Joseph Lieberman emulates Chinese dictators

[Better Believe It]

Joe Lieberman emulates Chinese dictators
December 2, 2010

The comparison of these two passages is so telling in so many ways:

The Washington Post, today:

Media in China, Arab Middle East suppressing WikiLeaks coverage
By Keith B. Richburg and Leila Fadel
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Revelations by the organization WikiLeaks have received blanket coverage this week on television, in newspapers and on Web sites around the globe. But in parts of the world where the leaks have some of the greatest potential to sow controversy, they have barely caused a ripple.

Authoritarian governments and tightly controlled media in China and across the Arab Middle East have suppressed virtually all mention of the documents, avoiding the public backlash that could result from such candid portrayals of their leaders' views.

In China, the WikiLeaks site has been blocked by the government's "Great Firewall," and access to other sources for the documents has been restricted. Most Chinese are unable to read the contents of the diplomatic cables. . . .http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/12/01/AR2010120106809.html?hpid=topnews

The Guardian, yesterday:

WikiLeaks website pulled by Amazon after US political pressure
Site hosting leaked US embassy cables is ousted from American servers as senator calls for boycott of WikiLeaks by companies
Ewen MacAskill in Washington
December 2, 2010

The US struck its first blow against WikiLeaks after Amazon.com pulled the plug on hosting the whistleblowing website in reaction to heavy political pressure.

The company announced it was cutting WikiLeaks off yesterday only 24 hours after being contacted by the staff of Joe Lieberman, chairman of the Senate's committee on homeland security. . . .

While freedom of speech is a sensitive issue in the US, scope for a full-blown row is limited, given that Democrats and Republicans will largely applaud Amazon's move. . . .http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/dec/01/wikileaks-website-cables-servers-amazon

The Internet, of course, is rendering decrepit would-be petty tyrants like Lieberman impotent and obsolete: WikiLeaks moved its website to a Swedish server and was accessible again within hours. But any attempt by political officials to start blocking Americans' access to political content on the Internet ought to provoke serious uproar and unrest. If the Tea Party movement and the Right generally were even minimally genuine in their ostensible beliefs, few things would trigger more intense objections than a political official trying to dictate to private actors which political content they should allow on the Internet (instead, you have Newt Gingrich demanding that Assange be declared an "enemy combatant" and Sarah Palin calling for his murder). Remember, though -- as The Post told us today -- it's "authoritarian governments and tightly controlled media in China and across the Arab Middle East" which are trying to prevent citizens from learning about the WikiLeaks documents.

Read the full article at:

http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/

[MineralMan]

1. Lieberman is also pressing for a vote on DADT repeal.

Interesting, isn't it? Not everyone agrees on the Wikileaks thing. President Obama has also said that he wants DADT repealed and is opposed to the wholesale release of diplomatic documents.

Me? I'm praising Lieberman for his support of DADT repeal.

[provis99]

2. he's pressing for a vote, not pressing for repeal.

He knows if they vote on it today, DADT repeal is going to fail.