Monday, August 09, 2010

In Limited Government We Trust

"Greece would not have fallen had it obeyed Polybius in everything, and when Greece did meet disaster, its only help came from him" Pausanias, 8.37.2, Inscription on the Temple of Despoina near Arakesion.

In Book VI of his Histories, the ancient Greek historian Polybius described three basic forms of government, each categorized by the number of those in power. He listed monarchy (rule by the one); aristocracy (rule by the few); and democracy (rule by the many). Polybius described, over time, how each type of government would gradually decline into their various corrupted forms of tyranny, oligarchy and mob rule, respectively. His aim was to illustrate the inherent fallibility of man as exemplified by the truism Absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Polybius believed that Republican Rome had designed a new form of government that could help check this inevitable decline. Rome combined all three forms of government -- monarchy (its elected executives, called consuls); aristocracy (the Senate); and democracy (the popular assemblies). In this mixed form of government, each branch would check the corrupting ambitions and power of the others.

Aristotle and Cicero were among those who praised the construction of a "mixed constitution" and the innovative idea to separate powers within a government.

The French nobleman and legal expert Charles-Louis de Secondat, the Baron de Montesquieu, studied the rise and fall of the Roman Republic. He believed that a properly designed government, in order to prevent tyranny, would require three branches of government. He wrote, "If it is to provide its citizens with the greatest possible liberty, a government must have certain features. First, since 'constant experience shows us that every man invested with power is apt to abuse it … it is necessary from the very nature of things that power should be a check to power' . This is achieved through the separation of the executive, legislative, and judicial powers of government... [to prevent any one] from acting tyrannically."

The British philosopher John Locke was also keenly interested in a design for government that would prevent its descent into tyranny. In the late 17th century, Locke argued that monarchs had no "divine right" to rule; instead, he asserted that the source of power lay in the people. Furthermore, he stated that humans were born into this world with certain natural and "inalienable" rights including to "life, liberty and property". Locke believed that government could not grant these rights because they were God-given; therefore, no government could take them away or withhold them from the people.

Thomas Jefferson used Locke's concepts as the foundation of the Declaration of Independence. He proclaimed the government's duty to protect the sacred attributes of the individual: "...to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form..."

"...when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security."

As well, America's Founding Fathers repeatedly cited Baron de Montesquieu's seminal Spirit of the Laws and its emphasis on checks and balances within government. As James Madison wrote, "the oracle who is always consulted and cited on this subject is the celebrated Montesquieu."

The Constitution was carefully designed -- based upon thousands of years of bloody experience -- to construct a federalist system of government. It divided powers not only between the three branches of government, but also between the federal government and the states. The Constitution reserved almost all powers to the states, or to the people, and enumerated a very limited set of responsibilities to which the federal government was constrained.

We conservatives are originalists: if the Constitution's meaning is not interpreted as the framers intended, if it can be altered at will, then what protects any law from arbitrary interpretation, from the capricious whims of the ill-intentioned?

If the Constitution is "living and breathing", an amorphous guidebook of suggestions that may freely be interpreted based upon current events, trends, whims or biases, what then are the limits on the federal government? And if the Constitution doesn't mean what it says, what protects the individuals from the encroachment of government intrusion into every aspect of individuals' lives?

The Tenth Amendment of the Constitution strictly limits the power of the Federal Government. It states, The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people. In the Founders' view, state and local governments were free to experiment -- to serve as "laboratories" in the words of Justice Louis Brandeis -- in areas prohibited to the federal government. In the 1980's, for example, Oregon's successful welfare reform efforts became the models for subsequent actions by other states.

When the federal government ignores and breaches the Tenth Amendment, it represents an illegal diminution of representative government at the state and local levels.

The once-powerful states, which created the federal government by ratifying the Constitution, have become -- in the words of Mark Levin -- "administrative appendages of the federal government." The states are subject to ever-increasing federal regulation, strangled by dictates from agencies old and new, and held hostage through billions in federal tax dollars. Levin asks, "Does anyone believe that the states would have originally ratified the Constitution had they known this would be their fate?"

