Neighbours are watching. Do you cut your power use?

Tim Blair is running a poll.  Help out, go vote.

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Clipfile - December 14, 2010

“People aiming to yank the politics out of government invariably end up removing the democracy instead.” - Jonah Goldberg

(HT:  PW)

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Reinstating the gatekeepers

The Wall Street Journal’s L. Gordon Crovitz thinks Daniel Domscheit-Berg’s “filtered version” of WikiLeaks will be soooo much better than the original:

...OpenLeaks seems to understand the need for some accountable institution to be held responsible for leaks...

which will come, how?

...the site will partner with media outlets^[1] - five newspapers at first - and allow users to choose which paper to submit their information to.  These papers will then be able to review and fact-check the material before choosing to publish it or not.

Which is better than WikiLeaks because (Crovitz, again):

Several large newspapers, including the New York Times and London-based Guardian, collaborated to publicize the WikiLeaks material, even though they had limited discretion over how the information was released.

(IOW, if they ignored any part of the story, somebody might have called them on it.)

Under the OpenLeaks approach, news editors will have discretion.  They will have to protect innocent people...

!!!^[2]

Unlike Mr. Assange, editors answer to someone, namely readers and viewers.

...but most often, only to themselves.

So Crovitz favors restoring the power to determine what we know to the traditional gatekeepers, who, of course, have no political agenda and will always be on the lookout to carefully filter out anything that might harm our national interest, upset the public, or embarrass the good and great.  Oh, and the usual special interests^[1] would have their shot at weighing in before anything reaches print.

And Crovitz, or his editors, have the temerity to say the Orwellianly-named OpenLeaks process “promises more transparency”!

I’ll take my chances, and take my leaks unfiltered, thanks.


Elsewhere (Later, 20101214 17:10):

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Posted by: Old Grouch in The Press at 00:39:05 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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“WTF. I take a nap on a Friday afternoon and have a quiet evening with the wife and you guys let Bill Clinton become president again???”

That’s “DaveW,” commenting at Althouse.

Other experessions of amazement:

Related:

Posted by: Old Grouch in Linkage at 23:00:38 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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G’bye Don, too bad, sorry to see you go...

Don Surber is one of the good guys who gets.frequent.linkage from Instapundit.  Too bad the owner of his paper has signed up with the Righthaven lawsuit factory.

Too bad I won’t be visiting any more.

Ave atque vale...

Related:
Previously:

(Via:  Sebastian, via Tam (and tnx for dept.).)

Below the break, the updated Righthaven-client blocklist.
more...

Posted by: Old Grouch in The Press at 19:40:31 GMT | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Hold the celebration

Glenn Reynolds quotes Jennifer Rubin quoting John McCormack:

Those who thought Republicans can’t bear to break their addiction to pork should think again.  “As the House Appropriations Committee stands poised to make a former earmarker its chairman, incoming House speaker John Boehner throws his support to porkbuster Jeff Flake.”

...which, along with a buck-fifty, might buy you a cup of coffee (provided you’re not in D.C.).  Doesn’t change the fact that the three likely candidates are all champion porkers.  Talk remains cheap.

UPDATE (101208 17:23):  They picked Hal Rogers, a porker so big^[1] his grateful state put his name on a parkway.  So much for the speaker-in-waiting’s powers of persuasion, and so much for fiscal responsibility.

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Prosecution begins at home

From today’s Wall Street Journal:

Hey Dianne, you gonna prosecute the New York Times, too?

(After all, unlike Wikileaks, the Times is an American publication, run by Americans, located in America...)

[crickets]

Didn’t think so. So STFU.
(And that goes for your little Bill, too.)


UPDATE (101207 21:50):  Wow! (via Ace)

A leading US senator suggested tonight that the New York Times and other news organisations publishing the US embassy cables being released by WikiLeaks could be investigated for breaking US espionage laws.

Joe Lieberman, the chair of the Senate homeland security committee, told Fox News: “To me the New York Times has committed at least an act of, at best, bad citizenship, but whether they have committed a crime is a matter of discussion for the justice department.”

Well, we’ll see.  (And I plan to say more about all this later.)

Posted by: Old Grouch in In Passing at 16:28:11 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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It’s not just the U.S...

...where local radio is becoming ever less-local:

London’s best-known radio station has already made its promise for 2011—to outgrow the Big Smoke, and to end 37 years of being solely associated with London... From January, stations from Glasgow to Southampton will relay most of Capital’s shows.

(Via Darryl’s pointer to this on his blog.)

Posted by: Old Grouch in Radio at 20:18:36 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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It’s called “We won”

Roll Call:

Senate Democrats have become increasingly frustrated with their inability to pressure the GOP on the [tax] issue...

Golly, why do you suppose...?

Posted by: Old Grouch in In Passing at 17:33:29 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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December checks in

First the cold, now the snow.

Supposedly 3-4 inches before it quits.  And it’s not even officially Winter yet.

Posted by: Old Grouch in Dear Diary... at 16:55:58 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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