My first Video Production Shoot

The video below is a test of my new-for-Christmas Samsung 12.3 mega-pixel digital Camera with 4X optical zoom, a 9.8 MB internal memory plus a 4GB memory card; uploaded to Youtube and embedded here. As you can see it shoots short videos as well as still shots - and has audio! (but I forgot to say anything).

I couldn't be happier. As I enter the realm of multimedia production this camera does everything I need it to do.

Thanks Sis. xoxo




Here's a still shot I took of the same plants, the camera was set to the lowest resolution; this picture was 2,584 KB before Blogger reduced it (now 227.66 KB).

"Plants at Sunrise"

FilterBlogs Youtube Channel
(michaelholloway111's Channel)



mh

Empathic Social Imperatives at odds with populist "Competitive Instinct". Jeremy Rifkin's 'The Empathic Civilization'

A few years ago I noted that solutions to many problems emerging in the new, smaller, better connected world are trending towards the social rather than the dominate meme trumpeted in the mainstream press and talk radio in America - the myth of the magic of market forces that will solve everything - except not surprisingly, it's two key motivators; greed and fear.

This video form RSA illustrates a talk by Jeremy Rifkin about the evolution of empathy.




What's RSA?

"For over 250 years the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA) has been a cradle of enlightenment thinking and a force for social progress. Our approach is multi-disciplinary, politically independent and combines cutting edge research and policy development with practical action."

Find out more...

mh

"My Maps" A Link Portal

(because Google Maps doesn't yet)

Update: 12/28/10 13:45 EST

The Google Maps Icon in the side bar now links to Google Maps, "My Maps" Profile Page thanks to help I sought, and received in "Google Maps - Help Forum" ... in less than 12 hours!!

See the question and the answer from, "treebles".

***

"My Maps"

Created by me

My route: Main St & Lumsden Ave to Strachan Ave and Queen Public








Pickering to Don Valley Bikeway Public


BikeWay: Gerrard-Fairford-Woodfield Alternative Public


My Proposed new Bike Lanes to connect the Martin Goodman Trail at Lakeshore Blvd. and Leslie St. to Jones and Greenwood bike lanes Public


Tuesday/Thursday - Beach Interfaith Lunch Program and Outreach Committee Public


Friday - Beach Interfaith Lunch Program and Outreach Committee Public


Monday - Beach Interfaith Lunch Program and Outreach Committee Public


Wednesday - Beach Interfaith Lunch Program and Outreach Committee Public


Urban Repair Squad Creates Two-Way Sharrows on Mcdonnel Public


Extreme Drought Grips Parts of South, Midwest Public


bikeSauce Public


South Riverdale Community Health Centre Thursday Bike Repair Clinic Public


"Toronto’s Best Bike Lane" as Voted By You! Public


Toronto Bicycle Route Mapping Wiki Public

Slow Cook Frying Pan Stew

I just threw a great winter meal onto the stove top - it took me 28 minutes from start to finish, the kitchen clean and everything away. In about an hour it will be ready to eat and this "how-to" will be published.

This is an all-in-one fry pan meal - slow cooked under a lid.

It's really more stewing than frying.

Today I'm eating meat, so the first thing is - out of the freezer comes two thin cut pork chops. I lay them on the stove top to thaw a little - but here won't be much time for thawing.

Next, slice and dice all the vegetables.

I see in the crisper I'm lucky enough to have mushrooms, so that means butter fried. I usually use olive oil to cook, but butter whips up the taste of mushrooms to orgasmic levels - imho. So in a Cast Iron frying pan (the best for even heat distribution and slow cook), I slice off about two tablespoons of butter into the fry pan on low to medium heat to start.

Then I wash the mushrooms and slice them quickly into quarter inch sections. Once the mushrooms are sliced and rinsed again, into the fry pan go the pork chops which are still quite frozen, and round and on top of them go all the mushrooms - lid on - then turn down the heat, just a little.

Now it's back to the crisper to see what else I want to put in there.

Carrot good, one carrot, parsnips, Yum, parsnip GOOD. That looks like about it from the crisper. Under the counter onions, and potatoes but as we're going with parsnips and there's limited space in the frying pan - no potatoes tonight.

First thing I slice and dice is the stuff that takes the longest to cook.

(I put the mushrooms in first even though they are very soft and cook quickly, because I wanted them to fry in the butter at the bottom - on slow cook LOW heat they'll be fine, there's Lots of water coming out of the vegetables down from on top here.)

So parsnips first I sliced them into long french fry segments about 1 1/2 inches long; just pile them on top of the mushrooms and pork chops buried down there somewhere. Next the carrots, these I diced into little pea sized sections the will dance with the rest. Last I thin slice an onion across from pole to pole to make ring discs; and just throw them on top. I season with a little rosemary and a pinch of salt and close the lid. Lid on, now turn down just a little more, because I'm going away to write this in my blog. :)

You know your stove top - everyone's is different; I know the way I've left this - and with the cast iron pan I'm using - that this will cook till the waters all gone before it will burn. And that will be well past one and a half hours - long after everything is cooked to perfection.

***


Well the blog piece is done and still about 25 minutes to wait before I'm going to check on it. I can't wait; perhaps an episode of "The Simpsons" - that sounds about right. After dinner some coffee and then in about 2 hours from now the Lunar Eclipse begins!

(FilterBlogs piece on the Winter Solstice, Full Moon - Total Lunar Eclipse (starting at 1:33 AM EST): Late Monday night, in the early hours of the Winter Solstice, a Full Moon - Total Lunar Eclipse.)



Update: 12:27 AM 12/21/2010
Oh My God this is GOOD!!! The pork chops melt in my mouth, the medley of flavours is to die for.

:)

Happy New Year everyone!

One hour 'til the Eclipse starts!



mh

Late Monday night, in the early hours of the Winter Solstice, a Full Moon - Total Lunar Eclipse

The Winter Solstice arrives on Tuesday, December 21, and with it, in the early morning hours, a Total Lunar Eclipse of the Full Moon that will be visible across North America. A astronomical three-scoop sundae if you will.

Starting at 01:33 AM EST (Monday, Dec. 20th, at 10:33 pm PST) the moon will begin to move into the earth's shadow and will remain in 'total eclipse' for 72 minutes, and completely emerge from the shadow at 05:01 ET.

