I can't believe it's not a democracy!

France joins the small but growing list of enlightened nations:

France's Hollande signs gay marriage law. History books will record that this was the only good and decent thing achieved during Hollande's tenure.

Wow, you know you must be an evil rank piece of shit, when

an organization that manages assets for Catholic institutions worldwide thinks that you incapable of proper corporate governance: Rupert Murdoch must step down as News Corporation chair – shareholders.

Filthy old brit joins Reagan in hell, waits for Cheney:

Ex-Prime Minister Thatcher finally dies.

This is excellent news:

Wikileaks releases trove of secret US cables. Whistleblowing website publishes 1.7 million US documents from 1973 to 1976, including many written by Henry Kissinger. Why excellent news? I mean it's old news, right? Yes it is, and Kissinger has never been punished for his role in destroying South American democratic movements. How many lives were destroyed? I don't know how one even determines that. Sadly, Mr. "Power is an Aphrodisiac" will die before anyone even tries to indict him, but at least he will die knowing that history will record him as a monster. More importantly, this release tells us that Wikileaks is still doing its work, and Assange is willing and able to deal with the powers that be head on.

Thanks to JDM for the link.

A mess? More like a travesty:

Top Swedish judge defends Wikileaks' Assange -- Supreme Court chief calls sex charges against Julian Assange "a mess" and praises him for leaking secret US documents. I don't know why, but I find this and some others recent mumblings a signs that maybe the thick layer of bullshit delivered by the powers that be are starting to be cast aside. Maybe everyone has finally had enough?

But surely the head of the IMF is beyong reproach. This must be a mistake!

Christine Lagarde's flat raided by French police | IMF chief's residence searched amid inquiry into her handling of €285m payout to Nicolas Sarkozy supporter Bernard Tapie. I hope she, Sarkozy, and the rest of these monsters go down. Then, once the people see that yes, you can destroy monsters, maybe they will go after the monsters' masters, the uber rich families that insist on owning everything forever, and their banker enablers and political whores. Hey, I like to dream big.

When you consider the French police raider her fucking apartment, that she's the chief of the fucking IMF, and that the "[i]nvestigators suspect her of complicity in embezzling public funds after she overruled objections from advisers to proceeding with the €285m (£244m) payment to Tapie," what isn't possible?

If Credo is behind this, then I'm getting a new mobile phone provider:

Telecoms firm hails 'significant victory' as judge blocks FBI's data demands. The Guardian reports: The Californian telecoms company thought to be behind a stunning court victory that has blown a hole in the FBI's highly secretive system for collecting US citizens' private data has hailed the "significant" legal breakthrough.

Credo, based in San Francisco, spoke out after a federal judge ordered the US government to stop issuing what are called "national security letters" – demands for data that contain in-built gagging clauses that prevent the recipients disclosing even the existence of the orders or their own identity.

In a carefully worded release, the firm fell short of revealing itself as the instigator of the legal action that resulted in Friday's development. But it is understood by the Guardian that the telecommunications firm was indeed the unnamed litigant behind the action.The Californian telecoms company thought to be behind a stunning court victory that has blown a hole in the FBI's highly secretive system for collecting US citizens' private data has hailed the "significant" legal breakthrough.

Click the link to read the whole thing. The judge gave the government 90 days to appeal, and given the Obama administration's laser like focus on punishing whistleblowers and continuing W's destruction of the 4th amendment by treating citizens as criminals (see FISA, Sen. Obama's vote in favor thereof), I have no doubt that the administration will throw everything they can at the appeal. I mean, you can't have an effective police state unless you can get whatever you want whenever you want without restraint, right?

I must say that before reading this article, I assumed CREDO was like Move On, a seemingly good idea that either was co-opted by political consultant whores or was the means by which closeted political consultant whores made themselves useful to the democratic party by convincing progressives that clicking a link or signing an online petition was the same thing as actually protesting bad policy or actually engaging in the political process. But if Credo was behind this case--and it looks like they are--I'm going to choose them as my cell phone provider. I mean, they actually did something spectacular. Kudos Credo.

I hope this finally breaks that old bastard's back:

Phone hacking: Rupert Murdoch hit by 600 fresh claims. The Guardian reports: Sources say Scotland Yard detectives believe they can identify as many as 600 new incidents after obtaining the phone records of an insider who is now being lined up as a crown witness. As a result of the new information, the force's Operation Weeting is recalibrating the timetable for concluding its investigation, which had been due to be completed with the conclusion of trials this year. Police now expect their work to continue into 2015.

Between the legal fees and the settlement costs, and in light of Murdoch's spin off of the "news" bit of News Corp. from the entertainment assets, I'm guessing that filthy old piece of shit understands that part of his biz may go boom. Now the question is whether the spin off actually protects the entertainment assets. I'd like to believe those assets can be tapped to make victims whole. We shall see. That said, I guess I should say something nice about the old fucker. Hmmm, oh yes, click the link and look at the photo. His stylist choose a nice shade of lip gloss, no?

I don't think they will go away, but I wouldn't mind seeing them bloodied:

Wal Mart Disaster Deepens: Shelves Empty as Sales Decline. Even if Walmart went boom--and I don't think it will--that would not be enough to punish the filthy greedy fucking Waltons who, with the scumbag Murdochs, seem driven to destroy this country. If things do get bad, no problem for them, as they probably have money squirreled everywhere and they won't lose a cent. Probably will abandon a bunch of stores and make the communities they destroyed clean up the mess. I recognized years ago that Walmart's emphasis on low prices over anything else was a race to the bottom. Well now the bottom is almost here. I hopw that some communities, post-Walmart, recognize that they need to encourage and nurture smaller, locally owned businesses to provide goods and services to residents. Now is the time, when borrowing is cheap, to start cleaning up those empty storefronts and prepare for what could be a healthy, thriving community. Good riddance to the parasites.

More arreststs, good, but baby wants to see some convictions soon:

Six more former News of the World whores get unhappy knock at the door: Phone hacking: two current Sun staff among six new arrests. Note that two of the formers currently work in editorial positions at the Sun, and, more importantly, the arrests come from a "new line of inquiry." Excellent. Now we need to see Andy Coulson and Rebekah Brooks convicted and sentenced (throw the book at them, m'lord!), and the computer hacking investigation needs some bodies, too. With these arrests, there will only be even more law suits by victims, more legal fees for the filthy fucking Murdoch family. Not bad.