Ministry of Truth
 

"There Should Be Limits to Freedom," or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Dangerous Political Censorship.

How much damning evidence do we need?

Geez, man. You already know Bush is the devil. The question is whether you'd rather serve in heaven or rein in hell. I, personally, would rather rule, but that's another story altogether.

This news story is a drop in the bucket and it doesn't change what's happening. o_0

I was gearing more towards a discussion of journalism than Bush, although he is, admittedly, the root factor.

Are leaks inherent to the journalistic structure? Are they immoral? Questions like these are what I ask.

Its things like these that make me think that the time for us to bare arms against an unjust government is ever so much nearer and could possibly happen in my lifetime.

...I wouldn't go that far, but what worries me is that there seems to be an actual regression to much more colonial/imperial-style media. We've been witnessing this for a while, obviously, but I believe there is much to be said.

We ramble on and on about how a fascist state is imminent--not that this is proof of fascism necessarily, but reading this makes me realize how unexpected it will be. There won't be a day, save a coup de tat, where there will be a broadcast message explaining to us all our cruel fate. It will just happen in the background.

And we, as average citizens, can furrow our brows and fume all we want; we can even start scandals, and yet, what will change? The lack of control over our own affairs is astounding. The worst part being that we could be feeling the brunt of these moves this very second, the point being that we wouldn't know it since it's not being reported.

Luckily, I suppose, we can still see things like this. But it seems like only the start. I worry if even Internet media is safe, which seems like the only bastion of intelligence (again, obviously avoiding partisan sources) left.

Barring a military coup, there's no way we'd win. I may have enough small arms and ammo to stop an entire battalion of men (if I had people to use them all), but what happens when the government panics and brings in tanks, IFV's and attack/transport helicopters? We have no terrain advantage like Vietnam (although we do have urban settings).

I highly doubt I could bring down an Apache or Cobra with a ten-gauge sabot, let alone hit him. Then he would explode me dead with his cannon.

And against Abrams or Bradleys... well, you'd have to be crazy. The only way we could hope to stop any of them is to either suicide bomb them, or make some damn nasty remote-control IED's.

In short, when it comes to force of arms, Government 1, Citizens -5000000000.

But, as far as the pseudo attack on the government goes, it doesn't matter. If the government kills its own civilians, that's going to bring a whole bunch of crap down on them. For example, we are the civilians. We may not have actual power, but we are the mechanisms keeping the country running. The government needs the civilians to function. If their dead, they can't help. Even if a small portion of us revolt and die, that would still open the eyes of the other people in the country. Some will probably leave, etc. The government really can't kill us off.

Plus, I have a feeling that other countries would love to attack us on the excuse of bringing freedom to the poeple, just to be ironic.

there are some that cam make those nasty ied's buddy, and they are called terrorists.
coups are ridiculous, most often they replace the current system of government with something more vile.
And as for your questions locke,
the people have a right to know.
everything
period.
I'll expect my files in the mail Mr. Rumsfeld.

Why am I somehow reminded of ep. III of star wars, where palpatine siezed control of the galaxy using the people's panic over a wartime situation?
Oh yeah...
Btw-
Tank + Plastique = asplodey goodness
But yeah, a coup probably wouldn't be pleasant. We overthrow our gov't, and 1. We may indeed have difficulty replacing it, and 2. There will be opportunists who will attack us.
BUSH=PALPATINE!!!

...That's it?

The White House is trying to plug up leaks? This leads to people talking about rebellions and how to take down Abrams and Bradleys?

Maybe it's just me...but I fail to see how this falls into the "LOL REBEL!!!" category and not the "well...duh." category.

Then again, maybe I'm stupid an I missed the damning part. Which part of the article merits yet another 1984 reference?

As for the leaking of classified information...it all depends on the nature of the information. If there's a scandal, then by all means, someone leak to the press, bring it out into the light, and let someone have it. On the other hand, if you have idiots like the one guy (was it Geroldo?...or however you spell his name?) that was mapping out troop positions in an on going operation on TV...I'd think the government should be able to put the nix on crap like that, don't you?

As for the reaction...I can't say I'm surprised. No one likes their dirty laundry aired...let alone aired for the world to see.