The 'can't miss' phase is between 1:33 and 2:41. The eclipse will begin at 1:33 - this is breath taking - the moon begins to be eaten as an arch much bigger than the arch of the edge of the moon begins to show along one edge, slowly crawling across the disk minute by minute. At 2:41 AM EST - the full effect will happen - you have to be outside for this moment - the normally white light reflecting off the moon will wink out entirely and the eerie, yellow-y aura will fill the evening.

Something changes in the air; if you're with friends or family, all the better. There is something hard-coded into our DNA that happens at this moment, people will stare in awe, some will laugh, some will try to organize things that don't need organizing...

(click on image to see larger)

As for cloud cover, well, have a look for yourself, the forcast is not good. (but there's a 75 % chance they'll be wrong)

;)

Update: December 20 2010 - 07:27
They were wrong!(and Now they're right)

Environment Canada Weather office:
Toronto Island [ Ontario ]
Forecast

Issued: 5:00 AM EST Monday 20 December 2010

Monday:
Cloudy. Becoming a mix of sun and cloud this morning. High minus 3.

Tonight:
Clearing. Low minus 9.

Tuesday:
Cloudy with sunny periods. Clearing late in the afternoon. Wind becoming north 20 km/h early in the evening. High minus 3.


Environment Canada Satellite Image Animation - December 17th (12:15) to 19th (22:45), 2010




See the NASA page, Solstice Lunar Eclipse.

Environment Canada - Satellite Images Animation.

Micheal Holloway's FilterBlogs @ Youtube,
michaelholloway111's Channel



mh

This guy is really hitting his stride...

Chris Hedges' "Empire of Illusion" talk at New School
(December 8, 2009)

Hedges uses as metaphor, the life and death of Michael Jackson - the star who lost track of his real self and became the celebrity commodity that the star system had created - to describe the end of American Democracy in terms of a schizophrenic culture befuddled, and on the verge of a corporate feudalism.

It is time to abandon the Democratic Party, Hedges says, because they have abandoned the middle class, the working class ... the only ideas that are not victims of a virtual corporate reality are on the left of the political spectrum, socialism. He describes himself as a Radical Keynesian: full employment, the poorest have access to good health care and everyone has a chance to go to university.

In the question and answer after the talk Chris Hedges shows just how nimble his mind is right now. In answer to a question about the post literate image based culture he takes us from Plato as fascist to the codification of the illusion of the present in the hand-helds of our kids... ..gorgeous!

The key to his clear thinking; turn off the Illusion - he doesn't own a TV - plus using the internet 'correctly' - understanding that the constantly vibrating monitor can destroy thinking - go to places where things don't constantly move, places where one can silently contemplate a thing, an idea - like an art gallery, or on a camping trip where reality replaces the illusion ... so you'll always remember...

Google plugs an ad onto the front of this ten minute preview (instead of the love = diamonds ad FORA.tv has) of the 01:22:22 talk.


The kicker? One year and eight days after this speech Chris Hedges turned this depressing requiem into rebirth, getting himself arrested as part of the Veterans for Peace "Hope Is Action" civil disobedience against the wars (Afghan, Iraq, Pakistan, Sudan) at the White House fence (Thursday December 16 2010).

See my article on that, here: "Hope Is Action" - Chris Hedges & Veterans for Peace.


Chris Hedges: Empire of Illusion
at The New School
FORA.tv



mh

"Hope Is Action" - Chris Hedges & Veterans for Peace

Just spreading some news that ain't so fit to print much anymore...

"When you put your body on the line and you say you won't let this happen anymore and you'll do whatever it takes to make that happen, it's something spiritual."
- Veteran for Peace, Washington DC, December 16, 2010

Ellsberg, McGovern, Hedges arrested outside White House...

131 'Veterans for Peace' activists arrested during the nonviolent demonstration...

Sometimes a small demonstration is bigger than the biggest marches. This demonstration may go down as a turning point in the history of these Long Wars (Iraq and Afghanistan). It comes at a moment when any hope that Obama could make the changes needed, that the electoral process could work - has been dashed on rocks that are a House and Senate that cannot change, will not change.

A civil disobedience action in Washington on Thursday December 16th 2010 delivered the message that as, one after the other the avenues for progressive change are closed to the people, and the powers that be become more and more unable to bend - the only way forward is to use the tactics of Martin Luther King Jr. and Mahatma Gandhi:  to stand in the way of the evil being perpetrated in our names.


TruthDig - December 17, 2010:

"Hedges delivered a rousing speech about the nature of hope (in contrast to what certain campaign slogans might have suggested in recent years), pointing out that “hope has a cost, hope is not comfortable,” before joining other supporters of Veterans for Peace who chained themselves to the White House fence."

Truthdig reports on ‘Hope Is Action’ civil disobedience at White House fence:

To me, this feels like that then unknown demonstration back on October 27, 1967, when the "Baltimore Four" (Berrigan, artist Tom Lewis; and poet, teacher and writer David Eberhardt and United Church of Christ missionary and pastor The Reverend James L. Mengel) poured blood on Selective Service records in the Baltimore Customs House. With this symbolic act of civil disobedience began the peace movement's victory in stopping the Vietnam war.

Veterans for Peace White House Civil Disobedience to End War



Video via Youtube's
Direct From Washington, DC
ebecker2000's Channel



Other speakers at the same event:

Flowers, McGovern, Benjamin and Becker: "End These Wars, Now!"



Video via Youtube's,
William Hughes Presents,
liamh2's Channel



mh

Bruce Schneier on WikiLeaks

In his CRYPTO-GRAM internet newsletter for December 15, 2010 Bruce Schneier includes a short take on WikiLeaks' place in history published December 9, 2010, in Schneier on Security.

Treat it for what it is, it's just a website, worry instead about your employees who are leaking stuff, says Schneier.

From my read, WikiLeaks is as important as the US government wants to make it. Could this attack on the website and Assange just be more security theatre? If it is, it's backfiring; the role of security theatre is to empower government like a father figure, not like Hitler beginning the round-ups. By making WikiLeaks public enemy number one, WikiLeaks actually becomes more effective at what it does - people thinking about leaking stuff now see the website as antagonist to their superiors; what better way is there now to, 'stick it to the man'?

Mightn't it be better policy to ignore the site and as Schneier says, focus on technological fixes like in-house encryption and log-in logs?

WikiLeaks

By Bruce Schneier

I don't have a lot to say about WikiLeaks, but I do want to make a few points.

1. Encryption isn't the issue here. Of course the cables were encrypted, for transmission. Then they were received and decrypted, and -- so it seems -- put into an archive on SIPRNet, where lots of people had access to them in their unencrypted form.

