By Windy, signed.
By Zack Gordon, shown as bowing waiter.
From my cousin, his father's (my uncle's) Quran.
The Kinks -- Father Christmas
Phony tree, phony presents, phony news. (Very real, and sweet, security guard -- not pictured -- was quite sure the presents were fake.) Press Building lobby.
Just bumped into Alan Bjerga, president of the National Press Club. Asked him about WikiLeaks. He said the Press Club had not done anything. He said that when asked, he has said WikiLeaks has acted irresponsibly, that it might endanger lives, but they are a media operation. Bjerga was somehow vague about what First Amendment protection stemmed from that. I noted that the Press Club did quite a bit as I remembered for propagandist Judith Miller. He said he was opposed to that, that he wasn't Press Club president at the time. He then rather swiftly headed out of the lounge. Someone with time and good intentions should do a full interview with him and other heads of press institutions at this time about WikiLeaks and the First Amendment.
I think Rap News 5 was better, but still strong:
I'm glad there were protests today in front of the White House about the U.S. wars. But the peace movement, such as it is, is like a person in a restaurant who keeps putting down his hand when the waiter looks at him. Makes a ruckus when Bush is in the White House, quiets down when Obama gets in, instead of using that moment to change things. Now piping up with Republicans taking over House. Well, don't stop, build, get global and end the empire already.
Before Judiciary committee: Thomas Blanton of the National Security Archive and other often reasonable people refer to the "Bradley Manning problem" -- trying to find ways of restricting access to information. Blanton talks of using two-people launch codes as analogy. Actually, you solve the problem by not having such an awful foreign policy. Now, Nader: http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/Legaland