's friends -- and the theory is someone stole or copied the video from that friend's camera.
Ha, TMZ is like WikiLeaks for celebrities. Letting out all the juiciness that people want secret. Everyone should watch that video - she looks pretty happy.
Wait? He's sad because of the BONG video. He isn't sad because of the lap dance video or any of the other disturbing things that she did when she was not of legal age, but now that she's 18 and she is doing a legal drug he is sad?
Apparently he tweeted:
"I had no idea. Just saw this stuff for the first time myself. I'm so sad. There is much beyond my control right now."
Personal screen shot taken of Billy Ray's Twitter
The screenshot includes his tweet about Jesus.
What? He is more upset about her doing salvia bong hits than her dancing on stripper poles, taking seductive pictures at the age of 15, giving a 44-year-old man a lap-dance at the age of 16, etc? Does this family make sense? Her racy outfits and watching videos of her acting all seductive at concerts and making herself "sexy" before she reached 18 was not as upsetting as seeing a video of her taking hits from a bong? This is unbelievable - maybe US Weekly isn't right.
US Weekly also claims:
"Okay, I'm about to lose it now," Cyrus says after taking her first hit. "I'm having a little bit of a trip right now."
Hey, it's legal. She is allowed to enjoy herself now. Is this being blown out of proportion? Maybe, but it's enjoyable to be able to blog about this. It's ironic that now that she's 18 all off a sudden her father finds a flaw in her behavior.
Here's a completely unrelated video of Nikky Raney doing a KE$HA parody. This video has absolutely nothing at all to do with this blog post in any way shape or form.. just felt like including it:
...has pop singer, actress, and sextet Miley Cyrus done anything so controversial or buzz-generating. Miley Cyrus is in a video smoking a bong.
Cool!
According to TMZ.com, which broke the Miley Cyrus Grind Video story, too, on Miley's 18th birthday she pretty much let it all hang out.
The Party In The USA singer had a big party, inviting people like Kyle Massey from The Disney Channel and Dancing With The Stars, and being caught getting necked and heavy petted by some unidentified guy. But that was November 23rd, and we didn't know any more since them. Until today.
What happened was that Miley decided to take a smoke of the big bong at some after-party, and upon doing go kind of freaked out. She mistook some guy for Liam Hensworth, the man she had been (still is) dating, and said she was "freaking out" and then started to do just that.
WikiLeaks has journalists that do journalism and they have won awards in journalism, but VOANews claims that WikiLeaks is "portraying itself as a news organization." It may not be a news organization, but it is definitely a source for news and information.
There is a lot of controversy saying that only a few of the reported documents are being published.
VOANews points out that Julian Assange, creator, thinks that WikiLeaks is a "journalistic institution" :
In a posting this week on the website CommonDreams, Assange said that WikiLeaks has invented a new type of reporting that he calls "scientific journalism" in which people can read a news story, then click online to see its veracity.
The strategy seems to be the gradual release of documents rather than releasing the documents all at once - which makes sense. There should not be complaints about this - people should want to know what the government is covering up.
VOA News continues:
Former CIA deputy director John McLaughlin says officials do not like surprises, and they are getting new ones every day.
"The fact that this is dribbling out, if you're in government now you have to wonder, 'What's next, and what am I going to have to cope with?' And it's likely to come at a bad time when you already have your hands full," said McLaughlin. "So it's another volatile factor in a world that's already too volatile."
The arrangement between WikiLeaks and the news organizations publishing the material - Le Monde in France, El Pais in Spain, the Guardian in Britain, and Der Spiegel in Germany - is unusual. It links media organizations to a group that is under what U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder calls "active, ongoing, serious investigation."
Well it is easier to click through and see a document accompanied with an article rather than have to post it all in a physical newspaper - so maybe this is where web journalism can really be kicking into gear - just thinking about the future of journalism.
According to Citizens Against Government Waste, during the last time Republicans controlled Congress (which started in 1994, based on the "Contract With America") there were about 1300 earmarks for nearly $8 billion - at a time when we had a budget surplus under the Clinton administration. Then by the final year of GOP control a decade later (2005) their were 10 times as many earmarks totaling over $27 billion, and a record budget deficit - which the elite pundits are still trying to blame on Obama.
You can learn more about the man the Democrats call the “Prince of Pork” -- GOP Congressman Hal Rogers (KY-05) -- as he takes over chairmanship of the House Appropriations Committee by reading various articles online; he's brought so much money for Kentucky that they've renamed the former Daniel Boone Parkway the Hal Rogers Parkway.
Citizens Against Government Waste named Rep. Hal Rogers (R-KY) their "Porker of the Month" in August, somehow without mentioning the word nepotism.
“Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) today named Rep. Hal Rogers (R-Ky.) August Porker of the Month for sponsoring legislation that could give federal funding to his daughter’s nonprofit organization, which promotes overseas wildlife protection for cheetahs.”
It's probably a coincidence that his daughter is the Grants Administrator of the Cheetah Conservation Fund.
But there's good news. This sort of spending (millions to a fund based in Namibia) won't lead to bigger government. It's just $5 million a year to a non-government agency based overseas.
Look, I'm not saying conservation and cheetahs aren't important, it's just a question of priorities. The GOP voted down a one-time payment of $250 to Senior Citizens... but that's another story. My point is, it's about priorities, and once they capture a majority naturally the GOP priorities have changed to ensure their donors will help them get re-elected.
At least they haven't flip-flopped on tax-breaks for the rich.
I know, right?
Thomas Hayes is an entrepreneur, journalist, political strategist, and photographer who recently worked as the Campaign Manager on the Madore For Congress campaign in Minnesota's 2nd District. He contributes regularly to a host of other web sites on topics ranging from economics and politics to culture and community.
ESPN online reports that Carl Crawford has made a seven year, $142 million deal with the Boston Red Sox.
It's ironic that Red Sox have been known to complain about the spending habits of the Yankees, but now Crawford will be the first player in Red Sox history with a contract with "an average annual value in excess of $20 million."
The Boston Globe online reports that Crawford was high in demand by various teams such as The Angels, Yankees and Rangers.
Red Sox Manager has called Crawford a game changer. The Globe also reports:
Crawford is Tampa Bay’s career leader in batting average (.296), doubles (211), triples (105), stolen bases (409), and runs scored (765). Crawford, who is from Houston, was Tampa Bay’s second-round pick in the 1999 draft. He had been with the organization his entire career. With Crawford in the fold, the Red Sox could trade Mike Cameron or use the righthanded hitter off the bench, as a spare outfielder, or as a designated hitter.
This deal has made many assume that the Yankees will soon be making a deal with lefthander CLiff Lee.
It's probably a coincidence that his daughter is the Grants Administrator of the Cheetah Conservation Fund.