2. Secrets are only as secure as the least trusted person who knows them. The more people who know a secret, the more likely it is to be made public.

3. I'm not surprised these cables were available to so many people. We know access control is hard, and it's impossible to know beforehand what information people will need to do their jobs. What is surprising is that there weren't any audit logs kept about who accessed all these cables. That seems like a no-brainer.

4. This has little to do with WikiLeaks. WikiLeaks is just a website. The real story is that "least trusted person" who decided to violate his security clearance and make these cables public. In the 1970s, he would have mailed them to a newspaper. Today, he used WikiLeaks. Tomorrow, he will have his choice of a dozen similar websites. If WikiLeaks didn't exist, he could have made them available via BitTorrent.

5. I think the government is learning what the music and movie industries were forced to learn years ago: it's easy to copy and distribute digital files. That's what's different between the 1970s and today. Amassing and releasing that many documents was hard in the paper and photocopier era; it's trivial in the Internet era. And just as the music and movie industries are going to have to change their business models for the Internet era, governments are going to have to change their secrecy models. I don't know what those new models will be, but they will be different.

Read the Schneier on Security stream here...



mh

xkcd Cartoon: WikiLeaks

Hee,hee. A paradox no? In my experience True stuff usually has a paradox or two with-in.

In other news...

Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (F.A.I.R.) WikiLeaks Petition Campaign

Join me & stand up for freedom of the press; support @WikiLeaks by Signing FAIR's petition today (http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/592/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=5343).

As journalists, activists, artists, scholars and citizens, we condemn the array of threats and attacks on the journalist organization WikiLeaks. After the website's decision, in collaboration with several international media organizations, to publish hundreds of classified State Department diplomatic cables, many pundits, commentators and prominent U.S. politicians have called for harsh actions to be taken to shut down WikiLeaks' operations.

Major corporations like Amazon.com, PayPal, MasterCard and Visa have acted to disrupt the group's ability to publish. U.S. legal authorities and others have repeatedly suggested, without providing any evidence, that WikiLeaks' posting of government secrets is a form of criminal behavior--or that at the very least, such activity should be made illegal. "To the extent there are gaps in our laws," Attorney General Eric Holder proclaimed (11/29/10), "we will move to close those gaps."

Throughout this episode, journalists and prominent media outlets have largely refrained from defending WikiLeaks' rights to publish material of considerable news value and obvious public interest. It appears that these media organizations are hesitant to stand up for this particular media outlet's free speech rights because they find the supposed political motivations behind WikiLeaks' revelations objectionable.

But the test for one's commitment to freedom of the press is not whether one agrees with what a media outlet publishes or the manner in which it is published. WikiLeaks is certainly not beyond criticism. But the overarching consideration should be the freedom to publish in a democratic society--including the freedom to publish material that a particular government would prefer be kept secret. When government officials and media outlets declare that attacks on a particular media organization are justified, it sends an unmistakably chilling message about the rights of anyone to publish material that might rattle or offend established powers.

We hereby stand in support of the WikiLeaks media organization, and condemn the attacks on their freedom as an attack on journalistic freedoms for all.

******

Michael Holloway, Journalist-Blogger


Daniel Ellsberg


Noam Chomsky


Glenn Greenwald (Salon)


Barbara Ehrenreich


Arundhati Roy (author)


Medea Benjamin (Code Pink)


Tom Morello (musician)


John Nichols (The Nation)


Craig Brown (CommonDreams)


Glen Ford (Black Agenda Report)


DeeDee Halleck (Waves of Change, Deep Dish Network)


Norman Solomon (author, War Made Easy)


Tom Hayden


Fatima Bhutto (author)


Viggo Mortensen (actor)


Don Rojas (Free Speech TV)


Robert McChesney


Edward S. Herman (Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania)


Sam Husseini


Jeff Cohen (Park Center for Independent Media)


Joel Bleifuss (In These Times)


Maya Schenwar (Truthout)


Greg Ruggiero (City Lights)


Thom Hartmann


Ben Ehrenreich


Robin Andersen (Fordham University)


Anthony Arnove (author, Iraq: The Logic of Withdrawal)


Robert Naiman (Just Foreign Policy)


Dan Gillmor (Salon)


Michael Albert (Z Magazine)


Kate Murphy (The Nation)


Michelangelo Signorile (Sirius XM)


Lisa Lynch (Concordia University)


Rory O'Connor (Media Is a Plural)


Aaron Swartz


Peter Rothberg (The Nation)


Doug Henwood (Left Business Observer)


Barry Crimmins


Bill Fletcher, Jr (Blackcommentator.com)


Bob Harris (writer)


Jonathan Schwarz (A Tiny Revolution)


Alex Kane


Susan Ohanian


Jamie McClelland (May First/People Link)


Alfredo Lopez (May First/People Link)


Antonia Zerbisias (Toronto Star)


Mark Crispin Miller (NYU)


Jonathan Tasini


Antony Loewenstein


(Organizations/institutions listed for identification purposes only)

mh

The Real News Network's New video outlines the RNN Vision

From the TRNN page, "The Promise":

"The Promise" represents The Real News Network as we hope it will be when fully funded. What you have been seeing so far on our web site is just a taste of what's to come. We need your support to make this vision a reality.

The Real News Network Main Page

The Real News Network Youtube Channel



mh

No Frigging Way!! The Metrodome roof collapsed!!! Video.

My favourite Twin Cities, Minneapolis - St Paul got 17.1 inches of snow in a storm that lasted over Friday and Saturday, December 10 - 11.

That's 43.43 centimetres!

From: Minnesota Public Radio:

Dome Buster: 5th biggest snowstorm for Metro

Posted at 2:47 PM on December 12, 2010
by Paul Huttner





mh

How to 'grab' DRM protected, Microsoft generated rich media from Rogers internet TV and edit it for upload to Youtube.

Today I produced my first video and uploaded it to Youtube.


The grab program

I was trying to grab Toronto City Council meetings from the Rogers internet TV portal. The content there is in huge files containing entire 5 hour meetings in some cases. The file I was learning with was a 200 MB file of the December 7th 2010 City Council Meeting. The inauguration meeting where Don Cherry, the new Mayor Ford's special guest made his "pinko-bicyclist, pinko-media, pinko-bureaucracy, pinko-council" remarks. (A whole different meaning to the term 'rose coloured glasses' eh?)

