Do Politicians only group-care about financially inept mortgage owners?

Where are the brave politicians defending the rights of one of our citizens? Or indeed the politicians calling for investigations of the claims that the USA broke the law and ordered spying on UN diplomats. Or carrying out DoS attacks: is that not illegal?
We had one poor stupid sod languish in a deep dark hole in Guantanamo because the Australian government didn’t show the balls to demand he be charged or released. The British didn’t stand for it and I don’t see why we should put up with ineffectual government that spends billions of dollars placing soldiers’ lives at risk to keep up a US-Australia partnership which seems to revolve around grinning and bearing the receiving end of international diplomacy.

Politicians were falling over each other to rescue whinging mortgage owners from “unfair” exit fees a few weeks back.
Let’s put things in perspective:

• “Unfair” is shooting (or locking up) the messenger.
• “Unfair” is getting labelled a criminal without proper investigation.
• “Unfair” is letting the media publish content from wikileaks without threat of legal action, but not providing wikileaks the same leeway.

Defending Australian Citizens
So the politicians should grow a backbone and stand up for one of our own. If the current batch of polliticians are going to tip toe around protecting Australian citizens then resign so we can elect people who bloody well will look out for us. Currently our govt seems to care more about the USA’s dirty laundry than well-being of an Australian whistle blower.

So much dirty political laundry eh?

Moral issues with wikileaks
It is a murky area with some of the material leaked from wikileaks. For instance if material naming specific people in dangerous parts of the world. I can definitely see an argument for blanking out names that would identify them to those who would harm them. There are many people doing the right thing and speaking out against evil beyond the range of wikileaks and their concerns. Farmers reporting on scumbags threatening locals for sending their daughters to school or letting authorities know where killers are hiding. Those poor bastards have a hard enough deal in life without ending up dead for doing the right thing.

But exposing the communication that shows Clinton or Rice were ordering actions that would result in the UN head diplomats have their DNA or iris scans collected is not such a situation. I do think there’s an argument for some sort of censorship, but I guess then the problem becomes one of self censorship by wikileaks. I think it’d be a hard decision for the wikileaks mob (or you’d hope) to consider the impact of releasing some of the material it does. As with all things: weighing up the greater good is tricky.

Root cause

I think the problem isn’t so much Wikileaks, the problem is governments playing fucking “X-Files” with people’s lives around the world.

Is this book sitting on the shelves of Govt agencies?

What we desperately need is more transparent government. Wikileaks is a blunt instrument at the moment and like all movements toward more accountability those people/groups benefiting from secrecy are digging in hard. These people watch the Bourne movies and wonder if they could build a better Jason Bourne, the X-Files and scoff at the TV show getting cancer man’s cigarette brand wrong and just KNOW that your standard domestic aluminium/tin foil won’t block out the new brainwave-o-matic interrogator 3000.

Well.. it IS a conspiracy!

Life on the planet is a long play game. These sneaky, short sighted secret spy games damage the longer term goals (if indeed there’s any thought to longer term goals) which are I hope to settle down and get along without war. Taking down the secular democratic government in Iran is one such example: Brits and Yanks install a dictatorship because oil might not flow as freely, now everyone’s talking pre-emptive strikes and women are back to cattle status. Short term win for the USA and UK, but accumulating international political or regime debt.

Personal privacy is important

That’s not to say I’m not in favour of personal privacy: absolutely people should have a right to privacy. In fact, the biggest threats to personal privacy are these governments now complaining about their sneaky back-room dealings coming to light. The same conservative pundits now calling for wikileaks members to be assassinated were the same ones bleating “if you’ve nothing to hide, you’ve nothing to fear” from things like the PATRIOT act and the slew of global privacy/wiretapping/rights erosion (not to mention invasions!) that followed the 911 attack.

An example you might not have heard about but the USA spies on details of international money transfers whether they have anything to do with the USA or not. So you transfer some money to Europe or Asia: CIA gets details of your transfer and hey, might just stick you on a no fly list if for whatever reason they don’t like your taste in under the counter German porno mags.

I’m of the opinion if someone likes dancing naked each evening before bed: who cares. If someone’s into some kinky consensual sex with their partner (or partners): no one’s business but their own.
What politicians do in their own time is up to them so long as they aren’t being colossal hypocrites (e.g. the vocal anti-gay campaigning republicans who always seem to turn up trawling for gay escorts in airport bathrooms or ones who build a career around “family values” only to be sprung shagging around behind someone’s back): then perhaps there’s a public interest.

Trawling for republican hypocrisy.

What you say to your friends, loved ones etc, what your sexuality is, what you eat for breakfast, what films you watch, products you buy is really no concern of anyone else’s whether they be the media or other snooping officials. What you got up to as a kid, which bucks party or boozy night out you saw strippers (or which relation used to be one): that isn’t “public interest” so long as you aren’t sending the bill to taxpayers.

Government transparency is important too

But governments on the other hand I think have a responsibility to their people to act in a responsible, consistent manner with the expectations of society. That means not organising assassinations, trying to destroy democracies to install dictators, not torturing people etc. If “government” was a person: would they be locked up? That’s not to say governments don’t have responsibilities to take some abhorrent action (e.g. wars always involve killing people, but weighing up the consequences of “do nothing” is necessary),

Aah yes, security. Trump card made of eroded rights.

They’re proving to be a walking cliche for conspiracy theorists.
Do they have to appear to use Orwell’s 1984 as the inspiration for whatever back room secret programs they run? Is hypocrisy the first chapter in some sort of “government for dummies” book they all get when they join a government department.

What needs to be done rather than hounding wikileaks
I say treat the root cause: call on the US government to lift its game, not just dumbly join the chorus wanting to assassinate or locking up Australian citizens for exposing the dirt. It seems it was ok to invade citizens’ privacy in the name of fighting terrorists, but a citizen exposing government secrets makes them a terrorist: that needs to change.

For nearly 60 years, the town council here started its meetings by reciting the Lord’s Prayer. Council members felt the passage gave them guidance and inspiration.

That tradition ended recently after the council’s attorney advised members they should heed a request by a resident, an avowed atheist, to stop the practice.

Although I’m a little confused how one becomes an “avowed atheist”. Talk about contradiction of terms! To whom do I address the vows to declare my lack of having a religious/faith based belief. But I guess if you really think about it: the religious types to make their vows to god are just talking to the air anyhow, so I guess it could be the same.

But back on track: there are a number of these residual superstitions left in our society/government/legal system. I think it’s time for a concerted effort to cull them out and then maybe we can hold our heads high when we pour scorn upon countries with sorcery and witch trials. Might as well be sacrificing a chicken before we get down to business! At least the mess of blood, guts and loud noise would be symbolic of the process that follows.