oh really now

[solarbird]

I got more links as I'm getting read for Norwescon omg:

Courtesy caladri: AIPAC, the primary right-wing Israel lobby in the US, has "persuaded more than three-quarters of the members of the US House of Representatives to sign a letter calling for an end to public criticism of Israel".

A New York court has struck down genetic patents:

The American Civil Liberties Union and the Public Patent Foundation at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law in New York joined with individual patients and medical organizations to challenge the patents last May: they argued that genes, products of nature, fall outside of the realm of things that can be patented. The patents, they argued, stifle research and innovation and limit testing options.

John Robb at Global Guerrillas expects it to be overturned due to endemic corruption, but is pleasantly surprised at the ruling.

The type of corruption involved, of course, is this kind of corporatism, with the Washington Post playing boosterism for a merger of private corporations and government domestic internal security functions. Mike McConnell, who splits his time between government appointments (as W. Bush's Director of National Intelligence) and private-industry lobbyist (working for NSA/CIA contractor Booz Allen) is carrying the message. Mr. McConnell wants private-company spying and intelligence spying to be "seamless" and comprehensive - and, of course, beyond accountability - in such a way that conveniently boosts the profit margins of the companies for which he works. Dwight Eisenhower saw it coming, even as he helped set it up to fight the Cold War, but, that never seems to help, much.

Comments

[cow.livejournal.com]

In addition to all the examples above: not to mention, Hillary Clinton going around Canada and repeatedly objecting to current Canadian policies to the media (http://www2.macleans.ca/tag/hillary-clinton/), just this week... on Arctic policy, on the Afghanistan pullout, on maternal health (which I agree with her on, but still, this was a very public way to disagree).

Very public disagreements with a major ally.

[pocketnaomi.livejournal.com]

All right. So it sounds like this is simply the most recent couple of administrations have decided that it's no longer part of an alliance, any alliance, to keep your disagreements private where possible, and they're not bothering anymore. I disagree with this as a matter of etiquette, but I can deal with it so long as it's across the board, and it does seem to be. Thanks for the information.