I wanted to copy that 4 minute speech and upload it to Youtube to use in an article I was writing for BikingToronto.

First I tried my DownloadHelper Application, it grabbed a streaming address file folder, no good for editing. Also on my computer is Replay Media Catcher, by opening up the Web Dump feature on it I was able to record 205 MB file of the meeting. But Replay has this default that throws away the last 1/8 of any download, a nod to right's holders I guess, but the problem here was that it threw away info contained at the end of the file that synced the sound track. The file played fine, but silently. When I tried to run it through several different file converters many of them said the file was protected, other indicated incomplete. I assume this is Digital Rights Management (DRM) software encoded into the video. Which makes me wonder why DRM technology is being applied to documents like the proceedings of Toronto City Council; who owns these records? In my opinion the 'people' should own these files and they should be safely stored on City of Toronto servers, not exclusively on servers owned by Rogers Communications Inc..

After losing track of the empirical spiral of my editing education, several times, and throwing away VideoPad in a fit. I figured I'd better take a break form editing for a while so I sat on the project for a few days. Finally I figured out it was my source that was at fault - not the editor. So I went back into the hell again this morning. The first step was to test the editor on a download from Youtube that I knew didn't have any DRM on it. It worked, I edited a video and played it in my player - sound and everything!

So now I knew my capture of the rich, possibly DRM protected, public files of Toronto City Council at Rogers TV was the problem. I needed a different kind of capture software.

Back to Download.cnet.com, and the first thing I see is a web cam type capture system that reads data just before it hits your monitor. I tried the one that was: not a 'sponsored' placement (the top 5), with the most 'user recommended' stars, that had a good number of downloads 'total' and 'last week'. That software was "Web Cam Video Capture".

You have to set the defaults to human race settings on this thing as it comes with everything hidden - which is very confusing for the rookie. To reset the default view settings; right click on the quick-launch icon and then click Open, click 'setting' in the top bar and choose all three options available, one after the other, and set them to show everything you can until you learn how it works.

I set it to capture a defined area which when I click the 'record' button in the nice, pause-play-record - cassette tape player/recorder style layout - a cross hair appears on my cursor. I click on the top corner of the Rogers DivX player and create a box around it that I like, let off the mouse and your recording everything that happens in that box. Next I set the video to where Don Cherry starts speaking and press play on the Rogers Player. If you press pause on the player the Web Cam Video Capture keeps on recording the paused image, click play and the software captures that. You can even set it to capture the movements of your mouse's pointer arrow if you like.

The video is posted below and you'll immediately see that the frame rate sucks, that's because the file at Rogers is incredibly rich, I think the frame rate is 4X the richest video Youtube allows - so it's taxing my processor to the hilt. It plays fine alone but as soon as I add another application (like the Web Cam Video Capture Application), it starts to skip frames and stutter.

I like Web Cam Video Capture a lot; it's simple, transparent but it has to deal with A LOT of data which taxes a bodies processor.

Pre-monitor data capture is the future of the genre in my opinion.


The editor

Download.cnet.com has a good video editor up under the search term "video editors" called "VideoPad Video Editor". It's quick to load and a fairly low learning curve. It doesn't leave a watermark on your production, which is essential.

The only problem with it is it doesn't give you enough information when it's executing an order; what the name of the file being parsed, and it's location, would be very helpful for beginners.

So I click "Add Media", (top left, very intuitive) open my City Council capture of Don Cherry's remarks, and the file info appears in a column just below the Add Media button. Click on it and the content opens in the editor, right beside the file column.

The first thing I do once I've got the video up in the editor, is click the magnifying glass button and spread the video out a little (Black circle, image below). I like the scroll tab to be about 1/10 of the length of scroll bar, that makes it easy to pick out a single frame in the video.

Once you'd decided which frame you want to start your clip at, just click on the row of frames below the scroll bar, that fixes a red line that indicates your start point - then click on the start video button (image below, Brown Circle). When you've found the last frame you want in your clip click on it in the row of frames and then click on the stop button, the 'end clip button' (in the Blue Circle). Now click the green arrow button (Teal circle) and that adds your clip to the sequencer. Now at the very top of the page press the sixth button from the left (Black circle), "Save Movie" - and voila - your a video producer!

I uploaded the file to Youtube and here it is, two clips edited together, total run time: 4:42.

"Don Cherry places the Chain of Office around Mayor Rob Ford's shoulders and speaks to Council"
From Youtube Channel michaelholloway111



Now... Don't do anything stupid at council over the next 4 years Rob Ford, I'm watching you. ;)



mh

Senator Bernie Sanders - Independent - (Socialist Republic of) Vermont

My hero for this week is Senator Bernie Sanders (Independent - Vermont). Earlier this week I embedded his great speech from the floor of the Senate (from Monday December 6, 2010) in a blog I posted: The Decline and Fall of the Great United States of America.

At 10:25AM on Friday December 10, 2010 Bernie started a 8.5 hour filibuster on the Senate floor to draw attention to a tax deal worked out between the White House and the GOP.

To me, this deal looks like the Democrats set the whole thing up. The White House, and the left of the Democratic Party and their allies, handed the stupid Republicans enough rope to hang themselves over Christmas. And good for them, it's about time progressives used their brains to play the big picture like the Republicans have been doing since Newt Gingrich arrived (the Gingrich agenda towards a Pre 'Great Society' set of laws and institutions where-in the now, monopoly financial and corporate interests will destroy the Republic).

This is a fantastic gambit - and as a precursor for the coming debate about austerity to reduce the deficit and the national debt that reactionary Republicans and Democrats wish to achieve through cuts to social safety net - rather than the central plank of the Obama election campaign - a re-investment in the economy through massive government intervention towards a renewed and sustainable economy - and as such is a welcome development.

Of coarse 60% of the Democratic Party are Pork Barreling sycophants - so it will fail. We'll soon be back to business as usual; gutting the Great Society, pocketing the difference, and then - as the system fails the people - yelling that the system is corrupt due to a lack of conservative values - type-Neo-Con-bullsh*t-spin.

Or as the good Senator says,

"Our (Republican) 'friends' will come here after this tax cut is law saying, 'We're Very concerned with the deficit'."

Senator Bernie Sanders filiBernie on C Span (all 8.5 hrs.):


Part 1: http://cs.pn/fmko4X

Part 2: http://cs.pn/eHTmKU

Part 3: http://cs.pn/gqr0kV

On Twitter on Friday, during the filibuster, the list tag #FiliBernie was trending #1. When I checked the tag last night about 11:00 PM EST Saturday the tag was loading about 60 Tweets/minute - 29 hours after Senator Sanders finished speaking.