The path the modern federal government is on today was accurately described by Stuart Chase in 1942. He wrote that the agenda of the Fabian Socialists -- who had launched a counter-revolution against America's founding -- was to create an authoritarian, centralized government. The agenda of the Fabian Socialists include:

• Strong, centralized government
• Government-controlled banking, credit and securities exchange (TARP, etc.)
• Government control over employment (the "Employee Free Choice Act" to speed unionization of the workplace)
• Unemployment insurance, old age pensions (lengthy unemployment benefits, Social Security)
• Universal medical care, food and housing programs (socialized medicine, food stamps, HUD)
• Access to unlimited government borrowing (massive deficits)
• A managed monetary system (an opaque Federal Reserve)
• Government control over foreign trade (China tire tariffs)
• Government control over natural energy sources, transportation and agricultural production (drilling prohibitions, Cap-and-Trade)
• Government regulation of labor (the Wagner Act, monopolistic power of trade unions)
• Heavy progressive taxation.

This indeed describes "the road we are traveling"; the direction accelerated by the branches of government controlled by modern Democrats. The Fabian Socialist counter-revolution began in earnest in the U.S. in 1933 with the imposition of the "Welfare State" and has been steadily progressing since. It confiscates ever more taxes, consolidates ever more power, while bankrupting program after program. And always -- always -- the federal government proclaims its need for more money and more power, promising that if only it can levy one more tax, enforce one more regulation, it will be able to solve all of mankind's woes.

The Greek historian Thucydides observed that “The secret of happiness is freedom. The secret of freedom is courage.” And in writing about the calamitous Peloponnesian War that engulfed and ultimately destroyed his society, he added that, "Few things are brought to a successful issue by impetuous desire, but most by calm and prudent forethought."

History teaches us that the decline of a society and the demise of a government comes with the institutionalization of corruption and a wanton disregard for the written law. Such is our situation today, wherein the states have become puppets of an all-powerful federal government that confiscates more and more private property while exerting increasing control over every aspect of our lives.

If we are to protect our society from despotism and decline, whose counsel should we then cherish? Should we abide by thousands of years of experience and the wisdom of history's greatest philosophers -- Polybius, Aristotle, Montesquieu, Locke, Jefferson, Adams and Madison among them? Men who understood the nature of a government's despotic decline and sought to construct a system to counter it?

Or should we disregard their guidance and follow instead the Fabian Socialists? Should we heed Cass Sunstein, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid and Barack Obama? Should we follow the direction of a few lawless bureaucrats that intentionally ignore their oaths of office? Who believe not in what the founders believed but instead in the infallibility of an authoritarian, centralized government?

The greatest bulwark against tyranny in America has always been the Constitution, which instantiates our carefully designed system of private property, God-given individual liberties and free enterprise.

If we are to protect our society from despotism and Fabian decline, whose counsel should we then cherish? I contend that we must fight the socialist counter-revolution using every political weapon possible. We must return our country to the rule of law as defined by our founders and codified in the Constitution. Anything less condemns our descendants to the fate that Thucydides described.


Larwyn's Linx: Stop the BigGovJobs bill; Christie & Daniels are Yin & Yang

Have a great link you'd like me to review? Drop me an email. You can also install a Larwyn's Linx blog widget.

Nation

Stop the BigGovJobs bill: Malkin
Obama on Immigration: Pamper Illegals, Endanger Americans: PJM
Sanctioning Infanticide As an Ends Justifying The Means: RWN

Obama's True Black Royalty: BlackSphere
Christie, Daniels: Yin, Yang of New GOP: Moran
Reid plays the religion card on Angle: AT

Economy

Krugman's detour on 'Roadmap' to sanity solvency : Ryan
Further thoughts on the higher education bubble: Reynolds
The $120 Lemonade Stand License: AnBlkCon

Bell CA's 'City Manager' didn't make $787K; He Got $1.5M a Year: Ace
The Golden State’s War on Itself: CityJournal
Death Panels: ObamaCare's Written Definition: AT

Climate & Energy

Chevy Volt: Fascism Strikes the Auto Industry: PJM
Uhm, no, it's probably not the hottest year: RWN
Sustainability: I guess it means fighting oppression and injustice: NAS

