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[solarbird]

Things revealed by the Kagan-is-a-sekrit-lesbian fail and the way most heterosexual people don't get it.

What do civil liberties supporters do now that Mr. Obama is revealed to be as resolute an opponent as Mr. Bush before him?

The founder of WikiLeaks has had his passport confiscated by the Australian government because it's "looking worn." Travel is essential to WikiLeaks functionality. WikiLeaks is on the list of websites the Australian government wants banned (and which the US military considers a target):

Secrecy is the crux of institutional power -- the principal weapon for maintaining it -- and there are very few entities left which can truly threaten that secrecy. As the worldwide controversy over the Iraqi Apache helicopter attack compellingly demonstrated, WikiLeaks is one of the very few entitles capable of doing so and fearlessly devoted to that mission. It's hardly surprising that those responsible would be harassed and intimidated by governmental agencies -- it'd be far more surprising if they weren't -- but it's a testament to how truly threatening they perceive outlets like WikiLeaks to be.

Why do voters hate incumbents? Glenn Greenwald has some thoughts:

It makes perfect sense that the country loathes the political establishment. Just look at its rancid fruits over the past decade: a devastating war justified by weapons that did not exist; a financial crisis that our Nation's Genuises failed to detect and which its elites caused with lawless and piggish greed; elections that seem increasingly irrelevant in terms of how the Government functions; grotesquely lavish rewards for the worst culprits juxtaposed with miserable unemployment and serious risks of having basic entitlements (Social Security) cut for ordinary Americans; and a Congress that continues to be owned, right out in the open, by the very interests that have caused so much damage. The political establishment is rotten to its core, and the only thing that's surprising is that the citizenry's contempt isn't even more intense than it is.

Malawi gay couple get maximum sentence of 14 years. Hopefully this won't help revive the stalled GBLT extermination bill in Uganda. eta: Turns out it's a cisgendered man and a transwoman whose identity is being ignored by media and judicial systems alike. Sadly, the jail sentence can't be similarly ignored.

Comments

[ankh-f-n-khonsu.livejournal.com]

<3 Greenwald. Over the last six months or so he's become one of my favourite bloggers, and I quite enjoy his frequent contributions to Democracy Now!. Sadly, his tweets aren't quite as robust as his essays, but still worth following, IMO.

[jessie-c.livejournal.com]

The couple in Malawi are actually a trans woman and her fiance (http://questioningtransphobia.wordpress.com/2010/05/20/malawi-couple-sentenced-to-14-years-in-prison-with-hard-labour-for-getting-engaged/). The Media worldwide have been erasing her identity since the story broke.

[anfalicious.livejournal.com]

Wah :( What are we to do when it's the lefties taking away our civil liberties :( Who is left to protect freedom :(

If anyone ever comes to visit this wonderful land of Oz, AKA, paradise (except for the numbnuts running it), remember you now have to tell the customs officers if you've got a porno... Yep...

Fuckers.

[solarbird]

Updated, thanks.