The Congressional black sheep have spoken:

Graham, McCain, and Independent Senator Joe Lieberman said they aimed to boost US-backed radio news broadcasts into Iran and help skirt Iranian restrictions on cellular phones and Internet access.

“We want the Iranian people to be able to stay one step ahead of the Iranian regime, getting access to information and safely exercising freedom of speech and freedom of assembly online,” said Lieberman.

McCain said the legislation aimed to boost funding to Radio FARDA, a part of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, to help the Farsi-language outlet battle Iranian jamming, and to make cellular telephone crackdowns more difficult.

“The fact is that the Iranian government is now illegitimate,” he charged.

Other goals include boosting Voice of America broadcasts in Farsi and helping Iranians preserve access to social networking Internet sites like Twitter and Facebook and the video-sharing site YouTube, which protestors used to organize and disseminate images of the government’s crackdown, said McCain.

“During the Cold War, we provided the Polish people and dissidents with printing presses. Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube are the modern-day printing presses. They are the way to spread information and keep the hope of freedom alive amongst the Iranian people,” said McCain.

The bill, to be written over the congressional break for the July 4 US independence day celebration, would seek to give Iranians the tools “to evade the censorship and surveillance of the regime online,” he said.

And McCain vowed to investigate charges that non-Iranian firms helped Tehran monitor and block cellular and online traffic “and even track down sources of political content deemed off limits by the regime.”

All three lawmakers praised US President Barack Obama for making his toughest remarks yet on Iran during a press conference Tuesday, denouncing the crackdown and warning of worsening relations with the international community.

“I appreciate it,” said McCain, who had sharply criticized Obama’s previous remarks, while Graham declared: “I’m very proud of my president, about what he said.”

[source: raw story]

Web censorship has once again become a huge issue, due to two unrelated events: China’s Internet blockade due to the anniversary of the Tiananmen massacre, and more recently, the controversial Iran elections which have resulted in new oppressive measures, implemented by the current country leaders, to shut down free speech in the country.

Writing about the Great Firewall of China, I’ve concluded that no matter what measures the governments put in place to block freedom of speech, people will always find a way to communicate. I’m even more sure of that now, because I see an emerging trend, driven by social media, to use, create, and educate about various tools that people can use to circumvent censorship and remain anonymous while browsing the web.

Besides the already existent tools such as anonymizers, various proxies, and Tor, which are now gaining prominence, I’ve seen a number of almost simultaneous similar initiatives. The idea to turn Opera Unite into a web proxy for Iran is one such idea, which will undoubtedly (save possible technical limitations) quickly be turned into reality. There’s also the recently launched beta of Ipredator, The Pirate Bay’s stab at creating a secure VPN for everyone.

Initiatives such as these assure me, more than ever, that it will never be possible to entirely censor the Internet. A critical mass of users that employ techniques such as encryption and anonymization will arise, and it will become tougher and more expensive for anyone to control and monitor the information flow. It’s up to every one of us to join and use the tools we have at our disposal; once these tools become commonplace, the battle to set the Internet free will be won.

[Source: Mashable!]

This is just a reminder…..

And where are we now?

[AP]  A gym, barber shop and planters of plastic flowers:  Welcome to the gentler face of the infamous Abu Ghraib prison.

The lockup where U.S. military guards tortured and humiliated Iraqi prisoners west of Baghdad has reopened with fresh paint and a new name in a bid to shed its notorious reputation.

[...]

Judicial authorities showed off the nearly $1 million renovated section Saturday that included a sewing room, exercise equipment, computers, a library, outdoor recreational areas and a barber shop. Plastic flowers lined the halls. Iraqi officials said they expect the rest of the prison renovations to be done by the end of the year.

Greenhouses stood in the field outside where once tents were erected to house the overflow from prisoners when Abu Ghraib was controlled by the U.S. military. No U.S. soldiers were on the premises Saturday.

Let’s take a peek at the new digs, shall we?

We wanted to bring democracy to Iraq and we’ve done so.  Sadly, we’ve brought much of our own democratic failings as a society of voters with us.

Just over half of Iraq’s 15 million registered voters cast ballots in weekend provincial elections, with turnout as low as 40% in at least one province, but Iraqi and international officials insisted Sunday that they were satisfied with the participation.

U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker characterized the turnout as “large” and Iraq’s top election official called it “the most important election to take place since the fall” of Saddam Hussein. However, turnout failed to reach the 73% predicted by a recent government poll of 4,570 Iraqis.

What accounts for the low turn out?

• Distrust of the Candidates
• Confusion over redistricting
• Lack of feeling that each vote really counts

Sound familiar?  It should, it’s the reason our country usually gives for low voter turn out.  So, I guess we’ve done well in bringing some of our values over to Iraq.  But that’s alright, on the plus side, it was viewed as a safe and secure day of voting, not to mention that there were very few complaints of fraud committed during the voting process.

So it’s not all bad news.  If anything, it’s more like indifferent news.  So, yay for that.

President Obama chose the Arabic-language news channel Al Arabiya for his first interview as President today.   THAT speaks volumes even before we go to the transcript.

Some gems from the interview:

“…their [radical Islamic leaders] ideas are bankrupt. There’s no actions that they’ve taken that say a child in the Muslim world is getting a better education because of them, or has better health care because of them.”