Media

Fareed's Jihad: SheikYerMami
The Story of Your Enslavement: CBW
Why Obama Does Not Address Connecticut Shootings: Cashill

Bob Herbert: America Putting our Brains on Hold?: MagNote
Bulls***: not just for the GOP anymore: Afrocity
Detroit Free Press: DC is awesome for spending borrowed money on unsustainable state budgets, union perqs!: BlogProf

World

Is the U.S. really funding mosque construction?: AT
Daughter of Muslim 9-11 victim speaks out against Ground Zero mosque: Toldjah
Unionized ObamaCare in the UK: Surber

NY Imam Meets Potential Foreign Investors for Islamist Victory Mosque; State Department Paying For Trip: Ace
Muslim who paid 4.8 Million for Ground Zero Mosque building was waiter in 2002: RightScoop
Mosque Used by 9/11 Attackers Shut Down: Fox
Groups of Mexican federal police clash over corruption allegations: CNN

Beijing's Heavy Hand In Hong Kong: changes push democracy further from reach: Forbes
Women Sharia judges get equal powers to men: Maktoob
Bridegroom in Turkey accidentally kills relatives firing AK-47 in celebration at his own wedding: BBC

SciTech

What Do You Owe Your Social Networking Pseudo-Friends?: RWN
Apple executive who oversaw development of the troubled iPhone 4 is leaving the company: BBC
Microsoft shows off prototype mobile phone: CNet

Cornucopia

A Royal Flush: MOTUS
Target in the Crosshairs: Doswell
Mia Farrow: model Naomi Campbell said she got "large diamond" from ex-Liberian president Charles Taylor: BBC

Image: Spotted at Instapundit
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Had enough of Harry Reid? Support Sharron Angle for Senate


Sunday, August 08, 2010

The Impact of the Senseless Gulf Drilling Ban: a $4B Economic Hit, Tens of Thousands of Lost Jobs and More Gold-Plated Ferraris for the Sheikhs

Thanks to The Oil Drum, we have a good sense of the economic damage President Obama's ill-advised drilling moratorium has inflicted upon the Gulf. Obama had ordered work halted on 33 exploratory wells in the Gulf -- for no apparent reason given BP's seeming lock on safety violations in the region.

Direct Impact for 6-month moratorium:
$2.43B Rigs and tenders
$1.45B Wages
$0.22B Lost taxes and fees
$4.11B Total

The suspension of exploratory drilling means that the 33 floating drill rigs, which cost hundreds of thousands of dollars per day to lease, will be idled for six months or more. Some are leaving the area, never to return.

Nearly a third of the country's domestically produced oil and 10% of the nation's natural gas comes from the Gulf.

The other impact: more of America's cash sent to the Middle East to fund all sorts of delightful activities. Useful sorts of luxury items like this gold-plated Ferrari 599 GTB from Hamann.




The Democrats talk incessantly of energy independence, but their decades-long rejection of America's vast domestic resources reflects the hypocrisy of their position. Until someone comes up with a wind-car or a solar-mobile, we're going to need gaso-freaking-line.

And we'll be buying more gold-plated Ferraris for the Sheikhs unless the Democrat Party decides to permit Americans to drill.


Dayam: Photos of Jodie Fisher, Mark Hurd's Alleged Sexual Harrassment Victim at Hewlett Packard

If you're not a business news junkie, you may have missed word that HP's well-regarded chief executive resigned in a flurry of controversy on Friday. Mark Hurd had been accused on June 29th of sexual harassment by a former contractor. In addition, there were reports of expense report skulduggery. HP's board, mindful of ethical tarnish, acted hastily to force Hurd out.

[Jodie Fisher's letter] triggered a board investigation, said through her lawyer that she was "surprised and saddened that Mark Hurd lost his job over this. That was never my intention."

H-P said Friday that its board asked Mr. Hurd to resign as chief executive in large part because of expense irregularities uncovered during an investigation. It said he hadn't violated the company's policy regarding sexual harassment.

"Mark and I never had an affair or intimate sexual relationship," Ms. Fisher said. "I have resolved my claim with Mark privately, without litigation, and I do not intend to comment on it further." Mr. Hurd reached a settlement with her Thursday, according to another person familiar with the matter.

