odds and ends

On this last day of the old year there are several important news items, and rather than write about them I'll simply encourage readers to go to the sources.

Glenn Greenwald's Salon column this morning begins "In The New York Times today, Mark Mazzetti and Dexter Filkins expose very sensitive classified government secrets -- and not just routine secrets, but high-level, imminent planning for American covert military action in a foreign country,.."

Greenwald goes on to congratulate the Times, whom he has frequently harshly criticized, says they are publishing "exactly the kind of secret information journalists ought to be revealing,' and adds that Mazzetti and Filkins are doing "exactly what good journalists ought to do: inform the public about important actions taken or being considered by their government which the government is attempting to conceal."

It seems to me that Julian Assange's most valuable contribution to contemporary journalism is in evidence here. He's shown others that real reporting requires telling the truth, and getting that truth requires breaching the wall of secrecy.

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With the transformation of Barack Obama from the guy who wanted to "spread the wealth around" to the unabashed servant of corporatocracy now complete, Robert Reich synopsizes the social consequences of The year Washington became "business friendly," also at Salon.

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If you appreciate using the free and uninhibited internet we have now and don't want to lose it, you need to be aware of the FCC chairman's dangerous plan to compromise net neutrality. Senator Al Franken has the details at Huffpo.