Chelsea Manning has been sentenced to jail for thirty-five years for committing the heinous crime of whistleblowing. Manning knows that she didn’t just commit a crime, she committed the wrong sort of crime: Manning spoke to reporters after the hearing, to admit his disappointment at the sentence, telling those gathered, “I look back to thatContinue reading “Drop The Whistle; Shoot A Black Kid Instead (or Torture Prisoners)”
Tag Archives: Bradley Manning
The Asymmetric Panopticon
As I’ve noted before on this blog–in unison with many other commentators–the ‘if you’ve got nothing to hide, then you shouldn’t mind the government spying on you’ argument is among the dumbest to be made in defense of the NSA‘s surveillance program. A related argument is the ‘we don’t have privacy anyway, so quit tiltingContinue reading “The Asymmetric Panopticon”
The NSA Needs Better Apologists than Charles Shanor
Professor Charles Shanor of Emory university thinks that ‘liberals and civil libertarians’ are making a mountain out of a digital molehill. Apparently, we should be reassured by the fact that the NSA‘s data collection was legal under the terms of the Patriot Act (you know, that civil liberties disaster), that FISA judges approved it, that selectContinue reading “The NSA Needs Better Apologists than Charles Shanor”
Glenn Greenwald is Not the Story; The Surveillance Is
The New York Times has an article on Glenn Greenwald, who has broken two stories on the NSA surveillance programs that now occupy most thinking people’s attention, which is titled thus: ‘Activist Blogger Is At The Center Of A Debate‘ on its front page. (The article’s title reads ‘ Blogger, With Focus on Surveillance, Is atContinue reading “Glenn Greenwald is Not the Story; The Surveillance Is”
Bill Keller Needs to Drop the Snark and Do Serious Journalism
Over at the New York Times, Bill Keller, who has been doing his best to make sure it will be hard to take him for a serious journalist, writes a piece–bursting to the seams with snark–on Wikileaks. Keller thinks he is providing a serious evaluation of the fallout of Wikileaks (most particularly, its leaking ofContinue reading “Bill Keller Needs to Drop the Snark and Do Serious Journalism”
Samir Chopra 