...Directors, mindful of the company's strict policy on ethics violations, began losing trust in Mr. Hurd as details emerged from their investigation, according to people familiar with the matter... Mr. Hurd didn't fill out his own expense reports and offered to pay back the amounts involved, which totaled about $20,000, another person familiar with the situation said. He didn't believe that the investigation would end with his resignation until the middle of last week, this person added.

Henry Blodget, meanwhile, reports that Hurd's people are denying that anything untoward occurred.

Now that both sides have had a chance to tell their stories in the Mark Hurd ouster, it's still not clear exactly why Hurd got the boot... And it's important that shareholders know exactly what happened, given that Hurd's departure has already cost them $10 billion.

...HP said Hurd lied about the identity of his dinner companions in his expense reports to conceal secret dinners with his apparent crush (who both sides say he didn't have sex with but who still sued him for sexual harassment anyway). Hurd's people counter that Hurd's secretary filed his expense reports and may not have known exactly who he was having dinner with (the reports are still his responsibility, obviously, but people do make mistakes). Hurd's people also counter that Hurd's expense reports sometimes DID list the woman as a dinner guest and that Hurd himself paid for other dinners with her where no business was discussed.

In a second allegation, HP also says Hurd had HP pay to fly the woman near to where he was staying even when she wasn't working for HP. That would be embezzlement if true, but Hurd's people deny that. They say in one of these instances, an event the woman was involved in was canceled at the last minute, after she had already made the trip.

Hurd is 53 years old, married with two kids. He said on Friday that he had "not lived up to his own standards of integrity".

And if $20,000 in misstated expense reports resulted in the termination, it would be truly shocking. Hurd's compensation over the last three years was nearly $100 million. His severance payment amounts to $12.2 million more.

What a strange, strange story.




'African-American Princess Meets Spanish King'

Dan from New York writes:

Michelle Obama meets Spain's king

My exclusive sources tell me this portion of Michelle's lavish vacation will be billed to the State Dept. The First Lady was carrying a diplomatic message from her husband to the King apologizing for the Spanish American War.

Ouch. If Dan were any more caustic, they'd have to categorize him as an acid.


James Zogby's Full-Throated Defense of Sharia and Cordoba House

On a day when headlines shrieked news of the tragic and vicious murders of a US medical team in Afghanistan by Islamists, James Zogby decided to publish a defense of the Ground Zero mosque in a major Middle Eastern newspaper.

Bad timing.

But, then, timing is often an issue for the apologists of Sharia since -- according to an official tally -- Islamists have been responsible for roughly 15,800 murders since 9/11.

Zogby's defense of the Ground Zero mosque is as dishonest as it is pathetic.

Having become a captive audience to the “clash of civilisations” rhetoric espoused by neo-conservatives and America’s Christian right, US Republicans have dug a deep hole for themselves concerning the Middle East and Islam.

Gee, James, and I thought the "clash of civilizations" rhetoric was coming from the Islamists? James Arlindson precisely described the goals of the Islamists using their own words. Among the highlights:

• Usama Bin Laden: "For [subordination to the Jews and occupation of Arabia] and other acts of aggression and injustice, we have declared jihad against the US, because in our religion it is our duty to make jihad so that God's word is the one exalted to the heights and so that we drive the Americans away from all Muslim countries."

• Mufti Madani: "... [T]he Muslims attained political power over all the others by waging Jihaad. They fought for Allaah’s pleasure and conquered nation after nation, including the superpowers of the Romans and the Persians... Even today the Muslims dominate large areas and will be able to dominate the rest if they unite, separate from the Kuffaar [Unbelievers] and wage Jihaad for Allah’s pleasure."

• Usama Bin Laden: "I am one of the servants of Allah. We do our duty of fighting for the sake of the religion of Allah. It is also our duty to send a call to all the people of the world to enjoy this great light and to embrace Islam and experience the happiness in Islam. Our primary mission is nothing but the furthering of this religion."

Funny, Zog, but Bin Laden and Madani don't strike me as neo-cons or members of the Christian right, you pathetic twerp.