At this writing the Youtube page - where the Monday speech was posted - is recording that the video is #1(Education) for the month with 699,658 views.

I 'hate' this upload by calpernia, Filibernie Mix (via BoingBoing). Everything about this 'autoproduced' video rubs me the wrong way, the lines from the speech the creator decided to input, the song, and the way the arms are see-through...

(I would have used his opening to the speech, where he talks about the origins of a coming class war, ".. I'm talking about a war being waged by the some of the wealthiest and most powerful people of this country against working families of the United States of America...")

But, it shows the wide variety of popular creativity around what Senator Sanders is saying - the corporate dominated media leaves no pinhole for the expression of centre-left and especially left ideas - which are the only ones right now with out a giant credibility-gap attached to them.

Bernie Sanders Autotune - "Stay Today" (Filibernie Mix)



***


Democracy for America 'no deal' page.
http://www.democracyforamerica.com/activities/419-no-deal

Thanks to Anon. at BoingBoing for the Colonel Sanders poster link.



mh

Cyber attacks in support of WikiLeaks morph into story writing

PLTA: December 15, 2010:

"PRESS RELEASE - 2600 MAGAZINE CONDEMNS DENIAL OF SERVICE ATTACKS Posted 10 Dec 2010 04:45:38 UTC"

(After some articles are put to bed at FilterBlogs they get a "Posthumous Long Tail Aperitif" (PLTA): links to related articles published after my original post - or before, but I wasn't aware.)

***

"..the 'WikiLeaked' documents are nothing unless writers sit down, dig through the massive amounts of information, and write entertaining and informative stories about what they've found!"

This morning I began the daunting task of writing an original story using the leaked US Diplomatic Cables as a source. It is my better tactic to help WikiLeaks withstand attacks by the US Government that over the last fortnight have ranged from the arrest of Julian Assange on trumped up charges, to Cyber-attacks by the Pentagon on WikiLeaks funding streams. The US government is using every agency at it's disposal to prevent the continuing release of classified cables (as of this writing, 1,295 of 251,287 US Diplomatic cables have been released).

This week a network of coders known as "Anonymous" (see BoingBoing article) attacked businesses who, under pressure from the US Government, used legal language in their terms of service agreements to suspend services they had earlier agreed to provide Wikileaks. Anonymous volunteers used DDOS attacks (a flood of information requests) to shut down PayPal, MasterCard, Amazon and Visa sites for a short periods. The attack was a mirror of what the Cyber-Warfare division of the Pentagon did to WikiLeaks the week before (a much larger and sustained attack - that worked - WikiLeaks had to change their address and server arrangements).

To me the tactic seemed hedonistic and in the end, a waste of time. More importantly it is a tactic that would quickly evaporate the public good will WikiLeaks has accrued over the years. The tactic shut down portals for short periods but did not affect using your credit card in the market place. The MasterCard, PayPal and Visa sites were marketing and customer serve portals - which I expect royally pissed off people who were having trouble with their cards - people who when they got they're cards working finally would be a lot less inclined to give some of that money to WikiLeaks. People's lives are hectic enough, hitting people with crossfire in a cyber war is not a way to win friends.

My better tactic was thought of by some people in the "Anonymous" network as well, BoingBoing Article). Someone posted the leaflet below on Thursday or Friday (it must be someone in the hacker network because of the exclusionary language, eh boyz?):

The Guardian UK has assigned a lot of resources to the WikiLeaks story, and it made me realize that the 'WikiLeaked' documents are nothing unless writers sit down, dig through the massive amounts of information, and write entertaining and informative stories about what they've found!

So this morning I clicked on my WikiLeaks bookmark (http://213.251.145.96/) and started reading. It's really quite easy to get at the documents, in the last batch of documents the Afghan War Diary the interfaces were new and not so friendly, this time WikiLeaks has the data nicely organized. From the main page I clicked on:

Cablegate: 250,000 US Embassy Diplomatic Cables

This took me to the WikiLeaks "Cable Viewer" page. In the side bar (pictured on the left) there are several widgets that with a click of your mouse, you can browse by several different metrics:

Browse latest releases
Browse by creation date
Browse by origin
Browse by tag
Browse by classification

There's a handy graphic which shows if there are any cables in the data base between the US Embassy in your country and The US Department of State.

(click for larger image)

I checked the graphic for Canada which, today is listed on the far right, 6th from the end under "Embassy Ottawa". I took that information and checked the "Browse by origin" widget in the sidebar which has an alphabet list, and clicked on 'O' for Ottawa.

Today at this page, links to five documents come up.

I clicked on the top link which is a cable from the US Ambassador to Canada in 2004, Paul Cellucci to the US Department of State under Condoleezza Rice, a "scene setter" note in advance of a Bush visit to Ottawa just after his second term election. I read down and found in the summary section, in the third paragraph, something about which I knew nothing.

(my emphasis)

[...]

"¶3. (C/NF) Several themes about the future would also be
helpful for your private meetings. You should note the
substantial Canadian support to date for Iraq
reconstruction and encourage Canada to play a larger role
in the development of political and security institutions
there. You should promise continued close cooperation in
places such as Sudan, Afghanistan, and Haiti, and solicit
PM Martin,s views on how to best synergize our efforts.
And finally, you should commit to focus on settling our
trade and environmental disputes. End Summary"

Apparently Canada has spent about 125 Million dollars on Iraqi reconstruction through the "World Bank Iraq Trust Fund" and "United Nations Development Group Iraq Trust Fund".

I did not know that.

I Googled the phrase from the cable - "Canadian support to date for Iraq reconstruction" - to see if anyone else had written anything on this, or if it was in evidence anywhere else on the web. Turns out it is public knowledge.

(Canada's Liberal Prime Minister Jean Chretien did us the Great deed of not cowering to the war hysteria, lies and engineered disinformation that the Bush Administration was producing in 2002-2003 - and luckily we stayed out of the Iraq War --- but in keeping with the stated aims of the over all NATO strategy in the new world order of preventing "failed states", we continue to donate money to Iraq reconstruction - because after the bombing, and the invasion, and the counter insurgency - well, Iraq is now a failed state - so good for us for helping now to prevent it! ;)

The Google search also brought up an article in the Toronto Star which is interesting; it's the cable, published by the Toronto Star, standing alone, with no link back to an article:

Using Google search I found the article: Toronto Star, Wednesday, December 1st 2010, Canada chagrined after cut from intelligence loop on Iraq: WikiLeaks.

