Assange as Tyrant?

[struggle4progress]

By JULIA BAIRD
Published: September 14, 2013
SYDNEY

... Imagine the chagrin Mr. Assange must feel now, given that not only did he fail to win a place in the Senate in the recent election, but he was less successful than Ricky Muir from the Motoring Enthusiasts Party. Mr. Muir, who won just 0.5 percent of the vote, is most famous for having posted a video on YouTube of himself having a kangaroo feces fight with friends ...

... during the campaign, after his party imploded with infighting, allegations of selling out and a host of resignations, Mr. Assange was exposed as a politician himself, with some of the same moral failings he has been skewering others for. A couple of weeks before the election, a storm erupted over preference deals, where parties that have already achieved the number of votes they need for a Senate seat can arrange to give spare votes to other parties, which usually pledge to give theirs in return. (Preferences are also passed on by parties whose votes are too low to get a seat.) ...

... WikiLeaks members alleged that Mr. Assange’s deputies had overridden the party’s governing body, the national council, to allow for preference deals that place right-wing anti-abortion or fringe parties — like the Shooters and Fishers Party — ahead of leftist parties like the Greens, which had supported WikiLeaks. The campaign manager, Greg Barns, attributed the deals to an “administrative error,” but WikiLeaks’s national council had agreed to put the Greens first, and some directors requested an immediate internal investigation. The conflict over those deals, and a delayed investigation, prompted a high-profile WikiLeaks candidate, Leslie Cannold, to resign. She said the party was not what it claimed to be: “a democratically run party that both believes in transparency and accountability” ...

An unbowed Mr. Assange has vowed to fight the next election in three years. But to woo the 99 percent of the Australian population who spurned him, he’ll need to stop laughing at those who suggest that appointing yourself the unquestioned leader of a party, for an unlimited term, might make you a politician after all ...

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/15/opinion/sunday/assange-as-tyrant.html?_r=0

[freshwest]

1. Rather vague, but I have popcorn stock. Let the games begin.

*raises hand*

Are kangaroo feces like cow patties?

Those will go the distance.

Some folks tried to auction off a cake made of those at a fundraiser.

The icing did the trick, lots and lots of pretty icing.

I decided to not buy anything there.

True story.

But worse things have happened.

[struggle4progress]

2. Moose Turd Pie

[The Magistrate]

5. Thank You, Sir

One of my all time favorite bits.

Made a point of playing it for my oldest grand-son not long ago, and cracked him up completely.

[Bodhi BloodWave]

3. Personally i find two paragraphs near the end to be quite revealing

atleast if the quote is accurate.

Mr. Assange’s actions were at odds with a democratic party structure. He had appointed himself president, for example, although there was no mention of this role in the WikiLeaks constitution.

When a reporter asked him why, he laughed: “I founded it. I mean seriously, this is so fantastic. Look at the name, this is the WikiLeaks Party. The prominent candidate is Julian Assange! Who founded it? I founded it. Are you serious?”

[struggle4progress]

4. Daniel Matthews made much the same point in explaining his resignation

Why I resigned from the WikiLeaks party
I was a member of the WikiLeaks party national council and have been a friend of Julian Assange since university. Here is why I am resigning from my position
Daniel Mathews
theguardian.com, Wednesday 21 August 2013 23.19 EDT