Julian Assange is a WMD in human form

[Maes]

Heh this sounds like a speech taken straight out of Heinlein's Starship Troopers -a book I enjoyed thoroughly I must say.

But even him would have to scald you for manifest naivete.

Those "rights" that have been granted like voting or freedom of enterprise, upon deep inspection cost nothing to those in power, the way they are structured. Voting is easily tainted by the partitocracy system that's present anywhere (it's just not possible that the opinions of a populace fall squarely into one or two parties views, and voting either is usually a false dichotomy). Plus, passing of power is usually periodic while changes are minor, and the system just drudges on by its inertia.

E.g. what are the chances that in the next elections, a significant portion of the US population decides that both the Republican party and the Democratic party hade done a historically lousy job, and neither deserve their vote? Probably null, and I can assure you that climate that would prevail if such a realization came to life would be that of a state of pre-revolution emergency, with contest and dissent everywhere. Anyone in power would prefer declaring military law much before reaching the point where such a dissent could be expressed through legally held elections. Yup, it's a long, winded way of saying that if elections could change the system, they would be long outlawed.

Just in Heinlein's book, I believe that the right of voting, as it is implemented today, is purely symbolic: no significant changes in the status quo can be achieved by voting alone (and when that is in a real risk of happening, then there's often foreign interventionism and internal coups).

Freedom of enterprise itself is pointless: not everybody can be a successful self-employed business man, while rights that are more of concern to the salaried and working class man such as the right of unionizing, minimum wage, a state healthcare system, automatic health insurance upon employment, pension etc. are being trampled upon as we speak, pretty much anywhere. The very first attack a hardcore liberalist would launch upon them is a barrage of how "communist" and "interventionist" such rights are, so spare me that tirade :-p

[Quast]

kb1 said:

But I will say this: There's an overwhelming majority of decent, hard-working, kind people in America (as there are in most all if not all countries), that DO in fact believe in the original founding fathers' vision of equality

Unless you're a woman and/or 3/5ths of a person.

freedom

see above

liberty

Yes, for white land owning males.

and justice

Sure, if you have money and/or influence. You have 3 choices in the united states in regards to our 'justice'.

1. If you have the money, pay a good lawyer and walk away scott free.

2. No money? Fight it and lose with a public defender. How DARE you stall our prison system with your 'rights' to a 'fair' trial and 'due process'? We'll just make an example out of you and you can rot for 50+ years.

3. No money? Take the plea bargain and sit in prison for 10-15 years and hope you survive long enough to not be able to afford court costs or find a job.

and I'm one of them.

/golfclap

[Alfonzo]

This just in: It looks as though Assange has been granted bail, following the backing of the decision by the UK this morning.

[gggmork]

Reminds me of the bbc scientology documentary where they put "warning: x is a sexual pervert" posters around town when they didn't want x filming them or something. Pretty nice variable usage in this post, eh?