I applaud The Toronto Star for testing the limits of freedom of the press and especially for allocating resources to study the cables - and for writing these stories:

CableGate articles published so far at The Toronto Star

• More on WikiLeaks
• Cable: Obama trip to Ottawa
• Cable: Bush visit to Canada
• Cable: Counsellor, CSIS Director discuss CT threats, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran
• Cable: Images of U.S.-Canada border paint U.S. in negative light
• Cable: Canadian election

The 'Canada chagrined...' article has this at the end of it:

"WikiLeaks says there will be as many as 2,648 documents mentioning Canada among the quarter-million it plans to release in coming days."

Unlike the Toronto Star, The New York Times has recently wimped out on publishing the full text of the leaked cables, although they have written a number of stories using the cables as sources (some of which they hadn't received from WikiLeaks but had to ask The Guardian UK to show them). They must be getting advice from their Laywers that is taking them in this direction ( imho, economic and branding considerations will soon trump those legal fetters.

WikiLeaks has given The Guardian much more data from the Cable Leak than The New York Times - possibly because the Guardian agreed to a set of stipulations designed by WikiLeaks to get news stories published - while The NYT would not agree to such stipulations. To me though, I think The Guardian had already decided to put a lot of resources into the story, before they agreed to WikiLeaks conditions. They didn't need to promise anything they weren't already going to do anyway. They would use the information as few papers had (with regard to the previous big leak, The War Diaries).

After the last weeks events The Guardian UK has now positioned themselves as the Global go-to resource for WikiLeaks related news - in the English language at any rate. In doing so they show the way, the strategy is sound business, and the Gaurdian model thus empowers editors at other papers to take the case to ownership that the legal departments objections are mute - the newspapers survival as a leading news organization must use the leaked data going forward - they must fight the government in court if necessary or shut down their presses and go home.

CableGate is the biggest single source of news stories since the Pentagon Papers (which was front page news for 3 months) Stories based on this on-going release from WikiLeaks could be creating stories for a year; and then the next leak.

WikiLeaks is a game changer and The New York Times must be realizing that by now.

So that's the mechanics of a better than DDOS attacks tactic. Now I'll head back into WikiLeaks for some serious reading and see if I can find a story which will encourage other bloggers to do the hard work of parsing this monstrously large data set - and in doing so canonize WikiLeaks in the 4th Estate.


WikiLeaks articles here are linked via a "WikiLeaks" label.

Related Titles here at FilterBlogs:

December 7, 2010 WikiLeaks frontman Julian Assange Arrested in London on fake Swedish Rape charge, Denied Bail

December 6, 2010 US systematically shutting down WikiLeaks revenue vectors - here's ways around

December 5, 2010 Secretary of State Clinton Codifies WikiLeaks
Guardian.co.uk does the hard slogging - creates daily 'WikiLeaks' headlines around the globe

December 4, 2010 A New England down for the count - needs help

August 4, 2010 CBC's 'WikiLeaks Release' search-able database of Canadian mentions




mh

Heard this again today...

My Back Pages
Written by Pete Seeger
Performed by The Byrds

Crimson flames tied through my ears
Rollin' high and mighty traps
Pounced with fire on flaming roads
Using ideas as my maps
"We'll meet on edges, soon," said I
Proud 'neath heated brow.
Ah, but I was so much older then,
I'm younger than that now.


Half-wracked prejudice leaped forth
"Rip down all hate," I screamed
Lies that life is black and white
Spoke from my skull. I dreamed
Romantic facts of musketeers
Foundationed deep, somehow.
Ah, but I was so much older then,
I'm younger than that now.


Girls' faces formed the forward path
From phony jealousy
To memorizing politics
Of ancient history
Flung down by corpse evangelists
Unthought of, though, somehow.
Ah, but I was so much older then,
I'm younger than that now.


A self-ordained professor's tongue
Too serious to fool
Spouted out that liberty
Is just equality in school
"Equality," I spoke the word
As if a wedding vow.
Ah, but I was so much older then,
I'm younger than that now.


In a soldier's stance, I aimed my hand
At the mongrel dogs who teach
Fearing not that I'd become my enemy
In the instant that I preach
My pathway led by confusion boats
Mutiny from stern to bow.
Ah, but I was so much older then,
I'm younger than that now.


Yes, my guard stood hard when abstract threats
Too noble to neglect
Deceived me into thinking
I had something to protect
Good and bad, I define these terms
Quite clear, no doubt, somehow.
Ah, but I was so much older then,
I'm younger than that now.

I grew up with Pete Seeger not ever far away. Who was Pete Seeger? From Flora.tv an audio of Seegar talking and singing live which was Seegar at his best. Great show here.

Pete Seeger on the First Amendment

Ford Hall Forum

Song Lyrics from SongMeanings.net



mh

WikiLeaks frontman Julian Assange Arrested in London on fake Swedish Rape charge, Denied Bail

Update 12/12/2010:

The Wikileaks press conference video - that linked from a quoted article below, and that shows the two accusers - was taken down by Youtube yesterday via a copyright claim by the Swedish network where several Wikileaks videos were posted via Youtube uploads.

Here's an image of the result when you go to the link, the address of which I pasted into the Youtube search box before I took the picture - the only public record of the take down.

Quote from CounterPunch article which I quoted from below - now with dead 'video' link:
"Here is a video of an Assange press conference where one can see the girls together."

I heard somewhere this week that in Swedish law the accuser in a sexual assault case are not to be shown in the media.

While a Swedish Court has issued a warrant for Assange, his lawyers in England are arguing that he was never served with a notice to appear in a language he could understand - which they are arguing is an international human right, so the warrant is mute - that's their first line of defence as they fight the Swedish extradition.

I don't think the image of the women is important to any point I've made below.

From "MoxNews - unfair and Biased".

"Julian Assange Walked Into Police Station And Turned Himself In"


On September 14, 2010, "Counter Punch" found the connection between the spurious Swedish rape charge and the Central Intelligence Agency. It appears Anna Ardin is a state undercover operative who be-friended co-accuser, Sofia Wilen in Sweden and was able to get close to Assange in the spring of this year.

Here are three key paragraphs from the CounterPunch piece, written by Israel Shamir and Paul Bennett (links are live); read the whole thing at the link.