Comments a few weeks back by the 2012 presidential aspirants Sarah Palin and Newt Gingrich, in opposition to the building of a mosque in New York City, are a case in point... Mike Huckabee, a leader of the religious right, has made disparaging comments about Muslims and is so bizarrely pro-Israel that he has stated “there’s really no such thing as a Palestinian”, while Mitt Romney, once the moderate governor of Massachusetts and now the darling of conservatives, has on more than one occasion suggested that the government wiretap mosques.

Zog, you've conveniently omitted one interesting factoid: the imam in question has endorsed the implementation of sharia law in the United States. By his own admission then, the brand of Islam he wishes to practice is not a religion -- it is a political system.

Zog, as you well know, Sharia law is a legal system unto itself that rejects the Constitution and the American form of government. Thus, there is absolutely no "separation of church and state" issue.

...They [the right wing] charged [Obama] with “moral equivalence” (meaning that he equated his concern with the Palestinians to the traditional American concern for Israelis)...

Precisely. Last time I checked, hard-line Israelis hadn't flown any planes into New York City skyscrapers. We can't say the same for hard-line Islamist extremists of the sort that rule Gaza.

This Republican drift and the harshness of its anti-Arab and anti-Muslim rhetoric is worrisome. America’s engagement across the Middle East and South Asia is too important and the dangers too great for such virulence and misunderstanding to have taken hold in one of our political parties, especially when the GOP’s leaders appear so willing to vent their venom and use it for political advantage.

Recognizing reality is not venom. 3,000 souls were murdered by Islamists in the name of their religion on 11 September 2001. Tens of thousands of innocents have perished since then -- killed in beheadings, stonings, executions, hangings, beatings, floggings, suicide bombings and more. All were murdered in the name of a political system that adopts the guise of a religion.

Sharia law, Zog, is law. A political system. Even you should be honest enough to admit it.

Zogby's headline is Virulent anti-Middle East rhetoric grips the US right. I should have termed this response Virulent pro-Sharia rhetoric grips terror apologists, which is a good deal more accurate.


Hat tip: Memeorandum. Also see: Hey, ACLU: I want to file a zoning permit next to the Ground Zero mosque! Linked by: Michelle Malkin. Thanks!

Washington Post's Eugene Robinson imitates Custer, claims 'Charlie Rangel is no crook'

One need only read the latest op-ed by the sixties retread named Eugene Robinson to comprehend the depths to which the Washington Post has descended. I did not make up the title of his most recent piece. Perhaps the Post, in its efforts to cut costs, outsourced title editing to The Onion.

Charlie Rangel is no crook


Charlie Rangel is no crook. He’s right to insist on the opportunity to clear his name, because the charges against him range from the technical all the way to the trivial...

...Rangel apparently was careless in filling out his required financial disclosure forms; he should have known better than to take that important exercise so lightly. And he’s accused of using a rent-controlled Harlem apartment as a campaign office -- which, I suppose, makes him the first New Yorker to look for loopholes in the city’s Byzantine rent-control laws. But where’s the old-fashioned venality? Where’s the out-and-out graft? Where’s even the hint of avarice?

...What’s missing is any allegation that Rangel bent or broke a single House rule -- or even a New York city ordinance -- for his own gain... ...Rangel was trying to satisfy his ego, not line his pockets. The real crime would be if such a long, distinguished, important public career ended in disgrace.

Eugene Robinson is a very, very disturbed individual. Rangel's dozen-plus charges would have landed any normal citizen in prison for a decade-long stint. The list of House ethics violations include, but are not limited to:

• Rewrote tax law to benefit a company that donated money to his namesake center;
• Used four rent-controlled apartments (violating NYC's rent-control laws) including using one as an office, not a residence (also violating NYC's laws), which also raises the question of an improper in-kind campaign contribution
• Improperly reported his ownership interest in a Dominican Republic condominium and failed to pay income taxes on $75,000 in rental income
• 'Intentionally failed to report' hundreds of thousands -- or millions -- of dollars in mysteriously acquired assets -- including an IRA, mutual fund accounts and equities

The full story will probably never come to light, thanks to the Journolistic practices of DNC PR hacks like Robinson.

Gee, look what I found: a Eugene Robinson op-ed from 2005!

