The Broadcasting Board of Governors will receive $10 million under the compromise spending deal reached last week. President Obama effectively sided with the BBG over his own State Department in a funding dispute involving Internet circumvention work.
Obama and lawmakers agreed to language in the fiscal 2011 spending bill cutting the State Department’s share and giving the BBG a portion to “expand unrestricted access to information on the Internet.” The BBG operates five government-sponsored international broadcasting networks.
-- snip --
As a result of the deal, which still must be approved by Congress, the BBG is guaranteed $10 million for its anti-censorship work in China and other repressive regimes. Such efforts, for example, will allow Chinese citizens to circumvent the country’s firewall to access Voice of America on the Internet.
It's good news for Chinese hacktivists, but how odd that it had to come to this. The President unable to budge one of his own cabinet members?
6 comments:
Good Post TSB! The dysfunction between state, military, and white house has been pretty consistent from the get go. There was a pretty in depth analysis of the CIA/ISI/PAKARMY problem in today's Asia Times. gwb
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/MD15Df01.html
http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/04/15/california.marine.suicide/index.html?hpt=C1
TSB: This Marine is another example of a great guy/soldier killed by the wars. All the support at home plus his own efforts didn't help. Those nightmares about slaughtering people
and seeing your own buddies die (for what?) don't go away without expert help... which is very scarce in the civilian world. Drugs, alcohol, PTSD can't be overcome by will. GWB
http://thepoliticalcarnival.net/2011/03/23/video-keith-olbermanns-special-comment-libya-obama-the-five-second-rule/
TSB: Keith eviscerates Obama on Libya
in 6min 57 seconds.. as nobody else can. (And he doesn't even mention Hillary Clinton's role! Tell me if you don't love this. GWB
I see that video was from late March, and not a thing has changed since. Today's New York Times letter from Obama pretty much repeats it all: the UN mandate isn't to remove Qaddafi, but it kind of really is, and we're going to do it, except not exactly us but somebody else, and so on.
It's basically the Underpants Gnomes business strategy:
Step 1 - declare a no fly zone
Step 2 - ???
Step 3 - regime change!
Yep:You had it right from the beginning! How about this one? "We not only have to cut spending but we also have to introduce spending reductions into the tax code!"
Obama's speech this week on 2012 budget. 1. I waited for:raise rich people's taxes. 2. I didn't understand what he said. 3.He just said nonsense so later he can decide what he mean't to say! ORWELL AWARD NOMINATION!!! gwb
TSB: I gave Keith the edge for depth of research and eloquence, but I'll bet he can't do cowboy poetry like you do! GWB
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