From Part 2: "Assange Beseiged".

For a smear that really sticks, you need to get it from an ex-apostle. An accusation by a Caiaphas does not impress. If you are targeting a leftist, hire leftists. For example, Trotskyites were willing and useful tools against the Communists. Pseudo Anti-Zionists are currently being used to hamstring a genuine Pro-Palestinian movement. Who are the Judases of this campaign against our Julian?


[...]


Anna Ardin (the official complainant) is often described by the media as a “leftist”. She has ties to the US-financed anti-Castro and anti-communist groups. She published her anti-Castro diatribes (see here and here) in the Swedish-language publication Revista de Asignaturas Cubanas put out by Misceláneas de Cuba. From Oslo, Professor Michael Seltzer points out that this periodical is the product of a well-financed anti-Castro organization in Sweden. He further notes that the group is connected with Union Liberal Cubana led by Carlos Alberto Montaner whose CIA ties were exposed here. Note that Ardin was deported from Cuba for subversive activities. In Cuba she interacted with the feminist anti-Castro group Las damas de blanco (the Ladies in White). This group receives US government funds and the convicted anti-communist terrorist Luis Posada Carriles is a friend and supporter.  Wikipedia quotes Hebe de Bonafini, president of the Argentine Madres de Plaza de Mayo as saying that “the so-called Ladies in White defend the terrorism of the United States.”


[...]


 The second accuser, Sofia Wilen, 26, is Anna’ friend. Here is a video of an Assange press conference where one can see the girls together. Those present at the conference marveled at her groupie-like behavior.  Though rock stars are used to girls dying to have sex with them, it is much less common in the harsh field of political journalism. Sofia worked hard to bed Assange, according to her own confession; she was also the first to complain to police. She is little known and her motives are vague. Why might a young woman (who shares her life with American artist Seth Benson) pursue such a sordid political adventure?

Source:

CounterPunch

Part 2 - September 14, 2010:
'Making a Mockery of the Real Crime of Rape'

Assange Beseiged

(http://www.counterpunch.org/shamir09142010.html)


Part 1 - August 27-29, 2010:

Assange: The Amazing Adventures of Captain Neo in Blonde Land...

(http://www.counterpunch.org/shamir08272010.html)

December 12, 2010: 

A note about the apparent sexism, or at least bravado I'm seeing around this and other news stories in this, the era of the 'Great Warrior', - but importantly for me in the CounterPunch pieces I quoted above...

The half jocular way the original article was written - blond jokes, the cavalier Julian - like rape and rape allegations are funny, for either party - now, after the charges were finally preferred, doesn't lend credibility to the story --- but the Research - which I followed through to all the original sources - seems legitimate.

There's no accounting for sexism, but since this story is about an operative working for the CIA, and considering the timing, and that Julian Assage has no history of this - together these things destroy Anna Ardin's credibility and make irrelevant the possible gender bias of the writers or their ill advised super hero metaphor - imho.



mh

The Decline and Fall of the Great United States of America

The Bush Tax cuts for the rich will be renewed under an Obama-Republican deal worked out this week.

Although the very insulated representatives in their ivory towers in Washington are probably not aware of it, this bill declares 'Let them eat cake'. Greed that to the voters must look like class war - by the extremely rich and powerful upon the poor and the middle class - at a moment when they can least tolerate further injustice.

I like the way Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) says it in two syllable words and without economist-speak or politico-speak. He's not talking to the Senate, or the lobbyists, or the national media --- he's talking to the people.

In plain English - and in living colour - The End of the Republic:



"Sen Bernie Sanders Amazing Speech!" Via Youtube Channel "InternetSpanker"
(http://www.youtube.com/user/InternetSpanker#g/u)

Via CommonDreams.org: "Senator Bernie Sanders: Obama's Tax Deal is a 'Moral Outrage'"



mh

Cartoon Caption Contest Entry at The New Yorker - Bees Please

"I'll start with the fresh, bumble-bee salad."

Contest #267. Drawing by Joe Dator.

Entries accepted through Sunday, December 12th.

Enter this contest at The New Yorker.




mh

US systematically shutting down WikiLeaks revenue vectors - here's ways around

Just in case the web site goes down again here's the WikiLeaks page that tells you how to donate: The Top option now doesn't include MasterCard credit cards (cut your MasterCard) as finance capital comes together to shut down embarrassing truths about themselves and their cronies. Visa is still available at this printing but I wouldn't trust it, one day soon they'll freeze what they have and give it to the Empire's war machine.

Wikileaks new address:

http://88.80.13.160

Via the WikiLeaks page,

https://donations.datacell.com/:
-------------------------------------

WikiLeaks brings truth to the world by publishing fact-based stories without fear or favor.
You can help support our independent media by donating financially.

Our organisation exists because of the work of many volunteers who have contributed many hours to building WikiLeaks from the ground up. But we still need donations to pay for computers, expert programmers and other bills.

There are four ways to donate:
1. By Credit Card
2. Bank Transfer to Germany
3. Bank Transfer to Iceland
4. Snail Mail (old fashioned postal mail)

Donations to the Wau Holland Stiftung Bank informations:
Commerzbank Kassel,
bank number (BLZ) 52040021,
Account number (Konto) 277281204
(or you can use IBAN: DE46520400210277281204, BIC: COBADEFF520)

Sunshine Press Productions ehf
Skulagata 19, 101 Reykjavik, Iceland
Landsbanki Islands Account number 0111-26-611010
BANK/SWIFT:NBIIISREXXX
ACCOUNT/IBAN:IS97 0111 2661 1010 6110 1002 80

Wau Holland Stiftung
Bank Account: 2772812-04
IBAN: DE46 5204 0021 0277 2812 04
BIC Code: COBADEFFXXX
Bank: Commerzbank Kassel
German BLZ: 52040021
Subject: WIKILEAKS / WHS Projekt 04

------------------------------


C/NET News: "MasterCard pulls plug on WikiLeaks payments"
(http://news.cnet.com/8301-31921_3-20024776-281.html)


I missed this - back on September 14 2010, "Counter Punch" found the connection I'd been expecting we'd find, between the spurious Swedish rape case and the CIA: (http://www.counterpunch.org/shamir09142010.html)



mh

For the Psychiatrist I'm seeing in early December - "My Worst Day" (may be added to)

I'm in "..a sad, despairing mood that persists beyond two weeks and impairs a person’s performance at work, at school or in social relationships."