Immoral Majority


...It may be too much to hope that the former House majority leader [Tom Delay] -- and how good it feels to write "former" -- will actually be convicted and do jail time. The indictment for criminal conspiracy returned by a Texas grand jury on Wednesday is for alleged campaign finance violations that are the rough equivalent of money laundering, which is not the easiest crime to prove in court.

But DeLay's problems are bigger than Texas. His golf-buddy relationship with Jack Abramoff, a fat-cat lobbyist under federal indictment, will face months of scrutiny. DeLay's resignation from the House leadership is supposed to be temporary, but Republicans ignored his wishes and picked a strong successor who could serve out the rest of this Congress if necessary. Clearly they believe their former leader will be distracted for some time.

Which makes me feel like it's morning again in America.

It's little wonder that the Washington Post is hemorrhaging readers faster than a door-to-door encyclopedia salesman.

It's the intellectual dishonesty, stupid.


Larwyn's Linx: Provisioning Sharpened Pikes at the Gates of D.C.

Have a great link you'd like me to review? Drop me an email. You can also install a Larwyn's Linx blog widget.

Nation

Provisioning Sharpened Pikes at the Gates of D.C.: AT
Obama's birther strategy has backfired: LegalIns
Hmmm: Illegal immigrant murders friend, drinks blood: TAB

Campaign Finance Reform. Or, as I like to call it: shut up.: RWN
Where do officials stand on the Ground Zero mosque?: Caller
For a preview of the the Ground Zero Mosque, see Virginia: McCarthy

Economy

No History of Racial Bias at CT Slaughterhouse: JWF
Medicare Actuary Doubts the Health of Medicare’s Trust Fund: Reason
Terrifying City Pension: Coming Soon to Your Hometown!: Reason

Palin fact-checks the fact-checkers on taxes: BlogProff
'Pro-business' Democrat: What's a P&L Statement?: DetNews
Democrat Jeff Greene and the Mortgage Meltdown: TampaBay

Obama Cripples Ford's Funding, Then Subsidizes It: AmSpec
O looks silly pushing job 'creation' myth: Post
1913 was a very bad year: AT

Climate & Energy

So Long to the Dustry Trail: AT

Media

Gotcha! Salon's Justin Elliot, Feces Fondue: iOTW
Losing the Celebrity Edge: HillBuzz
Media Attacks Black Tea Party Conservatives at National Press Club: GWP

Krugman's Incredibly Sloppy Hack Job On Rep. Paul Ryan : Wolf
Obama: Not the Great Stone Face : Hanson
Hilarious: Washington Post Tumbles Over Worries On Stanley Kaplan Unit: Barron's

Conservatives Should Stand Up and Support John Kerry: RWN
Can We Dispense, Now, With The Myth That They Feel Our Pain?: RedState
A Rather Angry America: Hanson

World

Tolerance: Muslim Activists Celebrate Ground Zero Mosque by Executing 10 Christian Missionaries : JWF
Photos Confirm Lebanon Used American Weapons To Attack Israel: MereRhetoric
The "Unsaid Apology" To Japan -- and Japan's WWII Brutality They've Never Apologized For: Marooned

Poll: Islamic Center near Ground Zero?: No Quarter
Ground Zero Mosque Would Desecrate the Memory of 9/11 Victims: PJM
Sharia Law in Canada and Britain: AT

Will Holder investigate Obama pal for providing material support to Hamas?: AT
In Afghanistan we see an appalling and probably hopeless example of what a low IQ society looks like: STACLU

SciTech

Hurd's double faults leave him out at HP: CNet
Playing Politics with Stem Cells: AT
The new RNC website is a dramatic improvement: RWN

Cornucopia

Slick Times: C&S
Family Splatter: American Digest
Lady M Ends the Racist Reign in Spain : MOTUS

Image: Spotted at Instapundit
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Christine O'Donnell for U.S. Senate


Saturday, August 07, 2010

BlackBerry Maker RIM 'Submits' to The Saudis

Dan from New York writes:

Liberals like to make the silly argument that if we bloody the noses of Islamic terrorists, the terrorists “win” because we “become like them.” But there are much better ways to allow Islam to undermine our way of life. Venal corporate executives and witless PC politicians are just two that come to mind.

