Aaron T 's Techdirt Comments

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  • On the post: Did Library Of Congress Lie? White House Says No Requirement To Block Wikileaks

    Aaron T ( profile ), 06 Dec, 2010 @ 01:55pm

    Re: Curious Motivation

    They did it for politics. Notice that the New York Times, The Guardian and other media organizations are publishing the exact same cables that Wikileaks is, but they weren't blocked. If it was really about the content of the cables, then all sources would of been blocked. The fact that only Wikileaks was blocked shows that it's really about demonizing Wikileaks.

  • On the post: Did Library Of Congress Lie? White House Says No Requirement To Block Wikileaks

    Aaron T ( profile ), 06 Dec, 2010 @ 01:11pm

    Re: Re: Re: Law and order

    I think the answer is far simpler. If they did the same to the New York Times, The Guardian and other "respected" news organizations then they'd have a shit storm on their hands. By targeting only Wikileaks they hope to keep members of the media complacent and avoid them completely revolting against the government's attempt to stifle free speech.

    See, the gov't needs the media's help to demonize Wikileaks for doing the exact same things that the media has done. If the government went after the NYT, then it and the rest of the media would start a huge campaign attacking the actions of the government.

    On a side note, you do realize the Pentagon Papers were all about the war in Vietnam right? That sounds pretty "international" to me so I'm not sure how'd you'd use that standard as a differentiation.

  • On the post: Did Library Of Congress Lie? White House Says No Requirement To Block Wikileaks

    Aaron T ( profile ), 06 Dec, 2010 @ 12:53pm

    Re: Law and order

    Yes free speech does have limits, but the US Supreme Court ruled that leaked gov't secrets are perfectly legal to publish after the New York Times published the Pentagon Papers. The act of leaking them is NOT legal, but Wikileaks, the NYT, Guardian, etc all have a right to publish them.

    So the constitutional question has already been decided, but surprise surprise those in power find such rights inconvenient and hence go after relatively small organizations Wikileaks rather then companies like the New York Times who have posted the exact same cables that Wikileaks did.

  • On the post: Did Library Of Congress Lie? White House Says No Requirement To Block Wikileaks

    Aaron T ( profile ), 06 Dec, 2010 @ 11:36am

    If there is a law, then why aren't they blocking the New York Times too? The political grandstanding about Wikileaks is reaching the point where it seems everyone in D.C. appears to completely lost what little common sense they once had. Frankly, I didn't need another reason to dislike my senator (Feinstein), but at least she's consistently wrong so it makes it that much easier to vote against her (again).

  • On the post: TSA Threatens To Sue Guy For Not Agreeing To Having His Groin Touched By TSA Agents

    Aaron T ( profile ), 15 Nov, 2010 @ 01:05pm

    Re: Won't somebody please think of the children...

    Actually, they've already figured the profit part out:

    "Ex-Homeland Security chief head said to abuse public trust by touting body scanners"
    http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/31/AR2009123102821_pf.html

  • On the post: Why Does The US Gov't Get To Patent Research Paid For By Public Tax Dollars?

    Aaron T ( profile ), 06 May, 2010 @ 09:12am

    SOP for the gov't

    Realize this is the same gov't which taxes corporate income, and then taxes you when they distribute that income via dividends and then taxes that a 3rd time when you give it to your children when you die via the estate tax. So the fact that they take our money to create things only to sell it back to us shouldn't be surprising. Gov't need scams like this so that the deficit isn't even worse then it already.