Exactly why should we boycott a vendor when he's implementing
what the public has agreed is a good thing, to bipartisan acclaim?
So we've failed to get our preferences communicated to our elected
representatives, so much so that "our guys" are implementing porn searches
in airports, assisting coverup of widescale mortgage fraud, and
dismantling of
Social Security.
Has anyone advocating a boycott of a vendor actually written their
representatives
to suggest, like Ron Paul, that Wikileaks is actually just providing
needed transparency?
Have they gone to a site like "DownWithTyrrany" to see who the alternative
progressive candidates are, and then tell their Democratic
representatives that that's
who they're voting for if the Blue Dogs don't get some liberal spirit
and fast?
Just one small detail from Wikileaks was how we hammered on the Spanish
judicial system
to drop investigation and indictments of torture (that would affect
Cheney, Bush, et al).
If we can hammer a sovereign state like Spain into submission, one
belonging to the supposedly
powerful European Union, why should we expect a company like Amazon to
do our dirty work
for us? And why should we expect Bezos to be successful?
And it wasn't long ago that we complained about telecommunications
companies doing illegal
surveillance under Bush's request - and then Democrats got control of
both houses and did
absolutely squat about it. And then we elected a President whose motto
is "Don't Look Back,
Look Forward". So mass interception of US communications is now approved
de facto,
as is our 10 year strategy towards terrorism and war in Afghanistan.
So if the majority of Democratic and Republican representatives are
behind squashing the rights
of Wikileaks to exist, I think we need a better proxy in this fight than
Amazon. Sure, we can
try to enlist Bezos' support, but making him the fall guy, instead of
that Lieberman fellow
who's managed to hold on to prime Home Security position *DESPITE*
actively campaigning
with McCain and against Obama and speaking at the Republican National
Convention?
Sorry if this wanders, but perhaps Bezos doesn't want a trumped up
sexual charge facing him
like Assange has now - what's our real solution to a very real problem,
and not just a bandaid
that makes us feel good despite being powerless?
And to pick one item out of Ellsberg, what did antiwar.com do to boycott
Obama when he
upped the number of troops going into Afghanistan?
On 12/6/2010 5:09 AM, Nicholas Thompson wrote:
This would be like boycotting oxygen for me, but I think it should be
considered.
Daniel Ellsberg Says Boycott Amazon
Posted By _Daniel Ellsberg_ On December 2, 2010 @ 10:23 pm In _News_ |
_394 Comments
<http://www.antiwar.com/blog/2010/12/02/daniel-ellsberg-says-boycott-amazon/print/#comments_controls>_
*Open letter to Amazon.com Customer Service:*
December 2, 2010
I'm disgusted by Amazon's cowardice and servility in abruptly
terminating today its hosting of the Wikileaks website, in the face of
threats from Senator Joe Lieberman and other Congressional
right-wingers. I want no further association with any company that
encourages legislative and executive officials to aspire to China's
control of information and deterrence of whistle-blowing.
For the last several years, I've been spending over $100 a month on
new and used books from Amazon. That's over. I ask Amazon to terminate
immediately my membership in Amazon Prime and my Amazon credit card
and account, to delete my contact and credit information from their
files and to send me no more notices.
I understand that many other regular customers feel as I do and are
responding the same way. Good: the broader and more immediate the
boycott, the better. I hope that these others encourage their contact
lists to do likewise and to let Amazon know exactly why they're
shifting their business. I've asked friends today to suggest
alternatives, and I'll be exploring service from Powell's Books,
Half-Price Books, Biblio and others.
So far Amazon has spared itself the further embarrassment of trying to
explain its action openly. This would be a good time for Amazon
insiders who know and perhaps can document the political pressures
that were brought to bear--and the details of the hasty kowtowing by
their bosses--to leak that information. They can send it to Wikileaks
(now on servers outside the US), to mainstream journalists or
bloggers, or perhaps to sites like antiwar.com <http://antiwar.com>
^[1] that have now appropriately ended their book-purchasing
association with Amazon.
Yours (no longer),
Daniel Ellsberg
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Article printed from Antiwar.com Blog: *http://www.antiwar.com/blog*
URL to article:
*http://www.antiwar.com/blog/2010/12/02/daniel-ellsberg-says-boycott-amazon/*
URLs in this post:
[1] antiwar.com: *http://antiwar.com*
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