The title to their latest results says it all: "Only Peace Protects Freedoms in Post 9/11 World."

And then there's this:

“The post-9/11 world is now clearly drawn,” Reporters Without Borders said. “Destabilised and on the defensive, the leading democracies are gradually eroding the space for freedoms. The economically most powerful dictatorships arrogantly proclaim their authoritarianism, exploiting the international community’s divisions and the ravages of the wars carried out in the name of the fight against terrorism. Religious and political taboos are taking greater hold by the year in countries that used to be advancing down the road of freedom.”

Wow, if I didn't know we weren't an economically most powerful dictatorship, exploiting the international community's divisions and the ravages of the wars carried out in the name of the fight against terrorism, I'd swear they were talking about our good ol' U S of A. Good thing they're not.

And then there's this:

The other disease that eats away at democracies and makes them lose ground in the ranking is corruption. The bad example of Bulgaria (59th), still last in Europe, serves as a reminder that universal suffrage, media pluralism and some constitutional guarantees are not enough to ensure effective press freedom. The climate must also favour the flow of information and expression of opinions.....And the existence of people who break the law to get rich and who punish inquisitive journalists with impunity is a scourge that keeps several “great countries” - such as Nigeria (131st), Mexico (140th) and India (118th) - in shameful positions.

Hmmm. That sure sounds familiar. And yet, the US is barely mentioned in this report at all, ostensibly because of the "pretty words" Obama uttered early in his presidency to have the most open and transparent government in the history of whatever. Apparently, Reporters Without Borders isn't keeping as close of tabs on Obama's "Words vs Actions" as we here at UT.

Overall, the United States, the recognized defender of freedom and liberty around the world, the leader in individual rights and freedom of the press, ranked a dismal 40th out of 173 countries in Reporters Without Borders 2008 survey. Ridiculously, we were well behind countries such as Bosnia, Slovenia, Trinidad and Tobago, and fully 15 slots lower than the United Kingdom.

Yay US. Well, at least we aren't jailing reporters for withholding sources, refusing to call out the crimes of high gov't officials in the press, and allowing information to be controlled by a corporate-owned media. Thank goodness for that. Go Freedom(works).....*sigh*

Another vote for how utterly terrible this new formatting is. We are going backwards here. I will not be able to read the comments section as much in the future if this is how it is going to be. I will not voluntarily subject myself to headaches like this....

BTW Glenn, your post from yesterday was absolutely incredible!

http://www.rsf.org/Only-peace-protects-freedoms-in.html

And here is the index showing our wonderful 40th place showing:

http://www.rsf.org/en-classement794-2008.html

And linky at siggy.

As Glenn so rigorously proves, and Adnoto so curtly voices, it truly matters not which party is in power, because both do the same bidding for the same overlords who are running this country into the ground.

Let's do some light review: Teabaggers, gun-toting protest idiots, Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, the Party of No, massive criminal conduct by all kinds of gov't officials, legal bribery and grotesque corruption of our democracy by corporations, insane CEO greed, trillion dollar bailout giveaways to the rich, an inability to provide reasonable access to healthcare for all citizens, talk (and eventual action) of scaling up a war in Afghanistan with absolutely no meaningful benefit to any average American citizen, a trillion dollars wasted in Iraq, an organized torture program, contracted killing squads, a worldwide reputation in total shambles, ignoring global climate change in the most fundamental ways, crumbling infrastructure, ridiculous debt obligations, a government that won't do its job/regulate wrongdoing (see SEC, FDA, etc).....and on...and on....and on.

What is it going to take to put people in the streets? What will cause the revolution that is so desperately needed in this country? What more proof do you need that no election, whether at the presidential or city clerk level is going to make a shit bit of difference?

Do we really need to have close family members kidnapped, or see 50% unemployment, or have to choose on a mass scale between food and shelter, or have the economy completely crash and burn before we will do something about it?

How much clearer does it have to be made to people that our government has transformed into a national surveillance/police state and isn't about to cede anything....no matter how trivial, without an epic battle?

Do we really have to wait for the government to simply start ignoring the courts entirely before we decide action is needed on a tsunamic scale? It will be too late by then.

A national week long sit down strike would be a great place to start. So would a national tax boycott. So would a national credit payment boycott. But the balls to do it just aren't out there. Most people refuse to see beyond the end of the month. Too bad for us.

Sorry to be so cynical, but damn, it just doesn't look good at all from my window to the world.

That bubble is obviously made of 7-inch thick impervious acrylic that is sound-proof and air-tight.

But then, how is this really any different from the US's position in pretty much any other foreign policy matter? Climate change? Hahahaha. Foreign gov't corruption? Hahahaha.

Sure wish we could roll that acrylic ball and all of its tone-deaf inhabitants right into the Potomac.