At work
Just lost a contract I had been working on for two weeks

At school
I haven't shown up for school in a month

In social relationships
People from work are planning a night out, a meet-up of knowlege workers is on, a Hacks/Hackers group plans an event in December. Yeah, sure, I'll be there. (Smile) I'm coming - see you there. Yeah, right. I'd rather jump off the Scarborough Bluffs it's closer and more fun.

My family calls me, never. About three months ago I decided to stop emailing. See if any came. Nope.

I told my room mate about not getting the job today, he tells me to throw out the left over chicken that gave me muscle soreness, up-set tummy and diarrhea last weekend (salmonella: Thanks Loblaws, CFIA); I do what they told me - and then have to listen to a 15 minute lecture about renovations and what a chumps game it is, and how no one gives advances any more - people don't have faith like that any more - Bla, bla, bla, and on and on about woodcraft skill this and renovation that - that I have a life times experience in and they have none.

In 15 minutes he describes 5 reasons why my life is shit, my passion sucks and the client was correct not to choose me.

Holy fuck.

And I know that everyone I dare to talk to this about is going to spew the same self serving, know-it-all except they know shit Home Depot - You can do it! - bull shit (No you can't - and if you do it will suck and then you'll have to hire someone who does - that is if you happen to have the aesthetic sense to see the job you did looks like crap).

Next time world, when someone comes to you with a sad story, how about; 'Sorry to hear that', 'You really put a lot of work into that', 'You'll get the next one.' 'Can I take you out for a coffee?'

You know, something Human.

Not a fucking chance in my social network.

God this sucks.

Every day is a battle to get up with the sun and feel like writing something. I'm starting to hate My G-mail inbox, it stares at be with it's lifeless eyes enticing me to connect to a world I'd rather piss on. Should I take a nap now and risk sleeping too long and end up awake all night so more of this feeling in the pit of my stomach, that it isn't really worth it, will close in and press out my will to take another breath?

This sounds like such self-centred bullshit as I try to describe this state. That's what it comes down to though - it's not worth the struggle.

But I do.

Just did.


mh

Secretary of State Clinton Codifies WikiLeaks

Guardian.co.uk does the hard slogging - creates daily 'WikiLeaks' headlines around the globe

"That a more comprehensive read of the leaked cables did not afterwards support the argument the Secretary of State was making is irrelevant here, what the statement did was to codify WikiLeaks. This week WikiLeaks became a fact on the political landscape."

Several stories this week, driven by WikiLeaks release of 250,000 US Embassy Diplomatic Cables, and essential Guardian UK diligent investigative reporting has institutionalized WikiLeaks as a part of the 4th Estate.

At a Monday, November 29th 2010 press conference Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton chose specific WikiLeaked Diplomatic cables to support a spin the administration had developed to support the US position on Iran regarding that countries continuing development of nuclear and missile technology.

Later in the week the spin was trumpeted by The New York Times (Nov 28 "Iran Fortifies Its Arsenal With the Aid of North Korea") and The Washington Post (AP - Nov 30 "US says Iran got missile boost from North Korea").

The interesting thing is that in official circles up until this moment WikiLeaks' frontman Julian Assange was being compared to Osama Bin Laden - the new America's Most Wanted. Now all of a sudden sighting leaked documents provided to the world via WikiLeaks was a legitimate talking point.

Clinton's remarks denoted a departure point - an acceptance of three things:

1. That the leaked cables were legitimate.
2. That their existence on the political landscape was now accepted as part of the political ferment.
3. And thus, an accepted source from which one could form ones arguments in the course of political discourse at the most official level.

That a more comprehensive read of the leaked cables did not afterwards support the argument the Secretary of State was making (IPS - "Russians Refuted U.S. Claim of Iranian Missile Threat to Europe") is irrelevant here, what the statement did was to codify WikiLeaks. This week WikiLeaks became a fact on the political landscape.

(It should be noted that while the Secretary of State was inching closer to acknowledging WikiLeaks as a legitimate player in the forth estate, the Pentagon was on the verge of launching a DDOS denial of service attack that by Friday December 3rd 2010 had forced WikiLeaks to change it's IP address - so while one hand was open and slightly extended, the other was clenched in a fist.)


Then on Friday, the Guardian UK breaks the Copenhagen story ("WikiLeaks cables reveal how US manipulated climate accord"). At the 2009 Copenhagen Climate Change Conference the Obama administration tried to spin a story for US consumption. As the UN conference broke down the Administration tried to pull out of it a secondary agreement between specific countries that would then become the 'good news' talking points in the US media. The Diplomatic Cables WikiLeak reveled what sage observers of events back then thought, it was an exercise in damage control from the start. The young administration tried to hide the fact that the Kyoto talks were off the road and in a ditch because it didn't want the perception to abound that, on it's watch, it was failing (even though the Bush administrations head-in-the-sand policy was what put it there).

This second big story doesn't have the ingredients where the National Security State can pull out it's rhetoric about endangering lives on the ground, disrupting sensitive diplomatic negotiations - this story is about power hiding truths from the people - and it involves government from all around the planet.

WikiLeaks and the Gaurdian UK have institutionalized WikiLeaks as a part of the 4th Estate. Next the National Security State will have to go after The Gaurdian - and then it is up to some of the other International papers to step up - like the New York Times for example.



Important stuff:

Remarks to the Press on the Release of Confidential Documents
(US Department of State Archives)

WikiLeaks 'alleged Diplomatic Cable leaks' sighted by the Secretary of State on Monday November 29 2010 with regards their Iranian position, beginning at 13:40 and specifically sighted to back the US position at 14:13 (my bold itallics):

[...]

"I think that it should not be a surprise to anyone that Iran is a source of great concern not only in the United States, that what comes through in every meeting that I have anywhere in the world is a concern about Iranian actions and intentions. So if anything, any of the comments that are being reported on allegedly from the cables confirm the fact that Iran poses a very serious threat in the eyes of many of her neighbors, and a serious concern far beyond her region."

The Guardian.co.uk has a good link page for the stories they've developed researching WikiLeaks leaked documents, and written about the unfolding WikiLeaks story (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/the-us-embassy-cables+tone/news).

CommonDreams.org on the Iranian Missile threat story: US Media Leaves Iranian Threat Narrative Unquestioned (http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/11/30-6).

Monday 31 May 2010: Guardian UK, "Copenhagen climate failure blamed on 'Danish text' "

WikiLeaks new address: http://213.251.145.96/



mh