CNET News, August 7, 2010

Report: RIM to let Saudis monitor BlackBerry data


BlackBerry maker Research in Motion has decided to allow the government of Saudi Arabia access to BlackBerry users' messages, in order to avoid a ban on the device in the country, the Associated Press reported Saturday.

The AP quoted an official at the Saudi Communications and Information Technology Commission as saying that the deal between RIM and the government would likely involve placing a BlackBerry server inside the country to enable the Saudis to monitor data.

...The Saudi government said earlier this week that it would order the country's three wireless carriers to block the popular BlackBerry device as of Friday if the government could not reach an agreement with RIM. The device apparently wasn't blocked outright yesterday, but service may have been disrupted.

The Saudis have expressed concern that the BlackBerry, which features exceptionally strong privacy safeguards, could be used by terrorists to avoid detection. The U.S. government and others have acknowledged that danger but have voiced their own concerns about protecting freedom of speech. The Saudi government blocks some Internet content for political reasons, and some have suggested that the pressure on RIM is an effort by the country to exert more control over communications.

Saudi Arabia is reportedly RIM's largest market in the Middle East, with about 700,000 BlackBerry users. It has not been alone in its objections to the device. The country's neighbor, the United Arab Emirates, has also announced intentions to block the BlackBerry, and Lebanon, Algeria, and India have pressured RIM as well.

RIM in particular is being targeted because it uses stronger data encryption for business customers than its smartphone rivals. It also routes e-mail traffic through its own network of servers, including many in its home country of Canada, making it harder for countries to tap into servers to read e-mail and intercept other data.

Prior to Saturday, Research in Motion had resisted demands to modify its server network, as well as other efforts to regulate the BlackBerry. Last year, the state-owned mobile operator in the United Arab Emirates encouraged BlackBerry users there to install a "performance enhancement patch." RIM criticized the patch as spyware and published instructions on how to remove it, saying it could "enable unauthorized access to private or confidential information stored on the user's smart phone." The carrier denied that claim.

In a report yesterday, Reuters quoted an analyst in the Middle East as saying that RIM's placing a server in a country would be similar to handing that government a "master key" to the BlackBerry.

Dee-lightful.


Pass the Popcorn, Nahanni: HuffPo Readers Try to Blame Everyone But the Left for the Collapse of the Modern Welfare State

There's nothing more entertaining than watching the rabid denizens of PuffMo froth over the collapse of the modern welfare state. In this case, Arianna's tepid tout sheet features eight states that are slashing services due to immense budget deficits.

KlinzBoy: "This is all the result of 30 years of conservative policies. We bought in and here we are. This is all part of the plan folks."

Sean6399: "Illegal immigration has destroyed California's budget. Schools are full of the children of the illegals. California's prison population is 20% illegal immigrant. Hospitals are full of these impoverished economic refugees who can't pay for the government services they suck up... But observation of these facts is clearly motivated by racism."

The dense ball of cement that is DSOTM's brain: "The Costs of Illegal Immigration vs. State Budget Deficits: a Chart"
DSOTM: "I find it so ridiculous that the people of Arizona want to spend the millions defending the immigration bill and lay off teachers at the same time... Way to go Arizona, you're all white future looks mighty bright"

Winston120: "The States have to align with the realities of the current economy. Printing money in DC to prop up budgets in states can't go on forever. The entire civil servant population needs an overhaul. In my state, CA, the civil servant salaries and pensions are outrageous and unsustainable. These leeches still want to retire at 50 while people in the private sector will see retirement raised to 70 and maybe more. A 20-25 year retirement gap alone is outrageous. "

Gee, and all this time I thought America had thrived because of the Constitution that the "right wing" founders created, which led to the most prosperous society on the face of the Earth? My mistake.
Procrustes13: "Let's play how low can your wages go. Down, down, down they go. A permanently-lower standard of living is the right wing utopian future. "

Robinhood1: "Do you expect Democratic politicians to turn against their union masters? That leaves the Republicans, who are more interested in keeping gays in their place. The average resident is screwed."

Racoon1: "The old, the sick, the children.......do with less or do without. This is civilization?"