“What I told [George Mitchell - US envoy to the Middle East] is start by listening, because all too often the United States starts by dictating — in the past on some of these issues –and we don’t always know all the factors that are involved. So let’s listen.”

“I want to communicate is the fact that in all my travels throughout the Muslim world, what I’ve come to understand is that regardless of your faith — and America is a country of Muslims, Jews, Christians, non-believers — regardless of your faith, people all have certain common hopes and common dreams.”

MR. GIBBS:  “… we’re past, and I got to get him back to dinner with his wife.”

[Full Transcript]

Because we aren’t disenchanted enough by the Vatican:

The Vatican said Saturday that Benedict rehabilitated the four as part of his efforts to bring Lefebvre’s Society of St. Pius X back into the Vatican’s fold.

But the move came just days after one of the four, British Bishop Richard Williamson, was shown in a Swedish state TV interview saying that historical evidence “is hugely against 6 million Jews having been deliberately gassed”.

I’m particularly disturbed after actually watching the video interview. And I quote from Bishop Williamson, “I believe there were no gas chambers.”

What is wrong with this man? Or more importantly, is the Vaitcan out of it’s damned mind?

[source]

From The Christian Science Monitor:

Baghdad – Just inside the gateway of the new United States Embassy in Baghdad, a US Army lieutenant colonel acted as the diplomatic equivalent of a Wal-Mart greeter, welcoming guests Monday afternoon to the dedication ceremony for the largest – and most expensive – American mission in the world.

But even if visitors missed the significance of such a high-ranking doorman, more than 300 feet of red carpet and several hundred Iraqi, American, and other international guests hammered home just how significant this ribbon-cutting ceremony is to the long-term American vision for Iraq.

The $592 million, 104-acre compound that will house at least 1,200 US government employees from 14 federal agencies is brick-and-mortar proof of the value American politicians place on their relationship with this Middle Eastern nation still in the throes of war.

An “embassy compound” might sound uninviting, especially considering that the US Embassy just moved to its new location from Saddam Hussein’s Republican Palace. But the design is anything but. It’s made up of beige buildings constructed of stone and draped with giant sunscreens, giving it the appearance of a college campus in the American southwest rather than making it feel like a military installation.

Well, in a time when our economy is collapsing, it’s good to see that we’re sticking with the roughly half decade long trend of spending fuck-tons of money in Iraq.  $592 Million.  Well, that makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.  But hey, good for the Government and People of Iraq, I’m glad we’re showing our overwhelming commitment to their country.  Really, really happy about that.  Ah well, at least it’s another step in us handing over the country, so I guess that’s good.  Still though.  $592 Million?!?

Still-President George W. Bush is readying himself for Soon-to-be-President Barack Obama’s taking over of the office, and one of the things he’s looking to accomplish before it’s out of his hands is finding somewhere to put all those pesky detainees in Guantanamo Bay, given that Obama has said time and again that he will close down the prison.

Unfortunately finding somewhere to put all the folks who have been held there once Gitmo is closed down is proving difficult as the top place on Bush’s list of options has turned him down not once- but twice.

Julia Gillard said U.S. President George W. Bush’s administration was told Friday that a second request made in early December to resettle an unspecified number of detainees had been rejected.

“We advised the United States government that we would not be agreeing to those resettlement requests,” said Gillard, who is filling in for Prime Minister Kevin Rudd while he is on vacation.

“Assessing those requests from a case-by-case basis, they had not met our stringent national security and immigration criteria and have been rejected,” she told reporters in the southern city of Melbourne.

She said the government had similarly rejected a resettlement request from the Bush administration in early 2008.

The Bush administration made the latest request after U.S. President-elect Barack Obama promised to close the controversial prison.

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has called for proposals for transferring the remaining 250 or so detainees — amid concerns that some could be persecuted if sent back to their home nations.

Not that Australia doesn’t have a history of being a dumping ground for inmates (silly British), but everything may work out even if they don’t wind up “down under” as there are plenty of countries out there that would love to take the soon-to-be-former prisoners and likely rub our noses in it (that’s right France, I’m looking at you!).

So for the time being, there is no plan in place for the redistribution of all the Gitmo residents once the place is closed but there’s probably time. After all, Obama’s going to have a lot of issues to be dealing with the moment he officially takes offic.  I’m sure someone will manage to work something out by the time it’s all ready to go down.

The blogosphere and news outlets are all a-flutter about it. I know you know that I know you know what happened so I’ll spare you the details. Here are my initial reactions when I watched the video of an Iraqi reporter throwing his shoes at President Bush in Baghdad yesterday:

Reaction #1.  The President has great reflexes.  Seriously, he’s a pretty nimble guy.  Can you imagine if it was Bob Dole up at that podium?  He’d have a Nike symbol branded into his forehead.

Reaction #2.  This may be the veteran in me but Fuck You, Iraqi journalist!

Reaction #3.  Damn, I wish it was me throwing that shoe  (Yes, I know I’m a contradiction wrapped up in an enigma mangled inside of a conundrum).

Welcome to Shoegate 2008.

Suck it, you bastard:

ADDITION:

You can view more Israeli graffiti here and here.