Julian Assange: Obama ‘embarrassing’
Source: Politico
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange sharply criticized President Barack Obama’s proposed surveillance reforms Friday, calling them “small” and saying it is “embarrassing for a head of state to go on like that for 45 minutes and say almost nothing.”
“Although those national whistle-blowers have forced this debate, this president has been dragged, kicking and screaming to today’s address. He is being very reluctant to make any concrete reforms,”... “And unfortunately, today we also see very few concrete reforms.”
During the (CNN) interview, Assange homed in on the U.S Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which oversees surveillance warrants and came under heightened public scrutiny following leaks last year by National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden.
“The big problem with the FISA court is the creation of secret judge-made law that is capable of reinterpreting anything that Congress passes in order to make it acceptable for the NSA to engage in bulk collection activity,” Assange said...
Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2014/01/julian-assange-obama-embarrassing-102323.html
= new reply since forum marked as read
One can appreciate what Assange did to open the NSA-spying can of worms and still not agree with him politically.
One can actually LIKE the Fourth Amendment and the Constitution, but hate the glass-covered table it's show-cased in.
good for America". That's all I need to know about his perception of what or is not "embarrassing".
Paul: jobless aid ‘weakens’ U.S
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/paul-jobless-aid-weakens-us
PS http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=4348637
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[hr][font color="blue"][center]Everything is a satellite to some other thing.[/center][/font][hr]
That's an early picture - now just a lone policeman stands at the door which is pretty much stock for an Embassy in London.
I'm happy to keep kicking this important post in reply to others who obviously feel the same.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1343362/WikiLeaks-Julian-Assange-enjoys-Christmas-country-house-arrest.html
The article with the estate pictures says a bit on his confinement there. That's a 600-acre estate and sustainable farm in England. There are other pictures of him during his stay there and other places Julian enjoyed before settling down in Knightsbridge. He's not living as large as he is used to and I'm sure he misses it.
I have a friend who visits Norfolk on her rare breaks from her flat in London and apparently it's quite beautiful there. I'm always surprised the UK maintains its rural character and kept all of these open spaces with room for nature. We still have our parks, but they are under pressure, as well as the mountain top removals, etc, damaging ecosystems.
Hope that Polar Vortex doesn't fall on you over there, it's predicted to dip down into the USA again at the end of this month. Still rather cool here.
albeit a bit wet . Its ok where I am with no adjacent rivers and about 270' above sea level. Its infinitely better than last year when the jet stream was getting on vertical this side and dragged the cold air in from Scandinavia pretty much from very end of October to end of March - finally brightened up in April.
Its just that last year we got too much. The Gulf Stream sweeps up the north west side of the UK.
The issues with the jet stream shape were what had previously caused the floods in Pakistan 2010 and the heatwave in Russia the same year. 
When you send your tax return in what part does it say that portions will be used to record and categorize every electronic communication you make?
You all sound like a bunch of boiling frogs to me 
...you're entitled to your opinion 
For those with a pair of these 
Change!
...I couldn't be here without it. I think of DU as a large pub with all kinds of people who come in to talk about things they like or are concerned about.
- I don't talk to everyone in the pub either......
there are people who wander over who clearly do not jive with others at the table, yet they insist in barging in on the conversation sputtering unintelligible nonsense or Fox "talking points".. or just plain looking for a fight. You have to ignore them and try to go on with the conversation.
Wiki's page on Authoritarianism is worth a few minutes of your time.
Corporatist authoritarian regimes "are those in which corporatist institutions are used extensively by the state to coopt and demobilize powerful interest groups"; this type has been studied most extensively in America.[9]
Racial and ethnic "democracies" are those in which "certain racial or ethnic groups enjoy full democratic rights while others are largely or entirely denied those rights," such as in South Africa under apartheid.[9]
Some have pointed to Israel as another example of "democratic" authoritarianism. The far-reaching implications of denying a different group republican privileges can contribute to the typically highly negative international view of these types of governments.
Post-totalitarian authoritarian regimes are those in which totalitarian institutions (such as the party, secret police and state-controlled mass media) remain, but where "ideological orthodoxy has declined in favor of routinization, repression has declined, the state's top leadership is less personalized and more secure, and the level of mass mobilization has declined substantially."[9]
Examples include the Soviet Eastern bloc states in the mid-1980s.[9]
there's much more of course.. enjoy.
It's true he once had a more important role in the RW disinfo-sphere but how the mighty have fallen.