I love it when the deepest of blue states blame Republicans for the giant turds their Democrat masters left in the punch bowl. Cali, NY, Illinois -- heartless Republican leaders!
BiseeOrNotBisbee: " It is in the Republican world. :( "

MissingAmerica: " We need an overhaul in government. To cut budgets in education and yet continue to fund war and penal institutions is simply assuring that we will have no shortage of ignorant warriors in the future, especially since no one will be educated well enough to teach anything else. How I miss the days when we expended our efforts on the young people and the living, rather than depleting funds for the common good in order to fund death, destruction, ignorance and chaos. How far we have sunk since I was a child! "

BannorHill: "Since when did State budgets fund the war? States do not finance death and destruction yet they have unbalanced budgets. The state proplem is not war funding but over spending in wrong areas. A typical problem of big government. "

TruelyFedUp: "Please see my petiton entitled Unemployment Solution USA ... to help the 44.25 million unemployed in America have a solution like you have seen here... Our alternative is to have massive numbers of hungry, angry people with the right to bear arms in our neighborhoods seeking any means to survive.

Gee, putting the unemployed in 'compounds'. Sounds familiar. Like 1930s Germany.
MissingAmerica: " While parts of petitions ideas are good, it has one basic flaw. If funds are removed to assist the unemployed who are not a part of the community, it requires them to relocate to what is effectively a compound... What we do need is a government that encourages corporations to return to us. I could see the government funding the building and/or retrofitting of factories for corporations who agree to return to the land of their industrial birth. They could fund the building of housing around those industries."

RobinHood1: "Too bad so many Republicans distracted the voters with the bogus issue of gay marriage. The right wingers should have sponsored an initiative to roll back government pensions instead."

Firstep: " Meanwhile we are paying for a big vacation in Sapin "

That 4.6% unemployment was a bitch!
Welib: " And George Bush didn't even bother to show up for work for more than 3 years of the 8 years he was supposed to be working for us. He took a 3 year vacation! 1020 days! "

AyeChart: "The states (run in the main by left-wing Democrats) liberal states and cities for the most part, have been cutting NECESSARY and BENEFICIAL services while funding left-wing liberal boondoggles like opera houses and art museums and other items that COULD BE CUT WITHOUT ENDANGERING the citizens. But NO! They continue to fund the icing on the political cake while cutting back police and firemen, etc."

This rant by "Welib" has it all: Bush lied. Borrowing from our grandkids' to fund 99 weeks of unemployment makes sense when the government's got record-setting debt. Talk radio is inciting people to violence. And Valerie Plame is a hero. The guy apparently never heard of the Democrat creations called Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Come to think of it, a more terrifying example of the typical drone mentality you'd be hard-pressed to find. This guy needs to be in a laboratory so scientists can figure out how and when his brains leaked out of his ear-holes. My guess is it was sometime during his AFT-approved education.
Welib: "You're full of *hit! Talk about endangering citizens? You are trying to hang that stink on liberals? Get out of here. Republicans sent this country to war FOR LIES. That's not just 'endangering' our citizens lives, it's making them give up their lives so Republicans can make money.

...Republicans refused and still refuse to sign off on benefits for the American people and rebuild this country, but they don't mind spending billions and billions rebuilding other countries.

...Republicans incite violence against Mr. Obama and other minority Americans, al la Glenn Beck, Fox News, Rush Limbaugh. Mr. Obama gets 400 times the threats GWB got and the Repubs even show up to Obama's town halls with not just guns, BUT LONG GUNS, ASSAULT RIFLES.

...The Repubs would have shot anyone on site if they had come like to within 2 miles of Bush! There wasn't even free speech back then. Like Valerie Plame found out, you tell the truth, your career is over!

...IS IT AN ACCIDENT THAT REPUBLICANS HAVE BANKRUPTED US TWICE AND PUT A 7.5 TRILLION DOLLAR HOLE IN OUR ECONOMY? "

MarkAndre: " Wow a psychotic rant from a liberal, what are the odds, it is all Bush’s, and the Republican fault: after 19 months of Obama and a Democratic majority only a fool could not see the truth! "

Gee, I feel all sparkly clean now!